Supernatural - "The Big Empty" - Season 13 Episode 4 Recap and Review

November 3, 2017

By Kaylynn Kasandra

Who knew it would take a couple shape shifters to finally soften Dean up? I can’t say that would have been my first guess. But I must say it was nice to see him finally show compassion towards Jack. After all, Dean and Sam are as close to family as Jack has. I really must say, Jack is quite endearing in all his awkward glory. And being a Spock fan, I appreciated hearing Dean call him Mr.Spock. It was a nice nod to his blunt, awkward nature. I must admit once again, while watching I was wondering if Jared Padalecki ever feels annoyed the writers are always playing Sam to be the so annoyingly sensitive. Regardless, he plays it well.

Speaking of actors who play their part so well, Misha Collins (Castiel) is amazing. He nailed it tonight playing both his normal Castiel, and the new character we met, the cosmic being from the nothingness. The true definition of method acting. The standoff between both characters he played was pretty awesome. Not hiding my love for Castiel, I am sure that it’s no surprise that was one my favorite scenes from tonight’s episode.

It was interesting to see the use of shape shifters in this episode as well. It was nice to see the opposite sides of using their gifts, per say. One had chosen to use her abilities to help people with their losses while the next had used her very need to help others against her. And pretty brutally I might add. I mean seriously, ripping that sweet old lady to shreds? Overkill for sure… literally.

It was nice to see the shape shifter turned therapist help all 3 of the guys, Jack in particular. He finally had a chance at some sort of closure with having not met his mom. You could also see even if Dean tried to hide it, she really did get through to him as well. Obviously her kindness paid off since Dean and Jack tried to help her when her vengeful ex returned. But unfortunately for her, Jack was as emotionally invested in her as he is Sam. And seeing Sam in danger was just what he needed to bring his powers to light. Seems to be quite the trend with him. Maybe he is a superhero after all. He did wake Cas up from the nothingness knowing Dean wanted him back so badly, so that says something. Or so I’m hoping.

I was just happy to see that the episode ended with Castiel annoying/fighting the Cosmic jerkface into submission. It seems as though Castiel has returned back to Earth which may be the only thing to restore Dean’s faith right now. And knowing that Castiel trusts Jack may be the final piece to help Dean do the same. I can’t wait to see them all reunite. It’s going to be one hell of a reunion! I just hope next week we can get more information on Mary and Lucifer and what Michael’s plan was for them. We already know they’ll find their way back eventually, it’s just a matter of when and how. Knowing the show, I’m sure it’ll be a doozy.

Written by Kaylynn Kasandra. Awkward hippie who enjoys helping people, creating things, reading, sci-fi, fantasy, and Thor. Find more from her at kaylynnkasandra.com and
http://www.youtube.com/c/tiedyesmurf

Supernatural - "Patience" - Season 13 Episode 3 Recap and Review

October 27, 2017

By Kaylynn Kasandra

So I suppose you could say this episode was a nice fluffy bit to fill out the season. There was murder yes, but not too much to add to the season’s main plot. We saw a few familiar faces, one being a semi-regular, Jodi. Jodi joins in when Sam decides he doesn’t want to help out with the case brought to them by old friend, Missouri. It’s clear there is still a lot of tension between the brothers over Sam’s affections towards Jack. With Sam choosing Jack over Jodi in Dean’s eyes, it didn’t seem like it would be easing anytime soon either.

Dean makes his way to Jodi’s side to help with a Wrath case. Missouri’s protégé had been targeted just for being psychic and the Wrath didn’t want to stop with her. Missouri gets a vision that her son and granddaughter were also going to be targeted and she begs Dean to go to them and save them. That wasn't the only vision she had… she knew the Wrath was coming for her and she bravely took her fate.

Meanwhile Sam was trying to work with Jack on controlling his powers. Unfortunately for Sam he wasn’t aware of the threats Dean had made against Jack previously. And Jack was obviously dwelling on it even after seeing the footage his mom left for him. Sam and Jack seem to have more and more in common the more we see Jack. Jack is just as emotionally impulsive and obscenely sensitive as Sam has been in the past. And given his powers, I have to say I am still with Dean with thinking this is a dangerous combination. Even Jack isn’t sure if he is evil, but I must say knowing he has a connection to wherever Castiel is is a good thing in my book. I am just happy my favorite angel isn’t dead regardless of the Game of Thrones style fire they made with his body a few episodes back. And honestly, this was the highlight of this episode for me.

I didn’t really feel like the whole psychic brain eating Wrath thing was too exciting. I’m not sure if it was the actor who played the Wrath who I didn’t connect to or if it was idea as a whole. I did however think it was nice to see Jodi reach out to Patience after they had killed the Wrath. She has a soft spot for teen girls in need. And Patience not being able to allow her psychic skills to develop under her father’s rule draws Jodi to help.

Speaking of help, we see Sam being called out by Dean for his real motivations behind helping Jack. Dean seems to think he only wants to help Jack for what he can do for them. And for his hope of being an “interdimensional can opener” of sorts. Dean expresses his anger over the loss of Castiel once again, which was the catalyst for Jack finally reaching out to him. But it may have come a little too late, given Jack once again hears Dean express his disdain towards him.

I’m just hoping Dean doesn’t make Jack into the monster he fears him to be. I mean shoot, he’s an over emotional Nephilim! The last thing that needs to happen is for him to be in a constant state of anger or self-hatred. I guess we will have to just continue to see how this all plays out.

Star Trek Discovery - "Lethe" - Season 1 Episode 6 Recap and Review

October 23, 2017

By Jarman Day-Bohn

For those Trekkies out there that were worried about the format of Star Trek Discovery (among their many other worries), in that whether it would be serialized or procedural, I think that this week’s episode, Lethe, showed us that it will be a good mix of both. The story arc of the show is still present throughout, but this episode deals mainly with Michael Burnham’s past and her relationship with Sarek. I honestly believe that this is the first episode of Discovery where the crew has really come together and it is starting to feel like previous incarnations of Trek. When you boil it down, it’s your typical episode of: distress call, let’s go save them, oooo it’s in a dangerous nebula… Like so many of our favorite Trek episodes in the past!

Before we delve into the episode properly, I must first state that when I started streaming the show, everyone’s voice was severely lowered, like through a comedic audio effect. I knew I wasn’t crazy when Michael Burnham came on the screen and sounded like Leonard Nimoy! I restarted the CBS All Access app and it luckily went back to normal. So, ok, no big deal, right? Just a strange little hiccup. Then the real trouble began… Every couple of minutes, the stream would jump ahead 4-5 seconds, skipping over scenes and dialog. I had to rewind every time to see what I missed. Now yes, of course, this could be some fault of my otherwise perfectly working Amazon Fire Stick and super-fast internet, but needless to say, I was a little frustrated that the streaming service I’m paying for JUST to watch ONE show, was having streaming issues… Okay; first-world-problems-rant over. The next section is my lovely recap, but feel free to skip to the review section if you remember how everything went down perfectly.

Recap

The episode starts off with what I think is a cool side story about Vulcan culture and the splinter group of radical logicists, who hate Vulcans associating with anyone other than Vulcans. (I think we can all see the parallels to that and real life right now…) We have Sarek travelling to speak to 2 Klingon houses in an attempt to end the violence, and one of the splinter group Vulcans on board his little ship tries to blow him up. Sarek manages to barely escape death, but is gravely injured. The Katra connection he shares with Michael immediately affects her, light years away from where he is. Michael knows Sarek is in trouble and begs Captain Lorca (against Starfleet orders) to rescue him. With Stamets’ help, they think they can use a neural link device to amplify Michael’s Katra link to Sarek to push him into activating his ship’s distress beacon. (Star Trek technobabble at its finest!)

Michael jumps on a shuttle with Tilly and Ash Tyler, jumps into the nebula and dives into the neural link machine. She enters Sarek’s mind and finds herself in his memories, at the time of her graduation from the Vulcan academy. She finds out, with Ash Tyler’s help and encouragement, that she is in the memory of one of Sarek’s greatest regrets. Apparently Sarek was told that only one of his not-quite-Vulcan children (Spock and Michael) would be able to join the Vulcan Expeditionary Group, and without Michael knowing, he chose Spock over her. He regrets it because after choosing Spock, Spock rebels and joins Starfleet anyway, so he should have chosen Michael. Breaking through and confronting Sarek in this memory allows him to waken just long enough to activate his distress beacon and he is taken back aboard the Discovery and saved.

Meanwhile throughout all this, Captain Lorca is on board the Discovery getting hot and heavy with Admiral Cornwell. It turns out, she was using her psychological expertise to test him out the whole time, due to his recent erratic behavior and refusal to follow Starfleet orders over and over again. When she touches one of the odd scars on his back while he’s sleeping (post-coitus), he jumps awake, grabs a phaser from under his pillow and grabs her by the throat, throttling her. She tells him he is unfit to command, and after she returns from the Klingon diplomatic talks that Sarek was going to attend, she will find him a replacement and get him psychological treatment. Of course, this doesn’t go well and she is kidnapped by the Klingons by the order of Kol. Suddenly, Lorca is struck with the glowing ethics and bureaucracy of Starfleet, (SARCASM) and decides to actually go through the proper channels before rescuing her.

Review

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I think this episode is the start of many more in the series that will feel more like old Trek, with a more problem-of-the-week feel, but with an ongoing story arc, similar to Deep Space Nine. For all the Trekkies out there that are Discovery haters, try to stay with it! You may be surprised by how you feel about the show by the end of this season. And besides…it’s not going anywhere. CBS just renewed Discovery for a second season! Huzzah!

I really enjoyed how every character really played their part in this episode, from the engineer, to the doctor, to Lt. Saru and Michael, Tilly, Lorca and Ash Tyler! Speaking of Ash Tyler (possible future episode SPOILERS ahead) – The going theory out there is that he is actual Voq, but genetically altered and undercover on Discovery. I won’t go into the specifics of the theory, but it’s pretty much all but confirmed. I love this idea, because if you watch this episode with that in mind, it would seem as though Tyler/Voq is seeing humans and other races in a new light, and Michael is key in all this. Possibly he will be key in actually realizing peace between the Federation and the Klingons, being able to show the Klingons that the Federation is actually full of races worthy of partnership. This goes along with my theory that this whole show will be the bridge to the Federation truly becoming the peace-loving and super-progressive organization that they are by the time we reach the original series. If you watch this show under that lens, I think the whole show really comes together.

I will mention briefly that Lorca and Tyler are seen toward the beginning of the episode in a holodeck type room, running a training simulation fighting Klingons. While canonistas out there might think this goes against Trek canon, and that there shouldn't be anything like that yet on a Starfleet vessel, I will point you to this section of the "Holodeck" Memory Alpha wiki page:

Prior to the late 24th century, Federation starships were not equipped with holodecks. (VOY: "Flashback")

However, in 2151, the Starfleet vessel Enterprise NX-01 encountered a vessel belonging to an alien race known as Xyrillians, who had advanced holographic technology in the form of a holographic chamber similar to the holodeck, which Federation Starfleet developed two centuries later. A holo-chamber was later installed aboard a Klingon battle cruiser,

In the 23rd century, Constitution-class starships were equipped with a recreation room, which employed holographic technology. The USS Enterprise had a recreation room located in Area 39 of the ship. (TAS: "The Practical Joker")

Also…Lorca is from the Mirror Universe. I’m just putting it out there!