a sub-shame blog

WHAT!! this show is seriously wild from start to finish. like half the time it feels like these people aren’t even on the SAME SHOW i swear to god. nothing connects! nothing makes sense!! NOTHING MATTERS. 

The episode was so rushed you never feel anything! The emotional beats were like .00001 seconds! I can’t believe it!!! I read that this was supposed to be 22 eps and it got crammed into 13 but then it’s like... cut. some. plot. They could easily have cut some of the project shepherd stuff until s2? The why bother w the Maria red herring it was like 7 minutes long lmao. This show has done the women SO DIRTY — like isobel’s relationship w Noah has barely been developed but max and Michael rehash the last ten episodes of hints dropped like anvils in a sad bunker? Cool. Jenna explains to Liz something the audience has been told THREE TIMES AT LEAST!!

My favorite part of the episode is that Noah makes a fancy bomb to subdue Michael but just hits max over the head with a bottle. I feel like that tells you everything you need to know about them.

I LOVE that max is an absolute moron with lots of feelings who has NO IDEA how to deal with Michael or what’s happened to him. I didn’t really know how to take Max’s speech about feeling the beatings... does he feel them literally bc of a psychic connection or was it just like “you’re my bro” it wasn’t super clear. I find michael’s line about believing “humanity is good” interesting. Like... woof it shows how deeply he was impacted by that moment but also that like a light went out inside of him that night and that, despite everything else that happened that night, it seems to be the single biggest driver to him wanting to check out of hotel earth (as an Alex stan I am thinking of the guilt Alex probably carried/carries about that and also about how as much as Alex can’t commit to Michael, michael hasn’t ever really committed to Alex since that day bc to commit would be to stay on earth: they both have one foot out the door always). But also... humanity isn’t good!!! Some people are good, some are bad, most are somewhere in between — probably just like the aliens. Michael is such a darling optimist to try to believe humanity is good. I also find it interesting how often Michael resorts to physical violence with max — its a character trait that I loathe but it’s interesting. Michael isn’t really a violent guy but around max he lets his anger fly — I suppose because he feels a sense of safety and security around max he doesn’t get anywhere else?

Also has anyone talked about Max’s consistent disregard for the law and how it’s often played as a strength/virtue or glossed over? Like... given the gross abuses by law enforcement in this country I am uncool with how he behaves. I know this is a dumb complaint because it’s the CW but I’m yikes @ max lying(ish) to Wyatt to extract info even if he’s a racist murderous piece of shit! I just am not a fan of the ends justify the means when it comes to law enforcement.

also i feel REALLY BAD FOR ISOBEL. i think the writers (and carina) have done a shit job of developing her character, which means the reveal packs way less of a punch than it could have (also how they literally fridged her in a giant egg just to further max’s sadness development. infuriating). but so far it sounds like: on top of having her body possessed and being lied to for ten years by her own brothers, she’s been married to someone who deliberately targeted and likely gaslit her for years. like she must be running her whole life through her mind right now, trying to figure out what was real and what wasn’t and how much she can really trust her own experiences and thoughts. 

if when isobel was blacked out in 105, she was being controlled by noah, then what was she doing? i also wonder if noah was TRYING to trigger an episode in isobel when he threw her out (also can noah like exist in his own body and simultaneously control someone else?) -- but because her feelings for him don’t run as deep as they do for max and michael (which is its own mess), it backfired. or maybe he was trying to just manipulate her further? i guess his reason for punching the mirror and trying to implicate max has something to do with control: isobel is his to control as long has he’s above suspicion and having her withhold information from him was infuriating and messing with his plans (whatever those are). also being violated in mind and in body by someone who is manipulating you who purports to love you ... idk!!!!! there are def some rapey allegory things happening!! IDK!!!! i feel like there’s A LOT to unpack here in terms of trauma and i do not even know where to start!!!!! how can she ever trust anyone ever again after everything. 

ALSO i think it’s interesting that even though max is the hero that he simply currently has way less Therapy Shit to work through than Isobel and Michael. i don’t really know where i’m going with this, but Isobel and Michael have some Serious Abuse Issues they need to deal with and idk if max’s story is about helping them or what? i feel like often the hero is the one who is the most Fucked Up and I think Max’s biggest issues are his anger, his shitty coping mechanisms, and his selfishness. 

also, i loved the scenes but lmao like building a space ship console is one fraction of michael’s logistical problems. is he gonna attach it to his chevy, pick a direction and hope he gets past pluto in the next decade? is he gonna fly at LIGHT SPEED? is he gonna... build a wormhole (he’s definitely gonna build a wormhole lol).he doesn’t even know the general direction of his home planet, much less if it even still exists. i know they’ve talked before about their family dying on that ship, but they have no reason to think they were on some ill-fated intergalactic family roadtrip to shores of arcturus or whatever. it’s just as likely they were fleeing something and there’s no home to go back to. anyway it’s very sweet and very sad that michael holds onto that project as his security blanket because to think that his only home is on earth is too painful and hopeless for him. 

also like alex flipped that michael was planning to leave the planet and was planning to drink away his sorrows but was still hopeful enough that maria picked up on it? what a love stricken idiot. 

and i’m sad for maria. also i’m sad for alex. and i’m sad for michael. they are all so alone right now!! michael’s little bummed out face when maria to him he had to leave (also lmao at everyone throwing alex in michael’s face when he would like to JUST FORGET, PLEASE). i feel like they’re all trying their best and i’m bummed that this has created a fracture in alex and maria’s relationship. it seems like mimi served as a surrogate mom/safe space for both liz and alex and idk i hope they can move past it for real (no one is buying alex’s tight little okay lmao). i liked that alex like came to find liz to yell at her for being a bad friend and then he was at the bar asking about maria’s mom last episode. i want this human friendship to thrive and i feel like ummm we both have Feelings for an unwashed alien is not gonna help. 

i was honestly a little unsure how to read the alex/maria scene. it didn’t seem like he was planning to confront her but once maria brought it up his defenses immediately went up and he lashed out? like he definitely could have... chosen different words lmao (”you already knew that didn’t you!!” like damn dude) even though he immediately acknowledges she couldn’t have known (i really wanted him to make a joke like “how could you have? it’s not like you’re psychi--oh wait” but whatever this show isn’t as funny as i am). idk and it’s like -- i guess the audience assumes that maria knows alex well and isn’t bothered by his lashing out, but you kind of have to make that leap?

we didn’t get much new plot this week, which was annoying. what’s up with the plotting on this show? very excited to see alex and magoo (i love him) to like hardy boys out to some old prison or whatever. LOVE A GOOD HAUNTED OLD PRISON. 

EDITED TO ADD: the way Alex chokes up when he says “I can’t go in blind” to Kyle is... everything to me. I LOVE HIM!

Also everyone is so stoked about that final Alex/Michael interaction but it sounds to me like Michael knows the jig is up and he’s asking is Alex more interested in WHO he is versus WHAT he is (& Alex is like BOTH U DUMBASS I AM LITERALLY CRYING RN BC I LOVE YOU SO MUCH).