Raised by Wolves Season 2 Finale: Behind the Open Door

An excellent Raised by Wolves Season 2 finale, which like all good finales to seasons in which the series isn't or shouldn't be concluded, raises far more questions than it answers.

[Yes, there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

First, Mother's disposal of the monstruos flying serpent happened so early in the episode, you had to know there was going to be more, much more.

Most of those questions and complications, on their way to being crises, revolve around Grandmother.  The removal of her veil -- given to Mother to shield her emotions so that she can kill #7, her serpent offspring -- unleashes Grandmother's emotions, most of which are not good.

Indeed, the one ok emotion she displays is her flirtatious affection for Father.  This gives him a chance to proclaim his devotion to Mother, and was fun to see.

Otherwise, she's sending the children on the way to devolve into ... those Creature from the Black Lagoon sea creatures, one of which took Tempest's baby and Hunter killed.  So these creatures are apparently devolved humans, which again raises the question of how long ago did humans reach this planet, clearly well before the arrival of our current protagonists (or, for all we know, humankind evolved on this planet first, and came to Earth).

The answers to those questions will clearly require another season or more.   Also needing answers are what will happen to Mother, and what will happen to Marcus?   He was turned into something else at the end of this episode, and Mother is Grandmother's prisoner.

Obviously, I'm very much up for a third season, and I hope HBO Max makes it happen.  I really enjoyed this second second -- on balance, more than the first -- and I'll conclude by saying I really like the opening song under the credits by Mariam Wallentin and Ben Frost ... "The door that finally opens ... "  HBO Max, keep that door open!

See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction ... Raised by Wolves 2.7: Mothers and Babies

And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy  ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent

Hitler, Trump, and Putin: Sharpening the Comparisons

In the past few years, leaders ranging from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin have been compared to Adolf Hitler.  I think the comparisons are valid.  But Hitler had more than a decade-long career as the leader of Germany, and it might be useful to sharpen the comparisons by specifying to what point in Hitler's career the comparisons apply.

Hitler at his worst was responsible for the murder of six million Jewish people and tens of thousands of Roma.   Putin has certainly not come close to that number as yet, and it is not clear at this point that Trump has been responsible for murder.  Where, then, do they currently correlate to Hitler's horrendous career?

Shortly before and leading to the onset of World War II, Hitler annexed pieces of the other countries around him.  In 1938, Hitler convinced Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia.  A year later, Hitler and Stalin's conquest of Poland ignited the Second World War.   Clearly, Putin's attempt to annex Ukraine is somewhere between Hitler's annexation of Sudetenland and Poland.   In that undeniable, tragic way, Putin is indeed like Hitler.

Trump's similarity to Hitler comes at a much earlier time.  Hitler rose to power condemning the press that truthfully reported on his activities as the Lugenpresse -- the lying press -- just as Trump labeled and still continues to call news organizations that truthfully report on his activities as fake news.  By 1932, Hitler's Nazi party received enough votes in the general election that the German President, von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as Chancellor.  Successive elections resulted in Hitler going out of and back into power.  By 1933, Hitler was back as Chancellor, and before that year ended all political parties other than the Nazis were banned in Germany.  I would say Trump most accurately compares to Hitler circa 1932 to 1933.

The point of these comparisons, and the hope that resides in them, is that there is still time to prevent the further rise of Trump and Putin.  With the current and immensely destructive attack on Ukraine, Putin is the one who needs to be stopped most immediately.  The Ukrainian people are doing an heroic job of this, but they need even more help from U.S., NATO, and the free world, as Ukraine has repeatedly requested and experts ranging from U. S. Army lieutenant colonel (ret.) Alexander Vindman and former U. S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul have repeatedly made clear.  Trump is not an immediate danger right now, but the Republicans need to nominate someone else for the 2024 election -- or, if they nominate Trump again, he needs to be soundly defeated again.

We the people in this world who believe in freedom have our work cut out for us.

The Adam Project: Impact of Time Travel on the Family

Just saw the The Adam Project, a pretty good time-travel movie on Netflix.  Here's a pretty much non-spoiler review:

Adam from the future travels back to 2022, meets his younger, 12-year old self, and enlists him (his younger self) in preventing their father, Louis, from inventing time travel.  If you think that set-up invokes all kinds of time-travel paradoxes -- starting with wouldn't his younger self remember all of this, and wouldn't that create a distortive loop that would upend his life -- you'd be right.

I've found you can pretty much divide time travel stories into those that respect and attempt to deal with these kinds of paradoxes, and those that don't.  12 Monkeys, the 1995 movie, would be an example of among the best attempts to deal with the paradoxes, as would Déjà vu in 2006.  I usually don't waste time critiquing turkeys of movies and TV shows, so I won't mention the far greater number that ignore or don't bother to pay much attention to the paradoxes.

I said The Adam Project was pretty good, because it at least acknowledged some of the paradoxes.  But its solutions were just hand-waving -- saying if a character disturbed time in such and such a way, it would be ok because -- and didn't really supply an explanation.  The net result: it was enjoyable as time travel movie, but not great, and its real strengths reside elsewhere.

Those would be in the family story, buttressed by two very talented stars -- Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner -- who act great and play Adam's father and mother.  Walker Scobell as young Adam was also quite good, and Ryan Reynolds as adult Adam was ok (Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the part, back when the movie was first conceived in 2012).   All of this added up to the sacrifices made by Louis being meaningful and even memorable.

So ... if you're devotee of time travel, as I am, see the movie.  You'll enjoy it, even if you're not rewarded with brilliant renditions of the paradoxes.

                                                        a little time travel story -- free

Christine Feldman-Barrett interviewed by Paul Levinson about A Women's History of the Beatles

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 262, in which I interview Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett about her book, A Women's History of the Beatles.

• Buy the book here
• Watch video of this interview
• My reviews of Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back
• "It's Real Life" -- free, alternate history short story about The Beatles
• my very first published article (in 1971): "A Vote for McCartney"

Check out this episode!

Podcast Review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 261, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.2 on Paramount+

written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2

podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1

podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1

Check out this episode!

Star Trek: Picard 2.2: Q and Borg

Star Trek: Picard 2.2 was dominated by two very different villains: Q and the Borg Queen.

Q, as ever, is a combination of witty, philosophically savvy talk, and seemingly effortless fundamental reality-shifting alterations.  He irritates, frustrates, enrages Picard, who starts out, in these encounters, being Q's pawn or victim, thrust into an alternate reality not of Picard's making or liking, yet figuring out a way to get back to where he belongs, sooner or later.  At this point in the second season, we're just at the first phase of that two-part process.

And the most frightening part of that first phase is the presence of the Borg Queen.  I've always seen the Borg as the most frightening entity we humans have ever encountered in the universe.  Picard was a centerpiece of their destruction.  He still hasn't totally recovered from his experience of being assimilated by them, and likely never will.   He certainly doesn't want another interaction with them, which raises the question of why Q would place him in this position in the new reality Picard now inhabits.

Which brings the whole second season, at this point just two episodes in, back to Q and his inscrutable motives.  Best case scenario is Q is deploying Picard to destroy the Borg totally, once and forever, or if not that, neutralizing them so can't do any damage, in any form.  Of course, this raises the question of why doesn't Q -- or someone else on the Q Continuum -- take care of that him or herself?   And that, in turn, returns us to the question of who or what exactly Q is.

Such questions are fine by me -- I'm glad Q is already more than a cameo in this season --  and I'll see you back here next week with my review of episode 2.3.

See also  Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ...  Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil 

 

Podcast Review of Severance 1.5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 260, in which I review Severance episode 1.5 on Apple TV+.

Written blog post review of Severance 1.5

podcast reviews of Severance: 1.1-1.2... 1.3... 1.4

Check out this episode!

Severance 1.5: Second Lives

So, I said in my review of Severance 1.4 last week that, in the metaphysics of life and death in television series, if you don't see a character's head literally severed or blown to bits, that character might survive whatever the grievous injury.  And--

[Spoilers ahead ...]

Sure, enough, in episode 1.5 of Severance on Apple TV+ yesterday, Mark comes to the rescue and takes Helly down from that noose before it kills her.   We later learn that when she came to, she was in her outie form, an interesting detail that may have some significance sometime later in this unusual narrative.  At very least, it confirmed what we already knew, that her outie form was the entity that she really is.  I'll also say I'm glad that Helly survived, she's an important, pivotal character -- both in her own right, and as the innie Mark is the closest to, has the most commitment to.

Otherwise, there was not much of transcendent importance that happened in this episode.  It ends with Irving's team meeting Burt's team, which is supposed to be a big deal, but I'm not 100% sure why.  Are the innies on the way to organizing some kind of union?   That would indeed be interesting and important.

Meanwhile, I'd like to see more about Harmony and her relationship with the higher-ups at Lumon.  She's clearly beholden to the "board," but she also clearly has a certain independence of mind and action -- certainly a lot more than the innies on Mark's and slightly higher levels.  Dylan also has a lot more story in him.  It occurred to me that his obvious constant sarcasm and rebelliousness could be a mask for him really being a company operative.  That would explain why he seems to be getting away with his comments and attitude.

As I keep saying, Severance is one of most unusual and therefore memorable science fiction series to get on the screen in years -- the very different Counterpart would be the most recent example that comes to mind -- and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity

Podcast Review of Suspicion 1.7

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 259, in which I review Suspicion episode 1.7 on Apple TV+.

Written blog post review of Suspicion 1.7 

Podcast reviews of Suspicion 1.1-1.3... Suspicion 1.4 ... Suspicion 1.5... Suspicion 1.6

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Suspicion 1.7: The Mystery Continues

Another excellent episode -- 1.7 -- of Suspicion, which is still managing to keep us in the dark about who kidnapped Leo.  That's an impressive accomplishment, after seven episodes.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The big development happens at the very end of this episode, when Natalie puts a bullet in Martin, which presumably ends the chance of his series-upending reveal.  She's still understandably aggrieved about the murder of her sister, and shoots Martin because he says he didn't mean for anyone to die in that interaction that killed Natalie's sister.   Yes, totally understandably, and it serves the crucial purpose of keeping us in suspense about who the ultimate villain is in this compelling mystery.

Before then, we learn in detail that climate change -- or the failure to do anything about it -- is what the kidnappers have against Katherine.  Eric Cresswell wrote a report in the 1990s that warned about it, but Katherine had a role in suppressing it.  This is interesting, but of course still doesn't tell us who did the kidnapping.

And it continues to look like none of the suspects did it.  Next week, if IMDb's information is correct, is the eighth and final episode.  There's still no word if the series is being renewed.  It would be wild, wouldn't it, if we still don't find out who did the kidnapping next week.  There's been an increasing tendency, over the years, for television series not to keep viewers hanging on too long for the resolution of its fictional mysteries.   I'm about split, 50/50, on whether I'd like to get an answer on Apple TV+ next week.

See you back here then with my review.

See also Suspicion 1.1-2: Excellent Start, But Is It Four or Five? ... Suspicion 1.3: The Fifth ... Suspicion 1.4: Surprises and Invincibility ... Suspicion 1.5: Tara and Sean ... Suspicion 1.6: Martin, Sean, and Tara

 

The Tourist: Try It, You'll Really Like It

So I was on HBO Max watching Raised by Wolves and I saw a few ads for The Tourist, and I gave it a shot, and I'm glad I did!  How's that for a non-spoiler review?

But here's a little more, with some spoilers.

A man is run off the road by a truck in the Australian outback and wakes up in a hospital having no idea who he is.  That's a fairly standard beginning, harkening back at least as far as Coronet Blue, one of my all-time favorite summer replacement CBS shows with a short number of episodes because the series was never finished.  The Tourist also has a short number of episodes -- six -- and though the mini-series concludes, there's more than enough room for another season or two.

The main character other than the amnesiac is Probationary Constable Helen Chambers.  That's barely police, but Helen has a keen sense of justice and morality, and is played perfectly by Danielle Macdonald. Helen is a little overweight, and engaged to a psychologically abusive guy who's even more overweight, but is driving Helen crazy to lose weight and has open contempt for her job.  Helen is attractive, inside and outside, and it's no surprise that the amnesiac becomes increasingly attracted to her.

The other police are crooked or barely competent.  The amnesiac (well played by Jamie Dornan) has a prior girlfriend with plenty of spunk, great lines, and names, Luci, Victoria, etc, also well played by Shalom Brune-Franklin.  The action is nonstop, with major surprises in just about every episode.

Some of the characters are almost unbelievably hard to kill, but that's ok.  The amnesiac's status is not clear at the end.  But going by my standard that unless you see the character's head severed or blown to bits there's a always a chance he or she can live to show up in a second season.  Which, as I said, I really hope to see.   Harry Williams and Jack Williams, please write it.

 

Podcast Review of Raised by Wolves 2.7

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 258, in which I review Raised by Wolves episode 2.7 on HBO Max.

written blog post review of this episode

Further listening: 

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.6

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.5

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.4

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.3

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.1-2.2

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 4-5

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 6-10

Further reading:

Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Interaction of Space and Religion

 

Check out this episode!

Raised by Wolves 2.7: Mothers and Babies

Probably the most the powerful episode -- 2.7 -- of Raised by Wolves up today on HBO Max.  No, I'd say it is the most powerful.  And its theme was mothers and babies.  Which unfolded in three narratives.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The less apocalyptic story was Tempest and her newborn.  Last week, we saw it stolen by one of the acid-sea creatures.  This week, we find out why: the sea creature was herself a new mother who had just lost her baby.  When Tempest, Hunter, and Father confront the creature in a cave, she's nursing Tempest's baby.  Father plans to kill it and take the baby back, but at the last minute Tempest says no.  That moment says a lot about the monster/human dichotomy which animates (along with the android/human dichotomy) the entire series.   Tempest realizes/senses that the monster is something more (or less or different) than a monster, if she could be nursing her baby.   Father gets it, but Hunter doesn't, kills the monster/nursing mother,  and takes back the baby -- which Tempest then rejects.

That scene, that story, would have been more than enough to be the centerpiece of this episode.  But Raised by Wolves, not content with just one profundity, rolls out another.  The flying serpent, which Mother gave birth to and tried to nurture, matures and eats the tree which Sue became or became part of last week.  That tree went from a heartbeat to -- after being consumed by the flying serpent -- a Godzilla-level monster.  Mother's lethal scream can't stop it -- in part because her maternal instinct likely reduced the strength of the scream, in part because ... who knows, including who knows the ratio of her maternal instant and the power of the mature serpent in accounting for why Mother's scream didn't work.

And there was a third mother/baby story, probably less profound than the other two, but still memorable and endearing.  Vrill android, forsaken by her mother, determined to be part of the human community, does her best to help Campion evade the serpent.  But, in the end, the girl android dies of wounds she sustains in the fight.

I'm looking forward to the second season finale next week. I know this penultimate episode will stay with me a long time.

See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction

And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy  ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent

Outlander 6.1: Ether That Won't Put You to Sleep

Outlander was back on Starz yesterday with the debut of its sixth season after a two-year wait.  It was great to see our favorite characters back in action, but this wasn't the strongest episode in the series.

[Spoilers follow ...]  

I thought the Intro took way too long to introduce Tom Christie.  Also, it's a little lame to introduce an important new character in a flashback, this far into the series.

The single most interesting and at this point significant development is Claire's relationship with ether.  It's a very valuable medical accomplishment, but Claire's taking it at the very end of the episode was suggestive of something more than medical interest.  Were we seeing another scientific test, or is Claire becoming addicted to the substance?  (Just a reminder that I haven't read the books, so all I know is what I see on the screen.) A little research reveals that ether can indeed be habit-forming, if not addictive (caffeine is habit forming, crack cocaine is addictive).  If Claire is becoming dependent upon ether, that certainly bears watching and won't put us to sleep.

It was also good to see Claire and Jamie together, in all possible ways.  The two continue to make a great couple.   They've aged well together.  In fact, they seem more comfortable in each other's arms and lives in this season than in any previous narrative.

As readers of my reviews of Outlander will recall, I've always been more interested in the time travel aspects of the story than the romance.   Claire makes a few sage statements about time travel, but, otherwise, we saw none of it in this first episode of the new season.  But there's plenty of time for that to be rectified, and I'm looking forward to more.

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 ... Outlander 5.10: Finally! ... Outlander 5.11: The Ballpoint Pen ... Outlander Season 5 Finale: The Cost of Stolen Time

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

 

Podcast Review of Severance 1.4

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 257, in which I review Severance episode 1.4 on Apple TV+.

Written blog post review of Severance 1.4 

podcast reviews of Severance: 1.1-1.2... 1.3

Check out this episode!

Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity

A more disturbing episode of Severance -- 1.4 -- than usual, because

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Well, if you saw the episode, up since Friday on Apple TV+, you'll know why:  Helly takes her life, or tries to take her life, at the end of the hour.  I make that distinction because, you know how it is on television, if a character's head isn't literally severed (for want of a better word), than she or he might well have survived.  In Helly's case, someone in that hell on Earth might have come by and rescued her.

What drove her to do this?  She was betrayed by her outie, who appears in a video explaining that she doesn't want to end the severance of her and her innie.  Though, it occurred to me that that video could have been a deep fake.  I mean, deep fakes already abound in our own off-screen world, so, surely the dementos who built that innie world would know how to make them.

The other important aspect of 1.4 is the development of Irving as a character.  We saw a lot more of him in the story than usual.  But ... what did we learn about him?  He may or may not be ok with a visceral relationship with Burt.  At first, Irving pulls his hand away and soon after walks out of the room when Burt puts his hand over Irving's.  But, later, perhaps after Irving has thought it over, he seems to seek Burt out.  Not only does this behavior leave us still unclear about what Irving really wants, it's a metaphor for just about everything else in this harrowing narrative.

I'm sure it's been noted by others, and I may have already mentioned this myself, but Severance could fit comfortably into Philip K. Dick's uncomfortable corpus of work.  Talk about A Scanner Darkly, in Severance, just about everything we scan with our eyes comes up blurry and unclear.  The harder we focus, the more we get the feeling that we're looking into an infinite regress of possibilities.  (Hey, I like working the name of this blog into my reviews.)

In any case, I'll be narrowing my gaze for some true meaning, and I'll see you back here with my review of the next episode, next week.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor

Podcast Review of Suspicion 1.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 256, in which I review Suspicion episode 1.6 on Apple TV+.

Written blog post review of Suspicion 1.6 

Podcast reviews of Suspicion 1.1-1.3... Suspicion 1.4 ... Suspicion 1.5

Check out this episode!

Suspicion 1.6: Martin, Sean, and Tara

An excellent episode of Suspicion began streaming yesterday on Apple TV+ -- 1.6 -- even if it didn't really move the whodunnit narrative very much forward -- that is, until the very end of the hour.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

We already knew that Martin Copeland was apparently some kind of bad guy, likely (I thought) behind the kidnapping (see my review of episode 1.5), so it wasn't too big a shock to see him waiting in that car for Sean.   But that scene did show us Sean working together with or for Martin, so where did that leave us?  Was Martin behind the shooters who killed Monique and drove all our suspects including Sean into hiding? If they were working for Martin, did they have orders not to shoot Sean?  If not, if the shooters weren't working for Martin, then whom were they working for?

It was fun to see our suspects dressed and hair cut to look very different, to elude police.  They all looked great.  And Sean's relationship to Tara continues to be an intriguing mystery.  I certainly got the impression that he was tempted to get into bed and wake up Tara even if that made him late for his meeting with Martin, but he couldn't do that with someone else sleeping right next to her.

And what was going on with that boot that he picked up and seemed to hold so ... lovingly.   I assume that boot was Tara's and Sean is not a foot fetishist.  So ...

Suspicion, by the end of its sixth episode, is managing to move the story forward, telling us new things every hour, without revealing all that much more than we knew about Leo's kidnapping at the end of the first episode.  That's a pretty neat trick, and a recipe for a very compelling mystery, which increasingly is what we have here.

See you back here next week.

See also Suspicion 1.1-2: Excellent Start, But Is It Four or Five? ... Suspicion 1.3: The Fifth ... Suspicion 1.4: Surprises and Invincibility ... Suspicion 1.5: Tara and Sean

 

Podcast Review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 255, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.1 on Paramount+

written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1

podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1

Check out this episode!

Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel

The debut episode of the second season of Star Trek: Picard was enjoyable, notwithstanding the annoying commercial breaks which lacerated the narrative on the paying service.  (Yes, I'm too cheap to pay more for Paramount+ with no commercials.)

As was the case with the first season, the most fun in this episode was the return of memorable characters from The Next Generation TV series.   In this case, that would be Guinan and Q.  Let's hope we see more of them. It was also good to Seven of Nine back in action, continuing her role from the first season.

As for the story, it was an interesting melange of Picard's personal turmoils and outright battles in space. Although Picard has loved women in the past, he's now unable to fully express his love to Laris.  Maybe what happened to him at the end of the first season has gotten in the way, not of his physical libido, but the capacity of his soul to fully love another.

We also learn in the first episode that the Borg will be at least one of the primary villains, and time travel will play a major role.  This is confirmed by Picard, who comments at some point that time is a more challenging vista to explore than space.  Give that "Yesterday's Enterprise" was one of the very best episodes of the The Next Generation television series, it makes sense that Picard would feel that way.

It was great to see Patrick Stewart in the title role, and also Alison Pill, back from the first season as the highly intelligent Agnes.  And I thought Santiago Cabrera as Chris, cigar in mouth and hand, in the Captain's chair, was an effectively dashing figure.

So ... I'll suffer through the commercials, watch every episode, and be back here with reviews.  More than enough in this start of the second season to keep me interested.

See also Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil 

 

Podcast Review of Raised by Wolves 2.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 254, in which I review Raised by Wolves episode 2.6 on HBO Max.

written blog post review of this episode

"Plants Thrive in a Complex World by Communicating" by Beronda L. Montgomery

Further listening: 

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.5

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.4

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.3

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.1-2.2

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 4-5

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 6-10

Further reading:

Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Interaction of Space and Religion

Check out this episode!

Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction

Raised by Wolves 2.6 -- the 6th of 8 episodes of this second season -- was easily the most and least science fictional of any of the episodes in the first and second seasons so far.  Which is saying a lot, since the whole series has been pushing the limits of science fiction into fantasy, from the beginning.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Three major interludes which stretched the boundaries of the story tonight:

1.  First, Sue turns into a tree.  Really.  The last time I saw a tree have such importance in a science fiction story were the Ents, in Lord of the Rings, which is generally regarded not as science fiction but fantasy.  I will say that science in our off-screen real world here on Earth is uncovering all kinds of sentient-like qualities of trees -- see, for example, Beronda L. Montgomery's article -- so maybe what we saw in Raised by Wolves 2.6 is not too much of a stretch.

2. Next, Tempest's baby taken by that sea humanoid creature.   The birthing scene itself was powerful, incredible.  But real.  And then ... to have that horror-show of a creature take the baby from Tempest -- that, in itself, was one of the most horror-story scenes in this science fiction series.  The last time I saw a monster like that was in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

3. The further development of the Mother-like android now dubbed grandmother was a good step forward in the android anthropology which is the heart of the series.  Of course Father loves her -- there's too much of Mother in her for Father not to.  The big question now is to what extent does this new android have a mind of her own?   Clearly, Mother and Father do, vis-a-vis each other.  So ... we'll just have to see.  And, presumably we'll also find out when in human history the android was brought to this planet, if indeed she was brought there.

See you back here next week.

See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror

And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy  ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent

Ultimate Choices, Nearly Impossible, about Ukraine

photo by Yehor Milohrodskyi on @unsplash

Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow asked the crucial question: is there any country willing to jump in and stand with the Ukrainians against the Russian aggression?   General Barry McCaffrey (Ret), explained that anything the US and NATO did to directly confront and fight with the Russians could provoke Putin, already clearly unhinged, to bring nuclear weapons into an expanding worldwide fight.

Of course, no one wants any kind of nuclear war.  And a nuclear war between the US and Russia could well be the end of our civilization across the planet.

Avoidance of nuclear war therefore has been a cardinal objective ever since the end of World War II.  We're here today, flourishing across the Earth, with all our problems, because, beginning with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, we succeeded in keeping that world-destroying demon in the bottle.

So, McCaffrey's analysis makes sense.  But, what then, for Ukraine?  What are we supposed to do?  Continue to massively arm Ukraine and hope that that will be enough for them to stop the Russians? Hope that President Xi of China puts pressure on Putin to pull back?  Ukraine has heroically done far far better against the Russians than anyone thought they would.  But Russia nonetheless has overwhelmingly superior resources to replenish its soldiers and supplies.   Most knowledgeable observers, including McCaffrey, think it's just a matter of time before Ukraine succumbs.

So, what are we -- the United States, NATO, the free world -- supposed to do?  Stand by and watch Ukraine fall, curse Putin and his moral dementia, a month or more from now, as the overwhelming military numbers of Russia even with their blundering eventually succeed in their vile mission?  Stand by because the icey logic of at all costs avoiding a nuclear war demands that?   Yesterday afternoon a woman in Ukraine on MSNBC remarked that whatever we in the United States do, Putin's use of nuclear weapons is unpredictable.  He could see fit to launch them for whatever reason even if we hold back and Ukraine is obliged to counter the savage attack with just their own limited number of freedom-loving people.

But the implacable need to avoid a nuclear war between Russia and the West says yes, that's what we must  do.  But ... the prospect of watching Ukraine go down, when we and our allies have the military power to stop that, makes me sick to my stomach.  No, it makes me sick to my soul.

Had I the power, I'd put in place a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stop the Russian attempt to annihilate Ukraine.