Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 133

Paul Levinson virtual concert at HELIOsphere 4 April 2020

audio of the entire 1-hour virtual concert I did via Zoom at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona on the afternoon of April 4, 2004.  (You can get the video + audio of my concert here.)I sing songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time (Old Bear Records, Light In the Attic Records) and from Twice Upon A Rhyme (HappySad Records, Beatball Records, Vivid Records, Whiplash Records), and several new songs not yet on any album.Set list:"Cloudy Sunday" from Welcome Up (words by Paul Levinson, music by Linda Kaplan Thaler)"I Knew You By Heart" from Welcome Up (words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal)"The Lama Will Be Late This Year" from Twice Upon A Rhyme (words by Paul Levinson, music by Ed Fox)"Tau Ceti" from Welcome Up (words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio)"Picture Postcard World" from Welcome Up (words & music by Paul Levinson)"Samantha" (from Welcome Up) (words & music by Paul Levinson)"If I Traveled to the Past" (from Welcome Up) (words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio)"Lime Streets" (words & music by Paul Levinson)"Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning)" from Twice Upon A Rhyme (words by Paul Levinson, music by Ed Fox)"Alpha Centauri" from Welcome Up (words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal)"Welcome Up" from Welcome Up (words & music by Paul Levinson)"The Soft of Your Eyes" from Twice Upon A Rhyme (words & music by Paul Levinson)"Pictures on the Phone" (words & music by Paul Levinson)====Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time tracks produced by Chris Hoisingtonall lead vocals by Paul Levinsonbacking tracks: Chris Hoisington (harmonies), Jeremy Thompson (guitars, stand-up bass, mellotron, etc), Steve Padin (keyboard, drums), Anthony Hoisington (piano on Tau Ceti), Don Frankel (accordion on If I Traveled to the Past & Tau Ceti), Peter Rosenthal (guitar on Cloudy Sunday and Twice Upon a Rhyme tracks), Barbara Krupnick (piano on Cloudy Sunday), Paul Levinson (piano on Pictures on the Phone)Welcome Up recording engineer: Ronnie ShrockWelcome Up mixed and mastered: Evan Sielingfor HELIOsphere: Marc Grossman and thanks Liz Crefinlisten to complete album, free, on Bandcamp https://oldbearpaullevinson.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-up-songs-of-space-and-timeand on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/4S1oaV75qF6tRFfdDwDczE?si=WYXs2mRITdqQMEgMF3gxFwCDs here: http://paullev.com/product/welcome-up-songs-of-space-and-time-cd/->  lyrics to all of the songs on the album on the CD page  Light In the Attic vinyl Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time https://lightintheattic.net/releases/6371-welcome-up-songs-of-space-and-timeTwice Upon A Rhyme on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/5wWMm7Q8SSRTvvIJ1GLiRYand on Bandcamp https://paullevinson.bandcamp.com/album/twice-upon-a-rhymeTwice Upon A Rhyme original sealed 1972 vinyl HappySad Records http://paullev.com/product/twice-upon-a-rhyme-vinyl-original-1972-album/ Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Plot Against America 1.4: Close to Home

The Plot Against America 1.4 continued last night with its subtle and not-so-subtle indications of America moving towards a Nazi regime.

In many ways, I found the most chilling indication to be in the subtle category, barely more than a split second in Washington, DC, with President Lindbergh hosting German Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop.  Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, sucking up to every Lindbergh sympathizer he can find, convinced that the alternate-history President is not an anti-semite, seeks a brief word or two with the President.  Lindbergh barely acknowledges the Rabbi, and walks away.  The only possible meaning of this is that Lindbergh does not want to be seen comfortably conversing with a Jew with such important leaders of the Third Reich around.  Bengelsdorf of course must know this, but he lies to himself and Evelyn and seeks a conversation with the Vice President and cabinet member Henry Ford.  The Rabbi gets not more than a few moments from the VP, and Evelyn gets a dose of invective anti-semitism from Ford.

It's tough to see who is in greater denial, the Rabbi or Evelyn.  After cursing out Ford, in Yiddish my grandmother would have been proud of, Evelyn accepts von Ribbentrop's invitation to dance, and certainly seems to be enjoying the dance.  Maybe she's putting on an act, but the fact that we can't be sure says it all about her and her external acceptance of Lindbergh, bordering on collaboration with the Nazis.

Back in New Jersey, the signs of the Nazi ascension in America are a lot less subtle.  Unsurprisingly in Philip Roth's vision, the FBI is a more-than-willing tool of Lindbergh and his vision.  My late father, shortly after he passed the bar and began to practice law, sought to join the FBI.  They turned him down - because he was Jewish, he always insisted an at least honest FBI guy told him.  I believed him, and still do.

If I'm giving the impression that this series hits close to home, that's exactly what it does.  The Plot Against America is an increasingly powerful piece of television, and more relevant than ever in this age.

See also The Plot Against America 1.1: Yet Another Alternate Nazi History, with Forshpeis ... The Plot Against 1.2: The 33rd President ... The Plot Against America 1.3: Corrosive Anti-Semitism

 
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Westworld 3.4 The Man in White and Multiple Doloreses

Another complex and disruptive episode - 3.4 - of Westworld last night, in which more fates than usual happen to at least two of our central characters.

I'll say right out that I always liked The Man in Black, aka William, and I didn't like what happened to him last night, though it was done effectively.  Ending up in a mental institution, in a figuratively padded cell, dressed now in white, may have been a fate that William deserved, but just deserts can only go so far in a story that redefines itself and therein its future in every episode.  William may not deserve something better, but we the audience do, and I'd like to see William back, if not literally in the saddle, into some kind of better, more influential action.

Meanwhile, Dolores's character was redefined in the way a snowflake becomes a blizzard - well, if not quite a blizzard, into four versions of herself, with a principle that says, in effect, that there can be an infinite number of versions of her.   Pearls - which contain the mind, and/or, if you're more spiritually inclined, the soul - are apparently easily enough to duplicate.  Dolores's pearl now animates Doroles's body, Charlotte's body, Liam's bodyguard Martin, and Musashi.  And, since we already know how easy it is to replicate a host body, there could be who knows how many versions of each of those hosts walking or laying around, and who knows how many more Doloreses in other host bodies.

Given the awesomeness of this situation, I'm guessing the sooner or later Westworld will need to put some kind of break on it.  Meaning, something that gets in the way of this replication, some limit to how far and wide the replication can take place, maybe some kind of noise in the system that happens incrementally with each reproduction.  On the other hand, the essence of digital life is that code can be replicated with zero noise an infinite number of times.  Which means, at least scientifically, Westworld is on firm ground doing whatever it pleases with this multiplicity.




See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside ... Westworld 3.2: Dolores' Enemies ... Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World
And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 


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Homeland 8.9: The Red Box and the Black Russian

A fast-moving episode 8.9 of Homeland last night, in which Carrie finally gets her hands on the crucial black box that actually is red, and is betrayed.

The red box tells her what she suspected: no one brought down the Presidential helicopter, the crash was an accident.  We learned this even before she listened to the red box's recording, when Carrie indicated that there had been problems with that model of helicopter.  (And that's what they used for such a crucial flight?)

But she needs to get this evidence to the US government, and the public, to avoid what could even be worse than the Coronavirus we now are battling in reality - a nuclear war - and, before she can do that, Yevgeny knocks her out with an injection in the neck, and carries her and the flight recorder to some safe place.  Safe for him.

Yevgeny continues to evolve as a character.  He clearly cares for Carrie.  He strokes her face after he puts her unconscious body as comfortably as possible in bed.  But he's more loyal to Mother Russia than to Carrie.  Assuming that was his motive, or his only motive.

It's also possible that Yevgeny's understandable mistrust of the U. S. government led to inject and abscond with Carrie and the red box to protect Carrie, and the world.  He certainly would not be crazy to be concerned that the U. S. might not accept the evidence of the flight recorder, and put Carrie in prison for all of her heroism.

I'm sorry this is the final season of Homeland.  It's a good diversion from the real news.

See also Homeland 8.1: Lost Time ... Homeland 8.3: Ohio ... Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down ... Homeland 8.5: Is Carrie Another Brody? ... Homeland 8.6: Carrie vs. the World ... Homeland 8.7: The Vice Tightens ... Homeland 8.8: The Black Box

And see also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched ... Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U.S. Hacks Twitter ... Homeland 7.10: President Trump and President Keane ... Homeland 7.11: Carrie in Action ... Homeland Season 7 Finale: The President
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional


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John G. McDaid: Found in Translation

Let me introduce you to John G. McDaid.  He was my student in the MA in Media Studies Program at the New School for Social Research in New York City in the early 1980s.  I was delighted when his first professionally published science fiction story "Jigoku No Mokushiroku" (in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine) won the Sturgeon Award in 1995 (right around the time one of my first published stories, "The Chronology Protection Case,"  in Asimov's older sister magazine, Analog) was nominated for the Nebula Award).   I was pleased when I began to see John start showing in Media Ecology Association conferences about a decade later, singing a variety of catchy songs.

But I had no idea, until John's Internet concert at HELIOsphere Beyond the Corona yesterday, about five hours before mine, what a superb songwriter and captivating singer John is.   What do I mean by superb songwriter?  Think Dylan, Phil Ochs, and a little Tom Lehrer humorous topicality thrown in.  His first song, "Lost in Translation" is one of my favorites, filled with Dylanesque rhymes and acerbity.  Same for "Buy the Ticket".

But his next song, "Aaron Swartz," is really something.  Much in the tradition of Phil Ochs' "Joe Hill," McDaid tells the story of the Internet visionary and activist who was persecuted by Federal prosecutors to the point that he took his own life.   McDaid brings to this ballad a memorable mix of savvy, sensitivity, and anger.   His Tom Lehrer comes out a song or two later, in "Check Out Time At The Owl Creek Hotel," in some of the lyric juxtapositions, and the song come to think of it also resonates with a combination of the Eagles' "Hotel California" and Netflix's Altered Carbon and its memorable character Poe.

I'm not going to say something about every song, because I want to leave you some surprises for the concert, which you can see and hear in its entirety below.  But I will say that "Love on the Moon" is some kind of masterpiece of angst and imagery, and itself worth the price of admission, which on Bandcamp is as much as you want it be.

Enjoy ...


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Star Trek: Picard: Non-Pareil

Just finished binging Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access.  It's the best Star Trek since Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is where Jean-Luc Picard was introduced.  And unlike TNG which was episodic, this first season of Picard was serial, which is a big plus in my book.

But let me get this relatively minor point, in retrospect, out of the way: I thought the weakest part of Picard was the beginning, or the first episodes, which show a 90+ year-old retired Star Fleet admiral down on Earth.  This part of the story was good enough, and enjoyable.  But it's not until Picard literally takes off in a faster-than-light ship that the story really takes off.

The series meshes with TNG and with the entire Star Trek corpus just beautifully.  In addition to Picard, three of the major characters from TNG play important and very satisfying roles.  More minor characters also reprise roles and are equally effective.  And at least one iconic major character from another Star Trek series makes some game changing appearances in Picard.

And Picard borrows well from from two titans of off-screen science fiction.  Isaac Asimov is read in this future in paper books, and Dr. Agnes Juradi (nicely played by Alison Pill, billed right after the non-pareil Patrick Stewart) reminds me of Susan Calvin, who figured prominently in Asimov's early robot stories.  And there are a group of warrior nuns in the mix, who echo the Bene Gesserit in Frank Herbert's Dune series.

The cinematography is splendid, reminiscent of Second Life (that's a compliment).  The battle scenes and the warp speeds are palpably portrayed.   The Borg and the Romulans figure crucially in the narrative, and we're introduced to some new planets and people, as well.

If you've noticed that I haven't said anything specific or much at all about the plot, you'd be right.  I don't want to spoil some of the many surprises for you.  But what I can tell you is that, if you're a sentient being, you'll be moved to tears, more than once, as well as laugh and be caught up in the combination of intellectual puzzle and sheer adventure that you'll find in this superb new series.




 
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The Plot Against America 1.3: Corrosive Anti-Semitism

A chilling episode 1.3 in the alternate history that is The Plot Against America, which explores the corrosive impact on anti-semitism on the Levine family, as they take a little vacation in Lindbergh's Washington, DC.

It's not that Lindbergh has specifically done anything against the Jews - at least, not yet.  It's that American bigots, who range from people in restaurants to people who run hotels, are beginning to voice and an act upon their anti-semitism.  And the helpful police warn Herman that their patience is wearing thin, when he complains when he and his wife and kids are thrown out of their hotel, merely because they are Jewish.

That scene sums up the stark difference between The Man in the High Castle and The Plot Against America.  The Nazis winning the war is a very different kind of alternate history than Nazi sympathizers slowly gaining control of the United States, against the backdrop of Hitler winning the war in Europe,

All of which makes Rabbi Bengelsdorf an even more inexplicable character.  Surely he knows what Herman has seen and experienced.   I get that he's against the war, and therefore strongly supports Lindbergh's isolationism.   But how can the Rabbi turn a blind eye to Jews being publicly badmouthed and thrown out of restaurants?  And if Bengelsdorf  is inexplicable, Evelyn Finkel is even more so.   She'll soon know exactly what her sister's family experienced.  And the coming attractions show that she still defends Bengelsdorf  - ok, she loves him - and Lindbergh.  Could love go that far?

Well, though The Plot Against America addresses the real anti-semitism in America that simmered in the 1930s and the 1940s, the Levines are fictional characters, as is Bengelsdorf, so anything can happen.

See also The Plot Against America 1.1: Yet Another Alternate Nazi History, with Forshpeis ... The Plot Against 1.2: The 33rd President

 
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Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World

As I said in a previous review of this third season of Westworld, the series' move out of the park(s) into the world at large has made it as much a cyberpunk as an android story, though two genres are related.  The cyberpunk ambience - the colors, the ambience, the cinematography - was even more in evidence in episode 3.3 last night, and I'm really liking it.

Dolores figures in two, thus far almost separate, stories.  One is about Charlotte Hale, who was killed at the end of the last season, and replaced by a host that looks like her with Dolores' mentality inside, but now has another host's AI mind.  She's a crucially important get for Dolores - Charlotte was/is Exec Director of Delos - and Dolores is therefore on hand in episode 3.3 to see that whoever it is inside Charlotte the host is having as smooth a transition as possible.  It's not easy.  Her son, named Nathan Hale (will he go on to have only one life to give for his country?) doesn't completely buy her as his mom.  And neither, quite, does her husband (played by Michael Ealy, who's done a good job in every series in which I've seen him, since Sleeper Cell).

To make Charlotte even more intriguing, we have no idea what host's AI is now driving her.  I've seen suggestions that it could be the Man in Black, since he had a habit of cutting himself, which the new Charlotte has, too.  I suppose there's no reason that a male AI can't be put inside a female host's body, but I don't recall this happening before.  And I'm also wondering: is there any reason a host's AI can't be in two bodies at the same time?  And, if so, why didn't Dolores just stay in Charlotte's body, after getting back into her own?

Meanwhile, a tad earlier than Dolores mentoring/nurturing Charlotte, we pick up the story of Caleb rescuing Dolores.  If Charlotte was an AI story, Caleb and Dolores are pure cyberpunk.  Their relationship is pivotal in all kinds of ways.  It shows that Dolores can have a constructive partnership with a human being, and maybe more than that.  I'll tell you one thing: if Caleb gets killed at the end of this season, and is replaced by a host, I'll be disappointed.  I'd like to see their host-human partnership develop full-throttle in this and subsequent seasons.




See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside
And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 
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Homeland 8.8: The Black Box

Well, irrepressible optimist that I am, Homeland 8.8 shows I wrong about two hopes for the story this season.

I had a small hope that Haissam Haqqani might somehow survive.  It looked for a few minutes that in fact he might - at least, for 24 more hours.  He also rose up after being riddled with bullets.  But he was shot by the firing squad again.  He's definitely dead.

And I had a big hope that Max would survive.  That didn't happen either.  All of Carrie's efforts, abetted by Yevgenny, failed to save him.  He's gone now, too.

So, what's left?  The black box, from the downed presidential helicopter.  Max retrieved it, and, with one of his last breaths, told Carrie where he thinks it now is.  The information it has could provide us with the huge unanswered question: who brought the helicopter down?  Jalal Haqqani claims he did, and held up what he claims was the weapon.  But the other Taliban leader who confronted him afterward, said Jalal was not the one who brought the helicopter down.  So, who did?

I said last week that I thought it could be the pro-war clique now surrounding the President in Washington.  We saw the handiwork of two of them tonight, getting the President to practically edge the U. S. into a war with Pakistan.   Do their tentacles extend to Afghanistan?  I'd say very likely.

And who is there to oppose them?  The coming attractions, I think, show Saul back in Washington.  Carrie and Yevgenny are out to find that black box.  Even though Carrie doesn't trust Saul, I trust the odds of Saul and Carrie and Yevgenny sorting this out.

See also Homeland 8.1: Lost Time ... Homeland 8.3: Ohio ... Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down ... Homeland 8.5: Is Carrie Another Brody? ... Homeland 8.6: Carrie vs. the World ... Homeland 8.7: The Vice Tightens

And see also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched ... Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U.S. Hacks Twitter ... Homeland 7.10: President Trump and President Keane ... Homeland 7.11: Carrie in Action ... Homeland Season 7 Finale: The President
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional


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Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark

A momentous, grim episode 5.7 of Outlander tonight, which portrays what is said to be the spark of the American Revolution, seen through eyes of - and animated by - our time travelers.

Brianna says the battle in North Carolina, in 1771, will have profound repercussions. The Regulators (the Americans fighting the Crown) will be badly beaten by the Redcoats and their American allies, and some historians say this will be the "spark" that ignited the American Revolution five years later. Should Brianna warn the Regulators?  Tempting, but might that not risk removing the spark and therein changing history, with the result of no American Revolution?  This time-travel paradox is as fundamental as it comes: with no American Revolution, and no USA in which Brianna will be born, there would be no Brianna to travel to the past in the first place.  My favorite kind of paradox.

But, of course, Roger volunteers to try warn the Regulators, anyway, in the hope that people they know and love could be saved - such as Murtaugh - but simmering resentments will foment the American Revolution nonetheless.   A neat way of beating the paradox, but ...

Before the hour is over, Murtaugh is dead and Roger may be hanging from a tree.  The British indeed slaughtered the Regulators, so the spark has been preserved.  But at what price?  Murtaugh is definitely gone.

As for Roger, as I say many time in my reviews of all kinds of television series, I'm a great believer in the principle that if you don't actually see the character shot in the heart or the head, he or she might somehow survive.   We didn't see Roger's face on the rope.  We saw a body wearing his clothes.  But that leaves open the possibility that the Regulators stripped him of his clothes, and the body hanging from the tree was someone else's.

Again, I haven't read the books, and I'm an eternal optimist, so I'm thinking Roger is alive.  But he may not be well, and who knows where he is.  We'll just have to see in the weeks ahead.

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet
And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

   

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