Author: Metacrone

Lifelong film, television and theater enthusiast. Choose love.

The Gifted Season 1 Episode 9: outfoX Recap

~ Metacrone

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This week, The Gifted continues to explore its central theme of family. The main theme of this season is the question of protection: How far is too far when it comes to protecting family? How much pain and suffering is it okay to cause others in your quest to save or avenge your own? How far can you go before you become the monster?

But there is also the question of who counts as family, and the necessity of making hard choices. Will you be able to live with yourself if you don’t go far enough to help someone, save someone, or catch someone? How do you find balance?

One of the best things about this show is that we’ve been given both sides of the conflict all along, and with extreme and reasonable characters on both sides. Jace’s need for revenge is very understandable, but now, after this episode, he’s faced with destroying a family that he knows, and a father who loves his children the way Jace loved Grace.

Except Andy and Lauren won’t die the quick, clean death that Grace did. They’ll be tortured and exploited for as long as Campbell wants to use them, then murdered, with their bodies left to rot somewhere.

You could see it in Jace’s face at the end of the episode, when he realized who he’d caught. He’d finally reached the point where he had to ask himself, “How far is too far?”

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 4: Fifteen Recap

~ Metacrone

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The Runaways get serious about their investigation of their parents this week, while their parents get serious about fixing the mistakes made the night of the ritual. By the end of the episode, we’ve gotten a pretty clear idea about the morality and criminal competency level of many of the parents, though a couple remain elusive. The kids start the episode with differing opinions about their parents, but by the end, their investigation brings them into alignment.

The cold open shows us the Minoru family discovering Amy’s body after her suicide. Nico finds Amy dead in bed before school. She looks blue, but that could be a lighting effect. Nico reacts normally, screaming for her parents, crying, calling 911. Tina and Robert react calmly, almost as if they expected this. They seal the house rather than calling for help. Tina uses a jolt from her staff to knock Nico unconscious so that she can’t call 911, then locks Nico in her room. When Nico wakes up, she uses the house cameras to spy on her mother, who is busy paying off a local police detective.

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 3: Destiny Recap

~ Metacrone

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This episode is the third part of the three part introduction to the series. We’re done with the night of the Pride ritual, and it’s time to cope with the morning after.

The episode begins with a flashback to ten years ago, when everyone attended the funeral of Molly’s parents, who died in a house fire. The entire Pride, and their children, are there. Little four year old Molly sits alone in a tiny wheel chair with a pink cast on her right leg. She’s next to the Yorkes, who look devastated. The entire Pride has the grace to display varying levels of sadness, except for Tina, who looks like the funeral is making her miss another board meeting. The distaste and impatience on her face are palpable.

After the funeral, everyone gathers together for food and memories. Tina conspicuously pulls her sleeve down to cover the thick bandages on her right hand and arm. Geoffrey confronts Robert about Pride members potentially murdering each other, but Robert insists it was a cooking accident. He implies that he didn’t see the cooking accident, saying he’d know if she’d done something to the Hernandez.

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 2: Rewind Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 2 of the Runaways, aptly titled Rewind, we spend most of the episode within the same time frame covered by episode 1, Reunion. This time around, we spend more time with the parents, who are full of secrets. Every family is keeping more secrets from their kids, and each other, than just the true nature of the PRIDE.

The episode opens on the moment when Molly takes her photo of the Pride ritual. The kids and parents all try not to panic. Tina suggests that the flash may have been light from the staff bouncing off the sound barrier she created.

The kids run upstairs and try to escape, but the secret passageway door has automatically closed and locked. Molly uses her new super strength to force it open. None of the other kids realize what she did.

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Riverdale Season 2 Episode 7: Chapter Twenty- Tales from the Darkside Recap

~ Metacrone

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This week, Riverdale takes its episode title seriously, as it becomes an anthology show. The 3 subplots are split into separate stories, rather than intercut throughout the episode. We also have some fun with crime show references and the usual season 2 fright fest. Every episode is a Halloween episode this season.

We open with a 50-60s style true crime monologue and scrolling text, in black and white, complete with faux aging effects. Detective Joe Friday and his badge would be proud.

The Black Hood has left a note attached to the door of Pop’s with his latest set of disappointments and demands. Aren’t these things usually attached to churches or government buildings? Why is the Black Hood so obsessed with Pop’s? Plus, he’s seriously starting to remind me of the Church Lady. He makes so many more threats and insults than he actually goes through with, and he’s so worried about everyone else’s good behavior while he’s breaking commandments. He’s a slow burn serial killer.

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 1: Reunion Recap

~ Metacrone

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My review of the first three episodes is HERE.

Episode 1 of Marvel’s Runaways is the first of the three episodes that HULU released together to kick off the series. The three episodes work best if watched together and viewed as an extended pilot. That makes Reunion part one, in which we focus on the titular kids.

The episode opens on a bus bringing a young woman to Los Angeles. A boy is reading a copy of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Things are about to get weird underground.

The woman is a runaway with no place to go. She spends the night wandering around town. At one point she phones home, but doesn’t speak. Her mother calls her Destiny. A baby is crying in the background.

After she hangs up the phone, Destiny is accosted by two men who speak Spanish to her. They’re trying to get her to go with them and pushing her along, but they aren’t touching her sexually. Only one line is translated: We’re trying to save you.

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Marvel’s Runaways: Review of Episodes 1-3

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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[Contains Minor Spoilers]

Marvel’s Runaways, now streaming on HULU, is based on the comics by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. Vaughn serves as a consultant on the show. Runaways takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the shared continuity of the films, the Netflix shows, and the ABC shows (and probably more). HULU released the first three episodes this week, and will release new episodes weekly into January.

The first three episodes are meant to be watched together as a unit. Episode 1 gives us the perspective of 6 kids as they reunite as a group, after drifting apart for the 2 years since the death of Nico’s sister, and they make some life changing discoveries. Episode 2 gives us the parents’ perspective of the same fateful day, as they prepare for and hold a meeting of their charity group Pride, and we discover that they aren’t who they appear to be. Episode 3 unites the groups and moves the plot forward from the night of the parents’ Pride meeting in Episodes 1 and 2, giving us a sense of what the show will be like going forward.

It’s a good way to do an extended pilot for a show with a large cast and complicated backstories, so that each character gets their due and we get an introduction to all of the subplots. It’s hard to imagine how they’ll keep up with everyone on a regular basis, but Agents of SHIELD manages to keep up with a large cast by keeping the plot moving quickly, rather than dwelling on slow character moments and artistic cinematography in the style of the Netflix Marvel shows.

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Riverdale Analysis: Betty Cooper- Hitchcock Blonde and Object of Obsession

~ Metacrone

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Who is the Black Hood and What Does He Want with Betty?

At the beginning of the season and the Black Hood storyline, Archie and Veronica each wondered if the Hood was targeting people close to them, because Archie was connected to the victims and Veronica tends to assume her father is connected to most crimes in Riverdale, unless she’s given proof that he’s not.

Those assumptions turned out to be red herrings, and we soon discovered that the Black Hood is obsessed with Betty Cooper, who is a Hitchcock blonde, as Jughead told us last season. Polly and Alice are also Hitchcock blondes, and the Hood has some interest in them as well, but Betty’s virgin status, overall goodness and sleuthing abilities specifically seem to make her the object of the Black Hood’s desire.

The shooting of the Sugarman (assuming he was actually shot) takes away most of the suspicion that Betty’s stalker is an imposter. There’s a “romantic” side to the Hood’s obsession. He’s giving her gifts, being extremely possessive, and is inspired by her sexual purity. That sounds like someone who wants to own her. He’s attempting to use his favors and crimes as rewards and punishments to train her into submission to him.

A Hitchcock blonde is the kind of tall, icy blonde that Alfred Hitchcock favored for his leading ladies. The characters were independent, mysterious, duplicitous, and unexpectedly passionate. They were often objects of obsession in his films, and of Hitchcock’s personal obsessions in real life.

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Riverdale Season 2 Episode 6: Chapter Nineteen- Death Proof Recap

~ Metacrone

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After two lackluster episodes, Riverdale brings us a glorious entry with Chapter Nineteen: Death Proof. In this episode, Riverdale: The Show remembers what it’s about, and lets the girls get on with saving the town, with help from Jughead and Archie. Even FP gets a chance to pitch in, proving once again that he’s the most practical parent in Riverdale.

The episode begins the morning after Jughead’s initiation into the Serpents. He sits on his couch and types while we hear his voice over about how everyone wears a mask in Riverdale, but occasionally the mask slips. When that happens, people scramble to replace it. Toni appears to ask Jughead if he wants breakfast, having spent the night in the trailer.

Betty runs to the Fives Seasons Hotel to check on Nick St Claire, since she gave his name to the Black Hood. She finds him alive and well, if bitter about the inconvenience of having his rape attempt interrupted. Sheriff Keller arrives in Nick’s hotel room moments after Betty. Cheryl has filed a complaint. The sheriff needs to bring Nick and his parents in for questioning.

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The Gifted Season 1 Episode 8: threat of eXtinction Recap

~ Metacrone

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This week is an exciting week for The Gifted, as we get a big mythology dump, including the answer to the question of how Lauren and Andy turned out to be mutants when there didn’t appear to be any other mutants in their family. The answers are game changing for the Struckers, the Underground, and Sentinel Services. Sentinel Services also tries its own game changing plays, with less success. Issues of trust and loyalty continue to be important.

The cold open takes place in London in 1952. We see newspaper reports of mutant siblings terrorizing countries around the world. The mutant brother, Andreas, is sitting at a desk, writing a note to tell someone that he and his sister are still in hiding. The phone rings, but no one except “the organization” should have their number. His sister, Andrea, runs into the room. We hear multiple vehicles speeding up to the building. They realize that they’ve been found. A large group of armed men break through the door. The siblings hold hands, and energy glows from their hands. The camera cuts away to the opening sequence as we hear screaming.

We jump to the Atlanta Underground way station and the present day. Reed is informing the rest of the family that the company his father worked at for 30 years, Trask Industries, seems to be the defense contractor that’s turning mutants into weapons that hurt other mutants.

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