Lotus-1-2-3

The saying goes “and the plot thickens” but this week I think it’s more apt to say “the plot takes an unexpected turn.”

The thread for this episode was relationships and I’ll follow the flow starting with Stan this week.

His threat to his boss about leaving Oleg alone worked. The FBI (with Stan and his partner’s involvement) start working on generating new sources. In the Soviet Union, Oleg works with his partner and figuring out the food trade system for the grocery stores in the area. Afterwards, Oleg folds to the pressure of the threat from the FBI and goes to the meeting place where no one shows up (because of Stan, which he doesn’t know). When he goes home, he finds a matchmaking effort. Three single women invited by a family friend (I didn’t recognize the man), something probably put into motion by Oleg’s mother. Oleg is in some murky water, both in his investigation that could turn dangerous and the specter of the FBI near him, so he’s in no position or mental state to get into a relationship. He tells the guy to butt out.

Stan, on the other hand, is all in with his relationship. He’s spending a lot of time with Renee, Matt knows her, Stan’s partner has met her socially and theJennings’ have as well. Stan is feeling good. Philip finds this perfect match to be suspicious. He clues Elizabeth in, remarking that they’ve been telling The Center a lot about Stan. How he’s alone, his vulnerabilities…he thinks Renee is actually a co-worker. The thought never occurred to Elizabeth but she doesn’t deny the possibility.

On to Stan’s kid Matt, he’s getting the cold shoulder from Paige. They don’t spend much time alone anymore and she’s very distant in general. He asks her about it, wondering if she’s bored with him and wants to break up. Paige doesn’t know what to say and fumbles through the conversation.

She opens up to Philip when they’re alone at home after talking about Henry (she’s a little jealous and surprised at him, which I’ll get to next). Her inner turmoil about Matt is getting worse, if anything and it’s making her question her own self-worth and future. Matt is her first relationship and she can’t be honest with him. She has so much to hide she’s afraid of saying anything. She’s becoming afraid of intimacy and tells Philip that she wonders if she’s meant to be alone. It’s a shot to Philip’s heart to hear his daughter say that.

Now, what’s going with Henry? Well, he isn’t in trouble at school. His math teacher says he’s doing so well he wants to move him up to a more advanced class. Elizabeth and Philip are stunned. They never see him do any studying, video games seem to be his things. Turns out he’s naturally gifted, in math at least. His parents try to tone down their shock and he throws some shade at them, essentially saying he knows they’re surprised because the success didn’t come from their golden child, Paige. They don’t know what to say to the son they now realize they barely know and fumble the rest of the conversation. The Jenners’ have a daughter who feels isolated from knowing the truth about her parents and a son who feels ignored because he’s the runner up in the family. The Jenners’ household is not in order, which leads us to end this with Mr. and Mrs.

Philip’s mission in Topeka is torture. The woman has the personality of a chalkboard. He manages to get close to her in an attempt to get information from her. He looks like he’s trying to crawl out of his own skin while they’re having sex and it leads to….being shown Lotus 1-2-3.

Elizabeth finds out Alexei’s wife is applying for a job as a Russian language instructor where her husband works. That leads to Tuan finding out (through Pasha) that she got the job. It’s a major opening for them as it’s now possible for them to get a list of all the potential agents that could be sent to the Soviet Union.

That’s the extent of the good news. Elizabeth isn’t keen on her similar Topeka relationship mission, but the man is actually a functioning human being. She hams it up, they have what you could call real dates and she distances her mind when they have sex, going through the motions to keep up the front. Then she finds out what he does at work.

The Center had it all wrong about the bugs in the wheat and in the lab. They aren’t trying to start a famine by messing with the food. The company is working on a new breed of wheat to sell to impoverished nations. The bugs were to test and see if they had made a wheat that the bugs don’t like. It’s to eliminate world hunger, not push it further along.

That means they killed that lab technician for nothing. He was more than an innocent man, he was part of trying to make the world better. Philip is beside himself. He’s been struggling for months with their missions and this just rips at Philip’s soul even more. He’s done more evil with no justification. Elizabeth says they’ll be more careful and that maybe he should take a backseat in some of their missions from here on out. He thinks that’s nonsense, whatever she does he’s involved with. There is no separation. I’m not sure if Philip can feel any lower. This has major implications for him and the pushback he’s going to give Gabriel has got to be the beginning of the end for him. Philip is going to object to everything The Center says and Gabriel isn’t going to be able to temper him anymore.

Finally, Misha calls the spy hotline to meet with Philip. The communication gets to Gabriel and Claudia for consideration. Claudia says absolutely not. Before knowing about what happened with the wheat, she thinks Philip is far too sensitive to meet the son he never met and just recently found out existed. Gabriel pushes back, but Claudia’s logic wins out. Gabriel meets with Misha instead of Philip and tells him it isn’t safe to meet his father. Not now and not here.  Maybe in the future, back at home. Misha is crushed.

Not sure what’s going to happen with Misha now but the plates are spinning like crazy and we’re only 5 episodes in. The fallout from the wheat mission is going to be a game changer and what’s going to happen when/if they find out The Center sent Renee to Stan? Till next week…

The Waiting Dead. That might be a better name for the show now. For every good moment we get, the time that goes by to get it seems to get longer and longer. Build ups are consistently drawn out, often times by repeating the same motifs as validation for character behavior. But that gets tiresome and worst of all boring.

I think the biggest problem for the show is pacing. That and the cast is too big. For every character that the audience likes and is engaged with, there’s probably three that could disappear and no one would care. Which can be seen every time the story switches to characters, for an entire episode, that everyone forgot even existed.

The show has always been at its worst when they split the group up too much. This season had Alexandria, The Hilltop, The Kingdom, those two episodes at the beach location, the junkyard gang, and The Saviors HQ. The survivors were spread in various amounts at those locations all year long. Entire episodes were devoted to characters that we don’t care about in favor of others that we do. This also lead to new major characters, like Ezekiel, being ignored and end up as footnotes.

Now for the repetition. How many times do we need to know that Ezekiel doesn’t want to go to war? That he wants to maintain the arrangement with The Saviors? How many times do we need to be shown that Negan is dangerous? How many monologues does he need to do before anyone tells him to shut the hell up and kill me already because you running your mouth like it’s Def Poetry Jam is torture? And the neutering of Carol and Morgan can never happen again. This is I think the second time it’s happened. Combine it with how she started and it’s the third time she’s been a reclusive basketcase. People love Carol, she’s been part of the biggest and best moments of the show. Having to watch her mope around and not be an active badass is unacceptable.

Half of the season felt like it was spinning its wheels. Movement came in small bursts. That may be exacerbated by how long it takes a season to air due to the long break in the middle. That’s gone as now it’s all available but the problem with overall pace and tone is still there. That started with the premiere. With such an intense season beginning, it’s near impossible to match such a plateau.

Now, it’s not all bad. Eugene’s path was really interesting to watch and it fit his character. The major death was smartly done and is one of the strongest moments of the season. A legit way to go, I’m sure the entire cast hopes they go out on such terms.

The confrontation that had been built up all season long was…good. I wish I could praise it more but it was pretty weak in terms of TWD battles. Too predictable for one thing. Poorly shot too. It’s just a ton of people shooting off screen with no sense of location or direction. Characters just pop up on screen at random. There’s no anchor in the geography so it feels fake and cheap like a carnival air rifle shooting range (it does seem like they ran out of money. Or Shiva took most of the budget for 12 seconds of screen time). It’s impossible to figure out what’s going on or who is in actual danger. Michonne had the only tangible struggle.

So next season. The main threat is still going to be the main threat (which is what I thought they’d do) and they finished with a clear message of hope and positivity for the future. Something they were scared into doing after the reaction to the reaction the season 6 finale got. I think that after all of this they have a good launching point for next year but the dead weight on the cast tree needs some trimming that can’t wait to be done much longer.

XXXVIII

Jack makes it to Skeleton Island so all of our captains are back together. Jack gets there just in time as Rogers was moving in for the kill on the beach. A new pirate ship rolling up on Rogers is enough for him to pull back and reorganize the next fight at sea.

Jack was given the task to kill Flint to obtain Nassau and he’s face to face with Flint easier than he could have imagined. Seeing how the pirates were rocked and not knowing where the cash was buried, Jack repositions himself as an ally. He goes along with what Silver and Flint (mostly Flint) want to do after he explains that he went for help in Philadelphia and didn’t get it (he leaves out working with Grandma Guthrie). Flint and Silver know to keep an eye on Jack but he’s really the least of their problems. The mission is still on to rescue Madi from Rogers and then go get the buried treasure. Silver is still incensed about Flint stealing the cash. Flint sticks to his guns. He’s convinced he’s right, everything will work out and their friendship will be whole at the end of it.

Bones is in a deep, dark place. He’s a traitor and knows there is no way back for him. He goes as far as thinking of killing Madi for Silver to find but pulls back from the brink when Madi tells him that her death will do nothing for him. If anything, it will reinforce the bond between Silver and Flint.

Battle on the high seas! The confrontation the season has been building to comes with cannon balls flying, single shot bullets cracking and swords clashing. The final action scene of the series turned out great and as exciting as ever. A phenomenal set piece with some amazing looking shots and the highlight of Bones taking on Flint with no interruptions.

I’m not going to go into the details of how the show ends. There’s a lot to it, it’s very complex and needs to be seen so you can get the intricacies beat by beat. I can’t do it the proper justice here, I don’t even know where to start with Silver and Flint’s conversation on Skelton Island. It all comes together, all threads addressed as they gave an ample amount of time to conclude everyone’s story. The complex friendship of Silver and Flint is the predominant one. Once full partners, then at odds, then forced together when Rogers got the upper hand.

Flint was a problem to a lot of people. A leader from beginning to end, he never took to hearing “no” very often and always maneuvered to get his way. Silver saw this and traced it back to its origin. If anyone wanted to get off the ride when Flint still had use for them, he never let them go. As often as Flint was right, the toll was often tremendous. With the battle for Nassau (and the pirate’s life really) pulled away from Flint’s tunnel vision what could make him stop? To find peace that wasn’t death? When Silver got a lead to that end, he pursued it in the hope it would free them all.

I love Black Sails, I really do. Evey season is terrific and I’m so happy with how they ended it. There is so much to like because everyone who lived past Skeleton Island gets an ending. You get to see what they managed to get out of the ordeal and a good idea of what they do afterward. So well written, I am in absolute admiration on how Silver has been constructed over the years to get to where he is at the end. Luke Arnold is a fantastic actor. Actually, everyone on the show is. I hope they all get massive career boosts from their work here. Very few TV shows get such complete and special runs. It’s a joy when they do. Black Sails stands tall as an example of what can be done with the medium.

Grimm has always been a fun show. Hunting fairytale like monsters in this invented mythos made for a unique cop procedural show. I started watching it a few episodes into the first season (so I actually have yet to see the very start of how Nick got into the Grimm game) and was hooked right away. In fives seasons, it was mostly all good. They hit some rough patches with Nick’s girlfriend, Julia, when they had to figure out how to make her more than just the love interest for him. They led to some dragged out story arcs but they managed to pull out of it twice and gave her a more tolerable life (when it got bad, she was a real drag on the show). Season 5 had great movement and they knew season 6 would be the last so they left the right hooks in to end the show. They answered a few of the series’ longest questions and just needed to get to the landing.

With the show ending last night, I liked season 6 a lot. 13 instead of 22 episode made it tight and to the point, there was no time to mess around. They still had room to make new creatures (they came up with some good ones) and kept all of our favorite cast members engaged: Hank, Monroe, Rosalee, Adalind, Sean, Wu, Eve. Truble kept coming and going which I wasn’t a fan of.

The end of episode 12, the stakes were raised to crazy heights. Wu and Hank were killed by Zerstorer. Then the last episode and it just goes off the rails. All the set up, all the hard work and they couldn’t get to the end they wanted without leaning on the deus ex machina button.

In the finale, the body count hits the roof. Everyone is taken from Nick and it’s down to him and fellow Grimm (and distant relative), Truble in the final battle with evil. He’s devastated and wants to give up. Truble, suddenly the only Grimm with a brain in her head, says hell no. She fights him to keep mankind from being obliterated. He beats her and then suddenly, on his way to screw everyone over, his dead mother and aunt come out of nowhere. They flat out tell him some missing parts of being a Grimm, give him two sentences worth of advice and that changes his mind. They stick around to fight with Nick and Truble to win (Truble never sees Mom and Aunt, another ponderous decision). Then through some equally out of nowhere plot device, a portal appears and Nick is pulled in with the magic staff. He lands at the moment in time where he and Eve brought Zerstorer through into our dimension. Everything is reset. Zerstorer is gone but the staff came through with Nick and he’s the only one who has experienced the last two days. I’m all for a happy ending but this was a shocking implosion on the writing front. I can only imagine they had a week to write it, this whole episode is a convoluted series of events. There’s reasoning I must be missing because I’m befuddled at how this happened.

It’s just a mess and it started awhile ago with Diana. They never figured out to make her more than a creepy kid. And when they did, it was just to make her a lazy and convenient deus ex machina. Constantly they’d give what amounted to an otherwise clueless child, lines to explain things out of nowhere. “What happened?” “Oh, allow me to pull this needed information out of thin air.”

Half the team worked on a solution from the tomes of books (normal for the show) and the last ditch spell ended up doing nothing. So if you go have dead relatives show up, why not spend that time finding a seance for Nick to do? That way there’s a plausible (using the lore and fiction of the show) way for him to talk to the spirits? For most of the finale, he didn’t do anything but travel to a different location to get slapped around so that would have been time better spent. Then he wouldn’t have come into the last fight like a punk. Have Truble with him that entire way, it would have been great (and you could keep the potion they made as a last ditch effort that could have ended up helping. Everyone would have contributed).

All this time building up the staff of Moses and they didn’t explain or rationalize the ending. Ok great, it’s a magic staff, it can do wild stuff so you can work with that. But Zestorer dissolves and a time traveling portal opens out of nowhere? Nick had no clue what was happening. He just didn’t want to let go of the staff because he wanted to bring everyone back to life. Going through was an accident. Why didn’t they make him more of a leader and hero instead of Eeyore for the last episode?

1) Make that last fight more significant (most likely a time and money issue) as it lasted all of 15 seconds. This one is a problem with a lot of shows (Legion). 2) Since the staff is so powerful, make it speak to Nick somehow. Something to give Nick direction and purpose. Voice over on the cheap, ancient Grimm ghost if there’s a budget for it. Have the power of this object, something Grimm’s had a hand in, empower him. His blood means a lot right? Use this power for good (which fits considering he keeps it in the epilogue).

I’d be way happier (and it makes more sense) with Nick and Truble physically going around to restore everyone instead of some goofy time travel nonsense. If you want to bring it to a happy storybook end and ditch the bold and meaningful events of killing characters, at least make sensible and satisfying decisions to get there.

With how well thought out the show is, the finale surprised me for all the wrong reasons. They could use pretty much all of their main beats if they just thought it through better. While I’m bummed at what they did for the end it doesn’t ruin the show for me.  I think it’s totally a show worth exploring and the epilogue offers the potential of a future. Given some time, I’d tag along on new quests with Kelly and Diana with old characters still around.

Season 3 of Sleepy Hollow had a dramatic end with the death of a major character. With half of the core protagonists gone there was some trepidation of the show continuing.

I give a lot of credit to the show runners and writers to finding a new road for the show without Abby Mills. They still had more story to go and I think they found a smart way of telling the rest. Maintain what people liked about the show and mix in new characters to keep it going. Continue the threads for fans and keep it accessible for newcomers. It can be hard to do both but I think they largely succeeded.

Jenny Mills was the only character to come through with Ichabod. They moved out of Sleepy Hollow to D.C. and introduced three new characters. Diana essentially filled the law enforcement shoes of Abby and Jake and Alex came in as the support team.

We got to see quite a few monsters and demons. Ran around for clues and artifacts and a new big bad (Malcolm Dreyfus) anchored it all together. I liked the new cast, the show remained fun and at a truncated 13 episodes there was essentially no filler. They made the best of the time they had. Seeing the Four Horseman of the Apocolypse finally come together was neat and while there were some convenient deals made in the finale I liked the end too. It serves as both a season and series finale which is a good accomplishment.

I’m glad I stuck with the show and came away largely satisfied. If this is the end, it goes out on what I consider a strong note and if it gets picked up for more, I’ll be there to check it out.

A rather anticlimactic season finale is admittedly disappointing but as a whole, Legion was a fun ride.

Introduced to a lot of new characters and the entire cast is great. Aubrey Plaza was the clear breakout star, she could be remembered more for her role as Lenny over Parks and Recreation.

While it is part of the X-Men world, Legion feels very distinct and different. So far there are no ties to any of the movies and I think it should remain that way. There are some shared production design cues that make the show look familiar but the direction and editing are often times head and shoulders better than any of the movies.

With 8 episodes the story arc is a tight one. Much of it is mysterious as we find out what’s going on with David at the same time he is. With each episode, the mystery and creepiness splay out in front of us right into a disappointing ending. It’s a shame as the build up is so good (and I had problems with episode seven as things get confusing) and the expectation of a worthy payoff is sitting there, waiting to be plucked. Turns out. the payoff is a brief encounter and a hand wave that invites us to see more next season.

I’m not going to say the end was bad, just a downer for what’s otherwise a great show. A refreshing take on the genre, I came in knowing nothing and hoping for the best. I got what I wanted and I now have expectations for Legion. They’re all higher than they were two months ago.

What’s the Matter With Kansas?

Some interesting growth this week.

Paige decides to do her first independent spy mission when she’s babysitting for Pastor Tim and his wife. While they’re out she takes the opportunity to look around the house and finds his journal. She tells Elizabeth and mom is worried. A surprise move from her daughter, she thinks it was way too risky a move for her to be doing. Paige doesn’t think so (I agree in this case as getting caught would have been pretty difficult) and says that Tim writes names in the diary as initials. With time she could figure out who he’s writing about. Also, she didn’t see anything about them in it. Elizabeth still waves her off from it but later, when she tells Philip, it gets her thinking. What if Paige can find dirt in the journal that they can use to hang over Tim? That would be valuable.

Back on the wheat mission, the info Elizabeth and Philip got last week bore fruit. Gabriel puts them on two people, a man and a woman in Kansas who are working on the infestation plot. Gabriel tells them it’s time to strike up new relationships and they don’t want to do it. For one thing, the home front is complicated enough as it is and ducking out of state all the time makes it worse. Plus, they both hate this kind of work. The last few years doing this have worn on their resolve. They have no choice though and start the relationships. Elizabeth is much more successful. This brings some stress home.

Oleg clues his mother in on him being blackmailed. She doesn’t take it well and he shuts that emotional hole and goes back to work. He makes some headway with his partner by getting a name for a distributor from the woman who runs one of the more well off grocery stores. Due to being blackmailed, Oleg doesn’t want to do the same to someone to continue the pursuit. His boss says bologna and his partner calms those waters a bit.

A rather shocking move with Stan. A double date with his new girlfriend, Renee, with Philip and Elizabeth. It goes well. Then at work, he drops his drawers and lays it out very clearly: leave Oleg alone. He’s adamant that Oleg has paid his dues and he should be respectively left to live his life at home. If they go after Oleg, he will go public about killing someone three years ago on the job. The scandal would overwhelm anything they would want to get out of Oleg. A bold, possibly career ending move.

Henry not only shows up in a scene but he’s part of it! He has dialog and it seems like they’re actually writing an arc for him this year. He’s got some trouble at school (they’ve been called to talk to his math teacher) and they realize they have no clue what he’s up to. He talks on the phone a lot and they don’t know with whom. He’s moody as hell and Paige thinks he might be talking to not one but two girls! I’m actually really interested to see where they go with it (they better, it’s so weird how the show ignores him. They might as well have never given the Jennings’ a son). At least it fits, Paige takes up so much of their attention, Henry could do anything and they wouldn’t know.

Step by step, Misha gets closer to meeting his father. At the very end, we see that he makes it to the US!

On the micro character level, Paige inches closer to the spy life as Stan recoils from it. Philip continues to listen to Alexei differently than Elizabeth. With each meeting, you can see Philip listening. While he sees him as a traitor for aiding in a project to foster starvation in the Soviet Union, Philip understands the base of his defection. The Soviet Union has all the resources to make prosperity that the US does but everything they do is broken. There’s no advancement. Corruption is killing their citizens. There’s no reason for it. The seeds of doubt for his own purpose are growing, adding to his wavering stance that started a few years ago. The Kansas Relationship Project is tearing at his old wounds too. What happened to Martha is something he will never get over and Elizabeth with another man is no respite from the personal trauma. It’s just another piece cut from him.

Into the Badlands snuck up on me last week. It’s been more than a year since the season finale so it’s a real treat to get my Hong Kong action choreography scratch itched. Love this production and the first two episodes have been great. Plus, a sizable episode bump from six to ten!

Next month Archer, Fargo, and Better Call Saul return! April, as always is shaping up nice.

XXXVII

A percolating episode.

Most of our time is spent chasing after Flint in the jungle of Skeleton Island with Silver. Flint goes with a divide and conquer plan with a bit of slight of hand to keep the cash and it largely works.

While the chase is on, Silver reflects on the man he’s chasing and ultimately, himself. We learn a very important motivation of Silver, why he’s trusted Flint for so long despite all the evidence. Something Hands wonders all the time and says out loud to Flint when he finally gets to confront him. Silver trusts Flint because Flint trusts him. Through all they’ve been through together they’ve become friends. They’ve been working together chasing the same results. They’ve both needed a partner in their quest. Through the years they have each other’s respect and thus, their loyalty to each other. With every step, there have been many disagreements. Flint taking the cash has forced Silver into a confrontation that can’t be ignored with his friend who believes that his side of the plan is the only way for them to succeed. Flint, of course, pleads a good case.

Bones advises Rogers to cover all his bases. With Flint on the run, the odds are against him. Odds never kept Flint down before though. Rogers gives Madi the ultimatum again and once again she isn’t impressed. She more or less tells him to shove it. This pushes Rogers into another rash decision: go after the pirates while he has the upper hand.

Checking in with Jack, he’s on his way to Skeleton Island with his crew. He hits a snag and the question of him making it to the fight looms even larger.

Silver and Flint fight in the jungle after Flint disables Hands. It’s just them as time is quickly running out. Silver’s perspective on Flint proves to be right when Flint saves him from an ambush. Then they hear the commotion in the bay.

Using the fog cover, Rogers’ men sneak onto the pirate ship and torch it. It quickly gets out of hand and when the pirates have to abandon ship, the second wave comes in and they’re shot in the water. Bones is in this second wave and just when it looks like he’s going to go full England, he spares one of the men he knows.

Silver, Flint, and Hands watch in shock as Rogers makes his move. All their supplies, their boat and likely all their men, are gone. What once looked like a rather simple chase-him-until-he’s-dead conclusion as been turned on its head. Now the men at odds are forced to work together again. Even worse for Silver, he has no leverage. Flint is the only one who knows where the treasure chest is buried. No matter what, that cash is necessary for any kind of future. Flint is again in control.

It was clear after the last episode that very few people were going to leave Skeleton Island alive. Half of them are now dead leaving our pirate leaders alone. So now the question is, what are the last remnants of the pirates going to do? Silver and Flint have gotten out of more than one sticky situation and this one is the worst. They’re going to need all of Flint’s odd defying skill to get to Rogers.

It’s a pirates life.

Great, great season.

I admire this show a lot. It walks on a lot of lines very well and that makes it very unique. The entire cast is great and everyone is a very distinct character. They each bring a different section of heart to Chip’s world and setting it in Bakersfield, CA gives the show a distinct look that looks like it could be happening in a few different decades. The production is smart and the writing even more so.

Chip (and Dale, really) is one of my favorite TV characters. He’s a sad guy but it never feels like it’s his fault or that he deserves it. He can be pigheaded and obnoxious at times but when you learn about his childhood and see how his twin Dale turned out, it makes sense. He actively tries to make something of his life and it just never comes together. He’s a good person (I especially like what they did with him and Trinity). When he gets dumped his courage comes out and it’s usually really funny. The highlight this season being his circus fight.

The first half mixes things up a lot by putting Dale on the road. We left him at a real low last season and he runs from it all. Watching him navigate things by himself and running into the Matrix drifters was a significant experience for him. He hit his stride and also got put into uncomfortable situations that pushed his ethics and made him question himself. In typical Baskets family tradition, he finds himself forced back home after a tragedy. The season changes there too. Chips arc this year is pretty intense. The scene when Mrs. Baskets finds where Chip has been staying since she kicked him out? “I know I’m a burden.” After watching what he’d been through all season that line (and how ZG delivers it) got to me.

Family is an integral aspect of the show. Brotherhood especially but this season they expanded Mrs. Basket’s role, gave her a lot more time and space to become fully realized. Louie Anderson is brilliant, he should win another award for this season. He works incredibly well with Zach Galifianakis, it’s totally convincing that Mrs. Baskets has been worried about Chip for 40 years.

Baskets plays everything straight which I think is why it works so well. In quick succession, they can go from introspection to comedy, to drama, in any order multiple times. The really funny stuff is often very subtle and whips by quickly. It’s some of the best dry humor around.

I got a job in a Russian circus.

Do they have tigers?

No…they have poodles from Moscow.

Communist poodles? How did they get into the country?

I’ll be there for Season 3.

The Midges

This week we move forward on the bug hunt. Alexei continues to disparage the USSR and his wife gets really angry. When they speak Russian, we find out that Alexei moved them suddenly. They had no idea he was going to defect and they one day were forced to up and leave everything behind. Alexei had a much different upbringing that his wife so he’s stuffed with way more anger about their home than she and their son are.

With an eye being kept on Alexei and Tuan working with Pasha, we’re moved on to the greater threat. The bug that Elizabeth handed off to Gabriel has come back with some results. It’s a midge that’s found in Australia and by the sound of it, it’s basically a locust. These things can chew through crops. The now focused concern is this: the US government effort is to decimate the food supply to cause a famine in the USSR. Now the question is, are they going to send the bugs over or just larva infested supplies? There are too many ways this attack could be kicked off so they have to find exactly how it’s going to happen for a chance to stop it. A lead takes Philip and Elizabeth to Oklahoma.

Before they leave, they decide to tell Paige about what they’re doing and Paige seems to be sympathetic to the cause. She has her questions but the answers look like they go over well. She doesn’t want anyone to starve. Paige also goes on a date with Will and she uses the thumb and forefinger technique they taught her when Matt asks her what’s bothering her. She pulls off a good lie and tells Elizabeth that she felt gross doing it. Elizabeth does her best to calm her down and keep her straight (it looked pretty successful to me).

In the USSR, Oleg is going about his business. He starts his investigation on where the money is going when merchants buy their food and he’s stonewalled. When he walks out the camera stays on a woman browsing the sparsely stocked shelves. It’s Martha! After that shocker, the US agent finds Oleg walking home and Oleg tells him to take a hike. Oleg didn’t go to the first meeting and the agent passes him a package, along with saying “I’m sorry.” With that unnerving line, Oleg opens the package at home and finds another map with a meeting marked and a cassette tape that’s audio proof that he’s a traitor to the USSR.

We keep rolling with the spies when we join Stan and his partner Dennis approach two men and push them for information about a company they work for. Both men don’t say a word and simply walk away.

Finally, Elizabeth and Philip break into an Oklahoma lab. Looking into the midges, shipping information grabbed the attention of home base so they have to find out what’s going there. While looking around, they see a whole lot of bugs, but not much else. Then an employee comes in…really bad timing for him. They turn on the heat to interrogate him and get some interesting info. This lab has a contract to breed this specific bug, a wheat eater, and send them out. 30,000 to 40,000 have been sent out and he insinuates that that amount isn’t much. And the company they are sending the bugs to? The same one Stan and Dennis are asking about. Since this guy has seen their faces, he’s gotta go.

Great escalation to the show with some really surprising moments. Things are being weaved together, seeing Martha was nuts (I hope that wasn’t a one off) and Mischa, Philip’s son is inching his way closer to his father. It’s going to be crazy when everyone starts running into each other.

Should we tell Paige about this?

Best show on TV.

XXXVI

Add another great episode to the stack. For me, this one was all about Max, who had all of my favorite scenes.

Max has stayed behind with Anne, to work on the plan with Grandma Guthrie and tend to Anne. As much as Max tries, Anne wants nothing to do with her. She’s made great headway with Grandma though as she’s come around completely to Max. Walking down a major port, Grandma picks Max’s brain a bit more and likes what she hears. She opens up to Max admitting that she had always wished she would be doing this with her granddaughter, Eleanor. But under the circumstances, doing this with Max, who reminds her of her younger self, can work just as well. They go to a tavern where Grandma wants Max to meet someone. They look down at a man in the crowd and Grandma tells her about this man. From a well off family, a good guy too, but not very ambitious. She wants Max to marry this man. A guy much like her husband who would be the face of the new Nassau but with the woman next to him actually controlling him. His family would be elated he’d be married so they’d get their support and Max should be able to easily control him. As for consummating the relationship, there is a brothel on Nassau if that’s any concern. Max is left speechless with such an arrangement.

Max has been through a long gauntlet. Slavery, going through everything with Eleanor and taking her place and then losing everything. She has a new perspective on life and her priorities have changed. She tells Anne what Grandma wants her to do and she said no. Anne is shocked that Max would give up an opportunity to have it all. Max says I wouldn’t have it all. She breaks down and apologizes to Anne for what she’s done. With how things went down between them, I wasn’t sure if this was ever going to happen. In an amazing speech, Max admits that “having” Nassau wouldn’t mean anything without Anne. Doing what Grandma wants would eliminate any chance she has of getting back together with Anna. Max doesn’t want to own things anymore. She’s picked love. Now Anne is left speechless.

On to the boys. Bones is all in with Rogers, showing him a journal from the late Avery (who Flint killed over some money) that has the directions to Skeleton Island.  A place off the grid that very people know the way to, where trades and deals can happen in the utmost secret. Bones says, lead Silver and Flint there where you will have the edge.

Flint reassures Silver that their plan to rescue max will work. But on the way to Nassau, they run into Rogers. Bones is onboard (not in custody) with Madi and Rogers starts executing pirates and slaves. As Rogers gets closer to Madi, Silver panics. “Your plan failed. We’re moving on to my plan.” Silver orders the treasure to be brought up to the deck and Flint is stunned when he sees it. They show Rogers what they have and Rogers stops the slaughter. Rogers leads the way to Skeleton Island with Silver eager to follow.

Silver and Flint have it out. Silver is putting his foot down, taking all control from Flint. Just like Max, Silver has picked love over all else. Silver takes on Flint directly, shooting down his plan and making him say that he has his full support in using the cash to get Madi back. Flint says he does.

Hands rightfully doesn’t believe Flint and warns Silver that he can’t trust him. He’s crazy to do so. Stubborn Silver remains loyal to Flint and tells Hands to leave it be. So what happens? Flint doesn’t waste any time to stab Silver in the back. In recruiting help (one guy) Flint basically says that Silver is soft and his judgment is clouded by Madi. Flint is furious that Silver brought the cash and simply won’t let Silver do what he wants. While stealing the treasure, Hands catches him. I thought it would pop off right there, but Hands recognizes the position he’s in. He either gets killed or Flint does. If he kills Flint, Silver won’t believe him and will kill him. Either way, Hands loses. He must let Silver see with his own eyes what a piece of trash Flint is. Hands lets him go.

So it’s come to this, one final act of treachery. Silver watches Flint and his sidekick drag the treasure onto the shore of Skelton Island. It is on. The line has finally been crossed. Silver goes onto Rogers’ boat and tells him what Silver did. He assures him that he’s going to get the cash back, he just needs some time. He’s put his six best men (one being Hands) to track Flint and get the cash. Bones is standing next to Silver and when he hears this, his eyes light up. “There was another order. Wasn’t there?” Flint is now marked for death by everyone. Bones can barely contain his joy.

On the sides, Anne plans on rejoining Jack. Despite being hurt very badly, sitting around isn’t something she does very well. While Jack has orders to kill Flint as well, he has no idea where he’s gone off too. Wether luck or fate, Mrs. Hudson (Eleanore’s hand maiden) goes to talk to the new (old) madam of the Nassau brothel, Mrs. Mapleton. There she passes off the info of where Rogers is leading Flint. And that info gets passed to Jack. Now he just has to get there.

The stage has been set, we now know where the last stand of the show is going to happen. Now the question is, how many people are going to make it off alive?

There was some brilliant direction on display in the scene where Grandma is showing Max her potential husband. It’s very dark where they are talking, so much of the background is black. Grandma and Max are the only people in the frame and they pop in contrast to the negative space around them. Max is standing closest to the camera, on the right side of the frame, facing to the left. We see only the left side of her body, a perfect portrait. Grandma is standing just to the left of Max, maybe a step behind her. She’s positioned off of center, not directly at the camera, but at an angle to the right side of the frame. With how it’s lit, we can only see the right side of her face, the left is in complete shadow. The blocking and lighting makes this brilliant visual that’s almost like a relief. A character split in half, the present on the right and future on the left, looking at each other. Max can see what will happen to her if she says yes.

There’s only two left.