Killing Eve 3.3: The Third Time's the Charm

Well, there were so many emblematic scenes in this Sunday's Killing Eve - episode 3.3 - that it's hard to know where to begin.

But let's start with that fight on bus.  It was perfect.  Villanelle surprises Eve, shortly after she finds out that probably her estranged husband, whom she still loves, in a way, moved to Poland.  They have a pretty bruising fight - which ends with Eve kissing Villanelle, when their faces are close together, and Villanelle asks Eve how she smells.  Later, on the street as the bus pulls away with Eve, Villanelle smiles.  But Eve enjoyed this, too.  The two really do love each other.

As we see more evidence of in a two-part bear scene, which begins with Villanelle sending Eve a stuffed little bear, with a recording of Villanelle telling Eve, "Admit it, Eve. You wish I was here".  At first, Eve is furious and tears the bear apart.  But she finds the player inside, and listens to it, over and over, mesmerized.   The two really do love each other.

Aristotle wrote that if you want to teach someone something, you have to instruct them three times.  Villanelle and Eve, in between their trying to kill one another, instruct each by their actions all time.  And therein instruct the viewing audience.

Caroline had some great scenes in this episode, too.  With her son killed in the opening episode, you have to take seriously any time she's in danger.  So when Villanelle sticks a gun in her face in the car, and pulls the trigger ... well, I was glad to see it was just the guy in back who wound up with a bullet in his head.

Villanelle remains a masterful assassin, whether by blade or gun.  Just not of Eve, because, well, the two really do love each other.

See also Killing Eve 3.1: Whew! ... Killing Eve 3.2: Bringing It Into Focus

And see also Killing Eve 2.1: Libido and Thanatos ... Killing Eve 2.2: Villanelle as Victim ... Killing Eve 2.3 Lipstick ... Killing Eve 2.6: Billie ... Killing Eve 2.7: Death and Sex ... Killing Eve Season 2 Finale: Possibilities After the End

And see also Killing Eve: Highly Recommended (Season 1)

"If I Traveled to the Past" and "You Are Everywhere"

Paul Levinson I just wanted to tell you about two great places my music popped up in the past week: 1.  Howard Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction show on WUSB Radio.  I read an excerpt from my novelette, Marilyn and Monet, then Howard and I talk about the paradoxes of time travel, which segues into "If Traveled to the Past" from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time on Old Bear Records/Light In the Attic Records.  You can listen to the entire hour here (scroll down to April 24, I start reading from Marilyn and Monet at 12min 27sec). 2. Dig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction put up a great playlist, "American Dream with Yvonne (Page)" a few days ago.  It features such artists as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; The Grateful Dead; Janis Joplin; The Velvet Underground; and ... yours truly, singing "You Are Everywhere" from Twice Upon A Rhyme.  Chuffed doesn't do justice to what a thrill this is!  You can enjoy the whole playlist of 14 songs here ("You Are Everywhere" is #11). Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time also played on Carl Thien's WZBC show scroll down to Part2 Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC Radio in Boston Kevin Anthony's Psychedelic Jukebox Captain Phil's WUSB-FM show.  Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & Spotify Order multi-color vinyl from Light in the Attic CDs in stock - get them here And here's Twice Upon a Rhyme: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & Spotify Original, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinyl New remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old Records Here's a one-hour virtual concert I did a few weeks ago with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Video clips from Welcome Up here and here. Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews: Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..."  Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity."  in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine  new audio Bear Tones podcast in which talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme. And ... early warning:  I'll be singing songs, doing readings, talking on panels at Amazingcon, June 12-14, a completely online (virtual) and safe convention.  Details here. Music Samantha (rough mix, from Welcome Up) If I Traveled To The Past (rough mix, from Welcome Up) MORE MUSIC Press "Sounding at times like a collect call from another dimension mimicking Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons ... Welcome Up is ... quite triumphant, actually — and any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it. It’s a testament to Levinson’s innate talents as both a songwriter and storyteller. As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity. Check it out, I think you’ll dig it."— Evan LeVine, Swan Fungus, Feb 3, 2020 Connect Update Contact Info      Unsubscribe      Report Abuse      Privacy Physical inquiries can be sent to: 65 Shirley Lane, 9146596160, White Plains, NY, 10607, USA If our email is in your Spam/Junk Folder, please add Levinson.paul@gmail.com to your address book. Powered by  Fan Reach

Westworld 3.7: M vs. D

We finally get a full-fledged woman-to-woman or host-to-host one-on-one battle between Maeve and Dolores in Westworld 3.7 tonight, although it's not really one-on-one since drones and whatever machines the two can control are brought into the fray - and, who knows, some might even have minds of their own - and the resolution hinges on a red button a one-armed Dolores presses (a drone shot off half of her other arm), which renders her and Maeve unconscious just as Maeve was about finish her.

It's hard to keep count, but I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have been the last Dolores around.  Charlotte is still alive, though she is apparently no longer an ally with the primary Dolores, after following her commands got Charlotte's beloved family and nearly Charlotte herself killed last week.  But killing our Dolores would certainly have put a crimp in her master plan, with Caleb, for example, even now not fully cognizant of what Dolores has planned for him, at least not as insofar as we the audience have seen.

She apparently wants and expects Caleb to lead the human race, as she tells him, but he hasn't a clue as to what she means, and, again, neither do we.  A not unreasonable guess is she wants Caleb to lead the human race to its own destruction, but why would Caleb due that?  All the revelations tonight about his past, including that he killed his friend, provide no motive for him to lead the human race to some kind of suicide - after all, Caleb only killed his friend after he realized that his friend was going to kill him.

Further, there's a wildcard in all of this.  In addition to Dolores and Caleb vs. Maeve and Serac, we also have the Man in Black, now in white, who realizes that his role is now to save the human race.  He's no ally of Serac, seeing as how he's not happy about Serac stealing his company, but he is human - I think - and therefore certainly not an ally of Dolores.  I say "I think" he's human because, on this show, you never really know sure.  He certainly was human.  But he's spent enough time in hospitals that who knows what could have been done to him.  But if I had to bet, I'd say he's human.

Next week is the finale of this short season, and what I will bet on is we won't get answers to all of these questions. Likely not even most of them.  But that's ok,  The series has been renewed.

See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside ... Westworld 3.2: Dolores' Enemies ... Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World ... Westworld 3.4: The Man in White and Multiple Doloreses ... Westworld 3.5: Ground Control ... Westworld 3.6: Family Group Therapy

And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 

They're coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries ....

Homeland series finale: Continuity

Well, it was a thoroughly satisfying series finale for Homeland, just finished on Showtime.

First, I knew Carrie could never kill Saul, even to stave off a nuclear war, as I said in my review of last week's show.  But tonight's finale had me faked out, cursing at Carrie, until it became clear that she had tried to make Saul believe that she would kill him, which entailed making the viewers believe the same, all to apply maximum pressure to get Saul to give up his beloved Russian agent.  And when that failed, Carrie got what she wanted, anyway, with a Plan B that worked like a charm.  That's what I call a nice piece of writing in this series.

But the very ending was even better, and I sort of guessed it the moment I saw Carrie two years later in Moscow with Yevgeny.  Wouldn't it be cool, I said to my wife, if Carrie redeemed herself by replacing the Russian agent she had handed to Yevgeny on a deadly silver platter?  That would be just like Carrie.  And sure enough, that's exactly what she did.  With all the trimmings Saul could expect, down to the message inside the spine of a conveyed book, the same way information had flowed from the previous Russian agent to Saul.

And this opens up all kinds of possibilities for movie and television sequels.  Saul, though he's for the most out of the CIA now, now has golden agent in Moscow, someone he can trust, well, at least with his life.  And it will take a long time before Yevgeny and the Russians catch on,

Saul says, earlier in this finale, that the Russians have already tried to chew up our democracy.  The world seems very different now, in the pandemic age.  The Coronavirus now is much more of an enemy than Russia.  But the world will prevail over the virus, and that will leave Russia and its hacking still in play as a despoiler of our democracy.  And I'm glad to know that Carrie will be there, on our side with her brilliance and passion.

See also Homeland 8.1: Lost Time ... Homeland 8.3: Ohio ... Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down ... Homeland 8.5: Is Carrie Another Brody? ... Homeland 8.6: Carrie vs. the World ... Homeland 8.7: The Vice Tightens ... Homeland 8.8: The Black Box ... Homeland 8.9: The Red Box and the Black Russian ... Homeland 8.10: Carrie vs. Saul, As Never Before ... Homeland 8.9: Kill Saul

And see also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched ... Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U.S. Hacks Twitter ... Homeland 7.10: President Trump and President Keane ... Homeland 7.11: Carrie in Action ... Homeland Season 7 Finale: The President

And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life

And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs

And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together

And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal

And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality

And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

Outlander 5.10: Finally!

Well, I've been looking forward to this all season.  I haven't read the books.   I've been told, by the people who had, that it wouldn't happen until a later season.  But I said, hey, a television show based on a series of books can change what was in the books any time it pleased.  And that's what Outlander did in tonight's 5.10.  And I was very pleased.

I have a standard, a gauge, that I use in reviewing television shows, about whether a character is dead.  Being choked into unconsciousness is not a sure indication that a character has been killed.  As we saw tonight with Jocasta, and several weeks ago with Roger, people can survive chokings and even hangings.  Same for falling off a boat or out of a plane.  Same for being shot, just about anywhere in the body.  Except in the head.  And, especially, except when the rest of your body, including your head, is tied to a stake planted in a rising tide.

So the death of Bonnet passed my test.  He's dead.  Shot in the head, on the verge of drowning, tied to a stake in the rising water.  But Roger asks Brianna a very good question.  Did she shoot Bonnet in the head to give him a death more merciful than drowning, or to insure that he somehow didn't escape his watery fate?

The answer is likely a combination of both.  As we saw in the long interlude in which Brianna was Bonnet's captive tonight, she had some real feelings for him, mixed in there with the horror.  She was maybe not as glad to put him out of his misery as she was to insure his death, but mercy was a part of her motive.  Ironically, though, for that very reason, that she had feelings for Bonnet, her killing him was also a mercy to herself.  By definitely killing Bonnet, she was setting herself free from that inchoate attraction she had for him.

All in all, one top-notch episode in a top-notch drama.

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History