There is this interesting moment in the scene where Lee is being interrogated by Verdugo, and Lee calls out how the smartest minds at Monarch decided “let them fight” was the best idea and the scene cuts from Lee to Michelle Duvall’s reaction
Upon first watch, it might not seem much more than just a reaction shot, but after finishing the season, you realize the clever little bit of foreshadowing they’re already planting the seeds for.
They put her reaction in that moment, specifically in a moment critiquing what happened in Godzilla 2014, because her sister Sandra died in Janjira in that very movie.
There is an emotional stake for her when Lee is calling out the mismanagement of things that got people like her sister killed. In that moment, Michelle was likely already assessing if she could trust Lee to take action that Monarch wasn’t taking, hence also why she was rather aggressively asking Tim a bunch of questions about how Lee knew all the things Monarch doesn’t even know.
That all makes her “turn” in the later episodes have much more foundation and logic. She was already unsatisfied with Monarch, she was effectively fishing for information, and Lee calling out Monarch for their inaction gave her the signal that she had found a new leader to follow.
I love when shows retroactively upon rewatch makes the episodes even better because you can now catch all the little foreshadowing details they placed in them.
This week for Marbled Monday we return to the work of William Blake as published by the Trianon Press and the William Blake Trust. The poem is Visions of the Daughters of Albion, which was first published by William Blake in 1793 with his own illustrations. This Trianon Press edition was published in 1959 and is a facsimile of the original, meaning it was reproduced as closely as possible, including Arches pure rag paper made to match that which was used by Blake. The paper also features a watermark of Blake's monogram in the lower corner of every sheet.
The edition is quarter-bound in orange leather and orange, brown, and tan marbled paper. The paper is a really interesting pattern, similar to Cockerell's Octopus or Whirl pattern. It is difficult to tell who did the marbling because it isn't stated in the colophon, but it is possibly by French marbler Michel Duval, who the Trianon Press used frequently for their marbled papers. It could also be by Cockerell, but seems less likely judging by the number of mentions of Duval in the finding aid for the Trianon Press Archives at UC Santa Cruz.
Film after film: Widows (dir. Steve McQueen, 2018)
Plot-wise, it's just okay, but actorly it's a great pleasure. I love Davis when she plays roles that are not so in-your-face showy, with the proverbial "snot out of nose" crying (see this year's Air too). Here she's more steely but also vulnerable, as the wife of a (seemingly) dead criminal, who is coerced into paying his debts and aims to complete a job that originally he planned. There are some plot twists and turns, sometimes impressive and well staged, but it's predominantly an actor's film. Kaluuya stands out as the most evil person alive.