#I wanted to make it feel final and climactic and still leave hints of future events

[warriors-rewritten-chaos]

Detailed Rewrite Plot Summary: The Darkest Hour

We’ve made it to the first arc’s grand finale! 

Firespirit, now Firestar, becomes ThunderClan’s new Leader and journeys to the Moonstone to receive his nine lives from StarClan. The lives he receives are: Courage (Lionheart), Justice (Redtail), Loyalty (Silverstream), Protection (Brindleface), Love (Spottedleaf), Joy (Rosetail), Selflessness (Swiftpaw), Compassion (Volewhisper), and Faith (Bluestar). However, his ceremony is interrupted at the end by a colossal hill of blood-soaked cat bones erupting from the earth around him. Bluestar gives him a foreboding prophecy: “Four will become two. Lion and Tiger will meet in battle, and Blood will rule the forest”. Firestar returns to ThunderClan, stomach churning with anxiety and dread.

Once he returns, he names Whitestorm as his Deputy, performs a renaming ceremony for the cats Bluestar cruelly named, and names Willowmoon’s kits apprentices at long last. Brightheart, Snowpaw, and Cinderspark’s names are cheered by the entire Clan. So are Sorrelpaw, Sootpaw, and Rainpaw, who are given Cloudtail, Cinderspark, and Brightheart as their mentors. Firestar also names Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw apprentices, but the Clan is much less enthusiastic and happy about the two of them. The two of them are disliked and distrusted for being Tigerstar’s kits and having a strong resemblance to their biological father. Firestar declares that he will mentor Bramblepaw personally, while he chooses the unenthusiastic Willowmoon to mentor Tawnypaw. Before the ceremony ends, Lynxtuft and Ashfur approach and ask for their names to be changed to Lynxswift and Ashface in honor of their recently deceased loved ones. Firestar happily does so.

Also around this time, Firestar confesses his love to Sandstorm. She admits that she feels the same, but she cannot become his mate. She tells him that it’s obvious Firestar still harbors romantic feelings for Graystripe. It isn't that she has an issue with polyamory (such relationships, while rare, are considered perfectly normal in the Clans) but she does have an issue with the fact that Graystripe is now a RiverClan cat and their relationship would thus break the Warrior Code and get the three of them into major trouble. She tells him to figure himself out first.

At the next Gathering, Tigerstar and Leopardstar ask that WindClan and ThunderClan join their new combined version of ShadowClan and RiverClan, dubbed TigerClan. Naturally, the other two Clans refuse and a fight ensues that nearly escalates into a full-on battle before a storm comes rolling in and blots out the moon, ending the Gathering early again.

To try to clear his mind, Firestar goes for a walk by his old kittypet home. What he discovers are terrified kittypets refusing to leave their homes due to the threat of a violent group that now fully controls Twolegplace- The Coven of Blood, and stray cats fleeing the city en-masse. Firestar checks on Smudge, Hattie, and Princess to make sure they’re safe before he heads to Henry, Ferris, Pollyanna, and Xena’s home. The first thing he notices once he gets there is that the two sisters are heavily bandaged and smell like Twoleg medicine and that their parents are nowhere to be seen. They begin sobbing when he asks them what happened and where Ferris and Henry are but he learns the horrifying story through their tears.

Around a week ago, the family had gone out by the forest for their morning walk and had been accosted by a strange tom who smelled like the forest. None of them knew who the tom was themselves, but he seemed to have recognized them. He was hostile from the get-go but became enraged when they told him they had no idea who he was when he asked them. He tore up Xena and Pollyanna, but didn't kill them. Instead, he told them to leave, never approach the forest again, and that “this is what the Clans do to traitors”. The sisters had been forced to leave their fathers behind to flee for their own lives as they were viciously torn apart. When Firestar asks what the cat looked like, the description they give is of Tigerstar in everything but name. Firestar then returns to camp more concerned and troubled than before.

Also around this point is when Tawnypaw vanishes and reappears in ShadowClan, having chosen to try to find acceptance through joining a Clan that reveres her father after reaching her breaking point in ThunderClan. Firestar and Goldenflower comfort the devastated Bramblepaw.

Soon after, Ravenpaw comes hurrying into the ThunderClan camp asking to see Firestar. Apparently, they had gone to RiverClan to see Graystripe and his now apprenticed kits after paying their respects to Bluestar but instead stumbled upon a terrifying sight: Stonefur, Mistyfoot, Graystripe, Featherpaw, and Willowpaw are being held prisoner in the RiverClan camp. The group managed to sneak a message for help out via Ravenpaw, which is what he’s delivering to Firestar. Firestar mounts a rescue mission and when the group arrives things are just starting to go sideways.

Tigerstar and Leopardstar are putting the five prisoners on trial, denouncing them as half-clan cats (non-RiverClan in Graystripe’s case) and therefore Codebreakers and traitors who must be harshly punished. Stonefur and Mistyfoot are ordered to execute Graystripe, Willowpaw, and Featherpaw to put themselves back in TigerClan’s good graces, but they refuse to do so. Tigerstar then orders Darkstripe to kill them, but Darkstripe is a wimp and Stonefur and Mistyfoot are still formidable opponents despite their weakened state and together they fight him off. Tigerstar then calls in Blackfoot to finish the job. While this is happening, Firestar’s patrol consisting of himself, Ravenpaw, Sandstorm, Cloudtail, Thornclaw, and Dustpelt creates a diversion and manages to successfully rescue Mistyfoot, Graystripe, Willowpaw, and Featherpaw. Stonefur chooses to remain behind to buy them enough time to flee and is slaughtered by Blackfoot as the others make their escape.

While the four refugees are recovering in ThunderClan and mourning the death of Stonefur, Firestar gets another urgent message, this time from the WindClan Warrior Runningbrook who was sent as a messenger. WindClan is under attack by TigerClan, who have mobilized and are attempting to force them to join under threat of destruction. While Firestar gathers another patrol and rushes to their aid, by the time he gets there TigerClan has gone. While WindClan had managed to fight them off somehow, Tigerstar had publicly killed Gorsepaw, who Firestar had an attachment to, as a warning of what was to come if they didn't join TigerClan peacefully. Grief-stricken Onewhisker snarls at his former friend, telling Firestar that his apprentice would still be alive if Firestar hadn’t gotten unnecessarily involved with WindClan and says he’ll kill him if he ever sees him on WindClan territory again. 

TigerClan sends messengers informing ThunderClan and WindClan that they have just three days left to join TigerClan and avoid a deadly battle.

Tallstar, Nightoak, Whitestorm, and Firestar meet and discuss what they’re going to do. Neither WindClan or ThunderClan has any intention of joining TigerClan, but all agree that if they fight alone they will be overwhelmed and destroyed. They make the decision to temporarily combine their fighting forces into one that they name LionClan. On the dawn of the third day, Firestar and Tallstar mobilize their Warriors to meet TigerClan head-on.

Upon reaching the battlefield, they find a third group has joined forces with TigerClan- The Coven of Blood, the bloodthirsty group that has taken control of Twolegplace. Their Leader is a cat by the name of Scourge who explains that his group is assisting TigerClan as mercenaries on the condition that they are given territory and resources. The battle is set to begin, but the Coven cat’s don’t move when Tigerstar calls his cats to fight. The battle abruptly stops as Tigerstar rounds on Scourge to demand he mobilize his cats to fight. Scourge’s only response is to laugh and say that he's waited for this moment for a long time. Before any cat knows what’s happening, Scourge lunges at Tigerstar and uses his dog tooth and glass-tipped claws to tear him open from chest to tail.

TigerClan and LionClan look on in horror as the wound is so severe it is unable to close even with the regenerative power of a Leader and Tigerstar loses all nine lives all at once. As his convulsing body goes limp for the final time, Leopardstar and many of the Clanborn TigerClan members. He then tells the Clans that he and his fighters will kill all of the Clans and take the forest themselves. With that, The Coven attacks.

At first, the remaining Clan cats (LionClan and the remaining TigerClan cats that have joined them now that Tigerstar is dead) think this will be an easy fight since The Coven no longer has the support of ShadowClan and RiverClan and thus has lost the advantage of greater numbers. This is before an avalanche of hundreds of Coven cats pour from the shadows into the battlefield, having been hidden until Scourge gave a signal. The battle begins.

Predictably, it is an absolute bloodbath. Cats are dying left and right. Firestar, Sandstorm, and Graystripe team up to take on a massive group of cats and do well before they’re separated. Firestar watches in horror as Nightoak is basically decapitated in front of Ashfoot and their children. Whitestorm, who had joined up with Firestar after he’d been separated from his partners, is attacked and killed by the Coven cat Bone. Before Firestar can avenge him himself, apprentices and young Warriors of all four Clans mob Bone en-masse. The last Firestar sees of Bone, he is being torn and crushed by the mob.

Firestar finds Scourge standing over Tallstar with his claws near the old tom’s neck. Firestar flings the smaller tom off and the two begin to fight to the death. Firestar gets the upper paw, believes that he will be the victor... but Scourge tears his throat out and he crashes to the ground. He dies and awakens in a place that isn't StarClan. It is a a void of pure darkness, with no light but he can feel jagged stones pressing into his back. A cave, then. A translucent being that resembles a cat but not quite is crouching in front of him. It has no eyes and is devoid of fur, and just looking at it makes Firestar’s vision swim and his head ache.

The thing reaches out its paw to Firestar’s still-bleeding throat and as it touches him, he sees everything. Every moment of his life up to this point, and things that have never happened but are meant to, he can feel it. He sees it all and forgets just as quickly as battle-sound feels his ears once more and the pitch-dark cavern fades away. The last thing he hears is words spoken by many calling voices that he’s never heard but knows all the same in his ear telling him one simple thing.

“Not   yet.......”

And then, he is back in his body with his throat healed and Scourge walking away from him. He jumps to his feet and catches the tom off guard. Scourge barely gets out a “how?!” before Firestar crushes his small throat in his teeth.

With their Leader now dead, the Coven flees. Groups of Warriors pursue the stragglers as the surviving Clan cats return to their homes to rest and bury their dead. Firestar bows his head to the other Clans as he and his clanmates return to ThunderClan, with both Graystripe and Sandstorm pressed tightly against him, tails entwined, and followed by Bramblepaw who keeps stopping to look at his sister headed towards ShadowClan.

[linkspooky]

Emma’s Sacrifice

In the most recent chapter Peter Ratri, in a last ditch effort to spite Emma and the children he’s decided to attempt killing Emma in order to void the promise to let them all escape. While this may seem like Peter’s pathetic last stand, there’s a chance that he might be partially successful. He might fatally wound, or even kill Emma. However, even if he does manage that the promise itself will not end. Because here’s my prediction, in order to use the promise to cross back itno the human world, Emma was always going to have to sacrifice her life. 

1. Emma’s Most Precious Thing

As any deal with the devil there was a clear condition that came with forging a new promise with the nameless god. A deal that comes with fine print is always suspicious, but it’s especially so to the reader in this case because we still do not know what Emma promised as a reward for the nameless entity in order to allow the children to return to the human world. However, there are enough clues in context to give an idea of what Emma might have to sacrifice. 

The first is that the god deliberately separated Ray and Emma. Nameless always knew that Ray and Emma were going to come and find them. They speak of knowing and anticipating their arrival. It’s also specifically Ray’s common sense, his inability to let go of his own sense of internal logic and bend his mind the way that Norman and Emma do in order to imagine the impossible.

However, it’s because Ray is the more conservative and logic one that he would never allow Emma to do something too risky, or sacrifice too much in order to forge the promise. If Emma were to try to sacrifice herself, Ray would have stopped her right then and there. Therefore if the god is trying to take a reward from Emma, it makes sense to separate the two of them. 

Nameless specifically outlines that they always want something important as the reward. In the case of Ratri’s descendant, they took his future to be free of the demons essentially, by chaining him and his family to working with the demons in the second world for the rest of his life. 

Emma’s something important could only be a few things. The most important thing to her is the happiness of her family, but killing all the children she considered her family would make the point of reforging a new promise moot. Her dreams? Her dream was for her family to escape to the human world where they could be happy and alive. Emma herself is an admittedly selfish person though, always thinking of herself, her love for her family, and her own dreams first before anyone else’s wishes. Her big flaw to overcome was for her to become aware of her own selfishness, and ask the rest of her family for help in dealing with Norman. A future where everybody escapes without her would be an ironic punishment, and a sacrifice that Emma herself would make. 

There are also two reactions themselves which inform us that the nameless god was asking for a lot as the reward. Emma knew that they were going to ask for something as a reward and was mentally preparing herself and even after that, what they asked her took her completely by surprise. We see her shock and horror in her expression, and the story uses the art to inform us of a lot that’s not directly spoken. After all, Emma’s true reaction to Norman’s plan was foreshadowed for a chapter with her horrified reaction when Norman announced it, before Ray got the answer out of her. 

The second hint is Ray deliberately thinks to ask what the reward they have to pay is, but then Emma avoids the question. She even says she’ll tell him what it is later, but it’s been chapters since then and Emma has remained mute. It’s likely Emma herself is planning on telling everyone right as they’re about to leave so they have no choice but to go without her. As if Ray did know Emma was planning on sacrificing herself he would definitely stop her. 

The cost of everybody else escaping is most likely Emma’s own life.

2. Emma and Norman Saving Each Other

Norman and Emma are character foils, set up as two halves of the same whole person since the beginning of the manga. I go more in depth with their foiling [here]. While Norman and Emma both seem like opposites, Emma the dreamer with her head in the clouds, and Norman the tactician willing to get his hands dirty they’re actually far too similiar. Norman’s main flaw is that he will always take the entire burden on himself. Emma’s flaw is she puts her whole family’s needs before her own. They are both people who consider their own lives expendable, but cannot accept the sacrifices of other people. 

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Emma would go so far to stop Norman from sacrificing himself a second time, only to be planning to let herself die in order to forge the promise. Norman’s death is an unaccpetable sacrifice to Emma. She can’t bear to lose any of her family. The pain of losing them will always be worse for her than the pain of losing herself. Even when Emma is talking about the future she wants, she never really mentions what she wants for herself. She just mentions how she wants to save the others around her. 

Emma and Norman share the same fatal flaw (literally in this case), they will both always choose to kill themselves. Their needs will always come last. They are both people who are incredibly reckless with their own lives and unable to see the importance they have to the other people around him. This is even something that Norman realizes about Emma early on when he was trying to sacrifice himself for the first time. That she’ll throw everything away at a moment’s notice, rather than face the pain of losing someone else.

If the choice is between killing themselves and killing someone else, they’ll always kill themselves, over and over again. Norman does it by shutting down his true feelings, whereas Emma does it by her total recklessness and refusing to value her own life. 

The greatest cause of tension in Norman and Emma’s relationship is that both of them want to sacrifice themselves for the other. Neither of them realizes how important they are to each other. They both unvalue themselves against the other, which is why every time it looks like they’re going to get close they fight like this again. Which is why despite Norman knowing what his feelings are, and Emma losing Norman once, neither of them can let their feelings for the other grow and mature into anything romantic. They are both people who are terribly afraid of losing people, and self-sacrificing to a fault. 

Emma and Norman are both fatally unable to realize the importance they have to one another. That neither of them can just disappear and die without leaving a permanent wound on the other. 

Norman and Emma even have parallel sequences of saving the other at their lowest point. When Norman has succeeded in slaughtering the nobles, and stands over their corpses he sees Emma’s childhood self come to retrieve him. Norman who was speeding off to his own death because he reufsed to tell the others that the experiments had significantly shortened his lifespan is found in a pitch black void by Emma’s childhood self, who tries to lead Norman back to his own childhood. 

In Goldy Pond, Emma has a similiar and parallel experience. When she is stabbed by Lewis and about to die, once again a death caused by her own recklessness and disregard for her own life by charging ahead in order to finish the fight. Emma falls away from her body and sinks into a pitch black void.

When she is falling away from herself, and from life it’s Norman who appears to retrieve her. He’s the one who leads her back to the surface by taking her hand.

These scenes are perfectly in paralllel because when Emma and Norman boWth try to sacrifice themselves, it’s always the other that pulls them back. While they both want to sacrifice themselves, more than that both of them want the other to live, and to live with them.

Which is what forms my next theory. When Peter Ratri wounds Emma, she’ll tell everyone in the aftermath that it’s fine, because if they all escaped to the human world she was going to die anyway. At that time it will be Norman who saves Emma, by reminding the children of his original plan. Instead of returning to the human world, stay in the neverland and make it into a paradise for children. 

At which point all of Emma’s efforts into making demon and human coexistence possible, and stopping Norman from killing all of the demons present in this world will not go to waste as the children decide to stay behind. 

There’s one last piece of evidence, in that every single member of the trio has had a climactic moment where they tried to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the other two. For Ray, it was when he tried to burn himself a live to provide a distraction for everyone’s escape. For Norman it was when he tried to go through with his plan to eradicate the demons alone, and then die of sickness so Ray and Emma could live with their family in the paradise for children Emma wanted. The only character of the trio not to be saved from an attempt to sacrifice her life so far is Emma, and because Emma in both cases is the one who talked Norman and Ray down from the edge, it’s their time finally to save her from herself. 

[pennypeabody]

Mädchen Amick teases Riverdale directorial debut, and what she learned from David Lynch

Mädchen Amick wasn't planning to direct the Riverdale season 4 finale. But when the coronavirus pandemic halted production across the world, her directorial debut on the CW series moved into the coveted spot.

"You want it to be exciting and climactic and really building its energy, so I wanted to honor that," the actress tells EW of her fateful episode. "There was a little extra pressure."

Amick has been directing since 2015, beginning with one of her daughter Mina Tobias' music videos. And while Riverdale has kept her busy playing Alice Cooper, the uptight, haunted mother of Betty (Lili Reinhart), since 2017, she has long dreamed of stepping behind the camera as well.

She finally got her shot for "Killing Mr. Honey," which was originally intended as the 19th installment of the 22-episode season. Now it will have to stand as the conclusion — and Amick warns that it ends on a cliffhanger.

In the photos above and below, EW has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Amick's directing days on Riverdale. And ahead of the episode's May 6 airing, we called up Amick to discuss her experiences calling the shots, what it was like pulling double duty, and how working with David Lynch early in her career inspired her as an auteur.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long have you had an itch to direct, and how did this episode come about?

MÄDCHEN AMICK: I moved to L.A. at 16, and got Twin Peaks at 17. I would say around my mid-20s, I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to be more than just an actress and be a storyteller, but so many things in my career made me busy and made me feel like, "Oh, I don’t have time to step behind the camera. I have to keep busy and focused on staying in front of the camera." This was in the mid-'90s, and there were a few female directors — one in particular was Diane Keaton on the original Twin Peaks — that showed me there are women doing this, but [now] there’s a little bit of this movement to get more diversity behind the camera that I benefitted from. I have to give credit to my husband and my daughter. She asked me to direct her music video, and I was honored and jumped right in. I’ve done a few music videos. I’ve directed and produced a docuseries pilot. At the beginning of Riverdale when I did that first thing, I’d started asking around and asking [creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa] and [producers] Sarah Schechter and Greg Berlanti. I said, "Hey, guys, I really would love to direct an episode." They were super-supportive and excited. So it was this season that Roberto said, "You want to direct this season?" And I was like, "Yes!"

Riverdale has a very specific, highly stylized aesthetic. Did that make directing easier or harder, especially when it comes to putting your own stamp on the episode?

It was easy for me. I know the show so well, inside and out. I really enjoy the storytelling and the filmmaking part of it. So I know what Roberto likes, as far as the way he likes the story to be told and unfold. That was a great template that was already in place, and I wanted to honor that. Then, I just wanted to elevate it as much as I could and get as strong as performances out of all my fellow actors, which they were great and supportive. And just push the visual boundaries as much as possible. Presenting new ways to shoot scenes, but still staying within the world and the visual look to it, and just hoping that Roberto loved it.

I remember Roberto and I had a conversation: It might’ve been season 2 or season 3, but there was an episode and he said it didn’t feel very inspired. That really gave me an insight into [that] he really wants directors to come on board and love the show and be excited about the show, and then bring an inspirational take to it. That made me feel I had a little bit of freedom to run with it, and he didn’t want a cookie cutter, just make everything the same. It was nice to hear he wanted something that was inspired.

When you directed the episode, it wasn’t meant to be the season finale, but now it is. Is that exciting? Nerve-racking?

Since it's [episode] 19 of 22, you are getting to the end, so there’s usually a lot of climactic things happening. That’s a lot of responsibility, just because I want to get it right. I know we’re getting toward the end, and those last few are really important to start tying up loose ends or building to a cliffhanger. You want it to be exciting and climactic and really building its energy, so I wanted to honor that. There was a little extra pressure.

Did it lead to any last-minute adjustments or changes in the storytelling?

The episode that I shot was the last episode that we completed as far as filming. We were halfway through 20 when production stopped, so I was editing when production stopped. At that point, we didn’t really know that the season would be done. It was a little bit of a holding pattern of, "Are we just pausing and we’ll get back to it, or will our season end a little short?" Now knowing my episode will serve as the finale for this season, obviously we’ll pick up back up next season. They’ll have to adjust some storytelling with what they had planned at the end of this season. As far as my episode, it pretty much stayed intact the way it was written. There was a new layer that came into the story that now serves as an interesting cliffhanger.

You also appear as Alice throughout the episode. What was it like having to pull double duty?

I’m not gonna lie, it was a huge challenge. My brain was so much behind the camera that it was hard for me to switch over to being in character. I could easily slip into Alice, but I could not remember my lines, and I’m usually really good at that. I was really struggling. In one scene in particular, there’s a big confrontation that Alice has with Mr. Honey and she drives the whole scene with all of the parents, and I could not remember it, to the point where my fellow actors were whispering the lines to me to try to help me get through it. Man, it was rough. I know I’ll continue to get better with that with practice, but my brain was not in that space at all. I was full-on thinking of shots and directing my other actors, so it was a big challenge.

This episode is going to have to hold us over for a while; what can you tease about it? Would you say it’s a satisfactory end to the season?

The whole theme of the episode is the big confrontation between the kids and their awful Principal Honey, who’s just been tormenting them the whole season. So lots of really, really fun stuff. There’s a mixture of some fantasy of what they want to do to Mr. Honey and some reality of what ends up happening to Mr. Honey. So that’s the big tease.

The back half of the season angered so many Varchie and Bughead fans, and it doesn’t seem like the same instant regret Archie and Betty have had over previous kisses. What can you say about where those relationships and feelings are headed? Might Riverdale be exploding some of its most beloved relationships?

[Laughs] Why? Why were they upset? No, but don’t they always teeter on that? I think Roberto loves to torture the fans, quite frankly. That’s the fun dynamic, and that is what’s classic to the Archie Comics, is you have this love triangle that’s always been between Archie, Betty, Veronica, and now we’ve thrown in Jughead into the mix. It’s complicated, but we’ll see what ends up happening at the end of senior year and where relationships really go. I know the plan for the next season is we were going to jump forward in time and see where everybody had landed, but I don’t know if that’s gonna adjust now that our season changed a bit.

Both Skeet Ulrich and Marisol Nichols had announced they were leaving at the end of this season, leaving you as the only original Riverdale parent left standing. Now that filming has ended early, does that alter their plans? Will we get any hint of where F.P. and Hermione were originally headed?

As far as the episode I directed, there wasn’t really anything different happening for their characters. It was the same story line going on. But with technically three more episodes they had planned, I’m assuming they had plans. I also know Roberto really loves Skeet and Marisol, and he told me he hopes their characters can come and go from the show depending on everyone’s availability. It’s always funny whenever some of our characters die on the show, it’s like, "Oh, well that guarantees you’ll be on more often." Nobody’s ever really gone on Riverdale.

Does it feel weird to know Alice was going to be the last one left? And what might that mean for her going forward? She seems so happy with FP, it’s really sad to imagine that ending.

I know! They were finally doing good. I don’t know what Roberto has planned, but yeah, poor Alice. She’s really going to be alone now. Maybe she’ll just be ruling the town, who knows? Maybe we need to start a new campaign, Mayor Alice. Obviously not until next year, but just even thinking about coming back next season and having all my O.G. homies not around on a consistent basis, it’s definitely going to be really sad. I’m absolutely going to miss them, but I know that won’t end our friendship.

Earlier in the season, we had evidence Chic and Charles are working together. Will we see any answers there, and what might it mean for Alice to discover her long-lost son has betrayed her once again?

We hadn’t gotten into that for my episode. I think that was in the next few, so she hasn’t experienced the betrayal yet. I know she’s really resilient, but there’s been a lot of betrayal in this woman’s life. I think Alice is going to need some therapy next season.

And not of the Farm variety.

Real, good old-fashioned traditional therapy.

We were setting up for high school graduation to round out this season, and the characters going off to college or other futures. Will we ever get some taste of graduation, and have you any hint of where the kids will end up next year?

No, I don’t. I know the idea was we were going to jump forward in time a little bit to see what they had done. I’m assuming something brings them back to the town of Riverdale.

Can you point to moment or visual choice that you felt defined your identity or artistic choices?

Jughead and Betty have a fantasy going about what they would do to Mr. Honey, and so Betty’s revenge fantasy inspires Jughead to write an essay for college submissions. We get to go into and reenact Jughead’s fantasies and his writing. I wanted to push the envelope in those scenes. You don’t want to go too far out of the way where you’re totally getting rid of reality, but I wanted to visually have some fun with breaking the rules of what you’re supposed to do with shots and how you edit them together. Jughead is all about classic storytelling, so my inspiration was Alfred Hitchcock and Citizen Kane and that kind of stuff. We did a lot of twisted shots and shots that moved in weird [ways], very Vertigo- or Citizen Kane-inspired.

How much were you influenced by the visual artistry of working with David Lynch so early in your career?

He was my mentor from the very beginning. I didn’t really know too much about filmmaking until I worked on Twin Peaks with him. He showed me you think outside the box and do things that feel and look right to you. It wasn’t until I went into the business after Twin Peaks that I realized how different and what an innovator he was. That’s always been in there as my base, to just not be afraid of taking risks. He sent me a really beautiful email my first day of directing, and just reminding me to make sure I did every single thing I want in every single shot, and to have fun.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Sarazanmai Episode 11 [Finale]: “I Want To Connect, So Sarazanmai”

Do you ever just watch an anime episode that’s So Much in so many different ways that it makes you immediately want to lay down and sleep for a hundred years, but in like a good and hopeful way?

Yeah.

It’s very fitting that the final episode title is technically self-referential nonsense that in practice makes complete emotional sense and leaves everything feeling neatly tied together. It just Works [tm].

Thoughts under the cut.

Even though they were in like 5% of this episode I just wanna immediately point out that Reo and Mabu are ALIVE and IN LOVE and my SKIN IS CLEARED. It didn’t exactly happen in the way I expected, but I was hoping that they’d get revived, and here we are. The finale gave absolutely no shits about actually explaining any of the lingering mysteries about them, but I can’t fault them for it when they gave them such an unambiguously happy ending together. And in practice it perfectly fit the dreamy, surreal, intensely emotionally-driven vibe of the whole finale. Seeing their connected rings morph into them flying through the air while holding hands and the sheer power of their gay love literally paving the way for the main trio to finally connect was one of those moments where you just gotta sit back and accept that Ikuhara’s throwing at you, lmao.

Realistically I thought they might get left off on a pretty bittersweet note like a lot of Ikuhara characters, but nah, they’re just straight up back to being alive and happy and they pretty much got to attend their daughter’s magical furry wedding, lmao. They didn’t even get their memories erased like I thought might happen, so the whole confession scene from ep10 is still perfectly intact and now that the whole otter thing’s dealt with, we can probably safely assume that the two of them made up and are back to being The Ultimate Couple. It also looks like the two of them and even Sara and Keppi are still hanging out in the human world, which is kinda unexpected. I thought that even in the best case scenario they’d all just head back to the kappa kingdom, but I guess since that doesn’t really exist anymore they’re just gonna stay in the human world. Reo and Mabu seem to be working as rickshaw drivers now, which makes it even more clear that they’re probably back to being more or less regular people and being part of regular human society, and they’ve probably given up their jobs as cops, which is nice.

None of this answers the still lingering question of ‘how the fuck does the manga even fit into the timeline aaaaaaa’, but I don’t care as much about finding out the answer to that after this finale, so it’s not a big deal. I guess we’re meant to think that it happened before the anime, though. My best guess is that Sara was intentionally sent into the human world as a baby to protect her from the kappa/otter war, or something, and then Reo and Mabu raised her, she magically turned into her teenage/adult self [in an instantaneous fairy tale-y kind of way], then she went back to the kappa kingdom for a bit, and I guess she arranged things with Keppi and had them get recruited into the kappa kingdom? I still think they’re humans that got roped into this like the main trio, so I think that makes sense to me.

Even more so than with the main trio, I think that those two getting a 100% happily ever after with no caveats or drawbacks really spells out how fundamentally optimistic and hopeful this series is, and how they were one way or another victims of a harsh system that didn’t deserve the shit they went through, and so they got given a happy ending. It’d be understandable if people feel upset that they got such a happy ending after having done undeniably awful things, but I don’t mind.

And on the topic of the main trio, hoo boy they sure were the main focus of this episode, lol. And by ‘them’ I mean ‘Toi’ because let’s be honest he was basically the actual main character of the show by the end, and the finale was like 99% focused on his character development specifically. Which isn’t a bad thing. Kazuki’s whole deal had already been more or less resolved by the end of ep6, so it makes sense that the second half in general focused more on Toi.

On the flip side, Enta kinda got the short end of the stick in terms of screen-time and development, and things end in a sorta wishy-washy way in regards to his feelings for Kazuki. It makes enough sense that his whole ending was about choosing not to drown himself in fruitless delusions, even if it feels kinda lame and disappointing compared to the more climactic and intense resolutions that Kazuki and Toi got.

Though tbh a big part of why I don’t feel too negatively about how Enta’s crush on Kazuki kinda fizzled into irrelevancy is because Reo and Mabu got their happy ending that preserved all of their character development, with the obvious implication that they’re back to being in a happy and stable romantic relationship. The fact that there’s at least one happy gay couple at the end of all this makes me much more willing to forgive Enta’s story being handled a bit differently. I mean, that’s part of the whole reason why diversity in storytelling is so important. When you include multiple different gay characters/relationships in your stories, you have the freedom to do different things with them, instead of having all the narrative burdens and expectations being placed on just one character/relationship. It’s annoying when the ONLY gay character in a show ends up having to repress and move on from their feelings, but it’s fine when there are other gay characters who get to have their own happy relationships.

Anyway, I really liked how Toi’s story wrapped up here. A lot of what actually happened in the finale was full on bizarre dream logic nonsense, but the emotional undercurrent of Toi being faced with the prospect of effectively committing suicide in order to free himself from the pain of human connection once and for all, and him coming to the realization on his own terms that he doesn’t want to let go of those connections, got through perfectly clearly. They actually went a lot further with his story than I expected. Literally further, in that we had a whole timeskip epilogue detailing how after the main story ended he went to juvie for a few years and then reunited with Kazuki and Enta when he returned. I’m going to assume that he turned himself in, since there shouldn’t have been any concrete evidence tying him to any of his crimes, except for maybe him shooting Reo [though even then, Reo’s corpse immediately transformed into one of those rings so I don’t think that counts as lasting forensic evidence, lmao]. It was definitely the most brushed-over part of the finale, but it didn’t need to be focused on that much, since the more important part was him reuniting with the other two afterward.

And in terms of timeskips and whatnot, I really loved the whole potential future flashforward sequence showing a what-if scenario of the three of them becoming professional soccer players and being slowly torn apart by interpersonal drama, while the different episode title cards are re-used in this new context to show how their emotional issues and hang-ups might lead to that sort of negative outcome. It did a really nice job of illustrating how they’re willing to face the possibility of future pain in order to hold onto their connections with each other. Which is what the entire show had been building up to, really. It was all about them becoming able to face the harsh realities of being known in order to lead fulfilling lives with meaningful personal relationships.

I do kinda wish their older selves looked a bit more distinct from their base designs, though. Aside from the difference in outfits you can barely tell that they’ve grown up, lol.

I was initially planning on rewatching episode 1 after this, but honestly after what actually happened I don’t really think I’d actually get anything new out of episode 1 now. The very first scene of the show is still a bit of a mystery, even though it’s obviously based around a lot of visual imagery and cinematography from the finale, and the whole deal with the ‘A’ signs is still up for interpretation. But I don’t really think it’s super important one way or another.

I’m actually very happy that the ending didn’t involve any sort of time travel, and that that’s not what the first scene of the show was hinting at. Especially with how this finale really hammered in the importance of living with the consequences of your actions and accepting the future for what it is, it would have felt very cheap if anything got reset in the end.

I guess it’s also worth noting that, at least with the main trio, there weren’t any romantic developments, which I think was fine. With how the story had been building up to this point I think it was fairly obvious that their ending was gonna be more about friendship alone. Which might disappoint some people [and the whole topic of Enta’s unrequited crush on Kazuki is it’s own whole thing], but at the very least, Reo and Mabu got their happy romantic ending together, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out, lol.

Part of me wants to be disappointed that we didn’t really learn anything new about Sara, and that she didn’t exactly, uh, DO anything even in this final episode, but honestly I feel like that’s kinda ‘the joke’. Like, she and Keppi come across as a super tongue in cheek joke about the fairy tale concept of princes and princesses. Sorta like how the Utena movie made the ‘prince’ into a complete joke, Sara and Keppi are just there to be funny plot devices, and their big ending is that they have a big fat furry wedding and that’s that. And honestly that’s fine by me. I feel like Ikuhara’s whole artistic career has involved him becoming more and more flippant and dismissive about the concepts of princes and princesses and how much importance is placed on them in fiction, and that’s valid. It reminds me a bit of how all of the actual major characters are all queer dudes and their relationships with each other are the actually important part of the narrative, whereas straight characters like Sara and Keppi and all the different faceless kappa zombie dudes are mostly just joke characters. There’s something both deeply amusing and deeply vindicating about how this show turns the tables like that, with how it frames different types of love and relationships.

The main trio’s story ended up being not super tied into what the show has to say about sexuality in general [and overall the show is less specifically ‘about’ that than Yuri Kuma Arashi was, from what I understand], but there was definitely a whole lot of social commentary about homophobia going on with Reo and Mabu, and thankfully that part of the narrative came to a satisfying and genuinely subversive ending, with them overcoming the death imposed upon them and regaining their happy lives together. 

Now I’m hoping that Ikuhara will ‘complete the set’, so to say, and have his next anime be about trans/non-binary characters, especially after how Kazuki’s whole cross-dressing thing ended up being kinda unimportant and not about gender identity to begin with. Which is still kinda disappointing to me, but oh well.

Overall, this ending was almost aggressively happy and optimistic compared to what I was bracing myself for, so thankfully it’s left me feeling warm and fuzzy and content. All in all, it was a surprisingly straightforward story in terms of it’s central messages, in spite of it’s over the top and abstract framing, and I think it really benefited from that inherent simplicity, especially in this finale, which was so singularly focused on it’s central trio [and mostly just Toi’s perspective alone]. I was a bit worried the finale might turn into one of those things where a deeply personal conflict gets blown up and tied into literally world-ending stakes, but thankfully they didn’t go unnecessarily far with it. Even the kappa/otter war resolution barely involved the main trio themselves.

At least in hindsight, I think the anime was very tightly woven and was paced surprisingly well for it’s short episode count, and it’s hard to imagine how they could have spent much more time on the main trio, but now that we have a better idea of the timeline of the series, I really think that episode 6 should have been followed up by an episode that basically adapted the ReoMabu manga, plus parts of the twitter account, and the short chapter from the first light novel volume about how they met. That way it would have ended up with a nice round 12-episode length, and I don’t think it would have ‘spoiled the surprise’ of the later reveals and developments with Reo and Mabu. I just think it would have been really good to actually cover that in the anime itself, especially since even in the finale, the whole fact that they literally raised Sara as a baby never got addressed, so it feels like anime-only viewers are missing out on a big chunk of their story. But it’s not a huge deal.

I guess at the end of the day my feelings about the finale boil down to ‘Reo and Mabu are alive and happy and that’s literally all that matters to me’, lol.

I was really worried about how I’d be left feeling after this, but I’m happy that I’ve been following this series ever since it was first announced. This is the only time I’ve watched an Ikuhara show as it’s come out, and oh boy has it been an emotional roller-coaster. The fact that it ended in a satisfying way makes it all feel worth it, though.

I probably won’t get to it immediately since I think my brain needs time to recover from this one, but sometime soon I want to finally get around to watching Penguindrum and then Yuri Kuma Arashi. I don’t think I’ll liveblog them like I’ve been doing with Sarazanmai, though, if only since I’ve already been spoiled on bits and pieces of what happens in them, but we’ll see how it goes.

[ultraericthered]

TOP FAVORITE SVTFOE EPISODES

1. “The Battle For Mewni: Toffee” - I could only put one episode from the big movie event on here, and this was it. I cannot find a fault in this one. It’s still the best episode in the whole series for me. Everything about the writing and direction here and how it all perfectly pays off the entire story that was building since the end of Season 1 makes this episode my personal favorite. It invokes all kinds of strong emotions while also giving us great character moments and, for the most part, making logical narrative sense. The climax where Star does her Dip Down to save the last fragment of pure magic, finally completes her Mewberty, and blasts Toffee into near oblivion is bar none the most thrilling moment that the show ever gave us. And it goes without saying that after this one, the show never got close to being any better.

2. “Storm The Castle” - The first season’s finale and the episode that got the ball rolling for the epic storyline that culminated in the above episode. This one felt different from any outing with this show that had preceded it, as Toffee proved to not only be a formidable villain but one who was thinking several steps ahead. After getting Star in the spot he wanted her, he has her destroy her handed down wand in a positively chilling sequence, and even after Castle Avarius is reduced to rubble, the feeling that Toffee accomplished exactly what he wanted to accomplish lingers. The final shot assures us that this was only the beginning of something greater, something we don’t quite understand yet but are eager to find out about.

3. “Bon Bon The Birthday Clown” - Talk about a mid-season finale that unexpectedly puts you on the edge of your seat and leaves you hanging. I most liked this one for how it fleshed out Jackie Lynn Thomas and her relationship with Marco better than all previous episodes, how well all the characters interacted with each other and how all of them, even Glossaryck, come off as likable, and how this was Ludo’s most downright terrifying display of menace and competence as a threat - he implements a well thought out plan and actually succeeds at stealing the Book of Spells from Star! The episode’s final minutes definitely leave an impact!

4. “Into The Wand” - As I’ve mentioned before, this is the episode where Daron Nefcy really set up the ideas for the show’s future direction and ultimate endgame that she’d gotten in her head by this point. Not only does it further the Corrupted Magic story arc, reveal crucial information about Star’s mother Moon and Toffee, and bring in the important McGuffin of Toffee’s severed finger, but it’s positively packed with foreshadowing and ominous hints at the plot later on down the road regarding the other past queens of Mewni. The climactic scene in the Grandma Room remains the eeriest and most pivotal moment in the entire show.

5. “Cornonation” - This episode is very much to the plot threads that started in Season 3 what the last “The Battle For Mewni” episode was to the plot threads that started in late Season 1. You really get the sense that this is what the story of Eclipsa and the racial tensions between Mewmans and monsters that correlated with it was all building towards. Globgor gets to prove just how sweet and awesome a guy he is beneath his intimidating appearances, the fight with the Magic High Commission is one of the show’s finest, Tom and Marco perform a show-stealing callback to Season 2, and the ending resolution leaves me with the warmest, fuzziest, happiest feeling as Eclipsa sings a new song and everyone unites in harmony. Rhombulus’ Heel Turn was a bit out of left field, but otherwise this was Season 4′s peak.

6. “Face The Music” & “Starcrushed” - An incredible two-part finale for Season 2 and one that left just about everyone with an absolute need to watch how this story would resume and conclude in “The Battle For Mewni” afterwards. Also gave us some incredible music, especially Ruberiot’s big ballad for Star in the first part, and the battle of Moon and the High Commission against a Toffee-possessed Ludo was the show’s most exhilarating action sequence. In fact, if I had any problems with them both, it’d be that the main action is more centered on Moon, while Star...doesn’t fight any forces of evil. In fact, her parts end up being very Starco shipping-heavy, which ended up doing more harm than good in the long run.

7. “Divide” & “Conquer” - Another incredible two-part finale, this one for Season 3. After the bulk of the season was above average at best in terms of quality, this finale really stuck the landing in delivering an exciting, emotional, and just plain satisfying wrap-up to the season’s main story arc. Some parts felt like they were going a bit slow, particularly in Part 1 and in everything regarding Star and Moon in the Realm of Magic, but the rest was exceptional. The part where Star enters Butterfly Castle and has to pass all the floating soulless corpses of people brought down by Meteora has to be the most nightmarish moment the show ever did. Seeing Eclipsa in action and learning the meaning of “Globgor” was the icing on the cake.

8. “Ludo In The Wild” - The latter section of the Season 2 premiere was the part I found to be stronger, as it was so unusual and styled more dramatically than what we usually saw on this show. In just this single episode, Ludo Avarius went from being a character I liked and found amusing to a character I loved and found engaging, as he unexpectedly developed from a total joke villain to a fierce, resourceful badass who survives the wild, makes new allies in Spider and Bird, and at the very end finds the other half of the wand cleaved apart by Toffee, putting into place what’s to be a major component of the season’s storyline going forward. 

9. “A Boy And His DC-700XE” - Not only was this one just absolutely hilarious the whole way through, but it is completely Tom’s episode - the definitive Tom episode. We get to see his character further grow and develop in a context not relating to his relationship with Star, see him put in a position where he’s the awkward loser among cool kids rather than the charming bad boy, and his bromance with Marco is solidified as the best teen love story on the show.

10. “Mewnipendance Day” - While “Mewberty” planted the seeds for deeper territory that this show could tackle and “Fortune Cookies” brought in it’s first true villain, this episode is THE game changer for the series. This is the first time Star is made to confront the reality of her family and the magic-based system of Mewni’s imperfections, the unfair treatment and unwarranted persecution of monsters by her own family and people, and how all she was taught to believe to be good and bad was not as black-and-white as it seemed. This puts into place the anti-prejudice themes that become one of the show’s strongest assets, and also begins Buff Frog’s turn from being one of Star’s persistent enemies to being one of her dearest friends and allies. My one complaint would be the depiction of Ludo here, as he’s written to be WAY too child-like and simpleminded even for him and it’s just cringe-inducing. That aside, it’s a very well done, crucial episode that the show wouldn’t be the same without. 

11. “Fortune Cookies” - A highly enjoyable episode but not the kind I’d normally think of as “best” material. It’s just a fairly silly plot about how Star thinks the fortune paper slips in fortune cookies can accurately predict the future so she becomes obsessed with this idea, which Ludo and his monsters take advantage of as per the planning of Ludo’s newly hired “evil efficiency expert”, a stiff and professional businessman lizard monster named Toffee. On first watch, I’d assumed the B-plot with Toffee was just part of the episode’s whole joke and that it’d be over with by the end. But how the episode actually ends is what shot it up to this spot on the list: “a great evil has been unleashed.” Toffee was sticking around and there was far more than met the eye about him, which totally caught me off guard and got me intrigued. Toffee would end up being this show’s best villain and the centerpiece of it’s best story arc, and just for that, the episode that brought him onto the show deserves high regard.

12. “Monster Bash” - While not as strong as the previous season’s mid-season finale, it’s an absolute step up from everything the season had given us following “The Battle For Mewni.” The advancement of the bettering of Mewman-Monster relations was interesting, there were meaningful character interactions, Mina Loveberry’s return was welcome, and the twist about the forgotten true identity of Miss Heinous and how it ties in with the season’s current plot was one of the greatest, most unexpected reveals for any character in the series, paying off all the early build-up of Miss Heinous and turning her into a deeper, more crucial character than I ever could have expected, and it certainly leaves you with a lot to think about.

13. “St. Olga’s Reform School For Wayward Princesses” - The payoff in the episode mentioned above would not be possible without this episode that introduced the character of Miss Heinous and built up how involved she is in the process of making “proper princesses” out of rebellious girls from royal families (ironic since she herself is an unconventional Mewman princess-to be) and how she might just be connected to the Butterfly royal family herself. In addition to that, it pays off the looming terror of St. Olga’s in the first season in a tremendous and surprisingly unsettling way, further developing bonds of friendship between Star, Marco, and Ponyhead, and bringing in the famed “Princess Marco Turdina” guise.

14. “Ludo, Where Art Thou?” & “Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell” - Despite being in two different points of two different seasons, these two episodes feel like a two-part story, one that serves to deliver closure and the final steps of growth for the character of Ludo Avarius. They tackle all the issues Ludo has had with his family, his self worth, his addiction to powerful magic artifacts, his desire for acceptance and love both of himself and from other around him, and even his darker tendencies as he makes the life for himself that he’s long deserved and further connects with his younger brother Dennis, who loves and idolizes him for all he’s pulled through. You come out of these episodes with an even deeper appreciation for Ludo and how much his character developed since his debut in episode 1 of the show. 

15. “The Monster and the Queen” - This is the episode that properly introduced us to Globgor. Spent on almost nothing but Eclipsa and Globgor together for almost the entirety of the episode. One that shows us the pure, affectionate, unmarred love these two have for each other, selling us the best romance in the whole series. How couldn’t I love this episode?

16. “On The Job” - I love the character of Buff Frog and this episode was the quintessential showing of what makes him so endearing and awesome, so that’s what puts it on here.

17. “Meteora’s Lesson” - This episode, with Glossaryck giving baby Meteora her “dip down” lessons via a trip backwards in time, which shows us the black sheep (or giraffe) of his magic family, the truth about how the first settlers of Mewni got access to magic and even how Stump Day became a thing, and a young Toffee among his peers in the Septarian army? It’s just packed full of goodness and leaves you very intrigued about the nature of this universe’s magic, Glossaryck’s part in it, and just what exactly his ultimate aim could be.

18. “Butterfly Trap” - Aside from the relief of finally getting to the trial of Eclipsa that was set up so early on in the season, this is the episode that divulges the whole truth about a royal scandal: what became of baby Meteora and why her place as heir to Eclipsa’s throne was taken by Festivia instead. It’s also the episode where Eclipsa finally goes from a sketchy pseudo-antagonist to a sympathetic character who is most assuredly not an evil person with any evil objectives. It also represents a major growth point in Star’s journey to queenhood. 

19. “Sleepover” - I just loved watching Star, Marco, Jackie, Janna, Ponyhead, and even Starfan13 all hanging out together at a slumber party and getting caught up in a party game far more intense and dangerous than they’d anticipated. Jackie and Marco especially start to develop more starting here, Sean Schemmel is both funny and terrifying as the episode’s antagonist, and the conflict’s resolution is actually quite brilliant. The only thing holding this one back is the ending, with the out-of-nowhere reveal that Star secretly crushes on Marco. 

20. “Cornball” - Another great episode for Buff Frog, a surprisingly funny one for Marco, a point to really stress the message of what could turn the tides of racial relations against prejudice and hatred in the future, and odd enough, probably the best episode for Kelly. 

21. “Britta’s Tacos” - Oh the sheer amount of emotional catharsis this episode gave me. Being back on Earth in Echo Creek, seeing the major recurring residents of Echo Creek again, legit funny and even surprisingly dodgy jokes, acknowledgement of what a terrible boyfriend Marco was to Jackie, and a much better resolution for Jackie than what Season 3 offered.

22. “Friendenemies” & “Pizza Thing” - The former is the episode that really kicked Tom Lucitor’s character and the relationship between him and Marco into high gear, being one of the show’s funniest episodes ever and also bizarrely sweet in how well the two boys are able to bond with each other despite having different personalities and some different interests. The latter is kinda the Marco/Ponyhead equivalent to the former, being another particularly funny episode about an awkward bonding and the definitive example of how to make Ponyhead actually likable and entertaining in spite of her grating, self-centered personality.

23. “The Hard Way” - Ludo had been getting a surprising amount of development in Season 2, but mostly to the end of making him a more formidable villain for Star and her friends to face. This is the first time since the season premiere where we saw him in a different, less villainous light and got to see the true character beneath the surface, even learning about him coming from a bad family and seeing that a need for love, guidance, and acceptance makes him tick, as displayed in how he looks to Glossaryck like a new father figure. And then of course there’s that SURPRISE ending, which made everyone shit bricks when it happened. 

24. “Just Friends” - Not a whole lot of action or plot advancement happens in this one - it’s just dedicated to us spending time with Star, Marco, and Jackie on their way to a big concert. But the development of these three’s relationships with each other and their individual feelings put on clear display makes it an exceptional episode all the same, giving a perfect bittersweet feeling as you’re watching it go on, an ideal stage-setter for what’s coming next.

25. “Gone Baby Gone” - Despite a lack of screen time for Hekapoo, this is easily the best Neverzone episode the series did. Mariposa and Meteora are BroTP or OTP material, and Wyshcan the Granter was one of the most memorable one-off antagonists in the show. 

26. “Star Comes To Earth” - The one that started it all. Can’t not have a special place in my heart for this one. Revisiting it after knowing how certain characters (Star, Marco, Moon and River, Ludo and Buff Frog) develop later on in the show and looking for tiny hints at what’s to come later on (Glossaryck cameo, St. Olga’s references, Buff Frog’s use of dimensional scissors, lots of stuff in Star and Marco’s earliest interactions) is a weird but special feeling.

27. “Escape From The Pie Folk” - While Part 1 of the final season premier felt like a bit of a time-waster, this second part delivered much more. I particularly liked how Foolduke was tied to Pie Island and it’s people, how Fesitiva having been one of the Pie Folk is used to justify Moon’s presence there, the touching lullaby shared between Star and Moon, and Tony Hale as the Pie King, a particularly fun and memorable villain for this show. Good stuff all around.

28. “Beach Day” - Pays off a running thread throughout Season 4 and does so in a way that’s actually very enjoyable to watch, well written and true to the spirit of the show’s two main characters, and with a good thematic message to it. It feels like it could’ve been a good first or second season episode. The bit with Father Time speaking of Star’s hardest trials being ahead of her was also a great way to start building tension for the series finale. The score is lowered, however, when considering how underwhelming that finale actually wound up being.

29. “Mewberty” - This was the first “Growing The Beard” episode for the series, the first one that gave us something more than what we expected to see in a show that seemed so off-the-wall crazy, silly, and lighthearted at first. Sure there’s still lots of comedy, with Janna and Glossryck both seeming more like throwaway gag characters in their proper introduction, but the part towards the end where Marco thinks Star might have just abruptly exited his life is quiet, understated, and emotional in a way that was just downright alarming to me when I first saw it given how off-tone it was to all else in the show to that point. My faith in the show to evolve into something far deeper than it’s surface really started here, though it was a bit undercut by it being followed by “Pixtopia”, one of the series’ weakest outings.

30. “Interdimensional Field Trip” - This one is just classic SVTFOE in it’s heyday, with it’s fun mixing of regular human characters from a mundane Earth setting with bizarre beings and magical phenomena from fantastical otherworldly dimensions that the show really ought to have held onto the whole way through but instead tragically lost in much of it’s latter half.

[existentialmagazine]

Review: THELIXX’s newest indie-pop single ‘Hayley’ carries addictive beats and hook-driven songwriting all in one highly repeatable 2 minute package

Born in Pontypridd, Indie-Pop trio THELIXX consist of frontman Curt Hicks, guitarist Lewis Hawkins and drummer Shae Owen-Phillips who joined together when they were still only at comprehensive school. With a lot of evolution over the years, at age 20 they began leaning towards catchier pop hooks and creating music that can’t help but make you feel good. Reflecting on their adolescence in their lyrical messages, THELIXX’s music has appealed to many along with garnered praise from media outlets including BBC Introducing in Wales and Amazing Radio on previous releases such as their debut ‘Magic.’ As they spent the last year crafting and road-testing their live shows, THELIXX are finally back with their fourth hit ‘Hayley’ and it doesn’t fall short of fantastic.

As an intro of tensely building guitar plucks leads things into Hayley’, there’s a hint of intimacy established despite the track’s quick snap into pulsating beats and fast-pacing. As a moody bassline lurks in the shadows, the first verse of ‘Hayley’ serves just that beside a speeding beat, carrying an emphatic burst of energy even in these two instruments alone that at any point feels it could be ready to burst. With a fast-plucked electric guitar chiming in for the pre-chorus to add a hint of brightness to this murky almost mysterious feeling soundscape, the thrill of ‘Hayley’ lies within the new jitters of sound around every turn to keep you on your toes. Finally hitting its climactic peak as the chorus explodes into a firework of sound, the volume lifts to the max as electric guitar rings out in plucks and strums, beside the maintained groovy bass and ‘Hayley’s signature toe-tapping beat. Carrying flair and hair-raising energy throughout, the bridge of ‘Hayley’ allows for a moment to highlight their exceptional electric guitar, boldly ripping a riff before things dive into one final burst of power to close out. As ‘Hayley’ offers a soundscape so brilliantly memorable, THELIXX’s vocalist truly adds the cherry on top of this masterpiece with his sugary, clean vocals that perfectly deliver the hook-driven songwriting of ‘Hayley’ just like it deserves. With an undertone of spoken delivery in the verses, the transition between more casually served lines to the choruses powerful higher ranged pops of vibrancy is a well-matched pairing to give ‘Hayley’ a tune you can’t help but also want to sing along to. As THELIXX embrace their inclinations towards poppier music, ‘Hayley’ is proof that this is exactly the kind of sound they were born to make, and sets a high bar to reach with future singles - but we’re sure they can only continue to impress.

Establishing an entirely fabricated universe within its lyricism, ‘Hayley’ takes songs about heartbreak to another level. As THELIXX use the lyricism to tell a tragic tale of the eponymous character Hayley’s lies and unfaithfulness within her relationship, ‘Hayley’s lyrics carry an array of emotion rushing through the mind of our freshly defeated protagonist upon coming to the truth of the situation. As they discover her deceit and catch her red handed without any way to untangle her way out of things, ‘Hayley’ lyrically takes the listener on an entire narrative journey that shines a new, refreshing light on breakup track takes unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Whilst ‘Hayley’ still carries a sense of pain and resentment in its saddened words and heart-aching realisations, THELIXX have boldly merged such a melancholic story to a sound that you can’t help but dance to - and it truly works. As the pre-chorus adrenaline rushes as the protagonist confronts our leading miscreant Hayley, its lines ‘I’m running to your door if you’re ready or not, ‘cause I want you to explain. Hayley tell me, where you been?’ manage to portray both a sense of building devastation bundled in with a confidence and pep that leaves the awful predicament easily digestible if not even a little catchy. Of course moments, particularly within the verses like ‘I see the lines under your eyes that keep you up at night’, emphasise the aching heart and suspicions protruding through. But we found the real spirit of ‘Hayley’ to be that you can interpret it and feel what you wish from it in any way you choose, whether it be a poignant tale of corruption and devastation or another anthem to dance along to when moving on from a similar situation that wasn’t worth your energy.

Check out ‘Hayley’ for yourself here if THELIXX’s snappy sound and creative lyrical journey peaked your interest!

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Unknown

[tylerhoechlin]

Dylan O'Brien Talks Recovery, Death Cure & American Assassin

Dylan O'Brien is going to blow audiences away with his gritty performance in American Assassin. His turn as Mitch Rapp will be mentioned in the same breath as Matt Damon's Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig's James Bond. He shreds the screen with an intense, physical ferocity. The role would be demanding for any actor. It's astonishing to think that Dylan O'Brien shot American Assassin seven months after his headline making injuries on the set of The Maze Runner: The Death Cure last March. He suffered life threatening facial fractures and body lacerations from an ill-conceived stunt.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure halted production until Dylan O'Brien could recover. The accident also endangered the rights to American Assassin. The rights for the film would revert from Lionsgate and CBS Films back to the estate of author Vince Flynn if not completed that year. American Assassin is one in a series of books about CIA hit man Mitch Rapp. The script had been around Hollywood for a decade, where at one point Chris Hemsworth was attached to star. Once Director Michael Cuesta took over the project, he wanted to make the character younger and more vulnerable. Cuesta was committed to O'Brien as his lead. The actor had to fast track his return in order to make the film.

American Assassin is a story of vengeance and patriotism. Mitch Rapp watches as his fiance is brutally murdered by terrorists. He becomes obsessed with finding the man responsible, thus turning up on the radar of the CIA. The film costars Michael Keaton as Rapp's uncompromising mentor and Taylor Kitsch as his seriously bad-assed adversary. It's wall to wall with extreme, graphic violence. Dylan O'Brien needed to heal, get back in shape, and then do months of martial arts and weapons training.

My interview with Dylan O'Brien was remarkable. It took place in New York City at the office of his publicist. I was able to sit with him and have a detailed conversation about the last year of his life. He was quite candid about the accident, preparing for American Assassin, and what the film means for his career. It was a life changing experience that tested him in every way. O'Brien made sure to thank the people who helped him through the recovery process. He was in a fragile place, but wasn't going to let the injuries derail his future. It was a fascinating conversation. Please read below our exclusive interview with Dylan O'Brien. He discusses the accident, his new American Assassin movie, completing The Maze Runner: The Death Cure, and his future ambitions as an actor.

How long was it from your accident on The Death Cure to filming American Assassin?

Dylan O'Brien: I was severely injured. It was really soon. I started filming seven months after the accident. I wasn't allowed to do anything for three months. Then about a month after that, I had to start early training. I had a lot of limitations at that point still. It was just breathing and stretching stuff, just getting back on my feet at first. Then we were able to ramp up the training once it got to the fifth and sixth month removed from surgery. I was able to do more strenuous stuff. But mentally, man, that was the biggest battle. The physical part was one thing. Whatever, I broke my face, that'll heal. The mental aspect was the biggest shock to the system. You just don't know how to experience stuff like that. You don't have any control over it either. It's just how your body and brain reacts to something like that happening. The psychological battle was really emotional and difficult. I struggled in a lot of ways. It took a lot of work to get back and do this movie. That six months, in a way, it feels like a lifetime. For every one of those days, the accident still felt like it was yesterday. So it was odd. It's absolutely the toughest thing I have ever experienced.

I saw American Assassin cold. I was blown away by the grittiness and intensity. It's really hardcore. Your fans know you from Teen Wolf and The Maze Runner series. You transcend here into a hardcore, ass-kicking action star. Coming off the accident, did you have any trepidation that you could do this role?

Dylan O'Brien: Oh yeah man, it was a lot. But I pushed through it. I ultimately felt that it would be good for me and it was. There were so many doubts I had. Physically, all the limitations I had, I was so stressed out. (laughs)

Your MMA fighting is incredible. How on earth did you get through that training and filming after such serious injuries?

Dylan O'Brien: F**k yeah man, it was INSANE. It was a lot. There so much in me that didn't think I'd be able to push it and get myself in shape in time. I didn't want to feel pressured when my doctor was telling me I wasn't ready. There was a lot I was balancing. There were multiple days where I would freak out and panic. I wanted to jump ship. I can't f**king do this. I can't handle what I'm going through right now. And then balancing the stress of going to the f**king gym every day. It was overwhelming. I had multiple days where I had to be talked down from the ledge.

I give you major credit. Nothing in your previous work even hints at how ferocious you are in this film. Did the bond company for American Assassin have strict limitations as to what you could and couldn't do? I can imagine they were really nervous after what happened on The Death Cure? How did Michael Cuesta (director) handle that stuff?

Dylan O'Brien: The producers, Cuesta, everyone knew what I was coming from. Everyone was overtly mindful at that point. There was nothing we were going to do...that was the big piece of the puzzle early on. I was a couple months out of surgery and met with the stunt coordinator in LA. I wanted to make sure he understood what happened to me, that I was in a fragile place, physically and mentally, and really wanted to make sure he had my back. From the get go, he really did. The biggest thing I can say about the stunt coordinator, Buster Reeves, was that he set me up with a trainer that could not have been more perfect for me at the time.

Dylan O'Brien: This guy became everything, way more than a trainer to me. He's how this whole process started for me. Even leaving my house, I was so isolated. I didn't want to see anybody, even when I could. He became so much more to me than a trainer. He became my friend. He was someone I went to with a lot of my issues at the time. He also experienced a lot of my freak outs, and episodes of doubt, panic. I was completely overwhelmed. I just wanted to run. He became someone who was really instrumental in getting through that time. And also getting me in shape, getting me to the movie, educating me on the fighting styles. Taking me to a ju-jitsu gym twice a week. He educated me on the martial arts he was expert in, movement, speed. He even showed me how to fight for camera. And he'd talk me down from the ledge when I would show up at the gym hyperventilating. This guy was everything. I had a lot of support on the movie. My dad went out with me, which was huge. Roger is my trainer. I don't think I would have been able to get on that plane without my dad and Roger.

Great to hear man, let's get off the injury tangent. Audiences are going to be putting you in the Bond and Bourne category once American Assassin is released. Where you aware of the Vince Flynn books and Mitch Rapp character before signing on?

Dylan O'Brien: No, I wasn't. The first thing I read was the script when it got sent to me. I liked it, felt connected to it. I then learned about the books, that there were fifteen of them at the time. This was the eleventh book. But no, I was not aware of the books before this got sent to me.

So when the script got to you, they were already making Mitch Rapp a younger character?

Dylan O'Brien: Yes, it had been around for a decade. They were definitely going to do the American Assassin book. They were starting with him young. The question being how young. In the book, he's twenty-three, they were still deciding between making him early twenties or early thirties. But they were set on Assassin being the beginning.

You're signed for multiple films? You're definitely playing this character long term?

Dylan O'Brien: Yes, if we keep going.

The film is no holds barred. There isn't a shred of decency to the villain. The bad guy, Taylor Kitsch, is so awesome. The film has you both an a track to an epic showdown. Talk about the climactic boat scene? Taylor told me that you guys beat the crap out of each other.

Dylan O'Brien: Oh yeah, the forearms (laughs), the jumping around was done by rigs. You mean when we're getting tossed around on the boat right?

Yes.

Dylan O'Brien: I loved that sh*t. The fight was designed in three sections. They were divided by when the boat moved. We would go into our hits, then had pull systems with wires. That fight was exhausting. We even added more to it, which was great. It really helped the fight. It lengthened it and gave it more of an arc. But it added more days. We beat the crap out of each other. You do get bruised and beat up in those scenes obviously, but we were also really careful. We both wanted to get it. We wanted that scene to be brutal and intense. You're finally getting to see these two guys go at it. We wanted it to deliver. That really mattered to us. Taylor is really dedicated. We gave it everything. F**ck, the next day, I couldn't even move, my forearms, from all the blocks, you're actually connecting. You get beat up, but it was great. We were both really happy with how that came out. You never want to pull any punches. You want that stuff to be as real and as vicious as possible.

Michael Keaton is also on a different level here. Audiences have never seen him like this. What was it like working with him?

Dylan O'Brien: It's the coolest thing ever. It was a trip. I would just sit back sometimes. He was a huge reason I signed on. I dug the character, I dug the script, I loved my conversations with the director, Michael Cuesta. I felt something was there, that we could be great. It was a beneficial business decision and something that could fulfill me as an actor. You have to try to balance both. When I heard Keaton was on, I was like, I'm in. He's great. He truly is one of my heroes. I grew up watching him. I grew up loving him as a kid, genuinely, even before I was an actor. I'd love to accomplish what he's accomplished, in terms of his versatility. He always f**king shows up. He raised his kid on his own. He had his own personal life. I just dig him. I dig everything about it him. It was a dream working with him. I really learned a lot from him.

Going back to The Maze Runner series, you have completed the last film, The Death Cure?

Dylan O'Brien: Yes, it comes out January next year.

And Teen Wolf is in its last season, so you're done there as well?

Dylan O'Brien: Yup, that's done and The Death Cure is done.

So you're untethered?

Dylan O'Brien: Yes, for the first time ever.

You're waiting to see how American Assassin does before you choose your next role?

Dylan O'Brien: Yes, I wanted to take some time. I've got this coming out. I wanted to chill for a bit, have the fall, have the holidays. Then be selective about the next thing I do, make sure it's with a filmmaker that I love and trust. It doesn't have to be anyone who's known. I just want to be selective and have it be something I'm passionate about, connected to. I want it to be different, a new challenge. I don't know exactly what that's going to be, or what it looks like, but that's how I'll go about it.

[source: movieweb]

[class-wom]

Legion’s closing credits resurrect the musical cue that began the montage depicting the life of David Haller way back in the very first episode: “Happy Jack” by The Who, a song almost fairy-tale-like in its simplicity, about a man who responds to the cruelty and alienation of the larger world with a smile, who refuses to let it get to him and maintains his positivity regardless of what he may encounter. Back then, it seemed like an ironic choice, as we watched a boy become a man in a series of slow-motion tableaus depicting what a troubled, damaged mess his world had become. Now, much like the finale to which it serves as a coda, it almost feels too earnest and pat, a not wholly earned note of sincerity at which any possible challenge is barely hinted. Yes, Legion went out with a profound optimism and sense of hope for the future, ending even its most underserved storyline with a bit of deus ex patriarch that rescues our protagonists from darker fates and opens them up to a potential future in which anything is possible. We few, we happy few.

The sense of uplift and moral simplicity argued for by the ending is so genuine, it feels churlish to point out the ways in which it might be compromised. And yet the world created by Legion has been so murky and full of messy ambiguities, so touched by the very notion that nothing as simple as “a clear answer” could ever sufficiently account for any philosophical or existential question about what it means to live a good life, that to suddenly end on a note that tries to sweep the board clean and say “Let’s do it all over, but better” with hardly an implication of the too-broad generalities implied (and some conclusions not even related to David’s reset that similarly make everything okay) comes across as rushed, at best. After an entire season of David trying to undo his entire life—and restart everyone’s existence in the process—he succeeds. Rather than killing Farouk, he comes to terms with his nemesis, and with a smile and handshake, they initiate a do-over of the past few decades, while Switch looks on approvingly. It’s not quite the Wayne’s World “mega-happy ending,” but it’s not far off. No one dies. Everyone grows, or begins again, seemingly of their own choice. And yet.

This uneasy conclusion might be best embodied by the climactic performance of Pink Floyd’s “Mother” when it looks as though Then-Farouk has captured David on the astral plane and bound him in a straitjacket, the ancient mutant finally responding to David’s insistence that, “I’m a good person, I deserve love,” with a firm, “No. You don’t.” David screams, and suddenly we’re treated to the song, David singing to his long-distant Gabrielle, asking her all the worried questions about his life that had never been answered before. But the song allows her to reply, and suddenly (so we’re meant to understand) David is filled with love, with the feeling of safety and warmth that had been missing. She assures him that she’ll always be there—we even see Gabrielle singing this to baby David, as Syd stands freeze-frame beside her, fighting the Time Eaters—and it’s all the succor adult David needs to break free from his straitjacket and turn the tables on Then-Farouk, just before Xavier and Now-Farouk stop him and explain that, hey man, war isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.

Now, this might be a case where “Mother” fits effectively enough into what Noah Hawley and company wanted to convey. After all, it’s a song where a scared young man asks his mother for reassurance, and she’s there to say everything is going to be ok. That’s a tall order, and it works wonderfully in the show, as David’s (or Legion’s, really) other selves cut loose in an exuberant mosh pit of release, a sense of being freed. Because Farouk’s scornful reply to David’s cry for love is only an affirmation of what the troubled psychic secretly suspected this whole time—that he wasn’t worthy of love. Now, with his mother assuring him that his most fundamental need is met, he can break loose of internal and external bonds. But you’d have to be pretty naive to look past the meaning of the lyrics: This is a song about seeking reassurance in a world of uncertainty and danger, but the source of that reassurance and authority is also putting their own fears into him, and building a protective wall so high that it might prevent him from ever growing and connecting with others. It’s a dark double-edged sword, in other words, and leaving aside the Cold War metaphors, it could be read as saying that even with a mother’s love, the next iteration of David is going to end up troubled in a wholly different way. That would be a bleak reading.

Nothing in the rest of this episode really supports that read, however. It’s a happy ending if ever there was one, where even our most malevolent and violent characters realize the error of their ways and band together for a peaceful resolution. I couldn’t have imagined Legion capable of crafting an ending like this, especially during the turbulent times of the past two seasons, so there’s a cathartic sense of uplift here that even my criticisms of this hasty conclusion can’t drag down, which is nice. It’s like watching World War II end with soldiers from both Axis and Allied sides joining hands and singing “All You Need Is Love.” You know it can’t last, but it’s a hopeful thought embodying the best of humanity.

Yet it’s still too pat in places. This is especially apparent in Switch’s storyline. Lauren Tsai did her best with a seriously underwritten role, but the character was never really more than a small collection of tics standing in for a whole person. The premiere hinted we might get a fuller portrait of Jia-Yi—the monotony of her routine, her longing for adventure, the fear of her father’s roomful of robots that infected her sense of self—but aside from a nightmare sequence and a few lines here and there, Switch never developed into anything more than a plot device. It’s why she could be pushed and pulled by David and Division throughout the season, and nothing she did ever seemed out of character—because there wasn’t enough character there for her actions to go against. So when her father literally appears out of nowhere, and reveals that she’s a “four-dimensional being” who simply needed to shed her human skin (and her baby teeth) in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence, it’s an airless reveal, with no gravity to the outcome. I’m glad Switch didn’t just end up ripped apart by Time Eaters—that would have felt unnecessarily cruel, but it also would have felt of a piece with the show we were watching up until now—yet it doesn’t pack much emotional weight.

At least the conclusion of Kerry and Cary’s arc gives them a simple   ending that feels both earned and justified narratively. Cary’s last-second suspicion that the two of them joining together again (to create “twice the temporal identity”) would confuse the Time Eaters enough to fight them off was one of those abrupt “oh, okay” explanations you just have to roll with, but it was undeniably stirring. Similarly, watching Kerry age as she fought doesn’t necessarily make sense on a logical level, but it felt emotionally true—all her years of protecting the “old man” finally catch up to her during what she assumes will be her last stand. And when they embrace at the end, him no longer “old man” but “brother,” it’s poignant and profound.

Still, all of this means everything and nothing, right? Because here comes the do-over. Meaning, all of this gets erased (well, Switch presumably remains a higher entity), so the progress may or may not be in vain when the new iterations of all these characters develop. Not everyone, perhaps—the assumption here is that Then-Farouk won’t return to being a monster, the glasses of enlightenment passed to him by Now-Farouk remaining in his consciousness, just as Gabrielle and Xavier will presumably remember this strange sequence of events that led to them recommitting to a life together, caring for their child. (Also, hi: When did Now-Farouk become this mellow, enlightened chap? Wasn’t he psychically raping Lenny, over and over, as recently as last season? It speaks to the idea that season two of Legion didn’t think its next season would be the last.) Regardless, it still creates a tonally odd ending, in which ends somewhat negate means. To wit: If David had killed then-Farouk, would it have changed anything about the reset, other than one less powerful psychic in the world? He had already received the reassurance of affection and security from his mother, after all, implying she had now committed to loving her son. Even with a season that has been at least in part about the importance of doing right in the absence of any greater meaning (to cite my analysis from a previous episode, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do), it’s hard to feel the same emotional stakes we would’ve, had this whole story not been building to a “once more, with feeling” reboot.

But Syd and David’s final scenes do convey some of the melancholy ambiguity of this otherwise very happy ending. “I bet you’re gonna turn out extraordinary without me around,” he tells her. “Yeah, I am,” she says, and in the space between that exchange lies everything that hurts about this goodbye. Because it entails Sydney losing her second childhood, the one that means so much; it means she loses all the pain that David caused her, but also a defining experience which, as she told her younger self, is the linchpin of life: “You fall in love. And that’s worth it”; it’s the disintegration of self that, just a few episodes back, she was worried would hurt. But as she makes clear, there’s a more innocent soul who deserves a better chance than any of them: Baby David. Syd  agrees to give up everything that has happened to create her, the strong and powerful woman she has become, because that’s a life lived. And someone else now needs the same opportunity to get the kind of better childhood that she received from Melanie and Oliver.

Legion is ultimately a show about the need to make simple, fundamental choices in the face of overwhelming confusion. (That opening crawl about how “what it means is not for us to know” is  a bit disingenuous—they’re writing this damn thing, after all—but certainly in keeping with the show’s themes.) We rarely know the best thing to do in any given situation, but we usually have an idea of what the right thing to do would be. Or one of the right things, anyway: There’s a universe of options out there, and despite our general helplessness when confronted with the forces of history, we have enough agency to choose safety and love. We can choose protecting others, rather than leaving them exposed to the vicissitudes of fate. And we can sure as shit not choose war. But we do all this against a backdrop of our lives that is never as orderly and coherent as time would make it seem. This is the firmament of Noah Hawley’s worldview. It’s one he arguably makes most clear in his novel, Before The Fall: “Because what if instead of a story told in consecutive order, life is a cacophony of moments we never leave?” The opportunity to tell a story like Legion must’ve seemed like a gift to someone who understands life in this way, a chance to really discuss our existence in the manner it’s experienced: disjointed, fragmented, curling back in on itself and returning to key moments over and over, in different ways, until we have enough to call it our story. Such a messy, expressive stab at meaning surely deserves a happy ending. Or at least the attempt at one. So David, and all other Davids out there (because you—we—are legion in number): Be a good boy.

Stray observations

The episode may have ultimately been about undercutting the battle, but that didn’t make it any less exhilarating when all the Davids came racing out of the doors to surround and overwhelm Then-Farouk, a visually and thematically resonant moment the show had been building to from the start.

A key theme of the series, elegantly stated: “Nothing of value is ever lost.”

In “Chapter 24,” I mentioned that David always turns to pop music to express his deepest emotions, because he’s incapable of articulating them himself. “Mother” was the capstone to this facet of his personality. Wes Anderson is probably looking on approvingly.

Another key theme, one that  becomes more or less challenging depending on which character—and which action of theirs—you’re attributing it to: “It’s hard to hate someone you understand.”

It’s always a welcome moment when Kerry Loudermilk gets to kick some ass. “I love my job.”

And Kerry thinks her new look makes her appear sophisticated. Syd: “I was gonna say wise.”

Thanks, everyone, for reading along. It’s been a trip (and I definitely mean trip) watching Legion with all of you, discussing and dissecting all the little elements of this fascinating show. And as the new parent of a little guy, hoo boy you better believe this affected me.

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SPOILER DISCUSSION

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Not quite sure what to think right now, tbh; there are two scenes in particular that I thought were pretty freaking awesome, the latter of which darn near brought me to tears.  I may have more in the morning, but what else is knew?  LOL!

[nicholasgraves]

Searching for a Little Grace, Again

Although Paul Schrader doesn’t make transcendental films, he does use slight gestures towards transcendental style within his work to elucidate the psychology of his characters, evoke the fantastical and suggest a bleak reality - his 1992 film ‘Light Sleeper’ demonstrates this.    

Paul Schrader’s Light Sleeper, his ninth feature as director, feels familiar. The film is set amidst the trash, scum and degenerates of New York city at night, and we follow loner John LeTour, who is a drug dealer longing for purpose and redemption.  We have followed similar incarnations of LeTour before; he was called Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver, 1976) and then Julian Kaye (American Gigolo, 1980).  LeTour then transformed into Carter Page III (The Walker, 2007) and Reverend Toller (First Reformed, 2017).  Upon writing The Walker Schrader noted he was envisioning a ‘tetralogy’ of films which followed a lonely man in his room, they ‘want a life, but can’t figure out how to get one. He goes from anger to narcissism to anxiety to someone deeply superficial’ (Schrader 2000).

Overtly connecting a particular body of your work implies that common preoccupations may be found, and the concerns of these characters could ostensibly be read as reflecting some of Schrader’s concerns at different times over the years.  Yet each of these films contains stylistic similarities which, to me at least, are just as revealing as characterisation - psychological realism, with a very brief nod towards transcendental style.  It is a stylistic coupling that helps to create a focus and coherence that has spanned forty one years.  In doing so, the approach also presents a bleak outlook, one that is reinforced and made bleaker by each passing film.

Schrader’s relationship to transcendental style in film is well known; he literally wrote the book on it.  He summarises one of the purposes of transcendental style as to ‘gradually replace empathy with awareness’ (Schrader 2018).  This awareness is achieved through three stages: the creation of the everyday world as cold and lacking meaning (established through excessively long shots; static framing; lack of non-diegetic sound; stylistic devices often associated with slow cinema). This is followed by disparity (‘a spontaneous expression of the holy’) that culminates in some kind of decisive action which finally leads to stasis, where we return to the hard everyday world but now with the awareness that the transcendent/holy ‘is beneath every realistic surface’ (Schrader 2018).  Schrader does not make transcendental films, and certainly not in the mode of those he wrote about like Yasujiro Ozu or Robert Bresson.  However, his most recent feature First Reformed, particularly within the first hour, does share more similarities with this style of filmmaking than anything he has made before.  Alongside the literal subject matter, a reverend experiencing a crisis of faith, it can be read as a cumulative exploration of purpose and faith, and a deliberate pairing of styles - within this film psychological realism and the transcendent seem intertwined.  This is drastically different from Schrader’s previous lonely man films, which contain only fleeting yet nevertheless interesting moments of transcendental style.

Returning to Light Sleeper, this style shows itself after the climactic shoot-out.  After killing three thugs, a critically wounded LeTour sits centre framed on the edge of the bed.  Willem Defoe’s performance strangely emotes no pain or anguish as one would expect, instead he projects stillness and absence.  As LeTour’s eyes roll back, his stiff body slowly descends onto the bed while in unison, the camera ascends above  him.  The audience looks down at his body lying in state; has his spirit ascended? Following a fade to black, Schrader presents us with a coda where an alive LeTour is visited in prison by his boss, Ann.  He has come to the realisation that he can now look forward in life and confesses that he hopes to begin a romantic relationship with her once he leaves prison. Schrader then recreates a similar shot that he used at the end of American Gigolo, which in turn was lifted from Bresson’s Pickpocket, thus deliberately evoking transcendental style.  Ann takes LeTour’s hand; then the film cuts to a reverse shot that shifts to half, perhaps even quarter speed while slowly zooming towards a subservient LeTour who gently kisses the hand - the close up is unnaturally held for thirty seconds before freezing and allowing the credits to run.  Is this coda fantastical? The peculiar, fleeting nature of this moment jars with the conventional genre narrative from which the film operates.  After all, It is genre convention and psychological realism that dominates the style of Light Sleeper.

All these lonely man films fit most recognisably within the crime drama and thriller genres, and are filtered through Schrader’s love of film noir.  Violence, sex, prostitution, drugs, corruption, and suicide all feature prominently. Committing his thoughts to the article Notes on Film Noir in 1972, Schrader observed some key features of the genre.  Romantic narration, realistic exteriors, the majority of scenes shot for night, and a more honest and harsh view of the world. ‘The how is always more important than the what’ and there is the ‘over-riding noir theme: a passion for the past and present, but also a fear of the future’ (Schrader 1986).  These attributes feature unmistakably in Schrader’s own work.

Light Sleeper is narrated by LeTour and the majority of the action takes place at night as he is chauffeured from stash house to clients.  In a somewhat overwrought touch, the film is set during a garbage strike so as the film progresses, trash and filth pile-up on the streets.  Coincidences are woven into the plotting of the film and the character LeTour is obsessed with his luck and visits a psychic healer multiple times seeking reassurances about his future. The worlds painted by Light Sleeper and it’s kin are bleak and unforgiving.  The lonely man films focus intently on the psychology of their central character, and the characters share similar problems. Each protagonist is presented as isolated, both socially and emotionally.  They are despairing or tired at the sin that surrounds them and are seeking ways to act, to alter their fate and to find catharsis.  For the great directors series in senses of cinema, John R. Hamilton identifies a causal link between the views of these characters and some of Schrader’s own outlooks, proclaiming ‘Schrader is a modernist.  He believes in good versus evil.  Schrader is an existentialist.  He believes that this life matters, and that we are working towards a telos, an end’ (Hamilton 2010).  The predominate style of these lonely man films is born from genre conventions and psychological realism; it is this style that brings to life the seedy, marginalised worlds in vivid detail and forms characters that are authentically tragic.  It is within this context that brief instances of transcendental style occasionally crash through, and jolt the film sideways due to the fact they are at odds with the predominate style.  Some may read these strange moments as symbolising hope, and as a type of salvation through grace for these tortured men.

Writing in the Journal of Religion & Film, Jason Abrosiano wrote that ‘LeTour’s suffering ceased being suffering the moment it found meaning’ (Ambrosiano 1998) - within Light sleeper, as with all of the other lonely man films, this occurs when the protagonist decides to make a stand and take some kind of action.  Prior to this they have been distant and resistant to meaningful decisions, merely scorning the world from the margins.  LeTour’s decisive action is phoning the police to inform on Tis, a drug client whose home was the location of a suspicious suicide the night before.  This action leads LeTour to the climactic shoot out where he is critically wounded.  The ending is similar to that of Schrader’s first lonely man film, and his second screenplay, Taxi Driver. 

In Taxi Driver Travis Bickle also takes decisive action which culminates in a shoot out that leads to him sitting in a pool of his own blood.  Much has been written about that film’s peculiar ending, which begins when the camera moves across the room, looking downwards from the roof, god-like.  ‘While the surfaces of urban realism remain, events become increasingly more unlikely […] improbable coincidences […] Travis’ extraordinary healing, push the ending from miraculous to the point of fantasy’ (Blake 2017).  Schrader plots within his narratives coincidences and inconsistencies, and often asks the viewer to question the reliability of his narrators.  The implication being that a number of key moments within the narrative (perhaps even the climactic set pieces) could well be taking place in the protagonist’s head.  When brief moments of transcendental style then arrive, I feel the fantastical is further implied.  Never have I left a Schrader film believing in the redemption or the catharsis.  With each passing lonely man film this feeling is reinforced further as those common preoccupations and insecurities resurface once more, but now in a slightly different guise.  Psychological realism always predominates the style and any hints toward transcendental style evoke the fantastical.  Perhaps the bleak nihilism beneath Light Sleeper and all of these films is the suggestion that any higher meaning, greater purpose or catharsis is also fantastical.  Of course, one may read that as honest realism rather than bleak nihilism, depending on your particular viewpoint.  Who knows if Schrader, now 72, will add further films in this vein to his body of work.  Schrader had suggested that he was done making movies that featured suicidal glory, but he recalls a response from a friend who was addressing this claim: ‘You know those suicidal feelings that went away? Don’t worry; they’ll be back’ (Schrader 2000).

1) I have included Schrader’s most recent film First Reformed alongside his ‘tetralogy’ as it shares kinship thematically and stylistically.  Schrader has noted this relationship in a number of press interviews for the film.

Bibliography

Ambrosiano, J. (1998). ""The Ties That Bind and Bless the Soul": Grace and Noir in Schrader's Light Sleeper." Journal of Religion & Film 2(2).

Blake, R. A. (2017). "Inside Bickle's Brain: Scorsese, Schrader, and Wolfe on Psychological Realism." Journal of Popular Film and Television 45(3): 139-151.

Hamilton, J. R. (2010). "Paul Schrader." Great Directors, from http://sensesofcinema.com/2010/great-directors/paul-schrader/.

Schrader, M. B. a. P. (2000). "Affliction and Forgiveness: An Interview with Paul Schrader." Film Quarterly 54(1): 2-9.

Schrader, P. (1986). Notes on Film Noir, Film Genre Reader 2.

Schrader, P. (2018). Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, University of California Press.