I have a little too much to say about the three series I watched this week. I am not an essayist, so I almost shut down my computer for the day without writing anything. Oops! I'm going to have to distill things.
Fallout Season 2 Episode 2 The Golden Rule
Way back in season one, Lucy tried several times to exhort the Ghoul to use the Golden Rule instead of being a nearly feral, selfish, almost animalistic creature.
In this episode, Lucy herself seems to forget the Golden Rule when it comes to the Ghoul. She doesn't see it yet, but her hesitation in shooting a rope to let the Ghoul loose from a hangman's rope, letting him suffer a bit, and her hesitation to give him a stimpack after a radscorpion attack were steps down a road she wouldn't want to walk. He mentions the Golden Rule to her as she leaves him poisoned and doomed to a slow painful recovery, but she's righteous and says she'll come back for him.
Maximus finally gets some time in the story. He is a changed man. He's a leader in his Chapter of the Brotherhood now. He's a serious person. His mentor Quintus calls him son, and there's a tiny brief smile.
We got to see Maximus' real father in a flashback to Shady Sands. In the short scenes he was in, he was an awesome character and father. Maximus' mom, boy, wouldn't we like to know her too. There's no time, though. Hank Maclean's remotely controlled bomb destroys Shady Sands just as Maximus is safely in the refrigerator we know saved him from the blast.
Hank gets quite a bit of time at the Vault Tec offices experimenting on mice to see if the thought control devices can be made to work. Instead of bringing a box of them back to the lab, he goes to get them one at a time. He pets them fondly before blowing them up.
Then he has the idea to use one of the humans who paid for the super deluxe cryopods. This man has a family, Hank knows, but he only paid for himself. Hank tells him family is the building block of civilization just before the guy's head goes boom.
How did this man teach his kids so many decent rules to live by when he clearly believes in nothing like decent behavior towards his fellow humans?
Back in Vault 31, Norm releases "all of the Buds Bud"s. Looking at the vault, the cryopods look to me like they go way back so there should be quite a few more people released, than just the managers, right? I thought Barb (Cooper's Wife) said she was trying to get her family in a vault for managers, and I expected her to be in Vault 31, which is exactly that. Why wasn't she there? What's in all those other cryopods?
Bud's Buds are Middle managers in training. Rule followers to the last. They are not free thinkers, but encouraged by Norm to compete to fulfill Bud's last wishes, they find a way out of the vault. Coming to the surface, they bemoan that the mall is gone.
Norm, who alone among them has never seen an open sky and land and water meeting, thinks it's beautiful. The look on his face...
Where will they go now? Vault 33?
Stranger Things Season 5, Episodes 5,6,7
These episodes were jam packed, everyone and everything constantly on the move. Everyone was split up of course, but most reunited by the end. I think they did a great job setting up the finale. After the first set of episodes, I didn't see how they could wrap things up.
My big takeaways: Will, who has suffered at the hands of Vecna since season one really came into his own. He is able to channel Vecna's power and hopes to use it to defeat him. He is a strong character, but he needs his friends and family to be there for him to see him through, and they will all be behind him.
Eleven was really sidelined here, the few efforts she made seemed puny, and required more effort than you'd think she'd need by this stage of the game.
I don't trust her sister at all and feel betrayal coming from her in a big way.
The Mr. Whatsit version of Vecna is much more frightening than the wild creature Vecna.
They said they would explain what the Upside Down really is, and how it came to be. I didn't believe them, but dang.
Next time out, it all ends.
The Closer Season 1
The Closer came out in 2005. I had never seen or heard of it, but there it was, new on Netflix.
New to the Los Angeles and it's Priority Homicide Division, Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson heads a department that is rather large, and which gets the high profile or challenging crimes.
The character was in the CIA and is an Interrogator. She specializes in closing cases via usual crime solving techniques, but her interview/interrogation skills are what get the job done. She's got a soft southern accent, she's always ultra polite, and presents herself initially as warm, welcoming and understanding. Once she has a feel for the case, and the characters, she can turn ruthless in a heartbeat. She has a relentless need to close every case and see justice done. She will get the guilty person to confess, even if she has to trick them into thinking they will be safe.
Her ruthlessness will give me pause, but I just like the character. She's super tough beneath that polite exterior. She can dissemble, sometimes appearing a bit of a bumbler while she hones in on the killer. She is such a terrible slob, and is addicted to messy snacks. I feel she's vulnerable often. Her new work mates are not welcoming. They trick her, they mock her, they talk back. Little by little over the season, as they watch her work and solve crimes brilliantly, seeing what none of them saw, they begin to respect her, and protect her a bit from others within the department who wish her ill.
I'm just starting season two, and there seven seasons, so this should keep me happy for awhile.
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