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THE EXPANSE Recap: Mars Shot First

Fair warning: this recap includes spoilers for The Expanse that will hijack your shipment of relief goods—don’t say we didn’t warn you ahead of time!

Before the start of “The Weeping Somnambulist”—an episode title clearly in honor of International Poetry Day—things at Tycho station had completely unraveled, Holden (Steven Strait) and the crew found their next mission in Dr. Meng (Terry Chen), and Sergeant Draper (Frankie Adams) was foisted with the task of testifying the false narrative that Mars had shot first on Ganymede. Who knows whether that could stave off war.

She got her chance, though: Draper went to earth, hand held firmly by a minder named Martens who stopped her from leaving her purple heart behind and made it clear how much was riding on her speech. Gotta keep up appearances and sell the image and all. Jacked full of medicine that will help her Martian body adjust to Earth’s atmosphere, she purposefully left her sunglasses behind. Was she trying to punish herself? Grinding against survivor’s guilt? Even after her initial and secondary testimony, she tested her fortitude against the sunshine blazing through the windows.

Of course, Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Errinwright (Shawn Doyle) traded barbs before the UN/Martian summit, arguing whether Eros really met its end when it crashed into Venus. Errinwright swore that he’d share any information he got with her—presumably bursting into sinister laughter immediately after leaving the room because everyone knows what a load that was. The good news is that Avasarala has her own source of information: a cocky, philosophizing scientist on Colonel Janus’ (Conrad Pia) mission to Venus aboard the Arboghast. Their ship was heavily shadowed by the Mars contingent there, but they ultimately discovered something shocking in the Eros crater: life in an environment that melts lead. The Protomolecule truly is a game-changer.

Draper’s testimony went according to plan, setting up the crew from Mars to negotiate reparations for the destruction on Ganymede and the disruption of the farming routes, but they placed the full blame of the incident on Private Travis (Mpho Koaho) and his apparent need to prove himself as a Martian. This left Draper scrambling, livid, fuming with her lonely medal on the desert of her uniform. She was aching for another chance to speak the truth, and Avasarala obliged.

Her suspicion couldn’t be tamed. It led to two of the most Yas Queen Avasarala moments of the entire season.

Her scowling “Wherever I goddamn liiiiiiiiike.”
“Whoever the fuck you are, stand down and let her speak.”

Frozen perfection. Her owning other people who think they’re in charge has become a highlight of each episode.

She questioned Draper about Travis, flustering her to the point of telling the truth about the monster without the vac suit, but after asking what made him open fire, she reverted back to her original story about Travis (despite no one in that room believing her anymore).

Meanwhile, Holden and Amos (Wes Chatham) hijacked a cargo ship called The Somnambulist, operated by Melissa Suputayaporn (Valerie Buhagiar) and her husband Suputayaporn (Peter Williams) in order to use it as cover to get down to Ganymede.

Meng tried to send a message but was blocked, so he used his knowledge in order to get information from Amos about what they were really doing, why they were hunting down Dr. Strickland, and what the Protomolecule has to do with all of it. They gave him what he wanted, but it led to more questions than answers. What does his daughter Mei have that Strickland wants? Does it have something to do with her genetic disorder, Myers-Skelton Premature Immunosenescence? If so, what’s the connection between the disease and the Protomolecule?

Their plan was to get through to the docking station undetected while Alex (Cas Anvar) cooled his heels behind one of the nearby moons, waiting as a backup to swoop in and save them if things went sideways.

And wouldn’t you know it, things went sideways. The cargo ship (which only wanted to deliver some much-needed supplies to the poor people of Ganymede!) was boarded by more hostiles (that’s two hijackings in as many days), which led to a sloppy firefight and Suputayaporn’s death. Holden’s mission began in earnest while Melissa wailed in mourning.

No, they were not off to a good start.

SOME STRAY THOUGHTS:

Holden let Melissa get behind him during his cargo sweep. Not great tactics there, captain.
Can you do a mission without lasagna?
Apparently Baltimore is under heavy construction.

What do you think will happen next week? Is war still on the table? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: NBC/SyFy

LEGION Recap: Chapter 7

 Spoilers for Legion follow. Be forewarned. Shall we begin?

For the second week in a row, Legion flew by with a relatively action-packed episode as the gang tries to escape from the Astral plane. Not that anybody’s complaining — finally, it feels like we’re going somewhere!

Now that David is sealed away in a corner of his mind and Lenny’s on the rampage, the mental fantasy of Clockworks is not looking so good. Walter is still stalking Kerry for unspecified (but probably bad) reasons, and it gets worse — the patent NPCs that Lenny stocked the hospital with for added realism have all gone rogue. Like, 28 Days Later kind of rogue. It ain’t pretty, but it does give Lenny cover to interrogate Amy about the day that “The Man” brought David to them. Seems like Lenny’s looking for something that she thinks David has stored away somewhere, and given that the “something” has a big ol’ X-insignia on it, there’s a safe bet it’s got to do with that mysterious man from his past.

Speaking of which, in case it wasn’t patently obvious who Lenny is supposed to be at this point, Cary and Oliver have a nice conversation that spells it out for us: he’s Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King. The beagle inside David’s memories was a dead giveaway, says Cary. Finally, some very specific validation of one of my fan theories! (Also, perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but the fact that Oliver is convinced his wife Melanie is supposed to be Asian gave me some weird Psylocke inside joke vibes. Betsy Braddock was blonde and psychic too, after all.)

The two devise a plan to use Cary’s electronic headgear to isolate the Shadow King within David, and to find a way to stop the bullets currently frozen in time around them in the real world. Both, naturally, hinge on getting David out of his mental coffin prison somehow. Cary relays all of this to Syd — or, rather, she relays it to herself while he looks on dumbfounded — and gives her several pairs of thick-rimmed glasses from Oliver that will help her and the others see beyond the Shadow King’s illusions. I guess there are several layers of astral reality here, because the guts of the hospital are still there, but all the zombie patients are gone. Well, that’s a start!

We also pick Melanie up where we left her last week as well, projecting herself beyond the Astral plane so she can see what was going down before time stopped. There she finds Cary and reunites with Oliver (who unfortunately doesn’t remember her yet), and the three go about trying to shield David and Syd’s bodies from impending machine gun fire. But first, Melanie uncovers poor Rudy, whom Walter is currently shape-shifted into in the real world — he’s been stuffed in a closet with a knife in his chest. That would explain why he’s so comatose in the Astral plane, sitting in a wheelchair drooling while while Syd and Kerry wander around fleeing from Walter and trying to find David.

Luckily, David’s not alone wherever he is — he has himself! Or, at least, he has the rational part of his brain, which obviously speaks in a British accent. David reminds our distressed hero that he’s not actually trapped in a real coffin, so they conjure up a fancy lecture room with a chalkboard in his brain to work out all the facts. If you’ve been confused about what David’s deal is up to this point and why the Shadow King wants him so bad, this was a great way to get everybody up to speed, as well as a perfect opportunity to inundate us all with clever comic-related in-jokes about the obvious identity of David’s biological father. It’s also of particular joy to me that David writes on the chalkboard exactly the same way that comic book letterers do — all capitals,without crossbars in the “I.”

Anyway, because knowledge is power, David manages to bust a way out of his mental prison and starts storming Lenny’s office, stuck in a Doctor Strange-esque time loop. It’s good timing, too, because Lenny has finally tracked down the rest of David’s friends. Finally bored with Walter, she crumples him into a disgusting heap of body parts, and then turns her attention to Kerry and Syd — but not before realizing what Oliver’s trying to do and incapacitating him instead.

Time’s starting to speed up, so Melanie and Cary continue their plan without him, placing the headband on David just as he’s flexing his powers within the Astral Plane. Rudy finally gets to do something and stalls Lenny just a little bit longer. And, just like we all probably figured it would, when they all return to their bodies nothing bad happens; David catches the bullets before they hit anyone, and the Shadow King can’t do anything about it because he’s now stuck in the mental coffin. Hooray, the day is… saved? Wait, don’t we have one more episode left?

The gang returns to Summerland in oddly cheery spirits, save for Kerry, who’s upset that Cary abandoned her in the Astral plane. Everything else, though, is looking okay —Rudy isn’t dead, at least not yet; Oliver is back and making everyone breakfast; David and Amy finally get some time as a family together. But when they decide to finally go to Cary’s lab and do something about the Shadow King, they’re descended upon by members of Division 3. Oh yeah, those guys. Welp, so much for that happy ending, huh?

What do you think this is all leading up to in next week’s season finale? Let us know in the comments!

THE MAGICIANS Recap: ‘Lesser Evils’ Went Full LES MISERABLES

Warning: the following recap contains major spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of The Magicians, “Lesser Evils.” It is a recap, after all! Don’t say we didn’t warn you …

Big musical number, game-changing alliances, best friends betraying each other… could you tell we are nearing the end of The Magicians season two?! Every storyline reached an emotional climax, and I’m very worried about where this season is heading as we move towards the finale in just a few episodes.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. “Lesser Evils” was an incredible hour in its own right, and no matter what happens in the next few episodes, I’ll always remember the exact moment I jumped off my couch to sing along with Eliot, Margo, Fen and the rest of Fillory to sing Les Mis‘ “One Day More.” It’s like the week of TV musicals, isn’t it? What a time to be alive!

This week’s hour dealt mainly with three storylines: Eliot’s decision to forego a giant battle with Loria and settle their war with one-on-one combat with the Lorian king; Quentin’s decaying body as he continued to try and keep Niffin Alice trapped; and the discovery of Reynard’s son. Each storyline was connected by the Magical Wellspring blackout (Ember’s poop is just the horrible gift that keeps on giving).

Once Eliot discovered there was another way to end the war with Loria without going to battle (because the Fillorian troops kept deserting after Julia’s “arbicide”), he leapt at the chance to be the “greatest leader” Fillory has ever had by winning hand-to-hand combat against the Lorian king … even though it was a sword fight to the death. He was blinded by the chance to finally be loved by his kingdom, and with Fen’s help and a magically enchanted sword along with the confidence boosting musical number, he actually held his own against Prince Ess’ father. He almost even won!

But when the Wellspring crapped out, so did his magical sword, and things got pretty dire, so Margo made a deal with the fairies: they would fix the Wellspring once and for all, but in exchange, they’d get Fen and Eliot’s baby to raise as a fairy. Fen agreed without knowing that part of the deal — Margo made sure to keep her in the dark and got her blanket approval for any way to keep Eliot alive — and the Wellspring was finally healed. Margo knew she was definitely going to regret that later, but desperate times called for desperate measures (although the way she called herself a “manipulative c-t” really cut deep, because you could tell she really believes that about herself). What neither Margo nor Fen knew was that Eliot and the Lorian king reached their own kind of deal that didn’t end with bloodshed: they were going to get married. I believe Fen’s reaction best sums it up: Wait, what?!

Turns out the Lorian king bat for the same team as Eliot, and was forced to marry a woman in his kingdom long ago. She had since died, and was extremely interested in Eliot. He also clued Eliot in to a Fillorian rule that monarchs could have both a wife and a husband, so it was time for some magical polygamy.

Meanwhile, Penny, Kady, and Julia found Reynard’s son: the most popular U.S. Senator, John Gaines, who has never failed in passing a bill in his life. Apparently he was stronger than all the magicians in the world combined, but had no idea that magic even existed until Penny, Kady, and Julia exposed their world to him and kidnapped him. They brought him to Brakebills, tipping off Reynard to his identity, and he tried to break in to get to his son. When the Wellspring blacked out, the magical wards around the school dropped, and Reynard simply walked right in.

Shade-less Julia decided the only way to kill him was to let Niffin Alice out of Quentin’s body, so she basically fed Quentin right into Reynard’s arms. She hoped his desire to survive would outweigh his fear of letting Niffin Alice out, but she was wrong, and Reynard almost killed Quentin. Luckily, John accepted his godly parentage at the right moment and came out to appeal to Reynard’s love for his son, asking him not to hurt anyone. Reynard obliged, and teleported the two of them somewhere, leaving everyone, thankfully, alive.

Of course, everyone was super pissed at Julia for betraying her best friend and almost getting him killed, so they locked her in the clean room — a room without magic — to figure out what they were going to do with her. Even Kady couldn’t deny that Julia’s actions were out of control and dangerous to anyone that wasn’t Julia.

And speaking of Quentin, after his body started shutting down from the stress of holding a niffin inside of it, he finally made the heartbreaking and definitely questionable decision to let Niffin Alice go. He did it in the hopes that she wouldn’t hurt anyone, but just join Niffin Friar Joseph in doing some beautiful magic and leave him alone. But the look she gave him after he freed her suggested otherwise. We can’t trust Niffin Alice. She’s not Alice, but Quentin has not been able to see the difference. He didn’t want to box her because he couldn’t imagine a “world without Alice,” but he’s already living in a world without Alice. Oh Q, what have you done?!

MAGICAL MUSINGS:

– I loved how Kady kept trying so hard to see the good in Julia even after everything she’s done without her Shade. She clearly took their “Best B-hes for life” motto to heart. But after Julia betrayed Quentin, almost getting him and Penny killed, Kady could no longer live in denial that Julia was the same person who sacrificed her own life to let Kady escape Reynard. I think I was most heartbroken to see Kady’s realization that this wasn’t the same girl she became best friends with this season.

– I’m a little uncomfortable with the implications surrounding Julia losing her humanity after getting a magical abortion. I know, I know, the show called it an “exorcism,” not an abortion, but still. The story is still the same. Julia exorcised a fetus growing inside of her, and lost her humanity in the process. I’m sure the show didn’t mean to make that kind of statement, but there it is. I would have rather watched Julia make the conscious choice to lose her Shade at some other point and not have that loss come as a result of her abortion, but too late now.

– Margo cutting the lines from “One Day More” that don’t apply to their current situation is the most Margo move ever.

– And speaking of “One Day More,” can The Magicians please do musical numbers every week?! That was fantastic. The writers figured out a way to include a musical number that made sense in the story (Eliot needed a confidence booster before his big duel and he loves musicals), only incorporated cast members who could sing and gave it some real-world stakes (the Lorian king didn’t understand why Eliot kept singing “One Day More” at him when the duel was scheduled for that day). The choreography was flawless, the lyrics made sense for each character who sang them and I love getting to see Eliot happy so this was an all-around win.

– I’ll repeat myself from last week because it still applies: Jason Ralph playing Niffin Alice controlling Quentin’s body is just a trip to watch.

QUALITY QUOTES:

Quentin, locked in a cage while being checked out by Professor Lipson: I’m in a cage. You don’t think this is a tad … redundant?

Dean Fogg: Protocol.

Quentin: Yeah, for werewolves.

Werewolf in the cage next to him: OK, technically, I have sexually transmitted lycanthropy. A very mild case. Would have been cool to actually fully wolf out, you know? Awooo! Either way, it’s totally curable.

Dean Fogg: Treatable. There is no actual cure.

Penny: Well … silver bullet.

Professor Lipson: Quentin, you’re dying.

Quentin, sarcastically: Yeah, well, aren’t we all?

Professor Lipson: You’re dying quickly.

Margo: We may be the least trusted monarchs in the history of Fillory. Thank god they don’t have polls here.

Margo: One problem at a time, OK? Our soldiers are deserting us in protest thanks to Julia committing tree genocide.

Tick Pickwick: Pardon me, your majesty, for the official records, may I suggest a slightly less incendiary term? Perhaps “arbicide.”

Eliot: Sure, if you can also recommend how we fight a war without an army.

Palace advisor: Your majesty, there is one option. A rather obscure, law based —

Margo: Less words.

Palace advisor: One-on-one combat between monarchs.

Eliot, smiling: A duel?

Margo, rolling her eyes: El…

Eliot: With Ess’ dad? He’s got to be at least 50. And I’m pretty buff from all the living without technology or decent wine.

Margo: Slow down.

Eliot: Is there any rule about not using magic?

Tick Pickwick: You’re likely to, well … die.

Eliot: Mm-hm. Tick, if I did this, how popular would I be?

Tick: No king has ever volunteered for one-on-one combat. If you were to prevail, you would easily be the greatest leader in Fillorian history.

Everyone in the throne room: The greatest.

Margo, rolling her eyes again: God. He’s already seeing the statues.

Eliot: I hereby decree: rulers done gonna rumble.

Penny, jailbreaking Julia: Why are you in here, anyway?

Julia: I killed trees.

Penny: Seriously.

Julia: That could talk.

Kady: They have talking trees here?

Julia, laughing: Not anymore.

Eliot, severely underestimating how long it will take him to master sword fighting: It’s a giant butter knife.

Penny, talking about Senator John Gaines: Dude has more magic coming off him than every magician on Earth combined. And knows not one thing about magic.

Julia: Well he’s sure gonna.

Eliot: If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be venting to my wife while preparing to do battle on behalf of my mythical kingdom … I’d have done a lot more drugs.

Penny: We are not — Not! — killing a U.S. Senator. But we will commit a felony just as stupid.

Margo: What’s wrong?

Eliot: Wrong?

Margo: Your face. I’m an obsessive fan. So tell.

Professor Lipson: Is that Senator Gaines?

Dean Fogg: Probably. I mean, why not?

What did you think of this week’s The Magicians? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Syfy

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

FARGO’s Season 3 Trailer Features Lots of Ewan McGregor (It Sure Does)

What’s the only thing better than having Ewan McGregor as the lead on your TV show? Casting him in two lead roles. And if you had any doubts about that (uh, why would you?), the new trailer for Fargo‘s upcoming third season on FX, which features both of his characters, is already proof enough of why that dual casting decision sure was a great decision dontcha’ know.

In the first real trailer for the season, titled “They’re Coming” in reference to a line in it, (the previous teasers ones have been fun marketing ads and an introduction to the major characters), the issues between the Stussy brothers–the well-to-do and well-dressed Emmit and his slightly younger, slightly heavier, much balder brother Ray, both played by McGregor, are hinted at when Ray says to Emmit “you still owe me from what happened when we were kids.” Emmit is polite, but doesn’t seem very inclined to help his brother financially (nor does his associate, lawyer Sy Feltz played by Michael Stuhlbarg).

From there we see how the murder and mayhem that is so common in the Fargo universe might take off, when Ray turns to crime to help him get the money he needs to get a ring for his girlfriend Nikki Swango, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

There’s also plenty of this year’s police detective, Carrie Coon‘s Gloria Burgle, who we first meet sitting in a funeral home with her son, and who lets us know that, as of now at least, meth is not made with frozen concentrated orange juice.

The trailer promises plenty of potential for problems, lots of snow, plenty of accents, and a great villain in David Thewlis‘s English-born V.M. Vargas.

But really, just knowing we will be getting double McGregor, even if one version of him isn’t exactly as dashing as we’re accustomed to, would have been more than enough to get us excited for the April 19th premiere.

What do you think of this trailer? What do you expect from the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: FX

This STAR WARS Sleeve Took 20 Months to Complete

Full sleeve tattoos are a serious commitment for many reasons, not the least of which is the time it takes to get them. Matt and his tattoo artist spent almost 20 months working on the epic Star Wars sleeve at the heart of today’s Inked Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, Matt is a lifelong Star Wars fan; His second ever tattoo was a Rebel Alliance symbol. For this more recent piece of art, Matt started with his favorite character, Boba Fett.

Zac suggested incorporating the ships and making the Death Star a centerpiece and to include the Luke and Vader duel silhouette. Matt said, “Instead of non-descript planets, we incorporated images of Tatooine (and its two suns), Yavin 4, Naboo, and Mustafar to make it even more legit. I wanted the Kirby-esque space background as I plan to use the same background in my Marvel sleeve which I hope to start on next year.”

I can’t wait to see the Marvel sleeve, but let’s start with Star Wars:

Star Wars sleeve | Source: Matt, inked by Zac Fawcett at Trademark Tattoo

To see all the elements in Matt’s detailed Star Wars sleeve, visit the gallery below for more angles. If you want to see more of the tattoo artist’s work, you can view Zac’s tattoo history on Instagram.

If you have nerdy ink on your skin or you’re a tattoo artist that applies pop culture, STEM, music, or other nerd-inspired ink (tl;dr: I want to see basically all the tattoos) on a regular basis, then please hit me up because I’d like to highlight you in a future Inked Wednesday gallery. You can get in touch with me via email at alratcliffe@yahoo.com. Send me photos of the tattoos you’d like me to feature (the higher resolution, the better) and don’t forget to let me know the name of your tattoo artist if you have it, as well the name of the shop he or she works out of. If you are the tattoo artist, give me links to your portfolios and/or Instagram accounts so I can share them with our readers.

Images: Courtesy of Matt Bib

Is Disney Gearing Up for a Shared Movie Universe?

Last weekend, Disney proved that it doesn’t need Marvel or Star Wars to set the box office on fire, as Beauty and the Beast tore up more than a few records all by itself (and it’s far from finished). While we will apparently be spared from a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, a Disney Cinematic Universe isn’t out of the question. Today’s Nerdist News is storming Cinderella’s castle to get the details!

Join host and secret Disney Princess, Jessica Chobot, as she ventures into the golden age of Disney live-action remakes. We’ve got to admit, the Mouse has a pretty good track recent track record after Maleficent, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, and now Beauty and the Beast have become blockbusters. And while the upcoming remakes of The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and even Dumbo have big potential, not even Disney can survive on remakes forever.

But what could possibly come next? Sean Bailey—the man in charge of Disney’s live-action films—told Deadline that none of the remakes will get direct sequels, but spinoffs and prequels may be on the table. But we were much more intrigued by this comment: “Marvel has Iron Man, Captain America and Thor; we have Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle. Pairing those characters with great live-action talent and technology, something that Walt always aspired to, with technology that has moved so far forward, just seemed a smart way to go.”

That’s far from confirmation of a shared Disney universe, but it’s not a bad idea to bring the various Disney Princesses together for a movie. If they’re really Disney’s equivalent of Marvel’s Avengers, then that may be worth exploring. The Kingdom Hearts video game series has gotten a lot of mileage out of bringing the various Disney characters together in unexpected ways. Of course, a Disney Princesses movie would have to focus on the heroines themselves, but we’re excited about the possibilities. Could we even get Amy Adams’ Giselle back as the leader of the princesses? Now we really want to see it!

What do you think about the potential Disney Cinematic Universe? Unleash a spoonful of sugar in the comment section below!

We’re Glad ROGUE ONE’s Jyn Erso Didn’t Have a Jedi Mom (OP-ED)

Lyra Erso’s last words to her daughter Jyn in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story were, “Trust the Force.” She shared this piece of wisdom while tying a kyber crystal around Jyn’s neck. She studied the Force and the Jedi Order, and in early drafts of Rogue One, Jyn’s mom was also a Jedi.

Screenwriter Chris Weitz told Yahoo! Movies as much in December. He said, “Jyn’s mother was a Jedi.” The information also came up in The Art of Rogue One book; Jyn’s mother was a Jedi in hiding from the Empire, which meant her family—Jyn, Galen, and a younger son that didn’t make it to the final draft—was in danger. Ultimately, they went in a different direction. Weitz explained, “We thought that it would be more interesting to have a story without Force powers, without lightsabers. We could explore a period of broken faith, a galaxy without hope.”

Rogue One director Gareth Edwards offered another Jedi possibility for Lyra in an interview with Entertainment Weekly (EW) recently. In it, Edwards explained to EW that Jyn’s mom was going to be a Jedi slain during Order 66: “The prologue, at one point a long time ago, was going to be the Empire coming to kill the Jedi. And Jyn’s mom was going to be a Jedi.” Krennic would have been the person sent to do it.

Obviously, they didn’t go that route—and thank goodness. One of the appeals of Rogue One was how it was the first Star Wars film that didn’t have a Jedi or other Force-wielder at the heart of the story. Darth Vader appeared, yes, but he wasn’t a primary character. Making Lyra a Jedi would have brought a whole will she/won’t she element into play with Jyn regarding whether or not she would exhibit Force abilities. That question racing around would have been a distraction from the mission of stealing the Death Star plans and communicating the cost of being in the Rebel Alliance. Gareth goes into that at EW.

They found a compromise with Lyra, which I quite liked: Rogue One hinted at Lyra being somehow tied to the Force with Catalyst (the Rogue One prequel novel) and the Ultimate Visual Guide filling in those gaps. There, we learn Lyra studied the history and beliefs of the Jedi Order and, through her work with kyber crystals, she became curious and raised her eyebrow at the stories the Galactic Empire spun about what happened during the Clone Wars. She knew Krennic was manipulating Galen and even helped Galen see the truth.

And though it’s hard to spot in Rogue One, Lyra wears a red sash. It’s a nod to the Church of the Force (Lor San Tekka from The Force Awakens was a member of the group). We don’t know if Lyra ever made contact with the organization, but the Church of the Force sect native to Jedha wore scarlet vestments. So, we were able to see Lyra’s trust and faith in the Force without her being a Jedi. That information, along with what we heard about the Whills and learned about Baze and Chirrut’s past, offers other perspectives on the Force than we would have got if Lyra was a Jedi. And these details that color the background ultimately give us a fully dimensional look at how the Jedis relate to the Star Wars galaxy as a whole.

Plus, there would have been that whole “Jedi aren’t allowed to have attachments” business to explain. It’s not completely off base to think Lyra would have moved on and formed a family after Order 66 brought the destruction of the Jedi Order, but she would have been rather occupied with being on the run and staying hidden. But if she was killed during Order 66, it would have meant she gave birth to Jyn while she was still in the Order. The only other Jedi we know who had a secret family was Anakin Skywalker.

One more thought: while I don’t believe it would have been a smart move to make Lyra a Jedi, I would have loved to see her as the one who built the trap in the Death Star instead of Galen.

Would you rather Lyra have been a Jedi, or do you like the story as is? Sound off in the comments.

Images: Lucasfilm/Disney, DK Publishing

Speaking of Rogue alternatives—here’s what the ending could’ve been:

High-Def Time-Lapse of Embryo Division is Straight Out of THE TREE OF LIFE

Anybody who’s seen Terrence Malick’s 2011 experimental drama The Tree of Life definitely remembers the roughly 14-minute cosmic sequence where the universe and life itself explodes miraculously into existence in a stunning combination of CGI and a wicked cinematic score. And while the above clip of a European Common Frog embryo undergoing cell division looks like it belongs right in the middle of that sequence—another wondrous life process modeled by a computer—it is in fact real, and unedited.

The stunning (and, let’s be honest, slightly squirm-inducing) footage comes via Colossal, and was recorded by YouTuber and “supplier of short educational films/clips about Wildlife behavior and Science subjects,” FrancisCheeFilms. In order to record the breathtaking time-lapse, which condenses 33 hours of cell division into 23 seconds of video, the person behind the channel (presumably named Francis Chee), had to customize a microscope that uses “an infinity optical design,” which is a design that enables “the insertion of auxiliary optical devices.” In this case, Chee used LEDs to light the frog embryo, although the description below the video makes clear that “there [were] countless other variables involved in performing this tricky shot,” including taking into account ambient temperature, collection time of the eggs, how the eggs were handled, and what type of water was used.

As far as what you’re actually watching in the video, it’s cleavage taking place just after a sperm has fertilized an egg. The fertilized egg is a zygote with a diploid nucleus, or a single cell that has two complete chromosomes, one coming from each parent cell. The cleavage of the embryo begins an exponential division of that single cell, from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8, and on and on. Note that the size (volume and mass) of the embryo does not change. Chee puts it pretty succinctly in the video’s comments: “Think of cutting up a sphere, no matter how many pieces you cut it up into, the overall size will remain the same.”

If you want to see a more complete video of a frog’s early growth stages, somebody else in the video’s comments posted another pretty fantastic time-lapse. Or you can just marvel at this GIF from the The Tree of Life:

What do you think about this footage? Does it make you feel a bit squirmy too? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: francischeefilms

Bar’s Amazing Trivia Night Makes Players Recreate Famous Album Covers

Bars are good fun if you’re into that scene, but it’s undeniable is that there are very few options for bar games. Billiards and darts are a standard—sometimes a place will have an arcade machine. For more community-based fare, trivia nights do well, but there’s one bar in England that is taking the game to a whole new level.

London pub The Gun hosts a music trivia night called “Music Is The Answer,” and it seems pretty typical, except for one amazing challenge (via NME). In the game, there’s a round called “Cover For Me,” and the rules are simple: Teams are shown an album cover, and they then have ten minutes to re-create it as best as they can using only what they can get their hands on in that time.

Sometimes it looks pretty easy, like striking a Madonna pose, as seen above. Then there are times where amazing outside-the-box thinking is required. For instance, this guy below painted his face with something pink and made big paper teeth to recreate the art of FKA Twigs’ LP1:

https://coverforme.tumblr.com/post/158167196256/fka-twigs-lp1

This squad put plastic containers on their heads to emulate Devo:

https://coverforme.tumblr.com/post/158167458186/devo-freedom-of-choice

And this participant showed about as much dedication as we’ve ever seen, drawing on his chest and covering his body in ketchup to pull off an amazing DMX tribute:

https://coverforme.tumblr.com/post/158167382516/dmx-flesh-of-my-flesh-blood-of-my-blood

The pub has started posting some of the game’s best entries on a dedicated Tumblr blog, so check out some more fine examples here. As for American bars, learn something from The Gun and step your game up, because this game looks like too much fun for us not to try.

Featured Image: Cover for me

All THE FLASH/SUPERGIRL Musical Crossover Songs, Ranked

[Warning: this story contains spoilers from Monday’s episode of Supergirl, “Star-Crossed,” and Tuesday’s episode of The Flash, “Duet.”]

Now that is how you do a musical episode of TV.

The CW’s DC Comics roster of Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow constantly prove time and time again that they know how to handle a shared TV universe. Marvel TV could certainly learn a thing (or a million) from DC TV, but that’s a conversation for another day. We’re here to talk about some singing superheroes!

What Greg Berlanti’s Arrow-verse accomplished tonight is something that most long-running TV shows have struggled with at some point over the course of their onscreen lives: how to produce a successful TV musical episode. Buffy the Vampire Slayer practically wrote the book on it, Grey’s Anatomy tanked it (don’t even get me started), Supernatural threw an actual, literal party for it, and now—after years of begging the showrunners to make it happen—the time has finally come for the world’s most musically-talented superheroes to attempt it with “Duet.”

And it. Was. Perfect. I laughed. I cried. I danced in my seat. I sang along. I clapped. And by the time the episode ended I was already asking for more. If The Flash and Supergirl teamed up for a musical episode every year, that still wouldn’t be enough. Hey, if Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can pull off a musical every week, it’s not impossible. And we all know the cast can handle it!

We could go on and on about how Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist had the talent and the right background to carry such a high-concept episode, but that’s not why “Duet” worked so well (although it didn’t hurt). The main reason why this was such a successful endeavor for both shows is the big twist at the very end. It turned out that the Music Meister (Gustin and Benoist’s fellow Glee alum Darren Criss) came to National City and then Central City to find and help Barry and Kara get back together with their respective exes. He wasn’t a villain after all! He just wanted to teach the two superheroes a lesson about love (and teach a PTSD-ridden Kid Flash/Wally West [Keiynan Lonsdale] a lesson about overcoming his fears). It was all about loooooove!

It was such a delightful surprise to see that the showrunners took a positive turn with the story. It would have been so easy for Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, etc. have Barry and Kara physically fight and defeat a villainous Music Meister, lock him up, and go back to their separate universes to deal with their broken hearts in subsequent episodes. Instead they had to “follow the script” of the movie musical they were trapped in inside their minds, which resulted in Kara learning how to forgive her boyfriend Mon-El (Chris Wood) for lying about his royal background and Barry learning that no matter what the future held with Savitar’s prophecy, he and Iris (Candice Patton) would face it together as an engaged couple. It was a happy ending for both our heroes and the audience, who have had to go along with such dark and depressing seasons for both The Flash and Supergirl.

I watch a lot of every single comic book TV show there is, good or bad (I’m even determined to finish Iron Fist), and the reflex to make the characters of comic book stories dark and brooding can feel downright exhausting at times. Some claim it’s an over-saturation of the comic book genre (you’ll never hear me say that, for the record), but it may be more accurate to point to the excess of “gritty” comic book shows and movies specifically.

Most comic books are—by design—light, bright, and fun! That’s why, when The Flash and Supergirl both premiered, I became reinvested in the genre; I thought we were moving towards an exciting future of lighter comic book fare. Even the colors were brighter! But this season, both CW series have taken after their parent show Arrow a little too much. But this episode returned the series back to their basics, letting Barry and Kara heal their broken hearts while also strengthening them as individual people outside of romantic relationships.

And most of all, it was damn funny.

From all the ad-libbed one-liners Barry and Kara shot back-and-forth at each other, to the pun-filled tap dance routine Barry and Kara shared, to the Wizard of Oz-like doppelgängers running around the musical dream world, “Duet” reminded us all of what these two shows can be when they’re at their best. Hopefully the showrunners were reminded of this as well. No matter what Barry and Kara face as they hurtle towards some no doubt game-changing season finales, let’s keep them optimistic. Even as they face the hardest obstacles of their lives, don’t change their core character DNA. For every Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), there should be a Barry Allen or Kara Zor-El.

Now, let’s rank all the songs from the episode, shall we?

5. “More I Cannot Wish You” – Victor Garber, Jesse L. Martin, and John Barrowman

This Guys and Dolls song was a sweet addition to the episode, sang by Iris and Mon-El’s “dads” as they were entangled in a West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet love story/gang war. Iris’ dads were Legends of Tomorrow‘s Dr. Stein’s musical doppelgänger and The Flash‘s Joe’s, and Mon-El’s “father” was Arrow villain Malcolm Merlyn’s doppelgänger. First off, Barry’s shock over seeing Stein and Joe as a couple leading to their menacing, “Got a problem with that?” and his reply of, “I love musicals,” was perfect. Then watching these three talented Broadway performers absolutely crush it with the vocals and emotion needed to pull this song off was a treat. The only reason why this is ranked last out of all the performances from the episode? Because, by design of a ranked list, one had to be last. It’s that simple.

4. “Moon River” – Melissa Benoist

Major props to Benoist for being able to play both Kara’s confusion as she was thrown into this 1920’s musical world out of nowhere and giving a performance worthy of Audrey Hepburn at the same time. Add to that her moment of recognizing the real Barry Allen was also in this weird new world with her and still finishing her song, and it was a master class in acting. Plus, Benoist’s voice and charm really got to shine in this solo. It was the perfect song to lead us all into this wacky episode.

3. “Runnin’ Home to You” – Grant Gustin

Oh man, Gustin really brought the heart and soul in this solo number, didn’t he? The only musical moment in the episode to happen in the “real world” as Barry proposed to Iris (again) after learning his lesson and waking up from the Music Meister’s spell, the scene was simple. Barry queued up the music on his phone and performed only for Iris to show her how much he loved her. This was the exact moment when I cried (I’m a sucker for ballads, and I’m not even sorry). Although Iris, honey, that look of extreme surprise on your face when Barry pulled out the ring? A little much. He literally did that to you one episode ago! I think I laughed way too hard at this, and that took me out of the moment at the very end.

2. “Super Friend” – Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist

Could you tell that this was written by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Rachel Bloom? Full of puns, one-liner jokes and adorably charming and quirky rhymes, the tap-dancing and sheer joy shared by Barry and Kara made this song one of the episode’s best. It was the first moment that the superheroes accepted their mission and gave in to the “script” of the musical, and the unadulterated enjoyment of their predicament despite their lack of control really showed. Did you know Barry and Kara loved musicals? You’ll never forget it now. Bonus points for Gustin and Benoist actually tap-dancing during filming—as a seasoned tap dancer myself, there’s nothing that irks me more than seeing actors “fake” tap-dancing and knowing that the sounds don’t line up with their movements.

1. “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” – Jeremy Jordan, Carlos Valdes, John Barrowman, and Darren Criss

But the best number of the entire episode by far was the big dance number in which the Music Meister foreshadows his big plan for Barry and Kara (seriously, how did we not see his big love lesson twist coming after this song literally spells it out?!). After explaining how he had “whammied” them into their own minds and they needed to follow the script to wake back up, he kicked things off with a jaunty little number that showcased the musical talents of not only himself, but also Supergirl‘s Jeremy Jordan, The Flash‘s Carlos Valdes and Arrow/Legends‘ Barrowman. The pure shock alone of watching Legion of Doom member Malcolm Merlyn sing and twirl with two ladies was a standout moment, but watching Barry start to dance along because he just couldn’t help it and hearing him tell-off the Music Meister for taking off his jacket before starting the song were also pretty amazing.

However, the biggest takeaway from the episode? Convincing people to do things in musicals is pretty easy. Lesson learned.

What did you think of the big musical crossover with The Flash and Supergirl? Let’s talk about it! Tweet me your thoughts and favorite moments at @SydneyBucksbaum.

Images: The CW

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. and The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.