TV rundow (that includes something I didn't watch)
So apparently the last episode of The Vampire Diaries aired last night. I haven’t watched the show in almost three years and yet knowing it’s over makes me feel all nostalgic for it. Like I kind of want to watch it again at this point, but my thought process goes something like this:
-So I could settle in and watch the last three seasons, maybe catch up on The Originals while I’m at it. I seem to recall I had high hopes for that show.
-But I’ve forgotten like everything about the show aside from what my general opinions were. Especially the last season or so before I walked away.
-And I’d miss all the good Elena/Elijah stuff I used to like so much if I just watch the later seasons.
-But if I watch from the beginning I have to watch season 4 again.
...(‘Nam style flashbacks)...
-I remember why I walked away from this show.
So I’m probably not doing any of this.
Supergirl 2x15
That was...okay. I feel like I fundamentally disagree with things about it that I think I’m supposed to agree with, because I thought all episode that Snapper was right and Alex, while a big damn hero, was mostly wrong.
Snapper did get to give a speech (actually a couple of them) about why journalism has to work certain ways, so maybe the show does know he’s in the right and Kara was reckless and not a good reporter; but her closing scene still seems to want me to feel sorry for her. They even coopted the “[Supergirl] is what I can do, [Kara] is who I am” that was used really effectively back on ‘Lois and Clark’ for Clark, and I 100% believed it for him, but I don’t for her, partly because so much of her Kara identity is tied up with the DEO anyway and basically none of it with her reporting job. Really, giving up that part of the story has felt like the natural next step most of the season, so I’m not surprised by how this episode went with it.
Alex is a little more complicated, because for most of it the episode wasn’t forcing me to be on her side, and yet in the end I feel like it wants me to be and...I’m still not. Everything J’onn and Kara said about why she needed to step back was correct. Remember just a couple episodes back, when Kara was unreasonably on Lena’s side and I pointed out that just because she was right doesn’t mean faith is a valid argument in the debate or that it should shield her from consequences for going in half-cocked? Yeah, echo that with Alex. And since when do she and Maggie have a ride or die situation? Maggie’s supposed to be smarter than this. This is why I have such a hard time shipping them, Maggie’s supposed to have some perspective but never seems to actually have it when it’s important.
I guess this episode kind of covers for my “J’onn is psychic” rant from last time in that apparently Cadmus has something to block psychic beings, though I stand by the principle of the rant because if that was the case it should have been commented on last time and raised some red flags.
The Flash 3x15
I’ve got kind of weird feeling from this one. Part of it is, I wasn’t really in the mood for this right now so I didn’t go into it with the best attitude. But by the end I’m at kind of a weird place with it that, for the first time in a while, I think I would like this episode more if I marathoned the season rather than watching week to week. Because I don’t remember a lot of how we got this point, just a lot of hating the characters and the writers, but I can feel like it’s maybe starting to pay off some things, where I’ve forgotten the things it’s paying off. It’s still got most of the problems I regularly have with the series (Barry’s and asshole, Wally’s an idiot, it’s terrible with its female characters) but at least I kind of feel like the plot would be stronger taken as a whole thing rather than in pieces. Obviously I don’t know how this ends, so that may not prove true in the long term, but this was at least a step towards having actual consequences on this show if they actually let this play out; though after what we’ve had most of the season I don’t hold out a ton of hope.
Also, um show, just among the DC-CW main heroes, Barry’s pain is not special. I think Kara losing her entire planet or the hell that Oliver and Sara went through makes Barry the least pained one of the bunch. If you’ll excuse me I’m off to hopefully watch Rip get his brain unscrambled.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x13
Aww, I really liked that one. Granted Gideon ended up playing the part in Rip’s brain that I wanted Miranda to have, which...yeah is probably exactly the way I should be taking that. I just don’t want Miranda (and Jonas) to be forgotten in all this. On the other hand it does pay off that kind of creepy factoid dropped in s1 that Gideon knows everyone’s dreams, so of course she knows what was going on in Rip’s mind. That and the fact that since it was a tech connection she must have had an easy time slipping in with them to help out (I don’t think just mental construct Gideon would have called Sara ‘Captain Lance’).
But mainly RIP IS BACK and I am happy; obviously I would probably have written him more damaged by the experience but I also don’t think we’ve seen the last of him being messed up by it so I’m not calling foul by any means. He really looked like he wanted to cry in the last couple scenes, and like he really needs a hug but would probably break if someone actually tried to hug him (also probably would break in strong breeze, he’s really not holding it together great). And Jax wouldn’t even shake his hand, even after going on the mission into Rip’s brain he’s still not completely okay with things.
Fortunately, Gideon also loves Sara, and Sara’s cool with Gideon so while I find this Rip/Gideon thing...awkward, I don’t think it interferes with my shipping tastes at all. Aside from maybe the fact that Gideon also loves Jax and I don’t think a four-way is going to work. But really, all the Rip/Sara (along with Rip/Sara/Gideon) feelings are happening. Again, I want to see a little more of how 1776 makes things awkward, but I definitely appreciated what we got in their one-on-one scene. You almost get the feeling Sara was kind of hoping he wouldn’t remember because she’s already made her mind up that it wasn’t him; but he does remember and he feels like he needs to say he’s sorry even though he probably knows she’s going to tell him not to feel that way. And they’re still both captains, so can I please get my captain make outs finally?
As for the other plotline. It was alright, nothing I didn’t like about it, except that I was here for a trip into Rip’s brain and the B plot wasn’t about that. I like all three of the characters well enough in their scenes. Like Nate, and probably Ray, I thought Amaya saving them from the T-rex was a good moment. And I appreciated that someone acknowledged that Amaya (and also Nate) came to the team through a different set of circumstances that may give them a little less...freedom about what they do with their lives.
Though...have I mentioned my theory that all the original Legends were going to be dead or out of commission within a year of Rip picking them up? Because I’ve been working on that headcanon for a while. We know that was the case with Sara after all, assuming we take Rip’s word on the subject, and it would make sense for most of the others too. Actually I should also probably just write you all my completely factual reading of the s1 finale that Rip loves Sara so much he jerked over the rest of the team and good chunk of Time so that she wouldn’t be there when she was supposed to die. Look, there’s like twelve reasons that episode made me accept my until then latent Rip/Sara shipping, and it all seems very relevant now.
Plus, this episode actually references that Sara is bisexual. Most of this season (last season was a bit more complicated) has been pretending she’s just into girls, which is at odds with the fact that all her meaningful relationships are with the men in her life (or not even presently in her life in Rip’s case most of the season). For the moment I’m going to take the textualization of her sexuality as “If Sara’s going to be making googly eyes at Rip we should probably remind people she was never actually a lesbian to start with,” (which is of course true as her whole plot starts with her screwing Oliver and everyone was so surprised when Nyssa showed up the first time) and pretend it has nothing to do with Snart’s likely reappearance at some point.
Though as a thought that’s neither here nor there, I was thinking I kind of need fanfic where Sara takes Rip home to meet her parents (I sort of feel Rip and Quentin would get along really well, once they got past a phase of “Why can’t you time travel and save my dead daughter?” “I look at this picture of my dead son a lot and wonder the same thing.”) only to remember that Alex Kingston plays her mom. Incest by way of Doctor Who may not have any bearing on whether my ship happens, but it makes me really wonder if and how it might be acknowledged if such a thing happened.
-So I could settle in and watch the last three seasons, maybe catch up on The Originals while I’m at it. I seem to recall I had high hopes for that show.
-But I’ve forgotten like everything about the show aside from what my general opinions were. Especially the last season or so before I walked away.
-And I’d miss all the good Elena/Elijah stuff I used to like so much if I just watch the later seasons.
-But if I watch from the beginning I have to watch season 4 again.
...(‘Nam style flashbacks)...
-I remember why I walked away from this show.
So I’m probably not doing any of this.
Supergirl 2x15
That was...okay. I feel like I fundamentally disagree with things about it that I think I’m supposed to agree with, because I thought all episode that Snapper was right and Alex, while a big damn hero, was mostly wrong.
Snapper did get to give a speech (actually a couple of them) about why journalism has to work certain ways, so maybe the show does know he’s in the right and Kara was reckless and not a good reporter; but her closing scene still seems to want me to feel sorry for her. They even coopted the “[Supergirl] is what I can do, [Kara] is who I am” that was used really effectively back on ‘Lois and Clark’ for Clark, and I 100% believed it for him, but I don’t for her, partly because so much of her Kara identity is tied up with the DEO anyway and basically none of it with her reporting job. Really, giving up that part of the story has felt like the natural next step most of the season, so I’m not surprised by how this episode went with it.
Alex is a little more complicated, because for most of it the episode wasn’t forcing me to be on her side, and yet in the end I feel like it wants me to be and...I’m still not. Everything J’onn and Kara said about why she needed to step back was correct. Remember just a couple episodes back, when Kara was unreasonably on Lena’s side and I pointed out that just because she was right doesn’t mean faith is a valid argument in the debate or that it should shield her from consequences for going in half-cocked? Yeah, echo that with Alex. And since when do she and Maggie have a ride or die situation? Maggie’s supposed to be smarter than this. This is why I have such a hard time shipping them, Maggie’s supposed to have some perspective but never seems to actually have it when it’s important.
I guess this episode kind of covers for my “J’onn is psychic” rant from last time in that apparently Cadmus has something to block psychic beings, though I stand by the principle of the rant because if that was the case it should have been commented on last time and raised some red flags.
The Flash 3x15
I’ve got kind of weird feeling from this one. Part of it is, I wasn’t really in the mood for this right now so I didn’t go into it with the best attitude. But by the end I’m at kind of a weird place with it that, for the first time in a while, I think I would like this episode more if I marathoned the season rather than watching week to week. Because I don’t remember a lot of how we got this point, just a lot of hating the characters and the writers, but I can feel like it’s maybe starting to pay off some things, where I’ve forgotten the things it’s paying off. It’s still got most of the problems I regularly have with the series (Barry’s and asshole, Wally’s an idiot, it’s terrible with its female characters) but at least I kind of feel like the plot would be stronger taken as a whole thing rather than in pieces. Obviously I don’t know how this ends, so that may not prove true in the long term, but this was at least a step towards having actual consequences on this show if they actually let this play out; though after what we’ve had most of the season I don’t hold out a ton of hope.
Also, um show, just among the DC-CW main heroes, Barry’s pain is not special. I think Kara losing her entire planet or the hell that Oliver and Sara went through makes Barry the least pained one of the bunch. If you’ll excuse me I’m off to hopefully watch Rip get his brain unscrambled.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x13
Aww, I really liked that one. Granted Gideon ended up playing the part in Rip’s brain that I wanted Miranda to have, which...yeah is probably exactly the way I should be taking that. I just don’t want Miranda (and Jonas) to be forgotten in all this. On the other hand it does pay off that kind of creepy factoid dropped in s1 that Gideon knows everyone’s dreams, so of course she knows what was going on in Rip’s mind. That and the fact that since it was a tech connection she must have had an easy time slipping in with them to help out (I don’t think just mental construct Gideon would have called Sara ‘Captain Lance’).
But mainly RIP IS BACK and I am happy; obviously I would probably have written him more damaged by the experience but I also don’t think we’ve seen the last of him being messed up by it so I’m not calling foul by any means. He really looked like he wanted to cry in the last couple scenes, and like he really needs a hug but would probably break if someone actually tried to hug him (also probably would break in strong breeze, he’s really not holding it together great). And Jax wouldn’t even shake his hand, even after going on the mission into Rip’s brain he’s still not completely okay with things.
Fortunately, Gideon also loves Sara, and Sara’s cool with Gideon so while I find this Rip/Gideon thing...awkward, I don’t think it interferes with my shipping tastes at all. Aside from maybe the fact that Gideon also loves Jax and I don’t think a four-way is going to work. But really, all the Rip/Sara (along with Rip/Sara/Gideon) feelings are happening. Again, I want to see a little more of how 1776 makes things awkward, but I definitely appreciated what we got in their one-on-one scene. You almost get the feeling Sara was kind of hoping he wouldn’t remember because she’s already made her mind up that it wasn’t him; but he does remember and he feels like he needs to say he’s sorry even though he probably knows she’s going to tell him not to feel that way. And they’re still both captains, so can I please get my captain make outs finally?
As for the other plotline. It was alright, nothing I didn’t like about it, except that I was here for a trip into Rip’s brain and the B plot wasn’t about that. I like all three of the characters well enough in their scenes. Like Nate, and probably Ray, I thought Amaya saving them from the T-rex was a good moment. And I appreciated that someone acknowledged that Amaya (and also Nate) came to the team through a different set of circumstances that may give them a little less...freedom about what they do with their lives.
Though...have I mentioned my theory that all the original Legends were going to be dead or out of commission within a year of Rip picking them up? Because I’ve been working on that headcanon for a while. We know that was the case with Sara after all, assuming we take Rip’s word on the subject, and it would make sense for most of the others too. Actually I should also probably just write you all my completely factual reading of the s1 finale that Rip loves Sara so much he jerked over the rest of the team and good chunk of Time so that she wouldn’t be there when she was supposed to die. Look, there’s like twelve reasons that episode made me accept my until then latent Rip/Sara shipping, and it all seems very relevant now.
Plus, this episode actually references that Sara is bisexual. Most of this season (last season was a bit more complicated) has been pretending she’s just into girls, which is at odds with the fact that all her meaningful relationships are with the men in her life (or not even presently in her life in Rip’s case most of the season). For the moment I’m going to take the textualization of her sexuality as “If Sara’s going to be making googly eyes at Rip we should probably remind people she was never actually a lesbian to start with,” (which is of course true as her whole plot starts with her screwing Oliver and everyone was so surprised when Nyssa showed up the first time) and pretend it has nothing to do with Snart’s likely reappearance at some point.
Though as a thought that’s neither here nor there, I was thinking I kind of need fanfic where Sara takes Rip home to meet her parents (I sort of feel Rip and Quentin would get along really well, once they got past a phase of “Why can’t you time travel and save my dead daughter?” “I look at this picture of my dead son a lot and wonder the same thing.”) only to remember that Alex Kingston plays her mom. Incest by way of Doctor Who may not have any bearing on whether my ship happens, but it makes me really wonder if and how it might be acknowledged if such a thing happened.