"Both Sides Now" Brings Purity To Supergirl!

The Good: Thematically smart, Moments of character, Good performances, Decent plot development
The Bad: Somewhat simple plot, Large character continuity issue
The Basics: "Both Sides Now" continues the Worldkiller plot on Supergirl by bringing Purity - and philosophical differences between the Danvers sisters - to the forefront!


The third season of Supergirl has come into perfect focus as the Reign storyline has picked up. Earth has housed Worldkillers for decades, with Reign having revealed herself and Kara Danvers having dreams of three Worldkillers coming to destroy Earth. With "Both Sides Now," Supergirl is focused on averting an impending disaster by getting to the Worldkillers before they become active and powerful.

"Both Sides Now" picks up where "For Good" (reviewed here!) left off. Kara Danvers had visions in "For Good" about the Worldkillers who came from Krypton and are moving to teaming up with Reign to bring destruction to Earth. Kara managed to identify one of the Worldkillers from her dream, Purity. "Both Sides Now" picks right up with the hunt for Purity, in her human persona of Julia.

Kara and the DEO team visit a suburban neighborhood on the quest to find the Worldkiller, Julia. The team finds her in her living room singing Lisa Loeb's song "Stay." When she feels threatened by Alex Danvers, she manifests her impressive powers, but Supergirl and J'onn J'onzz manage to subdue her. The team brings Purity back to the DEO, where Supergirl and Alex interrogate her. Alex instantly distrusts Purity, while Supergirl sees her as a victim of Kryptonian genetic manipulation. While Mon-El, Schott and J'onzz visit J'onzz's stored space ship, Samantha and Ruby Arias take a day off together.

While Mon-El attempts to get the Legion ship repowered by using a power source from J'onzz's ship, the Danvers sisters argue about the best approach to dealing with Purity. Kara is upset with Alex's cynicism, but Alex insists that compassion is not working on Purity and she is more harsh in her interrogation of the Worldkiller. But when Schott experiments on a crystal found at Julia's home, it activates Reign and gives Purity enough power to break out of her DEO prison! Outfitted with sonic dampeners by Schott, the DEO team attempts to recover Purity before Reign can recover her for her side.

"Both Sides Now" has an interesting foil of a-plot and b-plots. The a-plot puts Purity on a rise to power to destroy Earth; the b-plot finds Mon-El actually opening up with his marriage to Imra. As it turns out, Mon-El and Imra married to end a conflict between Earth and the moon Titan. The idea that Mon-El and Saturn Girl came together as an act to bring together planets plays off Purity and Reign's destructive streak surprisingly well.

The inclusion of the c-plot with Ruby being abandoned by her mother while they are out for a day dilutes the impact of Purity's arrival. Ruby is an excuse to bring Lena Luthor into the episode more, which is not a bad thing, but at this point, it is hard for viewers not to think that if all these people - Ruby, Lena, Alex and Kara - actually care so very much about Samantha Arias, they should be expressing that to one another and figuring out that Samantha is Reign. By this point, Lena Luthor is professionally worried about Samantha, Alex knows about her blackouts and all four people who supposedly love Samantha have a pretty decent timetable of incidents involving either Samantha or Reign . . . for a bunch of smart, concerned people, it seems like none are truly living up to their potential.

"Both Sides Now" is refreshing in that the character conflict between Alex and Kara is used for far more than melodrama. Kara and Alex have a philosophical difference as to how to approach Purity and the idea that compassion might be of greater use than violence in defeating the Worldkillers is a compelling one. While they are figuring the course of action out, though, episodes like "Both Sides Now" include some decent fight scenes.

On the Mon-El/Imra front, it is only in the episode's resolution that that becomes truly compelling. There is something hilarious to a super hero wondering why her spouse didn't call about an impending battle and it is well-delivered in "Both Sides Now." Chris Wood once again earns his pay by making Mon-El emotionally complicated. "Both Sides Now" does not have easy answers for the arranged marriage that developed into an actual romance.

Chyler Leigh and Melissa Benoist play the Danvers's sisters incredibly well in "Both Sides Now." Leigh and Benoist manage to infuse their fight scenes with a realistic tension that plays out like sisters who have learned to fight for decades. And when they resolve their conflict, they talk like sisters who love one another. The ease of the body language in their final scene together goes well beyond the lines; Benoist and Leigh have a wonderful realism to their performances.

Ultimately, "Both Sides Now" manages to be a decent introduction of a powerful new adversary that works well to highlight some of the strengths of the characters already in play on Supergirl!

7/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The "Legion Of Super-Heroes" Make An Unremarkable Entrance On Supergirl!

The Good: Alex's one big character moment, Brainiac-5 is well-introduced
The Bad: Plot plods along, Predictable, Light on significant character moments, No amazing performance moments
The Basics: Supergirl introduces the "Legion Of Super-Heroes" in an unfortunately dull way.


A few years ago, I was opening DC Comics trading cards and I pulled multiple sketch cards of a character I did not recognize. The character, after a little research, turned out to be Saturn Girl from the Legion Of Super-Heroes, which was not a title I was familiar with. I spoke with a comic book shop owner, who described the series as a futuristic Justice League that never really was able to support its own title, though it had a strangely loyal and rabid fan base. I was pretty shocked at the price those sketch cards of Saturn Girl sold for, but I've never had any customers ask specifically for characters from the, apparently, oft-cancelled title. So, when Supergirl teased the Legion Of Super-Heroes back in the episode "Solitude" (reviewed here!), with a ring from that group in Kal-El's Fortress Of Solitude, it seemed like only a matter of time before The CW tried to make that heroic team mainstream by inserting them into the show. Their proper introduction comes in "Legion Of Super-Heroes."

"Legion Of Super-Heroes" follows the events of the midseason finale, "Reign" (reviewed here!), and it is tough to discuss without mentioning where that episode left off. After all, "Reign" left Supergirl badly beaten and National City was at the mercy of the next big Supergirl super-villain.

Kara awakens to a knock on the door. At the door is Querl Dox, Brainiac-5 from the Legion Of Super-Heroes, who reveals that Kara is in a coma and he has been awakened by Mon-El to stabilize her neural pathways bring her out of her coma. At the Legion ship, J'onn J'onzz worries that they will be unable to save National City without Supergirl. At her house, Samantha seems disturbed seeing the picture of Reign on the newspaper and she returns to her own Fortress. She comes back to National City where she kills a thief and declares war upon crime in National City. At the DEO, Mon-El reveals that most history was lost by the 31st Century and that the Legion Of Super-Heroes can have limited involvement in thwarting Reign.

After Mon-El proves to Alex Danvers that the Legion members cannot be killed in the past, J'onn makes a detour to try to keep Kara's cover with Luthor intact. Alex lays a trap for Reign and she and J'onn are shocked when Reign is able to shrug off the last supply of Kryptonite the DEO has. In Kara's mind, Brainiac discovers that Kara might have a reason to stay in her head when Kara remembers a pet she had as a child. While waiting for Kara to regain consciousness, the Legion comes together at the National City prison where Reign is cleaning house!

"Legion Of Super-Heroes" has Reign as the rising threat in National City and the idea that the DEO has prepared for a rogue Kryptonian threat. The idea that after Kal-El had the DEO eliminate the world's Kryptonite supply a new Kryptonian would have an edge on the DEO and National City is a cool one.

Finding a balance in "Legion Of Super-Heroes" between the threats posed by Reign and the process of getting Kara out of her coma takes a little while. Peppered in between the threat and the surreal medical issue is a romantic subplot involving the budding romance between Lena Luthor and James Olsen. The two kissed in "Reign" and in "Legion Of Super-Heroes," Olsen's concern about Kara's health creeps into his relationship with Luthor. Lena manages to maintain her smart, in-control persona when dealing with "Kara" while still seeking out her friend's advice, which is a nice twist.

The surreal elements within Kara's head are a little basic. Kara has been in comas a couple of times now - the Black Mercy parasite in season 1 comes instantly to mind - so the transition from Kara wounded to the real world hardly seems original now. Moreover, it is a trope that has been done on other DC Television Universe works. The real purpose of Kara's coma storyline seems to be to introduce Brainiac-5 in a compelling way. That aspect of the scenes where Kara is unconscious are the most successful.

The acting in "Legion Of Super-Heroes" is mostly-good. Melissa Benoist gets to play unconscious, mellow and as J'onn J'onzz impersonating Kara, which gives her a lot to do. Benoist plays all the roles well, but she is more of a supporting performer in "Legion Of Super-Heroes" than she is in most episodes. Chris Wood, Jesse Rath and , by contrast, managed to play off one another to make it seem entirely plausible that the three had had extensive time interacting with one another before this episode.

The Lena Luthor/James Olsen relationship starts to show off its potential in "Legion Of Super-Heroes." Luthor has been one of the more interesting Supergirl characters and James Olsen has been a character who the show has struggled to find an interesting direction for. Olsen has drifted from "will they or won't they" love interest in the first season to Guardian in the second season and with Kara virtually eliminating crime in National City by the beginning of the third season, Olsen has been pretty generically stuck in the role of a reporter and editor at CatCo Worldwide Media. The potential of the relationship between Luthor and Olsen is that the show might find a good stride for Olsen and give Lena a chance to move beyond the "I'm a different type of Luthor" characterization.

Ultimately, "Legion Of Super-Heroes" is an episode that is somewhat hoisted on its own petard; whenever the titular character is put in a coma, she has to come out of it. Super hero shows like Supergirl usually concoct a fight sequence that allows the hero to come out of their wounded state swinging and "Legion Of Super-Heroes" does nothing to defy that paradigm, it merely embraces and embodies it. The result is a lackluster return to Supergirl as opposed to a proper demonstration of what the Legion Of Super-Heroes can actually do.

For other midseason premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"Supergirl Lives" - Supergirl
"Despite Yourself" - Star Trek: Discovery
"Bouncing Back" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

4/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"The Faithful" Explores The Consequences Of Supergirl Well!

The Good: Decent performances, Good themes, Clever resolution
The Bad: Pacing, Some of the technical details are a bit off
The Basics: Supergirl finds herself a reluctant deity for "The Faithful" in a generally good episode of Supergirl.


Supergirl has a lot going for it on the fundamentals. Despite being yet another super hero ensemble team show in the DC Television Universe, some of the characters in Supergirl have some genuine character conflicts and faults that could make for truly compelling television. But, for most of the episodes, Supergirl plays toward the masses with a light, fluffy, CW-type feel that keeps the show from ever getting too deep or two heavy . . . even when it is dealing with issues like genocide or (group) hatred (racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.). As "The Faithful" begins, Supergirl has been meandering into its third season without a decent sense that the show or its characters are going somewhere - the strongest elements of any of The CW's DC Television Universe shows tend to be the serialized ones, not the bottle episodes. "The Faithful" manages to do a good job of exploring its issue well and in a fairly adult manner as a Supergirl cult springs up in National City.

"The Faithful" follows on "Far From The Tree" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some reference to the prior one. After all, "Far From The Tree" found Samantha Arias coming to work at CatCo under Lena Luthor. While Alex has lied to Maggie about being okay with not wanting children, which also resonates into "The Faithful."

Flashing back to the plane whose near-crash led to Supergirl revealing herself, a drinking man criticizes the life a nearby - younger - passenger has. In the present day, Samantha is at her daughter's soccer game when she is approached by a woman who knows her daughter Ruby by name and gives her a pamphlet for a meeting. Kara sees the pamphlet when visiting Lena's office and she attempts to research the meeting it advertises. Kara, James, and Winn end up at the meeting of the Followers Of Rao (a Kryptonian god), which is led by the man from the plane. The room is filled with people Supergirl has saved, which leaves Kara unsettled.

At a girls' night in, Kara and her friends get to know Samantha better. During the event, Supergirl realizes there is a fire and a person who needs rescuing. In rescuing a young man from the fire, Kara learns that the Followers Of Rao are committing crimes in order to get rescued by Supergirl. When she attempts to interview the leader of the cult, Coville recognizes Kara as Supergirl. When Supergirl recognizes an object Coville gave her as Kryponian, she realizes that Coville has a probe from Krypton that he overloads in an attempt to bring thousands to his cause. With Kara poisoned by Kryptonite, Alex must rise to the occasion of saving the city.

"The Faithful" does a decent job of exploring how people can latch onto an idea or person and build a belief system around it. For a change, Supergirl does not pull its punches as the Followers Of Rao are characterized as zealots and hypocrites, willing to go against their beliefs to gain followers. "The Faithful" refocuses the third season of Supergirl by delivering some answers to lingering questions and satisfactorily infusing the new character (Samantha Arias) with some sense of importance and vitality. Sadly, Arias's importance only truly comes in at the climax of "The Faithful" and she is only tangentially-related to the a-plot.

The themes in "The Faithful" are important and well-executed, but the amount of attention paid to Kara is comparatively minor. In fact, the biggest emotional moment is an Alex moment and Chyler Leigh rocks it. Unfortunately for the larger arc of the third season of Supergirl, Alex's big moment is long-foreshadowed and telegraphed. Despite that, Chyler Leigh dominates the climax of "The Faithful."

Also odd in "The Faithful" is how the cult that springs up around Supergirl inexplicably does not shake Kara's faith in Rao. That seems like a pretty dramatic oversight on the character level within the episode.

It also seems odd that Coville can, apparently, read Kryptonian (albeit poorly) and that J'onn J'onzz sends Kara to deal with a Kryptonian probe instead of dealing with it himself. Why no one at the DEO would assume a probe from Krypton would have Kryptonite on it seems especially dense.

All that said, "The Faithful" does a good job of illustrating how destructive religion can be.

For other works with Carl Lumbly, please visit my reviews of:
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Alias

6.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"Girl Of Steel" Is A Sloppy Return For Supergirl

The Good: Performances are mostly all right, Moments of emotional resonance
The Bad: Derivative plot, Familiar character arcs, Special effects, Katie McGrath's natural accent appears and is inconsistently rendered, Intrusive soundtrack
The Basics: "Girl Of Steel" returns Supergirl to the air with a lot of themes that are disappointing for enforcing heteronormative and traditional feminine paradigms.


Supergirl returns today! The third season premiere of Supergirl, "Girl Of Steel," comes with a tremendous potential narrative burden upon it. "Girl Of Steel" picks up after the events of the season finale "Nevertheless, She Persisted" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the season opener without some references to where the prior episode left off. After all, "Nevertheless, She Persisted" found Cat Grant returning to National City during the attack by the Daxamites and Mon-El had to flee Earth because of an environmental poison used to thwart the alien invaders.

"Girl Of Steel" by necessity opens with Kara Zor-El on her own dealing with losing her love interest from the prior season. That seems like it would be a decent source of real character conflict for Kara and give her a lot of intriguing directions for Supergirl to go in. "Girl Of Steel" follows in the trend of The Flash by having its protagonist doing quite a bit on her own after suffering a personal tragedy. The world of Supergirl is fleshed out with a massive business subplot in "Girl Of Steel," with James Olsen having taken over CatCo while Cat Grant has taken a position as Press Secretary for the President.

Opening with Kara dreaming of being on an alien world with Mon-El, Kara wakes up in midair and comes to the rescue of Alex and Maggie. The police officers are pursuing a criminal who has serious weaponry and when Supergirl saves private citizens from danger, Alex and Maggie are surprised by how asocial she has become. While Morgan Edge makes a major business move in National City, he finds Olsen and Lena Luthor hostile to his interests in the city. Schott figures out that the mercenary who escaped Supergirl is an ex-military man who goes by the nickname Bloodsport. Supergirl tracks Bloodsport to National City's military base, where she is effectively attacked by advanced weaponry.

When James Olsen calls Supergirl in to try to get Kara to finish an article for CatCo, Kara quits her job as a reporter. Schott figures out that Bloodsport has stolen a Daxamite cloaking device, which even Supergirl will be unable to see. The DEO converges on a Supergirl celebration in order to find and thwart Bloodsport and his cloaked nuclear weapon.

"Girl Of Steel" feels derivative in its protagonist's arc, despite it being a very sensible direction for Supergirl. Kara's friends miss her during their social times and Alex's depression, especially, has a negative effect on her relationship with Maggie. Olsen has to attempt to assert himself in Kara's professional life and their conflict in "Girl Of Steel" is actually one of the more interesting aspects of the episode. Instead of simply pushing Olsen to be a super hero, James Olsen develops as a business leader. Keeping Olsen interesting outside the Guardian subplot was a problem for the character in the second season and "Girl Of Steel" effectively redirects away from that problem.

Katie McGrath's accent is problematic in "Girl Of Steel." McGrath played Lena Luthor in the second season with a decent American accent. In "Girl Of Steel," her British accent comes out and it is alarming for the character. Throughout "Girl Of Steel," McGrath's accent is inconsistent and it is unfortunate, given how well-developed her character was in the second season.

"Girl Of Steel" introduces Morgan Edge as a new antagonist in National City and it is unsurprising that he has a relationship with Bloodsport. Edge is a pretty generic "evil, corporate threat," but Adrian Pasdar plays him fine. Morgan Edge has a vendetta against Lena Luthor and he makes moves to acquire CatCo in order to wage a public relations campaign against Lena Luthor.

Kara and Supergirl, both the character and the show, are severely undermined in "Girl Of Steel." Kara is sulking through the loss of Mon-El for six months. The takeaway thematically is that without a man, even a hero will fall apart. For a supposedly feminist show, this is a disappointing turn of theme - after all, Kara is not human and her character does not have to be bound by human emotional limitations. Even if she was, the average length of time for a loss of such magnitude is half the duration of the relationship and given that Kara and Mon-El were barely together before he left, Kara should have been far more healed in "Girl Of Steel" than she was. Barring that, if Kara was truly as heartbroken as she appears in "Girl Of Steel," she could always follow Mon-El off Earth . . .

Unfortunately, despite the bevy of new villains and a potential new heroine, "Girl Of Steel" feels derivative, sloppy, and forced. The special effects in the episode make no real rational sense - underwater, Kara flies, not making any swimming motion. The soundtrack in "Girl Of Steel" is very intrusive and Alex's wedding planning feels like yet another way that the heteronormative lifestyle overwrites the character's unique aspects. Alex turning to J'onn as a father figure feels forced and it pushes Alex - who has not been an overly traditional person - into a remarkably conventional dynamic as she moves to marry Maggie. Moreover, Alex highlighting that her wedding is going to be a gay wedding to J'onn - as if he didn't know Alex marrying Maggie would be a lesbian wedding (and what the hell does "gayest wedding" even mean?!) - seems like a pathetic telegraphing of plots to come.

That said, "Girl Of Steel" feels familiar to anyone who has watched other DC Television Universe productions and while there are some less-cheery elements in the episode that work, the bulk of the episode feels sloppy. Seasoned genre viewers are likely to be unsurprised if tragedy befalls Maggie before the wedding given that Floriana Lima was credited as a "special guest star" as opposed to added to the main cast. Between that and Kara asking Alex what she would do if she lost Maggie, the loss of Maggie seems more telegraphed than cleverly foreshadowed.

Ultimately, "Girl Of Steel" is a lackluster return to Supergirl.

For other DC Television Universe series or season premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"The Adventures Of Supergirl" - Supergirl
"City Of Heroes" - The Flash
"Pilot" - Supergirl

3.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Supergirl Tests Into Average With The Erratic "Red Faced"

The Good: Interesting main plot, Moments of character, Good performances
The Bad: Terrible characterization of Cat Grant's mother, Very simple plot, Recycled plot elements
The Basics: "Red Faced" develops the Supergirl test story when Red Tornado enters the mix.


I recently did a convention at which Glenn Morshower was a guest. This was particularly exciting for me because Morshower is an actor who is in almost everything I enjoy, so I figured that I would have a lot to talk with him about if I had the chance. Alas, the convention was pretty busy for me and I did not actually have a chance to talk with Mr. Morshower, nor did I run into him randomly at the convention (for which I had the perfect ice breaking line!). So, when I sat down today to rewatch and review the Supergirl episode "Red Faced," I was pretty excited as this was Morshower's entrance into the DC Television Universe.

"Red Faced" picks up after the events of "How Does She Do It?" (reviewed here!) and it picks up the plotline from that episode that Supergirl is being tested. While the prior episode insinuated that Max Lord was behind testing Supergirl's abilities, "Red Faced" has the U.S. Military directly testing Supergirl. The episode introduces the Justice League character Red Tornado as a villain.

Supergirl is flying around relaxing when she hears two drivers getting into a scuffle. Supergirl rescues a soccer team from getting run over and the footage of the driver assualting Kara makes the National City news. Max Lord uses the opportunity to decry Supergirl and it is in a distracted state that Kara runs into Lucy Lane. Lucy Lane's father, General Sam Lane, is in National City and wants to have Supergirl fight his anti-alien android, the Red Tornado.

When Supergirl manages to defeat the Red Tornado, Alex Danvers takes the android's severed arm to Lord Industries. Alex wants Lord's help in finding the Red Tornado in its stealth mode after Dr. Morrow is fired by General Lane. When Olsen and the Lanes leave dinner, Red Tornado appears and Supergirl manages to protect National City, though the Tornado escapes.

"Red Faced" features a decent moment with Kara when she finally stands up to Cat Grant. Grant's mother visits and when she is emotionally aloof and outright mean, Grant punches down to Kara. Kara stands up for herself and it is refreshing to see and disappointing to see how quickly she backs up. Cat Grant takes Kara out for drinks and has a decent discussion with her. Grant makes some good points with Kara about expectations surrounding women in the workplace and the show manages to be not overly heavyhanded.

Unfortunately, Cat Grant's glimmer into insight is marred by her narcisism. Grant seems like she is developing - enough to recognize that she is angry at her own mother and taking it out on Kara - but then backsteps. Sadly, Cat Grant's horrible mother is similarly erratically characterized. The worst of cruel narcissists, Katherine Grant at one moment seems like a first wave feminist (calling out the "girl" part of "Supergirl"), the next seeming entirely old fashion (preferring a male doctor). The ridiculous split in her characterization is head-scratchingly distracting.

From the main characters, Kara spends "Red Faced" learning how to channel her anger effectively and the process is a generally good one. Kara gets reasonably upset and it turns out she has been carrying a lot of anger. Unfortunately for Supergirl, "Red Faced" is all about absolutes. Kara is treated like there can only be one true source for her anger, Lucy Lane makes a drastic character decision that needs not to be so exclusionary and Winn's father issues make him pliant to the Danvers girls desires and all these issues are problematic.

The primary villain in "Red Faced" is T.O. Morrow, the creator of Red Tornado. Morrow is a pretty generic mad scientist character in "Red Faced," though the idea that the military is developing an anti-Kryptonian defense is a good one.

Director Jesse Warn does an excellent job of choreographing and editing the fights between Alex and Morrow and Supergirl and the Red Tornado. Warn also gets some impressive performances out of Melissa Benoist as both Kara and Supergirl.

"Red Faced" is unfortunately derivative - do all Millennials have game night or just the ones in the DC Television Universe?! And the final shot of Hank Henshaw is pointless and insulting. The result is that "Red Faced" splits the good with the bad and ends up as perfectly average super hero television.

For other works with Glenn Morshower, please check out my reviews of:
Transformers: The Last Knight
“The Beginning Of The End” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Ragtag” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Revolution - Season 1
After Earth
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
X-Men: First Class
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers
All The King’s Men
“North Star” - Star Trek: Enterprise
The West Wing
“Resistance” - Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Generations
“Starship Mine” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“Peak Performance” - Star Trek: The Next Generation

5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Waste Of An Adaptation: Why "Flashpoint" Flops!

The Good: Generally good performances, Some fun character tweaks
The Bad: Vastly repetitive plot device, Huge technical/scientific problems, Only one truly impressive acting moment
The Basics: "Flashpoint" yet again tries to reinvent The Flash and this time fails in a big way.


This has been a big week for fans of comic book works adapted to television. Following on the heels of the debut of Luke Cage (reviewed here!) on Netflix, the third season premiere of The Flash is finally here! "Flashpoint" opens the third season of The Flash and fans of the comic book source material of The Flash have had cause to look forward to anything by that title. After all, after decades of virtually every other DC Comics hero getting a major crossover event centered upon them, Geoff Johns gave The Flash his only a few years ago with the universe-altering event Flashpoint (reviewed here!). While I am a fan of the source material, it had been a few years since I read Flashpoint, so in preparation of "Flashpoint," I boned up by watching the animated adaptation Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (reviewed here!).

Fans of the source material would have to figure that "Flashpoint" would be a tough concept to pull off as a television episode. "The Race Of His Life" (reviewed here!) set up "Flashpoint" in exactly the way readers would have expected to be difficult. After all, at the core of the literary Flashpoint and its animated cinematic counterpart is a relationship between Barry Allen and Thomas Wayne's incarnation of Batman in a dark, alternate universe on the brink of war. The idea of adapting some form of Flashpoint to a television series that did not have Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Atlantis makes it virtually impossible to pull off.

So, going into "Flashpoint," I found it helpful to rewatch "The Race Of His Life" and clean my mental palate of all prejudices I might have with associating The Flash with the comic book source material. That said, "Flashpoint" does establish a tangent universe based upon Barry Allen going back in time and rescuing his mother from the Reverse-Flash.

In order to truly understand what is at the heart of my beef "Flashpoint" on its own (as opposed to being a half-baked adaptation of a superior crossover event), one has to understand that fans of The Flash have seen exactly this type of episode before. In the second season of The Flash, there were multiple episodes that put The Flash in the alternate universe of Earth-2. And even within the normal continuity of The Flash, there was a significant character rewrite due to temporal meddling in "Flash Back" (reviewed here!). "Flashpoint" is like one long rewrite of "Flash Back" and a mashing up of it with Earth-2. So, the plot of "Flashpoint" feels remarkably stale and before even going into the plot, there is a glaring technical issue that anyone who understands The Flash is likely to see almost instantly.

"Flashpoint" never addresses a missing Barry Allen. "Flashpoint" focuses on Barry Allen, temporal remnant, in his brand new universe that the Reverse-Flash calls Flashpoint. But in the Flashpoint world, there should be a native Barry Allen who is never addressed. At the end of "The Race Of His Life," Barry Allen runs back in time and saves his mother's life and in "Flashpoint," viewers see that version of Barry Allen take Eobard Thawne back to the time he left. After Barry Allen saved his mother's life, the child Barry Allen was still alive and he grew up to be a CSI who remained living in his parents' home. The thing is, when the Barry Allen who stopped Eobard Thawne in "The Race Of His Life" returned to the future, the Barry Allen who grew up and became a CSI would still be there. The "The Race Of His Life" Barry Allen would have punched into the Flashpoint Barry Allen's reality; there is no temporal mechanic by which The Flash Barry Allen returning to the future would have overwritten the native Barry Allen.

So, when there is no explanation of what "our" Barry Allen did to the Flashpoint-native Barry Allen, attentive viewers will wonder what the hell is going on . . . even more than when Candice Patton appears in one of her earliest scenes wearing a wedding or engagement ring. Those who catch that will be waiting for Iris to reveal to Barry that she is engaged, but that moment never comes. Yuck, technical glitches.

Three months after Barry Allen returned to his present from saving his mother's life from Eobard Thawne, he is living the dream. No longer bearing the mantle of The Flash - there is another speedster named The Flash protecting Central City from a speedster named The Rival - Barry Allen has Eobard Thawne locked up in a speed-dampening cage. Allen works as a CSI and lives with his parents and, after three months of stalking her, he gets up the courage to ask Iris West out. After rescuing The Flash from The Rival and learning that The Flash is Wally West and he works with Iris fighting crime, Barry begins to lose some of his memories.

Barry Allen learns that Joe West is a drunk, Cisco is the richest man on Earth and Dr. Snow is just a pediatric ophthalmologist and that his rapidly accelerating memory loss is the result of his temporal interference. Allen and Wally work together to thwart The Rival before Allen's condition deteriorates to the point that he has to ask Thawne for help in restoring his timeline.

"Flashpoint" has the members of the cast who appear in it, outside Grant Gustin's Barry Allen and Matt Letscher's Reverse-Flash, playing variations on their established characters. Viewers of The Flash have seen that before with Earth-2 episodes and episodes in our world where the characters pretend to be their Earth-2 dopplegangers. Keiynan Lonsdale plays the Flashpoint Flash fine, but frankly Wally West was not defined so well in the second season of The Flash that he had a lot to play with to clearly define the character with differences in the strange, new world.

Jesse Martin has the acting moment of the episode when Joe West reacts to seeing The Flash unmask himself. For the rest of the episode, there is nothing truly impressive in the performances.

Eobard Thawne's scenes in "Flashpoint" are arguably the only reasons to rewatch the episode. For sure, "Flashpoint" attempts to set up the rest of the season with the final act temporal revision and the introductions of The Rival (and his mundane character) and the scrawled "Alchemy," but the set up is riddled with problems. "Flashpoint" is an unfortunately un-compelling season premiere that sets up whatever is to come in a very poor way.

For other big season premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"The Man Who Saved Central City" - The Flash
"Pilot, Part I" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"The Search, Part I" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

3/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Flash Thinks He's "Invincible" And (Until The Last Two Minutes . . .) He Is!

The Good: Good character arcs, Good performances
The Bad: Moments of terrible CG, Overstated character moments, Very basic plot
The Basics: "Invincible" returns Katie Cassidy to The Flash, now in the form of the Black Siren, an Earth-2 metahuman used by Zoom!


The DC Television Universe has, so far, shown a surprising willingness to keep dead characters dead, despite Eobard Thawne returning to The Flash as a temporal remnant and Sarah Lance being resurrected on Arrow. The Flash has not overplayed the resurrection card and that helps keep the show grounded at some key times. In fact, the way it seems to enjoy playing with dead characters is by introducing their multiverse doppelgangers and on "Invincible," The Flash does just that. Laurel Lance, seen on The Flash only once as the Black Canary, returns to the narrative as her Earth-2 counterpart, Black Siren, in "Invincible."

"Invincible" picks up where "The Runaway Dinosaur" (reviewed here!) left off, which makes it hard to discuss without some references to the prior episode. After all, for those who do not watch Arrow and are not simply wowed by the return of Katie Cassidy in some form to The Flash, the novelty of the Black Siren is not inherently exciting. That said, as the first wave of metahumans under Zoom's influence begin attacking our world's Central City, Black Siren makes for an interesting adversary.

Opening with Central City being overrun by Zoom's metahumans, the Flash manages to take down many metahumans at once. Returning to S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry is pleased to find Dr. Snow returned to the team, as she escaped Zoom. Barry is much more confident than the rest of his team that he and the team can thwart Zoom. At Mercury Labs, a metahuman (Black Siren) attacks, which forces The Flash back onto the streets and puts Dr. McGee on his team. Wally West, in the meantime, begins patrolling the streets trying to take down metahumans on his own, which alarms Joe West.

After Henry Allen tries to rein in Barry's overconfidence, The Flash and Zoom square off for a conversation. Zoom tells Barry that Barry's moralizing is what will allow him to defeat Barry. As the scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs try to develop a dimensional frequency weapon to disable all of the Earth-2 metahumans, Barry confronts Black Siren and only manages to escape with Wally's help.

"Invincible" plays off an exaggerated sense of a relationship between Cisco and Laurel Lance and that works to the detriment of the episode. Cisco met the Earth-1 Laurel Lance once or twice and helped develop her Black Canary tech. The second time Ramon was around Lance, he was romantically involved with Kendra Saunders; Ramon never had time or contact to develop a real romantic relationship with Lance. So, the claim that Ramon loved Lance is a drastic and unfortunate overstatement for a guy who had a crush.

At the other end of the spectrum, Wally West is given a lot of characterization in "Invincible" and his guilt arc plays well alongside Dr. Snow's arc of overcoming her own sense of trauma following her experience with Zoom. Danielle Panabaker gives one of her best performances in "Invincible" playing the traumatized Dr. Snow and Snow pretending to be Killer Frost. Dr. Snow is shaken throughout "Invincible" and Wally West's desire to rise to heroic heights fits his character nicely - especially as it is motivated by a deep-seated sense of guilt.

The off-putting character aspect in "Invincible" comes in how everyone on Barry Allen's team doubts the new-found confidence of The Flash. The Flash opens the episode actually taking down metahumans effectively (though, oddly, he is not shown actually bringing them back to the pipeline at the beginning of the episode); his friends have demonstrable evidence that his confidence is warranted. After so many episodes of Barry shaken and moralizing, seeing a hero with a moral imperative actually kicking butt is so frustrating when it is muted by scenes where everyone tells him how wrong he is to feel confidence.

Outside the lackluster use of Laurel Lance (and the cheap excuse to have Ramon and Snow dress up as their evil doppelgangers), the most serious drawback with "Invincible" is an absolutely terrible computer generated effect sequence early in the episode. As The Flash rescues Dr. McGee, the effect looks troublingly animated and fake. The choker on Black Siren is a bit of a red herring as she is a metahuman and does not require the technological enhancement the choker represented from Cisco's costume enhancement for the Earth-1 Laurel Lance.

"Invincible" is well-constructed, despite having a lot of very basic aspects to the plot and a frustrating number of conversations about what Barry Allen cannot do. The issues of confidence play well with the reversal at the end and the mystery of Vibe's visions of dying birds adds a nice level of mystery to the episode. "Invincible" is structured in a way that its frustrating aspects are all resolved before the end of the episode, making it tie-in well to the season and stand alone on its own.

The result is a good episode of The Flash, which prepares viewers for the final episode of the second season.

For other works with Katie Cassidy, please visit my reviews of:
"Pilot, Part 1" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Who Is Harrison Wells?" - The Flash
A Nightmare On Elm Street

5.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Flash Makes Multiverse Theory Explicit With "Flash Of Two Worlds!"

The Good: Good moments of character, Decent performances
The Bad: Very basic plot
The Basics: "Flash Of Two Worlds" establishes that the second season of The Flash will deal with villains from alternate realities when Jay Garrick arrives to help The Flash pursue the Sand Demon from his Earth.


At the climax of the first season finale of The Flash, "Fast Enough" (reviewed here!), a giant wormhole singularity was created over Central City. That grew out of a tear in the space/time continum formed by the wormhole that Eobard Thawne used to attempt his trip home. The event that prompted Thawne to power up his time machine was the appearance of a metal helmet that fell through the wormhole, which he recognized as coming from an alternate reality. With the second episode of the new season of The Flash, fans are not left wondering exactly what is going on long.

"Flash Of Two Worlds" is the second episode and it picks up immediately after "The Man Who Saved Central City" (reviewed here!). In the final moment of "The Man Who Saved Central City," the S.T.A.R. Labs Flash team was giving itself a pat on the back when Jay Garrick appeared to warn Barry Allen and his team that their world was in trouble. "Flash Of Two Worlds" picks up right at that moment.

With Jay Garrick appearing at S.T.A.R. Labs, the Flash team is surprised to learn that Atom Smasher was from an alternate reality. Cisco and Dr. Stein try to explain multiverse theory to Joe, who gets frustrated and leaves. Jay claims to be a speedster from an alternate reality where Earth is slightly different and he says that he has been on our Earth for six months, powerless, gathering information on the Flash team's identities. He tells the story of how he was nearly defeated by the villainous speedster Zoom when he was sucked through the singularity into our universe. Joe returns to the Central City Police Department where he is accosted by Patty Spivot, a new recruit who wants to join his Anti-Metahuman Task Force. Joe is resistant to having her work with him and he pushes her away. After Dr. Snow runs a number of inconclusive tests on Garrick, Barry runs out to stop a fire, where he encounters a metahuman.

Investigating the scene of the crime the next morning, Barry concludes that the fire was arson. Patty, however, theorizes that a metahuman is the arsonist and she asks Barry for help in getting onto Joe's task force. At S.T.A.R. Labs, Garrick identifies the sand residue from the crime scene as belonging to a metahuman from his Earth named Sand Demon. Garrick wants to teach Barry how to defeat Sand Demon, but Barry is anxious because of his feelings for how Eobard Thawne betrayed him. Joe discovers that Eddie Slick is the mundane identity of Sand Demon and tracks him down, but he finds our universe's version of him. When Slick is released, Sand Demon takes Patty Spivot hostage. With the help of Jay Garrick and Cisco's new powers, The Flash goes on a mission to rescue Patty.

One of the more annoying aspects of "Flash Of Two Worlds" is how the characters continue to refer to Eobard Thawne as "Harrison Wells." They know that Thawne killed Wells and replaced him for over a decade . . . it's insulting and imprecise that the group of scientists continues to refer to him by his alias's name. Similarly, Joe and other characters seem to be pretty slow on the uptake with the idea that alternate universe characters are in our universe, which seems especially dense after Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher in the prior investigation.

The only other real aspect of "Flash Of Two Worlds" that is troubling is Victor Garber's presentation of Dr. Stein. Stein has suddenly seemed over-the-top at a few key moments - in the prior episode, it was when he named Atom Smasher - and that is Garber's performance of him. While this might be deliberate, especially given where Stein ends at the end of the episode, it bodes poorly for Legends Of Tomorrow if Garber's Stein becomes ridiculous. The most sensible explanation for the sudden wackiness of Dr. Stein is that he is suffering ill-effects from the death of his other half, six months prior.

That said, "Flash Of Two Worlds" does quite a lot right. While the plot is simplistic as a "defeat the metahuman of the week" story, it is peppered in with enough character moments to keep it entertaining and engaging. Cisco now understands his powers, though he is not at all comfortable with them. He uses his ability to see different times deliberately and that speaks well to his character. He is a young man who wants to do good and he feels like the team must use all the tools at their disposal to succeed and in "Flash Of Two Worlds," he embodies that determination well. Carlos Valdes plays the moments well and there is something heartbreaking in his performance when Cisco asks Dr. Stein to keep his power secret.

While actress Danielle Panabaker is given the chance to open the character of Dr. Snow up with some fun, flirtatious moments - Dr. Snow is instantly smitten by Jay Garrick - the timing is a bit harder to handle for the character. Dr. Snow spent months cold and distance after the apparent death of Ronnie Raymond when the particle accelerator appeared to kill him. After eight months of mourning, she discovered he was alive and reluctantly had to let him go while he and Dr. Stein went on the run. After getting him back and getting married to him for a whole day, she lost him again. Now, only six months later, she's smitten again.

The two new characters, Jay Garrick and Patty Spivot, are introduced well in "Flash Of Two Worlds." Barry Allen and Patty Spivot instantly gel and their scene outside Slick's interrogation room is wonderful (and holds up over multiple viewings!). Jay Garrick instantly steps in as a new mentor character and while "Flash Of Two Worlds" offers a lot of exposition about the new villain Zoom (I'm placing my bet that he's Barry Allen from Jay Garrick's Earth now!), but his characterization as a patient, rational scientist makes him play very well with the S.T.A.R. Labs team.

Actress Shantel VanSanten sets the bar for Patty Spivot exceptionally high with her first episode. In "Flash Of Two Worlds," she plays determined (in trying to get onto Joe's team), goofy (when playing nerd with Barry Allen) and hurt (when giving character backstory in the episode's final act). In short, Van Santen has great range, which she shows in her first The Flash outing. If she has a deeper well for range, this season might have some truly powerful moments.

Ultimately, "Flash Of Two Worlds" does exceptionally well exactly what it needs to. The season premiere is responsible for tying up loose ends and laying the framework of the new season; the second episode has to firm up the framework for the new season and push the season's concept forward enough to hook the viewers. With Garrick, Spivot, the few shots of Zoom, and the whole introduction of multiverse villains, "Flash Of Two Worlds" does all it is supposed to!

For other episodes with multiverse theory, check out my reviews of:
"Parallels" - Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Rise Of The Cybermen" - Doctor Who
"Parallel Lives" - VR.5

8/10

For other television episode and season reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Flash Stumbles Through “Things You Can’t Outrun”

The Good: Decent blend of a- and b-plots
The Bad: So many problems with details, Bland acting, Forced romantic subplot
The Basics: The Flash has its first real dud with “Things You Can’t Outrun” when the terrible acting combines with the least well-executed villain yet.


At the climax of the second episode of The Flash, “Fastest Man Alive” (reviewed here!), the scientists at S.T.A.R. labs mention that “the mist is moving in” and when I heard that, my first thought was “that would be a pretty cool Rogue!” Unfortunately, “Things You Can’t Outrun” does not pick up immediately following that thread. As a result, the character work that left Barry Allen in an emotionally tenuous place (albeit moving in the right direction) at the end of the prior episode is missing from “Things You Can’t Outrun.”

Instead, “Things You Can’t Outrun” blends the story of finding the next metahuman who is active in Central City with scenes from the accident that created the metahuman problem in the city. This leads to a very CW-obvious cast member being added to the mix in the form of Robbie Amell (because, obviously, a nerdy scientist who spends most of her time in the lab is going to be dating a guy who looks like he leapt off the cover of Playgirl!). Amell plays Ronnie Raymond, the fiancé of Dr. Caitlin Snow and even those who have not seen the pilot episode with its painfully obvious exposition that was used to define Dr. Snow will catch context clues early in the episode that make it clear that the episode is moving toward illustrating how he died. The burden of “Things You Can’t Outrun” is to make the episode that combines the two plotlines sensible.

At a meeting of underworld bosses in a sealed restaurant, the organized criminals are suddenly killed by a green mist that seems to come out of nowhere. Joe’s determination to go through the evidence against Henry Allen with Barry is interrupted by the two being tasked with investigating the crime scene. When Barry notes that the trajectory of shots in the room indicate that they might be looking for a metahuman who can control gasses, Barry and Joe ditch Eddie and head to S.T.A.R. Labs. Pitching the idea that a metahuman may be involved puts everyone on edge, especially as Iron Heights is not equipped to hold metahumans and Cisco implies that the only place at S.T.A.R. Labs that could contain the villains Barry apprehends is in the areas sealed off since the particle accelerator accident. Seeing that going to those areas makes Dr. Snow uncomfortable, Barry reaches out to her and suggests she help him with a different angle of the case.

As Sisco and Harrison Wells enter the particle accelerator to ready some containment tubes as storage cells for metahumans, Barry and Dr. Snow investigate the forensic evidence from the toxic gas murder. Barry theorizes that the metahuman they are searching for might have the ability to transform into a gas. Ascertaining the pattern of victims killed, Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs crew figure out who is responsible for the killings and who his next target is! As Kyle Nimbus closes in on Iron Heights where Joe is visiting Henry Allen, Barry races to save his guardian’s life from The Mist!

“Things You Can’t Outrun” features the first problematically soap operatic scenes between Iris West and Eddie Thawne. Up until now, their relationship has been a very minor background plotline that has served mostly to insure that Barry Allen did not hook up with Iris West immediately. In other words, the purpose of the West/Thawne relationship served the immediate effect of making sure that viewers who had extensive knowledge of The Flash had a firm example of how the show would be different from the long-running comic book series (whatwith Barry and Iris spending most of their lives in the world of The Flash married). The “ticking time bomb relationship truth” card is an overplayed one and it seems utterly unnecessary in The Flash. Nevertheless, in “Things You Can’t Outrun” Eddie and Iris – two consenting adults – continue to hide their relationship from Eddie’s partner, Iris’s father Joe. This plays as all the more ridiculous when one considers that Iris lives at home with her father and is at an appropriate age to be asserting her independence, moving out and making the decision to live on her own or with a boyfriend. Is the CW being run by the Christian Coallition?! The sheer number of blandly goodlooking people in heterosexual relationships with no overt sexuality being expressed makes one think so. At least the plotline is resolved with Joe West being revealed to be smart and professional in a way his job necessitates.

In addition to completely failing to follow-up with the murder of Simon Staggs in “Fastest Man Alive,” “Things You Can’t Outrun” features a disturbing collection of problems with the details. Dr. Snow mentions that her fiancé was a structural engineer on the particle accelerator who was not supposed to be at S.T.A.R. Labs the night of the accident. That is a pretty ridiculous premise; why wouldn’t one of the key structural engineers be present when the building actually experiences the stresses for which it was built?! Barry Allen thinks quickly and inhales a decent chunk of The Mist, for which Dr. Snow uses a pulmonary needle to extract the gas. If the gas was inhaled (which it was) it would already be in his blood and could be extracted from any blood vessel; if it was in his lungs, his attempt to get the sample would have been in vain when he started breathing heavily from running; if he had been smart enough to swallow the gas instead of inhale it, they would have had to extract the sample through a gastric puncture. Regardless of the permutations, given how Kyle Nimbus had already killed multiple people by converting into poison gas, it seemed like he would have the control to kill Barry faster or get out of Barry’s body before he could be captured.

More than any of the prior episodes so far, “Things You Can’t Outrun” suffers from poor performances. Anthony Carrigan plays Kyle Nimbus as a generic villain who is supposed to be set on revenge, but Carrigan plays the part with minimal anger and no joy, which are characteristic for people getting vengeance. Carrigan’s physical acting as he gets the wind knocked out of him is convincing enough, but it is not enough to overshadow the wooden acting from Grant Gustin, Danielle Panabaker, and Robbie Amell. Amell and Panabaker have no real on-screen chemistry. Gustin is wooden for many of his lines as both Barry Allen and the Flash. It does not help that he is given a number of clichés to deliver in the episode that come out with a flat affect.

Even worse is Danielle Panabaker. Panabaker’s Dr. Snow could have an impressive episode with “Things You Can’t Outrun.” Unfortunately, amid scenes where she is supposed to be in love with Robbie Amell’s Ronnie Raymond, Panabaker and Amell fail to credibly emote a connection between them. Panabaker’s version of unsettled shock is widening her eyes and appearing slackjawed. Her lines define her emotional condition without her presentation fleshing the lines out. Particularly unsettling is the lack of emotion to match her character’s reasonable concern at working over imprisoned metahumans. Regardless, for a woman who fairly recently was in love and lost that love in a terrible accident, Panabaker does not realistically emote a character who is grieving (which her lines dictate) or is reasonably unsettled where she is working (which would make rational and emotional sense) or a woman who is at peace with the heroic sacrifice her loved one made (which would not be entirely unreasonable given how short their relationship was and that more than nine months have passed since his death). The cumulative effect of this is that the episode’s potentially strongest emotional moments are robbed of impact.

To its credit, despite the Iris/Eddie romance subplot, “Things You Can’t Outrun” manages to make the flashback plotline vital to the a-plot. In the television version of The Flash metahumans will be housed at S.T.A.R. Labs and “Things You Can’t Outrun” creates the mechanism for that. Unfortunately, the villain is simplistic and the plot formulaic, which makes the episode a dud, though it is not unwatchable.

For other works with Danielle Panabaker, be sure to check out my reviews of:
”City Of Heroes” - The Flash
Piranha 3DD
Friday The 13th

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

3/10

For other television and movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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True Blood Comes “Almost Home” As It Nears Its End!

The Good: Characters, Good performances
The Bad: Still cluttered, Minor characters get big parts
The Basics: As True Blood nears its end, a number of minor characters gain significance as the storylines begin to converge.


When a television series knows it is going to end, I find myself fascinated by the process the producers go through to bring about resolution to the characters and plots they have established. There are so many television shows that have conclusions that disappoint the fans and regular viewers and I often wonder how so many executive producers and writers could fail when it comes to ending the stories they have begun. True Blood is nearing its conclusion and the third episode from the finale is “Almost Home.” In “Almost Home,” True Blood continues to sheer the sprawling storyline and, in the process, some of the generally insignificant characters are given big roles and characters who have been absent from the narrative return in significant ways.

Chief among the storylines that is concluded in “Almost Home” is Tara Thornton’s character arc. Tara was somewhat artlessly killed off, off camera, in the seventh season premiere, “Jesus Gonna Be Here” (reviewed here!) and since then, there has been wild speculation that Tara’s mother herself killed the vampire Tara. Lettie Mae has never been a popular or even a very interesting character, so the fact that she has picked up airtime that could have been used to focus on Tara (should Tara have survived the first fight of the season) was a pretty lousy choice on the part of the producers. “Almost Home” brings a reasonable conclusion to Tara’s post-death arc and the storyline involving Lettie Mae. Fortunately, much of the episode focuses on more popular characters as “Almost Home” picks where “May Be The Last Time” (reviewed here!) concluded. Perhaps one of the smartest moves from the producers this season has been starting and finishing as many episodes as possible with Eric and Pam. “Almost Home” smartly begins with them and it makes the episode immediately engaging.

After Eric is forced to spare the life of Sarah Newlin, the Yakuza take the cure for Hep-V away to begin synthesizing a cure en masse. Bill finally reveals to Sookie that he was assigned to find her. Sookie and Bill realize that their love for one another was all that caused Bill to turn from Queen Sophie’s plan to breed Sookie and the two find some peace as a result. Meanwhile, LaFayette, Lettie Mae, and Reverend Daniels visit the Thornton childhood house, convinced that Tara has a posthumous message for them. Feeding off James, the trio of humans is led by Tara’s presence into the house. There, they see Tara’s 7th birthday and the conflict between her father and Lettie Mae that quickly turned unspeakably violent. As Jason hangs out with Hoyt and Hoyt’s fiancé, Bridget, he gets a message that Violet torturing is Jessica. Back at Fangtasia, Gus Jr. reveals his New Blood will be intentionally imperfect, in order to keep a market for the product alive. Jason and Bridget come to rescue the others, but Jason is captured by Violet.

Back in the flashback, Tara reveals how she had the chance to kill her abusive father, but did not and her guilt consumed her from that point on. Tara and Lettie Mae forgive each other and Tara ascends to a higher plane at peace. Eric returns to Bon Temp to tell Sookie he is all right and she is shocked that he has been cured. Eric flies off to get the cure to Hep-V for Bill when Sookie tells him she is to blame for his infection. Jessica and Jason reconcile following their ordeal. Sookie stupidly pursues Eric to Fangtasia. Jason and Hoyt sit and talk about Jessica and how Bill is dying, which leads Hoyt to visit Bill. Sookie discovers that Sarah Newlin is alive in the basement of Fangtasia and that she is the cure. Compelled to save Bill, Jason and Jessica bring him to where Sarah is imprisoned.

“Almost Home” is one of the most character-driven episodes of the seventh season and that plays well, despite how much time is devoted to some of the minor characters. Tara Thornton’s character arc is finally resolved in a way that leaves viewers satisfied in a way that her off-camera death did not. The fact that Tara’s death is used to bring about an (apparent) spiritual rebirth for Lettie Mae is somewhat more disappointing in that Lettie Mae was, at best, a supporting character in Tara’s arc. In a similar way, ending Violet’s arc on True Blood seems like fixing a poor decision more than progressing an interesting direction for the characters she was involved with.

Far better executed in “Almost Home” is the tease of a relationship budding between Jessica and Hoyt. Hoyt left Bon Temps glamoured by Jessica after she cheated on him with Jason. Returning to Bon Temps without any memory of his relationship with Jessica, Hoyt starts to find himself thinking of Jessica and that makes for a delightfully compelling twist for both his character and hers. In “Almost Home,” the potential is broached, but the relationship (smartly) does not explode yet. This gives Deborah Ann Woll a chance to play Jessica across a wide range of emotions in “Almost Home” and it’s wonderful to see her given the chance. The embodiment of anticipation she plays in her physical performance as Jessica meets Hoyt at the door to the house is perfect.

Amid all of the minor characters getting resolutions, deaths and screentime, Sookie and Bill manage to forge a rebirth of their relationship (which is pretty good given how they ended up naked in bed in the prior episode). Sookie is given a decent role in “Almost Home” where she is assertive without being whiny. Bill is not given much in the way of depth, save for a dream sequence that seems to foreshadow the episode’s final moment. The focus on Bill and Sookie peppered throughout “Almost Home” is one of the episode’s more satisfying character aspects. While there is some lingering tension between Eric and Sookie, the implication of “Almost Home” is that the relationship that fans have been invested in for the bulk of True Blood is the one that the series will ultimately focus on.

Progressing the plot, making even the uninteresting characters grow and giving actors the chance to shine makes “Almost Home” the best of the seventh season so far!

For other works with Nelsan Ellis, please check out my reviews of:
The Help
The Soloist
Veronica Mars - Season 3

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into True Blood - The Complete Sevent Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of the supernatural show here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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