(no subject)

[seriousfic]

This was a pretty shockingly uneven show. The A-plot of robbers breaking into the Connors' house was fluffy filler (I've no doubt by season's end, people will be looking back at this episode and naming any number of plots that they would've rather spent more time with), the B-plot of Ellison being accused of murder was silly, and the C-plot of Cromartie searching for the Connors was hokey. But the pay-offs were good. It's like they knew where they wanted to go, but had a hard time getting there.

For instance, Cromartie spends much of the episode tracking the Connors with the help of a kooky guest star from a prior episode. She's a drug-taking runaway, he's a killer robot from the future. Together, they hunt down Summer Glau! But really, should Terminators be played for laughs like that? Complete with him juuuust missing John Connor because his ka-razy partner knocked over a supermarket display and then shoving her out of his car unharmed? And then that subplot turns out to have nothing to do with anything, because he just tracks the Connors by their credit card?

And Cameron gets a highly literal shoot the dog moment late in the proceedings when she kills the affiable loser thieves. Then Jess kills the affiable loser fence (for dropping her name casually. Disproportionate response much?). I don't like the show going quite that dark, or the casual reference to a schism within the Terminators (Skynet doesn't believe what Cromarie does? STFU BEFORE YOU START WRITING CYLON GOD FANFIC!). I didn't like that on Battlestar Galactica, I don't want it here. I don't care about internal robot politics. I don't care if Robot Obama wants to switch everyone to Linux but Robot McCain says Robama is only a prototype, then Robama says CyCain is obsolete... don't care.

I mean, something is seriously wrong when the John subplot is the most involving and watchable part of the program. Sarah letting the kid go and him leading Cromartie to them seems like a weak callback to John turning off the bug in the therapist's office, Cameron shooting three people in cold blood seems like the kind of thing that would get her a one-way trip to the scrap yard in a better episode, Jess's casual sociopathy makes her hard to like... do better next time, Terminator writers. Let's never fight again, please?



First, to get out of the way... Gretchen, FAIL; Brad, awww (and how much do I love his squee over getting to set things on fire for great justice? A LOT); T-Bag, finally using your god-like powers of bullshit for good; Michael, will this disease plot end when you have to find a way to break into your own immune system and deliver an antibody?

Now that that's done...

I'm... kinda in awe of the Mahone subplot. THAT'S entertainment. After nine episodes of hating Wyatt with the intensity of a thousand suns (and GROWING each episode), he finally gets his hands on him and... the show delivers. No speech about how revenge doesn't solve anything, no last-minute reversal. Just pure viewing bliss.

First, Wyatt resists being tortured by Linc, because Linc is generally useless. And clearly, the only reason Mahone doesn't get the job is because HE WOULD RIP WYATT APART WITH HIS BARE HANDS. Hell, just being in the same room might kill Wyatt with the sheer force of Mahone's hate.

So Wyatt tries to sweet-talk Dr. Sara. Who isn't having any of it because A. she's not an idiot, and B. "DUDE! YOU HAVE SEX WITH KILL CHILDREN!"

And after a far too flashbacked bit of Self getting what he needs from Wyatt (not like that, slashers), Mahone finally gets his hands on Wyatt.

And suddenly all the other subplots become THAT MUCH BETTER when you realize that Wyatt is getting the shit tortured out of him off-screen. Really, try pausing the episode there and watching the fourth Indiana Jones movie. It's suddenly great!

Mahone MacGuyvers a contraption from the available equipment, first to cause Wyatt indescribable agony, then to KEEP him in indescribable agony when he would normally pass out. And it's all not so Wyatt could deliver a "HELL'S COMING WITH [MAHONE]" message to the Company, but so that he could apologize to the mother of the kid he killed (well, they do say communication is vital to a healthy marriage). In fact, all that torture was SPECIFICALLY to break him for those three little words. BAD. ASS.

Then Mahone takes Wyatt outside with a concrete block tied to him. Wyatt gets a whole two sentences into his "we're not so different, you and I" spiel before Mahone gets fed up and just shoved him into the water to DROWN TO DEATH.

Not a whit of Karmic Death and all the more awesome for it. (Unless you count it as being karmic that if you kill someone's son, he will find you and do bad things with your sense of pain.)

Seriously, can we get William Fichtner his own series of spy movies? Go to exotic locations, kill bad men, have sex with beautiful women, that sort of thing? Better that than another Bourne movie. Or can he team-up with James Bond? Or play Deathstroke in a Teen Titans movie? That would even be enough to redeem the character from his extreme Draco In Leatherness (Dear Deathstroke fandom... DUDE! HE HAS SEX WITH CHILDREN!).