Kings 1x04 "Insurrection"
Okay, so I watched the episode on Monday, and started writing up a reaction post which got too long, and then there was the holiday, and it became less !!! and ??? and more, like, thinky stuff about the portrayal of Israeli politics and stuff, which are possibly articulated badly because getting clear points across is not exactly my strong suts. Anyway, hey, here is my ep reaction.
OH MY HOLY FUCKING GOD AND SHIT. I JUST FINISHED WATCHING THE EPISODE AND SERIOUSLY THIS SHOW IS EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY DRAINING TO WATCH, the amount of time I have to pause and rewind and squee and laugh and gasp and gasp again and drop my jaw with disbelief at what they’re doing onscreen, whether good or WTFy, and most of the time I can’t even tell which is which. Also physically draining because this was the first episode I watched with company, and my sister PHYSICALLY PUNCHED ME every time I made a comment about David’s character and Christopher Egan’s acting ability, because apparently he’s a “great actor” or something, I don’t know.
Okay, so this episode, man. I don’t even know what to do with it, all I can remember now is that this was a BIG FUCKING EPISODE about the disengagement and settlement evacuation in general and I CANNOT STOP WATCHING even when it’s physically painful (in an omg wtf wtf wtf way) or when it’s actually done well or, well, like I said, I just constantly jump between those two poles of LOVE and OH MY GOD.
I can’t actually go into detail about the disengagement and what led to it and how it went and what the results were and the politics and the protests and I don’t think I really need to when it’s right there on Wikipedia. It’s not the only case of settlement evacuation in Israeli history (I’m not adding ‘in return for peace’ because it’s more complicated than that), but it’s the most recent and certainly closest to my own personal experience, as it happened in 2006. Anyway, the thing about Kings is that there are so many differences between their world and ours that it’s hard for me to actually identify with any of the characters regarding the situation.
I mean, if I look at it by character:
Ethan: the rhetoric he uses belongs to a settler who believes, the kind I want to punch him in the face when I think of the rhetoric and the context. And yet it’s different here, because we don’t know the background - right? Unless I missed it, we don’t actually know how Silas came to own these territories - and because he uses two different slogans. The first is “God gave us this land,” which, GOOD BYE, walk away from me right now please. That one sounds like West Bank/Gaza rhetoric. The second is “Our blood, our land,” which I can relate to and it breaks my heart for him and it hurts, but. That one sounds more like Golan Heights rhetoric, which, I dunno, man. I wish I had an answer to that one. Except that yeah, the fact that we fought for the land and shed blood is not an excuse to keep it - it reminds me of Beaufort, where the heroes who’ve been raised on this ethos of defending the mountain the IDF has kept for 18 years are ordered to evacuate it. And all the men who die in the book/movie, it’s all for nothing, just to defend this piece of land that they were never supposed to conquer in the first place.
Anyway, Ethan = asshole who’s giving me political mixed signals. Moving on.
David: he plays the part of the soldier caught in the middle - the Israeli settler soldier who’s been given the order to evacuate his own family. Who’s not allowed to voice his own political opinion on the subject because he’s supposed to be a-political. I want to be on his side so badly, I’ve seen people in this situation handle it with elegance and grace. But this David, I just can’t! I don’t even know why by this point. I mean, maybe it’s that he kind of acts like an idiot a lot of the time, that could be it.
Silas: I can’t really comment on anything Silas does without knowing the entire political history of the Gilboa/Gath conflict and who did what to whom when. The fact that he’s willing to let his subjects become Gath citizens, though, well - I dunno! It’s weird. It’s new. God knows I’ve wished enough times that we could do the same here - just say to various settlers, we’re drawing out, you guys can either come and get compensations or fend for yourselves. So I kind of support him on that. But the situations are different too… and the towns we’re talking about, despite Ethan’s rhetoric, they don’t seem like settlements that sprung out from ideology, but like government sponsored border towns, which means that yes, he has quite a sizable responsibility towards them, whatever he does.
Reading this post by Sabrina_il has helped me parse out a little of what I’m feeling regarding this. Her big qualm with the show in this regard is that it is appropriating Israeli culture (or politics, whatever) and it’s doing it wrong. Now, I’m not really bothered by the fact that the politics are only used as a backdrop for character development. And I don’t mind the idea of using current Israeli politics in general - I mean, I’m pretty psyched at the idea, really, which is part of the love/wtf relationship described in paragraphs #1 and #2. But when she says this:
The other thing, or perhaps next thing that's pissing me off, as it's a sequential process, is that this game, this representation, is wrong.
That, yes. Because the problem is - the representation is wrong. And yes, I know the show is about America, not about us, and since it’s not actually supposed to be us, how can I say it’s a wrong representation? But the fact is, they have also taken elements from the politics of the State of Israel (modern state, not ancient kingdom) and made them their own. Except that no parallel is clearly identifiable, and while it’s clear that Gilboa is also Israel and Gath is also “Israel’s Enemy”, everything in between is an oversimplified mishmash of ingredients taken from general Israeli/Mideast politics, and the bottom line is: the Solution to the Conflict is Exchanging Lands For Peace.
It’s not really necessary to elaborate on the extent of the oversimplification, but I will anyway. “Land for peace” makes no distinction between the different Israeli/Arab conflicts, like Gaza and the West Bank and Syria are all the same; like I said, there’s just Israel and Israel’s Enemy, and The Enemy are all blended together, except that in RL, they are entirely different situations, and the negotiations and the solutions and what’s at stake are different as well. No reason is given for the Gilboa/Gath war. We don’t know what their issues with one another are. We don’t know how Gilboa came to own(/occupy?) the land north of the River Prosperity. We don’t know the extent of the armed conflict. And despite the slogans Ethan Shepherd starts throwing around once he discovers the land is being given away, he and his supporters are not like Israeli settlers.
So the show’s general solution of “land for peace” is given in what is basically a historic/political void, and yet also noticeably connected to the Israeli/whoever conflict. And in the end, what we get is an enormous oversimplification of Israeli politics, which is a little annoying in itself, and my concern is - and pardon me for having little faith in the average viewer - but my concern is that people will see this and accidentally think they understand what is going on.
The facts that many viewers apparently don’t even recognize the parallels to Israeli politics - or that let’s face it, the show’s ratings mean that not many people watch this show at all - do very little to ease this concern. And people might be smarter than I give them credit for, but, well, we know people.
I don’t think there’s actually a right way to showcase Israeli politics in a fictional show to non-local audiences. Nor do I think American TV has any need to concern itself with it at all. But if they are, well, I’m sure there’s a way to do it better. Or to avoid the issue altogether.
All that said and done - I actually do support, in theory, the idea of land for peace - setting aside the fact that I can’t even call it “land for peace” these days because it’s more complicated than that. But anyway, having this idea that I support come from the show in this way kind of pisses me off. Which sucks. And considering the idea is left wing bleeding heart anyway, I would rather have had it come from Jack with a large dose of bitter pessimism than from David’s doe-eyed fresh-faces ugh-ness.
ALL THAT SAID AND DONE, these are the things I actually thought to myself during the episode:
PRETTY CORNFIELD IS PRETTY. Lol, it looks just like the wheat field we saw on the Gilboa -- except whoa, the wheat only reached our knees. Corn is apparently taller.
Silas on all the TV channels reminds me of the Liberman parody: “Which reminds me on the subject of television. This is your new remote. It has one button and a variety of station. You are welcome to enjoy Channel Liberman. The other channels have all been transferred to the History Channel.”
Ahem, anyway.
Disengagement. Just, wtfwow. David’s family are insufferable - I really really want to love his brothers and his mom, but seriously, ugh. Maybe it’s just knowing how the ep’s going to end that’s turning me against them.
OH HEY MAP OF GATH. This reminds me of something, let me think, OH WAIT:
The map on the right has Israel to the south and Lebanon to the north, and the ‘security zone’, ie the strip of Lebanon the Israeli army occupied between 1982 and 2000, in between. Of course, there are plenty of countries lying just east of an ocean in the world. But.
“They feel betrayed” -- yes. “I see both sides”/”Both sides are neither”. True, and true. UGH, I WANT TO FEEL SO MUCH FOR DAVID HERE. I see both sides too! I hate choosing sides! And yet somehow either the actor or the writing are just alienating the hell out of this character for me. If only he didn’t act like such a dufus.
I like Silas at breakfast. My sister said she loves his hair - that it’s just like Derek Shepherd’s, which, lol, she has a point.
Jack and Michelle eating breakfast - there should be more Jack and Michelle ALL THE TIME, period. Royal siblings yay. I think they’re gonna be my big gen subjects in this fandom. “Trying to change his mind? You’d have an easier time asking the rain to stop.” I don’t even know about the symbolism anymore, I’ll just point out that Biblical David asks the rain to stop on the Gilboa after Saul and Jonathan die, and on with the ep.
The paper has a photo of Silas’s burning image, which is creepy considering the next step is Rabin Silas in a kafiyye Gath uniform. Next to it, we see a protestor lifting a sign that says: “SILAS = TYRANT”. O RLY. Ya think?
Jack and William - yeah, okay, whatever. I don’t know, Jack, I’m too tired to figure you out.
Katrina Ghent - no idea who and what, but I spent the whole episode trying to figure out why she looked like such a Batman villain, until thedeadparrot told me she was from Iron Man.
“They’re talking about a resettlement package for everyone” - I would LOVE to see how this one goes over. It’s a great idea in theory - or, you know passable - and a lot harder to implement in reality.
The orangish flag certainly fits the anti-disengagement protestors. It is getting disturbingly violent there, and reminding me of the settlers/police riots at Amona two - wow, three - years ago.
Okay, hey does Rose know or not know about Helen? I was sure she knew last episode, and now, with the way that scene was acted, I’m suddenly not. Please let her know.
Oh, ew ew ew, Samuels has a church. Okay, let us investigate: wooden benches, fine, that could go either way. Candles and altar - overwhelmingly Christian, sigh.
Ephram - I’m pretty sure that’s the first time we’ve heard the Rev’s name? In any case, Biblical Samuel was from the tribe of Ephraim, so yay, canon-ish!
Okay, so I am by no means an expert on religious (or any kind of) architecture, but I was able to recognize possibly Jewish elements in Samuels’ little church. First, I’ll assume that big chair to the left of the benches isn’t the King’s throne, but just a very, um, fancy and elaborate Elijah’s chair.
The bigger thing, though, is that we don’t see any statues or images behind the altar - just a curtain. And a curtain means it could very well be a Parochet, the curtain that covers the most important part of a synagogue, the Torah Ark. So hey, yay for that.
Okay, fishing scenes = so, so pretty. The lighting is beautiful, and Ian McShane is awesome. I love Silas’s animal imagery - basically, the man cannot get through one line of dialogue without mentioning a lion, a fish, a cat, a walrus, et cetera.
“We want our God-given land back, and we want the freedom to live on it.” UGH DIE ETHAN DIE.
Okay, I really like the Thomasina scene. Her language is a little archaic, but in this show, it can work. It’s a little weird, because she’s talking about these changes Silas has gone through, which I haven’t really had a chance to notice - she says he’s grown “mean”, but I haven’t really seen a change between the Silas of the pilot and the Silas of this episode.
Michelle going in - on the one hand, yes, it’s stupid. On the other, it’s a risk, and she knows it’s a risk, in the same way David took a risk in the pilot episode. Grand gestures are risks. It’s the thin red line between brave and stupid.
Michelle: “…to show them that someone cares.” David: “I care!” So does my grandma, David, but nobody gives a fuck! I’m pretty sure I know which side of the line he stands on.
Okay, I kind of like her. If she got, like, speech therapy, I would probably like her more - there’s something about her voice and her accent that grates. Although I might get used to it? I used to hate Kristen Chenoweth’s voice, and I love her now.
I love the fact that Michelle knows that if she speaks for her father, he’ll have to honor it. I’m pretty sure that’s something he instilled in her - probably more than in Jack. It’s pretty cool.
Aw, Silas is worried! Yay.
And Jack is too! Deep inside, at least. Okay, the most fucked up thing in the Benjamin family dynamics right now is that when Jack sees his sister march into the room with the rioting rebels unprotected, he does not try to find out what is going on by something absurd like calling his mother or father or god forbid, Thomasina or any of the ten thousand advisors his father has, he just assumes she was sent there by his father. It’s just sad.
…And Ghent walks in, and it is apparently Jack’s destiny to be humiliatingly shot down in every single episode of this show. HEART, WOE.
Ugh, Cross. Go away. I love that they’re having their clandestine meeting in this out of the way warehouse, and they still brought along a serving boy to serve them their tea.
Samuels is looking at the smoke blowing out of the chimney - any idea what that means? (Sister said: “Oh look, they chose a new Pope.”)
OMG CHIPPED. Silas chipped his children. That is just wrong.
Aw, he’s giving David two minutes! I am beginning to think he actually does like him! That’s kind of awesome.
Wow, Ethan really sounds like a true believer. “God will know” (if we surrender). I continue to dislike him hugely.
I love Silas for ordering to fire when he did, OMG. Ethan doesn’t know it and probably never will, but the only reason he’s alive is that Silas likes David.
Okay, wow, I have no idea what the raid on the meeting at the warehouse meant. I think I missed some stuff -- why did it happen at the exact same time as shooting at the rebels? Who ordered it? What does Silas know?
Aw, the Court Physician is examining Michelle :-( I sadface because I kind of had the idea that the Court Physician was House and that he and Silas love snarking at one another and that House becomes almost physically ill after meeting David for the first time, but then he hears him play the piano and sits next to him and they start to jam. And then over time he teaches David the blues, and kind of gives him lessons in cool. And in misery. It can only do David some good.
Yay Thomasina promotion! Although I dislike the idea that in ten years, she’s never been this open with him. Those might have been ten quiet years.
Jack/Silas confrontation on the stairs - so basically, every scene those two have together is explosively awesome, both in acting and in content. “You should be careful in accepting gifts from your uncle - they’re never actually gifts.” Silas is actually giving Jack good advice! And aw, he offered Jack the Ministry position, and just. Silas encouraging Jack to fly and cutting off his wings every time; my heart. (Also, this is pretty cool to watch after reading Sabrina_il’s Jack backstory fic, which says a lot about Jack and his relationship with Silas, and ANY DAY NOW I will stop pimping fics I was involved in, I swear. Just, they’re all so damn good.)
David: “I have no idea where they took him. There’s no record of Ethan in any of the jails. It’s like they made him disappear.” Michelle: “I didn’t know they did that. I’m so sorry.”
LOL, what a below-adequate response. David’s basically like, “Your dad is Stalin.” Michelle: “I didn’t know he did that kind of thing. I’m sorry.” Also David's brother is totally in Gilboa Prison. We've seen it, it's there.
Michelle, DO NOT APOLOGIZE for being as stupid and brave as David was in the pilot! David: “You have no place.” Oh, David, you’re such a charmer. o_o
Okay, I love Silas with the end reveal. And I love him releasing Ethan into David’s custody. And ah, okay, Silas knew the meeting with William was taking place, cool, I get it now. I love that Abner asks whether evidence should be manufactured. I am a little disappointed by Abner’s betrayal, just because I never liked Abner in the Bible and was surprised by the fact that I liked him on the show, and hoped to keep it that way. Ah, well.
Aw, Ma Shepherd’s Headshake of Disapproval. I think I know what this calls for, and that thing is fic. miarr, I am looking at you with all the expectation and guilt my Polish genes can muster up. You know what to do.
In conclusion: wow, so that took me four days to wrap my head around. Oh, show. Do not leave us yet.
OH MY HOLY FUCKING GOD AND SHIT. I JUST FINISHED WATCHING THE EPISODE AND SERIOUSLY THIS SHOW IS EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY DRAINING TO WATCH, the amount of time I have to pause and rewind and squee and laugh and gasp and gasp again and drop my jaw with disbelief at what they’re doing onscreen, whether good or WTFy, and most of the time I can’t even tell which is which. Also physically draining because this was the first episode I watched with company, and my sister PHYSICALLY PUNCHED ME every time I made a comment about David’s character and Christopher Egan’s acting ability, because apparently he’s a “great actor” or something, I don’t know.
Okay, so this episode, man. I don’t even know what to do with it, all I can remember now is that this was a BIG FUCKING EPISODE about the disengagement and settlement evacuation in general and I CANNOT STOP WATCHING even when it’s physically painful (in an omg wtf wtf wtf way) or when it’s actually done well or, well, like I said, I just constantly jump between those two poles of LOVE and OH MY GOD.
I can’t actually go into detail about the disengagement and what led to it and how it went and what the results were and the politics and the protests and I don’t think I really need to when it’s right there on Wikipedia. It’s not the only case of settlement evacuation in Israeli history (I’m not adding ‘in return for peace’ because it’s more complicated than that), but it’s the most recent and certainly closest to my own personal experience, as it happened in 2006. Anyway, the thing about Kings is that there are so many differences between their world and ours that it’s hard for me to actually identify with any of the characters regarding the situation.
I mean, if I look at it by character:
Ethan: the rhetoric he uses belongs to a settler who believes, the kind I want to punch him in the face when I think of the rhetoric and the context. And yet it’s different here, because we don’t know the background - right? Unless I missed it, we don’t actually know how Silas came to own these territories - and because he uses two different slogans. The first is “God gave us this land,” which, GOOD BYE, walk away from me right now please. That one sounds like West Bank/Gaza rhetoric. The second is “Our blood, our land,” which I can relate to and it breaks my heart for him and it hurts, but. That one sounds more like Golan Heights rhetoric, which, I dunno, man. I wish I had an answer to that one. Except that yeah, the fact that we fought for the land and shed blood is not an excuse to keep it - it reminds me of Beaufort, where the heroes who’ve been raised on this ethos of defending the mountain the IDF has kept for 18 years are ordered to evacuate it. And all the men who die in the book/movie, it’s all for nothing, just to defend this piece of land that they were never supposed to conquer in the first place.
Anyway, Ethan = asshole who’s giving me political mixed signals. Moving on.
David: he plays the part of the soldier caught in the middle - the Israeli settler soldier who’s been given the order to evacuate his own family. Who’s not allowed to voice his own political opinion on the subject because he’s supposed to be a-political. I want to be on his side so badly, I’ve seen people in this situation handle it with elegance and grace. But this David, I just can’t! I don’t even know why by this point. I mean, maybe it’s that he kind of acts like an idiot a lot of the time, that could be it.
Silas: I can’t really comment on anything Silas does without knowing the entire political history of the Gilboa/Gath conflict and who did what to whom when. The fact that he’s willing to let his subjects become Gath citizens, though, well - I dunno! It’s weird. It’s new. God knows I’ve wished enough times that we could do the same here - just say to various settlers, we’re drawing out, you guys can either come and get compensations or fend for yourselves. So I kind of support him on that. But the situations are different too… and the towns we’re talking about, despite Ethan’s rhetoric, they don’t seem like settlements that sprung out from ideology, but like government sponsored border towns, which means that yes, he has quite a sizable responsibility towards them, whatever he does.
Reading this post by Sabrina_il has helped me parse out a little of what I’m feeling regarding this. Her big qualm with the show in this regard is that it is appropriating Israeli culture (or politics, whatever) and it’s doing it wrong. Now, I’m not really bothered by the fact that the politics are only used as a backdrop for character development. And I don’t mind the idea of using current Israeli politics in general - I mean, I’m pretty psyched at the idea, really, which is part of the love/wtf relationship described in paragraphs #1 and #2. But when she says this:
The other thing, or perhaps next thing that's pissing me off, as it's a sequential process, is that this game, this representation, is wrong.
That, yes. Because the problem is - the representation is wrong. And yes, I know the show is about America, not about us, and since it’s not actually supposed to be us, how can I say it’s a wrong representation? But the fact is, they have also taken elements from the politics of the State of Israel (modern state, not ancient kingdom) and made them their own. Except that no parallel is clearly identifiable, and while it’s clear that Gilboa is also Israel and Gath is also “Israel’s Enemy”, everything in between is an oversimplified mishmash of ingredients taken from general Israeli/Mideast politics, and the bottom line is: the Solution to the Conflict is Exchanging Lands For Peace.
It’s not really necessary to elaborate on the extent of the oversimplification, but I will anyway. “Land for peace” makes no distinction between the different Israeli/Arab conflicts, like Gaza and the West Bank and Syria are all the same; like I said, there’s just Israel and Israel’s Enemy, and The Enemy are all blended together, except that in RL, they are entirely different situations, and the negotiations and the solutions and what’s at stake are different as well. No reason is given for the Gilboa/Gath war. We don’t know what their issues with one another are. We don’t know how Gilboa came to own(/occupy?) the land north of the River Prosperity. We don’t know the extent of the armed conflict. And despite the slogans Ethan Shepherd starts throwing around once he discovers the land is being given away, he and his supporters are not like Israeli settlers.
So the show’s general solution of “land for peace” is given in what is basically a historic/political void, and yet also noticeably connected to the Israeli/whoever conflict. And in the end, what we get is an enormous oversimplification of Israeli politics, which is a little annoying in itself, and my concern is - and pardon me for having little faith in the average viewer - but my concern is that people will see this and accidentally think they understand what is going on.
The facts that many viewers apparently don’t even recognize the parallels to Israeli politics - or that let’s face it, the show’s ratings mean that not many people watch this show at all - do very little to ease this concern. And people might be smarter than I give them credit for, but, well, we know people.
I don’t think there’s actually a right way to showcase Israeli politics in a fictional show to non-local audiences. Nor do I think American TV has any need to concern itself with it at all. But if they are, well, I’m sure there’s a way to do it better. Or to avoid the issue altogether.
All that said and done - I actually do support, in theory, the idea of land for peace - setting aside the fact that I can’t even call it “land for peace” these days because it’s more complicated than that. But anyway, having this idea that I support come from the show in this way kind of pisses me off. Which sucks. And considering the idea is left wing bleeding heart anyway, I would rather have had it come from Jack with a large dose of bitter pessimism than from David’s doe-eyed fresh-faces ugh-ness.
ALL THAT SAID AND DONE, these are the things I actually thought to myself during the episode:
PRETTY CORNFIELD IS PRETTY. Lol, it looks just like the wheat field we saw on the Gilboa -- except whoa, the wheat only reached our knees. Corn is apparently taller.
Silas on all the TV channels reminds me of the Liberman parody: “Which reminds me on the subject of television. This is your new remote. It has one button and a variety of station. You are welcome to enjoy Channel Liberman. The other channels have all been transferred to the History Channel.”
Ahem, anyway.
Disengagement. Just, wtfwow. David’s family are insufferable - I really really want to love his brothers and his mom, but seriously, ugh. Maybe it’s just knowing how the ep’s going to end that’s turning me against them.
OH HEY MAP OF GATH. This reminds me of something, let me think, OH WAIT:
The map on the right has Israel to the south and Lebanon to the north, and the ‘security zone’, ie the strip of Lebanon the Israeli army occupied between 1982 and 2000, in between. Of course, there are plenty of countries lying just east of an ocean in the world. But.
“They feel betrayed” -- yes. “I see both sides”/”Both sides are neither”. True, and true. UGH, I WANT TO FEEL SO MUCH FOR DAVID HERE. I see both sides too! I hate choosing sides! And yet somehow either the actor or the writing are just alienating the hell out of this character for me. If only he didn’t act like such a dufus.
I like Silas at breakfast. My sister said she loves his hair - that it’s just like Derek Shepherd’s, which, lol, she has a point.
Jack and Michelle eating breakfast - there should be more Jack and Michelle ALL THE TIME, period. Royal siblings yay. I think they’re gonna be my big gen subjects in this fandom. “Trying to change his mind? You’d have an easier time asking the rain to stop.” I don’t even know about the symbolism anymore, I’ll just point out that Biblical David asks the rain to stop on the Gilboa after Saul and Jonathan die, and on with the ep.
The paper has a photo of Silas’s burning image, which is creepy considering the next step is Rabin Silas in a kafiyye Gath uniform. Next to it, we see a protestor lifting a sign that says: “SILAS = TYRANT”. O RLY. Ya think?
Jack and William - yeah, okay, whatever. I don’t know, Jack, I’m too tired to figure you out.
Katrina Ghent - no idea who and what, but I spent the whole episode trying to figure out why she looked like such a Batman villain, until thedeadparrot told me she was from Iron Man.
“They’re talking about a resettlement package for everyone” - I would LOVE to see how this one goes over. It’s a great idea in theory - or, you know passable - and a lot harder to implement in reality.
The orangish flag certainly fits the anti-disengagement protestors. It is getting disturbingly violent there, and reminding me of the settlers/police riots at Amona two - wow, three - years ago.
Okay, hey does Rose know or not know about Helen? I was sure she knew last episode, and now, with the way that scene was acted, I’m suddenly not. Please let her know.
Oh, ew ew ew, Samuels has a church. Okay, let us investigate: wooden benches, fine, that could go either way. Candles and altar - overwhelmingly Christian, sigh.
Ephram - I’m pretty sure that’s the first time we’ve heard the Rev’s name? In any case, Biblical Samuel was from the tribe of Ephraim, so yay, canon-ish!
Okay, so I am by no means an expert on religious (or any kind of) architecture, but I was able to recognize possibly Jewish elements in Samuels’ little church. First, I’ll assume that big chair to the left of the benches isn’t the King’s throne, but just a very, um, fancy and elaborate Elijah’s chair.
The bigger thing, though, is that we don’t see any statues or images behind the altar - just a curtain. And a curtain means it could very well be a Parochet, the curtain that covers the most important part of a synagogue, the Torah Ark. So hey, yay for that.
Okay, fishing scenes = so, so pretty. The lighting is beautiful, and Ian McShane is awesome. I love Silas’s animal imagery - basically, the man cannot get through one line of dialogue without mentioning a lion, a fish, a cat, a walrus, et cetera.
“We want our God-given land back, and we want the freedom to live on it.” UGH DIE ETHAN DIE.
Okay, I really like the Thomasina scene. Her language is a little archaic, but in this show, it can work. It’s a little weird, because she’s talking about these changes Silas has gone through, which I haven’t really had a chance to notice - she says he’s grown “mean”, but I haven’t really seen a change between the Silas of the pilot and the Silas of this episode.
Michelle going in - on the one hand, yes, it’s stupid. On the other, it’s a risk, and she knows it’s a risk, in the same way David took a risk in the pilot episode. Grand gestures are risks. It’s the thin red line between brave and stupid.
Michelle: “…to show them that someone cares.” David: “I care!” So does my grandma, David, but nobody gives a fuck! I’m pretty sure I know which side of the line he stands on.
Okay, I kind of like her. If she got, like, speech therapy, I would probably like her more - there’s something about her voice and her accent that grates. Although I might get used to it? I used to hate Kristen Chenoweth’s voice, and I love her now.
I love the fact that Michelle knows that if she speaks for her father, he’ll have to honor it. I’m pretty sure that’s something he instilled in her - probably more than in Jack. It’s pretty cool.
Aw, Silas is worried! Yay.
And Jack is too! Deep inside, at least. Okay, the most fucked up thing in the Benjamin family dynamics right now is that when Jack sees his sister march into the room with the rioting rebels unprotected, he does not try to find out what is going on by something absurd like calling his mother or father or god forbid, Thomasina or any of the ten thousand advisors his father has, he just assumes she was sent there by his father. It’s just sad.
…And Ghent walks in, and it is apparently Jack’s destiny to be humiliatingly shot down in every single episode of this show. HEART, WOE.
Ugh, Cross. Go away. I love that they’re having their clandestine meeting in this out of the way warehouse, and they still brought along a serving boy to serve them their tea.
Samuels is looking at the smoke blowing out of the chimney - any idea what that means? (Sister said: “Oh look, they chose a new Pope.”)
OMG CHIPPED. Silas chipped his children. That is just wrong.
Aw, he’s giving David two minutes! I am beginning to think he actually does like him! That’s kind of awesome.
Wow, Ethan really sounds like a true believer. “God will know” (if we surrender). I continue to dislike him hugely.
I love Silas for ordering to fire when he did, OMG. Ethan doesn’t know it and probably never will, but the only reason he’s alive is that Silas likes David.
Okay, wow, I have no idea what the raid on the meeting at the warehouse meant. I think I missed some stuff -- why did it happen at the exact same time as shooting at the rebels? Who ordered it? What does Silas know?
Aw, the Court Physician is examining Michelle :-( I sadface because I kind of had the idea that the Court Physician was House and that he and Silas love snarking at one another and that House becomes almost physically ill after meeting David for the first time, but then he hears him play the piano and sits next to him and they start to jam. And then over time he teaches David the blues, and kind of gives him lessons in cool. And in misery. It can only do David some good.
Yay Thomasina promotion! Although I dislike the idea that in ten years, she’s never been this open with him. Those might have been ten quiet years.
Jack/Silas confrontation on the stairs - so basically, every scene those two have together is explosively awesome, both in acting and in content. “You should be careful in accepting gifts from your uncle - they’re never actually gifts.” Silas is actually giving Jack good advice! And aw, he offered Jack the Ministry position, and just. Silas encouraging Jack to fly and cutting off his wings every time; my heart. (Also, this is pretty cool to watch after reading Sabrina_il’s Jack backstory fic, which says a lot about Jack and his relationship with Silas, and ANY DAY NOW I will stop pimping fics I was involved in, I swear. Just, they’re all so damn good.)
David: “I have no idea where they took him. There’s no record of Ethan in any of the jails. It’s like they made him disappear.” Michelle: “I didn’t know they did that. I’m so sorry.”
LOL, what a below-adequate response. David’s basically like, “Your dad is Stalin.” Michelle: “I didn’t know he did that kind of thing. I’m sorry.” Also David's brother is totally in Gilboa Prison. We've seen it, it's there.
Michelle, DO NOT APOLOGIZE for being as stupid and brave as David was in the pilot! David: “You have no place.” Oh, David, you’re such a charmer. o_o
Okay, I love Silas with the end reveal. And I love him releasing Ethan into David’s custody. And ah, okay, Silas knew the meeting with William was taking place, cool, I get it now. I love that Abner asks whether evidence should be manufactured. I am a little disappointed by Abner’s betrayal, just because I never liked Abner in the Bible and was surprised by the fact that I liked him on the show, and hoped to keep it that way. Ah, well.
Aw, Ma Shepherd’s Headshake of Disapproval. I think I know what this calls for, and that thing is fic. miarr, I am looking at you with all the expectation and guilt my Polish genes can muster up. You know what to do.
In conclusion: wow, so that took me four days to wrap my head around. Oh, show. Do not leave us yet.