Liveblog: A2A 2.02
And the first nightmare of Alex forgetting Molly, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh. Excellently creepy. And we get hospital noises, or at least ambulance noises, and -- that’s not a nightmare, it’s in the middle of the fucking hallway, oh LEXA. Oh Shaz.
“And I’ve got a head with a bullet in it.”
Is she wearing a jumpsuit? With three-quarter sleeves?
“The Guv’s been calling for you. Loudly.”
And another beautiful, beautiful piece of camerawork that needs to be in every vid ever.
“Tasty as Jane Fonda in a bap!” (Or is that “bath?” Some people’s accents.)
Echo and the Bunnymen! I love this song!
“This motor is more a part of me than me own ball sack!”
I would like to know, between that circling-camera and the car flipping, how much of our episode budget we just blew on the cold open.
Ooo, new credits footage. Did I remark on that last time?
“I’m ninety percent certain he was on something.”
“Only ninety percent? How frightfully modest.”
I... am not entirely certain about the gypsies in this episode. It’s definitely not as bad as that one Criminal Minds, but I’m not enough of an expert to know if the writing should be pinging me wrong or not.
“Is there a musical called ‘Paint Your Wagon Shit-Colored’?”
No man in glasses on this show is to be trusted.
“Big deal. I’m under the influence right now.”
“Well, something to see, but you can’t ruddy see it. Back! … Back?” Oh Marshall Lancaster ILU.
Alex looking rather flinty-eyed at Mack.
“Everything is a priority all of the time.”
Chris is very conflicted, poor bunny. And Ray is In On It.
Beautiful stuff with reflected light in this episode. And Alex has cheekbones you could cut yourself on. /shallow
“I didn’t say come.”
“I’m a modern girl, Guv. I come when I need to.” And this is the sound of me just... letting that one stand.
“Oh, you’re laying the blame the same way that a two-bit hooker lays stockbrokers.”
(I don’t seem to be able to do anything but quote for the time being, but it’s being very quotable and nothing really analyzable has happened yet.)
And next to no one is entirely thrilled with this development. Barely even Ray. And any ambiguity whatsoever about Mack’s intentions is hereby dispelled.
“You’re saying you’re not a good cop?”
“I’m saying I know where I belong.” And Alex with the gorgeous bug eyes of righteous indignation.
And this is another one of those episodes that would be so much less complicated if they’d just damn put their guns down and talk to each other. *sighs* I get it, I do, why it’s so fiddly and complex for them to trust one another, but it makes me sad inna face.
Oh, Gene is not happy with this situation at all. (How’s that animal in your stomach, Guv?)
Falklands again, waugh, oh Raaaaaaaaaay. Oh tiny indignant Shazza.
OH CHRIS.
“Kevin Hales.”
“Bastard.”
“Where’s he on remand?”
“Dunno. Bastard.”
“Stop saying ‘bastard’ and find him for me.”
Sometimes Shaz is the only person in this station I don’t want to drown in a bucket.
“Protecting their own! Well, we can’t have that, now, can we?”
“So, she asked pointlessly, does this department have its own Romani liaison officer?”
And the answer to that question is a firm “not at the moment,” Gene.
God, Shaz in that coat, what the hell time of year is this? It looks warm. And they look very much like The Man, descending like that.
And I remember why I don’t watch this one much: the casual racism is really, really, really hard to take. I mean, in character, but hard to take.
And once you’ve seen the episode more than once you can tell Gene is about thirty seconds shy of punching his face in right now.
And I think this is another one of those cases where Gene is just maximally unhappy with everything and taking it out on anyone who’ll hold still long enough.
God, poor pregnant-girl looks about twelve. And I cannot quite tell whether Alex smells a rat here.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Preggy Sue.” *falls off chair*
And Chris is actually wearing the lucky heather, of course.
Alex certainly ought to be smelling a rat here, but this guy falls nicely into her blind spot.
And Gene is sort of hovering on the boundary between hostile interview and dealing with little old ladies, which is not a boundary you see him hovering on very often. This little old lady is marvelous, by the way.
“Because he was everything that people think we are.”
… yes, I’m totally watching the Tarot cards here. I make it the Two of Swords, something I can’t identify that looked like the Sun first off but I don’t think it is, Eight of Cups, possibly the Eight of Swords, either the Page or Knight of Swords, three-four other things I can’t identify -- this isn’t a deck I’ve ever seen before, which makes it tricky, I wonder if it’s period-accurate? I like the way she handles them, though, and all the Swords are, well, appropriate. I wonder whether they stacked the deck or just dealt it out at random.
“Well, he’s tall. Some might say handsome. Some might say the Devil made flesh.”
Yeah, this is pretty much Alex’s subconscious speaking directly to her, isn’t it. Or Gene’s. I wonder which of them is more likely to come up with something like this?
“Well, this is a magical ride to the wrong side of the wardrobe!”
“But what if there’s more than one real world?” And Gene has NOTHING to say to that. They actually do give you a lot in this episode, really, don’t they?
And just the Tower, on the table in front of her.
“What sign are you?”
“Serpico.”
And the Hanged Man is of course beyond the perfect card for everything to do with this damn canon. So someone on the writing staff did some reading, at least.
“Give up your power to a Tyler.” And something in Gene’s head just. shuts. down. And I will forever be in love with the way he says “Tyler.”
And Gene and Alex functioning as a unit, which is always nice.
“You see, the thing is, Guv, I’ve just told Dr Battleford the brakes were cut on his car, and he has expressed no surprise or shock whatsoever.” Someone’s learned to pick up on this sort of thing since 1.08, have they?
“Psychiatry, actually.”
“Psychology.”
“Shit.”
And Alex is Not Okay With This Development to a galactic degree. And neither, in fact, is Gene.
And Alex starts reacting before she starts thinking, oh her. And GAH that 80s user interface. I just about vaguely remember something like that from the office where my mother worked when I was like two.
Ohhhhhhhhh, this is creepy. Oh, poor ALEX. And the lighting goes all blue and real-world on her face.
Oh Alex. We do not yell at our Shazzes.
… okay, this is pretty much the basic definition of NoYay, right here. Gah. I mean that -- is -- what it is.
Oh, Gene. SMOKING IN A SAUNA wtf.
“Signorina Drake, you drink so much.”
“I can’t see her face anymore.” Oh Aaaaaaaaaalex. (Um, the cynical part of me wants to point out that that might be on account of the Child Actor Problem, which is that they age. Noticeably. Between seasons. You really REALLY get that in 3.08.)
Oh, Alex’s little drunken resolve face.
Is this the first shot we get of Alex’s MIRRORED HEADBOARD? I think it is. (I am just saying. There is very little reason for someone who’s not gettin’ it regular to own one of those.)
Nightmare of Teh Patriarchy!
Seeing Mack actually on her bed, aiiiiiiigh. I’d forgotten that.
Royal blue, still, STILL not Alex’s color.
Hiccupping on Molly’s name, double aiiiiiiiiiigh.
Poor tiny pregnant girl. And that’s very much a little girl’s space, the inside of that caravan. And very clean -- a bit jumbled, but clean.
And the real world intrudes again.
Oh, Alex, this is not the time to be needling at Gene. Gene, this would be a fine time to tell her why that is.
“No, sir. If we were harassing you, you’d know all about it.”
I kept expecting his nasal spray to be something, the first time I watched this, and I don’t think it is.
And Battleford throws Alva right under the bus with that “intentionally.”
“Oxtail’s been taken out of the drinks machine.”
“What?”
Yeah, he is detach detach detaching from all of this, and she just can’t let it drop. Oh, babies.
And they are right up in each other’s faces again, and I really cannot read this as anything other than intimate body language.
I mean -- the way she steps even closer towards him, and the pitch of her voice on “Please let me in.”
And the background music doesn’t exactly hurt, either.
Ray has no sympathy whatsoever for Chris’s relationship problems! Drink!
CONTENTS OF A PRINCESS.
Oh, Gene.
And Phil Collins’s One Good Song is beautifully effective here, but I could still sort of wish they hadn’t used it -- I mean, they probably didn’t know at the time that it was the only thing they could use in 3.08, but it was, and I notice soundtrack repeats. *sadface*
Although the lights going out on the beat is gorgeous.
Stealth!Alex!
I am going to be perfectly honest here and admit that all this Masonic stuff gives me Hellblazer flashbacks. *laughs* And I really, really don’t see how anyone takes this stuff seriously, but then I feel that way about a lot of things.
Oh, Ray. See, I totally buy this of Ray. Ray needs to belong to whichever hierarchical male-dominated organization is willing to have him... okay, I could have phrased that in a way that didn’t make me need to break out the brain bleach, but you know what I mean. And there’s probably something in him being the gatekeeper, aside from the obvious reversal on the “Tyler” thing.
Gene with his shirt all ripped open and a blindfold and a rope around his neck, though, that I take perfectly seriously. Phwoar.
And of course he doesn’t like the blindfold.
“When have you ever called me ‘mate’?”
You know, I keep forgetting that Martin Summers sort of works for me. I mean, he doesn’t really make sense on a plot level as such unless you fanwank it hard, but in his individual appearances.
And Alex just freaks completely out.
Lots of interesting visual stuff with reflections in this one.
Has Gene always had executive desk-toys, or are they new this season?
Alex cracks the case!
“I’m not one of them. I’ve got a girlfriend.”
That is a hideous belt Alex has on.
“Oh, so it’s love, actually? More like four benzos and a funeral.”
Chris is actually playing up quite nicely here.
Gene is not a happy Gene. Well, I wouldn’t be happy either if my tie looked like an airplane seat cover.
Alex is very much Caroline’s daughter, right here.
“And you have a very pretty face, but you go on longer than the Eurovision Song Contest.”
“And I hate the poufy, freaky, creepy, weirdy, trouser-hitching, nipple-waggling bloody MASONS! All right?”
Oh, Alex’s little face.
“You’re playing with them.”
“No, that’s just the way I’m standing.”
*shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips*
“What’s important is you remember you’re one of us.”
*shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips some more*
“I thought I’d lost you.”
*continues to SHIP*
Dammit, Shaz.
“What is this, the Rumble in the bloody Jungle?”
Oh, Raaaaaaaaay. Seriously, there’s something to be said about Ray in this episode, but I can’t phrase it properly.
“Ah. Right. Women’s things. Good.”
“COME ON, EILEEN!” *DIES*
Gene holding a baby makes me go :D just a little, I have to admit. I am not really majorly big on babies, but there’s something about large men being kind to small helpless things -- I have the same reaction to John and the DRDs on Farscape. Also, he just looks slightly shamefaced about it.
(Also, a real recently born baby would be redder and messier than that, but tis television.)
Ray <3 <3
Interview in the men’s room! Drink!
“Cheer up, soldier. The cell’s all nice and Dettoled, and there’s buns for tea.” I love Viv.
And Gene is spinning this rather nicely -- although it’s interesting, considering what we find out about Mack in 2.04.
Also, I love him performing dominance behavior for Mack’s benefit.
Oh CHRIS oh CHRIS AND SHAZ BABIES OH GOD OH HEART. And Ray is just SO unimpressed.
“Looking very chirpy, Bolls. You been sitting on the washing machine again?”
“I think I might not be alone in this place. In more ways than one.”
“Listen, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“What if you’re real?”
“What if you were quiet? Hey, would you believe it, oxtail’s back on. Must’ve read my letter.”
“Well, it wasn’t really a letter, was it? ‘Oxtail, now.’”
See -- I -- there’s nothing I can ASSUME from this body language that doesn’t at some point involve the word “screwing.” *helpless hands*
Aaaaand another creepy bit to finish out the episode! Gyaaaaaah. And Shaz is so radiant.
Next up: firebombs!
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