Spoiler Alert!

This was a bit of an odd week. Most of my lineup here delivered pretty well, including Castle‘s return, but a couple of them fell a bit short in my book. Oh well, c’est la vie. I still had plenty of fun! 🙂

Once Upon a Time

“Nimue”

Called it!

Nimue was the first Dark One! Ha! I got one right! 🙂

This episode takes place mostly at multiple times in the past, to understand “the promise of Excalibur.”

A looooooong time ago, Merlin and some other poor fellow were fleeing through a terrible wasteland, when they found the Holy Grail. The “other poor fellow” tried to drink from it, and was destroyed, the same as Sir Kaye was when he tried to pull the sword from the stone. Merlin asked permission first, of whatever heavenly power might be watching, and was not killed. He drank, and survived, and became an immortal sorcerer at whose touch the wasteland sprang into blooming life.

A slightly less loooong time ago, Merlin met Nimue. She came to his village, where he spent his days helping people with the assistance of his apprentice. Her home and people were destroyed by an evil man, and she wanted revenge of one form or a another. She said she wanted a rare flower from her village to survive, to spite the killer, but she certainly didn’t pass up the chance for a more direct form of vengeance when the opportunity presented itself. Unable to see her future, Merlin became intrigued, and her apparent selflessness entranced him. He fell in love. So in love that he was willing, even eager, to forfeit his immortality and his magic, to spend one precious lifetime with her.

Unfortunately, Nimue had other plans. She seized a chance to drink from the Holy Grail before it was reforged into Excalibur, a weapon that could sever his connection to magic. Her old enemy, Vortigan was his name, returned just in time to “kill” her, and she pretended to die to try and convince Merlin that she was right. She killed Vortigan, and broke Excalibur so it could never be used against her. Afterwards, Merlin, heartbroken, put the broken blade into the stone that once held the Grail, safe, and he crafted the Dark One’s Dagger to bind Nimue and prevent her reign of terror. Then, trapped as a tree, he spoke to Arthur and Emma in turns, directing them towards their destinies of destroying darkness.

…pretty much none of that worked. Nimue seized the dagger and had “a million a lifetimes to give others power,” just as she wished for. The Dark Ones have had a long and storied reign of terror, many souls drowned in darkness. Arthur went mad and turned against him. And Emma, the most powerful of all Dark Ones, used Rumple to get Excalibur, which is whole and complete in her hand by the end of this episode. She hesitated only a moment, still hearing Merlin’s warning to leave the sword alone… but she’s taken it now.

If that weren’t bad enough, there are more disturbing things afoot.

Back in Camelot, Emma successfully overcame her own darkness in a direct confrontation with Nimue, a contest which Merlin bet his life on. Heh, I had to feel bad for him when he knew he was heading possibly to his death, and there’s Emma going, “By the way, I’ve been doing dark things lately and the darkness is winning within my heart.” Yeah, not comforting, that! I would have been very nervous in Merlin’s place!

However, just as Emma wins, Zalina and Arthur manage to dupe the Storybrooke crew. Zalina gets her freedom and binds Merlin to the sword as the Dark One is bound to the dagger. Which is a most interesting tangle in this plot. I was wondering why Merlin would tell the heroes to find Nimue, saying she was their hope at defeating the Darkness. But if he was under Arthur’s control at the time, then his advice isn’t entirely trustworthy, is it? Did Emma truly defeat him? Or is her current darkness due to the power she needed to use to do exactly that?

Castle

“Cool Boys”

I love seeing Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin working together. It’s a Firefly/Serenity thing, in part, but, also, they’re hilarious! If anyone could pull off singing “Cool Boys” when faced with a number of thugs pointing guns at them, whilst being perfectly unarmed themselves, it’s gotta be the Fillion/Baldwin combo of Castle and his old “friend” Ethan Slaughter. You just know the story behind that has to be great, likely involving the two of them loving West Side Story and going, “Let’s put it in the show!” 🙂

After the last encounter with Slaughter, several years ago, his entrance into Castle’s office is an automatic “Defcon 1” situation. He still manages to get Castle to help him, despite Castle’s fears, and the two of them make for a better team than one might imagine at first. Castle also gets a look into the man behind the blustering aggression, which of course, no one can just be as one-dimensional as that all the time. He was married to a famous opera singer, majored in musical theater in college, and he’s a pretty good cook. He also finds himself a young man who is brilliant and full of promise, but in need of a proper role model, and chooses to take on that role himself. Yes, that is scraping the bottom of the barrel, but sometimes that’s where the jewels are hidden, a surprise to all.

And I love how Slaughter realizes that, to be a proper role model, he needs to shape up, be more responsible and less eager to hit people. Mentoring works both ways, you know.

The case itself is one of a high-end burglary, where a young kid used his genius to invent a magnificent digital skeleton key. But he was just being used by his mentor, and they were both being used by the man who assigned them to each other. Talk about betrayal! Anyway, the two adults got into it, one killed the other, and the dead man was a criminal informant for Slaughter, thus bringing our favorite lunatic thug into the mix. He looked to be a suspect for awhile, though he convinced Castle of his innocence to the point where Castle stole Ryan and Espo’s car while they were in the middle of arresting Slaughter (more hilarity) and they eventually brought down the perpetrator for murder and robbery, as well as a local gang for similar charges. Not a bad day’s work.

Hayley, we see, is partially a consultant at Castle’s agency, and it was great seeing more of her in the mix. Martha is working on a novel she entitles, “Unsolicited Advice.” Alexis, Ryan, and Espo are all shining as ever. Beckett’s out of town at the moment, but both Martha and Slaughter advise Castle to stop waiting, stop asking, just find out what’s going on and help Beckett through whatever she’s going through.

Of course, as “what she’s going through” is “hunting for a highly placed and highly dangerous mole within the CIA,” that likely won’t go over very well at first!

Gotham

“Tonight’s the Night”

This episode had three major fronts to it.

Easily the largest front was that of the Barbara’s feud with Gordon and Thompkins. She just walked into the GCPD and plucked her victims from it, so to speak. She led Gordon into a trap, and everyone knew it was a trap, but Gordon seems to have gotten a little too used to such dire situations and runs headlong into it. That’s a move that nearly got himself and Thompkins killed, and did get several of the newest crop of Strike Force additions killed. Man, that’s starting to turn into the newbie slaughterhouse.

Barnes… I can’t seem to get a proper read on him, but he smells more like one of Galavan’s ilk with each new episode. He cleanses the GCPD and begins the Strike Force, yet he’s always talking about “legal” limits, yet he was perfectly happy entertaining the idea of those limits expanding under Galavan’s martial law, yet he busts anyone for even thinking about exceeding what is, at that moment, perfectly legal. He opposes Gordon taking a run at Galavan, yet tells him to do the detective work for doing so, yet opposes Gordon’s plan of playing along with Barabara’s scheme (so Gordon digs stubbornly in), yet he sanctions it, and he calls them back mere moments before they’re hit by Tabitha and her goons. And how did Barbara simple steal Thompkins straight outta the GCPD? Sure, Tabitha could have seen to that, but it would still take some doing to sneak her out with the cops on high alert.

Perhaps I’m wrong.

Either way, Barbara gets her little “wedding” complete with her “rival’s” presence. The relationship Gordon has with Thompkins is far different from the one he had with Barbara. For one thing, Gordon kept secrets from Barbara, but he isn’t doing that with Thompkins, to my knowledge. For another, while both women are trying to get him to see his own darkness, Thompkins is trying to help him rise above it, while Barbara wants to drag him down into it, as the Ogre did to her last season. Still, Gordon tries to save her, if only a little, and for his trouble, he manages to get one precious slip of information: the status and location of the mayor Galavan kidnapped and has been tormenting for weeks.

Gordon was probably right, that Galavan intended to dispose of Barbara once her usefulness had run its course. However, with that critical slip, Barara managed to give Gordon exactly what he needed, a very angry mayor’s testimony, to bring Galavan down. She’s gone down, and taken Galavan with her.

Of course, that would have gone very differently if Bullock hadn’t figured out where they were. Go Bullock! 🙂

All of this, however, was just a sideshow for Galavan, a way to distract and eliminate Gordon until he could get his hands on Wayne Enterprises. Young Bruce, still consumed with a need for revenge instead of justice, was practically clay in Galavan’s hands. He offered all the information Bruce could want on his parents’ murderer – which was probably very easy to come by as he likely had a hand in it himself – in exchange for selling Galavan his shares.

Of course, if Galavan really did have that information (likely) and really was who he pretended to be, then woudn’t he just turn that information over to the appropriate authorities? No one in this episode mentioned that! As Bruce was being offered the one thing he most desires, like the sweetest and most forbidden of fruits, I was counting on the more reasonable Alfred to offer that vital piece of information. Still, Bruce backed out at the last second. Fortunately, that’s when Gordon burst in with a small army of cops, arresting Galavan. Yay!

But Galavan was just quick enough to burn the documents he had offered Bruce, likely very incriminating documents and compromising to the Court of Owls as well. I wonder how they, especially Silver and Tabitha, will react to this turn of events? Either way, Bruce is devastated, ready to do anything to get what he wants now, having come so close and lost a precious opportunity.

Mind you, my conniving little brain is the sort where I would have just called Gordon and had him confiscate the documents in pursuit of a legal investigation. Bruce would get the info and keep his company. Heck, he could use the GCPD to purge Wayne Enterprises of the nightmarish corruption which plagues it in the same breath.

But I suppose that’s beside the point.

Our third front is Nygma the Riddler, trying to bury his girlfriend’s remains, complete with a picnic, a toast, and a riddle. An unlucky hunter happens by, so Nygma hits him on the head with a shovel. That’s not necessarily enough to kill a man, but it renders him unconscious long enough for Nygma to get something to chop him up with. Then, as he returns and finds his picnic raided, he follows the trail of another interloper and comes upon none other than Penguin. It’s getting very crowded in those woods.

Hopefully, the hunter survived and will escape by the time Nygma returns. But Riddler and Penguin together? That spells lots and lots of trouble. Fun, interesting, terrible, bloody trouble. 🙂

Agents of Shield

“Chaos Theory”

Marvel certainly twisted our guts this week.

Cutting straight to the heart of the matter, Garner’s terrigenesis was triggered by a trap laid in Jia-Ying’s ledger, where she kept track of all her Inhumans. That’s how he knew all the names he was after, between that and his access to Shield information, and why he needed the hacker fellow to track them all down for him. His transformation ignited a foreign hunger within him, to be near Inhumans, and when he came near the first one, just after getting back from Hawaii with May, he simply changed into Lash and killed the poor man. And his craving was… sated. So he kept finding them, hunting them like animals. How many has he killed? And he has no intention of stopping.

Lincoln showed up again. He’s learned that he may well be the only Inhuman left from Afterlife, all the others being missing or confirmed dead. All of them All of his friends. His family. Gone. Taken from him by Lash. Who, he knows as an Inhuman, is no longer Andrew Garner. The man is dying, his mind and will overtaken by something completely different. He’s insane, sick with a cancer in his own head. And he has so much blood on his hands now.

Oh, to see May, so happy with Garner in Hawaii… and now, all of that is shattered. We can see her heart breaking. First the girl in Bahrain, then the conflicts of last season, and finally Garner. This is gonna leave some serious scars on her heart and soul.

Even Daisy has to admit that there is some legitimacy to putting Garner under in a stasis pod. Mind you, as Garner’s condition seems heightened by his proximity to Inhumans, putting him in a warehouse full of them strikes me as a very bad idea that will likely result in their deaths. I would advise a special, isolated facility all for him.

Speaking of the ATCU and they’re lady in charge, there’s some serious bonding going on in this episode. Daisy and Rosalind are pretty adversarial at first, but after Daisy saves her life and sees the mess of Garner becoming Lash… well, there is peace being built between them. She’s also drawing Coulson in. I wouldn’t have called that a match made in heaven, but sometimes you just feel unexpected connections with certain people, and there’s no explaining that. They’ve been fairly adversarial and Rosalind has proven herself strong, intelligent, and capable. She’s had convincing arguments and even had the false outer face Coulson was expecting, but now he’s seen past that.

Unfortunately, she works with that Hydra fellow who seems to be the man in charge, the power behind all the rest of the people in charge. She’s still wearing a false face, and now she’s gotten Coulson into bed with her. She’s a skilled seductress, I’ll give her that. Not only has she gained a lot of government resources to use on Hydra’s behalf, she’s connected herself to Shield, directly to Coulson, with a tentative bond to Daisy as well, and she has a warehouse full of helpless Inhumans for Hydra to do with as they please.

There’s a lesson here: do not listen to the voice that tells you being helpless is the answer. It’s another reason I hate strict gun control.

Lincoln seems to be sticking around, choosing the stop running forever. The new Inhuman, Joey, is getting better control of his powers, and delighted at the chance to be useful to create something again, to help do some good again, so he’s itching to be on Daisy’s team. Morse and Hunter have a heart to heart, and she apparently convinces him to stop going after Ward. After he abandoned Garner like that (before everyone knew he was Lash) she’s afraid they’ll lose themselves to revenge and become just like Ward. Speaking of, Ward is having drinks with his new friend, and they talk about some important things. For example: Ward intends to kill Coulson, believing Shield would never come back from that loss. Obviously, he doesn’t know Nick Fury is still alive, but that’s beside the point. It would still devastate Shield, and Coulson would be… you know, dead, which would just be not good for anyone.

Oh, and while Simmons is getting used to the lab again, Fitz discovers a connection between the group that sent Will through the portal and the group that had the portal back in England. It’s the same group making ritual sacrifices to the portal, to that thing on the other side, where astronomical bodies move strangely according to Simmons’ observations, to It. I could see them justifying that as, perhaps, a way to appease the creature and keep on that side of the portal, but whatever they know or believe about it, they’ve been sending their fellow humans, and sometimes themselves, to their deaths for a very long time, probably thousands of years.

Just what did the Inhumans know about this?

The Flash

“Enter Zoom”

Enter Zoom, indeed, and what an entrance he makes.

Most of this episode shows the complexities, the intrigue, the drama that goes on among Team Flash.

Joe, Cisco, and Cait are very suspicious of Wells, and rightly so. He is keeping secrets but, as Cisco vibes, at least one of those secrets is how Zoom has his daughter, and he’s hurting her. Wells finally tried, and failed, to stop him on his world, so he came for some speedster assistance from Barry in this one.

Linda temporarily joins the team. As Light escapes by turning invisible (which apparently involves getting naked) Barry comes up with the idea of bringing her in to impersonate Light. She is not suited for that role, though it was so cute to see her try, and you know they had fun with good actors acting like bad actors in that terrible, badly rehearsed scene. She “kills” Barry, and tosses his emblem through the breach, awaiting Zoom’s arrival, but he never comes.

I love how they had Linda bonding more with Iris, Barry revealing his identity to her, etc. It really showed her more as a character, rather than as the one-time casual girlfriend of the Flash. (“I made out with the Flash…”)

And speaking of bonding and developing and such, he and Patty are enjoying their evolving coupling. But she, too, is very clever, and she notices that Joe seems far too unconcerned about Light, especially as she’s a metahuman that just killed a man. She’s growing suspicious, and then she realizes that Barry is a part of Joe’s secrets too, and it involves an intimate knowledge of metahumans and what goes on with them. She is orbiting the secret of the Flash, and angling a trajectory for entry.

And Joe made a good point, Barry is acting a bit too aggressively, too recklessly. He can’t help but wonder if it’s because he failed to bring Reverse-Flash to justice himself, but the truth is, Barry is feeling an emptiness inside for not saving his mother that night. But Joe has some wise words for him, to help him find more happiness for himself, here and now.

So, they’re all plotting, suspicious, developing, bonding, all the normal human things of superhero drama.

Zoom enters the scene, and cuts straight through all of that.

In mere moments, he launches a full-on anti-Flash campaign throughout the city. He kidnaps Linda to use as bait, as Barry used her earlier. He throws Barry’s lightning back at him. He turns the gravity-fueled terminal velocity plan against Barry by being the one on top when they land. He takes Wells’ speed dampening serum and uses it on Barry. He holds a limp Flash before the eyes of the press, using the media, the same media that covered his appearance on Flash Day, with just a few carefully chosen words. He does the same at the police station, catching bullets and dropping them.

In short, he uses everything Barry has against him. Everything.

Zoom is every bit as dangerous and monstrous as Garrick said. I do believe Zoom may be stronger than Reverse-Flash, and Barry needed the help of Firestorm and the Arrow in that fight. He only survived because Cisco managed to tag Zoom with the speed dampener. As is, he wakes up in a neck brace, and he can’t feel his legs.

Like the faith the city has in him, the Flash has been crippled.

Arrow

“Lost Souls”

I’m going to be honest, this episode left a few things to be desired for me.

For one, the just had to have all the coupling drama, didn’t they? Olly and Felicity are the stand-out examples here, and for a brief moment I was hopeful that “Olicity” would end sooner rather than later… but, no, they just had a little spat because Olly was trying to keep Felicity from burning herself out and she did not take kindly to this. And yet, she has deeper issues about not being that sort of person who is happy losing herself in someone else, as she’s lost herself in Olly. Her mother said that’s what love is, which, sorry, I disagree: that’s being in love, in the sense of infatuation, not the kind that lasts. But, then again, she got something right, about finding yourself in each other as well, and that, I agree with much more. Still, exactly how Felicity came to the very-convenient-for-the-story conclusion that she and Olly have found themselves in each other, compared to, like, five minutes ago, I do not know. (yes, I groan at that make-up and kiss scene)

Then, of course, there’s Thea and the political adviser going for a drink, which, how much you want to bet he’s either a villain and/or soon to be found dead, possibly by her hand? Then there’s the rather unusual and unexpected encounter between Lance and Felicity’s mother. …ok, not going to spend much time thinking about that one.

As for the main thrust of this episode, it was great to finally get Ray back, but rescuing him was far too easy. It was clever to lure him out to a meeting with Lance and follow him via the cameras to his little fortress. It was also clever to send Olly and Diggle in as Trojan horse, and to use Curtis to assemble the machine Ray needs to make himself normal-size again. But the fight itself was way too easy! Especially when the Ghosts all had guns, but instead they closed in for hand-to-hand combat. And we didn’t even get to see either Canary use their sonic cry! I mean, come on! Against superior, well-armed, capable numbers? Perfect time to use a canary cry!

Though I will admit that was some intricate fighting choreography. Very nice.

And Ray’s first words outside his imprisonment: “…I’m not dead…” 🙂

Olly’s grown so much that he can be the more upbeat person for once. Ray’s not coming back from the dead just yet. Curtis is becoming part of Team Arrow. And we’re saying adios to Sara (going over to Legends of Tomorrow) right after getting her back. Her deal felt particularly rushed, ya know? Showing she still has the blood lust, seeing her try to fit in now that she’s alive again, and choosing to leave. All happening very quickly, ya know?

Damien clearly has some big, dangerous plans. He’s suddenly saying he’s found a use for the city, that he’ll breath new life into it, and the entire world. Not the sort of thing you really want the villain to be thinking about, as it tends to involve destroying what already exists first. He has some strange box which unfolds into something that vaguely resembles a computer chip, and he wants to shrink it for some reason.

As for the flashbacks, Olly’s cover is hanging by a thread, yet he’s charged with leading an excavation. It’s becoming obvious that the island’s villain knows about magic and he’s there to look for something very specific. Constantine underestimated the enemy, it would seem, and made a mistake in giving him the jewel. Then there’s the number two, who tricks one of the enslaved workers into trying to kill Olly, but Olly kills him instead, and the workers see that much. And right after he delivered some food to the woman he’s hiding in his old cave. Yeah, pretty much nothing is going well, and it’s becoming obvious that the events of back then are once again connected to what’s happening now in Star City. Maybe Olly helped find that magic box thing back then? Or that thing Damien gives his blood to?

Ironically, it was the couplings which got me thinking about the future of the show, as I started wondering about the end of Olicity and the next round of romance between the Green Arrow and the Black Canary. They pretty much setup a five-year run from the beginning, but they’re tying up a lot of old threads already. Slade and the mirakuru soldiers, Ra’s and the League, now Damien and HIVE. They can’t have too much more in their pockets if they only had one more season in mind, but I can’t seem to figure out what they could do for next season. I don’t recall any dropped hints or anything as of yet. Hmmm.

Heroes Reborn

“Sundae Bloody Sundae”

And the body count gets that much higher.

As I’ve been thinking about it, the body count makes a good deal of sense. The storyteller and the audience all know that there are really only two endings to any story: a happy ending, or death. That first one is always, at some point, followed by the second, and perhaps there might be one ending that combines them into one, but, still, those are the only real endings to any story. As Heroes Reborn is “the end” of the Heroes saga, and one which features, as these stories do, a struggle against the end of the world, well, the body count is kind of inevitable, ya know?

On the bright side, as Noah altered the past a little to make his past self use Casper instead of Rene to erase his memories, we see the Haitian alive! That’s one less body currently on the pile! Yay! 🙂

Rene is part of Hero Truther. The group was founded by Micah Sanders, before Erica managed to snatch him up (I expect something happened to his Evo aunt to allow that). I really should have seen that one coming, as we saw Molly’s fate, so why not Micah’s? And, of course, it’s exactly his style, to wage an electronic war of words with the evil corporation Renautus. Right now, unfortunately, Erica has him, and is using him. So they’re happy to get some inside knowledge from Taylor. They snatch her up, test her trustworthiness, and share info. She’s able to point them to Sunstone, where Evos are being kept via brainwashing.

Meanwhile, at Sunstone itself, things are very busy. Dearing gets Carlos in, but is caught and exposed as an Evo before he gets out, which sends him straight into a meeting with the Director: none other than Matt Parkman, who now uses his abilities to suppress the minds of dozens of Evos for Renautus. Renautus is jumping at the loss of Hiro Nakamura – I am guessing, by their clueless status that Hiro managed to fight his way out that night a year ago – so Sunstone is very busy, but running like a well-oiled machine. Carlos finds his nephew and his friend, but they refuse to leave, and with Dearing already taken and his suit confiscated, Carlos stands no chance. Matt sends both Dearing and Carlos into their nightmares, with Dearing pulling the trigger of a gun that isn’t real, and Carlos trapped in the experience of freezing in the middle of battle. Matt is intrigued only by his memories of Farrah.

I wonder if Matt has any idea what happened to his friends, or if they’ve just turned him into a soulless sell-out. Certainly, he doesn’t seem to be the same man who let Noah escape a year ago. Did they do something to him?

Meanwhile, crap hits the fan all around Tommy. I was hoping Casper could/would restore his memories, and then I was very much afraid he’d take away those of Tommy’s first love, but neither of those happened. But he was on hand when Joanne came to the ice cream shop to threaten/kill Tommy’s girlfriend. He tried to help, but his schemes failed, partially because Tommy came blundering in without telling Noah what was going on. Casper died protecting the kids.

Luke returned at that moment, with Malina. He made to stop/kill Joanne, but Tommy made sure no one else died by stopping time, a’la Hiro style. Tommy caught a glimpse of Malina but, not remembering her, left her behind as he teleported back to the hospital. Right into enemy hands, as Quentin reveals his status as a double agent (he was the butterfly Noah stepped on when he tried to kill Erica) and with Phoebe suppressing Tommy’s powers, the siblings take the boy from Noah and give him to Erica.

Noah is left to mourn Casper’s death, without Tommy… but happening on Malina at the shop. Serendipity. Luke escapes, but Joanne not only escapes, she’s picked up by Harris. Villains of the world, unite!

Finally… Miko’s alive! …seven thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-seven years in the future. …with the land around her barren. …and she finds a small settlement in the middle of the wasteland.

…yeah, that’s not really boosting to confidence, ya know?

I’m guessing when Evernow collapsed, she was sent into the future Renautus has chosen. Mind you, eight thousand years might seem like a safe distance from when the sun burned the planet, but it’s really only a flicker in the lifespan of stars and planets. If the world really did burn, and at least 98% of all living species were just destroyed, then it’s no wonder the place is so desolate. But here’s hoping the future can be saved by protecting the present!

Grimm

“Lost Boys”

Really good stories often have things which are terrifying on so many levels.

First things first, my eyes were not playing tricks on me after all. That was Meisner after all, on the other end of Chavez’s phone. So, she was with the Resistance, who now have both Diana and Trubel. Meisner visits Renard to inform him of the king’s death, facilitated by a deal struck between the Resistance and none other than Viktor. The Resistance kills a troublesome king, and Viktor ascends to the throne. For now, at least.

Also, answering my question from last week, that was Trubel that Meisner was locked in with, and whom they’ve been keeping locked up. I’m guessing that was their version of disciplinary action and/or training/breaking the newbie. Either way, at the end, he lets her out, saying, “It’s time.” Time for what, I wonder?

On the home front, Nick went ahead with selling his and Juliette’s home, and moved his new, fairly odd family into a veritable bunker. Part of me is thinking he went a little overboard in his defensive thinking, as home is supposed to be… well, home. Not “bomb shelter.” Then again, not only is he a cop, he is a Grimm, and one who has made plenty of powerful, dangerous enemies. So, perhaps this is actually too little, rather than too much? That’s a rather terrifying thought.

Also intriguing is the developing relationship between Nick and Adalind. There’s so much awkwardness there, for very good reason, but they’re finding some surprising connections as they remember their first meeting. She was the first wesen he ever saw, and he was the first Grimm she ever saw. One meeting, with consequences cascading down through the years and seasons. Moment of destiny, eh?

Oh, and Adalind may end up going back to her old, well-paying job. That could prove most interesting.

And then, of course, there’s our case of the week. Obviously drawing on the tale of Peter Pan, this case is a bunch of homeless wesen children who have no idea what they are, only that they are freaks. They take a child’s need and love for a mother to the disturbing heights of psycho/sociopathic obsession. They’ve been kidnapping women, nice women who care for others and, thus, “care for them,” dragging them into the woods to “be their mother.” Each “mother” has tried to escape, and each has died in the attempt.

When Rosalee gives them medicine, after they try to steal it, and when she isn’t frightened by what they are, they decide, “She cares about us, she loves us, we’re going to kidnap her and make her our new mother.” Munroe, of course, is furious and he goes after them with Nick and Hank in tow. As Rosalee tells the lost children a story about a Grimm killing wesen, there’s one coming straight for them, led by an angry wolfman. Things end bloodlessly, but the children now hate Rosalee, and hate the world even more. They are ripe for the picking of some nefarious secret organization.

Like Occul Tatum Libera, which I am going to call the OTL for now. The boys, sent to juvie, find out their warden is wesen, and he recruits them into the uprising.

I am starting to get really irritated with the OTL, ya know? They strike me as the enemies of everyone, the Royals, Resistance, and Wesen Council alike, not to mention ordinary humans and, of course, the Grimms. They lie, cheat, steal, and kill. They murder people they’ve known and worked with for years, even decades, like it’s nothing. And now we see they prey on vulnerable children in need of a place to belong. And this is only the third episode where we’ve even known they exist! Who knows what else we’ll see them do?

Doctor Who

“Sleep No More”

I really hate “found camera footage.” Just a personal preference, mind you, and I get motion sick easy.

I also hate yet another display of “army grunt” as pure physical strength and low intellect.

Most of the episodes this season have felt too short, thus the two-part format they’ve gone with for most of the season. Contrast: this one felt too long.

To top it all off, this one was more of a horror story than most, especially with the twist ending. The one where the menace is not stopped, that we know of. I really hate horror stories, especially the ones that end as a tragedy, with a “surprise” to clinch it. Really not a fan of horror, ya know?

The plot, such as it is in this episode, revolves around a new technology meant to conquer “sleep.” As in, make it so we don’t sleep anymore, and directly because of mindless, all-consuming greed creating greater and greater demands for the individual, and therefore society, to meet. So, a machine is invented to let humans go without sleep. But for this defiance of nature, humanity is set on the course towards extinction. The sleep dust, the thing you wipe away when you wake up, has achieved life and become carnivorous, eating the humans who are exposed to the machine. Or, rather, everyone exposed to the electrical signal it delivers. This episode takes on the format of a transmission, with that electrical signal embedded within, to spread the infection throughout all of humanity, and the stars as well.

Really, it’s an intriguing idea. But the ending felt so out of place for a Doctor Who episode. Where’s the victory? The crazy-yet-simple scheme to turn the tables? The neutralization of the threat? Really, it felt like this episode fell short. Disappointing, Doctor Who, disappointing indeed. 😦

On the bright side, back to the meat of things next episode! Including the reappearance of Ashilda! 🙂