Travelers Season 1 Analysis and Speculation

~ Metacrone ~ 5 Comments

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Whew! What a wild ride this season turned out to be! I love it when you get to the end of a season of television, then have to go back and question everything you thought you knew about the previous episodes. They gave us a lot to think about over the hiatus. When Travelers returns, it’ll seem like a different show, now that the Faction’s role has been revealed. All of these changes open up so many new plot lines to contemplate, so many directions the show could take its mythology and characters.

The goals of everyone, as far as we’ve seen, continue to be saving the world, environmentalism, and respect for the sanctity of life. (In a global way, at least. It’s accepted that individuals of a certain class are disposable in order to further the greater good.) They all want a future living somewhere that’s green. It’s the method of achieving that future that’s at stake. At the very least, there will be a power struggle in the future to see whose Grand Plan will be implemented from here on out. There had to be competing philosophies before the director’s decision-making parameters were programmed. The faction or factions are revisiting those alternate philosophies, to see if changing the program’s if>then protocols will achieve better results. We could be in for experimentation and a rapidly changing future, a reign of terror as the faction tries to secure its hold on the director, or civil war as future society fights it out to decide who will be in charge of the director’s decision-making process, or if the director will be making the decisions at all. Another option is for a faction to steer the changes by human reasoning alone.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 9: When Do I Get to Spend Time with Josh? Recap

~ Metacrone

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is renewed for a third season! The CW renewed almost all of its fall shows on Sunday (1/8), giving the showrunners ample time to plan for next season. (And avoid mistakes like letting Santino Fontana slip away.)

It’s a week later, and Paula and Rebecca have settled into coparenting. Paula understands the value of a wife now. She appreciates it so much, in fact, that she’d like several. (Duh, we all need a permanent 50s housewife and mom of our own.) Rebecca’s avoiding Josh, even though he’s made good on his promise to woo her. There’s a little shrine in the corner, filled with his offerings- stuffed animals, balloons, candy, and other romantic little gifts. Josh has been standing outside Paula’s house, waiting for Rebecca to change her mind, for 3 days.

Rebecca admits that she’s scared that Josh is still not committed to her. He’s had three girlfriends in three months. She can’t trust him any more. Josh promises things will be different this time. With a brief shovel talk from Paula, then her blessing, Paula and Josh head out into West Covina to start their romance for real. There’s a reprise of West Covina playing in the background, but this time we see the town closer to how it really is. The kids are spraying graffiti, the porn theater is hanging a new sign, and the ambulance-chasing lawyer is looking for new business. Everyone is happy, and happy for Rebecca and Josh. Rebecca thinks she’s going into the relationship with her eyes wide open this time.

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Meryl Streep Makes Impassioned Speech Calling for Empathy and Vigilance at Golden Globes Ceremony (VIDEO)

~ Metacrone

Tonight (Sunday, 1/8/17), Meryl Streep was presented with the Cecille B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony for her decades of achievements as an actress. She chose to use the time set aside for her thank you speech to speak as a citizen of the United States and the world, imploring the artists in the room and the people watching to use the arts to fight repression of free speech and the press, and the humiliation and oppression of all types of people targeted by the alt right. She specifically brought up the 2015 incident when Donald Trump mocked chronically ill, physically disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski. Streep asked that we support the Committee to Protect Journalists,” an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. Every year, hundreds of journalists are attacked, imprisoned, or killed. For more than 30 years, CPJ has been there to defend them and fight for press freedom.” With far right conservative governments being elected in countries around the world, the repression of free speech and the free press are going to get worse before they get better.

A partial transcript of Meryl’s speech under the cut.

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Most Popular Netflix Shows by State: What’s Your State’s Favorite?

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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The map above shows the most popular Netflix show in each of the 50 United States, according to research done by HighSpeedInternet.com. They describe their methodology this way:

Our team took the top 75 TV shows on Netflix, cross referenced the shows with Google Trends data, and determined which series was most likely to be streamed on devices near you.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 8: Who Is Josh’s Soup Fairy? Recap

~ Metacrone

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Paula and Rebecca finally make up this week, but Paula throws Scott out of the house, so her life is still in turmoil. Paula would rather end the marriage than look at her role in their issues. Suddenly the reasons she and Rebecca are so close become even more clear. Rebecca proves she’s a caring, nurturing friend to both Josh and Paula. Because she’s a good person.

The Proctor family is going through their morning routine. Scott packs the boys lunches, a hunk of salami, a couple of pieces of cheese, and some bread. Take a bite of each, and it’s a sandwich in your mouth. I’ve used this method, and it works, in a pinch. Paula’s kids aren’t convinced. Wait until they move out of the house.

Paula is maybe a little too grateful for Scott’s help in the kitchen, which brings out his guilt. He blurts out that he slept with Tanya. Paula thinks it’s a joke at first. He explains that it happened once, when they were drunk, by accident. He promises it will never happen again. Paula refuses to discuss the issue and throws him out of the house.

She takes out her anger on her coworkers instead of on Scott. It is really annoying when someone leaves the ice cube trays empty, though, I think we can all agree.

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Travelers Season 1 Episode 12: Grace Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 13 Comments

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Wow, these last couple of episodes have been an intense information dump, while still being filled with plot and character development. So much to sort through. Travelers is suddenly doing my job for me, with the characters throwing out every question and variation on the conspiracy they can think of. I’ll do some analysis here, but to keep it from getting too long, I’ll save the bulk of it for my Season 1 Analysis and Speculation post.

Ellis’ hack allows travel back to the future. That’s why it was so important to get him out and do it off the books. But Grace screwed it up with her reboot. She opened a two-way door between the future and the past, then left the director open to the rebel faction. If the rebels didn’t already have access to the traveler technology, they do now. Travelers will be able to jump back to the future now, and travelers and messages won’t necessarily be sent to further the director’s Grand Plan. This could potentially change the character of the show completely next season.

The episode opens a few minutes after Marcy ends, with David and Marcy having a cup of tea. David, as hung up on the mundane details of life as ever, is fussing about his broken teapot. Marcy dropped it when the forced personality reboot started. I suppose it’s symbolic of the warm, comforting Marcy he lost, though he doesn’t know it yet. Marcy doesn’t remember the tea. David hopes she’ll recover some of her memories. According to the mythology we’ve been given so far, she shouldn’t, but McLaren did still have a few of original McLaren’s memories, ones expressing strong love. Marcy is working with a damaged brain and an experimental procedure. Anything is possible. If McLaren’s example holds true, her love for David is what she’s most likely to remember.

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A Brief History of Romantic StuckyNat Part 5: Captain America: Civil War from Berlin to Wakanda

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment
This is the fifth and final part in my five part series about romantic StuckyNat, the story of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Natasha Romanoff falling in love with and wanting to be with each other. This part picks up in the middle of Captain America: Civil War, as Zemo is evaluating Bucky in his cell. It ends with the end of the movie. I’ve worked hard to keep the series canon compliant, so there’s no speculation about anything beyond the tags at the end of the film. ( I’d be happy to speculate in another post, just ask in the comments!)
Bucky couldn’t believe his ears as he heard the things this psychiatrist was saying to him. He’d known something was wrong even before the fake doctor had pulled out the red book and started reading his code words. Bucky panicked and started pounding his way out of the cell, as he felt himself disappearing inside his own mind again. He was left to watch helplessly as he hurt the two people he loved most in the world, again, nearly killed Howard’s son, and dozens of others. This nightmare would never be over. Even buried deep inside himself, barely aware, he was devastated. It didn’t matter how long he ran, or hid, or tried to avoid anything or anyone that could control him. He’d always be found and used. It was a relief when Steve finally knocked him out. He wanted to stay that way forever.
When he woke up, Bucky wasn’t sure where he was, only that his arm was restrained in an awkward position and he wasn’t back in a cell. Once again, he didn’t even try to get free. If the red book was back in play, it was better for everyone if he was contained. Steve looked like he didn’t know who Bucky was any more. Like Bucky had already used up all of his chances to prove that he was still Steve’s Bucky. Bucky himself wasn’t sure if he was Steve’s Bucky anymore.
Then they started talking. Bucky realized that the combination of Steve and Natasha’s presence, and that last cognitive recalibration, had restored a flood of memories he hadn’t had access to before. There was no time to sift through them all now, but he felt a rush of warmth at how much more familiar Steve felt to him. He’d known all along that he loved Steve, but he hadn’t had all of the memories to help him realize why, or to read Steve’s body language. Now much of that had come back to him, and it was like finally coming home. Even though he also realized that Steve didn’t quite love him back in the same way, Bucky still knew he’d lay down his life for Steve all over again.

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Nashville Season 5 Episode 2: Back in Baby’s Arms Recap

~ Metacrone

Reaction/Recap for The Wayfaring Stranger is HERE

This week, we focus on Rayna and Deacon, and Scarlett and Gunnar, with a side of Will and Kevin and Juliette and Avery. Scarlett and Gunnar have reunited, but Scarlett is insecure about where they stand with each other. Rayna returns home from her cross-country drive with ideas for her new musical direction. Juliette continues to struggle with her injuries. Will deals with the unprecedented level of attention he’s receiving from attractive men, now that he’s out and proud.

Rayna has decided that she wants to make a new album with Deacon about their lives together. Deacon isn’t sure he wants to be involved, since the last year, in particular, has been very painful for him, and he doesn’t want to relive it. Rayna doesn’t want to take “no” for an answer, and insists he change his “no” to “I’ll think about it.” She spends most of the episode hounding him about how long he’s taking with his thinking, and how he should accomplish this thinking by talking to her. He finally explodes and tells her to stop pressuring him into saying yes, the way she always does. Rayna is shocked, SHOCKED, that anyone could ever think such a thing of her. Classic Rayna. Deacon, of course, eventually says yes, but he says it with a snarky song that lets Rayna know he was still right, even though he’s giving in. This is why he had to be the one to marry her. When he’s at his best, Deacon knows how to handle her moods and need for control gently and with humor, so that she doesn’t feel the need to get angry, rebel, and make things worse.

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Travelers Season 1 Episode 11: Marcy Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 7 Comments

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OH MY GOD. ALL OF MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE. MY CONSPIRACY THEORIES AREN’T JUST PARANOID DELUSIONS. THERE IS A RIVAL FACTION TRYING TO TOPPLE THE DIRECTOR. 014 AND 027 SAID SO AND THEY HAVE SUPER LOW NUMBERS AND ARE SUPER IMPORTANT SO IT MUST BE TRUE.

But they killed Grace, and Trevor hates them, so what does that mean? But Trevor might be the inside man, so maybe he was stopping the transition into Grace not just because he cared about her (please don’t take that away from me, show), but because he was trying to stop 027 from escaping from the rival faction in the future. Or, maybe 027 and 014 are the rival faction. My head is starting to hurt. Conspiracy theories are complicated. Also, I might still be a little paranoid.

Hold on to your hats, fellow travelers, we got a lot to unpack in this episode.

We start with Marcy and David in bed, Trevor checking the stitches from his organ donor surgery, and the travelers’ wet dream, a farmer working his farm. The farmer gets into trouble using his giant drilling tractor (?) and promptly becomes a traveler. Farming machinery is more dangerous than people realize. The traveler is elated to be outdoors surrounded by plants and animals.

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Newsies Starring Jeremy Jordan and Original Broadway Cast Members to be Shown in Cinemas Nationwide February 16, 18 & 22

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Fathom Events filmed Disney’s hit Broadway musical Newsies last September during its Los Angeles tour stop. The show will be screened in movie theaters across the country on three different dates, giving fans multiple chances to see their favorite show. Screenings will be held on Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 PM, Saturday, February 18 at 12:55 PM, and Wednesday, February 22 at 7:00 PM. All times are local.

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