Harping on Harper's Island (Or Why I Suck At Sticking to Goals)
Wow. How long has it been? One month? Two? Let's look at the most recent post... and WOW! My last post was in June? It's October now. The first of, when I started writing this. And honestly, this kind of horror miniseries would've been best for the October month what with Halloween and all. I guess this goes to show that I would not be cut out for weekly review type things. Maybe it was the lack of feedback. Or probably my epic procrastination skillz. Yeah.
Okay, I want to get this done and out of the way because new seasons of shows have begun and I am ready to use this LJ thing for show discussions. Maybe post some more fanart or possibly fanfics (even though I have a fanfiction.net account). Whatever I do, I can't start doing it until I finish Harper's Island. It's gonna bother me if I don't wrap up my recap thing so we're going through the last five episodes really quick in one post. Final thoughts and everything will be here. Many things will be left out but if you're interested, check out the show to see what I missed. You (hopefully) won't regret it.
** Spoilers beyond here for anyone who hasn't watched this Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious horror miniseries. Seriously, you should know that by now. **
'Seep' & 'Snap'
Let's run down the list of who gets killed because they're finally getting down to the likeable characters. Okay, maybe not in the first episode ('Seep') of these two. One of the bridesmaids bites it, then the cheating stepmother gets stabbed while she's in her chair and I say good riddance. She liked sleeping around, well enjoy the Big Sleep, sister. Now, in the second of these two episodes ('Snap') a bunch of people die who are not in the wedding party I think, except for one (including two officers from the mainland which shouldn't count because they're not even in the main cast so why should I care if they die? Because it pads out the last few episodes and makes the killer seem extra menacing? *pffft* Nuts to that.) What is important is that Abby's daddy dies in this episode! Sheriff Mills! Oh God, I loved you, Sheriff Mills!
Especially since you go on to play the gruff father figure in Supernatural. He does manage to save his daughter and get some lovely, fatherly words out there before she sees him die. First her mom, then her dad. Poor Abby is going to have a phobia of rope and the game of hangman by the time this series is through.
I mentioned something about a man in the shadows previously but it turns out to be Henry. Of course if you've seen this show or read my recaps/summaries you'd recognize that it's a double subversion or whatever because it turns out Abby *should've* been afraid of Henry. But more on that later. Suffice to say the little girl is finally found but not before the guests split up and continue to stumble around looking through mysterious doors in the dark. Also that Shane guy busted out of jail and finds them somehow but he's cleared of the murders because, well, he's been in jail for the last couple of ones. Doesn't clear him from being an ass, though. I recall they lose one of their group members during the house search so they had to juggle looking for the little girl and the group member who goes missing. They only find the little girl. Sadness was had by all. The mother doesn't seem to care that the little girl was having fun playing bizarrro hide and seek with her kidnapper. Or at least that's what it seemed like to me. I'm having a surprisingly hard time remembering the details.
Also, at one point I'm fairly sure they all decide to get the hell out of the house and take shelter in a bar. British Boy Cal gets shot on a driving errand and it almost seems like Sully's gonna ditch him (again!) but then he doesn't which is quite the relief. Near the end of 'Snap' they do actually try to get to the docks (hopefully at least one of them knows how to hot wire a boat) but there's an explosion. Actually, I think Jimmy was caught in the dock explosion which did shock me the first time around. Don't worry people, Jimmy survives. He's just that manly. So that ends 'Snap'.
'Splash' 'Gasp' & (Thank Goodness!) 'Sigh'
Death toll in some semblance of order: the first of these three episodes has another bridesmaid shimmying up to that wedding reception in the sky. Shane the drunken idiot is finally killed off (justice is belated on this horrible island). And poor British sweetheart Cal survives his previous injury but gets killed personally by Wakefield and tossed over a bridge. His fiance decides to be more noble than her ditzy character suggested and she jumps after him, choosing to die with her guy than face the killer that previously thrilled'er... (I feel like that rhyme would work better spoken than typed.) The only black guy on the show (one of Henry's groomsmen) managed to make it to the second-to-last episode so I have to congratulate CBS for that, I suppose. Plus he got equal death billing with Trish, the "ready to get married again" bride who gets stabbed by her own fiance in her wedding gown. It's poetic if not maudlin.
Last episode has Henry killing his best friend Sully (meh) and implying he was jealous of the guy because he hit on his fiance even though Henry had a major crush on Abby, with all it's incestuous undertones. Oh, um, by the way, Wakefield turns out to be Abby's real father. So when I said in a previous post that he "knew" her mom, it's in the biblical sense. Just so it's clear: the original island killer Wakefield is Abby's dad and he's also Henry's dad (Henry was apparently adopted but I forget if his now-dead brother is related to him or not). So Henry has a crush on his half-sister (though he didn't realize they were related until way late in the game). This is some good Jerry Springer fodder right here.
Oh, and the little girl and her mom manage to escape on a dingy of some kind with the little poodle dog the late Sheriff Mills saved. CBS approves of fictional murder unless it's little girls, their moms, or tiny dogs. Try and guess which of those three I'm most glad survived. By the way, the whole catalyst to Henry's love/obsession and subsequent team-up with his killer daddy was because (and I'm not kidding) he felt betrayed that he was lied to about his parentage. Also, when they were kids, Little!Abby whispered into lonely Little!Henry's ear that she wished they could be alone and together forever on Harper's Island. I feel like half of his motives don't make any sense. And it's not the "taking a childish promise seriously" part. Wow.
In any case, this sweet little ball of cuckoo bananas saves the best kill for last by double crossing his own daddy dreariest because the original island killer wanted him to kill Abby. If that doesn't say "love", then you are a far saner person than Henry. Good for you. Now the only ones left on the island are All About Abby Mills, Dreamy Fisherman Jimmy Mance, and Crazy Killer Henry Dunn (or should I say, "done for"? Because he is.)
Like all good horror movies that try to shock by killing off sympathetic characters but don't have the chutzpah to kill off kids and puppies, the leading lady must survive, preferably with her beloved intact. Unfortunately for Henry he is not the beloved thus Abby runs away with Jimmy via boat after she kills Henry. He dies reaffirming his love for Abby, I think, and probably regretting the extremely convoluted plan he concocted. I mean seriously, who goes through the trouble of seducing a rich boat-owning patron, proposing to her, convincing her family and friends (plus *his* friends) to attend a creepy island wedding, then kills them all off while in cahoots with his not-actually-dead serial killer daddy? All of this with the end game of winning over his childhood friend because he took a little kid promise Abby most likely forgot, way too seriously? It's either someone who REALLY overestimated the romantic-ness of Stockholm Syndrome or someone who's taken "crazy in love" to a whole other level. I feel like confessing his feelings in Harper High would've proved a bit less messy. If she breaks his heart with the "I don't want to ruin our friendship" speech, then he may have grounds to go on a murder spree.
In any case, the show was pretty darn great overall. They killed off some people I liked and they killed off some people I didn't like. They killed off a whole lot of people I didn't really care about or even know. I suppose letting Abby and Jimmy survive almost makes up for letting the creepy girl and her horrid mother survive. Maybe let those two chicks live with the guilt. Am I being entirely too harsh on them? Perhaps. But that's the way the sand dunes crumble.
Hopefully next time around, I'll post about something more current. Like Community! Or How I Met Your Mother! Or Supernatural! That last one would be great for October because it really knows how to keep me on the edge of my seat when they're not breaking my heart with the angst. Plus, like I mentioned before, the actor who played Abby's dad (Jim Beaver!) is in it. I just hope this recent episode did not kill him off like his HI character. To the handful of readers who haven't seen the second episode of season 7, well I did warn you there would be spoilers. What's a handful of a handful, anyway? Like two people? Post a comment and I'll send you personalized apologies. Maybe photoshop you some shirtless Sam and Dean or something.
Okay, I want to get this done and out of the way because new seasons of shows have begun and I am ready to use this LJ thing for show discussions. Maybe post some more fanart or possibly fanfics (even though I have a fanfiction.net account). Whatever I do, I can't start doing it until I finish Harper's Island. It's gonna bother me if I don't wrap up my recap thing so we're going through the last five episodes really quick in one post. Final thoughts and everything will be here. Many things will be left out but if you're interested, check out the show to see what I missed. You (hopefully) won't regret it.
** Spoilers beyond here for anyone who hasn't watched this Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious horror miniseries. Seriously, you should know that by now. **
'Seep' & 'Snap'
Let's run down the list of who gets killed because they're finally getting down to the likeable characters. Okay, maybe not in the first episode ('Seep') of these two. One of the bridesmaids bites it, then the cheating stepmother gets stabbed while she's in her chair and I say good riddance. She liked sleeping around, well enjoy the Big Sleep, sister. Now, in the second of these two episodes ('Snap') a bunch of people die who are not in the wedding party I think, except for one (including two officers from the mainland which shouldn't count because they're not even in the main cast so why should I care if they die? Because it pads out the last few episodes and makes the killer seem extra menacing? *pffft* Nuts to that.) What is important is that Abby's daddy dies in this episode! Sheriff Mills! Oh God, I loved you, Sheriff Mills!
Especially since you go on to play the gruff father figure in Supernatural. He does manage to save his daughter and get some lovely, fatherly words out there before she sees him die. First her mom, then her dad. Poor Abby is going to have a phobia of rope and the game of hangman by the time this series is through.
I mentioned something about a man in the shadows previously but it turns out to be Henry. Of course if you've seen this show or read my recaps/summaries you'd recognize that it's a double subversion or whatever because it turns out Abby *should've* been afraid of Henry. But more on that later. Suffice to say the little girl is finally found but not before the guests split up and continue to stumble around looking through mysterious doors in the dark. Also that Shane guy busted out of jail and finds them somehow but he's cleared of the murders because, well, he's been in jail for the last couple of ones. Doesn't clear him from being an ass, though. I recall they lose one of their group members during the house search so they had to juggle looking for the little girl and the group member who goes missing. They only find the little girl. Sadness was had by all. The mother doesn't seem to care that the little girl was having fun playing bizarrro hide and seek with her kidnapper. Or at least that's what it seemed like to me. I'm having a surprisingly hard time remembering the details.
Also, at one point I'm fairly sure they all decide to get the hell out of the house and take shelter in a bar. British Boy Cal gets shot on a driving errand and it almost seems like Sully's gonna ditch him (again!) but then he doesn't which is quite the relief. Near the end of 'Snap' they do actually try to get to the docks (hopefully at least one of them knows how to hot wire a boat) but there's an explosion. Actually, I think Jimmy was caught in the dock explosion which did shock me the first time around. Don't worry people, Jimmy survives. He's just that manly. So that ends 'Snap'.
'Splash' 'Gasp' & (Thank Goodness!) 'Sigh'
Death toll in some semblance of order: the first of these three episodes has another bridesmaid shimmying up to that wedding reception in the sky. Shane the drunken idiot is finally killed off (justice is belated on this horrible island). And poor British sweetheart Cal survives his previous injury but gets killed personally by Wakefield and tossed over a bridge. His fiance decides to be more noble than her ditzy character suggested and she jumps after him, choosing to die with her guy than face the killer that previously thrilled'er... (I feel like that rhyme would work better spoken than typed.) The only black guy on the show (one of Henry's groomsmen) managed to make it to the second-to-last episode so I have to congratulate CBS for that, I suppose. Plus he got equal death billing with Trish, the "ready to get married again" bride who gets stabbed by her own fiance in her wedding gown. It's poetic if not maudlin.
Last episode has Henry killing his best friend Sully (meh) and implying he was jealous of the guy because he hit on his fiance even though Henry had a major crush on Abby, with all it's incestuous undertones. Oh, um, by the way, Wakefield turns out to be Abby's real father. So when I said in a previous post that he "knew" her mom, it's in the biblical sense. Just so it's clear: the original island killer Wakefield is Abby's dad and he's also Henry's dad (Henry was apparently adopted but I forget if his now-dead brother is related to him or not). So Henry has a crush on his half-sister (though he didn't realize they were related until way late in the game). This is some good Jerry Springer fodder right here.
Oh, and the little girl and her mom manage to escape on a dingy of some kind with the little poodle dog the late Sheriff Mills saved. CBS approves of fictional murder unless it's little girls, their moms, or tiny dogs. Try and guess which of those three I'm most glad survived. By the way, the whole catalyst to Henry's love/obsession and subsequent team-up with his killer daddy was because (and I'm not kidding) he felt betrayed that he was lied to about his parentage. Also, when they were kids, Little!Abby whispered into lonely Little!Henry's ear that she wished they could be alone and together forever on Harper's Island. I feel like half of his motives don't make any sense. And it's not the "taking a childish promise seriously" part. Wow.
In any case, this sweet little ball of cuckoo bananas saves the best kill for last by double crossing his own daddy dreariest because the original island killer wanted him to kill Abby. If that doesn't say "love", then you are a far saner person than Henry. Good for you. Now the only ones left on the island are All About Abby Mills, Dreamy Fisherman Jimmy Mance, and Crazy Killer Henry Dunn (or should I say, "done for"? Because he is.)
Like all good horror movies that try to shock by killing off sympathetic characters but don't have the chutzpah to kill off kids and puppies, the leading lady must survive, preferably with her beloved intact. Unfortunately for Henry he is not the beloved thus Abby runs away with Jimmy via boat after she kills Henry. He dies reaffirming his love for Abby, I think, and probably regretting the extremely convoluted plan he concocted. I mean seriously, who goes through the trouble of seducing a rich boat-owning patron, proposing to her, convincing her family and friends (plus *his* friends) to attend a creepy island wedding, then kills them all off while in cahoots with his not-actually-dead serial killer daddy? All of this with the end game of winning over his childhood friend because he took a little kid promise Abby most likely forgot, way too seriously? It's either someone who REALLY overestimated the romantic-ness of Stockholm Syndrome or someone who's taken "crazy in love" to a whole other level. I feel like confessing his feelings in Harper High would've proved a bit less messy. If she breaks his heart with the "I don't want to ruin our friendship" speech, then he may have grounds to go on a murder spree.
In any case, the show was pretty darn great overall. They killed off some people I liked and they killed off some people I didn't like. They killed off a whole lot of people I didn't really care about or even know. I suppose letting Abby and Jimmy survive almost makes up for letting the creepy girl and her horrid mother survive. Maybe let those two chicks live with the guilt. Am I being entirely too harsh on them? Perhaps. But that's the way the sand dunes crumble.
Hopefully next time around, I'll post about something more current. Like Community! Or How I Met Your Mother! Or Supernatural! That last one would be great for October because it really knows how to keep me on the edge of my seat when they're not breaking my heart with the angst. Plus, like I mentioned before, the actor who played Abby's dad (Jim Beaver!) is in it. I just hope this recent episode did not kill him off like his HI character. To the handful of readers who haven't seen the second episode of season 7, well I did warn you there would be spoilers. What's a handful of a handful, anyway? Like two people? Post a comment and I'll send you personalized apologies. Maybe photoshop you some shirtless Sam and Dean or something.