#( malcolm ramsey. )

[shesthespinstersimmer]

Wedding Season (1)

Dirk & Vanessa / Harper & Malcolm

Previous / Next / Beginning

[forensicated]

05x02 - A Reflection Of Glory

TW: Homophobia in terms of the late 80's.

Pete is back in uniform and is partnered with Malcolm. He's not impressed to be stuck in the middle of a busy market. Malcolm answers a call for a shoplifter so Pete reverses and takes an 'unofficial short cut'.

Jim and Ted smirk as Mike arrives in a new and expensive three piece suit that he'd chosen because he was supposed to be appearing in court. Ted wolf whistles at him. "Look at that, straight out of a shop window!" Mike rolls his eyes and they laugh, "It's very becoming, Michael!" The court case that Mike was due to attend has been put back to wait for psychiatric reports so Frank places him with Ted. "By the way...?" "Yeah?" "...Nothing..." Frank closes the door, shaking his head at Mike's suit. Jim and Ted can't help but laugh.

Pete is further annoyed to walk through a pile of dog dirt as they approach the wine merchants who called in a shop lifter. Mr Malek leads them into the back of his store to an elderly lady he suspects of stealing a bottle of brandy and 200 cigarettes. She claims she did not steal anything and that she is innocent.

Malcolm goes to speak to the mans daughter at the till but finds the shop being robbed by two armed men. He darts behind a display. He's about to call it in as Pete appears. "RAMSEY, DOWN!" Malcolm shouts, dragging him down in time to stop him being shot.

The robbers dive into the back of their getaway car. They get away too quickly for Malcolm to catch them or get the registration. Pete arranges an ambulance and he and Malcolm have a moment.

[Just noticed I've spelt Malcolm's surname the Harry Haines way - pls ignore that!]

Malcolm calls in the armed robbery and Frank reckons it could be linked to two armed robberies on post offices. Frank tells Ted he wants them off the street before they kill someone and sends Ted and Mike to the wine merchants.

June and Ken are patrolling when they're stopped by a man who begs them to come help his friend who has locked himself in the toilets of a gay club and is threatening to kill himself. The owner, Mr Spiro, initially stops them gaining entry and claims the man is highly strung 'you know what these people are like'. June tells him to stand aside or she'll call backup and report to her bosses that Mr Spiro is refusing to allow them access. Spiro steps aside. The club patrons fall silent at the sight of the police beforeJune is dragged towards the toilets. She asks Ken to break the doorway down and they find a man sat on the floor with a knife pointed at his face. June tells him he's under arrest for having an offensive weapon.

Jim's snout, Leroy, is reluctant to help out. He's a taxi driver and after some pressure he suggests a flat on the Drummond Estate - possibly 35 or 36 - as he spotted the men he dropped off had a gun in the back of his car.

Malcolm tells Ted and Mike that the robbers got away with about £600 from the till and they had at least two guns with them. Mike laments the loss of the wine. Ted allows the owner to clear up the broken glass with Malcolm but tells him not to touch anything. Behind the counter Ted finds the bullet cartridge. Pete and Malcolm watch as they go off to the address Jim called in.

Mike and Ted join Jim who has been observing the suspects flat(s). They edge through a crowded alley to hide behind a car.

Christine asks Malcolm and Pete where their shoplifter is. Pete smirks and claims "Haynes must have let her slip away in the confusion."

June stands with her face in her hand as the man from the club toilets is charged with posession of an offensive weapon. The man who originally asked them to help is obviously regetting it. "I didn't know this was going to happen, I thought you were going to help him! He's not a criminal you know!" The man grabs Alec and shouts that 'he can't do nuffin to him!' Alec drops the knife in the struggle and with the threat level, Ken has no choice but to strike the man with his baton to get him back under control. The 'friend' reaches for the knife and June stands on his hand. "Don't make things worse!"

Jim, Mike and Ted watch the flats and spot a suspect leaving one. (I don't know why this screenshot amuses me so much but it really does! It's like the holy trinity.) He tells Jim to stick close to the suspect but to let him lead them to his friends, warning him to be careful. He and Mike will follow in the car.

Jim follows him through the cemetery and Mike and Ted work out that he's heading to the canal so they head through a short cut. Unfortunately the suspect he looks back and realises Jim is following him. Thankfully Ted and Mike spot him in time and speed over to help with Mike's suit getting ruined in the process.

The suspect shouts at his accomplices to wait for him as he struggles to climb the wall. He can't quite reach so uses a canal boat to clambour over to the other side. The suspect drops his bag into the water by accident as he runs but doesn't have time to fish it out. Mike uses the bridge to 'monkey bar' to the other side but ends up falling in a small amount of the water.

Jim manages to catch the suspect and tells Mike that the bag is in the water as he struggles to arrest the man.

The mans accomplices speed off, a novelty horn blast playing as they do. Ted calls it in for uniform to try track the car down.

June tells Pete and Malcolm what happened in the charge room and they snigger about Ken having to hit the man with his truncheon. "You know what they say..." Malcolm muses. "The meek shall inherit." June comes face to face with the man's friend as she returns to custody. She clearly feels bad that it's gotten this far.

Frank tells Pete and Malcolm that Ted is bringing in a suspect of the armed robbery and asks if either of them got a good look at the suspects. Pete says he did and is confident he can identify them. Neither of them saw the driver so can't identify him.

The suspect is forced inside - racially abusing Malcolm in the process. Jim is sent to get Frank as Mike brings in the man's bag. He protests his cuffs are too tight and demands a brief. "I know my rights!" Pete enters the room and tells Frank that he's one of the men who commited the armed robbery that morning. The man falls silent, refusing to speak. Frank opens the mans bag - inside is the shotgun and numerous other weapons. The suspect claims Mike fished the bag out the canal and he's never seen it before in his life. Frank tells him the bag and its contents will be sent to forensics to be dusted for prints before his address is searched with a fine toothcomb before he is charged with attempted murder of two police officers as well as the armed robbery.

The car is spotted by Malcolm at a Texaco garage and he calls it in as he follows. It almost runs people over as it charges through a market. Just in time Malcolm remembers Pete's short cut and speeds through an estate just in time to find the car. In panic, the car crashes into a milk cart. Malcolm runs at the car and grabs a gun from the hand of one and picks up another gun that had fallen out of the car in the crash after cuffing both men together whilst they moan in pain. "You and your mate are nicked." he growls, calling into a visibly relieved Tom that he's apprehended the suspects without any real drama and requests a van to bring them back to the station.

A crowd has gathered to watch what happened and adorable little kid watches Malcolm. "Need any help, Mister?" Malcolm chuckles a little and ruffles the boys hair, telling him it's alright, he's got it under control.

[arrow-v-flash-polls]

Which male character of Arrow season 3 was your favourite?

[augustusaugustus]

4.15 Trespasses

MARTELLA: Never mind the mother—what about the baby? Pete’s been wetting himself all the time we’ve been out.

Pete’s save-the-cat episode is actually a save-the-baby episode. Also Claire Brind’s first ep.

[dracox-serdriel]

Wolf Pack

Warning: This post contains spoilers for all episodes of season 1 of Wolf Pack.

To skip this post without scrolling, strikethe "J" key on your keyboard!

So, after I finished watching 01x08 "Trophic Cascade", I keep reading articles and posts that claim that the arsonist was "revealed" in the episode. I saw so may articles claiming this that I rewatched it thinking I seriously missed something, but, no, I did not.

The arsonist was not revealed in the episode!

Never once did Ramsey admit to or imply that she started the fire. There was no flashblack showing that she started the fire. All that happened in this episode was that Malcolm - a character who we know can't be taken at his word - says that Ramsey did it.

That's it. One extremely suspect dude uttering an accusation. And who did he say it to? The wounded child he had just kidnapped from the hospital. A child he has plenty of reason to lie to - hell, anything he could do to drive a wedge here would be a win for him.

Yet... everybody is acting like Ramsey "revealed" to be the arsonist. Why? There was not a single element of this episode or the overall story that implicates her as the arsonist in any way.

Apparently, the plot being implied here goes like this:

Ramsey's husband (and possibly older son) are killed by the Hot Shot crew seventeen years ago during a horrible fire raging through the woods. Ramsey lashes out in revenge, killing all but Malcolm, who only survives because he flees. Because she was busy slaughtering people (and possibly also because her oldest son was killed), her baby twins were left alone in the woods. While the woods were on fire. Ok. And she kept leaving them there even afterward? And then Garrett found them.

Despite being a literal werewolf whose offspring (who are for sure in her pack) have supersenses, Ramsey fails to find her twin babies. Possibly because she fails to look? But there's no explainantion for this -- whether she assumed they were dead or simply couldn't use super-senses to find them -- we don't know. But apparently, she doesn't find the twins. For 17 years. Even though as an arson investigator she could've found them by pretty human means ('oh hey look a dude adopted two babies he found during that same fire I lost two babies in')

Ramsey's other son Baron is raised by her. I mean, if he is older than Harlan and Luna, it's not by much, and I have a sneaking suspicion that he's actually younger. But whatever the case is, he was clearly raised as a werewolf -- that is, he was both a wolf and a human -- he hasn't been living as a wolf in the woods for 17 years. (If he had, how would he speak English and so on?)

At some point during his teenage years, Ramsey and Baron become estranged to the point of where Baron runs off.

Again, Ramsey - despite being a literal werewolf - cannot find her missing son. Even though 100% of evidence clearly shows they are in the same pack (as Ramsey supposed "marks" both werewolf and human alike to protect them from Beast-Mode Were Baron -- essentially, claims them into the pack).

We're supposed to believe that Ramsey couldn't find Baron, so, naturally, she LIT THE FOREST AROUND HIM ON FIRE just to find him. She's also an arson investigator, so she would know full well that the two ignition points would all but ensure Baron would be lit on fire himself, turning him into BEAST MODE WERE -- which, incidentally, he can't be transformed back from WITHOUT a pack (presumably of more than two people).

None of that makes sense, particularly the idea that she started a fire to "smoke out" Baron before she secured an actual pack to save him from Beast Mode. Even if she was a horrible person/mother, the extreme danger of exposure with a Beast Mode Were on the loose would be more than enough reason for her to find literally any other way to locate Baron. INCLUDING HUMAN WAYS. Geeze.

Malcolm is a far better suspect. He has plenty of reason to hate werewolves. His son is near enough to adulthood for him to enact a plan of vengeancew... yes, it might lead to his own death, but his kid is old enough (at least in theory, this explains why he waited 17 years).

All that being said, I'm not sure it's actually Malcolm. The story (and even the filming/camera angles) all seem to indicate that the arsonist is actually Garrett.

In the first episode, Garrett makes a recording for Luna and Harlan when he believes he might not survive the fire. He tells Luna that things are going to change. He assures her that she's going to find her pack - something she's been desperately looking for. Seems a weird thing to impart as last words when you're assuming your kid will never see you alive again, doesn't it?

In a later episode, we then hear this ENTIRE recording played again, which is a very unusual move on part of the writers here if the recording was what it seemed to be on the surface in the first episode -- that is, a farewell/I love you message from a father to his kids. Why bother playing it again? There wasn't more recorded message to listen to... so the only real reason is that there's more than the surface-level meaning. In this way, playing that whole message again plays very strongly as an admission of guilt. Fold in the fact that the twins only get the recorder because Ramsey slips it to them covertly (rather than putting that recording into evidence where it really should be)... at the very least, that makes it wildly clear to me that Ramsey 100% suspects Garrett of starting the fire.

I'm not saying he is the arsonist - just that the story is making him out to be the obvious suspect. Why? Possibly to "smoke out" the werewolf his son saw many years ago in the woods, possibly even hoping that there was a whole pack hiding in that national forest.

As far as we know, Garrett doesn't know that Beast Mode Were is activated by fire. (I very much doubt that Malcolm said anything about it to him, and Malcolm is the only living person who could've said anything.) So, it's not such an insane idea that Garrett lit the forest on fire hoping to fid more werewolves. He maybe even made sure the fire was just as bad at it was seventeen years ago because, well, there are fires every year... but nary a werewolf has been seen since that fire seventeen years ago.

Why would Garrett wait seventeen years to do this? We haven't been given direct insight on this...that being said, the best bet is that he did it now because he only recently got some very bad news about his health---he's dying of something. And he's looked for - and failed to find - werewolves for the past 17 years. In short, he's desperate to find more werewolves to help his kids. I doubt he entrusted his werewolf search to his "backup plan" aka the other ranger who knows.

Malcolm is still a better suspect (revenge is always a good motive). But both Garrett and Malcom make 1000x more sense as the arsonist than Ramsey.

[galen-the-technomage]

[roysexton]

“Thoughtful, strategic adoption of AI rather than chasing trends.” The Professionals: Inside Professional Services Marketing magazine covers launch of BD Ladder’s book “The Impact of AI on Business Development & Marketing in Professional Services” (with contribution from yours truly) #lmamkt #lma24 #AI

Thank you, The Professionals: Inside Professional Services Marketing magazine, for this feature and shout out. EXCERPT: “AI is certainly not a new phenomenon, and many firms and individuals within professional services firms are experimenting and even using it to save time. However, for many firms, its full potential to deliver and enhance their business development and marketing efforts has so…

[ropermike]

Oliver and Diggle are captured by Ra's al Ghul on a mission to save Malcolm.

[shesthespinstersimmer]

Winter Break (2)

Previous / Next / Beginning

[forensicated]

05x05 - The Chain Of Command

TW: Domestic Violence in terms of the late 80's.

June teases Pete when she finds him eating again (and he litters, dropping a wrapper on the floor!) Pete claims he's a growing boy. They pass a group of drunks with an old lady laughing and slumping on the ground. "Oi oi, Inspector Frazer!" Pete laughs with June. He crouches beside the drunk, recognising her as Dolly. She tries to bottle him in return! June calls up the van to take her in to sober up. Pete can't see the point but June suggests she could bottle someone else.

Mrs Lavery (played by Stella Gonet) enters the front office to report being assaulted. Yorkie tells her he'll get the doctor to see her and assumes from her words that it's her husband who attacked her. A very grumpy (and posh) Mr Trevelyan keeps trying to get Yorkie's attention, telling him he has an appointment to see Mr Conway. Yorkie is busy with Mrs Lavery so asks him to wait.

Yorkie asks Viv to look after the woman he suspects of being beaten by her husband. Tom agrees to let her go as long as Yorkie tracks Taffy down to get him to drive the van to where Pete and June are. "If you can find Taffy, mate, you deserve a medal..." Malcolm mutters.

Tom - who already is known to Bob at least as having beaten his wife, Wendy, claims that domestics are not their job and that they never used to get involved. He claims if some baby-faced plonk came to interfere in his marriage he'd show them the door. "As long as your wife would say the same thing..." Malcolm muses. Tom asks what he's insinuating and Malcolm interrupts by finding what he'd been looking for on an FM radio - Radio Sun Hill, a pirate station - that had changed frequency to avoid being caught by the police.

Yorkie finds Taffy - he's apparently been spending most of his shift in the toilet after a vindaloo at a place Yorkie warned him to avoid. He's well enough to go to the shout though.

Derek drives past June and Pete who are still waiting for Taffy. He has to make an emergency stop as a drunk wanders out in front of him. He tells the officers that people 'shouldn't be living like this these days, not with Social Security and the NHS' and orders them to move because he's running late. "Give it a rest..." Pete sighs as he drives off.

Mr Trevelyan moans about being kept waiting by Derek. Yorkie arranges for Bob to come and have a word to 'keep him happy'. It doesn't work and he mutters about not knowing what it is about 'you people'.

Tom tells Malcolm to turn Radio Sun Hill down but he tells him he's using it as a snout as it runs all the local gossip. Tom thought Pirate Radio went out with Sgt Pepper. Malcolm is lost. "Is that a mate of yours, Sarge?" "No!!! Sgt Pepper!" "I've never met him...!" Tom walks off calling him ignorant.

Derek finally arrives at the same time as Taffy is about to leave. They face off and both reverse to allow the other to move but what happens is two Dynarod vans overtake Derek instead! He finally makes it in and is told that Mr Trevelyan is waiting for him. He knows - and tells Bob to do something about the amount of drunks on their patch. He doesn't care what it is he just wants them to move on! He also wants 5 minutes of space before Bob shows Trevelyan up.

Taffy finally arrives with June and Pete and they argue about who is going to get in the back with the drunk. Pete has an ace up his sleeve.

Bob asks them to wait there, they're coming to round up more drunks. Poor June stuck in the back...!

Mrs Lavery tells Viv that Kevin has assaulted her before but it's never been on her face so she's been able to hide it. She tells Viv she's made things worse by coming to speak to them when Viv says they can make arrangements for her so she doesn't have to go home.

Bob surveys the drunks. "Morning Campers. It's time to break up the party, we're going to take you down the nick!" Several are quite obviously happy to make their way into the back of the van for a free meal and somewhere warm. One threatens to 'tear Pete into pieces' and claims he has rabies. "Who's bloody stupid idea is this?" Taffy sighs. "No way to talk about Mr Conway, is it!" Bob retorts.

Trevelyan tells Derek that the Department of Trade And Industry insist that 'this matter' (Radio Sun Hill) is treated as a matter of urgency. Derek points out that the DTI are clearly not aware of how many cases make up a policeman's caseload. They can't pick and choose as every single job is a priority to someone. Trevelyan claims that it is urgent - even more so as he'd had to wait half an hour in the public lobby of the station and he has his job to do too.

"This isn't Westminster." Derek reminds him. "It's the East End. It's the Frontline." "I'm afraid I fail to see how this involves me." Trevelyan frowns, Derek politely tells him to essentially mind his own business and do his own job. Trevelyan says he doesn't see the point in continuing the conversation. By law, there needs to be a police presence to prevent a breach of the peace and he's going in that day. Derek warns him not to lecture him about the law. They will assist but they're undermanned and overstretched. Derek asks him to wait a short while so they can have a proper response. Trevelyan refuses. He wants Radio Sun Hill shut down NOW.

Alec is not impressed to see his new 'visitors', especially as half the cells are unusable because of the drains. He has to double up the cell residents and try not to vomit as the vagrants are searched.

Ted is asked to help the DTI. Ted also doesn't think it's urgent enough to go in the same day and that it doesn't require the presence of a CID Sgt. He, like Malcolm, has been gleaning information from Radio Sun Hill, in fact, they recently netted a rather large result from what started as a whisper on the station. Trevelyan refuses to listen.

Mrs Lavery wants to forget everything she told Viv. Viv encourages her to finish her statement but Lavery insists it's a waste of time and she doesn't want to put them to bother. Viv says she's bet she's come to report it before but hasn't been able to walk into the station. Mrs Lavery admits that she's right and Viv tells her hundreds of women wish they could do the same. Mrs Lavery tries to walk out but Viv practically frogmarches her to see the force doctor.

Viv finds Bob in the collater's room looking through the drawers. Viv thinks they should take the decision out of the woman's hands and charge the husband themselves as it's not the first time he's hurt her and he sounds like he has a real temper. Bob doesn't think she will see it through to conviction and claims that for some women it's a way of life like bingo and a roast dinner. Viv is irritated but he points out that she has to make up her own mind to leave him and keep to that decision. Viv agrees she wouldn't.

Mike and Jim enter CAD and moan about the volume Malcolm is playing Radio Sun Hill at. They also moan at hearing that Taffy and Ted have already set off with the DTI bloke ahead of them.

Mrs Lavery has finished with the doctor and says she's going home because her husband will be expecting his dinner. Viv tells her that she's phoned a women's refuge and they've got space for her and she'd be safe. She tells her not to go home either way even if she doesn't go to the refuge. Viv says that, even if she hasn't signed her statement, they can still charge her husband and probably will. She's shocked when Mrs Lavery corrects her. It's not her husband who assaulted her, it's her lover. She's only scared to go home because her husband will see her black eye and cuts and want to know what happened.

Alec has to hit the panic alarm when one of the groups of drunks in the cells start fighting. The officers pile in and separate them. One tries to make his escape and is stopped by Bob physically pinning him down as he goes to help in Custody. He clearly recognises him. "Hello, Bob."

Mrs Lavery refuses to name her boyfriend and walks out, saying she's got an idea what to say to her husband now. "Thanks for the tea!" "Bye-bye Handsome...." she coos to Yorkie as he leaves.

Bob sits down with his 'old friend' in an interview room. He'd realised that Bob had clocked him when they were being brought in. Bob works out that he's an undercover officer from the army. "You're like the Masons you lot... alright, one phone call." Bob discovers that the IRA are rounding up homeless drunks with no connections or known history to drive cars to be outside barracks or department stores where they'll later be replaced with car bombs.

Malcolm explains to Tom how Radio Sun Hill helped with recent cases but admits it's all done via code. Tom sees it from another direction - he reckons it's incitement to riot against the police and is worth 18 months inside for those who set it up. They're interrupted by the sound of banging coming from the radio and the station host relaying that the station is being raided by the "Babylons."

The officers make their way inside and find the equipment but crucially there are no people and no transmitter. The suspects are on the opposite roof and are making a break for it. One is played by future Rob Thatcher - Brian Bovell. They make a run for it and Mike and Jim just shrug at each other and go back inside.

Derek rings down to Custody and asks how much room they have left. Alec explains that they're full and have no space left. "On second thoughts I don't see the point in holding onto the tramps. The best thing you can do is kick them out and make sure they don't come back. Alec can hardly believe it given that they're only there because of Derek in the first place. He shouts through to Ken to open up the cells and kick them out. Ken is completely confused but Alec tells him that someone upstairs is playing silly buggers and to let them out before they change their minds again.

Mike and Jim tell the DTI man that the suspects got away as they were on the roof of the next building. Trevelyan is absolutely furious. "You had the building surrounded!" "...There's only two of us!" Mike points out. Ted is amused and points out that he didn't listen and wait until more officers were available to help. Trevelyan is furious - they got away with the transmitter and will set it up again somewhere else. He doesn't see how he caused his own misery (!)

Derek invites Bob upstairs to speak to a Major from the Ministry Of Defence. The major is grateful that Bob didn't let on to anyone other than Derek that he recognised his old friend and thinks that incidents like that add authenticity to cover. He reminds him that 'this never happened'.

Mrs Lavery is dragged in by her angry husband who accuses Yorkie of assaulting her when she came in to report their dog missing. He drags him half across the desk and Yorkie manages to press the panic alarm. Officers hurry through to help him from all rooms! 

[arrow-v-flash-polls]

Overall who is your favourite male character from season 1 of Arrow?

[dazeofcoral]

Just watched Wolf Pack again, I've got even more questions and theories after 7 episodes. We still don't know what happened to Connor, he wasn't in the pile of bodies. So where is he, dead or alive ? Turned or not ? Did Ramsey save him, 'cause then I'm betting the poor kid is locked up somewhere safe.

Am I the only one thinking maybe Ramsey set the fire? I mean she's there as a chief arson investigator, they only needed one if there was a fire and we know she's also there for the werewolf. Coincidence? 'Cause it would make sense she'd help Everett and Blake surviving, they are the perfect guarantee that the werewolf is going to keep showing up. Ramsey is the mom... But how can she have fought with her son if Baron is the same age as the twins and she lost him 17 years ago ? Or maybe he's much older and they're wrong about his age... Do the wolves not age as long as they don't go to a human/monster werewolf form ?

Also, pretty sure she saved Danny from becoming the next kill because he hit Blake and the werewolf would have seen this as a threat. Does this mean she can control her werewolf form?

That amazing scene in the woods with those poor guys running for their lives... But if they killed dad, why would the mom just go after them and not stay with her pups ? I mean kids surrounded by fire > revenge or you're just not a good mom sorry XD

(also, one of they guys is still alive, if you go for revenge go all the way you know what I mean... but since she's putting up everyone to believe there's a sort of serial killer running around, maybe Malcolm will get what's coming for him)

Don't think she wants to kill Garrett, but then again if he becomes a threat I don't think she's going to show him mercy either. If she's the twins mom killing him would be a bad idea but well, can't trust a beast when it gets angry.

Everett is so linked with Baron.. And Blake, it's weird that he doesn't have this powerfull bond with the twins... But then again, they weren't bitten by Baron.

He's not just standing up to his horrible mother out of nowhere, that's the wolf peaking through and not liking the treatment, go wolf go 'cause that woman is a nasty piece of work and the ep 8 promo has told us enough about what her reaction is gonna be to him standing up to her.

Austin, well, if he makes it through the finale it's gonna be nothing but a miracle, because if he really killed Baron (still not sure that's enough to even kill a werewolf btw), then I'm pretty sure Ramsey will be coming for his head... Fine by me, sorry Austin #notsorryatall. And did I see Cyrus in the finale promo ? Talking with Baron ??? Need that boy back because I can't believe they just threw him in the plot to be the potential BF and arson suspect. Who calls a group of friends a 'pack', seriously ? And even if he never believed Malcolm, how can he not start to believe him after seeing an actual werewolf ? I sure would.

So many questions, one week for a few answers and they better answer them all because so far no season 2 was confirmed yet TT

[thelastokiro]

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire

I haven’t been able to watch this yet, but everything I learned about it, from it having Peter Ramsey as it’s executive producer, to it being a series of 10 short films put together by 6 African nations into an anthology series, has made it something I REALLLY wanna experience

The final 10 films are chosen from Ahmed Teilab (Egypt), Simangaliso ‘Panda’ Sibaya and Malcolm Wope (South Africa), Terence Maluleke and Isaac Mogajane (South Africa), Ng’endo Mukii (Kenya), Shofela Coker (Nigeria), Nthato Mokgata and Terence Neale (South Africa), Pious Nyenyewa and Tafadzwa Hove (Zimbabwe), Tshepo Moche (South Africa), Raymond Malinga (Uganda) and Lesego Vorster (South Africa).

Honestly, I’m the most excited to see the story from Kenya because that’s where my mother and her family are from. 

I’ll report back after watching it hopefully today or tomorrow. I’ll make sure to write something up for it here, on twitter, and if I’m lucky enough write a video on it for youtube. 

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

“A Little Life” is ending.

That’s the question that has dominated this summer, after you watch Alcaraz beat Djokovic (a surprising number one) Luke Thompson as Willem and James Norton as Jude in ”A Little Life.” A non stop audiences walking to the West End’s hottest ticket 🎟️ it runs until August 5.

Hanya Yanagihara’s book, as conceived for the stage by Ivo van Hove and starring a lot of James Norton. The first is the emotionally hardcore, for whom nearly four hours of self-cutting and rape scenes is a feat to be endured. James Norton’s a star

Nathalie Armin as the social worker Ana and James Norton as Jude, the lawyer at the heart of Hanya Yanagihara’s novel. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

Zubin Varla (as Harold) and Elliot Cowan (as Brother Luke) with Norton and Armin. The book is an exploration of trauma, survival and love as Jude suffers the lifelong impact of child abuse. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

The book has been adapted by Yanagihara with director Ivo van Hove and Koen Tachelet. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

Zach Wyatt (Malcolm) and Luke Thompson (Willem) with Norton. The show has a set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld and costume design by An D’Huys. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

Luke Thompson (Willem), James Norton (Jude), Zubin Varla (Harold), Emilio Doorgasingh (Andy), Zach Wyatt (Malcolm) and Omari Douglas (JB). Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

The production has an epic running time (3 hours, 40 minutes) to match the length of the novel. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

This is the first English-language production of the novel. Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

At last year’s Edinburgh international festival, van Hove directed a version of the play in Dutch with his International Theater Amsterdam ensemble. The cast included Ramsey Nasr and Steven van Watermeulen. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

#ALittleLife #WestEnd #JamesNorton #Jude #LukeThompson #Willem #theatre #London #HanyaYanagihara #IvovanHove

[dracox-serdriel]

Wolf Pack Theories

Here are a few more Wolf Pack theories (spoiler alert for all episodes of season 1).

A big, recurring theme in this series is character assumption being patently false. In a few cases, the character is obfuscating purposely, but most of the assumptions are just that - assumptions.

Examples

Harlan sees a regular-looking wolf in the woods when he's 9 or 10, and upon feeling kinship with it, assumes that the werewolf is his biological father. There's no reason to suspect that this is the case - it could have simply been any other werewolf. Or perhaps Baron o another sibling or even Ramsey.

Everyone assumes the Beast Mode Werewolf is Harlan and Luna's father. For no real reason, either, other than (I suppose) Harlan's assumption that he saw his biological father in the woods before.

After Malcolm tells the teens the story of the hot shot crew, they all assume that the mother was killed by the hot shot crew and the father avenges her death - likely because of Harlan's assumption about seeing his biological father coupled with Malcolm's supiciously dilligent avoidance of gendered pronouns in reference to the wolves, despite him knowing.

We later learn that Ramsey was the avenger, not the father. And that the giant Beast Mode Werewolf was actually Baron, not the father.

So, keeping with this theme, it's likely that other critical assumptions are being made that are also incorrect. I posit the following as likely false assumptions:

Ramsey's husband is/was a werewolf, too.

The werewolf wouldn't let the hot shot crew past because it was protecting it's pack.

The two werewolves in Malcolm's story were mates.

The thing that bothered me most about Malcolm's story is that this was a werewolf. A human in wolf form. Someone who would surely understand that a group of firefighters - well, any humans really - would with absolute certainty fight anything - even a giant wolf - that was cutting off their path to escape a fire because they think their only other option is to be burned alive. It would only make sense for an actual animal (a regular, albeit large, wolf) to behave in the manner described by Malcolm.

A werewolf protecting their pack wouldn't corner a group of heavily armed humans between a wall of fire and itself, not when there were so many better options (like hiding or even just standing). These humans were running for their lives, not hunting.

So, why would a werewolf do this?

Possibility #1: The hot shot crew - or someone on it - precipitated the attack, possibly by shooting to kill even when the wolf was a safe distance. Or, someone one the hot shot crew is a poacher who hunts wolves. Something like that.

Possibility #2: The werewolf was blocking the firefighters from "path to the ridge" - which Malcolm said was the "only way out" - because it was trying to protect them.

I like Possibility #2 better because it dovetails with Ramsey's story about her son dying in a fire. Specifically, dying in a fire with his father. More specifically, while trying to save his father from a fire.

What happens after the fire transforms the wolf into a werewolf? A fifty foot oak tree came crashing down on the werewolf, and "the whole ridge collapsed and everything got swallowed up by the fire."

The werewolf was blocking the firefighters from "the path to the ridge" not long before the entire ridge collapsed from the wildfire. What if the werewolf knew that the ridge was close to collapse and was trying to save the firefighters? That would make a hell of a lot more sense than a werewolf aggressively blocking heavily armed firefighters from taking a path of safety away from the fire to "protect its pack." It also explains why the werewolf let the firefighters riddle it with bullets without directly attacking them. It could've played dead after some of those shots and let the firefighters come closer to take them by surprise. But he doesn't. He keeps getting back up - until, presumably, he can't get up anymore. And as soon as he CAN get back up, he does! Yet in all that time, all the first wolf does is snarl/bare its teeth/look all intimidating like. If these people were actually threatening his pack, why didn't he actually attack them at any point?

But, then, why go in wolf form? Assuming that this is Ramsey's son, who she implies strongly was a teen, his warnings would likely not be taken seriously by the hot shot crew -- I mean, he's a teen. They'd like be fixated on WTF he's doing out here, how did he get out here, what is wrong with him coming here, etc. So going as a giant, nigh-unkillable wolf strangely makes more sense in this scenario.

This also brings us to the assumption that the two werewolves in the hot shot crew demise story are mates. Malcolm specifically refers to the second wolf as "the mate." I can't tell if that was his assumption or if he's purposefully lying. But everyone assumes these two are mates.

But what if they weren't? What if they were mother and son? And what if Ramsey's husband - the one her son died in a fire trying to save - wasn't a werewolf at all? What if he was human?

I mean, Baron is close in age to Luna and Harlan... so he would've either also been a baby (if they were triplets) or maybe a year or so old? It's also possible he wasn't born yet. So it's possible that Ramsey's pack didn't have the power to turn humans into wolves yet, so if she did marry a human, she couldn't just turn him into a wolf. Not until Baron came along, anyway.

So, if these three assumptions are all false, then the story goes like this:

Ramsey's husband was human. It's even possible he didn't know she was a werewolf and that their child was a werewolf (though that doesn't seem likely, just putting it out there).

Ramsey's husband was one of the men on that hot shot crew.

Ramsey's eldest (teen-ish aged) son realizes his father is in peril and goes to help him. Recognizing the warning of a teenage boy would be ignored and time wasted chastizing him for his arrival, he goes in his wolf form, hoping to steer the hot shot crew away from the ridge that's about to fall.

Owing to the fact that Luna and Harlan are found in that national forest during that same fire, it seems reasonable to assume that Ramsey didn't realize her eldest had left to help his father because she was trying to move/protect/watch over her two (or possibly three, if Baron is a triplet) babies.

Ramsey's eldest takes 50-60 bullets, but thanks to the lack of silver and his mother's healing capabilities, he keeps getting back up. Until that bullet to the head knocks him unconscious. Then the hot shot crew drag him to the fire. He transforms, and the unstable ridge collapses when a large oak surrenders to the fire.

Ramsey witnesses some part of what happens to her son - who was only trying to save these people - and she lashes out and takes revenge on them.

I left out the bit about him dying because I'm not sure I buy that he died. The estranged-not-dead son of Ramsey would be in his thirties when Blake and Everette are bitten. Perfect candidate for the anonymous caller. Also, he was shot 50-60 times - including at least once in the head - and lit on fire and didn't die. But a little fall and an oak treee managed to do the job? Seems unlikely. Especially because he was then in full Beast Mode.

(EDIT/NOTE: I am pretty sure someone in the hot shot crew said "it bit me!" in the opening of that flashback... though the sound makes it really hard to tell. So beyond Ramsey's son being not-dead, another good candidate for the anonymous caller would be the bitten hot shot crew member. But that would require another wolf with the power of transmutation...)

Which brings us to Malcolm. It seems weird that he escaped. Ramsey doesn't persue him when he runs... but it seems like a deliberate choice. Not "I'm too tired to kill that last guy." If anything, she should really kill that last guy, because that guy knows about werewolves now and she has children to protect---letting him live was a dangerous choice. And one Ramsey could've rectified as a human. She could've arranged any number of "accidents" or found a way to shoot him... a very human death. So why did she not only let Malcolm escape, but also let him live afterwards?

Maybe Malcolm was her husband. Maybe she couldn't bring herself to kill him back then. That would explain his little taunt about how Ramsey wasn't as strong as she was before, that she'd "been human for too long." That would be a pretty cutting remark, especially if the ability to take full wolf form was the son's power -- you know, the power she lost when he died (or when their pack bond was severed).

Why didn't Ramsey come for her children for seventeen years? Maybe she did know where they were, but if Malcolm was her husband and their father, claiming them from Garrat would give Malcolm the legal opportunity to file for custody to take them away from her to punish her. Or just he opportunity to harm them. So she stayed away until they were old enough to be considered adults to protect them.

This insane fan theory is brought to you by insomnia.