Tag: The Crossing

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 3: The Crossing Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

Handmaid's Tale S4Ep3 June & Nick & Mask

June is off to prison in episode 3, as Nick attempts to keep her alive by forcing her to give up the location of the rest of the handmaids, doing whatever it takes to make her talk. In Gilead, true love means torturing your paramour and killing your friends so that you’ll both live to see each other again someday. It’s a unique twist on Romeo and Juliet’s accidentally on purpose suicides and murders.

Gilead is such a harsh dystopia that sometimes I expect the bodies to turn into zombies, get up and keep going. Most of the living in Gilead are basically zombies anyway.

June acts as a reverse zombie maker. She wakes people up from their psychological numbness, but frequently they die not long afterwards. Sometimes they just symbolically die to Gilead and in reality they become Canadians. That can be fraught with difficulty as well, because June still haunts them.

Luke struggles with June’s choices this week and what they mean for him and Nichole. Joseph and Lydia struggle to regain their former positions in Gilead after June disrupted their lives. As always, June struggles to do the right thing in a world that only offers wrong choices.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 11: These Are the Names/ Series Finale Recap

~ Metacrone

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Well, that all went much better than I thought it would. For once, we were given a reasonable amount of closure on a “cancelled without warning” scifi show. There was a clear set up for season 2, if it had happened, but everyone either got to a good stopping point on camera, or it’s not hard to imagine one for them. That’s really all you can ask for from showrunners working for a network like ABC.

These Are the Names is Part 2 of the series finale. It’s framed by Jude’s testimony in front of a task force investigating events at Camp Tamanowas, which are explained by extended flashbacks to two weeks prior to Jude’s testimony. Lindauer was pretending to prepare to transfer the refugees to detention facilities, but actually preparing for a mass murder. Before Jude testifies, he oversleeps and has a nightmare that Apex have taken over. In the dream, they come to his house to enslave and brand Oliver the way Rachel and Naomi were enslaved and branded in the future.

By the time Jude testifies, the camp has been burned to the ground, the detainees have disappeared, and the only evidence that the task force has been able to find to explain what happened consists of contradictory depositions from a few guards and Paul’s video that claims the refugees were part of a suicide cult. The investigator starts by asking Jude if he knows where the detainees are, to which he answers, “No.”

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 10: The Androcles Option Recap

~ Metacrone

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In the first half of the two part series finale of The Crossing, the stakes are building toward a breaking point for the refugees and the people who want to be rid of them. Jude, Nestor, Marshall and Diana race to rescue the time travelers before Eve and her minions can carry out her plan to murder the refugees, while the Homeland Security agents unknowingly prepare to slaughter the refugees in the camp. Eve goes so far off the deep end that even Lindauer can no longer deny how out of control she is, while Sophie makes some desperate choices that will have a huge impact on the future.

Another person of color/camp director has met their end. We’re told at the beginning of this episode that Agent Bryce Foster, who was shot at the end of the last episode, has died off camera. No tears or moment of silence for him either, just like Emma, just an excuse to further crack down on the refugees. The whole structure of his death was nearly identical to Emma’s, other than the shot being fired at the camp instead of in a house.

We also lose Paul during this episode. Instead of it happening off camera, and being nothing but an excuse for more oppression and violence, as with Emma and Bryce’s deaths, the death of the white guy is shown in its entirety, on camera, framed as a Hitchcockian horror show, and it triggers Lindauer to eventually find his conscience.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 9: Hope Smiles from the Threshold Recap

~ Metacrone

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As The Crossing gears up for next week’s double episode series finale, this week the penultimate episode, Hope Smiles from the Threshold, crams in as much plot as possible to prepare us for the end. There are several big reveals, more new characters introduced, and background characters given new prominence.

And it’s made clear that this world is a dangerous place for black men. The show started with 3 named black men, and has killed one (Beaumont), kept one physically safe in the current time (Caleb), so far, and has now critically wounded Bryce Foster, Emma Ren’s replacement as head of the refugee camp. Emma died from a less serious gunshot wound to the shoulder than Bryce’s shot to the abdomen, which has left him quickly bleeding out in the woods.

But don’t worry, the white folks, other than Sophie, are all physically fine. As a matter of fact, one of them, Lindauer, appears to have stolen  hidden exploited the talents of rescued Caleb and Rebecca’s missing daughter, Rachel, who is revealed to be a cryptographer. That’s a handy skill for someone trying to amass government and financial power.

I’m sure Greta Eve and Lindauer Noah rescued her from Apex out of the goodness of their hearts, though. And they’ll return Rachel to her birth parents right after they fake the suicides of the refugees in the camp. Oops. This multiracial girl was kidnapped from one form of enslavement into a more subtle form of exploitation. A gilded cage is still a cage.

We also find out more details about the crossing itself, and how the refugees ended up in the water.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 8: The Long Morrow Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

In episode 8 of The Crossing, we finally get official confirmation that Emma was fridged way back in episode 4. No one onscreen cares much about her death, but I’m pretty pissed off about it. Lindauer brings Sophie back in from the cold to help him break Reese, with the promise that she can continue her research. Naomi and Rebecca get serious about forming a cult, while Caleb tries to stay grounded amidst the madness surrounding him. Does that ever work? Paul, who is an innocent Hufflepuff, gets framed for murder, but believes everything his evil wife Greta tells him. I wonder what caused his brain damage.

And, oh look, now that we’ve for sure gotten rid of the woman who was in charge of the refugee camp, a new, powerless, nameless female character is introduced and held prisoner by Jude and Nestor, for no reason, in another male abuse of power.

Does everyone feel more comfortable, now that the powerful women are either evil or dying, and the rest are powerless and also probably either evil, crazy or stupid? Comfortable isn’t the word I’d use for my state of mind, but I’m apparently hard to please, what with expecting women to be treated like equal human beings and all.

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The Long Morrow starts by giving us an update on Reese. She’s being held hostage by Lindauer and his henchmen in a well equipped and organized lab. The doctor in charge of Reese says that they can’t wake her. Reese is bound to a gurney and in a self-induced twilight state where she appears unconscious but can still hear some of the noises from the outside environment. She dreams of a combination of her work as an Apex enforcer and snippets of her history in the present day.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 7: Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

The one and only promo photo released for this episode. He’s dreaming a golden dream.

In case anyone hasn’t heard yet, there will only be one season of The Crossing. This episode is an example of the uneven writing that probably turned viewers away and got it cancelled, along with a main character who’s a patsy and a screw up, and not even charming while he’s doing it.

The women of The Crossing continue to be fascinating and amazing, but, after only 7 episodes, the show has developed an alarming tendency to disappear them. One of the supposed leads, Emma Ren, disappeared a few episodes ago. Now Sophie Forbin is also gone, fired from her job and hospitalized with a heart attack. This week we don’t even get an update on her condition. The other important female character, Reece, is written so inconsistently that you’d never believe she’s from a superior race. Tonight, even though she was told point-blank by Beaumont that the 1st wavers are hunting her, it doesn’t occur to her that she’s able to get her daughter back so easily because it’s a trap. Reece also disappears for long stretches of time, despite being a lead.

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ABC Cancels The Crossing and Marvel’s Inhumans/ Still No Word on Agents of SHIELD

~ Metacrone

After a massive 24 hour bloodbath, more than 20 broadcast network shows have been cancelled this week, along with a fair number of cable shows, including SYFY’s The Expanse. The Crossing and The Inhumans were among the last to fall this afternoon, though neither is a huge shock. The cancellation of The Crossing after it’s only aired 6 episodes/half of its season, is, however, ironic. TV critics predicted that ABC would cancel the show without even giving it a chance, and asked ABC why they should bother to get invested in the show. The showrunners assured the critics that the network would give this show a fair shot. Right.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 6: LKA Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

This week on The Crossing, we find out more about the case that led to Jude moving from Oakland to Oregon and leaving his family behind. Jude revisits his old stomping grounds, hoping that a contact from his last case will help him with the current one, but he’s forgotten how much pressure is put on government employees to stick to the party line and not make waves.

Sophie and Reece make plans to reunite Reece and Lea, but Lindauer gets in the way. Then Sophie’s heart condition acts up and tragedy becomes a serious possibility. The refugees question the nature of their detention even more than usual, and Caleb puts Hannah’s phone to good use.

LKA opens on a flashback to Jude’s last big case with his police unit. They were making a last minute bust on a drug dealer in a run down neighborhood. Jude’s partner, Cory, says something about their commander, Doucette, getting a kick back from a rival drug dealer for taking this one down. Jude thinks he’s joking and ignores what Cory said. They play rock, paper scissors to decide who knocks on the door. Cory loses.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 5: Ten Years Gone Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

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Major progress is made in solving the mysteries of The Crossing in episode 5, though the characters don’t necessarily realize the implications of their actions. Jude finally starts doing some things right, while Emma is MIA. But Emma left a trail of breadcrumbs for Jude, so he and Nestor are on the case for reals. Leah takes a turn for the worse, while Sophie and Reece race to make the treatment that will bring her Mantle’s Disease under control. Marshall struggles with his tragic memories and his goals in life, instinctively knowing that he has a connection to the refugees. The migrants from the first wave gather to make some decisions, and face some hard truths. The show’s theory of time is called into question again. Can it be changed, or are they living in a fixed universe?

The episode begins with Marshall reliving the car accident that killed his mother ten years ago. He’s having a nightmare in which the family is driving home from dinner at a restaurant. Dad’s at the wheel and Mom’s riding shotgun. They’re driving on the edge of a hill, happily playing a car game, when suddenly there are a couple dozen people standing in the road. The car swerves to miss the people and drives over the side of the hill, crashing and rolling as it hits bottom. In the present day, Marshall wakes up.

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The Crossing Season 1 Episode 4: The Face of Oblivion Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

104_the-crossing_photo02Alliances shift and more secrets are revealed in this episode of The Crossing, but Nestor can still be counted on to keep the town of Port Canaan running and Marshall calm, while his boss deals with the crisis of the day. Unfortunately, Nestor’s counterpart at Camp Tomanowas, Emma’s assistant Bryce, has faded into the background, and the operations run by the Department of Homeland Security are a mess. The villains are running amok at every level, from the Undersecretary, who was no doubt appointed by the president himself, down to the riffraff among the survivors. Emma’s dealing with the truth on her own within DHS, and the burden grows larger by the hour.

Episode 4 picks up not long after the end of episode 3, with Jude using his GPS to track Oliver’s cell phone while Reece takes Oliver on the run. Presumably Jude called Nestor to handle the Apex hunter’s body and the investigation into his murder, before Jude took off after Reece and Oliver.

Reece calls Jude from Oliver’s phone to make her demands. Jude gets the festivities started by threatening to hurt her should anything happen to Oliver. She’d laugh in his face if he were in front of her, but he’s not, so she settles for pointing out that he’s already led her into a trap and left her for dead while assuring her that he could be trusted. Anything he says to her is beyond meaningless.

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