Class 1x08 Recap: “The Lost” (5,000 Candles in the Wind) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“The Lost”

Original Airdate: June 4, 2017

When Ram’s dad is stabbed in the heart by the Shadow Kin at the start of this episode, you know it’s going to be a grim hour. Have I mentioned before how Ram always seems to be suffering the most on this show? I know Charlie and Quill lost their entire race so it’s hard to play the comparison game with them in the room. But now Ram has seen his girlfriend and his father murdered in front of him, another woman eaten/skinned by a dragon, and had his leg cut off. And the worst thing is, there’s more to come before we finish this finale.

ORPHANS

Tanya starts the hour off with tragedy as well. Her mother is killed by Corakinus. Grief quickly turns to anger, because Tanya knows there’s a weapon that can avenge her mom and prevent others from being killed. She goes to Quill and voices her approval of weaponizing the Cabinet of Souls. Quill, very pregnant and still totally amazing, is delighted to have someone else on her side. She even agrees to teach Tanya how to fight.

As they move the Cabinet to Coal Hill, they stop off at the library to get Tanya’s brothers. Neither have answered their phones so she’s worried Corakinus is killing off her whole family. She’s almost right. It’s only Quill’s last-second intervention that saves what’s left of Tanya’s family.

THE ONCE AND USELESS PRINCE

Ram is ready to use the Cabinet as well but is stayed when April reminds him she’ll die along with the Shadow Kin. Which... okay, that’s true but couldn’t we have found a solution to this by now? And how many other people are worth April’s life? I like April and don’t want her to die and certainly don’t want Ram losing anyone else but at what point does her life stop being more important than anyone else’s?

What would really be helpful is if April could still control the Shadow Kin. However, her regal powers are kaput, as proven when Corakinus holds her mother at swordpoint. He wants April to live on his planet in order to keep their shared heart safe. Then Charlie is there with Quill’s gun aimed at the Shadow Kin, maybe finally prepared to actually do something. Instead, he’s hit in the heart with some shadow so, like April, if the Shadow Kin are killed, Charlie dies too.

Personally, I’m tired of Charlie’s whining and whimpering and wouldn’t mind terribly if he had to die in order to get rid of the Shadow Kin. I’d be more upset about April. Before we get to that decision, however, Charlie tries enlisting Headmistress Ames’ help. She’s utterly useless because the Governors are preparing for “the arrival” and can’t be bothered now.

SOULS VS. SHADOWS; FAMILY VS. FRIENDS

In the school gym, the friends face off. Ram has already run away because he couldn’t deal with the situation, so it’s Charlie and Matteusz on one side saying they can’t use the Cabinet and Quill and Tanya on the other saying the opposite. April busts in with a plan of her own. She’ll go with Corakinus, who by then is holding Matteusz at swordpoint, if he’ll leave in peace. He agrees but she reads his mind and knows he’s lying. The Shadow Kin have already invaded Earth and are ready to slaughter everyone at his command.

There’s nothing else to be done. April begs Charlie to shoot her and he agrees. Ram, who got a voicemail from April confessing her love for him, runs in to catch her as she falls. Knowing the Shadow Kin won’t follow his rule any longer than they followed April’s, Charlie activates the Cabinet and unleashes the souls of his people. Lights flood the Earth, killing every Shadow Kin and even swarming their planet and destroying it too. One last soul arises to take Charlie but Quill knocks him out of the way, telling him he must live with his decision and sacrifice. The soul strikes toward Ram and April instead. April wakes up... in Corakinus’ body.

THE ARRIVAL

Ames reports to the Governors that despite all predictions to the contrary, Charlie used the Cabinet. Displeased with her failure, they turn their backs to her, thereby allowing a Weeping Angel to attack. Instead of displacing her in time, it kills her.

Final Thoughts:

• Honestly, Tanya and the Quill are the stars of this show. As much as the other characters have developed over just eight episodes, they are the only two who have proper perspectives on things. Even though Charlie is also an alien, he’s curiously more detached than Quill a lot of the time. I wish he’d been transported into Corakinus instead of April. 
• We better get a second season. Eight episodes was far too little. 
• Maybe the reason Charlie finds it easy to sacrifice people he doesn’t know (like Tanya’s family) in order to save the people he does know (April) is because he doesn’t have anyone except his friends. But for Tanya, Ram, and April, who have family and friends, the former definitely trumps the latter in life or death scenarios. 
• Charlie: “If they die, April dies.” Matteusz: “And Charlie.” Tanya: “And I have to choose you over my mum? Over my brothers?” 
• “Great, you can defend yourself against a pregnant woman.”
• Charlie: “Is this the part where your offspring eats you?” 
• Quill: “What the? Oh crap, that is part of it, isn't it?”
• Corakinus: “You will die.”  Quill: “All of us die, genius.”
• “This is the traditional end to a Quill life, did you know that? Here we die and our offspring consume us. They take our strength as their first gift, and our last legacy. But that's not what you humans do, is it? You give your strength every day. You give your legacy as you live. And that's because you can shape it, rather than it shaping you. So take what you've been given, take it, and give it back to those who hurt you. ‘Cause that's what I'm going to do.”

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Class 1x07 Recap: “The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did” (The Longest Day Ever) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did”

Original Airdate: May 27, 2017

It’s been no secret that the character who has most piqued my interest on Class is Ms. Quill. The freedom fighter/terrorist (depending who you ask) turned slave/servant has routinely been more surprising, complex, and mysterious than her teenage charges. And that’s saying something, because they’re all richly written characters themselves. Getting an entire episode focused on Quill is a fabulous gift as we near the end of Class’ first season and it will certainly complicate things beyond what we’d even theorized.

HEART, HANDS, BLOOD

After chucking the kids into detention, Quill stomps off to meet Ames for her Arn extraction procedure. It’s going to be nearly impossible, undoubtedly painful, and most likely will result in Quill dead. She still agrees. First order of business is adding a shape-shifting alien named Ballon to their crew because he can perform the surgery. He’s also a prisoner of the Governess, so it’s easy to get him to cooperate.

Ames uses a kind of cheap and nasty time travel device to “fuzz” from place to place or, more accurately, heaven to heaven. Any version of the Doctor would surely sneer at this device as primitive and crude and Quill would tend to agree. But there are essentials that need to be gathered for the procedure. They need a real live Arn and their first landing point is what the Arn believe is their version of heaven. To attract the creature, Quill is made to recall some of her first memories, which are her mother dying and she and her siblings eating her. Hey, it’s archaic and unnecessary but it’s their way.

With a dead Arn in hand, the crew jumps to the hell of Ballon’s people. The alien’s hands are frozen in his human form, which means they’re no use in performing surgery or extracting any blood from the devil. Ballon needs the blood to make his hands work, meaning Quill also needs that blood. Unable to wield weapons herself, she has Ballon take the knife, grabs ahold of his arm, and together they succeed against the devil. The experience brings the two soldiers closer together. Quill starts believing her freedom might be within reach but she must keep that hope checked, because if the Arn catches on, it’ll kill her.

IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN

The final stop is the Quills’ heaven, where they need the brain of a goddess. When she emerges as the stories say, Quill attacks her for all of the suffering her people endured while their supposed goddess did nothing to save them. Just as the deity is about to say something in response, Ballon beheads her. Despite her frustration with his timing, Quill accepts Ballon did the right thing. In a moment of quiet, he confesses he killed a human family not because they discovered him on Earth, but because they were beating him; it was self-defense. In turn, Quill confesses the man she loved was killed in the civil war on Rhodia.

With all their pieces acquired, the trio jump back to Coal Hill for the procedure. Ames leaves to inform the Governess while Ballon sets to work. He’s able to remove the Arn and kill it. Doing so also means taking Quill’s left eye, which makes me almost pass out because there’s a brief shot of the new hole in Quill’s head and it’s disgusting. Using the blood of his god, Ballon restores the eye, though a long scar remains. Quill doesn’t mind. She’s so amped up by their success she kisses Ballon fiercely. Then they pause a moment and decide, yep they really do like each other and want to hook up in the Coal Hill music room.

HEAVEN ISN’T WHAT IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE

It’s actually rather sweet when Quill wakes up first and examines the scars on Ballon’s face, then feels her own. Which makes things all the more wretched when they realize they aren’t actually at Coal Hill. They’re in the Cabinet of Souls. A hologram of Ames explains there’s only enough power to get one of them back to Earth. She’s left Quill’s gun to help them decide. When they both refuse to kill the other, Ames tells Ballon his niece is on Earth.

It might be a trick, but he can’t take that risk. He and Quill fight and he gets the upper hand. She forgives him before he pulls the trigger but the gun backfires and kills him instead. Why not one of you leave and find a way to get the other out? I guess that leaves the same question of who gets to leave and who stays behind but then at least maybe you’d both survive.

Quill buries him and rages at the Rhodian souls who appear around her. She grabs one and she ages an indeterminate amount in that moment, noticeable by her suddenly longer hair. An exit appears and she climbs out of the cabinet, returns to Coal Hill, and saves Charlie’s life for maybe the last time. After tossing him the Arn, as we saw at the end of the previous episode, Quill passes out and Charlie, Matteusz, and we see she’s pregnant.

Final Thoughts:

• How do you die in another species projected afterlife? For that matter, how do you get pregnant there either? 
• Quill told us in this episode that giving birth is the last act of a Quill. It’s interesting then that she isn’t so standoffish about falling in love or having sex considering getting pregnant kind of seems like signing her own death certificate. And she definitely seems to value her life. 
• “Where are we, O wise head teacher and mistress of nauseating space travel?”
• “Where are we? Who is this Little Lord Growls-A-Lot and why are we all so bothered that he just killed a kitten?”
• “An unfree life isn't a life.”
• Quill: “I can't use knives, remember? That is the whole point of this trip!” Ames: “Oh. Oh, dear, that was an oversight.”

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Class 1x06 Recap: “Detained” (Jailhouse Rock) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Jailhouse Rock”

Original Airdate: May 20, 2017

The more episode of Class I watch, the more I sympathize with Ms. Quill. She is, for all intents and purposes, treated as Charlie’s servant and she’s also the only actual grown-up in our Scooby Gang. Does that justify her locking all her charges in a classroom, claiming they’ve been given detention so she can get some peace and quiet for once? Probably not, especially since we know she’s actually going to have that pesky Arn removed.

What’s truly unjustifiable is, after she locks the gang in, she says, “So you won't come to any harm.” Come now, Quill, you know that’s exactly what’ll happen. And indeed, within moments, an asteroid comes hurtling through the crack and explodes in the room.

CONFESS

The meteor fragment transports the whole room into a kind of suspended space. The gang’s emotions go into overdrive, especially their anger. Charlie turns out to be claustrophobic, which isn’t helped by being trapped not only in a room but in an unknown realm with no discernable way out.

Hoping to solve their problems, Matteusz picks up the meteor to chuck it out the door. Instead, he turns to Charlie and says he loves him but is afraid of him. April knocks the rock from his hand and Matteusz is himself again. He explains that while holding the meteor it was impossible to not speak the truth. Hurt by his boyfriend’s honesty, Charlie retreats from him.

As usual, Tanya figures out the trick. Something about the meteor is ramping up everyone’s emotions so that they feel angry rather than scared and she wants to know why. She grabs the meteor and blurts out that she thinks none of the group are really her friends. But then she uses the truth-telling compulsion to her advantage by having the others ask her questions. Before Ram knocks the meteor from her hand, we learn it’s dangerous and will fry your brain if you hold it too long, it’s a kind of intelligence, and there’s a prisoner in the room with them.

PLAYING WITH PORTALS

Basically, they’re in the Phantom Zone — a prison suspended in space. Charlie thrusts his arm out the open door and it comes back in front of him. The whole meteor was a kind of prison and, as we learn when Ram picks up the rock, each piece had a prisoner’s consciousness in it. While holding it, Ram confesses he loves April but believes she doesn’t love him back or not as much. That’s quite a reversal from last week’s “I’ve only known you a month.”

The prison forces those in it to tell the truth and thus leaves them only with confessions to make (not unlike the Confessional Dial on Doctor Who, really) and anger to let out. This prisoner killed all the others. How? To know that, either April or Charlie needs to hold the meteor.

April takes her turn and confesses that Ram is right: she doesn’t love him as much as he loves her. Through her we learn the classroom is in “no time and no space,” where they won’t age or need to eat but they’ll be trapped forever. The only way out is to kill or be killed. The prisoners were living consciousness where guilt became a weapon. As the gang feels worse about their confessions to one another, it makes them angrier — just like it did to the prisoners.

FIVE ANGRY STUDENTS

Ram is ready to break up with April because of her confession and nearly picks a fight with Matteusz. Charlie tries to calm everyone down, making his confession all on his own: he had no friends on Rhodia and believes his friends now simply put up with him. When that has no effect, he grabs the meteor and reveals he wants to use the Cabinet to kill the Shadow Kin. The only thing that stops him is Matteusz and that makes Charlie hate him sometimes. I can’t decide if this is a healthy relationship or not.

In trying to force a confession from the prisoner, Charlie begins bleeding from his nose and eyes. But the only thing the prisoner has left to say is, “You’re my murderer.” Charlie smashes the rock and they’re returned to school. What the prisoner was actually looking for is someone guiltier than himself and he found that in Charlie because “on Rhodia, a wish is the same as an action.” This technically makes Charlie a mass murderer, which is really unfair, honestly.

One problem, however: the prison still needs a prisoner, and who is the guiltiest of them all? It grabs Charlie, but his loyal guard is there for him. Quill shoots the rock, calling it her “last favor.” She’s got a major scar on her face, a new long coat, and longer hair. She throws the Arn at Charlie and says, “Things are going to change around here.”

Final Thoughts:

• Ram: “Yeah cause nothing’s tried to kill us lately.”
• Some very interesting perspectives on Charlie were revealed in this episode. On the one hand is Mattuesz, who is afraid of what’s lurking inside Charlie. “You're human. You look human. You're human all over. But inside, you're not human at all. And I'm afraid of who you are, of what you're capable of. Of what you will do.” 
• Then there’s Tanya, who thinks Charlie is a lot of talk with no action and kind of just a stuck-up ex-prince. “God, you keep saying how you're this prince but all you do is stand around and ask stupid questions and get obvious things wrong.”
• “Oh, my God. You can't even handle detention right.”
• Charlie: “You shouldn't avenge genocide with genocide. That's what the Doctor said.” Quill: “Oh, the Doctor. And, of course, no one else in all of time and space can think for themselves.”

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Class 1x05 Recap: “Brave-ish Heart” (Yes Queen) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Brave-ish Heart”

Original Airdate: May 13, 2017

Although Class is a Doctor Who spin-off, possibly the show closest to its DNA is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A group of teens from different social circles is brought together to unite in an unending fight against otherworldly beings that often show up in their town as well as in and around their school, which is an epicenter for such activity. But in “Brave-ish Heart,” a comparison emerged between April and the character Fred from Angel, which is itself a spin-off of Buffy.

Fred was a small, quiet, sweet woman who showed surprising depths of strength, endurance, and tenacity when protecting herself, her friends, and the world. At first glance, Fred seemed too frail to do much of anything and the same could be said of April. But in the opening scene of “Brave-ish Heart,” April saves Ram in the Shadow World and tells him her master plan is to kill the Shadow King.

A few small hang-ups, however: First, April thinks their trip to the Shadowkin world was one way; she doesn’t know the way back. Second, while Ram’s presence is appreciated, he’s not a whole lot of help. April doesn’t want or need a knight, though he protests he just didn’t want her to be alone during this fight. He credits her with helping to “bring him back” after Rachel’s death and he wants to offer the same service to April now.

That mostly manifests as supportive words while April goes one-on-one with Corakinus. It’s a pretty even match because each has a lot to lose. If Corakinus is killed, April will become the new king; if she loses, he’ll attack Earth and probably wipe out the human population.

It’s not hard to feel bad for April’s mom, who is stuck behind on Earth with legs that suddenly work-ish, her ex-husband, and a band of April’s new friends. Tanya explains April and Corakinus’ shared heart and the story around it but mom isn’t buying it. But there’s an added benefit to whatever April did to her mom at the end of the last episode. Their hearts and linked and the connection is such that April can cut a portal back to Earth.

April and Ram’s dads jump through just as April gets the upper hand on Corakinus. Though she could kill him, her dad equates that action with when he tried to kill himself. It was pure selfishness. He begs her not to be like him. She spares Corakinus, not in the least because in simply defeating him, she’s now the king. Since their hearts are still linked, April has him locked away in a tomb for now. When she, Ram, and their fathers step back into Earth, they find the petal problem from last week has progressed to deadly proportions.

While their friends have been off on a Lord of the Rings adventure, Tanya, Charlie, and Matteusz have been struggling with a plan to stop the carnivorous petals from overrunning the town and eventually the planet. Of course, new head teacher Ames has already come up with a plan. She wants Quill to convince Charlie to use the Cabinet of Souls to kill all of the petals. There’s seemingly no other way to kill them.

This plan suits Quill just fine because she gets to lecture Charlie about his refusal to seek justice/revenge for the death of their people. While I don’t know if I agree with using the Cabinet, I do think Quill should have a say in its use. Her people were killed right alongside Charlie’s. It seems almost cruel to lord over her that the power to use the Cabinet lies in his hands alone. Ames knows this and asks Charlie to save Earth and he responds, “No.” The flowers are smothering and killing people but he refuses to use the weapon and proclaims he can’t be forced.

Oh Charlie, you sweet summer child. Matteusz is standing right there and Ames has a gun. Forcing you will be easy. But the real decision is whether to use the Cabinet on the petals or the Shadow Kin. Quill urges Charlie to take revenge for their planet while Ames threatens to kill Matteusz unless Charlie wipes out the petals. Matteusz comes up with a pretty decent compromise wherein they somehow convince the Shadow Kin to attack the petals and then use the Cabinet on them. But Ames dismisses this suggestion for some reason.

As Charlie begins activating the Cabinet, Matteusz gets the drop on Ames and knocks her out. No longer being forced, Charlie gives in to Quill’s urging and decides to kill the Shadow Kin... until he notices something. Unbeknownst to him, April is using her new standing as Queen to order the Shadow Kin to kill the petals, which they do without incident. Amid Quill’s protests, Charlie deactivates the Cabinet. Later, Ames tells Quill that Charlie would’ve only needed to use one soul to kill the petals because the creatures shared one soul among them. That would’ve been pretty persuasive, so I don’t know why she waited until after to share that information. In any case, since Quill still held up her end, Ames offers to remove the arn as they’d agreed.

Peeved that a mere mortal girl is now commanding his people, Corakinus severs the strong link between himself and April, robbing her of her additional powers. She still has the strength of character to ask her dad to leave, though there’s less hostility in their interaction this time. Reversing her mom’s paralysis still worked as well and, with April’s help, her mom takes a few tentative steps.

Final Thoughts: 

• Ram: “April, wait. Listen.” April: “Don't say it.”  Ram: “Don't say what?”  April: “Don't say that you love me.”  Ram: “What? I wasn't. I've known you, like, a month.”  April: “You totally were about to say it. I wasn't. You were because I was gonna say that we've only known each other for, like, a month.”
• Quill slaps Charlie for always having the power to kill the Shadow Kin and not using it. Then she gets a massive dose of pain from the Arn: “It was worth it.”
• “This planet, it never ceases to stop talking about luck and fate and destiny. Well, I believe in none of those things. I believe life tries to kill you from the moment you are born, and the only proper response is to fight back at every moment.”
• “Oh, hell's bells. I'd forgotten how up themselves the Rhodians were.”
• Charlie: “You are heartless. Like all Quill.” Quill: “No, I am grieving, Prince.”

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Class 1x04 Recap: “Co-Owner of Lonely Heart” (Much Better Than an Owner of Lonely Heart) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Co-Owner of Lonely Heart”

Original Airdate: May 6, 2017

For a show in its first season, you might expect a formulaic plot or a lot of moments of teamwork and trust building. Class gives us the latter on a weekly basis while deftly avoiding the former. Last week, Tanya got the spotlight. This week, it’s April’s turn.

MOOD SWINGS

It seems almost strange to revisit the plot that started everything, but only three episodes after they first popped out of the shadows, the Shadow Kin are back. The King is trying everything possible to get his heart back and yet all he really succeeds in doing is strengthening the bond between himself and April. She can even summon swords to into her hands, heal herself, and go into some scary fits of anger. Not helping her emotional state is her recently released father. You know, the guy who tried to kill himself and his wife and daughter and ended up paralyzing the wife. He’s out of prison and calling April again and again.

Eventually, he shows up while she’s being consoled by Ram. The pair had skipped Quill’s class because April had an outburst at school. When her father appears, her double dose of hatred and anger spill over until she’s got swords in her hands and her father cowering at her feet. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for the guy. There’s something kind of awesome about a child showing such strength in the face of her abusive parent. But okay, maybe this is a little far. April doesn’t kill her dad but she admits later to Ram that she wanted to.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

What’s sweet and surprisingly mature about the April and Ram relationship is it’s built on mutual affection, friendship, and security. They each admit the other makes them feel safe. While this isn’t a revolutionary idea for TV couples — or even teen ones at that — it’s nice to see a teen relationship founded on something other than lust. Which is why April and Ram falling into bed together left me with fewer hang-ups about how long they’ve been dating/been friends or how it’s only been a month since Ram’s girlfriend was murdered in front of him.

Awkwardly enough, April and the Shadow King are so connected, her emotions influence him to get it on with a minion named Kharrus. Yeah, you read that right. The evil monster from another world hooking up with a fellow monster because the teenager with whom he shares his heart is also hooking up. That is the most Buffy the Vampire Slayer thing to happen on this show yet.

The awkward continues when April’s mom comes home before Ram leaves. The three have a sit-down talk, which Ram handles surprisingly well. He leaves to inform their friends about April’s worrisome condition (not about them having sex, although Tanya deduces that bit).

TAKE A HINT

But April’s dad wasn’t scared away after all. Swearing he’s concerned for his daughter, he butts in where he’s not wanted and at the worst time. Corikinus and Kharrus are trying to steal her heart and in the midst of fighting back, April’s anger is unleashed yet again. She advances on her father with swords for the second time that day and is about to strike him down. Thankfully, Ram talks her down because if she killed her dad, she wouldn’t be April. Kharrus isn’t so lucky; Corikinus give into his anger and kills him.

It looks like no one is dying this episode. Except then April plunges her hands into her mom’s chest. I know, right?! It’s super unclear what she’s doing and we don’t get an explanation. All we know is when April’s done, her mom is no longer paralyzed. Knowing Corikinus is whipping up his troops to come to Earth, April uses her snazzy swords to slice an opening into time and space and leaps through to his world instead. With barely a moment’s hesitation, Ram follows her and the opening closes behind him.

THE UMBRIDGE OF COAL HILL

Once again, we find Quill oblivious to the problems her charges are facing. Although, in all fairness, she has another threat staring her in the face. Coal Hill has its own version of Professor Umbridge, a new head teacher named Dorothea Ames. She knows far too much about everyone, especially our team, and calls Quill in to make her an interesting offer. Some carnivorous alien flowers have come through the rift and are multiplying at an alarming rate. They feed on blood and will soon either kill or smother everyone. Ames tells Quill if she helps the Governors fight the petals, they’ll remove the Arn from her brain.

It’s a tempting offer, particularly since Charlie had earlier ordered her to find a way to attend parent’s night for him. He wants to know how he’s progressing in his classes. For all his sweetness and naivety, Charlie is also a massive contradiction. Throughout the episode, he and Matteusz argue about the Cabinet of Souls. It can be used as a weapon by selecting a Rhodian soul and using it to kill another person’s soul. It can also be used to restore the Rhodia by uploading their soul into someone else’s body.

Matteusz sees this as the same thing — it’s still killing another person or race. Charlie sees some justification in the second option because he’d be restoring his people. That doesn’t mean he’s itching to do it, but it’s something he hasn’t entirely dismissed. And that is what truly unnerves Matteusz.

Final Thoughts:

• There’s an emerging theme of Charlie treating Quill far too much like a master would treat a servant. It’s unsettling to watch and makes me kind of root for Quill to have that Arn removed after all. But then I think, Charlie and Quill each saved the other during the war on Rhodia. Does that mean there is some true kinship between them? 
• I didn’t expect to be cheering on a relationship between Ram and April and yet here I am, totally here for it. 
• In other news, Tanya curiously asking Matteusz if Charlie is all human nearly made me spit out my drink.  
• Add flowers to the list of ordinary things the Doctor Who universe has made terrifying.

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Class 1x03 Recap: “Nightvisiting” (Time for Nightmares) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Nightvisiting”

Original Airdate: April 29, 2017

It’s unclear if, in its freshman season, Class is purposefully trying to give me nightmares for the rest of my life. But they’re pretty close to succeeding. After first introducing us to yet another deadly Doctor Who universe creature that can lurk in the shadows, last week Class skinned a few people alive with a space dragon. Now the dead have come back to life with a freaky alien plant growing out of them.

DADDY DEAREST

Everything starts out so sweetly. We see Tanya’s parents meeting, falling in love, and happily raising their family. But as we already know, her dad died suddenly two years ago and this day is the anniversary of his death. Which is why, when he shows up sitting in her room that night, Tanya assumes he’s a manifestation of her grief. Except he knows details about her and her father and doesn’t appear to be anything sinister despite the vines connected to his back.

Dad explains the vines are part of the Lankin. As he and other dead folks explain, the Lankin just want to shepherd our souls safely to heaven — or at least a place where the souls of everyone we know go. In return, the Lankin benefit from using the perpetual energy of souls. For a soul to be harvested, it must be freely given, which, in this case, means taking the hand of the dead person before you.

THE ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

While Tanya struggles to determine if the creature before her is really her dad, Ram gives up calling her and Skypes April instead. This turns out to be a very smart move, because a few minutes into their conversation, Ram’s definitely dead girlfriend Rachel appears in his room. Ram wisely sprints out of the house and calls his dad, who doesn’t pick up. As he runs through town, Ram sees the vines are everywhere and they heal themselves instantly when damaged in any way. He also sees how the Lankin snatch up anyone who takes the hand of their dead loved one. At some point, poor Ram is going to stop being the one who sees the horrifying death first each week, right?

Over at Charlie’s place, the once and future prince is entirely unaware there’s any threat to his friends. He and Mattheusz are upstairs consummating their relationship and confessing their love for one another. That was quick. Haven’t they only been dating a few weeks? But then again, they are high schoolers and one of them is an alien so maybe not.

While Charlie is busy, Quill is confronted with a Lankin version of her sister. Quill isn’t stupid — she knows the spiel about saving souls is a trap. When her sisters offers the gun that was damaged by the Shadow Kin, Quill is a little more interested. That’s when Charlie finally wanders downstairs, thereby putting himself in danger and allowing Quill to take down her sister. After a quick interrogation, it’s confirmed Tanya is in immediate danger. Charlie finally emerges from his love drunk haze to call April back.

SENTIMENT

April and Ram have been busy figuring out the Lankin on their own. While out trying to learn about the latest alien threat, the two grow closer as friends (and maybe something more). April reveals her father was a folk singer and an alcoholic who tried to kill himself with her and her mom in the car. He went to prison, April’s mom was paralyzed from the waist down, and April got therapy. But she hasn’t let that incident or her father determine the rest of her life. “What he did... it's important, but if it's the thing that rules, then he gets to keep doing that to us every day forever and I won't have that.”

Touched she opened up to him and maybe a bit impressed by how secretly amazing she is, Ram softens towards April. They kiss briefly, which is super sweet. But also leads me to wonder why we’re always entrusting the fate of the world to teenagers who put saving lives and their loves lives as equal priorities. Hello, there’s a freaky alien plant impersonating the dead and snatching up living people. Maybe kiss later?

THE GANG’S ALL HERE

Ram and April do remember their actual reason for being out and see the plant is coming from the time and space schism at Coal Hill. One large vine is stretching the direction of Tanya’s house, which is where the friends run toward. They burst into Tanya’s room but are quickly tied up by the vines. Ram begs Tanya not to take the Lankin’s hand. She does it anyway and proves yet again that she’s the brains of their group. She feeds the Lankin her anger, not her grief, and weakens it enough that it lets her go.

Outside Tanya’s house, Quill drives a double-decker bus through that large vine, causing the Lankin to retreat through the schism. Anyone in town who was tied up by the vines wakes without any memory of the incident. Charlie returns home with Matteusz in tow, having offered him a place to stay since his parents have thrown him out. On her own, Quill stares determinedly at her still broken gun.

Final Thoughts: 

• The theme of Class right now is grief and closure and it’s doing a superb job examining the intricate ways these both manifest. April’s line about her father was particularly poignant, as was Tanya yelling at the Lankin: “You don’t get to have my closure!”
• April: “Holy mother of Kanye.”
• Ram, echoing my feelings exactly: “Alien shadows will kill me. Alien tattoos will kill me.”
• “No one disgraces the memory of my sister by making her nice.”
• “I've spoken to a few, none of them seem to remember anything, which seems really convenient.”
• “Oh, this is sounding suspiciously sentimental. Exactly the sort of nonsense that would lead one of these ridiculous humans into a trap.”
• Tanya: “We all do. We beat it together. Finally, we did something as a team.”  Quill: “My God, I'm going to vomit.”

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Class 1x02 Recap: "The Coach With the Dragon Tattoo" (Blood, Gore, and Football) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

"The Coach With the Dragon Tattoo"

Original Airdate: April 22, 2017

There are some thing that once you survive them together, you’re automatically friends. An alien attack at prom apparently isn’t one of them. It’s been a week since our band of misfits saved their school and possibly their planet, and football (soccer) star Ram is ignoring his new would-be friends. He’s got a lot on his mind already: the violent death of his girlfriend right in front of him. Losing his leg and getting an alien prosthetic that won’t cooperate during practice. And, most recently, seeing the skinned body of the assistant coach in the locker room. As we’ll soon discover, this isn’t the last of Ram’s troubles.

WORST COACH EVER

It’ll take most of the episode for our heroes to figure it out, but we know from the start the person behind the killings is Head Coach Dawson. He has a massive dragon tattoo on his back, buttocks, and bicep that comes to life and attacks innocent people. It’s also very good at cleaning up after itself. Ram had hidden after seeing what remained of the assistant coach and when he emerged, the room looked spotless, leading him to believe it was a hallucination.

The slim “hope” of PTSD is soon washed away when Ram witnesses a dragon grab a cleaning lady and kill her right in front of him. He’s even sprayed with blood yet again. Seriously, this poor kid. The incident is enough to make Ram reach out to Tanya, who in turn tells Charlie and April -- because someone has to make this team a team, and I guess it’s going to be the 14-year-old. Let’s be real, she’s the smartest one of the bunch. Tanya is even trying to hack into UNIT.

These three are able to verify Ram’s story by asking Mr. Armitage, the nice headmaster who was also on Doctor Who during Clara’s tenure at Coal Hill, about a missing cleaning lady. Sadly, Mr. Armitage barely has time to be suspicious when a dragon appears through the space-time rift and kills him. At least Ram has three more people to back him up. And Charlie is very good at drawing. His sketch of the dragon is dead on, enough that Ram recognizes it as his coach’s tattoo.

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR CHARLIE

Pausing the dragon slaying for a moment, let’s check in with Quill. She’s been paying no mind to all of the bloody killings because she’s too busy scrutinizing the school inspector. The dude is pretty creepy, so I can’t completely blame her. He sits silently in her classroom day after day, unblinking, and taking notes. In a very Sherlock moment, Quill tells Charlie all the parts about the inspector’s appearance that are incongruous (like fake glasses and pants 40 years out of date). She thinks the inspector is dangerous to them.

In fact, she’s so convinced of this she nearly dismisses the dragon problem altogether. But maybe she’s blinded by lust. When she corners the inspector and asks what he wants, he responds, “You.” She takes this as invitation to snog him senseless, although he doesn’t participate and we’ll find out why in a minute.

During this sudden and awkward make-out session, the dragon appears. Quill and the inspector sprint to a classroom for safety. When the dragon breaks in, Quill offers the man up as a sacrifice. Only... he’s a robot.

BLOOD OF THE DRAGON

Thankfully, Quill’s unfortunate encounter with Inspector Gadget has at least brought her to the aid of her charges when they need it most. They’ve confronted Dawson outside the school but his tattoo is still on him. There’s more than one dragon at Coal Hill. The one on Dawson is the female. She came through the rift and was bonded to his skin somehow, giving him strength due to her dragon blood. Her mate came looking for her and has been forced to kill somewhat at Dawson’s bidding because the female dragon needs blood.

In a moment equal parts heartfelt, Doctor-esque, and pure cheese, Ram tells the male dragon he doesn’t have to live on Dawson’s terms. After all, Ram lost his girlfriend recently so he knows about... these things? Well, it works. The dragon drags Dawson into the rift. Maybe now Ram can make first team again.

But he’ll still need to practice. And really, more than anything else, he needs someone else to help him. Ram tells his dad everything’s that happened and his dad, to his credit, doesn’t freak out. Instead, he helps his son practice his football skills.

Final Thoughts:

• Interesting that both this week’s Class and Doctor Who episodes were driven by grief.
• After examining the robot inspector’s parts, Quill sees “Property of Governors.” Earlier, the headmaster mentioned the school’s “governess.” Who do we know in the Doctor Who universe who likes nicknames and seems like an evil school teacher of sorts? Missy (a.k.a. the Master). While I’d be surprised if Michelle Gomez reprised her role on Class, it seems a fair guess as this moment. 
• Also, it warrants mentioning, Quill snogging the inspector is very reminiscent of Missy snogging the Doctor in series eight’s “Dark Water.” 
• Ram about Quill: “Oh, yeah, her and her happy superbest sparkle team.” 
• Tanya: “Is a coach really a teacher?”
• “At first I thought he was an evil designer of casual coats and gifts, but I guess that's somebody else because this Paul Smith, he is nowhere to be found.”
• “You and your little team, you go pretend to save the world. I'll just stick to saving you from boring old death.”
• "Oh, please, Quill, help us with a skin-peeling dragon. We're just little arses of smart who don't even know what evil looks like."

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Class 1x01 Recap: “For Tonight We Might Die" (Prom) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

"For Tonight We Might Die"

Original Airdate: April 15, 2017

Doctor Who spin-offs were, at one time, fairly common. There was the short-lived The Sarah Jane Adventures and much-loved Torchwood. Now, there’s Class. If we had to compare Class to the two other televised spin-offs of the longest running sci-fi show in history, it’s much more Torchwood (though with a lot less sex). There’s a bite to the humor and an excited energy that would feel very at home with Jack Harkness and his crew. And yet Class is something wholly different than Torchwood or Doctor Who, in the best way possible. It’s possibly the most grounded Whovian show and the most human, even if some of its main characters are not.

CLASSMATES 

Let’s start with the humans first. At Coal Hill Academy, we meet April MacLean (Sophie Hopkins) who is very much the teacher’s pet and is also in charge of the autumn prom. For the duration of the episode, we’re going to pretend like that’s a normal thing even though I’m not entirely sure. April is severely lacking in volunteers and is decorating alone in the gym at night when a shadowy creature attacks.

At the same time, Tanya (Vivian Oparah), a gifted younger student, is at home tutoring school soccer star Ram (Fady Elsayed) over Skype. When she’s also attacked by the shadows, she turns on every light in her room as Ram stays on Skype to comfort her.

April needs the help of math teacher, Ms. Quill (Katharine Kelly), who hands her an alien gun to shoot at the shadowy form in front of her. Except classmate Charlie (Greg Austin) steps in at the last moment because the gun kills both its target and the person wielding it. Quill is frustrated by Charlie’s valor because it means Corakinus, king of the Shadow Kin, escapes, but not before April becomes his Horcrux, so to speak. While the gun didn’t kill either of them, it does mean they now share April’s heart, so killing one means killing the other.

OUT OF TOWNERS 

As she deserves some explanation, Charlie reveals to April he’s an alien. Given Charlie’s awkwardness and lack of any pop culture knowledge, April isn’t surprised. Finally, a character in the Doctor Who universe that doesn’t look shocked when learning about aliens who look like humans. Depending on who’s speaking, Charlie was either prince of the Rhodians or an overlord and fought in a war against the terrorists or freedom fighters called the Quill, who shared their planet. When Ms. Quill and her kin were defeated, an alien creature was inserted into her brain telepathically linking her to Charlie and making her his forced bodyguard. She can’t even wield a weapon now.

Doctor Who and its spin-offs are always at their best when dealing with human problems in an alien world. Is Ms. Quill’s punishment extreme? Would death or imprisonment have been better? Can forced subservience grow into genuine understanding and compassion for one’s former enemy and prevent further civil wars? The answers almost don’t matter because while the Rhodians and the Quill were busy fighting, the Shadow Kin infiltrated and slaughtered the whole planet. Ms. Quill dutifully saved Charlie’s life and they were both rescued by the Doctor, who then dropped them off on Earth.

THE MONSTER MASH 

Looking out for (or trying to make) her friends, April tells Tanya and Ram everything and while they believe her, they’re also distracted by the upcoming dance. April flies solo because Charlie asked Matteusz (Jordan Renzo) instead of accepting her fumbling proposal. Ram and girlfriend Rachel arrive in style while Tanya’s mom only lets her daughter go provided she writes a paper about the experience after. Sheesh. 

All things considered, it’s not the worst part of the night. Not far into the dance, April — thanks to her shared heart with Corakinus — knows the Shadow Kin are on their way. Ram sees them first when Rachel is killed right in front of them and his leg is cut off when he tries to fight back. The students all run except for Charlie, Tanya, April and Ms. Quill, but they’re useless against the Shadow Kin. What they need, is a doctor.

And just like that, he’s there. Okay, Ms. Quill called him earlier, but his timing was still impeccable. The Doctor helpfully points out Corakinus is after the Cabinet of Souls, a sort of box that contains the souls of the dead Rhodians that can be used as a weapon... somehow. Charlie does have it but it’s empty; it was merely a fairytale told to Rhodian children. 

Corakinus is pissed he can’t have his weapon. Before he can hurt anyone else, April threatens to kill herself and thereby him. Instead, Tanya turns on the lights and the Doctor gives them a boost with the sonic. As the Shadow Kin retreat, Corakinus tries to take April with him. Ram knocks him out with a chair. That’s right; the dude who just lost one of his legs saves the freaking day.

DIAGNOSIS: ALIENS 

The Doctor fixes the rip in time and space the Shadow Kin were using and then fixes Ram’s leg. He gives the teen a prosthetic alien leg instead. Before the Time Lord leaves, he warns the new band of friends that Coal Hill is an epicenter of sorts (or Hellmouth, if you will) for alien activity because of his frequent visits over the years. So the new sci-fi Scooby Gang better be prepared.

Ms. Quill would just like to be off. The Doctor insists she and Charlie stay to help and really, they don’t have much choice. They don’t have a time machine of their own. But Charlie does have his own secret. The Cabinet of Souls isn’t empty after all.

Final thoughts:

• As much as I love the Doctor, especially Capaldi’s Doctor, I don’t think this episode truly needed him. The dynamic between the students both with each other and Ms. Quill as well as the diversity of characters was more than enough for me to buy in without needing the Time Lord. That said, I never say no to a little more Capaldi on my screen. 
• There’s a moment where the Doctor sees a memorial wall at Coal Hill and stares for several seconds at the names Pink, RD and Oswald, C. I cry silently.
• Ms. Quill is my favorite simply because she’s deadpan hilarious. See: “No wonder this country only exports Downton Abbey." “Leave us! We are decorating!”
• Also, she goes from sarcasm to pretty terrifying in 2.5 seconds. See: “You think you know what waits for you here. You think the same plan will work. But I am what waits for you, and I am war itself.”
• Charlie: Anything? Ms. Quill: Yes, there was a huge attack I'm keeping secret from you. Charlie: I should've put a creature in your head to make you nicer. Ms. Quill: Yeah, should've, but didn't. 

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