(no subject)
What’s this? More meta? My goodness.
Okay. It’s taken me a couple of days to calm down enough to write about “First Down”. Oh, I know I wrote a story and all, but that only made my thought process more complicated and emotionally all over the place.
I think most of the people reading this will know that I’m going to be going on and on about, so I’ll start with all the other stuff first.
Sucre: No Sucre this week, which made me sad, but we all know that he spent the whole episode zooming towards Vegas on his borrowed motorbike. Sigh. He’s a fool for love, I know, and even though I don’t think Maricruz deserves him, I want him to get the girl. I’m very afraid that he won’t, though, because he’s not the type of person to catch the lucky breaks. I would also like Hector to die horribly in some horrible accident, because he is horrible.
Tweener: I’ll be upfront here and say that I have never liked Tweener. But the whole John Denver thing, the hesitant flirting with Debra-Jean, well, it was all very cute. But I still don’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and I still don’t actually *like* him. That said, I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.
T-Bag: I had one hand over the my eyes during most of the T-Bag stuff. He seems so much more evil out in the real world, and I can hardly bear to watch. All that stuff with him justifying how young girls like Danielle are actually women and it’s the Evil System (that keeps them thinking that they’re babies) that’s to blame - totally made me shudder and go ‘euwww’ but of course I kept watching because Robert Knepper is a genius. That last shot when he was driving out in *their* car and wearing her daddy’s cap was truly dreadful, and I really, really hope that he gets all the bad karma that’s coming to him.
Lance: OHNOES. My secret Kellerman crush is getting a huge workout lately. If he was on ‘our’ side, I would be a goner, but he’s evil and out to get my boys and use my girl and therefore I am still managing to control my reaction of “Wow, he’s so awesome” every time “Lance” opens his mouth. Hello, that’s good pie? I almost died. And his whole tactic of talking about medical stuff that was practically invited Sara to join in and reassure him (so that he could then rebuff her and establish an emotional - however tenuous - connection between them) was pure genius.
Bellick and Geary: When is comic relief not really comic relief? When it’s Bellick and Geary. They were hilarious, but not overly so. Bellick’s face when they were ramming the car was priceless, and I have to admit that I liked him being mean to Nika because I am secretly evil and bad. I like Geary much more now that he’s on the outside (which wouldn’t be hard) but Bellick is still the same old nasty piece of work he ever was. Geary’s “You suck, Bellick, do you know that?” made my husband and I laugh so much that we missed the next few lines and had to rewind. And it was a perfect choice to have Bellick deliver the news about Sara to Michael - of all the ways to hear about it, that had to be the very worst for Michael - but more on that later.
Mahone: How good is Bill Fitcher in this role? He has been creeping me out since his very first scene and the man obviously has Serious Issues that will Complicate Matters and I can’t wait. Loved that he was called out about setting Abruzzi up so that there was only one way it could have played out, and loved that he basically said ‘Bite me’ in response.
Abruzzi: I am sad that he is gone, but I suspect that’s more because I love Peter Stormare more than the thought of the character being killed. His poor wife. She could have slapped him another ten times, but it still wouldn’t have stopped him going after The Rat who Betrayed Him. *sighs* Great death scene, though - that speech about only kneeling to God was totally awesome and gave him back his dignity. He chose to die rather than return to Fox River, and it felt as though he’d almost made his peace with it. But yeah, I’m going to miss him, if only for the sheer unpredictability of the character and the shades of Sopranos that accompanied his every appearance.
Nika: Okay. As an Australian, I think I’ve earned my right to dislike Holly Valance. I’ve had to put up with her for many, many years in many ways, shapes and forms, and the irony of now having to put up with her in my favourite show is not lost on me. However, the fact that Nika has now shown herself to be as much of an idiot floozy as I always thought Holly makes me very happy. Nika, if you were actually in love with Michael, then holding a gun on him (and his brother) and telling him that you’re planning to turn them both in for money isn’t really the right way to go about making him love you back. I get that you kept mentioning the ‘lady doctor’ to test the waters, but you really need to get back on your medication and perhaps think about buying some clothes that aren’t made of velour. In short, you suck and you lose and I really do hope that the immigration authorities catch up with you and your fake marriage and that you’re deported faster than I can say ‘bad accent’.
Lincoln: As I said in an earlier post, all those hints about Lincoln ‘busting out of the gates’ in Season Two are all true. From his putting the glass under the tyre to his speech about not trusting anyone to his seemingly effortless thwarting of Nika’s attempted coup, he totally rocked. I would have liked for him to actually say to Michael that he trusted *him* (not least because I think that’s what *Michael* wanted to hear) but I’m good with where he’s coming from, so to speak. It’s not Michael that he doesn’t trust - it’s Michael’s belief in certain other people that he doesn’t share. Furthermore, I think while he trusts Michael when his instincts tell him to do so, when they don’t he quietly does his own thing behind the scenes and thank God he does because otherwise they’d be up a certain creek without a certain paddle. Oh, and the unbuttoned shirt is still working for me in a big way.
Okay. Onto the Michael/Sara stuff. *takes a deep breath*
Michael first: Last week, I posted here about a particular promo shot of Michael and Lincoln from First Down. I blathered on and on about this photo:
this
and about how Michael’s shirt was crumpled and about how he was started to fray around the edges and about how I wanted to see some emotional fallout, hopefully over finding about Sara’s arrest etc.
Well. Not only did I get what I wanted, but I got it, as a certain cross-dressing evil alien scientist once said, in abundance.
That promo shot was from the scene where Michael indeed finds out - in the worst possible way - from Bellick that Sara overdosed, almost died, and then got arrested. And I don’t think that ‘emotionally fraying around the edges’ quite covers his reaction.
Dear God.
He completely and utterly LOST it.
I read on another forum that when the quiet and intense man tells you to shut up through clenched teeth, it’s probably a very good idea to shut up. Bellick obviously had never heard of this theory, and got a kick to the head for his trouble. Shallow thought? A suddenly yelling and suddenly violent Michael with a clenched jaw and dilated pupils - when all that emotion is a reaction to hearing about Sara - is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Side note : I’m also intrigued by Lincoln’s reaction. Michael glances at him when Bellick first mentions the overdose and jail, and Lincoln looks away. If he was as confused as Michael, I think he would have just stared at Bellick the way Michael did a second later. Instead, he made me think that - as the person who probably *has* actually been reading the newspapers almost every day, rather than just using it as a cover before stealing fried chicken like his brother - he might have known and not told his brother about it. (Hear that sound? That’s the sound of plot bunnies chewing on my brain.)
If he didn’t already have it, WM now has my undying devotion from now until the end of time for the way he played out the telephone call to Sara. The utter despair in his voice, the defeated slump of his body. I wrote in my story that he felt as though he was breaking and while I could never hope to properly convey the emotions that were pouring out of the screen, that’s how it felt to me. He had been wound up so tightly, so controlled, that the blow of finding out about what had happened to her was enough to shatter all of it.
He was crying. Actually, it felt as though he’d *been* crying - and maybe even been sick, judging by the rasping tone of his voice - and was struggling to hold it all together long enough to call her and only just managing to stop himself from losing it all over again. When he pleaded with her not to hang up on him in that crushed little voice, my own stomach curled up at the edges and I felt like crying along with him. I’d say more, but I think the word that sums it up the best is, “Guh.”
Also, how much do I love the fact that TPTB played that little lilting rift, aka the ‘origami’ music, when Michael said “It’s already in your possession,” to Sara. Call me crazy, but I would say that’s officially a Big Clue. Heh.
And finally, my girl Sara: I love her more with every scene she has. She has always had such a quiet intensity about her, and even that she’s away from the prison now, it’s still as engaging as ever. Her interactions with Lance were just perfect - she didn’t interrupt him in order to show off, but to allay his fear that he would also be struck down by the disease that had taken other members of his family. Because she cares too much about anyone who displays ‘broken winged bird’ traits and she just can’t help herself because being a doctor is what she *is*. When he rebuffed her attempts at reassurance, she just looked so hurt and of course that’s what he intended and it was perfect.
The whole ‘crack pie’ scene made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Cringe because *I* know what he is, but laugh because the two of them were hilarious together. Her “that’s so wrong” was fabulous - I just love how she does that ‘underlying laughter’ thing so that her words literally bubble with amusement.
And then, of course, her phone rang, and she stopped laughing and she stopped smiling and trying to forget with blueberry pie and light-hearted banter with someone who didn’t know anything about what had just happened to her and was wrenched back into the big mess and her feelings for Michael.
He rang her and she was angry and hurt and she told him that she didn’t want to talk to him but she didn’t hang up on him. For all her harsh words, she didn’t hang up on him. When *he* finally hung up on her, after pouring out his heart and soul, she didn’t want to let him go which, of course, lead to her saying his name twice out loud and letting “Lance” overhear her which will only lead to Bad Things which makes me very happy (because cue the realisation that Michael had been telling the truth and that she needs to run away with him) but also worried because Kellerman really is a very bad man and people don’t tend to live very long around him.
And Veronica? She is still dead.
So, in closing, let’s just say that I’ve spent many hours flailing and emoting and writing and rewatching and flailing again. 447 out of 10 for this one.
Okay. It’s taken me a couple of days to calm down enough to write about “First Down”. Oh, I know I wrote a story and all, but that only made my thought process more complicated and emotionally all over the place.
I think most of the people reading this will know that I’m going to be going on and on about, so I’ll start with all the other stuff first.
Sucre: No Sucre this week, which made me sad, but we all know that he spent the whole episode zooming towards Vegas on his borrowed motorbike. Sigh. He’s a fool for love, I know, and even though I don’t think Maricruz deserves him, I want him to get the girl. I’m very afraid that he won’t, though, because he’s not the type of person to catch the lucky breaks. I would also like Hector to die horribly in some horrible accident, because he is horrible.
Tweener: I’ll be upfront here and say that I have never liked Tweener. But the whole John Denver thing, the hesitant flirting with Debra-Jean, well, it was all very cute. But I still don’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and I still don’t actually *like* him. That said, I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.
T-Bag: I had one hand over the my eyes during most of the T-Bag stuff. He seems so much more evil out in the real world, and I can hardly bear to watch. All that stuff with him justifying how young girls like Danielle are actually women and it’s the Evil System (that keeps them thinking that they’re babies) that’s to blame - totally made me shudder and go ‘euwww’ but of course I kept watching because Robert Knepper is a genius. That last shot when he was driving out in *their* car and wearing her daddy’s cap was truly dreadful, and I really, really hope that he gets all the bad karma that’s coming to him.
Lance: OHNOES. My secret Kellerman crush is getting a huge workout lately. If he was on ‘our’ side, I would be a goner, but he’s evil and out to get my boys and use my girl and therefore I am still managing to control my reaction of “Wow, he’s so awesome” every time “Lance” opens his mouth. Hello, that’s good pie? I almost died. And his whole tactic of talking about medical stuff that was practically invited Sara to join in and reassure him (so that he could then rebuff her and establish an emotional - however tenuous - connection between them) was pure genius.
Bellick and Geary: When is comic relief not really comic relief? When it’s Bellick and Geary. They were hilarious, but not overly so. Bellick’s face when they were ramming the car was priceless, and I have to admit that I liked him being mean to Nika because I am secretly evil and bad. I like Geary much more now that he’s on the outside (which wouldn’t be hard) but Bellick is still the same old nasty piece of work he ever was. Geary’s “You suck, Bellick, do you know that?” made my husband and I laugh so much that we missed the next few lines and had to rewind. And it was a perfect choice to have Bellick deliver the news about Sara to Michael - of all the ways to hear about it, that had to be the very worst for Michael - but more on that later.
Mahone: How good is Bill Fitcher in this role? He has been creeping me out since his very first scene and the man obviously has Serious Issues that will Complicate Matters and I can’t wait. Loved that he was called out about setting Abruzzi up so that there was only one way it could have played out, and loved that he basically said ‘Bite me’ in response.
Abruzzi: I am sad that he is gone, but I suspect that’s more because I love Peter Stormare more than the thought of the character being killed. His poor wife. She could have slapped him another ten times, but it still wouldn’t have stopped him going after The Rat who Betrayed Him. *sighs* Great death scene, though - that speech about only kneeling to God was totally awesome and gave him back his dignity. He chose to die rather than return to Fox River, and it felt as though he’d almost made his peace with it. But yeah, I’m going to miss him, if only for the sheer unpredictability of the character and the shades of Sopranos that accompanied his every appearance.
Nika: Okay. As an Australian, I think I’ve earned my right to dislike Holly Valance. I’ve had to put up with her for many, many years in many ways, shapes and forms, and the irony of now having to put up with her in my favourite show is not lost on me. However, the fact that Nika has now shown herself to be as much of an idiot floozy as I always thought Holly makes me very happy. Nika, if you were actually in love with Michael, then holding a gun on him (and his brother) and telling him that you’re planning to turn them both in for money isn’t really the right way to go about making him love you back. I get that you kept mentioning the ‘lady doctor’ to test the waters, but you really need to get back on your medication and perhaps think about buying some clothes that aren’t made of velour. In short, you suck and you lose and I really do hope that the immigration authorities catch up with you and your fake marriage and that you’re deported faster than I can say ‘bad accent’.
Lincoln: As I said in an earlier post, all those hints about Lincoln ‘busting out of the gates’ in Season Two are all true. From his putting the glass under the tyre to his speech about not trusting anyone to his seemingly effortless thwarting of Nika’s attempted coup, he totally rocked. I would have liked for him to actually say to Michael that he trusted *him* (not least because I think that’s what *Michael* wanted to hear) but I’m good with where he’s coming from, so to speak. It’s not Michael that he doesn’t trust - it’s Michael’s belief in certain other people that he doesn’t share. Furthermore, I think while he trusts Michael when his instincts tell him to do so, when they don’t he quietly does his own thing behind the scenes and thank God he does because otherwise they’d be up a certain creek without a certain paddle. Oh, and the unbuttoned shirt is still working for me in a big way.
Okay. Onto the Michael/Sara stuff. *takes a deep breath*
Michael first: Last week, I posted here about a particular promo shot of Michael and Lincoln from First Down. I blathered on and on about this photo:
this
and about how Michael’s shirt was crumpled and about how he was started to fray around the edges and about how I wanted to see some emotional fallout, hopefully over finding about Sara’s arrest etc.
Well. Not only did I get what I wanted, but I got it, as a certain cross-dressing evil alien scientist once said, in abundance.
That promo shot was from the scene where Michael indeed finds out - in the worst possible way - from Bellick that Sara overdosed, almost died, and then got arrested. And I don’t think that ‘emotionally fraying around the edges’ quite covers his reaction.
Dear God.
He completely and utterly LOST it.
I read on another forum that when the quiet and intense man tells you to shut up through clenched teeth, it’s probably a very good idea to shut up. Bellick obviously had never heard of this theory, and got a kick to the head for his trouble. Shallow thought? A suddenly yelling and suddenly violent Michael with a clenched jaw and dilated pupils - when all that emotion is a reaction to hearing about Sara - is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Side note : I’m also intrigued by Lincoln’s reaction. Michael glances at him when Bellick first mentions the overdose and jail, and Lincoln looks away. If he was as confused as Michael, I think he would have just stared at Bellick the way Michael did a second later. Instead, he made me think that - as the person who probably *has* actually been reading the newspapers almost every day, rather than just using it as a cover before stealing fried chicken like his brother - he might have known and not told his brother about it. (Hear that sound? That’s the sound of plot bunnies chewing on my brain.)
If he didn’t already have it, WM now has my undying devotion from now until the end of time for the way he played out the telephone call to Sara. The utter despair in his voice, the defeated slump of his body. I wrote in my story that he felt as though he was breaking and while I could never hope to properly convey the emotions that were pouring out of the screen, that’s how it felt to me. He had been wound up so tightly, so controlled, that the blow of finding out about what had happened to her was enough to shatter all of it.
He was crying. Actually, it felt as though he’d *been* crying - and maybe even been sick, judging by the rasping tone of his voice - and was struggling to hold it all together long enough to call her and only just managing to stop himself from losing it all over again. When he pleaded with her not to hang up on him in that crushed little voice, my own stomach curled up at the edges and I felt like crying along with him. I’d say more, but I think the word that sums it up the best is, “Guh.”
Also, how much do I love the fact that TPTB played that little lilting rift, aka the ‘origami’ music, when Michael said “It’s already in your possession,” to Sara. Call me crazy, but I would say that’s officially a Big Clue. Heh.
And finally, my girl Sara: I love her more with every scene she has. She has always had such a quiet intensity about her, and even that she’s away from the prison now, it’s still as engaging as ever. Her interactions with Lance were just perfect - she didn’t interrupt him in order to show off, but to allay his fear that he would also be struck down by the disease that had taken other members of his family. Because she cares too much about anyone who displays ‘broken winged bird’ traits and she just can’t help herself because being a doctor is what she *is*. When he rebuffed her attempts at reassurance, she just looked so hurt and of course that’s what he intended and it was perfect.
The whole ‘crack pie’ scene made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Cringe because *I* know what he is, but laugh because the two of them were hilarious together. Her “that’s so wrong” was fabulous - I just love how she does that ‘underlying laughter’ thing so that her words literally bubble with amusement.
And then, of course, her phone rang, and she stopped laughing and she stopped smiling and trying to forget with blueberry pie and light-hearted banter with someone who didn’t know anything about what had just happened to her and was wrenched back into the big mess and her feelings for Michael.
He rang her and she was angry and hurt and she told him that she didn’t want to talk to him but she didn’t hang up on him. For all her harsh words, she didn’t hang up on him. When *he* finally hung up on her, after pouring out his heart and soul, she didn’t want to let him go which, of course, lead to her saying his name twice out loud and letting “Lance” overhear her which will only lead to Bad Things which makes me very happy (because cue the realisation that Michael had been telling the truth and that she needs to run away with him) but also worried because Kellerman really is a very bad man and people don’t tend to live very long around him.
And Veronica? She is still dead.
So, in closing, let’s just say that I’ve spent many hours flailing and emoting and writing and rewatching and flailing again. 447 out of 10 for this one.