A Brief History of Romantic StuckyNat Part 4: Captain America: Civil War from Lagos to Berlin

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Part One   Part Two   Part Three   Part Five

This is the fourth part of a five part series on romantic StuckyNat. It tells the story of the MCU versions of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Natasha Romanoff from the point of view of all three characters as if they were in love with each other. This part covers the beginning of Captain America: Civil War, from the mission in Lagos, Nigeria to Bucky’s arrival and imprisonment in Berlin, Germany. Part five will cover the rest of the movie. The series is canon-compliant.


Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff had worked with their new recruits, Sam Wilson and Wanda Maximoff, intensively for the last year. They’d become a cohesive team. Wanda and Sam had earned the right to call themselves Avengers. With the rest of the Avengers busy with other projects or semiretired, the four of them had begun going out on missions together.

They’d been tracking Brock Rumlow for a few months when they became aware of the Lagos op. Steve and his team gathered what intel they could, then continued surveillance at the probable site. Once Rumlow’s vehicles had been spotted, the team pursued and intercepted the terrorists Rumlow was working with. Everyone remembered and used their training, working together and taking down an organized attack force. But then Rumlow caught Steve off guard, and manipulated him into overlooking a goddamn bomb strapped to Rumlow’s chest. Steve might not ever forgive himself for putting Wanda in the position of having to clean up after him. A position she wasn’t ready for yet, and which had terrible consequences.

The Lagos mission wasn’t a complete disaster, though the rest of the world acted like it was. Steve tried to remind himself of how much of the mission went right, before Rumlow played him so easily by invoking Bucky’s name. They’d worked well as a team, they’d stopped the theft of a bioweapon, and the new maneuvers that combined each person’s unique talents went off without a hitch. If only he hadn’t allowed himself to become distracted at the thought of new information about Bucky, grasping at any possibility, after so long without leads. Now Wanda, and all of the casualties in Lagos, were paying the price for his mistake. As a soldier Steve knew that mistakes were going to happen, you just had to keep going, and try to do the best you could with the situation. It was so much harder to cope with failure as an Avenger in the 21st century than it had been in his time. Now there were cameras everywhere and 24 hour news waiting to pounce and place blame. Somehow the Avengers never really got to tell their side of the story.

 Wanda had become like a daughter to him. They had so much in common, with them both being science experiments who had lost their soulmates, homes and families. Training her was a joy that finally brought some of the meaning back to his life that had been missing since Bucky fell. He was damned if he was going to let one accident, something that happened during the course of saving countless lives, be used as an excuse to put her under government control. She was a person first. It was time the world stopped thinking of human beings as weapons. That was no better than thinking of them as property. Wanda, Steve, Bucky, Thor, Bruce, and all of the other enhanced individuals belonged to themselves, not to any government. Bucky had already spent 70 years as property. Enough was enough.
That was his real problem with the Accords. He didn’t like that a government agency was taking control over their activities again, either, but they could negotiate on that. It was Ross’ attitude toward the enhanced, and the way he slanted and twisted his arguments to hide his real motivations, that made up Steve’s mind.
He saw how the sides were falling. The regular humans, and Tony’s creation Vision, on the side of government control. Steve and Wanda, the two enhanced, and Steve’s close, loyal friend Sam on the side of freedom. He was sad to see Natasha side with Tony. Steve understood and agreed with some of her reasoning, but he couldn’t risk what he knew the accords meant for people like himself, Bucky, and Wanda. He’d seen the concentration camps in Germany, and the Japanese internment camps in his own country. He’d seen what had been done to Bucky. Steve just couldn’t allow the potential for that type of abuse of power to become legal again. People’s fear of someone more powerful than them was not a just reason for imprisoning or owning others.
Then Steve got the call that Peggy had died, and every other thought left his head. He knew this was coming, but still, he was devastated. God, he missed Bucky so much. He was desperate to have Bucky by his side to say goodbye to Peg. She was almost his last link to the past. Bucky was the only other person he knew who would remember her, if Bucky even did remember her.
For the 3rd time in his life, he cried until there was nothing left in him. He cried for Peggy, for Bucky, for the future together they’d all lost. Peggy had told him, after he’d woken up in the 21st century to find attitudes about sex and sexualities very different from what he remembered, that she’d always known that he was in love with Bucky, too, and that Bucky was in love with him. She said she knew Steve loved her, and realized that he was probably bisexual. Peggy confessed to being bisexual as well, and having been in love with a woman before she settled down and married her husband. Steve was relieved to hear that Peggy was so accepting of the truth about him and Bucky, and grateful she was willing to share the truth about herself. Then she dropped the biggest bomb of all. Peggy told Steve that she hadn’t wanted to take him away from Bucky. Instead, she had a solution that might have worked for all of them. She and Steve could’ve gotten married, and Bucky could’ve been a 3rd person in their relationship, living with them equally, but appearing to be a roommate who’d never married as far as the rest of the world knew. She hadn’t said anything during the war because it didn’t seem like their relationship was at that point yet. She was waiting for the end of the war, when they could all actually get serious.
This, of course, floored Steve, since he hadn’t even realized he was in love with Bucky at that time. He had no idea how he would have reacted to the idea at first, or what would have happened in the long run, but it sounded like absolute heaven to him now. He was keeping it in the back of his head, should more miracles occur. Maybe he would get Bucky back, and wouldn’t lose Natasha in the argument over the Accords. Having a relationship with both Bucky and Nat would be his dream, if they were both open to it. He didn’t know how he’d even begin to bring it up, but he’d worry about that after those miracles occurred.

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Crazyhead Season 1 Episode 1 (Pilot): A Very Trippy Horse Recap and Review

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Crazyhead is a new comedy-horror series which premiered on the BBC in October and globally on Netflix in December. It’s Shaun of the Dead meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with demons and demon hunters instead of zombies or vampires. Buffy and Faith get to be friends rather than rivals in this version, and they look like real women with the muscle mass required to win their fights, rather than anorexic stick insects who’d pass out before they’d finish their first roundhouse kick. (I love you, Buffy, but professional fighters need some bulk. But we won’t get into my issues with Joss Whedon here.)

We start at the end of the story, with demon hunter Amy’s best friend Suzanne in the trunk of a moving car. When the car stops, Amy and fellow demon hunter Raquel, wearing clown masks, take her from the car, lay her on the ground, and tie her up. Very serious and scary. Then the fun starts. Suzanne recognizes Amy, and they argue about the ownership of the jacket Amy’s wearing, demon possession, and their friendship. While Suzanne is laying on the wet pavement, in the dark, tied up. I found this completely realistic. Roommate boundaries are important! As are cute jackets.

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Mean Girls Musical Written by Tina Fey Will Premiere in 2017

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Scheduled for a Fall Run in Washington DC

According to the NY Times, The 2004 Lindsay Lohan film Mean Girls will be turned into a musical, as has been rumored for a while now. The show is being written by Tina Fey, the film’s original screenwriter, her husband, composer Jeff Richmond, and Neil Benjamin, who wrote the music and lyrics for Legally Blonde. The musical will be produced by Lorne Michaels (SNL), who produced the movie, and Stuart Thompson, who produced the Broadway version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Casey Nicholaw, of Aladdin and The Book of Mormon, will direct the musical and the April developmental lab in NYC. Auditions for the developmental lab were held earlier this month. We’ll keep our ears open for casting news.

Aside from the fact that Tina Fey appears to be the only woman currently on the creative team, this musical has a stellar group of people working on it! We’re hoping that this makes it to Broadway! The musical will have its world premiere at the National Theater in Washington, DC in Fall 2017.

Travelers Season 1 Episode 6: Helios 685 Recap

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The foreshadowed Helios event is upon us. Or, the travelers’ solution to the event is, anyway. It turns out that the helios event that’s been mentioned a couple of times in previous episodes is an asteroid that will hit Earth in 18 months. It causes an apocalyptic level of disruption and natural disasters. 21st century scientists won’t detect the asteroid for 2 more months. By that time it will be too late to stop it, so the travelers have cooked up an elaborate scheme involving a cult of old people literally drinking the poisoned kool aid in Canada, a giant roof top laser, a stoned chief engineer, and a clueless antimatter scientist. What could possibly go wrong?

Almost everything, of course, or that would be the end of the series, as the characters helpfully point out, just in case you thought this might work. Because if this works, the timeline will be drastically altered, and most, if not all, of the travelers will never be born. Might be a reason to sabotage the plan, hmm? Or for warring factions to form amongst the future people, some of whom may have traveled back to our time to try to maintain the timeline as it was meant to be.

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Travelers Season 1 Episode 5: Room 101 Recap

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This episode is largely a bottle episode that turns out to be mostly filler. We do learn more about the traveler mythology though, and gain a little insight into the characters.

The episode starts with a family of four careening through a parking garage in the family car. Dad’s driving is out of control, but it wasn’t clear to me if he was attempting a murder-suicide, or if he was having a medical issue of some kind. The daughter in the back seat is screaming and flailing, begging her dad to stop. At the last second before he drives off the roof, he swerves to the side and hits the brakes. Three of the four family members are now travelers. The little girl was a misfire, as McLaren’s team tells the family when they greet the newly arrived travelers. From the sound of it, because she was moving so much, the director couldn’t get a stable lock on her and the transfer failed. The traveler who would have entered her body is dead, if I understood correctly. It’s a one way trip that fails a significant percentage of the time. In the early days, the failure rate was 30% or more. McLaren will take the little girl to stay with a relative, while rest of her team prepares for their mission.

As they drive away, Philip, Carly, Marcy, and Trevor discuss the high rate of misfires. Trevor seems to have firsthand knowledge of the first wave of transfers. This is the second hint we’ve had that Trevor is very old, even though he’s in a young body. In the episode Hall, when Rick Hall questioned letting a kid repair the damaged device, one of the team members told him that the “kid” was older than everyone in the room combined. There were several people in the room at the time.

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Watch Highlights from Amelie, A New Musical with Philipa Soo and Adam Chanler-Berat

Amelie Ends It’s LA Run on January 15; Starts Previews on Broadway March 9, 2017

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The production has released highlight footage from Amelie ahead of its move to Broadway. It will open officially on April 3, 2017 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Tickets are already on sale.

The musical is based on the French film Amelie.

Click through to watch the highlights video.

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Watch New Extended Trailer For Lifetime’s Beaches Remake

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Starring Idina Menzel and Nia Long as CC and Hilary

The Lifetime TV network has released a new trailer for their contemporary remake of the classic 1988 Bette Midler film Beaches. The film will premiere on January 21, 2017 at 8:00 PM ET.

Beaches, according to production notes, “follows the serendipitous meeting of two young girls on the Venice Boardwalk, who, though worlds apart in lifestyle, embark on unexpected and lifelong friendship. CC (Menzel) is an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles until she is discovered by a director who gives her her first big shot. Hillary (Long) is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own destiny. Their friendship—even with its ups and downs—sustains them for decades.”

Emmy Award nominee Allison Anders directed the reboot. Gabriella Pizzolo (Fun Home, Young Alison) and Grace Capeless star as young CC and Hilary. Jodi Capeless, Sanai Victoria and Antonio Cupo are also featured. The stars have recorded new versions of Wind Beneath My Wings and The Glory of Love, both songs fans of the original movie will remember. Beaches will include several other songs recorded for the movie as well.

Click through to watch the new extended trailer.

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Travelers Season 1 Episode 4: Hall Recap

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We open on McLaren and his FBI partner, Forbes, on a stake out, watching a deal being made for some kind of tech between two groups of men, out of the trunks of their cars. The deal goes bad, shots are fired, and the FBI moves in. One of the injured men gives McLaren a traveler message as he’s dying. There’s another team in need of support.

When McLaren arrives at the coordinates, he discovers it’s one of the groups who was at the shoot out. Two of them have been seriously wounded. Marcy and Carly are on their way to help. It turns out the deal was between two teams of travelers, but the second team, a group of Russians, had gone rogue, and tried to steal the tech. McLaren questions why travelers would betray the mission that way. The more experienced team replies with a condescending, “You must be new.”

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Travelers Season 1 Episode 3: Aleksander Recap

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Marcy and David set off for the doctor visit Marcy agreed to in the last episode, but when Marcy realizes that she’s already had an MRI, she backs out. David is still confused by the changes in her. Later in the episode, Marcy asks Philip to hack into the hospital’s records and retrieve her MRI. We don’t see the results in this episode.

Philip is back to using heroin, ostensibly just enough to keep him functional as he weans himself off the addiction. It ends up being too tempting to also use it to deal with his guilt over the deaths they aren’t allowed to prevent, though, and he increases his use. As the team historian he’s memorized the death dates of hundreds of host candidates, and every death weighs on him. Marcy notices his condition and calls him out on it, but he’s out of control.

Philip goes to Stephen’s funeral. He’s overwhelmed with guilt for not saving original Philip’s best friend. Traveler Philip is a sensitive soul.  He gives his condolences to Stephen’s parents, but they blame him for their son’s death. He has Ray, his lawyer, make more winning bets, then distribute the money to Stephen’s parents, and Gower’s family (the cop he watched die of a heart attack in the pilot). He also begins calling in anonymous tips based on his memorized knowledge, to prevent a few more deaths. The FBI tracks the IP that the tips are coming from, but McLaren intervenes in time to stop the FBI from finding Philip.

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No Tomorrow Season 1 Episode 10: No Soup for You Recap

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We start where we left off in No Truer Words, with Evie confronting Xavier with an X about the hidden past that Timothy dug up while researching his article. This deep, dark past consists of changing his name from Hamish Stegner, Jr to the much cooler Xavier Holiday (wouldn’t you?), and having been arrested 8 times in 5 months for trespassing, public nudity, and disorderly conduct. Xavier explains his crimes away as normal youthful rebellion where he comes from. Honestly, it was not that unusual where I come from, either. He didn’t commit any violent crimes, it was a long time ago, and they haven’t been dating that long. I’m not sure he owed Evie every single detail he might have forgotten to mention yet. One of their first dates was helping a cousin (that Xavier had just broken out of prison) to flee the country, so I’m not sure why him having a bit of a history himself would be such a shock. Seems more like an excuse for cold feet to me.

Eventually, Evie realizes that Xavier’s arrests all happened right after his mom’s death, and he changed his name because of his issues with his father. She points out  that Xavier avoids his own issues, while making everyone else confront theirs. Evie breaks up with him until he can live an honest life, be his whole self, and deal with his shit, since he lied about his debt and other things too.

Xavier is floored that Evie broke up with him. He has a hard time with consequences. But he did listen to Evie, and considers what she said. He decides to go through with it and calls his dad.

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