SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
They actually did it. And sooner than I thought they would; introduced a patient that the powers that be at Bunker Hill could not save. Maddie being alive by the end of the episode and not dying on screen was a little disappointing, as was the fact that her impending death didn’t have the impact on the cast – James especially – that I wanted an “unsaveable” patient to have; knock James down a few pegs and make him realise that they can’t solve everything and save everyone. I understand though that that was not the purpose of her character in this episode.
Maddie was there to remind James that he needed to live life without fear. I was so glad he finally got the courage to ask Dr. Brockett out but, of course, we all knew it was too late by then. If he ever had a chance with her that is. I don’t think he ever did and not just because of Dr. Verlaine.
Speaking of their blossoming office romance, of course they had sex because she was sad. A girl crying about her mother who died of breast cancer is an amazing aphrodisiac. I didn’t expect them to go that far. I thought the most the were going to do was kiss (and maybe James come in at the wrong moment and see them?). I’m quite surprised they went there.
As for their other patient, Giselle, the civil rights lawyer, she was yet another one of their patients I didn’t really care about. Their introducing her via her telling the doctors about one of her cases felt like forced sympathy. Like the writers were trying to get the audience to quickly latch onto her. As they – the writers – should, but it didn’t feel organic. As per usual, their attempts to make the audience connect with a character failed.
I did like Maddie though. She was cute and likeable. I figured the treatment wouldn’t work the second her father started talking about taking her to the Philip Philips concert. Also, Philip Philips? Is he still relevant? I thought he was planning for her future prematurely. And he was. I smiled, laughed and teared up when Philip Philips walked through the door of Maddie’s room and gave her her own private concert. That was a sweet moment.
My heart, figuratively, stopped when Louis moved the chess piece the wrong way. He is legitimately the only character I care about on this show – besides James and Dr. Wallace to some extent – and he barely appears and is hardly developed.
The second time I smiled during this episode was at the end, when everyone gathered around to watch It’s A Wonderful Life with James. It was obvious that would have happened but it was still heart warming to see.
Random thoughts:
- James: “Okay. I get it. It’s a Hail Mary Pass.” Everything you people do is a Hail Mary Pass.
- I’m surprised Dr. Brockett didn’t stop singing when she saw James was watching.
- Angie didn’t actually annoy me this week.
Pure Genius airs Thursdays at 10PM on CBS.
Gamers who own the Black Flag entry of the series might have noticed it disappearing from their accounts if they downloaded AC3. Is that odd? Yes it very much is. Apparently the cause of the issue is not clear at this time, but Ubisoft promises to find a solution to the unique issue.
Blizzard Manga
Team Flash’s defeat of Savitar was far too simple, quick and easy. Maybe I missed something, but I don’t recall them learning that they needed the put the philosopher’s stone in the box in order to trap Savitar. They learned of the philosopher’s stone itself and that it’s the source of his power, but I don’t remember them learning anything about the box.
I knew Savitar would be coming back in the next half of the season even before Barry was flung into the future. Simply because they defeated him too easily. Someone as powerful and as “godlike” as Savitar cannot be defeated just by putting him in a box and throwing it into the speed force. Not when there was a barely a struggle leading up to that. I never believed that would be a permanent solution.
The greatest evidence that Barry still has not learned from all of his time travelling mistakes, especially Flash Point (and the entire first half of the season was spent really driving home just how much he screwed up), is the fact that his very first thought after witnessing Iris die in the future was to time travel to fix it. How many times must you make the same mistake Barry?
I honestly did not expect that Cisco would open the box. I really didn’t think that he would have fallen for the illusion of Dante trick. I thought he would have seen through that. But grief is a powerful thing.
Surprise of the season: Gideon – of all people – is the figure under the hood who is supposedly going to kill Emma (we all know that won’t happen). No one could have seen that coming. It was so random.
I really wish the writers had not gone in this direction with the Gold family’s story though. Not just the fact that Gideon is apparently evil now, and that in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the fact that Belle’s effort to keep him safe is now being presented as having been a mistake and a failure. The writers are making it look like she made the wrong decision and I still feel like it was the right one.
At the start of the episode I thought that we would get to see Emma’s vision come true, because it was revealed that the sword that will kill her can hurt the Evil Queen without bringing harm to Regina. Emma started going after the Evil Queen and everything and then the story totally diverged into what was essentially filler with the Evil Queen and the magic lamp and Genie Aladdin. That felt a little pointless and all of that happened just to bring back Robin in order to wrap up the episode with a disappointing ending.
The Evil Queen was terribly mishandled. She had so much potential going into it given the end of the last. The writers set themselves up to tell this epic, intriguing, very interesting story and they totally dropped the ball on that and wasted what could have been an amazing story. In fact, they spent the entirety of this half of the season fumbling and floundering with virtually all of the storylines. So far this season has been a mess.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 film written and produced by J.K. Rowling and directed by David Yates. The ninth film in the Harry Potter franchise and a prequel to the previous eight films, it is inspired by the book of the same name; a text book used by Hogwarts students which was later published in real life. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, a British magizoologist who travels to New York City – the home base of the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA). The organisation is dealing with a crisis which is exacerbating anti-wizard sentiments in the city. When his suitcase is switched with that of No-Maj Jacob Kowalski and some of his magical creatures are set free, he must traverse the streets of New York in an effort to find them.
In this week’s episode the only times I had any kind of response were toward Angie whom I find intolerable (but that’s every episode not just this one), I chuckled when I saw how they incorporated the Golden Gate Bridge into the wedding, the idea of the wedding was cute and sweet but that feeling was fleeting at best because I didn’t care about the people who were getting married and at the end of the episode when Dr. Wallace gave James the footage from the in-orbit surgery.
As to the in-orbit surgery, it really bothered me that Dr. Channarayapatra was telling the patient what each part of the body Dr. Wallace was cutting into was and what it did. Clearly the man had medical training and knowledge; he knew exactly where Dr. Wallace was going when he was asked about his stomach pain and deduced almost instantly that his appendix was about to burst. He knows these things so why is she teaching him almost?
His impatience with the Health Department made him very unlikable. I understand that 24 hours was a long time and a lot of people could have gotten ill in that time. But as Dr. Wallace’s wife, Julianna, pointed out, he thinks he can throw money at anything and get what he wants. Granted in this situation he wasn’t throwing money at anything, but the sentiment is the same.