Category: General

Agents of Shield Season 5 Episode 7: Together or Not at All Recap

~ Metacrone
AOS507FitzDaisyJemma
The Future of SHIELD

This episode sees the reunion of almost all of the agents, plus the remaining sympathetic future characters (~ish, in the case of Deke). Grown up Robin reveals herself to May, and Gravitonium makes a stunning reappearance after disappearing for four seasons. The future is full of dangling plot threads, from the remains of the Framework to one of the first mysteries the show ever tackled, last seen in the hands of ruthless billionaire Ian Quinn, who stole it from HYDRA. Everything on this show comes full circle eventually.

The episode picks up moments after Fun and Games left off, catching up with the daring escape of Han, Leia and Luke from the evil empire Fitz, Jemma and Daisy from the Kree. They make a quick stop to let Jemma change out of her flowing white Princess Leia garb, which, while fun, is too conspicuous for an escape. Fitz checks Daisy’s condition after her fall to the crater floor. She asks why he didn’t join in the hand to hand fighting, and he replies, with his usual dry wit, “Wouldn’t be fair. I do push ups now. Double digits. So…”

Jemma and Fitz make enthusiastic plans for storytelling, pints and gin when the crisis is over. Jemma’s ear implant let’s out a dizzying high pitched whine. Fitz looks for tweezers so that he can remove it. He finds clamps, and does a delicate removal procedure on the love of his life’s ear canal while Daisy fights a Kree warrior next to him. I’ve missed having these three together, so so much.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 6: Fun and Games Recap

~ Metacrone

AOS506Enoch&Fitz

It was a busy episode on Agents of SHIELD, with two marriage proposals, three fights, including one death match, two executions, one exile to the surface, several reunions, the deaths of three recurring characters, and one inhuman going through terrigenesis. And it’s not even sweeps!

Flint wakes up in the latest corner that he’s been squatting in since Tess chased him out of the Trawler bay. He searches his pack for the odds and ends he’s gathered to sell, and bargains with his regular customers, trying to convince them to part with enough tokens to feed him for another day. Grill seems to have a soft spot for him, and he ends up with a fresh orange slice. He drops it when a Kree guard grabs him and takes him away.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 5: Rewind Recap

~ Metacrone
AOS505Fitz&LanceSpyDrama
Not another monolith!

Release the ferrets! Prodigal spies Leo Fitz and Lance Hunter have returned! Huzzah!

In the aptly named episode Rewind, we jump back to the end of season 4 and the fateful last meal that the team ate at the diner before their expected arrest. The meal ended with a trip to future space for everyone but Fitz. He’s been MIA for the first few episodes of the season, other than a brief cameo at the end of the previous episode. Rewind follows his adventures and misadventures from the moment of the team’s arrest until he arrives in the year 2091 to rescue the team. He’s had a little help from old and new friends along the way.

This time, we see the diner scene from Fitz’ perspective. He’s just come back from being turned into an evil Nazi Hydra genocidal maniac in the Framework, doing inhumane experiments on inhumans and becoming the lover of supervillain LMD Aida. Fitz is having a hard time shaking the guilt, and living with the realization that he’s capable of that kind of evil.

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 10: Hostile Recap

~ Metacrone

MR110Runaways crop

In its season finale, Marvel’s Runaways finally lives up to its name. The kids run away, drive away, then run away again. The parents run away in spirit, as they plot rebellion and revenge against Jonah. The cast is separated into three camps, the kids, the Pride rebellion, and Jonah and his minions, including former best parent Frank, who’s been seduced by Jonah’s power into betraying his wife and child. Alex turns to gang leader Darius to act as their sponsor and surrogate parent. It’s a sad day when the least dangerous choice for guardian is the lifelong member of a notorious gang, but that’s where we are.

The battle is on. The kids power up themselves and their gadgets in readiness. Catherine notices that everyone but Alex has a little something extra. Dale says that Gert’s a regular kid, too, just as Gert’s psychically linked dinosaur runs up to stand beside her.

Dale shoots Old Lace with a tranquilizer dart, causing the kids to attack back. Chase fires the fistigons and Karolina fires her light beams, but Tina uses the staff to deflect them. Molly tries to throw a heavy barrel at the parents, but Jonah appears and fires his own light beam at her. She drops to the ground. The parents yell at Jonah to stop and tell their kids to run. Jonah sends out an energy pulse that throws the kids backwards in a pile. Darius watches through the construction site fencing.

Defiant, the kids get up and get back in position. Karolina tells the rest to leave. Jonah wants her, so she’ll keep him busy while they escape. Reluctantly they go. Nico doesn’t want to leave her.

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Marvel’s Runaways Season 1 Episode 9: Doomsday Recap

~ Metacrone

TG109Runaways

There’s a lot of excitement to be had in the penultimate episode of season 1 of Runaways. The kids’ romances finally start to sizzle, Jonah puts the parents on notice, we find out what Molly’s parents died for, Molly gets an origin story, and Jonah’s giant hole and drill are revealed. Why are these Marvel shows so obsessed with giant holes and things going in and out of them? Never mind, it’s a rhetorical question.

Adorable tiny Molly returns in a new flashback! Ten years ago, her parents, Gene and Alice Hernandez, had Molly in their lab with them as they paced nervously and finalized their preparations to flee the country. Gena and Alice get a video call from The Yorkes, and explain that they’ve discovered something important about the new dig projections and rock samples, but they have to tell the Yorkes in person. The Yorkes say they’ll be right over.

Molly is playing with one of the rock samples, which glows from it’s cracks, undulates, wiggles, and moves on its own. After throwing a bomb in, someone slams the lab door closed tight and locks it from the outside. By the time the Hernandez’ see the bomb, there’s nothing they can do to stop it from detonating.

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The Gifted Season 1 Episodes 12 & 13: eXtraction & X-roads Recap

~ Metacrone

TG110EsmeLorna

The Gifted ends its first season with a splashy two part finale which forces the entire cast to reevaluate their beliefs. Except for Campbell. His beliefs are firmly set in stone, so the finale has other challenges in store for him, like proving just how evil he is. The Mutant Underground faces its worst crisis yet, and it’s not clear that the members have the will to keep the organization going after so many setbacks. The Frost Sisters continue to whisper in the ears of anyone who’ll listen, changing the course of the mutants’ lives forever. The good news is that The Gifted is already renewed for season 2, so we know that the mutants will be back next fall (ish) to continue the fight.

eXtraction

Let me say first, for anyone watching these later, that I’m making an educated guess as to where the episode break is. Be careful as you approach that point in the recap if you want to be sure to avoid spoilers! (Pretty sure it ends on the cliffhanger, but I’ve been wrong before.)

Four years ago, Dr Campbell’s brother was dying of cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic respiratory disease. He’d already outlived his expected lifespan, and watching him slowly fade away was torture for Campbell. Campbell doesn’t want to leave his brother alone for the day, but his brother sends him to the presentation he has scheduled.

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The Gifted Season 1 Episode 11: 3×1 Recap

~ Metacrone

TG111Marcos&Lorna

The end is near! This the last episode before the two part season finale, so much of the time is spent getting all of the pieces in place for the big showdowns of the season. We’re given a proper introduction to the telepathic Frost Sisters, Esme, Sophie and Phoebe, who dress identically in the most adorable little tailored outfits and move in sync whenever possible. The Struckers decide to abandon ship, yet again, and, as always, destruction and Sentinel Services follow them. Campbell introduces us to the first fruits of his research using the information he gathered from Lauren and Andy, a huge manacle that mixes the blood of the two mutants who wear it, and brings their powers to an intensely destructive level.

The episode begins with a flashback from two years ago, when Clarice was on a movie date with a human guy. He convinced her that it would be okay to go out in public, but when they come out of the movie and into the parking lot, a mob wearing tshirts with giant crosses is waiting for them. They’re members of the antimutant group the Purifiers. They set Clarice’s car on fire and tell her to run, as her boyfriend quickly backs away, making sure everyone knows he’s human. That’s the end of that relationship. Hope she at least made him pay for the movie.

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Travelers Season 2: Review, Analysis and Speculation

~ Metacrone ~ 14 Comments

Trav212Team&Copter

Updated 7/18/18- What/Who Is the Director, Really?

We made it through another season! Season 2 of Travelers had its ups and downs. Whereas I would have given season 1 an A+, I’d only give this season a B+. There were improvements in some areas. The female characters weren’t treated with as much misogyny, and the show had some stellar cinematography. The cast continued to be amazing, and the new additions kept up the quality. The production values of the show look and sound great, especially considering the size of their budget. It’s the writing that needs to be given more attention next season.

We learned intriguing new aspects of the mythology, but we also went around in circles, repeating the same kernels of information over and over, rather than continuing to reveal more about life in the future and how time travel works. The showrunners say that they don’t intend to have the series physically go to the future because the travelers are trapped in the 21st, but that’s a cop out.

They can still give us a clear picture of the environment and culture that the characters are coming from, explain the Director clearly, and give sensible explanations for their theories of time travel and consciousness transfer, then stick to those rules. Otherwise, the show runs the risk of retconning and contradicting itself every time they think up a new storyline, which is death to serious science fiction.

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Travelers Season 2 Episode 12: 001 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 7 Comments

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This episode ends another season of Travelers, and mirrors season 1 episode 5, Room 101, with the team’s friends and loved ones being held hostage and abused this time. The companions receive more humane physical treatment from Vincent/001 than the travelers did, but he’s out to destroy their relationships and peace of mind. That way he can make a quick escape while the travelers are distracted with the crisis he’s created. We’ll have to wait for season 3 to find out if 001/Vincent’s plan allows him to get away with hiding in plain sight, and if the companions can forgive the travelers for lying to them.

The cold open consists of a videotape recorded by MacLaren at ops in which he confesses to being a traveler:

“Seven months ago my consciousness was sent from the distant future into the body of Special Agent Grant MacLaren, moments before he would historically have died in the line of duty. Since then I have assumed his life, his work, his marriage, pretending to be a man very different than myself. In truth, I am traveler 3468, one of thousands of travelers around the world who have come from a time when life is all but wiped out, to save humanity. To change the path. I know how that must sound, especially to you, Kat, but it’s true.”

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Travelers Season 2 Episode 11: Simon Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

 

Trav211Simon&Gang

This episode we delve further into Simon’s back story and his research with Vincent. We also find out a little more about what Vincent is up to in the present. The travelers search for Vincent with Simon’s help, and things come to a head in their personal lives. MacLaren brings Dr Perrow in on a plan to capture Vincent.

We start the episode at the 2012 gala where original MacLaren and Kat met Vincent, which Vincent mentioned to traveler MacLaren when Mac questioned Vincent. It’s a silent auction, and Kat tells Grant that there’s no way football tickets are worth that much. But it’s for the children!! He runs into Vincent as he steps away to get them another drink.

Vincent stops to chat with Kat, assuming she means that she endowed a research chair when she says that she donated a chair to the auction. Still socially awkward after 11 years in the 21st. Kat explains that she means a literal chair, which doesn’t have any bids yet, so they take a walk over to look at it.

As they approach, Vincent is mesmerized by the series of Simon’s drawings displayed next to Kat’s lovely chair. She informs him that the drawings were done by a patient at the hospital. Visibly moved by the sight of his lost home and people, Vincent buys all of them.

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