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calliecat93 · 5 years

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Red vs Blue Season 17 Review, Part One

On March 9th, 2019, Red vs Blue: Singularity premiered at last. After the monster cliffhanger of S16, to say that many of us had been anxious would be an understatement. Well, it’s several months later and the season has concluded it’s 12 episode run. So, was it good? Was it bad? Well… that’s a hard question to answer. But however we feel, we’re going to be going over it today in my Season 17 Review~!

This baby got a Hell of a lot longer than intended, so hopefully, it’s coherent. I tried to be firm, but honest. No matter what I think though, there is no arguing that these people put in a lot of work to make this season a reality. I never want that fact to be ignored. So thank you Jason, Miles, Josh, Austin, Greg, Joe, RT Animation, and everyone else for all the hard work. Couldn’t have been easy, but we appreciate it all the same~!

So with that said, for the final time, let us talk about Red vs Blue Season 17.

Visuals/Machinima

This season was unique in that not only was Halo 5 still being us, but they had to go back and use all the past renditions as well. It looked like they were going to use Halo 2 Anniversary for the paradox stuff, a familiar yet different design, but I guess someone decided it was better to just reuse the older games. Which I think was probably the right choice. Halo 2 Anniversary I think would have helped add this feeling of everything being off, but at the same time seeing the previous versions helps connect to the moments more. It adds more emotional investment since we’re seeing something that we recognize being fucked with. It meant more work for the Machinima team, and I hope that they’re all still alive and had a nice vacation after it was all over cause yikes. Their efforts are greatly appreciated~

The machinima was overall very good. Josh Ornelas has been with the show for six years as a machinimator and directed at least a few episodes of S14. So he was more than fit to be a co-director for this season. Austin Clark is newer and IDK when he started (my guess is around 14 or 15), but I think he’s shown that he’s perfectly capable both as a machinimator and as a director. I never noticed any issues with the machinima that threw me off… but as usual, it’s hard to critique what are essentially video game movements/defaults. Very least whenever the characters were emotional or something, I got the feeling from how the scene was framed. Even though you can’t see the faces, the machinimators know how to frame it to make you feel the intended emotion. Episode 9 with Carolina and Wash’s talk I think demonstrated that. Yeah, the VA-ing helped, but you can see the emotion, even though there’s no emotion to display. And while Austin handled the even-numbered episodes and Josh the odd ones, everything felt like they were on the same page, which is essential when co-directing. They both did an excellent job directing.

Animation was sadly sparse compared to the last season. Wasn’t bad though. There were some good bits, like the opening credits and Wash directing his gun at Genkins in Episode 3. Oh. and Genkins getting stabbed with his own golf club was pretty gruesome, especially with his writhing around, but seeing the original Halo animated was nice. We only got one fight scene, but it was Carolina vs Carolina and it was badass. Not as creative as the Donut vs O’Malley fight, but still really good and impactful. Loved it!. The sets and effects were all very good. Just look at the opening. The effects used for The Everwhen looked really cool and other-worldly. The Labyrinth looked pretty creepy, as it should be considering its true nature. And of course, all the previous Halo’s still looked good… maybe a little dated with Halo: CE but still as good as it did in the remaster.

Overall, visually speaking, the season was really good. The machinima looked great and was directed competently. I felt engaged, and that’s what’s important. Definitely one of the season high points.

Voice Acting/Music

We’re mainly going to be discussing Dan Godwin, Shannon McCormick, Jen Brown, Ricco Fajardo, and Lee Eddy. Everyone else in the main cast was pretty much at the expected level of quality. There’s sadly not much to talk about specifically, which we’ll go more into during the character section. But Joel, Matt, Gus, Geoff, Becca, and Jason Saldana all did well and gave the quality that I expect from them, just nothing that stands out really. I’ll say this, Geoff and Becca’s performance in the finale was very strong and emotional and I loved it. Matt he both got to do Wyoming again and had to do Doc and O’Malley at the same time, which he nailed perfectly. And hearing Burnie as Church again was really nice… but never let him do English Lopez again. Ever.

Let's talk about villains first. Ricco Fajardo as Genkins is freakin’ fantastic. While we got glimpses of it last season, Genkins fun but truly shitty self is on full display this season. And Ricco is clearly having the time of his life recording it. He’s just always so cheerful and having fun, but it feels so messed up and sadistic due to the circumstances. But he owns it. Sometimes having a villain who is just shitty can be fun, especially if you have a competent actor doing it. And Ricco absolutely nailed it. We also have Lee Eddy, who voiced 479er, make her return to RvB as Chrovos. She too is clearly having a fun time. She goes full-on Large Ham with Chrovos’ theatrics and basting but also portrays her getting fed up very well. It’s the Gwen in her showing, haha. But yeah, these are two fun villain characters, and the performances very much reflected that. Loved it~

Next, we have our Freelancers, Shannon and Jen. They both got the emotions hard this season. Which considering how their plot ended last season, is no surprise. It’s no shock that these two did very well, but… man… Jen had to express a lot of guilt, but also a lot of tears and pain. Which she did very well. Carolina feels terrible and has to accept that her efforts were in vain, and Jen conveyed that very well. The second that Carolina breaks down in Episode 9… God, I just wanted to hug her. Then there’s Episode 11 where Carolina is confronting her past self, and it truly does feel like two different characters, even though it’s the same actress. It was a very strong performance this season, arguably her best one yet.

Then we have Shannon. Oh golly, Shannon. How long has he been doing Wash now? Over a decade, right? He knows this character in and out… and he perfectly shows that this season. Wash has a lot to get through this season. His anger at Carolina, him having to accept what happened, accept what has to happen, it’s a lot. Shannon nails it. From going back and forth between normal and crazy in Episode 3 to any time his anger at Carolina showed, to his talk with Carolina in Episode 5, his acceptance of his fate and prepping for it in Episode 9, and his horror to seeing everyone die in 11. And he still got lighter moments, like his interactions with Donut, which were super enjoyable. Shannon just knocked it out of the park this season, and I loved it.

But of course, the one I have to give the biggest kudos to is Dan Godwin. While he has performed Donut since the very beginning… well, he only got to do so much since Donut only got to do so much. He never did a bad job, or he was on par with everyone else, but he simply wasn’t really allowed to go beyond ‘optimistic, innuendo-spouting moron’. That is, until now. Dan got to do so much this season. He got a full range to do with Donut that he really never got, or only got so briefly. He got to be emotional, he got to be angry, he got to be frustrated, he got to be utterly done with absolutely everything. And he conveyed all of that very well. Heck, I think the pitch even lowered a little bit compared to before, or it felt less squeaky as the season went on. It feels more like an in-between of Blood Gulch Donut and pre-Paradox Donut, which I think works. Overall, Dan got to show how much experience with the character he really has after so many years of not getting to, and he was by far the best performer due to it.

Everyone in the cast did great. Even for brief returns like Miles and Gray with the Mercs, Arryn Zech with Dr. Grey, and the Freelancers all did a great job. Jason Weight as Grif’s coach was also simultaneously hilarious and scary. He clearly put his all into it, anyways. As for the music… what? Ae we surprised that it was good? David Levy and Trocadero again delivered a solid soundtrack. The fact that we have to wait for both this soundtrack and still for the S16 soundtrack continues to upset me. But at least it means a lot of quality tracks whenever they do come out. Solid job overall from the music team.

Characters

So one of the problems with these reviews is I have to remember to look at things two ways: as a fan and as a critic. We had a lot of really good character stuff with some characters… and not so much with others. And looking at it as a fan and then as a critic causes two widely different perspectives regarding this section. Normally I’d rather get the negative out of the way, but to explain the negative I have to talk about the positives first. Hopefully, I don’t come off as too harsh, but I want to be honest in this review as well. So.. here we go.

Okay, happy first. The two main focuses of this season are Donut and Wash. Let's do Wash, and in turn Carolina, first. Wash… well, got put to the side last season for the most part. His plot was mainly focused on his brain damage that he didn’t know about and ended with his blow up at Carolina. Which we all know what that leads to. Here, Wash has to deal with the fallout of it. He gets to stabilize and be back to pre-brain damage and is determined to save the others… but his anger at Carolina is lingering. His arc this season is about him forgiving Carolina, helping Donut, and accepting his own fate. I think, overall, Wash had a very good arc. And this is coming from someone who is not that big of a Wash fan.

Wash’s anger at Carolina is understandable, but he realizes that she did it out of concern for him and never meant to hurt him, and especially after talking to her in Episode 5 and how even when paradox’d she still trusts him, he forgives her. Carolina, in turn, has to deal with the immense guilt of her actions… again. Yeah, the fact that we got another ‘Carolina is guilty’ story after Freelancer, S13, and S15, it’s feeling a little repetitive. But her emotions regarding it were very well written. You do really feel the remorse and understand why she did what she did. It makes it even worse when in Episode 9, Wash accepts what has to happen and Carolina has to accept it. It was one of the toughest scenes in the season but was such a beautiful, poignant moment for both. They still have problems, like Wash fears of losing everyone and Carolina has past issues lingering still over Freelancer and her family. But it’s safe to say that they’ve both become closer and stronger.

The biggest character of this season is, of course, Donut. This was a long time coming. Up until the end of the last season, Donut was probably the most underutilized character in the show aside from maybe Lopez and Doc. He went from a dumb but semi-competent rookie to a flamboyant, one-note joke character. Like after Blood Gulch I can't think of anything significant that he contributed. Recollection more or less wrote him out/killed him off, Chorus did nothing with him, and S15 also did nothing with him and even forgot him in certain scenes. S16 began to fix that, having Donut get annoyed at being ignored, nearly betray everyone, and then get into one of the shows best fight scenes by far. So we were building up for something for this season, and sure enough, it came and it came hard… was that at innuendo? Dang it Donut, you’ve influenced me too much!

This was developed for Donut that was loooong overdue. He further got frustrated with being ignored and belittled by everyone around him. He recognized his innuendo problem and tried to actively improve it. He showed some of that competence he had in Blood Gulch, piecing things together and actively taking charge since he understood things the most. When he told everyone off in Episode 7, it felt so satisfying because of how long he’s been treated like a nuisance when he was at worst a little annoying and TMI. He was willing, tried his best, and it really felt like he was finally allowed to be more than just a joke. It really made me like and appreciate Donut a LOT more than I did before. Like he used to not just be my least favorite Red, but my least favorite of the BGC. Now? He’s right below Grif and Simmons on the Overall Favorites List. Yeah, that’s a LOT of places.

Donut was great and I wouldn't change him getting him this development… but this development did come at a cost. That being development for everyone else. The other Reds and the Blues were shafted and shafted pretty badly. The first half of the season, they are trapped with no memory and go about how they would in that time period. Which okay, it’s necessary for the plot so we can overlook that one. They get restored in Episode 6… and they are STILL badly shafted. They are all joke characters, which does NOT work when we’re this deep in the plot. I mean we get some moments, like Tucker reliving his failure on Crash Site Bravo and recognizing his fault over the past few seasons, Sarge has his scenario in Episode 11 that I thought was very insightful, but those are small moments. Sadly, Donut got too much attention. Even with Wash, him realizing how he was the Donut of Freelancer was more or less contributing to making Donut look good, as did Tucker’s moment. I like those scenes and I love Donut… but not everything had to be about him. He’s the main character, not the only one.

Let's do the Blues first. As I said, there were more or less just there and had no real major character development or effect on the plot. But that being said, they were given some legit good stuff. Tucker got it the best as he re-lived Crash Site Bravo and finally realized true leadership was. It was about stepping up when no one else would and when things were at their bleakest, not being the cool, macho guy like he kept acting like it was. Which after these past two seasons, was nice to see. I was one of the people who were perfectly fine with how Tucker was written the past two seasons because I could see why he had regressed. But I do know that a lot of people didn’t like it, and this feels like a good way to bring it all around. Have Tucker relive his worst moment, this time having to let it go through, and therefore truly remember what caused him to step up on Chorus: because he had to. It’s short, but it does its job and this along with his Labyrinth vision I think has really helped Tucker’s character immensely.

Caboose is overall pretty minor but had some good scenes like beating the shit out of Genkins in Episode 6 and figuring out how time travel worked before the others. It helps show that he’s an idiot, but he’s a smart idiot (if that makes any sense) and was a step up from his limited screentime last season. He also had my favorite line in the entire season (“These graphics look horrible!”). Sister was overall minor, but I’ll go into her later. You’ll see why when I get there. Doc was overall also minor and how the Hell he was in the Everwhen I’ll never know, but I do like him in the finale and finally getting a grip on O’Malley. He more or less is a combo of the two now and seems much more capable due to it, so that’s good. So yeah, while it may not have been a lot, the Blues and Doc were at least given something, which is better than nothing at all.

The Reds though… so you know how these past two seasons started giving them more development? You would think that since Donut is the main character, that would continue, right? Haha… nope! They went right back to ‘the comedy relief team who do absolutely nothing!’! Which after the past two seasons started to do more with them… yeah, this felt like a slap in the face. Sarge annoyed me this season. Mainly in Episode 7 where he was a hypocritical asshole about Donut’s betrayal, ignoring how he not that long ago betrayed everyone and was still feeling guilty about it. He was also the one primarily being a jerk to Donut, which did not do him any favors. I know it’s Sarge and he’s an asshole, so it’s not 100% unexpected… but I felt like it was pushed too much just to contribute to the ‘Donut is so unappreciated!’ arc. His speech in Episode 6 was hilarious though and I did like his Labyrinth vision showing that he can't handle both civilian or army life. It was surprisingly insightful in a way that I’m not used to with Sarge. So yeah, I feel his screentime was on par with Sister and Caboose at least.

Simmons… got nothing. Absolutely nothing. I mean the running gag where he kept seeing Donut shot was really funny, and it also meant he wasn't an asshole like Sarge. Heck, he seemed to be the only one willing to hear Donut out about saving them in Episode 7. And he did more or less point out how they could launch the gold club through the portal to stop Genkind from reigniting the paradox, which was minor but nice to see for him. Him not being a kissass anymore is also sticking, which seeing him back when he was pettier in Episode 2 did make me appreciate where he is now. The way that he was legit concerned for Donut during the ‘Wash shoots Donut’ gag also helps make it look like he at least cared about him in contrast to Sarge’s jackassery. But he was otherwise just there. Very least, it also means he was the only Red that I didn’t get frustrated about since his character remained consistent… until the finale with the utter bullshit that was his nightmare. Seriously guys, what the fuck?!

But at least with Sarge and Simmons, they weren’t exactly in the spotlight last season, so I don’t feel like I got cheated with them. I cannot say the same about Grif, however. Which we will cover that, as well as the Story section, in Part Two.

(Part Two)

#rvb #rvb17 #rvb spoilers #rvb reviews #callie reviews

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iembd · 7 years

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Data Science as an Art. May Student Highlight of the Month: Apos Mourouzis

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apostolos-mourouzis-465a3071/

Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, what languages do you speak, and what did you previously study?

I was born, raised and educated in Athens, Greece albeit in an international school, which exposed me to a diverse group of multicultural individuals from a young age. As my school was a British one, English became my native tongue, while Greek comes a close second (sorry Dad). I am also trying to come up to speed on both my Spanish and French, pero es muy deficil, n’est ce pas?

I was always intrigued by puzzles, so when I programmed for the first time in high school I found that this triggered my curiosity, as it was a very intricate, elaborate and constructive form of ‘puzzle solving’. In fact it’s quite funny because as a child I wanted to become a builder (I have no idea why), and I guess that programming is parallel to that, although with digital ‘building blocks’. I pursued this subject at university and studied Computer Science at Imperial College, which took the subject into a lot more depth than I had previously experienced. Following this degree, I wanted to compliment my technical skills with some business acumen so I took Masters in Management at Imperial Business School.

And to deviate from the more formal questions, my favorite colour is blue (I don’t think you have a choice when you grow up in Greece), I would always choose wine over beer and I have an antagonistic relationship with cheese!

Do you have any work experience? If yes, do tell us about it.

I have had the opportunity to work in several companies across different industries. My first internship was as a Software Developer with YossarianLives, a search engine that is solving the problems of the filter bubble by finding alternative results for search queries based on metaphorical connections with the search term. Following my Master’s degree I worked for another startup called Contadd which deals with embedded digital advertising.

Later I decided to move into a large corporation in order to understand exactly how things work behind the ‘veil’. While working for Shell, I worked as both a Risk Analyst and Change Analyst. I was lucky (or unlucky depending on the viewpoint) to be working as a Change Analyst during the oil crisis so I was involved in a lot of restructuring and cost reduction schemes which required constant tracking, managing and reporting to senior stakeholders, as it was one of the company’s priorities at the time.

What drew you to Big Data?

I was exposed to a lot of data while working as a Change Analyst in Shell, and although I managed to derive insights from this, I realized that with a proper skillset it would be possible to learn so much more than what I could extract with simple pivot tables and VBA.

More importantly, I feel that data - pure information - is the single most accurate representation of our world. In its raw form; it contains no bias, and this is the reason that data collection has always been the basis of science. Now with the vast quantities of data available from a huge array of mediums, it is very difficult to understand where causation truly lies. It is the role of the data scientist to cut through all the superfluous information and identify the truth of a situation.

And with data on human movement, behavior, likes, dislikes, weather, stocks, transactions all quantifiable and available, the insights that are possible by leveraging big data analytics would startle any historic scientist or philosopher (here’s to you Plato).

Are you pursuing any extra-curricular activity/activities? If yes, how does it help you as a Big Data student?

The Masters is my extra-curricular! But no, seriously – I think Madrid gives you endless activities to keep you entertained outside the degree, and for me this has included playing football with some of the other Big Data students (shout out to Los Pollos). However I also make sure to stay involved in activities that directly help in my progress as a Big Data student. Recently, this has been through the Venture Lab.

Following the second term’s Start Up Challenge, my team and I were accepted into the Venture Lab with our start-up idea. We now attend several workshops a week and are aiming to rapidly expand our concept in order to produce a MVP in the coming months. And what’s even more exciting is that the skills we learn daily in lectures can be applied directly to optimizing and tweaking our project.

Your LinkedIn profile mentions that you aspire to become a Data Artist. Can you tell us a little more about the “art” in this career.

Yes indeed! I find the term ‘scientist‘ implies a rigid, formulated methodology to deriving value, whereas I believe it is more important to creatively adapt your approach to uncover insights in big data. No two data sets are the same, and the best strategies require a unique blend of one's technical expertise and intuition. Data Analytics will give you the ability to sift through a whole ‘haystack’ to find the needle, but a data artist is someone who would say “Hey, how about this magnet…?”

It is an artist’s role to see things that others cannot, and then express them through a medium of their choice, be it through music, film, storytelling or any form of art. Big data requires not only this sense of perception, but also the ‘narration’ that comes with it. The inability to convey this in a clear format will negate the benefits of any insights.

For me it’s the creativity in Big Data that keeps me hooked, for example in a recent assignment aimed at understanding the status of water pumps in Tanzania, my team translated a seemingly useless column from Swahili to English to identify keywords that revealed additional clues about the location of the pumps. Over the next few years it will be the creative applications of this technology that will change the world we live in.

Plus being a “Data Artist” allows me to pretend I’m a suppressed and misunderstood creative. Cue application to Soho House.

What are your short and long-term professional goals after the Masters?

This is always a difficult question to answer and if you asked me three years ago I would have had a different answer, while in three years’ time I’m sure I will have yet another one. However one thing I am certain about is that I see myself always staying within technology, as it has been a central driver in all my decisions thus far.

In the short term, I would like to apply my data analytics skills to extract untapped value in the real world. Smart cities, art, the news and agriculture are areas that particularly interest me due to their constructive social value. Long term there are definitely unforeseen technological changes so I cannot accurately predict what I will be doing. But my curiosity will ensure that I stay at the forefront of these changes. At the later stages of my career I hope to do this with autonomy so I have the opportunity to travel and prioritize both my family and friends. I also want to keep strong ties with my home country, Greece, as it is a place with great potential that I would like to help see flourish again, as right now it seems to be having a domestic ‘mid-life’ crisis.

How would you define IE Master’s experience and what do you value most?

I find that the Master’s experience is quite similar to the experience of learning to cook a new cuisine – you’ve always been around the ingredients but you’re now learning to make a three-course meal from them. Yes, you may have the odd food poisoning but by the time you’re done you’ll have a line of customers waiting to try what you have on offer. If only I actually knew how to cook as well…

In regards to what I value the most, the fact that I have come from a working background makes me appreciate that I am now learning something new and tangible every day which can be applied to common problems in business. It’s always fun seeing the expression on my friends’ face when you can derive unexpected insights from their own company data.

And on top of it all, the lifestyle in Madrid is unparalleled, especially when coming from the rains of London. Leave your umbrellas behind.

What would be your advice for future students?

As potential Big Data Professionals you are taking on the mantle of digital explorers. A lot of the world’s hidden secrets will be available in the web of data you will learn to traverse. You will travel across unchartered (digital) territories and stumble upon (binary) treasures but it is important to maintain a sense of integrity throughout, as your ability to discover comes with the burden of responsibility. Do not twist the data to your or your employer’s advantage, as doing so will simply undermine your own profession.

And something else that has stayed with me since my time in Shell is that “perfect is the enemy of good”. Do not strive for perfection and miss the opportunity to deliver something good in the process.

But don’t forget, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! Make sure to really get out into the city. As one of the most beautiful places in Europe you don’t want to miss out on everything Madrid has to offer.

And in the words of a famous sentient AI being…hasta la vista!

#BigData art datascience MachineLearning

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calliecat93 · 5 years

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RvB17 Episode 4 Review: Breaching the Torus

Fun fact: a torus is a shape that looks like... well a donut. Yeah, the episode title is literally ‘Breaching Donut’. Well with a title like that, I expect only wholesome things form an episode that picks up right after Genkins screws over Donut and Wash’s plans! Leaving the universe certain to be wiped out by the evil time God AI... algorithm... whatever! Let's just jump in already!

Overview

We begin where we left off, Chrovos is gloating as her prison continues to fracture. But she doesn't get far in her evil gloating as Wash essentially tells her to shut the fuck up before heading for the Everwhen. Yeah, with the Time Gun out, getting the guys to realize what's wrong is really the only viable option. Wash immediately regrets this since he has no idea what to do along the Everwhen, but Donut explains it to him and gets him to focus on a memory that they're both in. Three guesses on which one Wash picks, and the first two don't count!

Yeah... Donut gets shot. Again. This time with Wash feeling bad and apologizing before going a few seconds back and stopping himself from pulling the trigger. This is the greatest running gag ever. Of all time. Anyways, the two talk about what to do next while poor Simmons is just confused by everything happening. They ultimately decide that they need to go back to a strong memory where Genkins is likely to go to. But Donut points out that they need to cause as little damage to the timeline as possible and keep things on track... so naturally, Wash shoots him to keep S7's finale intact. Poor Donut.

The two go back to S13 in a moment that I can't remember if it actually happened or not. It's before Felix and Locus went to activate The Purge and got a beatdown from the Freelancer duo. Wash is in the middle of a motivational speech when past him and Donut possess themselves. Wash tries to get Donut to explain... but after accidentally spouting and entendre, he knows he's not going to be believed and has Wash do it. Wash proceeds to try and convince the guys not necessarily about Chrovos, but that they're experiencing deja vu and that something much greater is about to wash over them (that pun was not intentional BTW). But it's okay, because they win the fight that they're about to go into, and they keep winning again and again. For now, they need to forget the Purge. They need to forget Chorus. They need to focus on what's about to come and trust Wash at his word.

It's a very well done speech and performed very well by Shannon McCormick, as always. It seems to work as the guys, while confused, all agree to follow Wash... until Genkins, whose possessing Epsilon, twists it around. He essentially makes it look like Wash is having a shell-shocked veteran moment, which Carolina agrees with and is very much concerned. This causes Wash to give a sharp 'Of course you wouldn't believe me, Carolina" in a very clear venomous tone. Even Tucker and Grif are shocked by it. Wash does catch himself, but Carolina is confused on why Wash would talk to her like that and 'Epsilon' suggests that he go take a walk. Wash does do, Donut chasing after him.

So yeah... they came close, but the attempt was not great. Wash, however, is not up for hearing Donut point this out, his anger at Carolina lying to him about his brain damage now back at full force. Donut points out that technically, he no longer has it since she saved him. That doesn't exactly make Wash any less pissed, but Donut keeps going. He points out that despite knowing the risk, Carolina still decided to try and save Wash because she cared about him. She was on the verge of tears when she brought it up... which Donut had left by then so him saying that he had been there makes no sense, but with time fucked up, I'll let it slide. Anyways, Wash realizes how angry he really got and just how much baggage about everything he's got. Right now though, they need to focus on the matter at hand, so time to go to another memory.

And... back to the S7 finale! This time it's Donut's fault, haha! They soon manage to get to when Lopez was shot, but before Donut. As Simmons frets over Lopez, Wash and Donut walk off to talk about what to do now. They realize that Epsilon had indeed been possessed by Genkins at that point, so plain convincing isn't going to work. But... Donut realizes something. He didn't necessarily convince Wash of anything, he just got him to believe in something that was impossible for him to have known. That is the key. Everyone has deja vu. They know that something is wrong, just not what. They need something to shock them into remembering. They need to see something that they shouldn't know about but recognize anyways. Simmons walks over, still confused and pretty much going 'WTF?!' to Wash for shooting Lopez. But this gets Wash to realize something... at this point, Simmons had only met him maybe a year ago. But what if he showed up when he wasn't supposed to? Like, say... during the Blood Gulch Chronicles? If he did, and the guys recognized him despite not knowing him at that point, it may be just the shock that they need to snap back to normal.

With the new plan, Donut and Wash jump forward to Blood Gulch. Donut arrives at the canyon... but Wash isn't there. Which of course he wouldn't be, this was before any of the BGC met him. Problem is that Donut doesn't know where he sent him. We cut to Wash, standing at a beached area. He tries to figure out where and when he currently is when a voice comes over the radio. A Lee Eddy voice... and there's no accent, so no it's not Chrovos. In other words... it's 479er calling from Command to find out where Wash is. Or, specifically, where Recovery One is. My friends, welcome back to Recovery One.

Review

This episode was short, clocking in at nine minutes, but man it was SO GOOD! I've been very curious about how this Wash and Donut dynamic would go. They haven't exactly had many interactions outside the S7 finale, and we all know how that went. But God... it is SUCH a good dynamic. They're both dorky morons, so there's that going for them. Donut's a little goofier and cheerful, Wash is more serious but still capable of his lighter moments. They really played off of each other well, both listening to each other and figuring out step by step their next course of action. It's funny, it moves things forward, and really sells this newfound comradery really well. Very well done~

Not only do the two characters play off each other well, but we got plenty of character development stuff. Donut's clearly still frustrated about not being listened to, especially when everyone goes and listens to Wash easily. Wash still has a TON of baggage towards Carolina and how she lied to him. He can't repress that, as we saw with the pure venom he directed at her even though she doesn't remember any of those events. And his hesitance when Donut brings up that they're going to have to save her after the guys... it hurt. I mean we all know that Wash will ultimately do it, but the fact that he hesitated because of how hurt Carolina made him feel... damn man. When Carolina gets her memory back, it is gonna hurt. And even with his own issues, Donut still tried to help Wash through his, which displays a lot of emotional maturity on his part. It's been really great to see more of Donut's character, and his and Wash's talk really shows how great they both are

There's plenty of feelsy moments, but also plenty of funny ones. S7's finale becoming a running gag is frekain' hilarious. Donut essentially resigning himself to his fate, Wash feeling guilty every single time, Simmons freaking out and just being confused by everything going on around him. Seriously, he's gonna be SO pissed when he comes to and realizes how many times he had to relive that moment. Also, Kimball's clear confusion when Wash gives his speech, haha! You can just feel the awkwardness emitting off of her. Lindsay only had like... two short lines, but God she nailed the mood. It was a great balance of hilarious and feelsy without feeling rushed or forced in. Jason has done such a great job with the writing, and this episode really shows his talents I feel.

What's also good is that so far, every episode has advanced the plot in some way. As much as I love S16 and will defend it from the more vicious hate it gets... yeah the pacing had issues. It had things happening, but it took far too long for Joe to get to anything truly impactful. I can see why he went that route, but it still made it kind of annoying that whenever it looked like we were getting to a plot point, it sidetracked to something else. I guess that he learned that when he plotted the season (or it's Jason's own doing) because every episode has moved things along swimmingly. There's very little padding or filler. We get to something, have a nice little time with it, and move to the next thing. Here we had a nice romp of the new S7 running gag, had Wash make an attempt with saving the guys, get a little character development for both him and Donut, and onto the next plot point. It's going fast, but it never feels rushed. Like... I'm starting to get why they may have gone with a 12 episode count because if that cut down on padding and needing to stretch things out to hit that count, it would hurt it more than help it.

So now we come to what's coming up next. First, we now know the next plan: have Wash arrive at Blood Gulch and shock the guys into remembering since they shouldn't know Wash yet, but if they recognize him it'll do what Donut did to Wash in Episode 3. The only problem is... well, Wash wasn't at Blood Gulch during Blood Gulch. So hopefully Donut picked a point before everyone got transferred out, haha... anyways. So yeah... looks like Wash is about to relive Recovery One. Which leaves a TON of open possibilities. He has the chance to save certain people and correct any mistakes. Which means dealing with his lingering guilt and pain over everything. But he also has a mission: to save his current team. Which may mean having to abandon Recovery One which is not only going to cause plenty of problems with the Freelancers but having to abandon his old friends to save his current ones... yeah that is going to hurt. Considering that Miles 'I'm going to have Pyrrha die in the most heartbreaking way possible in RWBY' Luna is writing the next episode... yeah... prepare your graves, everyone.

So here's what I think is going to happen. Either at the end of next week's episode or in Episode 6, Wash will arrive in Blood Gulch and whoever is all still there will snap back to normal. The second half of the season will focus on both getting everyone left back to normal and on how to stop Chrovos before she breaks out and Genkins before he makes anything worst. And we still have plenty of feels material with Donut still being frustrated, Wash and Carolina's issues, and for conflicts that haven't come up in awhile... well... Grif still needs to know about Huggins. Boy is THAT ONE gonna be fun, haha... but yeah! I could be wrong, but I can't see them stretching out the memory stuff much longer, so the halfway point seems like a good place to get the majority out of it. We'll see.

Final Thoughts

This season has been great so far. Great Wash and Donut dynamic, a great blend of funny moments and character development, wasting no time in getting the plot moving, it's been such a fun ride. And with the ending, we have plenty more to look forward to. This is easily becoming a great season, and it hopefully just keeps getting better and better. Great episode and now, if you all will excuse me, it's time to prepare my grave for when Miles utterly breaks us all next week! Yay!!!

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