Tag: science fiction

Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 10: The Killers Recap

~ Metacrone

AC110TakvRei

It’s time for Tak and Rei to work out their sibling rivalry issues. In episode 9, Tak got Rei to confess to driving Laurens to temporary suicide, which solved the bulk of the season’s mysteries. But there are still a few new revelations in this episode, along with the big, season-ending battle between the good guys and the bad guys, which everyone takes part in.

Kristin climbs the stairs to her brother’s apartment. She finds him lying dead on the floor, just as Leung left him. She reaches for her gun, but doesn’t have it, so she picks up a candlestick and follows the sounds of gunshots to the boys’ room. There she finds the boys both dead, laid out on the floor in a growing pool of their own blood, partially hidden behind a couch.

She drops the candlestick in shock and starts to panic, but then she hears her mother’s voice. She searches the house until she finds Alazne, who falls into her arms, bloody and dying. As Alazne is dropping to the floor, she warns Kristin, “He’s behind you!”

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Agents of Shield Season 5 Episode 11: All the Comforts of Home Recap

~ Metacrone

 

AOS511Fitz&JemmaE

We’re back! Everyone made it home, to no one’s surprise, and an extra, tree-hugging passenger tagged along. Dove Cameron, who is generally cute and adorable, joins the cast this week as General Hale’s bratty teenage daughter. Since this is the MCU, she’s not just a typical teenager. She has special talents. And a few demands. And she’s not sure if she’s a good guy or a bad guy, which might be because her loving mother has kept her sheltered. So sheltered, in fact, that her bedroom looks like a bank vault that’s guarded by some of Ivanov’s lower rent LMDs.

A bank vault decorated like a teenager’s bedroom from the 1970s, plus a Quake is My Hero poster. Okey dokey then. Ruby is a fan. Mom’s assignment is to capture Daisy. Hale doesn’t answer directly when Ruby asks if Hale’s supposed to kill Daisy or not. Hale is tasked with finding SHIELD and ending the entire fiasco that is the SHIELD era. Hale is just following orders and building a better world for the downtrodden citizens Ruby.

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Legion Season 2 Full Length Trailer and More

~ Metacrone
legion-season-2-premieres-april-3-2018-on-fx-photo-credit-matthias-clamer-fx_595_Mini Logo TV white - Gallery
My name is Legion, for we are many.

Legion season 2 returns to FX on Tuesday, April 3 at 10 PM ET/PT. Luckily for us (but not so much for him), his world continues to unravel.

LegionUnraveling

FX put out a full length trailer today, and has released several shorter promos recently. I’ve gathered them together, along with photos and the season 2 synopsis released by FX, after the jump.

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New Trailer for Netflix’s Lost in Space [Video & Photos]

~ Metacrone
LostinSpace
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON

I’m old, guys. So old, that as a tiny, tiny child I watched the original Lost in Space during its original run from 1965-68. The phrase “Danger, Will Robinson” is part of my DNA, and part of why I’m a scifi fan to this day, along with original Star Trek, which ran at about the same time, and Twilight Zone reruns.

I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Lost in Space reboot. Few filmmakers and TV showrunners have been able to match the spirit of combined optimism and camp that ran through television in the mid 1960s, which peaked in the 1966-68 Batman series. The Star Trek franchise has shown that, as long as the basic spirit of the original is remembered, a universe can grow in many different directions and have great success. But few fictional universes have the strongly articulated world building that Gene Rodenberry gave to Star Trek.

Lost in Space has a lot going for it in its basic story. It’s an archetypal tale of a pioneering family setting out for parts unknown and running into unforeseen danger and adventure. They bring an intelligent duo of leaders, a couple of allies and a potential betrayer with them. Plus, there’s a cute kid who functions as a reverse ET, discovering the universe with wonder and reckless abandon. They have a spaceship that can be repaired and used to explore the galaxy, providing endless fodder for new storylines.

Watch the trailer after the jump.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 9: Rage in Heaven Recap

~ Metacrone

AC109Rei

Episode 9 is a dark episode, arguably the darkest of the season. But we also hear the real solution to Bancroft’s mystery from the person who orchestrated his evening, so at least there’s closure amidst the real death, betrayal, and disturbing fetishes.

The episode begins with another brief fast forward, this time with two hands playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

In the present time, Tak sits at Poe’s bar while Poe examine’s Tak’s pardon. Poe pronounces the pardon exceptionally thorough, which is a welcome surprise. Tak says he knows what really happened to Bancroft, but Poe doesn’t take the bait.

Poe’s feeling a little pissy about Tak putting the entire gang in danger and making Poe kill a fellow AI, in order to give Laurens a solution that was a lie. Tak notes that the dead AI was no great loss, and he wanted to turn Lizzie into a sex slave. Poe comments that no one is ever going to hurt his little girl again.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 8: Clash by Night Recap

~ Metacrone
AC108LaurensGivesTakPardon
The elusive pardon.

Tak’s voiceover: “What we believe shapes who we are. Belief can bring us salvation or destruction. But when you believe a lie for too long, the truth doesn’t set you free. It tears you apart.”

This episode picks up where episode 7 left off. Tak is reeling from the discovery of what his sister has turned into, or possibly always was. He can’t take in the fact that Rei is confessing to killing Quell, the love of his life, and the rest of the Uprising rebels, who had become the family he never had. Even worse, he can’t accept that it was premeditated murder, done in cold blood with no remorse.

Tak: Quell and the Envoys were our family. How could you kill our family?

Rei: They were just soldiers. You and I, we’re family. Our lives will be better now.

Tak: When everyone I ever loved was taken away from me? Do you know what that did to me? What I became?

Rei: I tried to find you.

Tak: How hard did you look?

Rei: And then you got yourself caught by CTAC. They locked you up so tight no one could get to you.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 7: Nora Inu Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

AC107Quell&Tak

In episode 7, present day Tak lies unconscious while Rei heals him. He spends the time reliving his memories of their shared past, so that his brain can try to fit this new development into place. Tak and the audience discover some missing puzzle pieces about present day mysteries as well. None of it is encouraging.

Tak’s voiceover: “The danger of living too many times is you forget to fear death. We dismiss the Grim Reaper as a quaint metaphor. But fearing death- it’s good for you.”

Young Rei sits on the floor in the Kovacs family kitchen on Harlan’s World. Her father tells her to take off her necklace, but she refuses because it was her mother’s. It’s a pendant in the shape of the infinity snake that matches the tattoos Rei and Tak will get on their forearms as adults.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 6: Man with My Face Recap

~ Metacrone

AC106MissionReport

In episode 6, Tak gets Kristin the treatment she needs for her wounds, and they continue their investigation, leading to a major confrontation with Dimi the Personality Fragged Twin. Vernon remembers how to be pretty good back up and a pretty good friend, though he’s an impatient dad. Lizzie makes some progress and reveals a new clue. Isaac is exonerated in the murder case, at least according to Tak’s Envoy intuition. We meet a new mysterious new character, Hemingway, and Tak’s sister Rei returns from the dead. Themes of family, protection and revenge run through the episode, culminating with Rei’s reveal.

The episode begins with a brief flash forward and a return of the Mad Mykola song. We see through Tak’s eyes, but his head is covered by a ragged black cloth. He looks down and sees his hands in cuffs and chains.

In the here and now, Tak and Kristin are being driven to the hospital, while Tak tries to keep Kristin alive. She’s bleeding profusely from her wounds. He keeps her talking so she doesn’t pass out. If her sleeve dies, he can put her in a new one, but her mother and the rest of her family, all devout Neo Cs, will never speak to her again.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 5: The Wrong Man Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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Kovacs: “When everyone lies, telling the truth isn’t just rebellion. It’s an act of revolution. So think carefully when you speak it, because the truth is a weapon.”

Tak and Kristin spend most of episode 5 dealing with the aftermath of Tak’s torture. She tells him the story of how her partner and boyfriend, Elias Ryker, ended up on ice. They find a way to spin up the stack from Dimi’s disembodied head. Poe gives them a tip that begins to pull more of the disparate strands of the separate cases together. They grow closer to each other as they work together and learn they can trust each other.

And Captain Tanaka brings on disaster, just like I knew he would.

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Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 4: Force of Evil Recap

~ Metacrone

AC104SidewaysTortureTak

Gird your loins, kids, this is the torture episode. Tak’s in the virtual reality torture chamber for much of the episode. Though it was difficult to watch, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, based on the warnings. The Outlander season 1 rape/torture episode was much, much worse. Maybe I’ve just seen too many seasons of creatively dragging entrails on The Walking Dead. Which isn’t to say this episode isn’t violent, gruesome, and, you know, tortuous. But it’s not very different from what we’ve already seen on Altered Carbon.

The real torture is in the emotions that the characters suffer over the course of the episode, especially in Tak’s flashbacks. We learn more about his life, his relationship with Quell, and how heartbroken he still is. We also get to see more of Ortega’s personal life, and begin to discover why she’s so interested in Tak.

So. Probably the most disturbing part of the episode is the Wei Clinic, an interrogation facility which specializes in “extracting data from unwilling subjects”. Torture is such an ugly word. The facility is large, clean, brightly lit, fully staffed, organized, and obviously part of a larger organization with franchises or branches. There’s a routine and a schedule for torture extraction sessions. The Nazis would be jealous.

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