Doctor Who 11x05 Recap: “The Tsuranga Conundrum” (A Very Bad Alien Baby) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“The Tsuranga Conundrum”

Original Airdate: November 4, 2018

Where would you want to go after agreeing to travel in time and space with an alien in a bigger-on-the-inside blue box? How about a very exciting... junkyard?! That’s where Team TARDIS is at the start of the episode. To be fair, their dialogue suggests they’ve had other adventures since we last saw them but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re in a junkyard now, scavenging with metal detectors. Sadly, the only thing they find is a sonic bomb, which goes off and blasts them all.

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

Not to worry, though! All four awake in a medical unit, well-attended to by medics Astos and Mabli. The Doctor is the last to come to, and she’s still very dizzy and in pain. The medics explain they were pulled from the debris and fixed up. Worried about leaving the TARDIS on a junk planet, the Doctor stumbles around looking for the exit, only to eventually realize they aren’t on the planet at all. They’re on the Tsuranga, a medical transport unit, four days away from the planet with the TARDIS.

Obviously distressed both for her TARDIS and ability to keep her companions safe without the ship, the Doctor uses the sonic to override the ship’s system with the intention of turning them around. Astos intervenes, however. He impresses upon her that there are other patients aboard, ones that need to receive proper treatment at their destination. If the Doctor turns them around, she’s being selfish and thoughtless. Humbled, she backs off... just in time for the ship to register a breach in the shields. Something has come aboard mid-flight.

A new passenger might not be such a bad thing — if it didn’t immediately start attacking the life pods that is. Astos convinces the Doctor, who is still in visible pain, to let him check the pod. He should’ve known better. He’s immediately tricked into getting into the pod, is locked inside, and the pod is ejected into space, where it blows up. Everyone comes running to see what’s going on and they all spy a small, aggressive, baby-like alien chomping on parts of the ship. It even snatches the sonic screwdriver and gnaws on it before spitting it out and scurrying off.

COMPLICATIONS ALL AROUND

Using the ship’s database, the Doctor learns the creature is a P’ting. It doesn’t eat people, but it is toxic to the touch and basically unkillable. It poses a significant threat to everyone on board, including a pregnant alien man named Yoss, a highly decorated pilot named General Eve Cicero, and her brother — a mechanic named Durkas. The siblings are fighting for a number of reasons, but mainly because Durkas is convinced Eve is hiding a medical condition from him, aided and abetted by her android assistant, Ronan. He pressures Mabli to give Eve more medication. Meanwhile, Yoss shows off ultrasound pictures to Yaz and Ryan but tells them he doesn’t plan to keep the baby because he’s not ready to be a dad. This, of course, brings up Ryan’s complicated feelings about his own father.

The Doctor discovers the P’ting has re-routed them towards an asteroid field. She’s still unclear what the creature wants, though. An alert comes through asking if there are any problems on board, which poses a conundrum. If they’re honest, the ship will explode in space to prevent the P’ting from reaching the planet. If they say no and can’t get rid of the P’ting themselves, they’re endangering a lot more people. The Doctor takes that chance and responds with an a-okay.

In an all-hands briefing, she reassures everyone that she’ll get them safely to the planet. Eve has experience with a P’ting and knows it’s dangerous. They deduce it will head toward the anti-matter drive because it has the most energy on the ship. If it’s destroyed, they’ll be dead in space. Ronan and Yaz are left to guard the drive while Graham and Ryan help Mabli deliver Yoss’ baby (Graham has seen Call the Midwife, after all).

To guide them through the asteroid field and to a safe landing, Durkas rigs up a Pacific Rim, Jaeger-style piloting interface for Eve. But there’s a major problem. Eve reveals she has Pilot’s Heart, a condition that means if her adrenaline surges too high, she’ll die. That’s why she’s been using adrenaline blockers and, indeed, has used all the ones on board. She is still determined to do her part.

VICTORY, BUT NOT WITHOUT COST

Ronan and Yaz manage to stun the P’ting, wrap it up, and dropkick it down the hall to buy them all some time. The Doctor removes the built-in bomb from the ship and plans to set it off safely. She lures the P’ting towards it. Once the creature, swallows the bomb, it goes off and the Doctor ejects the P’ting from the ship. Eve flies magnificently but her heart can’t take the strain. She hands over control to Durkas and collapses, dead. Yoss gives birth to a boy and decides to keep him after all.

Everyone gathers around Eve’s body to memorialize her with an incantation: “May the saints of all the stars and constellations bring you hope, as they guide you out of the dark and into the light. On this voyage and in the next. And all the journeys still to come. For now, and evermore.”

Final Thoughts: 

• We’re five episodes in and we haven’t seen the villain of any episode face actual consequences for their villainy. Where is the justice for the people these bad guys/creatures/aliens killed or caused to be killed? 
• I am having the hardest time hearing or remembering the names of any new character in each episode. Is it the Southern English accents throwing me off? Or is it that there are like 4+ new characters in every episode that we meet and learn about and I just can’t keep them straight? 
• Graham has seen every episode of Call the Midwife, though he looked away at the squeamish parts. The Doctor has seen all 900 casts of Hamilton.

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Blindspot 4x04 Review: "Sous-Vide" (Isolation) [Contributor: Jen]

"Sous-Vide"

Original Airdate: November 2, 2018

A bio weapon forces Team Blindspot into a lock down in "Sous-Vide."  However, the quarantine is not the only isolation these characters are battling.

CASE OF THE WEEK

The brief respite we received last week from complicated tattoo explanation is over. We twist and turn ourselves every which way to solve the tattoo in "Sous-Vide." First, we begin with a recipe. No this is not Cupcake Wars. You are on the right channel. Kurt arrives home after spying on his wife only to find Rich Dotcom cooking in his kitchen. Rich discovered a clue in the Tokoyo cache to solve another tattoo. The clue is a recipe, which means the Blindspot writers are just brainstorming ways to get Rich into Kurt's apartment and wear an apron. I fully support this endeavor.

I am way more interested in Kurt Weller giving Rich Dotcom cooking lessons than solving a tattoo, but this is still Blindspot. Rich's recipe is a stew and stews don't require cream, so that's the ingredient to unlock the tattoo. The solved tattoo spits out an address to an abandoned psychiatric hospital. (Rich: "How bad does an asylum need to be to get shut down in the 50s?")

Kurt, Reade, and Remi investigate the asylum and we are in every scary Halloween movie I've ever seen — complete with flickering lights. Someone starts shooting at them through a wall but the team takes him out. The dead gunman was protecting some super creepy doll collection hiding behind the wall. I think I hate creepy dolls even more than I hate asylums.

The gunman is a well-known drug smuggler named The Carpathian. Rich explains drugs can be starched and shaped into objects like dolls for smuggling. I believe him because there were cocaine dolls in Traffic. Feel free to fact check me on that, but I'm pretty sure.

Patterson brings in Laurel Chadwick — an expert in heroin starching from the DEA Chemical Analysis Division — to inspect the dolls. The dolls are not made of cocaine or heroin. Normally, this would be a good thing, but the dolls contain something much worse. They release dust spores containing an unknown pathogen. Patterson suspects it's hemorrhagic fever and puts the entire FBI headquarters in a quarantine lock-down. Woo! It's been a while since we've done an episode about a communicable disease threatening the lives of all we know and love.

Colonel Beck of the U.S. Army Biological and Chemical Response Unit begins administering a reaction serum that will slow down the symptoms. Beck looks official enough, so he's allowed to immediately start injecting people. The team will regret this decision later on. It'd be super nifty someone on Team Blindspot remembered that Roman and Remi's tattoos expose corrupt government agencies and officials. When a government agent they've never met before shows up on a crime scene maaaaaybe they should do a double-check before he's allowed to start sticking needles in people.

Patterson discovers hemorrhagic fever requires a live host to be transmissible so it's more likely anthrax in the dolls. But anthrax is not communicable person to person. Laurel is presenting with highly contagious symptoms, so it's a contagious disease that spreads through spores and hosts. This does not exists in nature, and Patterson suspects Laurel has been infected with an engineered bio-weapon. Laurel dies about five seconds later, so whatever this is... it ain't good.

Patterson discovers that Laurel was not killed by viral infection and not a bacteria. She explains to us non-science people eating chips at home while watching the show that viruses and bacteria are like apples and dolphins. Super rad. Carry on. Patterson says, "It was as if Laurel was killed by an entirely different agent once she was in quarantine."

If you aren't saying a lot of DUN DUN DUNNNN in this episode, you are really missing out.

Kurt realizes they used the wrong key to solve the tattoo. He looks at an army patch or something and it suddenly dawns on him, I guess? He instructs Patterson to change the key to "Rosemary" and, after some additional fiddling with clues from the recipe, the tattoo spells out "Beck BCRU."

"Cream" unlocked the smuggler part of the tattoo, but "rosemary" points to the bio engineer — Colonel Beck. The agent he administered to Laurel actually sped her symptoms up to kill her faster and masked the original pathogen. The quarantine is essentially a lab test for Beck.

Beck injects the serum into "Jane" and sends Weller into full "protect wife" mode. Remi must decide whether to trust Kurt or Beck. She chooses Kurt, so we know she's evil but not stupid evil. Unfortunately, Remi is outnumbered so Kurt orders Patterson to open the door. Yes, Kurt Weller ran into a quarantined area without a HAZMAT suit to save his woman. It was hot.

Kurt injects Beck with the same serum so he's forced to reveal the cure. Yes, there's a cure; they aren't going to kill Jane.

TEAM REMI

Remi has a little side-plot while all this quarantine excitement is going on. She's determined to find Shepherd, so she tricks Boston into hacking the black site intelligence. He hands over an Ethernet cable which can be used to hack the FBI from the inside.

The lockdown makes it nearly impossible to use the Ethernet cable because there are so many people around. Remi whips a bunch of FBI employees into a frenzy and they hack open a SIOC door. Honestly, Remi's ability to make federal employees freak out on such a ridiculous level is extremely hard to believe. Bio hazard lockdowns are probably just another Tuesday for most FBI employees, but whatever.

Unfortunately, this army unit is walking around with guns. They are prepared to kill anyone who tries to escape the quarantine. Rich stops the door from opening, but the ruse still gives Remi enough time to plug in the Ethernet cable to the FBI servers. Boston hands over the extracted information at the end of the episode, and Remi is on her way to a reunion with Mama Shepherd.

TEAM BLINDSPOT

It feels like Zapata is on an entirely different show these days. She's completely isolated from everyone and everything she cares about. It's hard to feel sorry for her though because Tasha is the maker of her own prison.

Zapata is running from someone. She was unable to steal the personnel files Burke wanted from Bradley Dynamics. Since Zapata failed, Madeleine hires a new player — Claudia Murphy — to get the information. Bradley has billions of dollars in contracts with the U.S. government. This means the FBI will have done extensive background checks on their employees. Claudia and Burke simply need an FBI agent with high enough clearance to hand over the information: Edgar Reade. Their plan is to torture Reade for the information and that is when we can actually see Zapata internally screaming.

This is the real reason why Burke brought in Claudia; she lacks confidence in Zapata because of her emotional connection to Reade. There is no line Claudia is unwilling to cross.

Tasha plays it cool by suggesting they break into Reade's apartment and skip the torture. He has a hard line into the FBI's office that by passes the firewall. Does this seem like something the assistant director of the FBI should have in their apartment? No, it does not. If Hilary Clinton can't answer emails over an unsecured network, then Reade's set-up is a massive security risk.

Patterson's lockdown has initiated an additional security measure on Reade's computer. Tasha needs an extra PIN code to unlock it. Seriously, why isn't that required all the time? Keeping your FBI computer at home is a terrible idea, Edgar. Unfortunately, Zapata doesn't have the number, so now Claudia gets to torture Reade.

To make matters worse, Claudia knows Zapata left the little girl from last episode alive. How she knows and why she hasn't told Burke yet remains to be seen, but now this psychopath has something to hold over Tasha. I have yet to see how Tasha is in control in any of these situations. How exactly is she ridding the world of all evil?

As for Reade, he just lays in bed every night and wonders if Tasha ever loved him.

Patterson assures Reade she does, but it's understandable why Reade is uncertain. The next time he sees Tasha, she's broken into his apartment and is pointing a gun at his face. Sometimes I wonder if the Jeller endgame eliminates a Rapata endgame because this is why we can't have nice things. It does make the show more interesting if a happy ending for one of these couples is uncertain (and it sure isn't going to be Jeller).

In more Team Blindspot news: we even peek into the mysterious life of Rich Dotcom this episode. We don't actually know that much about Rich's life when you think about it, and neither does Team Blindspot. Rich does a wonderful job of keeping Laurel's mind off her suffering that Reade asks, "So who were they — the person in the hospital you spent so much time with? Was it a parent or sibling? It's clear you've done this before."

Reade's FBI agent skills are on point, but Rich never answers the question. Instead, he turns the tables and convinces Reade to talk with Patterson about his feelings regarding Tasha. Rich is a really compassionate person with an ability to see through the walls people put up.

However, Rich isolates himself by keeping the focus on others so no one focuses on him. It's clear Rich wants to be part of the Blindspot family, but struggles with feeling completely accepted. Maybe Rich didn't answer Reade's question because it's been so long since he's been around anyone who cared enough to ask. The team reaching out in little ways like this is so important because it shows Rich he's one of them. He's not alone; Rich is part of the family.

KURT AND JANE

Kurt calls Allie after spying on his wife and she rushes to New York because KURT IS SPYING ON HIS WIFE. Unfortunately, Kurt has not figured out Jane is Remi and has gone completely 'round the bend. I knew he wouldn't figure it out this soon. Oh, Kurt... you are such a big, dumb oak tree sometimes.

Kurt is worried Jane is getting ready to run because she wants to spare him the pain of watching her die. In terms of reasonable conclusions Kurt would come to, this absolutely fits with Jane's past behavior. Some assassins came after her while they lived in Colorado. Her response? Jane hightailed it to the Himalayas or some nonsense like that. Kurt's warning bells going off is completely understandable.

I don't know how Allie became the Jeller marriage counselor. I have lots of questions regarding their life together in Colorado; but regardless, she is pretty great at it. Allie says, "Do you know what destroys a marriage? Paranoia. Distrust."

Seriously, where was this woman during seasons one through three? Oh, that's right — she slept with Kurt and had his baby. I think "marriage counselor" is a much better use of her character. Allie poo-poos Kurt's worries for the most part... until he runs into a quarantined area to save his wife. "Jane" didn't try to stop him. Allie is right — our Jane would have moved heaven and earth to stop Kurt from risking his life for her. There would have been a very prolonged argument about who is going to die for whom because that's the Jeller way. Heck, Jane would have argued with Kurt for so long Allie probably would've had time to get a HAZMAT suit for him.

But this Jane didn't bat an eye. That's right, kids, because she's evil. DO YOU SEE THE HAIR?! So now Allie and Kurt are teaming up to figure out what's going on with Jane, and it's so fantastic I can't even.

How evil really is Remi though? Hallucination Roman keeps giving her a hard time about killing Kurt. Remi always finds an excuse to avoid murdering her husband. Roman says, "You know you can't just hug him every time he gets suspicious." But... it works. It's more than hugs between Remi and Kurt though. She even goes as far as trusting Kurt over Beck when it's her life on the line. Why? Because Remi is in loooooove. Jane falls in love with Kurt. Remi falls in love with Kurt. There is no version of this woman that is not in love with Kurt Weller. That's it. That's the show.

Maybe Jane's emotions and memories are fighting through to Remi's subconscious. Maybe Remi can see what a good man Kurt is and — despite her protests to the contrary — has fallen in love with him on her own. Perhaps it's a little bit of both. Regardless of the reason, it's clear the key to Jane/Remi's salvation is Kurt. Her love for Kurt has always been Jane's light in the dark. Of course Kurt is her way home now that she's more lost than ever.

And Remi is lost. Boston hits on something when explaining his narwhal obsession to Remi: "The biggest threat to their survival isn't predators; it's isolation."

The deeper Remi goes into this zip madness, the more isolated she becomes. She is slowly but surely cutting herself off from the people who love and want to help her. Remi's worst enemy isn't Kurt or the FBI. It's herself.

Stray Thoughts:

• I have a spin-off idea: Kurt and Rich living in an apartment. That's all I got and I think it's pretty great.
• How does Kurt have a recipe like that memorized? I feel there are hidden levels to this man we have yet to explore.
• OMG, BETHANY VISITS EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS. The greatest Blindspot mystery of all — "Where is Kurt Weller's daughter?" — has finally been solved.
• Allie is in contention for the number one #Jeller shipper. Watch your backs, Patterson and Rich.
• I loved Patterson's yellow jacket.
• Kurt is rocking a very disheveled "my wife might be dying and crazy" kind of look lately. *fans self*
• Remi's evil is kind of campy. I keep waiting for her to twirl a mustache.
• I did not know the monkey from Outbreak is the same one from Friends.
• I have no problem hating Ross Geller's, "we were on a break!" excuse.
• "You're going to single-handedly take out this whole unit with your bare hands?" Of course he is, Allie. He's Kurt Weller. Know your subject, girl.
• What was Patterson's major in college? She knows everything about everything.
• I learned more biology in the last half hour of Blindspot than I ever did in school. This is probably not true, but it feels true.
• I'm worried Remi telling hallucination!Roman to shut it means no more Luke Mitchell.
• Reade is emotionally shutting down and refusing to talk about his relationship with Tasha. Zapata is pretending she is willing to torture Reade. They really are Jeller 2.0.
• Kurt snaps his fingers at Rich to get his attention like you would a puppy. Rich is officially Kurt's pet.
• Weller, Reade, and Patterson need to form a "My Lover Went Evil" support group.

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Outlander 4x01 Review: "America the Beautiful" (The Notion of an Infinite Circle [Contributor: Araceli Aviles]

"America the Beautiful"

Original Airdate: November 4, 2018

“There’s something about the notion of an infinite circle that fascinates me.”

These are the words Stephen Bonnet says midway through the premiere of Outlander’s fourth season premiere. With this one statement, Bonnet’s words lay the course for the season ahead.

The symbolism of a circle is everywhere. Whether it’s in the journey that brought Claire to, from, and back again to Jamie in the 18th century, or in the two rings she wears for the commitments she made, the pattern is the same. Things that were thought lost can come back full circle. Why else would the first scene of the season be at a new set of stones, in America, in 2000 B.C.? I won’t spoil the season for all the non-readers, but seriously, read between the lines.

The very first teaser released for Outlander’s fourth season — almost a year ago — was Claire and Jamie sitting atop the hills dreaming of what America will become. It’s a nice story — even nicer for the Frasers given their prior knowledge that in just eight years, the British will go to war once again, and this time they’ll lose. For the families who lost almost everything after losing the Highlands, that’s some comeuppance.

However, remember where we are now: North Carolina, 1767. America is still under British control, just like Jamie’s beloved Scotland. Which means as far as the rule of law goes, we’re a long way off from fair trials. Jamie watches his friend Gavin Hayes, who killed a powerful man in self-defense, hang in the first five minutes of the hour. Yet Scottish pride is strong in the colonies, and this is one of many points which draws Jamie to America.

Though the Frasers had every intention of going home to Scotland, Jamie gets an offer to stay and become an agent for the British. Jamie would do a lot to protect his family, but given his history and knowledge of the future, there are lines. Nevertheless, there is one person drawing him to stay, and it’s not Claire. Remember what I said about circles? Recall that there is a young girl, living some two centuries ahead in time, whose home is the United States of America. Brianna Randall (Fraser) is more American than the British or Scottish she is by blood. Jamie knows this. Having never met his daughter, he’d give anything to be close to her. Being on the same continent, even separated by time, is better than nothing.

So the entire Fraser clan decides to stay: Jamie, Claire, Fergus, newly pregnant Marsali, and traumatized Ian. Poor Ian. Geillis did a real number on him, much more than we realized. It’s understandable. Ian was a sheltered boy craving adventure, and got much more than he bargained for. As it was, Geillis was a formidable opponent for Claire and Jamie and they have had their share of experience with evil. But they have each other, whereas Ian had no one. Cue the introduction of the newest member of the Fraser family: Rollo! Not two minutes onscreen, I was in love with that dog. Anyone else?

(As a side note: while Ian was negotiating his stay in America with Jamie, all I could think was, “I wouldn’t want to be in the room when Jenny finds out.”)

But we were forewarned that life would not be rosy for Claire and Jamie. If ever there were a couple who deserved a break, it would be them! It’s not as if they don’t get their time alone. Given how their passion hasn’t tempered since their wedding night, it’s not a stretch to think they’d combust if they didn’t get alone time!

The thing to be admired about Claire and Jamie is how, though they change through the years, the core of who they are remains the same. Their resilience, strength, innate kindness, and intense stubbornness make them equal in measure and will. The qualities they share have kept them alive, even if they did cause some wicked fights between them (but then the make-up was worth it wasn’t it?) And let’s just admit that a husband is pretty close to perfection when he gifts his surgeon wife a box of high-end medical tools.

It’s not as if Claire could afford to be a material person with all the traveling and danger she’s been through. As soon as Claire started talking about how much she loved her wedding bands, we should have known there’d be trouble. This season, that trouble comes courtesy of Stephen Bonnet — a pirate who pays the Frasers back for their generosity by raiding the few precious items they have, including Claire’s wedding bands. You would think the Frasers would be better at spotting a weasel in weasel’s clothing. This is NOT what Ray Charles meant when he sang “America the Beautiful.” But Claire knew that too, given how she related the displacement of Native Americans to the Scottish Highlanders. There’s that circle again.

Hopefully, after a little time digesting the unfortunate end to that opening hour, you’ll go back and re-watch the opening credits for some clues of what’s coming this season. Stop reading right now if you want to be surprised! A few images to draw your attention to for the coming weeks: the Fraser family home, Claire laying a black man to rest, a 20th century Scottish festival, a woman’s hands on (presumably) the stones of Craigh na Dun, the journey of a few Native Americans, and one foreshadowing image of a man writing notes while holding a hand-drawn portrait of Brianna.

So Outlander fans, what are you most looking forward to in season four?

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 4x03 Review: “I’m on My Own Path” (You’re a Weird Woman, Rebecca Bunch) [Contributor: Jenn]

“I’m on My Own Path”

Original Airdate: October 26, 2018

You know how there are those people who are always looking for signs? The ones who think that the television commercial is speaking directly to them. The ones who live their lives by fortunes from Chinese restaurant cookies. The ones who would pick up their lives and move across the country because a butter ad made them question their life choices.

Rebecca Bunch has an on-again, off-again relationship with signs. In “I’m on My Own Path” we actually see more of this, and what happens when Rebecca’s fear kicks in. Last week, we watched as Rebecca deflected her anxiety and locked herself in her home. This week, Rebecca might be physically freed from her chamber of fears, but that doesn’t mean she’s escaped their emotional hold on her life.

Of course, because this is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, we get most of the existential plot through soft pretzels.

SALTY OR SWEET

Rebecca doesn’t know whether or not she’ll be reinstated as a lawyer. While she waits for the results, she begins to fret. Sure, she’s really good at law. But is that what she’s supposed to be doing with her life? Should she just keep cycling through the motions? What path does she need to actually be taking?

A high-profile client spends the episode relying on Rebecca’s legal expertise and manipulation of loopholes — she only trusts Rebecca to be her attorney. Afraid of her future and her identity, Rebecca decides to take a job at the pretzel shop in the lobby of the firm. Paula appropriately freaks out when her best friend decides to just start working at a pretzel shop instead of practice law. But Rebecca is hiding something from Paula — she’s already received her confirmation or rejection from the California Bar. She just can’t bring herself to open the letter.

I think what Rebecca struggles with is something we all do, to an extent. While her indecision is played for laughs and definitely heightened (how many people do you know who make decisions based on soft pretzels or butter ads?), we all struggle with the decisions we have to make. Do we take fate into our own hands, or do we let the current sweep us in whatever direction we don’t fight against? Do we live our lives the way we really want to, or do we just let life happen to us? For so long, Rebecca chose law because it was just something she felt like she was supposed to do. She’s good at it. She makes money. That’s what happiness looks like, right? Falling into the boxes that naturally fit us.

At this point in her journey though, Rebecca wants more. She doesn’t just want to exist; she wants to actually make conscious decisions. She wants to be doing things she feels passionate about — even if no one else understands it. So at the end of the episode, Rebecca purchases the pretzel shop. We don’t know if it’ll fail or succeed. But all Rebecca knows is that this is what actually feels meaningful to her. She is choosing to live a meaningful life, even if it’s not the easy or logical choice. I can admire that.

Meanwhile, Heather and Hector decide to get married, mostly so that Hector can be on Heather’s insurance and get a gross gash in his toe fixed. Their short courthouse ceremony is so sweet and genuine. Major kudos to Vella Lovell and Erick Lopez for making me fall in love with these two and their story. Hector, of course, is the one who wants a wedding while Heather balks at the idea of anything traditional.

It’s Valencia — my how she’s grown in so many ways — who points out that Heather doesn’t want a wedding but Hector does; he’s sacrificing for her but she’s not willing to budge even a little bit for him. Marriage and relationships in general are two-way streets. Heather recognizes that because she loves Hector, she will have a wedding. If it was just up to her, she wouldn’t; but it’s not up to her anymore. They’re doing life together.

And it’s such a beautiful little ceremony that left me misty-eyed. Love really is at the core of this show — in expected and unexpected ways.

Additional quotes and such:

• “Nathaniel’s just stomping around like a sad, handsome baby.”
• Speaking of Nathaniel... apparently he loves Rebecca. I don’t know how I feel about this yet. Come back to me later.
• I absolutely love the song about not being a lawyer and immediately wanted to send it to all of my lawyer friends.
• There’s a whole sub-plot this week where Josh wants to get back in the dating game, but no one he goes on a date with actually takes him seriously. He wants a relationship, but all they want is something superficial. I still don’t care for Josh stories (they feel so far removed from the real plot and issues of the series), but this one wasn’t terrible because it set up some nice scenes between Josh and Rebecca.
• “I dressed as you for Halloween.” “Really? What did you wear?” “Some white girl crap.” “... That tracks.”
• “In summation: loop there it is.”
• “Twisted Fate” was such a fun song.
• As someone who watched Emma Approved back in the day, I appreciated seeing Joanna Sotomura in this episode!
• I absolutely love Hector/Heather, have I said that lately?
• I miss White Josh, always and forever.

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Grey’s Anatomy 15x06 Review: “Flowers Grow Out of My Grave” (Blast From the Past) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Flowers Grow Out of My Grave”

Original Airdate: November 1, 2018

For the first time, Grey’s Anatomy celebrated the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, which was perfect, considering the episode aired on the actual holiday! This tasteful hour paid tribute to the past, present, and future in surprising ways. As in every episode this season, a lot happens with all the characters, as each continues to see their stories grow. Meredith is front and center this time, but you’ll have to jump to the bottom of this article to find up why her latest storylines are more important than ever. The other significant character moments deserve a shout-out even though they pale in comparison to Meredith.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

The interesting medical case of the episode features Bailey and Jo reviving a dead liver to make it suitable for a transplant. The two doctors are excited to finally give their patient — a woman dying of Wilson’s disease — a new liver. The patient has had several potential transplants thwarted by UNOS, including one near the beginning of this episode. Bailey and Jo are disappointed for their patient, but Bailey gets a rather crazy idea when she walks by one of her other patient’s rooms and learns that he passed away a few minutes prior. She remembers that this patient was an organ donor and had the same blood type as the patient who needs a new liver.

Bailey gets Jo, Parker, and the surrounding nurses to help her give the dead patient CPR in an attempt to keep the liver alive by recirculating his blood. They get the family’s consent to try and make the liver suitable for transplant, and Bailey looks like her old self when she brings the liver back to life. She is elated at her success, but then makes the mistake of promising the liver to her patient before clearing it with the transplant committee. When Alex finds out what Bailey and Jo are up to, the current chief of surgery tells them to shut their project down because a formerly dead liver is too risky to transplant into a living patient. Since the old Bailey has returned, she decides to go behind Alex’s back and perform the transplant anyway.

Thankfully, the surgery is a success and another patient is saved. While Alex may have disapproved of the procedure, he is very proud of Jo. After the surgery though, Bailey panics about Ben’s safety as a firefighter and seems like she is on the verge of having a complete mental breakdown; she really needs to get some help before things go sideways.

COMING OUT

Two of the more surprising moments of the episode come from the orthopedics team. Intern Schmitt is on Link’s service for the day and gets nervous when Nico starts following them around, which Schmitt should have anticipated considering Nico is the ortho fellow. The three men are treating a young boy with a broken arm and discover a mass on his X-ray. A biopsy reveals that the boy has an osteosarcoma, which causes his mother distress.

While trying to console the distraught mother, Link reveals that he too had an osteosarcoma when he was little and that he overcame his disease. He tells the mother that his cancer was diagnosed later than her son and that his tumor was much larger, yet he is still alive and well today. Link’s story is a huge surprise and comes out of nowhere, but it does explain his very happy and positive outlook on life. He goes on to answer his patient’s questions about what will happen next. When the boy asks if he will lose his hair and look silly, Link shows him that looking silly is no big deal by grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting off a few locks of his own hair. Link is a good-hearted character who has a lot more to offer than just being the guy who asks out every female in the hospital.

The second big moment is a kiss between Nico and Schmitt. After another episode of will-they-or-won’t-they, Schmitt finally makes his decision and goes for it with Nico. Schmitt reveals that Nico is his first same-sex kiss... which leads Nico to break off all flirting immediately. Nico says that he has already had his coming out story and doesn’t want to get caught up in someone else’s. Schmitt is pretty shocked and reveals that he really enjoyed his time with the ortho team, finally feeling like he found somewhere he belongs. This is most certainly going to be an ongoing romantic endeavor.

PARENTING 101

The always chaotic Hunt-Shepherd residence gets thrown for another spin in this episode; Amelia freaks out when she gets a call from Betty’s school saying that she didn’t show up. Amelia interrupts Owen and Teddy's conversation (that was headed toward Teddy telling Owen that she is pregnant with his baby). Poor Teddy keeps getting sidelined and she has three failed attempts to tell Owen her secret in this episode alone. Teddy goes along with Owen and Amelia to lend a hand in looking for Betty. The trio goes to the park that Betty likes, but there’s no trace of the teen. After an all-day search, Amelia loses it when they can’t find Betty. She thinks that Betty could be dead from a drug overdose. Things stay dramatic: the love triangle continues without Teddy telling Owen the truth at the end of the episode, and with Betty still missing.

EMERGING LOVE

The most important plots of the episode are Meredith-centric. First, Richard tells Meredith that he found out from one of his AA friends that her father, Thatcher, is dying from a non-treatable form of leukemia. He is in hospice care with only a few weeks to live. Meredith is very conflicted about the news; she hasn’t talked to Thatcher since Lexie died. (Thatcher hasn’t been seen on Grey’s Anatomy since 2011. Granted, actor Jeff Perry has been a busy man as a main cast member of Scandal for seven seasons.)

Meredith spends the day contemplating whether she should call, or even see, her father before he dies. Considering that it was revealed before the season began that Perry will be back for at least one episode, it’s safe to say that Meredith will decide to see Thatcher before he dies. The news spreads quickly: Meredith discusses her dilemma with Maggie, who tells Jackson, who tells Alex, and so on. Maggie takes the news especially hard because it reminds her of her dead mother, and she spends the episode rejecting Jackson’s attempts to pamper her.

With her dying father on her mind, Meredith teams up with Alex and DeLuca to treat a young Mexican girl. The patient’s entire family is at the hospital to celebrate the Day of the Dead, and even make an ofrenda in the girl’s room. We get to see another side of DeLuca when the girl develops a crush on him and doesn’t want him to see her insides during surgery. Being the sweet guy he is, DeLuca opts out of the surgery to keep his patient happy. There also may also be a promotion coming in DeLuca’s future when it is briefly mentioned that there isn’t a current chief resident.

Throughout the day, Jo encourages Link to pursue Meredith romantically because she thinks they would be a good match. Link finds Meredith before her surgery and boldly asks her when they are going to go out on a date together. Meredith turns him down again and basically tells him that she doesn’t want anything to do with him. She then goes out on another blind date, which ends up being a funny disaster when she only talks about her dying father. When she returns to the hospital for the surgery, Meredith is surprised to see that DeLuca is sitting out to please a patient. The smile on her face and the way that she has been treating him like an actual human all season hints at Meredith possibly having feelings for DeLuca (who definitely has feelings for her).

After the surgery, the patient’s grandmother tells Meredith all about the Day of the Dead and its meaning. She gives Meredith a marigold so that her loved ones can be with her on this day too, and Meredith puts the flower behind her ear. While waiting for the elevator, Meredith is approached by Link again, who steals her phone and promptly puts his number in her contacts. Meredith allows it only because she asks Link what happened to his hair and finds out that he haphazardly cut it for a cancer patient. She seems to be impressed with Link. Just then, DeLuca strolls by and stands on the other side of Meredith. The two men declare their intentions to win her heart by both holding the doors of the elevator open for her. An amused Meredith thinks the situation is a little much and decides to take the stairs.

It appears that we have the start of a new love triangle on our hands. However, it might be more of a love square since Meredith is still going on blind dates and doesn’t seem to have any intention of dating either DeLuca or Link. I don’t necessarily want to see Meredith end up with either guy at the moment, but their antics to win her over are worth watching.

The big moment of the episode occurs at the end. As Meredith is making her way out of the hospital for the night, her dead loved ones make brief appearances: George, Lexie, Ellis, Doc the dog, Mark, and Derek all appear for a short moment via archive footage (with the exception of Kate Burton and the dog getting new footage). Meredith doesn’t interact with the ghosts; instead, she walks right past them. The scene plays out with a beautiful Spanish rendition of the unofficial Grey’s Anatomy theme song “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol.

This sweet moment is huge for two reasons. First, while the show’s former characters are mentioned from time to time, none of them ever appear back on screen (with the exception of Ellis, who did appear when Meredith won her Harper Avery Award). Grey’s Anatomy never gives fans another chance to see their favorite deceased characters, which is why this is a significant moment. Having the dead characters appear pleases the fans but is also a plot device.

Second, this scene will be viewed and picked apart by fans for a long time in order to determine the meaning. The scene is intentionally shot with ambiguity, allowing everyone the chance to have their own interpretations. I believe that the scene indicates that while Meredith constantly thinks about everyone who has died in her life and she will never forget them, she is ready to move on and start anew. That fits with the season of love theme.

The tear-jerking scene was the perfect way to bring the Day of the Dead to Grey’s Anatomy. The episode brings all the feels and does end on a light-hearted note. Meredith goes over to Alex and Jo’s home because she doesn’t want to be alone with her thoughts. She is surprised when she walks in and sees that Link is also hanging out with the Karevs. Jo is attempting to fix Link’s hairdo, and Meredith takes over for her and cuts Link’s hair.

This episode certainly packed an emotional punch and leaves a lot of questions unanswered; there is a lot for Grey’s Anatomy to cover in the last two episodes of 2018!

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The Flash 5x04 Review: "News Flash" (The Questions Are Multiplying!) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"News Flash"

Original Airdate: October 30, 2018 

Hey, The Flash listened to my plea for more info on the Nora/Future Iris relationship! Of course, upon answering that one question they’ve raised about half a dozen others, but I’d say that’s a good sign for this season’s plot longevity. Did someone on the writing team go to an improv class? Because they’re yes-anding the heck out of the mysteries this season! I only hope they know all the answers to the questions they’re asking, or else this narrative tapestry is doomed to unravel.

BREAKING NEWS (AND LAWS)

“News Flash” starts with a woman filming what I presume is the satellite crash from last season’s finale, except not really because she spends most of the time with the camera pointed at her own face. You know, if you ever wonder whether someone giving you news is a journalist or just an attention hog, always make note of where they’re pointing their camera.

Present day, Iris is making breakfast for her new in-house family, and she’s terrible. I genuinely love this little scene, because I will forever be charmed by Iris’s eagerness to be a good mom to Nora. She’s just so okay with meeting her unborn, not-yet-conceived daughter as an adult woman from the future! She wants to make pancakes in the shape of lightning bolts! She burns literally everything she cooks! I love Iris. Anyway, her plans for a sit-down breakfast fall through when Nora greets her with icy snark.

Later, Barry is participating in a company softball game and, much in the same way his wife is terrible at cooking, Barry is terrible at sports. Like confusingly terrible, considering he has superpowers. And I get that Barry can’t exactly zip around the field, catching fly balls (that’s a thing in softball, right?) in the blink of an eye, but he literally can’t manage to do anything in this softball game without fumbling or tripping over himself. So, it’s kind of a blessing when a purple-eyed, hypnotized member of CCPD shows up with a bomb to interrupt the game. Thankfully, XS — also with purple eyes — tosses the bomb into the air, where it harmlessly explodes high above the field.

The vlogger from the opening is seen at the softball game, and she clearly has something to do with the whole purple eyes, can’t remember what just happened bit that the CCPD officer and Nora just went through. Iris notices that the woman, Spencer, is a blogger writing a lot about metas and seems to have chosen XS as her new star topic. Since Cicada is going after metas, this could put a target on Nora’s back. Iris tries to get her to hit pause on the meta-specific articles until the metahuman serial killer is caught, but Spencer just thinks Iris is a jealous rival in the same blogger field.

After Barry abruptly leaves a burning building to visit Vegas — a trip he has no memory of making — it’s more obvious something meta is going on. The only connection Team Flash is able to make about the blackouts people have been experiencing is to Spencer’s blog, which has an unusually speedy update pattern. Hey, Spencer, you know it’s a lot less suspicious if you just schedule those things to post at a more normal time, right?

Team Flash knows Spencer has something to do with the blackouts, but they don’t know if she’s a meta. Iris enlists Nora’s help in figuring this out, but Nora’s distracted by her crush on Spencer. Nora! No dating people in the past! Jeez, your dad’s made a lot of time travel screw-ups in his life as an idiot speedster, but at least he knew better than to date out of the natural time stream. Between flirty-smiling at Spencer, Nora manages to prove she isn’t a metahuman, but she’s still clearly the villain of the episode. So how?

Before we get an answer to that question, we get an answer to a different one: why is Nora so mad at Iris? Turns out, it’s because Future Iris put a power-suppressing chip in Nora and Nora didn’t even know she had powers until six months ago. Does that timeframe include any time in the future, or was Nora lying about being Central City’s protector as XS? How did Nora get good enough to time travel if she’s new to her powers? How’d she get so fast that even Barry was impressed? How’d she find out about the power suppression chip? Why did Iris want to suppress Nora’s powers — is it dangerous to be a meta in the future, or was Iris afraid of Nora going missing like Barry? Do any of these things have anything to do with the hint we got last week that Nora didn’t travel to the past of her own volition?

Like I said, “News Flash” answering this one question raises many others, but that’s a good thing. They aren’t “this makes no sense” questions; they’re “this opens lots of avenues of exploration” questions, and they allow for more intriguing, character-focused mysteries to pepper the season. I’m always a fan of a good character development/villain development balance. Especially when Iris gets involved.

The big climax of the episode is Spencer attempting to frame XS for the Flash’s murder, and Iris coming to the rescue with a breach device and a dart gun. Iris saving her family! As for the future Iris’s motivations for suppressing Nora’s powers, all we know is that Barry supports his wife in her decisions... which means Nora, hurt by her father taking her mother’s side, is cutting her stay at the West-Allen household rather short.

CICADA UPDATE

In the quest to find Cicada, Sherloque Wells and Ralph Dibny are on the case! Sherloque is paying off the debt he owes Team Flash and I think Ralph wants to prove himself as a detective. While not the amusingly clueless version of Ralph the season started off with, he’s also not completely offensive or annoying, so I was okay with this little B-plot (C-plot? Not sure if the Iris/Nora through-line counts as the B-plot). It was a good way to utilize the new Sherloque character, allow the West-Allen family to deal with their own stuff in the main storyline, and piece together what the characters have figured out about Cicada — i.e., he’s a father, he likely works in a factory that requires him to wear the mask that gives him his distinct raspy breathing, and he has a lung injury.

Cleverly, the show erased my doubts about how Nora could possibly affect the identity of Cicada by explaining that Cicada’s powers likely came from the satellite crash. Nora’s arrival on the scene knocked the debris off its standard trajectory, so whatever meta-infected space crap turned David Hersch into Cicada all those other times ended up getting this new guy instead. Oh, show. I love it when you prove my nit-picky whining wrong.

Team Flash also realizes the dagger Cicada uses has its own powers. They question the likelihood of objects being meta, but the mystery of how Spencer was hypnotizing her victims with code and news headlines gives Barry an epiphany moment. He opens Spencer’s confiscated phone and sees weird, glowy veins all over the inside.

Meta-mutated technology! I think this is the first genuinely cool, interesting new development the show’s thrown at us in a while, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Other Things:

• "I'm gonna make you a banana, it's fine." Iris is the best.
• Missed Cisco this week, but I get why they would remove him from this episode over other episodes. His breaching powers would logically make it his job to stop Nora from killing Barry in the climax, so I’m glad his absence meant Iris got a chance to shine a bit.
• I loved Nora thanking Iris for guiding her through putting out that fire. Iris looked so proud and happy!
• Next week: freaky mask + that herky-jerky horror movie movement = why are you trying to give me nightmares, The Flash?

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Doctor Who 11x04 Recap: “Arachnids in the UK” (The Stuff of Nightmares) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Arachnids in the UK”

Original Airdate: October 28, 2018

If you thought season 11 of Doctor Who was going to be understated and tame because of a new showrunner and a new Doctor, you were wrong. After last week’s harsh but honest depiction of racism, this week’s episode came out swinging too. The commentary on businessmen and politicians (and presidents) who put their own wealth, power, and ambition above the public good was clear as day and very welcome.

... But did that story have to be told using giant flippin’ spiders?! Is the BBC going to pick up my therapy bill?

HOME SWEET SPIDER

The episode begins with an American hotel magnate who has political ambitions. We’ll find out later his name is Jack Robertson. He’s just found out his brand-new hotel has a health and safety problem, but he’d like that to just “go away” because it might mess with his planned 2020 presidential campaign. Robertson also loves firing people — including the manager of his new hotel, who happens to be Yaz’s mom, Najia.

The Doctor has finally managed to land the TARDIS in the right place and time to get her trio of friends back home. They all stand around, awkwardly attempting to say goodbye, until Yaz invites the Doctor over for tea and she jumps at the offer. Ryan and Graham are invited too but Graham wants to stop at home first. It’s a sad sequence. The house is filled with memories of Grace, of course, and Graham even imagines seeing her.

Yaz’s family is delightfully relatable. Her dad is embarrassing but sweet, her sister teases her, and they’re both tickled that Yaz has brought friends home — a first! While preparing tea, her dad explains the pile of trash he’s keeping as evidence of a conspiracy. Of course, the Doctor’s eyes light up at that word. Yaz then receives a call from her mom asking to be picked up, so she goes out. The Doctor offers to deliver the neighbor’s mail, which was delivered to Yaz’s family by mistake.

This is the perfect excuse to do a little investigating, since the Doctor noticed earlier that someone was trying to get a hold of the neighbor. Ryan goes with her and, with the neighbor’s friend’s approval, the Doctor sonics their way into the apartment. It’s covered in spider webs. They find the neighbor dead and cocooned in webs in bed. Under the bed, a far-too-big spider scurries out. The trio lock it in the bedroom and then trap it in the apartment. In the hallway, Graham comes running up to them to say he found webs and a spider skin in the house too. Gross. 

FOLLOW THE SPIDERS

The neighbor’s friend is Dr. Jade McIntyre. They worked together at a research lab studying spiders, which have been behaving abnormally lately. Yeah, I’ll say! One of Robertson’s staffers films herself in a massive spider nest under his hotel but is attacked by an unseen massive spider. When Yaz arrives to pick up her mom, Robertson forces them to accompany him to one of the hotel’s rooms that’s covered in webs. He then goes next door for his scheduled bathroom break (yup, you read that right) and is attacked by the previously unseen massive spider when it pushes through the bathtub.

Robertson throws his bodyguard, Kevin, into the bathroom to kill the beast; but instead, Kevin is webbed up and dragged down into the nest. The Doctor and her team meet the others in the hallway outside the room and Robertson immediately tells them exactly what he saw. Being who she is, the Doctor instantly sticks her head down the tub to see for herself.

Unable to leave because the hotel entrance is blocked by webs, the Doctor devises a different plan. Ryan and Graham capture a spider to study, and Najia leads the rest of the group down into the abandoned coal mines beneath the hotel. Cocoons of dead people hang from the ceiling and a huge landfill takes up the rest of the space. Robertson and his many companies bought the mine cheap, filled it with trash, and built a luxury hotel on top. The toxic waste in the landfill plus the discarded spiders from Dr. McIntyre’s lab have resulted in the far-too-big spiders roaming the hotel. They ended up in Yaz’s building because her neighbor smelled familiar to them since she’d been in the lab too.

EIGHT-LEGGED TRAGEDIES

After Ryan and Graham are attacked by the mama spider in the ballroom, the whole group flees into Robertson’s panic room, which he has stocked with all the essentials: food, entertainments, guns. He wants to arm them all and shoot every spider he sees but the Brits all disagree. Instead, Ryan has the bright idea to play loud, rhythmic music to lure the spiders into the panic room for a humane death. As for the spider mom, the Doctor sadly realizes she’s grown too big for her body to sustain herself and is slowly suffocating. Darn this show for making me feel things for giant spiders. It’s genuinely upsetting when Robertson bursts into the room and shoots the spider in cold blood.

Their latest adventure sorted, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS. That night, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham meet her there. They’ve decided to keep traveling with her. Graham says it helps with his grief. Ryan doesn’t want to return to his mundane warehouse job. Yaz wants a break from her loving but grating family. The Doctor asks them to be sure. They probably won’t come back the same people they left as, and may not come back at all. They each agree and together, Team TARDIS pulls the lever to take off.

Final Thoughts: 

• This season of Doctor Who is not holding back, and I am here for it. This episode was a great blend of classic sci-fi horror and political commentary. However, I was waiting for a moment where Robertson faced any repercussions for his actions. 
• Ryan received a letter from his absentee dad saying Ryan should come live with him now because he’s “proper family” (who didn’t attend his own mother’s funeral). Ryan tells Graham he resents his dad saying this and Graham looks touched. We are getting closer and closer to Ryan calling Graham “granddad.” 
• Najia, about the Doctor and Yaz: “Are you two seeing each other?” The Doctor: “I don’t think so. Are we?” Yaz: “We’re friends!”
• The Doctor, after being told she’s not authorized to enter a room: “Dude, I have all the authorization I ever need.” *holds up sonic screwdriver*
• Yaz’s dad thought the trash problem in their apartment was a conspiracy, which turned out to be true because of Robertson’s shady business practices. When Najia realizes this she says, “Do you have any idea how annoying it is when my husband’s right?”
• The Doctor: “I’ve never had a flat. I should get one. I’d be good in a flat. I could get a sofa. Imagine me with a sofa! Like, my own sofa! I could get a purple one and sit on it. Am I being weird?” Ryan: “A little bit, yeah.” The Doctor: “I’m trying to do small talk. I thought I was doing quite well.”

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