Skeleton Crew S1 E5

Spoilers

“You Have a lot to Learn about Pirates”

With Christmas in the middle of the week and no school because of Christmas break, my mind gets mixed up. I was focused on a lot of different things, and I did not think about Skeleton Crew having a new episode last night. In fact, with Doctor Who coming up and a list of other things I wanted to watch, I would not have thought about Skeleton Crew had I not seen mktoon (aka Michael Vogel of the Geek Buddies) post a message on X about how Skeleton Crew is always great.

Once I saw this Tweet (or whatever they are called now), this show jumped to the head of the list for the day.

What a great episode. Things are really moving forward quickly, including the ultimate betrayal of Jod.

This show does a great job of keeping these characters kids and showing us that they are still kids. The scene of the pillow fight on the bed was a perfect example of showing these characters as children. Many times children characters do not act like children characters. In Skeleton Crew, these kids are kids.

Jod taking over the captain’s role was a huge betrayal to the kids, who were as brave as they could be, but were in way over their heads. When Wim stepped up with a lightsaber, I believed that we were going to get something magical, but with him holding the lightsaber in the wrong direction, things did not go well. I guess Wim was lucky he did not cut off part of his body.

Jod and SM-33 are together now, as the kids escaped from Jod through a specific tunnel. This scene was right out of Goonies, with the kids finding the treasure of One-Eyed Willy. There are also booty traps (Boobie traps… that’s what I said, booty traps).

Skeleton Crew is one of the most entertaining Star Wars shows in a long time and it really had that Star Wars vibe to it this week. With the two groups now separated, and people chasing after Jod, who continues to be called by different names, the show is flying into the second half of the season in a positive way.

2024 Year in Review: I Am Groot Voice Acting Award

This has been a big year for animation and that means this was going to be a tough award to pick. Of course, it is not just animation for a voice over. It could be a character on a show in a helmet that you never see their face. It could be a mo-cap character. There are a ton of choices.

“I am Groot” Voice Acting Award

Previous Winners:  Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes),  Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)

Runners-Up: Let’s start off with one of the toughest jobs of the year. Chris Hemsworth did the voice of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and had to step into the shoes of iconic EYG Hall of Famer Peter Cullin. And he did a tremendous job in Transformers One. Another film with big shoes to fill was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Noa was a new protagonist voiced by Owen Teague, who took over the franchise from Andy Serkis. Tom Hardy was the best part of Venom: The Last Dance as he was the voice of Venom as well as Eddie Brock. The Wild Robot had two great performances from Lupita Nyong’o as Roz and Pedro Pascal as Fink. Hamish Linklater was our new animated Batman in Prime’s Batman: The Caped Crusader. Maya Hawke was awesome as the voice of the antagonist in Inside Out 2, Anxiety. Just today, we heard Kathryn Hahn return to the role of Agatha Harkness in one of the best episodes of What If…? ever, and her voice brought the power of this character. Mark Hamill is an iconic voice actor and he continued as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions. Lenore Zann delivered one of the most powerful lines in all of animation this year when she said “I can’t feel you” as Rogue clutched Gambit’s dead body at the end of episode five of X-Men ’97. Alison Sealy-Smith was exceptional in X-Men ’97 as Storm. To be fair, there are so many possible choices from X-Men ’97 because that show was epic.

This year’s winner is also from the show, X-Men ’97.

AJ LoCascio, as Gambit (X-Men’97)

The name’s Gambit. Remember it.

He was only in half of the season of X-Men ’97, but he absolutely killed it. Then, episode five of the show is one of the best episodes of TV this entire year. Gambit was at the center of that show and was the massive emotional beat.

Dexter: Original Sin E1-3

Spoilers

“And in the Beginning…”

“Kid in a Candy Store”

“Miami Vice”

I watched Dexter on and off when it was one. The season with John Lithgow was one of the best seasons of TV ever. But I did not watch much of the last few years of the show nor did I watch the return series from a few years ago. I liked Dexter, but I did not go out of my way for him.

When I spotted this new series, Dexter: Original Sin, on Prime, I was interested. Telling the story of how things started off with Dexter and his Dark Passenger seemed like a great story, and the use of Michael C. Hall as the narrator worked in a lot of different ways.

Of course, the casting of Dexter and Debra would be key to any series and I think this new show got them right with Dexter being played by Patrick Gibson and Debra was played by Molly Brown. Both seem to fit these characters without being just an imitation of the originals.

We have a living Harry Morgan here as well with the one and only Christian Slater taking that role of Dexter’s adoptive father. He is on the force, but we know that Dexter’s murders would eventually take their toll on Harry. Harry’s rules are a major part in the character of Dexter’s life and code, no matter how bizarre it was.

Sarah Michelle Geller is on this show too as Tanya Martin, Dexter’s first boss at the Miami Metro and is the CSI chief. It’s cool to see Buffy once again, but she is just listed as a “special guest star” so I do not know what that means.

Dexter is an excellent character, a heroic one who would feed his darker impulses by killing people who were bad. Yes, there is all kinds of morally grey area in here. Yes, Dexter is not really a hero. Yet, he does seem to be more than just another serial killer. The influence of Harry is clearly the reason for that.

At this point, Dexter has been dumping his two kills in a swampy area with some alligators. Thing is … at the end of E3, an arm was left floating. Obviously, Dexter will develop a better manner of body disposal that he takes into the future with him. We will see how he avoids the trouble with the arm (because obviously he is getting away with it).

I liked these first three episodes. It did take a little while to remember about the characters from the original series and how they are used here, but it was fun getting through it. I will continue to watch this series and may even give a chance to the new Dexter series called Dexter: Resurrections coming in 2025.

What If … ? S3 E1

Spoilers

“What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers”

I am very happy to have What If…? back once more over holiday break, releasing daily for my entertainment pleasure. I love this release schedule which they started last year. They are releasing the eight episodes daily, starting on December 22 and running through December 29. It gives me something to look forward to every day.

What If…? has been a fairly consistent show over the three seasons. It has been enjoyable, but perhaps not outstanding. It is typically really good, fun and entertaining. This first episode feels like it falls right into that category.

The What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers episode had a new team of Avengers with their giant mech technology, much like Voltron or the Power Rangers, and they took on some gamma beasts created in the Gamma War.

One of the best parts of What If…? is the use of the actual live action actors for voices in the animated shows. This episode included Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, and David Harbour as Red Guardian.

The first half of this episode felt as if it had too much exposition and, despite having a series of cool animation styles during the period, I thought there was too much telling and not enough showing. This is one of the overall issues with What If…?. Episodes are kept around 30 minutes and sometimes feel as if it is too short. This one felt like it would have been more compelling if it had been an hour. Maybe we could have seen some of the Gamma War instead of just using it as set up.

However, the second half of the show was solid and included some awesome giant robot vs. Kaiju type action, including Bruce Banner transforming himself into a gigantic Godzilla-like creature, I dubbed Hulkzilla as soon as I saw the scene. This was fun and an enjoyable action piece with a decent theme working.

Admittedly, after seeing some of the outstanding animated TV shows this year such as X-Men ’97 and Batman: The Caped Crusader, What If…? feels like a step down. That may not be fair, but when the genre is elevating its game, you expect other shows to step up too. What If…? episode one of season three was fine, but probably not as memorable as it could have been.

Shrinking S2 E10

Spoilers

“Changing Patterns”

Okay, so perhaps this is not the season finale after all.

I really thought that this was the season finale. But when I pulled up the show on Apple TV +, I saw episode 11 listed for next Wednesday. So I guess this is not the final episode of the season. I do not know how many there are.

That does not bother me much because Shrinking is consistently one of the best written and entertaining shows on TV.

I had been wondering where this show was going as it seemed like most of the storylines were wrapped up over the last couple of episodes, but there were a couple that came raging back into the forefront.

In particular, the whole Louis/Alice friendship came back hard and heavy this week. Alice found out that Jimmy had told Louis to not see Alice again and that crushed her. Apparently, there are more legs to this as Alice told her father that he ruined another birthday.

Oh yeah, it was Alice’s 18 birthday. She was a little unfair in this situation in my opinion. I mean, Jimmy did find her a car just like his wife. Sure he can be blind in a lot of ways, but to say that he ruined the birthday felt a touch harsh.

There are some great development with all of the other characters too. Paul, Liz, Derek, Julie, and Gaby had solid arcs within this episode, but they all paled in comparison to the birthday escapades.

I wonder how many more episodes the season has for us?

Skeleton Crew S1 E1, E2

Spoilers

“This Could Be a Real Adventure”

“Way, Way Out Past the Barrier”

I usually do not do write ups on the Star Wars Disney + shows. The main reason is that I do not like that many of these shows. I do consider myself a Star Wars fan, but I have not been a fan of several of these shows, and a few I have not even watched (such as Ahsoka). However, the 1980s Goonies/Amblin feel this show provided made me intrigued.

Disney + dropped the first two episodes of this new series last night and I loved it. This was such a fun series and it absolutely captured that 1980s kid adventure movies.

In fact, one of the first things I noticed was the great music used. That music completely made me feel like we were watching an Amblin movie, but it also gave me the feel of Star Wars. The music was a wonderful blend between the two types of films.

I thought all of the kids did a great job. I was a big fan of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) as our main protagonist, and I enjoyed Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) a ton as well. The little elephant character, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) was fun too. I liked him very much. He made a great companion to Wim.

Jude Law showed up at the last scene of the second episode, bringing an interesting storyline with him.

I loved the mystery circulating around the kids’ home planet, At Attin, a planet that it seemed that the rest of the Star Wars universe believed this planet was just a myth. What is this central mystery? It has me intrigued for sure.

I am excited about the Skeleton Crew. I can’t wait to continue watching this series next Tuesday.

The X-Files S7 E10 E11

Spoilers

“Sein Und Zeit”

“Closure”

The X-Files investigates the JonBenét Ramsey case.

Ok, not exactly, but they may as well have.

Only, they tied it into Mulder’s missing sister and his own family tragedy.

I was surprised when this turned out to be a two part episode as some horrible images were shown, including a mass graveyard of children. This was a shocking moment that I did not expect in this series.

You see, at first, I felt very dismissive of this episode, in particular “Sein Und Zeit” because it felt as if the fictional case of this episode was such a take off of the Ramsey case that it seemed exploitive. Then when they tried to connect it to Mulder’s sister, it really took another step away from what I wanted.

Then, Mulder’s mother, who had tried to contact him, committed suicide.

And the emotional power of the episode really took over.

David Duchovny brought some of the best work I have seen from him in a long time. The scene where Scully tells Mulder that his mother had a terrible disease and that she had committed suicide and not killed by some mysterious conspiracy was extremely powerful.

This was all building to answering the question about what happened to Samantha Mulder. As I am watching it, I did not believe that the show would give us a final truth. I saw on Wikipedia that Chris Carter believed that season 7 might have been the final season of the X-Files so I thought that maybe that elusive mystery would finally be revealed. The title “Closure” leads to the idea as well.

Cigarette Smoking Man showed up to see Scully, and I kept yelling at her to shoot him in the head. She didn’t.

As I continued to watch the episode, I started believing that the show might actually give an answer to the mystery. I did not grasp the idea of what in actuality happened. Samantha was apparently taken by “walk-ins” which was a concept told to Mulder by a psychic named Harold Pillar (Anthony Heald) who was also in search of his own missing son. A walk-in was a being made of starlight that would take children who suffered horrible fates.

That whole concept was strange, but the scene where the spirit of Samantha Mulder came to Fox Mulder and hugged him was quite beautiful and provided the character with some serious closure. He could accept that Samantha was gone and, as he said at the end of the episode, he said, “I’m fine. I’m free.”

I am still not sure how his mother played into this. What was her message? Did she know this was Samantha’s fate or what was going on. We saw Mulder’s mother’s spirit come to him and whisper something. I am just not sure that fit with what the show was telling us.

We also got the image of the little girl whose disappearance started this whole thing indicating that she too had become starlight and was, in fact, dead.

I am not sure I love the resolution of this seminal mystery, but I am happy that it is done. I am not sure that all of the different times when we learned bits about Samantha fit into this theory and it works best when you forget about some of those. The whole Samantha mystery was used multiple times over the seasons for episodes and I wonder how much they knew about what actually happened to Samantha.

No matter what, even if the resolution was not totally satisfactory, I am glad that it was addressed and that Mulder was given closure. It is good that this Samantha story ended here.

Silo S2 E3

Spoilers

“Solo”

The best parts of this episode came from the interactions between Juliette and Solo. Solo is the person locked in the vault that we met last week. He told her that if Juliette tried to open the vault again, he would kill her.

However, we discover that Solo is not quite confident in his mental acuity. He was not sure if Juliette was real, so he put some soup out for her. When she gulped it down, Solo realized that she really was real.

Steve Zahn played the off-balanced survivor and he did a great job of spending most of the episode acting with his voice (and perhaps every once in awhile with his eyes).

Discovering the secrets of this other silo, Juliette wanted to get back to her own silo (Silo 18), to warn others of the dangers that brought this silo (Silo 17) down. She was stifled on how to make that happen since her own suit was torn to shreds.

This led to Solo exiting his vault when he feared that Juliette was going to not return. I am not sure where this goes, but Solo feels a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs to me.

The stuff happening back in the original silo was not as compelling for me. We get a bunch of trouble from a group planning a potential rebellion. We get questions about Juliette’s actual choice about wanting to leave. The Mayor continues with his machinations. Judge Meadow who is starting to figure out how she can leave the silo and The Mayor seemingly helping her (though I don’t trust him one bit).

Silo S2 E1

Spoilers

“The Engineer”

Apple TV + series Silo returned for its second season. The first season was an unexpected treat when it first came out on Apple TV + so I was excited to see what a second season had in store for us.

Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) who was sent out of the silo in the first season finale, set up by those in power to get rid of her, went walking across the outside world. She discovered that there were more silos than the one that she came from. As she went to the nearest one, she had to walk through a field littered with skeletons and rotting corpses, belonging to a group of people we saw at the episode’s beginning, who were forcing their way out of their silo in a revolution. A revolution that did not go well. Looks like the air is toxic after all.

As Juliette entered the next silo, she discovered that it was abandoned and run down. She went into the silo, exploring the structure as we got flashbacks of Juliette as a child, learning to work the recycle center.

The episode had a ton of tension and nervous energy as Juliette made her way through the darkness and decay of this silo, picking up on signs as she went. Part of the reason these scenes were as unnerving as they were was that most of the episode was silent. Except for the flashbacks, of course, most of Juliette’s time in the silo contained little to no dialogue.

That is, of course, until she heard that music playing and went to find a big vault door, which she tried to open. Failing, she was ready to leave when she heard a man speak to her, telling her that he understood why she tried to open the door, but if she tried it again, he would kill her.

For me, I would say, sure thing… no problem… enjoy your life in there. I get a feeling that Juliette is not going to just let this guy live his life behind steel doors. Or at least her curiosity will get the better of her. Who is this guy and why did he respond to her in such a way?

We did not see any of the characters from the original silo we had been introduced to in season one, but there was plenty of story taking place here to satisfy. A solid season premiere from a solid sci-fi show that more people should know about.

Cobra Kai S6 Part 2 E9, E10

Spoilers

“Blood In Blood Out”

“Eunjangdo”

So I watched episodes 6-8 earlier this morning and I was truly underwhelmed. I would go as far as say that I disliked E6 while not being much of a fan of E8, with 7 saving the threesome a bit. I was disappointed and I even went as far as to wonder if they should have ended the series after season five with that tremendous finale.

Well, I’ll shut up now.

Episodes 9 and 10 of Cobra Kai Season 6 just said ‘hold my beer.’

Holy crap. What an amazing two episodes in a row. Everything that was weak about the first three I saw this morning was totally crushed in these two episodes. I can’t believe I have to wait for the next episode, whenever the part three of the season is released.

The show amped up the karate fights in these two episodes and ended the stupid conflicts that I complained about in the post this morning. The Miyagi-Do crew finally just put their cards on the table and got the stupid arguments and hurt feelings aside after their team got kicked in the first match of the tag team competition. The tag team battle was creative and awesome.

With the tag team competition done, and Cobra Kai out… you knew something was going to happen to bring them back in. Performance enhancing drugs for one of the non-important teams brought Cobra Kai back into the mixture with the Iron Dragons and Miyagi-Do.

Then, that twist led to something the show has not had in a long time, an epic all-out karate war with everybody fighting each other. It was something that Cobra Kai the show had been well known for, but hadn’t used lately. Certainly not on this scale, with the whole thing broadcast to the world.

And you could tell that someone was getting that knife that Kreese was brandishing all over the place. The show wouldn’t have kept showing it if it was not going to be used. I was afraid that Daniel was going to get that blade as it was being set up, but I never thought that Kwon would taste the dagger. I was sure it was going to be the giant Iron Dragon guy getting killed. But no, Kwon was stabbed int he chest and fell upon his own weapon, Kreese’s dagger which he had picked up from the floor.

Of course, Kreese had every intention of using that dagger to kill Terry Silver, but when he realized that he had dropped it, Kreese decided that they had to have an old man fight, hand to hand.

I may have actually grown to like Chozen and Kim Da-Eun as a pair. Them fighting side by side was cool, even if the show did make Da-Eun flip as a character really quickly. Reminded me of Hawk’s face turn a few seasons ago. Kind of our of nowhere.

Oh, and by the way, Daniel’s dream with Mr. Miyagi making the cameo was out of this world. Make you wonder about AI.

Unbelievable two episodes, especially after the first three of this second part of the season were so iffy. I am completely back on board with the show and can’t wait for the final five episodes.

Grotesquerie S1 E10

Spoilers

“I Think I’m Dead”

What?

This is a season finale. Yet was it a satisfying resolution to the first season story? Absolutely not. I have to say that the ending of this season is just disappointing and a disjointed mess.

The ending does not give us any answers. It does not even hint at them. The first half of the episode was going along with Marshall, and he winds up at a strange anti-woke, anti-women meeting where there were some nastiness implied. What was any of this about? Is it indicating that this group has something to do with the Grotesquerie murders? All the male characters of the show appeared in this meeting, including some of the most important ones. Still, it was anything but clear.

The episode started to get interesting when Lois was in the mental institution and was claiming that she believed that she had died and that this was the Otherworld. Or maybe she was still in the coma. These were some intriguing ideas that I may have bought into, because I stated after last week’s penultimate episode, I really felt as if the world was imaginary. However, this idea was tossed aside quickly and does not seem to be explored any further after Megan arrived to see Lois.

Megan took Lois to another crime scene where a bunch of people were killed, including Charlie the doctor. Lois says she knows who this is, and left to go to her old office and wait for the evidence to be bagged up.

And that was the end of the season.

Really?

This show was so very odd and bounced around potential concepts, changing gears midseason dramatically. This show never felt right since that massive switch. I was willing to give it a chance, but it all still feels too surreal.

I do not mind having mysteries unsolved, as long as I think that those mysteries make sense. These do not. This was a weak ending to a show that had some solid moments and a strong performance from Niecy Nash-Betts.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E9

Spoilers

“Escape from Planet Klongo”

After a down week for me last week, Only Murders in the Building had its penultimate episode of season four with an episode that included all of the best things that Only Murders does.

“Escape from Planet Klongo” gave us the following:

  • One of the classic Oliver and Charles arguments – this time over a Bachelor Party .
  • We got another murder- Glen Stubbins (this is the second… maybe even the third time Paul Rudd has been murdered on this show).
  • Only one major cameo – Ron Howard! Ron Howard was sensational here with Martin Short. Ron-Ron. Hilarious.
  • Project Ronkonkoma became the key point for the mystery. A movie directed by Ron Howard and one that Sazz’s protege messed up badly.
  • W.A.N.S: Whiskey, A-List Celebrities, Naughty Secret!
  • A wonderful interaction with Oliver and Charles that showed their friendship.
  • Charles and Oliver wind up as background actors as aliens- in mo-cap suits
  • A script discovered about Only Murders in the Building-The Movie, by Sazz Pataki.

And most importantly, we had a reveal. We discovered who the killer was thanks to a flashback from Ron Howard. It was Marshall, the writer of the movie. He also killed Glen Stubbins with a pillow, and he wound up alone in the apartment with Mabel.

Everything makes a lot of sense for Marshall, especially with how they showed us what happened with Sazz on Project Ronkonkoma. Sazz was writing a script that Marshall wanted to write. Then, Glen replaced him on the movie and he must have been the actual intended victim when the group of Olivers were shot a few weeks ago.

The cameras in the place must have been planted to figure out what Oliver, Charles and Mabel were like as characters. I’m not sure about the whole plot holes bit or the text messages, but I’m sure that will fall into place next week in the finale.

The limited use of cameos is in stark opposition from last week which was cameo overload. And… who knew that when you are around Ron Howard, you should never mention the fishin’ hole (from Andy Griffith). What could have happened at the fishin’ hole?

One more episode which should include a wedding (if they pull it off).

Great episode.

The Penguin S1 E4, E5

Spoilers

“Cent’anni”

“Homecoming”

Episode four was my favorite episode of the series so far. We saw the backstory of Sofia, how she was taken to Arkham and the horrors that were unleashed on her there.

Legit, some of the scene at Arkham were horrendous… electric shock treatments… to someone who was innocent of the charge of being “The Hangman.” Sent there by her very own father’s manipulations. Her whole family, except her brother, turned on her, keeping her in the asylum for ten years.

It really made Sofia relatable… someone the audience could root for… before she went totally crazy. Sofia gassed her entire family (except the one little girl). She tortured Johnny Viti. When he swore to help her, she brought him to a meeting and promptly shot him in the head when he tried to disagree with her.

Sofia then told the members of the meeting that she was setting up a new family. That the Falcone family was dead and that she was taking the name Gigante. She found Salvatore Maroni, who escaped from prison after one of Oz’s men tried to assassinate him. She formed an alliance with him with the intention of killing Oz and running the new family in the right way.

Cristin Milioti is absolutely brilliant. She had so many scenes that illuminated the power of her performance as she was developing into a massive villain right before our eyes… and one that we were cheering for.

Victor was assigned to protect Oz’s mother Francis. Oz was worried because he was not having quite the successes that he was hoping for, and he sent Victor to protect his mother. Deirdre O’Connell is great in this episode as Penguin’s mother. She has some great scenes with Victor and a tour de force scene with Oz later in the episode. The performance of a woman slowly succumbing to dementia is truly powerful and sad at the same time.

The Penguin’s disposal of Nadia and her son in a blaze of flame was shocking and showed how horrible Oz was too. He may be the protagonist, but he is not a hero.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E3

Spoilers

“Two for the Road”

So, why is Zach Galifianakis such a dick?

The three actors who are intended to play Oliver, Charles and Mabel came to shadow our plucky podcasters and became involved in the investigation into the Westies.

Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy and Eva Longoria clearly were playing caricatures of themselves in this episode, but I have to say, they were easily my least favorite part of this entire season so far.

I have loved this season, but the three actors felt like something crammed into the story that just did not work. I will admit Eugene Levy’s partnering up with Charles to look into the patch-wearing Richard Hatch was the best of the three. Eva Longoria was way over-the-top and annoying. Galifianakis was downright disrespectful to Oliver and I found him to be the worst of the three.

The episode is much stronger with the time that Oliver, Charles and Mabel are together. The beginning with the murder board and Detective Williams and the ending scene when the three were having a housewarming for Mabel’s squatting in the apartment that the sniper had shot from were both considerably more entertaining than them with the actors.

One has to wonder though… why Perfect Strangers?

There were a bunch of clues dropped this episode and several red herrings that played out, including Kumail Nanjiani, who we meet as Christmas all the time dude.

This was my least favorite of the episodes so far in season four, but it was just because those first two were so excellent for me. I am fully engaged in the mystery of who shot Sazz and how it related to Charles.

Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

The Boys S4 E8

SPOILERS

“Assassination Run”

They filmed this season over a year ago, and yet it feels as topical as ever. Perhaps even too topical.

Season five finale was brutal throughout as The Boys set the table for the final season, season six, with a massive cliffhanger and Homelander standing tall.

So many things happened, so let me touch on a couple.

The Frenchie/Kimiko scene near the end was just one of the most beautiful scenes of the series but I was holding my breath the entire time because I was afraid of the portents that this scene may hint at. I do not want to see Frenchie or Kimiko die and I was afraid that was what was going to happen before the end of the episode. I was grateful when they survived, although separated by Gen V’s Kate.

The Annie/Hughie relationship was tortured by the shape-shifting shooter, but seems to have survived as well. I had honestly forgotten that Annie was being held captive and so when she proposed to Hughie at the beginning and he ran off to get his mother’s ring, I was happy. Then I remembered and it was sad again. However, Annie’s line about shifting syphilis was both funny and hopeful for out first couple.

Ryan is being torn apart by every side as everyone has their own agenda for him and it is starting to really hurt the boy. When he was told all about Homelander’s evil, he realized that they just wanted him as a weapon against his father.

No sign of A-Train this episode. I am glad he survived. I am sure that he has a role to play in the conclusion of the series next season.

Sister Sage’s return was epic. She has been behind the scenes of everything, setting up the events to drop as they did. What , then, is ‘phase two?’

Butcher’s tentacle powers are horrific, and seeing them rip Neuman in literally two pieces was shocking. I did not expect that to happen and it solidifies Butcher as just slightly less crazy than Homelander. I think that is the idea setting him up as a person who would do absolutely anything to kill Homelander. I have never been a fan of the character of Butcher as a hero. He is, at best, an anti-hero and probably more of another antagonist.

I believe season two of Gen V will come first, but this season really sets up some major events for the finale of the series in season six. Can’t wait.