'Jessica Jones' Season 2, Episode 8: 'AKA Ain't We Got Fun'

This episode chronicles the shaky reunion between mother and daughter.  After being separated for 17 years, the two have some things that need to be settled.  Suffice it to say, Jessica is quite angry about the situation, for a myriad of reasons.  Oddly enough, the fact that Alisa killed her old boyfriend never comes up.  It just shows you how many issues these two have to settle.

The scenes between Ritter and McTeer are great.  It is in large part due to their respective performances, but it also strikes a balance between showing genuine character development (notably Jessica's conflicting desires to turn in the killer, but also protect her mother,) but also mining some light comedy from the situation.  The interplay between the two snarkers naturally leads to a few one liners, but Jess' constant attempts to keep her mother's violent impulses under control borders on comical at certain points. 

Speaking of comics, I did like the nod to the larger MCU with the mention of The Raft.  It was just one line, but it was nice to see the show remember that it is still under that franchise umbrella.

Also impressive was this episode's ability to give Hogarth a good showing.  She'd had a bad run this season, but we see her return to form here.  Not only is she hopeful for the first time in a long time, but the scene where she pitches a deal to a healing meta shows what made her such a standout character to begin with.

Credit to the writers for allowing Malcolm to quickly pick up on the fact that Trish has a drug problem.  I remember that being a concern in an earlier episode, but it gets addressed admirably here.

All in all this was another strong showing for the series.  I don't know if I'd rank it as high as its predecessor, but it was well paced, well acted, and well written.  We're coming down to the final few episodes of the season, so hopefully the show can keep the momentum going.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, Episode 8: 'Crisis on Earth X Part 4'

As was the case last year, the Legends are tasked with wrapping up the Arrowverse's big annual crossover event.

Where last year, the heroes had to gather to fend off an alien invasion, this one has them fighting off Nazis from another world, including nefarious doppelgangers of themselves.  Overall, this event been a ride.  There were plenty of great character moments, surprise appearances, and highlights to go around.

Structurally speaking,this was a bit different.  Where prior crossovers made a point to keep their own casts in focus, this one didn't.  On the one hand, it made for a more cohesive story overall.  On the other, you had shows where their main casts barely made an appearance and ended up getting more screen time on another show.

Here, the titular team is largely there to fight the climactic battle.  And what a climax it is.  If it seemed like prior episodes were skimping on the big superhero action, you see why here.  They go all out and it makes for a more impressive finale than even the one against the dominators.  We even have dueling Waveriders!

Alas, the team themselves don't really have an arc of their own here.  Firestorm being the only one really the only one who has that, what with one half being fatally wounded to the point where they have to separate in order to salvage Jax's life.  Stein's death was appropriately heart-wrenching.  I've said many a time that Garber was the emotional heavy hitter of the show and it should come as no surprise that his passing is a bona fide tearjerker.  Both he and Drameh do a great job and it makes those scenes that much more effective.  Having the cast of "The Flash" be equally despondent was a nice touch, seeing as that is where he got his start.

Similar to "Invasion!" the episode's final scenes don't even feature the team.  Instead, they focus on Barry and Oliver as they wed....their respective love interests.  Considering that this event started with the heroes gathering to celebrate Barry's wedding, it makes sense to tie up that loose end.  It's also a great scene.  Very warm, fuzzy, and heartwarming.  Still, it's just a tad strange that the episode puts more focus on characters from other shows than its own cast.

It's a little difficult to talk about this as a stand alone episode as a lot of it is predicated on what came before.  It does serve as a satisfying conclusion to the arc, but you might be disappointed to see the cast largely sidelined.  It's a fun and emotional romp, but as a "Legends of Tomorrow" episode, you might find it wanting in some respects.

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'Jessica Jones' Season 2, Episode 7: 'AKA I Want Your Cray Cray'

Rather than pick up where the last episode left off, this one decides to jump to the past.  We see what happened to Alisa, Jessica's mother, after the car accident; and see how she progressed to where she is now.  Given the reveal, it makes sense, but it also gives us a glimpse into Jessica's history as well.

It turns out that Alisa had tried to make contact with Jess a few years back, but suffice it to say, it didn't go well.

This look at a younger and slightly less cynical and closed off Jess proved to be one of the major highlights of the episode.  She's hardly happy go lucky, and she seems to have no qualms with stealing or breaking things, but she does seem to be in much better spirits.  It was nice to see, though it only adds to the tragedy that is set to come later on, both in the episode and in Jess' overall story.

Even in these seemingly brighter times, Jess' life has some degree of darkness.  Her falling out with Trish is appropriately heart-wrenching, but it makes their mending of fences at the episode's end that much more heartwarming.

Speaking of heartwarming, Jess' relationship provides more than a few crowning moments.  It's impressive as the character is only introduced this episode, but the two had great chemistry and it really sells the bond that the two had developed.  Had it not worked, the downer ending wouldn't have worked, but it does so very well as a result.

Some of the "origins' are a little on the nose.  Did we really need to see how Jessica got her jacket?  The bit about the "Alias" name worked better, if only because it works as a retroactive tribute to the guy.

I said before that the reveal about Jess' connection to Alisa expanded the parallel, but this episode takes it further by showing that Alisa is hardly a monster.  While she does kill people, it's out of desperation and/or her newfound uncontrollable anger.  She's rightly horrified by what she did and willingly goes back into seclusion for further testing because she knows that she's not in a place to reconnect with her daughter just yet.  There are also several scenes that involve her about to give in to the rage, only to take a mental step back and keep it in check.  It makes the antagonist much more three dimensional and sympathetic.

Acting wise, pretty much everyone hit it out of the park.  Ritter was fantastic and McTeer also shined throughout.  They deserve massive kudos for their performances here.

For those who wanted to see a follow up to the cliffhanger from the previous episode, we do get about a minute of story set in the present.  Alisa asks Jessica for forgiveness (one can assume that this was her telling Jess the story though there's very little voice-over and you have to wonder how she knows about events she wasn't there for, but I think the MST3K rule applies.)  Jess....does not grant it.  If you were interested to see how this reunion would play out after the wham line, Jess throwing her mother across the room only increases that anticipation.

This was likely the season's best and could stand as a contender for the show's best episode to date. It's not without flaws, but everything it does, it does really well.  There was a lot of great character moments and development, I already cited the acting but it bears repeating, and the episode moved along at a smooth pace.  It never felt rushed or like it was dragging.  I highly enjoyed this one.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 3: 'Old Story'

Barring maybe "The X-Files", I don't think any show within my rotation has suffered from schedule slip to the extent that "Attack on Titan" has.  It's....been a while.  Like so many other things, it needs doing, as such, let's dive in.

The lengthy gap made this one hard to follow.  Some times you can just jump right back in, but this was not one of those times.  A lot of this episode relies on you remembering prior events and specific details, which I didn't have.  Now, somebody who watches this in a timely manner likely won't have that problem, but it was a hurdle for me this time around.  It's not helped by the fact that the episode didn't have a recap at the start like most other episodes did.  It's weird to suddenly take them away in any event, but it would have been most helpful here.

Even with the confusion, the episode manages to bring a lot to the table.  There's character development aplenty as two characters are given chances to tell details of their past.

The first is Christa/Historia.  We see her telling the scouts about her experiences growing up.  It seems her mother was reclusive and spent all of her time reading books.  One day, Historia tries giving her mother a hug.  It doesn't go well.  Not only does Historia get thrown aside (an impressive physical feat on the mother's part as she was sitting down at the time), but the mother then flat out says that she wishes she had killed the girl.  I vaguely remember Historia's origin, but seeing this did make me curious as to what her deal was again.  If nothing else, it cements her status as "woobie" because jeebus, that's harsh.

As if that wasn't enough, right before her mother is killed, she reiterates her stance right in front of Historia, who has to watch her mother get her throat slit.  She had a rough go of it, no doubt.

Erwin also gets to reminisce a bit, as he tells Pyxis about how his father was a teacher.  While most of mankind's history prior to the walls was lost, Erwin's father had a theory that the arrangement wasn't so much to protect humanity, but to protect the land and goods of the rich.  This ties into the whole government conspiracy thing that the season has going on, as Erwin spreading word about the theory gets his father killed.

On the plus side, the two threads do somewhat tie together, as Erwin hatches a plan to use Historia's bloodline as a way to stage a peaceful coup and bring an end to the corrupt institution.

It might have worked, but it seems the syndicate is two steps ahead.  They murder one of the town's wealthy residents and make it seem like the scouts were responsible.  As a way to buy time and keep things calm, Erwin turns himself in.

Thankfully, the titans haven't been completely forgotten.  It's true, they don't appear, but their existence does seem to play a role in the plot.  It's revealed that Eren's kidnapping was due to titans' being able to absorb abilities of other titans that they eat.  As such, his captors want his ability to control other titans.  It's a bit of a curveball, but I suppose it makes sense.  The concept of eating people to gain their power has been used in other works before.  It's grisly, but at the same time...I don't know, seems a tad silly?  We'll see how that subplot plays out.

I think this episode would have benefited from actually keeping up with the series.  The flashbacks are engaging enough, but this one lost me quite a bit.  I was also surprised at how little I had gotten into the season.  For some reason, I thought I was farther a long, but nope, we've got a while to go.  Hopefully I can get back on the ball on this one.  I really don't want another 8 months to go by before we get to episode 4.

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2019 Q1 Report

No joke, the first quarter of 2019 is over and done with.  It's pure madness.  As many other bloggers do, I thought I'd take the chance to look and see how I'm progressing through the goals that I set back at the beginning of the year.



General Content


While I was fired up at the beginning of the year, I did find myself falling back into old habits.  It may be anticlimactic, but I take comfort in the fact that I'm hardly the first person to fall victim to this.

Still, I did manage to knock both "The X-Files" and the first season of "Castle Rock" off the to do list.  The latter was just under the wire, but done is done; and I'm done...until season 2 hits.


Reading


I knocked two books off the list.  The first was "Elevation" and the second was "America the Edible" by Adam Richman.  I'm behind schedule, but my reading is up from last year; so that's a plus.  I'm also currently working my way through "Path of the Assassin" by Brad Thor so I am starting to get back into the groove, as it were.

I also read "The Infinity Gauntlet" knocking one item off of my graphic novel goal as well.



Savings and Dividend Challenges


The first quarter's finances were focused on the acquisition of a car.  As the down payment is often hefty, I wasn't able to make much in the way of stock purchases or transfers.

My forward income is about where it was at the start of the year.  I'm also a bit behind on the savings challenges.    Well, a bit behind on the online account.  My primary savings account took a hefty hit, so I have to re-do portions of last year's challenge and get back up to speed on this year's. 


Car

Speaking of, I did achieve this goal! I'll go into more detail in tomorrow's post, but it's nice to get that out of the way.  I do have some new bills each month, but with the down payment out of the way, I was able to re-set my weekly transfers to my brokerage and online checking accounts, so we should be getting back on track in the months to come.



Side Hustle


Thus far, I've made $12 in side hustle.  Given how Apptrailers and Epoll work, this is about where I expected it to be at this point.  As noted in the docket, Reviewstream is going to by the make or break factor in achieving this goal.  Until I can shift my attention to that, the number won't be that impressive.



Swagbucks


I have put some points into charities, but I definitely need to do more.  I didn't have a specific goal on this one, so whether I'm ahead or behind schedule is hard to determine.  I just know that more needs to be done.


Retirement


The head start is done.  With my birthday having passed by earlier in March, the five year race to have three times my salary saved has begun.  I'm 2% of the way there so we'll see how things go.  Five years is a long time, but it is still kind of sad to no longer be in "head start" territory anymore.



Goal Revision

I had set a 3 year goal of creating dividend income that surpassed Spoony's Patreon income.  At the time, it was about $500 a month, but now it's down to $461.  That brings my forward income goal from $6000 to $5,532.  Granted, 6K is a rounder number, so I might still try to unofficially shoot for that, but as of now, the goal will drop to the latter number as that is really the crux of the goal.


Conclusion

It may not have been the year opener that I was hoping for, but I did manage to put some dents in the list.  Knocking one of the big ones off was certainly nice, but I am looking forward to focusing my attention to the smaller scale goals.















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