Tag: recaps

Iron Fist Season 1 Episode 11: Lead Horse Back to Stable Recap

~ Metacrone

IF111Danny

Once upon a time in K’un Lun, which is a remarkably green place, by the way…

Davos finds Danny lying in a stream outside of the dragon’s cave. He’s passed the test and become the Iron Fist. Davos helps Danny up and leads him home, promising to stand by his side as he fulfills his duty as the protector of K’un Lun. Danny is already having doubts, as he looks back to the cave and tells Davos that the test wasn’t what he thought it would be.

Back in the future, Danny and Davos have found an empty building to regroup in for a few moments. Danny asks about his mentor/Davos’ father, Lei Kung. Davos tells Danny that Lei Kung is understandably pissed off and confused that Danny wandered off as soon as the way to the rest of the world opened up. Danny asks how Davos found him. Davos holds up his cell phone with Danny’s name and photo on the front page of a newspaper. You can see the wheels turning in Danny’s head as he remembers that he’s famous. The kid needs a full time handler.

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Iron Fist Season 1 Episode 10: Black Tiger Steals Heart Recap

~ Metacrone

IF110Colleen&Danny

When we left Danny last episode, he had passed out and was being whisked away to an unknown destination by Bakuto and Colleen. This episode begins with Danny waking up naked, in bed with Colleen, also naked, in an all-white room. He doesn’t remember how or why he’s there, so Colleen explains that it’s her home, and the safest place she knows. It all seems innocent, but there’s something off in the way she doesn’t quite answer his question.

Joy and Harold are having a long talk about their history. She understands why Ward is the way he is, now that she knows the enormous secret he’s been burdened with for years. Harold is already being wheedling and manipulative with her. The room is more brightly lit than usual, but all of the stark light is coming from the windows, leaving everything half in shadow. There is no true honesty here.

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Iron Fist Season 1 Episode 9: The Mistress of All Agonies Recap

~ Metacrone

IF109Harold

For our episode 9 cold open, we’re back at Harold’s favorite body-dumping ground, which he passed down to Ward, like any good father would. It’s been approximately three days since Ward used the swamp to get rid of Harold’s body, after Ward’s murderous but character-defining moment of both insanity and defiance. Sure enough, Harold pops up out of the muck like the God he thinks he is, with the knife that killed him still in his side. He drags himself out of the primordial ooze and turns his face up to the heavens to revel in the next stage of his evolution.

David Wenham is having a fantastic time hamming it up as Harold.

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Iron Fist Season 1 Episode 8: The Blessing of Many Fractures Recap

~ Metacrone

IF108Danny&Girls

Ward sinks further into his drug and alcohol fueled delusions and depression this episode, despite being rid of Harold, while Joy starts to come into her own, even though she didn’t know that Harold has been pulling the strings all along. Danny becomes more obsessed with Madame Gao and revenge, though he pretends his investigation is about the current synthetic heroin trade.

Danny starts the episode by warning his friends about the Hand. He stops by Harold’s apartment, but, of course Harold is gone. All that’s left is a giant smear of blood across the floor, left from Ward dragging the body out. Before Danny can react much, Ward comes in with a bag of cleaning supplies. Because he’s Danny, and he’s the Iron Fist, not the Iron Brain, he doesn’t put the cleaning supplies and the giant freakin’ blood stain together as clues. Instead, he blames himself for getting Harold killed by the Hand and tells that to Ward. Thanks to Harold, Ward is becoming a pro at looking sick and shocked. He pulls that look up again on cue. With a straight face, he blames Danny for making him grieve his father’s death twice. (Pretty sure Harold’s second death was the second best day of Ward’s life.) Since Danny is the most trusting and naive person on the earth, of course he believes Ward, even when Ward drives him out of the apartment with insults. Ward then gets down to his cleaning. I can almost hear him whistling while he works.

Danny’s at least smart enough to take Gao’s laptop with him.

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Stranger Things Season 1 Chapter 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers Recap

~ Metacrone

ST101GoodbyeWill

Okay, let’s do Stranger Things! I’m way late to the party with this, but, I figure, what the heck, maybe there are a few other people who want to watch in time for season 2. My first impression, as episode 1 starts, is omg, this is so 80s! Are those bikes going to take off like ET’s? The filmmakers got the look of an 80s show exactly right. Something made by Steven Spielberg, in particular, maybe The Goonies. Oops, Steven King just weighed in. Of course there’s an adorable dog and a little sister. Drew Barrymore might be able to look into copyright infringement here.

We begin on November 6th, 1983, in Hawkins, Indiana, at the Hawkins National Laboratory, run by the US Dept of Energy. This was the Reagan Era and the height of the Cold War. I’m sure a sweet old man like Ronnie wouldn’t have approved of any illegal experiments on children that could go wrong and terrorize a small midwestern town. Or maybe they were actually approved by Tricky Dick, and just continued by Ronnie.

Something is definitely going wrong, if the camera work and sound effects are anything to go by. Sure enough, one of the mad scientists runs by and gets attacked by something mysterious in the elevator.

Meanwhile, in a suburban basement, four preteen boys are playing the most exciting and intense game of Dungeons and Dragons ever, until Mike’s Mom breaks up the game because she totally doesn’t get the importance of fun and conquest. Will, Lucas and Dustin take off on their bikes toward their own houses. Lucas, the man of action, reaches his house quickly, then Dustin, the adorable mascot of the group, challenges Will, the sweet honest one, to a race. Will shows he’s not completely pure by taking off immediately, leaving Dustin in the, well, dust.

Lights have been flickering on and off around town. Will’s bike light flickers as he’s cutting through the grounds of the laboratory. He sees a figure in the shadows and falls off his bike, then runs home. He’s still spooked at home, and goes to the family’s shed to get a gun. The shed light brightens, and Will is gone.

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Iron Fist Season 1 Episode 2: Shadow Hawk Takes Flight Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

 

IF102DannyPunchesDoor2

Danny wakes up from Joy’s drugged tea strapped to a bed in Birch Psychiatric Hospital. There’s a man dressed like a doctor sitting next to his bed who speaks to him in a kindly voice, telling him where he is. Danny asks to have the straps and cuffs removed, because he’s not dangerous, but the “doctor” refuses, on the grounds that a guy down the hall said the same thing, just before he bit another doctor’s nose off. We’re in for a wild ride this episode, kids!

The doctor tries to reassure Danny that, even though it’s disturbing to wake up in a place like this, the staff is there to help. He knows just the thing. Danny needs to kill himself. It’s the only solution for any of us. He’s tried four times, but they keep saving him. He grabs a fork and holds it to Danny’s jugular vein. He says, “Give me the go ahead, and it’s done.” Existentially, he’s correct. Practically, it’s might be too radical a solution to Danny’s problem.

Nurses and orderlies run in just as the doctor/Simon is looking to see if Danny is nodding yes. Simon says he was just saying hello to the new guy. He’s not a doctor, he’s a long term patient. The orderlies tell Danny that they’re going to clean him up, as soon as he takes his prison in a pill medication.

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Recaps Will Be Late This Week

~ Metacrone

meow-i-was-sick-a-few-days-before

I apologize for falling behind on my recaps, especially during the height of February sweeps when it’s just one big reveal after another. I have multiple chronic illnesses, which normally require me to spend lots of time resting. That gives me a lot of time to write. Every once in a while, symptoms overwhelm me and it’s too much to think much or write consistently for more than a few minutes at a time. Flare ups like this usually don’t last more than a week or two, so hopefully I’ll be able to start catching up before long. In the meantime, it’s driving me crazy not to talk about this week’s Riverdale, Nashville, The 100, and Agents of SHIELD yet! OMG!

The Man in the High Castle Season 2 Episodes 1&2 Recap: Three Castles

~ Metacrone

The Tiger’s Cave & The Road Less Traveled

the-man-in-the-high-castle

Time to catch up with Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle! We finally meet the man himself, Hawthorne Abendsen, and, not surprisingly, he’s a little nuts. The “castle” appears to be a giant warehouse full of alternate reality films. Metamaiden doesn’t like him. She’s confused about where these films are coming from, and how the supernatural aspect plays into the full picture of the show. I (metacrone) think he’s high strung from having seen so many potential future disasters, and he’s weighed down with the possible impact of his choices.

All three factions in the show’s world now have access to information about the alternate realities (and, consequently, have their own man in a high castle). The Resistance and the Nazis access it through films brought to Abendsen and Hitler, and the Japanese through Trade Minster Tagomi’s mystical abilities. Both Abendsen and Tagomi seem to have figured out that Juliana is an important, lynchpin character in some way. Tagomi appeared to feel that her locket was too important as a talisman to offer back to her, even as they were both staring at it in his house. I’m not clear about whether Hitler’s specifically trying to have her killed, but Smith has certainly been keeping up with her status and whereabouts.

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