#beths acting in this episode was insane!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

glitteringcrab · 5 months

Text

Evil Morty's ability of attachment

In Evil Morty's first appearance, my initial reaction was that I found it absolutely hilarious that Evil Rick (who looked kinda cartoonishly evil, at least by Rick standards, what with the scar and the black shirt and the bags under his eyes) also had an "Evil" Morty (also cartoonishly wearing an "eyepatch of evil" lol).

Then as that episode progressed, I realized that Evil Morty is... probably as much of a victim here as the other Mortys.

He didn't just wear a cartoonishly evil eyepatch; he was wearing an eyepatch because Evil Rick had poked his eye out!

He didn't go along with Evil Rick's plan because he, too, is evil; he went along because if he didn't cooperate, then he would be the one strapped on the dome and tortured!

His retort to Morty Prime when asked for help to free all the trapped Mortys cemented that to me. He didn't mock Morty Prime for whishing to escape, he didn't say anything cartoonishly evil. Instead he said: "it would be pointless. Mortys have no chance of defeating a Rick".

His parting expression in undecipherable; you can't really tell if he's just being mean or if he's simply exhausted and miserable by everything he has to do.

And if you go back and watch the very first scene where he assaults other Ricks and Mortys, you see him holding a rifle; one that is nearly as big as he is. One that was made for adult hands, not child hands. He looks like a child soldier in this scene.

All in all, he looked just like a traumatized kid who was thrown into circumstances WAY out of his control and had no option but to cooperate with his tormentor if he wanted to survive. I was even reminded of the older boy in the movie Changeling; that boy had to comply with an insane mass murder who targeted little boys, acting a bit like a bait... because if he didn't cooperate, then he'd get killed as well.

Of course, by the end of the episode, it is apparent that all this was a cleverly designed ruse to induce that exact reaction. Although he looks like a victim, he is the one in control here.

Except... there is a "but".

Sure, Evil Rick didn't poke his eye out. But another Rick messed with it instead in the past.

He was in no danger of getting strapped on the dome... but he was in danger of being paired with a Rick who (like that guy who held Hammer Morty in front of him as a shield while the federation soldiers tried to gun him down) would casually let him get killed.

The rifle he was holding was to promote his own agenda, nobody forced him to hold it... but he had been made a child soldier countless times in the past.

It turns out the reaction I got was quite close to the truth, just... Evil Rick wasn't the one personally responsible for it.

Which leads to my first point: it seems to me that Evil Morty may have a... continuous... view of other people. As in, all Ricks share responsibility for the abuse, and all Mortys share responsibility for enabling it.

He says to Morty Prime that "There aren't infinite versions of our grandfather, Morty. He's an infinite smear of one shitty old man. And he's attached to us infinitely through his weakness and our forgiveness."

I didn't really know how to read that sentence. How can a person be an infinite smear?

Well... Rick has been saying things in a similar (continuous) vein. For example, when Morty Prime said "My mums are in trouble!" Rick's answer was:

"Those versions of them are."

To Ricks, there are infinite realities. The people are interchangeable. Ricks don't form connections. It doesn't matter if it's this Beth or that Beth. And, apparently (given the Citadel's Morty Market) it doesn't matter if it's this Morty or that Morty. Everyone has infinite versions, and you can pick and choose.

Not only people are interchangeable to Ricks, but universes are. You can skip universe, consequences, everything (A+ metaphor of narcissists' discarding phase).

There aren't infinite Beths: there are infinite versions of Beth. It's okay if you have one more or less.

In the same vein, there aren't infinite Ricks: there are infinite versions of Rick, each leaving their trace in the universe; but all traces are equally shitty. An infinite smear of one shitty old man.

And... infinite Morties. Evil Morty wasn't torturing hundreds of Morties, he was torturing hundreds of versions of Mortys. There were many, many versions that didn't get tortured (I can almost hear Rick saying this)! Don't think about it.

And, while Evil Morty seemed to pick and choose which Rick would survive and which die after he was elected (so he could tell that the Ricks that made fun of him during the debate were different from Cop Rick who did the right thing) he had no qualms about killing every Rick in the citadel when he blew up the CFC... along with every Morty in the citadel. Who he also hates just as much ("you sellout Mortys kill me").

I feel like, despite his hatred of Rick, Evil Morty has actually listened to Ricks' lessons and worldview. Like it was the only thing he was ever taught and has therefore taken it too close at heart... attachments included.

Which leads to my second point. Unmortricken got me thinking... Up until that episode, we didn't really know what kind of life Evil Morty wanted to live outside the Curve. He might have wanted to be the overlord of a Rickless galaxy (booo). Or he might have wanted to get himself adopted by a kind and loving family (awww). But he didn't do either. He built a home for himself in the middle of nowhere (quite literally), with zero companions (the robot butler doesn't count... It is of course, very sad, but at the time I thought it was mostly pragmatic: the robot butler does his chores for him lol). He didn't even get a pet.

And that's kind of the thing... Why not get a puppy or something? Would have been nice. That's quite a low-risk attachment. A puppy loves you unconditionally. No ulterior motive. You can't really get a safer companion for a traumatized lonely boy in the middle of nowhere.

But Evil Morty didn't do this either. And then I thought; if he was moving constantly, switching universe after universe, switching Ricks, switching families... his ability to get attached to anything must have been quite ruined. It's hard to make friends with your classmates, only to move to a parallel dimension where they don't give a shit about you and you have to start all over again. It must be quit devastating to have an emotional and cathartic discussion with your sister only to move to another universe where this much needed heart-to-heart never happened. Or managing to get your mum to accept you as a replacement son, only to move to another house, with another Beth, who knows her real son is dead. Or to get a cat, only to have to leave it behind because the new household doesn't have a cat and therefore you can't take it with you. Or to get a girlfriend, only for Rick to cronerberg said girlfriend by mistake; or get a bunny, only for Rick to shoot it in a fit of pettiness.

(In a similar-ish vein, the only people who we have ever seen being on Evil Morty's side were people he had personally manipulated in one way or another (either by puppeteering them or by tricking them). We haven't seen someone genuinely trying to take his side; using mind control was the only way he could get someone to take care of him. I wouldn't be surprised if he... has learnt not to expect a genuine relationship to ever be an option.)

...I suspect Evil Morty's ability to form attachments has been damaged; if not completely then at least up to a point. I can't figure out any other reason he wouldn't attempt to have SOME sort of companion once free.

I'm leaning towards this ability not being completely damaged; originally I thought he was being a jerk about the second seat in the spaceship, but now I'm tending to believe that his offer for Morty Prime to join him was in fact genuine, and he lied about it being fake only so he could cover this sudden show of vulnerability. Because... if he never intended for Morty Prime to be able to join him, why even offer? I remember being surprised at that moment in the episode, because we had no indication that Evil Morty might have wanted a companion; the idea was absurd. And if he never intended Morty Prime to be able to join him, why admit that Morty Prime's decision was the correct one?

And Morty Prime's rejection might have stung quite a lot, whether the offer was genuine or not! Because he told Morty Prime almost everything; he told him about the Morty Factory, about the Central Finite Curve, showed him the reality of their existence, and gave him the choice between staying with Rick in the citadel (a choice accompanied by (almost) certain death) and escaping with Evil Morty; and Morty Prime still chose Rick. In spite of everything. In spite of all the evidence of Rick's constant abuse.

Up to that point, Evil Morty's attitude in that episode had been quite energetic and determined. He had a lot to say, a lot to explain. As another fan mentioned, he giggled constantly before and after sentences; Rick's C-137 sudden arrival meant he could finally leave that day! He was eager to meet Rick C-137 and get what he needed! And he must have wanted to get all the secrets he knew out of his chest and share them with Morty Prime, who might understand. He, too, has been sick of Rick. He knew what this was about!

And after Morty Prime rejected him, his expression when he entered the spaceship that would take him to freedom, his expression when he was so close to finally achieve the thing he had been working so hard for, and for so long, was this:

That's not the expression of a cool and bored villain successfully doing whatever they had planned all along.

To me he seems defeated and exhausted. Like he was so tired by then he couldn't even feel any exhilaration at his escape.

It was only when he was nearing the rift that he closed his eyes and smiled, and I gotta say that during that scene, as the hole of the rift got larger, I wondered if the plan would even work. Were his calculations correct? Would he physically be able to pass through whatever distortion was awaiting for him, or would it kill him? It didn't seem like this thing (a rift opening in such fashion) had happened before in the past, was he sure it was going to work?

...The way he closed his eyes as the rift was approaching seemed to me like he wasn't sure either, but was embracing whatever came for him next anyway.

It was the incredible spectacle of the rift that finally seemed to manage to shake him out of whatever he was feeling. That was the first moment that he looked like a child... like an awe-struck Morty.

...and it took a while for him to manage to close his mouth lol

ANYWAY where I'm going with this is: I feel like Evil Morty's ability of attachments and healthy relationships has become so skewed, that...

...I'm not sure he will get a happy ending. That kind of trauma at such a young age will not be something that can be easily dealt with. I feel like, if this was a real-case scenario, he'd need years, decades of therapy, constant reassurance and steady relationships, which... I'm not sure he'll be able to get in the three remaining seasons of the series.

There doesn't really seem to be anyone who understands what his mental state is, nor anyone who is capable of approaching him any time soon.

And his theme song is just so sad... Is that the theme song of someone who gets a happy ending?

(I can't get Evil Morty out of my head)

#rick and morty #evil morty

62 notes · View notes

thesoftboiledegg · 7 months

Text

"How Poopy Got His Poop Back" was OK. The plot was generic, but after 61 episodes, I'm not going to expect every outing to be a mindblowing sci-fi spectacular. Sometimes, it's nice to have a lowkey episode that catches up with old characters, especially since we thought two of them died in season two.

"Squanch! Told you he wasn't dead." The writers knew what we were thinking. I also thought Gearhead died at the end of "Mortynight Run," but I guess he's harder to kill than he looks.

I enjoyed checking in with Bird Person and Bird Daughter--looks like he's got his hands full--and was glad that Rick continued his character development from season six. He's still a hot mess, but he tries to do the right thing for his friends and even the robot ("Hang on, let me go upstairs and grab the business finisher.") The subtext gave the episode some depth so that it wasn't just twenty minutes of pointless hijinks.

Rick's new voice actor nailed his characterization, too. His voice stood out a little at first, but I'd forgotten about the new actor by the second act, and his voice sounds "normal" upon rewatches. I guess it just takes a short adjustment period.

Whatever the case, any drunk guy at a bar can burp and stutter like Rick, but the new actor (whoever he is) picked up right where Roiland left off. He might not sound exactly like Rick 100% of the time, but combining Rick's trademark blunt raspiness with his lower, gentler tones from the past few seasons is more impressive.

Speaking of actors: who voiced Mr. Poopybutthole? He sounded EXACTLY like Justin Roiland. Maybe it was the same actor who voiced Morty, who also did well.

On another note, I loved seeing Space Beth eating breakfast with the family. Ditching your kids to be a pirate/rebel/space badass/whatever isn't the feminist act that a lot of shows seem to think it is, and I'm glad that Rick and Morty subverted that trope. Space Beth can love her family AND save the universe. She's a modern woman who wants to have it all!

On to Morty. I don't have much to say about him, and this review suggests that he doesn't have much to do next week, either--which hints at a continuation of season six's biggest issue. Season six was great, but half the episodes were The Rick Sanchez Show. When Morty did appear, he didn't have much to do until he finally lost his patience in the finale.

I won't dive into his dynamic with Morty because you could write pages of meta on that one, but in summary: their dynamic is the core of the series, and I hope the writers don't keep separating them. C-137 Rick's attachment to his Morty is a sharp contrast to the other Ricks who treat theirs like disposable toys.

Back to this episode: Rick's doing better--he's dressing and showering, he's communicating with his family, and he's even willing to abandon his search for a few hours--but Prime's still the center of his universe. Season five also started small and concluded with insane twists that turned the show inside out, and I'm betting that this laid-back opener is the start of a similar acceleration.

This episode alone made up about a fourth of the trailer scenes, so goddamn: what aren't we seeing?

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #how poopy got his poop back #review #season seven

71 notes · View notes

hazelnut-u-out · 1 year

Text

EPISODE REVIEW TIMEEE:

(contains spoilers for "a rick in king mortur's mort")

i actually really loved that episode. i've been so fucking starved for morty content that this was really nice. i loved the callbacks, parallels, and contrasts that were drawn pretty clearly between this episode and "the vat of acid episode." TVOAE is actually one of the episodes that makes me the sickest to my stomach. it's so unsettling and bone chilling to watch.

this episode, on the other hand... this felt earned.

(perhaps because of my morty bias and the fact that i've gotten basically no morty this season, buuuuut...) i'm giving this one a 10/10???

wow... didn't think i'd go that far, but uhhhh... yeah. i went there.

it just mastered the art of parallels, callbacks, and development beautifully.

my initial thoughts, as always:

(this is a long one… yk how i am with morty…)

-morty acted so much like early-series rick at the beginning that i was honestly a little bit ready to accept that part of his character progression is becoming a mini-rick. to be honest, i still see that being a possibility, but this was... not exactly that.

he still took the sword for a reason early-series rick would have instead of a classic "these guys seem cool" morty reason ("oh shit these other guys want the sword so now i want the sword, even if i'm jaded and cynical about it"), and it almost felt like the "rick and morty" dynamic was flipped a little bit- as in, morty being the rigid jerk and rick being berated verbally for a second. that being said, morty was still childishly excited about being a medieval knight and it was cleared up that morty was only being rude to rick initially as a trauma response. he expected rick to abuse him, but that wasn't the case. when he realized he was safe, he let his guard down.

(look at him sulking in line awww)

-RICK USING MORTY PET NAMES. RICK USING MORTY PET NAMES.

i think a little part of me melted when he called morty "lil junebug."

SHUT THE FUCK UP- i am so unwell. so mentally normal about that.

i genuinely cannot believe that's a canon nickname rick uses for morty. that. is. so. cute.

just the sweetest lil pet name.

(plus grandpa rick putting a hand on his lil junebug's shoulder, because why not?)

-OMFG RICK APOLOGY?? like genuinely?? oh my god??

i mean... that was still kinda dickish lol. "i'm gonna intentionally do the least amount possible to actually change, but make you feel like i am."

you know what, though? bc of the fact that this is essentially a follow-up to TVOAE, i'd say the entire premise of this ep WAS change, and highlighted that... so i'm giving the undercut a pass.

-i also liked the subtle callback to the "auto park feature" with the sword "fighting deacon frost." i liked that morty didn't think it was cool, but it didn't trigger some insane reaction in rick.

he's just like, "i dunno... i thought it was cool... :(" and he moves on.

-"holy shit, this is who i am to this kid?!... i've gotta fix this!"

and then he... actually puts in the work to better a real human connection instead of manipulating morty to keep him pliant?

wow.

-like i said, rick is still being a fucking dick here and there in the convo, but i'm genuinely proud of him.

-i'm also so happy for morty. this must have been such a healing experience for him. god. he's been through so much. shoutout to the writers for not putting him through more emotional abuse for fun.

-another bit that made me think that morty is slowly developing into a little rick was the moment where he uses a science lecture to ruin the knights' faith in their culture. during that whole sequence, he does sound a lot like rick...

-SPACE BETH CHILLING WITH HER GIRLFRIEND, GUYS.

-RICK BRAGGING ON MORTY ABOUT THE LITTLE LECTURE! THE HANDS ON THE SHOULDERS! EVERYTHING!

this reminds me of an ask i answered a little bit ago where i talked about rick being morty's primary caregiver. this episode felt a lot more like a father/son type development than a grandfather/grandson.

i get that the rest of the family was proud of morty, but rick was the one saying "hey! this is the little dude i'm raising! look at him go!"

-i was a little nervous that morty was going to kill/let rick kill the knights, which would have meant that he's veeeery similar to rick now, but he chose not to. that was a nice touch.

-(i thought the little moment where jerry was like "what's happening? appliances are breaking that i haven't touched!" was funny hehe..)

-i thought it was sweet that rick got the meeting's attention just to give morty the floor.

-i wasn't a fan of morty begging rick to stop supporting him, though. it felt like punching the underdog character with his own fist, but i guess i like it better in hindsight because it shows yet another trauma response. morty doesn't trust himself AT ALL. he thinks that by doing this his way, something will inevitably go wrong. damn.

-i also liked the little details about how witchy rick can be, haha. first, we see him ACTUALLY bend down and read the bones himself, then the witchcraft penis? that was a nice touch. rick definitely has an interest in witchcraft.

-(one of my favorite songs as a kid was "ruby tuesday," and i got so excited that the montage song was a cover of it, but... alas... no.)

(i just thought mort looked cute here lol)

-THE HUG? (of course they had to make it less heavy with the "we're gonna make your dick so fake," comment, but it's so nice to see rick hug morty and try to calm him down.)

-TELEPATHY? WHAT THE FUCK? THAT THREW ME SO HARD I GOT WHIPLASH.

-shit, man....

"i love you."

"i love you, too..."

-as soon as morty asked rick if he was a robot/clone, i was on the edge of my seat, chewing my lip, biting my nails, pulling my hair- waiting for the reveal that he was, but...

they didn't fake us out! hey! :)

(will say that the "this family has enough clones and robots in it" comment did make me a lil nervous, bc we KNOW of a clone, but... uhhh... who's the "robot"?)

-one of my biggest issues with "rick: a mort well-lived" was that marta stayed in the game, meaning that the only part of morty that heard rick say he loved and respected him didn't join with our morty. it bothered me that our morty didn't get to hear that.

i'm so happy that they fixed that this ep. MORTY HEARD RICK IS PROUD OF HIM. MORTY HEARD RICK LOVES HIM. i hope this is the "morty gets the grandpa he deserves" beginning. i'm loving it, and hope it's far more than just 22% of the time.

overall, AHMAZING EPISODE! kinda sad we had to wait until the end of the season to get a decent in-depth exploration of morty, his current character, and his reaction to rick's healing, but i'm so glad my boy got his apologies. he got his "i love you." he got his "i'm proud of you." he got is hug.

he got his autonomy.

congrats, lil junebug.

hope ya get more <3

#rick and morty #rick and morty spoilers #rick sanchez #morty smith #a rick in king mortur's mort

241 notes · View notes

intothemultifandom · 1 year

Text

in spite of what critics are saying about the last few episodes of the the walking dead’s 11th and final season, there were a few things that just hit different especially with the finale:

SPOILERS FOR TWD “REST IN PEACE” 11.24!!

daryl barricading judith in the hospital the same way shane did to rick in 01x01 – like father, like daughter and even brother because he also carried her the same way rick carried carl when he got shot

actually, daryl carrying judith into the hospital to save her life vs how he carried beth out after she was killed. the FEAR he must’ve felt given the last time he carried someone in/out from the hospital.

any scene between them + carol (keeping this short bc i can write a whole novel about their scenes)

luke dying & being comforted by magna, yumiko, connie & kelly (his og group) during his final moments; even though he wasn’t seen for most of the season, dan folger’s acting + that of nadia hilker, eleanor matsuura, lauren ridloff & angel theory was TOP-TIER

people always die in twd, but up until luke, the newish members of the group didn’t really suffer a sudden and harsh loss like the group from earlier seasons until now

that’s why his death + the group’s raw grief hit different when you consider how this is the first time we’ve seen them have to mourn one of their own so suddenly and with walkers literally banging on their doors

the team up of eugene porter & gabriel stokes = the two characters who, at one point of the story, were the weakest and most cowardly members of the group. i mean, the parallels of how they started vs. how they ended are insane:

eugene, who lied to abraham and rosita about knowing how to cure the infection almost making himself a martyr by telling the truth about the common wealth’s corruption, and

gabriel, who locked his congregation outside his church to die being the first to open the gates for everyone even when pamela’s people had their guns pointed at him

if twd did anything right, it was the development of these two characters

even if i didn’t know christian serratos chose rosita’s ending, i still would’ve thought she had a fitting end as one of the original (and last) big hitters for rick’s group on the road

it wasn’t painful and gory like abraham or glenn, shocking like sasha’s or even bittersweet like carl’s in the midst of war– rosita dies a dignified and otherwise peaceful death after all the bloodshed is said & done

she sees her people are safe, knows her daughter’s in good hands and finally lays to rest after fighting on the frontlines for so long

even with her gone, her final interaction with eugene at her side really cements that he is her and abraham’s legacy because “i’m glad it was you at the end”

(someone make baby rosie looking up to older coco because her mom was her namesake + uncle eugene canon right now)

this post-war celebration dinner mirroring the what-if dream dinner from 7x01 about what could’ve been (credit to this article for the pic: here) also makes rosita’s death so poignant to me because negan had likened the dream as something that wouldn’t ever happen

it’s not the same exact group and it wasn’t exactly her dream, but the sentiment remains the same

in the end, peace was possible for the alexandrians after all & i’m so glad rosita got to see this before she went & re-joined the others who are no longer at the table

negan & maggie now established as two sides of the same coin: motives, beliefs and and now shared trauma of being unable to stop their partner from being killed (or almost killed, in negan’s case) as they’re about to start a family

maggie was never going to forgive him for what he did, but that in itself gives so much more substance to their spin-off and i can’t wait to see it happen

rick “we are the walking dead” grimes + michonne “it’s true. forever” grimes – welcome back.

#the walking dead #twd #season finale #episode 24: rest in peace #twd 11x24 #the walking dead spoilers #twd spoilers #rick grimes #rosita espinosa #eugene porter #gabriel stokes #yumiko #magna #luke #connie #daryl dixon #judith grimes #negan #maggie

186 notes · View notes

invisiblegarabgetruck · 1 year

Note

How do you feel about Cronenberg Jerry?

there are two sides to my feeling about him :

it's a shame that he died but at least we got to see many new aspects of him :)

and

I LOVE AND MISS HIM. PLEASE BRING HIM BACK I REFUSE TO BELIEVE HE'S DEAD--

but seriously, I was so disappointed about his short-lived cameo in S3 but S6 happened and is now one of my favorites in the series, (besides my general liking for jerry's) I find it funny that the show keeps surprising us with his re-appearance when we thought he dies and forgot about him lol (and i hope they still do that 🥺 pwease)

I think he's a very interesting character to see, he just has gone through so many changes! from S1E6 that he goes apeshit because he was so jealous to actually kind of badass at the end of the episode? (but I always like that you can see that he has always been a bit more aggressive than other jerrys in the show) S3E1 we saw that not only his and the family’s appearance have changed so much, but they also lost a bit of their mind too. (the way they talk, act aggressively, and tried to kill summer because she ‘stinks of rick’) make you wonder how long it takes until they lost it. we didn't get much of his personality during that time (but he seems more serious and confident.)

and S6E1 changes everything!! there are so many details to point at. his clothing looks less wild? he looks more blended into his surrounding now ( now that he didn't has anyone else to stand out to anymore- ) /love his way of using the Cronenberg (human) skins tho, like damn a cape and a backpack? lol his hair and beard are all grown out and grayed a bit (🤔hmmmmm)

^^^^ The 'badass-ness' is gone. all left is just a sad lonely and broken man(!!!!!) ^^^^

and he has the looks of someone who hasn't slept well in a long LONG time. I feel like Beth and Summer's death knocked a lot of senses into him because he no longer acted so feral like S3 now. like he is more calm and jaded now, kind of an asshole tho. and can you imagine how many survivor guilt he has to go through? I'm actually surprised he didn't go completely insane at that point. It is rather sad how much it cost him to develop to this point, I wonder if deep inside he regrets this life and would rather go back to being a simple lame dad instead?

/I've seen someone mention the contrast between Cronenburg Jer and our Rick. (since they suffered the same tragedy) how Cronenburg Jer takes on rick's mindset of letting go of everything and isolating himself from everyone while rick himself couldn't do that but instead never let go in the first place. and both are not good for them!!! (and tbh Cronenburg Jer mindset ended up being more parallel to Rick Prime instead!!!!)

//also, it kinda sucks that he always has developments off-screen. and we’re left with the aftermath and the end. but at the same time, i don’t think it’d be very fitting to insert the Cronenberg world episodes somewhere between the season? lol

so yeah..... that is kinda how I feel about him....... thank you for asking <3!!

#sorry this took so long to answer.#there are just..... too many thoughts to put into words....... hrngngng #rick and morty #cronenberg jerry #hermit jerry #//ask #wrick please pick ur son-in-law up and keep him around please

35 notes · View notes

thefandom-casserole · 7 months

Text

My thoughts for the new episode :>

that intro- omg

TEENAGE PROBLEMS

Beth’s boat facts!!!!!! Oohhhh

Linc only knows Titanic as large

Normal traded an easy boat to remember for a difficult boat to remember… an odd guy

BETH MAY CHARACTER MENTION SLAYYYYY WOOOO GO BETH MAY AND RON STAMPLER

Beth May haunted house as her poetry book!!!! I love that idea

You can’t be funny when you have Covid :O wowwwwww crazy

Scam Actually!!!!!! Please let Well Actually show up!!!!!!

Normal in a newsboy cap slayyyy Dood in a stunning outfit go Dood Taylor in a dapper suit

Scam and Grant don’t recognize their own son from the future

“Absolutely not kiddo” IM DYING

The butterfly effect my absolute beloved. It’s insane how much I love this theory

Joker next to the Titanic of the best live stories

Bi Scary confirmed????

Will’s really pushing the Lusitania joke lolol

Scary’s acting <33333

Danggg Normal holds his liquor like a champ

“There’s no kids without dads” “…What?” SCARY NOOOO NOO YOU DON’T HAVE A DAD

MARCO DIDNT KNOW HE WAS ON THE TITANIC AND HIM AND GRANT-

Alakazam and Normal runs away

LINC NO OMG WTH

“Those two himbos!!”

LINC STOP EMBRACING YOUR GRANT BLOOD

Oooooo is Freddie doing a new plan…. Nevermind-

WHAT ARE SCARY AND HERMIE DOING OMG

SHE PUNCHES HERMIE 😭

Is the baby Stewy!?!?!

GRIMACE ON THE TITANIC

GO WILL GO WILL GO WILL GO WILL GO WILL

Beefy boys ❤️

IS THIS KID LINC THIS KID IS LINC OMG OMG OMG <333333 Scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Hey baby Linc. It’s gonna be alright” I SCREAMED I SCREAMED I SCREAMED I SCREAMED

#Dndads #forgot to post these lol #dungeons and daddies #s2 episode 43 #dndads spoilers

8 notes · View notes

ashes-in-a-jar · 1 month

Note

Bestie. Fellow podcast fan. I saw in your recent post that podcast hiatus's are driving you insane, have you listened to wooden overcoats before? because if you haven't I just listened to it because tmagp break is driving me crazy and its very good 100% would recommend.

Omg yes I have!!

Antigone Funn my belovedddddd 😭😭😭

I was so excited to see Beth Eyre credited as [REDACTED] in episode 10 of tmagp, coming out of that locked door in the ruins of the institute

I (and the world) need more Beth Eyre creechurs lurking in the shadows and scaring poor unsuspecting bystanders

Thank you for the suggestion! There are a few shows I'm binging right now, you're also welcome to join me if you wish!

Liberty podcast, scifi from the makers of the white vault, I think it's one of their first creations and it's been on my list for a while. I'm on episode 6 and so far the world building is intriguing and I'm already getting attached to the team on the research expedition going out from their safe high tech city to the dangerous post apocalyptic parts of their world

The orphans, another scifi horror of survivors of a crashed ship who lost their memory and are being chased around on a strange planet by multiple threats. I'm on episode 3 and each and every person in this is the poorest little meow meow you've ever met, including the deteriorating AI who can only ever be rude to everyone around it. Actually establishes some good tension in the action scenes, something that is hard to do in podcasts and I rarely find any who succeed in doing it without compromising clear sound queues and well balanced sfx.

The liminal lands is the last podcast I'm binging. I randomly chanced upon the name and decided to pick it up. It's about a man who one day went hunting, tripped and fell and no-clipped into an alternate reality where no one else exists and time and electricity are on the fritz. I'm on episode 3, it's a beginner's passion project so the acting and sound is challenging to anyone used to high quality but the story is fascinating and keeps me hooked and the crisp southern accents definitely help. It's like a podcast version of the backrooms and it definitely manages to convey the same kind of eeriness.

Oops I went off lol, hope this is somehow helpful even if you didn't ask for it 😅

And yes I fully agree about wooden overcoats everyone should listen to it asap it's so good!!

#ask #podcasts #podcast recommendations #wooden overcoats #tmagp #eh what the hell ill tag it lol #fool and scholar #liberty podcast #the orphans

2 notes · View notes

pynkhues · 1 year

Note

For the top 5 ask game I was wondering your favourite Brio moments and favourite of the girls’ moments? Xx

Nice! Thank you!

Okay, for the Brio moments, I'd say In no particular order:

All of 2.04. Yes, of course the bathroom break, but honestly all their scenes in this episode are so great. From the opening scene at the bar which just brims with her exhaustion and his excitement, to the last scene in Boland Motors where Rio both listens to her (doesn't tell Dean what they did) and doesn't (destroys the corvette), it's just hot and emotionally complex and good. Genuinely one of my fave eps of tv ever.

The bench scene in 3.06 where Beth and Rio finally confront reality. This scene just aches in all the best ways. I know a lot of people found their lack of communication frustrating, but I loved the way it made scenes like this one really pay off. They both feel like they're nearing breaking points, and the wound between them is still bleeding, and nothing they've put on it is making it stop, and you just feel that. I love it a lot.

"If you need something, all you gotta do is ask" in 4.15. It still makes me insane.

All of 3.04. I know, it's kind of another cheat, but the early scene in the bar where they're both so emotionally wasted juxtaposes so perfectly with the tension and promise of the money making scene at the end. The fact that it plays into all those things that make their dynamic so interesting - the way they can't stay away from each other, the fact tht he sees her, the fact that she always steps up for him - - it just gets me in all the best ways.

The Dubby in 2.07. I've done enough unhinged posting about this ep to last a lifetime, haha, so I'll just leave that there.

And for the girls - - I'd be here forever if I was talking about all my favourite scenes with iterations of them, so I'll try and keep it to trio moments:

Annie and Beth give Ruby the full cut at the hospital after Sara's seizure in 1.05. Honestly one of the scenes that encapsulates the show for me. Funny and tragic and always empathetic, it just shows off Christina, Retta and Mae's friendship chemistry like nothing else.

Ruby shooting Big Mike in the foot and Beth and Annie's reactions in 1.03. I SCREAM.

The bachelorette party scene in 4.08. Absolute cinema magic, they're on fire, I love them.

All of 2.08 - the flashbacks, Annie setting Beth and Ruby up, the crack in Beth's voice when she says she'd always choose Ruby. 10/10 ep actually, I love it very, very dearly.

All of 3.08. This one's maybe a surprise, but the episode where they retrieve Boomer is such a good one, especially for the push-pull between their motivations and the way we get to really see their growth from the start of the series. I love that it's Ruby who's actually the most accepting of the situation, and that Annie's the one who can't really cope. All three of them act the hell out of the episode, and play off each other so well, and I think especially given it felt like we got less of the girls together in s3, it really means a lot to me as an episode over all.

Ask me for my Top Fives

#thank you!#nbc good girls #beth x rio #annie + beth + ruby #annie marks #beth boland #rio #ruby hill #welcome to my ama #top five ask game

16 notes · View notes

leverage-commentary · 2 years

Text

Leverage Season 3, Episode 9, The Three-Card Monte Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean Devlin: Hi, I'm Dean Devlin, Executive Producer and Director of this episode.

John Rogers: I'm John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Christine Boylan: I'm Christine Boylan, writer of this episode.

John: Welcome to...

Christine: The Three-Card Monte Job.

John: This one was a bitch.

[Laughter]

Christine: It was a beautiful bitch.

John: You know, we—we speak plainly. It was a bitch. We had introduced the idea of Nate Ford's father in the episode you'd written...

Christine: The Bottle Job.

John: Called The Bottle Job, and then insanely decided to let him be alive at the end of it. Which led us down the story path of, well, we gotta bring it up eventually, and that led to a really hard thing, which is, who exactly is this guy? You know, we spent a lot of time and energy trying to define this character. Uh, and build a plot around exactly what he would do.

Dean: A lot of it, too, came out of Tim's performance in The Bottle Job, because at the end of the episode he looked at the chair his father sat in, and this look—intense look came across his face, and all of us went, 'Ooh, what's going on there?'.

John: He does not know how he feels about that guy.

Christine: Yeah, we've had a lot of conversations about that look and that chair since then.

John: Um, and that was David Meunier, uh, being menacing, who's a fantastic actor also on a couple other shows; he really had a great year. And, uh—how did we find the crime plot on this one, Ms. Boylan?

Christine: How did we find the crime plot on this one, John? There were several crime plots!

John: There were. I remember we had the idea of the dad coming in and running something. It's interesting 'cause the hardest thing we ever do is when we have the crew try to stop someone, uh, that is not necessarily always either of what the crew or the show format is built for. So we really had to come up with three cons—three levels of crime. We had to figure out what he appears to be doing, what our team does in opposition, and then what he's really doing because he's also a con artist. It—it's one of the hardest things to break, is when we're trying to interfere with someone else's plan.

Christine: It's tough, we were playing with what to show the audience at what time, how much to reveal when.

John: For example, how long we kept the dad back. And you were the one, I believe, who said we should not—that's the reveal. Dean was the one who said the act one reveal is the dad, you know, and really pinned it back. And Dean came into the room on this one and really hacked around on it, 'cause he had, he had, uh...really dug in on this character and this whole relationship and knew how he wanted to direct it, knew how he wanted to present it.

Dean: I thought that this was a great opportunity for us to understand Nate in a way that we never had before, to explain a lot of his behavior, uh, just by seeing what he grew up in.

John: And when you're talking, you're talking episodes that focus on deep, roiling emotional turmoil, you're talking Christine Boylan.

[Laughter]

Christine: I love deep, roiling emotional turmoil.

John: If you could write this, and the—all five of the actors were just on a blank stage with a spotlight, just doing monologues—

Christine: That would make me so happy.

John: You'd be the happiest girl alive.

Christine: But I also love the slapstick between Christian and Beth here.

John: This, again, this was something we kind of found in the last day or last year, that Eliot and Parker scenes are great. They just, both the characters and the actors have a great, have great chemistry.

Dean: And intercutting with Aldis here really worked, I mean, you just got their family dynamic.

Christine: Yeah. He just- he delivers exposition like nobody's business, Aldis Hodge.

John: Well, when he auditioned, we had the audition piece for the pilot was the giant speech explaining the airplane scam, and everyone else kind of struggled through it, and Aldis went through like an F1 driver, just kissing the curves, just like—and there's the joke, there's the joke, here you go. And the second he walked out of the room we're like, 'Yeah, that's the guy. That's the—that's going to be the hardest job in the show for five years.' So yeah, we wound up actually taking something off the wall, which was the police station, we always wanted to do a heist in a police station, and instead of giving it to our guys, giving it to the other bad guys, and then building the plot up from there.

Christine: It's a pretty good—pretty good scam.

John: It's a great scam.

Christine: We actually thought several times, 'Why don't we just do this?' This one of those, we could pull this off!

John: It was—it was—and here's—we're doing a detective work act which is, which is pretty rare for us. Is there any different way you kind of approached the investigatory scenes, uh, directing them, as opposed to kind of the...?

Dean: Kind of a lot of long lens stuff here, so that you feel like their POV is—and because you put such an interesting thing in the script about the tattoos, to try and do these through all really long lens, uh, you try and get this distant look, so you feel like you're with them in the corner, watching. This is actually one of my favorite fight scenes, but not because of the fight, but because of Parker's, uh, injecting herself into it.

John: Yes, and imitating Christian. Whenever other characters imitate Eliot, it's always amusing to me. It's- one of my favorite things is Will Wheaton in The Ho-Ho Job, where he’s needling Eliot.

Dean: And we kept the taser alive in this! Which has a lovely payoff at the end of the season.

John: We did pay attention.

Christine: That's a little rain.

John: A little rain, a little atmo.

Christine: This was, uh, forty days and forty nights it had rained, when we started shooting this?

John: Yes. Everyone was going a little crazy, just a little crazy. Is that outside the theater where we eventually shot the finale?

Dean: That is.

John: That is also the theater, which is also the parliament building in San Lorenzo in the finale. Which you all have seen already by now, because I know how this goes, everyone watches the box set and then they go back and they watch the commentaries.

Christine: I hope so.

John: This was a lovely speech, um, the speech about exactly where, uh, Sophie draws her moral line. You know, and that was tricky. We talked about in one of the other commentaries, third year is where you see how they all kind of justify...we're past them being a family; you see why each person's in the thing, in the crew. Uh, Hardison wants to run his own crew, Parker has found that she's becoming a normal human, Eliot is trying to redeem himself, we go a lot more into Eliot's background, and Sophie, you find out, has this really interesting view of right and wrong. Uh, did you shoot this?

Dean: Yeah, I did. And I love that she throws the—

[Laughter as Parker throws the crowbar, hitting Eliot]

John: I know, right, it's just so wrong.

Dean: Now this is a fun little trick that, you know, when you've got these stunt crowbars that totally don't look real, so we added all the digital sparks every time they hit.

John: Oh, cool.

Dean: To try and give it some weight. And in fact, this was a total improv on her part.

John: Just happened to have the camera on her at the time? I was disappointed you did not go with my idea to make them lightsabers, because the digital effects are practically the same—

[Laughter]

John: And it would have been a much more thrilling fight.

Dean: This is where you're in two totally different locations, to make them seem like it's one location.

Christine: And one with pouring rain and the other with not, and it looks great!

John: What, wait, so the front of McRory's—that's right, where is the front of McRory's?

Dean: That's on the other side of Portland, and then the reverse was downtown Portland.

John: Oh, that's great.

Dean: I like this little move here, I thought that this was a clever move. He uses his own weight against him.

John: Yeah. Uses his own momentum against him. And also Hardison, uh, Hardison bugging out, Hardison's not thought his exit out, clearly.

Christine: Well he's got the soda now, he's going to be alright. He'll be okay.

John: Exactly.

Dean: Oh, this is also the introduction of the alley that leads to the back entrance of McRory's, which we'd never seen before.

John: We actually have now extended the geography of this imaginary bar out a ridiculous length, because it's actually continuous.

Dean: Yeah, this was one shot, actually—now it's intercut, but this was one long steadicam shot from the alley into it, all the way up to the bar.

John: First time we see somebody else using the back room, um...did we shoot-? No, we shot off-season as the temporary headquarters. And then the idea that, you know, that ‘somebody's been sleeping in my bed’ pisses him off to no end. And what's kind of cool is Tim really is playing Nate as well ahead of everyone else at this point; he knows exactly what the hell's going on, and he is not pleased. Um. Nice wardrobe choice, actually, too, putting both of them in black there, I like that. It's a very classic sixties look.

Dean: And again, I love Aldis faking that he knew all along that everything was okay.

Christine: Yeah. He's gonna be fine. Everything's fine.

John: Totally. Um, yeah, so the, uh—

Dean: And the look on their—on these two faces when they realize they've got the wrong guy, like, they've got this look like, 'Daddy's gonna be mad at us for beating up an innocent person!'

John: They're just not—little look sideways, ‘We're not going to tell anybody this happened; just move right along.’

Christine: They're adorable. [Laughter]

John: Um, why don't you tell us what you were trying to do when we, the confrontation scene, here?

Christine: Oh, the confrontation scene! I mean, you know, you want to pull back, as much as possible, and let these great actors do their work. Less is more, that is what I was thinking, and whatever's on the page, pull it out if you can on set, you know.

Dean: Now, a little-known fact is that Tom Skerritt here, playing his father, brilliantly I might add, was originally supposed to play his father in Ordinary People.

John: Did not know that.

Dean: So, and he turned that part down. So this was kind of...

John: Well that movie went nowhere.

[Laughter]

Dean: So this was kind of the relationship that, that should have happened and never did, and finally did.

Christine: Wow, that's great. And these two, they can just go, they can just go for hours, I mean, play with improv, they were two great actors using their craft together, it was great.

Dean: And because of it, it was really one of the few times where we actually shot both directions at the same time. Normally you shoot one side, and you stop, you go to the other side and reverse it.

John: So, one camera on the other side of the bar, how are you shooting this?

Dean: Both raking shots, towards the father and towards Tim, are being done simultaneously. And normally we would never do that, 'cause there's some sacrifices in cinematography when you do it, but what it allowed was a freedom of acting, so they didn't have to worry about matching, they didn't have to worry about where their hands are, where their heads are, because we had it covered from both sides simultaneously—and frankly, every take was different. So we knew, when we put these two guys together, just set it up like a play, and let them go.

Christine: You've ruined me, Dean, because now I wanna shoot everything that way.

[Laughter]

John: That is not—no, please do not do that on other shows—

Christine: Ruined!

John: Grind their production to a halt... This actually, the wardrobe in all of this is a really somber tone; Nadine Haders made a lot of great choices in this, it's very—we're kinda doing The Friends of Eddie Coyle here. It's really, much like The Bottle Job, it's really one of our episodes that lives in Boston a lot more.

Christine: There's a gritty 70s feel to everything.

John: Yeah, yeah. That's where—that's where Jimmy Ford's from - the 70s; he's the 70s guy, yeah. And um, but dealing with a lot of the real facts in the evolution of crime, although the Russian mob coming in is much more sort of a New York, um, Long Island thing, uh, but yeah, the idea that Jimmy went to jail and came out and the world had passed him by... Some people give up. Nate Ford's father wouldn't give up, just the way Nate wouldn't give up.

Christine: Stubborn bastards, these two.

John: Yeah, basically. He's a vicious- he's really an unpleasant human being.

Christine: He scared the hell out of us during a couple of takes, I have to say! Like, I was terrified.

Dean: I thought, after we shot the scene, I felt like, oh, now I start to get Nate. Especially this flashback.

Christine: Oh wow.

John: How did we come up with the Three-Card Monte bit? This has been driving me crazy.

Christine: Ahhhh...something about the thing that's never on the table. It started with the ending. It started with what's not on the table.

John: That's right. What's the one thing we're not looking at, and what's the—and, exactly, we play like, what are the metaphors. Everyone thinks differently.

Dean: Now, on a technical thing, the only other time we used that color lut, was when we did the 70s karate flashback, uh, flash-forward fantasy sequence in The Two Live Crew Job.

John: Oh, wow!

[Laughter]

Dean: So that is our 70s color let.

Christine: Very nice.

Dean: And a different young Nate.

John: A different—yeah, it was interesting because the dad definitely, there was a vibe in, uh, sort of our original intent in those flashbacks, that he was kind of this sorta, 'Hey kid, I'll teach you how to play the, uh, do Three-Card Monte', and then you see the performance and it was like, no this was not a good dad. Nate Ford was a Jesuit who became—went to become a Jesuit, become an insurance cop and is now a thief. He's not a healthy human being.

Christine: I mean, his dad said, 'pay attention,' and now he pays attention viciously and to a fault. That's his life.

Dean: And I love here how the crew doesn't want to insult Nate's father.

Christine: Awkward.

John: Tread carefully around that.

Dean: In fact, one of my favorite shots that we've ever done with Tim is in this scene, ah, from behind the glass, looking through the photo of his father.

John: He is—he's—I think this is the darkest color palette in a wardrobe we ever put him in. He stays, yeah, this is, again, a very classic look. Ah, where else did the crime story go? The Three-Card Monte started from the end—oh, yeah, and it was great when we were trying to break the crime story, um, because, two things: one, the evidence, where the evidence was stored, we thought we were making that up wholesale, and then we called the nice folks at the Boston Police Department, and they told us that it is exactly how it works. Including the Holy Oak reference, that's actually where it goes.

Dean: No kidding.

John: And in one iteration of the script, we were talking about ripping off the Holy Oak place, and then they said, 'No, no, it sits in the basement until the van comes and gets it.' We're like, well, alright then!

Christine: That was when we said we could go do this right now.

John: Yeah. Well then the other one was—there was the whole stuff about the bank alarms is absolutely accurate, and it was actually Boylan on that one, because our filthy assistant, Rebecca Kirsch, our finest assistant, she went and did the research on the—

Christine: The bank alarms.

John: The Holy Oak, and then we did the—you called the bank, the bank humans. And I remember, we're sitting in the editing bay, and you explained like, ‘Okay, how does an alarm system work?’ And they explained how slow it is, and how slowly it takes to actually confirm a bank is being robbed?

Christine: They have to confirm either by—there's one that if you don't answer, that's a confirmation.

John: Yes.

Christine: It's like, wait—if you don't answer? Or you have to say a password.

John: But there's a reason the Canadian bank robbery crew, the two minute, The Stopwatch Gang used to get away with it, they did it in two minutes, and it takes something like ten minutes to confirm a bank is being robbed. And there was that moment in the writer's room we're like, 'We could totally get away with this, now that we know that.'

Dean: That's the shot. I just love that shot.

John: That's a very good shot. How did you do that? Did you—is that an effect?

Dean: That’s an effect. We shot through the glass but we didn't have the photo at the time, so we put the photo into the glass in post-production.

John: Nice. Gorgeous shot.

Dean: But to me, this is the ghost of the father, dwarfing the son. I also love, uh, script-wise, how Sophie, her insight into Nate, knows that this is the kind of thing that could spin him off into an insanely dangerous direction, and she's trying to manipulate the situation, and she's failing.

John: Yeah. That little look she gives the crew, it reminds you again, one of the things we tried to set up the third season, they're peers now. You know, Nate's still nominally in charge, but when one of them wants to throw a flag on the field, he has to pay attention, he can't just blow through it any more. Particularly Sophie. She was running this group for six months. Um, this is a great walk—and again, this episode really benefited from the new approach we took to putting pipe in discovery in the scenes, so you weren't laying exposition, then going into the sequences - you're getting it on the fly or on the approach to the heist.

Christine: It's exciting, the audience is a part of it, they're active, it's great.

John: Also, um—

Dean: By the way, I just noticed that I saw the camera tent in the back of that previous walking shot.

Christine: How lovely!

John: I just noticed that we established that Sophie just happens to have handcuffs on her at all times!

Christine: Yes. Maybe.

Dean: I love the production value here. I love the [unintelligible] that you see here.

John: It's the birth of a thousand fanfics right there. This is great, where is this?

Christine: Customs house, right?

Dean: This is—yeah, a trading house that's empty, that's completely empty, and we used it for the school in the—the episode with the singing kid, and we used it here as the police station.

John: Do we use it in the finale?

Dean: No.

John: No? No. I could have sworn we used...oh wait, no no no, yes, that's right. [Unintelligible]

Christine: Drunk Mafia princess...

Dean: And this actor here, and forgive us for forgetting his name, actually was on public radio for years up in Oregon.

John: Oh, wow.

Dean: And he does a wonderful job acting in this.

John: And here's a callback to the pilot. Sometimes phone systems are crappy enough that you have to hack them from the inside. And Tim banging out a great—next to Lucille 2, which we took a lot of, uh, a lot of arguing over what he would name his second van.

Christine: [Laughter]

Dean: I love Gina in this scene, with this character, her drunk little Mafia princess character.

John: Yeah, it's wonderful.

Christine: And that was first Moffatt and Davis shout-out there.

John: Yes, there you go. Yeah, we all were—this was in the middle of the, uh, the new Moffatt Who, and we were all kind of madly in love. Yeah, she's—he's really good with those handcuffs and she's really comfortable, this is an odd scene.

Dean: You'll notice a lot of steadicam work again, usually when either I'm directing or John Rogers is directing, the steadicam is out a LOT.

Christine: Gary loves it.

John: Gary loves it.

[Laughter]

Christine: I call him Gary the Hero when I'm on set, because—

John: ‘Go backwards down these stairs, it'll be exciting!’ Well, I mean, it's a pulp show, you should be exiting or entering, there's no—you should never just start a scene with people just sitting in the damn room.

Dean: Lots of energy.

Christine: It's his fault for being good at it.

John: Yeah, that's basically, if he sucked, we wouldn't do it. And then, now we introduce the main. And I love that they'd absolutely put this together, know exactly what he's going to do. That's a great shot.

Christine: Great look.

John: That is a great look and a great shot.

Christine: Very nice.

Dean: And then we put Tim in the hot seat.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Mm-hm.

John: And it was, again, it was one of those things where, once we'd- I remember breaking this as the third act, it's like, alright, we've established he's going to go and offer himself. Now, here's a problem you have, which is something we faced in the season opener, which is, it's a conversation that Nate, as a character, has separate from the other people. How do you then relay it without it being, 'And then I said this and then he said this'? And that led us to what we do in the third act, which is, we started time-cutting, you know, and it really gives you an energy, you know, that helps you carry pipe. Carrying exposition in television is the hardest thing in the world.

Christine: Really is.

John: And everybody looking very menacing...oh, and the fact that the, uh, that these boxes exist and control all the alarms going in and out of police stations? Yeah, yeah, and they're installed by just humans in jumpsuits who show up once a month. Yeah, that's crazy.

Christine: It's the true stuff that scares you the most, really.

John: Yeah. There is a time that sometimes you're like, 'You know, I don't wanna do any more research, I'm done. I need to believe in a secure and ordered world.'

Dean: So this is the scene where Nate has gone off the rails, and he's abandoned the plan that he had told the rest of the team, and now he's really put himself in jeopardy.

John: And it's a nice play here, that, by having Jimmy separate from the Russians, that you're not exactly sure, even if he wins over Jimmy, exactly how this is going to play out, in what direction.

Dean: Or who's worse, his father or the Russians?

John: Yeah. Muscle or evil. Yeah, there you go. Because—and by the way, that is the classic, uh, 'Hey, when's the act over?' 'Well the act is over when somebody points a gun at someone.' There's really—if there's one universal truth in drama—

Christine: Yes, it's true!

John: —it's, uh, you have somebody pull a gun and then you go to commercial! It's hard to fuck that up.

Christine: Or drop a curtain. Same thing.

John: Drop a curtain. You know, the gun is the TV version of the curtain.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And also I like the fact, again, Tim plays Nate much more physically this year. He's been in prison, he's faced guys like this. I mean he wasn't a guy who spooked easily in the first two seasons, but now, c'mon.

Christine: So much steadier.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: And there is a thing about having to be tough in front of your father, which he plays in a really interesting way.

John: Trying to share, that came out in a little weird tone of voice there, everything okay?

Dean: What, daddy? I mean, John!

[Laughter]

Christine: Oh, you guys are adorable.

Dean: And one of my favorite lines in the script.

John: Oh, 'I don't get to go to your party.'

Christine: Oh, right—god, hilarious. It's all the delivery.

John: It is the fact that he throws it away.

Christine: The stuff is fine, but you know, it needs to be delivered correctly.

Dean: And I love this dissolve.

John: And Derek Fredrickson, the fifth Beatle, once again, you made us what we want up on the screen.

Christine: He is so good!

John: He is so ridiculously good.

Dean: And—Beth in this is great.

John: I would say, actually, I think this is the only thing that I came up with, was this bit, was the—the bank thing? Because the obsession—I bombed in and I was like, 'I got one gag. I'm out.' I'd been wanting to do this for ages, because I love the idea that Parker just roams the Earth looking at crime.

Christine: I mean, you know, some of us can't stop doing our jobs.

John: Yeah!

[Laughter]

John: Why are you looking at me?! And I'm looking at you, listen.

Christine: Why are you looking at me?

John: Technically, graphomania is a mental illness, that's all I'm saying.

Christine: I took two days off to get married! That was it.

John: I'm very happy. It was a little excessive. Uh, no, and the—cutting back and forth, using that image as an anchor image, so that geographically you know exactly where you are...this is a hard shot; you were basically doing a five-hander on one side of the shot, and a three-hander on the other, um, with matching eye lines. That's fuckin' brutal.

Christine: Technical dexterity.

John: Yes. Nice job on the directing. So, Marc directed this part, is this second unit, is this...?

Dean: No.

John: No?

Christine: He's kidding you.

Dean: I was asleep, and Gary set up the camera

John: Oh, really? Gary Camp really set this up.

Dean: Dave Connell. I came out of the trailer, said, 'Wow, that's awesome!'

Christine: I will say, I love when we light Nate's apartment in that sort of nighttime...

John: I really dig that space at night, I gotta say. We started writing to it. We started, like, re-ordering the script so we wound up in the offs shots at night, because it just lights so beautifully.

Dean: And I really enjoyed these flashbacks, I felt they came out great. I mean, it really just set the—that kind of Great Santini feel to it.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Mm-hm.

John: It's an emotionally uncomfortable episode.

Dean: Yeah, it's dark.

John: It's a lot darker than I thought it would be, going into it; the script went dark and then the performances went really dark.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Really nicely done.

Christine: We love dark. Gotta have at least one.

John: Well, you know, the phrase we used to use in the first season, we kinda counted is: everything needs a minor chord. No matter how bright the episode is, there has to be a little minor chord somewhere in it to make sure we don't go too far over.

Christine: You can't hear the major chord unless...

John: That's a great shot! Is it a fake wall or—how d'you do it?

Dean: We just had the camera pressed up against the glass so you couldn't tell that we weren't on the inside, tracked out, and then—again, all one steadicam shot, establishing and walking to the car. Now this was a moment where it had been raining all day, so we had to get this in between rain flurries. So we had to design these things all in one shot, and then the other side all in one shot, and then try and get it before the next flurry of rain.

Christine: You did such a good job.

Dean: It was amazing that we made it.

John: It's gorgeous. And the—and it adds to it, and again, it adds that old 70s crime vibe, you know?

Christine: This is my favorite...

Dean: Also, shoutout to our composer; I love what he did with the Irish music, especially in this scene.

John: Just the little con music that really, yeah, exactly. Joseph's great at that, you remember in Scherezade, he put the little Arabian Nights flare in the exposition scene?

Dean: And this has, both in the dramatic scenes and in the fun scenes, just a flavor, not—it's not, uh, it's not overdone.

John: No, you did a lovely job with this, Christine. It's just a—it's a machine. It's a machine. Because it is, it's plotty as hell. I mean, it's interesting, this one, because it's a big, deep character episode, but, like I said, there's three crimes in this. This bastard runs.

Christine: And you know me, the plot's just an excuse to find those moments.

John: The plot's just an excuse for giant speeches!

Dean: It's my belief that that's the first moment that those two ever actually had fun together.

John: Oh yeah, probably.

Christine: That's why it's my favorite scene, it's...

John: And the actors really dug in on it.

Dean: Bullet time shot! 'Bout two for one, here you go.

Christine: Alright!

John: It's been a while.

Dean: We'd gone too long without one.

John: And this was again one of those nice, uh, one of the nice evolution of the show moments where we might have, first season, had Hardison find out about this object through his research, or have them do just a little bump-and-lift—but running little mini-cons, little two-person mini-cons, has really become one of the tools in the toolbox.

Christine: It's just so much better to get the mark to tell you, you know.

John: Yes. I also loved, the, uh, that was one of my favorite Sophie/Parker scenes. Because you can tell the rhythm they've fallen into while Nate was gone. A lot like in Jailhouse when they go into the judges, they're both, uh, the best hands of the crew, so they both have these little competitions for pickpocketing. It's a nice vibe.

Dean: And even here, that she has to keep her distracted so that Beth can sneak behind them, it's a lovely designed scene.

John: [Unintelligible]. This is the double-play move, you know.

Christine: And if I do say so, this was kind of funny on paper, but Gina's ad-libs were...!

John: Oh, yeah.

Christine: Hilarious!

Dean: Especially the mañana - "That's Spanish!"

Christine: Oh my god.

John: No. Yeah, she really dug in on it. I mean that's—

Christine: Gina's playing it so straight.

John: I'm telling you, we talk about this all the time, casting television, um, you can get a comedic actor and teach him how to do drama, and Gina of course was very accomplished dramatic actor besides doing comedy, which she'd done comedy for years—hard to get a dramatic actor to land a joke if they've never done it before. I'll always hire a comedy actor and trust that they have the chops to do the other stuff. 'Cause when you need someone to do this? You're born with that.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: I could've watched that scene going for ten more minutes.

Christine: Yeah. Really, on set, we could've done a million more takes, we were just entertained. [Laughs] We were just enjoying ourselves!

John: Now, we're now on our third clue in our second plot.

Christine: Mm-hmm.

John: Yeah, this is crazy.

Christine: Yeah, keeping track of this one was a little... [laughs]

John: And, uh...

Dean: And this is where we established the Holy Oak...

John: The Holy Oak thing, yeah. It was interesting, 'cause it kinda—it seems like it kinda, out of nowhere, uh, it was tricky trying to figure out whether we thought we were gonna blow it or not, you know, but you know what? Probably not, you're always paying more attention. Oh, we did shoot in this park, though. For the finale.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: Portland, always looking beautiful.

Christine: Portland's got everything.

John: It does. I love shooting there. Also love how funky Hardison's shirt is there. I didn't notice that.

Christine: Yeah, it's great. He's got the lightest wardrobe in this whole episode. He's unburdened.

John: He's unburdened by guilt, or intent.

Christine: A bunch of these black-wearing fellas in here.

John: Yeah, father and son, yeah. And now you drink together. You see, this is—this is a healthy relationship! I don't see why everyone thought this was a dysfunctional relationship!

Christine: This is all they need.

Dean: Now it's your turn to overshare!

[Laughter]

John: [Whistles a short, jaunty tune]

Christine: Neither one of us questioned this as not normal. Seemed fine to us!

John: Yeah, no, really! The network—the network seemed distressed, but we were all okay with it. I love that, just, uh, ‘I'm gonna back your play’—and you find out later, by the way, he's used that excuse to rip off the control box.

Dean: I know, amazing.

John: It really subverts what is otherwise a very pleasant moment.

Christine: He plays it off so well, just kinda throws it away.

Dean: And this scene is the great turn, 'cause up until this scene the father has been nothing but despicable. And suddenly, we find a glimmer of—of redemption, somewhere in there.

Christine: Mm-hmm.

Dean: And our fear is, will this completely derail the show, when we see Nate finding that glimmer of hope?

John: Yeah. It was—you have to play it, and—it's tricky, writing morally ambivalent- No one's a villain in their own mind. You know? Writing morally ambivalent characters is always challenging because the audience, to a great degree in television, is looking for cues on how they should react emotionally—and you talk about this all the time—through music, through shot choice, through going to pushing, you know, you're helping people with their emotions, and it's always tricky when you have a very charming actor like Tom Skerritt, you give him a sympathetic moment, it's like, oh he might stop being a bad guy, he might stop being an antagonist.

Christine: He really dialed up the evil for some other scenes, though, so.

John: Yeah, it really balanced it out.

Christine: Helped us a lot!

John: No. And what's interesting is, now I see the flashback with their mother. Now I have, like, actresses in my head, I wanna see [unintelligible].

Dean: It's also interesting how much they ended up looking like each other. I never even passed a thought that these two people looked like each other, but in these scenes they somehow reflected each other's demeanor.

Christine: I'm pretty sure there was a moment on set where the two of us were like, ‘wow, these guys.’

John: That's a heartbreaking little moment, that little smile he did—really Tim just kind of breaks your heart right there.

Christine: He brought it.

Dean: That's the moment where he says, 'Wait a minute. Maybe I don't have to take him down.'

John: And that was—that came late in the script development, that 'You're your mother's son'. There was a throw-in where I think we were talking about it, and it became important because, you know, there's already a lot of breaches between fathers and sons, but having the son that's not quite like you, in ways that you have to respect but don't understand, that's tough, especially, for a guy like Jimmy. Jimmy Ford is exactly like his father, I guarantee you. And then the turn reveal. Nice.

Christine: A little moral check-in, right.

John: Yeah. And it's interesting when a professional grifter is your moral... [laughter]... is your moral anchor there.

Christine: See, that seems perfectly normal to me.

John: Again, there's something very wrong with you.

Dean: But all Gina's work in this scene is subtextural, which is really amazing. It's why you need an actor of her caliber.

Christine: It helps to have intelligent actors around you, it really does.

John: Yeah. Not that all actors aren't very wonderful, intelligent, but...

Christine: They're all lovely, but we love ours a lot.

John: We have a particularly gifted bunch. Nice 360 on that reveal.

Dean: And then he's a little man in a big room. Until he realizes...

John: When you pull in, you pull back to reveal the—yeah.

Dean: Now originally, this flashback wasn't in our script.

John: Yes.

Dean: But when we were doing it we thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is a great moment’.

Christine: We should maybe throw that in there, yeah.

John: And then the- ‘I'm hosed’.

Christine: Oh, great.

John: And when you come back, you'll notice actually the difference in that—yeah, that's a great.

Christine: It’s the postural differences.

John: As they come in, this is not how the team would have talked to him first season. Right, you know—this is the team that feels much more—and again, the cross-cut was crucial, was trying to figure out how to carry the pipe.

Dean: Hardcore fans, they are standing next to the bridge where in the season finale, Bonanno was shot.

John: Oh! That's great.

Christine: Oh, right!

John: That's great. You should drink every time you see—no, don't drink every time you see something you recognize!

Christine: Dammit, you'll be on the floor.

John: Ah, are we on tracks, or you doing the handheld roundy-round?

Dean: This is a handheld roundy-round.

John: And this is, explain why, when—

Dean: Oh no, I'm sorry, this is on tracks.

John: This is on tracks. Yeah, it's when you do the swing like that, we're usually on tracks. Explain, why is it roundy-round? Why’d you choose that for the scene? Because we have rules about when we use certain shots, Dean.

Dean: We use the roundy-round when the direction of the show is altering. When the world is changing, when the world is spinning. But what's really interesting here, is the world spun one direction, until Tim figured—until Nate figures it out. Then it spins the other direction. And then the whole—the whole direction of the show changes. And you'll see. It all starts with Nate's recognition of what he couldn't remember all this time, which is: there was no queen on the table. And then, he starts walking the opposite direction that we've been tracking, and now we track that same direction with him.

Christine: It's a really brilliant visual conceit. Works really, really well.

John: That's nicely done.

Dean: Thank you.

John: You're welcome. The bar looks even scrungier with that lut on—it really is amazing what a good color lut can give you, 'cause it looks like, it looks like 70s in there. And he goes round the other way, nice!

Dean: So now we're back in business.

John: And now he's taking the control. His father's control is one way, his control is the other way. Oh, interesting.

Christine: Sometimes you need to question your team leader, when you think he's gone off the rails—

John: Shut up!

Christine: It turns into a larger revelation!

John: No, that has never happened!

[Laughter]

John: You know what that is, that's mutiny! That smacks of insurrection, little missy. For example, drinking before oh, ten? Is that really the best idea we've ever had?

Christine: I dunno.

John: Um. And it's—it was fascinating when we were doing the research, realizing that the- in these kind of old basements in Boston, there's millions of dollars of cash and drugs.

Dean: Just amazing.

John: Because no one just has the stones to go get it. And, Holy Oak, the way that they keep this stuff—and now when, if it gets robbed we're so gonna get blamed—we said, ‘is this a super high security facility?’ And the girl's like, ‘why would it be?’

[Laughter]

Christine: ‘There's a guy out front, during the day…’ We're like, ‘wait, come again?’

John: ‘Come again? Say that again, slowly?’

Dean: And now this is a lovely bit of first AD work, man. It may sound strange-

John: Okay, I wanna hear this.

Dean: The first ADs have to really direct the background.

Christine: Absolutely.

Dean: And the way that background is reacting in this tells you- tells worlds about what's happening in the precinct. And I give hats off to Chip for really terrific background direction here.

John: Uh, this, by the way, what they're doing here, it's kind of interesting, is getting inside their uderloop. We talk about this all the time, which is, when you're trying to take on, uh, it's from the military: observe, orient, decide of an act — you have a certain period of time that big organizations take, every big organization takes to figure out what the hell is going on. And smaller, more fluid groups can get inside that time frame, and it gives them a ridiculous advantage. And when you're taking on an entire city's police force, you have to create that chaos; that chaos gets you inside the loop. That's what led us to the way to do this.

Dean: Everyone's going one direction, and our villain is going the other direction.

John: Yeah, he's got props. And again, by the way, the number of times that people go, 'Can you really walk in...?' Yes! [Laughter]

Christine: Absolutely.

John: The number of times we've accidentally walked into high-security while shooting the show...kinda silly.

Christine: You just look like you belong there.

Dean: Recently on a location scout! [Laughter]

John: Yes!

Dean: We walked right into the police station!

John: Yeah, exactly. 'Hey, can we just wander around?' 'Yeah, sure. We're the police, what could go wrong?' Alright.

Christine: [Laughter]

John: And that's also Portland bending over backwards for us. Really making it—there's no way the show would have the production value it does if the city of Portland didn't—and the people of Portland didn't work so hard for us.

Dean: We owe great thanks to both the city and state government there, and the people, for extending themselves.

John: Closing off streets, and...no, really wonderful.

Christine: Support, just...

John: Little push in, he wants to be there to take him down. Yeah, I mean, 'cause there's nothing worse than—the only thing worse than hating your dad, is thinking he might be okay and then learning he's not. Yeah.

Dean: ‘I got suckered, again.’

John: And the reset. And this was a ton of fun.

Christine: Just nonchalance, Tom Skerritt. [Laughter]

John: Yeah, just beat up that guy, I'm hanging out over here with some wire cutters.

Christine: This guy has seen some shit.

John: Well it's really based on, you know, all those career poli—uh, career criminals in the boon days of Boston in the 60s and 70s, y'know these guys were pros. You know, this was a job, this was a gig.

Christine: And it helps to have all—David and the other sort of Russian players, their frenzy and their just need to get this done.

John: Yeah, the contract. No, that was also, that was also cool, because we were trying to figure out how to slow them down downstairs, and that's when the research showed us that everything is barcoded. The evidence is all barcoded. One of those great bits where the research gave you the story.

Dean: And this is the return of Jimmy Popadokulis.

Christine: Yes!

John: There you go—we love that character.

Dean: [Laughter]

Christine: Hilarious.

John: He's great. And again, one of the things we sort of did third year, which is, con men tend to have recurring roles they go to, they've built up backgrounds they're comfortable with. Great shot, by the way, the stairs.

Dean: Yeah, this location was just beautiful. And Connell once again did an amazing job photographing it.

John: Yeah, we just slapped those doors—right, the lettering, we just slapped the lettering up on those doors. Those doors were there.

Dean: That's right.

Christine: Really beautiful location.

John: Yeah. You could shoot a TV show there.

Christine: You could, an entire TV show.

Dean: Now the reason he didn't open that door entirely was we had not yet dressed the set in there.

[Laughter]

John: Oh so there is no set yet? There's no set in there yet!

Dean: I...yeah.

Christine: We were always working.

John: Oh, and then the, uh, that's where the little bit of pipe laid in the Angry Speech of Anger—as opposed to our Evil Speech of Evil—uh, lays out.

Dean: And of course it becomes crucial for understanding the ending, and this is just a great little visual to keep that alive. This safe was actually there.

John: Yes, this is what I was thinking of!

Christine: What a find.

John: This safe was actually in the room?

Dean: Yep.

Christine: What a gift. What an absolute gift this was.

Dean: This was one of those situations where the location alters the script.

John: Yeah.

Christine: And that's—and that's the great thing about being on set, re-writing on set.

Dean: And this idea was actually Tim's idea, that he walks out and the door slams, revealing, uh, revealing Nate. I really liked that idea.

Christine: Look at that! Oof.

John: There with the gun, waiting—that is—that's very '73.

[Laughter]

Dean: So here's our most Japanese moment.

John: The father, the son, the gun...

Dean: The son has to kill the father to take his place in the world.

John: I don't know—oh, there you go, I was actually doing the act break, I was all swept up there.

Christine: Were you worried?

John: I was a little worried.

Christine: Don't worry.

Dean: And of course, we go to hand-held. One of our rules, when our characters are in physical or emotional jeopardy, we go to hand-held.

Christine: This was the day I said, 'Dean, let's shoot it all on hand-held!' and you're like, 'Pipe down.'

[Laughter]

Christine: 'Pipe down, little missy! Not another word.'

John: Not another word. Gary Camp, not happy about that.

Christine: No.

John: Is that a digital pop-in?

Dean: The pops on one side are in-camera, the pops on the alternate side are digital. So the pops on Tim are digital, the pops on the father are—are actual.

John: Interesting.

Christine: Great, it's great.

John: Look at that, not even—that's what I love, what has kind of evolved in Nate, his morality is his burden. You know?

Dean: That's his weakness.

John: His morality is what's led him to be a criminal.

Dean: That's right.

John: It's a lovely...and Tim really digs in on it, he's—he'd genuinely like to shoot his father, here. He wishes he had the stones to shoot his father here. But he just doesn't. No.

Dean: And in a weird way, his father wishes that he would shoot him.

John: Yeah.

Dean: That's the—that's the irony in this scene!

Christine: Mm-hm.

Dean: Is he would actually respect his own son more, if his son would pull the trigger.

Christine: 'Cause he's not gonna retire, that's the only retirement. [Laughter]

John: These guys don't go to Boca Raton and get a condo. No.

Dean: And Tim does a really wonderful job with this part of the scene, from this through the end, of dealing with that Achilles' heel of his own.

John: I'll also say, I think, um, I think this was on set—Boylan, uh, the original script had the cops showing up outside, and you guys, uh, kinda eliminated it so it became much more the smaller scene?

Christine: You know, it's about them. It wasn't about the cops, and...it worked for us.

Dean: And when you see Nate struggling there, in that chair, you know something is not right.

Christine: Yeah. That's what the audience wants to see, yeah.

Dean: Now, originally this was gonna be a giant fight scene, and then we said, why doesn't he just hit him in the balls?

[Laughter]

Christine: That was it, that was a good idea, I think.

Dean: Hit him in the balls, choke 'em out, and we're done.

John: Not dead, by the way! Really, even though you heard that neck crack. He's totally cool.

Christine: He just put him to sleep there.

John: He's alright.

Christine: A little rain…

John: This was a great bit. How did you come up with this?

Christine: This was, uh, Crate & Barrel.

John: I think it's 'cause two of the writers were getting married.

Christine: Yes, two writers got engaged, that's what we talked about, registry details.

John: So when we found out everything was bar-coded, uh, when we found out everything was bar-coded, that led us to well what else do you use the scanners for? And uh, they had been doing the registry, and going in to scan everything.

Dean: I love this shot.

John: That's a great shot.

Dean: Again, real safe, in the room, we said we have to use it. Originally she was supposed to come down on a wire from the window.

Christine: Look at that.

John: There was an actual safe up there? Why is there a safe up there?!

Christine: I don't know, man.

John: That makes no sense.

Dean: And what I love is that, this is where metaphor meets reality. She literally throws him a lifeline. [Laughter] I absolutely love that.

Christine: She broke my heart, every take.

John: Every take, when she says, 'I know'. That's just great.

Christine: Ah. A hundred different, slightly different inflections to break your heart.

Dean: I tell you, Beth is an underrated actress. She is so good.

Christine: She really is.

Dean: She adds so much to these little moments.

John: Yeah. Well, she's got a full internal emotional life for Parker, that no matter what we write she always finds something a little bit, a little bit extra.

Dean: And that was the return of "Age of the geek, stay strong."

John: That's right, just a little something for the fans. Um, also the idea that, uh, we had just read the stat that watch sales had gone through the floor—that nobody was buying watches because of, um, people using their cellphones for time.

Christine: Right.

John: And a friend of mine who writes about security had mentioned that this was a horrifyingly hackable thing, and actually very dangerous.

Christine: Yeah, 'cause you screw with somebody's sense of time—

John: Yes.

Christine: Or how much time they have left...

John: And they only really have one sense of time, which is, they look at their phone and they think they know exactly when and where...

Dean: Now this little sequence, both sides of the editing of the phone call were directed on second unit with Marc Roskin, who did a wonderful job with this.

John: And now originally I think this started seeing all of them, and then you wound up doing in editing—these are digital popups, right?

Dean: That's right.

John: And a great drive-by assassination attempt that I don't think we totally told the people in the neighborhood about.

[Laughter]

John: We may have had some phone calls on this one.

Christine: Fabulously red-headed assassin.

John: He's Irish!

Christine: Oh yes.

John: And that's a lovely moment where he just realizes how—just, how in over his head. It—it's gotta be hard, I read once a prisoner talking about prison saying it was like being in a time machine. You know, you go in in 1995, you come out in 2000—

Dean: Now that, by the way, is an effects shot!

John: What? Where's the—

Dean: At the top of that, looking on the other side of the boat, is actually Boston, that we digitally put in instead of seeing the other side of the Portland harbor.

John: Very cool.

Christine: Nice. This was a fun location.

Dean: I love this location.

John: Where was it?

Dean: Uh, this was on the other side of the river, just across from Portland. But it was down low, so it made the boat seem that much bigger.

John: No, that's one of the reasons—

Dean: There it is again, that's digital Boston.

John: This showdown scene's lovely. And, uh...

Dean: And it's where Nate becomes the father.

John: I will genuinely, I will say this, and this is one of the good things about having, uh, Dean directed the pilot, Dean is... Dean is the studio. And he was the one who originally pitched the line, you know, 'more ruthless than me', you pitched the line, you actually said it, we wrote it down in the writer's room. And I remember at the time thinking, 'That is one of the most fucked-up things we've ever done on Leverage.'

[Laughter]

John: Because, all of the time as a writer you're afraid of going too dark and getting sorta too inside the tunnel? And Dean is the cheeriest guy I know, and that came out, and I was like, wow! That is...wrong.

Dean: But what really makes it work is Tim's reaction to it. So here he says, ‘You are worse than me, you are a bigger bastard than I am; God, I'm proud of you.’ And the—the conflicted look [laughter] that Tim gives right there, just—he doesn't know how to take that!

Christine: You need an actor of that caliber to play both sides of the line like that. You really do.

Dean: But he chose, as an actor, to actually become the father and let the father become the son. Which was really an interesting dynamic in this scene. Again, some of my favorite music we've ever had on this show right here.

John: And that little walkaway shot is a gorgeous shot.

Christine: Right. And it was a lovely day. It was.

John: And you—you turn away from the old family, and there's the new family.

Christine: Almost uncomfortably close.

[Laughter]

Christine: Like all good families.

Dean: And again a great comedy moment.

John: And it's really an oversharing one today.

Christine: [Laughter]

John: It's a lovely walkaway. And again everyone's kind of back in their 70s palette. Two, two, and one.

Christine: Adorable. And...little smile.

Dean: So once again, thank you very much for watching this episode of Leverage.

Christine: Thank you guys.

John: Stay tuned, there's more coming.

Christine: More to come.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 3 #Episode 9 #Season 3 Episode 9 #The Three-Card Monte Job

24 notes · View notes

onlycleverinmyhead · 10 months

Text

Pickle Rick

So Beth basically worshipped her deadbeat, drunken father like he was a god and divorced her husband for him, and after the divorce her children started acting up so they went to family therapy, and the Rick went to insane lengths not to go (turned himself into a pickle- hence the name of the episode) because it was beneath him.

Pickle Rick did a bunch of awesome stuff, but I want to focus on the therapy session. Beth acted like Rick is perfect (she talked about how smart he is and how he "doesn't need anyone" and the therapist noted "you admire him for that") and her kids are the problem but the therapist saw through it (and correctly recognized the toxic dynamic in the household "I think you dynamic doesn't reward emotion or vulnerability") and in the end Rick showed up and tried to insult the therapist because that's his defense mechanism but she called him out on his bs and cut through to the heart of his issues "[you] use intelligence to justify sickness" "[you] view your mind as an unstoppable force and an inescapable curse, because the only concept that is unapproachable to you is that it's your mind within your control" she told Rick she has no doubt he would be bored senseless by therapy the same way she's bored when she brushes her teeth but repairing yourself is not an adventure, it's work we all have to do.

The episode ends in the car when Beth and Rick are dismissing the therapist while Morty and Summer look really uncomfortable. Summer asks if they're gonna go back and Beth dismisses her and makes plans to go drinking with Rick, the last line is Morty saying he liked the therapist. This is a grim end to the episode but also the beginning of the humbling of Rick (the best thing in the show). However, all people remember about this ep is that Rick was a pickle, Rick turning into a pickle distracted the viewers from his issues, which is exactly what he would've wanted.

#rick and morty #media analysis #long post

5 notes · View notes

lonesomedotmp3 · 1 year

Note

this is so embarrassing <3 but would you happen to maybe possibly have a merlin (2008) fic rec list beloved mutual..... not nearly enough fic writers get it like my beloved mutuals do

i can assure you that is absolutely not even close to as embarrassing as it is to have devoured any and everything the merlin fanfiction world has to offer. i have read aus that you would not believe. i have been subjected to characterisations and headcanons that would make anyone else instantly close the tab. i have read authors with such a poor clumsy grasp of british slang i could weep from embarrassment. yet i persevered. for MONTHS. and here is what me (and beth <3) have managed to scrounge up after all of that. please use everything i've just said as context that we were NOT in our right minds reading these. proceed with caution

tributes - the! hunger! games! fic!!!! iconic legendary spectacular THEE revolutionary turnaround for the merlin fanfiction game and for the horrors generally. do NOT go in overhyped tho me and beth went in like haha what a cool weird au and then it caught us off-guard that it wasn't written terribly. also good for something longer and about much more than just merlin and arthur. it's fr like watching the show again for better and for worse. it's got camp whimsy it's got our main duo acting like complete freaks it's got this constant suffocating sense of inevitable tragedy... slayed!

history books forgot about us and in dreams - by the hunger games writer so u know it's actually written well!! don't read their other stuff tho just trust me. my memory of the first one isn't great but i remember feeling with both that finally FINALLY someone Got the finale like me + beth did. short but just rlly solid satisfying follow-ups to the show.

the court of avalon - freya + arthur best friendism in avalon realest shit ever said!!! makes me go fucking crazy fr. YES this has way too much magic lore bullshit to it and i don't careeee they're my friends.... and FINALLY a proper post-finale fic where they don't just freeze arthur in time for 1500 years...

to the point of fear - slay little mordred character study!!!!

the world i built for you - the disir fix-it!! smth i have always wanted due to being sooooo Normal about that episode (arthur's matrix. if u even care). not perfect but worth a read for sure!!

long title and also long title - i rlly like established relationship fics. sorry for being cringe and boring some crimes can never b forgiven etc.

like clouds in starlight widely spread - ok the rest of these i'm going to copy/paste from my list for beth sorry <3 but if i've already written a little deseription for each one why give myself more work yk. anyway: sad and wistful and A Lot as someone who was about to move out of my hometown when i read this. if i said it chapter two vibes. actually that doesn't mean anything ignore that. at one point arthur goes "are you trying to tell me something?" and merlin responds with, "i'm always trying to tell you something." which uh. he really is huh. it's whatever though.

fundamental imperfection - merlin and arthur as writers, gets their first meeting right (arguing and being dicks, then immediately becoming obsessed with each other). don't remember much else except the sequel is unfinished heavy angst and i cried like three times. don't read that (+ HIGHLY positively peer reviewed by beth. tell us a story about love!!!)

as long as we have we - i know you've read that fake marriage christmas fic which i love a lot (maybe it has problems but it's just so endearing...) and this is the same vibe. or well it's christmas and it's sweet so

(and said xmas fic: no matter how far away you roam <3)

tintagel - i don't know how i feel abt merlin and arthur in this but the parallels made to ygraine and nimueh are just too insanity inducing to ignore. my price is my life yours is to bear witness.... they wrote that in 2009!!!! insane

ok that's a lot + it's the best merlin ff has to offer. which is still not that great but. enjoy!! + b thankful you do not have to go into the hellscape that is the merlin ao3 tag...

kingdoms - i have no memory of this tbh but i wrote 'yeah.' underneath the bookmark so it's gotta have something

sorry edit one more I forgot - merlin and arthur are exes and arthur is just soooo weird and sad and repressed about it. also peer reviewed 🫶 (X) and also check out beth's merlin fanfiction recs tag if for some insane reason u want more. ok bye 🫂

#<3 #ask tag #finalgirlbrasso

11 notes · View notes

xxgothchatonxx · 1 year

Text

Ok, watched episode four of Mayfair Witches and I think I’ve finally worked out what feels so “off” about this show.

The pacing and editing of this show is pretty amateurish. I’d go so far as to say some of it is pathetic, for a network of this caliber. Some scenes are so short and end way too quickly i.e. the roses in the church. We barely got Rowan’s reaction before the scene changed. I feel like I’m watching a television adaptation of a storyboard outline, not the actual script.

As for the acting... I can’t blame these actors because they are given very little to work with. But that scene between Cortland and Carlotta was really Something™ to watch. Which I hate saying because Harry Hamlin and Beth Grant are awesome actors and when I heard they were cast in this show, I was so excited to see them face off. Instead I got what felt like a first-draft, rehearsal-shot argument between half-assed evil Benoit Blanc and Carrie’s mother from Wish.com.

Look, the only reason why I bring this up and why this is so frustrating to me is that we’re past the halfway point in the season and I barely know anything about these characters aside from the bare minimum. Even with that, they’re the most basic stereotypes. This is an Anne Rice story, yes? (Well, yeah, I know it is - I just haven’t read the books) If there’s one thing she was good at is, no matter how batshit insane her plots were, her characters kept us engaged. They were the focus and the heart of her stories. Quality of said characterization varied but she always gave us moments to engage with her characters and understand them, even at their most vile. I’m not getting that in this show. That goes back to pacing. It’s a lot of plot, but not much character. And when there is character insight, those moments are way too short. Like Cip last week! That final scene where he touches Rowan and is embracing his powers was the closest I got to actually connecting with him as a character. But that’s now been pushed back for more plot.

I am so relieved that next week’s episode looks like things are actually going to pick up. I like a good slow-burn, but there’s not much burning here.

#mayfair witches

3 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 2 years

Text

ToTWD 1x02: Blair/Gina - Part 1

Okay, how did everyone like episode 2. It was funny and goofy, and may feel a little irrelevant, but I promise it’s not. This is one of those episodes that is trying to define the symbolism and the template for us. I had LOTS of thoughts on this. It would have been an insanely long meta. So, I’ve broken it into parts and will just give you a little each day all week. Sound good?

Great! Let's talk about Gina and Blair. I'm seeing at least two different levels on which we could interpret the template in this episode. The symbols can be interpreted on a lot of levels.

There were many parts where Blair yelled at Gina. I almost felt like they were the same person, and she was saying that to herself. I stand by that. One level I think we can interpret this on is the duality or conflict going on in a single person, or single character. So, Gina and Blair could represent two aspects of Beth, for example. Or Daryl.

Think of it this way. Gina is the shy, unheard side of them, and never wants to rock the boat. Unfortunately, this means that she is often trampled on and sometimes outright abused. The extreme opposite side is Blair. She's loud, and angry, and diva-ish. I know it's hard to compare her character to Daryl especially, since he is the opposite of that. But whenever he feels threatened emotionally, he can lash out. So it's not that he has this exact personality. But just the Gina and Blair represent two aspects of a person's personality.

And Gina actually defined these things very well during the scene when they were in the kitchen. Actually, both of them did. Blair admitted that the way she had been acting for the past two years is because she was so angry. And of course we have this little nugget of a back story about how she lost her father and how much that impacted her. It just reminded me a lot of Beth.

Then Gina also says that, while she absolutely hated Blair, the woman was also a relentless bitch, and as a judgmental coward, she respected that. She also said that Gina's behavior forced her to stand up for herself and not be such a doormat. So, you can see that these things are opposites. And the extreme of either one is actually negative.

The more I watch the episode, the more I love it. They do a good job of showing how each of the two women changes with every cycle that repeats. We see blurbs start to do better slowly. Be more conscientious of Gina and the other workers around her, and make the good decisions faster. Gina slowly starts to stand up for herself in small ways. And of course there are a few times that she makes a much bigger stand.

So, I think in a way, this is the dynamic of every character and every character arc of the show. Of course it applies to Beth and Daryl, but we can see elements of this in every duality pairing and even every character arc when they're vacillating between being "too nice" to survive, such as Mica, and on the opposite side of the spectrum is someone like Negan who can survive, but is also really nasty to people and has lost his humanity.

The space between those two extremes are where most of the characters live, and are trying to find balance. And that’s the trick. They showed this by showing Blair and Gina working together to survive, but internally, it’s not about letting one side or the other win. It’s about finding a balance between the two. One that is sufficiently strong while still remaining kind and empathetic. And sufficiently kind and empathetic without letting people walk all over you. That's why it's so compelling to see someone who was weak become strong. The trick is that they can't become so strong that they lose their humanity and empathy for others in the world.

I think it's probably true that Beth was overly influenced in some way by Dawn. Even if it was just a matter of her reacting to Dawn's toxicity, it made her angry in that moment, which is what got her shot. So, she learned to not be weak and let people stomp all over her, but on the flipside, she’ll need to learn to find balance and not turn into Dawn.

Just the fact that Dawn said to Beth that Beth reminded her of herself when she was younger, shows that Dawn and Beth are something of a duality couple. If she chose to take the same path as Dawn, Beth really could her because their personalities are similar. In the same way, Daryl could easily become Mitch from S4 or Leah if he made the same choices they did. But the point is, our beloved characters don't choose those negative things. They choose to be kind and compassionate, and that's why we love them.

That's one of the things I thought of what re-watching.

Next, let’s get into something that's a little more concrete with more details and that has to do with Beth. Actually, the first part is going to be a little abstract. Lol. I’ll do my best to explain it in a way that makes sense. No promises, LOL.

Almost every aspect of Beth's arc is accounted for symbolically in this episode during one of the repeated cycles. I was thinking that maybe this is a lot of insight into what was actually going on at Grady or what was actually happening inside Beth's head at the time. I don't mean literally what she was thinking. But rather, it's a symbolic representation of her arc, including what we haven't seen yet.

So, in this episode, if there had been no repeats, if only the first time through had stuck and been the reality, Blair and Gina would both have died, along with the DHS agent and his son, and others who are at the gas station. So, if this was just happening inside their heads, it's like they're searching for a way to survive. They have to replay the events over and over again until they figure out what will actually work and allow them to live. I feel like that will be applied to Beth's arc in some way. Even if maybe it's just inside her own thoughts, she has to figure out some way to go through it and survive. It even goes back to the “just survive somehow” theme. Like I said, it's just about the symbolism.

It also occurred to me that this is similar to Grace’s dream in “In Dreams.” In that, we saw things repeat and cycle, which is what made her realize it was a dream.

Okay, I'm a go through each cycle quickly and what happens in each one.

First Cycle:

During the first one, it starts with Blair talking at her employees and being mean to Gina. When she gets into the car with her fiancé, we see her looking at an article on her phone about the brain dying.

She makes the remark something along the lines of, "at the edge of death, a dark wave spreads across brain." It's remarkably similar to Dr. Jenner's explanation of brain death in season one. But it's definitely odd that Blair is looking at that. I think this represents that her death cycle is about to begin. Because we see her do this in the first cycle, but we don't see her do it again afterward.

Then she mentions Jekyll Island and swimming with the sharks and then sees Gina arrive.

I did notice that in this first cycle, Blair talks about Gina's job a lot. "Asking you to do your job is baseline, Gina. Everyone else does what's expected." I was thinking that it's a mirror of Beth's famous line, "we've all got jobs to do." After that, Blair even says, "don't walk away from me. It's your job. I'm SERIOUS."

Here's something I'm not sure if you guys noticed. Gina actually gets blocked in. So first, she goes into the minimart, which has a big sign out front that says “no gas”. Inside, the shelves have been picked over. Then she goes back out and argues with Blair. While they're still talking, a car drives up directly behind hers and parks there.

This is interesting because we don't actually see the people in the car. I watched several times. We see the car doors open and they start to get out, but we never actually see who they are. We also don't see where they go. The kind of just disappear. And I don't know if that was intentional by the writers, or if it's just out the way the scene was edited. Maybe they went into the minimart. Maybe they ran in the other direction. We just don't know.

But after arguing with Blair, Gina sees the car with the man who's been bitten and gets freaked out. (Notice the woman fell out of CAR and has blond hair and is wearing a yellow sweater.)

Gina wants to leave, and starts asking with the driver of car is, but they aren't there, and no one seems to know. That's when she grabs her gun and tries to commandeer the tanker. Of course the woman in the car is bitten by her husband and starts screaming. We have the appearance of Leo, the DHS agent. And when he tries to get the gun and take the tanker, the driver grabs the gun, it goes off, and the tanker explodes, which causes everything to reset.

Okay, a couple of things.

The minimart represents Grady. Why? The roof & signage are green. Gina goes there and there's no gas or food. So, there's a resources issue. Then she tries to leave but she gets blocked in. So, she can't simply leave the same way she came, in a conventional way. She's forced to take a different path.

She decides that is the tanker. Even more so, if Gina and Blair represent dual sides of Beth’s personality, trying to find balance to survive, well, they both end up at the gas station and in a situation where they can’t easily leave. The gas station/mini mart is the setting against which they’ll have to find balance and survive, or die. For Beth, that was Grady. For Gina and Blair, it’s the gas station.

I think it's also important that every time when the woman falls out of the car and her husband is eating her, both Gina and Blair look totally shocked and mortified. You'd think after the first couple of times it seemed that it wouldn't affect them so much, but it always does. They explain this away in the episode by having Gina say that that woman screams the same way each time. It just freaks them out. Which is understandable. But also feel like this is one of those things where the reactions are symbolic of something else. I was thinking that the woman being bitten that way either represents Beth being bitten or perhaps being shot. That's why we get the shocked reactions. They mirror Daryl and Rick and TF’s reactions when Beth was shot.

Of course, several times we actually do get a gunshot after that when Gina shot gun goes off. But that doesn't happen every single cycle. Just a few of them.

Here's the next thing I noticed. When the gun does go off, it always goes off by accident. People are fighting over it, or just misfires. I don't know if that's a hint about Beth being shot or not. But never once does anyone fire the gun purposely, trying to kill anyone else or trying to blow anything up.

They even had the line several times where Leo threatens to shoot but Gina says “you can't. You’ll blow us up.” It's like they’re going out of their way to show that this was totally accidental; just people crashing into each other in a time of panic. There was nothing malicious about it.

The only other thing I noted about this first cycle is that Leo says, "you seem like a nice girl. Nice girl shouldn't be pointing shotguns at tanker trucks." The first I heard that it made me laugh. Just such a random line and he’s so calm when he says it. But I also think this could be indicative of Beth. She seems like such a nice girl. And people underestimate her.

We’ll go over cycles 2 and 3 tomorrow. Stay tuned!

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

4 notes · View notes