Tag: zach mcgowan

The 100 Season 4 Episode 13: Praimfaya Recap Plus Season 4 Review and Season 5 Speculation

~ Metacrone

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What’s that in the sky? Not a bird, and not Superman, that’s for sure. It could be several other things, depending on where we are in this week’s season finale of The 100. Maybe it’s Clarke playing with a satellite dish, maybe it’s Becca’s rocket, maybe it’s a mysterious prison transport ship or maybe it’s the Death Wave. The 100 ends a chapter with this episode, and sets up its next era. Our babies are growing up.

Bellamy gets his goodbye with Octavia, finally, as they talk over the radio between Becca’s lab and the bunker. He shores up her confidence so that she can face leading Oneclan for the next five years, and she tells him that she loves him. The radio dies before he can say it back, and before Clarke gets to say goodbye to Abby, but Octavia knows how Bellamy feels, and Abby made sure that she and Clarke said goodbye before Clarke left for the island. Octavia and Bellamy were the ones who needed to talk, and he needed to hear that he’s forgiven and still loved. Bellamy’s reference to Octavia as Prometheus is disturbing, since, as she points out, Prometheus ends up being punished and living in perpetual torment until he’s rescued by Hercules. Foreshadowing?

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 9: DNR Recap

~ Metacrone

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In a season which has largely been meant to set up the end of the season and season 5, this episode is even more guilty of mainly functioning as set up for the events of the rest of the season. Octavia and Ilian try being farmers, but Octavia still manages to kill people. Murphy and Emori try being part of Skaikru, but Emori can’t bring herself to trust them. Raven’s brain has a mind of its own. Roan and Echo outsmart Clarke and Indra, forcing them to give other clans a chance at the bunker. As with the rest of the season up until now, nobody’s plans play out exactly as they expect, and some seem like outright failures.

Murphy, Emori, and Raven are packing up essentials from Becca’s lab to bring to the Polis bunker. Emori doesn’t trust that someone will be back to pick them up. Raven assures her that, while Murphy and Emori are indeed expendable, Skaikru wouldn’t leave Raven herself behind, so Murphy and Emori will get to tag along. That’s not as reassuring to Emori as Raven probably thinks it will be, especially since Raven starts to go into another Grand Mal seizure immediately after she says it. The seizures form a new round of narrative dreamlike hallucinations, starring Becca the aeronautical engineer.

Skyripa as farm wife has arrived! She enjoys it about as much as expected. Ilian’s justification for Octavia’s field work, and the seeds he’s planting, is that the fields will be ready for whoever comes along after Praimfaya. He seems to still be missing some important facts about Praimfaya, like that it will destroy all life on Earth, and the ground will be too radioactive to grow things for years. At least he’s cute.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 8: God Complex Recap

~ Metacrone

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It’s 10 days until Praimfaya. Desperation is setting in, causing some to become more ruthless, some to become more calculating, and some to party like it’s 1999.

It’s time to test out Luna’s bone marrow in the radiation chamber. Baylis is placed inside, still sedated, and the radiation is slowly turned up to 11 until it’s higher than the level of the Black Rain. Baylis survives Black Rain level radiation, but when the levels continue to increase, he writhes in pain as the radiation consumes him. He dies a horrible, painful death while the others watch.

The Ark lost 18 people to the Black Rain. They are holding funerals and burials by fire for the dead. Jaha gives the eulogies and lights the funeral pyres. He’s very comfortable being the prophet of the apocalypse after recruiting for ALIE for months. He’s also aware of the power that even appearing to be an authority figure holds.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 10: Die All, Die Merrily Recap

~ Metacrone

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Welcome to the first and last annual Hundred Games! The winner will be whoever is the last warrior standing at the end of the fight to the death. No cheating, unless you really, really want to, and are a named character. Alliances are allowed, but discouraged, because, as usual, Grounders don’t really understand the meaning of the words cooperation, apocalypse, or last chance for survival. Even Roan, normally one of the most sensible characters on TV, has lost his mind on this one.

This is Octavia’s episode, on screen anyway. We’ll talk about the off screen machinations happening throughout the episode later. Bellamy finds her waiting to be called out to accept her place as champion for Skaikru and they have a moment. Then Clarke gives her a bit of reassurance before sending her out to the public platform. Gaia is acting as Master of Ceremonies. Stanley Tucci didn’t loan her his blue wig, but overall, Gaia’s always enjoyable to look at, so we’ll let it slide.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 6: We Will Rise Recap

~ Metacrone

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Almost exactly a year after Lincoln’s death, the Arkadians become an angry mob again, and someone ends up on their knees, waiting to be executed. This time, Octavia is the one holding the gun, and she’s forced to confront her dependence on violence and killing as a coping mechanism. Almost exactly a year after Lexa’s death, a stray arrow seems to kill the hope of creating more night bloods. It’s another disappointment in the long line of disappoints suffered while trying to find a way to survive the radiation.

It’s starting to rain as the Ark is burning. Jaha watches as the rain dampens the fire, and Arkadians start to salvage what they can. Jasper notes that it’s not Black Rain. This prompts Jaha to give us the show’s definition of Black Rain, because we are undoubtedly going to see it before long. Jaha says:

“When it comes it’ll be colorless. [Jasper: How will we know?] Pain. Chaos. Death.”

Jasper gives Jaha another of his patented nihilistic speeches and wanders off. Jaha hasn’t given up hope yet. I prefer Jaha to Jasper at this point, and that frightens me. Jaha looks down at the seal from the doomsday cult with the bomb shelter that wasn’t sealed. Jaha, I’m glad you’re still thinking about alternatives. Shouldn’t they be considering building bomb shelters, or looking for deep caves? Virginia is riddled with cave systems.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 5: The Tinder Box Recap

~ Metacrone

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Okay, let’s all breathe. This episode was a tough one. Arkadia’s Mama Bear and Science Genius are facing threats to their lives, and the Ark is gone. We knew it was coming, based on the Season 4 poster, but the enormity of the loss didn’t hit me until it was actually burning. They haven’t just lost a potential lifeboat. They’ve lost their homes, their possessions, their medical supplies, their computers and all of the generations of knowledge stored there, their weapons, their farming equipment that wasn’t outside, their food supplies, everything. I don’t understand why someone hasn’t already shot Ilian between the eyes, but, based on the fact that they cast a cute young male actor to play him, he’ll probably be with us for a while. Cute boys can be forgiven anything in the CW world, and often in our own. 😡

Abby, Jackson and Raven have taken over Becca’s lab to try to recreate night blood. Raven hallucinates herself floating, then has a grand mal seizure.

Back in Arkadia, Niylah has brought the food she dries for the group. The hunters have been less successful than usual, probably because the increasing radiation is killing off the bottom of the food chain. Clarke has given Niylah a radio, and makes sure she has it charged.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 4: A Lie Guarded Recap

~ Metacrone

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After I threatened to never speak of Jasper again in last week’s recap, he earned his keep this week, starting with the screen cap above. Yep, Jaha finally got floated. While I’m starting to feel like I need to post a Talking Dead-style “Who Did We Lose This Week and How?” montage every February and May, unfortunately Jaha wasn’t one of this week’s losses. He’s this series’ archvillain/cockroach, that guy they can never quite get rid of, and always want to find a way to redeem, because they see themselves in him. Or Isaiah Washington has an excellent contract lawyer whom the rest of the cast should hire immediately.

Instead, we lost another series-long recurring character this week, and the loss was barely acknowledged. I’ll look at that in more detail after the episode summary.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 4 Episode 15: Self Control Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Wow! This was one of the best episodes of the entire series. Such a roller coaster ride of plot and emotion. It was well-titled, with Self Control, in the sense of self-rule, being the theme of the night. Who was still in control of their very self, and who had been replaced by an LMD against their will? Who was really in charge of the submarine and the orders coming out of it? Sometimes humans are so easy to fool. Which humans could control their emotions and their bodies long enough to beat the LMDs?

The episode starts with the two sneak peaks that were released last week. Aida’s playing classic rock for her captives in order to increase their dopamine levels. She’s chosen one of Ivanov’s favorites, since he’s about to undergo a terrifying procedure involving a saw and him becoming many things.

Fitz and Simmons are panicking over the LMDs taking over the base. They’re trying to figure out a plan when the LMDs approach them for advice about Ivanov’s weapons capabilities. They intend to bring all of the inhumans to HQ, ostensibly to protect them, but really to kill them. They have a fleet of Daisybots in the basement waiting to be activated, then they’ll send them all out to greet the inhumans personally and execute each one.

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The 100 Season 4 Episode 3: The Four Horsemen Recap

~ Metacrone

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Things aren’t going well at Arkadia, as usual. They aren’t able to find and preserve enough food to store on the Ark for when the radiation comes, and they won’t be able to grow their own protein without a hydro generator. Raven takes a verbal shot at Bellamy for choosing to save people over the generator, but he tells her that he’s going to sacrifice himself anyway, so nothing she says is going to hurt him now. Raven turns to Clarke instead, to nag her about making a new list of 100 people, this time the ones who’ll get to be in the Ark on Doomsday. I love Raven, but she gets kind of stubborn, mean and single-minded when she’s in a bad mood. And she’s definitely in a bad mood this season.

The discussion is interrupted when Nyko, Luna and some of her people arrive at Arkadia suffering from Acute Radiation Sickness. They are looking for medical help from Skaikru. Luna has the grace to acknowledge that Skaikru has good reason to turn her away, and to beg them not to. Abby would never turn away anyone in need of medical help, and this group includes children, so they’re brought right in to the med bay. They tell Skaikru that all of Luna’s people are dead except the ones they’ve brought here, and the fish throughout the ocean are dying, as well. After Jackson examines the patients, he determines that the radiation sickness is from eating radioactive fish, rather than airborne radiation.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 4 Episode 14: The Man Behind the Shield Recap

~ Metacrone

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We open with Daisy and Coulson having a superfun sparring match, until Daisy kicks Phil too hard and he gets stuck in midair. I hate when that happens. They were in a mini Framework, designed for training exercises. When inside, agents can feel everything that’s happening as if it’s real. Phil notes that it was cold in the training room and Fitz tells him that Phil always leaves the base aircon set too low, so this is Fitz’s silent protest. I have a feeling that Fitz is quietly relentless with his silent protests, until the target is screaming for mercy.

The team discusses the larger version of the framework that May is in and possible ways to track its source code. Another agent comes in to tell them that they’ve found a GPS location for Mace’s suit in Nome, Alaska. The base is empty when SHIELD arrives, but Ivanov’s stalker wall on Coulson is still up. Coulson’s response: “This is why I don’t have Facebook.” Ivanov owns a mine that is pictured on the wall. It’s the location of one of Coulson and May’s early missions. The team sets off for the mine.

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