Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 12: Creep Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

 

RoswellNM S1Ep12 Max, Isobel& Michael

There are many ways to interpret the title of the penultimate episode of Roswell, New Mexico’s penultimate episode of its freshman (and perhaps only) season. “Creep” is most obviously meant to refer to Isobel’s wayward alien husband, Noah, who reveals some secrets in this episode, but holds others hostage in exchange for his own life.

Then there’s our leading man, Maximo Evans. Always at least a bit of a violent creep, he outdoes himself with creepiness in this episode, from the way he dismisses Cam from his life by telling her she’s been a good “friend” after she’s just given up her job to save him and his loved ones, to the way he possessively fights with Noah for ownership of Liz and Isobel.

There’s the creepiness of Caulfield prison, a horror show worthy of the Nazis, where Michael finds and loses his mother and has his feelings about the nature of humanity confirmed. I’m not convinced that the explosion will kill the aliens inside the prison, but if that moment was all Michael has with his mother, I’ll support any and all killing sprees he embarks on. I can’t stand that they not only fridged an important female character (and the other aliens), and but they also used Michael and his mother as a plot device for Dramatic! Prefinale! Effect!. What a waste of potential.

And now, by the way, we discover that Noah is, hilariously, an alien vampire who needs to feed on the life force of humans, and sometimes other aliens, to keep his body from deteriorating. That’s why I don’t think all of the aliens at Caulfield are dead. I think some will be rescued, and will be able to not just survive, but regain their lost youth, using the same method as Noah. You don’t introduce just one alien vampire, then kill him off and forget about the concept.

Especially not when you made your name in the Vampire Diaries franchise.

Continue reading “Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 12: Creep Recap” →

Advertisements

Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 11: Champagne Supernova Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

mv5bnmrlmtzhowutmtgxnc00mtq5lweyywetzgfmmjfintm5otixxkeyxkfqcgdeqxvymjywnda2mde40._v1_

In episode 11, Champagne Supernova, Roswell throws a party and captures a mind controlling alien. The women of Roswell work together to solve the episode’s mysteries, while Max and Michael fight their way through their lifelong issues. We also meet Grant Green’s identical twin Graham Green, who’s inherited the UFO Emporium and intends to make it bigger and better than ever.

Alex and Kyle are MIA, which means they’ve probably snuck off on an alien artefact hunt that we’ll see next week. Or the actors were left out to save money. You never know with Roswell’s writers’ room.

Continue reading “Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 11: Champagne Supernova Recap” →

The OA Part 2 Episode 5: The Medium & The Engineer Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

The OA P2Ep5 Homer Looks for OA's Skin in Dream

Episode 5, The Medium and the Engineer, is another action packed episode of The OA, from Homer’s dream to the time OA spends communing with tree roots to the trippy path that leads Karim to reunite with Fola. OA and Karim enter the house through the secret door and follow the labyrinth, which takes them each on a different journey. If I’m reading the signs right, both Homer’s dream and the house’s imagery are connected to Dante’s Divine Comedy, specifically the 7th Circle of H-ll. In retrospect, there have been connections to Dante all along.

The mysticism in this episode is intense. I feel like I’m Fola in the hall of mirrors and need Karim to carry me out, or I’ll never stop analyzing it.

Recap

We start this epic episode with a very different Homer stumbling down a dusty dirt road, carrying a bundle of wood on his back. He knocks on the door of a stone house, which is answered by an old woman, who tells him, “I have skin, all textures, all shades, for a price.”

Continue reading “The OA Part 2 Episode 5: The Medium & The Engineer Recap” →

Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 10: I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Roswell, NM S1Ep10 Max & Isobel Just Out of the Pod

In episode 10 of Roswell, New Mexico, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, the characters hunt down lost memories, retrieve Isobel from stasis, crack a secret code, and find other ways to reveal secrets to each other. Some hearts are made lighter, some are not. The secrets bring up as many new questions as they do answers.

Recap

Since Isobel was left in her pearly pink egg over the break, it’s only fair that we get right to setting her free in the first scene of this episode. Max coats his hand in dissolved silver, then reaches in and pulls her out. She’s disoriented, but quickly gets her bearings. They’re relieved to find she’s retained the memories she went into stasis with, so amnesia isn’t an automatic consequence of time in an alien pod.

Liz is there, with an antidote filled syringe at the ready. She gives Isobel about one minute to catch her breath. As soon as Isobel asks if they’ve found the cure, Liz strides forward, tells her they’re about to find out. She jams the syringe into Isobel’s chest, using the same vampire killing technique as Kyle.

They take Isobel back to Max’s house for a proper exam and some pampering. Isobel is upset when she learns they didn’t let her sleep through the next presidential election. Liz finds that all normal activity has returned to Isobel’s mitochondrial DNA. She hatched out of her egg an alien again.

Continue reading “Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 10: I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing Recap” →

Hanna Season 1 Episode 6: Mother Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Hanna S1Ep6 Erik, Marissa & Hanna in Elevator.png

Episode 6, Mother, reunites Hanna and Erik. But first, Erik is held prisoner by Sawyer and tortured, while Hanna has a fight with Sophie, then agrees to leave quietly with Marissa as her daughter/prisoner. There are some good character moments and fun action scenes, plus a major reveal. But the main reasons for this episode are to give Marissa and Hanna a chance to meet face to face at last and to move everyone toward their place for the final two episodes.

Recap

The episode opens on Sawyer visiting Erik in the basement dungeon where he’s keeping Erik nearly naked, on the floor, with an air conditioner blowing on him. The torture is made worse by throwing buckets of cold water on him at frequent intervals.

Sawyer wants to know where Hanna is. So does Erik. “I don’t know where she is because she didn’t tell me. She’s smarter than all of us. Don’t look so surprised. You made her that way.”

Sawyer is really nothing more than a glorified flunky with an out of control ego. Definitely not part of the team that made Hanna. Probably hasn’t even bothered to read the file. He’s gotten lucky so far. Marissa is the smart one, and I don’t think that Hanna actually is smarter than her. That makes me wonder, again, if Marissa is an early prototype for the Utrax project.

Continue reading “Hanna Season 1 Episode 6: Mother Recap” →

Hanna Season 1 Episode 5: Town Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Hanna S1Ep5 Party Hanna

In episode 5, Hanna has made it to London and is hiding out in Sophie’s garage, sleeping in the family’s camper van. She’s thrown head first into the deep end of normal teenage social life in this episode, which she does her best to navigate. Between her sheltered upbringing and her heightened responses due to her manipulated DNA, she has a tougher time than most girls her age. As always, Hanna’s common sense and abilities also come in handy when she needs to read people or defend herself.

Both Hanna and Erik struggle to deal with the consequences of Hanna’s discoveries about her background. Erik is seriously wounded, which stops him from searching for Hanna, leaving him in despair. Hanna is depressed, grieving the relationship she thought she had with Erik.

Sawyer and Marissa develop a power struggle over the case. Sawyer continues to use heavy-handed methods and takes Marissa off the case, despite the depth of her experience with Erik. As usual, Marissa takes matters into her own hands.

Continue reading “Hanna Season 1 Episode 5: Town Recap” →

The OA Part 2 Episode 4: SYZYGY Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

The OA P2Ep4 OA & Tentacles

In episode 4, SYZYGY, Karim and OA finally meet and the series finds a way to incorporate the telepathic octopus that the entire fandom has been clamoring for into the show. Or maybe that was just the tentacle fiction fans. 😘 At any rate, we get some almost naughty tentacle on OA action, an escape from Treasure Island in an orange car driven by a woman who can’t drive, a couple of bad dates, and references to Snow White and the Phantom of the Opera.

Only one of these things happens in a dream, and it’s not the octopus.

This is a pretty wild episode.

Plus, three wise, man.

Shall we get started?

Continue reading “The OA Part 2 Episode 4: SYZYGY Recap” →

Hanna Season 1 Episode 4: Father Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

Hanna S1Ep4 Hanna & Dieter Drink Turkish Coffee and Discuss Fear

Episode 4 finally brings Erik and Marissa (Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos) together for an extended confrontation. While Erik holds Marissa hostage and they reflect on their shared history and the ramifications of Erik’s decision to rescue Hanna as an infant, Dieter brings Hanna home to stay with his family. She’s exposed to another version of a typical family, this one functional and happy, with a very involved, kind-hearted father.

She’s also exposed to a range attitudes about her father, including the skewed information Marissa has fed the public. Hanna begins to question who Erik is to her and who she wants him to be.

Recap

After rescuing her from the chaos of the fighting, Dieter brings Hanna to his family home to stay with him for a couple of days, until things settle down. He introduces her to his sons, Armin and Bijan. The police search the area around the hotel, looking for Erik and his gang. Jacobs and his main henchman, Costigan, return to their hotel room, where they find the story is all over the news, with Erik Heller given as the suspect in the murder of Lukas Taylor.

Continue reading “Hanna Season 1 Episode 4: Father Recap” →

Hanna Season 1 Episode 3: City Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Hanna S1Ep3 Erik & Marissa 2005

As befits an episode called “City”, episode 3 of Hanna picks up the storytelling pace and keeps the characters in motion. Hanna and Erik are reunited and must work together against their nemesis, Marissa, who finally gets enough screen time in this episode for character building and to reveal her backstory with Erik. The episode also has some parallels with episode 2, as Hanna is thrown into another established, troubled family. In this episode they work with Erik’s old Army gang, where she’s again relegated to the role of child, even though she’s much more than that.

Recap

Hanna’s train pulls into Berlin, as Jacobs visits Sophie’s family to question them about her. He falsely claims that Hanna’s mother is alive and has asked him to find her daughter, because Hanna’s father, who she’s been staying with, is dangerous and unstable. Then he shows the family a photo of the two guards Erik killed on the Polish-German border.

Since the family don’t know they’re in an action-suspense series and this sort of thing is to be expected, it’s very upsetting for them. Jacobs and the family all keep pushing Sophie for any information she might be holding back, out of loyalty to Hanna.

Continue reading “Hanna Season 1 Episode 3: City Recap” →

Hanna Season 1 Episode 2: Friend Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment
Hanna S1Ep2 Sophie & Hanna in the Morrocan Desert
Sophie & Hanna in the Moroccan Desert

My recap of episode 1 is HERE.

I knew episode 2 would be very different from episode 1, Forest, since Hanna’s previous life has been broken beyond repair. But after waiting a month and a half for the next installment, the image that was stuck in my mind from the first episode was the tall, forbidding forest and dark, imposing cave Hanna was raised in. I expected episode 2 to show her escape and the beginning of her education in the wider world.

And it does. It’s a splash of immersion into the life of a typical 21st century teenage girl, which only serves to highlight how out of touch Hanna is with not only her peers, but everything in our busy, urban, mechanized world. You know from the moment you see Hanna’s future friend, Sophie, covered by a dog filter app, that there’s no way Erik Heller could prepare Hanna for this. She’s on her own in the modern world, and will have to sink or swim based on how quickly she can adapt.

Sophie looks like she’ll be an excellent wing-girl to Hanna as she adjusts.

Continue reading “Hanna Season 1 Episode 2: Friend Recap” →