Supernatural - "Alpha and Omega" Season 11 Finale Review

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Source: The CW

God’s spark is fading, everyone is feeling defeated and now it looks like Amara has also caused the Sun to die leaving all life on Earth to follow suit. What a way to start to the finale! But a positive in all this, Cas is back in control of his vessel! And in typical Dean fashion, he just wants a beer. I’m sure I would be reaching for booze too if I was sure the world was about to end.

And it looks like Amara isn’t the only one they need to worry about. There is a woman in London with full understanding of what is happening with the Sun, and she has “Wanted” posters plastered with The Winchesters’ faces, and she’s headed their way.

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Source: The CW

Sam and Crowley seem like the only two willing to try and fight, both agreeing Amara needs to die. With God dying, killing her is the only way to maintain balance. And God finally reveals her weakness, light. Which makes sense since light drives out darkness. The only problem is he would need 10,000 suns set to supernova. And considering he is weak, I am not sure he could muster that kind of energy. But, they might be onto something. One soul is equal to 10 suns, so if they can gather enough souls, maybe they can stand a chance? Or at least I am hoping so. Crowley agrees to “raid hell” for souls, Castiel says he will ask the angels, and Sam and Dean are going to try a sanatorium filled with ghosts. There is no way this will backfire. (Note the sarcasm)

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Source: The CW

Armed with a crystal and a magic word from The Book of the Damned, after little struggle, they trap the ghosts’ souls in the crystal. Little do they know, Billie the reaper was there to see it all go down. When they get back to the bunker Castiel tells them that the angels refuse to help, they know God is dying and they don’t think they stand a chance. They decide to close off Heaven and die with dignity. Crowley’s news isn’t much better, his demonic pals raided his stash of souls already. As they are coming to terms with their potential defeat, Billie walks in. She is willing to help, and as a reaper she has access to millions of souls I’m sure.

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Source: The CW

When we see Amara she seems scared, perhaps regretful. She notices how everything she touches, dies. And when an elderly woman joins her and speaks of her own family troubles, you can see the wheels turning. If she’s going to change her mind, she better do it fast. Thanks to Billie they are now armed with hundreds of thousands of souls and they know just who to send in to do the job, Dean. Rowena is going to transfer the souls into Dean’s heart and make him the “soul bomb.” When he gets close, all he will need to do is touch his fingers together. The plan seems simple enough, but I am not too sure Dean will be able to follow through. We have seen countless times where he is weakened in her presence.

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Source: The CW

I find it funny given that Amara is God’s sister they would think she wouldn’t sense the bomb in Dean’s chest. And sure enough, she does, all while dropping a bomb of her own. She isn’t killing the sun, it’s dying with God. And once he is gone all will cease to exist, herself included. Dean explains to Amara God didn’t want her dead, that they are family.  Amara calls on God to come to her. She explains she loves him and she knows he loves her, and that what he created was beautiful. And as they join hands, light emerges and the sun becomes stronger again. Amara heals God, leaving the rest of the crew back at the bunker to think Dean set off the bomb. Little do they know God removed the souls from him, and that the mysterious British woman is still headed their way. God tells Dean that he and Amara are going away for a while, and that Earth will be fine, that it has him and Sam to watch out for it. As God and Amara make their exit she tells Dean, “You gave me what I needed most, and I want to do the same for you.”

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Source: The CW

Back at the Bunker the mystery British woman is waiting, gun in hand. She quickly sends Castiel away using a sigil before revealing her identity. Toni Bevell, London chapter of the Men of Letters. She has been sent to take him in. The Men of Letters are not big fans of all the messes created by The Winchesters with the Leviathans, The Darkness, and what not. They think they do more harm than good. I mean saving the world on several occasions is all well and good, but maybe they did play a part in the world needing to be saved in the first place. But in this moment, it’s pretty convenient that Sam thinks Dean is dead. At least only one of them will be taken in.

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Source: The CW

As Dean tries to find his way back, he hears a woman’s cry and it seems like Amara kept her word. She gave him back what he has wanted the most all these years, his mom. Too bad he doesn’t know his brother has been potentially shot and taken away. Perhaps next season his mom will be helping him find Sam? Looks like we will need to wait until October when it is said to premiere! I know I am excited to see what turns next season takes. It’s going to be pretty hard to top God himself playing a role in the show.

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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

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Agents of Shield - "Absolution" and "Ascension" - Season 3 Finale Review

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Source: ABC

Way back in March, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s midseason premiere gave us a brief flash forward scene, in which a cross necklace and the arm of someone wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. jacket are seen floating inside of an outer space-bound Quinjet, moments before it explodes. This sequence is revisited in the episode, "Spacetime," when Daisy sees this exact scene in a vision of the future. Since then, ABC has treated us to a revolving door of “Who. Will. Die??” promos, and it’s a little disappointing that they’ve cornered AoS into such a cheap and blatant ratings grab. The narrative and emotional impact of killing off a main character partly comes from what should be the death’s inherently surprising nature. Telegraphing the end game so far in advance predictably takes away from this. Even if we don’t know who exactly is going to die, we know that someone is- and that’s just enough information to make us more concerned with figuring out who bites the dust, rather than focusing on the overall story at hand.

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

The finale itself is actually the last two episodes of the season aired consecutively. And, while the writers manage to avoid solely focusing on who dies (like the promos might have led us to believe), the “follow the necklace” clues they drop throughout the episode, in an attempt to misdirect viewers, are so easy to see through, it's almost comical. Regardless of who’s holding the necklace, we know there are certain characters that are off limits, and we know that there are certain characters who aren’t. The actual death is sad of course, but I wouldn't necessarily call it moving, and the impact it has on the show is limited, at best. Unless you're Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, (and really both of these shows have recently been reluctant to give major characters the axe) it's hard to pull off a truly game-changing main character death when the unjustified, but very real, consequence of scorned viewers abandoning ship, looms. The key to giving us a compelling death is to make it as surprising as possible, within reason, and make sure it has a significant impact on future narratives. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. threw its element of surprise way out the window when it told us weeks in advance that someone would die in the season finale. How this death impacts the show going forward, however, remains to be seen.

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

This episode is fairly jam packed with action, featuring a couple of fight scenes that almost make it feel like a mini-Marvel movie. The Daisy-Ward fight alone is worth the price of admission, and is probably the show’s best hand-to-hand confrontation yet. By now though, we expect S.H.I.E.L.D. to deliver on the action. Its track record is less reliable when it comes to the performance of its main cast. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything in the season finale that necessarily bucks this trend. Chloe Bennet is just okay throughout Daisy’s emotional rollercoaster of an episode, following her liberation from Hive’s control last week. There are a few scenes, however, that are riddled with horrifyingly clichéd portrayals of self-loathing and doubt, none more than the classic, “Mack tries to hug Daisy, Daisy tries to pull away, Mack continues to try and hug her until she finally acquiesces, collapsing into him, a giant weeping mess.” Suffice it to say, I think it’s fair to peg some of these moments on the script, rather than Bennet’s performance, and I will admit, she does a good job with what she’s given. Conversely, Brett Dalton manages to take his portrayal of Hive to a whole new level, demonstrating a hard to find range while he impersonates several different people, as Hive jumps from memory to memory.

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

Despite the finale’s flaws, this was a very strong season for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., building on the consistent progress it’s made since its uneven first season. The overarching 'Secret Warriors' arc was well realized, highlighted by some amazing choreography and special effects, hitting a level of quality that's rare for a network series. Like most shows with an ensemble cast, AoS still has a hard time blending its characters together into cohesive storylines- the Hunter, May, Ward plot being one of the few exceptions this season. Instead, AoS spent most of season three jumping from individual narrative to individual narrative; although to be fair, most of these individual stories were quite good. Character development continued to lag behind for anyone outside of the season one core, with Bobbi and Hunter even getting completely written out of the show shortly after the midseason break. However, the reinvention of Grant Ward as Hive, and the FitzSimmons arc from the first half of the season helped to neutralize the lack of interesting storylines given to supporting characters. In fact, the Jemma-centric "4,722 Hours" is arguably one of the best, if not the best, episode Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever put out, and in general, there weren’t a whole lot of actual missteps this season, save for the Bobbi and Hunter farewell ep, “Parting Shot.”

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

The future of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets a little murky after ABC announced last week that its timeslot will change from 9 to 10 PM next season. The list of shows that have survived, what's colloquially known as ABC's "death slot," is short. As I mentioned last week, there's been a change to Marvel Entertainment's corporate structure, creating a divide between the film and television sides of Marvel Studios. It's likely that ABC sees this shake up as damaging to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s already dwindling synergy with Marvel's more profitable and successful film properties. That, combined with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s higher than average budget and tendency to hemorrhage viewers season over season, means pulling the plug might be the most financially prudent move available. It also doesn't help that ABC ultimately passed on the Bobbi-Hunter spin-off, Marvel's Most Wanted, and cancelled the critically well-received, albeit ratings starved, Agent Carter, potentially signaling the network's shift away from Marvel properties.

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

In my review of season two of Daredevil, I talked about how the future of television lies in streaming services, which for Marvel means redirecting its resources towards its Netflix-based Defenders shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, etc). While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was, at one time, a tent-pole for Marvel's expansion into TV, Netflix provides an avenue for Marvel to explore its rich history of intellectual property in a more creative way, free of the ratings and ad revenue restraints that drive cable and network series. It’s possible that over the course of the last couple of seasons, S.H.I.E.L.D. became too serialized, relying on storylines spanning multiple weeks and months, potentially alienating new viewers from jumping into a show with way more backstory than they could easily catch up on. Ironically, if this is the case, AoS actually started out with a much more episodic format for most of its first season, where the storylines were more contained to single episodes, as the gang faced off against a new foe each week. This is certainly a tried and true formula for maintaining viewers, both hardcore and casual (ask any long running police procedural), but it only works when the episodic storylines are actually good and the characters are appealing, which for most of season one, they weren’t.

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Source: ABC/Marvel/Disney

If this truly is the beginning of the end for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s certainly been a good ride. In the past three years, we’ve seen the successful adaptation of the Kree-Inhumans story arc, as well as the show’s versatility in reworking its entire concept around Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Hydra reveal, and reinventing Skye into Daisy Johnson and Ward into multiple different antagonistic roles. Regardless of all the twists and turns, S.H.I.E.L.D. has ultimately managed to stay true to its roots, telling the story of a sometimes flawed organization that always tries to aid in the greater good and make the right call, even when it’s the hard call. If anything, though, I think what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. should be most proud of is how it managed to craft an identify for itself, allowing it to step out of the shadow of its Avenger big brothers, and exist as a property on its own merits.

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Garrett Yoshitomi is a contributor for A Play on Nerds. He covers Marvel films and television, and enjoys fantasy baseball, Big Brother live feeds, and Anna Kendrick. You can find his tweets @garrettweets

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The Path - "A Room With A View" - Season 1 Episode 9 Review

Minutes into this episode I could already see it’s going to be a good one. Cal is at Steve’s bedside in Peru once again, which makes me wonder how much money this guy has. I mean come on, trips back and forth to another country add up, especially with the frequency of his visits. And Sarah, after finding the burner cell phone in the car, has called Allison to meet up and find out why Eddie has called so much. Allison instantly tells her that he is not having an affair with her, but I am not convinced Sarah believes her. It wasn’t until Sarah tells Allison her husband left a journal behind that Allison reveals the real reason he was contacting her, he had doubts about the movement.

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Source: Hulu

Hawk and Eddie are nearing the end of the walk and see the flag over the fence of the compound. In that moment, it becomes clear Eddie isn’t the only one doubting the movement; their walk has seemed to pull Hawk further away from it as well. Scared his mother will kick him out, you can see the reluctance Hawk has about returning home. Eddie does his best to reassure him that he won’t let that happen, but he has no idea Sarah knows about his doubts. That is until she greets him, and tells him instantly, “I know about Allison.” I can see this going downhill, fast.

After Eddie’s talk with Sarah it becomes abundantly clear he would have been better off cheating. I think she would have forgiven him a lot easier than knowing he doesn’t share her faith. As she says, “it’s everything in my soul.” Talk about dramatic. Speaking of dramatic, after Agent Gaines’ outburst in last week’s episode we find him begging for his boss to keep him on the case following the movement. His boss explains it’s not his call and he recommends he take a few weeks off, or be suspended. Thankfully he wasn’t fired.

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Source: Hulu

Sarah confronted Cal about what he knew, and to deflect he tells her Steve finished the Rungs and would soon leave the movement. But, we know the truth, Cal wrote them and Steve is dying. And as another play to get Sarah closer to him he tells her Steve wants her to work at his side in the next phase of the movement. Which should be interesting if she chooses to do so considering her son is about to drop the bomb that he’s leaving the movement.

At his first gathering since returning home, Eddie is called up by Cal to discuss the walk he took and what he learned. Considering his wife is pissed at him, he did a pretty good job kissing her butt as he explained the truth he found on the walk was knowing his wife and kids are his truth, and that he needed to be home. Everyone but Sarah seemed to eat it up. And of course, Cal being the sociopath he is, puts on the front that he ate it up as well.

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Source: Hulu

And as I predicted, it didn’t take long for Mary’s love triangle to be outed. I was surprised to see her admit her addiction to Sean, but even more surprised to see the girl she hooked up with call her out in front of him. After being outed in front of a room full of people Mary snaps and pushes the girl after hurling water in her face. This leads to a counseling session with Cal of all people. And he once again plants an idea in Mary’s head, this time it’s marriage, to Sean.

With only about 20 minutes left the moment I had been waiting for arrives. Hawk tells his mom at dinner he plans to leave the movement. She seems shocked and hurt by this as she tells him he will be cut off from contacting the family, and I can bet she will try whatever she can to put a stop to him leaving. Also at this awkward dinner Eddie and Sarah’s daughter tells her dad about Cal sleeping in Hawk’s bed, because he was “body sick”. Something that isn’t sitting well with Eddie, for obvious reasons. The next morning, Hawk decides he is going to pack his stuff and leave. Eddie pleads for Sarah to let him stay, but she is not having it. So he goes to her parents for help, and her mother reacts the same way as her saying Eddie isn’t her son-in-law either after he confessed his doubts. It makes me wonder how they will react to Sarah’s indiscretions with Cal. And in a total creep move, Cal picks up Ashley from school to try and convince her to think about her relationship with Hawk. He uses a house to try and bribe her into leaving him so he goes back to the movement. And when that doesn’t work, he uses the pain of losing her father against her, and apparently it works. Does this guy have no limit to how far he will go? Luckily for Hawk his dad knows when he returns Cal had something to do with it and he does what I have been waiting for, he punches him in the face. But the biggest shock of the episode occurs when Allison returns to the compound and the movement and we find out maybe the ladder is real?

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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

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