Pests

This week was a relatively calm one that can be broken down into three parts.

Stan. He asked the woman out, it went well and she’s introduced to Philip at the gym. Renee (Laurie Holden from The Walking Dead) quickly agrees to another date so Stan finally has something positive in his life. On the other side, work. He’s brought into a meeting about Oleg, the CIA wants to flip him in Russia and they want info from Stan about the best way to do it. Stan tells them he can’t be flipped, he gave Stan the info about William with the bioweapon out of fear for the whole planet. If it’s not a cataclysmic event, he’s not going to be an asset. They insinuate threating Oleg’s family and Stan is mortified that someone who helped them out when it mattered solely on human grounds, and not threats, could be threatened. Oleg produced, he got moved home, now leave him be. Stan tries to stop it with zero results. In fact, when Oleg is approached, the agent tells him that Stan sent him. Also, it looks as if Oleg’s main job is to look into the food shortages (tieing Elizabeth and Philip to Stan even closer), which I’ll get to next.

The new mission. When Philip and Elizabeth hand off the bio-sample to Gabriel, he tells them of a major concern that home is freaking out about. Russia gets a lot of its food from many countries and the USA sends them a bulk of their wheat. Rumors are swirling that the wheat is being tampered with in some way. Elizabeth tracks down one of the mills where the wheat comes from and she sneaks in to find…bugs. The wheat is just swarming with them. She doesn’t know what the implication could be, but it’s not a good sign. Alexei Morozov is/could be involved with the wheat so they keep up with him and his family with their “son” Tuan. In full spy mode, they sit there at dinner listening to Alexei rail on the Soviet Union nonstop. While they couldn’t say anything, his son Pasha, does.

Paige. The other side Stan. While he’s becoming more insecure about what happens with being a spy (“Sometimes I wish I ran the whole place”) Paige is being edged into it a bit more and is not handling it well. When they come home from the bio-sample mission, they don’t find Paige asleep in bed. This could be horrible. The first thought is that she slipped out to Stan’s to be with Matt and that could raise questions about where the both of them are late at night. Turns out she felt so unsafe in bed, that she went into her closet to sleep. That first lesson from Elizabeth didn’t help at all.  If that wasn’t bad enough, Stan asks Philip if Paige is doing OK because she’s been acting different lately. Philip passes it off as her just being a moody teenager and the big life event of having a first boyfriend. Paige hasn’t done anything except spend more time around Stan and he’s picked up on something. Paige is a serious security problem that’s getting worse by the day. Elizabeth gives her another lesson and asks about Matt and it just makes Paige upset. Talking it over, they’re convinced that if she has sex with Matt, Paige is going to let something slip. She’ll have her guard down, she’ll be emotionally changed from something so intimate and not even realize what she’s saying. In a scene that completely flips the typical “birds and the bees talk,”  Phil and Elizabeth talk to Paige honestly about their concerns. They take a new approach since telling her she can’t see Matt is just making things worse. So, if she chooses to take things further with Matt, they want to teach her a technique to make things slow down and to keep her cool. When they say this, my mind went all over the place. An awkward conversation for anyone just hit new levels. They tell her to rub her index finger and thumb together and to think of them.  Yeah, that’ll pump the brakes.

The threat triangle has now become a square. While they always had to keep Stan at arms length for work, Paige’s involvement and vulnerability with Matt now means there’s another door leading to their secret that they must protect. Stan’s name is clearly being used on Oleg against his will and his reaction when he finds out (go with pushing Oleg or doing some rogue move to help Oleg) could lead Stan into a direct “on the job” encounter with Philip and Elizabeth. That could be the lead into the final season.

XXXV

The aftermath of the Nassau slaughter. A lot of powerful scenes.

Rogers comes face to face with the death he pushed on Nassau. When Eleanore’s body is being prepared for her final resting place, he finds out she was pregnant. He has some words with Eleanore’s handmaiden and mourns his loss from the decisions he made (and what he ultimately figures he was forced to do).

With the newfound support at the hidden camp, Flint and Silver push forward on the next step for the resistance. Silver wants Madi’s death to mean something and Flint agrees. While Silver is mourning, Silver has no problem with steering the ship for awhile. He has much bigger goals than anyone. He wants them to push forward all the way into Boston. Julius scoffs at the idea and Madi’s mother tries to convince him that it’s the best course for them to take. Julius listens but that’s about it. If anything he instills some more doubt in her.

Jack and crew make it to the Americas to talk to Eleanore’s grandfather for help. It does not go as planned but using his gift with persuasion, he catches the ear of Grandma Guthrie. While the man might be the front of the show, Grandma has a heavy hand in piloting where the family pursues its interests. At a second meeting to discuss details, Jack brings Max along hoping that Grandma Guthrie sees herself in Max. In a show of Max flexing her gift of persuasion and reasoning (and a great turnaround on a metaphor), they win her over.

While Billy Bones was untied before the war broke out, he didn’t manage to get away. He was captured with many others. He asks to see Rogers and in a not surprising turn of events, he offers to throw Silver and Flint to him. Bones has been screwed over for the last time. He tells Rogers that he has an advantage over the pirates in his possession. He must turn Silver and Flint against each other and he can use one of his captors to do it. Madi is alive.

Rogers sends the pirates an ultimatum. Give me the money or Madi is dead. The pirates are now in a hostage situation. Silver is all about it, hand it over and we’ll go from there. Madi’s mother thinks they can’t risk the turmoil that giving the treasure over will do with their allies. Silver agrees, which infuriates Silver since not too long ago Flint was ready to throw the treasure away for a fort. Flint sees that Rogers is trying to split them apart and offers an alternative: we keep the money and go rescue her.

In my favorite scene, Rogers talks with Madi. First, he asks her if Eleanore died fighting and Madi doesn’t answer. From there he gets to business. He brings her a contract. All the slaves on the island will be granted emancipation but they will turn over any slave and pirate to the law who seeks refuge from them after that. If not, he will enslave them all, split them up and burn down what’s left. The diabolical Rogers is back. He gets what he wants or crushes those who say no. He let’s that on sit in the air and then Madi drops this on him as he leaves the cell:

Eleanore died fighting. As will I.

The absolute best response she could have had.

Finally, Jack returns to the boat to tell Anne what he and Max worked out with Grandma Guthrie. They have agreed to fight Rogers back and split the control over Nassau as partners. Anne will be staying behind to heal while he goes back to Nassau. But there is one final test that GG wants Jack to pass. Kill Flint. Anne questions throwing all their beliefs away for this, betray their pirate brothers and Vane’s name. Jack reasons that it’s basically inevitable. Flint is a problem to everyone. Flint would take this same move. And Vane is dead, he doesn’t have a say in anything anymore. He’s doing it for their future.

Jack heads back to Nassau without Anne into the final battle.

Silver, Flint, and their crew are also on their way to Nassau. All three parties that have been split apart are now aimed at each other…and Flint has all the bullseyes on him. Silver is moving with a backup plan of his own. Flint thinks he’s getting his way (as he always does) but Silver has brought the treasure with them. If they can’t get Madi Flint’s way, Silver is ready and able to bargain. Hands lays it all out for Silver. If and when Flint doesn’t get his way, you better be ready to kill him.

There are only three episodes left in the series and all the cannons are loaded.

Man Seeking Woman– Another good season., I liked it a lot After following around Josh for two seasons as he bounced into a relationship and out of one, season 3 changed the perspective to what happens in a long-term relationship. Smart move as this gave a lot of chances for the people around Josh to change with him. His girlfriend Lucy obviously gets the lion’s share of time with Josh but the show how she deals with it too. Friendship dynamics changing (and peer pressure), meeting parents for the first time, realizing you’re in a long relationship and wondering about the future with this person, the pressure of proposing…there is a lot of pressure to navigate. The show is expanding beyond Josh (I’ve always liked how they give his sister a solo episode each year) in great ways and next season is going to offer all new ground as well. They cast this show really well too, it’s always fun to see what they’re going to do next. Looking forward to next season.

It’ Always Sunny in Philadelphia– Ten seasons is a crazy milestone for a show and this year was one of the best. That’s almost more impressive. I don’t think there was a bad episode this year and often they’re really smart episodes. Super happy to see some major character milestones in the last half of the season. While they wisely left some old material behind some time ago (Charlie and The Waitress) or glance off old material here and there (Mac being in the closet) they finally took these two long time Always Sunny beats and moved them forward. Mac’s episode in particular was insanely funny. Cricket got a great piece too! In a great bit of story telling, he was in one episode as a cameo and then went back an episode or two later to show what he was doing that day. Hell, they even had a cliffhanger finale! I hope they can keep up the creativity for the next season, this run was a blast.

Amber Waves

The wait is finally over, The Americans are back on! Let’s dig into the best show on television.

First, how awesome is that poster above?

The end of last season was intense. The heat was so high on the Russian spies that fleeing the country was a real possibility. We come back in not too long after William’s death. Philip and Elizabeth are on to a brand new mission. They’re posing as a family with an adopted Filipino son who becomes friends with a new Russian student (I think they’re around 16 years old). The kid’s father is none too kind to the motherland and it looks like Phil and Elizabeth are meant to get close to find out if the father is a danger to Russia. The adopted son is a gung-ho recruit. He’s all about the mission and is intense about his immediate dislike for the father.

On the side character front, Oleg’s request to be moved back to Russia has been granted so Stan is out a contact. On the Stan front, nothing seems to be really buzzing at the FBI hive and he’s trying to move on from the divorce. He’s pretty stoked about “meeting” a woman at the gym and he’s happy that his son Matt has Paige in his life.

So the threat of Paige slipping around Matt is very real. Phil and Elizabeth don’t want Paige to date Matt and them telling her so just makes her mad and pushes her towards Matt. It also doesn’t help that since they are away so much on the new mission, Paige and her brother Henry are at Stan’s all the time. But there’s more to them being in love (which Paige quickly downplays to her parents) she’s been greatly affected by being attacked with her mother last year and seeing Elizabeth kill the guy. She worries for her parents all the time, is afraid of being alone and isn’t sleeping. So the immediate concern is her being with Matt but Elizabeth takes the right path. She’ll deal with her daughter’s insecurities and fear first. She teaches Paige basic defense and she learns fast. She’ll work up to dealing with the Matt issue in time.

Finally, Gabriel meets up with them and tells them what happened to William.

“He’s a hero.”

“Maybe he’ll get a stamp.”

There’s another mission involving the location where William was taken. Cut to them sneaking into the facility with a few other spies. They’re digging through the middle of the night looking for something and finally (a good 8-10 feet down) find a heavy duty metal case. They open it up and that’s no case, it’s a coffin. It’s William’s body. Having injected himself with the bioweapon, his body contains the sample that Russia still wants. The cut a piece of his leg out, seal it up in a bag and hand it off to a guy standing next to the hole. The guy falls in and cuts himself on the edge of the coffin and he’s basically splayed out on gaping hole William. They tell him it’s cool and to climb out. He heads up and like the true professional, Elizabeth caps him.

Great comeback to my favorite show. It’s as sharp and interesting as ever. They’re moving Paige’s story in a logical way and this new mission with the father could lead to a lot of things. Stan and the FBI are subdued for now. It’s just a matter of time until that fan gets turned back on. Really like the scene with Stan telling Phil about the woman, added some much-needed levity and normalcy. Now the question is, are they going to get Henry aware of anything this season or keep him shoved to the side? He’s so far out of the loop he might as well be in another state. Thought: with the worry being that Paige will open up to Matt, what if she tips off her brother instead?

XXXIV

An episode of being overwhelmed and packed with action. Right from the start, things look bleak. 12 Spanish ships off the coast, likely with 1,000 men on board. And Rogers lets them in.

A series of stands, scrambles, and retreats, this week was a bad one for the pirates. Any kind of advantage they had is lost.

Bones gets punished at the Underhill estate before Silver finds out that the Spanish are coming and Silver gives his reasons for siding with Flint instead of him. Appropriately, Bones is pissed. Then the leader of the slave rebellion, Julius, meets Flint and they discuss pushing the revolution forward.

The frontal assault on the Nassau harbor pounds the place into splinters and sends any survivors fleeting. As word spreads across the island that the Spanish are invading, plans for survival are hastily put together. The move with the biggest payoff: Max’s partner has the smarts to pack up a ship and GTFO before the Spanish move in. It proves to be a life saver later on.

Max finds Jack and she goes with him onto the boat they took over thanks to Anne. She sees Anne, broken and beaten and while she tries to apologize, Anne wants nothing to do with the traitor (something Jack brought up when the first met).

Now Rogers has come in with the Spanish and he gets a bad feeling that he’s brought way more firepower and rage than he should have. Once on Nassau, he witnesses the mayhem Then, he finds out the Eleanore isn’t with his people, that she left with an escort hours ago (with Flint). He has no idea where she is and he’s brought war to the island. In an effort to keep her safe he talks to the commander about keeping her unharmed when she’s found and he’s told there’s no stopping this. Rogers sold the idea to Spain by telling the Governor to burn everything to the ground. In doing so, he thought Eleanore would be safe with his people and now that she’s not, he has to find before anyone else does.

Flint is with Madi and Eleanore and a few men when they see a Spanish patrol. They flee to the Barlow house, a place that was visited quite a bit in the beginning of the series. This safe place is soon discovered by the Spanish and it’s defended but Flint and a few others go off to chase down a few men to keep reinforcements from coming back. Eleanore refuses to believe that Rogers had anything to do with the Spanish showing up.

Underhill gets attacked in an epic fight scene. The first wave proves to be a distraction from a sneak attack from the rear. Many are lost and the pirates have to retreat into a building and only survive because Julius shows up with reinforcements. But that was just a fraction of the Spanish force.

In the most shocking scene of the episode, one of the original attackers at the Barlow house wasn’t killed and gets into the house. In a brutal fight, the man gravely injures Madi with a blow to the head and Eleanore barely manages to kill the man. She too is gravely injured as the house catches fire.

Flint returns with Eleanore dying outside of the house. She says she tried to get Madi out, but couldn’t. She dies in Flint’s arms, believing that Rogers isn’t with the Spanish. Flint returns to Silver and he’s devastated by Madi’s death. Everyone at Underhill has been rocked and Spanish reinforcements are coming. The pirates have to flee. Flint takes over, he orders everyone to the beach.

Out on the ocean, Jack patiently waits to see if survivors appear, despite the danger of being spotted by the Spanish. In the only good part for Max, her right-hand man thanks her for standing by him. Before this, Max thought she had nothing. With Nassau overrun and Anne beaten, Max is crushed. So much sacrificed for no return. Flint shows up on the beach and Jack picks them up.

Rogers, once hell bent on revenge finds the personal results for his actions. Eleanore dead.

Crushed Max turns her sorrow into rage. With everything gone, everyone hurt or dead, she won’t stand for it. In an epic moment, she confronts Jack about being a meathead in fighting society from the outside in. He calls her a traitor that’s lucky to be alive and she counters with a plan. When Flint goes south to Madi’s home, they will go north to Eleanore’s grandfather. She’s going to make Rogers pay.

When Flint and Silver reach land they find out why the Urca treasure was never sent and that word of Nassau has fallen has reached other colonies, both pirate and slave have shown up in support. The rebellion is not over.

This episode had it all. Great set up, great action, some incredible character moments and the parting gift of knowing that all hope isn’t gone. Eleanore and Madi being killed in this episode as they did came as a major surprise to me. Eleanore and Madi talked a lot with each before their end and it brought both of their lives into a great perspective (Madi especially as she came into the show proper much later). For as easy as it was to wish Eleanore taken out for all she’s done I found it to be bitter sweet. Sacrifice so much for nothing in return.

In the end, I think I came fully around to Taboo. The last two episodes in particular were really good as there was plenty of payoff.

Tom Hardy is the draw to the show and he anchored it down in every scene he’s in,  the dude is intense. One of my favorite scenes is when Chichester goes to Delaney’s house to get information on the slave ship. Delaney is really sporadic, slinking low in his chair and he otherwise looks like a mess. He offers to leave and come back later but Delaney tells him to stay because, as we know having watched him for 7 episodes, that he’s always like this and there will never be a better time for them to talk. Hardy can play a maniac like very few others can. He makes it look believable and manages to keep from going overboard.

The show offers more than just a great main character. Strange makes for a great foil (as Jonathan Price often does) and Atticus had a great look to him. I didn’t like Lorna Bow when she was first introduced but she really grew on me and she has one of the best arcs on the show. Suprisingly, Delaney’s sister Zilpha, didn’t. Her story ends with episodes to go and she floats into the rest like an afterthought. I thought the title of the show mainly referred to her and Delaney but by the end, it didn’t seem like that at all. Oh and on another downside, I have to mention Prince Regent. Not the actor or the character, but the terrible makeup. Every scene he’s in is distracting because he looks so off. A terrible fat suit and prosthetic face makeup that doesn’t look anatomically correct. In the last episode, there is a close up of his face that really puts it over the edge. The makeup is so thick that despite the clean edges around his nose, under his eyes and above his cheekbones, you can clearly see where the prosthetic begins. He talks and his cheeks don’t move at all let alone move like flesh (especially weird looking because it’s supposed to be chubby cheeks). It’s clearly a mound of what I’m pretty sure is foam latex.

So what was the show about? I’m not sure. Clearly Delaney, but that’s awfully simple and I feel like missed something. Saying Delaney is damaged is an understatement so it’s hard to navigate his motivation and traumas (that are often visually represented as hyper-edited dreams/hallucinations. He was underestimated by everyone in every capacity and each step of trying to take him down by Strange and the rest of the East India Company. Through extensive build up (most of the show really) he proves to be incredibly smart, extremely wealthy and can take a beating that would make Superman want to take a day off. There was closure with the major plot points, though. A satisfying battle at the end brought every major player into the road and dealt with. Delaney got most of what he wanted and overall I liked the end.

Now, will there be a second season? The end was written as an opening for more and as a pretty complete conclusion if the show didn’t get picked up for more. I have yet to see anything about a season 2, but I feel invested and interested enough in Delaney to check out more.

Edit 3/10/17: Second season is confirmed.

XXXIII

Looking back to episode 4, it was pretty stupid to think that Eleanore’s plan would work. The whole thing hinged on Rogers doing what she wanted, based on love and we knew from last year that he questioned her loyalty since she had been on Nassau for so long. Maybe if she told him that she was pregnant with his child it might have given his decision more consideration (maybe, he’s pretty cold blooded).

So the plan. Fork over the Urca gold (the central McGuffin for the first half of the series) to get control of Nassau and avoid a nasty battle that could very well be a loss in the end. Eleanore and Flint are all in. Silver is shocked and Madi sides with going for it because Bone’s earlier betrayal threw the slave allegiance into chaos. With her people getting brutalized so much already, she doesn’t think they have enough support to even try to fight. Bones is absolutely against it for a list of very good reasons. That leaves Silver stuck in the middle.

While pondering being trapped in giving his word to so many people, Silver doesn’t know what to do. Hands, his right-hand man and killer extraordinaire wants to hear exactly no belly aching. The only leader he will follow is one who will make a decision and stick with it.

Rogers had every intent of rolling up onto that beach and killing some pirates. Getting the message from Eleanore about her plan makes him change course but in a direction that Eleanore and Flint never thought of.

So Flint wants to pay him off with the Urca treasure? For him to take a hike with Eleanore and float off to wherever. The treasure that they stole from the Spanish. In a rather brilliant move, Rogers leaves Nassau but doesn’t go to the port that Eleanore asked (told, in his interpretation) him to go to. He goes to Cuba and tries to get Spain to help. At first, he’s basically laughed off but when he mentions the Urca gold to the Governor, that gets his attention. Rogers is smart. He knew asking for help wasn’t going to work. So he made it personal for them.

The Urca gold is being brought out of hiding to Nassau per the plan. And it turns out that Silver makes the decision to side with Eleanore and Flint. He throws Bones under the bus in doing so but makes Hands spare his life at the last moment. Bones has been through some brutal stuff in the series and this might be the worst of it. I didn’t like seeing Bones get betrayed (especially when he’s been right more than wrong).

Jack makes it back to Nassau (zero word on Anne) and runs into Flint waiting for the Urca treasure on an isolated beach away from the fort. When Flint fills him in on the plan, Jack fills him in on reality. He has no idea who Rogers is and neither does Eleanore. They’ve completely underestimated him and from what he’s seen Rogers due (RIP Teach) he’s certain that Rogers didn’t go tuck his tail when he left. He’s coming back.

So, stupid Eleanore and Rogers, the two biggest instigators and backstabbers on the show, have probably screwed every single person on Nassau. They have a way bigger problem than Rogers sitting off shore now. He’s got Spain rolling in with him and they are rolling deep. Max is the first to see it with a spyglass in the fort. I hope she drop kicks Eleanore over a barrel.

Action wise this episode was quiet but the set up for the last half of the season has escalated things to unseen levels on Black Flag.

XXXII

Now that Nassau is taken, it has to be held. Easier said than done when pirates are involved.

Silver and Flint start off standing together, the decision makers of the pirates as some of the English (and quick thinking Eleanor) made it into the fortress. There’s a lot of moving pieces in the eye of this storm.

The English men in their stuffy suits want to fight back immediately and Eleanor manages to persuade them to wait for Rogers to come back to Nassau. They need the man and firepower that he’s going to come back with. When she finds out that Max wasn’t taken in, she’s worried.

Madi goes off further into the island to check on the settlements to see if she can salvage the growing slave rebellion that was harmed by Bones actions of pushing to take Nassau and going off on his own. She finds out that a new threat has emerged from the penance the slave owners brought down from Bones’ actions: a leader has emerged. He has rallied a large swath of men by overthrowing a settlement and he intends on taking Nassau in the names of the slaves. Pirates be damned.

While working together to keep Nassau from eating itself alive in all the turmoil, Silver and Flint are working well with each other. Until Bones gets into his ear. Bones has been busy. He’s been cutting off possible trouble makers and he also managed to get Max. Using the leverage of Max, he forces Silver into a talk without Flint. He thinks he knows why Eleanor wants her so badly (she’s the one that sold them out at the beginning) and that trusting Flint is and always has been a mistake. He’s left a trail of bodies as far as the eye can see to get his way and any idea he comes up with to keep Nassau is just another terrible event waiting to happen. He suggests to Silver that now that he has something worth living for (Madi) he needs to be the sole shot caller. Then, Silver finds out from Max that someone very important in Flint’s life may still be alive, hidden away many years ago.

Back at sea, Rogers splits his group into two when he rescues a fleeing boat from Nassau and that Eleanor is still there. He’s going back to Nassau and he appoints one of his most trusted men to take the pirates they’ve caught to another friendly port. The guy wants to stick with Rogers and go to war, but Rogers makes him go. Now, Jack and Anne are part of those few dozen prisoners. This guy and those that are taking the to the authorities are pissed. All alone they decide to slowly take their revenge. The rest of what happens at sea fills the action quota for the week. A brutal fight for survival, it’s Anne who gives them the chance they need. Riveting scene.

Max gets reunited with Eleanor and as the crocodile tears start building, Max isn’t hearing it. She constantly told Eleanor and Rogers what was going to happen if they kept pushing and it did. Ignored through it all, Max has nothing left and cares little for how Eleanor feels. Flint and Eleanor are two peas in a pod, everyone close to them gets dashed on the rocks while they get to move on and destroy more.

Finally, Rogers floats up to Nassau and the pirates are in trouble. It’s a Man O’War so it’s got serious firepower so they’ll be able to get to the beach with little problem. When discussing tactics, Flint gets a message from Eleanor. He and Silver go to meet her in secret where she lays out an offer. In exchange for their buried treasure and safe passage for everyone, she’ll leave Nassau and the fortress (and its guns) to them.

This is a last ditch effort if there ever was one. Eleanor wants to bail out. All the work she’s put into Nassau in her adult life is gone and she sees nothing to salvage. If she can get this deal it gives her two options. Clear of the pending doom she can move on with Max. Or she can hang back, scoop up Rogers and use the money to pay off his debt and move on with him.

Silver rightfully says no. The treasure is the pirates future. If they live through this, they need the money to do anything. That bounty is the holy grail for basically everyone standing behind Flint and Silver. If they lose that, it will be full on mutiny. Flint on the other hand…no idea what he thinks there is to gain for himself by saying yes. Tunnel vision perhaps? He weighs his entire life, failure or success, on him taking back Nassau.

Eleanor getting her way seems far fetched. Rogers and her handmaiden are her only true allies she has left and the talk Bones gave to Silver already tilted his view on Flint. Flint telling her yes has to cement Silver on ditching Flint. I can only hope that Jack can get back to Nassau and crosses paths with Eleanor. That’ll be a wrap on her backstabbing.

I’ve never heard of Legion until the show was announced way back when. Looking him up you can see his rather important lineage to the X-Men universe. With the knowledge that he is the son of Charles Xavier, I’ve gone into Legion with little expectations. The last month or so they advertised this short season like it was the second coming.

Two episodes in, Legion feels like it’s in the X-Men world (it shares a certain production design aesthetic) but feels very unique. David is an incredibly powerful telepath but doesn’t really know. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He sees and hears things all the time and has no control over it. Sometimes people have gotten hurt. He’s been in and out of mental institutions for at least a decade and he considers himself with no silver lining: lost, depressed, sick, crazy. His sister, Amy, is probably his only tether to happiness.

In one facility he meets another patient Syd and their relationship changes everything. It leads to a road of enlightenment and danger where he comes to turn that he isn’t sick, he has powers. The voices and the visions are real. With a haunted childhood and an adulthood of doctors, isolation, and medication David has a lot to work through as he’s hunted once he goes into hiding with Syd and an organization of like-minded individuals committed to helping him.

The pilot is packed with info and characters to take in. Getting to know David is tough (as it should be) and it’s a constant question of what is real and who is a friend. Aubrey Plaza as his not so good of an influence friend Shannon is the fastest highlight to come for. The  end of the pilot puts it’s full X-Men brand shoes on for you to check out.

I’ve found episode 2 to be really impressive. Shocking, actually. With the introduction of David done, we go into (literally) his head for the dirt. Presenting his past the way they do gives the direct line to discover who this guy is. What made him this bundle of nervous power. I dig the supporting characters (especially Wallace) and every scene felt important. Whatever that fat man/demon thing is is super disturbing. The ultimate boogyman of what that creature is, where it’s from, what it wants and holy animal, is it real, has me hooked.

Major shout out to the crew on this show. It starts on the page and comes to life in some amazing direction and editing. There are too many incredible moments to mention but basically anytime Wallace and Dr. Bird are working with David is nuts. Whatever the budget is for this show, every dime is seen on screen. Seamless visual effects to display morphing time, space, and locations. They visually jump around in David’s memories so much that it shouldn’t work but it does. The sense of being in the narrative perspective of the main character, even when he isn’t “there”, is masterful work. Everything with the MRI machine is brilliant. The lighting cues, the blocking, the incredible editing. This episode needs to be put up for awards.

I can only hope that after seeing this that the best is yet to come.

XXXI

This might end up being in the top 5 episodes of the series. There is some intense moments, to say the least. There’s a lot to unpack here.

I’ll start with Max. In the last episode, she made her own moves in the dead of night to end the battle for Nassau with Long John Silver. It didn’t work out and she was ratted out. That put Max firmly on Berringer’s bad side and he had enough of her, putting her up for treason. Berringer is throwing his full weight around as the only authority in town, and Eleanor is the only one who could help her. With a trip to the gallows in her future, Max has very few avenues of rescue available. Her two main helpers try their best but fail. The good news for Max is that getting into trouble kept Eleanor on the island, dashing Rogers plan for Eleanor to get help. That’s bad news for Rogers.

With Billy Bones gone rogue with a large swath of the pirates, Silver and Flint work in their smaller group to take back Nassau. The Long John Silver boogeyman has been working well in town and Flint is still confident that they can take their home back with enough slave resistance. John coming back from the dead brings renewed faith in Madi. This group has a bit of an advantage- Rogers took off with quite a few men so Nassau isn’t as well guarded as it could be.

On the ocean, Blackbeard, Anne, and Jack catch up to Rogers. It does not go well. They lose the battle and get taken prisoner. Charging forward to get even for Vane’s death has delivered them to death’s door. A major win for Rogers, he makes an example out of the notorious Blackbeard. I did not know what keelhauling meant until now. Seeing Teach strung up like that, I thought they were just going to dunk him head first into the ocean repeatedly, an advanced water boarding if you will. He disappears into the water, some strange noises from the boat are heard and he comes back up head first and with cuts all over him. He is messed up. Teach lived through it and Rogers orders another round and they show it all. His body is literally scraped along the bottom of the boat. Absolutely horrific.

In a moment that rivals the badassery of Captain Vane spitting in the face of the crown by walking off to his hanging to kick off the resistance, Blackbeard manages to thumb his nose at  Rogers authority. and clips his power move by surviving three rounds of keelhauling, forcing Rogers to shoot him. Absolutely nuts.

This whole segment was brilliantly put together, it might be my favorite scene in the series. We don’t see what happens to Teach the first time. All the pirates are shaken, their Captain taking a brutal punishment from their sworn enemy. The shock when they see him alive and Rogers’ complete annoyance that this bastard is still fighting him. The second time around and we are shown exactly what Teach is going through. He comes back up and it’s gross. Rogers feels vindicated and gears up to send Jack up for his turn. But Teach sputters to life and everyone is shocked. His men are in disbelief, their leader, their tough bastard of a leader is still with them. Rogers orders Teach around again and we only hear the horror. We wait on the boat with everyone to see what comes back up. Teach is dumped onto the deck again and he looks like ground beef. His people look at him, their spirit taken with their captain. And he comes back again! The pirates swell with pride with this unheard of level of defiance. Blackbeard will never be forgotten. With no way out he still managed to defy his enemy. While Rogers does get to kill him, his triumphant moment is ruined and he’s so flustered that he does nothing to Jack.

Back at Nassau, Berringer starts the public hangings after ignoring some spy info Eleanor passed him from Max. She wanted him to silence the resistance away from the people. With three hung and the next set coming up, Berringer is riding the power wave, ready for Silver to show up right there so he can show everyone he means business. Eleanor knows what’s about to pop off and she’s petrified–she takes off to hide with Max and a few others.

Enter Long John Silver into Nassau. Him in front with his one leg and the others behind him (even Flint!). It’s a huge moment for Silver, a legend come to take back the power. All out war breaks out right there in the center of town and just when it looks like Berringer has the advantage, Bones shows up with his crew and they overwhelm the crown. In another nod to Silver’s ascent to leadership, it is he who gives Hands the go ahead to kill Berringer.

The pirates have planted their flag back on their home turf while Rogers had his own win at sea. But Rogers has a real problem on his hands. He’s lost home base and thus, any kind of leverage. There’s really no negotiating chips he holds aside from Jack and Anne. He’s out numbered with no place to land. Eleanor is also trapped on Nassau, she never made it to her uncle for help. Rogers is on his own along with that boat anchor of debt still tied around his neck.

I don’t think they’ll be able to match the action and insanity of this episode next week but I can’t wait to see what happens next.