Tag: recaps

Emergence Season 1 Episode 7: Fatal Exception Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 7, Fatal Exception, Emily makes a move to take Jo’s place as Piper’s mom. She forces Alan Wilkis to help her as she slowly replaces Piper’s memories of Jo with memories of herself. Jo races to find Emily and Alan while protecting the people Emily threatens. Ed and Alex remain angry with Jo over the secrets she kept from them about Piper.

Jo is trying to avoid the Fatal Exception of having Piper learn that she’s an AI, since knowledge of the truth about what she is would set up a cascade failure in her brain. Or at least that’s the way she’s designed. The fact that Piper continuously moves beyond her programming and has already been gradually learning that she’s different suggests that she can evolve past the fatal exception.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 4 Episode 1: Hexagram 64 Recap

~ Metacrone

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Welcome back to the Japanese Pacific States, the American Reich and the Neutral Zone. In its final season, The Man in the High Castle focuses mainly on the Smith family, Chief Inspector Kido and a new West Coast resistance group, the Black Communist Rebellion. Juliana Crain, Wyatt Price, Robert Childan and Hawthorne Abendsen also have storylines that the show checks in on periodically. It’s still the same show, with a sweeping story that spans continents, worlds and the astral plane. Events shift between the existential difficulties of everyday people and the rivalries shared by world political powers, in an exploration of what makes us who we are and the war of good vs evil.

While there’s a lot to like about season 4, and some storylines and characters have satisfying conclusions, others are dropped with little or no explanation. Both the TV division of Amazon Prime and this show have had a major amount of staff turn over behind the scenes since the series began, and that shows in the final season, as it has since mid-season 2.

It’s still one of my favorite shows of all time. I’d give both season 4 and the complete series somewhere in the B+ to A- range if I had to give them grades. But it has to to go in the brilliant but flawed category, with so many other shows of the recent era. I can’t help but imagine what it could have been with a single showrunning team in charge for its entire run, instead of the fractured visions we have now.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 1 Episode 6: Three Monkeys Recap

~ Metacrone

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Buckle up, Buttercups, it’s VA Day in the Reich and things are about to get crazy. Obergruppenführer John Smith has not just one, but two potential traitors over for dinner with the family, Joe Blake and Rudolph Wegener. He has ulterior motives with both, because when does he not? Juliana begins her job at the Nippon building and learns she’s working in the office of Trade Minister Tagomi.

Recap

It’s VA Day and every house in the neighborhood is proudly flying the swastika and stripes. Joe arrives at the Smith house with a bouquet of flowers for Helen and is introduced to the whole family, including the dog, Max. He mentions that he saw John in the parade earlier in the day. Thomas offers to show Joe around. It’s obvious that life couldn’t be better in the American Reich.

Over in the JPS, Juliana finishes dressing for her new job, just as Frank wakes up. She asks how the memorial service was and he says it was fake. She thinks they need to spend some time together, but he doesn’t want to make her late for the dojo, so she suggests they plan on dinner. Frank asks if he heard her on the phone earlier. As she’s walking out the door, Juliana says it was a wrong number.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 1 Episode 5: The New Normal Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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In episode 5, The New Normal, Juliana and Joe return to their home cities after their missions in the Neutral Zone. Each undergoes a debriefing and must try to navigate the tense atmosphere of their respective empires. Frank tries to put the pieces of his life back together after the deaths in his family and his aborted assassination attempt. Tagomi and Wegener try to complete their mission before getting Wegener out of San Francisco. Kido begins his investigation into the shooting of the crown prince, with the knowledge that, according to Japanese custom,  his life depends on bringing the shooter to justice.

Recap

The episode picks up with the ending of the previous episode, as shots ring out and the crown prince falls, desperately wounded. Tagomi and the princess rush to his side. Kido springs into action, shouting out orders to stop anyone from leaving, find the shooter and confiscate all cameras so that no one sees their beloved leader in his weakened state. Wegener is on the podium, watching the drama play out.

Frank has the gun in his hand, but hasn’t fired. The little Japanese boy standing next to him and the boy’s father both see the gun in Frank’s hand as all three scatter. Frank puts the gun in his coat pocket and at the same time the necklace he made for Juliana slips out of the pocket, onto the ground.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 6: Mile Marker 14 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Mile Marker 14 is the 6th episode of Emergence’s 13 episode season, meaning we’re just shy of the halfway point. Fittingly, several more secrets are revealed in this episode. Most of Jo’s family discovers Piper’s secret this week, but some thrills are left for episode 7, the real tipping point in the season.

Recap

After watching Piper lift a truck in episode 5, Mia is a bit suspicious about what her new sister might be capable of doing on a regular basis. This week finds the girls practicing levitation on a plastic cupcake, but it’s about as motivating as you’d expect and Piper can’t get it off the ground.  However, when she really, really concentrates, a whole pile of toys that were on the floor behind her float into the air without Piper or Mia noticing, until they’re startled by Jo’s voice and the toys come crashing to the floor.

Just like their hopes and dreams of becoming superheroes together are doomed to do. Someone needs to send the adults on this show who aren’t Jo a copy of the Netflix show Raising Dion, so they can figure out how to support a kid who’s coming into their power. And by kids I’m referring to both Piper and Mia here.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 6: Dex, Drugs and Rock & Roll Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Episode 6 of Stumptown is about ghosts. The characters work through their ghosts while the show tests out new character combinations and expands backstories.

After their falling out in episode 5, Dex and Grey both spend time with new love interests, causing other cast members to feel they’re being left behind. Ansel and Miles take steps to ensure their interests haven’t been forgotten. Dex takes a PI job that has her tracking down the stalker of an old flame.

Meanwhile, Tookie continues to have business issues with his food truck. This time he closes up and goes to visit the highest ranking member of the police force he knows, Lieutenant Cosgrove. This is a friendship I never knew I always wanted. They bond over their love of mole sauce  and experimental cuisine.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 5: Bad Alibis Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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This week on Stumptown, almost everyone is trying to please a tough superior. Grey is forced into working for Kane to pay off his debt. Dex has a PI cerification interview with a licensing  official. Tookie’s cooking is reviewed by an influential food critic. Miles tries to convince Cosgrove that his intuition about Grey and Kane is on point.

After all sorts of confusion at the bar, Ansel is taken hostage by one of Kane’s men. Never fear, Dex’s brother is the glue that holds this episode together and he knows just what to do.

Recap

Dex puts on a blazer and button up shirt for her interview with Janet Withers, the PI certification official from DPSST. No one is sure what DPSST stands for. Ansel thinks she looks funny. Dex says she had to buy him the pumpkin poptarts that were on sale this week instead of the blueberry ones that are his favorites, but when she’s licensed she’ll make more money.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 5: RDZ9021 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

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In episode 5, Emergence explores the aftermath of the attack on Benny and April. The episode title is a license plate number which belongs to their attacker, but it sounds like it could be Piper’s serial number. Or maybe it’s the hitman’s serial number.

Piper has more visions, which lead to new discoveries about her AI subconscious. Ed’s health deteriorates, putting Piper and Mia at risk. Kindred and Jo face off again, which escalates the determination of each to bring the other one down.

The sometimes deadly combination of family, love and risk is the theme of the week, along with the question of what or who is worth fighting and dying for. Whenever Kindred is involved, the concept of love vs control also comes up. Kindred buys, steals or manufactures love and family, ensuring there’s no risk to himself. He is the symbol of the modern industrial lifestyle and in opposition to Jo’s open family, who put in the hard work of being there for each other through good times and bad.

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Charmed Season 2 Episode 2: Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead Recap

~ Metacrone

In Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead, the Vera-Vaughn witches and Harry continue to cope with the loss of their powers and the demons’ war on witches. This week, a dream about the demon with Harry’s face leaves Macy troubled, Maggie discovers that everyone in Hilltowne thinks the sisters died in a house fire, and Mel struggles to bring a sense of order back to her life. They all deal with trust issues.

Macy and Harry go on a mission to rescue a witch from the demons. Maggie decides she needs to work on growing up more by taking on more responsibility and facing hard truths. Mel tries to reconstruct spells from the Book of Shadows to start bringing their magic back. They all find some success and a bit of their individual powers shine through in the process.

Recap

It’s night and Macy is wearing a silky, low cut nightgown and robe as she walks toward her bedroom mirror. Harry appears behind her, also wearing a robe. He says her name. She startles and turns, telling him he scared her. He asks if she’s happy to see him.

Macy closes her robe tightly around herself and asks what Harry wants. Sexy as this all is, even in a dream, she’s subconsciously figured out that it’s not the real Harry.

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Black Spot (Zone Blanche) Season 1 Episode 1: Stranger Comes to Town Recap

~ Metacrone

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Zone Blanche/Black Spot is a French/Belgian 2 season series, with 8 episodes per season, that’s available on Netflix. The show takes place in the mysterious, isolated village of Villefranche, which is set so deep in the primeval forest that the entire village and its surroundings have no cell phone reception- the black spot, or zone blanche, of the title. People tend to die in the forest, giving Villefranche a high murder rate, but the forest is a living presence which occasionally gives someone back. The villagers are closely connected to each other and to the forest.

Main character Major Laurène Weiss, the chief of police for the village, is one of the survivors who came back from the forest as a young woman. Many years later, she remains haunted by the experience. In present day Villefranche, another young woman, Marion Steiner, the daughter of mayor and business owner Bertrand Steiner, has been missing for months. Laurène spends her spare time in the forest searching for Marion, who was close friends with her own teenage daughter, Cora. Laurène bristles when an outsider, prosecutor Franck Siriani, is sent to investigate the high crime rate in the small village.

Recap

We are introduced to Villefranche using the the 1964 song Mr Lonely by Bobby Vinton. Visuals include the mountainous forest, ravens, fog, and an emergency phone at the village boundary line.

You’ve been warned, Mr Siriani. Enter at your own risk.

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