#Horrible Histories 3x07 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

snowbellewells · 4 years ago

Text

Self Promo Sunday: “Kingdom Come”

This is another one of my early Captain Swan one shots, this one written during the hiatus between 3a and 3b. The idea entered my head when I first heard "Demons" by Imagine Dragons, which is where the title and the lyrics included come from. There was also some added inspiration from episode 3x06 "Ariel" and episode 3x07 "Dark Hollow". I don't think there is anything in here that goes against show canon; it's mostly imagined thoughts and missing scenes that go along with what has happened, and some guesses at what we may see when "Once" returns again in March.

As always, I have no claim to the show, the characters, or the song used. They belong to their creators and I'm merely celebrating their genius!

Also available on both AO3 and ff.net

“Kingdom Come”

by: @snowbellewells

He knew that he should have kept his distance. She was shining light in contrast to his dark shadow, and a villainous wretch was the last sort she needed to have dogging her steps. Yet from their first meeting – knife at his throat, fingers fisted in his hair, hard, dangerous eyes hiding tense, nervous fear – he hadn't been able to pull away. He had no choice but to follow her. Call it a compulsion, an addiction, but he was as drunk on her as he had ever been on his chosen rum, and he despaired from the moment she left him chained atop that bloody beanstalk to any time she had left his side since.

The words Cora had hissed at him in warning echoed back to him, "You chose her…and the consequences of that decision…" Whether it was good or bad for either of them didn't seem to matter to his black, barely-beating heart. It was true: he had chosen the Swan girl…

When the days are cold

and the cards all fold

and the saints we see

are all made of gold

When your dreams all fail

and the ones we hail

are the worst of all

and the blood's run stale

It had become even clearer to him after the Echo Caves. When he had bared his soul and the feelings he harbored for her to be met with only silence and Emma's panicked uncertainty, fearless pirate he might be, but Killian Jones knew he should take a step back. The incredible, unparalleled kiss they had shared in the Neverland jungle told him the Savior was as attracted as he, but she was not ready for him. Her sole focus was on her boy – as it should be – but beyond that, she was running scared from anyone else who might try to breach her emotional defenses.

He knew it had been too much, too soon, to unload the truth about feeling that he could love again upon meeting her, and if he had been free to proceed as himself – as Killian Jones wooing a lady properly – he would have never been so clumsily blunt, but instead he was a pirate captain desperate to prove his loyalty and worth, while stuck on Peter Pan's nightmare island. They had needed to get Neal back without further delay and return to seeking Henry, and so he'd had to make clear that he was correct in the way the infernal cave worked. It had not been easy to look into her beautiful, tormented eyes when he had offered his confession, hoping he hadn't driven a wedge which would push her even farther away. It had been even worse to see her run across the bridge formed for her of their painful admissions, right up to Baelfire without giving him a word of comfort, encouragement, or thanks. He felt his shoulders slump in defeat, hurting more than he had imagined, when the cage holding the Crocodile's son vanished at words from Emma which he could not hear, and she fell into the embrace of her first love.

Killian felt her slipping away – if she had ever been within his grasp at all. Bowing his head, he hid the pain in his eyes from Snow White and Prince Charming's curious, searching gazes. Burning fire within him seared away the tentative hope he had foolishly let kindle within. He was nothing but a pirate, as the Prince had reminded him not so long ago. Though he couldn't help wanting to hold her, it was probably for the best…

I wanna hide the truth

I wanna shelter you

But with the beast inside

there's nowhere we can hide

No matter what we breed,

we still are made of greed

This is my kingdom come,

This is my kingdom come

There was no longer any doubt. He was a fool – a sodding, pathetic fool. For him to let a glimmer of belief take root in his chest again was begging for misery, but Killian Jones had felt it growing all the same.

Venturing into the Dark Hollow had been a risky, desperate move at best, but after his face-off with Baelfire and discovering that Emma had not even deemed what had been brewing between them worth mention, self-preservation had not been so high atop his list. He had barely cared what happened to him in their suicide quest to capture Pan's shadow.

Of course, the fiend trying to rip his shadow from his body had jolted things into focus with frightening clarity; especially when he realized that Baelfire was facing the exact same fate, but it was his moniker of 'Hook!' that Emma cried out in horror. That she found the power to magically light their star map shadowcatcher just after her concern for him surfaced was not lost on Killian. No matter how much he cautioned himself not to dwell on it, he couldn't ignore the implications. Emma might not want to admit it, might not be free to show it, but when push came to shove, she cared more for him than she wished to admit.

He had not lied to her when he had promised no deviousness or trickery. If Emma Swan – the Enchanted Forest's lost princess – ever gave him the chance to truly win her heart, he would use no dishonorable means. He understood good form and had once dreamed of being a hero. He might be an orphan and a pirate, not some prince or man of noble blood, and his thirst for revenge had kept him lost in villainy for countless years, but he still had honor, could strive to show it valiantly once again. He knew deep down that she wanted him; what he did not know was if Swan would ever allow herself to acknowledge her desires. He could only vow that he would endeavor to deserve her if she came to him with such a golden opportunity.

Swan needed some joy and lightheartedness in her life. Though she looked fragile, she was hard as steel; she'd had to be for far too long. To him, her beauty was unrivalled, but it was clear that Emma did not see that in herself. He wanted to worship her as she deserved, unfit as he might be to do so. Killian Jones wanted to restore her lad to her, heal the wounds of her past, love her unconditionally, and never leave her side. He trembled to risk pulling her that close; his history proving over and over that anyone he dared to love had suffered a horrible fate. It was better his own heart be crushed than for her to suffer harm by nearness to him. Still, if he fought back the darkness he had sunk into, shouldn't he be allowed to step into the light?

When you feel my heat,

look into my eyes

It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close

It's dark inside

It's where my demons hide

She came to him at the helm of his ship once Henry was truly safe and resting peacefully with Regina watching over him. There had been a scare when Pan had tried to take Henry from them once again, but it appeared Rumplestiltskin's strength had indeed been greater than the ageless boy's, and their antagonist was now trapped safely in Pandora's Box. Sighing as she came to a stop just beyond arm's reach from him and leaned against the Jolly's hull, Emma didn't know if weariness or relief was winning within her at present. She was not sure that seeking out Hook when her emotions were such a mess was a good idea, but it was a need all the same. She was drawn to him like a magnet – impelled to speak to him, to thank him for helping them to get this far…to make sure that he was alright.

Emma knew he had been left hanging, knew he wanted more. What she didn't know was what she had to give. It had nothing to do with still doubting his motives or that he was a pirate; Hook had long since proven himself in her eyes. She simply wasn't sure her heart could let any man in the way he would want and deserve. She found it didn't matter though: she still ached to be near the Captain. He calmed her, despite the turmoil she had been in ever since this voyage started, and his constant support at her back, whatever the situation or whatever her decisions, had given her strength. She wanted to tell him so; if nothing else, he ought to know what it meant to have had him in her corner and that she would not soon forget it.

"Hook…" she began, then shook her head to cut herself off, knowing that wasn't right. Her corrected word came out breathy and more ragged than she had intended, "….Killian…"

He turned to face her when she spoke his name, though he had already known she was there. Just then, she could see everything he was feeling in those ocean blue eyes. Though their decadent depths often smirked, prodded, threatened, or demanded as the situation called for, at that moment they were raw, reflecting mirrors letting her see right into his exposed inner soul.

All the words she had intended to give him flew from her head, and Emma was left standing frozen, swallowing hard and wondering why she wanted to talk at all. With that in mind, she moved to stand before him, just within his reach, when one corner of his mouth tilted up in a tempting smirk as he beckoned her closer. Obviously pleased with himself, he took things a step farther, resting both hand and hook at either side of her waist, his thumb rubbing soothing circles that she could feel the warmth of through the waistband of her jeans, as if he were stilling a skittish animal so it didn't flee. "Was there something you wished to discuss with me, Love?"

"I…" her mouth went dry staring into his eyes and she struggled to focus on anything other than the desire for a second kiss from him, but she finally pieced together coherent words. "I just wanted to thank you…for everything. We couldn't have even followed Henry without your ship and your help. David would be dead by now. And I, well, I just…"

"Come, Lass, it's just me. There's no need to be so formal. I offered you my ship and my services, and I meant it." As he said these words, he was slowly, deliberately, pinning her in his gaze so she understood just how much it did mean to him. He placed the cool, smooth curve of his hook under her chin, tilting her face up to meet his.

"But – it's just – it's so much more than that," she floundered, and if she weren't so grateful and attracted and muddled all at once she would have been irritated that he could sound so composed and romantic while she struggled to get a sentence out. Emotional tears almost welled over her eyelids, but she blinked them back and stepped closer yet, almost begging him to hold her, causing their noses to nearly brush. Looking up at him, she hoped that just maybe her eyes could convey her affection, gratitude, and want without the words that seemed lost to her. Biting her lower lip in nervous anticipation, Emma raised her eyes, blinking, to his cerulean gaze and prayed he would simply read her scrambled mind.

Chuckling low in his throat, Killian seemed to do just that, and wrapped his muscled arms around to reel her in. "All you had to do was ask, Love," he teased, lightly ghosting his lips over her forehead, her nose, her cheeks, forestalling the inevitable and making her heart thud erratically even as she grew impatient for his lips to reach hers. Just as she had grabbed him and driven their first kiss – fast, desperate, bruising – he was taking over this second one, creating a slow, languorous, building simmer that Emma wasn't sure she would survive.

Killian's hand came up to cradle her head, hook resting along her neck on the other side, the one bit of cool relief to the fire in which he had engulfed her. His calloused fingers stroked along her jaw as if hoping to coax her nearer still. This kiss carried their feelings in it; there was still heat and passion, but below it thrummed something more, something deeper: it required a decision. Emma's breath caught at the realization that this kiss was something which might last.

Killian was thinking, hoping, the same thing, hardly daring to believe, but unable to stop it either. Greedy thief and pirate that he was, he wanted more of Emma; it would never be enough. Fool he might be, but he did not aim to stop until he had stolen her very heart. Not so long ago, he had been rudderless, with nothing in this world to keep him but his vengeance. Now, he prayed that he could change his course. At last, he had something to fight for, someone to hold dear. Killian Jones – Captain Hook – had despaired of being anything else but hell bound…until she crossed his path. Perhaps he might still find redemption in Emma. Heaven had to know his every effort and act for good has been due to her. It's all for her.

Don't wanna let you down

but I am hell bound

Though this is all for you,

don't wanna hide the truth…

This is my kingdom come

The door slams in his face – her door – and Killian lets himself slump against the wall, dejected. It all happened so quickly and now Emma is gone. She is beyond his grasp, as he had always known she was. He has waited so long to see her lovely face again, traveled so far, and though he tried to prepare himself for the very reaction he received, it didn't hurt any less when she gave him the blank look which told him his Swan no longer knew him.

Upon their forced return to the Enchanted Forest, he had tried to steer clear of everyone. Angry, wounded, and bitter, he had wanted nothing more than to hide himself below deck on the Roger and drink until he couldn't think of how being ripped from her just when she had given him a chance had hurt. He had not wanted to be near anyone and had made horrible, snarling company when someone forced the issue, but that had not stopped Snow and Charming. Emma's parents were a painful reminder of her, but no matter how he strove to avoid them and steer clear, they would not leave him alone.

It was exasperating how they kept trying to draw him into rebuilding the castle and their kingdom, tried to cheer him up, provided work for he and his crew as supplies were needed from other ports, and generally would not allow him to wallow in his misery as he had desired. They kept repeating that they had faith this separation would not last forever. For some unfathomable reason, he seemed to have found his way into their affection, and they would not let him despair either.

When Regina had finally put together a memory restorative potion, he had been willing to concede that these royal types and their unending hope were not so completely off base. The former evil queen had been almost pleasant and much more willing to help ever since meeting Robin Hood – apparently the man she had been destined to meet long ago. Some of the dangerous emptiness and hurt left her eyes when she was around the archer, and especially near his young son. Killian knew that she hoped Emma would find a way back and bring Henry if she could be made to remember. Regina also knew the rules of the second curse well though; she was to give up the thing she loved most. She couldn't be the one to go after them, couldn't force her hand. She would have to trust those whom she had spent so long fighting against.

Killian had been stunned however when David and Snow both championed his undertaking the quest. Something knowing flickered between the Prince and Princess' eyes, but he didn't waste time trying to figure it out. He was too grateful, touched, and ridiculously anxious to get going, whatever the mode of travel, to ask questions.

Now, faced with the harsh truth, he almost forgets the potion tucked into a pocket of his vest. He had to try True Love's Kiss, had to see for himself if it were possible. He shouldn't have even entertained the dream, and yet he couldn't help himself. He truly thought she loved him…but maybe she still does and has simply forgotten. He has come too far to turn back now without seeing his mission through. Any realm he tries to make his life in now will be empty without her regardless. He will wait for his moment, and he will try again…

They say it's what you make

I say it's up to Fate

It's woven in my soul

I need to let you go

Your eyes they shine so bright

I wanna save that light

I can't escape this now,

Unless you show me how…

Killian stands outside the large, several story building where Emma and Henry now reside, oblivious to the crush of people rushing around him on all sides, looking up to the window he knows is theirs, comforted by the fact that, though she may not remember him right now, they are once again in the same place and time. He can get to her, and he will succeed in bringing her back to her family…and to him.

That she wants him to keep his distance right now means little. He is sorry that she is at last safe with her son and free of the heavy weight of her destiny and he seeks to interrupt that. However, he thinks he knows Emma well enough to believe she would not wish for an illusion over truth; even if it pained her, she would rather face reality. He knows that much of his Swan.

Villain that he has been, that the world has always seen, the selfless action would be to let her go, but he cannot allow himself to admit defeat. Emma has never truly been loved – treasured – as she ought to have been, as he had planned to do. He fervently wishes to be the one to show her what it is to be wholly adored. He wants her to know that she is his whole world, and he needs the chance to see if she can love him in return, keep him striving to live again. The demons that still haunt him, that say her kingdom and his black soul are already lost, try to whisper that he will fail. Their voices hiss that he will never bring her back, that her knowledge and memories are lost forever. Killian pushes those insidious echoes from his mind. Soon, he will meet her haunting, storm-tossed eyes again, and he will make her see.

This is my kingdom come…

Tagging a few others who may enjoy: @searchingwardrobes @kmomof4 @jennjenn615 @laschatzi @whimsicallyenchantedrose @thislassishooked @resident-of-storybrooke @ilovemesomekillianjones @teamhook @revanmeetra87 @scientificapricot @tomeandflickcorner @lfh1226-linda @xsajx @stahlop @donteattheappleshook @hollyethecurious @winterbaby89 @darkcolinodonorgasm @elizabeethan @wefoundloveunderthelight @jonesfandomfanatic @spartanguard @tiganasummertree @optomisticgirl

#self promo sunday #cs ff #cs one shot #season 3a missing moments #ouat 3b spec fic #kingdom come

27 notes · View notes

livlepretre · 4 years ago

Note

I started watching TVD while season 5 was airing, and I loved it. I was so excited when I caught up, but quickly started losing interest. As a person who despises pregnancy plot lines that should be impossible and make no logical sense in canon, The Originals was always a lost cause for me. I also hated the oocness of the characters. I begrudgingly made my way through season 6 of TVD and honestly couldn’t make it through the first few episodes of season 7. At that point in time, I didn’t like the conflicts, how the show kept breaking its on mythology rules, and how most characters were acting out of character. I think it’s a total shame because I absolutely adore this universe and the characters attached to it. Canon divergent fics like yours allow me to enjoy what could have been. So, did you watch TVD all the way through? Did you watch The Originals? If not, what was the straw that broke the camel’s back and what plot lines and character arcs would you have liked to see on the show/shows? How would you have preferred the show to end? Finally, what kind of thoughts do you have when you hear crazy stuff that happened (ex. Caroline having Ric’s kids and him being in unrequited love with her or Legacies having their characters fight gargoyles, dragons, etc.. throughout Mystic Falls while Damon and Elena’s kids are still in town raising their own kids) Cuz sometimes I read things and I’m like WTF? Who thought this made sense?

Okay, wow, I love that you asked me these questions, because as it turns out I have been bugging my RL friends with my tormented TVD takes for years now. I’m going to put everything under a cut though because this answer promises to be very long.

Edit: This got sort of stupid long. Read at your own risk haha.

So, I think to answer this, I have to address the things I love so much about TVD and why I’m still thinking about it/writing fic for it years and years after it lost me. I’m going to take this chronologically because there’s a lot to unpack.

What I loved

My introduction to TVD was over the summer before season 2 aired; I remember seeing the promotional materials on the CW before I left for college the fall before, and writing it off (which: fair of me, those season 1 promotions were abysmal). But luckily my sister, God bless her, understood me better than I understood myself and made me sit down and marathon the first season with her. I made fun of it pretty hard until the episode where Vicki got turned, and then an episode later got staked, which shut me up and got me paying attention. At some point over the course of the season that show went from haha laugh at it to holding my throat and there are sooo many good reasons for this. I remained hyperfixated throughout seasons 2-4, which I would religiously watch just as soon as I could pirate them.

The thing about TVD was that it was, for several years, a master class in narrative structure. What I mean by this is that it did two things very very very well:

1) one thing always led organically to the next -- the thing that actual kicks off the plot in TVD is Damon coming to town to open the tomb. From that point on, he opens the tomb, which leads to the tomb vamps escaping, which leads to Katherine taking notice, so she comes to Mystic Falls, which leads to others discovering Elena, which leads to Elijah, which leads to Klaus, and the other Originals. Very neatly done, and a wonderful, fast way of constantly shifting the action in believable and organic ways

2) they had this thing where they would announce something cataclysmic, like opening the tomb or sacrificing the main character, or even dropping the veil in season 4/again (?) in season 5, and in most shows, the whole point would be to avert those things-- but TVD has this way of announcing the doom and then forcing us through it.

There were other things-- stakes were high (ha! pun!) -- Vicki could get staked midway through season 1, Jenna could get killed in the sacrifice, and they could sweep the rug out from under you by having the whole premise of what you THOUGHT you understood about the show turn out to be untrue-- the first big instant of this was the certainty that Katherine was actually in the tomb and if the tomb was opened that Damon would save her-- finding out she was never in there at all was mind-boggling. Another really excellent moment I recall was 2x09-- so, the thing is, one of the biggest mysteries in the show up until that point was “Why does Elena look exactly like Katherine?” We knew/suspected she was a descendent, and the term doppelganger was bandied about, but it felt really shocking to have it LITERALLY be used in the mythology (to see your doppelganger is a sign of certain death, which it IS how CREEPY!) and then in 2x09, everything gets turned on its head AGAIN when we discover “it’s not that Elena looks like Katherine, it’s that Elena and Katherine look like someone else”-- the idea that KATHERINE is a doppelganger was earth shattering. This show.

Also the way that the show played with audience expectations? Like, in 1x04, the audience expectation would be for Elena to be angry at Stefan and not trust him after Damon (or was it Caroline? It’s been years since I’ve watched) says some stuff intended to set her against Stefan. But instead she figures it out fast and comes back to slap Damon and apologize to Stefan. It was an early sign that the show would jump over the expected hurdles. One of the brilliant things it does too is play with the horror genre. The characters (in the early seasons) were some of the smartest on tv because they were genre savvy, and they thought like a real person would and not like a character so often-- I remember being amazed by how often they jumped over the obvious pitfalls and came to sound conclusions. 2x12 The Descent sticks out to me-- Elena versus the mad dying vampire. Also the entire daggering sequence in 2x16 is God tier, as well as Elena’s bargain with Elijah in 2x11. Hmm and also the way the show would even play with expectations based on the fact that it’s a show? The fact that Katherine and Mason were working together is still one of the greatest plot twists of all time in my opinion, not because of how left field it is or wild or anything, but because it should have been totally obvious but our expectations of season premiers made it totally camouflaged! Like, yes, Mason and Katherine DO show up at the exact same time... in 2x01, which is a season premier, so we as an audience know and expect that new characters will be introduced in that episode. The fact that the show knew that and played us for fools will always go down as a favorite moment for me.

Well. Needless to say there are countless other amazing things. The darkness of the show and its commitment to exploring vampirism as a curse, and oddly a very human one, was mesmerizing. Damon breaking Jeremy’s neck. “I miss being human. I miss it more than anything in the world.” Elena slow moral decay. The shock and horror when Caroline is turned. The relationships between the brothers. The way that the gang can’t ever sit easy with each other-- that Bonnie sees how Damon and Stefan are a poison, how everyone lies to Tyler and it hurts him so he hurts them-- Katherine’s doomed history? Tragic. Beautiful. Amazing.

I remember the fandom was a very different space in those early seasons too. The show was just so dreamy and frightening and dark. It was like a very bad dream you couldn’t wake up from and maybe also didn’t want to. The fics were kind of gloomy and frightening and people were much more willing to explore the monstrous side of the show.

So. The issues that I had.

The very first thing I remember feeling a twinge of unease about was when they put Katherine in the tomb in 2x07 only to take her out again in 2x09. I remember her getting sealed up in that tomb in 2x07 was HORRIFYING but also??? Brilliant? Justice? Amazing? It was taking out a villain when and how they said they were going to do it and I loved it. I didn’t quite like how she kept being an active role in the story, no matter how much I adore Katherine as a character, because it destroyed the impact of her in that tomb at all. If it were me, I would have put her in that tomb and saved her as a character, only to take her out like seasons down the road when the audience may have mostly forgotten about her and she could have been a secret ace.

There were other ultimately minor things in season 2-- the sun and moon curse being a fake, for example-- which at the time ruffled me a bit but I was willing to just brush it off because, well, season 2 of The Vampire Diaries is unspeakably good.

I went into season 3 with the same level of hyperfixation as I had in season 2 (read: immense). And those first 6 episodes were pretty damn near perfect, with 3x05 being like the horrible culmination of everything I, already a klaulena shipper, could ever want.

My first sign that things were going in a weird direction was 3x07, Ghost World. I remember that episode feeling... weaker. Like, what was the point of Lexi having Elena torture Stefan? That didn’t seem to do anything at all. The Other Side stuff is something I pretty much disliked at the time but at this point I’m so used to it that I accept it as a kind of limbo space mostly for vampires (and also witches? but hopefully more pleasant and less of a wasteland of eternal wandering for witches than it is for vampires).

3x08 Ordinary People was an abomination and I still hate it and everything built on it. So, at the end of season 2, Elijah says his family comes from Eastern Europe. A nice, normal answer that makes sense. It also dovetailed really well with Slavic vampire folklore, so there was a great tie in that felt right with the meta-awareness of the show (it was for a while very much so a vampire show about vampire shows, and the diaries were part of that meta level writing). The idea that they were VIKINGS in VIRGINIA in this random WEREWOLF SETTLEMENT gives me such a migraine that I don’t think I can go into it here. I hate it with an unflinching fury. I think I used the “Mikaelson” name once or twice in FE and I hate myself for that more than anything else I’ve ever done in my writing. It makes no sense and betrays the writers as not even having a very vague idea of history and it is like fingers on a chalkboard for me. My fingers, feeling all of that horrible chalky friction. ELIJAH THERE WERE NO WILD HORSES IN AMERICA A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. WHY ARE YOUR NAMES HALF VIKING AND HALF HEBREW EXCEPT FOR THE RANDOM GERMAN NAMES. WHY WHY WHY.

Deep breath.

The other thing I really hated in that episode was Rebekah’s “it’s a protection spell of course.”

Honestly I think that was the actual sword plunging into TVD’s heart and the show just slowly bled out from there and I was so shocked and betrayed by that that it just took me years of trying to stop the hemorrhaging before I finally accepted that it was a mortal wound.

You have to understand that I continued to watch seasons 3 and 4 the way an abandoned dog will wait for its owner to return. I just couldn’t help myself. It had been my favorite favorite show (and sort of still is?)

Well. Why did I hate this protection spell thing so much. TVD had made it very clear in the early seasons of the show that becoming a vampire was BAD. It was a fate worse than death. The whole angst of season 1 relies on us feeling the TRAGEDY when Giuseppe murders his sons and they become vampires. Because vampires in TVD aren’t inhuman, per se; they’re still the same person, they still have their souls, their consciences, their moralities... they’re just also saddled with this insatiable burning thirst for human blood that drives them to commit the very worst deeds, that drives them down these dark paths of horror and soul-scouring guilt as they repeatedly succumb, over and over and over and over again, to their worst impulses, until they finally stop caring and become monsters in truth. Until they forget about the simple warmth of a human connection, of good things like love and friendship and family. TVD made it clear that to be a vampire was to be in hell. It’s why Damon promises Stefan an eternity of misery. It’s why the group responds with HORROR when Caroline is turned in 2x02. It’s why Damon’s confession in 2x12 rips at our hearts, and why the stakes are so high when we wonder whether Elena will be a vampire at the end of season 2. The show is very clear that it’s not actually becoming a vampire that makes us monsters, but the actions we take once we become vampires that make us monsters... but that those actions are also nearly inevitable and precipitous once the transition occurs. It’s really tragic.

I remember the summer before season 3 aired the fan spaces were all abuzz with speculation about “what could Klaus have done that was so bad that not only was the vampire curse inflicted on him, but also on his entire family?” (that was the prevailing theory for how he could be the “first” Original vampire-- he was the one who had actually done whatever the thing was that had precipitated what was OBVIOUSLY a vengeance curse.)

Ordinary People was like LOL! NOPE! Joke’s on you for thinking we were going to actually discuss self-destructive behavior and the human psyche through the metaphorical lens of vampirism ;)

There were definitely other things in season 3 that bugged-- the serial killer thing was hard to follow (and I tend to criticize anything that’s hard to follow for any viewer watching week to week, while also paying close attention... because that means it’s probably not well enough explained), the white oak stake bridge was LOL fine, it did lead to some epic stakings by our boy Matt tag-teaming with Elena and Stefan, and I did enjoy the idea that the whole bloodline dies... anyway, I digress.

The flashbacks started being a problem in season 3. In season 1 & season 2, the flashbacks basically all told a continuous B storyline. In season 1, of course, we have 1864, in that gorgeous blue cast. We get a little additional information of that in season 2, and it’s amazing. But then in season 2, the B story is 1492, in that golden cast, also amazing.

After that the flashbacks that start in season 3 are pretty random. We don’t have stories being told in the past throughout the season, but instead, random one-offs in random colors telling random stories. Not bad, per se, but definitely less affecting and much less cohesive and meaningful.

Here’s the big big big issue with season 3: Klaus.

The whole point of the season was to kill Klaus. It was explicitly stated.

Every other season, once the motivation was stated, the show went through with it: open the tomb, stake the tomb vamps, take down Katherine, find a way to save Elena during the sacrifice, etc.

Now, as everyone knows, I love and adore Klaus. But I also sort of hate him because I think the writers loved him too much and they wrecked the show a bit with him. They wanted to create drama with a “kill Klaus!” arc but there was never that much tension in it because I was certain from 3x12 onward that they never would. (well, I was stunned when he got staked at the end of season 3 and I just sort of whispered, “good” to my empty dorm room at the time-- but that was short-lived). It really really really took the wind out of the show’s sails when they didn’t stake him by season’s end, so the MOST major thing I would have done would have been to kill him off somehow at the end of season 3.

If they didn’t kill him off, they should have devised a way to make peace/have Team Mystic Falls need him and him need them much earlier and much more concretely than they ever did. With the way things played out in actuality, our protagonists failed to do the one thing protagonists MUST do: take defining action. All of their actions in season 3 are completely for nothing, and that makes the whole thing fall apart.

This also brings me around to something that will surprise absolutely no one: I have a lot of problems with the way that klaus x caroline was handled. I think it COULD have been done convincingly, but the writers were lazy/were very clearly just trying to get Klaus a ship because the actor is hot, and so they gave us the horse drawing, and the prom dress, and the ball gown, and frankly, a list of villain decay moments that I just... don’t know what to do with. And the ship pretty much ruined Caroline’s character because the whole point of her was that she was so much deeper and kinder than anyone gave her credit for, even than she gave herself credit for, but the ship was like LOL! NOPE! (I have a lot more on this written elsewhere in my blog) Also my boy Tyler got cut out of a HUGE amount of this show to make room for this ship, which was lousy.

My last thought about season 3 is that this is when the characters-- especially Damon-- started to really decay. Rewatching early seasons of the show is WILD because Damon is WEIRD. He is so other and off-putting-- beautiful, but very very strange-- it’s in the way smolderholder held himself, the way he spoke, all the little things that sent little alarm bells ringing. He was delightfully inhuman.

I vividly remember the stupid chipmunk argument in... 3x16? somewhere around there-- with Stefan in some back alley in Mystic Falls and I was just??? That was the moment I realized that all of those things about Damon’s acting that had appealed to me had vanished. I think the writers were trying to make him more likable/humanize him so he could be the main love interest, but it was very frustrating to me.

Moving on to season 4. I was actually into the sire bond because it was difficult and problematic and felt to me like a chance to explore more complex issues through the “vampire” metaphor the way the show had done in earlier seasons. (I know this storyline is pretty much hated, but my stance is: if you don’t want dark, problematic, uncomfortable, and toxic storylines, don’t watch vampire genre tv shows. That simple!)

I don’t mind the idea of the “cure” and I don’t even mind the Hunter thing/that Jeremy could be a Hunter (although I found the coincidence dumb).

ACTUALLY what I would have liked VERY MUCH would be for Elena to go through most of her season 4 storyline-- becoming a vampire, having Jeremy die and her turning off her emotions, then going on her evil vampire rampage and actually killing and hurting innocents, only THEN for her to have the cure forced on her after like a year of being a vampire. The defining arc of Elena’s character in the early seasons is her moral decay-- Katherine is the warning of what Elena will inevitably become if she continues down the path she’s on-- so it would be fascinating to see her go DOWN that path, very far, and then to have her become human again-- and have her actually have to deal with the horrors she committed. (I have a bit of a theory that vampires have one foot over the veil into the realm of death, and maybe this, if anything, makes it easier for them to forget their humanity/become truly monstrous, but that becoming human again would slam all of that into the front and center again)-- it would be a way for Elena to actually have to confront her story arc-- what path is she going to go down? Is she going to continue her slide into callousness and monstrosity? Or can she turn it around? Must she give up the Salvatores to do that?

I don’t really mind the season 4 Silas content. Will say that once again the inclusion of any of the Originals in season 4 is pretty useless which is frustrating to me, and their place in the TVD narrative in general is an annoying dead-end.

However, I do think that Silas introduces a big shift in TVD: their need for a yearly big bad. As I mentioned above, TVD was always “one thing leading to another” -- starting with Silas, they started introducing yearly Big Bads (Silas, the Travelers, Kai) that were arbitrary and frustrating and were the thing that most broke me out of my suspension of in-universe belief. The idea that the show would need a big bad was a fundamental misunderstanding of the narrative structure of the first 3 seasons by the writers in those later seasons.

You asked what the straw that broke the camel’s back was and I can tell you, it was this:

I laughed myself sick and that was the last time that TVD was appointment television for me. I call this the Party City Greek costume.

I did eventually marathon season 5 well after it was over, and even though a lot all of the ways the show retconned itself drove me insane, it was overall fun just to watch for the drama and the pace.

My biggest problems with season 5...

This was around the time that Bonnie was dead then alive then dead then alive... I can’t actually keep track any more at this point what’s up with our girl

Stelena pretty much disappeared.

I actually think one of the bigger problems in the show was that the show was stronger when it was mostly about Damon, Stefan, and Elena, and at some point they gave more equal screen time to other characters which ended up meaning that I spent a lot of screen time with characters I just didn’t care about (ENZO)

UGH THE DOPPELGANGER STUFF

So, if you’ve read my fics, you know I spend a huge amount of time parsing the mechanics of the doppelganger, how the magic around it might work, what the implications are, etc.

I CAN’T STAND what happened to the doppelganger stuff in season 5! UGH. HOW DOES TOM WHAT’S HIS FACE EXIST? DID STEFAN HAVE A BABY WHEN HE WAS 15?!? Seriously!!! HOW!!!! Because it’s real clear in canon that only DIRECT line descendants create doppelgangers!

ALSO. The Amara thing. Just stop it.

This actually leads to a pretty major issue: TVD had a bad habit of establishing really exquisite doomed histories and then wrecking them with too much information later.

The story of Tatia Petrova is a masterpiece in doomed, tragic, romantic mythology. Teenage girl falls in love with two brothers and so their parents decide to use her as the blood sacrifice for their creepy curse “protection spell” and so they murder her-- you get the image of how terrified she must have been, dragged out of her home in the middle of the night, trapped, maybe dying slowly, how she dies for loving too much, for being just a little too wild, a little too trusting-- and how that curse echoes down the ages. The idea that that act of savagery somehow created the doppelganger line. The Amara thing (as well as the Originals revelation that Elijah killed Tatia) gut the impact of that TVD myth-- which was a strong one in the imaginations of the viewers.

And the idea that vampire doppelganger blood is useful for anything??? I can’t. The WHOLE POINT of season 2 is that Katherine turns herself into a vampire to avoid the sacrifice! We are explicitly told-- you can’t be two things at once, if you become a vampire, you negate your identity as a witch or a doppelganger or whatever-- literally the WHOLE PLOT of season 2 centers on how useless Elena’s blood would be if she were turned! And now Stefan is in on this? NOPE. I’m out.

Anyway, another myth that got wrecked in season 5 was the Katerina Petrova myth. Part of her tragedy is that she never even gets to hold her baby. Is the idea that her baby grows up and has a normal life and Katerina never even gets to find out anything about her. That she completely loses this one thing that might have humanized her. And then of course the great tragedy in England that ultimately destroys her. I really hated meeting Katherine’s daughter, because it reversed the pathos of Katherine’s past and rendered it emotionally inert. And also Nadia sucked.

The Travelers were fun enough but also they made no sense (DOPPELGANGER VAMPIRE BLOOD) but most especially I hated the idea that Katherine was a Traveler just WHY

I got... partway through season 6, although, I couldn’t tell you where exactly I stopped watching for no particular reason.

I remember really enjoying Tyler x Liv and the way that they made Tyler human again, and brought Alaric back, etc at the end of season 5-- it felt like such a fresh reboot to everything and it’s one of the things that TVD does really well.

That Thanksgiving episode sticks out to me as a train wreck though because I realized that the central conflict had absolutely nothing to do with any of the characters I actually cared about, and was instead about the twins... whom I liked, but not really any more than I liked the Martins in season 2, you know?

Also vampire blood being unable to cure cancer sounds arbitrary to me.

As for how I would have preferred the show to end?

Hmm. Well. I think it should have ended sooner-- this “the show is really about these two brothers” is just incorrect. The show was about the two brothers and Elena. It was about that triangulated relationship. I think that even if Elena ended up with one or the other at any given point in the show, the other third point in that triangle should have stuck around-- I’ve always disliked Stefan slinking off in season 5 because it tears apart the foundation of the show.

I have no idea how it should have ended. I guess? the ending? was okay? I’ve never actually seen it.

On to the Originals... so, the magical pregnancy didn’t really bug me because there are plenty of fandoms where vampires can procreate/I guess if Klaus is part werewolf, he has a foot closer back to the mortal coil, and vampire bodies in TVD have heartbeats, are warm, digest food, etc, so it was like, fine, sure.

I would say I watched... some of season 1? and I watched most of season 2? I watched whatever I needed to watch for fic research basically, and have a very confused sense of what happened on that show. I’m always skeptical of anything set in New Orleans though because no one ever seems to leave the French Quarter which is so preposterous because the Quarter is probably smaller than Mystic Falls. But anyway. The tribrid thing has never made sense, but I just sort of rolled with what I’ve heard about the Originals? I really love Marcel and think he was actually the protagonist of the show, whereas Klaus was definitely the antagonist. (I just can’t bring myself to side with Klaus on pretty much anything...)

Okay I think this ties up all of your questions/most of my thoughts except for maybe... what I find absurd.

To answer that: every time I learn something new I am stunned and my jaw drops in a literal guffaw. For example, today reading your ask was the first time that I found out that Ric was unrequited in love with Caroline (although, former student carrying her former teacher’s children also makes me uncomfortable). As far as I know from seasons 7-8, Damon sleeps with someone named Crystal, Caroline somehow magically carries Alaric’s children with their dead witch mom (and apparently Alaric is in love with Caroline while that happens?), Matt might be a cop, Damon and Stefan fight the literal devil and Katherine is their queen, Bonnie and Enzo??, Caroline and Stefan get married, what’s a Jeremy Gilbert, maybe Damon sets Elena’s fake coffin on fire?, Damon kills Tyler (WHICH IS UNACCEPTABLE), there are witches who are vampires called Heretics, and also there are Sirens and maybe Mama Salvatore is one. The end. Every time I learn something new it’s the most amazing thing I have ever heard and I can’t imagine how it could be so, but I accept it.

Am I missing anything?

Legacies is so beyond my comprehension that I just have to roll with everything I hear. God Bless Matt Davis for leading that cast.

#anonymous #tvd meta #this got really long

15 notes · View notes

thisdiscontentedwinter · 5 years ago

Text

In which Prince misses the point yet again:

As for Scott believing Theo blindly, I’ll go over why this isn’t true at least one more time. There was enough evidence that Scott had to confront and ask Stiles about it, which is what he did.

1) The wrench was Stiles’s wrench.

2) Donovan’s blood was on the wrench – Scott had tracked down Donovan by scent in Dreamcatcher (5x03).

3) Stiles had lied about the wound on his back, telling Scott that it was caused by the jeep when it was by Donovan.

4) Stiles contemplating violence in defense of his father is nothing new – it happened in Heart Monitor (1x06, to Scott himself), he confessed to it being traumatic in Battlefield (2x11), his determination not to let anything to his father in Currents (3x07), his attitude toward the woman who took him in The Overlooked(3x10), and his panic attack in Alpha Pact (3x11).

5) Stiles’s belief in death as a solution is well established throughout the series.

1. Circumstantial evidence, your worship.

2. See above.

3. No, he told Malia that. Scott didn’t ask.

4. Contemplating violence isn’t the same as committing it. You’re not establishing here that Stiles has a pattern of committing violence in defence of his father...because there isn’t one.

5. See above.

And let’s look at it again, Prince, this time with our eyes open.

Your apologism for Scott isn’t annoying because Scott has a reason to think Stiles is a killer--that's clearly what the writers were going for, and it could have been a great storyline if they'd written it well. But this is TW, so it goes without saying they wrote it terribly.

The astonishing thing is that it never occurs to Scott (or to you, Prince) how ridiculous Theo's story is: that Stiles got so angry he beat Donovan to death. Now I've seen you try to defend this with "Well, Scott doesn't know all chimeras have super strength." True, but he thinks Theo is a werewolf, and he knows werewolves have super strength, so even if he somehow thinks Donovan is a fragile little blossom (it’s funny, you expect Scott to imagine a pattern of violence for Stiles, but overlook one that exists for Donovan) then what are we left with? A scenario where Scott somehow believes that Stiles was able to beat someone to death while at the same time Theo was unable to step in and prevent it. Like I’ve said, I’m okay with Scott thinking Stiles has the potential to be a cold-blooded killer if it had been written well. (It wasn’t, of course, because despite your wishful thinking, there is nothing in Stiles’s history that indicates he would actually murder someone in cold blood.) But Scott being too fucking dumb not to see all the holes in Theo's story? Come on. That’s stupid, even for Scott.

And that’s saying something.

Listen Prince, it’s pretty clear from most of your posts that you don’t understand how friendship works. It’s not about obligation or submission, as you seem to think. It’s about loving another person. It’s about, when someone tells you something horrible about your friend, your gut reaction being “No, that can’t be right.” And sometimes it is right, and your gut was wrong, and that’s terrible. And yet we never see Scott have that little moment of denial, do we? We never see him reflexively tell Theo he’s talking bullshit, even when there are already so many holes in Theo’s story.

And if you’ve ever had a meaningful friendship in your life, you’d know just how false that rings.

It’s bad writing, Prince. It’s always bad writing.

#DWvsTW #Scott mccall is not a hero #Scott mccall delusional squad #pew #bad writing

106 notes · View notes

florrickandassociates · 5 years ago

Text

TGF Thoughts: 3x07-- The One Where Diane and Liz Topple Democracy

Yes I’m still writing these

“Admit it. You like having me here. I mean, you didn’t think you would. But then, gradually, you realize that Blum is like a shot in the arm,” Blum tells the viewers. I mean, the partners. But he’s definitely talking to the viewers. See, we are supposed to ENJOY him. We’re supposed to find his terribleness cute and endearing. We’re supposed to be captivated by him. Here’s the thing: I’m not. I just want him to go away and stop being loud, which is how I have felt from the second he first opened his mouth. And when he was silent and I didn’t know how loud he’d be? I still wanted him to go away.

Does Blum work better than most of the past attempts at Blum-like figures? Yes. He’s leaps and bounds better! Is he still an annoying ass pest? HELL FUCKING YES.

Blum compliments the partners on being “clean” and “articulate” because he’s racist and wants everyone to know it. It’s cute!! So cute and charming!!

Why are the partners having an end of the year meeting? Is it the end of their fiscal year? Is it December? I want to know.

Blum attributes a Machiavelli quote to Martin Luther King Jr, which is actually kind of hilarious. Even if I don’t like him I can appreciate when they write him well.

Blum decides he’s joining the firm and the partners ask for time to confer. Marissa is still wasting her time following him around.

Liz calls Blum a cancer and says they need to get rid of him. I agree! Adrian is on board, but wants to delay him. I’m sure that’s going to end well.

Lucca is singing Baby Shark again, which means it’s going to be stuck in my head for another day. Diane comes into her office with a task. Because Lucca’s on hold with the Sweeney divorce, and she has NO OTHER BUSINESS IN THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT SHE MANAGES, Lucca also gets Blum duty. So now Marissa AND Lucca, two of the firm’s best employees, are stuck dealing with his bullshit. A+ management, RBL.

Is there NO OTHER EMPLOYEE at this firm that can do this task? “We had four associates on it. He sent them out on errands,” Diane explains. What the fuck? Did you not prepare them to deal with him? You gave him a staff, observed him doing no work for three weeks, and were just like, sure, associates, go run errands for Roland Blum!? What kind of management is that?! Surely there is someone at this firm other than Lucca who can ensure that lawyers do lawyering.

“Blum is seductive. We need an adult in the room,” Diane says. I don’t know which concerns me more: the fact that Diane is only just now realizing they needed to manage this problem or the fact that Diane doesn’t think any of her employees are capable of acting like adults. If that’s true, that’s also a management problem, and YIKES.

Julius is a horrible liar.

Is Blum talking to himself this week’s soliloquy? If so, kinda meh.

Rachelle has brought Liz and Diane a class action about vote rigging in 2016. Isn’t Rachelle’s job something in strategy? Shouldn’t she be distancing herself from this case and making sure it seems like she’s never met Liz or Diane?

Yes, the episode just answered it for me. Rachelle is a pollster. This seems dangerous. I also feel like Liz and Diane haven’t really made an independent choice since they started working with Rachelle.

Rachelle acts like this case is for real and not a set up. I understand that she’s effective, but she’s done so many cagey things in just a few episodes that I would cut all ties. You met her through a literal con artist, first of all. And beyond that, do you really think someone who’s going to force clients upon you to further their agenda and mess with the dynamics at your firm is not also going to give up your names if and when things get rough?

I may say this again later, but what I dislike most about this episode is that the stakes are so high, and they’re so real-world. Diane and Liz aren’t debating the ethics of voter fraud in the abstract. They’re committing a federal crime.

Lucca deals with Blum by… doing work. Blum’s “associate”-- actor Gary Carr, playing himself-- assists her. Lucca doesn’t realize he’s an actor and puts him to work. He clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing (because he’s not a lawyer).

Case stuff happens. Diane is instructed by Rachelle to ask for the software architecture, but she doesn’t find this suspicious. I know I do. Does the client usually get to tell the lawyer what evidence to request? Seems weird to me.

After court, Diane and Liz ask Rachelle why she needs the software. Uh, after they asked for it in court they ask her why she needs it? They didn’t think it was actually relevant and thought the request was suspicious and went along? Also, PRETTY DAMN OBVIOUS THAT ONE REASON TO WANT THE ARCHITECTURE OF A SOFTWARE IS TO HACK IT.

Lucca tells Diane that Gary Carr is doing good work. What? Taking it seriously I get, but good work? Good enough that Lucca would recommend Carr to Diane? All we’ve seen him do as a “lawyer” is misidentify a piece of evidence that Lucca just had to glance at to understand.

As Lucca walks from her office to Blum’s, she overhears some associates talking about Gary Carr. See, he’s an actor and he was on Downton Abbey, a show I never watched more than a few episodes of. Lucca clearly hasn’t either. Are any of these associates really weirded out by Maia’s presence at the firm? Wasn’t she on Downton too?

Lucca confronts Gary about lying and asks him to wait in reception. There’s some awkwardness/sexual tension (the Kings’ favorite way to show sexual tension is having people be exceedingly awkward around each other) as he leaves. This plot is fun and fine, but I’d love for Lucca to get something more substantive.

Book Club meets again and Polly suggests hacking the voting machines. Diane and Liz are stunned. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Diane says, and… credits!

Book Club’s gotten pretty big. Diane’s completely against vote rigging and everyone else (except Liz) is like BUT WINNING IS MORE IMPORTANT. Polly decides to frame it as a “correction” for gerrymandering and voter intimidation. This is a more convincing argument. But it is not an argument for why Diane or Liz would risk their lives and careers for this.

Diane and Liz talk, away from the group, and Liz makes a fantastic point: “You know there are counties right now where black people are so terrorized that they can’t even show up at polls? Look, in Georgia, in 2018, a bus filled with black senior citizens was stopped by the police so they wouldn’t be allowed to vote. 53,000 voter registrations of black voters were held up by the Georgia Secretary of State. Diane, you don’t [know]. Look, we share a lot of things, but we do not share histories. I have a college friend who was kicked off the voter rolls in Ohio. And my uncle was denied the right to vote in the last election in Wisconsin. I mean, at some point, these stories become more than just anecdotes. They’re something bigger. This democracy you talk about, this doesn’t exist for a lot of us. It didn’t exist for my grandparents, it didn’t exist for my parents, and it is slowly being taken away from me.” Diane interjects that they should fight it in the courts. “The courts. The courts that overturned the Civil Rights Voting Act in 2013? So, excuse me if I just need a moment to reflect on this unique possibility. One person hits a few buttons and suddenly black voters are re-enfranchised. That means something very different to me than it does to you.”

WOW. I had to write out that whole speech because it’s great. It calls attention to a very important real world issue (if you want to learn more about voter suppression, I highly recommend One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson). It doesn’t convince me for a second that hacking the voting machines is the right approach, but it’s enough that I understand where Liz is coming from and why Diane’s idealistic speeches don’t sway her.

Even if I don’t think this speech does a good job of making me understand why Liz is willing to jeopardize her career (tbh I have a bit of trouble believing Liz would be drawn to Book Club in the first place), it’s so good as an explanation of voter suppression I don’t really care.

Rachelle is a master manipulator. She decides to add an amendment to their plan-- only enough votes to offset disenfranchisement of black and Latino voters will be changed. Uh huh. I don’t buy it. And even if it’s true, this is so clearly manipulative it’s ridiculous. What about Rachelle is so trustworthy Liz would risk her career to help her?!

I’m stuck on this, I know, but I can’t see Liz making these choices, no matter how good the arguments or how noble the cause.

The group votes and things don’t go Diane’s way… but she acts like now that they’ve voted, she has no choice but to break the law. I don’t understand. Why is her allegiance to this group when she (and Liz) are the ones who would be most directly responsible for leaking the software architecture?

“You signed on for this. The ends justify the means, so don’t get all outraged that we’re willing to follow through,” Rachelle tells Diane. This sounds a lot like the “we’re defense attorneys, therefore we have to represent Lemond Bishop” logic I hate so much.

Oh goodie, it’s the weird scene in which I thought Lucca was going to start masturbating, and a Good Fight Short about Downton Abbey. This plotline does nothing for me. When I say I want Lucca plotlines, I don’t mean I want weird romances. I mean I want to see Lucca making friends, raising her child, and navigating the workplace.

I will take all the Lucca plots I can get but please, something with substance next time!

Blum is mad and sniffing around Reddick’s sexual harassment issues. Should’ve just gone public when you had the chance, partners.

Adrian physically attacks Blum, which is… a way to handle this. Go away, Blum. Adrian also decides to go after Blum’s illegal courtroom tactics.

Have I mentioned that I love Liz’s office bathroom?

Adrian suggests threatening Blum and Liz responds “that’s like threatening a bull with a red flag.” If it weren’t for the fact that she’s done nothing to prevent him from infiltrating her firm, I would say Liz has by far the best reactions to Blum.

“We knew this day would come, Liz,” Adrian explains, referring to the day when the allegations against Carl Reddick would surface. Well if you knew that WHY WOULD YOU PAY OFF THE WOMEN AND MAKE IT LOOK WORSE FOR YOURSELF???

They managed to write a Lucca plot I don’t feel like recapping. That’s really amazing.

I care even less since I know how it ends.

Diane insists on being the one to argue for obtaining the software architecture, since she’s a lawyer and it’s her job. She gives a passionate speech that’s about the sanctity of the vote but it’s really, of course, her argument against voter fraud. The irony!

I don’t get why Diane continues to tie herself to this!!! None of this plot makes sense to me from a character POV!!! Well, except the part where Diane gets so angry she follows a con woman to a resistance group. That makes complete sense.

Diane distances herself from the group AFTER arguing in court for the architecture? Okay. Sure. So noble.

Here’s the best part of this Lucca-dates-Gary-Carr plot: Marissa recognizes him from The Deuce and not Downton Abbey, which is a little detail that’s verrrrryyyyyy Marissa.

Hey, it’s the subpoena guy! (Yes, I care more about that than watching Blum get a tattoo.)

RBL wants to get Blum disbarred. I want him to be disbarred too, so he can become irrelevant and go away.

Jay finds a Republican hack in the software architecture. Gasp!

Blum starts screaming and banging on windows and everyone ignores him. This scene is an accurate representation of how I feel about Blum. The louder he is, the less I care about him.

Will never be a fan of three way call split screens.

WHY ARE Y’ALL TALKING ABOUT HACKING VOTING MACHINES ON THE PHONE!? Y’all are smart enough to know how to hack a voting machine but not smart enough to think of burner phones?

And why hasn’t Polly already found this malware?

And why do I care?

Rachelle calls Liz “Diane” over the phone. Liz is making Diane’s arguments, but I think it’s telling Rachelle sees them as almost interchangeable obstacles. She doesn’t really care if she’s talking to Diane and Liz, as long as she’s talking to a lawyer who will get her the software architecture and argue her case.

I do not understand Jay’s testimony in court. One, why is Jay testifying instead of a computer science expert? Two, why do his political leanings matter if he could point at an actual section of code?

So this plotline can receive more consistent development than Lucca Quinn herself, Lucca offers to let Gary Carr shadow her.

This episode is a exhausting. I didn’t like it the first time and I am having trouble getting through it. Every supporting character who shows up makes me think, “ugh.”

Oh! This is the scene with the random unnecessary nudity! If she was going to be topless in this scene why even bother with having her cover up after sex? Either don’t show it or go all in. Now I’m nitpicking a thing that usually doesn’t annoy me.

Oh and THIS scene, with Adrian and Diane’s terribly thought through confrontation of the judge! You don’t have to be a genius to know this was the wrong approach. Diane doesn’t even know Adrian’s reasoning for believing there’s judicial bribery.

How many damn times can we do this, “these are REAL LAWYERS, not TV LAWYERS” bit? I’m sick of it. Also, Lucca doesn’t like TV? Boo.

Diane and Liz don’t win their case. Which is a win for Rachelle.

Now Diane’s ALL IN!!!!! On vote rigging and wants to push the button to make it happen. Whatever.

Well, that’s over. I really have three more of these to write?

4 notes · View notes

uselessgayshit · 7 years ago

Text

Supergirl 3x07 Liveblog

-i’m gonna either get angry or be filled with maniacal laughter, let’s see

-is there a faction of the DEO for underwater excursions cause keep me far from that please -Sam already, i am ready -do not stick your hand in the boiling water, sam arias, i don’t care if you think you might be invulnerable -oh okay lets keep it chill mom -is J’onn just keeping his dad locked up in the DEO like wtf -J’onn would know what “hot sec” is he as been on Earth enough and around Winn enough I’m losing my mind with the lack of continuity -THERE’S MY GIRL -okay so national city just has an underwater exploratory team okay sure that seems more plausible -not with the upkeep they have for their buildings being destroyed they don’t -that’s a really clear picture for a heat scan -WHY IS SUPERGIRL JUST WALKING CASUALLY THROUGH NATIONAL CITY SO MUCH WHAT IS HAPPENING -”man I wanted to see that” - I’m Winn -okay what powers does J’onn actually have because they seem to only come up during very convenient circumstances -I can’t believe Kara can’t recognize her boyfriends voice when he’s only standing in the shadows a few feet from her but can recognize Lena’s crackly voice over a bad comm line -gROSS -THERE’S MY OTHER GIRL -”There’s life on Saturn?” - I’m still Winn. I think this whole episode I’m going to be Winn -”Good to see you, buddy” - instantly no longer Winn -7 months???? i thought it was 3??? not to be rude but she should have extra moved on since they were only together for like 2 months. isn’t there like a rule about that???? -why is there so much parental drama this season. like who on the writing team needs to see a therapist instead of using this show to work our their mommy/daddy issues -wow, ROUGH -DON’T FORGET IT I WANT TO KNOW -start speakin’ old lady -why is this old lady so damn cryptic. -does she have a pod in her barn???? -OMG SHE HAS A POD IN HER BARN -so everyone just gets sent to Earth, lands on someone’s farm and they take them in with no questions asked. great. so glad there’s an original story here -and then there’s gonna be the same thing like Allura that’s gonna give her her entire history. please...i’m begging for something original -she was miserable half the time. he did hurt her many times. they were always fighting. i just don’t know why everyone missed that. -cryptic shit runs in this family -some really rough family shit jeez -who grew the beard? Chris or Mon-El? did they tell him to or did he want to and they were like yeah sure that works? -i bet he just wants his wife -i’m really thrown off by her constant changing between supergirl and kara and where she’s wearing the suit and where she’s not and I’m really confused but I’m sure everyone on set is too cause it doesn’t make any sense anymore -thank god he’s different tbh -OH BUT SHE SAID SHE HAD A HUMAN HEART WHICH IS A BIG TURN AROUND FROM EP 1. PROGRESS. -where the fuck is Sam going -what if she goes to the DEO base in the desert and LUCY IS THERE. I know that’s not it but that would be my favorite plot twist -oooooh yes Winn siding with his best friend, Kara -okay but his change was just becoming broody tough guy which isn’t helpful -Kara is already hurt dude but ok -WHAT ARE THE RULES ON WEARING THE SUIT -”which of you two is deciding what my best interests are” - yes get em, Kara, get em -tAKE IT BACK. TAKE THE NECKLACE BACK. oh my god he can’t just keep it wtf Mon-El, that doesn’t necessarily belong to you, what are you doing. you’re married. give. it. back. -OF COURSE L-CORP SAVES THE DAY EVENTUALLY -”why are you still wearing the necklace?” - yes I would like answers as well -okay but Saturngirl is cute -SAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING -oh its not a talky thingy, its a honing beacon -that fall was fake af -thats not ominous or anything -what even is that. like a palace cause you couldn’t go inside, there isn’t room with all those spikes. what’s its purpose. -the talk is about to happen -okay but you can give the necklace back now thank you -I’M SO ANGRY ABOUT THE GODDAMN NECKLACE. IT’S HER MOTHER’S PLEASE JUST RETURN IT SAFELY TO HER CARE -”you’ve never needed my protection” - ...okay, well that’s some development -i’m not adverse to Saturnvalor (if that’s their name, I’m not sure he’s valor yet so idk). I’m sure they deserve each other and found love in the future and all that. -also like they really didn’t need to break her heart all over again, give her a break -are they really gonna end this on “my wife” -okay thank god cause that would’ve just been stupid -she has her own lair already, incredible -THAT WAS A TALKY THINGY I WAS RIGHT -But again, they can’t do anything original apparently -Fortress of Sanctuary - Fortress of Solitude wtf -okay but I’m sobbing because Kara and Kal are not the only Kryptonians left and now Sam’s gonna turn evil, kill me now -”I’m a hero” - oh god, Sam, you sweet innocent, i’m so sorry -Ruby was not an error bitch back tf up -oH NO ITS HAPPENING I DON’T LIKE IT -this is horrible. -i knew this was gonna happen. why did i let myself become so invested in her. please god i hate it -okay but that’s hot.

-so my prediction at the beginning was wrong. my overall feeling was just a shrug of eh because it was anticlimactic because we already knew what was going to happen and those sneak peeks didn’t help.

#my post #supergirl #supergirl 3x07 #supergirl season 3 #supergirl liveblog #supergirl watch #supergirl season 3 liveblog #supergirl season 3 watch

1 note · View note

quietparanoiac · 2 years ago

Photo

Your Majesty, you cannot make this problem just go away simply by repeating "yes" after everything... I say.

Horrible Histories (2009-2014), 3x07

#Horrible Histories #Gorgeous Georgians #Robert Walpole #Simon Farnaby #horriblehistoriesedit #period drama #perioddramaedit #periodedits #Horrible Histories 3x07 #my gifs #tbh I don't like the theme of this sketch #but these clips make too good reaction gifs to refuse #sorry about the quality I still haven't managed to get a decent rip of s03

100 notes · View notes

lothiriel84 · 5 years ago

Photo

Oh, did you understand that? Or are you just saying some English words you remembered?

#Horrible Histories #Gorgeous Georgians #George I #Robert Walpole #Ben Willbond #Simon Farnaby #Rhashan Stone #(I believe?)#3x07 #long post

68 notes · View notes

lothiriel84 · 5 years ago

Photo

Paul Revere’s All-American Toothpaste - because teeth are overrated.

#Horrible Histories #Awesome USA #Paul Revere’s All-American Toothpaste #Laurence Rickard #3x07

27 notes · View notes

lothiriel84 · 5 years ago

Photo

Permission to speak terminated.

#Horrible Histories #Vicious Vikings #Historical Wife Swap #Martha Howe-Douglas #Ben Willbond #3x07 #pretty people being pretty

23 notes · View notes

lothiriel84 · 5 years ago

Photo

I mean, a woman playing the part of a woman - who ever heard of such a thing?

#Horrible Histories #Slimy Stuarts #Horrible Points of View #Charles II #Simon Farnaby #Mathew Baynton #3x07 #long post

23 notes · View notes

florrickandassociates · 8 years ago

Text

TGF Thoughts: 1x07-- Not So Grand Jury

Thoughts on a delightful and eventful episode of The Good Fight under the cut. And (spoiler alert!) I don’t complain a single time about Maia not working.

We pick up where we left off: With Colin in Lucca’s office, telling her to be careful because her firm took an $800,000 bribe.

After Colin exits, a ticking noise kicks in (it’s the opening of a song, and it heightens the tension appropriately) and Lucca walks directly to the open seating area. Maia’s claiming a desk when Lucca arrives and pulls up a chair. (This is news Lucca has to sit down to deliver, a smart stage direction that both demonstrates Lucca’s understanding of how hard this will be for Maia to hear and matches with the lyrics about friendship in the tick-tick-tick song (“just for tonight/we can pretend/that we are friends/to the end”.)

(The Tick Tick Tick song is actually “Pretend” by Emika; I don’t know what it’s about because I haven’t listened beyond the line played in this scene yet, but it seems fitting to me to pair a lyric about pretending* to be friends with a moment where Lucca makes a friendly gesture—sitting instead of standing to deliver tough news—to someone who she wouldn’t call a friend.)

*it sounds sinister in the song, but in the show, I think it comes off more as acting as a friend towards someone you normally wouldn’t give that label to.

Lucca states the information she just heard from Colin. “That’s what I told my dad,” Maia realizes. “I know,” Lucca says in an understanding tone.

“Look, I know your first instinct would be to call him, but for the firm…” Lucca begins, but Maia’s learned her lesson already: “We need to tell the partners,” she interrupts. This breaks my heart. Whatever reservations I have about how Maia’s been written, it’s devastating to see a woman who had the utmost trust in her family just a few episodes ago become the person who suggests going straight to the partners. (Also, I love that Lucca makes a point of letting Maia know about the betrayal before she clues the partners in.)

Meanwhile, Mike Kresteva has empaneled a grand jury. He’s working with AUSA Zschau (Aaron Tveit), who appeared once on TGW (in 3x07) and has returned to the TG-verse now that Aaron Tveit is a favorite of the Kings. (He was a series regular on BrainDead last summer.)

Bribery and tax evasion (the fake stories Elsbeth planted) are the main focuses of the Grand Jury… for now. Like all TG-verse Grand Jury plots, the initial focus or strategy barely matters. As Kresteva says, all the grand jury has to believe to indict is that there is a possibility a crime was committed. This is why, at least in TG-v (I really need to come up with a standard way to refer to both shows at once; I feel like I’ve switched names for this as often as the writers switched the name of Diane’s firm in late-season TGW), grand juries usually involve throwing a bunch of things at the jury and hoping at least one thing sticks.

Diane isn’t on the list of name partners. Two episodes out from her power play, I’m wondering if they’ve dropped that thread or if we just haven’t circled back to it yet? On TGW, the signage was always updated the second the name changed. At the end of 1x05, Adrian congratulates Diane on being a FULL partner, not a name partner. Is there a chance Christine just said the line wrong and the script supervisor didn’t catch it? Diane asking to be a full, rather than junior, partner would make more sense than her asking to be a name partner, no? (Though, after bringing in an $86m/y client name partner makes sense too…)

Kresteva arrives at Elsbeth’s office with an order to assist in their investigation. Is that legal? Isn’t there attorney/client privilege here?

Anyway, Kresteva is there to confiscate Ada. “Ada! Erase history! Purge all files!” Elsbeth requests. Ada says “activating,” but then gives a synopsis for the movie The Purge. This is the second time in two episodes the writers have referenced The Purge; is Eli Gold responsible for this?

(The Tick Tick Tick song continues.)

Only a few minutes in, and Kresteva knows the bribery story is a lie. This is the moment where, on my first viewing, I knew this episode would be good. One of Elsbeth’s strategies failing? Elsbeth being undone by voice recording!? The piece of info that seemed like it would be central to the episode becoming an afterthought already!? How exciting! (But seriously, they just swiftly dispense with what seemed like the premise of the episode, instead focusing on new strategies without forgetting about the underlying tensions—the ones between Maia and her family members— of the old strategy.)

I don’t always love it when TG-V is all, TWIST! TWIST! ANOTHER TWIST! LEGAL MANEUVERING THAT’S SUPER FUN BUT WAIT WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON! But it never fails to be fun, especially when it’s treated as fun and good character moments are sprinkled in. (Okay, it’s failed to be fun before, but usually it’s fun on the first watch, at least, and the only time I really wasn’t on board was Peter’s trial in s7 of TGW, and… that arc had its own problems that had more to do with the structure of the season/character development/abandoning interesting threads than it did with the courtroom stuff.)

Ah, Colin has answered my question about attorney/client privilege. They can listen whenever it’s just Elsbeth talking to Ada. Colin remarks that Elsbeth reprimanding Ada is “not privileged.” Still, Ada records everything, so Ada has recorded Elsbeth saying that the $800,000 bribe story is a lie. (Wait, who is Elsbeth talking to here and why isn’t it privileged?)

Now Henry Rindell is in trouble: Kresteva suspects Henry is working with Maia, which would make much more sense than a father turning on his daughter, but isn’t the truth because Henry Rindell is horrible (but has potentially convinced himself he is not horrible).

Henry seems outraged when he realizes Maia might’ve been wearing a wire. Yeah, how dare that daughter of yours mistrust you! You’re so innocent, just trying to destroy her place of work, thinking she’d want you to do that without ever bothering to actually take her feelings into account. Father of the year.

“I have to see her,” Henry insists. Kresteva’s ready to send Henry back to prison. Henry wants to investigate, and Kresteva and Zschau go for it… if Henry wears a wire.

AMY IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the moment that confirmed the episode would be good. (Note: I don’t watch the credits so I can be unspoiled about guest stars.) Henry’s there for a visit, and Amy is not thrilled. She hands Maia a rum and coke, knowing she’ll need a drink.

Maia asks what Amy’s been talking to Henry about, and then realizes she’ll need to record this, too. (It’s April 13th, according to Maia’s phone.)

“Your apartment looks beautiful, Amy,” Henry makes small talk. Your apartment? Is it Amy’s apartment? Doesn’t sound like it, since Amy replies that they’ll have to move in a month or two.

“Oh, why’s that?” Henry asks cluelessly. Maia and Amy both glare at him. “Money, dad,” Maia reminds him. So, this answers questions I had about who’s paying for that lovely apartment: clearly, Maia’s parents were the ones paying much of the rent. (Though, it seems weird to me that between Maia and Amy, the two of them wouldn’t be able to pay the rent on that apartment. It’s a great space, but it appears to be an extra-large studio or a loft and they have two salaries between them. OK NOT THE POINT, I GET IT, THEY ARE UNDER MORE FINANCIAL STRAIN THAN THEY WERE AND I APPRECIATE THAT THE WRITERS ARE ACKNOWLEDGING THIS. (I just like to nitpick.)

Amy says she’ll let Maia and Henry talk. I’m not sure where she’s exiting to—is there another room other than the bathroom? A kitchen?

Maia stands as far away from her dad as she can—the distance is obvious. And, they’re standing.

“You didn’t trust me,” Henry accuses. EL-OH-EL. “You told me a lie last time. There was no bribery at your firm” he says. This scene was a sneak, and my first thought was, “MAIA, DON’T ANSWER HIM, HE COULD BE TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO ADMITTING THE LIE!” That’s irrelevant, now, because he already knows it’s a lie and doesn’t need Maia to confirm. I’m happy to see that Maia and I were on the same page, because, after she expresses some frustration with the fact this conversation is even happening, she says, “You were wearing a wire. If I told you a lie there was a reason.” Note the use of the word “if.”

“Talk to me like I’m your daughter. I am right here,” Maia insists, sitting down. Oh, how cool! I wasn’t even thinking about the sitting/standing difference when I mentioned it with Lucca, but it seems to be a thread, since Maia sits down at the exact moment she requests that the conversation switch from being formal to familiar. *Pats self on back*

Henry turns off his recording device (how cynical am I that I worried he had a second one stowed away?) and sits down. Maia, in return, turns off her phone recording.

Henry finally offers her an explanation: “I’m not doing this to save my skin. They’re coming after you. […] [For] the foundation. Your signature on the transferred funds.” Maia reminds him that her signature was forged. “Honey, I don’t think they’ll believe that,” Henry says. “You’re saying you were recording our conversations and using them against my law firm out of some clear concern for me?” Maia restates. Henry confirms this and says the Feds are threatening to prosecute her. Maia says that’s a lie; Henry insists it’s not. “Then don’t fucking use me to clear your conscience, dad,” Maia says. “You want to make a deal for yourself, do it. Don’t do it for me.”

Henry slips Maia info about how Kresteva knows the bribe is a lie. Maia knows that’s true, but she still asks Henry why she should trust him. Good question. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…

Henry’s info here is right: Kresteva does just want to destroy the firm; subpoenas are about to go out. And maybe he has convinced himself he’s doing the right thing or protecting his family. But that doesn’t mean he’s not acting in his own self-interest, that he’s not betraying his daughter, or that his family wants him to involve them in his strategies.

Cut to: a French cooking class. This sequence reminds me of the beginning of 3x12, where everyone’s subpoenaed while they’re out and about, so I knew what was coming and that we’d get little glimpses of what the characters do in their free time. What I didn’t know—and what was brilliantly withheld from the way this first scene is written/directed/edited—is that it’s not Diane who’s taking the French cooking class. As soon as I heard the word “French,” I assumed this was Diane’s way of capturing a little bit of France since she couldn’t have her country home. But nope! Adrian is the one taking the class, and now I love this moment even more than I would’ve if it had been Diane. He’s also, apparently, good at making complicated French sauces. I love it.

Barbara, meanwhile, is having dinner with an old friend from school. (#WilliciaVibes?) She’s having a good enough time with her companion that she doesn’t even stop to realize that the “waiter” (the process server) is bizarrely dressed. What an unpleasant surprise. I want to know more about Barbara’s friend!

And Lucca? She’s gearing up for a run (I was so excited to see her doing something on her own time that wasn’t flirting with Colin!) when the process server stops her at her doorway. She closes the door on him, but he slides the subpoena under.

Notably, we don’t see Diane get served—at this point or later in the episode. Any episode that gets the little things right is an episode I like. While I would’ve enjoyed seeing Diane in her free time, I also already have a sense of what Diane would do in her free time. It’s news to me that Adrian takes cooking classes, that Barbara is (apparently?) single, and that Lucca’s a runner. Choosing to focus on what the more unfamiliar characters do in their free time is, to me, a better use of time than showing us more of what Diane likes to do in her free time. (I suppose there’s no reason they couldn’t have shown a fourth—or fifth, since we do see Marissa get served too—one of these for Diane, since episodes don’t have to be 43 minutes anymore, but three examples conveys the point better than a sequence that goes on and on and on, and if there’s one that I’d choose to take place off-screen, it’d be Diane.) (Also, we’ve seen Diane get subpoenaed several times, including at least once already on TGF.)

Elsbeth and the partners strategize. “Grand juries always indict,” she reminds them. I’m a little shocked this episode isn’t called Yet Another Ham Sandwich. “Unless it’s a police brutality case,” Adrian comments. Accurate.

Elsbeth then gets off on a tangent about Barbara’s earrings. “Elsbeth.” Diane warns. “Right! Sorry. You’re amazing,” Elsbeth responds. God, I love Elsbeth. (I also love that Diane always seems to have less patience for Elsbeth than most of the other characters do.)

The Paisley Group, a former Florrick/Agos client, is thinking of jumping ship. How did RBK even have The Paisley Group as a client in the first place? I mean, that’s the client who told Alicia to read Ayn Rand. Kresteva is trying to scare off all the RBK clients.

Lucca has something to add, but she decides against sharing. Elsbeth calls her out on it, and she shares some info she got from Colin. The assistant attorney general was concerned that the investigation was seeming racist. She can’t reveal how she knows this, but everyone in the room agrees on a strategy: make it seem like the white AG’s office is targeting the firm because of race.

(I love the hand gestures Elsbeth makes as she says “close down the grand jury.”)

They have an audience of one, Elsbeth explains: the assistant AG. (This is similar to Elsbeth’s strategy from when she represented Will in 3x14: the strategy then was to tie everything to Peter Florrick.)

(I’m pointing out all the similarities to past episodes because, as I said on Twitter, this episode feels like TGW’s greatest hits thrown into a blender. Since this episode isn’t just repeating past episodes, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that every twist and turn in this episode felt familiar.)

Adrian asks Barbara for her opinion. “About using race?” she asks. “Well, it is about race.” The scene ends there. Perfect. I love the acknowledgement that this is a trial strategy, but it’s also the truth. Kresteva’s whole strategy is that he’d rather silence and destroy a majority African-American law firm than improve policing so that officers stop shooting/beating black people. It is absolutely about race.

Next, Adrian appears before the grand jury. He emphasizes that the firm is majority African-American, taking every opportunity he can to mention the racial makeup of his firm. Heh. (Also, he’s been practicing law in Chicago for 35 years.)

Barbara appears next, and Zschau and Kresteva seem increasingly irritated by all references to race. “I didn’t ask about your firm’s racial makeup,” Zschau says. “Yes, but you did ask me to answer in my own words, and these are my own words,” Barbara replies. (This is straight out of 1x14—Kalinda says this on the stand, too.)

Colin informs the AAG (is that an abbreviation? I don’t care; for the purposes of this recap it is) of what’s going on in court. He’s not pleased. Kresteva insists he’s staying away from race, but the AAG doesn’t care. He wants it to be clear it’s not about race.

This means that another round of subpoenas has to go out… this time only for the white people. Yes, because subpoenaing an assistant who’s been at the firm a month because she’s one of three white people at the firm is definitely going to convince the grand jury it’s not about race.

When she’s served, Marissa is learning Italian in the work elevator. Jay gets on the elevator, too. He asks why she’s learning Italian; she says she’s always wanted to. Apparently, Marissa is saying, “In my next life, I want to come back as a shark.” I’d question what kind of tape would have this as a phrase to learn, but I’ve used Duolingo before and some of the sentences really are that bizarre.

The process server finds Marissa: “Marissa Gold?” She responds by saying, in Italian, “No, in my next life, I want to come back as a shark.” In a wonderful twist, the process server speaks fluent Italian and responds, “Too bad. In this life, you’ve just been served.” I can’t. stop. Laughing.

As Elsbeth strategizes about what to do now, the Tick Tick Tick song returns. Now Kresteva’s being served. I love the process server guy even more because he’s self-aware about how many subpoenas he’s delivered in the last 48 hours.

Elsbeth has a strategy, and it’s one she also used in 4x15 to defend Eli (as I said, this episode is TGW’s greatest hits, though I’m not sure 4x15 actually counts as a greatest hit). She opens a suit in civil court to find out information from the investigation.

Elsbeth vs. Kresteva is working SO well for me. It’s like he’s the adversary for her that they always wanted Josh Perotti to be. What a shock—when there’s no weird romance/stalking subplot, Elsbeth vs. the liar working for the federal government works.

I keep getting served Netflix ads during commercial breaks. This feels weird.

Elsbeth presents Jay with The Schtup List. He expresses no interest in it until Elsbeth explains its importance. Neither Elsbeth nor Jay recognize the numbers listed next to the names, and Elsbeth asks Jay to investigate.

The Chicago Board of Trade is the DOJ now? Stock footage, shrug. (I mean, you can read that it says CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE in the clip they show.)

“I hate him,” Colin tells his boss. “Him” being his coworker, Kresteva. Heh. The AAG asks Colin if he’s under the mistaken impression he only defends people he likes. “No, I’m under the mistaken impression I don’t defend anyone. I’m a prosecutor,” Colin replies. HEH. (And, this is a thread that keeps coming back throughout the episode!)

Colin’s stuck with the case anyway. He tells his boss he’s dating a lawyer at RBK; his boss just says to stop dating her. This strategy doesn’t work either.

Colin tries to get Elsbeth’s case dismissed, but Elsbeth has a plan for that. She turns things over to Adrian, prompting Colin to ask if Adrian is the plaintiff or a lawyer. Since Colin’s the first to mention that Adrian should be called as a witness if he wants to talk, Judge Gallo allows the case to move forward. Heh. Colin’s out of his element. He also calls Elsbeth “the defense” and Gallo corrects him: “the plaintiff.” This is great. As I said, I love the little things, like reminding us that Colin isn’t used to arguing in civil court. They infuse moments of courtroom drama (or other plot-driven moments) with revealing character information.

Another example of this is that Colin, even though he hates Kresteva and personally agrees with Team RBK, is not in any way (well, aside from not breaking up with Lucca) intentionally throwing this case. He’s not giving it 110% (he wouldn’t be fumbling like this if he were), and he’s distracted by Lucca and by his internal conflicts, but he is doing his job.

“Make me your second chair,” Lucca advises Elsbeth. Elsbeth agrees.

Colin objects to a witness’s statement. He is really off his game.

Colin questions Adrian and asks how important the three clients they lost, the ones Kresteva scared off, were. They were only worth a combined 1.3 million, which means they must not have been doing much business for The Paisley Group (which makes sense to me, given what we know about The Paisley Group). Colin points out that they just signed ChumHum, which is worth $86 million. Yeah. But, as Lucca points out, that doesn’t mean Kresteva isn’t still affecting their client list.

Colin and Lucca bicker in court. Judge Gallo isn’t happy. Lucca apologizes, then asks why the defendant isn’t there. “I see. So Mr. Kresteva is too busy for Judge Gallo?” Lucca says when Colin explains Kresteva is busy. This is smart: Gallo seems like exactly the type of judge who would take offense at this sort of snub.

Marissa takes the stand next—in the grand jury room-- and sticks with the strategy. She explains that Diane mentors her in “becoming aware of the nature of white privilege.” Heh. Zschau mentions that Marissa also worked with Diane at Lockhart Deckler etc., and Marissa just comments that “that was definitely not an African-American firm. It was like the Trump White House there.” Bwah. The grand jurors like Marissa. When Kresteva suggests she move off of the subject of race, Marissa apologizes and says “Touchy.” The grand jurors like that, too, and their level of respect for Kresteva declines by the second.

Now Diane is the target: did she slip Adrian privileged information in F101?

Marissa calls Diane after court, then notices Andrew Hart. She takes a picture and takes it to the legal team.

To find out what Andrew Hart said to the grand jury… they call him to the stand in the civil case. Hehehe.

Elsbeth is on the most obvious fishing expedition ever—she has a list of possible motivations and runs through them one by one (at least, I think that’s what that list is?) until she figures out what Hart is up to—and it works. Idk about the legality of all this, but it sure is fun to watch.

Lucca distracts Colin as he tries to object. And by distracts, I mean sucks on her pen. In the middle of the court room. It works. (Hello, 5x12 Willicia.) (Only without the tension/hatred.) (Colin doesn’t really seem to care that Lucca’s throwing him off.)

After court, Lucca walks past Colin, makes sure he sees her, and then walks into an empty courtroom. He follows her in. She asks him to come by that night, and he tells her he’s been told to break up with her. She says he better do it and starts to leave. He stops her and pulls her in for a kiss. “You’re going to get fired,” she warns. “Mm. I hate my job anyway,” he says. That’s the truth right there. At this point, I think Colin really doesn’t care if he gets fired over this.

Meanwhile, Barbara sits down with a client Andrew Hart is trying to poach. The client doesn’t seem to like Hart very much, because he testifies for RBK and offers even more information than he’s asked to just to help.

The litigation financiers have been subpoenaed to testify at the grand jury. This episode moves fast, y’all. It’s impressive (but unsurprising) that TGF built, in six episodes, a complicated web of things that could come back to hurt RBK.

Can two people testify before a grand jury at once or is this a thing I just have to believe could happen because TV?

Things look bad for RBK: they have a clear story about the settlement for the case in F101 and how Diane’s warning led Adrian to be confident in a favorable settlement.

The litigation financiers don’t want to tell Adrian and Diane what they said to the grand jury, but they say just enough Adrian and Diane understand what they’re up against. “Fuck,” Adrian says, and one of the financiers reminds him not to swear. “It bugs out Jer,” Adrian recalls, quoting F102.

Diane takes full responsibility for this. She says she told Adrian more than she should have. (Adrian is correct in recalling what Diane says, FWIW. Diane said they would be getting a good settlement and to hire Maia, because she found a key piece of evidence. Unless this all hinges on the “you’ll get a good offer in a few hours” part of it? Is that disbarrable?)

Adrian doesn’t let Diane take responsibility for this. He reminds her Kresteva is going to go after anything he can. “Stop kicking yourself. We are dealing with people who are coming at us for the smallest infraction,” he says. He meant it when he told Maia in 1x04 that people at RBK look out for each other. Of course, RBK still has its office politics (see: Julius Cain), but the sense of loyalty and community is refreshing. It feels like the family environment L/G always purported to be. It’s easy to see, given this moment and others earlier in the season, how committed RBK is to its mission and culture. Adrian and Barbara have a clear vision for what they want their firm to be and how they want it to run, and I’d like to know more about it. (And more about how Diane threatens/can strengthen it—this is the sort of corporate culture Diane always said she wanted to cultivate!)

Adrian suggests that they defend themselves with something called “mere puffery.” I don’t know what this is (rather, I didn’t know what it was until they explained it in a later scene), but Adrian and Diane both crack up at the suggestion, so I find it funny too. Also, “mere puffery” just sounds funny.

Marissa saves the day! She recognizes a nine-digit number from her W-2. This… is a stretch.

Y’all know I paused the stream to read Marissa’s W-2. This W-2 says 2013. Also, that Marissa made $71,706.01. Lol. Lol. Lol. Lol. Lol. LOL. Doesn’t that seem awfully high for an assistant job that consists of running errands? Oh, God. Now I’m looking up the salaries all of these people would be making (Glassdoor says Marissa would not be making that much).

It’s a federal tax ID number. Marissa and Jay realize at the same time that if numbers on The Schtup List match numbers from Lockhart Deckler, Diane is screwed.

Diane is on the stand. She tries out mere puffery, which she explains (it means promoting through exaggeration). Kresteva says he knows what it is. (Yay for good exposition!)

They show her The Schtup List, and connect it to Diane hiring Maia, and… yeah, this doesn’t look good.

Kresteva also explains that they have Henry Rindell coming in the next day.

After the grand jury, Diane finds Adrian and says she needs to resign because she’s about to be indicted. “Are you… guilty of anything? Other than being friends with the wrong people?” Adrian asks. No, she isn’t. (Maia listens in and figures out what she has to do—this is something I wish she’d done a few episodes ago, but better late than never, and I appreciate that it’s tied to her concern for her godmother.) Diane keeps insisting that she should resign, but Adrian is, in his words, “not running scared from motherfuckers like [Kresteva.]” Awww, warm and fuzzy feelings.

Then the scene ventures on preachy, but only because it’s the 2nd scene in 3 episodes to include repetition of the word “fight” as what Diane has to do. Like, yeah, we get it, this is called The Good Fight. No one ever called Alicia “The Good Wife” to her face! (But I guess “Saint Alicia” is the same thing.)

Diane looks shocked that someone could be so kind to her. Must take a lot of betrayal to get to the point where you’re surprised when your partners stand up for you. Poor Diane. (I wish Barbara were here for this conversation, though. It would be interesting to see her agree with Adrian on this, not necessarily because she supports Diane without any reservations but because she believes that her firm shouldn’t throw its own under the bus.)

Maia meets with her father again, recording devices off. “You’re testifying against Diane?” Maia asks. “No, I’m telling the truth,” Henry says. “Oh. Your alternative truth?” Maia says. HAH.

Maia connects the dots, a little too late. Was that the only use of The Schtup List? Not turning against Jax, but framing Diane in exchange for a lighter sentence? (I wonder about this. Given that Jax is barely mentioned in this episode and Henry wanted the list, not proof it was on Jax’s computer, I suspect that Maia’s right about Henry’s motives.)

Henry says it was just about leverage, but Maia cuts through that bullshit: “You betrayed her for a lighter sentence?” Henry insists this is so Maia won’t see jail time, and neither will Lenore. But… dude… you had to have Maia break the law and implicate herself in order to get that list, and now you’re ruining her workplace. And Maia sees through this, too: it wasn’t just altruistic… Henry wanted a lighter sentence for himself, too.

“I want a chance to see you have kids. I want to hold my grandkids,” Henry says. Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you stole people’s money! “What was the deal?” Maia asks. “Ten years,” Henry says, and Maia immediately understands how favorable that is. She asks him not to testify against Diane—an offer of ten years indicates a weak case.

But Henry keeps insisting he has to testify… “it’s for you, too.” Maia rejects his help in the strongest way possible: “You do this, dad, and if I ever have any kids, you’ll never see them. I’ll never let you see them.” This is hard to watch (would be even harder if I had emotional investment in any of the Rindells, which I don’t, really). Maia’s probably more damaged by this conversation than by any other part of the scandal. Her own father is trying to disguise his own self-interest as protecting her, to the point where he’s able to rationalize throwing old friends—friends whose life savings he’s already wiped out because of his own greed!—under the bus as something noble.

He tries to kiss Maia goodbye, but she rejects his embrace. “I love you,” he says. Maia doesn’t respond.

For the first time in episodes, Diane and Maia feel like godmother/goddaughter. They’re sitting together in civil court, anticipating Henry’s testimony (he’s been subpoenaed there as well). “Are you alright?” Diane asks Maia. “No, not really,” Maia replies. “I wish I could tell you it’ll get easier,” Diane says. “I wish you could tell me that too,” Maia says. And in one short exchange, Maia gets the character development I’ve been looking for! She’s grown more accepting, mature, and resolute. And, unlike in past episodes, we’re actually getting a check-in on how she’s doing. In the episodes where Maia was acting recklessly, it wasn’t clear enough, IMO, why, other than the generic motivation* of “family,” she’d make the decisions she did. (The solution to that problem would’ve been more stories about life before, or moments that felt very genuine between her and her parents, or anything else that would make me believe Maia would really help her cartoon villain parents.) But in this episode (and the last), I understand Maia’s decisions. I see what changes for her and when and why, I see her questioning her loyalties, and I see her coming to terms with her new reality and forming/strengthening new bonds. Even a line as simple as this exchange shows Maia’s thought process, and that’s a welcome change from the conspiracy-driven nonsense of the past few episodes.

*this is not a bad motivation or even a bad plot; my problem is that it was an underdeveloped motivation that made it hard to sympathize with a brand-new character who was almost exclusively interacting with two dimensional characters who seemed so obviously shifty that Maia’s trust in them (well, just Henry, really) and willingness to break the law for them never quite made sense.

Anyway, Elsbeth asks a question influenced by information Maia’s told her: what did Kresteva offer him in exchange for his grand jury testimony? Henry stares right at Maia, and tells the truth: ten years instead of life without parole. Maia stares back: she knows what she’s done, and she’s not hiding it. She knows she’s just almost guaranteed her father will get life without parole. And she is okay with that. She knows she’s going to have to be.

Things aren’t going well over at the DOJ. The news of the (proposed) plea deal is out, and Kresteva’s strategy, now that it’s so public and not just a backroom deal, isn’t to the assistant attorney general’s liking. (Shitty boss, though, because he totally signed off on this strategy in a prior episode.)

Kresteva shows up at Elsbeth’s office. He hands her a cardboard box, and tells her he was just fired. “I’m just happy it’s over,” Elsbeth says. “I just think it’s funny that you think this is over,” Kresteva says. Then he leaves. So… is there more? Or is this just Kresteva’s way of getting the last word? (Side note: I appreciate that this episode didn’t rely at all on the “Kresteva is a lying liar” thing. He still is a lying liar, but he’s not just someone who makes up stories. That only works to a point.)

What’s in the box? Ada! I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t use that thing ever again. Half the time, it doesn’t work, and it’s also always recording you.

At RBK, Diane stops by Maia’s desk and thanks her. “You could have protected yourself, and instead you protected me,” Diane says. “Please, don’t mention it,” Maia replies. “You got me this job,” Maia says warmly. “You deserved it,” Diane replies. She thanks Maia again, patting her head (well, not exactly, but I’m blanking on how to describe it and “patting her head” captures the dynamic more accurately than “stroking her face”). Maia doesn’t reject this gesture the way she rejected her father’s kiss.

Another great, short moment that’s better late than never. I would’ve liked to see more from Diane and Maia between 1x01 and 1x07, but this is exactly the sort of development I wanted. Strangely enough, this is also development that had to take place this far into the season and after the events of this episode. It wouldn’t have worked to have Maia realign her loyalties so she values her relationship with Diane (and, secondarily, the firm) more than she values her relationship with her parents right at the start of the show. Maia had to lose her trust in her parents and make choices for herself before we could get here. Otherwise, it might have felt like Maia was just rebelling, or that she was making a hasty, emotional decision. So, I’ll amend my earlier statement: this moment isn’t better late than never. It’s precisely right for this moment, but I wish we’d gotten the Maia and Diane scenes that were precisely right for all the moments between 1x01 and 1x07, too.

(I can’t say enough good things about this scene. It shows Maia’s maturity and awareness, but still conveys that Maia is the closest thing Diane has to a daughter. This moment doesn’t establish Maia and Diane as peers—even though you got me a job, I saved your job seems like it could do that. It reminds us that they’re each other’s chosen family, and it acknowledges that Maia is both a mature adult and someone who could use a mother/mentor figure. I want more of this going forward, and I will be very disappointed if this thread disappears for another several episodes. This is the sort of thing that should be present in almost every episode, even in the smallest moments.)

(For example, Diane tells Maia that she “deserved” this job. That could be because Maia’s a great lawyer who found a key piece of evidence, but it’s also totally because Diane has an easy time picturing Maia, the smart girl she’s watched grow up, as someone deserving and capable. That sort of thing should be clear in every scene between Diane and Maia—and there should be plenty of scenes between Diane and Maia, since her connection to Diane is the reason we have Maia on the show in the first place, right?)

In another good moment for Maia (have you notice I haven’t complained about her not working in this recap!? Sure, that’s because there’s no COTW or subplots that seems to take place during business hours, but it’s also because the writers finally bothered* to use Maia well), Marissa asks to get drinks. Maia says no, at first, but reconsiders. She needs a drink after that day, but this isn’t about alcohol: this is about establishing ties. She’s reaffirmed her loyalty to Diane, but she’s also starting to think about making new friends, embracing her workplace, and focusing on the things she’d be focusing on without the conspiracy drama surrounding her.

*I say “finally bothered” because the past few weeks, they haven’t even been trying. I’ve seen the writers try and fail to convey character development, and I’ve seen them try and succeed at character development. It felt like they were not even trying the past few weeks.

Lucca’s heading out for another run, but she’s interrupted again, this time by Colin. He says something, but the music’s too loud for us to hear it (by which I mean that the music plays instead of whatever he’s saying). Lucca gives him a hug to comfort him and invites him in. Hm. I don’t know what he said. Perhaps he was fired? That would make sense, given that Kresteva was fired, the grand jury was a mess, he’s already indicated he was ready to move on, and that Lucca’s hug suggests she’s reacting to bad/sad news, not just greeting him. I wonder if we’ll ever find out what he said, and why the writers chose to make the line silent.

In any event, I’m intrigued. This has been the most enjoyable episode since the pilot, and it hit the right balance of character moments and plot development. It also seemed to tie up some plots that weren’t working and brought together a lot of threads. Plus, the grand jury episodes are always fun, especially when they have real stakes and/or involve Elsbeth. It’s smart that this episode, by the end, places more importance on the consequences of this investigation for Maia. We know the firm’s probably going to survive this, and that it’ll probably survive any subsequent investigation plots. But Maia’s relationship with her dad doesn’t have to survive or be repaired for the show to continue, so there’s a character-motivated reason for the grand jury. The episode also concludes (?) the Rindell conspiracy arc in a way that involves everyone at RBK instead of pulling Maia even further out of the RBK orbit, and it solidifies Diane’s membership among the partners of her new firm. That’s what I want to see: A fun (if, at times, derivative) episode that still feels consequential and is about characters as much as it’s about plot.

#The Good Fight #TGFThoughts

20 notes · View notes