Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 283

Vikings 3.6: Athelstan and Floki

A brutal Vikings 3.6 last night, with an ear lost in England, and far more than that lost for Athelstan in Scandinavia, though he was raptured about that, and sure he was about to go on to a better life.

His deliverer was Floki, whose resentment of the Christians has been building to the boiling point all season.   The massacre in England that we were witness to last week added fuel to his rage, and who can blame him for that.  But taking it out on Athelstan, a fundamentally gentle soul whose life of the mind was a beacon and resource for Ragnar, was not the way to go.   Because in taking out Athelstan, Floki deprived not only Ragnar but the audience - us - of Athelstan's vision and wisdom, and this moves Floki from the slightly crazed but almost lovable category to the thoroughly crazed and despicable column of villains.

Athelstan's murder did give us the occasion to see Ragnar in one his most sensitive and eloquent moments, providing a personal eulogy for Athelstan high in the mountains, just himself and Athelstan's body, which Hamlet himself would have admired.   What will Ragnar do now without Athelstan to talk to, was his and our central question.

Will Ragnar first wreak vengeance on Ecbert for his massacre of the Norse village settlement in England last week?  That would be satisfying, but Ragnar may not want to risk so much of his fighting force, with a plan take Paris in the works.   Ragnar is a master tactician, and knows he'll need every sword and knife at his command to take this city in the Seine.

Meanwhile, there are births to offset the deaths in this episode - Ragnar's grandson in Scandinavia and Athelstan's son in England.   These two promise hope for the future, but cannot make up for the loss of Athelstan - not to Ragnar or us.

See also Vikings 3.1. Fighting and Farming ... Vikings 3.2: Leonard Nimoy ...Vikings 3.3: We'll Always Have Paris ... Vikings 3.4: They Call Me the Wanderer ... Vikings 3.5: Massacre

And see also Vikings 2.1-2: Upping the Ante of Conquest ... Vikings 2.4: Wise King ... Vikings 2.5: Caught in the Middle ... Vikings 2.6: The Guardians ...Vikings 2.7: Volatile Mix ... Vikings 2.8: Great Post-Apocalyptic Narrative ... Vikings Season 2 Finale: Satisfying, Surprising, Superb

And see also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice
... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time

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Bones 10.11: Life after Death, Sweets in Wonderland

Bones has always been about life after death, about the bones of the dead telling their stories to Bones, who is able to use that information to help bring the killers to justice in our world of the living.   But Bones 10.11 was about this in a different, less metaphorical, more literal way, as the psychic Avalon, played by Cindi Lauper, is in touch with Sweets - on this birthday, no less.

Because it's his birthday, all of our heroes and heroines are thinking about him, in their own ways.   Avalon, called in for the case at hand, is able to segue easily into being in touch with Sweets.   Unsurprisingly, Angela has no trouble believing in her and what she's saying.  Eventually, Hodgins does too - also unsurprising, because Hodgins' love for Angela makes it difficult for him to oppose anything she profoundly endorses.  And we the audience are supposed to believe, at the end, that Avalon has been guided by Sweets to get the book he wrote about Bones and Booth to them on his birthday.

Or are we?  In classic Bones fashion, we're also allowed to believe, if we choose, that maybe Avalon's insight about the thumb drive was just coincidence, and the drive would have been discovered in the car anyway.   At least, I hope so, because I don't believe in psychics, and am not inclined to, since I'm not in love with Angela.

The denouement of tonight's episode is beautifully set, though, in a tea party with Christine, who's a little older and adorably articulate.   This tea party, like all good tea parties, features an imaginary friend. Thus, Bones and Booth and everyone at the party are like the revelers at the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in Wonderland, where make-believe reigns supreme.  Is the episode's way of saying that Sweets communicating from beyond the grave is all make believe?

Tough to say, but the party made for a very merry unbirthday Bones, indeed.


Bones 100 and 200 podcast reviews

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall
And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero

A stunningly good Black Sails 2.9 - after last week's very good 2.8, too, which I didn't get a chance to review - in which all relationships are torn apart and cast asunder, with the hope of some powerful union at the end, a union of the people least likely to want to work in concert, the pirates.

They've been at each other's throats all season.   Vane, in particular, killed the mad Low, and is bent on revenge for what Eleanor did to him.   He has no love for Flint, either.  Yet, in a brilliant and rousing speech at the end of the episode, he proposes an alliance with Flint, against the British.

Vane has come to see the wisdom of Billy's argument that the admiralty sees no difference among pirates, and just wants to destroy them all.   And we've seen the bloody brutality, if not of the governor himself, then his chief man at arms, who puts a bullet in Miranda's head, right in front of our, the Governor's, and most of all Flint's horrified eyes.  It may not be what the Governor wanted, but it's every bit consistent with the arrogant way of life that the pirates have been rebelling against in all ways.

The fate not only of Flint but of Eleanor and Nassau now hangs in the balance, to the extent that the Orca gold seems almost a thin memory.   And who would have believed, even through most of this very episode, that it would be Vane who steps up to be the savior of it all.

But who and what will he be able to save?   Will he even want to save Eleanor, if he gets anywhere near her?   I suppose he could be, if he makes way to where the Governor is, and if the King's men who took Eleanor bring her there.   How many armed men does the Carolina colony now have?  How many pirates can Vane deploy against them?   Billy is a great warrior, and Silver is cunning, but can they overcome the British forces?

Another important character will likely die.  It could even be Vane.   And, for the first time for much of this season, I'm hoping it's not.

See also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ... Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 
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The Walking Dead 5.15: The Bad Guy

As powerful an episode of The Walking Dead tonight - 5.15 - as we've seen in the entire series, after a relatively quiescent second part of the fifth season.

Let's get right down to it.   Rick pulls a gun on the people in town, especially Deanna, who are trying to talk him out of killing Pete.   This after Pete nearly kills Rick, after Rick tells Pete he's not going to let business continue as usual for Pete and Jessie, which is to say, Pete beating Jessie to the point of at one time leaving her unconscious and bleeding on the floor.   Deanna knows most, maybe all of this, but she can't go along with Rick killing Pete - her policy and therefore that of Alexandria is bad guys are exiled not killed.

But Carl at first tries to stop his father, and Michonne indeed stops him by knocking him out cold from behind.   Why did Michonne do that?   And what was motivating Carl?   The only conceivable explanation is that neither want their life in the town to be disrupted - neither wants their group to be thrown out of the town - because of Deanna's reaction to what Rick was about to do.  Both Carl and Michonne - unlike Carole - desperately want to stay and live in this town.

But does that make their reaction to Rick right?  Carl may in fact have tried to warn his father about Michonne's attack - it sounded like he was calling out to him to warn him - and I think his instincts at that moment were in fact correct.  Because: Rick was right to want to kill Pete and Deanna was wrong.  Yes, a surgeon is very valuable, and it's good not to have to kill wrongdoers, but Pete in his brutality was a step away from killing Jessie - as Rick rightly says - and in that brutal world in which they live, exiling would have left him still a danger to return and kill Jessie and who knows how many else, assuming that he would have even allowed himself to go quietly.

So I once again find myself at least a little in disagreement with the moral dynamic of this series, with the ending of the episode in which Michonne looks like the hero, when in fact I think it was Rick, trying to do the right thing, with almost no support from anyone other than Carole, who was the hero here.   Pete not Rick was the bad guy.

But such moral complexities are the stuff of excellent television, and a great prelude to the 90-minute season finale next week - when maybe we'll also find out the meaning of the "W"s on the foreheads of some of the walkers.

See also: The Walking Dead 5.1: The Redemption of Carole ... The Walking Dead 5.3: Meets Alfred Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone ... The Walking Dead 5.4: Hospital of Horror ... The Walking Dead 5.5: Anatomy of a Shattered Dream ... The Walking Dead 5.6-7: Slow ... The Walking Dead 5.8: Killing the Non-Killer ... The Walking Dead 5.9: Another Death in the Family ... The Walking Dead 5.11: The Smiling Stranger ... The Walking Dead 5.12: The Other Shoe ... The Walking Dead 5.13: The Horse and the Party

And see also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ...The Walking Dead 4.4: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie ... The Walking Dead 4.6: The Good Governor ... The Walking Dead 4.7: The Governor's Other Foot ... The Walking Dead 4.8: Vintage Fall Finale ... The Walking Dead 4.9: A Nightmare on Walking Dead Street ... The Walking Dead 4:14: Too Far ... The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale: From the Gunfire into the Frying Pan

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill
And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet  ... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 FinaleAnd see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season
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no cannibalism but at least a plague in The Consciousness Plague
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12 Monkeys 1.10: The Last Jump

12 Monkeys 1.10 concludes with Jones telling Cole he has just one more jump - the one he's about to make to Tokyo in 1987 - before the ravages of time travel take their ultimate toll on him.   That makes this last jump especially important - though, as is the case with all of time travel, something could happen in the past which will not make Cole's jump his last.

He'll have a lot of to contend with, a lot more than usual, with Ramse, now a deadly sworn enemy to Cole and what he wants to accomplish, back in 1987, too.  This is a good move for our story - the two friends facing off as enemies in an attempt to change or not change the past - and the story of how Ramse got there, which was told in 1.10, was pretty good, too,

The episode starts with Ramse attempting to burn the time travel facility, with the machine now back up to speed due to Jones's ruthless heroics in prior episodes.  He gets the blaze going, but it burns the bulletin board on the wall, not the time machine.  Again, a good move for the larger narrative - the machine not being burned - but the resistance of the machine to scorching flames should have been a little more clear before Ramse lit the match - after all, it's not the machine that is invulnerable to the heat or whatever that energy of time travel, it's the human being who is time traveling, and that's not a very complete immunity at that, with Cole worn down to his last jump.

Ramse does come back, near the end of the episode, to finish the job - that is, destroy the time travel machine - but that doesn't happen, either.  And, indeed, Ramse instead uses the device to go back to 1987 to make sure Cole is stopped back then.  In one of the best parts of the episode, Ramse earlier has run into Jennifer Goines, much older, having lived into 2043, not time traveled to it, and she gives Ramse crucial information about what he must do.    This scene was important, not only because we get to see Jennifer in a more interesting role that just a raving lunatic, but because it gives Ramse enough knowledge to make him a worthy adversary of Cole and Jones.

So the action moves to Tokyo, with Ramse already there and Cole, I assume, to arrive imminently, and the Witness also on hand, with Ramse at least primed to look for him, having been alerted to his presence and his role in the plague by Jennifer.

A fine kettle of time traveled fish for next week and the concluding episodes to follow this season.

See also this Italian review, w/reference to Hawking and my story, "The Chronology Protection Case"

And see also 12 Monkeys series on SyFy: Paradox Prominent and Excellent ...12 Monkeys 1.2: Your Future, His Past ... 12 Monkeys 1.3:  Paradoxes, Lies, and Near Intersections ... 12 Monkeys 1.4: "Uneasy Math" ... 12 Monkeys 1.5: The Heart of the Matter ... 12 Monkeys 1.6: Can I Get a Witness? ... 12 Monkeys 1.7: Snowden, the Virus, and the Irresistible ... 12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel

podcast review of Predestination and 12 Monkeys



 three time travel novels: the Sierra Waters trilogy


What if the Soviet Union survived into the 21st century,
and Eddie and the Cruisers were a real band?


The Chronology Protection Case movie 

~~~ +++ ~~~

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American Crime: American Fine

I thought it high time I checked in with a review of American Crime, the new ABC-TV series directed by John Ridley, who produced 12 Years a Slave.   In a word, the series is excellent - original, deep, superbly acted and plotted.  Well, that's more than one word, but they're all deserved.

In a very general way, American Crime is much like True Detective, the investigation of brutal murder(s) taking up an entire season.   In the case of American Crime, we have a married couple, the husband found murdered and the wife badly beaten and apparently sexually attacked.   They're white, and the suspects, quickly identified and rounded up by police in the first episode, are African-American and Hispanic.  The unfolding story reveals schism in the relationships of both sets of parents of the victims - as well as each set of parents to the other - as well profound differences in the suspects and their lives.   By the end of the third episode, we're giving some suspicions that the suspects may not be the perpetrators of the crimes.

Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman as parents of the slain Matt are outstanding, and put in what will be counted as among the best performances of their careers.   Hutton always had a large range, ranging from the comical to the cool, but his behind-the-eight-ball father in American Crime, struggling to the do the right thing in the face of a caustic wife and pressures from the parents of his son's wife Gwen, is  especially noteworthy and just masterful.

On the other side of this narrative,  Benito Martinez - whom I first got to know on The Shield - puts in a great performance as Alonzo Gutierrez, the father of one of the people arrested, a boy whose only crime seems to have been giving a car to known gang members.   Seeing Alonzo get chewed up by the legal system,  striving to keep his son out its legal claws but mostly failing because he doesn't fully understand what's going on, is a sight to behold as well as instructive about how minorities are treated when they get pulled in the criminal system in this country, whether or not through any fault of their own.   Just to underscore this point, we get a searingly memorable scene in the third episode in which his daughter Jenny, totally innocent, is almost drawn into this sick system herself - that is, she's almost arrested, when she has been doing nothing wrong.

Also memorable is Caitlin Gerard as Aubrey, drug addict and girlfriend of one of the incarcerated suspects, not dumb, but abused by life, literally thrown in a scrapheap after passing out and being sexually abused, and doing whatever she can to hold on.   We've seen characters like this on many a police drama over the years, but none quite as effective in this role.

If the first three episodes are any indication, we can expect all kinds of twists and turns and heartbreaks and maybe a sigh or two of relief in the episodes ahead, and I'm looking forward them all.


a different kind of crime


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Vikings 3.5: Massacre

It was a scene reminiscent of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, when Anakin, on his way to becoming Darth Vader, massacres all the Jedi in training at the Jedi school, including children of various ages who take up weapons to defend the school.   Tonight, in Vikings 3.5, we see the Viking settlement in Wessex massacred by King Ecbert's son and his men - a massacre including two Viking boys, one of whom takes up a weapon and bravely fights the murderers before he dies, and another boy, younger, who is slain with an arrow in his back as he tries to flee in the woods.   It was a hatefully powerful scene, bringing home the point that the Christians can be every bit as savage as Ragnar and his invaders.   The cross, in other words, carries no guarantee of human decency.  Indeed, awful atrocities can be committed in its name.

But the worst kick in the gut comes at the end, when we learn that Ecbert's son was actually doing the King's bidding.  Why?  Was Eckbert that upset that Lagertha turned down his proposal?  No, there are likely deeper geopolitical reasons.

But whatever motivated it, Ecbert's act potentially changes everything.  He may be able to lie to Ragnar when he returns, but sooner or later Ragnar will learn the truth - likely from Athelstan, who should learn it sooner, given his deeper connections with his own people, the English.

Whatever Ecbert's motives, what does he think will happen as a result of the massacre which he secretly planned and ordered?   Does he still want to go to Paris with Ragnar?   Was Paris with Ragnar ever part of Ecbert's plans?

One thing is clear: the geopolitics of this age were as complex as they ever had been and ever would be.   So much so that, even though we're also being treated to some fine intrigue back home in Scandinavia - with Floki and Ragnar and Aslaug and Lagertha and Rollo - all of that pales in comparison to that blood on the Viking farmstead in England.

See also Vikings 3.1. Fighting and Farming ... Vikings 3.2: Leonard Nimoy ...Vikings 3.3: We'll Always Have Paris ... Vikings 3.4: They Call Me the Wanderer

And see also Vikings 2.1-2: Upping the Ante of Conquest ... Vikings 2.4: Wise King ... Vikings 2.5: Caught in the Middle ... Vikings 2.6: The Guardians ...Vikings 2.7: Volatile Mix ... Vikings 2.8: Great Post-Apocalyptic Narrative ... Vikings Season 2 Finale: Satisfying, Surprising, Superb

And see also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice
... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time

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The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2

How can Philip let Martha live, now that she's confronted him about wondering who he really is - meaning, who is he really working for - in The Americans 3.8?

Philip is not as quick to kill as Elizabeth, but he's never shied away from it when needed.  And surely it's needed now.  True, her murder - or her disappearance, if she's killed and her body is disposed of - would no doubt attract lots of FBI attention, to say the least.   But surely that's better, from Philip's perspective, then risking her telling everything to the FBI - including Stan - which would literally put Philip's as well as Elizabeth's lives in danger, and could leave their children orphans.

We know how hard he was hit when his comrade couple were killed last year.   Philip also knows that presumably no one at the FBI knows about him.  This means no one would know to look for him, if Martha turned up dead or went permanently missing.

It's not that I'm lobbying for her to be killed - I don't like seeing people murdered, especially not Americans by Soviet agents - but  the logic of the narrative requires it, and I honestly just don't get why Philip didn't kill her at the end of tonight's episode.   What's there to think about?

Would I bet that Philip will Martha?   Well, the only thing I can think of which would prevent that is Elizabeth killing Martha, or Martha getting hit by a car.   Elizabeth is a good alternative to Philip for getting Martha out of the picture.

But as to how this will actually happen - whether it will be Philip or Elizabeth or someone or something else that does the job - well, that will be told in Martha, Part 3.  And, by the way, this Martha story is the best thing going this year - the only narrative on a par with what we saw the first two seasons - certainly better than what they're doing with Nina in the Soviet Union, which is a waste of an excellent character.

And I'll be back here next week, with either more on Martha, or-- who knows?

See also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ... The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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Like a post Cold War digital espionage story?  Check out The Pixel Eye

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Parallels: Reviewed

Hey, just saw Parallels on Netflix, a new movie - just released on digital this month - about a building that provides gateways to an infinite number of alternate Earths.   Just a few of these are explored in the movie, which offers just the slightest of explanations for what is going on, and in the end therefore seems more like a pilot for television series than a movie.   But that's ok, and if so, I'd definitely watch the series.  And in the meantime, the movie is worth a viewing, too.

There's just the briefest of alternate histories in Parallels - and old newspaper, brought to our world from a parallel reality, with the headline that Clinton was assassinated and Gore sworn in.   Otherwise, our three main characters - a brother and sister in their 20s, and a neighbor, the same age, who loves the sister - visit just two alternate worlds.

One is a post nuclear-holocaust world - or, at least, a city - with the trappings of a post-apocalyptic Mad Max ragged skeleton of civilization.  Far more interesting and better realized is an alternate Earth which is a few decades further into the future than ours as far as technological development - meaning, it's the exact same date in all Earths, but some are more advanced than others.  This high-tech Earth has nice digital screens. differently named fast food, and literally digital palm or finger recognition devices.

Some of what is going on, including that our threesome didn't time travel to the more advanced Earth, is explained to us by a fourth character, Polly, apparently the same age as our three travelers.  She, for some reason not explained, and revealed only at the end, exists in triplicate or more in the building. One of her serves as a tour guide to some extent in each alternate world that our trio enters.   She likely has some connection to the people or beings who constructed the building and its alternate reality portals.

I think the story has potential, and I'd like to see it realized on the screen in our reality.  Its deliberate avoidance of time travel, as well as weighty alternate history such as The Man in High Castle, gives it a tough row to hoe - a tough road to hoe, too, in an alternate reality in which "road" not "roe" was the expression - but that also makes this narrative original, welcome, and even refreshing.



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The Following 3.3: The Mellowing of Ryan

A good episode - 3.3 - of The Following last night, with a confirmation of a change in Ryan's character which we saw in the first episode this season.  He's mellowing, insofar as he's not pushing people he loves - like Gwen - away from him.   This can have a profound impact later in the season, making Ryan both a better human being and more vulnerable.  Will be fun to see how that plays out.

The other aspect of this episode that really struck me - for mostly personal reasons, though - is that a crucial scene took place at what I'm pretty sure is Salinger's, an orchard and farm stand (founded in 1901), about a 25-minute drive from my house. I've been there with wife and family more than a dozen times - they have great apples and peaches and pies - and now I'm thinking, what if one of its customers had been part of some homicidal following?   (And, in breaking news, it looks as if the orchard is now up for sale - you can have it for a cool three mil.)

Who's following whom is the big question this season, anyway.   Clearly, Mark is not ultimately in charge of Daisy and Kyle - who delivers the best line of the night, also featured in the promos, remarking about Mark, "he never had it," after Daisy notes that Mark is "losing it".  The obvious missing psycho or sociopath here - I'm never sure exactly which word best describes him, probably both - is Joe.  But where is he?

The Following and Joe have progressed as follows:  he was in charge in the first season, he was initially out of it in the second but worked his way back, and now in the third season he's just out of it, with no sign that he's working his way back.  Of course, as already saw in the first season, Joe can easily be behind bars and inspire and command a following.   But so far, we've seen no sign of it, barely a shadow of what Joe is up to and may be planning and doing.

Mark likely has to be killed first and/or we discover Daisy and Kyle's ultimate boss.  Looking forward to more on this in the two-hour presentation next week.  In the meantime, I'm definitely not heading over to Salinger's.

See also The Following 3.1: Miasma of Terror
And see also The Following Is Back for Its Second Season ... The Following 2.2: Rediscovering Oneself ... The Following 2.3: Coalescing ... The Following 2.4: Psycho Families and Trains ... The Following 2.5: Turning Tides ... The Following 2.8: Coalescing? ... The Following 2.9: The Book Signing ... The Following 2.11: Lily not Joe ... The Following 2.13: The Downfall of Mike ...The Following 2.14: Twists and Deaths ...  The Following Season 2 Finale: The Living

And see also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5:  The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... 
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