#reading the scene where she dies while writing about lisa's death more like *******!!!!
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me reading the pages w/ rosaly again and wailing like the damned
#reading the scene where she dies while writing about lisa's death more like *******!!!!#the parallels!!!!#🌑︎ ooc.
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Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter ( 1984)
Did You Know?👇👇👇👇🤔
The strange dance which Jimbo performs at the party was contributed by actor Crispin Glover and was based on the eccentric way he actually danced in clubs. On the set he was dancing to "Back in Black" by AC/DC as the scene was filmed. In the film however an edited version of "Love Is a Lie" by Lion was dubbed into the scene.
Last film in the series to pick up immediately where the previous film left off. At 58 years old at the time Ted White is the oldest stuntman/actor to portray Jason Voorhees. On a budget of $1,800,000 the film made $32,600,000 at the box office.
At the time, this installment of the series contained the most nudity and gore. The film was released on Friday the 13th: April 13, 1984.
In Turkey, this film, and the next sequel, Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning (1985), were released at the same time. People could watch both films back to back. Even the posters for both movies were displayed next to each other.
(at around 1h 2 mins) In one scene, Rob talks to Trish about his sister, Sandra. Sandra was one of Jason's victims in Friday the 13th - Part II (1981).
(at around 10 mins) The workout video Axel watches is Aerobicise (1982). It stars Darcy DeMoss who went on to have a role in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986).
This is the only film in the series to shoot new footage using sets and locations from a previous film. The beginning takes place on the set of Friday the 13th - Part III (1982), before moving to a new location.
Director Joseph Zito was opposed to using clips from previous installments at the beginning of the film.
(at around 9 mins) The nurse's name tag reads "R. Morgan, RN," an homage to actress Robbi Morgan, who played Annie in Friday the 13th (1980).
During filming Kimberly Beck, who plays Trish, experienced strange occurrences including a man watching her while she ran in the park and strange phone calls at all hours. This stopped when production was over.
Though he disliked being involved with the film, Ted White is considered by many fans to be one of the best Jasons.
(at around 9 mins) The moment where Jason's hand moves in the morgue was done by Ted White after Joseph Zito had called cut on the scene. However, the camera was still rolling, and caught this movement, and it was included in the film.
Writer Barney Cohen originally wrote a scene involving Jason fondling Trish's breasts but the producers vetoed it. Director Joseph Zito also disliked the scene because it made Jason seem too human and less menacing. The scene was excised.
Joseph Zito had previously directed The Prowler (1981), but they wanted him to both direct AND write Friday the 13th Part 4. He said, "But I'm not a writer," to which they said, "Here's a contract paying you double to write and direct," and then he responded, "Yeah, I'm totally a writer." Zito used the extra salary to hire Barney Cohen to somewhat secretly write the script. Their process entailed Zito taking nightly one-hour phone calls with Phil Scuderi to discuss the story and script for Final Chapter. The next day Zito would meet Cohen in an apartment in New York to relay what notes and ideas Scuderi had offered, which they would then turn into new script pages to be sent later that day to Scuderi in Boston to be discussed again over the phone that night.
Camilla More actually read for the role of Samantha, but when the producers discovered she had a twin, they offered both sisters the roles of Tina and Terri.
It is played for humor throughout Final Chapter that young Tommy Jarvis (Feldman) is suddenly surrounded by horny teenagers renting a cabin he can see into from his own house. However, the reality of the situation is that those actresses were indeed very or partially naked, and Corey Feldman was still young enough that Erich Anderson and Kimberly Beck took him trick-or-treating the first day of filming since it happened to be October 31, 1983. So, they shielded 12-year-old Feldman from most of the bad stuff, using tricky editing when necessary. What they could not control was the power of a low-cut top sans bra underneath. According to Feldman, in the scene in which Jodie Aronson's character bends over to greet Tommy's dog unbeknownst to anyone but Feldman he could see down her low-cut top.
It has been suggested that the only reasons Tom Savini worked as make-up artist on this film was in order that he could accurately age and properly kill the character he created from the first film.
Barbara Howard used a body double for her shower sex scene.
After Jason actor Ted White finished his scenes for this film, he immediately started work on Starman (1984). While on set for the night's filming, a group of reporters were waiting to interview Jeff Bridges, but he was unavailable. Therefore, director, John Carpenter, told the reporters to talk to White about the film he had recently finished. After telling the reporters he had just finished playing Jason in the latest Friday the 13th film, the next day's article was entirely about him, and that night, numerous "Friday" fans arrived at the set solely in order to see White.
Jason actor Ted White and special effects artist Tom Savini at first were confrontational with one another. But once White found out Savini had experience with stunts, the two became friends.
Rob was originally supposed to have high-tech equipment which he had used to track Jason, but the props for this looked cheap, and the idea was scrapped.
The film takes place on Sunday the 15th and beyond which makes it the second "Friday" film not to actually take place on a Friday at all. While the beginning with the coroners takes place during the night of Sunday the 15th, the rest of the film takes place on Monday the 16th, with Tuesday the 17th being the climactic night.
Even though he plays her son, Ted White (Jason Voorhees) is actually 11 months older than Betsy Palmer (Pamela Voorhees).
Rather than making masks, Tommy was originally going to have been an inventor. One of his projects was a device made from a microwave oven, which would have been what he used to kill Jason. Some of this is seen in the final product in a scene where he helps repair a car.
Amy Steel talked Peter Barton into doing the film. By the time the Final Chapter offer came around Matthew Star was off the air, and Barton wanted no part of horror films, having hated working on Hell Night in 1981. Amy Steel somehow talked him into it, selling him on the notoriety of starring in the final Friday the 13th film.
Director Joseph Zito wanted Jason's hockey mask to explode apart in the opening credits, but there was not enough time in post-production to pull off this gag.
Paramount was originally going to release the film in October, 1984. After filming wrapped in January Paramount studio head Frank Mancuso Sr. screened footage of the film to much enthusiasm. After a window opened up the release date was changed to April upon confirmation from Joseph Zito that he could complete the film faster than planned. This led to Zito, producer Frank Mancuso Jr., and a crew of editors essentially remaining locked in a house in Malibu editing around the clock in order to finish the film on time. This marked one of the only times that Paramount actively helped in the production of a Friday the 13th film, as they were generally produced independently, with the studio only handling marketing and distribution.
The house used for the Jarvis home was later used as the Anderson home in the film Ed Gein (2000) where serial killer Ed Gein is apprehended.
Bonnie Hellman's agents told her about a possible role in this film - the hitchhiker - but then told her that she would not want to do it, as there were no lines. However, she ended up taking the role anyway.
Kimberly Beck stated in the Crystal Lake Memories book that she does not like the horror genre. In addition to this, she also said that she feels this film was not even a B-movie, but rather a C-movie.
Distinguished film critic Roger Ebert called this film "an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash."
The Jarvis family's dog, Gordon, was named after a recently deceased dog which a friend of director Joseph Zito owned.
Peter Barton was talked into taking a role in this film by his The Powers of Matthew Star (1982) co-star Amy Steel who played Ginny in Friday the 13th - Part II (1981).
The female hitchhiker was called "Fat Girl" in the original draft of the script.
The poster shows the hockey mask with a knife on its left eyesocket. Jason is defeated with a machete going through his left eye.
Kimberly Beck is the only Friday the 13th actress that appeared in an Alfred Hitchcock film. She worked on Marnie (1964), exactly 20 years prior to this. She plays the little girl that Marnie's mother babysits.
The film was shot entirely in California.
Carey More's audition was to simply read one line.
Lisa Freeman, who played Nurse Morgan, and Crispin Glover, who played Jimmy Mortimer, both would go on to be in the Back To The Future movies. Crispin Glover played George McFly in Back to the Future (1985) and Lisa Freeman played Babs in Back to the Future (1985) and Back to Future, part II (1989).
(at around 20 mins) The Jarvis family sandwich hug was based on a group hug that screenwriter Barney Cohen's family did.
Jason's death won the Golden Chainsaw Award in Dead Meat's "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" kill count.
This is considered by many fans, to be the best and most popular Friday the 13th film.
The Jarvis family car is a 1970 Dodge Polara.
Rob's rifle is a Winchester Model 70.
Rob looks to be the main male hero of the film to work alongside Final Girl Trish. Instead he dies almost immediately after encountering Jason, with the real Final Guy of the film being Tommy
The ambulance driver played by Antony Ponzini & Axel and the coroner played by Bruce Mahler both appeared on the sitcom Seinfled. Ponzini as Jerry's barber Enzo and Mahler as the Rabbi in Elaine's building.
Was released in theaters, directly a week before Crispin Glover's (Jimmy) 20th birthday.
Tracy Jarvis' fate and death would have been more further explained in a deleted scene that had been cut from the film. An alternate ending to the film, included in the 2009 Deluxe Edition DVD, shows a dream sequence where Trish and Tommy wake up the next morning after killing Jason to the sound of police sirens. Trish sends Tommy to summon the police who have arrived next door. At that point she notices water dripping from the ceiling and goes to investigate. She enters the upstairs bathroom, and finds the body of her mother floating in a tub full of bloody water. Trish lifts her mother out of the tub, prompting Tracy's eyes to open, revealing them to be solid white and devoid of irises. Jason suddenly appears from behind the bathroom door and prepares to attack Trish. Trish then suddenly wakes up in the hospital in a scene reminiscent of the ending of the first movie.
Ted White was uncredited as Jason Voorhees by his own request.
The twins are played by real life sisters Camilla and Carey More, who both also appeared on the daytime soap opera Days of our Lives as Gillian and Grace Forrester. More stars from the soap DAYS also appear in further Friday The 13th sequels like Renee Jones in Part 6, and Kevin Spirtas and Staci Greason in Part 7. Other soap stars that appeared in Friday The 13th films include Kevin Bacon, Russell Todd, Lauren Marie Taylor, Dana Kimmell, Kimberly Beck, Peter Barton, Jennifer Cooke, Michael Swan, and Scott Reeves.
Paul's car is a 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Estate station wagon.
According to Ted White, he and director Joseph Zito did not get along very well during filming.
The actress playing Trish's mother was only 14 years and 1 day older than her.
Both Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover later appeared in different films with actor Kiefer Sutherland in the same year: Feldman in Stand by Me (1986) and Glover in At Close Range (1986).
Pamela Voorhees' first name appears on a tombstone.
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Supernatural s3
It’s so unfair that the season that has Ruby AND Bela is so short :(((. I was done with it waaaay too quickly, and now I’m speed running through s4 xD (which, like the first time around, is Strong Mixed Feelings territory).
-My girl Ruby!!!! I was so happy to have her back, I kept grinning like a loon every time she was on screen. It’s quite interesting watching the 1.0 and 2.0 versions so close to each other, instead of as they air. I have... Thoughts, on whether Ruby as a double agent was something planned or that they decided as they went, but that’s for the s4 post. s3!Ruby really doesn’t come across as one (“I don’t believe in the devil” oh I wish sometimes xD, I love my nonbelievers), imo, but the beauty of such a device is that you can rationalize anything she does as devious if you want to xD
And it goes without saying that I love her interactions with Sam. THIS SHIP ISTG. I love how immediately ~attuned to her he is lol, his present and instinctive concern for her even if he tries to mask his interest as “practical”. And all the repeated times Sam’s conflicted between her and Dean -like when he deviates Dean shot (wasting one of the Colt’s bullets lmfao) or during the argument about the virgin sacrifice xD. And the “that’s my boy”/ “little fallen angel on your shoulder” quotes!!! Ruby 1.0 deserved to be railed by Sam too, smh.
My favourite episode of hers is “Jus in Bello” (which would be my fave of the season just by virtue of having both Bela and Ruby in the same episode lol. Not interacting, of course, the world as we know it wouldn’t have survived). I just love that she gets that final moment of I TOLD YOU SO to the brothers xD. I really like how she expands on the demonic lore of the show- I love, LOVE the detail about how all demons used to be humans, how they’re souls corrupted in hell. And that in her past life she was a witch (there was this really good fic in Spanish fandom about it... I need to hunt it down).
BTW, though I think her interactions with Dean in that episode are interesting, it really hammers home how much I hate him sometimes xD. Can you stop saying misogynistic slurs for TWO GODDAMN MINUTES, DEAN (and as we know from as early as this season, only HE can have demon/monster friends!! What a fucking hypocrite xD). I freaking love the moment in the finale when she viciously yells him about how she wishes she could see him in hell lmao (and how it foreshadows that when she shows sympathy later, it’s actually Lilith in disguise lmfao). I hate Dean gets the last word in their dynamic, tbqh. Until the s15 cameo, at least xDD
One thing that’s been bothering me xD: the French fries. Demons are vulnerable to salt, like other spirits, right? (and hey, look what a nice piece of foreshadowing that was). How does that translate to food lol. Because Ruby adores French fries, and they obviously contain salt. It’s like spicy food for humans? Or like pineapple? Inquiring minds etc. xD
-I still cannot believe Bela Talbot was only on the show for six episodes lmao. Her presence still lingers in the watchers’ heads so much?? Which is understandable because she’s Lead Girl Material if there was ever any lol. The care with which they styled her even?? You don’t do that for just any character lmao (I mean, just look at most of SPN’s female characters for comparison xD).
Her ship with Dean could’ve really been something, too -even if I hate Dean in it, I can’t deny it packs a punch, narrative-wise. I mean, the Batcat undertones alone!! The fake married undercover shenanigans!! And I think it’s really interesting that she’s such a blind spot for him; Dean’s unusually intuitive about people, but with Bela he takes everything at face value and she can fool him like no other (while, OTOH, is Sam who questions her facade and wants to see more). If he hadn’t been such an idiot (and such an asshole) he could’ve had a really powerful ship. Sucks to be him lol.
Anyway. Man, I love her. So much. I love how Gordon’s threats to kill her don’t work on her, and I love that the show basically said “Bela killing her abusive parents is good, actually” (I’m so tired of forgiveness narratives, you guys. This entire show is founded on revenge, so let me get my revenge fantasies in peace!!) xDD. And I love, LOVE that she withheld that truth from Dean, that she decided he wasn’t worth it. OTOH, you know, fuck the fans that got her written out, definitely; but on the other, I do love how her story ended (and that it was a clear "fuck you" to shitty fans). Doesn’t stop me for wanting to read and re-read (and maybe write!) even more “Bela escapes hell” fix-its, but still.
Also, very important question: what happened to her cat?? It’s the cat alright?? I’m going to headcanon that she left them with that cougar friend of hers lol.
-So. THE DEAL. Okay. Oof. I love this storyline, a lot. A loooot. I love the conflict it creates between the brothers (as long as there’s still conflict and Sam hasn’t yet started taking everything lying down I can enjoy that part of their narrative lol). I love Dean’s initial forced giddiness about “making the most out of his last year” and I love the moment Dean decides he does want to try to live because it makes the last few episodes all the most desperate and cruel (and hey, I’ve heard he only went to hell because the season was cut short due to a writers’ strike... if that’s true that’s so funny lmao).
My absolutely favourite part however? That you can FEEL Dean’s unvoiced resentment towards Sam. For Dean having to die for him, even if Sam never asked him to. He lashes out to Sam repeatedly through the season, but it really came to ahead in the dreamspace episode, where Dean confronts another version of himself that talks about how Sam was “dotted on” (the revisionism asldfkaf). This show is absolutely ruthless when it comes to showing you its characters’ ugly, unfair reactions to things and it’s my favourite thing evah.
Speaking of the dreamspace episode, OMFG. I loved both brothers there. Dean’s hallucination, seeing himself as a demon? And how he let out his anger about John?? Beautiful, truly (regarding John, I also loved their different reactions when it looked like his spirit had contacted them: Dean jumping on it and Sam detached skepticism). But my favourite part has to be when Sam uses the villain’s abusive father against him. Like. Damn. That was cold-blooded o.0
The second-to-last episode, when Sam tracked down that Frankenstein doctor to try and make Dean immortal was ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING OMG. I loved that. I love that Sam wanted to use it for both them. It was some scary shit. I also love the scene where the crossroads demon questions whether Sam really wants to break the deal, I’m gathering it’s going to be nice foreshadowing later on in the show lol.
Anyway. I also found Dean’s death scene more impactful than Sam’s. Partially because of the horror of it, but mostly because I think at this type of scenes, Padalecki is better. Sam’s grief felt more real, Dean’s got me out of the scene (it’s the voice, I think. Sometimes Ackles’ voice takes me out of scenes, it sounds... forced).
I also really enjoyed how the time loop episode wrapped around this subplot. It managed to be both heartbreaking and mind-numbly hilarious lmfao. Like?? All the deaths?? Were so pathetic?? I tip my hat to Ackles because I don’t think most actors could carry plots like this half as well lmfao.
Sidenote, it’s always a trip to see The Trickster God knowing that fucker is Gabriel. Archangel “hey Mary do you accept God knocking you up” Gabriel. Which I guess isn’t exactly a thing in this show?? Since according to the wikia SPN Jesus was “just a man” (and let me tell you, I’m tickled pink by the fact that out of ALL mythological figures, specifically all CHRISTIAN mythological figures, the show decided to go “nah” on Jesus Christ. I mean, I guess he’d take away from Dean’s, Sam’s and Castiel’s resurrection narratives, but still. It’s so funny!!).
-Gordon Walker remains a superbly acted and fascinating character with extra racist nonsense alsdkfjasdf. But I can’t deny I loved seeing him as a vampire. He was terrifying. And I’m definitely shipping him with Kubrick, ouch xD
-The Ghostfacers episode is... something. As in, incredibly exploitative and homophobic and with an egregious case of BYG (and the first where I’d say it’s incontestable to claim the trope was used. s1 and s2 are muddy territory given the circumstances, IMO, but this one is 300% BYG), but so successfully manipulative my heart hurt for Corbett and Corbett x Ed still. Fuck them for that ngl. I do still enjoy how anti-Winchesters they all are though xD
-3x01 introduces the one nice marriage of hunters so far, between a black couple. The man dies in a gross, horrifying way within the episode ofc (because he was Mean to the the brothers duh). She makes it out alive, and since she doesn’t reappear in the show she gets to live. So for now black women have a sliiiiiightly better track record in SPN than track guys there: they get to appear in a few more episodes and be more fleshed out (Victor, Gordon), but as long as they’re only in one episode they get to live!! (Cassie, Tamara).
-Rufus and Bobby are exes, right? Right?? Probably still married in some state? You know that post about how when gay marriage was legalized across the USA there were a lot of issues because some couples had split and never bothered to divorce, since it was only legal in one place? That post was made for them. Pity Rufus is a black man, and as such has a limited number of allowed appearances before he’s killed off ¬¬
-I would’ve enjoyed Dean’s moments with Lisa and Ben more (it’s just so RIGHT that in this moment he’d want Ben to be his) if my knowledge of future spoilers didn’t perpetually have me in a state of “pls keep this guy away from kids” lol.
-They had Harmony’s actress (BTVS) and they made her a vampire!! The show’s hard on for the Buffyverse is a bit of a hit and miss but I can’t say I don’t relate xDD.
-I know Jensen Ackles can sing (in fact thanks to youtube I know a few of the actors can... is there a musical episode. Does this show have its own OMWF. I need to know). So why. WHY. Does he sound like that during “Dead or Alive”??? I actually like the scene but he sounds so off-key lmao.
-BTW, I found out that apparently Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan originally auditioned for each other’s roles añslkdfjasf. I can’t picture it. Ruby 1.0 is Ruby 1.0 and Bela is Bela xD. Although I’ve seen each playing roles that could meld with the other, just. Nope. Good choice on the casting there lol.
#talking to the void#my thoughts#spn thoughts#supernatural#spnruby#samruby#bela talbot#deanbela#deanruby#sam winchester#dean winchester#gordon walker#ruby 1.0#spn gabriel#ghostfacers#alan corbett#bobby x rufus#spn s3#the winchesters get to have a tag I GUESS
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RECAP: Supernatural 15.03 “The Rupture”
Watching episode three and I finally understand the warding logistics better now. Note that just because I understand it better doesn’t mean I think it makes any kind of sense.
So it seems the “mile wide salt circle” encompasses both the town and the cemetery. Like the entire town and entire cemetery and the space in between them is somehow less than a mile wide as seen in the shitty map I made in MS paint last week.
This is poppycock of course. It’s also bizarre that somehow all these demons and ghosts didn’t manage to spread any further out than that in the hours in took the Winchesters et al to evacuate the town and for Belphegor to perform the spell.
I’m so distracted by this that it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.
Rowena tries to reinforce the warding but there are too many ghosts attacking it. More ghosts keep spewing out of the ground. I think it’s weird that Hell is an actual physical place somewhere under the Earth’s crust while Heaven seems to be some kind of otherworldly dimension that looks like an Apple store.
Rowena’s feeling very defeated. Ruth Connell is doing a much better job than the crummy ghosts we've seen so far would seem to warrant. Her acting makes them seem scary and the situation desperate, whereas the writing for the actual ghost characters is...meh. Dean wants to go fight the ghosts but like… there’s really nothing to be done. Shooting them with iron or rock salt only works for a few minutes at most. To make any dent, you'd need all the salt in the Hannibal fandom after NBC canceled it. Shout out to my Fannibals!
I still think somebody needs to be thinking about contacting Billie. Reapers take souls to their great reward or their eternal punishment, I feel like they’d have some useful input. Plus I just want to see Billie again because Lisa Berry is dreamy.
Also Belphegor is such a weaselly jerk about the whole thing. I won't miss that guy. He's the Martin Shkrelli of demons. Shout out to everyone who hates jacked up pharmaceutical prices!
Sam says they're out of ideas. That's because y'all haven't sat around reading books out loud to each other for half an episode!
Jack mentions something called "Lilith's Crook." Ah, Martin Shkrelli again. He has to explain it's that curved stick thing shepherds use while everyone is being ignorant. "Thing's actually more of a horn," he says. She designed it to control demons on Earth while she was in Hell. You'd think that kind of thing would've come up when Lilith was topside but no! Also there really should've been a call back to that. "You know Lilith... you killed her to let Lucifer out?" That kind of thing.
They work out a plan for Belph to summon the demons and ghosts back to Hell and the Rowena can heal the big spewing fistula in the earth. She wants Sam to assist her, which makes me
Dean coolly volunteers Castiel to accompany Belph. "You've been to Hell before." Cas should've been like, "Yeah to grip your ass tight and raise it from Perdition!" Also how's he supposed to get out again?
Aw jeez here's Ketch in his hospital room. I hope the only reason he's in this episode is to die. The nurse doesn't want to clear him for discharge so a pretty doctor walks in and kills her with a telekinetic neck snap. And that's why we have a nursing shortage in this country! Oh the doctor is Ardat, the demon who hired Ketch to kill Belph.
Fisticuffs ensue even though she could just pin him in place with demonic power. When he refuses to give up the Winchesters, she rips out his heart and shows it to him. He Pikachu faces at her.
I mean, did she really need to ask him? Wouldn't the most likely place be the mile-wide anti-ghost dome? She texts Dean pretending to be Ketch.
Belphegor goads Castiel about his friends sacrificing him, so Cas pushes him down into the ghost fistula. Lol. It doesn't shut him up for long, though. As they wander around Hell, Belph continues to sow the seeds of doubt. Anyway, opening the chest that contains the Doohickey of the Week requires Castiel to sing an Enochian song of praise, but we cut away on the third note. BOO.
Also, having now met Lucifer the whiny petulant manbaby, it's really hard to understand why Lilith or anyone would be so devout for so long. Maybe it's because he was locked in the cage so they didn't actually experience a lot of his pouting. It's all I can think of.
Before Castiel can hand over the Doohickey, Ardat knocks him out of the way. She looks like Joanna Gaines. Maybe she IS Joanna Gaines!
Castiel and Ardat fight. She tries to warn him about Belphegor, but he pops up behind her and kills her with Cas's fallen angel blade. Now we'll never know what she was gonna say! I bet he ends up just blabbing it out himself in the time-honored tradition of villains talking too much.
Indeed, he goes on about how the crook/horn is actually a leash/siphon. This thing is the Swiss Army knife of Doohickeys. He's going to blow the horn and suck all the demons and ghosts into himself to gain their powers. "I'll be a god!"
So while Belph is blowing and sucking, Sam and Rowena and Dean are dirtside working the spell. Ghosts are zooming back down the hole like the Indiana Jones Ark of the Covenant scene in reverse. Castiel tackles Belph and punches him in the face a lot which seems like the equivalent of flicking a dandelion at a law mower to stop it.
Improbably, it hurts jazzed-up Belphegor enough that he pretends to be Jack again to get Cas to stop beating him. Castiel screws up all his angel power and somehow kills him even though there's a buttload of evil spirits in him. Jack's empty body burns like a Thanksgiving turkey left on broil all day.
The ground starts sealing up but something's wrong. Rowena uses a knife to gouge out a "resurrection sachet" she's been keeping buried under her skin. It's why she came back after Lucifer killed her, if you'll recall. It takes Sam a minute to catch on that she intends to sacrifice herself in one final spell. He has to be the one to kill her because prophecy and she can't bring herself to to it for a lot of good reasons.
Now, I don't understand here. She says she's going to absorb all the demons and ghosts, throw herself into Hell, and they'll be trapped. But... didn't Belphegor absorb them? Or a lot of them? I hate that Ruth is doing such a great job and this just feels like forced drama.
Speaking of forced drama. Castiel returns to the surface and tells Dean he killed Belphegor. This could be cleared up with a five second explanation but he makes a lot of pained faces while Dean berates him for ruining their one chance. Forced drama.
Sam reluctantly stabs her in the lower belly... you know, in the uterus area... and she becomes a vessel... with her uterus absorbing all the evil...
"Goodbye boys," she says as she Last of the Mohicans throws herself into the abyss.
Well, it's better than Charlie's death but I still don't like it.
All the surviving team members return to the bunker for the denouement. Sam is taking things pretty hard, which is to be expected, so Dean goes to check on him. "God threw one last apocalypse at us and we beat it," he says to baby bro. Oh honey.
Anyway we're all pretty sure Rowena's going to be running Hell now, right? RIGHT??
Now we come to the part where Dean and Castiel act out a bad soap opera scene. It's just a thin reason to get them to break up for a while. Maybe in the final season they couldn't work Misha into the budget for every episode or maybe the writers couldn't think of more for Castiel to do. So he's gotta go off and it couldn't just be because "you know my surrogate son just died and I need time."
No it's gotta be all "you always screw up our plans!" and "you don't trust me!" and "are you hearing that romantically sad cello music or is it just me?" and "it's not just you but now I must leave GOOD BYE!"
Onward and upward, readers! Stay tuned for the next recap.
In the meantime, please reblog if you enjoyed this recap and drop by my Ko-Fi tip Jar if you're able. Henry Hound and I are perpetually trying to make ends meet and appreciate your help!
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Worm Liveblog ·55
UPDATE 55: Prepare for Takeover
Last time it was intermission time...again! This time with Dragon. It was a good intermission, not one of my favorites, but it was definitely worth reading. So now Arc 11 will start! Maybe! Most likely!
...yep, it’s starting. Arc 11, ‘Infestation’. Sounds promising enough. Let’s see what Mr. Wildbow prepared this time.
I stared down at the metal walkway as I caught my breath. I had one gash at the side of my head, and another trickle ran from beneath the armor of my shoulder, down my arm and to my fingertip, where it dripped almost in sync with the head wound. It should have hurt, but it didn’t. Maybe it would when the shock wore off. If so, I didn’t look forward to it.
...oh. Oh my, it’s starting quite strongly! What the heck happened? Is this something happening in the future, and the rest of the arc will be about how she got to this point? I think that’s called ‘in medias res’ or something like that. It’d be interesting to see how Mr. Wildbow handles it, it can be a difficult literary technique. What I’m wondering right now is who Skitter is fighting right now, and where she is. Establish those first, continue from there.
Trickster, Ballistic and Circus lay in front of me. Another cape had fallen over the railing and lay on the concrete floor below, unmoving. They were all either unconscious or hurting badly enough that I didn’t need to worry about them.
Well then! I’m not sure if these three were fighting alongside Skitter, or if they were the people Skitter was fighting. Speaking of people, where are the rest of the Undersiders? They must be nearby, I guess, because even though Skitter is rather clever, I don’t think she’d be able to defeat three or four capes all by herself. I’m still wondering where they are, though. Concrete, a walkway, a railing...my mind instantly jumps to ‘warehouse’, maybe it’s a warehouse.
Coil’s base was deserted. I knew his men were out on patrols, that the only people in here were a handful of the capes that were working for him. He’d left it almost undefended.
If I was going to act, I’d have to do it now.
I just stared dumbly at the screen in disbelief for several seconds. She’s in Coil’s base, and she’s going to act now? Going to get Dinah? Golly, Skitter, what happened to the plan about being an useful asset for Coil, so useful he’d free Dinah later? This is...not what I expected to see – so soon, at least. She’s going hard already, even attacking capes that work for Coil, if those three’s unconscious bodies are any indication! You piqued my curiosity, Mr. Wildbow, now please explain how the heck did this get to this point because I’m hella curious about that!
She has to be stealthy despite the base being almost undefended, which is rather odd, may I say. Why is it almost undefended? Coil is not a careless man; I find hard to believe he’d leave his base in the hands of a few capes without having some sort of backup plan. Well, his power would work pretty well, I guess. Even if Skitter succeeds here, that’s no guarantee things will be okay. Coil’s power is a factor that’s hard to plan around, and since Skitter knows about it, she must have some sort of plan to counter it, right?
There’s still no mention of the Undersiders, Skitter is going alone to Dinah’s cell. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised she’s doing this by herself, but...I don’t know, after everything she did to make sure she was part of the Undersiders again, it seems counterproductive to do this alone. True, she can’t expect cooperation because, well, they’re not as invested in freeing Dinah as she is, and Lisa would have tried to stop her, but yeah, it’s still a bit strange to see Skitter be doing all this without the rest of the team’s help.
The room looked like a prison cell. It had concrete walls and floor, a cot and a metal sink and toilet. Coil and Dinah were both there. I couldn’t say whose presence left me more devastated.
Oh, this is going wonderfully. The gig is up, Skitter. I doubt there’s much she can do here, because this would be quite an anticlimactic end to the Dinah plotline. I’m still waiting for Mr. Wildbow to stop the scene so he can write how this all got to this point, though. I’m going to be disappointed if the Dinah plotline gets such a rushed conclusion, honestly.
Skitter immediately realizes Coil’s presence here means she lost. He’s not even worried about her presence, so...yeah, I suppose that means he has everything under control. And if that isn’t enough...Dinah is dead. Wait what?
I didn’t consider myself a religious person, but I prayed for her to blink, to breathe, to give me some relief from that cold horror that was gripping me.
I was too late.
Okaaaay, there are shenanigans afoot, right? It’d be quite the controversial decision to let this happen! I mean, Dinah being rescued is something that’s driving Skitter’s motivation in this story, for her to die, even if it’s a glimpse of the future and some of Worm will be in medias res, it’d make everything else feel futile, wouldn’t it? Like no matter what Skitter does, we’d know Dinah will die and that’d make everything be senseless. No, there must be something going on. The other option is that Mr. Wildbow screwed up majorly, and if that’s what happened then I think I wouldn’t have been recommended this story with so many glowing terms. I can’t fathom what’s going on here, though.
My only theory right now is that this is an offshoot timeline that will soon be erased by Coil, and I’m not very confident about this possibility.
My vision practically turned red as I charged Coil, drawing my knife as I ran. I felt him use his power, and suddenly there were two of him, two of me, two cells with two dead girls named Dinah Alcott.
...uh...
I’m so lost right now. I’m pretty sure Coil’s power doesn’t work like that, with people realizing when he uses it and people realizing there’s another timeline and what’s in it. I don’t get it...what’s going on right now? Guess I’ll just go along with this until everything makes sense.
In one timeline, Skitter stabs Coil successfully, but he isn’t going to let such thing happen, that timeline is gone and he stays in the one where he dodged and threw scopolamine onto Skitter’s face. I’m pretty sure that’s a death sentence for her, she won’t get out of this cell alive.
He’s giving a short speech about the use of scopolamine in some sort of sorcerer culture. He had tried to control Dinah with it, and, well, it didn’t work, she died. Now Skitter is Coil’s new pet, and will be under Coil’s control.
“You couldn’t have succeeded. This was terribly unwise.”
Hey, Coil, trying to subdue Dinah with diluted scopolamine wasn’t the height of wise and prudent moves, you know. What I’m surprised about is that he didn’t throw away this timeline, if trying scopolamine on Dinah was something he wanted to try.
Coil continues playing the part of the evil villain who just got a new slave, commanding Skitter to look at him, and he takes off his mask.
“Welcome home, pet,” he spoke, and he didn’t speak in Coil’s voice. The voice I heard was my father’s.
Okay, there’s definitely something wrong in all this. One: Taylor’s father being Coil would be so hella out of character it’d hurt Worm as a coherent story, and that’s without this about making Skitter his new pet, because that’s an entirely different and nonsensical thing. Two: Dad Hebert’s behavior towards Taylor would make absolutely no sense if he was Coil, for example the latest conversation Dad Hebert and Skitter had. It just would make no sense.
While Coil being Dad Hebert would be interesting in theory, Mr. Wildbow would have to pull some amazing miracles to make it work. No, this would be no good.
And there it is! The reveal, the point where everything so far makes sense:
I woke up, and for a long moment I stared up at the ceiling of my room and reassured myself that it was all a fabrication of my own scumbag mind. It had been a nightmare or a terror dream; I wasn’t positive on the differences between the two.
Fine. As an explanation this works. It’d explain everything that happened up there, including every bit that made no sense. I’m both immensely relieved and a little bit annoyed. Mostly relieved, though. I have a lot of faith in Mr. Wildbow’s writing skills, but not even him would be able to make everything up there be any good.
This nightmare was a combination of many things Skitter is feeling. Guilt over leaving her father, guilt about having some responsibility in Dinah’s kidnapping, and anxiety regarding everything she’ll have to do from now on. Credit where credit is due: that was an effective nightmare. I can actually believe Taylor would be freaked out by it. That’s not always easy to do, I think.
Skitter is rather worried she won’t be able to rescue Dinah in time, that even if he’s careful about Dinah’s physical integrity, her mental fortitude will be lacking by the time she manages to rescue her. That’s...actually a rather valid fear, all those drugs, the imprisonment and having to obey Coil can’t be good for Dinah’s mind. It may even be too late right now.
I was also worried I wouldn’t earn Coil’s trust and respect.
Welp. Bad news, Skitter, you’re never going to earn his trust. Respect, maybe yes, but there’s no way in hell he’ll trust you or anyone. He seems to me like the prudent kind of man that’s borderline paranoid.
Looks like a new arc means a change of pace for Skitter, she daringly leaves her glasses aside and tries to wear contact lenses again. I have always thought it must feel a bit weird to have a lens sticking to your eye, but contact lenses must be designed to not give the wearer any discomfort, right? But I digress. Taylor is wearing contact lenses, and she walks around her new abode – the place Coil gave her as her new headquarters for her territory.
She has the Boardwalk! That’s prime real estate! Or it’d be if it was prime tourist destination. After what happened with Leviathan and after what will happen with the Slaughterhouse Nine in Brockton Bay at some point, I doubt tourists are in a rush to visit this city. It’s a shame, it’ll be years before it recovers.
The third floor is Taylor’s floor; the second floor is Skitter’s floor. It has terrariums, it will have bugs, and it’ll be where Skitter will meet with people and behave like a bonafide villain, except by her lack of cat. Hah! But no, in all seriousness, the description of Skitter’s plans for how the place is going to look is actually rather interesting.
As they crawled through the case, the spiders were lit up by the lighting so that their shadows and the strange shapes of the wood were cast against the panes of hard plastic, distorted and larger than life. I’d seen a picture on the web of the same thing, done on a far smaller scale. I had hopes that the effect would be suitably impressive and intimidating once all of the terrariums were full.
Sounds mesmerizing. I’d even want to see a place like that, just to see how intimidating it’d look. Imagining Skitter with her gray costume, sitting there and with insects casting shadows around...it’d be quite the striking image, rather fitting for a criminal mastermind like she’s supposed to be for this part of the city.
Sure must be nice to be able to count on a very rich villain boss, Taylor can ask for abstract paintings and wide chairs as if she’s asking for pocket change. Her new lair’s bottom floor seems like it’ll house some lackeys, judging by the bunk beds. Other Undersiders will have followers too, it seems. All in all, it does seem like the preparations for them to take over their territories are going pretty well.
Bothered by how she’s relying on Coil a bit too much, she calls him at 5:45 AM in the morning to ask for a few people to come. Hah! I bet she felt a bit of pleasure at maybe having woken him up so rudely. What does she need a few men for, I wonder...to finish setting up the lair?
Against her better judgment, Taylor decides to go for a run and gets ready, looking at herself in the mirror and finding out she has changed. A growth spurt, a tan...she almost can’t recognize herself. It’s a bit depressing that it’s likely Dad Hebert is likely to not recognize her at first sight if he saw her, too...this Taylor is so much different to the Taylor from the start of Worm. How long has it been in this story? A couple months?
If there was anything about myself that I didn’t like, it was primarily psychological. Guilt was a big one. The idea that my dad might dislike me if he got to know me, now? That was another. That my mom, were she alive and showing up at the door, might be disappointed in me? Sobering.
...honestly...uh...I think they’d seriously reject Taylor’s new life if they knew. Dad Hebert won’t stop loving Taylor, that much I’m convinced of, but there’s no way he’ll look at her the same way. She just is an entirely different person now. Now I’m not so sure about if Dad Hebert will ever find out about Taylor being a villain since, well, Dad Hebert has been relegated to ‘background character’ due to how little he matters in the big picture of Worm, so to say, but if it ever happens it still has the potential to be rather heartbreaking for everyone involved.
The boardwalk is in a rather sorry state, in urgent need of repairing and work, but the Merchants are getting in the way. Everyone in the Merchants like the current state of the city, not because they’re fond of violence or of poverty – well, they are fond of violence to a certain extent – but because now almost everyone in the city are in the same state than them, and they don’t want that to change. Like...they had their turn to suffer and be miserable, now it’s someone else’s turn to suffer and be miserable, I think they think something like that.
I’d have to deal with these guys. It wasn’t just intercepting any groups that made their way into my territory. That was easy, all things considered. No, I also had to deal with the small army that would come marching through here wanting retaliation over my having kicked the asses of any groups that had made their way into my territory.
It’s rather sobering that in Worm even a group of drunks and hobos are a threat to villains and heroes. Guns and the such give them an advantage. I suppose in this universe, underestimating someone can be deadly. Does this mean the Merchants will be the antagonist of this arc? That’s what it’s starting to sound like, at least.
Taylor is so busy thinking about what to do when trouble comes, she doesn’t notice someone approaching. It’s Dad Hebert. Speak of the devil, I was saying just a few paragraphs ago he didn’t matter in this story anymore! Looks like he has been spending a lot of time outdoors, most likely working hard. He almost doesn’t recognize Taylor, he’s amazed. This is by no means a heartwarming reunion, though, Taylor is keeping her distance.
He made a visible effort to close his mouth. It made me feel uneasy. What thought process or concern was keeping my dad from opening his mouth about my running? He’d been worried about it when the streets were relatively safe. Was he that spooked at the idea of scaring me off again?
Maybe he’s trying to stay amicable instead of nagging at you, Taylor. The last conversation you had with him was by no means an orderly one. Still, he does tell her he misses her, and sounds to me like he’d like nothing better than she returning home, he even insists she’s welcome anytime, and wonders how he can get in contact with her anytime. Through cellphone or email!
“Email?” he asked. “Where are you that you have access to a computer?”
Right, uh, I suppose he has been wondering where Skitter has been living. He’d think she lives with Lisa, perhaps? Taylor lies about the location, mentioning a place that’s a tad too far from the boardwalk to be believable, because it was hard to think someone would come to run all the way to an obliterated tourist location.
“I was going to stop by the house, see if it was in okay shape,” I lied again. Was this the extent of my interactions with my dad? Always lies?
Let’s face it, even before she was a superhero her relationship with her dad wasn’t the best it could be. Unfortunate, but yeah. It’s a good sign she still feels guilty about lying to him, these little signs show she’s still rooted to her morality.
Well this sure was an awkward encounter. Taylor prepares to leave, but before that...
I moved my hand to adjust my glasses, and wound up waving at my face. I was wearing my lenses.
“Dad!” I called out. He stopped. “Um. I’d heard the Slaughterhouse Nine were around. Be careful, warn others.” I pointed at my face.
His eyes widened. I could see the thought process, the realization. He took off his glasses and hung them from his shirt’s front pocket. I wasn’t positive that was much better.
Something about glasses is related to the Slaughterhouse Nine? What’s the relation between this? I think I’m missing something here. Still...I now see this is why Skitter is using contact lenses, she’s trying to avoid whatever relation there is between those and the Slaughterhouse Nine. A prudent move, even though I don’t know what exactly this is all about. You can’t be too safe when it’s about superpowered killers.
Dad Hebert and Taylor go in their separate ways, Taylor returning to the lair and prying off lenses off her mask. That’s when the men she requested from Coil arrive.
Time to claim my territory.
Right, this is why this arc is called ‘Infestation’. She’s going to infest her territory with her presence. Good luck, Taylor, you’ll need it. Nothings comes easy in Worm!
I’ll continue next time.
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The Weekend Warrior Home Edition 8/14/20 – SPUTNIK, THE SILENCING, FREELAND, SPREE, THE BAY OF SILENCE
Another week, another batch of movies to get through in hopes there’s one or two worth writing about… and then writing about all of them anyway. (Sigh). I hope there are people reading this, at least. If so, go to the bottom of this column and drop me a line!
Before I get to this week’s movies, I want to give a special congratulatory shout-out to the wonderful Melanie Addington, because this is the final week of the 17th annual Oxford Film Festival. I have to say as someone who regularly covers a couple other bigger festivals, she’s done such an amazing job pivoting to the virtual world, to the point where what usually is a five-day very localized festival turned into a nationwide digital festival that’s been stretched out for 16 weeks! Those bigger festivals like SXSW and Tribeca could take a lesson from Oxford, because what usually are two highly-anticipated festivals every year became a whole lot of nothing thanks to COVID. It’s like they gave up, rolled over and just died. Oxford, meanwhile, has done Zoom QnAs with a lot of the filmmakers and casts from its films to help maintain the community feeling that makes the festival such a great destination for those in-the-know. (I haven’t even gotten into the amazing drive-in screenings or the year-round On Demand program they’ve been having over the past couple months.)
Anyway, OFF ends this week with the world-premiere of a movie that was supposed to open at SXSW, Mario Furlani and Kate McLean’s debut feature FREELAND, starring Krisha Fairchild from Trey Shults’ movie, Krisha. Freeland is a similarly strong indie r drama, this one starring Ms. Fairchild as Davi, a black market marijuana farmer in Humboldt County, Norther California, who sees her way of life changing when she’s forced to go legal after California legalizes marijuana. Instead, these changes might run her out of business. It’s a beautifully-shot (Furlani is also the cinematographer) character drama that spotlights Fairchild giving another memorable performance, surrounded by an equally excellent cast that includes Lily Gladstone from Certain Women. I hope a good distributor like IFC or Magnolia will scoop this up for release, as I think it’s an interesting look into the pot business from a unique perspective. I also think it could do VERY well at the Indie Spirits. You can watch Freeland for a couple more days (at least) with a QnA with cast and crew on Thursday night right here.
Also, check out the Eventive site for the final week line-up which includes a TON of shorts. (Be mindful, that some of the content, specifically The Offline Playlist, will only be watchable if you’re in Mississippi.)
Also starting this week on Thursday is the 5th Annual Dallas-based Women Texas Film Festival (aka WTxFF), also going virtual this year, which I don’t really know that much about, but it’s run by my friend, Justina Walford, and she generally knows her shit when it comes to movies. Its mission pledge is right there in the title, but all the movies in the festival have a woman in at least one creative role. You can check out the full list of movies playing here, although they are geoblocked to Texas unfortunately. The festival’s series of panels and QnAs, though, can be watched anywhere in the United States, and those should be good.
Let’s get to the regular releases….
This week’s “Featured Flick” is Russian filmmaker Egor Abramenko’s SPUTNIK (IFC Midnight), a sci-fi thriller taking place in 1983 after an incident the Russian spaceship Orbit-4 that leaves one of the cosmonauts in detention after the death of his commander. Oksana Akinshina (who was in The Bourne Supremacy) plays Tatyana Klimova, a psychologist sent to study the surviving cosmonaut, Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov), and she learns that he brought back something with him from space.
I was a little worried about this movie, only because the opening reminded me so much of my experience watching the original Russian film Solaris so many years ago. Its quizzical opening in space leads to Akinshina’s character being introduced in a way that’s so slow and talkie that I worried about what I should expect from the movie as a whole. Thankfully, about 20 minutes in, we meet the creature that’s seemingly come down from space inside the cosmonaut, and it immediately changes the very nature of the film.
I don’t want to spoil too much about why the movie gets so interesting, because it’s not non-stop creature kills, although the movie does get quite exciting every time this creature emerges, particularly when it’s being fed various Russian convicts. Even so, the film always remains fairly cerebral about the creature’s origins and its relationship to the cosmonaut, who abandoned a child before his fateful space accident. Adding to the grey area about whether Tatyana should ally herself with Konstantin is her supervising officer, played by Fedor Bondarchuk, who clearly wants to use the creature as a weapon, knowing that both Konstantin and his “other” only trusts Tatyana, so they all need her.
Needless to say, the creature design is absolutely fantastic, and the comparisons this movie is going to get to Alien are quite apt, because the creature is on par with the xenomorph. I only wish I could see it better since it only comes out in the dark, and watching a movie that plays with light like this one does is just not conducive to watching on a laptop. (In fact, if you’re in a position to see Sputnik in a theater, even a drive-in, and you’re not averse to subtitles, I’d recommend going that route.)
Sputnik might fool you at first into expecting something in the vein of the original Solaris. In fact, it’s more in line with The Invisible Man, a creature feature that explores one man’s inner demons through the lens of science fiction. This probably would have been a better Venom movie than the one we actually got.
Jamie Lannister himself, Nicolaj Costar-Waldau stars in THE SILENCING (Saban Films) the English language debut of Belgian filmmaker Robin Pront (The Ardennes), a dark action-thriller set in the rural area of Echo Falls where a serial killer is hunting and killing young women and girls.
Robin Pront’s The Silencing is usually the type of movie I’d enjoy, if only I haven’t seen the exact same movie so many times before. I wasn’t sure whether it’s Costar-Waldau’s alcoholic hunter Rayburn Swanson, whose daughter disappeared years earlier, or it was cause of Annabelle Wallis, the town’s sheriff, Alice Gustafson, whose troubled brother Brooks (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) is caught up enough in the towns drug issues to act as the movie’s second-act red herring. Throw in the Native American aspect of the movie, and you’re right back at Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River, which was just a much better version of this movie all around.
Adding to the lack of originality is the fact that there are now so many television shows about serial killers, which is a shame since Pront’s previous film showed so much promise but also suffered from similar issues. Costar-Waldau gives a credible performance, maybe slightly better than Wallis, but we’ve seen this movie so many times before that even trying to throw in a twist or two goes awry since no one ever commits. The major plot twist about halfway in has an opportunity to change everything but instead, it’s negated mere minutes later.
Slow and grim, The Silencing suffers from being an overused genre that’s been done so much better before. It’s already been playing on DirecTV but will be in select theaters, On Demand and Digital this Friday.
Next up is the thriller THE BAY OF SILENCE (Vertical Entertainment), starring Claes Bang from The Square as Will, whose girlfriend and baby momma Rosalind (Olga Kurylenko) vanishes with their twin daughters and baby son, and her father Milton (Brian Cox) seems to know more than he’s telling. The film is written and produced by British actor Caroline Goodall (who has a small role in this one), adapted from Lisa St. Aubin de Teran's 1986 novel and directed by Dutch filmmaker Paula van der Oest, who has made some decent films like Black Butterflies and the Oscar-nominated Zus & Zo.
We meet Will and Ros as they’re having a romantic moment in the titular bay in Luguria, Italy, and after a few odd occurrences, Ros vanishes with her twin girls and the baby boy they had together. It doesn’t take long for Will to find her, but she seems to have gone insane, and Will needs to find out what happened.
Honestly, it’s not worth getting too deep into this movie’s plot, not so much due to spoilers, but more because there are just so many WTF moments that happen out of the blue, and then the next moment they’re forgotten. For whatever reason, the movie just doesn’t allow any of the tension or mystery to build, and even the most horrificly grim plot turn is handled so matter-of-factly.
There’s no question that van der Oest is a fine filmmaker, something you can tell from the general look of the movie, but the pacing and tons is generally all over the place as nothing happens and then a LOT happens. Bang’s decent performance is countered by a lot of overacting from Kulryenko, and while Cox plays a much bigger role in the story than you might expect, his scenes do very little to elevate the film’s plodding tone.
The Bay of Silence is a highly uneven and bland thriller that tries to offer a twist a minute with very of them ever really connecting, instead feeling grim and tedious and like a lot of wasted potential. Oddly, it feels more original than The Silencing above but just doesn’t come together even as well.
Where do I even begin with Eugene Kotlyarenko’s SPREE (RLJE Films) except that it stars Stranger Thing’s Joe Keery as Kurt Kunkle “of Kunkle’s World,” a social media vlog where he tries to get viewer’s attention and likes. He finally decides to go on a killing spree (get it?) while picking up passengers in his car ride service Spree (see?), until he encounters a stand-up comic (Sasheer Zamata) who fights back.
Listen, I understand fine why a movie like Spree might get made, since it’s meant to be relevant to the youngsters, who are much like Kurt, totally obsessed with their own social media and getting attention. The idea of some kid becoming a serial killer just to draw more attention to himself is not exactly incredible. I found Kurt so annoying that I didn’t think I would ever be able to have any empathy for him, and I was right.
We basically watch Kurt driving around and killing various people, most of them pretty horrible, granted, but Keery comes off more like a bargain-basement Christian Bale in American Psycho. Zamata is generally the best part of the movie, which is why the last third starts to get past some of the movie’s earlier problems to become more about an actual influencer showing Kurt how it’s done. (Zamata’s “SNL” castmate Kyle Mooney can’t really do much to make their scenes together funnier, since it’s just another sleazeball hitting on her.)
David Arquette also has a few funny scenes as Kurt’s father, but what’s probably gonna throw a lot of people off and make or break the movie is that so much of it is made to look like it was filmed on a smartphone, complete with running commentary from the viewers that you’re supposed to read, and presumably enjoy? Me, I just found it annoying.
Spree is gonna be one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies depending on which side of the age gap you’re on. To me, it just seemed way too obvious and not something I could possibly recommend to anyone over 19.
Okay… Documentary time!
I really wanted to like Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ BOYS STATE (A24/Apple TV+), which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and received Special Jury Prize at SXSW Film Festival, but it’s a pollical doc that deals with a subject that just didn’t interest me very much. It follows a thousand teen boys from Texas who come together to form a government from the ground up, and that’s the problem right there. The fact this is all about guys. I just couldn’t get interested enough to watch the whole thing since it seemed obvious how it would turn out. Boys State was supposed to open in select cities last month but instead, it will be on Apple TV+ Friday after getting a few drive-in preview screenings, cause that’s just the way things are going these days.
Willa Kammerer’s Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America (Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation/Abramorama), which will open in Virtual Cinema Friday after a Virtual Premiere tonight. It seems very timely, as it deals with investing in high-quality early child education. Just as timely is Muta’Ali Muhammad’s Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn (HBO Documentary Films), which premieres on HBO tonight, looking at the events around the 1989 murder of teenager Yusuf Hawkins by a group of white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Erik Nelson’s doc Apocalypse ’45 (Discovery/Abramorama), which will be in theaters this Friday and on Discovery over Labor Day weekend, is about the end of World War II, using never-before-seen footage with narration by 24 men who were there for it.
Quiver Distribution has two movies out this Friday, both which could probably be seen as young adult movies – not really a genre I like very much, so your mileage may vary?
ENDLESS from director Scott Speer (Midnight Sun) is a romantic drama starring Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) as graphic novelist Riley, whose boyfriend, Nick Hamilton’s Chris gets stranded in limbo after he’s killed in a car crash. Taking the blame for his death on herself, Riley struggles to find ways to reconnect with Chris in the afterlife.
I wasn’t sure if this movie would be for me, since I’m not a very big fan of young adult movies generally. So many of them have hard-to-believe high-concept premises involving two lovelorn teens – Midnight Sun being a good example. Unlike so many of these movies, Endless isn’t based on a popular book, and I was a little worried about Speer’s skills as a director and whether he could avoid turning this into a very obvious teen version of Ghost. There’s a little bit of that but on a whole, the movie isn’t a complete waste of time. For instance, Shipp is decent in this sort of dramatic role, probably better than Hamilton, and it avoids getting too weepy thanks to DeRon Horton’s animated Jordan, who befriends Chris in limbo and quickly becomes the movie’s frequent saving grace.
Otherwise, the movie feels like any other soppy teen romantic drama, being very predicable with way too much overacting, particularly from Fammke Janssen as Chris’ Mom. Even though the relationship between Shipp and Hamilton works fine, unless you’re on board with the whole concept of the latter spending the entire film as a spirit, you’re going to have a hard time fully enjoying the movie.
In Bobby Roth’s PEARL, Larsen Thompson plays the title character, a 15-year-old piano prodigy whose mother Helen (Sarah Carter from The Flash) is murdered by her stepfather (Nestor Carbonell). She’s sent to live with Jack Wolf (Anthony LaPaglia), an unemployed film director, who used to be one of her mother’s ex-lovers, who also might be Pearl’s father. I know! Let’s spend an entire movie going back and forth trying to figure it out, okay?
I don’t have a ton to say about this movie, but if for some reason, you want to watch it just cause you’re a fan of Carter from The Flash, you should know that she appears in the movie via a series of black and white flashbacks to show her relationship with Jack, but those might be the best part of a very bad movie.
Thompson just isn’t a very solid actor to carry this, and Roth must have pulled a lot of favors to get this movie made ‘cause it wasn’t financed based on the script. Her relationship with LaPaglia just seems kinda creepy. Things just gets worse and worse, especially when Pearl goes to school and the other girls act like they’re in prison. There’s also Barbara Williams as Pearl’s alcoholic grandmother – the fun just never begins, does it?
At its worst, Pearl comes across like a Lifetime movie – not the first time I’ve used this statement this year and probably not the last. It’s just very dull and not a very good movie; LaPaglia is way too good an actor who deserves better than this.
Also on VOD this week is Kevin Tran’s Dark End of the Street (Gravitas Ventures), an indie horror movie involving a community in the suburbs plagued by someone who is killing the residents’ pets. This wasn’t a terrible movie but I had a hard time getting past the general premise about killing pets, so it was hard to get into what Tran tried to do in terms of putting a twist on a tried-and-true horror genre. Maybe I’ll give this another try after finishing this column.
Also, Ben Galland’s action-comedy Gripped: Climbing the Killer Pillar (1091) follows Rose (Megan Kesley), a L.A. gym climber who falls for rugged outdoorsman Bret (Kaiwi Lyman) as they embark on a trip to climb the “Killer Pillar” in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, only to get caught on a cliff edge.
The Metrograph’s Live Screening Series is continuing with a great line-up over the rest of August with the Satoshi Kon Retrospective continuing with Millennium Actress playing until midnight tonight, plus Masaaki Yuasa & Koji Morimoto’s popular 2004 film Mind Game starting Wednesday night at 8pm. Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001) will screen on Friday at 8pm, and then Monday, Jenna Bliss’ animated The People’s Detox (2018) will join the screening library. To become a digital member, it’s only $5 a month or $50 for a year, which is a great deal for the amount of movies you see.
Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema will stream Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film Change of Life starting Friday while Film Forum will stream Weiner Holzemer’s doc Martin Margiella: In His Own Words about the fashion designer, as well as Bert Stern’s Jazz on a Summer’s Day which is a 1959 documentary about the fashion photographer filming the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, Mahalia Jackson, Thelonious Monk and many more.
Apparently, Netflix has a new movie out on Friday called Project Power, starring Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but I received ABSOLUTELY NADA about it from Netflix, so this is all you get. Watch out, Netflix, there are a lot of streaming options out there now!
Speaking of drive-ins (which I was WAY up there), on Wednesday, you can catch the latest in Amazon Studios “A Night at the Drive In” series. “Movies to Make You Open Your Eyes,” which will screen Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and Jordan Peele’s Get Out.
Next week, more movies not in theaters!
By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!
#TheWeekendWarrior#Movies#Reviews#OxfordFilmFestival#Sputnik#Spree#vodun#TheSilencing#TheBayOfSilence#BoysState#Pearl#Endless
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Major Essay 2
Rheanne Harkness
Professor Timothy Greenup
English 112
28 November 2017
Aspects of the Self: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Over this last month, if there’s anything I’ve taken away from our rather in-depth class-wide examination of the concept of bildungsroman and how it forms the backbone of works like Mariko Tamaki’s “Skim”, it’s that the influence of external forces on transitional periods in young adult lives shapes everyone a little differently. However, the emotional upheaval such forces put us through often comes into conflict with our identities, calling who we are and what we stand for into question so much that it results in we ourselves needing to reestablish a more permanent sense of identity altogether. Sometimes though, this type of conflict can constitute a rift between how we carry ourselves in the public eye verses the private eye depending on the kinds of impressions we want to give off so that others may see us in a certain way. A lot of this is true for the character of Skim as it is for so many of us, she herself is trying to figure what kind of person she is to the point where there is a rift that was brought to my attention very clearly during group presentations between how Skim acts around others verses when she’s alone, yet her public and private selves always feed into each other. This got me thinking: if Skim’s goal as well as the audiences’ is to take stock of who she is based on how and why she carries herself at different times, then what is it we learn about Skim from her diary entries (the main manifestations of her private self) compared to her conversations with other characters (the main manifestations of her public self) and how do both sides serve to paint a picture of Skim’s true identity at its core?
It’s a bit ironic that the entire story of “Skim” is told from the main protagonist’s point of view mostly by way of her diary entries because most people who’ve never read it before would probably take this to mean that Skim is giving the audience a first-hand account of all the turmoil that’s befallen her life along with her reaction to it. (See for example, a broken arm has hindered Skim’s ability to write, her dad nearly died twice due to heart attacks, there’s a lack of any genuine support coming from her mother and supposed best friend, etc.) Now Skim does do this, but only on a very base level, summing up her thoughts and feelings with equal signs rather than full statements such as when she’s describing herself and her parents in the most dismissive black-and-white manner possible - “Mom says the heart attacks have turned my father into a cream puff...My dad says my mother is a cold cynical women who has no appreciation for a broken heart...My parents = serious issues...My dad signed my cast with an ugly happy face that I am scratching off. Me = serious issues” (Tamaki and Tamaki 10). From this and other snippets of her diary, whether paired down by shorthand or not, it’s easy to gather that Skim is feeling depressed, angry, even confused about all these sudden changes that’ve soaked up all the attention in her life and are putting a damper on who she is. The irony? Even though the whole point of having a diary in the first place is to be able to have something to bare your soul to without fear of being judged by anyone else for the way you think and feel, Skim writes about what she’s feeling but keeps vague as to the reasons why. It’s almost as if the character herself was aware that the diary would be published and read by millions in real life so here she is making a last-ditch effort to save face!
In all seriousness, Skim in a sense really is trying to save face through the act of ”self-censoring”, as put so eloquently by Margaret Lang in our first group presentation. Much of this can be cited in the comparatively detailed commentary Skim makes that is laced with more overtly irrational cynicism than usual - think of when the whole school is hung up over John Reddear’s death and Skim is treated by Mrs. Hornet and Julie Peters as a premature suicide statistic just by virtue of being associated with goth culture, to which she wrote this in response: “Truthfully, I am always a little depressed but that is because I am sixteen and everyone is stupid (ha-ha-ha). I doubt it has anything to do with being a goth” (Tamaki and Tamaki 22). Additionally, there are many times throughout the story when Skim writes a complete thought that would give everyone, including herself, some proper insight as to why she feels the way she does if it wasn’t, say, followed by a question mark or delayed with an ellipsis: “Things That Make Me Sad - Love. Things That Make Me Happy - “Love?” (Tamaki and Tamaki 67). Perhaps most striking though, are the thoughts that Skim crosses out (as Luke Langton called particular attention to in the second group presentation) and sometimes replaces with other deliberately less direct comments which at best reveal half-truths in place of whole truths: “I didn’t know what to write. Because...I’m not sure. I didn’t know what other people would think about my answer. It’s a stupid question” (Tamaki and Tamaki 61).
All the above examples to me suggest that Skim not only has trouble being honest with herself, but is also afraid of offering any outright explanations as to why she’s been so depressed, even in her diary. This is because doing so might make her appear too vulnerable on top of already being unsure of who she is as an individual. Consider Skim’s pentacle, a doodle of a star that shows up quite a few times throughout the book. We see it drawn twice on Skim’s list of things that she still needs for her altar, Skim paints a tiny star on her face (but washes it off) right before the Wiccan AA meeting, there’s even a pentacle drawn on Skim’s cast. We find out towards the end of the story through a conversation Skim has with Katie Matthews that the pentacle is meant to protect her from “everything” but “It’s mostly just symbolic” (Tamaki and Tamaki 109). I think the pentacle has held more significance to Skim than she’s actually letting on at this point. It’s shown up enough times that I can’t help but deduce it is meant to be a safeguard, a way for Skim to protect herself against obstacles she’s having a hard time overcoming or things she’s feeling uneasy about (like a casted right arm and the strange Wiccan meeting). This is especially important because up until the end of the book, anything having to do with Wicca, as the star does, is a huge part of the new identity we see Skim trying to forge for herself. It’s only after Skim talks to Katie about it and later signs her cast with a pentacle “for good luck” does the star take on a meaning for Skim that really is just symbolic and nothing more, since by then, Skim has grown confident enough in herself that she no longer needs Wicca or the star doodles to feel validated.
But while we’re on the topic of conversation, I notice a correlation between the most positive and negative interactions Skim has with other characters at the beginning of the book and the diary entries that are written about them after the fact. When Skim tries to speak her mind towards her “friend” Lisa, she is often shut down and insulted for it. In those situations, the best thing Skim can do to vent her frustration is insult Lisa back. Not surprisingly, these scenes in themselves tend to make it even more clear as to why Skim feels so dejected whenever she’s with Lisa than the diary entries do. The ramifications of such a relationship where Skim is almost never allowed to get a word in edgewise (and when she does, Lisa verbally abuses her for it) center around a lack of confidence Skim has in her ability to channel her thoughts towards other people and herself simply due to the fact that Lisa has never given Skim the option to do otherwise. However, Skim’s first meaningful conversation with Ms. Archer really puts things into perspective for the audience, as not only is she the first character in the story to let Skim speak freely without any fear of a hostile response, but she also asks why the students call the central protagonist “Skim” when her real name is “Kim”, to which the latter answers: “Because I’m not” (Tamaki and Tamaki 27). This little exchange here conveys by far the most important thing we ever learn about Skim as a person throughout the entire story - she does not think of herself as a light or superficial individual, (as two separate dictionary definitions of the term seem to allude). I dare say, that serves to make her nickname quite a contradiction to what I would claim the character of Skim is really like in spite of the confidence lapse she has to wrestle with for so long in public and private!
Yes, Skim most certainly is quite the introspective and layered character. Thus the climactic pay-off of when she is finally able to express herself, (effectively giving the GCL members a piece of her mind in defense of Katie and John Reddear without any care as to what will come of it afterwards) is made so much sweeter. Though please do not take this to mean there’s a great discrepancy between the Skim we get to know while writing diary entries and the Skim we get to know while interacting with others. Skim’s fear of appearing weak in the eyes of herself and of those around her was always present until we saw her get past that fear at the end of the story by standing her ground against unfair treatment instead of just blowing it off in the first respect, and by slowly becoming a lot more truthful and censoring less as she writes in the second respect. Neither of these public and private sides of Skim are any more in line with who she truly is by themselves because, to put it simply, you can’t fully understand one side without the other.
Works Cited
Lang, Margaret, et al. "Skim: A Social Commentary." English 112 Group Presentations, 16 November, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA. Student Presentation.
Langton, Luke, et al. “Skim.” English 112 Group Presentations, 16 November, Spokane Falls
Community College, Spokane, WA. Student Presentation.
Tamaki, Mariko, and Jillian Tamaki. Skim. Groundwood Books, 2008.
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Requiem for a Loud (Again)
So, in my review of Syn....whatever they way you pronounce that phobia, I was asked what were my initial thoughts on another notorious fanfic in the Loud House fandom; Requiem for a Loud. For starters....my relationship with the fanfic was sketchy at best. Whilst I was browsing TV Tropes, I stumbled on this fanfic completely by accident. After reading the summary, I assumed that the story was going to build up to some great big joke, so I decided to start reading. Reading the first chapters sent several different emotions through my mind; I felt sad, depressed even. It came to a point that I found it extremely difficult to look at the show again after reading the story. Every time I saw Lincoln, I was only reminded of the fact that he's going to die soon in the fanfic. And yeah, I am stating that now: I am quite certain that Lincoln will die at the end as requiem means "mass for the dead." If Lincoln doesn't end up dying meaning that all of these emotional scenes that were being delved on were entirely pointless, this would be my most likely reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZkC26-3t6U.
So, yeah, at the time, I really loved this story. Normally, I tended to hate fan fiction because of how they often try to make children's shows grimdark by introducing subject matter that the actual show would never do. That's why many Creepypasta based on kids' shows suck. But no. I actually felt that I was reading pure gold here. It did what many stories fail to do for me; actually make me feel sad and empty. I mean, yeah, the touching moments were there to numb the pain a bit, but at the end, I still felt empty knowing that the story won't be having a happy ending. I mean I loved the story so much to write an unofficial spin-off based on it that UnderratedHero himself actually liked. Butttttt....I consider it an old shame now. I read this story around the time that I was becoming a fan of the show (I was more a passive watcher), but this one story rocked my world. It inspired me to write stories based on the show with one currently having 235 reviews and 96 faves. And that's coming from the fact that I'm currently a junior in college with no writing background prior. I owe a lot to this story as well as that one that I can't say or spell.
However....I lost interest in the story. Many factors went into the story. For one, some of the chapters seemed dull. Really, even if I listen to the story being read on YouTube, my mind was wondering several times. I just felt bored reading the story. That doesn't help with the fact that the chapters are long. While I do read a few good books here and there, I normally am unable to finish them because they would be that long. It's a miracle that I was able to finish reading Stephen King's IT before the book fell a part. I don't know if it's because of my Asperger's, but reading Requiem constantly felt like a chore than leisure. Besides that, my other issue with the story was how it tries to make you feel bad for Lincoln's predicament. I mean, he's dying of a terminal illness and his family is devastated. But, here's the thing. The more I watched the show, I just didn't really find myself being fond of Lincoln. While Lincoln is relatable, I just found him...uninteresting. He's to this show like Kermit is to the Muppets. He's the straight man for the more colorful characters. Besides that, there were several moments that Lincoln had that showed him as being a jerk. He was selfish, mean, and often got into fights with his sisters for the most flimsy of reasons. With that being said...I couldn't really bring myself to care that Lincoln was dying. If it happened to a more interesting character...maybe I'd raise an eyebrow at that, but because it's Lincoln...I mean, Lincoln gets the short end of the stick several times. So him getting a terminal illness would be the most logical next step. That's not helping how half the fandom practically worships Lincoln like a god or Christ figure. I found myself gagging multiple times while I was reading the story. I just find this really terrible to Lincoln, because it ignores the mistakes that he did prior to this.
Going back to the sad scenes...Like I have said in a previous blog, I found myself laughing at some scenes that were supposed to be dramatic, but instead they come off as being artsy. I honestly found several scenes cheesy. For instance, when Lucy finds out the truth about Lincoln's condition, she runs to the junk yard to mope. Lincoln comes, tells her a poem, basically saying that regardless of whatever happens, he's always going to be there for her. And then he says the same thing to Lola and Lana. I get that it's a heartwarming moment and all that, but I also felt my eyeballs roll back in my head because of how cheesy everything was. Or then there's when Lincoln's doing his bucket list after he was informed that a boy that he met at the hospital died (which felt pointless, btw). Just....really, I couldn't help but joke about the severity of this situation. But that's not what I disliked the most about the story.
My last point on this story is that I felt that the author was making things darker for the sake of adding on to them feels. Of course, a story where an 11 year old boy dying is dark enough, but the author decided to include a scene where Luna - a 15 year old girl - actually drinks and...does some things with some random stranger. I mean, what the heck, Luna? Your brothers' dying, and you decide to get schwifty with some boy? Lori had every right to get mad at Luna for that. Okay, I understand the point of this scene: Luna is so depressed about her brother's oncoming death, that she decided to do this to leviate the pain a bit. Even then, I was that close to dropping the fanfic. Besides that, Lisa was also taking caffeine packs to stay awake as she tried to work on an antidote. Besides the fact that the chapters are long and often boring, my other complaint was the inconsistent updating. Now, I get that the author has other things in life to do like college work (I mean, him and me both), and the like, but I found it annoying having to continually wait for an update of the story as my interest in the story was waning by then. Most infuriatingly was the "fake chapter." On April 1st, UnderratedHero updated the story where it seemed as if it was going to be the conclusion to the overall story. But then it amounted to "Ha, ha! Fooled you; five more chapters to go!" To say that I was peeved beyond belief is an understatement. I was enraged by being duped by this. I mean, yeah, it was April Fools' Day, so what should I have expected. But that was the breaking point for me if the story was worth continuing to read or not. After hearing all of the praise and seeing the continuous recommendations for the story, I just slowly began to dislike it more for its obvious flaws. The story is overrated people; realize that. Since that chapter, I could've sworn that the story was dead, and I began to forget about it. I know that by the time I'm typing this that the story was finally updated, but I couldn't even care anymore about that. At that point, I just saw the story as some overrated piece of fan fiction that tries to be dark for the sake of being dark, or force you to feel bad for Lincoln and the family when I honestly couldn't care less.
I do appreciate the intention for the story; Lincoln is the glue that holds the family together. He is the emotional support. The story delves into what if Lincoln were to disappear? How could the family move on without him? Would they ever recover. The highlights definitely have to be the sisters' reaction to the news. You see how each sister expresses their grief in a different way; Lynn feels that everything is her fault, Leni tries to stay optimistic, Luan temporarily becomes a mime. That was the real reason as to why I even cared about reading the story. While I may not like Lincoln, it is made quite clear how important he is to his friends and family.
Anyway, that is my little blog on Requiem. Again. Hopefully, this is the last time that I'll be discussing this story. You don't have to agree with my points, but I'll respect yours as long as you are civil and respectful of mine. As always, AustinDR, out.
Final score: 8 1/2 out of ten stars
#requiem#requiem for a loud#requiemforaloud#austindr#robbyrobinson#robby robinson#deviantart#review#underratedhero#terminalillness#terminal illness#fanfiction#theloudhouse#theloudhousefanfiction#loudhouse#loud house
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Commentary: Episodes 1-6
I’ll preface this by saying that I loved all the episodes, and I could visualise everything like I was really watching it, so I’m mega excited. I also know that these are rough drafts from everyone and the dialogue/scenes are just examples of the direction we’re heading in and are just the initial product, so people might already be aware of what I’m saying. It’s just that I’m unused to giving constructive criticism outside of an academic sphere so I really want to underline that I do appreciate the hard work that’s gone into these outlines and I hope that I’m not stepping on toes or upsetting people. It’s a creative effort and it truly shows!
Overall comments: I love each episode individually and have a lot more positivity than criticism. What I will say is that we’ll all have to be careful of pacing, since (am I right in saying?) most of us probably more used to prose than screenwriting when writing fanfic. Other than that, no major issues, which is amazing considering how many of us there are, and the fact that there’s 22 episodes! Great job, guys! :-)
Also please ignore any misspellings of Darhk – I hate that stupid silent h so much.
Episode 1 –
- I love Jax sticking up for Mick, particularly when he points out that Mick is still edgy about anything to do with Cronos
- We need the info from Eo’s panicked speech but on reading the information seems a little clumped together and rushed. Maybe punctuate it with Darhk asking him what he means and then Eo has to clarify.
For example:
[“I’m out-running my own non-existence,” Thawne explains. “Nice little perk of being a speedster – but now I’m being chased by the worst thing out there, even worse than the time wraiths: the Death of Speedsters.”
“The Death of Speedsters?” interjects Darhk. “Bit dramatic.”
Eobard is unimpressed. “It’s the Black Flash. He has my scent now and he’ll never stop following me – so I need to keep moving.”
“And how exactly do you plan on outrunning death itself?”
“Our little deal, that’s how. I have some time before he figures out where and when I am, but I need to make sure that the timeline that my ancestor dies in never happens, and the best way to do that is to make a massive adjustment to the timeline early on.”]
- I love Mick’s interaction with Rex; I actually prefer this shorter scene to the original episodes, it plays as both comedic and practical
- I think you’ve kept a really good balance of new content vs sticking to canon, the scenes gel well together
- Especially love the end scene with Kendra and Oliver
- Thanks, liked this!
Episode 2
- I don’t see a problem overmuch with the spear pieces ‘whispering’, it’s a pretty well-known trait of ‘mystical things you 100% Should Not Touch’ and experience with pop culture already tells us that the only people who can hear it can only do so because the magic thing wants them to (a la One Ring). Same with glowing. Maybe the whispering could be more indistinct, like wind through the trees or parseltongue or something?
- Where are Jax and Stein when the scene opens? At first I thought they were already on the ship but reading further down it’s unclear until much later in the episode.
- I really like that first hint of Len. It’s a nice red herring too, especially if the whispers we heard earlier are kept in.
- I like the bit with Ray and Bambi, and Stein and Jax read fine.
- Good use of Nate
- Mind the pacing a bit when switching between scenes – I like the Ray and Bambi scenes, but something needs to happen in every scene or we’ll be left wondering why we were shown that, and not in a ‘oh, a mystery’ way. That said, I’m loving all the Ray and Bambi scenes, pleeeease don’t kill Bambi. It’s so very Ray that he’s keeping a pet dinosaur, I love it. Also, killing the raptor lets us see a more hardcore side of Ray we don’t usually get.
- As an aside…with those injuries Ray will definitely die from infection/blood loss and he knows it. We are so lucky he’s going to be rescued. From his perspective, he’s staring death in the eye and that’s despairing and intense.
- Fricking LOVE the idea of Firestorm appearing as an ‘angel’, cannot underline that enough
- Love the drama in this episode, like the plot and battle
- Loving the friction Mick has when Nate can’t find Ray and I love how they end up doing so
- Overall I really enjoyed this, I’d just be very careful with pacing in the episode itself. Thanks!
Episode 3
- LOVE the premise of Sara working with the JSA
- Like the build-up to Nate’s reveal of how he knows so much
- Way prefer this method of introduction and interaction between the Legends and the JSA, nice
- ‘Nazis in the White House’ – if that was a nod, I like it
- Fantastic interaction between Amaya and Sara
- Nice reveal with Nate, the pencil, and him being Henry’s grandson
- Nice interaction with Henry and Nate after Nate gets injured
- Good ending, maybe just add in that Amaya actually gives a reason for mistrusting Mick specifically since she would have had more interaction with Sara and knew that Sara didn’t particularly respect Rex
- Really like this episode! I think the pacing is pretty good too.
Episode 4
- Good opening, but coming from the first episode where D and Eo are already working together, maybe Eo should specify a more ‘long term, mutually beneficial alliance’ i.e. instead of a once-off arrangement like with the bomb
- I think Nate should lead the conversation on leaving history the way it is, when coming from his whole thesis needing to be re-written like a billion times, with Stein interrupting him with his own two cents
- I really like the premise of this episode – I like the images of the mess of the crowd, the fact that Ray actually checked up for Sara what would happen if she brought Laurel back, Young!Clarissa and Stein finding each other in the chaos – good stuff
- Nice interaction at the bar with everyone, and I like the Sara and Mick convo
- Nice manipulation by Eo towards Sara, I find this progression believable. Really good twist there, with everyone slowly realising what Sara had done, including Sara herself
- LAUREL
- That’s a good reason Eo had for actually bringing Laurel back instead of just lying to Sara and stealing the pieces – good job
- Good interaction between Mick and Amaya, Sara and Laurel
- Good drama at Star Labs, and I liked the mention of Amaya’s reasoning for leaving her home for the JSA
- Thank you for the Lisa ending, very nice. Woo!
Episode 5
- Great premise, I like the opening
- Nice nod to ‘authentic’ Vikings – the image of Mick in a horn hat will live on in my heart forever
- Very atmospheric episode actually, it felt like I was watching it unfold and hearing the yells of battle, so nice job
- I appreciate all the hard work you’ve done with the spellings and the insertion of ø, I really do, my word
- I love Jax and Gunlød’s interactions, all of them – the casual chats, the flirting, the pep talk he gives her
- Very emotive episode, I think it all flows down to the funeral scene very well
- The Legend’s funeral scene is so sad, thank you
- The ending needs something to tie it into the next episode I think, instead of just ending with Jax and Gunlød’s goodbye, but I think that’ll actually depend on the pacing for the whole episode once it’s been fleshed out into full length – the story seems pretty long already so there might not be room and it might end up as an appropriate ending, with a following episode dealing with the vision etc. We’ll have to see how that turns out!
- Enjoyed this episode, nice job!
Episode 6
- Nice nudge at Darhk’s usage of idols
- Great focus on Lisa and her skills, nice atmosphere from the location (like, not ‘nice’…I mean that I get a real sense of the place)
- Good plan
- Good expansion on Ray’s theme of suit/intelligence
- Just a suggestion – in light of the stuff he went through while stranded with dinosaurs, maybe just have a line about how when he was in the prehistoric era he felt helpless and useless without his tech, and now that he has it back he finally has a chance to be useful again and fight with his full strength, or something along those lines? Just so we’re not just throwing away the dinosaur era trauma he must have gone through, especially since he nearly died? And maybe highlighting that he has a deeper reason beyond stubbornness to sticking with the suit, since it’s literally his safety net?
- Great escalation of things going wrong for the Legends
- This episode flows very well actually, and I loved the interactions with Mick and Jax, and when Lisa ripped Ray a new one
- That’s some gooooood Lisa and Mick interaction, thank you
- Very enjoyable, nice work!
Episode 7 – since this was an episode I worked on I’ll leave the commentary to others who can spot the issues with it!
I’ll leave it at that for this evening but I’ll try to give a look at the others tomorrow. For now we’ve got some solid episodes here with only a few minor tweaks that’ll come about naturally as the writing progresses.
Hope this commentary was okay!
- Kako-Pumpkin
LOTREWRITE: Your commentary is EXCELLENT, so much positivity and very good points on the critique made all around, and I can't wait to see your comments on the remainder.
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Fic: Once Bitten, Twice Shy (ao3 link)
Fandom: Flash, DC's Legends (characterization)
Pairing: gen; some background hints of Mick Rory/Leonard Snart
Summary: Leonard Snart doesn't trust easy, but his aunt Noga - who some people call Nora - assures him that the man she married, Henry Allen, is a good one.
So when Len sees in the newspaper that Henry Allen has been arrested for killing his wife, he has only one thought.
"I'm going to kill him."
A/N: For @oneiriad, who requested this to be cheered up from the season finale. I...tried?
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When Len was very small, he liked to play tag with his aunt Noga. She was his mother’s half-sister – much, much younger than his mom, more of an elder sister than an aunt, a product of an affair which a rich white man who’d adopted Noga for his own when he found out.
He called her Nora, not Noga, because he said it was more “American”, but Len’s mother and grandmother cheerfully ignored him and continued to call her the name of her birth, though they permitted him to take her away so she could have what they called a better life.
Len figured it was because she was rich now. Respectable. But she was still his aunt.
When Len got a little older, and his dad went to prison and came back different, things changed. The rich man didn’t like his baby girl associating with criminals, so Noga couldn’t come around anymore.
One day, Len had taken the bus all the way to Noga’s house in the nice part of town.
“Can I live with you?” he asked. “I don’t wanna be at home anymore.”
She’d taken one look at his black eye and the ginger way he walked, and she’d let him right in.
They’d managed two whole days, Len hiding in Noga’s room and her bringing him food and stuff to read, before Noga’s father found out and kicked Len out, yelling that he wouldn’t ever permit his daughter to be associated with such filthy trash, that he’d get a restraining order, that Len would go to jail if he ever saw her again.
Noga had sobbed and begged, but nothing had helped.
Len had gone home, and his dad hadn’t been happy with him, either.
That’d been the first time it was bad enough for him to have to go to the hospital.
Len’s mother decided it was time to leave, even though she was so very sick by now.
Len will never be sure if her death a week later, diagnosed as either natural causes or, at worst, an accidental overdose of her medication, was natural. He doesn’t like to think about it.
He doesn’t think about it, for years and years.
It’s not until later – much later, when he has Lisa to think of and he’s gone to juvie and back once already – that he sees Noga again. She’s wearing a college shirt, some fancy place out east, and she’s holding hands with some big guy and smiling.
Len feels the shame in his thrift store clothing and his ragged jeans but – family is family.
He goes up to them and says to the guy, “You’d better be treating her right.”
The guy bristles a little – he’s a wealthy college white boy, after all, and they don’t take too kindly to young poor black men telling them anything, no matter how pale their complexion – but Noga recognizes him immediately, shrieking and wrapping her hands around him. “Lenny! Lenny!”
He hugs her back.
“You know him?” the guy says, good humor restored, though he’s still wary.
“My nephew,” she says, wiping her eyes. “Oh, Lenny – my dad said he’d sent you away!”
“He did,” Len says, puzzled. “Back to my house.”
“No – he said you’d left the city! And then Hagit died and he wouldn’t even let me go to her funeral and – oh, Lenny.”
Len softens. He’d never liked her dad anyway, and he has plenty of experience with bad dads. He guesses he can’t hold her long absence against her after all.
“Henry Allen,” the guy says, sticking out a hand. “We’re both pre-med, Columbia. What’re you?”
Len stares at him. “Poor,” he says.
“I’m sorry?”
“I’m poor,” Len clarifies. “I ain’t in college.”
“…oh.”
“You dating this bozo?” Len asks Noga, nodding at him.
She blushes, which Len takes as a yes.
“Don’t,” Len says. “Oblivious rich boys like this, they’ll just turn into your dad. Or worse, mine.”
Henry looks offended.
“Oh, no,” Noga says. “Henry’s nothing like that.”
Len snorts. “Yeah,” he says. “And your sis thought my dad was a nice good man, just ‘cause he was a cop, and look where that got her, huh? A grave, that’s what.”
“I assure you,” Henry says stiffly. “I am not abusive. And I am very much in love with Nora.”
Len arches his eyebrows, but he doesn’t say anything. No one can convince a woman in love that her man’s wrong.
Noga reaches out and grabs Len’s hands. “Come to lunch with us,” she says. “I insist. You can keep an eye on Henry.”
“Nora!” Henry protests.
“He’s my nephew,” Noga says, steel in her tone. “And he’s worried about me. He deserves a chance to see that you’re the good man I know you are.”
He’s still pouting. He’s used to being given the benefit of the doubt, a nice young man, upstanding and smart and follows all the rules. Police probably let him walk off crime scenes with a promise that he’ll come back later to give his testimony.
Hell, police probably don’t even stop him.
“If it’s a problem, Henry,” Noga says, pleasant as can be, “then perhaps Leonard and I should go to lunch by ourselves.”
Len loves his aunt.
“No,” Henry says hastily. “I’m happy to come along.” He takes a moment and visibly masters himself, swallowing away his annoyance, and he’s pleasant for the rest of the day.
Len has to give him one thing, though; no matter how often he goes to check on her, Henry – who becomes a surgeon, of all hoity-toity things, while Noga goes into chemistry – is madly in love with her.
He’s in love with her when they’re dating.
He’s in love with her at their wedding, which Len sneaks Lisa out of pre-school to attend – she gets to be the flower girl – and which Len’s dad never finds out about.
He’s in love with her, overwhelming in love with her, when their child is born. Lisa loves having a cousin who’s nearly her age, though she insists the difference between five and newborn is immense and uncountable and this makes her old now.
He’s in love with her when they buy a house in Central City – far away from his parents in the east coast, but in the city she loves best.
He’s in love with her when their boy, Barry, grows up, and he never hits him, not once. Lisa writes him letters – they’re pen-pals, once Barry’s old enough to learn his alphabet – because despite the fact that they’re in the same city, Len’s dad has forbidden them to contact each other.
Len visits only rarely – he’s often in prison, in those early years – but Henry never forbids it, even though Len’s a criminal. Len can see it on his face that he wants to, but Noga insists and he’s madly in love with her and so he agrees.
Sure, he’s on the phone with his cop buddy from down the street an unusually high number of times, but Len makes sure never to be seen by said cop buddy. He doesn’t want to welcome street harassment for his legal activities, and he knows how cops like to close ranks around their friends and think that harassment – little arrests here, traffic stops there – is just a way of showing their affection for their friends, and fuck the law and human rights violations involved.
Henry’s so in love, in fact, that Len starts to feel comfortable with him. The surgeon who spends his free time staffing a clinic for homeless and low-income patients; the father who makes sure to spend time at home to help Noga with the house and to play with Barry; the husband who loves his wife so much a blind man could see it on his face.
That’s what makes it all the worse when Len wakes up to Lisa running into his apartment sobbing, holding out the paper, and the front cover is Henry Allen being taken to prison for the murder of his wife, Nora Allen.
Len is very, very still and something inside of him is very, very cold.
“I’m going to kill him,” he says.
“Good,” Lisa replies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s not easy, of course. Henry Allen is under strict police custody during his trial, and spends much of his first few months segregated from the prison population. Besides, Len doesn’t want to have him killed. He wants to kill him.
He’s got plans in motion, though. The second Henry Allen is released into gen pop, Leonard Snart is going to get caught for a minor violation that’ll put him in the can just long enough to make his feelings on the matter very clear.
But first, Len figures he’d better check in on his cousin. He remembers losing a mother.
Barry’s been taken in by the cop – of course – but Len knows how cops work. A cop radio, Lisa getting her friends to start shit, and he’s off on an all-night shift.
The house is pathetically easy to break into, especially once he’s cut the phone line.
Ends up being a good idea, because the cop’s daughter goes straight for the phone.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he tells her. “Cross my heart and swear to die.” He even does the cross. Lisa’s trained him good; she's only a few years older than these kids.
She stops and stares. “What type of thief are you?”
“A very good one,” he says. “Except for the fact that I’m not here to steal anything.”
“Yeah, and you’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell me, too,” she shoots back, edging towards the kitchen. Probably for a knife or a back-up gun.
Cute kid.
He rolls his eyes. “How’s Barry doing?” he asks her.
That makes her pause. “What do you mean?”
“You’re Iris West. Barry’s best friend since he was six,” Len says. “You walk to school with him every day. He must’ve mentioned his criminal cousin pen-pals at some point.”
Her eyes go wide. “Wait,” she says. “You’re –”
“Cousin Lenny?” Barry says, coming in through the door. “Cousin Lenny!”
He practically tackles Len.
“Ouch,” Len says, staggering back a bit. “Yeesh, kid, you got big.”
Barry is crying.
Len kneels down. “Hey, hey,” he says. “There we go. I’m here. Cry all you like, kiddo.”
“Why didn’t you just come in the normal way?” Iris says crossly. “I thought you were a robber.”
“Not stealing, so no robbery,” Len says. “Technically still B&E. And family or no family, turns out your dad isn’t the type to be a-okay with criminals coming in here where you are.”
Len didn’t actually ask Joe West for permission, but that was because he knew he’d refuse.
Sure enough, Iris wrinkles her nose and nods. “Yeah,” she says. “He’s overprotective that way. You’re Nora’s brother, right?”
“Nephew, but yeah,” Len says, ignoring the name.
“Good,” she says. "As long as you're not Henry's."
“Don’t say that!” Barry shouts. “My dad didn’t do it! It wasn’t him!”
Len blinks.
“Well,” he says. “Damnit. Now I’m going to have to change my revenge plans. Who did do it?”
“You won’t believe me,” Barry says. He's shaking.
“Barry has trauma,” Iris says with the sort of self-importance that kids that age get when they’re talking about grown-up stuff. “He imagined a man appearing in a bolt of lightning. He’s seeing a shrink about it.”
“I did see a man in the lightning,” Barry whispers, his lip quivering. “I did. It wasn’t Dad.”
“It was, Bear,” Iris says, not without sympathy, but with the sort of nose-in-the-air bullcrap that someone who doesn’t even remember her only experience with severe trauma can pull.
Len’s grown up his whole life being told that his dad wasn’t really abusive. He will never be party to that sort of gaslighting, not even when it sounds right.
“If Barry says he saw a man in the lightning, he saw a man in the lightning,” Len says firmly.
“You believe me?” Barry asks, shocked.
“If you’re sure it was that man and not your dad, then yeah,” Len says. "I'll give you the benefit of a doubt."
Barry bursts into tears again and hugs Len tight.
“You really think so?” Iris asks, sounding doubtful but also like she’s got a bit of belief still left in her.
“Two words,” Len says to her. “Special effects.”
She looks taken aback, like she never considered the possibility of someone manufacturing the effect. “Oh,” she says. “Oh! So it could’ve been something else, not something supernatural or magic?”
“Any technology that’s advanced enough looks like magic,” Len points out. “You take a television to someone raised in Amish country, they’ll think you captured an image of the people in a box.” He’s pretty sure that’s actually an urban legend, but whatever, Iris is nodding now. “I’ve used flash-bang grenades myself –” Once, and it was an accident. “– and there’s all sorts of people in Central who could’ve accessed some new tech that you and me don’t know about. We’ve got all those big old lab with the military contracts, after all.”
“That’s true,” Iris says. “Oh, Barry, I’m so sorry for not believing you!”
“It’s okay,” Barry says, wiping his eyes. “You think Joe’ll listen now?”
The way Iris hesitates is perfectly clear to Len.
The answer is no.
“Your dad ever hit you?” he asks her.
Her eyes go wide. “Oh, no! Never!”
“What about calling you names?”
She shakes her head.
“Good,” Len says. “If he ever does anything like that – and I mean anything, from yelling to controlling your money to saying you can’t do shit that’s perfectly reasonable for your age – you find a way to let me know, okay?”
“My dad isn’t like that,” Iris says. Her lip’s quivering.
“But he’s happy to tell Barry he’s nuts, isn’t he?” Len says pointedly. “Tell other people he’s nuts, too. You know what happens after that? First it starts with ‘you’re lying’. Then it goes to ‘you’re nuts’ or ‘you’re bad’ because the kid doesn’t change his story. Then it gets worse.”
“Worse?” Barry and Iris chorus.
Len’s lip twists in disgust. “Yeah,” he says. “A buddy of mine, he’s got some issues, but his foster parents got the shrink to put him on drugs that make him all dead inside. They like it better when he doesn’t have the energy to move or nothing, says it makes him less trouble. And if they can’t find drugs that’ll do it, they send you to an institution. A nuthouse. And they do real bad things to you there.”
“That won’t happen!” Iris exclaims. “Barry, tell him.”
But Barry – Barry’s shaking. “They said,” he whispers. “Joe and the state psychologist and the district attorney, they said I had severe trauma and that maybe it’d be better for me to be put under observation.”
“Where?” Len asks, deeply alarmed.
“I dunno. Some hospital.”
“I’m not letting that happen,” Len says. Iris has her hand over her mouth in horror, but she’s nodding.
“You can’t,” she says, tears in her eyes. “I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest last week –”
“Iris, Joe said not to!”
“I went over to Lily and Louie’s house and we saw it there, because their parents respect our maturity. But, Barry, you can’t let them do that to you!”
“I won’t let it happen,” Len repeats, even though he’s also seen that movie and he really hopes it’s all Hollywood exaggeration. He’s not taking any chances, though. “Barry, you’re coming with me.”
“What?”
“You’re coming with me,” Len says. He hadn’t expected to have to, but damnit, he’s going to. “Iris, can you just say that Barry ran off? I’ll have my baby sister Lisa write you letters saying he’s okay and giving you a number you can contact us with.”
Iris nods. “You’d better,” she says.
“Barry, get some stuff.”
“It’s still in the bags,” Barry says. “I never unpacked…”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Iris waves them goodbye. “I won’t tell Dad,” she says.
“Tell him what you like,” Len says. He hesitates. “Actually, there is one thing you could do. Could you tell him this happened around 10 o’clock?”
Iris blinks. “Sure,” she says.
“Thanks. We’ll lay low till the heat passes – expect us to contact you,” he thinks about it, “on the first of the next month. Okay?”
She nods.
“C’mon, Barry.”
He drives him to Mick’s place, where Lisa is currently crashing. Barry runs over and hugs her, too.
Mick looks vaguely mystified. “I thought you were just gonna check if he’s okay?” he asks.
“I need you to watch him,” Len says. “Part B is going into effect now.”
“But –”
“Sorry, buddy. Just me this time. I need you to watch Barry.” Len hesitates, lowers his voice. “They were talking about institutionalizing him.”
Mick’s eyes narrow. He didn’t talk about his time being involuntary institutionalized much, but Len knew it was a sore spot.
“I’ll watch ‘em,” Mick promises.
“Good,” Len says, and goes to get himself arrested. He swings by the kitchen and gets some vodka first.
Chugging it is not the worst experience of Len’s life – he has too many to compare to – but it’s vile regardless.
Given Len’s malnutrition-derived underweight body, it doesn’t take long for his blood alcohol level to get up there. Len feels sick, but he’ll fail a test, and Mick is even now calling their favorite bar to get someone to testify that Len’s been drinking there all evening. They’ve already created the doctored footage – last week, thank god – so they’ll just slap it into their video camera recording.
It takes four attempts for Len to get caught shoplifting.
Seriously. How often can he stagger in and out of the goddamn door before they notice?
The police that come and arrest him behave just as he expects them to: they arrest him (violently), then they take his statement (drunk at a bar, didn’t realize he was doing it), and then they go check the bar.
By the time Joe West storms into the station, yelling about Leonard Snart having broken into his house and kidnapped his foster kid, Leonard Snart has been cooling his heels in the police cells for hours and hours.
Best alibi in the world.
It doesn’t take long for Iris to crack about the timeline, but by that point, the cops have checked Len’s alibi with the bar for the earlier time period.
“Sorry, Joe,” someone says not far outside of Len’s cell. “It wasn’t him.”
“Snart’s smart,” Joe argues. “Why’d he ask her to change the timeline?”
“Joe…”
“What?!”
“Joe, we have video evidence of him getting snookered in a bar in downtown during the period she says it’s supposed to have happened.”
“So it’s doctored!”
“Joe, you said yourself your kid was having trouble telling the truth.”
“What – no! That was Barry, not Iris!”
“You know how kids are that age, Joe! Barry lies all the time, Iris starts picking it up. He probably just ran away from home.”
“But – Iris –”
“I’m telling you, Joe. Traumatized kids lie, we all know that, and we also know how they can get people into it. Iris probably thinks she’s doing Barry a favor. I mean, you heard her! The poor kid got it into his head he was going to be tossed into a mental asylum.”
Joe scrubs at his face. “Yeah, I know. I guess he overheard us talking about putting him into a hospital for some supervision and misunderstood. But Snart’s where they got the idea! If we hold him -”
“We can’t hold him,” the other guy says firmly. “Not on Iris’ testimony. Her story keeps changing, and, well…it’s not going to hold up well in court, okay? I’m telling you now, no DA in the world will pen him for kidnapping.”
Len has thrown up like three times at this point, so he’s feeling sour.
“Hey, Detective!” he yells. “You got something against me, huh? Bet you killed the kid yourself and stuffed him down a hole somewhere and thought hey, that Snart guy, I can pin it on him. Bet you that’s what happened!”
The match hits the fuse.
Joe barrels into Len’s cell and grabs him by the throat, throwing him against the wall. “Where’s Barry?” he bellows. “Where’s Barry, you sick sonofabitch?”
“Barry?” Len chokes. “What about Barry?” He’s feeling really sick again. “What happened to Barry?”
“You know exactly what happened to Barry, you fucking –”
Len throws up all over him.
West steps back in disgust.
“Barry,” Len says groggily. “He’s – I think knew a Barry once. I never touched a Barry.” He feels his eyes fill with tears. It happens a lot when he’s drinking. “That hurt, man.”
By that point, the other cops have burst in and are pulling Joe away. “Damnit, Joe, you can’t do that!” one is hissing. “That’s police brutality!”
Damn right it is.
“I’m telling you,” Joe is saying. “He knows Barry. They were cousins.”
“What, with Snart?” another policeman scoffs. “Henry Allen and Lewis Snart lived on as far apart on the scale as you can get, Joe. You’re reaching.”
“I swear! Henry told me they were!”
“Henry,” the first policeman says skeptically. “Henry Allen. The guy that murdered his wife. That’s the guy you’re trusting with this.”
Joe falters.
Len can see the doubt creeping in.
Serves you right, Len thinks at him fiercely. Gaslighting Barry. Hope you like it when it’s your turn, motherfucker.
He happens to know that Noga’s dad had her birth certificate changed to list no mother at all in order to make sure that Len’s family would never be able to establish any claim to her.
Len hopes for Barry’s sake that Henry Allen is, in fact, innocent. But he’s not going to trust the justice system’s conclusions with it, oh no.
He doesn’t have long now, though. Len might only have been caught with attempted shoplifting, mitigated by his drunkenness, but with his record he’s still getting tossed in the clink. He’s betting a week, maybe two. Just to scare him straight.
Just enough time to have a little chat with Henry Allen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Allen is a broken man.
Len paid good money to make sure nothing would happen to him in prison, so he knows it’s nothing like that.
No, this is a man who’s lost everything: his wife, his son, his job, his standing in the community, everything.
The key question, though, is why.
Through his own actions? Through someone else’s?
Len makes his way straight to him.
Henry doesn’t look up until Len’s right in front of him.
When he does, he just looks tired and sad. “Hi, Leonard,” he says. “Here to talk about Nora?”
Len arches his eyebrows. “Did you kill her?”
Henry looks taken back, honestly taken aback, that Len doesn’t go straight for the killing portion of the events, much less than Len seems to be asking a question on the subject.
“The courts –” Henry starts.
“Fuck the courts,” Len says flatly. “And fuck the police, too. Did you kill her?”
Henry exhales. “No,” he whispers. “When I got there, she’d already been stabbed. She was trying to get the knife out, but that would’ve made her bleed out right away. There wouldn’t have been any hope. So I went to her - I held the knife in so that she wouldn’t lose any more blood – I was trying to save her –” He closes his eyes. “And in the end all I could do was tell her I loved her as she slipped away from me.”
Damnit.
Len believes him.
Len’s met murderers of all stripes. This man here has a good story, and he’s not a murderer.
“Okay,” Len says. “Right. We’re getting you out of here.”
Henry looks surprised. “You believe me?”
“Yes, I believe you,” Len says somewhat impatiently. “Not the point here.”
“I’m not going to run away,” Henry says.
“Why not?”
“People will take that as an admission of guilt.”
“They already think you’re guilty,” Len points out.
Henry presses his lips together. “I can’t,” he says.
“Why not?”
“Barry,” Henry says. “If I go on the run, who knows what’ll happen? This way he can come visit me sometimes.”
Len shrugs. “It’ll take me a few weeks to plan your break-out,” he says. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
It takes a week before Joe West gives in and comes to tell Henry Allen that Barry has apparently “run away”.
He doesn’t mention Len’s involvement, despite Len being careful not to be seen with Henry. Looks like Joe’s swallowed Len’s carefully manufactured story.
Henry comes back distressed.
Len sidles up to him. “So,” he says. “I’m getting out in a couple of days.”
“Oh? Oh! Leonard – you have to – Barry’s missing – if you could look for him –”
“How ‘bout I break you out and you can do the looking?” Len suggests.
“I couldn’t! What if he comes back?”
“What if he doesn’t?”
Len feels a bit bad playing this game, but he can’t trust that Henry wouldn’t trade Len’s kidnapping effort in to Joe West under the assumption that the cop would be a better foster father than a criminal and with the hope of some reduction of his sentence. Once Henry’s out, Len’s pretty confident that he won’t turn them all in – he’d never be allowed to see Barry again, and that seems to be the only thing that gets him moving anymore.
It takes two days for Henry to break.
“You’re sure you won’t look for him? He’s your cousin.”
“Not without you,” Len says firmly. “He only knows me so well; I will not be accused of kidnapping for you.”
Truer than Henry realizes.
“Fine,” Henry says, his head in his hands. “Fine! You win. I’ll go.”
“Great,” Len says. “Be at your cell promptly every evening for the next week. And I mean promptly. I want you to be the first on in, come nighttime.”
“But you’re leaving in two days!”
“Henry. Did I stutter?”
“Uh…”
“I was clear, wasn’t I?” Len amends.
“Yes.”
“Good. Do it.”
Leonard Snart is sitting in the Motorcar, having a stack of pancakes and exchanging glares with a handful of policemen, when the latest Iron Heights break out occurs.
There are said to be four escapees, three of them blooded Family men – and oh, doesn’t that make Len feel dirty – and one hostage, another prisoner, grabbed from his cell and held at knife-point.
After, Len gets up and gets onto his bike and drives out to a house in the middle of nowhere in the suburbs, where there’s a dusty blue sedan parked.
He goes inside.
“Snart!” Lil Billy exclaims, grinning all gap-toothed. “That plan of yours worked like a dream.”
“Of course it did,” Len drawls, slapping Billy’s hand, all friendly smiles like they didn’t all know he had a gun in his pocket and his other hand on the hilt. “I made it.”
“You’re good at what you do,” Grissini says neutrally. “Could be an asset.”
“I prefer to fly free,” Len says. “You get me what I want?”
Grissini snorts and gestures for Billy and Marino to go. “A set of plans and one hostage. Why’d you want this one?”
“He’s unpopular at large and he’s harmless,” Len says. “How often do you see that?”
Grissini purses his lips, but has to concede Len’s point.
Henry is dragged into the room looking terrified and shoved at Len.
“Much obliged,” Len drawls. “Be seeing you.”
“I’m sure too soon,” Grissini says dryly, but turns back to his poker game. They won’t move until the Family comes to pick them up.
Len makes a show of dragging Henry to the car.
“I hate you,” Henry wheezes.
“Yeah, yeah,” Len says. “I said I’d get you out, not that you’d enjoy it. They put you in the trunk or something?”
“No!”
“Then what’s all the fuss about?”
Henry shakes his head. “So I’m out,” he says. “You said you’d help me find Barry.”
“Yeah,” Len says. “First we go home and get changed, yeah?”
Henry’s shoulders slump. “But then we find Barry.”
“Yeah,” Len says again, then doesn’t speak the rest of the way to Mick’s place.
“What’s this place?” Henry asks, squinting at the apartment like it was infested.
“Safe,” Len says shortly. He won’t hear a word against this place; Mick’s had it for years, and it has always been one of the safest places in the world to him.
Then they go inside and Henry takes no more than three steps in before Barry leaps up from the couch and yells, “Dad!”
“Barry!”
There’s hugging and crying and ‘I know you’re innocent’ and ‘I’ve missed you’ and all of that stuff.
It’s very cute. Somewhat sickening and over-emotional, but very cute.
Len ducks out to the kitchen to avoid it.
Lisa and Mick follow in short order. Len hopes his face doesn’t have the same deer-in-headlights look they have.
“So what do we do with them?” Lisa asks.
“Cops’ll be looking for both,” Mick agrees.
Len sighs and runs his hand over his head, a gesture he normally doesn’t allow himself. “I was thinking they’d lie low. Mick, do we still have that place up in the mountains?”
“Sure,” Mick says. “Kinda in the middle of nowhere, though. Very back-to-nature off-the-grid-but-still-connected sort of thing; that’s why we got it.”
“You’d hate that,” Lisa tells Len.
“I thought we might need a place to lie low where I’d never go,” Len says with a shrug. “No one would ever look for me there. It used to be a smuggler’s joint, so lots of nooks and crannies, and a hell of an encrypted internet connection.”
“No schools, though,” Lisa points out.
“Actually,” Mick says, “there’s one down the ways. About three quarters of an hour out, which is crap, but it’s still a school.”
“We’ll need Barry’s records to fake the new ones right,” Len says. “Maybe he finishes this year homeschool; next year we can put him somewhere. Assuming it’s all going well in a year.”
Mick and Lisa nod. “School year,” Lisa notes. “Not a full year – barely six months, really; it’s the end of the school year.”
“Yeah,” Len says. “But that’ll be long enough, I think.”
Two hours later, they head out in a car, Barry and Henry curled up in each other’s arms in the back seat.
Mick knows all the ways to avoid the cops, and they make it to the place in peace.
“This place is a dump,” Lisa announces.
“It’s nicer on the inside.”
“It’s made of wood.”
“So’s the house in the suburbs,” Len points out.
“Too many trees.”
“We’re in a forest.”
Barry starts giggling from the backseat.
“Have you two considered a career in comedy?” Henry asks dryly.
“Shut up,” Len grumbles.
They go inside.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Against all odds, the set-up works surprisingly well.
Henry develops a fondness for fishing. He spends long days out by the stream out back, leaning back on the large rock next to the slow-moving water-mill that Len and Mick had initially thought was for decoration but which Henry had discovered was actually designed to serve as an electricity source, eyes half-closed and smiling.
Sometimes he even brings home fish.
Barry spends half the time on the internet sending emails back and forth with Iris and the other kids in his brand new online class – Len doesn’t ask questions, he doesn’t want to know – and the other half of his time running around the forest.
The other half – Barry believes in many halves – is spend as the ‘hub’ for some sort of network of people into the supernatural and preternatural and all that stuff. Len hadn’t been able to find any new military technology or thief work that could explain what Barry saw, so he’d returned to his original theory.
And Barry is obsessed with solving his mom’s murder.
Obsessed.
They have to take some precautions with their identities, of course: Henry grows a beard, looking quite proud of himself, while Lisa gives Barry a makeover.
He makes a surprisingly excellent redhead.
Len and Mick keep up their heists – first order of business, making sure they have no more connections to that Family group – and eventually move up the chain to bigger and better heists.
Barry really likes the Van Gogh sketch in his bedroom until Len tells him it’s real.
At that point, he loves it.
Henry tells Len that he’s a bad influence.
Len points out that his bad influence is why they’re all here.
Henry concedes the point.
He does put a pretty strict “no stealing until you’re sixteen” rule on Barry, which Len thinks is fair and Lisa thinks is hilarious.
Mick insists that teaching Barry to blow up safes isn’t criminal, it’s just homeschooling. In chemistry. Practical applications thereof.
Henry tries to lecture him but keeps breaking out in guffaws about halfway through.
Barry looks proud.
The months drag on, and on, and the next thing you know, it’s been a year.
Barry’s enrolled in the school down the way, which is less a school than a socialization mechanism for kids too far out in the middle of nowhere to be anything but homeschooled, and supplementing it with online courses. Henry’s taking classes online as well, continuing medical education classes, and Len and Mick and Lisa know they have a safe place to come if they’re ever hurt.
Len likes coming to the cabin, which bemuses the living daylights out of him.
On the anniversary of her death, they light a candle in remembrance of Noga.
The next day, Mick comes home with the strangest expression on his face.
“Barry,” he says.
“Yeah?”
“The man in the lightning…”
“Yeah?”
Mick swallows. “I think I saw him.”
Barry sits up straight. “You did?”
“How’s that?” Len says, alarmed.
“It wasn’t anything dangerous, Lenny, don’t fret,” Mick says. “It was just on the street. Zip of lightning, going through the streets.” He frowns. “I think he was looking for somehting.”
“Something,” Len says grimly. “Or someone?”
“What do you mean?” Barry asks.
“We still don’t know why your family was targeted,” Len says. “We always thought – well, Mick and I did – that someone’d gotten something wrong. But if the man in the lightning is looking for someone, well, why not you and Henry? Maybe he wants to finish the job.”
“But why us?” Barry says. “And – do you think he’ll find us?”
“What, here? Not a chance. But let’s avoid trips into Central for a bit, shall we?”
Barry pouts. “But it’s nearly summer break. What am I going to do?”
Len thinks about it.
He come back the next day with custom-made passports and tickets to Europe.
“You are the best,” Barry enthuses.
“You are terrible,” Henry says.
“I have an idea,” Len says.
“Oh god,” Lisa says.
But in the end, they go. They land in Barcelona and get a car and drive from motel to hotel and back. They visit castles and museums and fancy shops – Len and Mick take care to do their own form of shopping when the others are asleep – and Barry proudly takes over the role of navigator, spreading a paper map across his lap and supplementing it with computer print-outs.
He also functions as a guide tour, given how much research he does about everywhere they go.
Henry turns out to be marginally fluent in French, which is good because Mick knows Spanish and Lisa learned Italian in school, so they’ve very nearly got a whole run. Len is fluent in nothing but mime but ends up being the one who does 90% of their transactions anyway.
They go back to Central two months later, suitcases full and several museums calling for their heads on a platter.
“That was so much fun,” Barry says.
“It really was, slugger,” Henry says, ruffling his hair.
“I want to know what the plan was,” Lisa says.
“I’m getting to it,” Len replies.
He has pictures from all over Europe, now. He picks the ones from Spain, where Henry had shaved again because of an incident with a pig that was really best forgotten by all, and from Prague, where they’re all in the shade; Barry looks like his old brunet self in those.
He hires a patsy – Charlie is always happy to do him a favor, regardless of the reasonableness of it, and Len isn’t worried about him getting seriously hurt because Charlie is like a cockroach like that – and waits.
Charlie’s not good for much, but he’s a good salesperson when he wants to be, and he’s an excellent gossipmonger.
Rumors that Henry Allen has been spotted get no takers.
Len gives it a week, then tells Charlie to go with Option B.
It takes less than twenty-four hours after the rumors that Barry Allen has been spotted for the man in yellow to show up, grabbing Charlie by the throat and demanding to know what he knows.
“I don’t know much,” Charlie wheezes. “I just saw – the pictures –”
“Pictures?” the man in yellow snaps. He’s vibrating too fast to be properly seen on the video cameras Len set up in the bar he’d left Charlie in, but it’s obviously a man, in yellow, surrounded by lightning. “What pictures?”
“He sent them to his old school – for the yearbook – they’re in the bag –”
Flash of lightning, and the man is at the table, going through the pictures.
“Prague,” he growls. “What’s he doing in Prague?”
Flash of lightning, and the man is gone.
Running to Prague, if Len had to guess.
Charlie rubs his throat. “Hope you got what you needed, Lenny,” he says, good cheer restored almost immediately. “Are we still on for that date on Friday?”
Len sighs.
The sacrifices he makes.
He picks up the phone and dials Charlie.
“Yeah?” Charlie says.
“We’re on,” Len says. “As long as you realize that Mick will interrupt us about fifteen minutes in and drag me away because he hates you and wants you to die.”
“Oh, yes,” Charlie says. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Len doesn’t want to know. He really doesn’t want to know.
He has what he needs, anyway: knowledge of who the man in the lightning is really after and video proof of his existence.
Barry cries for an hour straight when Len brings the tapes home.
“I knew it,” he whispers into Henry’s shoulder. “I knew it.”
“You were right,” Henry says, kissing him on the head. He smiles at Len. “Thanks, Leonard.”
Len quirks a smile. “Don’t thank me yet,” he says. “We still need to figure out what to do about it.”
Barry pops his head up. “We prove my dad’s innocent, of course!”
“Innocence is overrated,” Len says. “Keeping you safe from this guy, Barry; that’s a lot more important.”
“I agree,” Henry says. He quirks a small smile. “Besides, Barry, remember: escaping from prison and kidnapping is also a crime.”
“…oh. Okay, maybe we don’t do that.”
Henry looks up at Len and Mick. “Thank you,” he says. “For believing in us. For helping us.”
Len shrugs. “For Noga,” he says, “I’d do a lot more. We’re gonna get the bastard that killed her, one way or another.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s Lisa that figures it out.
“Harrison Wells,” she says. “He either is or is connected to the man in yellow.”
“Why in the world do you think so?” Henry asks.
“I worked in construction,” she says. “More than the two of these guys ever did.” She nods at Len and Mick.
“I worked construction,” Mick protests mildly.
“No, babe, you did illegal labor construction.”
“Still construction.”
“Well, yes. But I got to sit in the nice cool office and listen to the architects and civil engineers prattle on all day, and that’s more valuable than you might think. For instance, I can tell you that there is no way that STAR Labs Particle Accelerator whatsit is being built legit.”
“Of course it ain’t being built legit,” Len says. “It’s Central City. Half of City Hall needs to be bribed before you can flip a light switch.”
“No, no, it’s not that. It’s being built too fast. Labor is labor, okay; but that thing is growing in leaps and bounds.”
“You drop a camera?”
“Of course,” Lisa sniffs. “What sort of girl do you think I am, offering suggestions without proof?”
She pulls out a tape. “Evidence that the man in yellow seems to be spending his nights building STAR Labs and –” she pulls out another tape. “– evidence of a yellow blur of lightning running into this very fancy little house over in the more isolated but still fancy suburbs, owned by one Harrison Wells. Running in, mind you, and not running out, only for one Harrison Wells to go out the next day by car to work.”
“Lise,” Len says. “You’re a genius.”
She beams. “And I’m not even in college.”
“I keep telling you,” Henry says, “if you want to go, let me know. We’ll find a way.”
She shakes her head. “I have a good job with the teamsters, Henry, but thanks.”
“Don’t let anyone think that college is necessary to be a genius,” Len says with satisfaction.
“No one who says that’s ever met you,” Barry says loyally.
“Now we just need to figure out how to stop a guy with a suit that lets him run a super-speed,” Len says, and smiles.
“Uh, oh,” Barry says. “Len’s smiling. It’s trouble time.”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“Last time you smiled like that, we went sky-diving,” Barry says. “and the time before that, you and Mick robbed the Musée d’Orsay because you thought it ‘didn’t get enough love compared to the Louvre’.”
“Also because it rhymed, Lenny,” Lisa reminds him.
“C’mon,” Len says. “It’s a challenge!”
“It’s a death sentence,” Henry says quietly, and that makes them all shut up. “Leonard, please. I don’t want to lose you like we lost Nora.”
“You won’t,” Len assures him. “I promise I’ll be careful.”
He frowns, thinking. “Hey, Barry, you’re in that advanced robotics summer class online, aren’t you?”
“The MIT one? Yeah.”
“Could you propose a puzzle for them to figure out how to stop a speedster? I’ve got a few ideas, but some tech would always be good.”
“Oh, sure!” Barry says, enthused. “There’s a guy there – Cisco Ramon – he’s fantastic. He’ll totally come up with whatever you like.”
“Where is he?”
“Uh…Central, actually. But I didn’t meet him until the summer class, ‘cause he’s in regular school, you know.”
“Central is good,” Len says. “Let’s see what he can do.”
“It’ll be cold,” Barry says.
“Cold?” Lisa asks. “Why?”
“Cold is the opposite of speed,” Barry says. “Atoms go faster when they’re hotter and vice versa.”
They all look at him.
“I may’ve been doing some research ever since we realized that the lightning was actually because the guy was moving so fast,” Barry confesses. “I mean, we still don’t know if he’s using some sort of technology to do it or what, but…speed is speed, you know!”
“Looks like you’re not the only genius here,” Mick tells Lisa, reaching over to pat Barry’s head.
Barry flushes pink with pleasure.
Possibly also the juvenile crush he’s been nursing on Mick. Not much to be done about that; Mick is – well, Mick.
Barry also seems to have juvenile crushes on Lisa, Len, his old buddy Iris, and possibly also this Cisco guy. It’s just that age.
“Cold it is,” Len says.
“Tell this Cisco guy to make me something that matches in heat,” Mick says.
“That won’t help against a speed-suit,” Lisa points out.
“What’s your point?”
“Right, yeah.”
It takes about three months, but Cisco Ramon - who is, all joking aside, an actual genius - and Barry manage to put their heads together and come up with what Cisco describes as their masterpiece.
"Not to mention soon to be winner of the next young inventor Science fair award and scholarship, am I right?" he says, holding his hand for Barry to high-five.
"Hell yeah," Barry says, obliging. "Science bros for life, man!"
"They're lovely," Len says, examining them. "I love that you put them in gun form; that'll be very helpful."
"Just point and shoot," Barry says proudly.
"I'm sold," Mick says, and reaches for the red one.
They are not point and shoot.
Luckily, no house containing Mick is short on fire extinguishers.
The next two months after that are spent with Len and Mick explaining the nuances of what makes a gun a gun, and how to best marry those must-keep attributes to the cryotron powering the cold gun and the module that powers the heat gun.
"I love you guys and all," Cisco says when the guns are finally done. "Seriously, best family ever, Barry. But please can we call it something other than the cold and heat guns? They've got to have better names than that."
"How about you pick our superhero names instead?" Len offers. "Or supervillain. Just imagine -" he scoops up the cold gun and strikes a pose "- beware, it is I! the fearsome Coldwave!"
"Noooo," Cisco groans. "That doesn't work - the heat gun works on a wave system, not the cold gun! Like, Mick can totally be Heatwave, but you - you're gonna be - hmmm - oh, I know! Captain Cold!"
Len snorts. "Captain Cold," he says. "Cute."
"I like it," Lisa offers.
Cisco promptly turns bright red. He does that every time Lisa speaks.
She finds it adorable. Personally, Len would be over the moon if she dated someone as normal as Cisco.
Though he's going to keep an exceedingly close eye on Cisco for a good long time. Only so many times a man can get bitten before it sinks in.
"Well, names aside, they seem like they work now," Len says. "So let's just let me and Mick borrow 'em for a bit and - with luck - the whole business will be over and done with soon enough."
"Good luck," Cisco says, humor fading to be replace with solemnity that sits badly on his awkward teenage frame.
"Damnit, Barry," Len sighs. "You weren't supposed to tell him the details!"
"It just came up!"
Len rolls his eyes. "You're in, right, kid?" he asks Cisco, who nods eagerly. "Fine. C'mon, Mick; let's go get a man who moves like lightning."
Lisa sidles up to Cisco. "Hey," she purrs. She's only a few years older than Barry and Cisco, but those three years have given her some confidence that Cisco sorely lacks. "Think you can make me a gun, too?"
Len decides not to be here for that discussion.
The trap they have is well-set: more rumors of Barry, this time returned to visit. Recordings of his voice playing at certain locales; the man in yellow has been tearing up the city looking for him, when he isn't speed-building STAR Labs with a manic sort of passion that meant it was tied into his plans somehow.
He's ripping up the storehouse they've led him on a merry dance to - signs of Barry, signs of life, but also evidence of recordings. Of him, of Barry.
The man in yellow is realizing he’s being played for a fool.
He's furious.
Len and Mick look at each other and nod. It's time.
Len steps out. “Hello, there,” he drawls. “Do you have a preferred moniker, or should I just call you Harrison Wells?”
The man in yellow’s head snaps up.
“Well, well,” he drawls in the eerie reverberation that is his voice. “If it isn’t Captain Cold.”
Len blinks. “Now that’s interesting,” he says, eyes narrow. “Literally just thought of that name this morning. How do you know about it?”
The man in yellow scoffs. “Oh, there’s so much you don’t know,” he says. “And yet, I know all about you.”
“Really,” Len says.
“Oh, yes,” the man in yellow says. “Captain Cold. You’re a thief, always out for the score; the most cold-hearted of the Rogues.”
“Rogues?”
The man in yellow waves a hand. “Your little gang, whatever you’re calling them now.”
“How do you know all of this?” Len asks. “Spare an explanation for a curious soul.”
The man in yellow grins. “Oh, your story gets told for centuries,” he says.
Len pauses. No way.
“Time travel?” he asks.
“It’s good to see you have as broad a mind as I was led to believe,” the man in yellow says. “We share the same enemy – not yet, but soon enough. The Flash. He’s a superhero, a speedster like me; he runs this town.” His smile widens. “Not you.”
Len knows a cue when he hears one. He puffs up a little, pretends to get annoyed. “Must say I don’t like the sound of that. Superheroes.”
“Indeed,” the man says. “As one villain to another, I must say, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Eobard Thawne, and I’m from the twenty-ninth century.”
“What’re you doing all the way back here, then?” Len asks. “Seems out of place for you.”
“Oh, not at all! I went back to the twenty twenties to fight the Flash – and oh, what a glorious battle it was; I proved myself to be his true equal, his reverse – but I found I could not defeat him. So I decided to take him out when he was too young to stop me.”
“Barry Allen,” Len says.
“You are smart!” Eobard exclaims.
“Now that’s insulting. So you’re saying you killed Nora Allen?”
“Oh, yes,” Eobard says. “I was aiming for Barry, of course; he was only eleven. But I couldn’t get to him, so I went with the next best thing. I grabbed a knife from his kitchen and stabbed the stupid bitch right in the chest, between the third and fourth rib, and I thought that’d be the end of it – but then the brat went and disappeared!”
“Why does it matter?” Len arches an eyebrow and gestures for Eobard to continue. “Doesn’t that change the timeline enough?”
Eobard’s face twists into a sneer. He pushes down his cowl, revealing Harrison Wells. “Turns out I’m stuck here, in this godforsaken century. Irony of ironies, I need Barry to become the Flash just long enough to get me back to the future.”
“And that’s why you became Harrison Wells,” Len says, nodding. “That way you could manipulate him.”
“And create the Particle Accelerator which turns him into the Flash,” Eobard agrees. “You know, I see why you are so well-known; I must admit, I had always assumed that stories of your prowess were – exaggerated. You’re not much in action by the twenties.”
Len shrugs. “Well,” he drawls. “You know what they say: live fast, die young.”
And then he fires the cold gun at Eobard’s feet.
Eobard dashes around the blast, grabbing Len and hoisting him up by the throat. He tsks, a disappointed schoolteacher. “Now, now. That’s not nice. We could work together –”
Mick’s blast of fire hits him straight-on in the back.
Eobard shrieks and spins around, only for Len to get his gun back up and aim the cold beam straight at him, freezing his legs solid.
“You fool,” Eobard snarls. “You don’t know what I’m offering yet –”
“I don’t care,” Len says. “You say I’m the most cold-hearted of the – Rogues, you called ‘em? The guy who’s only out for the score?”
“Yes, and you’re missing out on –”
“I don’t care about the money,” Len says. “Call it an unintended consequence of time travel.” He ices Eobard’s feet again as they start melting.
“You? Not care about money?” Eobard seems honestly taken aback by the mere concept. Len must have a hell of a reputation.
“Not in this case,” Len tells him. “You killed my aunt.”
“Your – what? When?”
Len’s smile curls up into a sneer. “I think,” he says, “that in your timeline, they call her Nora Allen.”
Eobard’s eyes go wide.
Len ices him straight in the face.
A second later, Mick’s gun comes down, hard, onto the ice, shattering it.
They look down at the pieces.
“For you, Noga,” Len says.
“I think we should burn the pieces,” Mick says.
“…yeah, good idea.”
By the time they get back to the cabin, all the pieces of Eobard melted into a watery muck, Barry – with tears streaming down his face – and Cisco have already managed to cut the video tape in such a way that shows Harrison Wells using some sort of device to make himself go fast and then talking like a crazy person. They do cut out the part with the murder.
“Think it’s enough?” Len asks Henry.
Henry nods. “I’ll send it to Joe,” he says quietly. “He’ll – he’ll understand.”
Joe does understand, and he understands enough to go not only to the District Attorney but also to the media, turning Henry’s story – the wronged man framed and sent to prison, escaping to save his son and seek the man who did it – into a modern day Count of Monte Cristo.
Hollywood loves the idea, and Central City loves it all the more.
Henry ends up being cleared of the charge of murder and given only parole for the whole “escaping prison” (at least, not returning – it’s obvious to anyone who looked that Henry hadn’t escaped willingly) and kidnapping his own son points. No jury would convict him and the DA knows it.
Len’s willing to admit he might’ve underestimated Joe West. Just a bit.
He accepts Joe punching him in the face with decent grace, though.
They’re all celebrating, one dark and stormy night, when Cisco suddenly frowns.
“Hey,” he says.
“What’s up, Cisco?” Barry asks, going over to open up the skylight. There’s still thunder, but no more rain, and the loft is getting a bit stuffy.
“It just occurred to me – has anyone done anything about the Particle Accelerator thing Wells was talking about?”
“He was delusional,” Lisa reminds him.
“No, but, he actually was making a Particle Accelerator. At STAR Labs, remember?”
“So?” Barry says.
He pulls the chain to open the skylight.
“I’m just saying –”
There’s a giant flash of light and a great big boom, and Len can see out the window some sort of mushroom cloud right over STAR Labs – orange and yellow and – expanding –
“It’s coming!” he shouts.
“What?” Barry asks, clutching at the window chain.
And then lightning strikes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“But daaaaad,” Barry whines. “I need to go out and save the city! I’m the Flash!”
“You’re still fourteen, slugger,” Henry says firmly. “And you still have homework.”
“I did my homework!”
“At superspeed, which we both know doesn’t count.”
“But…”
“You’re welcome to stay and help out,” Henry tells Cisco. “Is that a new costume?”
“Yeah, I can’t quite figure out what a superhero called Quake would wear.”
“Is Quake really what you’ve settled on?”
“Well, Lisa vetoed ‘Vibe’ by laughing too hard…”
“Isn’t there a video game, though?”
“As fun as this is,” Len drawls, sweeping out, “I’m going out to bring home the bacon.”
“Like the bad Jew he is,” Mick adds, following him.
“I make plenty of money from my metahuman clinic,” Henry says with a sigh. “I even have interns! Well, I have Caitlin. My point is, you don’t need to go rob a bank.”
“Ah, but we want to go rob a bank. Need to get the city used to having at least one successful villain - well, anti-hero - set. Plus we help Barry out enough against the metas that aren’t handling their new powers well enough that I practically get a pardon every other week.”
“That doesn’t mean you should keep committing crimes.”
“It’s mostly against the Families nowadays anyway,” Mick says. “Profitable and popular.”
Barry looks up, wide-eyed. “Are you going up against Nimbus?” he asks. “Dad! I need to go help!”
“Barry,” Henry says. “How many times have I got to tell you – junior-league superheroing is fine, but no criminal behavior until you’re sixteen.”
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Race Against Time: Chapter 1
Jungkook feat. Reader and Namjoon. The rest of BTS will appear in the future chapters
Genre: Thriller, Darkfic
Warning: This fic is about murder cases, and may include some graphic imagery. Please read with caution.
Word Count: 2, 639 words
A/N: A big part of the MO is based on Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner. Check her out, her novels are really good! I’d also like to thank my two friends (and her doctor husband) who helped me figure out the details for the story, there is way more research involved in writing this than I expected.
Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Epilogue
Disclaimer/Copyright
Jungkook sighs inwardly, fighting the urge to run his fingers through his hair, opting to clench his hands into fists instead. He knows that he has to remain calm. Or look the part, anyway. People are watching. They are always watching, and he feels the constant need to prove himself. He takes a deep breath, blocking out the commotion surrounding the roped off crime scene to dip his chin down to the still form on the ground.
Even though death has claimed the colour in her, leaving her pale and cold, it is obvious that she had been a beauty. Her long blonde hair pools neatly on the right side of her head, brushed to the side with such care it seems almost loving. Jungkook scans her body with interest, an uneasy sense of déjà vu creeping up on him. It is so similar that it can’t be a coincidence – especially the cruel mark at her throat, although clean, tells him that she is another victim of the same killer who claimed the life of the first body they found last month.
Exactly one month ago
Parking lot of the largest bowling alley in the city
Emerging from his car alone, Jungkook saw that there were already several officers setting up a parameter in silence. He had received a call early that morning to head there, and he drove straight from home instead of stopping by the office first, leaving you disgruntled for being roused at the crack of dawn after a long night of reading journals and writing. He slammed the door shut, locking the car behind him as he approached one of the officers who turned to him immediately upon his arrival, opting to talk to the man he took to be the first officer on the scene before addressing the body on the ground in the middle of the section.
“Agent Jeon.” Jungkook simply nodded at him in response, getting right down to business. “What happened here?”
“Got a call from the owner of this joint about an hour ago. Man was all panicked, said he found a girl unconscious when he came in to take inventory. When he walked towards her to see if she’s alright, he saw that she’s dead.” Jungkook noticed that the young officer avoided looking at the immobile figure behind him as he talked, only waving his arm behind him to indicate the general location of the body.
“Dead? Did he see if she’s breathing before calling you?”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably at the question. “Ahem. I don’t think so, sir. One look at her and you’d know.”
Jungkook frowned at that but pressed on. “Did he see anyone around, before and after he found the body?”
Another no. “She was already there when he got here, sir. And he made sure she was in sight when he called to make the report.”
Jungkook nodded and walked past the jittery officer to see her himself, ignoring the whoosh of relief that escaped the man at reaching the end of a stressful conversation with an intimidating superior. Judging by his looks, Jungkook was not that much older than the young officer, but he was used to that reaction by now whether it was from a new recruit or an experienced agent after he gained fame for capturing a serial killer who terrorised the people for months, then went on to solve several other cases. He wished that people wouldn’t treat him differently, but he guessed it couldn’t be helped after his not-so-subtle promotion following his feat.
The tar and pebbles of the parking lot crunched louder under his feet as he stopped and crouched down to study the victim. He winced at the term; most agents he knew avoided the terms ‘girl’, ‘man’, ‘child’, ‘young’ and the like when referencing to a dead person, but you once told him that you felt that it was disturbing to use the terms ‘it’, or ‘victim’, or ‘deceased’ as they used to be alive, too, and should still be respected even in death. Your words stuck with him. Several years in this field taught him that it was easy to lose yourself, and you helped him retain his humanity, his sense of self.
She looked young, probably in her early twenties, just out of school or in college. Her attire was not something he would have expected from someone at that age, though. An over-sized white shirt covered her body, big enough to almost hide the blue shorts underneath, but not quite. More puzzling than her being barefoot is how clean she seemed. Not a trace of makeup adorned her face, and from what he could see, he suspected that the only dirt she had on her body was underneath her from the gravel that her body laid on, and a streak of black in her hair that stood out against her blonde locks. Contrasting to her lack of cosmetics, she wore a pair of earrings and a funny-looking choker. Her lips and skin were pale, but that was to be expected if she had been dead for several hours, and she must have been as the call from the owner came over an hour ago now. Who knew when she died here or if this was where she was killed at all?
Because as the first officer on the scene had told him, there was no doubt that she was dead. Soon the other crime scene investigators arrived, and when the evidence – only a purse clutched in her hand – and her body was lifted, the green strip Jungkook had thought to be a choker slipped, revealing a gash across her neck. His eyes widened in shock at the sight and he swallowed bile that threatened to make its way up into his mount. Her throat had been slashed open. The ‘choker’ had actually been a plant, probably a weed of some sort, and was immediately removed to be photographed and bagged as evidence. To say that everyone had been mortified at the discovery would be an understatement. The medical examiner, Namjoon, with whom Jungkook had worked with on previous cases, grabbed his arm painfully, the doctor’s face drained of colour in terror.
A search through her purse later did not prove to be of much use; a sum of money left in it convinced them that she was not robbed. A small metal ring in the shape of a ‘D’ in the purse threw them in for a loop. Why was a girl carrying such a thing in her purse? A few days later, the autopsy revealed the fact that they had seen with their own eyes: the victim died from blood loss after her throat was slit open, presumably with a knife. It had to be a very sharp one, since it sliced clean across her neck in a straight line. Whatever motivation drove the killer to commit the act, he did not hesitate in completing it. Interestingly, her body held no signs of sexual assault. In fact, the only harm that was done to her body, other than her neck was a set of markings on her back, a two pronged reddish spots from a Taser, which Jungkook assumed to be the killer’s method of subduing the victim. The black strip on her hair turned out to be oil, but other than that, the body was clean.
Abnormally clean. Jungkook leafed through the report, this time allowing himself to rake his fingers through his hair in frustration as he sighed in the privacy of his office. The report said that the body was wiped clean with a chemical, presumably with ammonia, even the wound had been cleaned so that no blood spilled around the length of plant that was carefully wrapped around her neck. Was it to hide evidence, or did the killer seek to purify the body for some reason? Was this girl a sacrifice for a cult? No marking that indicated that she was one was found on her. No statement of any kind, if the killer wanted to make his agenda or cause known. If he took the time to clean her up, why was there a streak of oil in her hair? It would have been terribly remiss of him to forget that.
Was it a clue, then? If it was a clue, why leave it for them to find? Was it truly an accident, and the oil would lead him to the killer, or was it left there to throw him off the scent? Jungkook turned to the collection of photos of the crime scene, the victim and the peculiar evidences found on the girl. A 10-millimeter d-ring. The green plant, a seaweed, he was told. Did the oil belong to these pair of strange evidences? Are these a clue of some sort? Because if they were, he had no clue what they meant.
Thankfully, the girl was found early in the morning. The owner of the bowling alley agreed to help by keeping it to himself, and Jungkook was surprised that he had kept true to his word so far. The news of the dead girl had not spread like Jungkook was afraid it would, because he would not know what to tell the people and the press who would surely descend on him like vultures if they so much as get a sniff of this. This case was baffling him, no clear motive and no trace of evidence to lead to the killer, unless he counted the three odd findings that did not seem to be linked to one another, or lead anywhere. He had no clue where to even begin the investigation.
Lack of ID was also a problem. The victim’s prints were taken, but with the bureau’s heavy load, it took several days for the system to identify her. Five days to be exact. Five days before Jungkook found out who the poor girl who got her neck slashed was, and for him it was five days too late. The call came for him first.
Unlike the first time, the call came mid-morning on the fifth day after the blonde girl had been found, while Jungkook was reading a report in his office, nursing a cup of coffee in his hands. He was asked to go to Port Liddington immediately. The crime scene investigation team moved with haste to the maritime container terminal, where they were greeted with another taped-off scene around one of the freight containers.
Another girl. A slit throat was not the cause of death this time, though. No, this girl died a slow and painful death. Trapped in one of many containers in the terminal, with no light, no one that could hear her scream and pound on the walls, no food and water. The steel shipping box was empty except for the young girl who had perished from dehydration, and her bodily waste in a corner. Jungkook tried not to imagine the fear and loneliness she must have felt as she slowly started losing hope, her thirst evolving into headaches and leg cramps from lack of water, and wondered if she became delirious before succumbing into unconsciousness and then actually giving in to death.
The team ignored the stench and got to work, methodically photographing the body and the crime scene, preserving the evidence, of which there was not much, only a purse that contained a wad of cash and two IDs. The first ID was of the brunette girl they had just found, Kimberly Williams. The second one surprised Jungkook. Susannah Johnson, it said, the picture on the card showing the blonde girl from the parking lot of the bowling alley.
Results of the first victim’s prints came to him later that day, but there was no use for it anymore. The IDs allowed them to identify the girls, Susannah and Kimberly, freshmen at the university you were attending. They were last seen at a frat party thrown during the summer break by one of the students. Since they were on break, many students opted to return home for a holiday, so no one noticed that the two girls were missing from their dorm rooms.
Jungkook began to put things together, and the analysis of the evidences found on the first victim that he received later solidified his suspicions. The condition of the seaweed confirmed that it was from the port, the oil in her hair was bunker fuel that was used to power cargo ships carrying containers such as the one the second victim was found in. And the d-ring was actually a part of the 6 meters long freight container itself.
The puzzling clues made sense now. They were left with the first girl to lead them to the second one. However, the second victim had nothing of the sort. No hints, nothing out of the ordinary, except the fact that she was left for dead in a dark metal crate in party clothes that probably made her shiver with cold during those chilling lonely nights by the sea she must have spent praying that someone would find her. It did not escape Jungkook’s notice that the two students were dressed very differently. The short dress and high heels that Kimberly wore suited the occasion they were last seen in, assuming that they were kidnapped after leaving the party. Susannah’s simple shirt and shorts, however… not to mention her missing shoes. It had been a while since either Jungkook or you attended a college party, but he was sure that was not a look that was popular with the young crowd now.
He slammed the case file shut. If he thought the first victim was devoid of anything useful, the second girl offered him nothing whatsoever, other than the IDs of the two students. Was this the end, then? Were there more girls to be discovered? It was a long day for Jungkook, having to meet the families of the deceased and attempting to figure out if any of their other friends were missing. As far as the mourning families knew, there was no one else… so far.
Until now.
Present day
A children’s playground on the West Side
After the news of the dead students came out, you had approached Jungkook about the case, concerned that such an atrocity happened to people from your institution. Unfortunately he was unable to share with you as many details as he would have liked, but you understood his position. You were worried that it may happen again, and Jungkook had no real words of comfort for you. He could only say that he hoped that it was a murder of revenge, a one-time thing, and given time, he would be able to figure everything out and find the killer. You had smiled in encouragement, believing in his abilities as you’ve always had.
Looking down at the youthful face of the dead girl on the grass, the laceration across her neck not even covered this time, then at the growing crowd surrounding the scene, Jungkook wonders how to tell you that he suspects that another pair of students have been kidnapped, one is dead in front of his very eyes and the other is still missing.
#bunny kook#jungkook scenarios#bts scenarios#jungkook angst#jungkook fanfic#bts fanfic#namjoon scenarios#rapmon scenarios
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This past weekend I have been on my travels again. After a fairly sedate week at work, where I spent most of if trying to work out what day it was thanks to the Bank Holiday, Mandie and I have headed oop north, very far up North as it happens, to Stirling in readiness for the launch of Bloody Scotland 2018, which takes place today at the Golden Lion Hotel. Excited muchly? Yes. Yes I am.
As if this wondrous happening wasn’t enough, we also booked out trains, hotels and accommodation for Bute Noir in August. this is the first time I have been off mainland Scotland and while it may not be the furthest away island I am still a touch excited and totally looking forward to it. Much of my holiday time is being spent exploring parts of the British Isles that I have either not experienced before or not visited in years. You would think with my job I’d be bored with travelling the UK by now but you’d be wrong. Have you actually stopped and taken time to look around you lately, or perhaps a little further afield. Our island, small, waterlogged and generally poo on the weather front as it may be. is actually a pretty bloody fantastic place to visit and there are so many parts I have yet to explore. Bring it on. Despite this being the fifth time in a smidge over two years that I have been to Stirling, this is the first time I’ve been to the Wallace Monument so there is always the chance to do something new, no matter how many times you go somewhere.
On the bookish front, it was all rather quiet again until mid week when I received a package from the lovely Karen at Orenda Books. Copies of Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen, The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech and Overkill by Vanda Symon. I also received a copy of the next Leigh Russell Geraldine Steel title, Death Rope from publishers No Exit and How Far We Fall by Jane Shemilt from Penguin. I also received a digital arc of A Steep Price by Robert Dugoni from Thomas and Mercer. Super tidy book week for me then 🙂
One Netgalley ARC this week which is one I have been looking forward to. I picked up The Thieftaker’s Trek by debut author Joan S. Sumner. I met Joan on the Crime and Publishment course in March and we had a really good talk about her writing. It turns out I have a little knowledge of the area in which Joan has set her books, if not of the era in which she has written them, but I’m really excited to read it and find out more.
So … last week I was on a bit of buying slump. Yeah … that’s over. 😀 I bought the following: The Defence, The Plea, and The Liar (also on audible) by Steve Cavanagh, The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech, After He Died by Michael J Malone, The Girl With No Name and Her Mother’s Grave by Lisa Regan. I also took the liberty of ordering the US cover of Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh as it is very pretty (Not out until 2019 but I can wait …) and Death Rope by Leigh Russell.
Normal service has resumed. Yay. (For Amazon anyway).
Books I have Read
Ultima – LS Hilton,
The shockingly audacious conclusion to the international bestselling phenomenon that began with Maestra.
If you can’t beat them – kill them
First there was Maestra. Then there was Domina. Now – there is Ultima.
Glamorous international art-dealer Elizabeth Teerlinc knows a thing or two about fakes. After all, she is one herself.
Her real identity, Judith Rashleigh, is buried under a layer of lies. Not to mention the corpses of the men foolish enough to get in her way.
But now, caught in the murderous crossfire between a Russian Mafia boss and a corrupt Italian police detective, Judith is forced to create an even more daring work of art – a fake masterpiece she must take to the world-famous auction house where she used to be a lowly assistant and sell for $150 million.
For Judith the prospect of putting one over her loathsome former employer and the world’s art establishment is almost as thrilling as the extreme sex she’s addicted to – especially when the price of failure is a bullet in the back of the head.
But exposing her new identity to the glare of the spotlight puts her at risk of an even greater danger. Like a beautiful painting stripped of its layers of varnish, something altogether different could be revealed.
A truth about her past even Judith might find shocking.
Yes. I know. I surprised me too. But you know what? I actually enjoyed this. Slightly steamier than your average thriller, there was a great story and really strong characterisation behind this book and as this was the final part in the series, I’m actually looking forward to going back and reading the first two. You can read my review here and purchase a copy of the book here.
…
Follow Me Home – DK Hood
‘Don’t you agree Detective? That some people deserve to die? I’ve killed the first. I’ve killed the second. Now will you catch the others, or do I have to kill them too?’
The body of Amos Price lies in a pool of blood on the polished floor of an otherwise empty house. With no signs of a break in, and no clues left at the scene, Detective Jenna Alton is at a loss.
But as the team begins to unpick the life of the reclusive victim, they discover a disturbing link between Amos and the disappearance of several young girls in the county going back years.
Days later, another brutally murdered body is found, in a remote motel on the outskirts of town. Ely Dorsey was killed in a frenzied attack and Jenna fears not only that the murders are connected to the missing girls, but that the killer hasn’t finished yet.
As Jenna tries to work out who will be next, the killer suddenly starts sending her deputy, David Kane, messages. Is she being taunted? Or does the murderer want to be caught? And will Jenna discover who’s behind these killings before more people die?
An absolutely nail-biting thriller with plenty of twists, Follow Me Home is perfect for fans of Robert Dugoni, Karin Slaughter and Rachel Abbott.
The third part in the Kane and Alton series sees them on the hunt for a vicious killer who seems to be extracting their own kind of justice for truly heinous crimes. The subject matter is tough to read but carefully handled. The murders are brutal and varied. You’ll be able to read my review as part of the tour and can order a copy of the book here.
…
First to Die – Alex Caan
A DARK AND EDGY CRIME THRILLER FOR FANS OF SARAH HILARY, KATERINA DIAMOND, ANGELA MARSONS AND ROBERT BRYNDZA.
SOMEWHERE IN THE CROWD IS A KILLER
Bonfire Night and St James’s Park is filled with thousands of Anonymous protesters in a stand-off with the police. When a cloaked, Guido Fawkes mask-wearing body is discovered the following morning, Kate Riley and Zain Harris from the Police Crime Commissioner’s office are called in.
The corpse has been eaten away by a potentially lethal and highly contagious virus. The autopsy reveals the victim was a senior civil servant, whose work in international development involved saving lives. Why would anyone want him dead?
THEY WILL STRIKE AGAIN
As the research team looking into the origins of the deadly virus scramble to discover an antidote, first one, then another pharmacist goes missing. Meanwhile, a dark truth starts to emerge about the murder victim: he was an aggressive man, whose bullying behaviour resulted in the suicide attempt of one of his former staff members.
AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT . . .
With thirty lives potentially at stake, Kate and Zain have their work cut out for them. Can they find the two missing pharmacists in time, or will they too end up dead?
Gah. You have no idea how long I have wanted to read this book. I have had several false starts, plus some emergency blog tour reads which demanded my attention but have finally been able to finish what I started and boy am I a happy bunny. Uncannily topical this book had me hooked from start to finish. Oh how I have missed Zain. You’ll be able to read my review around publication day (not long now – 14th June) but can preorder a copy here.
…
Three books. Not bad considering I got distracted by Bute Noir and spent half a day driving to Stirling. I am actually half way through another audio book as well so I am still being productive if not effective. Blog wise, I have no idea but here is a recap.
Ultima by LS Hilton
Guest Review: Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
Absolution by Paul E. Hardisty
Summer at the Little Cottage on the Hill by Emma Davies
When the Waters Recede by Graham Smith
Okay. So not so busy, Well I did say i was slowing down … This week I have blog tours today for Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh and on Friday for Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen. If you stop by on Sunday, I may have a bit of a surprise for you all too.
Funny old week this week. I’m only actually in the office for two days (yippee) because I have a two day leadership conference to attend at Alton Towers of all places (less yippee) and of course today I am in Stirling. Then I am off work for a whole week so no office for me. Cannot wait. I may even remember to put my out of office on the email this time as well. Whoops.
Have a fabulously bookish time this week folks. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me again very soon as I let you know all about this year’s Bloody Scotland line up. I am so excited.
If anyone wants to know why I blog and why I travel the country so much then this … this is why. I am super privileged to be in a position where I can do this kind of thing, where I am offered the chance to be part of something really special and where I am trusted enough to help to spread the word. You can keep the free ARCs, I am lucky enough to be able to afford my own books (as this weeks purchases will confirm). I appreciate being trusted with the books, I truly do, but they are not why I do this. What drives me, what I love about blogging, is being given the opportunity to support, champion and shout out about the bookish community that I love. What a gift.
Speak soon.
Jen
Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 03/06/18 This past weekend I have been on my travels again. After a fairly sedate week at work, where I spent most of if trying to work out what day it was thanks to the Bank Holiday, Mandie and I have headed oop north, very far up North as it happens, to Stirling in readiness for the launch of Bloody Scotland 2018, which takes place today at the Golden Lion Hotel.
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Hi all, Rose here with one of a multiple part series chronicling my year in reading for 2016. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these lists, and I figured I’d start off 2017 getting back to this particular “Year in Review” type post. Originally I’d set a goal of reading over 300 books for the year of 2016, but my actual count ended up being 125 according to my Goodreads log. I think getting over 100 books read in a year (for me) was great, but I wish I’d been able to meet my goal because the last time I did that was back in 2013 and I saw it as a personal challenge that I wanted to make time for. That total number isn’t quite accurate considering I found myself not logging all of my reads onto Goodreads or my other bookish communities. However, we’re going to keep it at the 125 total, and I’ll likely find myself re-reading some of the books I’d read in 2016 in 2017 to review them in full.
Before I get into my top 10 reading list of the past year, I’ll make several Honorable Mentions. These were books worth noting because of how memorable the experience of reading them was for me this past year. Note that in this entire list (honorable mentions and top 10) I’m chronicling my reads for this past year, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it was published in 2016.
“Daughter of Deep Silence” by Carrie Ryan
My review of “Daughter of Deep Silence” on my blog
I loved the cover of this book (I only wish they had used the same cover on the paperback edition, but that’s a moot point) but the premise references to “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which is one of my favorite books, and it makes multiple references to the ABC series “Revenge” (including a character named Grayson whose name is a play on the family Grayson from that series). I enjoyed reading the dark texture, themes, and characterizations of this story, albeit with a few flaws in progression and telling versus showing details. But it was my first read of last year and it did kick off my reading year on a good note.
“If I Was Your Girl” by Meredith Russo
Review of “If I Was Your Girl” on my blog
“If I Was Your Girl” was an illuminating perspective on the experience and struggles of a transgender teen. There was so much to be gained from this novel for its raw honesty and portrait of Amanda. Despite flaws for development/detail in some conflicts, how it approaches prejudices, relationships, and discussions of gender identity is very well noted, and the read stayed with me long after I’d finished it.
“The Square Root of Summer” by Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Review of “The Square Root of Summer” on my blog
This is an underrated gem of a novel that I ended up really enjoying despite its flaws. Likely some of the scientific digressions and delving into physics concepts (alongside a really, really slow burn for progression) might’ve turned some away from it, but at its core is a detailed story of grief and coming of age experiences for Gottie with a brainy leaning. I couldn’t help but feel for her longing for her lost grandfather and mother. It’s a really distinct novel that blends coming of age and science fiction. I wish there were more narratives I could read in this vein because I really liked the unique thematic.
“Run” by Kody Keplinger
My review of “Run” on my blog
It has been a while since I’ve read anything from Keplinger, but this turned out to be one of my favorite reads of the year as two teenage girls, telling the story from alternate perspectives, go on a road trip to escape the lives that they know, but realize progressively what they’re leaving behind. It switches between past and present to give context on each of the girls and I loved the distinct voices that Bo and Agnes have throughout the novel. With an honest eye also into Agnes’s disability and Bo’s sexuality in places, it also was a rewarding read for its representation.
“A Game of Thrones” (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) by George R.R. Martin
Review of “A Game of Thrones” on my Blog
I finally, finally, finally read this straight through this year, and what a mammoth, but rewarding read it was. I’ll probably be caught up with the series by the time “Winds of Winter” releases (here’s to hoping it’s released this year), but this stands as my longest read of the year and took quite a bit of mental energy for me to finish just for the sheer time it took (though I was savoring as much of the world and characterizations that I possibly could – when I picked it up I had a hard time putting it down). I couldn’t find a place to rank this on my main list, but it holds its own as a fantasy story I found myself compulsively and compelling drawn to. Not to mention I learned it was better for me to buy the whole series than try to wait for it at my library because I kept having to return the books prematurely. :(
I have a bit of a mixed bag for genre/age group with respect to my list below the cut. I’m going to try to put this in order, but suffice to say that I really enjoyed the following reads through this particular year.
10. “Some Girls Are” by Courtney Summers
Review of “Some Girls Are” on my blog
This had been on my TBR list for quite some time, but I just got around to reading “Some Girls Are” this past year. As per usual, Summers’ narratives always seem to hit me square in the gut. She writes the experiences of her characters (usually very flawed female protagonists) so very well. It’s hard not to be gutted given what the main character experiences in this YA contemporary/tough subject piece, but it’s eye to Regina’s emotions are resonant, staying with me long after I finished the story.
09. “You Will Know Me” by Megan Abbott
Review of “You Will Know Me” on my blog
“You Will Know Me” stands as one of the more haunting adult contemporary reads I had in the past year, and part of that is Abbott’s method of slow unraveling of tensions that make you question the roles each of her characters have to play in the overarching story. This particular tale follows a young female gymnast and her family’s journey/push to train her and get her to the Olympics, but the death of someone close to the training circles causes secrets to be unearthed and emotions to run high among this flawed cast of characters.
Quoting directly from my review:
The eye to the athleticism and competition, the conflicts of maturing young women, the petty politics and self-interest served by the parents of the young women who compete in the same circles as Devon was given a careful, exploratory and invested eye. I couldn’t look away for much of this narrative, and I really enjoyed it for what it offered, especially given in the performance of the audiobook version.
08. “Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things” by Jenny Lawson
Review of “Furiously Happy” on my blog
Just the image of that raccoon makes me want to start laughing again, especially remembering Lawson’s account of how Rory the Raccoon got stuck to the back of her cat and ended up zipping past her very confused husband. This is Jenny Lawson’s well-humored but also eye opening memoir, chronicling various aspects of her life including struggles with depression. I definitely appreciated reading this, not just for the humored stories but also the raw honesty she brings to the narrative. The audiobook was amazing and its one I’ve returned to this past year a few times for the experience.
07. “The Passenger” by Lisa Lutz
Review of “The Passenger” on my blog
Lisa Lutz’s “The Passenger” is an adult mystery/suspense/thriller read that definitely sees a situation going from bad to worst case scenario. It chronicles a woman on the run for various reasons (though you’re not sure what those reasons are initially). When her husband dies unexpectedly, she flees the scene, gets a new identity, finds a partner and gets into even more trouble which has the two women switching identities in the aftermath of events. But Amelia (who switches names more often than not in this read) finds herself wondering who “Blue” really is, and if she didn’t just complicate her life even more despite trying to stay hidden. It definitely kept me on my toes and guessing throughout the read. The strong audiobook performance was a plus for the experience.
06. “The Amazing Book is Not on Fire: The World of Dan and Phil” by Dan Howell and Phil Lester
Review of “The Amazing Book is Not on Fire” on my blog
This was a fun combination of getting to know you and personal stories from the popular YouTube personalities Dan and Phil, whom I really enjoy following their random insights and gaming LPs. I listened specifically to the audiobook version at the time that I wrote the review, but I was also able to read the physical copy of the book later in the year, which I really enjoyed. I think it might be one of the best YouTube personality non-fiction books I’ve perused to date, and I definitely look forward to reading more of their work in the future (Mental note: I need to read “Dan and Phil Go Outside,” stat.)
05. “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover
Review of “It Ends with Us” on my blog
I said this in my review, but to reiterate: if people ask me what my favorite book by Hoover has written to date, it would be this. It completely blindsided me because I didn’t expect to see a narrative that was as maturely and honestly written as this for the experiences described in this book, particularly dealing with the mental/physical/emotional conflicts that Lily has to deal with throughout. The romance/relationship elements are also done rather well here. I – at the very least – liked Hoover’s writing in previous notations, and “Hopeless” had my attention back when I read it for the first time, but I’d always had trouble connecting with Hoover’s characters and situations for the way they were presented and handled, so her narratives were touch and go with me. Many of her narratives I liked the inspirations for, but the execution…meh. (Hint: You’ll see her name on my worst reads of 2016 list as well.) There was a point where I was ready to throw in the towel because I didn’t think there would ever be a point I could connect with one of her narratives, then this book came along. It isn’t a book I would say “Ermahgard, this is utter perfection from beginning to end!” but I appreciated the experience and respect it. Not to mention I would re-read this book from beginning to end and it has a spot in my personal library. Props to Olivia Song for providing a wonderful audio narration.
04. “The View from the Cheap Seats” by Neil Gaiman
Review of “The View from the Cheap Seats” on my blog
I’ll admit I haven’t followed Neil Gaiman’s professional journey as a writer as closely as others (though I like and respect his work), so this was an eye opening read for me in terms of his inspirations and career. This book in its physical form is HUGE, but I compulsively read through it from cover to cover, plus later read the audiobook version when I was able to check it out from my library (which just so happens to be narrated by him :) ). It’s one I would definitely recommend if you would like insights on where he draws inspiration in his writing life, his career and interactions with the people he’s come across in that spectrum. I read it during Camp NaNo and also found it inspiring to read from an authorial perspective.
03. “What We Saw” by Aaron Hartzler
Review of “What We Saw” on my blog
This read hit and hurt to my very core, to the point where moments of it had tears coming to my eyes and thinking about some of the events of this past year. Based on actual events (it’s based on the Stuebenville High school case), it’s told from the perspective of a young woman who is inebriated one night and taken home, but the following day witnesses one of her classmates accusing four boys of rape the night of the party. She questions the events and finds – to her horror – there’s more to the story that involves people who are close to her. This book highlights the problems of rape culture in such vivid detail with dimensional examinations of all the characters and their attitudes. I had heard about this narrative in some readerly circles, but not to the degree where it had been frequently discussed at the time I read it. I honestly think it’s an excellent and eye-opening YA contemporary read, one that while the experience is tough to read, provides brilliant insight and a compelling story in its pages.
02. “Emmy and Oliver” by Robin Bennway
Review of “Emmy and Oliver” on my blog
I’m a sucker for cute contemporary romances, and while this YA contemporary tale has a very difficult subject matter in its backdrop, the chemistry between the characters and appeal of the extended cast really stayed with me throughout this past year. The story revolves around the titular characters as Oliver returns home after being abducted as a child by his father. It showcases a tough transition for Oliver as he reunites with his childhood friends and struggles between the life he left behind and the family and friends he has to get to know all over again. It also shows Emmy grappling with events and things she wants in her life as well. The chemistry between the characters is palpable, fun, and engaging. For me, it was hard not to love Emmy’s bubbly personality and Oliver’s interactions with her. I loved it.
And for my #1 pick(s): Technically speaking this is two books, but I’m going to count it as one since they’re part of the same series.
01. The Archetype series by M.D. Waters
Review of Archetype on my blog
Review of Prototype on my blog
This series had me reading from cover to cover the entire time I had them checked out from my local library (then ended up adding them to my personal library shortly afterward). This adult sci-fi/mystery/thriller revolves around a woman named Emma who has lost her memories. Her husband Declan, a prominent researcher, tells her she’s been in a horrible accident, but as snippets of her memory resurface, she realizes that may not be entirely the truth. I loved how this series kept me guessing for events and portrayed Emma’s experiences in a vivid, sensual, and nailbiting way. It’s the kind of story where the premise had me from point one and delivered in so many great ways. My first reads from M.D. Waters and I hope to read more from her in the future.
So what were your favorite reads from this year? I happened to have a a decent reading year on the whole, but in the next entry in this Year in Review series, I’ll go into my Worst Reads of 2016.
Happy reading and happy new year all,
Rose
Rose’s Book Superlatives of 2016: Favorite Books of 2016 Hi all, Rose here with one of a multiple part series chronicling my year in reading for 2016.
#2016 year in review#Best Reads of 2016#Blog stuff#bookish things#Favorite Reads of 2016#fun#random#random updates
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