Daredevil S02E09 Review: Frank and Wilson Have A Chat

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 9: Seven Minutes in Heaven

Wilson Fisk is one of those characters that demands full attention when he comes on scene, and this episode did not disappoint. Every single conversation between Wilson Fisk and Frank Castle really steals the episode, and I honestly am hard-pressed to even remember just what the Hand or Daredevil did in this episode. From their initial meeting with Frank not wanting anything to do with Fisk, to Fisk trying to strike a deal with Frank, the two just exude a kind of class all to their own. Frank Castle, the Punisher, the vigilante who shoots to kill en masse, and Wilson Fisk, the (newly-minted) Kingpin, who is a force both in resources, mind and strength, a fallen crime lord who is rebuilding his empire from the ground up from his prison, a master at controlling others to get what he wants. 

It's amazingly well-written. Neither Fisk nor Frank was written as naive or being duped, and the characters clearly respect each other to talk in blatant terms. Fisk acknowledges how Frank will never submit to being a hitman, and he makes it clear that, yes, he benefits from his rival being taken out, but at the same time Dutton is involved or has information regarding the death of Frank Castle's family. Of course, there's the betrayal with Fisk locking Frank Castle in and springing all the inmates, leading to one of the most gloriously brutal action sequences in the entirety of the MCU that gave the Daredevil-vs-Dogs fight a run for its money. It's brutal, it's awesome and holy shit it's just a thrill to watch.

And after that, Fisk doesn't apologize, and straight-up tells Frank that he was fully intentional on killing him before. But he's letting Frank Castle out, because, well, a destabilized criminal empire is far easier for Wilson Fisk to retake when he gets out. Also, Fisk probably won't admit it outright but having this maniac loose in the prison is not going to bode well for his plans to assert control. And the short physical fight between the two, this grudging respect as they agree to unleash the Punisher upon Hell's Kitchen for wholly different goals? Man, it's awesome. It's also a great plot device to get Punisher out of jail for more punishing shenanigans in the season's final four episodes. 

Wilson Fisk also gets a short flashback showing his life in between season 1 and season 2, with a welcome reappearance of those cufflinks of abuse. We get him being challenged by local prison overlord Dutton, who gave Fisk his 'Kingpin' moniker which he adopts at the end of the episode. I do like how Kingpin recruits a bunch of inmates, and how he still has allies outside. Fisk's empire may have crumbled, and he's short on money, but he's not unresourceful as he uses his limited influences to guarantee the safety of his new allies' families and rebuilds a new inner circle. I'm sure Benjamin Donovan, Stewart Finney and the brothers might show up as new minibosses come Fisk's eventual and inevitable breakout. 

Man, I'm just happy to see Wilson Fisk again, okay? And the Punisher is just a great character to lob dialogue with back and forth.

Matt and Foggy have a big verbal spat this episode and it honestly just felt like a retread of the previous season's angry fight, except more final. It's not at all interesting and I'd rather they develop the Hand plot or have Matt interact with Karen or Stick or Elektra or something. Foggy shuts the law firm down, which honestly felt more like a 'oh well, that was inevitable' moment instead of a big shocking twist. Karen goes around with the editor man to become the new Ben Urich, and it's honestly all really dull compared to the Kingpin/Punisher stuff. We did get a couple of interesting tidbits regarding Frank's origins thanks to Karen discovering the police causing Frank's body ('John Doe') to disappear from the crime scene, and the person behind the big gang shootout that claimed Frank's family, the Blacksmith. Knowing nothing about Marvel lore beyond the bare basics, I just shrugged and went 'oh, so this is the final boss'. One of the final bosses, anyway. Is the Blacksmith Reyes? Or a Hand operative? I think it'll be underwhelming if it turns out that the main villain is someone we've never seen before. Karen's subplot is definitely stronger than Foggy and Matt's, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, on the Hand plot... Daredevil discovers that Nobu is back, albeit scarred. We get a short fight scene that I think shares a couple of moves with their first altercation, but apparently the Hand can rise from the grave, as Stick's backstory claims. There is something going on with Daredevil investigating Stan Gibson (the Roxxon money dude that they beat up when they were playing spies before) and discovering that his son is taken hostage. Before being confronted with Nobu, Daredevil discovers that, well, the Hand is draining blood from the kids. Or something.

Honestly the Hand plotline is seemingly just designed to make us go 'WTF' with the promise of big revelations later on... but it still feels kinda fractured. Add that to the relatively weak and procedural Karen and Foggy subplots, and the Matt end of the episode felt a fair amount weaker compared to how it was in the strong first half of the season. The Kingpin and Punisher more than make up for it, though! Those two really stole the episode. This show is balancing just the right amount of characters to feel busy and to jump from one subplot to the other, but without being way too busy or overcrowded.

One Piece 825 Review: Sanji's Brother

One Piece, Chapter 825: 'The WE Times' Comic Strip

Also a bit of a slower chapter, but unlike Bleach and Toriko, this one is still quite solid. It's a departure from the previous, like, seven or eight One Piece chapters filled with a crapton of revelations and content, this one is slower and just gets through the motions of Team Sanji and Team Luffy approaching Big Mom's area of operations.

The titular WE (World Economic) Times is apparently referring to a comic strip that ran in a newspaper featuring this character Sora who can walk on water and fights the armies of Germa 66 with his robot and seagull friends. I'm not sure how relevant this offhand mention of a comic strip is. It seemed way too random to be just a fun tidbit, so I'm inclined to believe that there is a real-life Sora hanging out in the One Piece world somewhere. Vito mentions that it might just be propaganda for children to like marines, but Vito himself was always so happy to root for Germa 66 while reading those comics. 

Sanji isn't happy being lumped in with this whole Germa 66 thing, and Vito just keeps following him and talking about the organization and repeating stuff we already know about his upcoming marriage and the organizations fusing together. It's interesting how Vito seemed to have more screentime lately than Capone Bege himself, but hey. We are introduced to another member of Capone's crew, Gotti, who's this big dude twice the height of Vito and Sanji, with a chunky gatling gun as a right arm. Gotti is just all angry about Sanji mouthing off to Vito, and while I expected Sanji to just boot him in the face, Lola shows up! Or, well, either Lola's sister or Lola had a haircut. It's unmistakably similar to Lola, though IIRC we saw her in one of the cover stories and she's in Water 7 with Franky's square-haired sisters. 

Yeah, literally everyone guessed Lola was Big Mom's daughter, and now we have some kind of a confirmation. NotLola scares Gotti off to submission. What's interesting is that NotLola warns Gotti about harming Sanji because 'if you put so much as a scratch on him, they'll ice Father!' Where the word 'Father' is written with the kanji for boss. Meaning Capone? Is NotLola a member of Capone's crew? Or is she married to Capone, which would be weird as hell... or is she talking about Big Mom, and she's worried that Germa 66 would kill Big Mom if Sanji is harmed? Huh. Weird.

We get a bit of a comedic moment with the Straw Hats on the Thousand Sunny being parched and starved, with Luffy cracking a hilarious joke about using Chopper as emergency food rations. Some random bit with a poisoned fish later (which ran a bit too long) they arrive into Big Mom's territory, which is marked with cotton candy snow much to the delight of Chopper. Luffy's kinda out of it because he consumed so much of the poison fish, but immunity thanks to the Magellan fight meant that, well, he's not going to die. Incapacitated, though, which could be problematic. Pekoms explains that Big Mom's territory is patrolled with Territorial Sea Slugs, which are, well, sea slugs with radars strapped onto their backs. 

Pekoms thinks that they've reached Big Mom's Tart-Ship... but it turns out to be a big snail-headed ship from Germa 66... led by a hooded man with Sanji's eyebrow. Sanji's brother confirmed! And, well, Luffy is out of the loop thanks to the poisoned fish. Finally Germa 66 shows up, and I'm really interested in seeing just what their big deal is.

Daredevil S02E08 Review: Stick Makes a Dramatic Entry

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 8: Guilty As Sin

Well, not only Stick, I guess, but also a surprise unexpected character at the end. But I'll save that for later. The bulk of the episode deals with the rather slow revelation of the whole Hand vs Chaste secret ninja war, and while I appreciate the slow buildup instead of infodumping it all on us, I really wished they had gone and be a wee bit more clear about the going-ons regarding the secret war. We've had enough buildup and mystery with the whole 'yakuza is back! Except they are not yakuza!' for the past three or four episodes, plus the whole Nobu and Black Sky thing over in the first season, so we really didn't need to spend yet another episode for Stick to go 'legends are real' and Matt going 'you crazy old man', especially in this second half of the season.

But still, Stick is entertaining, slow episode notwithstanding. He's such a gigantic asshole! I could list his awesome quotes in this episode, but then we'll be here all day. He's got a big damn heroes moment when he rescues Elektra and Daredevil from the Hand ninjas, and he got a couple of great scenes in vehicular combat against a ninja army. Again, we spent way too much time dealing with Elektra getting poisoned and Daredevil playing doubting Thomas, and while the long fight against the young Hand ninja at the end is impressive visually, it's another chink that slows down the pacing of this episode that it feels like just a bunch of fight scenes, a filler 'Elektra gets poisoned' subplot and an inconclusive introdump that keeps getting interrupted by Matt's skepticism.

Which is a shame, really, because the show isn't quite clear on the backstory of the Hand in the four episodes to follow and some things really came out of the left field there, so I can't help but fault this episode somewhat for being a rather bad introdump episode. But, hey, let's talk in an episode-to-episode basis.

We get some Matt-Elektra moments, we get some Matt-Stick moments, and it's clear that Stick is embroiled in the backstories of both vigilantes without Matt knowing... but the whole Elektra-playing-on-Matt's-emotions thing is kinda messy. Which is both good and bad at the same time. Good in that messy is definitely the word that describes their relationship accurately, but bad because it's kinda inconsistent to watch especially when Elektra spends a good half of the episode passed out. She ends up choosing Matt over Stick and the Chaste, and kinda tries to uphold his 'no kill' policy... though when faced with a hypercompetent ninja assassin kid about to murder a poisoned Matt Murdock, well... Elektra ends up killing again. That can't be good for her mind.

Also Karen kinda sees Matt with Elektra and immediately assumes the worst because drama. It's kept minimal, though, and Daredevil handles these drama subplots well, so I don't mind that much. Again, though, so much grief could be spared if Matt would just confide in Karen just what he's doing in the night, and I'm annoyed that he hasn't done that already. I mean, his friendship with Foggy is all but shot to hell in this episode and the previous one, and now he's about to lose Karen. Oh well. 

The Punisher trial got a couple of great moments, with Colonel Schoonover being a great guest character and painting Frank Castle the soldier in a highly positive light. It's really obvious that Schoonover is the jackass officer or at least one of the soldiers that Frank Castle saved, but it's still really funny seeing Reyes get blindsided by one of her witnesses. Though honestly I'd rather have it be shot in flashback so we just don't get ten straight minutes of Schoonover's storytime. But Schoonover is played by the awesome Clancy "Lex Luthor" Brown, so all is forgiven. After several episodes of more or less the same thing it ended up being rather annoying, if surprisingly unexpected, for Frank Castle to flip out and just go 'fuck you all' and just explode despite Team Matt's efforts to salvage his case. 

I have no idea why Matt didn't press on the mysterious guard dude in the courtroom when Frank was delivering his outburst, though. He clearly heard it with his super senses, so why did he only tell it to the already-furious Karen and the apathetic Foggy later on? Jeez, Matt.

And, well, apparently the mysterious guard who has his voice on the Punisher's ear is working for... Wilson Fisk! Who I honestly did not expect to show up in this season at all! The Kingpin meets Punisher, the two main villains of their respective seasons, and it came out of nowhere and it's still really very awesome. Kingpin only has like three seconds of screentime but he definitely steals the ending scene there, and it's going to be awesome to see these two great personalities interact with each other. It was an ending that made sense -- of course Fisk would be aware of what's happening in Hell's Kitchen -- but other than a mysterious party using Punsiher I really did not expect it to be Wilson Fisk. Oh, and of course he's working out while in prison. Naturally.

And honestly, as fun as Elektra and Stick are, the Hand plot is honestly kinda m'eh. I'd rather see more Punisher and Kingpin, please. It's overall... an inconsistent episode, I think? All the characters are entertaining and top-notch, but the pacing of this episode really felt off. 

Game of Thrones S06E02 Review: Haven't Seen Those Guys In A Long Time

Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 2: Home

Well, that was a helluva eventful episode! A lot of characters return after several seasons' worth of absence. A couple of politically important players (if neither of them were particularly prolific nor iconic) kick the bucket, both of them gigantic assholes, and, a record for Game of Thrones, someone cheats death. And, yes, it's the one you were thinking about.

Let's get the big revelation at the end out of the way. It's a big twist, for sure, because Game of Thrones is the farthest you can get from the definition of an 'optimistic show'. The two precedents for a dead character coming back to life has been Khal Drogo, who came back a vegetable and ended up being mercy-killed. And Beric Dondarrion (mentioned in this episode), whose entire purpose in this show seemed to be to give the Hound a kickass fighting scene and to demonstrate that, yes, revival is a thing. 

And, well, the Castle Black bit was resolved, quite predictably, with Dolorous Edd rallying up Tormund Giantsbane, Wun Wun the giant and an army of wildlings. Thankfully, as to not make Edd and the wildlings too unsympathetic, only a couple particularly aggressive Night Watchmen got killed. Though to be fair the sight of Wun Wun whacking a dude onto a castle wall probably dispelled all notions of fighting. Plus, as Edd notes himself, Alliser Thorne was the man who murdered the commander of the Night's Watch. So, yeah, it makes sense. Thorne and Olly don't bite the bucket, which is surprising, but considering Jon Snow goes around executing people that fails him, well, I don't see their long-term survival to be good. 

We get a nice, sweet moment as Ser Davos and Melisandre confront each other, with Melisandre losing faith in herself and Ser Davos gaining faith in Melisandre. Granted, Davos has no idea Melisandre convinced Stannis to burn that poor girl Shireen, which I think might be a big contender for a conflict point in a future episode. Melisandre ends up being convinced to at least give it a shot, and while everyone ends up leaving the room after the ritual, what do you know, Jon Snow wakes up.

Honestly, was there any doubt? Episode 2 is really the only nice point where you can do Jon's revival without making it feel too soon and like they've chickened out (and honestly it still kinda reeks of chickening out), or drawing it out for like half a year or whatever. I'm... not convinced whether this will be a nice good get-out-of-jail-free card, though. It felt way too easy and way too optimistic for Jon Snow to return without any real repercussions, but who knows? All we saw was his eyes opening and gasping. For all we know it could be Bran reanimating Jon Snow's body or something.

Speaking of Bran, we finally see Team Bran after a season's worth of absence, and, boy, puberty hit Bran Stark's actor like a truck! We get a short flashback showing young Ned Stark and the previously-unseen Benjen and Lyanna Stark, with Bran and his guide, the Three-Eyed Raven, walking through the flashback before the Raven pulls him out and scolds him for almost 'drowning'. Bran also learns that Hodor used to be a totally sane kid (punctuated with a welcome reappearance of a younger version of Old Nan, who was absent ever since season one thanks to her actress passing away) with a real name and the ability to talk properly and everything. (Hodor's original name was changed from 'Walder' in the books to 'Wyllis', but considering Walder Frey existing in the TV show it would be too confusing I suppose.)

We get a short scene with Meera, who's just pouting, and that fairy forest girl, talking about an upcoming war, but honestly the White Walkers don't really feel like the big threat. Okay, they've got a big zombie army which includes a lot of Jon's wildling buddies, but the politics in Westeros are all so much more interesting!

We don't get to see Daenerys at all this episode, nor do we see her rescue team, but we did get to see Tyrion Lannister and Varys trying to tackle the dragon problem. While Drogon is happy flying around the countryside re-enacting Skyrim, Viserion and Rhaegal are still chained up in Mereen's basement, and Tyrion recognizes the need for superior firepower if they're going to face off against the Sons of the Harpy and indeed practically the rest of the world. The problem is, the dragons are acting like teenagers and refusing to eat. Also, y'know, they're dragons that can breathe fire and eat men.

Tyrion has enough balls (though technically he's the only person in that room who actually does physically have balls) to go down and try to talk to the dragons. Which just sounds insane if you don't know that Tyrion has a morbid fascination with dragons, something mentioned as early as like the fifth or sixth chapter of the first book. We did get an offhand mention back when Tyrion and Jorah saw Drogon flying in the ruins of Valyria, but other than that... it's not improbable for Tyrion to try something insane, though, and that scene when he just talks to the dragons is just pretty insane and awesome at the same time. Tyrion raises a point that attempting to domesticate dragons and chaining them up is kinda dumb, so he lets their chains loose at least, though he has enough sense to beat it after showing his friendliness and good intentions to Viserion and Rhaegal.

Meanwhile, in Braavos, we get a short scene of Daredevil Arya fighting the Waif, and then confronted by Jaqen H'ghar. Or the Faceless Man currently using the Jaqen identity. Jaqen II tries to play good cop, telling Arya to tell him her true name with promises of shelter and food, and eventually sight, an insanely horrific method of indoctrination and unpersonification, and Arya, well, passes with flying colours. "Jaqen" offers her shelter anyway, though just what the Faceless Men want with Arya beyond recruitment, well... It's nothing particularly as interesting as the other plotlines, but it's nice to see this.

Equally nice is seeing Sansa, Brienne, Theon and Pod just hanging around. We get a nice conversation with Theon admitting his guilt to Sansa, Brienne and Sansa catching each other up regarding what's happening and giving Sansa a much-needed update on the status of her family. Nothing much to really note here, though.

Nah, the biggest things that go on are in three seats of power. Last week we got the upheaval in Dorne. This week, several other kingdoms get torn apart as well. Where to begin? Let's go with King's Landing. King Tommen finally shows up after being absent last episode and the last few episodes of season five. He's... not indoctrinated as I initially thought, but he's just a super-confused little boy thrust into a responsibility he's not ready for. He's nowhere as ironclad and cocksure as Joffrey, and gets pulled in all directions by his sense of duty to his wife and mother as well as the fact that he also feels a sense of duty to uphold religion. 

He keeps demanding to see his wife, so he's not keeling over completely, but the High Sparrow is like the hobo version of the Pope and, well, easily cowers the little naive boy-king. This leads to some friction like Cersei not being allowed inside the sept (though she mercifully chooses not to pick a fight), and Tommen only really reconciling with Cersei in this episode, apologizing for not doing enough to get her back. Cersei forgives her son, of course, because for all the shit Cersei pulls, she is a mother through and through. 

Jaime Lannister, thankfully, is in not such a forgiving mood. He threatens the High Sparrow, clearly not giving a damn about redemption or upsetting the gods or spilling blood in a holy place, but the High Sparrow is a dictator in all but name, because he's all like, 'kill me, but hey, look at this army of fanatic cultists all around you just hiding in the shadows'. Jaime is cowed for the moment, since he is outnumbered and he's still fighting with his lesser arm, but you can bet that the clock is ticking until Jaime and Cersei lead an army of Kingsguard to burn the holy palace down. Honestly, this could actually lead to a team-up with Lady Olenna Tyrell, awesome old lady that she is. The High Sparrow is like chill and all, but I'd argue that he's only one step away from being Joffrey or Ramsay level of megalomania and douchebaggery. He's just more subtle, polite and hides it under a veneer of religion.

Also, the Mountain (or Robert Strong, or Frankenmountain) is going around bashing the head of some random peasant who flashed Cersei with his dick back during her walk of shame. Good job, Mountain!

Meanwhile, in Winterfell, Roose Bolton's son is born! And, well, the fact that Walda Frey-Bolton is pregnant has been a constant piece of friction between Ramsay and Roose, with Roose continually making 'well, I'm having a proper heir soon' threats to Ramsay all throughout recent episodes. It's just a question of who kills who first, and, well, is it any doubt that it was going to be Ramsay? And right after Roose was all overjoyed and went all 'you're always my firstborn, Ramsay'.  Nope, knife through the gut. As if Ramsay Bolton will settle for any less. The Boltons' Karstark allies seem totally fine with that, though, as long as they don't serve under a Stark after Robb Stark executed their father so many episodes ago. So, yeah, Sansa Stark might be alive but a good chunk of the Northern powers are still Bolton loyalists.

Despite Roose's death prior to it, and the baby's death all but assured considering it's Ramsay we're talking about, it is extremely disquieting and nerve-wracking to see the events leading up to it. When Ramsay took the baby in his arms, is he going to squish the poor thing's little head? Is he going to bash him on a rock in front of his mother? The fact that this is Game of Thrones makes it doubly more likely that some gruesome scene like that was going to happen. Mercifully the show gives us a still-brutal but far less graphic scene. Mostly because it took place off-screen. Ramsay locks Walda and the baby in the hound kennels and basically set up mother and son to be torn apart alive... off-screen, thankfully. It still made me squeamish, but at least we don't get Ramsay smashing the baby's head on the ground.

Man, Ramsay, why you gotta be so psychotic? Stuff the baby's face with a pillow and be done with it. However Ramsay Bolton dies, it's not quite going to be enough because he can only die once. 

And finally, the Iron Islands! Absent since... oh, season three, I think? Yara Greyjoy showed up a couple of times trying to rescue Theon. Balon Greyjoy is being a jackass, not caring that their troops are failing to hold the mainland castles now that the Northerners have returned after the War of the Five Kings. Instead Balon has the troll logic of going 'the other four contenders are dead so I win!'. Well, Melisandre's prophecy back in season two or whatever finally comes true, since Balon kicks the bucket this episode.

That was an awesome scene, by the way, with that rickety bridge in the rain, a very atmospheric scene. Balon is blocked by a hooded man claiming to be the Drowned God himself, rising from the depths because 'the dead may never die'. Euron Greyjoy, brother to Balon Greyjoy, is apparently a delusional madman with a god complex according to Balon, but damn if he isn't a smooth operator. He throws Balon off the side of the bridge, a long, long drop down below. This bits are apparently actually from the books and not entirely original, but hey, it's all new content to me.

Yara Greyjoy wants to assert command, but, well, apparently the Iron Islands operate on some kind of democracy and they'll elect a leader on a Kingsmoot... an election that Yara is almost assuredly not going to be able to win on account of her gender. Euron Greyjoy, though, has the credentials and the awesomeness to back it up, so I'm sure he's going to be a big player.

It would be a bigger impact if, y'know, the Iron Islands had been an actual contender and an actual nation in the past two or three seasons instead of just being part of Theon Greyjoy's backstory. It's not like Dorne or the Boltons where the events that transpired there are all still fresh. Still, it's nice to see yet another faction finally making its move, and I've always loved the nautical Cthulhu-cult-esque aspect of the Iron Islands and always wanted to see more of them while watching this show, so yay for that!

Overall, definitely a great episode. Looking forward to see what they're going to do with Jon Snow, but, well, basically everything else as well. Game of Thrones is firing on all cylinders baby!

Daredevil S02E07 Review: Frank Goes To Court

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 7: Semper Fidelis

Frank Castle goes to court, and I never thought that an episode about a court trial would be so exciting. The Punisher and Elektra storylines finally intersect, as do the Matt Murdock and Daredevil storylines. As it's obvious to probably everybody watching the show, Matt kinda fucks up by choosing the vigilantism thing over being a lawyer, thus forcing Foggy to cover up for Matt's absence. Elektra's unconventional and pushy methods of getting Matt to help her out in combating the Hand is definitely hurting Matt's attempts to, y'know, be a lawyer. 

And, well, Elektra tries to help out when she overhears a part or two of the trial. One of the witnesses, the coroner that falsified Frank Castle's body and made it disappear, is refusing to give truthful testimony, so Elektra tries to help out in the only way she knows she can -- threaten the fuck out of the coroner, and make him piss his pants. The judge is half-competent, however, and she kinda gets the poor scared coroner to confess that, yes, someone came and threatened him to tell the full story. While Daredevil is exonerated since he gave the description of a ninja lady, his testimony is considered to be under duress and struck from the record. This leads to heated tensions between Matt and Foggy that's been brewing all throughout this trial -- mostly due to Matt missing all their trials and whatnot -- finally explodes. He's finally doing something, at least. "Stop acting like these things just happen to you" is an absolutely great comeback. 

Yeah, Foggy becomes relevant, and the trial scenes become relevant. We're at the halfway point of the season, and I cannot believe that this trial is that exciting. In a sense the story of the season isn't as focused as the one from the first season, which is all about Daredevil vs. Kingpin's organization. The story here is focused on the Punisher, but with an Elektra sideplot that consumes a good chunk of the middle and takes up almost the entirety of the final leg of the season. But it's fine! Variation is good, right, and it's definitely welcome here. 

Also, Karen, despite being mostly supportive of Matt throughout the episode, gets into a bit of a discussion-slash-argument with Matt over vigilantism, kind of putting a bit of a halt to their romance. It's a really great discussion, and having Karen's input on it (sometimes people like Frank is needed) is great both for the audience, so we don't just see the same two people regurgitating the same old points over and over... but also for Matt's own character development as he is confronted with the fact that despite thinking that he's doing the right thing for the people, some of the people might want something substantially different, and hearing it come from one of his closest friends probably really hurts him. 

Hell, even the jury itself is split on Frank's killing spree, with some of them noting that the police are shit and it's people like Daredevil and Punisher who even get anything done, with some of them condemning the criminals as scum who should die, some who are just scared of all these crazy psychopaths be it vigilante or goons, and some family members of Frank's victims. 

All throughout this it's fun to see Frank's own reactions. He's just crazy here, just being a wildcard for all involved both his defenders and his enemies. Though I don't really understand a huge chunk of what they're trying to get from the trial, really... get Frank's death sentence annulled, yes. Also, um, maybe decrease his sentence for... something? I dunno. American courtroom laws isn't something I'm well-versed with at all. It's just entertaining to see everything that's going on, though, and at least I understand enough to see whether Team Frank or Team Reyes is winning.

Meanwhile, the Hand plot doesn't really advance that much -- they follow the ledger to a train full of dirt, fight a bit and in the end, where they show up in that mysterious building that Nobu seemed so keen to obtain from Kingpin back in season one, and, um, they dug a big, big big hole. Yeah. Some crazy Hand thing. Despite the friction that Elektra caused between herself and Matt, the fact that this strange threat ends up to be real and somewhat incomprehensible, at least Daredevil isn't too proud to ignore Elektra's valid warnings about this group of psychopaths tearing his city apart. 

Overall I still think it's weaker than the earlier episodes thanks to the more disjointed focus, and the slow buildup to the Hand plot. And as interesting as the trial is, it's also, um, not quite that great in really revealing much beyond what we already know regarding Frank Castle. It's interesting to see his reactions and his prideful refusal to be portrayed as a 'crazy' PTSD patient, and it's somewhat interesting to see Foggy and Karen scramble to try and figure out how to win this defense, but overall... it really could've been somewhat shortened. Ditto for the whole 'Elektra is a bad influence on Matt's life' thing. There is some nice tie-in between the Elektra and Punisher plots, though, and that's pretty decent. Decent doesn't really stand up all that well to the quality of episodes one through five, though. I think my biggest problem is simply that there just isn't quite enough content to stretch it out over an entire episode. But eh, they can't all be winners.

The Flash S02E17 Review: Back to the Future to the Back to the Future

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 17: Flash Back

Hey, let's get an episode of Flash in! Despite catching up with Flash the first compared to the rest of the other superhero shows, I haven't really... reviewed it. Putting off talking about this episode is probably one of the main reasons why. It's a pretty good and solid episode, showing some absolutely awesome performances from Eobard Thawne in particular. That's from a stand-alone purpose, though, because on the other hand the fact that they so flagrantly fucked with the timeline despite the whole premise of how time travel was portrayed in both Flash and Legends of Tomorrow is kinda thrown out of the window. It kinda gave me a bit of a headache, so it means that despite nothing really visibly changing in the present-day segments of Flash and Arrow, every single thing that the Legends team are doing -- blowing up the gulag, giving Savage knowledge of Firestorm, having a winged human fight in the Pentagon or whatever... all probably fucked up the timeline somewhat fierce... when previously it's implied that time will always force things to fix themselves in one way or another, which was why the Legends team was fighting against destiny itself, or how Flash really cannot choose to save his mother.

Hell, the ending of this episode basically kinda means every event that took place in-between the Pied Piper episode and this one has kinda been retconned to be kinda retconned to have probably taken place in a different (but probably similar) manner, since Hartley Rathaway is now one of their allies, or at the very least a guest star. It does raise a fuckton of questions about time travel, and just what else has changed, and how this correlates to Zoom, but eh, that's a question for another article.

Right now let's just talk about this episode, because despite Barry's relative stupidity, it's a very entertaining episode nonetheless. 

"Flash Back" is a unique episode and is definitely the most ambitious in trying to use time travel as a storytelling mechanic. While Barry Allen has experienced events of his life in the past before, such as when he came back to witness his mother's death and eventually chose not to alter that particular fate, this was one where he goes back to the past to interact with Eobard Thawne (a.k.a. the fake Harrison Wells) and obtain some knowledge on how to get faster, since superspeed steroids just got thrown out of the window last episode. 

Of course, despite everyone going all "Barry, don't change the past", the first thing Barry does after getting to the past and picking a fight with his past-self counterpart (which in itself is a really cool fight) and knocking him out, he kinda almost immediately fucks things up by, y'know, changing the past and telling everyone about the bomb in Pied Piper's earpiece. He also portrays his past self very unconvincingly. It's kind of part of Barry's charm, of course, but sometimes you just gotta roll your eyes at this kind of stupidity.

Eobard Thawne is not stupid, however, and one of the reasons why Eobard is such a compelling and threatening villain in the way that Zoom isn't in this show for me is that, well Eobard-Wells is a very, very smart and classy villain. Sure, Zoom is a big threat physically, and he's scary as all hell, but Eobard just catching onto Barry's plan, figuring everything out in record time and just gauging whether his theory about this Barry being from the future by showing him the future room and simply standing up... before delivering some really horrifying threats, going straight for the vibrating arm kill.

The episode's villain is a Time Wraith, which apparently is a ghostly monstrous thing that chases down time travelers to fuck them up. It seemed to be kinda somewhat based on Black Flash from the comics (and the 'hunting down speedsters to claim their lives' thing is definitely based on Black Flash), but it's definitely a disposable villain... that raises a whole bunch of questions It's just this menace that neither Barry nor Eobard can handle, and the key to defeating the Time Wraith is somehow, um, Pied Piper being able to figure out the frequency of this eldritch being that lives outside of time. Um yeah okay. It's a threat, I guess, and it gets taken out pretty quickly by Present!Hartley who murders the thing when Barry returns to the now-altered present-day. It's just, well... it just doesn't feel that scary, I guess? Especially with Cisco lampshading that it looks like a Dementor, and not a particularly good one at that. But more importantly, why hasn't Eobard Thawne been hunted down by a Time Wraith for the period that he's been active in season one? Why hasn't the Legends of Tomorrow team encountered one? What's the point of the Time Masters if these time-travelling Dementors are like time's little antibodies?

Also with the fact that they really could've used the Time Masters or Chronos as Barry's antagonists felt like a big missed opportunity to tie in between Legends and Flash. In a far more sensible way.

Really the main appeal and bulk of the episode lies in just how awesome Eobard Thawne is as a villain, and how the show is a lot worse now that he's kinda gone other than these kinds of guest stars. He's just so much better than Zoom! There is a great distinction between the more experienced Season 2 Barry and the greenhorn from season one, and it is exemplified really well. The scene where Eobard interrogates Barry and forces him to ad lib half-truths and excuses to get Eobard to help him give the speed formula is one of the greatest in this season, and in retrospect I really should've realized that the speed formula is where they were going with the big chalkboards filled with equations. For non comic-book readers, the comic version of Jesse Quick activated her speed by reciting a formula, which is, well, the one that Eobard teaches Barry in this episode.

We also get a particularly sweet moment with Eddie that was a subplot throughout this episode. Barry meeting Eddie in the past and recording a video of him talking about what Iris meant to him, and then showing that video to the present-day Iris is a nice, really sweet moment. I mean, Iris hasn't mourned Eddie for a while now, but it's nice to see this past relationship be explored unlike the Ronnie/Caitlin where Ronnie's death seemed to really be swept under the rug in favour of the new handsome male supporting character. 

We get some great moments between Past!Barry and Present!Barry as well, though who knows just how Eobard-Wells explained everything that happened to Past!Barry, and how this meeting with his future/present self would affect the events that transpired between the Pied Piper episode and this one. Unless that's supposed to be a plot point and next episode we'll discover the ramifications of fucking around with the timeline, and he's going to discover that, oh, Linda Park has became this universe's version of Power Girl thanks to him mucking around with the timeline or something. 

It's definitely a great standalone episode, and easily one of the stronger episodes of season two, stupid-ass Time Wraiths aside.

Arrow S04E15 Review: Liam Neeson Oliver & The Return of Vixen

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 15: Taken 

Back to Arrow for a bit. I have to admit, my interest in the show has kinda waned somewhat, especially with the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Agents of SHIELD being far more entertaining and well-written. And it's a shame, considering how well-done the first chunk of season four has been. Having watched some of episodes that came after this one, I think this episode is the first when the Oliver-Felicity shipping thing once more became an all-encompassing plot tumour that just refuses to just stay in the sidelines and drags down the show. It's honestly not at all that apparent in this episode, but as the Arrow/Flash crossover foreshadows, the whole Oliver-keeping-his-secret-baby-a-secret-from-Felicity thing finally comes to bite him in the ass. Big time.

The fact that Darhk (with a bit of help from Malcolm) kidnapped William, Oliver's illegitimate son, has single-handedly caused Oliver to drop out from the mayoral race as well as absolutely nuke his relationship with Felicity. Again, as Barry had told Oliver so many episodes ago, he really needs to tell Felicity about his kid. It's not the fact that Oliver fooled around and got a girl knocked up, not really, but it's because he's keeping such a big secret from Felicity after spending three seasons' worth of "SECRETS ARE BAD!" as episode morals.

Yes, we get a Taken-style series as Oliver goes apeshit and goes on a rampage, and we get a very welcome guest star in Vixen, finally in live-action. Vixen previously starred in an animated spinoff (and Stephen Amell is very obviously trying not to laugh as he utters the giggle-worthy line 'we had an animated encounter') a couple of seasons ago, and she shows up here. Because John Constantine is apparently in hell. Literally. Um, okay, that's a reason why Oliver hasn't called up his far more powerful magical ally, I guess. You go, Constantine. I'm rooting for you.

Vixen shows up, and, well, she's an okay supporting character, I guess. Experience with the Flash gave us some nice little visual effects as she channels animal auras, but nothing honestly too impressive compared to what we see in Flash and Legends. And not even Vixen's fun little guest starring, nor Green Arrow and Vixen finally taking down Damien Darhk and smashing his magic totem, really felt cohesive in this episode. It really feels more of a 'about damn time' as Darhk and Oliver has been playing a game of cat-and-mouse over the past 15 episodes and frankly it's getting annoying. Bringing a big gun like Vixen basically solves everything as she overpowers Damien Darhk with her animal channeling, which really begs to question why Oliver hadn't done it sooner. It kinda portrays Team Arrow as being kinda shit is all.

It's hard to pinpoint where exactly in this episode that it failed to really deliver. I think it's mostly because the episode is all to formulaic and we don't really get a sense of the threat to anything other than the Olicity ship, which I'm honestly getting quite toxic about since it's yet another regurgitation of something from season three. Not even Darhk's hamminess managed to save this episode from mediocrity, because as much as Oliver has failed to take down Darhk throughout the season, Darhk's access to magic dark side force powers hasn't done him any favours either since he really kinda looked incompetent in failing to deal any kind of lasting damage to Team Arrow, godfather-style shoot-out that crippled Felicity aside. Which is reversed this episode thanks to Curtis's thingamagig finally doing its job and allowing Felicity to walk again.

Malcolm is also kinda nonsense, showing up to spout some 'this is for your own good' bullshit to Thea, and while John Barrowman is still a great actor, Malcolm being cryptic and shit and manipulating everything without any clear goal in sight is also yet another thing from Arrow that I can totally do without. I thought he would be delegated to a lesser role after that Nyssa episode, but noooo....

The only real meaningful moment in this scene is Vixen and Diggle playing as angel and devil to whether Oliver Queen should be a father, or if he should protect William from the danger that being the Green Arrow's son would cause him. It's great to have Diggle offer a great perspective that none of Oliver's other friends are able of doing since Diggle himself is a father, and a damn good one at that. Oliver's speech at the end, recorded to be told to William when/if he gets to be an adult, is touching. Oliver's spat with Felicity later on? Not so much.

So yeah, other than that scene with Oliver trying to be a good daddy, overall the only real good thing from this episode is bringing in Vixen from animated form to live-action (portrayed by the same person in both appearances to boot!). Vixen was entertaining. The rest of it, really, felt kinda flat, since the Arrow/Darhk conflict has grown absolutely stale. At least they had the sense to shove Darhk away to prison, without totem powers, because at least this way we might get something fresh for him to do. There's, of course, the disruption of the status quo via the shattering of the Olicity ship, but fuck that. It's 100% Oliver's fault for keeping it a secret, too, but it's also the writers' plot for regurgitating a plot that no one but the shippers are invested in, and it's not even a compelling or unpredictable plot twist. It's just a romantic plot tumour for the sake of a romantic plot tumour and ugh. You'd think after three episodes Oliver would learn, but no... he's just dumb in this sort of things, I guess.