S02.E07: Pig

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Tulip confronts her near-death experience; Denis asks Cassidy for a favor; Jesse questions the price of saving Cassidy and Tulip.

[Eulipian 5k]

Calling it early...Pimk Floyd wants the pig back!

[AimingforYoko]

"Like a ten-inch dick, I'd need to see it to believe it." That's a quote for the ages.

I believe I'm going to quite enjoy Herr Starr.

[TigerLynx]

LOL at Tom Cruise, Trump, and a Flying Pig being signs of the apocalypse.

Cassidy ending up in the morgue AGAIN according to him was funny.

I love Herr Starr.  I'm very bad.  I cheered when he shot the guy in the head, and shoved the other one over the railing.

Edited August 1, 2017 by TigerLynx

[SoSueMe]

5 minutes ago, TigerLynx said:

LOL at Tom Cruise, Trump, and a Flying Pig being signs of the apocalypse.

Cassidy ending up in the morgue AGAIN according to him was funny.

I love Herr Starr.  I'm very bad.  I cheered when he shot the guy in the head, and shoved the other one over the railing.

Hah, who among us didn't see that coming :) 

Cool that Trump got a mention, lol. End of the world.

Edited August 1, 2017 by SoSueMe

[Lantern7]

We started with a kid wearing a t-shirt celebrating the Atlanta Falcons' Super Bowl win (look it up), followed by a mid-sized pig floating. And the insanity was maintained throughout. Awesome episode.

I'm hoping the hardcore fans of the book are digging Herr Starr, because he was awesome. I mean, I would understand people rolling their eyes as he eliminates the last recruit, because a blind man wouldn't seen it coming. So would Denis. Still, watching a proctor choke Starr and his retaliating by using that to jerk off . . . awesome. Who needs this on HBO? We need the breaks to talk about the insanity during the commercials.

I fear that places like the "Hurt Locker" exist in real life. Watching Our Heroes scam the hell out of everybody was awesome. Then Tulip came back, ranked on everybody, then played a few rounds of Hit Girl training. Jesse and Cassidy's plots were also compelling . . . but damn, Herr Starr, way to break into the show. Who needs a bat wrapped in barbed wire when you can wear an impeccably white suit and hat and murder lots of people.

Oh, and Stephen Hawking tells a guy to shut up. I bet that wasn't the unseen character's name, but come on.

[Eulipian 5k]

Tulip hasn't voiced any unease about being "touched" by the SoK. She keeps asking Jesse if he feels anything off.  As often happens, a grown woman wants her man to guess what's wrong when she has a mouth and a voice.

Annoying. Doesn't get  you anywhere with a self absorbed prick like Jesse.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Eulipian 5k
swipe at Jesse

[tennisgurl]

I think Herr Star is going to be a great bad guy. The guy is just an unstoppable, murderous bastard, with an impeccable white suite, and now he's after Our Heroes. He has no honor, no limits, no soft side, he's just a guy who will kill anyone to achieve his goals. I like it.

This show is so weird, but we actually have some direction this year, so its seems like slightly less "weird for the sake of weird" then it did a lot last season. Last season really was just the worlds longest prologue, wasn't it? I'm waiting for anything other than the last few episodes to really mean anything, beyond setting tone. Its both annoying, and weirdly admirable.

I liked watching the gang running a scam on drunken idiots, even if Cassidy did end up getting stuck in the morgue. Again, apparently. It also looks like he might be considering letting Dennis become a vampire, which I don't see ending well.

[Snookums]

Poor pig pig! It wasn't its fault it was floaty! And all those poor villagers!

So, was the hydrogen contaminated water the legit reason for said floating? And the mass deaths all at once? Or did Herr Starr put the hydrogen in the water, having gotten the idea when he looked at his glass?

Man, the reason nutbars like Starr get as far as they do is that their coworkers have NO imagination.  Ten seconds of research on this man would have told the Grail that the guy is not a team player--yet they hand him guns and invite him out on balconies. I guess if you're part of an organization that has so misread Christian doctrine that you worship His offspring you get used to seeing things only one twisted-up way. Tunnel vision, it'll get you every time.

Loved the trio scamming the Hurt Locker guys for fun--and don't think Jesse didn't clock Cassidy's longing during that "fake" smooch. Tulip's right back where she was last season when she boned him--lost and numb--and she's using Cass just like she did then. Angry at Jesse but can't articulate it? Hey, mess around with the emotionally fragile vampire!

Cass waking up in the morgue and the nurse's casual apologies: "ever since the carts started going out in tandem you'd be surprised how often this happens" and his corgi tee with the bullet hole in the head were a delight. 

[ALenore]

Anyone know who played the "French professor" in the bar that translated what Denis was saying to Cassidy?  He looked somewhat familiar.  I couldn't find it on IMDB.  My husband thought it might be Mark Hamill. 

[AnimeMania]

Pete the alcoholic French professor from Tulane was played by Patrick Weathers.

 

23 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

a kid wearing a t-shirt celebrating the Atlanta Falcons' Super Bowl win

I thought the Vietnamese kid was wearing the shirt because the two Super Bowl teams both print up shirts saying that they won and the losing team sends their shirts to a third-world country to clothe the poor.

So, the Holy Grail is people? Seems like over the 2000+ year timespan, JC's offspring should be numerous.

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I thought the Vietnamese kid was wearing the shirt because the two Super Bowl teams both print up shirts saying that they won and the losing team sends their shirts to a third-world country to clothe the poor.

That's exactly what I thought.

[johntfs]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

So, the Holy Grail is people? Seems like over the 2000+ year timespan, JC's offspring should be numerous.

Well, I can't speak to this show, but in the real Bible, Jesus never married or had children.  So, no true offspring, but after 2000+ years figure his relatives with their offspring could likely populate whole countries.

[Bruinsfan]

I started to complain about the logistics of a new recruit advancing by assassination to the pinnacle of an organization he knows basically nothing about running, but I suppose in a show with flying pigs and unstoppable cowboys from Hell it's not the most unlikely thing.

[NaughtyKitty]

9 hours ago, johntfs said:

Well, I can't speak to this show, but in the real Bible, Jesus never married or had children.  So, no true offspring, but after 2000+ years figure his relatives with their offspring could likely populate whole countries.

But if the offspring is kept in a "secure location" they might not get opportunity to marry and have kids, except for the forced encounters to maintain the lineage.  

[Eulipian 5k]

Is Herr Starr part of a group seeking to co-opt The Grail or is he just out to take over for himself? He seems totally  interested in "self consummation", women,  validated parking, ... and the whole cleansing the world of the unworthy thing.

At the end I thought he had transferred to Jonestown,  with all the poisoned dead followers around him. Or did the Grail do that too.?

[festivus]

I don't really care about romantic relationships or triangles but honestly I'd rather see Tulip with Cassidy the cat eating vampire, than Jesse Custer. He really is only focused on himself and quite honestly I dislike his character. I did like the scene where they were at the bar and were repeating each other and then started cracking up. I think they were truly laughing in that one. Yes, I know the actors are together in real life but I think Cassidy and Tulip just look better together. 

[johntfs]

On 8/2/2017 at 0:29 PM, Eulipian 5k said:

Is Herr Starr part of a group seeking to co-opt The Grail or is he just out to take over for himself? He seems totally  interested in "self consummation", women,  validated parking, ... and the whole cleansing the world of the unworthy thing.

At the end I thought he had transferred to Jonestown,  with all the poisoned dead followers around him. Or did the Grail do that too.?

I think it's more the latter.  Starr is clearly not a "team player" as such.  He's pretty much co-opting the Grail to pursue his own goals.  That said, their general goals are in line with his own for now, so he's pretty much doing the job he's been assigned and removing "false prophets."

As for the village, I think it's more that Starr noticed the water was contaminated and simply let nature take its course.  Remember that he was on the phone calling in some kind of strike team when he looked at the glass and basically said "Never mind all that, it's handled."

Edited August 3, 2017 by johntfs

[Eulipian 5k]

1 hour ago, johntfs said:

As for the village, I think it's more that Starr noticed the water was contaminated and simply let nature take its course.  Remember that he was on the phone calling in some kind of strike team when he looked at the glass and basically said "Never mind all that, it's handled."

I agree he realized those folks could easily be poisoned when he saw the "stuff" swirling in the water. But now I'm wondering if he thought "Yea, like Jonestown, I'll just poison the "Kool Aid". OR was h,e or the Grail, the one that poisoned Jonestown to begin with. There's also the Hale-Bopp Comet "Just Do It" cult that committed mass "suicide" in the 90's.

[pezgirl7]

3 hours ago, Eulipian 5k said:

I agree he realized those folks could easily be poisoned when he saw the "stuff" swirling in the water. But now I'm wondering if he thought "Yea, like Jonestown, I'll just poison the "Kool Aid". OR was h,e or the Grail, the one that poisoned Jonestown to begin with. There's also the Hale-Bopp Comet "Just Do It" cult that committed mass "suicide" in the 90's.

I'm of the opinion that he poisoned the well water because of the shot of him at the end standing by the well. If the water was already poisoned, there would have been no reason for him to stick around. But then the question is: what really made the pig fly?

Edited August 3, 2017 by pezgirl7

[johntfs]

9 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:

I'm of the opinion that he poisoned the well water because of the shot of him at the end standing by the well. If the water was already poisoned, there would have been no reason for him to stick around. But then the question is: what really made the pig fly?

My problem with that is "poisoned it with what?"  I don't recall Starr carrying any luggage, bags or anything else.  It also seems a bit of a stretch to assume that he habitually carries pocket-sized poisons just in case he has to taint a well.  Plus there's the phone call where he begins to request "resources."  It just makes more sense to me that he realized the water was fatally contaminated and stuck around long enough to make sure that everyone in the village, including the pig, was dead.  It still makes him a shitty person because he could have warned them and in doing also effectively stopped the pig-worship.  He simply chose to let them all die.

Edited August 4, 2017 by johntfs

[Eulipian 5k]

5 hours ago, johntfs said:

My problem with that is "poisoned it with what?"  I don't recall Starr carrying any luggage, bags or anything else.  It also seems a bit of a stretch to assume that he habitually carries pocket-sized poisons just in case he has to taint a well.  Pl

I wouldn't put it past this guy to "habitually carries pocket-sized poisons just in case". Varga (Fargo S3) carried his Aunt's coma inducing Teabag in his pocket all the time.  Herr Starr could always dump some local puffer fish poison in whatever well or ritual chalice being passed around at the Shrine of the Flying Pig*. (*A band coming to ITunes soon!)

[Bruinsfan]

It's not as if things that are poisonous to people if ingested are all that rare. All he'd have to do is find a sufficient quantity of pesticide or antifreeze and dump it in the well when no one was looking.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Bruinsfan

[pezgirl7]

6 hours ago, johntfs said:

My problem with that is "poisoned it with what?" 

Maybe he purchased something locally? I just feel like the show went out of it's way to show us what a horrible person he is, and that he has no problem killing anyone. So to not have him kill all the villagers seems like a bit of a copout.

I've read a lot of recaps on entertainment sites, and most of them also think he poisoned everyone. This is from vulture.com:

Quote

Back in 2017, Herr Starr deals with the floating pig with the same mercilessness and casual disinterest in collateral damage. He poisons the water supply of the small Vietnamese village, ensuring that the pig and the dozens of residents die off at once. Offscreen, a scientist that certainly sounds like Stephen Hawking tells a newscaster a bunch of jargon-y, vaguely scientific-sounding nonsense about how the pig was able to float, ensuring that a cult won’t rise up to worship it.

[Eulipian 5k]

Herr Starr's job is not done! Next stop Sincinnati!

Edited August 4, 2017 by Eulipian 5k

[thuganomics85]

Finally got around to this episode, since stupid On Demand took forever to finally put it up.

Anyway, a pretty great introduction/backstory to this Herr Star character.  I loved the creative (and not so creative) ways he ended up rising into the ranks of this mysterious organization, and how his deadpan, psychotic behavior has somehow made him kind of funny in a very strange way.  Pip Torrens was perfection in all of his scenes.  Have a feeling Star's going to be one Hell of a villain.  I mean, the guy just poisoned an entire Vietnamese village just to take out a floating pig.  I can only imagine what he would do to take out Jesse!

Not surprised that Tulip isn't over what happened with the Saint of Killers, although I'm not sure if it's all in her mind, or if SOK actually did something to her when he grabbed her by her throat.  Of course, this is making things bad again with Jesse, since she isn't spelling it out for him, and Jesse can't read between the lines if his life depended on it.

Hmm, Denis is dying and he wants Cassidy to turn him?  That's always an interesting dilemma for vampire characters.  I wonder what he'll end up doing?

I laughed and almost felt about about the Atlanta Falcons 2017 Superbowl Champions shirt bit.  But then I remembered that they let the Patriots roll over them in the second half after taking a commanding led, so they really have no one to blame but themselves.   

[Spaceman Spiff]

Didn't really care for this episode. Perhap books readers enjoyed it more because they knew who the character was, but an episode dedicated to the back story of newly introduced character seemed off and boring to me. I was also getting a huge Scientology vibe from those scenes, maybe because the actor who was heading the recruiting looked a bit like Miscavige.

A decent conundrum for Cassidy to ponder, but things seem to really have slowed down once the threat of the SoK passed.