S01.E03: Pax Americana

[CooperTV]

[meira.hand]

5 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I was surprised that she killed the character portrayed by Steve Harris.  I didn't see that coming at all.

Until this point she was only acting in self defense and to get to her daughter. She only needed to immobilize or render the soldiers in her way unconscious. In his case, after he said that when he finds out who she was looking for he will kill them as well, she basically had no choice. It was either him or her daughter.

[llongori]

See, I was thinking it was great to see Steve Harris (Eugene from the Practice) again.  He has such a snarky, arrogant way about him.  Go to commercial, come back, she kills him.  Well, crap...

[TigerLynx]

I liked Reece killing Steve Harris.  I've seen to many shows where the characters are constantly saying, "I'm going to kill you.  No, I'm going to kill you."  And then they don't kill each other.  So far, the only character I'm interested in watching is Reece.

[fellini]

I enjoy watching Reece kick butt.

[KaveDweller]

11 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I guess the sheriff is now going to have to get involved in this again trying to help Reece, now that she has kidnapped his kid.

Yes, definitely. I can't believe he left his kid alone like that though. As soon as he told the kid not to move I knew something bad was going to happen to him.

I am interested in Hannah's storyline. She had this guy's picture in her locket (or maybe his son) and so at first I thought that meant he was her ancestor. But she was definitely not interacting with him like he was family.

[Free]

11 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Not a bad episode, but it is difficult for me to keep track of all of these characters.  I think TPTB introduced too many characters all at once.  Either that, or I am just getting too distracted while trying to watch this, meaning I am not totally into the series.

The characters just aren't that interesting, you can have a big cast of characters, but they have to be well written enough and/or interesting enough to make you invested in them.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, fellini said:

I enjoy watching Reece kick butt.

I enjoy watching Reece's butt.

I admit, I was multitasking and The Crossing was low priority in my job-queue, so I may have missed something.  But why did she decide to go after the sheriff's kid?

When Mr. Sleasebag was moving on wossername in the refectory, why didn't she just slap him around the head with the plate?  

[DesertCyclist]

More gratuitous shirtlessness, please!

[jhlipton]

16 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Reece kicking everyone''s ass really wasn't much of a surprise.  I was surprised that she killed the character portrayed by Steve Harris.  I didn't see that coming at all.

They already have one black character (Caleb); they don't need two.  What do you think this is, Black Panther?

11 hours ago, meira.hand said:

Until this point she was only acting in self defense and to get to her daughter. She only needed to immobilize or render the soldiers in her way unconscious. In his case, after he said that when he finds out who she was looking for he will kill them as well, she basically had no choice. It was either him or her daughter.

He was killed by the stupid.  He had her immobilized.  Just slap on the cuffs, or shoot her in the head if necessary.  Nope he's got to gloat long enough for her to get a weapon.  Dumb. 

4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

When Mr. Sleasebag was moving on wossername in the refectory, why didn't she just slap him around the head with the plate?  

Because he had to get to the Full-On Sleaze trope.  That way we would hate him more than an Apex collaborator -- someone who helped kill thousands by a pretty nasty disease.

It would be nice if
a) someone on this show could act (OMG, Bailey Skodje, the girl who plays Leah, is soooooo bad...)
b) Hannah and Reese didn't look so much alike.  When they came back to Reese after Hannah's escape, I thought "Wasn't she wearing a green top just seconds ago?"
c) Reese wasn't a Terminator, able to self-heal in a matter of minutes

I'm only watching because my wife does at this point.

[thuganomics85]

Sweet, Georgina Haig is here as some kind of doctor trying to treat Leah's disease.  I do like that the show is just trying to get as many recognizable genre faces as possible.

Hey, I finally know the name of pretty refugee (Hannah) and that she's apparently an Apex sympathizer, who is now be threatened by some creep.  Also, she has some connection to the town's surprisingly good-looking drunk, who is harboring some kind of dark tragedy.  Ah, drama!

I cracked up that Steve Harris' character basically died by not listening to his own instructions.  He told the mercs not to underestimate Reece, so what does he do?  He underestimates Reece!

Since I barely feel like I know Steve Zahn's character, let alone his son, it's hard for me to be all "Oh, no!" over Reece kidnapping his son.  Plus, it is obvious that Reece won't actually harm the kid in any way.

The only character I really like at this point is Rick Gomez' deputy.  Which means he's either going to die soon, or be evil.

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Reece kicking everyone''s ass really wasn't much of a surprise.  I was surprised that she killed the character portrayed by Steve Harris.  I didn't see that coming at all

Since this is scifi, I can't stop imagining Steve Harris' character rising from the dead.

 

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

was multitasking and The Crossing was low priority in my job-queue, so I may have missed something.  But why did she decide to go after the sheriff's kid?

I didn't even realize Reece took the kid unti I came here. I assumed it was one of the Bad Guys. But now it makes sense to me that she would take the sheriff's kid. She wants her own kid back, and ôthe sheriff's kid is the perfectly equal bargaining chip. Plus, from a storytelling perspective, the sheriff led her to believe he was reuniting her with her kid, but then he trapped her, after which an army swooped in.

[Haleth]

5 hours ago, jhlipton said:

It would be nice if
a) someone on this show could act (OMG, Bailey Skodje, the girl who plays Leah, is soooooo bad...)
b) Hannah and Reese didn't look so much alike.  When they came back to Reese after Hannah's escape, I thought "Wasn't she wearing a green top just seconds ago?"

a) The boy who plays Oliver is so bad it took me right out of the show.  b) I keep confusing Reece with the FBI lady (Emma?).  

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Also, she has some connection to the town's surprisingly good-looking drunk, who is harboring some kind of dark tragedy. 

Is that who that was?  These characters are so poorly developed I had no idea he was the same guy in the jail.  He's also the one whose gf found the earring, right?  I wasn't sure.  Also, the guy who is threatening Hannah is not the same guy who met with the Apex guy on the bridge?  They are two different people, right?

Hi, Steve Harris!  Bye, Steve Harris!  Man, I thought since he was the only actor in the least bit familiar to me he'd be a major character.  But it's probably true that they couldn't have both him and the father figure guy in the camp-- another pair that look similar.

The scenery is pretty.  I'll give them that. 

[Clanstarling]

23 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Reece kicking everyone''s ass really wasn't much of a surprise.  I was surprised that she killed the character portrayed by Steve Harris.  I didn't see that coming at all.

I know. I was a little disappointed.

12 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I am interested in Hannah's storyline. She had this guy's picture in her locket (or maybe his son) and so at first I thought that meant he was her ancestor. But she was definitely not interacting with him like he was family.

I thought he was her ancestor too. To me it seemed more like he wasn't interacting with her like family (which would be natural), and not that she wasn't. But more on that later...

 

7 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Hey, I finally know the name of pretty refugee (Hannah) and that she's apparently an Apex sympathizer, who is now be threatened by some creep.  Also, she has some connection to the town's surprisingly good-looking drunk, who is harboring some kind of dark tragedy.  Ah, drama!

The guy said she was a collaborator - which does not necessarily mean a sympathizer. Collaborators generally are in it to save their own (or their family's) skins. Sympathizers are actively in favor (imo).

As for the town drunk. 10 years was mentioned twice in the episode - as the time of the "accident" and (implied by Steve Harris) arrival of the early guys. So I think they're connected. I think the drunk may be another early arriver, since Hannah had his picture and nothing the deputy said specified that he was a townie before the accident. I'm sure there are arguments against it, but it's early here and my coffee hasn't kicked in.

I continue to be astonished at the lack of urgency about containing the virus. The early arrivers know how bad it is, and I'd expect them to be scared spitless.

[peachmangosteen]

8 hours ago, jhlipton said:

It would be nice if ... Hannah and Reese didn't look so much alike. 

I don't see this at all. One has light brown hair and the other has dark-brown-bordering-on-black hair. Not to mention the 10 year age difference! But Reese does look similar to the FBI agent. Every time either shows up my mom is like, "Is that the Apex lady?"

There really are a lot of characters, but oddly enough I have them all straight. I'm usually terrible with that. I don't know like half of their names still though, but I don't really care. I am actually liking and/or interested in virtually all the characters.

To be honest, the eye candy alone, with both genders, is enough to keep me watching. But I actually am still really enjoying this.

Could do without the new rapey subplot with Hannah and that asshole though. Why must it go there? Ugh.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

The guy said she was a collaborator - which does not necessarily mean a sympathizer. Collaborators generally are in it to save their own (or their family's) skins. Sympathizers are actively in favor (imo).

Good point. The actress portraying Hannah did a good job of conveying this, I thought, even without words.

 

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Could do without the new rapey subplot with Hannah and that asshole though. Why must it go there? Ugh

Hopefully Reece will be motivated to snap his neck too. Even though I feel the loss of Steve Harris's acting chops to the show, if his character was just going to be a one note depiction of Conveyor of Gratutious Violence, I'm glad he's finished.

[KaveDweller]

21 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I enjoy watching Reece's butt.

I admit, I was multitasking and The Crossing was low priority in my job-queue, so I may have missed something.  But why did she decide to go after the sheriff's kid?

When Mr. Sleasebag was moving on wossername in the refectory, why didn't she just slap him around the head with the plate?  

She took the sheriff's kid because she realized she needed help getting to Leah and he had said he couldn't help her because of his family.

10 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I continue to be astonished at the lack of urgency about containing the virus. The early arrivers know how bad it is, and I'd expect them to be scared spitless.

The Homeland Security/FBI woman said the arrivers said Leah wasn't early enough to be contagious. So if they know Leah only has very early symptoms and was then contained, it makes sense they wouldn't be panicking yet. It is very convenient that such a deadly virus has an early non-contagious period though.

[chaifan]

18 hours ago, jhlipton said:

It would be nice if

b) Hannah and Reese didn't look so much alike.  When they came back to Reese after Hannah's escape, I thought "Wasn't she wearing a green top just seconds ago?"

 

 

9 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't see this at all. One has light brown hair and the other has dark-brown-bordering-on-black hair. Not to mention the 10 year age difference! But Reese does look similar to the FBI agent. Every time either shows up my mom is like, "Is that the Apex lady?"

I think JHLipton just got Hannah and Emma's names mixed up.  Emma and Reese have similar looks.

I'm having a hard time imagining what Apex people would need non-Apex people for, from a collaboration standpoint.  Seemed Apex pretty much controlled everything and had a clear upper hand, so I don't know what they would need to collaborate with the normal humans for. 

I agree with the general consensus - beautiful scenery, beautiful people (mostly), but mostly really bad acting.  I sort of want to the deputy to be a "what you see is what you get" character, but in shows like this everyone has to have a twist.  I'm generally not a fan of child actors, and this show is no exception.  Both kids are bad to the point of distraction.

Can someone clarify the sheriff's marital situation for me?  I first thought they were divorced, but now it sounds like they just live in separate cities because he has to keep his family away from him because of bad people he caught in a previous job.  Is that what's going on?  It just seems weird.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

She took the sheriff's kid because she realized she needed help getting to Leah and he had said he couldn't help her because of his family.

Oh, OK.  It seemed that she grabbed the kid for spite, not just because she needed to coerce him.  

[shapeshifter]

14 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

She took the sheriff's kid because she realized she needed help getting to Leah and he had said he couldn't help her because of his family.

Oh, OK.  It seemed that she grabbed the kid for spite, not just because she needed to

Could be some of that too. The two motivations are not mutually exclusive.

[preeya]

On 4/17/2018 at 6:25 AM, icemiser69 said:

Not a bad episode, but it is difficult for me to keep track of all of these characters.  I think TPTB introduced too many characters all at once.  Either that, or I am just getting too distracted while trying to watch this, meaning I am not totally into the series.

Reece kicking everyone''s ass really wasn't much of a surprise.  I was surprised that she killed the character portrayed by Steve Harris.  I didn't see that coming at all.

I guess the sheriff is now going to have to get involved in this again trying to help Reece, now that she has kidnapped his kid.

2

Totally agree. Too much too soon. Also for what reason is there co-existence between the Apexers and the others? Is there some sort of dependency we haven't seen yet?

[jhlipton]

18 hours ago, Haleth said:

He's also the one whose gf found the earring, right? 

OMG, that earring.  To me, it was so big, it did look more like a Nerf basketball hoop than an earring.

16 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

The guy said she was a collaborator - which does not necessarily mean a sympathizer. Collaborators generally are in it to save their own (or their family's) skins. Sympathizers are actively in favor (imo).

Collaborators are generally worse than sympathizers.  Sympathizers say "Hey, nice job!", collaborators actively work with the enemy.  I'm sure we'll get some sob story as to why her family of three or four were more important than the thousands of "Commons" who were killed, many by a nasty virus.

6 hours ago, chaifan said:

I think JHLipton just got Hannah and Emma's names mixed up.  Emma and Reese have similar looks.

Nope -- most of the time I can tell Hannah and Reese apart, but when Hannah slipped out the back of cop's conveniently covered truck, she did look like Reese for a bit.  Emma's face is considerably thinner than either of the two.

[peachmangosteen]

7 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I'm sure we'll get some sob story as to why her family of three or four were more important than the thousands of "Commons" who were killed, many by a nasty virus.

I don't think there needs to be much more to the sob story than she was trying to save her family. I mean if you have a choice between your family and everyone else it would be hard not to save your family over everyone else.

So, the FBI agents name is Emma. OK good. Now I just need to figure out the name of the sheriff, his deputy, the new doctor, the couple that's looking after Leah, the guy that the white haired guy got to, the white haired guy, the rapey guy, and the town drunk. I also don't know sheriff's wife or kid's name, but I care less about that.

[Raja]

14 hours ago, chaifan said:

 

I think JHLipton just got Hannah and Emma's names mixed up.  Emma and Reese have similar looks.

I'm having a hard time imagining what Apex people would need non-Apex people for, from a collaboration standpoint.  Seemed Apex pretty much controlled everything and had a clear upper hand, so I don't know what they would need to collaborate with the normal humans for. 

I agree with the general consensus - beautiful scenery, beautiful people (mostly), but mostly really bad acting.  I sort of want to the deputy to be a "what you see is what you get" character, but in shows like this everyone has to have a twist.  I'm generally not a fan of child actors, and this show is no exception.  Both kids are bad to the point of distraction.

Can someone clarify the sheriff's marital situation for me?  I first thought they were divorced, but now it sounds like they just live in separate cities because he has to keep his family away from him because of bad people he caught in a previous job.  Is that what's going on?  It just seems weird.

They keep saying war, which is different from just Hitler.  And we know from Steve Harris the regular humans have a very effective anti Apex weapon. So Hannah and others were probably in the  Apex controlled state or the no man's land where the super biological soldiers of Apex and the super physics technology  (time machines ) humans are fighting 

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't think there needs to be much more to the sob story than she was trying to save her family. I mean if you have a choice between your family and everyone else it would be hard not to save your family over everyone else.

I know the "I, Me, Mine" instinct is very strong -- I'd just like to see ONE character who puts the lives of all the other families -- who love each other just as much -- over their own.  "The needs of the many.. blah blah blah"

43 minutes ago, Raja said:

They keep saying war, which is different from just Hitler.  And we know from Steve Harris the regular humans have a very effective anti Apex weapon. So Hannah and others were probably in the  Apex controlled state or the no man's land where the super biological soldiers of Apex and the super physics technology  (time machines ) humans are fighting 

I'm sure we'll see just how "effective" this weapon is when it's used on Reese..

If there is Apex territory and Common territory, why go through all the danger of traveling to "somewhere, somewhen" in the past, and just get smuggled over the border?

[Accidental Martyr]

It was cool that the Homeland Security guy had camouflage netting over the bed of his truck so someone could hide in the back within being detected. Do DHS officers always drive their personal vehicles when they’re deployed somewhere?

[Raja]

11 hours ago, jhlipton said:

 

I'm sure we'll see just how "effective" this weapon is when it's used on Reese..

If there is Apex territory and Common territory, why go through all the danger of traveling to "somewhere, somewhen" in the past, and just get smuggled over the border?

It seemed to work fine on her.. That Steve Harris had been in the here and now for 10 years and was arrogant and sloppy with  a disabled Reece. No recent combat experience proved to be his downfall.  I guess in the future Apex soldiers have to wear plugs to shield those frequencies thus cut some of their super-soldier enhanced abilities to make a fight more even. Or if caught by surprise puts one down  vulnerable for an easy kill

Once he pulled that sonic weapon the story seemed to confirm what I was thinking of. A SciFi/alt history series of novels by  S.M. Sterling  where slave holding South Africans evolved into super power with like biological super soldiers like Apex and America being the free nation its  defense was built upon computer technology and I think cyborgs in the last of the series. i liked the alt WWII history of South Africans versus Nazis more than the other volumes so that one sticks in the mind..

 

What we don't know is the state of the future war. was it about to overrun that portion of the world were the refugees came from and the time machine the only option? Other types of future political events like so far unknown combatants or the "human" government being just as bad as the Apex state could proove to be in play later.

[jhlipton]

2 minutes ago, Raja said:

It seemed to work fine on her.. That Steve Harris had been in the here and now for 10 years and was arrogant and sloppy with  a disabled Reece. No recent combat experience proved to be his downfall.

PLOT!!!! was far more his downfall. 

But when I think of an effective weapon. whoever I use it on should be totally incapacitated for a few minutes, if not dead, and not be able to grab a weapon.  That was a defensive device, not a weapon per se, and largely less effective than a Taser.

[KaveDweller]

19 hours ago, jhlipton said:

PLOT!!!! was far more his downfall. 

But when I think of an effective weapon. whoever I use it on should be totally incapacitated for a few minutes, if not dead, and not be able to grab a weapon.  That was a defensive device, not a weapon per se, and largely less effective than a Taser.

It's really too bad, I was excited to see him on screen again.

[Guest]

I might be done.   I keep flashing back to The Bionic Woman, in a bad way.   

[Raja]

On 4/19/2018 at 9:00 PM, jhlipton said:

PLOT!!!! was far more his downfall. 

But when I think of an effective weapon. whoever I use it on should be totally incapacitated for a few minutes, if not dead, and not be able to grab a weapon.  That was a defensive device, not a weapon per se, and largely less effective than a Taser.

On the other hand I look at it like David's sling and rock. Instead of waiting and letting Goliath get up he ran forward to take his head to make sure. Steve Harris ten years out of combat and gloating about how after all this time in the past undercover he would  have an Apex to play with didn't take Reece's head

[jhlipton]

He didn't even have to kill her.  Just leave the device on and slap the cuffs on her.  I think he was police of some kind, so he would know that you never give a suspect a chance to get a weapon, whether they're Common or Apex.  Letting her wiggle from the middle of the road to the fallen tree isn't "out of practice"; it's just plain dumb.

[Dowel Jones]

I found it interesting enough to keep going, so far.  After watching Timeless or Station 19, I'm not too worried about lapses in logic.  The show did introduce too many subplots in too little time, I think.  Hope they'll get some sorted out as time goes by.

I know that if I washed up on shore after time traveling through the ocean, I wouldn't mind setting up in that summer camp for a few weeks.  Especially when the feds are putting on the feeds every day.  But, I'd have a few escape routes and plans ready for a moment's notice.

The band at HarborFest was pretty good.

It would be interesting to find out that Port Canaan was only one of several landings for future refugees.  Maine, Texas, Southern California, maybe (that would be too much fun).

[ursula]

On 4/18/2018 at 1:53 AM, jhlipton said:

c) Reese wasn't a Terminator, able to self-heal in a matter of minutes

She's named after Kyle Reese for a reason, you know.

[peachmangosteen]

18 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

It would be interesting to find out that Port Canaan was only one of several landings for future refugees.  Maine, Texas, Southern California, maybe (that would be too much fun).

I keep thinking that might happen. Maybe if it goes on past 1 season, which it likely won't lol.

[kili]

Quote

Collaborators are generally worse than sympathizers.  Sympathizers say "Hey, nice job!", collaborators actively work with the enemy. 

Collaborators are sometimes just people who had relationships with the enemy. After WWII, many females in occupied territories were treated horribly because they were "collaborators". Some of those women didn't have a choice in being in a relationship in the first place. Some just fell in love with the wrong person. In concentration camps, some of the inmates were  forced into helping with the process. They didn't have much choice in that they would have been killed and somebody else would have been forced into the position.

Some people like Oscar Schindler or Jan and Antonina Żabiński may have appeared to be collaborating, but were using it as a cover to save people from being sent to concentration camps.

I think when there is an oppressive government bent on genocide, there can be shades of grey. I'm willing to wait to see what she did before I condemn her.

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, kili said:

I think when there is an oppressive government bent on genocide, there can be shades of grey. I'm willing to wait to see what she did before I condemn her.

True. 

I would have liked it if we didn't see how badly the Apex treated the Commons in the future.  It would have been more fun to guess if we had the Unreliable Narrator.  But it appears, all Apex are eeeeeeeeevil, except Reese.

[Mahamid Frauded Me]

OT - just watched yesterday a movie with Steve Zahn called a perfect getaway - pretty decent 

[Clanstarling]

14 minutes ago, Mahamid Frauded Me said:

OT - just watched yesterday a movie with Steve Zahn called a perfect getaway - pretty decent 

I loved him in "That Thing You Do" and many other movies and shows, but most particularly, in 'Treme.