We find out in this year one flashback episode the fate of Jeevan Chaudhary and how he got separated from Kirsten and how he became a doctor.
Of course, it all came back around to that graphic novel. Concerned that it was causing too much of a distraction for the young Kirsten, Jeevan took the opportunity to toss it into the woods. Kirsten was mad at the action and Jeevan went out to retrieve it. Unfortunately, he does not make it back, because he gets mauled by a wolf.
Earlier, Jeevan had contact with someone on a radio and he had told them that he was doctor. This led to them trying to abduct him when they were on a scavenging mission. One of these people found Jeevan and returned him to their home. They had a set up with a whole bunch of pregnant women, preparing to give birth to a bunch of post-flu babies, and they needed the help of another doctor.
Sadly, Jeevan had to have his foot amputated from the wolf attack and he had to take time to recover. The rest of the time in this story was very heart-warming and filled with hope. Even the loss of one of the pregnant women could not dull the feelings of hope of all the births.
We also got to see Jeevan in the year 20. He actually has become a doctor and has a family of his own.
I decided that I would combine a few of the write ups, mainly because I did not want to pause to write these in-between the episodes because I was so involved. So much for the idea that I would not binge this whole series this weekend. I should have known.
Starting with episode 6, Kirsten went out on her own and the rest of the Travelling Symphony wound up heading to the Museum, after being invited several times. Kirsten went to finish the deal with the Prophet/Tyler. She nearly succeeded in her attempt too as she had a knife to his throat. Tyler, however, told her that the people at the Museum were dangerous and not to be trusted and that he could show her the way.
Meanwhile, the rest arrived at the Museum, only to be quarantined and held captive. Sarah collapsed after the long trek. In a later episode, we discovered that Sarah had a heart attack and that she was clinging to life. It was clear in her discussion with Kirsten that she believed that she was going to die.
The Red Bandanas attacked Kirsten, Tyler and the kids on their travels, but Kirsten killed them all with her fancy knife tricks.
She was shot with poison and so she wound up back in the first 100 days of the flu pandemic. We get the answers to what had happened to Frank?, what play were the talking about?, what was Jeevan talking about when he said they left one day too late?.
We see the events that take place in Frank’s apartment through the eyes of “ghost” adult Kirsten who could only be seen by young Kirsten. It was weird, I know, but it was an intriguing framing device to see the things that happened to get Jeevan and Kirsten out of the apartment. Apparently, Jeevan wanted to leave the day before but Kirsten wanted to put on a play, based, of course, on Station Eleven, the comic book.
This led to a delay in leaving and as they were putting on the play, a home invader arrived and killed Frank with his knife. After an extended battle with the intruder and Jeevan, the intruder was killed and they had taken Frank to his bed forever.
Jeevan was showing some signs of losing his grip on reality as he was beginning to talk to himself, and, at least it looked like, answering himself. At this point, we do not know the ultimate fate of Jeevan, as this is the one major plot point still unresolved from the past.
Kirsten and Tyler arrived at the Museum and, surprise surprise, it was the old airport that Tyler had left after faking his own death. Clark was still here as was Tyler’s mother.
With Kirsten and Tyler in hazmat suits, they were not recognized by anyone. Clark made them act a scene to prove that they were actually actors. They performed a scene from the comic book, something that Clark eventually remembered.
Tyler was able to run fee around the airport because he knew all the tricks and hidden places from his time there before. He took Kirsten to see Sarah. He also was setting up bombs around the Museum.
Kirsten put all the pieces together, telling Tyler who she was and how she was connected to Arthur. She also had figured out his real identity, which was some great detective work from her. It did not prevent Tyler from continuing on with his angry plans. I have to say, the one thing that was missing in these episodes between Kirsten and Tyler was any anger from her to Tyler over the bombs that killed Gill. I needed that scene.
Anyway, Tyler’s mother, who had been tipped off by Clark’s partner Miles (in the world’s WORST wig and fake beard), who thought he recognized Tyler. She went and found him during his terrorism and spoke with her son for the first time in decades.
Every time I look at Tyler, I picture NXT wrestler Cameron Grimes.
There was a lot of wrap up in these three episodes and I am not sure what is next. I guess we still need to know what is going on with Doctor Eleven (aka the Astronaut) and we need to find out what Clark will do after his museum exploded. However, a lot of the story seems to be over. It does not feel like we will ever get an answer to how the flu started, which is fine with me. There were some hints dropped that the flu had ended and no longer a problem, though it devastated the world right off the bat.
Two more episodes remaining, I believe and I am interested to see where it takes the story next. My guess is we will get some resolution with Jeevan. Will that tie in with Doctor Eleven? We’ll see.
I wasn’t sure the purpose of this episode until the final shot when I had a huge AHA moment.
It was another episode where we did not go to see the main characters of our story and spent time in the first few days after the flu struck. The main character we were with was Clark. Clark of all people? It was really unexpected. We then met Tyler, the son of Arthur whom we had only heard mention of before. So I thought, okay, we’ll meet this kid and his mom and whatever.
The episode was fine. Overall a little dull. A group of survivors, led by Clark, set themselves up in a little community inside an abandoned airport. Things seemed to be going well.
The final shot of the episode showed what the real purpose of the episode was. It was to provide an origin story for The Prophet. Shockingly, Tyler turns out to be The Prophet.
*BOOOOOOM*
It felt like a toss away episode, and then it was not.
I really thought Tyler was on his way to commit suicide when we saw him walking toward the airplane with a gasoline can, flicking a lighter. I was not sure about some of the character choices the kid had made along the way. I was not sure why he did what he did. Then, he set the airplane on fire to fake his own death and left the community.
This was a twist that I did not see coming and it rescued an episode that was fine, but featuring a character that I would consider second tier.
Oh, and his mother gave Tyler a copy of the graphic novel, solving that potential mystery. Obviously an inspiration for him as he grew up.
So we went back to 20 years later and met up with the Travelling Symphony. We were here for most of the time with the exception of a couple of flashbacks to see some moments with Kirsten and Jeevan after they had left Frank’s place.
The Travelling Symphony were on the road, heading for their next show, and we get a sidetrack to a former member of the Symphony, the old director Gill.
The episode focused in on Alex and how she was starting to come under the influence of The Prophet. Alex gave us the first thrill of the episode as she went running downhill through a minefield to get to Gill. I was absolutely holding my breath as she took off.
With the dynamic of the group, Gill’s return made a huge effect on the group. Not only Alex but also with Lori Petty’s Sarah. We got some amazing music with Sarah on the keyboard.
Alex is clearly in a downward spiral and on a collision course with The Prophet. Then, when the children, who had been taken from Gill and his people, returned strapped with bombs… holy cow. I was anticipating someone blowing up all episode because of a mine, but it turned out to be from a bomb vest instead.
The graphic novel made its way back into the story here as well, making me wonder what connection that comic has to the overall storyline.
It is a very good episode and it continues to weave the mystery of what exactly is going on. It still gives me LOST vibes as well as The Walking Dead, especially with The Prophet filling the Governor or Negan role.
I am just not sure what they heck is going on with this TV show.
But I do believe that I am here for it.
After the first two episodes, which were totally different in structure and story, centered around the arrival and the after-effects of a deadly flu that has spread across the planet, “Hurricane” comes as episode three and is completely bizarre and tells the story of a woman who we met only momentarily in the premiere episode (and honestly, I did not remember that). Miranda Carroll (Danielle Deadwyler) was the author/artist of the graphic novel that was given to Kirsten when she was younger, one we thought was not widely spread.
Turns out that Miranda and Arthur (remember when Arthur died on stage in the premiere) had a great love affair and that Arthur was the love of Miranda’s life.
We went through the entire episode and never once flashed ahead to the future Kirsten or to Jeevan and Frank or to the Travelling Symphony. We did see young Kirsten as a cameo during that time when Miranda brought Arthur the graphic novel that she had, apparently, been working on for years as a passion project that she never intended for anyone to see. In fact, she went as far as burning her work (along with Arthur’s poolhouse).
After a failed attempt to escape the flu on a vessel out to sea, Miranda went back to her hotel room and duct taped herself inside. A knock came to the door and… who was there? The astronaut from episode one. What the hell?
I was fascinated by the episode almost as much as I was completely confused by the episode. The story structure jumped all over the time frame with Miranda and there were times when I had to stop and think to myself… “okay, WHEN is this happening now?” I seriously think the title cards that the show would drop only made it more confusing.
Does this all have to do with the origin of the flu that killed so many people or is that just a side note and meant to be just the backdrop of the entire series so we can see the lives of these people and how they lived their lives. Kind of like how we do not find out details about the zombie outbreak in The Walking Dead.
Who is this Astronaut and what is his/her story? Is Arthur that important of a central figure? Where did the flu come from? Are there aliens involved? Will next episode have anything to do with this one or will we return to the characters that we had met prior?
We had a big time jump into the future 20 years and spent the majority of the episode with Kirsten in a traveling actors troupe through the remains of the world that had been ravaged by the flu.
We flashed back a few times to the apartment with Jeevan and Frank, including a tough scene where young Kirsten got a text in response to her text to her father stating that the owner of the phone was in the morgue.
It was a strange episode because it was difficult to understand what exactly was going on. I got a definite LOST crossed with The Walking Dead vibe to this show. Problem was that I was less connected to these people in the future than I was for Jeevan and Frank. I wanted to know what had happened to them, and they tossed us a few minor bits with them, including a flash where Jeevan told Kirsten to run.
Then there was this guy….
Honestly, I am not sure about who this guy was, or why Kirsten stuck a knife in his gut and left him for dead. Of course, he did not end up dead, but what was the deal here? He had a cult leader feel to him and he is certainly going to be a problem moving forward.
I have to say, this episode threw me for a bit of a loop. I think it is a good thing to take a break from it right now. I may yet return to the show before the weekend is up, but this new episode changed how I was perceiving the show. We’ve yet to see if that was a positive thing.
I had heard about this show on HBO Max from a few places, but I was not sure if a show about an apocalypse brought on by an out-of-control flu was exactly the type of content I wanted to watch at this moment in time.
So I gave it a chance. It was good.
You are immediately grasped by the strange relationship between Jeevan Chaudhary and the young actress Kirsten Raymonde. Kirsten was in a play where her mentor died of a heart attack and Jeevan helped out the stranded girl. However, a dangerous flu outbreak was sweeping the nation and Jeevan’s sister, who was a nurse, told him to go to their brother Frank’s and barricade them in Frank’s apartment.
Kirsten’s parents were not home and Jeevan could not leave her alone so he took her with him to Frank’s place.
There was a dramatic plane crash scene that cemented how serious the situation had become. It then ended with a couple of time jumps that shook the status that the show had started was now completely out the window.
The first episode was pretty good. Good enough for me to continue to watch the show for now. I do not plan on binging the whole 10-episodes that are available. That feels like more than I want to do right now, but I can see myself setting up a viewing schedule to complete Station Eleven.
The third episode of James Gunn’s Peacemaker series, which dropped episodes 1, 2, & 3 this week, sent our crew into the field after a family connected to the Project Butterfly, opening up a moral dilemma for Peacemaker.
It appears that Peacemaker may have an issue with the potential murder of kids. Despite what he said about murdering anybody for peace, Peacemaker found himself freezing up when he had the perfect shot to take out a family that were Butterflies, something that we got a bit of a hint about at the end of the show this week.
If it was not for Vigilante following Peacemaker and the others, the mission would have been a failure. However, Vigilante did not seem to share the moral objections of Peacemaker as he happily shot three of the family members. However, this led to the arrival of Judomaster.
Judomaster proceeded to kick the butt of everyone there, capturing Peacemaker and Vigilante and taking them for interrogation. This left Harcourt, Leota, and Clemson Murn to try and rescue them and finish the job.
Leota also showed that she may not be quite the chip off the old block as she may like. As the daughter of Amanda Waller, Leota did not have the killer instinct either, not wanting to kill one of the guards for the Goff family when they had the drop on him. Harcourt did it without any issue.
This episode had some pretty solid character development and was a tad slower over all. Poor Vigilante had to suffer the consequences because Goff saw Peacemaker as the Alpha who would want to keep his friend from being tortured. However, Peacemaker continued to refuse to give him any information (not that he had any to give).
When Goff had his head blown off by Peacemaker, we got a glimpse at what could be the key behind Project Butterfly.
Episode four comes out next Thursday and I would expect some questions from Peacemaker about what he saw. We also saw a world map with tons of Butterflies identified worldwide.
“Can’t house train an eagle, dud, without stealing its soul.” -Peacemaker, while in the back seat of a car with Eagley and being told that the eagle had better not shit back there.
It really is poetry.
However, there is an absolute correlation between Eagley and Peacemaker and the words of Chris Smith could easily be taken as a comment about himself.
Peacemaker found himself trapped at the hotel where he had the huge fight with the Butterfly at the end of episode one (although he still does not know what a Butterfly is). Thanks to Harcourt and Leota, he was able to escape, but not after he stole several things, including the record albums that he was impressed by last episode.
However, the team meeting that followed was not the most positive one. After this, Chris went back to his home and had a good cry.
John Cena is great here. You can see into the soul of Peacemaker, someone who definitely wants to do something different with his life, but is not sure what that is. Plus, nobody likes him because he is a dick.
Vigilante showed up this episode.
Yes, the lower level DC character makes a perfect foil for Peacemaker and the two bonded over the use of some guns, arrows, explosives in the woods.
Because Peacemaker had left his car at the scene of the murder of the Butterfly he had had sex with, the team, specifically John Economos (Steve Agee), had to change the name on the car registration. He switches it to Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father. The comedy in this is just hilarious, but it also leads to a huge reveal in the episode. And that is that Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father, holds the mantel of the White Dragon, a white supremacist with a crew ready to follow him along. So when he was brought to jail because the team’s frame job, he was shown to be more powerful than we imagined.
This is going to be a major storyline this season, clearly. It is another way to take the humor of the series and turn it on its ear, making a much more serious situation.
We have one more episode to go this week before we have to wait until next Thursday to see the next one. Peacemaker has been tremendous so far and James Gunn is clearly having a blast.
James Gunn is at it again and he may have found a character that works perfectly for his brand of humor and storytelling. John Cena has always embraced the cheese and he has found a role that allows him to do so with a wild abandon. Peacemaker debuted with the first three episodes dropped on HBO Max with a new episode every week to follow.
To begin with, the opening credits are absolutely off the charts. A dance routine with the whole cast involved, especially with John Cena leading the way. It was truly a James Gunn master stroke to kick off the series. I wonder if it will be the opening credits for every episode and if that joke will get old? Either way, it was fantastic at this moment.
And They introduced what is sure to become the most popular character on the show, if not in the entire DC Universe, Peacemaker’s erstwhile sidekick, Eagley. The scene where Peacemaker, aka Chris Smith, returned from his near death in The Suicide Squad and five years in prison to his father’s house where Eagley was at and the eagle hugged him was maybe one of the best moments in super hero shows ever.
I was under the impression that this series was intended to be a prequel to The Suicide Squad, but perhaps that was done just to make people think that he could have died in the movie.
Peacemaker gets approached by a group of people who were working for Amanda Waller in the film, and who were involved in the revolt to help stop Starro, against Waller’s wishes. Amanda Waller, still played by the exquisite Viola Davis, has planted a mole on the team to keep an eye on everyone, a mole who just happened to be her daughter, played by Danielle Brooks from Orange is the New Black.
Another part of the team was Harcourt, played by Jennifer Holland, and she is there to handle the situations. She showed that she was very capable of dealing with threats during a scene in the bar. Peacemaker wanted to talk with her, but Harcourt was anything but interested.
Instead, Peacemaker picked up another woman at the bar, which led to a rousing night of sex, singing and knife fighting.
The scene where John Cena sang along in his tighty-whiteys with the song by The Quireboys called “I Don’t Love You Anymore.” Apparently, this was shot on day one of filming and it is completely off the wall.
So was the vicious fight that followed this dance/singing scene. It was so brutal that Peacemaker barely survived.
Another standout is Robert Patrick appearing as Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s mean, racist, cruel father. You can see where Chris gained some of his attitude from, but Auggie did not seem to care much for his son, calling him terrible names and wondering how his own semen could create someone like Chris. Auggie has a bigger role to play here as he was referenced by the government workers too.
This was a great pilot episode and I am really looking forward to continuing this as we go. And I love Eagley!.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 