S02.E09: What Family Actually Means

[Athena]

Quote

A family wedding stirs up more trouble for Nomi. Daniela goes all out to land Lito the perfect role. One of the Sensates faces a devastating loss.

 

[Mindthinkr]

58!

[Enero]

Sorry but I didn't much like Nomi's speech at her sister's rehearsal dinner until the end. It was for the most part all about her and her transition until she saved it at the end by saying how her sister taught her about family. 

How is Wolfgang able to get into shootouts in bars, homes and parking lots and continue walking around free and clear in Berlin?

How are the Sensates able to pick up memories of Angelica with her being dead and Jonas unreachable? 

I think the Lito/Dani/Hernando is my favorite relationship. 

So sad when Will's dad died. 

I think there's something terrible in that gift Rajan's business partner dropped off with Kala. The latter is definitely up to something shady. He told Kala he was going to fix the business from selling expired drugs but I'm betting if he's being truthful he won't be able to make that change at drop of a hat. Furthermore a lot of people have no doubt made a lot of money off that shadiness and they're not going to let the money train stop just because Rajan wants to please his wife. 

[Enigma X]

I felt the same way about Nomi's wedding speech.

[Helena Dax]

Yeah, I didn't like it either. I mean, yes, it was beautiful, but it was also mostly about herself. I must say she's my least favourite member of the cluster and I blame the writing. I don't know, it's like the writers often forget that she's supposed to be a person first, not a symbol.  I loved that moment at the end with her father, though. 

I still don't know what's going on with Capheus? What is he running for? Major? President? But he still lives in the slums?

OMG, Daniela was amazing!! I loved what she did, Lito needs to hire her as his agent right now. 

[MizStaken]

I didn't mind the speech, yes it was a lot about her but it made sense to me. 

And Daniela is pretty freaking amazing. She should be an agent. 

[Mindthinkr]

1 hour ago, MizStaken said:

I didn't mind the speech, yes it was a lot about her but it made sense to me. 

And Daniela is pretty freaking amazing. She should be an agent. 

Yes...she should. That wa awesome the way that she had the guys put the timer on for 58 minutes and she did it in less. Don't agents make 10%? That would also give her an income since her parents cut her off financially. 

[tennisgurl]

I hope Daniela becomes Litos new agent, she's amazing at it! She, Lito, and Hernando are just a great combination. And now that they're going to Hollywood, maybe they can meet up with Nomi?

Speaking of Nomi, I liked parts of her speech, about how her sister showed her what family is, but I rolled my eyes at how much of the speech was, in fact, about herself. I get that all this is important, but there's a time and a place to make a stand for equal rights. You know, as awful as Nomis mom is, she pretty much called it when she said Nomi would make everything about her. Granted, she didn't have anything to do with the feds showing up, but still. I laughed at Wolfgang showing up in the speech for a second to threaten the groom about hurting Teagan. Even on the run and hiding out, he can still make time to have threaten people for the greater good.

I was convinced that there was a bomb in that present Rajans sketchy friend left them, but now I think he's framing them for something. Maybe drugs or something is in there?

Wills dad dying was just so sad. Poor Will, cant even be there physically to see his dad.

[Ravenya003]

I get that Nomi's parents are awful, but they kinda had a point about Nomi making everything about Nomi because... she kinda did. That wedding speech was pretty much all about her. Ditto the ceremony.

Loved Wolfgang popping in to say "I will find you" to the hubby. 

What's in the package creepy dude brought to Kala? My crazy imagination says a bomb or a decapitated head, though it's probably something he wants Kala to see in front of Rajan so that her husband can't deny its existence. 

My opinion of Daniela went up - that was a great scene.

Edit: I typed this before reading everyone else's opinions - it would appear we're all on the same page!

Edited May 10, 2017 by Ravenya003

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, Ravenya003 said:

I get that Nomi's parents are awful, but they kinda had a point about Nomi making everything about Nomi because... she kinda did. That wedding speech was pretty much all about her. Ditto the ceremony.

The show's writers seem to be of this opinion as well, so the effect wasn't accidental or unintentional. Nobody's perfect, and Nomi does have this narcissistic side. Even when she asked Neets, who adores her, if this is true, she didn't exactly say No.

I'm often confused by wedding sequences in movies and TV, because I'll see what I think is the reception, with hundreds of people present and speeches being given, and think "Oh, they've skipped past showing us the actual wedding! interesting move." And then it'll turn out that the wedding is still to come, and that was the rehearsal dinner the day before. In my experience (admittedly my family tends to keep things relatively modest when it comes to weddings) the rehearsal dinner has been for immediate family plus those directly involved in the ceremony, and is only moderately dressy, with no speeches or other events, just dinner. I guess I'm out of touch.

[Chaos Theory]

Rehearsal Dinners are usually for immediate families but lately a few I have been to have included "close friends".    They arent strictly necessary but they are a nice way for both families who often haven't spent much time together to have a meal before the big ceremony.  Which is why I dont subscribe to including close friends.  I always felt it is a good way to introduce family members who haven't met yet.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[jhlipton]

On 5/10/2017 at 7:13 AM, Rinaldo said:

The show's writers seem to be of this opinion as well, so the effect wasn't accidental or unintentional. Nobody's perfect, and Nomi does have this narcissistic side. Even when she asked Neets, who adores her, if this is true, she didn't exactly say No.

I'm often confused by wedding sequences in movies and TV, because I'll see what I think is the reception, with hundreds of people present and speeches being given, and think "Oh, they've skipped past showing us the actual wedding! interesting move." And then it'll turn out that the wedding is still to come, and that was the rehearsal dinner the day before. In my experience (admittedly my family tends to keep things relatively modest when it comes to weddings) the rehearsal dinner has been for immediate family plus those directly involved in the ceremony, and is only moderately dressy, with no speeches or other events, just dinner. I guess I'm out of touch.

I think the speech fit with Nomi being "a black hole of narcissism" (LOL).  I like that all of the characters have flaws.

Our Rehearsal Dinner was pretty much the immediate family: Parents, brothers, sisters and their children.  About 12 people, tops.  And the speeches like th one Nomi made are always done at the reception. 

This was, by and large, one of the the joyful episodes and I really liked it.

[kieyra]

Came to mention the speech, haven't seen the rest of the episode yet. No one would ever ask me to make a speech about anything, but I'm still pretty sure that was bad form. It's not a matter of whether her family deserved comeuppance, it's that the occasion was about the bride. There are certain moments in life where adulthood means silencing your own ego for five minutes. 

Interesting points in the thread that the show has textually affirmed she's a bit narcissistic. It still bugged.

Off to watch the rest!

[Clanstarling]

On 5/7/2017 at 10:16 PM, tennisgurl said:

I hope Daniela becomes Litos new agent, she's amazing at it! She, Lito, and Hernando are just a great combination. And now that they're going to Hollywood, maybe they can meet up with Nomi?

It's a bit of a drive, but why not? We have two of the cluster in the US already, maybe they'll all meet.

On 5/9/2017 at 7:59 PM, Ravenya003 said:

I get that Nomi's parents are awful, but they kinda had a point about Nomi making everything about Nomi because... she kinda did. That wedding speech was pretty much all about her. Ditto the ceremony.

It was, but she did pull it around at the end.

On 5/10/2017 at 4:13 AM, Rinaldo said:

The show's writers seem to be of this opinion as well, so the effect wasn't accidental or unintentional. Nobody's perfect, and Nomi does have this narcissistic side. Even when she asked Neets, who adores her, if this is true, she didn't exactly say No.

I think you are right on here, and one of the things that makes these characters so engaging is that they all have their flaws and strengths.

I think Rajan's friend is the one he was arguing with - and I was sure it was a bomb. Hopefully not, but it's definitely not going to be pleasant.

Loved Nomi's father calling her his daughter for the first time. Amanita and Bug were so great in this scene.

Choked up a lot during Will's father's scene. But he "saw" Will before he died, even if he wasn't there physically, so that was touching.

[madam magpie]

I loved Nomi's speech. It was so honest and such a huge compliment to the sister. How those crappy parents raised those two lovely kids is beyond me.

I feel for Kala. She's trapped in a society that insists she be something other than who she is. It takes a lot of courage to buck that. Plus Rajan is shady, and the friend is a creeper. 

Dani is the best.

[ahisma]

Daddy Marks, Capheus's stepdaddy-to-be, and Daddy Gorski were all amazing in this episode. (Goodbye, Joey Pants. Man, I cried buckets.) We were just missing Riley's and Kala's awesome dads, but I guess we already knew they were awesome.

Dani hit it out of the park! Damn, girl.

They are teasing us with Felix putting the India Plan on the table. I think it's too early for Wolfgang and Kala to meet IRL, but Wolfie's good at chaos....

Can't wait to see Diego wearing Sun next ep to do some flair bartending. I guess Nomi really does make the best IDs. :D 

[Lady Calypso]

I thought parts of Nomi's speech were fine. She got the awkwardness of her not being at family functions out of the way, but she quickly got back to the subject of her sister. I think she also wanted to draw attention to her parents momentarily. I think Nomi did fine going back and forth on talking about Teagan and then about her relationship with her parents, but it explained why she loves Teagan and why she's so important. The subject of the speech was still about Teagan but why their relationship was so important. However, I totally agree that Nomi might be a little narcissistic. Not a black hole of it, like her father had said, but just a tiny bit. Her speech probably could have focused less on just herself. 

The wedding part almost got ruined too, but I knew Bendix was going to show up at an unopportune moment. It did provide Daddy Marks with a badass, yet very melodramatic, moment to claim Nomi as his daughter. This show doesn't always go for the cheese, so I'm ok with it happening here. I think we all wanted Bendix to be knocked down many pegs.

Good for Dani to pull Lito back up and onto his feet. I love that Hernando and Dani are both as supportive for his dream. And her minutes long scene of kicking ass as Lito's agent was so awesome. 

I was so creeped out for Kala when Ajay randomly showed up with a gift, just as Rajan was "conveniently" out of town. He had to have known that Rajan was away, and he was showing up at his partner's new wife's place to give her some present and to flirt with her more. I really, really dislike the guy and I hope Kala, Wolfgang, and Rajan all punch him out. I know he hasn't done anything that would really warrant it, but I bet he will soon. 

Aww man, poor Will and his dad. At least he got to say goodbye, even if he couldn't be there physically.

[AngelKitty]

There wasn't much interaction between the sense8s this episode and that's what I'm mostly interested in. I just need to know more about, well everything. I'm a bit confused as to how the clusters are birthed. Is it kind of like inhumans on Agents of Shield where they have the gene and it needs to be activated? I can't remember, is it only adults or have we seen children activated? And how are they chosen? Is it random? Have these questions been answered and I just can't remember?

One thing this episode did for me was to eliminate any sympathy for Angelica I might have had because it certainly looks like she willingly experimented on her "children".

I don't trust Jonas anymore. I think his brain has been hijacked.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, AngelKitty said:

There wasn't much interaction between the sense8s this episode and that's what I'm mostly interested in. I just need to know more about, well everything. I'm a bit confused as to how the clusters are birthed. Is it kind of like inhumans on Agents of Shield where they have the gene and it needs to be activated? I can't remember, is it only adults or have we seen children activated? And how are they chosen? Is it random? Have these questions been answered and I just can't remember?

One thing this episode did for me was to eliminate any sympathy for Angelica I might have had because it certainly looks like she willingly experimented on her "children".

I don't trust Jonas anymore. I think his brain has been hijacked.

I don't think we know much about the mechanics of sense8 birth yet. I'm hoping we'll find out more next season.

[AngelKitty]

OK, good, I hope so too.

[Danny Franks]

So Nomi's sister continues to be awesome, her mother continues to suck huge balls, but at least her dad came through and stood up for her. It was a nice moment, but still it reinforced the feeling that her parents thought her being there would cause drama. The FBI agent bursting in during the ceremony was hokey, and felt really dumb. It would have played much better if he'd tried to nab Nomi after the ceremony, and her dad noticed and still came to her defence.

Wolfgang, "maybe it's time for me to leave this town". Yes! It is, Wolfgang. Berlin is becoming a real drag, and Felix is feeling more like an anchor than a source of support. Not much of him in this episode, but I guess he needed a break, after the last one.

Lito has moved on to The Graduate now, in his wallowing and watching old movies. Good choice. But I'm glad that Daniella dragged him out of it, and then performed some serious production assistant whispering to get him an audition. That was a great scene, and it shows again how integral a part of this little group she is.

Ajay is a serious creep (and if we didn't already know that, the popped collar on his shirt confirmed that), and either he's got dirt on Rajan, or they're as dirty as each other. I'm assuming that the 'gift' is a reminder to Rajan than he can't back out of whatever it is he's embroiled in. 

I'll be honest, I'm not really that interested in the overarching story of where the sensates came from, who is after them and what has happened before with other clusters. I'm here for the interactions between these eight characters and their loved ones. Having said that, I'm fairly convinced now that Jonah is as much a villain as Milton, and they're either working together or have been working to control/destroy sensates for their own individual agendas, up to this point.

The scenes with Riley, Diego and Will were fun. Showing how well Will and Diege knew each other, and how Diego has legitimately accepted that Riley and Will are mentally connected. Diego is a likeable guy, and I wish he was more involved, though I understand why he isn't.

That ending was a shock, though. I'd kind of forgotten about Will's dad, with everything else that's been going on. And now he's dying and Will can only be there through Riley, while he's actually all on his own, in a derelict flat four thousand miles away. Seriously, that last shot, of Will sobbing alone, was brutal. Despite the anger between them, there was never a doubt that Will and his dad truly loved one another. The montage of flashbacks was really moving, and affected me more than I expected. Just the totality of a father/son relationship, from that initial wonder of birth, through childhood memories, to mutual disappointments when the two realise that they're each not what the other hoped and expected they would be. I don't know, just felt really well done.

That he 'saw' Will at the end raises some questions. I've seen suggestions that he was picking up on Will's mannerisms in Riley, but I find that hard to swallow. It seems more likely that he himself is a dormant sensate (he must be, right, if his son is one?) and somehow he was able to connect with Will through Riley, in those last moments.

[Clanstarling]

5 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

That he 'saw' Will at the end raises some questions. I've seen suggestions that he was picking up on Will's mannerisms in Riley, but I find that hard to swallow. It seems more likely that he himself is a dormant sensate (he must be, right, if his son is one?) and somehow he was able to connect with Will through Riley, in those last moments.

That's interesting - because of course their genetics have to be at least similar (unless the homo sensorium was his mother). So maybe those who haven't been born have an ability to connect in a minor way. This intrigues me. 

[tennisgurl]

I find the genetic component of being a sensate to be fascinating, especially due to it having some sort of "activation" component that a lot of these other "magical genetics" stories don't exactly have. Most of these stories have people getting powers based on age or a specific experience, but sensates get their connection when they get birthed by another sensate. I think with Wills dad, its possible that he had latent sensate abilities that he passed along to Will, so he was able to pick up on Will making his sensate connection with Riley due to his strong emotions. Maybe his dad was never "born" the way Will and the gang was, but he passed the actual genes to Will. Maybe their whole line has been homo sensorium, but Will was the only one who was "born" as an official sensate? The rest of them weren't activated, but they do have some minor abilities to connect with members of their own family. That makes me wonder if any of the other Cluster members have sensates in the family?

Edited May 30, 2017 by tennisgurl

[possibilities]

I hadn't considered the sensate dormancy issue wrt Will's dad. I thought it was supposed to be one of those generic mystical "dying person" moments. But: if the dormant sensate theory is true, I wonder if that means he will appear to Will and/or Riley in the future, the way other dead sensates do, like Angelica, the girl that went missing (Sarah), and the journalist who was an ex of Lito and murdered by Angelica and Co. I think that would actually be rather interesting, and would give poor Will some relief.

[darkestboy]

I wasn't expecting to see Will's father in this one or for him to die. Although I wasn't big on the character, the death scene did provide an emotional gut punch though.

I've liked the Will/Riley/Diego team up in the last few episodes.

Nomi's speech was a little too much about herself but I did like it and I did like how supportive Tegan was and how her father stepped in when Agent Bendix popped up. Her mother is still horrible but hey, Amanita and Bug are awesome though.

Wolfgang's smart to finally think to get out of Berlin. 

Kala being left that gift, something's not right, hug?

Loved Daniela in agent mode as Lito and Hernando looked on bemused. So I guess the three of them will be Stateside for the remaining two episodes then.

Not enough Sun and Capheus's plot did lag a bit in this one, 8/10

[Reishe]

On 5/10/2017 at 7:13 AM, Rinaldo said:

I'm often confused by wedding sequences in movies and TV, because I'll see what I think is the reception, with hundreds of people present and speeches being given, and think "Oh, they've skipped past showing us the actual wedding! interesting move." And then it'll turn out that the wedding is still to come, and that was the rehearsal dinner the day before.

I agree. The best man and maid of honor toast the bride and groom, not the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be. Here it's a writers' cheat; they need Nomi to say her piece despite her parents' disapproval and underline the sibling relationship before the wedding, because Dad will have the opportunity to stand up for his daughter afterward, at the wedding. Hopefully JMS and co. had the decency to feel a little bad about it, but it had to be done.

There is a "sad theme" that the show has played a couple of times, including this episode around the time Riley went to see Will's dad. Does anyone know if it is deliberate that that theme borrows the chords from Mad World? It really jumps out at you. 

Add me to the list of people who cringed when Nomi started out her toast with a story that was all about her, but it did end up in character. I also agree that Nomi doesn't seem as fleshed-out a character as some of the others, which is ironic, b/c I would assume that a writer choosing to include a trans character in the society we have right now would be doing so in part to further the message that being trans isn't the only defining element of her life. But I guess when you're telling the story of 8+ people in 13 episodes a season along with a conspiracy plot, maybe you don't get everything done that you set out to do. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Reishe
Because I remembered that this is Netflix, and I can't call something "last night's episode." ;)

[Spotlight]

Maybe Riley has sensate birthing powers that activate the sensate gene in will dad. Just a thought. 

[Anela]

I'm crying so much. God, that ending. It reminded me of when my mum died. Damn it.

I liked Nomi's sister, and loved Sun popping in there to hurt the guy escorting her down the aisle. 

[romantic idiot]

On 5/20/2017 at 8:04 AM, madam magpie said:

I feel for Kala. She's trapped in a society that insists she be something other than who she is. It takes a lot of courage to buck that. Plus Rajan is shady, and the friend is a creeper. 

I actually think the show's been pretty good about shoiwing that a lot of Kala's issues are those she takes on herself. She's educated and self supporting, and her father asked her repeatedly if she wanted the wedding. She could have said no at any time, but rather chose the 'normal' path' - for various reasons. In fact, given that her dad seems to be a bit of maverick and how close they are, it's surprising she's as traditional as she is. Though that backbone and modern attitudes about feminism (it's my body) seems to be his influence. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ajay is so slimy. If I were Kala, I would have gone down to the lobby to pick up the gift instead of letting him come upstairs. Then I would have given the package to one of the security people and asked them to make sure it wasn't a bomb. All of his talk about karma was creeping me out. He might as well have said, "I'm going to blow up you and your husband because I'm mad at him."

Loved Daniela finangling her way into getting Lito a meeting for the Hollywood movie.

While I totally understand Nomi wanting to speak up (especially after being excluded from family events because her parents were embarrassed about her), I felt like her toast at the rehearsal dinner was way too much about her and not enough about her sister. You know, THE BRIDE. I know she eventually brought it around to how Teagan was her family but it felt like her toast was "me me me me, wait, let me tell you more about ME, and by the way, my sister is great because she was there for ME." Even when she was talking about Teagan, she was still talking about herself. Teagan was perfect. Let me tell you how that made ME feel. She was smart and pretty and that made ME feel shitty. Teagan was so nice and that was so hard for ME.

Nomi's mom is still the worst. What a fucking bitch. All of her "I told you this would happen if you invited MICHAEL to your wedding" crap made me so angry. She just loves having any excuse to put Nomi down and make her feel like shit.

I appreciate that Diego is acting as normally as can be expected in this situation with Riley and Will. His comment about going into a spooky house after talking about a guy named Whispers is exactly what I would think if I were in his place.

What is it with Jonas and Anjelica talking other sensates into suicide? It feels like they're trying to exterminate all of the sensates, not help them.

I'm not sure how I feel about Capheus' mom and a former bad guy getting married, but at least now Capheus knows how serious things are between him. On the plus side, Amondi would be thrilled to have Capheus as her big brother!

Why was Will's dad able to see him right before he died? Even though Whispers is in hiding, I'm sure he had something to do with Will's father falling or dying. I'm sure Whispers is just trying to push Will over the edge.

On 5/7/2017 at 10:16 PM, tennisgurl said:

I laughed at Wolfgang showing up in the speech for a second to threaten the groom about hurting Teagan. Even on the run and hiding out, he can still make time to have threaten people for the greater good.

I loved that too. Wolfgang is hiding from the police and Lila and her cluster yet he pops in to make sure that Teagan's husband knows he better not hurt her. Classic Wolfgang.

Edited August 19, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[paramitch]

Okay, first off, you guys, I can't believe I JUST REALIZED that Whispers is played by TERRENCE MANN! I mean, as a Broadway person, I totally freaked out. He was the original Javert! He's been in a zillion things, but he's such a chameleon! I totally didn't recognize him here.

I liked this episode -- although Nomi's speech irritated me a little (and I felt that it could have been a lot less about Nomi and a lot more about her sister), I did like where it ended up, and I loved everything at the wedding. Nomi's face when her father called her his daughter tore me up a little inside. (So did the look on her face.) And Neets was just awesome there. As she usually is.

I am very worried about what's in the box (WHAT'S IN THE BOX???) that Rajan's creepy friend left with Kala. He skeeves me out every single time he's onscreen. He's a handsome guy, but there's just something awful and creepy about him, so kudos to the actor.

I love the team-up of Riley with Diego, and I have to say that their search of that house was so harrowing, and the discovery of the body in the bathtub, mouth open in a silent scream, was flat-out terrifying. Like many of you, I'm starting to think Jonas is baaad news.

Last but not least, OMG, Brian J. Smith and Joey Pants absolutely killed me in those final scenes together. I was sobbing my eyes out by the end. But I was just so glad that somehow his father saw him, Will, and knew that he was there.

But watching poor Will fall into his horrible tattered bed alone and weeping broke my heart. (Come on, Sensates! Go comfort your sweet cop bro! He needs love!)