Z Nation, Season Three, Episode One: No Mercy

No Mercy is supposedly a season premier but it seems to exist for no other reason that to introduce a new antagonist - The Man.  It is set up as a flashback and takes place between episodes 5 and 6 of the last season. This means that we have to wait another week to find out the result of last year's cliffhanger ending. Officially, Z Nation sucks. In the flashback Cassandra (who they shouldn't have killed) is alive and is still a tool of Murphy's.  It also means that Murphy is carrying around his daughter in an ice cooler with holes in it.

On orders of his employer, The Man is holding a group of survivors hostage because he wants  Dr. Teller turned over.  The Man kidnaps a little boy who manages to escape and it's the boy who runs into our favourite zombie fighting crew.  The boy asks for help and while everyone considers it, predictably, Murphy reminds them all that they have a mission to complete.  Leave it to Murphy to have his eye on the prize.

They head back to meet the survivors and Teller asks Warren for help, saying that they cannot take on the men alone and Warren and her crew have the skills and the weapons. Teller offers vehicles and fuel in exchange for their aid. While this goes on, 10K gets his flirt on with Red, who claims that she wears red to scare off men.  As Murphy rocks his daughter, he begins to hear voices and so decides to investigate.

The Man returns to dump the body of a guard that he killed and to find out if the boy made it back. The Man asks for the Teller to be turned over to him, saying that he lied about the 24 hour grace period he had originally given them. Thus begins a Spartacus moment (and the first of the bad movie references) with each person stepping forward claiming to be Dr. Teller. The Man however is unimpressed and reminds the people that Spartacus and all who followed him were crucified upside down.  Warren steps forward also claiming to be Dr. Teller and asks The Man to let the people be.  The Man has what I suppose is a change of heart and once again agrees to the 24 hours but promises to kill everyone if they don't hand over Dr. Teller.  Warren has no problem warning The Man not to come back.

When Murphy hears the voice again, he leaves Cassandra in charge of Lucy ordering her to feed Lucy if she gets hungry.  10K and Red take off to look for food and the wild child who now looks like a 10K Mini Me follows them. Warren begins to make plans with Addie, Doc and Teller to protect the community.  Teller explains that the man hasn't acted because his employers want him to show mercy.  Teller however doesn't know what The Man wants to do with him given that pre apocalypse he worked with mold. After giving the citizens some quick lessons in how to shoot, the crew formalizes a plan.

Murphy continues to be drawn towards the whispered voices. He comes across the weirdest looking zombies yet and they beg him to kill them.  They begin to scream and Murphy grabs his ears in pain. He is grabbed by men in Hazmet suits and fortunately for him, Warren in crew show up.  Murphy tells Warren that the zombies are begging for mercy and that he's never felt so much pain.  Outside the building, Warren says the beings they found aren't zombies and have wants and needs. When the apocalypse happened they started working on a fungus based cure.  Zombies took over the lab and there was an explosion which the people were exposed to.  Teller explains that he couldn't let the fungus escape the lab and so he locked the people up.  Teller adds that he has been trying to take care of the people and couldn't bring himself to mercy them.  Murphy realises that if Teller leaves the mold zombies will die.

America Horror Story Season 6 (Roanoke), Chapter 1

So we have chapters this time round, not episodes?

I honestly don’t have any idea what the theme of this year’s American Horror Story is on account of some marketing guru deciding they’d be super mysterious to generate buzz. For me this meant I got distracted and wandered off to something else. But it’s apparently called “Roanoke.”  So I’m guessing another croatoan myth? With a hefty chunk of Blair Witch as well I see

The format appears to be “documentary” with a claim of the show being based on true events recap. So every role has two actors: the “actual” person and then an actor playing the re-enactment which is a pretty unique format. I’m curious how this works – it does give a real sense of reality to the whole show

And it was scary. Yes, this episode was scary. I was spooked.

So, what do we have? We have our protagonists: Shelby and Matt, a successful married couple embarking on their dream life on the West Coast until a random attack in the street has Matt in the hospital and Shelby miscarrying.

They are naturally traumatised deeply by this and feel the need to leave to feel safe again

So this interracial couple moves to rural Virginia. To feel safe

I’m just going to leave that there.

They also are miles and miles away from absolutely everyone in the spookiest house ever – certainly spookier than the murder house in season 1.

They also acquire neighbours that are such terrible redneck hillbilly stereotypes that even Deliverance would have declared them excessive. They also hate Shelby and Mitch

This is where you go to feel safe? Uh-huh… look there are placed on active fault lines and by volcanoes? I think that may be safer places

Let’s also add to this that Matt is a travelling salesman so Shelby is alone most of the time. Also her profession is “yoga”… how she can teach a yoga class when she is literally in the middle of nowhere. And if she isn’t teaching classes, exactly what does her profession involve? Can “yoga” just be a profession.

Anyway, spooky things happen – including the bind being vandalised with lots of pig squealing sounds (Matt believes the neighbours are racist and persecuting them), lots of people with torches and Shelby being attacked in the hot tub and nearly drowned by people she describes as “people with torches in period dress”. It’s not shocking that no-one believes her that cosplayers are attacking her.

Of course maybe I’m a little doubtful because I think I’ve seen like, maybe, 3 scenes in this episode where she hasn’t had a big glass of wine in hand. Also she’s wearing a backless jumper. I mean the whole point of a jumper is to be woolly and keep you warm. Who has a backless jumper?

The police are not exactly supportive as they find little collaborating evidence. But even as the acts become more blatant, the police continue to be pretty indifferent. Matt also finds a skinned pig on their doorstep…

Also there is a hailstorm of teeth. Human teeth

  

In the face of Shelby’s growing fear, Matt calls his sister in to stay with Shelby

Her history – she was a cop who lost her job after she became addicted to prescription drugs after being injured which in turn led to her divorce. This is an interesting exploration of addiction, how prescriptions drugs are very addictive and how it is easy to become addicted to them after an injury. It also shows Lee’s personality – pretty harsh and unforgiving (it’s very clear she’s very judgemental of those “other” addicts, unlike her).

Lee is also not a fan of Shelby – a viewpoint that is shared with interest so that’s not going to go well. She’s pretty sure Shelby is making it all up and is just being completely hysterical.

Which means she is there when someone rolls bottles of wine around (taunting her fight for sobriety), them being lured into the basement with spooky sounds, made to watch a home video with some kind of scary pig beast in it – and then the lights go out

Bizarre Decisions and Implausible Situations

via GIPHY

So, this rather excellent post from Tumblr prodded some of the more annoying nonsenses that appear over and over which we just have to totally agree to (especially slicing the palm of your hand - ye gods guys you can slice a tendon that way! Stop!). And those people playing high-wire artist on those teeny thin bridges? Who are you trying to impress?

Of course, we definitely have our own to add - because this genre may be about the fantastic but there is a limit to the suspension of disbelief. Add in the comments either things that don’t make sense you keep seeing - or dubious decisions characters always make

BULLETS ARE NOT POISONOUS!

Someone is shot, they’re injured and need medical attention. Time to leap into action and rip that bullet out - no time for sterilisation, that bullet is going to kill them! Somehow?

Once a bullet has stopped moving it’s pretty much done all the damage it’s going to do. Now if you’re supernatural is, say, a werewolf shot with silver or a vampire shot with holy water or a Trump supporter shot with common sense then I guess the bullet needs removing (or not, depending on how terrible the monster is). But if not rooting around in the wound in amateur surgery is definitely not good for anyone; even when in a nice sterile hospital with a nice sterile surgeon bullets still get left in bodies because they’re not dangerous and cutting into people when it isn’t necessary is generally considered a less than ideal thing. Staunch the blood and stop poking bullet wounds.

CPR DOES NOT MAKE YOU A NECROMANCER

So you need a near death experience for some reason - maybe you need to wander around the underworld and avoid pomegranates. Maybe you need to pretend to be brain dead. The simplest solution is to use technology/poison/magic to die… after all, a little CPR and they corpse will spring back to life, right?

Except it hardly ever works… it’s not actually supposed to. CPR keeps oxygenated blood flowing to the brain so emergency help can arrive and do the actual reincarnation/resurrection/zombie bit. So if you’re going to use your death juju and hope someone will CPR you back to the land of the living, you better hope they also hook up a defibrillator and call emergency services. Actually skip the defibrillators - they actually don’t work on a heart that has actually stopped. Damn, none of these miracle cures work?!

WHERE DID YOU BUY THIS?

Some characters are assassins, connected to crime cartels, the police, military and who knows what else. As such you expect them to have the nicest toys

But when your YA protagonist or nice-normal-person-dropped-in-weird-situation can somehow get their hands on illegal firearms, explosives, endangered exotic animals, drugs or small children I do have to question how they know this? Exactly who does Originalnamee, orphaned (always orphaned) girl in a nice middle class high school know how to get her hands on several lumps of C4?

Unraveled (Elemental Assassin #15) by Jennifer Estep

When Finn inherits a western-themed theme park it is an opportunity for the gang to actually have a holiday – certainly necessary for Gin who is extra stressed trying to find out the truth behind the Circle

Of course, this was a resort owned by Finn’s mother and Circle member and generally not a pleasant person – and the Circle is fully involved in the resort – inevitably the Spider has to take care of business.

Two books ago I said that I was concerned with this series of books becoming very very repetitive. We had the same pattern coming up over and over again and it was starting to feel dull even if it was also extremely fun.

Last book helped reassure me and this book well and truly sealed my hope this is going somewhere new.

Sure, we still has Gin, the Assassin, killing bad people who really needs to be stabbed in the head. But previously this had a repeated pattern: a big bad would appear, they would attack Gin, she’d be terribly beaten. She’d then limp back to Jojo, be healed, make a plan and promptly murderise the big bad.

But this book doesn’t have a big bad per se. We have a powerful, dangerous woman who is dangerous for reasons beyond having big shiny dangerous magic (which is a really nice change from the rest of the books – we’d have dangerous women but they’d usually be dangerous because of shiny magic, not combat skills like Gin). But she’s not the big bad. She’s not the main focus. She is there – but the main enemy is Tucker. And not as a dangerous threat, but as a representative of the mysterious and sinister Circle. The tone of book has changed a lot. We don’t have a single big bad like Mab Monroe, nor do we have random killers of the week – we have a mysterious shadowy cabal that needs investigating, discovering and manoeuvred around.

Along the way we have good ongoing issues with Finn and his mother- but they’re touched on but not gone into too much depth because we already did that in the short story

From Dusk Till Dawn, Season 3, Episode 2: La Reina

We have a brief flashback into Kate and her slaughtering her way through a mental institution, painting the word “Amaru” (an Incan dragon) in blood on the wall before joining Brasa. She declares, most ominously, “today is my awakening” and has a nifty ability to kill with a touch. She’s super duper creepy.

In the present, Freddie the Peacekeeper and Ximena are working together with a few clashes (they are so going to have sex by the end of this season). He is outraged by the Culebras running around killing people and breaking the rules while Ximena has rogue Culebras not even appearing on her priority list since her entire species is being annihilated and the rogues have absolutely no choice, no safety or security now all the leaders are dead.

And now Brasa, the fiery handed demon, has a new target – the faith of the Culebras. The worship of La Diosa, the worship of Santanico. Brasa is raiding any safe house, any culebra place of worship where Santanico is revered is hit and burned down by his fiery magic. Freddie and Ximena follow in his wake as Brasa hones in on the meeting of the Apostles – who we assume are the head priests of Santanico’s religion (a religion, it has to be said, she is not even remotely interested in taking part in).

They don’t arrive in time – and the apostles are massacred leaving Ximena and Freddie to try and get some revenge on Brasa. It doesn’t work well – but at least Freddie saves her. She also has a nice time out moment to call him out on his bitterness and loathing of culebras. It’s a really nice call out – she wants him on side but isn’t willing to put up with the attitude to have him there.

Now to Seth and Richie who are trying to put together a force of Culebras without the lords (Richie playing softly softly while Seth trying to give hard truths). The speeches are good – but ultimately they don’t have the pull to bring the Culebras together. Unlike Santanico…

Colony, Season 1, Episode 7: Broussard

Kate, again, stands at the crux of most of the interesting conflict this episode. There’s even a whole new brewing conflict as we see her daughter, Gracie, being taken to a new yay-alien church by their oh-so-alien-loving nanny who is pulling Gracie away from Kate

And then there’s the resistance that wants to kill her. Or Quayle does – and Kate learns through Will how many more people Quayle has decided had to die for the sake of the greater good – including entire resistance cells. On top of learning that Geronimo wasn’t the folk hero she first thought he was, she’s shaken

Then there’s Broussard – she’s always been close with him and he certainly returns some of that, being resistant to just kill her as Quayle demands. Even if it gets close. Kate realises that Broussard wasn’t just the man who held her husband at gun point – but he’s also the man Quayle uses when he has to Clean Up people – including compromised resistance cells.

Kate is conflicted, betrayed, torn and doesn’t know where to turn.

On top of that Snyder presents Will with a picture of their missing son. He’s elated and calls it good news but Kate calls it exactly what it is – gross manipulation and exploitation. They were close enough to take a picture but still couldn’t bring the child to them? They’re being played and used and Kate knows it.

Meanwhile Will and his team has access to the rolodex full of all the data humanity had ever gathered which the aliens now have (with a definite comment on our putting everything on social media and tracking everyone). Using Jennifer’s skills (she once run a dating website with a whole lot of information to compile) they try to identify Broussard. Will’s experience helps parse away the many many many fake identities and realise Broussard is a mercenary, professional and generally not nice guy

And the final key to tracking him down (after a bomb that kills several enforcers when they raid his house) with input from Katie

Who, then, after speaking to fellow resistance member about the very nature of the resistance – and she warns Broussard giving him just enough time to run before the police arrive. Oh and his neighbour is Quayle and needs to work on his poker face

Searching Broussard’s house Will who finds a book – the same book that Kate hid. He realises that Kate is resistance and using the book as a code key.

Again I still can’t buy Will being so utterly dedicated to the authority now? I need to see more justification for this than there has been

Blood of the Earth (Soulwood #1) by Faith Hunter

When Jane Yellowrock visited Nell, she left her in chaos. While the vampires Jane was looking for were saved, Nell was left as an outsider among her cult; one who not only had the temerity to be a woman living alone, but one who helped an outsider against her

She knows it’s only a matter of time before the churchmen burn her out and even her strange and disturbing powers connecting her to the Soulwood won’t be enough

Until Ricky LaFleur arrives, special Agent from PSYled, the supernatural investigation agency. He wants her help – and with that brings the offer of money and possible safety. Or is it just going to rile the church even more against her?

This book is set in the Jane Yellowrock world and takes one of the side characters in that series and clearly lays the foundation of a new series within that world setting

And this, as the first book in this series, does an excellent job of this. We already have a lot of the world building from the larger Jane Yellowrock series and is careful to only bring up those elements that are relevant to Nell’s story and the story as it stands now. It also really helps the greater world setting by bringing in characters, creatures and concepts that just don’t fit with Jane’s story. I like this idea because when you have a really big, rich world setting it can be really tempted to ram it all into one story and it wouldn’t work

Nell also brings in such a different viewpoint from Jane – she’s so very different from Jane that it makes for excellent potential to see whole new sides to this world (and Jane’s habit of approaching problems as things to shoot and stab things). This also allows more supernatural creatures to be introduced (like the gwyllgi which is definitely some interesting and obscure mythological research) as well as Nell’s unique abilities without crowding Jane’s life with more weirdness.

Nell herself and her nature is a fascinating concept – her connection to nature, her terrible power, her very conflict over what she can do and what she is an excellent characterisation. It also worked well with her character. As someone who grew up in a highly religious and oppressive cult, but someone who has escaped them – she has very conflicting elements to her character. She rejects her past and often hates how her past has shaped her, rejecting elements of herself which reveal she’s a “churchwoman”. At the same time she has been shaped by her past – her opinions, her experiences, her lack of education are all directly shaped by that church past. On top of this she has lived in such an isolated state that she is often shocked when she sees more of society outside of her very isolated circumstances. Her constant surprise by simple things like men making coffee and doing “women’s work” does far more to emphasise how utterly misogynist her upbringing was than any amount of rants or condemnation

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 6: Lost and Found

So, Renee and I were taking, as we do, about whether to watch a show, keep watching it or whether we can drop it. We base this on whether it’s in our genre (so, no matter what, we’re always stuck with Vampire Diaries and since it’s a dystopian Renee has 2 wonderful series of Last Ship to look forward to. LUCKY HER!) and whether we like it (so Killjoys stays, so there).

By the end of the last episode we’d agreed to drop this series because the closest thing we have to the supernatural was Marlott’s hallucinations and we weren’t especially enjoying it

And then this episode happened. This is because I taunted Renee about Last Ship, isn’t it?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So John Marlotte has become more and more worrying in this episode, which everyone puts down to syphilis dementia since pretty much everyone knows. As John makes more accusations – against Sir William, against Sir Peel, Nightengale becomes more concerned, insisting on taking his gun back and making sure Flora doesn’t stay with him because she will be unsafe with a man with Syphilis.

Marlotte lays down the law and invokes his authority, Flora cannot leave! I’m not sure where this authority comes from beyond his white maleness.

Flora also tries to talk Marlotte around but he rants and raves and decides to lock her up. Marlotte is looking more and more out of control and worrisome. When Flora mentions, to try and make the ranting Marlotte back off, that Lord Hervey actually kicked her out and she never actually wanted to return to Marlotte.

Marlotte, who I would say is not making good decisions right now, but let’s be honest never really made good decisions, now decides that Lord Hervey is actually the big bad. He rants at Lady Harvey who, shockingly, doesn’t find slightly unhinged ranting and raving a very persuasive reason to betray her brother – though she seems to know something is terribad wrong with her brother. Also Marlotte totally wants her to marry him. His ranting is really not making a really good case for matrimony.

He does decide to go check out Lord Hervey and runs into his servant (who has been dubbed the Beast because someone randomly ranted about the Beast earlier in the season and everyone kind of forgot that reference to now) who I really do not understand why he deserves that but hey let’s stretch that. Anyway, beasty servant is currently holding Alice prisoner.

Between, Season Two Episode Five: Horatio Rising

Here we are at the penultimate episode of season two at least. Yeah I know, it's a short season but since this show is so entirely ridiculous, it feels like it has gone on forever already. It beings with showing Adam and Liam at the extraction site.  Adam has a gun and orders Liam to pop the trunk. Liam pleads saying that he is the only hope that Pretty Lake has. Adam counters arguing that if Liam leaves with all of the research that Horatio would have all the information that it needs and then the whole town would be finished.  Adam again orders Liam into the trunk.

Now that he is out of the compound, Adam asks for the driver to pull over claiming that he is going to be sick.  The driver says that he was ordered not to stop until decontamination. Finally, Adam threatens to take the mask off if the driver doesn't pull over.  Once outside the car, Adam pulls a gun on the driver and orders him to cuff himself to the tree before hoping back in the car and taking off. When we see Adam again, he is walking alone in a city.

Chuck wakes up and slowly gets off the floor.  He heads into the shower to wash away the blood.  He then stares at himself in the mirror like he doesn't recognize his reflection.

Tracy and Wiley are taking care of Renee, whose wound seems to be healing.  Wiley thinks that what's in Liam's cure is keeping her alive. And yes, Renee is now a half day over 22 and still alive. Wiley points out that Liam was right.  Tracy is already sick of hearing about Liam and points out that Liam walked out and left them behind. Tracy says that Mark is to blame for all this mess because he killed Eric, Renee's kid brother.

Mark finds Frannie playing the piano.  Mark says he was convinced Harrison is the one who shot Renee and now believes that it was Frannie. Frannie fesses up quietly. Mark tells Frannie that his father used to beat his mother and him and he knew that unless he did something he wouldn't stop. Mark felt he couldn't leave because of his mother and younger sister.  One night his father came home drunk and started beating his mother, so Mark tried to break it up.  His father responded by grabbing his gun and Mark thought his father was going to kill him, so he snapped and shot him. Mark said he was just so full of rage but afterwards he wanted to take it back because it turned him into the person his father believed he was.  A crying Frannie says that she couldn't take it back.  Mark tells Frannie that he went to the clinic and that Renee is still alive.

Ronnie gets out of bed and looks at himself in the mirror to find all the cuts on his face have healed. Of course Pat shows up to taunt Ronnie about "going crazy" and blames it on all of the drugs Ronnie has taken.

Adam makes his way into a cafe and pulls out his computer. He sends out a message looking for someone called unicorn sweater.  Adam asks about where he can find help and is given a location.

Frannie heads to the infirmary to check on Renee.  Frannie whispers in Renee's ear that she is sorry and will say a prayer for her. The phone rings and Wiley answers.  The man on the line asks where Liam is and then hangs up.

Adam plays the video for his contact and assures her that he is not contagious.  He is told to leave but Adam says that if he were contagious the girl would already be exposed.  Daisy demands that Adam prove that he is not contagious.

At Horatio Pharmaceuticals, Crane talks about extreme measures and that they are trying to find a cure with a government operative.

Wiley finds the location where the extraction point is and heads off to see if she can find Liam.

Daisy says that she doesn't do governments secrets anymore.  Adam asks for help saying that she can save  lives but Daisy is certain that Pretty Lake is not her problem. Adam brings up her hypocrisy by supporting things like PETA. Okay so he has a point about PETA. This is perhaps the most sense that Adam has made this season.

Mr Brooks, at the behest of Crane, heads out and finds the driver still handcuffed to the tree. The driver explains that he took the wrong guy and when he realised it, it was already to late. Crane calls it unfortunate and then pulls out his gun. And just like that, another black man is dead.

Daisy works on the lap top Adam brought. When he offers to help, she points out that its all above his skill and pay grade.  At Horatio, a breach is detected and they search and find a signal. Daisy gets in and Adam asks her to make a copy of all of the emails.  Reading it over, Daisy calls it scary stuff. Crane is informed about the hack and where the location is and so he sends Mr Brooks to check it out.

Adam finds an email from Minister B. Miller from the made up Department of Inland security. Why not make up government agencies when already nothing about this show makes any kind of sense. Adam starts a video conversation with her and says that he wants to speak to her in private, adding that she won't want to draw attention to herself right now.  Adam instructs her to an email he just sent regarding the government and her personal part in what happened at Pretty Lake. Adam demands that Miller tell the world what she has done and to save Pretty Lake. Miller says that she has ordered the extermination on everyone in Pretty Lake.  Adam counters by threatening to blow the whistle but Miller argues that she fears that less than having the disease spread. Miller believes the only saving grace is that the disease is contained. Adam asks about the clinical trials but Miller calls it a pipe dream and says that she has no choice before shutting down the connection.

Wiley drives out to Liam's pick up spot and finds his car.  Liam is still in the trunk screaming for help.  Wiley opens the trunk and Liam reveals that Adam did this to him and gets out.

Daisy and Adam discuss the conversation with Miller.  Daisy is quick to point out that if Miller doesn't care if she's exposed then he's lost his leverage.  Daisy adds that any news outlet would take days to vet a story like this and then it would be too late. Adam suggests that they should go to Horatio because they have as much to lose as anyone else.  Adam asks for Daisy's phone and then leaves.

A freezing Liam sits in Wiley's car.  Liam is convinced that Adam knew that once he left Pretty Lake they were all as good as dead because they would have lost their human shield. Wiley tells Liam that Renee survived. Liam realises that Adam has all the research and Adam has it all.  This means that if Horatio gets their hands on it, they will have everything they need to move forward.  Wiley realises that no one is coming to help them and that it was always the drug trials that mattered all along. Liam claims that he thought if he found concrete evidence they would eventually let the people of Pretty Lake go but it seems they'd already made up their minds to let Pretty Lake die.

Between, Season Two Episode Five: Horatio Rising

Here we are at the penultimate episode of season two at least. Yeah I know, it's a short season but since this show is so entirely ridiculous, it feels like it has gone on forever already. It beings with showing Adam and Liam at the extraction site.  Adam has a gun and orders Liam to pop the trunk. Liam pleads saying that he is the only hope that Pretty Lake has. Adam counters arguing that if Liam leaves with all of the research that Horatio would have all the information that it needs and then the whole town would be finished.  Adam again orders Liam into the trunk.

Now that he is out of the compound, Adam asks for the driver to pull over claiming that he is going to be sick.  The driver says that he was ordered not to stop until decontamination. Finally, Adam threatens to take the mask off if the driver doesn't pull over.  Once outside the car, Adam pulls a gun on the driver and orders him to cuff himself to the tree before hoping back in the car and taking off. When we see Adam again, he is walking alone in a city.

Chuck wakes up and slowly gets off the floor.  He heads into the shower to wash away the blood.  He then stares at himself in the mirror like he doesn't recognize his reflection.

Tracy and Wiley are taking care of Renee, whose wound seems to be healing.  Wiley thinks that what's in Liam's cure is keeping her alive. And yes, Renee is now a half day over 22 and still alive. Wiley points out that Liam was right.  Tracy is already sick of hearing about Liam and points out that Liam walked out and left them behind. Tracy says that Mark is to blame for all this mess because he killed Eric, Renee's kid brother.

Mark finds Frannie playing the piano.  Mark says he was convinced Harrison is the one who shot Renee and now believes that it was Frannie. Frannie fesses up quietly. Mark tells Frannie that his father used to beat his mother and him and he knew that unless he did something he wouldn't stop. Mark felt he couldn't leave because of his mother and younger sister.  One night his father came home drunk and started beating his mother, so Mark tried to break it up.  His father responded by grabbing his gun and Mark thought his father was going to kill him, so he snapped and shot him. Mark said he was just so full of rage but afterwards he wanted to take it back because it turned him into the person his father believed he was.  A crying Frannie says that she couldn't take it back.  Mark tells Frannie that he went to the clinic and that Renee is still alive.

Ronnie gets out of bed and looks at himself in the mirror to find all the cuts on his face have healed. Of course Pat shows up to taunt Ronnie about "going crazy" and blames it on all of the drugs Ronnie has taken.

Adam makes his way into a cafe and pulls out his computer. He sends out a message looking for someone called unicorn sweater.  Adam asks about where he can find help and is given a location.

Frannie heads to the infirmary to check on Renee.  Frannie whispers in Renee's ear that she is sorry and will say a prayer for her. The phone rings and Wiley answers.  The man on the line asks where Liam is and then hangs up.

Adam plays the video for his contact and assures her that he is not contagious.  He is told to leave but Adam says that if he were contagious the girl would already be exposed.  Daisy demands that Adam prove that he is not contagious.

At Horatio Pharmaceuticals, Crane talks about extreme measures and that they are trying to find a cure with a government operative.

Wiley finds the location where the extraction point is and heads off to see if she can find Liam.

Daisy says that she doesn't do governments secrets anymore.  Adam asks for help saying that she can save  lives but Daisy is certain that Pretty Lake is not her problem. Adam brings up her hypocrisy by supporting things like PETA. Okay so he has a point about PETA. This is perhaps the most sense that Adam has made this season.

Mr Brooks, at the behest of Crane, heads out and finds the driver still handcuffed to the tree. The driver explains that he took the wrong guy and when he realised it, it was already to late. Crane calls it unfortunate and then pulls out his gun. And just like that, another black man is dead.

Daisy works on the lap top Adam brought. When he offers to help, she points out that its all above his skill and pay grade.  At Horatio, a breach is detected and they search and find a signal. Daisy gets in and Adam asks her to make a copy of all of the emails.  Reading it over, Daisy calls it scary stuff. Crane is informed about the hack and where the location is and so he sends Mr Brooks to check it out.

Adam finds an email from Minister B. Miller from the made up Department of Inland security. Why not make up government agencies when already nothing about this show makes any kind of sense. Adam starts a video conversation with her and says that he wants to speak to her in private, adding that she won't want to draw attention to herself right now.  Adam instructs her to an email he just sent regarding the government and her personal part in what happened at Pretty Lake. Adam demands that Miller tell the world what she has done and to save Pretty Lake. Miller says that she has ordered the extermination on everyone in Pretty Lake.  Adam counters by threatening to blow the whistle but Miller argues that she fears that less than having the disease spread. Miller believes the only saving grace is that the disease is contained. Adam asks about the clinical trials but Miller calls it a pipe dream and says that she has no choice before shutting down the connection.

Wiley drives out to Liam's pick up spot and finds his car.  Liam is still in the trunk screaming for help.  Wiley opens the trunk and Liam reveals that Adam did this to him and gets out.

Daisy and Adam discuss the conversation with Miller.  Daisy is quick to point out that if Miller doesn't care if she's exposed then he's lost his leverage.  Daisy adds that any news outlet would take days to vet a story like this and then it would be too late. Adam suggests that they should go to Horatio because they have as much to lose as anyone else.  Adam asks for Daisy's phone and then leaves.

A freezing Liam sits in Wiley's car.  Liam is convinced that Adam knew that once he left Pretty Lake they were all as good as dead because they would have lost their human shield. Wiley tells Liam that Renee survived. Liam realises that Adam has all the research and Adam has it all.  This means that if Horatio gets their hands on it, they will have everything they need to move forward.  Wiley realises that no one is coming to help them and that it was always the drug trials that mattered all along. Liam claims that he thought if he found concrete evidence they would eventually let the people of Pretty Lake go but it seems they'd already made up their minds to let Pretty Lake die.

The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode Twelve: Resistance

This is it folks, the penultimate episode of the season. The Last Ship has easily become one of my least favourite shows this summer.  At this point, I don't think they can salvage the hot mess it has become.

Kara and the crew are headed to Las Vegas as the regional leader tells the people how much better they are doing now that they are no longer living under Michener's old rules.  It seems that the crew is headed to San Diego to hopefully meet up with The Nathan James.  Unfortunately they only have one can of beans they and so plan to stop and stock up.  Oliver asks for the radio to be turned off and Kara wonders why the military is going along with what the regional leaders want. Oliver explains that they are doing it because they were trained to serve the people.

On board The Nathan James the crew is told to report to General Bradley and turn over Chandler. They quickly come to realise that the military as they knew it has been disbanded.  Sasha talks about how this whole thing has been a text book coup from things like ration cards, riots and forcing Michener to make unpopular decisions. They then present an alternative leadership to the leaders. They plan to grab Bradley and make Castillo show his face. Cue Meylan, who points out that they are invading a country with a single ship. Well, at least someone has a bit of reality but you know that's not going to stop him from playing along. Tom however is certain that nothing is impossible with will, courage and a good plan.  Oh the platitudes.

The regional leaders are fighting about control. Castillo thinks that his region should be in control due to his geography and the supplies he controls.  He then declares that he is putting boots on the ground and is not leaving. Roberta is not impressed and threatens to stop her oil shipments.  Allison has to be the grown up in the room and tells the leaders what they are going to do. Allison says that her job is to settle disputes, clearly she is acting like the POTUS.

The next step is to take out the Nathan James as it arrives.  Allison has arranged for Colonel Witt to take care of The Nathan James. Of course, Roberta takes the opportunity to take a piece off of Allison for underestimating Tom in the first place.  The weapon is armed and Allison announces that in hours The Nathan James will be in the bottom of the ocean.

Tex is driving and Kara wonders why there is no power.  They decide to stop at a small grocery market but are attacked in the parking lot.  The looters demand that Tex and crew hand over all the food they have.  Tex says that they stopped because they have no food. Bob, the owner of the market fires a blast into the air and Kara and Tex use the distraction to disarm and scare away the looters. Bob doesn't lower his shot gun and questions why Oliver looks familiar before inviting everyone inside.

Once inside, Bob says that new shipments of food stopped coming and then days later, soldiers arrived and took what little food he had.  The citizens of Las Vegas, left and followed the food. Those who are not peace keepers are working 16 hours per day to keep lights on and the water running and return are given one ration of food. Bob hasn't eaten in three days and cannot travel because of a bad leg and no car.  They offer to take Bob with them but he says that he's been there all his life and wants to die in his home.  Kathleen pulls out their last can and offers it to Bob. Oliver tells Bob that hope is coming and tells him to hang in there. Now Bob recognizes Oliver and the two men shake hands.

Winter Halo (Outcast #2) by Keri Arthur

Tiger is one of the few reviled Dechet, super soldiers created by humanity to fight the shifters - before the shifters dropped the bombs anyway – left in the world. She lives alone, literally with the ghosts of her fellows.

But missing children, children being experimented on by dark forces possibly from beyond the world destroying rifts, is something Tiger cannot ignore. Her gifts and training will be essential to Jonas and his allies if he wants to get these children back.

Of course, the ancestral hatred between their people is something else they’ll have to over come

I reviewed the first book in this series very favourably and a lot of the stuff that happened there remained awesome in this book as well. The world building – with the war between the shifters and humanity, the creation of the dechet, artificial fighting beings as weapons for humanity are all still there and excellent. The idea of vampires as a vicious, terrible threat constantly lurking outside the light is a wonderful change from a genre so replete with super sexy angsty vampires. On top of that we have the wonderful addition of the rifts and the new threats lurking against shifter, human and dechet alike.

This leads to the current wonderful conflict with Tiger, our protagonist, a dechet having to leave the comfort of her isolation in the last book to chase her demons and save some children. And we have the ghosts, which are also awesome.

These are all excellent things that were in the last book and they continue to be excellent in this book.

But they continue, they don’t really progress. We don’t really know more about the world than we already have. We know the big bad guys plan, kind, but I’m not sure of their motivations yet. Or at all. We get hints here and there – of the hybrid creatures from the rifts who have different motives (whatever they are). We have some hints of others joining in because of bitterness over the war… but barring as few immortal beings this war has been over for 100 years; I need some more development to see why so many people are

In this book we have a lot of things happening but it all feels a little… disjointed. Partly it’s because of the way the motivations are presented: everyone cares about the missing kids. And I get it, kids are missing and being tortured and experimented on this is terrible – but so is the actual plan to destroy the entire planet which seems to be way down everyone’s priority list. When what Tiger does actually derails or damages other plans – like her infiltration of the big bad company it’s all about the kids, occasionally thwarting other plans in the process, but only as a tangent. It feels odd that we have this major apocalyptic thing that everyone’s kind of brushing over for the very noble cause if these kids.

The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode Eleven: Legacy

Roberta is keeping busy having her goons give Tex a beating because he stole sensitive information from her.  Tex however simply calls her, "crazy as hell."  Roberta demands to know where his men went with her, "shit".  Once again, Tex is unresponsive so Roberta reveals that she went by his place to see what information she could get out of his daughter Kathleen, only to find that Tex still has an answering machine and it has a message from Kara, saying that she is on her way. Roberta is all smug as she plays the tape and Tex responds by charging her and grabbing at her necklace. Roberta's goons step in and pull Tex away and lock him in his cell.  Tex however is laughing because now of course he has the tools to escape.

It's Michener flashback time.  The president is in his private residence having a drink when he is approached by secret service agents. One man takes the drink out of Michener's hand and then Michener is attacked from behind and murdered.

Oliver walks into his office to find a power hungry Allison waiting for him.  Allison it seems is not impressed that Oliver chose to wear the brown suit rather than the grey one. Oliver however sees his suit choice as his last bit of power. Allison wants to talk about his speech and Oliver expresses concern that it effectively kills America. Allison believes that the virus killed America and that their actions are saving what's left.  Allison promises that if Oliver complies there will be a place for him in the new world and again tells him to wear the grey suit.

Takehaya and the crew make plans to engage with  Peng in Tokyo Japan.  Peng it seems is headed to the Japanese national archives and Takehaya is certain that Peng wants to erase Japanese culture.

Jacob and Kara's car is stalled on the side of the road when they hear the news announcing Oliver's impending speech.  Kara is certain that this means that Jacob must go on the air because someone must counter Oliver setting up the stage for the regional leaders. Jacob however isn't so certain and accuses Price of playing him because he was tearing down Michener while they were plotting Michener's murder.  Kara manages to get the car started and so they get back on the road.

The Strain, Season 3, Episode 3: First Born

Last episode we saw Ephraim deciding to screw everything in the name of his son. So time to catch up with said son who is breathing much better now with vampire goo in him. We get an unnecessary flashback to his birth and him being born with a caul, which Kelly thinks means they’re totally super connected. There are many superstitions about babes born with the caul – but I don’t think “vampire mother connection is one”. She also wants him to be totally team Master which is a hard sell.

Ephraim is finally deciding that maybe selling out the whole world for his son may be a bad idea, but he can’t develop that (and it’s a bit late anyway) because Quinlan steps in with his own much more fascinating back story

He was born after his pregnant mother was infected by the Master, way back in days of yore (we know this because Ephraim asks personal questions about vampire reproduction). In 58AD he was being dragged around in a cage by humans displaying him (who apparently knew about vampires and even respected them and didn’t recognise Quinlan as one. Ok I want to know way more about vampire society way back then). He is found and rescued by Ancharia, a hunter, who quickly nurtures his humanity and forms a really good maternal bond with him, while they run as far as they can from the Master

Quinlan is known as the Invictus, the one prophesised to kill the Master

The Master seems to know this as well because he hunts them down – he does try to recruit Quinlan, first by appealing to him, then when he sees Quinlan is too human he seals him in a cave with Ancharia, relying on hunger to make him eat her. Which he does – but only when she asks him to, professing her love for him as a son

This doesn’t make him very enamoured of the Master. Nor does it making him less human. But he’s not ready to bring down the Master so he runs instead to come back in the future (about 1,000 years in the future).

Exodus (Imp #8) by Debra Dunbar

The elves are once again up to no good.  Now that they've managed to secure the blessings of Angels who simply want to be rid of the work of improving humans and hunker down in Aaru.  The elves plan to leave Hel behind and become the new rulers of earth.  Sam knows that she has to put a stop to this but what can one Angel of Chaos do?  Sam turns to her angelic boyfriend only to find that things in Aaru have gotten so out of control that he doesn't really have the time to help.  With a baby dragon living in her backyard and Wyatt refusing to house her newly acquired guests things are about to get complicated for our favourite imp once more.

I am going to say upfront that I unabashedly love this series.  I read it in one day and simply could not put it down.  I kept saying just one more chapter, then one more page, then one more paragraph until I found myself at the end.  Exodus is filled with action and laugh out loud moments.  With lines like, "Nobody destroys a tray of bacon and gets mercy, Nobody." It's impossible to read and not giggle. For the record I tend to agree with Sam on her assessment of the importance of bacon.

Sam has grown so much as a character since we first met her in A Demon Bound. Yes, she's still scrappy, with a good head on her shoulders and loves a good fight but she also has grown to care for the people who have become members of her household. Sure, for the large part these beings have been fostered on her throughout the series and they started out as an imposition but now she's not willing to risk their safety.  Even the lowly demons in her household have come to mean something to her.  At times I do miss some of the antics that she got up to but this new mature Sam is still full of great one liners which tend to fill some of the void.  I even like the way that she considers how her relationship with Wyatt has evolved.  When Wyatt refuses to help her house the elves, she doesn't push him and instead considers the fact that though they are no longer lovers, she wants to retain their friendship. Yes, our favourite little demon is all grown up.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see a lot of Sam and Gregory having intimate moments in this novel. I miss the way he used to call her cockroach.  There always seems to be so much going on this series that these two never get any downtime.  I will however say that I'm annoyed that Gregory seems to have no problem simply dropping things in Sam's lap without consideration of how he is changing her life and thus making it more difficult. For an angel, he's not a very considerate lover at all.  This is why I love when Gregory inadvertently promises a farmer to put in a word with the good man upstairs, that Sam doesn't let him foist that responsibility upon her. Other than drinking coffee and caring for Sam, Gregory hasn't really evolved much and I think it's time he begin to change as well.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season Two, Episode Eleven: Pablo and Jessica

The first question this episode seeks to answer is exactly how Strand and Madison escaped after being stupid enough to make enough noise to attract walkers.  Victor screams for them to head to the lobby and Madison ducks down into what looks like a kitchen when she hears Alicia scream. Hands reach for Madison and she's trapped, so she grabs a bottle, takes out the walker and slathers herself in its blood. Madison then coats Victor and he's clearly not impressed. Together they make their way outside to discover the car is gone. Victor is certain that this means that Ofelia and Alicia left them behind because the dead don't drive; however, Madison is not convinced.

They head over to the next building which is empty.  Victor forces Madison to drink some water and once again the debate begins about what happened to the girls. They stop to catch their breathe in a stairwell and Madison defends her position by saying that it wouldn't be like Alicia to leave.  Victor however argues back Alicia would if it meant surviving because she's independent and self reliant. Madison admits that she made Alicia that way. This is when they hear a knocking sound and shouting. As they get closer, Madison recognizes Alicia's voice. The mother and daughter reunite and Strand, who always has his eye on the ball, demands to know who the hell Elena and Hector are.

So, Nick is walking around his community and he sees the little girl who lost her father crying. An old woman approaches the child and comforts her. Nick heads into the hospital where he finds Alejandro. It seems that Nick feels remorse for putting the community in danger and has come up with a way to make up for what he did.  Nick, thinking like the junkie that he is, wants to cut the oxy with the powdered milk so that they will be able to stretch the oxy that they trade for food and water.  Nick argues that the junkies won't know the difference and will be happy because they will get high faster.

So it's time for the Jessie Pinkman/Walter White moment and the two work together to make the new pills.  Alejandro is impressed with Nick and Nick asserts that this will give the colony some hope. Nick turns the conversation to Alejandro surviving a walker bite. Alejandro asserts that Nick doesn't believe his story (yeah well he's a junkie not an idiot.) Alejandro suggests that Nick is having trouble because acceptance requires a leap of faith and that is something Nick would have trouble with.

Madison decides that they need to make a partnership with the other residents of the hotel. It's really smart actually.  Madison tells Ilene and Oscar that they need each other and when they balk, she reminds them that they haven't left the hotel. Madison thinks they should clear out the dead and then use the land for crops.  Interestingly, Strand is pretty silent during this and allows Madison to lead. It makes me wonder if Fear the Walking Dead is going to actually allow a competent woman to lead a group for a change?  Is that being too hopeful? Unsurprisingly, both Oscar and Ilene want Elena to leave but Madison argues that Elena did what she had to do. You know damn well that if Elena had done that Alicia and Nick, Madison wouldn't be so quick to be understanding and forgiving. Finally, Madison points out that others will come to the hotel and they might not be as peaceful as they are.

Victor and Madison head into the hallway for a tête-à-tête.  Strand is convinced that Ilene will not live peacefully because she is being driven by grief.  I think that Strand has read this situation correctly. Madison however is worried about losing their new home.  Strand makes it clear that he doesn't see the hotel as his home and that he lost his home when he was forced to shoot and bury Thomas.  I really like that they brought up the fact that Strand is still mourning the loss of the man he loved, even if I haven't forgiven them for killing off Thomas in the first place.  Strand does however agree to help Madison clear out the hotel.

Fear The Walking Dead, Season Two, Episode Ten: Do Not Disturb

Last week in the ballroom where Madison and Strand were stupidly making far too much noise, we saw what appeared to be the remains of a wedding.  This week, Fear the Walking Dead decided to give us the backstory of the wedding. Elena watches as the wedding festivities are underway.  The bride and groom prepare for their first dance while in the corner, the father and mother of the bride argue about leaving the wedding early.  The father leaves to be with his daughter and the mother decides to discuss the illness which is spreading like wildfire with Elena. Elena however is unconcerned, confidant that the hotel is well secured.  Elena's confidence is not enough to calm the mother of the bride who is concerned that the U.S. is closing its border.

On the dance floor the father of the bride collapses.  People familiar with this universe know exactly what is going to happen. Predictably, as the daughter bends over her father's corpse, he turns and makes a snack of her face.  The room turns into pandemonium and Elena responds by locking everyone in the ballroom. So yeah, I guess that means that the hotel remains secure.

In present day Fear the Walking Dead turns to the Travis and Chris road trip. Travis is struggling to walk but he keeps moving ahead. Things still aren't great between father and son but who can blame Travis given that Chris has gone full on creeper.  They come across a car and a taco place across the street. Travis starts to hotwire the car, attempting to teach Chris how but Chris is more interested in checking out the taco place for supplies.  Chris has to cajole his father and promises to return if he gets into any trouble. Chris heads into the restaurant and sees some water and canned goods but he hears noise coming from the back.  Chris starts loading up his bag and a guy comes out from the back and he is attacked by a walker.  Chris takes out the walker thus saving the guy but then he hustles back to his father and the car. Chris doesn't waste anytime in encouraging his father to take off, fully aware that he stole from whoever was in the back of the taco place.

Father and son are on the road and Travis's foot isn't getting any better and that is what finally induces him to let Chris drive. In a moment of normalcy, Chris fiddles with the radio but of course picks up nothing. They talk about the future and while Travis retains hope that someday they will be able to return home, for now the plan is to find somewhere secure to hold up. Travis gives Chris driving instructions and for a moment it's as though the apocalypse hasn't happened.

The car runs out of gas and so Chris and Travis decide to make camp for the night. Chris suggests that they make their way to the border so that they can have access to water but Travis is quick to nix this plan believing that water will draw in people. They don't get to enjoy their campfire for long because the guys Chris stole the food from show up. Chris fesses up as to what he did and hands his father a crowbar but Travis refuses it. Travis and Chris hide briefly but it's not long before Travis announces their position.  Yeah, Chris may not be right but Travis is still far too trusting. At any rate, introductions are made and after a lot of mistrustful looks, they all agree to camp together for the night.

Back at the hotel, things aren't looking for Alicia.  Alicia heads into the hallway and quickly finds herself surrounded by walkers. With no few choices left, Alicia forces the elevator door open only to find that the elevator is a few feet down.  With time running out, Alicia leaps into the shaft and grabs a hold of the chords.  It's a great move. Hand over fist, Alicia pulls herself up only to see  flashlight above her. Yes, Elena has managed to survive.  Elena helps Alicia out of the shaft and then puts an axe to her throat demanding to know where some mysterious he is.