REACHER season two brings more context to the story, it feels nice when you watch a TV series with proper story structure, season one was full of action with very little of who Reacher really is, all we knew was that he was in the army, he is fucking tank you don’t mess with and is one of the good guys, but there were a few questions like why really he stop giving a fuck about everything and decided to disappear, no phone, no address, travel light, on his own words that is all Reacher was.
Season 2 brings more context by starting to develop what that part of his life was, Mayor Reacher had a crew, he was running a team of special investigators who he selectively hand pick, at first things did not make sense to most of the but everyone was there for a reason and not just random guys from all over the army, Reacher is like the final version of the Hulk, when Bruce Banner finally understood Hulk as an improvement and not a disease, that’s Reacher, the final version of the Hulk and it would be nice to see him working hard than usual, suffer a bit, may be would be nice to see some one giving him a proper fight one to one, season two starts with the death of Calving Franz, member of this old crew the 100th unit, Franz was torture and then thrown off a helicopter, not a cheap death so must be a high profile case he was after, Reacher now comes in to get to the bottom of this murder and make sure justice is serve in the name of his friend.
It would not be a Reacher episode without a proper kick ass, Reacher was minding his own business, buying a change clothe at a local store by the pound, it was funny that he even change clothe there and the puts the old one on the counter LOL, he sees this women doing multiple withdraws from an ATM and simple ask her if she has been carjacked, not sure how he got to that conclusion but most of the time you don’t care, when you watch this type of series or movies like John Wick all you want is massive shooting, kick ass fights, break some stuff and that’s is what Reacher is all about, they complement with a story but this is the perfect sample of a proper Reacher kick ass scene, if not the series would be very boring watch a big guy like him just doing investigator job. Reacher is like Bruce Banner transform into the Hulk but with a bit more of attitude and sarcasm, at the end he ask the kid if he wants to see his mom? jajajaja very funny scene.
An old friend and crew member, Frances Neagley; was trying to reach him since he had no where to be contacted at, as a last resource she use a clever way to send a distress call using his bank account, so when he pick up the recipe from the ATM, a deposit of $1.10 and then balance went to $1,030, this are the kind of things only people from the army of where the use this codes frequently are aware of on their daily routine, its like if I see 127.0.0.1 on my mind that’s HOME. Neagley the women with Reacher at the phone wanted to notify him Franz was murdered.
Episode one brings Mayor Reacher, Special Investigator crew to the scene, they were few but very well selected by Reacher himself, trying to be as efficient as possible, some of the them like young blood David O’Donell had no clue how such team will work out, Reacher had his doubts too but things started on the right foot after they all witness Reacher had their back no matter what.
Reacher catch up with Neagley during breakfast after he flight to New York where she is at, a lot has happen since he has been out, this crew probably understood he wanted to be alone or that he didn’t care anymore, its either one of the two so they didn’t put that much effort to contact him but this time was different, one of them has been torture and murdered, not an event to swallow that easy so Neagley did everything she could to contact him. Episode one was either very predictable or its a trap for the viewer, right out of the start they are been follow everyone and two guys monitoring them, we see the one following them with the list of Reacher crew members, who do they work for? are they government? are they with the people who kill Franz? who the fuck they are?, if you ask any viewer the first though would be they are with the bad guys.
On top, Reacher calls O’donnell and told him where is he and Neagley are staying, latter on he shows up after Neagley’s room was turn apart, so it’s either some one else who is listening to their calls who did it or O’donnel is with the bad guys? see all the possibilities and outcomes of episode one? I’m 200% sure we will see some sort of treason against Reacher in the upcoming episodes, because some one who knows him and his ex crew is after them, Franz was the first victim.
Reacher is all about been just and defending the little one, even though the entire crew is mention on episode one there is very little known about them besides Neagley and O’donnell, she even mention Karla Dixon from Reacher crew that he liked her but never had anything with her because he was running the team, seem wrong for him, that kind of just guy. The rest of the crew only fill the space even Franz didn’t said much during the episode.
Remember how I said Reacher had their back? it was this scene where they got into a bar fight because it was a “officers only” bar and Neagley was Sergeant, that evening started boring, they didn’t know each other, O’donnell was constantly running his mouth about the rest, even Dixon said leaving after her first beer but it was that fight that make the crew stick together and bond at a camp fire, singing, drinking, that night Neagley probably became Reacher right hand, after all that is what he was looking for, a tight crew that stick together not a bunch of military police doing what they were told to do at the military.
Within the possible bad guys there is Mr. Mount who is always reading a comic book, using fake passports as he burn the one he was holding during this scene to then buy a few more from a random guy who makes them, it even makes me think he he has nothing to do with the other two guys from before, on this episode their names were not mention but I look them up on IMDB, there is also O’donnell who for the time is with Reacher but I don’t trust anyone other than Neagley for now.
After some data they found on a USB that Franz left behind, btw the USB had a password and it was Reacher, Franz always wanted to be like him. Reacher comes to the conclusion that they are after his old crew so they decided to get in contact with who ever they could, decided to visit Swan and found his dog Maisi dead, dehydrated, makes Reacher think Swan is dead too because he would not let this happen if he was able to come home.
Episode 1 of Reacher, Season 2; was great, not only we got two short kick as fight scenes, I would like the bar fight to show more but it was only to make a point, there is even a third fight, not really fight, where Reacher jump some local drug dealers just to release some steam, still great episode and I think the rating of 8.5/10 talks by itself, the entire season two has been release and most episodes have high scores, for me it is only and indicative although I don’t make my opinion out of review scores, after all something that I think can be solve if this sites run on a blockchain but that is a project I have in mind for the future since I’m not a developer.
Going back to the episode since I was getting out of track, this episode leaves a lot of questions, different than your traditional first episode where new characters are presented properly with some background, this time its a bit different since they were all mention but besides Neagley we are left knowing very little about the rest, it was a nine member crew, there is a lot to be unfold for the next seven episodes and this is something I have been thinking about, the amount of episodes for a good story is at minimum eight, best if its a ten episode season but I have notice that anything below six sux most of the time. I’m glad season two is this good, yes it still has that cliche of the big dumb guy who brakes stuff but not really, its different, smart big good guy who brakes stuff, not your usual army related tv series.
I have to say that from a point a view compared to previous season one might think they ran out of ideas but the truth is that I think this is going to be the last season and it would be fine if it is, after all going to Mars has been the ultimate planet to conquer and so far here we are stuck at Earth, after getting to Mars on season three now they want to develop the idea of what would be building up a colony in the red planet for this to happen other tech need to advance exponentially like they engines they constantly talk about since season two because it would not be possible, aka one of the reasons we are still on Earth; on this episode they mention that workers going to Mars is at least a two year tour. So far the main topic of the episode/season is mining the space, most likely on Mars there wont be the same minerals necessary to build infrastructure now the crew that grew into a small town called Happy Valley looks for new options and recently discover a meteorite with tons of minerals mostly metal that would serve to build this infrastructure they talk about, we might think why not import it from Earth or other close planets and I guess transport is a one problem, second importing from Earth would be like exploding one planet that is already hurt to build a second one, the most efficient way to move forward with this is to leave Earth alone and let it heal, at least to me this are they things that make series like this attractive to me, imagine what could be and how may happen, they all using suits at Mars when going outside so when are they going to create an atmosphere? an on going topic on many Sci-Fi series.
On this post I wanted to try something different, I have been looking how to make it more attractive and describe scenes not just with a screenshot and a long text that most people are not interested in reading so I thought make it more visually descriptive, so basically you get the idea right from the images and words remain as my opinion and not necessary describing the entire scene also try to reduce the amount of snapshots on one post, it took me twice the time compare to my previous posts but it was a lot of fun, this are two things I like editing images and writing.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Happy Valley has grown since season three and now is looking to expand, bringing in workers from Earth to start building that infrastructure, on this episode on a few scenes we an see things like the dorms are like small room of metal and everything is interconnected by cylinders, a small modular city, most likely the big dome the one that looks darker might be the main entrance and to the left another white dome but smaller I guess could be control center, usually all those bigger cylinders to the right are use to grow plants and fish, self sustain quadraphonic systems, I think its very unlikely the season give a tour of Happy Valley but for sure will start to see the different sections through the episodes.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Main character Edwin Baldwin comes back with his good old soviet cosmonaut friend Grigory, Edwin is now Captain in charge of the ship that will take the asteroid to Mars and Grigory the man who sets food first in the asteroid and start deploying a platform that will anchor the rock to the ship so it can be push to Mars. Edwin looks very old and I have to say for some reason the way he looks old has a vibe like he age under a different environment, I guess if humans every life in another planet at first might live longer because you are not going to get all the pollution, contamination, food probably healthier or at least under a better control, if you look at them both look very old but like they are still rolling and kicking.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
At first things look very simple but from the start I felt this was going to be more complicated than normal, only those you have jerry rig things with duct tape and zip ties will have a better understanding without having to be an engineer, before getting into that part, Grigory from the start turn on Edwin’s yet when he is about to jump to the asteroid he mention how Edwin is always second, this makes reference to the first time Edwin got close to the moon on season one he hesitate and lost the opportunity to be the first man to land on the moon, this open the Pandora Box to a never ending sensation of been second and continuously taking very high risks on missions, some times necessary some other not so much and the outcome of this risk not always pays off but its the times that work make people feel they can get away wit it again.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
The asteroid has a series of cables attack to it with anchors but from the start of the episode you can tell the asteroid is not so compact, when Grigory touch it for the first time or when they set the anchors the surface crumbles also the structure they use to push the asteroid seems to thin and long also small compare to the size of the rock, speculating not that I know anything about space ships you will need a good amount of torque to create momentum to push and then enough tension on the cables for both push and then slow down, the cables work as net that traps the rock, if the cables become loose then the long thin structure that connects the ship with the rock will wobble or even snap.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
As I was watching the episode I started to get the feeling of what was going to happen the excited part was what are they going to do under such circumstances, Edwin is in charge so there is no way he is going to loose the rock, besides they are paying them a bonus to get the rock to Mars, probably big enough to risk their life, cables start to become loose as the asteroid crumbles and anchors detach, the torque generated by the ship makes the platform unstable on the asteroid side.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Grigory and Tom who work setting up the platform as the asteroid decide to go out and try to set the cables back in place to keep the tension but this was ridiculous, they facing a platform the size of the building, first they need to stop the wobble if the platform doesn’t kill them first and then set the cables back in place, stopping and object in space is not the same as stooping a car, there is no grip so things don’t just stop when propulsion cuts off, not only the structure they build look stupid but now their plan to fix it is worst, that’s exactly what happens, Tom and Gregory didn’t make it to episode two so right from the start they cut off two characters, Tom gets stab from the back by part of the structure that snap and Grigory leg is trapped plus in the process his suit rips and now has a hole in it on top of that he didn’t recharge his oxygen this leaves him with very little oxygen to breath and time to be rescue, Edwin had no other option to detach the ship from the asteroid and let Grigory die.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
NASA is piss off at Edwin, not the first time his risky maneuvers don’t pay off well and now they are looking into replace him, besides he has been for too long, other pilots are either dead or back at Earth and he is the only OG that remain in Mars, his step daughter Kelly and her son are waiting for him but its always excuse after excuse for not coming back, he probably feels there is nothing exciting at Earth besides could also be a bit hurt after his ex wife died on season three when the NASA building suffer a terrorist attack with a bomb that killed her also brought down half of the building. Eli is the man in charge of NASA and calls in Danielle, she is a great pilot that knows the boundaries not like Edwin and for this reasons they had their arguments in the past, Eli calls her to offer Danielle to replace Edwin, she at first didn’t want to but then start to reconsider.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
The Queen of Darkness, as Molly another ex pilot use to call her; Margo, ex NASA director is at Russia, I suspect this after she got blackmail by the Russians because she gave them Aleida engines design in exchange they don’t hurt Sergei the ex Russian Space Program director, probably to avoid been judge for treason too, she move to Russia and is suppose to be a consultant but they don’t want her in the program, she constantly feel some one is after her, watching her, spying on her and seems she was right, every day she goes to the same park and eats at a bench and all of the sudden this lady start talking to her and ends up with “I know you” like we have been watching you, is she with the Russians? is she with a US agency?
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Last but not least, Miles, a man who has been a worker all his life, experience with machines on construction sites, who has financial problems and also problems at home with his wife wanting to divorce due to the chaos that is their financial situation, it looks like she feels Miles either can’t or don’t want to solve this financial problems, in a desperate decision he decides to look for a job at the moon after a friend told him they hiring but when he gets to the interview face the problem that it takes months for him to get trained and go up there to what he can’t wait, as a last resource he is offer a job at Mars, high risk high reward; its more time but few want the job.
For All Mankind: Glasnost – Season 04 – Episode 01 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Both Miles an Danielle take the job, Danielle on her way to Happy Valley to get things under control, I don’t think she is going to get there with the I’m The Boss attitude since she knows very well Edwin, she will try to help him get the mining mission complete so he can come back home but I think she doesn’t know she probably traveling with her worst nightmare, Miles gives me the impression is going to become a pain in the ass at first been the new Edwin Baldwin in terms of doing things how he wants to.
Episode one of season four was mostly focus on a single scene, this is expected because on this type of series is hard you get actions more than two action scenes during the episode after all they are in space, this is not star wars where you got extreme unrealistic ships that move at the speed of light, things happen at a certain pace. Its nice that if this is the last season Edwin the main star of the show close it with his last mission and I hope he doesn’t die, the shots at space look awesome this is a tv series with a good quality both the story and scenes are very good, both on a big screen say 50 inch tv the spaces scenes look awesome and with a VR headset even better, over all this is one of my favorite series in the past five years, top 10 for me.
Not everything is great, there are things I did not enjoy much like both the structure that they build to push the asteroid, it was build to fail; and their plan to get it back together, may be in the moment of the heat you wont notice this things because your dopamine is through the roof, specially using VR headset; with all the space scenes and the depth of things on the black void, but their plan to fix the structure was very stupid, they should have never go out, at best Edwin had to try to stop the asteroid from moving first if not let it go because one way or another the structure was going to break, it flex but the movement was too drastic and the arms snap that’s why Tom was killed.
It took me some time to create this post, a couple of hours; taking all this images, editing, putting them together to make some sense takes way more time than it took me to make a regular post but I do like it and enjoy it more, creating posts for me is the fun part of Hive, I’m not really after getting upvotes but its nice when people do and show appreciation for the time I put on my posts, profits I let that to my investment and up voting others people post.
I was giving some though yesterday to Secret Invasion after I found this ratings from Rotten Tomato on Twitter, re post it on Inleo (Here Post) , I understand the MCU have basically spoil many generations since 2008 when the first MCU movie came out, Iron Man; its like they started strong kicking ass with mainstream human super heroes, then move to space exposing other species out of earth, the move into some mystic practices with my LOVELY Scarlett Witch and Dr. Strange so its natural that at some point in time they will give us other type of super hero, a more down to earth mortal like Nick Fury, they guy after all is very smart and can see things coming before others, we also now are aware that many of this skills he develop the time he had all this Skrulls spying on humans, believe it or not that’s how you get wise, going through many experiences good and bad you start building up this library of knowledge of what humans are capable under different situations, that’s why you never finish knowing some one until you have been through multiple situation even better when this situations are one worst than the other, that is who Nick Fury is a very wise, smart guy but human after all, they compare it to other MCU productions that could have exploited better like the Quantum Realm, Eternals I think run out of time just too long of story and recent Marvels, this I can understand it been more of a comedy similar to Thor movies but with still some action.
So its been two or three minutes complaining why this series has such bad ration but for me its fine, its a good watch although at times the story feels crunch but that’s how we humans are, never satisfied. Episode four Ghia becomes a Super Skrull without anyone knowing, this are the things I feel are crunch, the episode is full of disappointment and betray, remember how Gravik gave Talos the last sign of respect on previous episode well on episode four he fucks him up, Skrulls are deep into the US Government but no body knows because it goes all over to the top.
Ghia save her ass by the skin of her teeth after Gravik find out she is the mole within his organization and set her up, she tries to escape but he was lurking around the compound and found her, he didn’t think twice before putting a bullet to her chest but lucky her without anyone knowing turn herself into a Super Skrull to this I have a few complains:
Was it that simple, jump into the machine and no side effects?
Then why Gravik didn’t turn his best soldiers into Super Skrulls and only him?
Shen turns on this machine that takes all that power and no body notice
This are the kind of questions that might trigger hard core fans and critics, yes its TV/Fantasy but you need to have all this details on the table for the more than your average viewer stay satisfied, for others viewers that are not so much into details and let the dopamine do all the work distracting them with Ghia regenerating her glowing chest while quickly showing how she because a Super Skrull in a few flash backs, for this second type of viewers that’s fine.
Disappointment, thats what Fury feels when he finds out his wife Priscila, a Skrull; is talking to Rhodey who is in fact a Skrull working for Gravik, there is no body he can trust at this point, Fury had a suspicion Priscilla had something to do with Gravik while he was gone, after all it was her who brought Gravik to Fury when he lost his parents, she did try to persuade Rhodey not to kill Fury explaining he was not a threat but orders are orders and they both have to follow them.
We did get more details on how Fury and Priscilla end up been married, even how she took her face, Fury really love her for who she was still understanding that he was involve with a shape shifting Skrull that could put in danger his career and agency, now his life. Fury love very much Priscilla and she too, that is why she never stop trying to protect Fury from Gravik and now they coming for her, she doesn’t kill Fury and they both let go and continue to work as a team and a couple but Fury knows he has to put his foot down and go all in if he wants to get Gravik.
More disappointment, this time from both Ghia and her father Talos, who was the original Skrull commander on Earth when they got there, he was suppose to get a home to the million Skrulls that fled with him to Earth but things got complicated and he never found out a way to accomplish that task, they had no infrastructure, no land, they were unknown guests with no rights on the planet, hiding behind a mask and Gravik was the result of all that time when Talos couldn’t get them a place where they could be themself without hiding, Ghia is now a target and ask him what is his plan but Talos plan remain the same, been friends with the humans until they accept them but she is of the same thought as Fury, that’s not going to happen so she call him delusional after hearing how she still truly believes that Humans and Skrulls can live together on Earth.
Fury pays a visit to Rhodey and I guess his plan was to shake him up by bluffing, he probably thought Rhodey would become nervous when he tells him he confirm that there were Skrulls in the Goverment close to the president, like oh shit he discover me but that same as how Ghia became a super Skrull was lame, Rhodey is a shame shifter and unless Fury shoot him or cut him up to prove he got his Skrull ass expose then he would not accept it, on the other hand he is the one that intimidate Fury with footage from Russia when Gravik change into Fury and shoot Maria, got that on video so in case Fury attempts anything against him, well that back fire badly.
Secret Invasion probably would have been best if it was a movie and not a mini series if they were going rush things, comes the best action scene of the entire mini series so far, Gravik’s plan to kill the US president rolls out and Rhodey gets him the president right where he wanted him but they underestimate Fury and Talos, from this scene my complain is why Gravik was the only Super Skrull and IF it was because of lack of DNA samples to mix it with other Skrulls then WHY Gravik or anyone else within the lab project found out that there were missing DNA when Ghia turn herself into a Super Skrull??? see lots of fucking details misssing.
Gravik did manage get very close to kill the president but if it wasn’t for Talos and Fury the US President would be toast, the car flips upside down and there was no anyone else than Talos break the bullet proof glass, the US President was locked up inside, pass out, but Talos was hit that’s why he lost his human face.
Whit all the shooting Gravik manage to shape shift into one of the US Soldiers and got close to Talos, this was in purpose because he probably felt that if he could not kill the US President at least he will cut for good the ties between Fury and Skrulls by killing Talos, he could have kill him before, even on last episode but I feel Gravik respected Talos very much but it was time to demonstrate the others who is in charge now, consider Skrulls fighting for him will see his failure as weakness as any other soldier would, with his super powers Gravik had the chance to wipe out the entire field of soldiers if he wanted but he didn’t because he want it too look like it was the Russians so a War could start between humans and not with Skrulls.
Fury tries to stop Gravik but he miss twice, same as Talos to Gravik there was an attachment from Fury to Gravik so he probably didn’t want him dead the first time he shoot him and then got close shooting him in the face, from Gravik face that piss him off like really? kill me? I mean he killed Fury’s best friend Talos, Gravik regenerates and gets away, Fury had to leave behind Talos since he got the US President inside his car, fight between US Soldiers and Skrull kept going and the episode end, at least they should have waited for the fight to be over or Skrulls surrender so they both get out of there because when Skrulls are hurt or killed they loose their human face meaning soldiers find out they were Skrulls but no body said anything until Talos was shoot, were the rest of Gravik army just regular humans? more missing details.
Even though Secret Invasion is fine for me I think MCU fans not like me, I’m more of an average viewer who appreciate entertainment but MCU fans who come from the comics might need more details about the story and don’t feel its rush because from my perspective that’s the only problem of the story, again an average viewer opinion; episode four is the pinnacle of missing details, things that happen or didn’t happen without a reason, but at least I have to say I enjoy the first half when Fury and Talos get their pride slap by their most love ones, Priscilla who was probably on Gravik’s side until it was proven she was not because Fury’s life was on the line if he decided love over his life and Ghia calls his father delusional after he explain her he was still firm on the plan to coexist with humans. Until that point the episode felt like a solid 7/10 but then starts to fall with some none sense like Fury trying to scare Rhodey with revealing he is a Skrull and then Gravik been the only Super Skrull because to be honest I though there were going to be a fucking bunch of them wiping the entire field but I get his intentions was to make it look like it was the Russians but then again why reveal his powers? that was a very childish move from him as a “General” it was that plus his respect to Talos and Fury make him look like he still the same kid that use to work for them.
The only reason this episode remains as a 7/10 for me is because the shooting part safe it, the way Talos was there to rescue the president, how the soldier got spoke when he saw Talos changing back to his natural look and Fury had to intervene all that in the middle of the shooting safe this episode if not could have easily fall into a 6/10. I feel we will continue to watch all this MCU content because its from our times, anyone 30 years old and higher but I think for newer generations is not appealing anymore and thats why they are about to reboot many of this productions to keep milking the cow.
I don’t think, I’m certain this is the most brutal episode I have seen on this series so far, season two of The Wheel of Time pick up the pace episode by episode, as always I’m just a regular viewer, not an expert and have no opinion about the books, I’m not the reading guy but still here I’m writing a blog.
On episode two you will fell the pain and agony of some of the characters, I think at some point even Rand shows how impotent he feels with all this power but still has no clue how to use it or control it, on the other hand there is Egwene how now has a better understanding how to weave and use The One Power but unfortunately she falls into the hands of the Seanchan, given as a Damane to Renna who now controls the leash and now way to escape from her d’ama, a device so powerful that can’t be broken and looks like it feeds from the power of the damane protecting the sul’dam, the one holding the leash in this case Renna, I mention all this about Egwene because she is the one that turns the jets on this episode.
Episode six is like the season exploded in pieces, like it was holding so much information and now even though there are scenes that only have a couple of minutes it goes one after another in an adrenaline rush that you keep asking for more drama, for more fight, more blood, more use of the one power, it is this moment when more than one character shows their power but I think the main reason is been so expose to an enemy like the Seanchan. As I mention there is a rush of feelings going on through the episode because other characters like Liandrin, Ryma, Maigan, Siuan, they all suffer one way of another, some are even torture, broken from the inside once they are under the leash, episode six is really a jewel of season two.
On episode five Moiraine understood that Rand doesn’t need her protection, Selene/Lanfear is in love with him, that’s their never ending story, both are entities that reincarnate in the case of Rand although Lanfear never dies she can only be contain so she does remember every time this exact same thing happens, every time the Dragon is Reborn and at some moment in his life she meets him again, the most easy way for Rand to contact Lanfear is in the world of dreams but she feels Lanfear is going to hurt him or worst kill him, Rand is outgun at Lanfear world of dreams but he is safe, Lanfear wants him with her, for her, so he can trust her, she wont hurt him in exchange Rand ask her to help him in Ishamael to that she puts one condition, NO MOIRAINE.
Lanfear explicitly tells Rand that if she sees Moiraine next to him she will kill her so he had to go away, from her house, Rand feels now that more than ever he needs to wild his power and be able to control it, some times Moiraine is a bitch too, he will visit the only man who can teach him, Logain; but then she told him SHE put him away from the Tower so he never be able to teach him but that’s not true, Logain knows now that all this happening, him and Rand at the same place its Moiraine’s work.
Thanks to Moiraine now Lanfear can reach Rand anytime he sleeps, he keeps having nightmares of how he keels everyone he loves, at least that the curse of men who wild The One Power, Ishamael is also a dream walker and torment Rand but Lanfear protects him now, she even grand him a wish, she ask Rand who he would like to see and he ask for Egwene, Lanfear shows him the cell she is in, she looks beaten, no shows, desperate and Egwene can hear him but cant see him, this broke him and now is determine to safe her. Lanfear gets jealous when he ask her where Egwene is but still tells him Ishamael got her and THATS when Rand makes a pact with the devil, he tells Lanfear he will do anything to rescue her basically asking Lanfear help me and I’m yours.
Talking about making pacts with the devil there are a few rules, first rule is you can’t take it back if you try you will suffer the concurrences and most of the time before you get what you ask for you will go through a series of extreme suffering that will leave a permanent mark in your soul.
This is exactly what happens to Liandrin when Lanfear pays her a visit, I think Lanfear doesn’t know all the details of Ishamael plans and knows Liandrin is working for him, although the oath was not to Ishamael but to the Dark, she kills Liandin’s son Aludran in front of her, a way to bully the powerful Liandrin, showing her she is not on the same league as Lanfear, then she tells Liandrin “there are many paths to walk through the night” , I think what she is trying to tell Liandrin is that she doesn’t work for Ishamael but for the Dark, in this case Liandrin represents the Dark Power while Ishamael is just a messenger, I’m sure Lanfear is doing all this to help Rand, Lanfear is on the same side as Ishamael but doesn’t work with or for him.
Lets get to the meat and potatoes of episode six, Renna and Egwene. Renna is a Seanchaw in Falme, I always say I’m ok with inconsistencies and in this case looking up who was Renna I find out a particular fact online about the book, Renna held Egwene leash after she was collar and on the series she let Egwene kept her name but on the book she didn’t she change Egwene name to Tuli and some other details that are different in the story, point been Renna was Egwene’s d’man who really wanted to be on Egwene good side so they can be one making them the strongest couple in the entire army but Egwene refuse and kept trying to release her.
Renna kept trying to be on Egwene good side and one day show her how powerful they can be together, that was the first time they channel together, Renna must have some kind of power too, probably she cant channel as Egwene but there is something between them or its just the collar and the leash that creates the bridge between them, Egwene felt it but she also felt something else and I think it was Renna help, I still believe that she can some how channel but may be they were not though how to. On the series not many details are given on how exactly the a’dam work only the obvious.
The A’dam is design to protect the one holding the leash, you know how you can also sin of though, well the a’dam very well brings that to life, the Damane cant get her hands on anything she thinks can use to damage her sul’dam, Renna test for Egwene was very simple, serve me a glass of water, Egwene constantly failed, she has to be pure of though before she can even serve Renna a glass of water, on the next cell was Maigan Sedai who was send by the Amyrlin Seat to scout the Seanchan but eventually got caught and collar, she mention how Egwene lasted more than her and she was a Blue Ajah, to become a Damane they have to be pure of though against her sul’dam, this break Egwene soul the moment she was able to serve Renna a glass of water.
When Nynaeve and Elayne escape from High Lady Suroth after been betrayed by Liandrin, they went after Egwene ending in Falme where Ryma Sedai got them first before the Seanchaw army who was looking for them through the city and kept patrolling the city looking for any infiltrates, Nynaeve tells Ryma about Liandrin how she is friends with the dark and have broken her oath, she also tells about Egwene been collar and want to rescue but Ryma makes them aware of the collar that so far no one have broke out of it, the three Ryma, Nynaeve and Elayne channel together without pushing too much power into the collar so others Damane cant detect them, the only one who felt something more was Nynaeve she actually understand the collar, its like the collar is ill or curse and the only way to be fix or heal is by putting it to a women, in this case a women that channel and it CAN NOT be broken.
The local patrol discover their hide out, they felt the power, both Ryma and her warden Basan sacrifice themself trying to stop the Seanchan before they discover Nynaeve and Elayne, this fight was also very brutal both when Ryma explode in tears after Basan was killed, how she almost turn into a ball the Sul’dan that killed him but they were out number, after so long she finally would join her sister Maigan Sedai after been collar.
Rand is about to go to Falme and rescue Egwene, he knows Ishamael will be waiting for him that’s why he got his hands on Egwene, probably he was only willing to get Nynaeve and drag Rand to flame after capturing her through Liandrin but he end up with Egwene that would still work for him, Rand visits Logain so he could teach him how to channel but its too little time and too soon, channeling is something that takes time and in the case of Rand he needs to be very careful if you will blow into dust after taking too much power, on this scene Logain only tells him the start but Rand goes further taking too much power and ends up puking, this was very lame in my opinion because right after this he decides to still rescue Egwene knowing he is no match for Ishamael and has no control over his powers.
Mat is now in Cairhien after Min brought him, she was instructed by Liandrin and Ishamael in exchange she ask him to get rid of her visions, all her life her visions were curse that make her life miserable after been used as a fortune teller since she was a kid, not only that but seen other people die before they even get to know each other, she saw Mat killing Rand and still betray him. Mat and Rand found each other in the streets on Cairhein then had a drink but Rand had to tell him the truth because he was in a hurry, so both agree to got to Falme and rescue Egwene, another stupid idea, the two will safe Egwene from a place flooded by Seanchan besides the fact that is Ishamael is waiting for them.
Mat agrees with Rand to meet at the gate in one hour, before Mat leaves with Rand he visits Min to let her know but she is drunk, she was visited by Ishamael, he ask her to make sure Mat leaves with Rand and realize they both know about her vision, Ishamael break their deal and ask her to do this one last thing, she gets drunk and when Mats get to tell her he is leaving with Rand tells him the truth, Mats is broken, after loosing everything and his friends he is and feels betrayed by Min who he truly consider a friend, Mat doesn’t have a good record when feeling down, the last time he felt this way end up been consume by the dark power inside a knife and that’s what I thought it was going to happen because Min vision is that Mat kills Rand with the knife but no body knows when, where and why, Mat gets pissed off and leaves the room but never left Cairhein with Rand who after waiting more than an hour decides to leave without Mat.
The Amyrlin Seat, Siaun Sanche, leader of the Aes Sedai arrive to Cairhein after Lan confess to her about Moiraine plans that she have found The Dragon Reborn, he betray Moiraine trust by doing this but he was trying to protect her from herself, Moiraine was decided to die if necessary to protect Rand but without the help of The White Tower, she didn’t want them to cage him like an animal and use him as a weapon, when The Amyrlin Seat knows she put together fourteen Aes Sedai in Cairhein a very unusual move but her plan is to capture Rand for this she brings all her sister’s power in case Rand turns out to be more skill than she thought.
I have seen longer posts on Hive but this is a new record for me, not all of this is part of my imagination as I’m just giving my opinion on the different scenes. Episode six of The Wheel of Time feels as I mention, very brutal specially the scenes of Liandrin loosing her son, how Lanfear catch her Liandrin attack when she got into the room like it was nothing, that moment she knows there is no chance she can even touch Lanfear after all she is one of the most dangerous and powerful forsaken and then had to watch how Lanfear kills her son, the reason why she betray her sisters and broke her oath, because if we think about it yes Liandrin doesnt like anyone at the white tower and if it was for her she would be in charge and only Red Aes Sedai existed but wouldn’t betray them if it wasn’t for her son that was dying so seen Lanfear kill him broke Liandrin badly, Lanfear also remind her of why she doesn’t like men and its because she was force to get married very little basically abuse by men at a very young age that’s why she hate so much men specially those that can channel like Logain. All the scenes where Egwene was force against her will to obey, act and thought, was very difficult to digest, all that power contain, how she feels incapable of doing anything to get free of the collar, every time she tries to take it off, attack Renna or even get close to her or touch something she might think to use against Renna the collar push her making her twist and puke out of pain, ironically Renna kept trying to be “her friend” even showing her how powerful they can be together but at the same time treating Egwene as her powerful pet on a leash and the moment when she finally serve the cup and then screams out of her lungs. Episode six reveal many details of both sides plans:
Lan tells The Amyrlin Seat, Moiraine plans and about Rand (The Dragon Reborn)
Lanfear gets on Rand side, helping him against Ishamael
Ryma learns about Liandrin treason, even probably why her sisters got caught at Falme
It was Liandrin who kept talking about the invation and probably why Ryma end up in Falme
Mat finally knows Min set him up to meet with Rand
It was secret after secret reveal almost every scene, not much fighting and action happen across the episode except for Ryma and her warden fighting the Seanchan army so I guess the next two episodes will have more fighting and action, even some more treason between sides, there were some scenes that I didn’t mention because I felt they were not as important, for example there as an argument between Moiraine and her sister about her been Moiraine and not giving a shit about anyone when she is busy, also how Lan was basically force to tell the truth about why he wanted to go to Cairhein that was to visit Moiraine but when Alanna and her two warden threat to kill him if he didn’t tell the truth Lan gave up so they caught up with The Amyrlin Seat, it was not on her plans to visit Cairhein and setup such a great force of all her sisters until she knew The Dragon Reborn was probably there, Lan snitching on Moiraine was very shitty of him because one way or another he betray her trust, you got to sink with the ship when it comes to trust.
Compare to other Marvel TV Series Secret Invasion in my opinion is not bad as people might think but for sure not its best work, there is not much action until now, its more about an espionage TV Series and probably the way it should be because besides Skrulls on this story there are no super heroes with powers or a suit and I think that’s the way it was intended just humans against the infiltrated Skrulls from Gravik.
Episode three is just that, start to unveil the traitors on both sides from the Gravik camp and the more divided humans group leading Nick Fury but just way too divided between MI6, US Government, after all Skrulls is probably the main reason humans are so divided, its the result of many years work dividing to conquer that was exactly what Gravik was looking for and he is now Skrull General after getting the full support from the Skrulls counsel after showing he does have what it got to make Earth the home they were looking for and convincing them that it wont be achieve by been friends with humans but by making them go against each other at war while Skrulls just watch humans become extinct, it will be very hard for Nick Fury to stop this plan but he has Talos on his side and I think this war wont be won by force but by out smart the enemy.
Back when Gravik was chosen as Skrull General there was a few of them that were not too sure of his methods, Skrulls are a pacific species and those who had to fled their home know how bad war could turn out for them, if they loose to humans it could be game over, at the end I think that’s going to be the card that make Nick win this war against Gravik, show other Skrulls how wrong is Gravik at fighting humans instead of living together in peace with the option to stay on Earth or find another planet to claim.
Initially Gravik plan was to infiltrate humans thing that he did perfectly at taking hostage the Captain in charge of a submarine with missiles probably powerful enough to do a lot of damage or at least enough as Nick said to start World War III, with the help of Talos he was able to stop the launch, Talos is a bit against killing people specially Skrulls but this time he was the one pulling the trigger when the Skrull rebel mention his daughter what brings to mind if he knows/suspects G’iah is providing information to Talos then Gravik must too.
Sonya is helping Nick too, they might not be from the same agency or country but its on their best interest win this war against Skrulls, she is aware of whats going on even a few steps against Nick with the intel that she has but is aware that at times they might need to exchange intel to move forward not like Rhodey who thinks Nick needs to stay out of all this situation.
Talos is just too good of a guy but his feelings were hurt on episode two after he had to revile Nick there were a million Skrulls on Earth, he never lied about it to never told Nick, what he did make clear is that Nick would not be promoted or successful as he was at S.H.I.E.L.D if he didn’t have Talos and his network of Skrull spies working with him probably the reason why he was always always miles away up front, I can only imagine how Fury had the agency itself infiltrated because the feeling has always been that Fury is a fucking ghost, a ninja that no body else knows how he is many steps ahead before things happen and now Talos reminds him of this but most important Talos shows Fury he is his true friend, despite him been a Skrull or Human he is his friend before any difference but he wanted to feel special too or at least equal and made Fury beg him for help just a bit to make it fun.
Talos had this meeting with Gravik where they were playing a lot of mind games, I think Gravik has some respect for Talos as he was probably the original Skrull General at Earth when they arrive also Talos was there when Fury brought in Gravik to work for him but from this meeting things definitely going to change, Gravik show Talos how many Skrulls are with him when every single one on that room shape shift into Gravik, this is a way to show Talos who rules now and his last sign of respect to him, Talos was lucky Gravik didn’t kill him on the spot.
Skrulls can regenerate but I think its not instant although before Talos goes he stab Gravik on his hand and left but after Gravik pull his hand from the knife instead of taking it off, spliting his hand in too and then instantly regenerate with his hand glowing like generating energy or fire, sign that he already mutate results of their experiments for Super Skrulls with the machine that appears on this post cover.
Gravik has convince a big part of the Skrulls community on Earth including having the Skrull Counsel on his side either by force or not so this probably puts him in the same position as when Fury had his private Skrull Spies Network, so for sure no body is ahead of him, probably he might not be as sharp as Fury because he is young and lack the same experience, eventually his finds out Ghia was working with her father Talos, after some of the Skrulls got caught in Russia he know someone was feeding information and it was just a matter to use the right bait to get the traitor, the plan to launch the missiles on the submarine was that, the bait to lure out the traitor, he probably did trust Ghia at first but for sure always had that suspicion that she might betray him. When Ghia tries to leave camp he was there waiting for her, he was probably had people monitoring her all day, Gravik shoot Ghia and she falls to the ground, I don’t think she is dead but she makes that sound when they shape shift after falling meaning at least she is knock out.
Last but I think most important I think, its that Fury wife who is a Skrull, who told to his face that she has nothing to do with Gravik is now looking for him and potentially have to do with Gravik plans. She was the one who brought Gravik to Fury back in the day so she probably have some attachment to him since she took him over, probably consider him a son and consider she is a Skrull after all, even though she got involve with Fury they are not the same species, blood calls blood.
I feel like Secret Invasion is going to ramp up a lot after episode three, Gravik powers and machine has been openly shown and the entire Super Skrulls concept will bring that super power side characteristic of Marvel content but so far I think the lack of action and fantasy that super heroes bring in is what people were expecting this was going to be about, I remember making an article when the trailer came out and so far I dont see it as false advertisement or like it oversold what this series was going to be, probably viewers felt this had to be a longer series and not just a mini series so there was more time to develop the story but all this was about is Fury spies network and how it started, even Gravik I think is a plus because he is also the result of what Fury did before the blip.
Usually on Saturday I only post once but today I wanted to do a back to back Walking Dead Spin Off post since there is the Mexico GP I want to write about but also want to continue this two series I’m about to finish specially because there is another spin off about to start next year.
Episode three of Dead City was pack with action when Maggie, Negan, Tomaso and Amaia try to take over the stadium where The Croat was but it all look odd how nothing went according to their plan, I get that Ginny fucked up half of the plan but still it was like The Croat had everything plan to slip away leaving them behind fighting a mass of Zombies inside the stadium, main characters got away but the rest of the crew that was with them not, Negan end up splitting because after been the bait to lure The Croat out he ended as the prey, he is an old silver fox so he knows how to defend himself and survive but it was a different story for Amaia and Tommaso who took the sewers as their route to escape from the stadium, it was full of Zombies but there were some really weird things down there like an entire wall of flesh and fat don’t know from what exactly and then this three on one Zombie on the cover image, on this episode a couple of things that were reveal start to give closure and sense to season one of Dead City, opening the door to Season Two that has been approve already coming up next year but it would depend if Hollywood strike ends.
After everyone try to look their way out of the stadium Negan end up been prisoner of Marshal Armstrong who even after he safe him from the void, The Croat throw Perlie of the stairs to the void showing some good faith to Negan; I mention on my previous post that it was like he wanted to be friends with Negan but you never know with this crazy bastards it might all be a trick to get you, thats how you survive.
Negan tries to get into Perlie good side, remind him how he safe him from The Croat, how he can get a boat so both get out of the island but Perlie has everything figure out, after all he knows very well New York, he was from the Bronx and knew he need no boat, all the need was the dock that floats, he is getting Negan justice one way or another.
They kept going on their way to the dock so they could get out of the island but at a point they were cornered by Zombies, force them to get into what looks like a school, inside the find the remaining of a person who suicide, most likely was alone and could not handle the situation, either out of food, water, alone and setup a stand with books that held an ax, there was a bottle probably of some kind of booze next the corps on a table, this remind Perlie of his brother who he recently discover dead in his old apartment, his brother did something similar and left back a letter. It must be a very exhausting situation living like this, you don’t know when its going to end, you constantly have to look for food, watch out for your safety because not only Zombies want to eat you but humans might want to eat you too or raid your place, probably worst than living in a place at war.
Negan has change and its not the same man he once was, I kept saying this through all episodes, he tries to escape from Perlie but at some point he catch up although was not in a position to fight Negan, Perlie is hurt badly on a leg and might get caught easy by Zombies, Negan stops and help him, not been the man he use to be is going to become a problem for him soon, I think this might happen sooner on episode six.
Tommaso, Amaia, Maggie and Ginny are walking through the sewers, trying to get as far as possible form the stadium and here is where everything comes to light, on second image above Tommaso goes behind one of this barrels, take of his backpack to pull something out of it.
Turns out he is now the luckiest man in the entire Zombie Apocalypse, he just found two full bottles of oxygen with their mask and everything but he didn’t count that Maggie was way more sharp than he is and saw him taking the oxygen bottles out of his backpack, then she starts connecting the dots and figure out it was him who told The Croat about the plan, it was Tommaso all this time and that’s how The Croat got away and they stay trapped, when they were all corner at the stadium inside the octagon he was the only one missing at some point and came from the back to help them, this was no coincidence, he might not know exactly how things were going to happen but was way more steps ahead than the rest so that make him look like the mighty hero of the night, saving everyone ass. Maggie end his theater and take off the mask, letting Amaia know all the truth but latter on her pants got on fire too liar liar, pants on fire.
They had no other option and kept going, is not like they would go back or stay there, on this series every single man or women that act as a cheap bitch, a sell out, a snitch dies one way or another and some times pay back is so sweet, the sewers not only were full or dead bodies but some of them were Zombies, they walk and walk without finding any troubles until they took a rest because of all the methane. While they were taking a rest there was another big revelation, Tommaso told Maggie the truth about why he did it, The Croat promise him a place to stay in mainland, a place where everything was made of brick, guess what that place is? Hill Top, now Maggie has no other option to get Hershel and fly out of there is possible as fast as she can to get everyone ready at home to defend themself.
It was there when the took a rest when they got attacked, Tommaso and Amaia got the worst part of it, Tommaso got Amaia killed because if it wasn’t for him then probably the would not be down the sewers, he also got attacked and bitten on his neck badly, it was only Ginny and Maggie left but then Mr. Zombie, the one at the cover of this post; show up while Maggie got her foot stuck inside one of the corps laying down, leaving her still and all he could do was lay on her back and try to defend from this mutated Zombie, it look like someone put it together but would not be strange if Zombies remains could get stuck between them, its like there is a pile of them and they are so rotten they can go through each other but at some point get stuck inside another Zombie’s body, at least that’s how I think it could happen because Zombies do not grow or regenerate, all they can do is disintegrate, rot or turn apart.
All this time I have been thinking that Ginny only came back for Negan to be with him because she didn’t like Hill Top but that was not the only reason, when she was escaping Ginny was near a Silo and Maggie kept telling Negan how The Croat tool all their grain but at the Hill Top when she arrive they had food so before she hop on the dirt bike an escape she check the Silo and it was full. Maggie kills the six foot tall Zombie but she was exhausted and out of oxygen until she got out of a tunnel to escape, same tunnel that Ginny took and wrote on the wall LIAR, it was at this moment that Ginny knows something, probably not everything but something that can lead Negan to the real reason she wanted Negan to help her.
I really like this kind of scenes where you don’t know what the fuck is going on but something is cooking. The Croat gave Maggie the Wanted Man flyer where Negan show up, he took Hershel; her son so she get him Negan, this is still and unknown reason for me same way as he visits this women who was inside a theater with another bunch of people, she looks like the one running town and both want Negan although I cant figure out why. Its like she wants Negan to lead her people or an army, she was reading a book of The European Conquest of Native American, so that takes me to this conclusion, she is preparing for something big, probably to defend themself from getting conquered from mainland.
Different than Daryl Dixon spin off, Dead City is turning to be very good TV Series, entertain, traitors left and right, people lying to each other to try to survive thinking they have an advantage to the guy next to them but its actually not the case, that’s how so far has been between Maggie and Negan, also Tommaso and Amaia close to the end but they were not lucky enough to survive, The Croat has been playing all of them all this time and the one that knows the less out of all of them is Negan so I guess how is he going to react once he discover the truth, at least Maggies real plan, at some point the good old Negan is coming back and who knows if Lucile shows up too, that would be a proper ending to this season or start for season two.
From time to time there is that TV Series that I enjoy watching a lot, I do like fantasy theme TV Series although at a adult age not young kids discovering magic, for example The Magicians was a TV Show I enjoy same as The Rings of Power but I’m not a such a fan of other fantasy stories like Harry Potter.
Season two of WOT is in full force and introducing new characters or catching up with story lines is over, the fourth episode introduce its last main character with Selene now known as Lanfear, she was a mystery at first during the season but now she is pissed, not only now we know that she is a forsaken but we are starting to understand her interest to Rand, she is basically in love with him, he is too precious for him but she wants him to join her, she doesn’t want to force him this is why so far she haven’t hurt him, it will remain a mystery what she was going to do when she started channeling. Rand finally meet her real personality, Lanfear on his dreams, she is a dream walker, she can get into others people mind when they are dreaming without been invited, once she is in you are on her world with her rules and you can die on that world too.
On episode five we also get to know a bit more about Seanchan too, a city that looks a lot like Constantinople to be honest, Damane another term on their thong use to those women who can channel, they are not free they are leash by Seanchan and are use as a weapon by their controller or master in this case known as Sul’dam using a collar known as a’dam, all women who can channel including Aes Sidai are consider a marath’damane, an abomination of nature and need to be controlled, similar to how Aes Sidai think of men who can channel although they have this though because men who can channel usually go mad including the Dragon Reborn.
Moiraine got just in time when Selene was on top of Rand, she was about to channel after she tied him to the bed and Moiraine cut her throat but this was just a temporary solution and to loose her they had to pull a few old tricks like getting on horses and then leave them going into an opposite direction on foot but this was just to gain some time before Lanfear figure it out. Moiraine plan didn’t work as she thought because Logain was suppose to teach Rand how to explode his power but that never happen, now he is unprepared and Lanfear is after them, she also told him the truth, this is just starting and a higher dark power has been unleash.
Perrin finally gets some good amount of screen time, we already know he is a tracker but for some reason he is having a hard time to accept what he is, Elyas tries to guide him although he is not a big help since he is of the mind that the pack has to stay together and all Perrin can think about is his friends who have been capture by the Seachan Army, one of them Uno Modesta killed when he revise to swear loyalty.
Eamon Valda and the White Cloaks, children of the light, a blast form the past season one, Eamon torture Perrin because he is consider a monster, anyone who can channel is a monster for the White Cloaks, they have now take over the small village that Seachan Army and High Lady Suroth attacked.
When Perrin return to the Village with the intention of finding some of his friends or where they were taking, he free Aviendha who is a Maidem of the Spear, a great fighter that was capture by the White Cloaks and put on a cage, Perrin who has a great heart free her without knowing who she is but soon she show him her skills as a fighter, a fucking John Wick of the Spear putting down a good amount of White Cloaks when they surround them after Perrin free her, she is now in debt with him so she follow him where ever he goes.
Things start to unfold at The White Tower when Verin Mathwin gets back, there are rumors of Aes Sidai missing, she also went looking for Egwene and Nynaeve but they were no where to be found at the tower, she seek information on her two friends at the library who can get her more information about this reports, who got in and out of the tower but something is odd about the reports, like either someone fake the reports or use some sort of spell what they call a weave, in this case on Sheriam Sedai who wrote the report. This would only mean that there is a traitor between the lines of the Aes Sidai, someone join the dark power, one of her sisters.
At this point no body knows at The White Tower but the traitor is Liandrin, I have been thinking why she did it and there is only one answer, her son who is dying, she actually explain this to Nynaeve before knock her out and deliver her with Egwene and Elayne to High Lady Suroth by orders of Ishamael, Liandrin had some compassion for Nynaeve and before she left cut her ropes so they could have a chance to escape. This shows how Liandrin is not that bad but still a selfish traitor after all.
Verin Sedai caught Liandrin when she was coming back, of course Liandrin had alibi and brought some white asparagus to try to sweet Verin wiith but she already know something is cooking and is after the traitor, she doesn’t know yet Liandrin is guilty.
High Lady Suroth is just part of the army, she is not the one in power to dictate what their people do or not, in fact Ishamael is using her, High Lady Suroth doesn’t seem she can channel, nos sure how then they get to such high power probably just been part of a royal family. Ishamael was after the Horn of Valere and deliver it to the High Lord Turak who is commander for the Seachan Army, I dont know what is up with this people and long nails but it seems a symbol of high power among them, High Lady Suroth nails get trim because she disobey orders at invading land she was not suppose to but this was Ishamael plan all this time.
To calm down things and get on High Lord Turak good side, Ishamael not only offer The Horn of Valere as a gift but also brought a very powerful women, this was Egwene who gets put on a’dam, a very powerful collar and then a leach by her new master, I like this scene very much since Madeleine Madden did a great job at showing Egwene pain when she was put on the collar, it has some sort of power over those who can channel that makes Egwene scream in pain and put her on her knees without giving her any orders, just looks insane, also the way the collar turns into a half chest piece in a transformer way look so sick.
During the entire episode Moiraine and Rand were running from Lanfear until they got back to her home, at home was her sister and nephew who welcome both, Moiraine was running out of time and knew it was only a few days or hours before Lanfear find them, she once gave her sister an advice and that is to truly think if things are necessary, in this case means “Does Rand really needs to be protected from Lanfear?” even though he is not in control of his powers Lanfear would have kill him long time ago, been with Rand for three months and it was just fucking around, literally, so Moiraine throw him into the lion den, let Rand sleep so Lanfear can come to him that way they will find out her real plan, that’s the cover image for this post.
There is really no excuse to think this TV Series is crap, its true that season two started very slow but it was necessary, even though the TV Series is not probably word by word close to the books they at least taking some time to not rush things, make it last as much as possible to develop the story at a pace that doesn’t feel they cutting corners like for example the Perrin story, it was about time his character get a bit more of screen time, same goes for Mat and I think they will on the next episodes, it cant be always Egwene, Nynaeve and Rand, so to balance things some episodes need to be a bit slower, for example episode five there was not much fighting but there was a lot of good drama and unfolding more of what Ishamael and High Lady Suroth want, that’s to take over Seachan, he is expecting Rand to join them at their city and be on their side too, WOT is just getting better and better.
I know I’m behind on this series but I love it and prefer to take my time to enjoy it, not staying up late during weekdays, I usually load up everything into my VR setup and watch all this TV Series on Saturdays when I stay home, relaxing.
Special Ops Lioness is still ramping up at an internal level of the team, there are few things that we now for sure so far, one is that Joe is in charge and two that Cruz is going to be the bait but after loosing a Lioness to a tattoo on her side Joe doesn’t want to risk it again and this time is taking her Lioness Cruz to another level of pain because the hardest part of Joe’s job is to when she has to extract her after she gets discovered, she has to know how much time she has before Cruz breaks and start singing, with your head on the line most do and that’s how much time Joe needs to know before she takes the decision to drop a missile from a drop on Cruz head.
The series seem to be very criticize on forums and review sites for how they taking advantage of political problems and mold them to their stories even when events are not close to what is real or not, I think all that is bullshit because anyone that consider themself mature enough should know that this is TV Show this is not a fucking documentary, people watching TV should only be looking for some sort of entertainment, some dopamine, free your mind for an hour and know well that this does not has to be close to reality, I think so far actors has done this very well, entertain and for an action series with a some what unique theme Lioness, I truly give this first two episodes solid 7.5/10
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Joe learn the hard way from her previous experience that when an agent blow their cover, a women in this case; and they have more than ten men looking around with a big ass Machete on their hands trying to find her to behead them and set on fire while they get recorded, everyone brakes, they stop thinking and have no clue what to due, that’s when clock starts ticking for Joe and why last time she took the decision to drop the hammer and a missile before her Lioness go through all that pain, this time she got Cruz a well trained Marine but Joe feels even Cruz breaks, usually in this type of stories Marines like Cruz who have nothing to loose, no family, no children, no boyfriend, they still have ghosts from the past that hunts them, everybody does, but its up to us how to keep them in the closet, Joe knows this very well and wants to learn Cruz breaking point, that’s what she meant here to put Cruz through the grinder.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Work for an intelligence agency and in a program like Joe is probably the worst job to keep a family, similar to her Neal, Joe’s husband also has one of the worst job in the planet, I say this because some times he has to face parents and tell them their child has little chances to survive a decease and its probably just to enjoy the little time they might have left, he is a doctor that work with patients with terminal cancer and some times he needs balls of steel to be the ones who drop the news to the family of his patient.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Episode two sets clear how hard Joe’s job is at home, a repercussion of her true job, been most of the time away, keeping secrets from her family, been away from their kids who are as though as her, Kate her daughter seem to not know the limits yet but Joe is soon to show her whats what a may be put her through some parenting grinder, Kate feels her parents marriage is fake and they going to divorce probably because they are most of the time separated but that’s doesn’t seem the case as Joe and Neal are staying together, so far the series is still on that phase of letting viewers get interested on characters side stories besides the entire Lioness mission.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
We already know Cruz story, her ex boy friend paint it very well when he said she doesn’t dance, smoke or fuck anymore, that’s how they met, Cruz was probably a stripper. On episode one she was very anxious and didn’t know how to react to the fact that she is going blind into the mission but that’s the beauty of it to make it look as real as possible and cut down the risk of saying something to her asset she is not suppose to know. After her first encounter Aaliyah, the asset; Cruz is taken back to the US and put into an apartment that’s making her go crazy and decides to burn some time but Joe had other plans for her.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Joe finally gave green light to the mission, that’s kidnap Cruz and make it look as real as possible so she feels real pain, make her feel afraid, vulnerable and try to break her soul in half, they try all kind of torture but it was not enough so Joe had to jump to the stage, come clean that this is just an exerciser, I would never know because I haven’t been in such situation or training but I THINK at some point after so much pain, torture, no sleep, changes in temperature, noise, your body and mind wants it to stop so it did not take much time for Joe to break Cruz mentally reminding her about her past, how shitty was her life because Marines could not after beating her up but Joe takes it to a new level. You might find this shitty because so far Cruz have gone through a lot until now but it seems Cruz has become what she needed to defend herself back in the past, like when she said she join the Marines because she felt safe that time a Marine protect her from her ex boyfriend Hector but again it depends on the amount of torture she has gone through and that can make people sensitive enough to break to such poor speech, there is a saying “words hurt more than actions”
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Joe was taking this exerciser to the extreme until she breaks, all Cruz is been ask is to say his name, her brothers name, that’s the trigger, Marines running the exercise know technically this is going too far already, they were going to push Cruz one more time, this scene has some fucking killing fights, I love this part when Cruz starts to kick some ass but that’s after she almost break but Marine Cody running the exerciser gets called to stand down and stop the exerciser, Joe is screwed as now Cruz doesn’t know her breaking point but Marines think other wise, Cruz did look broken at the time so she probably learn one or two things about herself.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Joe again reminds Cruz how eventually she might get caught and when that happens is Joe’s job to extract her but that’s not going to be easy and with little time to do so, the possibility of surviving such situation are very little but at the moment Cruz feels so shitty about herself, that’s the effect of torture, latter on when Cruz recovers her mojo things turn different, to help Cruz integrate with the team and recover she puts her on the same house as the rest of the team.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Beating – Season 1 – Episode 2 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
After two cups ask Cruz what happen to her the team got her back and help Cruz get some revenge so she can feel better and show her they are there for her, she is now part of the team, Bobby specially throwing more gas into the fire, taking the boys to a bar where Marine Cody was to fuck him up and others with him. After a cool short bar fight and Cruz taking revenge on Cody (cover photo of the post), Cruz gets a call from Aaliyah and gets invited to a pool party.
I have no complains about the series so far, cool under cover agent story on a war against terrorist, episode one and two are only getting to get us interested on all characters story line, from Joe’s family to her team and some other main characters who have not had much screen time yet is the case of Kaytlyn who look like Joe’s boss, there are other actors who have not show yet like Morgan Freeman, we know this because he appears on the main cover for the series so this tells us we are just getting to know the characters. I also like how the episode ends with Cruz getting a call from her asset Aaliyah inviting her to party but that’s it, lets viewers on suspense imagining whats next.
If it was a complain my only one would be that the torture scenes were too short, feel they try to make it look Cruz was there for a few days but it didn’t feel that way, an exerciser like that can’t take a few hours so it was probably best for the episode to leave Cruz the entire episode on the island so it felt a little more real, I’m talking about the sensation that it has been a couple of days under torture, they just crunch time too much, I hope its not the case on other episodes because then we will see characters going from place to place in seconds and that sux, that takes from the immersion effect of the story.
Ever since I made that post about the upcoming Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) TV Series I got interested on finding out the start of MONARCH and the chronology of the movies, there are other stories made up from multiple movies but they are just too big for me to learn everything from the start, it is just too much time so this seems smaller and about to kick off with its first TV Series based on a series of movies. The first movie that started things was Kong: Skull Island (2017) where Bill Randa finally find all this monsters he has been talking about for years, but he was not the first man from a modern society to discover the island after Hank Marlow a USA pilot from World War II crash there and had his first encounter with the guardian of the island, Kong.
At first I really thought I was going to be disappointed by this movie since the score on sites like IMDB was very low with only a 6.7/10 but when I start to go through the reviews most of them were positive, lots of 7+ reviews but it was only a few bastards that gave the movie a 2 or 3 complaining about the story that they probably didn’t that much attention to, others complaining about how the concept about Kong was completely change from this giant ape who normally terrorize cities to now been the guardian of the island. I think MONARCH made a favor to Kong bringing it into the MONSTER VERSE, no body cares about movies based on the same concept over and over, what they were trying to do is build up the foundation to something bigger that now days will turn into a TV Series potentially extending the story of all this monsters into something different and bigger.
The Vietnam war is about to be over and all troops send back home, Bill Randal currently in charge of MONARCH knows that the program can be shut down at any moment because so far they have found nothing and when the war ends things are going to rapidly change politically, he feels its now or never go make a discovery and prove the monsters he and his assistant Houston Brooks have been speculating about do exist so they talk to Senator Willis, ask him for one last chance to send them on an expedition to Skull Island, a place that has not been explore yet with many stories about boats disappearing, mysterious bombing like they were trying to kill something but its all speculation, luckily there is already an expedition to Skull Island and Bill and Houston knew about, LANDSAT a program to discover and explore the Earth is sending a team to Skull Island so MONARCH was able to piggy back after Senator Willis approval. A common question that came up was WHY THE FUCK ITS NOT BEEN EXPLORE? the reason is because its surrounded by a perpetual storm system like God doesn’t want anyone else inside the island.
Bill ask for a military escort, he knows if they find something on that island only military power can help them to get out alive, that’s when one of my favorite characters comes in by the hand of Samuel Jackson, Colonel Preston Packard who doesn’t want to leave the war, he is that soldier who feels there is nothing else at home that matters and he just want to keep pushing not to mention that they are “abandoning” the war but that’s a total different topic. Colonel Packard is in charge to take LANDSAT and MONARCH to Skull Island and provide protection so they can explore it and come back home.
As secondarily characters there are soldiers under Packard wing, most pilots, there is Cole, Slivko, Reles and Chapman all this pilots will follow Packard orders at all times, that was at first, until Packard obsession gets them close enough to death.
Chapman a pilot who was flying the helicopter with the most gun power is played by Toby Kebbell who is on For All Man Kind new season, he did very well on this movie although his part was very small, this is Packard’s first obsession to find Chapman when his helicopter goes down after an attack but not necesarly because he wants to safe Chapman, Packard was really after all the armament on Chapman’s helicopter.
#photo fotographer and james
Last duet of the story are James Conrad and Mason Weaver, Conrad the man in charge to guide them through the island he is famous for exploring inhabitable places and getting out alive so Bill and Houston look for him, they knew it would be expensive and they running low on money but if they want the best chances to get out alive Conrad is the guy to go with, as a bonus we get Mason Weaver who is going to play the pretty lady on the movie, photographer who actually goes to cover the LANDSAT expedition but she knows there is something else cooking besides the LANDSAT expedition but none of them have a clue of what they going to find on Skull Island.
There is one detail that I didn’t like and that was the amount of Choppers on the first shots when they get to the Island, there was only one ship that look like it can hold at best five to seven of them but when they start flying towards the Island looks like they were ten of them, also when already in the island they started to drop some small bombs to map out the surface because of the seismic waves.
After they start dropping bombs this obviously disturb nature, you got the noise, the impact on earth, animals going wild running scared and this is when big dawg Kong shows up for the first time on the movie, I really like how they gave it this classic Vietnam war scenery with the sun going down and the sky orange but in some cases it was hard to see although I still think it look great, Kong itself was very well design in my opinion but it look small, latter on during the movie it is mention that he is still small, he is probably on his teens, point is that he got mad as fuck for all the bombing and shuts down all the choppers one by one this made him enemy number one to Colonel Packard, on this movie Kong is the protector of the Island, he is not a predator he protect humans and animals mainly for the real predators, GIANT LIZARDS!!
After Kong shuts them down Packard had a little chat with Bill who then told him why they were there, what is MONARCH, he is not there to explore the land, he is there to find monsters and bring proof back because he believes there are way more monsters that have not been discover and they need to prepare, bring the cavalry, on the island they had many encounter with huge animals, from what looks like a giant Buffalo, spiders, insects, its like Australia x100.
The survivors of the attack start exploring looking for shelter and how to get out of the island, the group split in two, you got Packard and his soldiers looking for Chapman and all that fire power and then there is Conrad leading the other group (MONARCH and LANDSAT) until they found Hank Marlow, the guy I mention crash the island many years ago during WW II, he has been living there for twenty eight years waiting to be rescue without luck until now when Bill and the rest arrive but this was not necessary a good thing for the island. Hank has been living with natives of the island and gave the guys a tour and had a short Q&A with them so they know whats the deal of the island, who is Kong to them and where not to go.
I don’t like to spoil the cool scenes so I’m just going to mention that there was NO LACK at all of fight scenes between humans and monsters and monster against monsters, you got flying monsters, you got giant baby lizard and then you got big mama lizard against Kong in the final fight, nothing was left to the imagination wondering of why things happen or what if, none of that bullshit, its true that we don’t know yet from where all this monsters are coming but Houston did mention that his planet is not theirs, it belongs to this monsters and it was just a matter of time before they take it back, that’s one of the reasons why MONARCH exist to prevent all this events.
This was for sure the beginning of MONARCH, on this movie we only get that a man called Harry Truman funded MONARCH in 1946 but that’s all we got from this movie, after credits there is a scene where Houston give more details to Conrad and Weaver of who are they facing but that’s it, but he does show them some pictures of cave explorations and images on the walls of this caves that represent many of the different titans like Godzilla.
The reason to watching this movie was to find out more about MONARCH, I know I can go and read the MONARCH Fandom but that is not what I want, I want to have the same perspective of any other viewer once MONARCH: Legacy of the Monsters TV Show starts and that is the reference to the movies themself, my next movie to watch is Godzilla (2014) that is heavy shown on the first trailer for the tv series.
Kong Skull of Island as a Monster or Titans because when you say monster most people think about demons probably but this case its titans or MUTOS as MONARCH describe, this movie did a great job, the CGI was very good nothing to criticize also the amount of monsters that appear on the movie is good enough since it was not only Kong, on the movie appear seven monster animals in total that I can remember so it was not only about Kong, there is even an extra small fight between Kong and a Giant squid that felt like a bonus fight. In terms of the cast it had a good amount of known actors who also did a good job at bringing all this characters alive, I don’t feel anything was fake or over the top neither. The only thing that I would do different is not killing Bill on this movie because I think he was a leader for MONARCH and finally when they get all proof they need to show he was right about all this monsters he gets killed, I don’t him been alive would change the end/meaning of the movie but just a small detail that I would prefer.
Referring to MONARCH itself this is the movie that opens the door to explore what they have discover so far, from here its all about looking for all those other monsters out there, try to understand them, protect from them and even dominate or kill them depending on how dangerous they are, MONARCH already knows there are more out there and its a matter of time before they claim Earth back.
Until Episode Two I don’t see why Secret Invasion got so many bad reviews although considering how it did episode by episode on IMDB I’m probably soon to find out and already have that hunch that they rush the story to keep it short for who knows what reason, this min series only has six episodes why not make it ten if the problem was time but also have to consider how much did the Hollywood Strike affect the production of Secret Invasion, right now compare to the rest of the MCU TV Series is not that bad considering that there are two heavy hitters at the top with Loki and Moon Knight, been my favorite so far.
Episode two right out of the gate reveal me a few things I already had a suspicion, first is how Gravik and Nick Fury met, Gravik has this revolutionary mindset that usually comes from some one that has suffer a lot but also is brave enough to stand up and take the justice by his hands because that’s exactly what he has been doing so far, after Gravik lost his parents he was brought to Fury as a refugee at a young age, at the moment Fury saw Skrulls as agents with their special capability of shape shifting could be a great asset for his cause. Fury invites them to join him, this Skrulls were lead by Talos; and told them if they kept their promise to help him he will keep his side of the deal to make Earth their home too, this is were everything started with a promise that was never fulfill that’s when Gravik feels he was betrayed by Fury.
“..keep my home safe…we will find you a new one” this is what Fury told this group of Skrulls when he invite them to his cause but Fury is a bag full of tricks, he never said Earth was going to be their home and also never mention how long it would take, I don’t want to say he took advantage of their need to stay safe at Earth and not be hunted but they probably underestimate the situation and didn’t know exactly who they were making a deal with, Fury is a SPY, you can’t fully trust him, its all over the problem that Banner had with Natasha even if they love each other, even Natasha would not trust herself, that’s how you need to treat anyone working for a government or special agency. Skrulls probably wanted faster results than what he was delivering, after the blip Fury was one of the many Thanos made disappear and it took time for the Avengers to bring everyone back plus when Fury was back he started on a new project to build a space station so consider the was gone for over six years, during that time Gravik kept growing wit the uncertainty that his people will ever find a planet they could call home so why not take over Earth?
After the bombing in Russia Talos safe Fury, latter on revelations kept coming up and during a train ride they were both in Fury start talking about a game he play with his mom as a kid “Tell me somthing I dont know”, from that moment Talos should know better, Fury was about to brake him in pieces before he knew it and ask the key question “Tell me something I dont know about the Skrulls that fled” to what Talos answer they are all here a million Skrulls, obviously there must be more than a million now so the real question is how many are with Gravik and what is their current power position in human society. We already saw there are some powerful Skrulls that could get their hands on bombs and who knows what else, they had the time and special skills to infiltrate humans to the point they could even infiltrate governments deeply, but Skrulls are not violent by nature so they try to coexist with humans.
From what I have seen so far it seems that G’iah is not on Gravik’s close group, even though he does not trust anyone he does have some Skrulls who he assign important missions, G’iah is basically running errands him some of them important but she is not in charge of anything very important, on this episode she starts to get a grip of how dangerous he can be, so far she only imagine but now starts to see from first hand how Gravik would go to kill their own kind if he feels there is a slight chance they lying to him, on Gravik mission there is no room for treason.
G’iah is willing to work with her father Talos after there last chat but that is something I not a fan of because at first she was all revolutionary and had a fix mind of new Skrullos and after one meeting with Talos she has now change sides and is trying to play the double agent, sneaking around Gravik’s base and got the room where scientist are trying to work on a DNA to make Skrulls stronger, this is the same room we see Gravik throw Furry in.
Having Fury on every camera when the bombing in Russia happen was not the best advertisement for the USA, they now after his ass and the only reason he is not in jail or dead is because Talos safe him but it seems that the US Goverment also wants him out of the equation, in a meeting with Rhodey; Fury try to explain things of how everything really went down but the political damage is done and there is no way to erase it, so Fury play his last card telling Rhodey about the Skrulls and how an invasion is going on but he didn’t care, remember Rhodey is a soldier who obey orders but only at extreme during extreme circumstances bend but not break the rules same thing happen in Avengers: End Game. Rhodey notify Fury he is out but he didn’t like the news and went all Nick Fury on Rhodey “Even when I’m out I’m In”. I think its understandable he feels this way because he has no control of whats going on, that’s his thing been steps ahead of everyone but he is fighting an enemy that he can’t see, a million shape shifters that could be Rhodey himself.
Closing the episode another great scene from the trailer happen, that’s when Sonya from MI6 shows up to a Butcher Shop where Russians held a Skrull inside the freezer at the back of the Shop good old fashion scene with the pigs hanging cut in half but they could not make the guy talk, this is a Skrull they caught after the bombing, so first thing Sonya does is make sure he is a Skrull by cutting a finger, the moment the finger is separated from the body it turns to its natural skin so now that she knows who she is dealing with next is to use an injection that will raise his blood temperature, as a reptile or human this is NO BUENO but I guess for a reptile might be worst and thats the guy at the top on the post cover boiling from the inside.
Eventually Gravik shows up to the place to rescue him but it was too late, he could not resist to Sonya torture and didn’t want her to inject him anymore but at that point he already gave the names of the scientist behind the experiments to create a new generation of Skrulls, Super Skrulls, G’iah also did some digging on the name Rosa Dalton at their local database, she found experiments with roots, beasts but could not continue reading since Gravik came into the room at that moment, its like he feels when someone is lying to him but still doesn’t caught G’iah.
Like it was not enough about the lying to each other species, Fury comes back home his very own house on Earth and he is married to a Skrull, nothing against that but if it wasn’t for Talos they would never met now the question is, is that really Nick Fury holding his weeding ring next to his Skrull wife or is he another Skrull? for now I will keep it simple and believe that is Fury.
In my opinion great episode but keep in mind I am NOT a Marvel geek so I do not now if this story is close to the comics or not, still great episode now that we get to know a few more things about Talos and Fury, those were the two characters that reveal the most important information in this episode because with a million Skrulls, starting number; how many is Fury facing? and Fury’s wife been a Skrull that even make me doubt on what side will Fury be at the end of the battle, but that was just the last scene so we don’t know if she knows anything about the invasion and what is her stand about it.
Everything else was just drama about what happen in Russian, pure speculation and aftermath of countries debate if USA had anything to do with the bombing or not just because Fury was there and then USA giving Fury its back, trying to shut him down, probably on episode three and four we get more information about this experiments and the Super Skrulls, probably even see them battling, we already know Gravik is one of them from the trailer.
