Supernatural: Bloodlines. An introduction to a whole new world.

Don’t worry Dean, you can’t anymore. (The Mark of Cain should be mentioned at least once right?)

Oh wait, just kidding.  It’s the same world.  We just have to be introduced to everyone again like we haven’t been watching for the last 9 seasons. Don’t get me wrong this is not a post slamming the spinoff. I hope all the best for the spinoff and feel like it had a strong opening show.

My wish?  I wish that they hadn’t messed with the flow of this season with this backdoor pilot.  What would have been amazing is if they’d had a special in the summer or in the fall with a pilot to this new show that featured Sam and Dean.  Or done it like the first Ghostfacer’s episode was done.  Now I know that Ghostfacers didn’t get made into a real show, but if it had they did a perfect backdoor pilot for that show.  It was a different format, but the docu-style filming fit with the storyline of that particular episode.  The plot for Supernatural was uninterrupted and we didn’t have all the painful exposition that we had in Bloodlines.

Alright enough of my complaining. I’m never a huge fan of any spinoff pilots, but I’ll give this show a chance when if finally airs.

As far as the episode goes I won’t nit pick the plot line since it didn’t really have anything to do with the Cain story or the battle over Hell, or the battle over Heaven.  However, there were some jewels in this episode.

1.  

I loved this little one liner.  I’m sure the boys get tired to making up elaborate lies everywhere they go.  Plus this is a total dick comment that a Fed would make.

2.  

I really felt sorry for this guy.  The cops treated him like he was insane and the guys rejected his help which I felt was a little out of character for them.  No they don’t team up with everyone they meet, but they do usually give the witness their number to call if they are in trouble.

3.

You can always count on Dean to provide the twisted sense of humor and this episode needed it.  So much angst and melodrama.

4.                           

First off– good job thinking on your feet.  Secondly– I like David Lassiter.  He’s the hero this new show needs. Plus I liked the actor as Kol on The Vampire Diaries so I’m glad he’s getting a regular gig.

5.

Surely some other hunters have picked up on this before? Or what about Death when he was about to wipe Chicago off the map? Just seems like it would of come up at some point.

6.

Seriously I think they’ve picked some good actors for the leads and more importantly set them up as good characters.

7. This one has soooo many feels. Plus they have to hook us Supernatural fans somehow right?

So much sadness. Plus it sets David up as the Dean character which then leads to this:

8.

Get it?  Get it? It’s the Dean character is kissing his love interest– who is wearing a trench coat! Haha– I guess it’s giving Destiel to us without actually giving us Destiel.  If that’s your kinda a thing– I hope you enjoyed it.

9.

Since you evidently need a Sam to David’s Dean we establish that his dad is just missing on an extended hunt.  Because that’s not familiar at all. Now he can go off and brood about his dad abandoning him and his girlfriend’s death.  Yep.

 10.

And that right there is just to make that list even.  It has nothing to do with this post at all.  Except that it’s pretty.  And has Dean and Cas.  That is all.

We will return to our regularly scheduled program next week.

Game of Thrones: Oathkeeper. When the readers became shocked and confused.

This episode started out with Daenerys capturing Mereen in a slightly downplayed manner.  Yeah it was just as boring in the books.  I would like to say that I love Dany, but from here on out in the books I found her story tedious to say the least.  So since we’ve seen them add dimensions to the story lines maybe they will do the same for Dany– or at least speed this process up. Cathy (my blogging partner on these posts) was somewhat disappointed that we didn’t get to see any form of fighting when Daenerys takes over Maureen. I mean, not even a tiny bit. She has unsullied, dragons, Daario…we could have seen just a few people get stabbed or something. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to blame shooting schedule or budget or something. Point is, Daenerys now controls Maureen.

The scene with Grey Worm was nice though.  I really like the actor they picked for him and he brings life to the Unsullied.  Out of all the mistreated characters in the books I always felt sorry for the Unsullied.  For those not in the know, the Unsullied were taken young and taught to fight from a young age.  Some of the things they had to do was raise a puppy then kill it with their own hands, and take a baby from a mother and kill it.  Yeah, you know, nothing that would scar you for life.

She also doled out justice to the Mereen masters and as much as I love Barristan the Bold I side with Dany on the type of justice that was given.

Maybe they can also confirm this aunt/nephew relationship since they spilled the beans on so many other things this episode.  Jon Snow is Rheagar’s son.  It is known.

Cut to Bronn training with Jamie .  I really like Bronn.  In the books he’s very much a secondary character and I like that they combined him with some other characters to make him more memorable on the show.  Bronn laid out some truths that Jamie needed to hear.  Jamie’s and Tyrion’s relationship is one of my favorites.  As much as Cersei hates Tyrion Jamie loves him.  Jamie has been pretty much the only person that Tyrion has always been able to count on.

Which led to this touching scene.  And I’m being serious about that.  This episode showed many times the man that Jamie has become since being released from Catelyn Stark. I really really wish they’d left the “rape” out of last week’s episode.  That is not who Jamie really is.

Tyrion is such a great guy– which makes me believe even more that he’s not really a Lannister.

Next up we see Littlefinger being Littlefinger.  Gah he is such a sleaze. He’s going to marry Lysa aka– trying to figure out how to get in Sansa’s skirts.  He does shed some light on Joffery’s death though and confirms what even the books haven’t confirmed yet.  He had a hand in the murder, but was helping out someone else.  Some one powerful.  Low and behold:

Whaaat??  Once again this is something that I’d suspected/known-ish for a while, but the books hadn’t out and out confirmed it yet. We set up that whole “Clue” post last week thinking that it was going to take a while for the true killer to be revealed and, nope.  You gotta love the Queen of Thorns.  She’s more honorable and more cunning than any Lannister.  And evidently also a ho from her other story that she told Margaery during this stroll.

Meanwhile up on the Wall people are conspiring to do bad things to Jon Snow– between the people that just don’t like him and Locke who is trying to find out where Bran and Rikkon are Jon has danger on all sides, but doesn’t know it yet.  Jon is pretty smart though so I don’t fear too much for him right now.

We also had a scene between Jamie and Cersei showing her for the drunk bitch that she is.  Seriously– WHY did they have Jamie rape her last week??  He is trying to become honorable again and she is on a path in the opposite direction.  Out of all the Lannisters Cersei is the most crazy.  Perhaps it would have been different if her mother had lived and she hadn’t looked up to her father her whole life.

Margaery taking a page from her grandmother’s book visits Tommen at night, which could have been super creepy and gross, but instead showed off her amazing manipulation skills.  She shows Tommen kindness and nurtures his sweet nature.  Way to go Margaery.

In the books Tommen is pretty young.  Younger than he is here, so in this instance I’m really glad they deviated from the books.  I would be super creeped out if he was the kid that he should have been.

Now we come to the good parts.  Jamie and Brienne. Brienne is obviously in love with Jamie, but what they don’t touch on in the show is that Jamie has some not so pure thoughts/feelings about Brienne.  I won’t say he loves her or anything, but she’s definitely helped him to become the better man that he’s turning into. I think both Catelyn Stark and Brienne have reminded Jamie of what it was like when he had honor and he wants to live like that again.  Jamie has had to make so many hard choices in life and I think he wants to choose what is right from now on.

Plus we get to see Pod and Brienne set off together.  This upcoming story line is great. It’s humorous and touching and everything you could hope for.

Love. It.

Now we get our obligatory boob scene and get to see how the mutineers are faring at Caster’s keep.  We also find out that Ghost is being held captive.  Now I don’t remember any of this in the books, but it could be that I’m forgetting something.  I know Ghost was separated from him for a while, but I don’t see him allowing himself to be captured.  Ghost is more of a “rip your throat out” kind of wolf.  This is where the show is deviating pretty strongly from the books, but as we know from this documentary GRRM is overseeing a lot of the show so he has to approve right?

After Summer gets hurt everyone goes on the worst creeping mission ever.  I’m disappointed in Meera– after all she’s supposed to know all about the woods and then goes stomping out not looking where she’s going.  Also lets talk about Jojen.

Cathy says it best:

You know what I don’t understand? Theoretical physics. Know what else I don’t understand? Why Jojen was sweating like it was August in south Texas, when it was -30 out. Yeah, I know he was getting ready to have a green dream, but seriously, why all the sweat? He looked like he was a part of a bad outbreak movie.

Yes!  And NO ONE noticed!  Everyone is going on like normal until he collapses foaming at the mouth.  Come on guys– you weren’t wondering why he was pouring sweat in the snow? We are now to assume that Jon will save Bran and the others when he raids Craster’s Keep, but that is a total deviation from the books.  Yes Sam knew that Bran was alive, but he didn’t tell Jon.  Coldhands (who we haven’t met yet– even though we should have already) made him swear to keep it a secret.

OK now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way let me talk about what the show added that I was confused about while watching the episode, but now am cool with.  We got to see The Others take Craster’s son and turn him into one of them.  At first I thought– “what the crap!? Why did that add all of that?” but the more I thought about it and after a little research (and a friend talking over all of this with me) I realized a few things.

In the books the Others are called “Craster’s Sons” by Craster’s wives, but I always just thought of that as a figure of speech since he gave them up to the Others.  I had assumed they ate the babies or the babies just froze to death. However when you go back and reread some of the passages and pair it with what we saw last night then it appears that this is all Craster’s fault.  HE has been supplying new White Walkers for this huge army of Walkers.

Gilly was crying. “Me and the babe. Please. I’ll be your wife, like I was Craster’s.

Please, ser crow. He’s a boy, just like Nella said he’d be. If you don’t take him, they will.”

 “They?” said Sam, and the raven cocked its black head and echoed, “They. They. They.”

 “The boy’s brothers,” said the old woman on the left.

“Craster’s sons. The white cold’s rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones.

These poor old bones don’t lie. They’ll be here soon, the sons.”

Before I had seen this as just superstitious talk of scared Wildlings.  Yes we know there are really White Walkers, but they haven’t been seen for so long that the Wildlings have just made things up about them, or remembered incompletely.  However, after watching this segment of the Walkers turning the babe into one of their own so it will obviously still grow and change in it’s new state, George was telling us all along where the evil was coming from.

So I’m going to throw out a couple of theories and one of them will include a HUGE HUGE book five spoiler, so don’t continue unless you are up to date on the books.

1. Maybe Coldhands is Benjen Stark.  I hadn’t ever thought so, but thought he was an older Stark.  But what if they had tried to make him a Walker (not a wight like the other dead zombie like creatures) and he had been able to slow/stop the process so that now he isn’t human yet isn’t a mindless evil thing.  I’m not stuck on this theory, but I’m interested to see Coldhands whenever he shows up (hopefully they don’t cut him out of the show).

2. When Jon Snow is laying stabbed and dying at the end of the 5th book he begins to feel the cold.  So maybe it’s not his death that he feels coming, but the Others coming to attack the wall and the attack would then distract his attackers and allow the Red Woman (or someone else) to save Jon’s life.  I kinda think he dies all the way here though and the Red Woman brings him back and therefore he’s fulfilled his oath to the Night’s Watch, but these are all just theories.  I can go on and on about my Jon Snow theories.

What did you think?  What are your predictions for next week?  Why the #(@*#! did the previews for next week show Arya stabbing The Hound in the stomach with Needle??

See you next week!

Major Character Deaths: 0

Boob Count: 2 pair

Arrow Season 2: This Show Has Not Failed This Network

I have previously posted about how Arrow is worth the watch, but the show has taken another big step forward this season.  The first season had the issue that a lot of CW shows have, it was over dramatic and focused too much on the love story.  However the further we got into the season the more the characters were allowed to develop and the actors became more comfortable in their roles.

Fast forward to Season 2: We’ve established a pretty thorough back story with  most of the characters and if they don’t have a back story they are interesting stand alone characters.

We have Oliver who is working through his crazy

Diggle who is inspired by the good that The Arrow is doing in the city (aka the OTHER guy we can count on to take off his shirt).

 

Felicity who is in love with Oliver  Oliver’s assistant. She’s a great strong female character, but doesn’t throw it in your face every five minutes that’s she’s a strong female character. She’s the glue that holds it all together.

Laurel who is about 15 shades of crazy and self absorbed.  She also looks super weird this season for some reason I can’t explain.

And that brings us to Sara. Sara who does scream HEY I’M STRONG AND I’M A WOMAN every chance she gets.  AKA the Black Canary.  She also is super crazy and has her own island issues.  However she’s less annoying than Laurel so she’s got that going for her.

Plus she can do this which I have to respect– even if I don’t want her and Ollie together.

Roy Harper has gotten a larger role this season as well prepping himself to become Ollie’s sidekick of sorts.  Right now he’s having some issues, but he helps humanize Thea (Ollie’s sister) and is an interesting part of this broken team.

We also have a whole slew of bad guys and secondary characters.  John Barrowman being one of them which in and of itself is amazing and Deathstroke who has been pretty scary the last bit of this season.  I won’t go into all of them, but I’ll say that I’m very glad that Arrow looked toward Supernatural as a model CW show instead of any of the others.  Arrow in season 2 is where Smallville was in season 8.  I’m so happy they are going all out and upping the ante every episode.  I don’t feel that any of the characters (with the exception of Ollie) are safe which I love in a show.  You can’t be concerned when someone is kidnapped/in danger/hurt if you KNOW they won’t really die.

So bravo Arrow!  I’m excited to see how this season ends and I’m looking forward to what you’ll bring to the future seasons.  I also appreciate how much time and effort Stephen Amell spends posting on his Facebook page.  It adds a whole new layer to watching a show when you know that the actors are just as excited about filming it.

To show my appreciation I’ll post one last GIF of Ollie doing his thing.  Why you ask?  Oh wait, no you didn’t ask, you understand.

Alex Annie Alexis Ann: Jody Mills shows off her BMF wallet and tells everyone to be cool Honey Bunny

What’s Fonzie? Fonzie’s cool. I’m going to go ahead and say Jody is cool too. Jody has called the boys (and Bobby *sobs*) over the years for help, but she proved this episode that although she might not know all the details she’s definitely hunter material.  They were working as a team, not as a girl that needed the boys help. Yes she trusted the girl a little more than I would have, but also she’s not been as jaded as the boys are now.

Speaking of jaded, Sam loves to give Dean crap about how he’s lost touch with humanity, but both of them would have gotten what Jody was saying about how the girl needed to be saved from these vampires.  The boys however went into the situation perfectly fine with killing her.  It wasn’t that long ago both boys had issues with killing anything human.

This episode had so many of the things that I love about Supernatural in it.  We had our monster hunt, a gradual progression of the over arching storyline (the Mark of Cain and Sam’s issues between him and Dean) and the boys were getting along again.  Working as a team without the baggage they’ve been dealing with getting in the way.  Also it had humor which is always a plus.

The show definitely lacked in (good) humor last season so I’m glad to see that the writers are embracing this again.  Supernatural deals with overly dramatic topics so if it doesn’t have any humor thrown it it tends to take itself too seriously. I know I just said it, but seeing the boys work together and joke together was amazing to see.  I’ve been talking about how I feel like Sam is going to realize that he would do anything to save Dean sometime soon and I think he got a glimpse of that this episode.

Dean was lying there prone, obviously very hurt and Sam couldn’t do anything to stop it.

This is probably just the iceberg of Sam’s realization, but it was satisfying to watch. Yes, Sam you do still love your brother no matter how mad you are at him. Sam needs to figure out that fact before the Mark of Cain takes over Dean completely.  Did anyone else think that the vampire was surprised with Dean’s strength?  I wondered if that was another Mark of Cain side effect.

I don’t know that I agree with Sam that Dean is enjoying killing people as much as he just thinks that that’s how things have to be now.  The look of determination on Dean’s face was certainly scary/badass/sexy.  Also I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking this:

Haha– that photoset cracks me up more than it’s probably actually funny, but I love me some Jesse Pinkman.

Back to the main story though I’m glad that Jody has someone to take care of again and I’m also glad that the girl she put her faith in came through for her.  From the previews and from the tone of the show I was expecting Jody to not only get screwed, but perhaps also brutally murdered.  After all no one (OK very few) is safe and Jody’s character has had a much bigger role than I ever expected it to. I also think it reminded the boys what it felt like to save a human that needed saving again.

Will we see Jody again? (I hope so) Will we see Alex/Anne again? (I’m open to it). I look forward to seeing the development from here.

Next week we will see the Bloodlines back door pilot and I really hope that it’s good.  The preview makes it feel like it’s The Originals for Supernatural.  After all it’s a fight over a city and it’s about ancient families.  Originals is about a fight over New Orleans involving an ancient family.  Hmmm. . .I rate The Originals at about 4.5 out of 10 so I really hope that the preview is produced that way just to try to bring in some of that younger crowd, but is just as meaty as Supernatural.  No matter what I’m sure next week will be interesting to watch!

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou in Westeros

A discussion of the hairnet used to poison Joffery– or something like that

Game of Thrones, Breaker of Chains: Tyrion in the Courtyard with the Poison

We got to see a good many things last night and many scenes that will change the way we think about characters from here on out.  Below are mine and Cathy’s thoughts, suspicions and theories.  Cathy’s words are in normal typeset and mine are in bold.  Enjoy and as always there are spoilers galore (both from the show and from the books– I try to give extra warning for book spoilers).

This season is quickly shaping up to be a gigantic game of Clue. We know the weapon, poison.  We know the where, the wedding reception. We don’t however know the who.

The Suspects:

Tyrion: Cersei had Tyrion arrested at the end of episode two. He handed Joffrey the cup of wine which is presumably where the poison was. Joffrey pointed to him while he was dying, but being one of the only people in Joffrey’s direct line of sight, that’s not unexpected.  My favorite scene from last night’s episode was the scene between Podrick and Tyrion. We now know for sure Tyrion had nothing to do with Joffrey’s poisoning, he says so himself. I believe Tyrion is one of the few characters we can fully believe. Podrick fills Tyrion in on who has been appointed judges for his trial, and confesses that he’s been offered a knighthood if he’ll testify against Tyrion, but staying true to his Lord, Podrick refused. Fearful for what they’ll do to Podrick, Tyrion tells Pod to testify against him, that he doesn’t want Pod to potentially be killed for him.

Cersei has hated Tyrion since their mother died giving birth to him (or did she?  As in perhaps Tyrion was the result of an affair and Tywin– this is a long shot, but I’m still throwing it out there).  As both Cathy and Tyrion pointed out though if Tyrion was going to kill the King he would have done it in a way that didn’t implicate himself.  Tyrion is smarter than that.  Oh and I second the statement that the best part of the episode was the scene between Pod and Tyrion.

Olenna Tyrell: Grannie’s been maneuvering her house up through the ranks. Her house is considerably more important now that her granddaughter married the King, and she helped finance part of the war. Now that Joffrey’s dead, she’s protected her granddaughter from a hellish marriage. The only sticking point is Margaery’s status as Queen. The marriage wasn’t consummated yet, so is Margaery really queen? If Olenna was behind the murder, one would think she would have waited and poisoned Joffrey’s breakfast the next morning.

OK I’m going to disagree a little with Cathy here.  This is who I think killed Joffery (if only there was an envelope full of cards I could check).  She knew what Joffery was and his death BEFORE consummation leaves them in a strong position to negotiate a marriage between her and Tommen.  Margaery was able to marry Joffery because her marriage with Renly wasn’t ever consummated and it would be even creepier than it already is for her to marry Tommen if she’s already had sex.  Of course we haven’t found out exactly who did this in the books yet so it’s anyone’s guess.

 

Oberyn Martell: The Lannisters’ men killed his sister. He made it clear from episode one that he wants revenge for his sister’s death. We learned last night that he studied poisons at the Citadel. Did he use his knowledge to kill Joffrey and avenge his sister? He told Tywin he wouldn’t be that obvious, but Joffrey certainly would be a wonderful way to hit the Lannisters where it hurts. In a surprising turn of events, Tywin offers an alliance to Oberyn; however we never see them agree to it. Did Oberyn accept Tywin’s offer, we’ll have to wait to find out.

Oberyn has a serious ax to grind, but I also don’t believe that he would kill Joffery in this fashion.  I see him more as someone who would derive more pleasure out of stabbing someone through the heart.  Also they Martells hold Cersei’s daughter in Dorne so could inflict more pain that way.

 

OK I’m going to add some suspects that Cathy didn’t mention.  

Mace Tyrell: In the books it is implied that the poison was contained in a hairnet that Sansa got from her fool and that the stone with the poison was removed during the wedding feast and slipped into Joffery’s drink.  But what if the poison was in the cup all along, but was covered up by something that had to slowly dissolve?  Mace gave him the cup (in the show– I don’t really remember this from the book, but I might have just forgotten this).

 

Margaery Tyrell: She also knew who Joffery really was and didn’t want to marry him.  I feel like she was at least complicit in his murder even if she didn’t put the poison in the cup herself.  Of course she came out smelling like a Rose no matter how you look at this.

Littlefinger: Varys once said “Littlefinger would burn the kingdom down if it meant he could sit on a throne of ashes.” Petyr wants power, and we know he’s not afraid to play both sides to get it. I’ve always believed he’s a character that should never be ignored. Even his absence in the story is important. He’s ALWAYS up to something. We learned last night he was behind Dontos sneaking Sansa out of the party. How did he know that something would happen at the party to allow for Sansa to escape? I don’t believe for one second he really cares about helping Sansa get to safety. He has a plan to use her in some scheme to help him get closer to the throne.

Littlefinger is someone that I really really dislike.  Every now and then he does something awesome (cause in reality Sansa probably would have died if she had stayed in the capital and then later he will do something with a Moon Door that I also approve of). Mostly everything else that he does is super creepy or to further his own agenda.  The show has touched on it, but he was super duper in love with Catelyn and is now trying to fulfill his fantasies through Sansa. 

Sansa: Joffrey has terrorized her for years. Did she finally snap? No. She’s an idiot. I feel bad for her, but Sansa’s too stupid to have orchestrated the poisoning. If you’ve read the books, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The show makes her look halfway intelligent. The “real” Sansa is a spoiled moron. She’s definitely been used in the plot to kill Joffrey, she just doesn’t realize it.

Seriously she’s an idiot. I think the reason that watchlings don’t release how horrible she is is that it’s hard to convey that those tortured looks she has are because she’s feeling sorry for herself.  Since Arya disappeared she’s spent maybe 30 minutes worried about her and hours and hours blaming her for things.  She was sad about her Dad, Mom and brother, but not too bothered.  She’s weak.  She’s annoying and doesn’t seem like she’s ever going to die.

Is the killer one of these people, a combination of these people, or someone entirely different? One thing’s for sure, it wasn’t Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.

There is more to the world than that’s going on in King’s Landing. We see Jon taking more of a leadership role at the wall; Arya’s brief feeling of camaraderie towards the Hound has gone; and Daenerys is off freeing slaves. On that note, let’s all give a slow clap to Daario for his sweet moves last night.

 

Yummmmmm. For those of you that don’t know Daario Naharis’s knives have naked women on the hilt and he likes to rub and kiss their breasts which Dany finds sexy.  I can see why she’s attracted to him. Jorah now?  Poor Jorah.

And the only only other thing I can say about Dany is enjoy the story line now because it’s about to get boring. 

Also for all you non-readers out there:

Major Character Deaths: 0

Boob Count: 2 pairs (it seemed like more though didn’t it?)

EDIT!

WARNING– EXTRA SPOILERS

One last thing I forgot to mention.  I was disappointed in the scene where Jamie rapes Cersei.  In the books it does in fact happen much like that except it is consensual. Jamie has changed a lot since he was captured and then released by the Starks.  This scene with Cersei was kind of a goodbye to his love with her.  Also in the books this happened right when he got back.  Joffery died during his journey with Brienne so there hasn’t been all this tension between him and his family.  That comes later. I just feel like the added rape seriously damages his character.  True he’s already thrown a small boy off a tower, but this has jacked it up a notch.  I actually felt sorry for Cersei and believe me no one should sympathize with Cersei right now.

Supernatural, Meta Fiction: Where (Fan’s) Dreams Come True

Wow.  There were so many great things about this episode, but let me say I seriously thought when I saw someone typing on a typewriter that Chuck was back (aka God).  After all he was around during the apocalypse it would make sense that he showed back up during this craziness.

Alas it was just Metatron being a douche as always. He goes on a shpeal about stories and subtext (seriously I could hear the Destiel shippers cheer from my house) and then it jumps into the episode.  Of course this was more important than I thought it was at the time, but we’ll get back to that later.

Most likely I was distracted from Metatron’s doucheiness by this glorious scene.  And yes I’m posting the whole photo set, because you deserve to see it again.

 

Yeah out of all the fan service in this episode I am most thankful for this jewel.  Dean you can be moody all you want. . .while showering.

The episode continues to set up like a pretty good episode.  Metatron is using Gadreel to gather angels and then kill them, the boys are hunting him with Cas’s help and then it starts to get even more interesting.  Just as Cas is loading up to go search for Gadreel the lights flicker and the TV switches on.  OK right then I began to hope/suspect that Gabriel was back and then once I heard the Casa Erotica music I did squeal, and text my friends/brother to verify they were seeing it too (they were “working”??).  I didn’t realize how much I missed Gabriel (and Lucifer and Zachariah etc), but I was super excited to see where this was going.

I should have known that it was too good to be true.  Gabriel back just when we need/want help.  What REALLY clued me in that something was wrong was that he started talking about how he was there to lead the resistance and how he just wanted to help this time.  Even when he DID help last time he was reluctant and that involved stuff a lot closer to home.  I definitely knew something was seriously wrong when he mentioned that Cas was low on  gas randomly while not even looking at the gas gauge.  What I wasn’t expecting was that Metatron was in Cas’s head this entire time making him see what he wanted to see.

I wasn’t so impressed with Metatron downloading all the Pop Culture that he could to Cas’s brain.  I like my Cas clueless as to what is going on around him.  We’ll see if that become as annoying as it has potential to be.  I really hope not.  Metatron also threw around a bunch of crap about how he was a hero and Cas was a villain which leads me to believe that he’s super insane.

OK I’ll come back to the Cas and Metatron  story line in a moment.

While Metatron and Cas have been doing their thing Dean and Sam have captured Gadreel and Sam quickly loses control while they try to question him.  I know I’ve mentioned how much I love the actor playing Gadreel before, but seriously.  I loved Tahmoh Penikett in Dollhouse and am loving him in this too.  I do think he’s trying to redeem himself, but has just aligned himself with the wrong guy.  If he’d met Cas first and really truly partnered with the boys I think he would have ended up one of the good guys.

Dean takes over the torture/interrogation and he lets the scary out a bit.

Gadreel pushed all the right buttons with Dean (Daddy, Sam, loneliness, etc) trying to get him to kill him (once again I think he just wants an end to the guilt and pain he’s felt since the fall of man), but Dean realizes what’s going on before hand.  We get another thoughtful bathroom scene from Dean ending with him casually (and in a super scary fashion) confidently walk out of the bathroom twirling the angel blade in his hand and forgetting his cell phone next to the sink. Yeah that’s not bad.

Speed up to Sam finding out that Metatron has Cas and wants to trade him for Gadreel which has Sam speeding back to Dean before Dean can kill Gadreel.  Dean of course isn’t answering the phone  and Gadreel is no where to be seen when Sam rushes into the warehouse.  We are supposed to assume that Dean got out of control and killed Gadreel, but I have to say I didn’t fall for it.  Dean after all tortured people in Hell for years so yeah I believe he would inflict pain on Gadreel, but do I think he would release him from his trap?  No.That’s what he wanted so that’s the last thing he’s going to get.  However I do wonder at his muddled speech and confusion when Sam finds him slumped on the floor.  Is that from the Mark of Cain?  Or is he just worn out from torturing an angel?  I’m assuming the former.

They make the trade with Metatron, but their trap they set fails miserably.  Metatron is making the age old mistake of telling the other people his master plan with the assumption they can do nothing to stop them.  Evidently reading all the Supernatural books didn’t clue him in that it takes a hell of a lot to stop the Winchesters.

Back at the motel they are parting ways with Cas (why exactly I’m not sure.  Shouldn’t they be working together?  I can understand to an extent, but it seems like it should be time to regroup and plan).  Cas comments on Dean’s well being and Dean gives him an awkward shoulder pat which resulted in this:

I think that Dean wanted Cas to find out.  It’s like when you get a tattoo and then “accidentally” show it off.  Yes he knew that Cas would probably disapprove, but I also think that he knows Cas hill want to help him get rid of it when the time comes.  I feel us inching closer and closer to Sam eating his words about how he’d let Dean die if the tables were turned.

Lastly we found out earlier that Metatron’s end game this go round was to get Cas to lead the rebellious angels and Cas repeatedly refused to do this.  So why does the closing scene show Cas drawing the Horn of Gabriel and calling all the angels to his side? We also see Metatron typing this scene on his typewriter with a satisfied smirk on his face.  So is Metatron controlling Cas?  Or is Metatron just seeing what is going on and is happy about it?  Maybe Cas is going to put Hannah in charge?  I cannot believe that Cas would willingly take the deal unless it was to save the boys.  Even then I don’t see it happening.

And can we talk about how much it pissed me off that Metatron spelled Cas “Cass”—- umm no.  Cas is short for Castiel, he’s not Mama Cass.  Overall though this was an amazing episode and the writers killed it (along with all of my feelings) and the actors weren’t too shabby either.  I’m excited to see where it’s going from here until the season finale.

Anything I missed?  Thoughts?

The Lion and The Rose: The Purple Wedding

Another week and another Game of Thrones wedding.  Let’s just go ahead and say if you have not watched last night’s episode stop reading now!  As always this post will be full to the brim of spoilers so you have been warned.

The Lovely Couple

Before we start with the wedding lovelies let’s talk about all the other random scenes that didn’t seem important now. Well at least to those who don’t know what’s coming.  The episode started out with a hunt involving The Bastard Ramsey Snow, some chick named Miranda that I for the life of me can’t place who she is or where she’s come from, Reek– the artist formally known as Theon Greyjoy and their prey– a poor, short lived girl.

We got to see the girl get chased down, shot by Miranda and then get eaten to death by Ramsey’s dogs.  The changes in Reek are very obvious in this episode.  He’s timid, beaten, and too scared to fight back.  As much as I hated Theon he never deserved all that The Bastard has done to him.

Stepping outside of the box though I just want to say the actor that plays The Bastard (Iwan Rheon) is one of my favorite actors.  He was both parts creepy and heroic on Misfits and I’m both scared and excited to see him continue with this role.  He will be one of the great villains this story needs.

Things you need to know about The Bastard:  He’s scary (yeah I know you know that).  Scary as in he scares Roose Bolton and if you can scare a man that would kill his King at a Wedding in exchange for Winterfell that’s saying something.  Also there has been a ton of torture and nastiness that you haven’t gotten to see.  He’s also about to have a wedding, at least if they stick to the books, however not as exciting a one as you’d hope.

We also got to see Bran this go round and feel his frustration.  One thing they did show, but I don’t think explain well was what happened when Bran touched the Heart Tree.  So:

What you need to know about Bran:  when he is hooked up to the Weirwood he can see what any heart tree has seen, wherever, whenever.  There’s a lot more to it then that, but that’s why he saw his dad and all those other images.

We also see some scenes with The Red Witch and Stannis.  Stannis’ wife is gleefully watching her brother burn to death.  Needless to say there are some issues there, but mostly we are just being reminded that they still exist and stuff is about to happen there.

Now let’s move on to the hard stuff.  Cathy will join me for this part of the discussion.

I found this next set of images on Tumblr and I thought it showed more than I could explain:

This photo set speaks to a book theory that I’ll talk about at the end, but I thought it was fitting here.

How many of you cheered out loud at the end of this episode?

Joffrey (Lannister) Baratheon 286AL-300AL

“Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust. “ Cymbeline (1611), Act IV, scene 2. Song, line 262.

Cathy:

I remember throwing the book across the room when I read the Red Wedding, and I refused to continue reading for a few days. In stark contrast, never in all of literature or film have I ever been happier when a character died than when Joffrey did.

I relished in the happiness until I realized that Tyrion was going to be blamed for his death. Oddly enough, Tryion’s journey after this moment is one of my favorite character subplots. I’m very excited to see how the show portrays his journey.

Joffrey dying is going to have the same effect as Ned dying.  The storylines of the denizens of Westeros are going to be shaken up, people will be scattered across the realm, and much chaos will ensue.  I for one cannot wait.

If you’ve read the books, you know who slipped Joffrey the poison. If not, I won’t spoil it. One detail I noticed was that after Joffrey cuts the pie with the sword, the camera focuses on some dead birds in the pie. I was wondering if that was a clue that the poison in the show’s version was in the pie, not the wine as it is in the book. I’m not a stickler for keeping everything the same between show and book, if it was in the pie, then that’s a fun little change for the show. We shall see.

OK me again.  Joffery needed to die. So therefore I was worried that he therefore would live a long and happy life killing whores in his room with crossbows.  Once again I’m going to issue a warning.  If you are a watchling (aka someone who hasn’t read the books) I’d recommend you stop reading now as I’m going to throw out some theories that if you haven’t read through book 5 will ruin some things for you.

I’ll give you time to navigate away and just post this other awesome photo set:

So much emotion.  Too bad in reality Sansa is still a clueless twat.

OK back to those theories and spoilers.  We see Margaery’s grandmother go up and straighten Sansa’s necklace (which took place of the hairnet in the books) and what I didn’t notice last night, but expected was this:

We see a jewel missing from Sansa’s necklace.  A jewel that is in fact the poison that kills Joffery.  My assumption?  The grandmother takes the jewel here, then passes it off to Margaery  who slips it in Joff’s cup between his drink before cutting the pie and the drink he has after his first bite.  After all Margaery is the one that takes the cup from Joff and sets it down on the table while the pie is being cut.

Ser Dontos runs off with Sansa setting her off on her next adventure.  An adventure full of just as much excitement as before.

So about what I said about the Tyrion/Sansa photoset.  It is stated in the books numerous times anytime someone is exceptionally gallant that they are like Rhaegar.  Jamie and Cersei have little honor (Jamie much more than Cersei), Tywin has absolutely no honor either.  So where does Tyrion’s honor and sense of morality come from?

In the books it’s stated that The Mad King was unduly interested in Tywin’s late wife and that Tywin resigned as Hand quickly and returned to Casterly Rock.  My thoughts?  Perhaps the Mad King raped or more likely had an affair with Tywin’s wife and Tyrion is the result of that.  The holes in this theory are that I would think that Tywin would have killed Tyrion as an infant if that was the case, but also Tywin is in it for the long game so maybe Tyrion was meant to be kept as insurance against the Targaryens.

Tyrion does talk about his fascination with dragons a lot so perhaps one of Dany’s dragons will end up being his.

What are your thoughts on my theories?  I have many many more– mostly involving Jon Snow– but we’ll get to those later.

 

 

Up next: Where is Dontos taking Sansa, what will happen to Tyrion, who else is going to die?

Join us again next week!

 

Major Character Deaths: 1

Boob Count: 0 (WHAT?!)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review. As reviewed by my 4 and 6 year old

I took my 6 year old boy and 4 year old daughter to see the new Captain America movie this afternoon right after school.  He had been asking daily since the movie was released when I was going to take him.  My 4 year old?  I didn’t have anyone to watch her so she came along for the ride. She’s seen Captain America and The Avengers a minimum of 100 times each so she’s well founded in the story line.

The thing I love about almost all Marvel movies is that, unlike the X-Men movies, there is plenty of violence, but no graphic sex scenes that I have to try to avoid and minimal bad language.  Therefore we go see all Marvel movies.  I will include my review at the end, but here are my children’s thoughts.  I felt like they summarized all the online reviews in their own words.

Langley(6):The Winter Soldier’s arm was awesome and metal and had a tattoo. When the guy with the metal arm fights it’s awesome.  I didn’t like it when Nick Fury died. I didn’t like when he took off his eye patch. Can we go see it again?

The above statement is true.  Bucky was awesome and a convincing bad guy that you didn’t really want to see defeated, because, well he’s Bucky! Mostly during the exposition and other tense moments he was busy spilling Nerds onto the theater floor.

 

Gillian (4): I like the girl with the red hair and when she punches the mans that are bad.  I don’t like the bad Captain America cause he is bad. I want to see the movie with the girl in it. It was too long and I didn’t like it when that one man punched that other man and then he diiiiied. I wanna dress up like the girl. I PROMISE I won’t scare anyone. I love the girl.

I agree.  Black Widow got the chance to really show her stuff in this movie.  She was a strong female character that wasn’t tough because she was Captain America’s girlfriend (which she wasn’t), but because she was a strong character.  Also– seriously– where is the Black Widow stand alone movie?

Now I will post a somewhat more in depth review.  Not just kid cuteness, so feel free to stop now if seriousness isn’t your thing.

This was a solid follow up to Captain America.  Was it better than The Avengers?  No. But I will compare Avengers 2 to the original and this should only be compared to the first Captain America.  We got to see Cap still struggling with the modern era and we got a few mentions of the other heroes to remind us he is part of a group. Albeit a dysfunctional group.

The Nick Fury chase scene was great.  Rarely to I really pay attention during a blow ’em up scene, but all the explosions made sense and directly affected to chase scene.  I seriously was on edge as to whether he would survive and if you haven’t seen it I won’t spoil it for you.

I stated before that Black Widow was amazing in this and she was.  She wasn’t a supporting character as much as a co-star.  But I talked about her before so let’s continue.

Falcon was an interesting supporting character.  He was strong on his own, but not unbelievably strong.  His gear was somewhat unbelievable, but if I’m having to buy everything else in the Captain America world, a mechanical set of wings is an easy addition.  I loved his back up and will enjoy seeing him in movies to come (hopefully).

And Robert Redford is still sexy. No. Matter. What.

I won’t go into much more because I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it.

Worth seeing in 3D?  Yes.

Kid friendly? Yes, assuming you’re OK with the other Marvel movies.

Game of Thrones: Two Swords Season 4 Premier

Finally!  Game of Thrones has returned!  This week I asked a friend of mine from college to help me with the review of the premier. Cathy does science-y stuff at Vanderbilt and is a huge ASoIaF fan and will be adding to my Game of Thrones reviews throughout the season.

My name’s Cathy and I’ve been into sci-fi for a long time, but I will admit, other than Lord of the Rings, I hadn’t read much in the fantasy genre until HBO released Game of Thrones. After seeing the first season, I devoured the books, and like most, am eagerly awaiting The Winds of Winter.

The night started out with me running in place, pointing at the TV, and squealing about Game of Thrones being back. Ok, not really, but I wanted to. Our long wait is finally over!

Season three left us in a state of mourning for the Stark family and their banner men. Arya was heartbreakingly close to being reunited with her family, until the Hound rescued her from being a victim of the Red Wedding along with her mother and brother. The war is seemingly over, Bolton has been named Warden of the North, while his bastard Ramsey has been busy cutting off pieces of Theon Greyjoy. After receiving “Theon Jr.” in the mail, his sister has gathered the Iron Born to stage a rescue attempt. Jon Snow made it back to Castle Black after being shot three times by a betrayed Ygritte, and we were left waiting an entire year to find out if he will survive his injuries. Stannis is moving his army north to help the Night’s Watch defend the wall, while somewhere in a row boat on the sea, Gendry is making his way back to King’s Landing. Speaking of King’s Landing, Jamie (sans right hand) and Brienne have made it back just in time for Joffrey and Margaery to get married.

Oh how the chess board has changed! Bring on Season 4!

I thought the opening of season 4 was the best so far. We are greeted with Twyin Lanister melting down Ice into two new swords; while he throws the wolf casing on the fire and watches it burn. Love. It. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of the Lannister’s but that scene helped illustrate just how nefarious Tywin Lannister is. Hey, Arielle here, I just wanted to add that it seems like they were reinforcing how horrible Tywin is at every turn this episode.  He belittles his favorite son, Tyrion has to try to live with a woman that Tywin arranged to have her family brutally murdered, Tyrion also has to deal with The Red Viper (Oberyn Martell) who wants revenge for Tywin’s actions from years previous and while Tyrion is cleaning up his messes Tywin still treats him with contempt. This is all topped off with the images of Ice being melted down.  Ice which should have been returned to the Starks no matter what.  Mormont got his family blade back after his son was banished, Ned took The Sword of the Morning’s sword back to his family after killing him during his “rescue” of Lyanna.  It’s super shady that Tywin not only kept the sword but melted it down into something else.

While we’re on the subject of Tywin, I thought the scene between Tywin and Tyrion was brilliantly acted, and very foretelling. In a move that should win Tywin a “World’s Greatest Dad” goblet, Tywin tells his son that he wanted to drown him in the river after he was born, but because Tyrion carried the Lannister name, he didn’t do it. Wow. How much more abuse is Tyrion going to take? His role in saving King’s Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater was accredited to his coward brat nephew, whose brave contribution to the battle was to basically pee his pants and hide. He’s been verbally abused by his family his entire life, blamed for the death of his mother, forced to marry someone he didn’t want to, etc.  Is the time coming when Tyrion shows his family just what he’s capable of? We shall see.

As far as his two siblings this episode; Jamie gets a new hand, Cersi gets drunk. There was an interesting exchange between Cersi and her Maester. She thanks him for the medicine he’s given her, and is very tight lipped when Jamie asks her about it. Hmmmm…Could this have something to do with her scheme to not marry Loras?

This episode introduces us to two new characters, Prince Oberyn Martell and his paramour Ellaria Sand. They have travelled to King’s Landing under the pretense of attending Joffery’s wedding, however we quickly learn that Oberyn houses a deep hatred for the Lannisters. He’s there to enact revenge for the death of his beloved sister Elia and her children at the hands of the Mountain and on the orders of Tywin Lannister. Something tells me that any ole Lannister isn’t going to do for Oberyn. He’s harbored his hatred for a very long time; he’s going to want to hit someone that’s going to hurt the Lannister’s deeply. Which Lion(s) he goes after will be exciting to see.

My new favorite team is the Hound and Arya. I feel like they need their own comic book. The two of them roaming the land, fighting crime, and just being awesome badasses. Who didn’t laugh last night when the Hound stabbed that guy in the balls?  You know you’d read it.  Seriously though, we’re starting to  see Arya grow into the person she’s going to become. She hardened by the tragedies she’s experienced, she’s wiser, and she’s seeking revenge towards the people who have hurt her family and friends. We see her regain Needle from Polliver, stare him down, and very calmly repeat his own words back to him before she stabs him in the throat. She has one name crossed off her prayer list. Who will be next? OK here I am again– I just want to add that just as I am disturbed when Joffery kills for fun I was somewhat put off by the glee with which Arya killed.  That little smile on her face was disturbing, but I also found myself cheering her on for being able to defend herself and help The Hound kill people that obviously needed killing.  I wonder how I will feel about seeing (as opposed to reading about) her journey to come.

Lastly, I want to address a small moment that I think will have a bigger impact down the line. Dontos giving Sansa the necklace. The only other time we’ve met Dontos was in the second season when he showed up drunk to a duel, sentenced to death by Joffery  only to be saved by Sansa. He’s stripped of his knighthood and made a court fool. Why bring back a character that we’ve forgotten about? Why make a big deal of him giving Sansa his mother’s necklace? We’re going to see more of him, he’s going to be important. I’m assuming the necklace is replacing the silver jeweled hairnet that she received from him in the books.- A

 

The last thing I (Arielle) will add to this discussion is that it was interesting to see Jon Snow start to take charge of The Wall and see Maester Aemon listen to him.  Which of course one Targaryen would listen to another–amirite?! 🙂

Until next week friends!

~C~

Episode Boob Count: 2 pairs

Major character death count: 0