Stuff and Nonsense

Aka: Children Will Listen

Everyone makes mistakes, but they’re learning.  Charlotte’s parents were killed by Wells’ father.  She relives their deaths every night in her dreams. When she looks at Wells she sees her parents’ killer.  It’s not fair, but that’s how it is.  

Bellamy gives Charlotte a knife to protect herself.  To make her feel more powerful, and in control.  She’s young.  What, twelve maybe?  At most?  The only thing she’s ever known is powerlessness.  She couldn’t save her parents.  She can’t stop the nightmares.  There are no demons to slay because the man who killed her parents is on a spaceship orbiting earth, and nothing she does can bring him closer to her, or her closer to him, or bring her parents back.

Bellamy sent Charlotte away so she wouldn’t have to see him kill Atom.  He did his best, but Charlotte saw anyway, and learned from Clarke how to kill quickly, and nearly silently.

So when Ballamy’s advice gets twisted in Charlotte’s nightmare-riddled mind, it’s not his fault.  And it’s not Clarke’s fault that Charlotte turned around and used what she learned from Clarke to kill the best friend Clarke has ever had in her life.

Clarke meant well when she confronted Murphy, but while her idealism and passion for justice are often valuable, this particular situation called for Bellamy’s pragmatic realization that people are stupid and groups of people are more so.  Clarke just wanted justice, but what she got was a lynch-mob.  

Charlotte may be traumatized, desperate, and killer, but she’s also a child and also, apparently, not so damaged that she’s gone crazy (which I was worried about).  She was desperate enough to kill to try to make the pain go away, but enough of a fundamentally decent human being that she couldn’t let someone else die for what she had done.  And just too much of a child to be able to see that there might be other options.  She was just too young, too immature.  Nuance comes with maturity, and she’d never had a chance to get much past pure black and white.  Kill the person who reminds you of your parents’ killer and maybe the nightmares will stop.  It’s not fair to let someone else die for what I did. I killed someone and that was wrong, now other people might die, the only thing left to do is sacrifice myself because I still have no power and everything I touch dies.  

Charlotte, sweetheart, that’s not the only way.

Clarke could have let Charlotte take her hand.  Had she not jerked away and yelled at a frightened, confused, guilt-ridden, (murderous) child, perhaps Charlotte would have settled on a middle ground between “don’t let them hurt me” and “just let them kill me” instead of following the pendulum out to its widest self-destructive arc.  It was a mistake to pull away, but Clarke was also right that you can’t just kill someone to make yourself feel better.  That was true, but Clarke didn’t specify that “someone” includes yourself too. And it may have been a mistake to pull away, but Clarke was already maxed out on kindness and understanding just in risking her life to help the girl who murdered her best friend escape a lynch-mob. She’ll probably regret pulling away for the rest of her life, but offering comfort to her friend’s killer was, in that moment an (understandable) bridge too far.

Clarke and Bellamy decide not to kill Murphy, who would willingly have murdered a child, not for what she did to Wells, but for what almost happened to him.  The society Clarke and Bellamy are building needs rules, and that’s good.  They can’t have a rule by mob, and that’s good too.  Right now, the rule is: No Killing. But they’re still learning the ropes and it’s going to be a lot of trial and error.

Banishing Murphy may still turn out to be a mistake.  Clarke and Bellamy and Finn left him with a weapon and grudge.  His blood isn’t on their hands, but the consequences of Murphy’s actions will be on all of them.

The one silver lining here is that Bellamy seems to have gotten his whole obnoxious flirtation with pseudo-anarchy thing out of his system (for now). He recognizes Clarke’s value, and she recognizes his. They started as antagonists, and then reluctant allies, and they’re still reluctant, but it looks like they’re going to at least take a stab at co-ruling their little band.  And they’ll be much stronger together than apart.

I’m pretty sure from what I’ve seen of other people’s commentary that I’m going to fall in love with Bellamy at some point, but right just now…seriously, what gives with cutting off all the bracelets?  Like, c’mon Bellamy, I get that you’re a fugitive and likely to be on the top of the Ark’s hit list, HOWEVER….I dunno if you took a look around since you landed, but Earth is a big place.  If the rest of the Ark population makes it down, they will have their hands full rebuilding the human race and rebuilding civilization from the ground up.  If you run, they’re not gonna look too hard for you.  Just, you know, convince a few people to come with you and you’ll be fiiiiiine.

UGH and come on, guys, I know you’re just teenagers and you’re kinda rash and thoughtless and inexperienced and have never been outside of an enclosed space before but ugggggh whyyyy would you wander off? You know you’re in a potentially dangerous place and unless the group turns into a mob and turns on you you’re safer with other people.  

I like Atom, who has fallen for Octavia’s reckless, wild-child charms.  The only people I actively dislike so far are runner-up chancellor, Kane, and 2ic dude, Murphy.  Murphy’s a bully and a coward, and he likes to hurt things. So, you know. Screw him.

I <3 Monty a looooot.  I love Octavia siding with Clarke over Jasper’s life.  Octavia is Bellamy’s first and highest priority, but Octavia has never had anyone to take care of, and Jasper was a traveling companion and friend.  It’s great to see her blossoming, and starting to step up and take responsibility for things.  She hasn’t had the opportunity, and the people in her life so far have been divided exclusively into those willing to do anything to protect her, and those out to get her. I love that, given the opportunity to be the protector, Octavia takes it.

Also: Finn: Relax! Clarke: I don’t even know how to do that.

Claarrrrke, baby, I know you don’t and I <3 youuuuu.

Annnd there are apparently still nuclear storms.  Or something. Acid storms?  Fun.

Also, also, so, clever children, finding shelter, but again with the stupid, reckless, teenagers.  They just drank like half a bottle of whiskey, with, going by the ONE ANIMAL they’ve killed and shared among the other 98 people, not much food and probably not much water in their systems plus a lot of exertion.  Realistically, they should be out. Given the scarce resources, there’s probably not much alcohol on the Ark, and as minors they probably didn’t get much of it if there was.  So they should definitely all be passed out drunk, which, even apart from the inevitable wicked-bad hangovers and dehydration, is not a great survival strategy. 

I mean, it makes sense, because, again: teenagers.  But still.

I love that Bellamy doesn’t just care for his sister; he’s got a major soft spot for anything weak and helpless.  He takes Charlotte under his wing, he does his best to protect her and teach her to protect herself.  He might have been able to work up the nerve to kill Atom, when Atom was so badly hurt, but it’s ultimately Clarke saw that it was a lost cause right away and ended it as mercifully as she knew how to do.

…Abby wouldn’t betray her husband, would she?  Surely not. Unless...if she genuinely thought he wouldn’t actually be floated, or if she thought it would cause a riot and betrayal was the lesser of two evils....

Ohhhhh, Wells. You best of loyal friends for keeping that secret. 

And: Oh, no. I knew Charlotte was going to be trouble.  Too young, too damaged.

1.2 – Earth Skills

I gotta say – these kids are awfully active after a terrifying landing and at least 24 hours now without any food but what some of them have (maybe) been able to scrounge in a (possibly still radioactive) forest. I get that adrenalin and being excited about new things is a Thing, but...you get hungry, and you get thirsty, and if you’re smart you get scared real quick if you are both hungry and thirsty and have no immediate access to food or water. (Also, it makes zero sense that out of 98 survivors, nearly everyone wanted to stay and wait for five people to just bring back food.  Like, seriously?  Do you not understand that this will take time, is a long and uncertain journey, and that you will be hungry in the meantime?  And that the hungrier you get the weaker you get?  Ugh, teenage idiots.)

  I appreciate that Clarke has a fairly keen grasp of politics.  I appreciate that Bellamy kinda likes chaos, really likes power, and has a whole series of double standards that doesn’t care if people fight each other to the death generally but cares intensely that his sister not get hurt. “No rules, we do whatever the hell we want” vanishes pretty quick when it comes to her.

  Oh my god Octavia literally chases a glowing butterfly out of camp and gets into trouble. (Well, okay, not trouble, I thought there was going to be Trouble, but going off alone was still dumb.)  I am laughing forever, she’s such an impetuous child.  Which, she’s entitled, she spent sixteen years living in hiding, she gets to be stir-crazy, it’s just rebellious and damaged…not a great survival trait.   THOSE BUTTERFLIES COULD HAVE BEEN CARNIVOROUS YOU DON’T KNOW.  And don’t touch it just because it’s pretty!

  Oh, and I love Raven though.  Immediately.

  I love Abby for her competence and resolve and bravery, and I love Abby-and-Callie because they’re such fantastically close friends (and also I think they should get together because Abby’s husband is dead and Callie’s is a jerk, and they’d be sooooo cuuuuuute). 

  But I love Raven for her intelligence, and her tempered risk-taking.  She’s bold, but she’s not stupid.  She takes risks, but not dumb ones.  She knows her limits and she’s willing to push them, but any risk she takes is a calculated one.  When she calculates that she thinks she can pull off fixing the shuttle though, she jumps right into “and I’m going down to earth too.”

"So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders." —Exodus 12:34

You’ll need to travel light. Take what you can carry: a book, a poem, a battered tin cup, your child strapped to your chest, clutching your necklace in one hot possessive fist.

So the dough isn’t ready. So your heart isn't ready. You haven’t said goodbye to the places where you hid as a child, to the friends who aren’t interested in the journey, to the graves you’ve tended.

But if you wait until you feel fully ready you may never take the leap at all and Infinity is calling you forth out of this birth canal and into the future’s wide expanse.

Learn to improvise flat cakes without yeast. Learn to read new alphabets. Wear God like a cloak and stride forth with confidence. You won’t know where you’re going

but you have the words of our sages, the songs of our mothers, the inspiration wrapped in your kneading bowl. Trust that what you carry will sustain you and take the first step out the door.

- Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

AKA: The MOMENT OF TRUTH episode

Nate: Let’s go steal the Department of Defense. Parker: Isn’t that treason? Nate: …We’ll give it back.

This show does pretty well with women.  Moreau and the throwback to the Old Boys Club is especially jarring because of it.  Meeting Moreau in the pool room, where all the men (fully clothed and armed) are on guard, and where all the bikini-clad women scatter like a startled flock of tropical birds when the first gun cocks….This is Eliot, Hardison, and Moreau’s men’s show.  

Okay, so Hardison is justifiably pissed that Eliot was a) keeping things from them and b) seemed to be risking Hardison’s life by not diving in after him.

HOWEVER.  I firmly believe that 1) practically speaking, if Eliot had dived in to rescue Hardison, Moreau’s goons would have shot them both and 2) even if they didn’t shoot, it would have blown their cover and 3) if it had come down to it, Eliot would have tried to rescue Hardison anyway.  

Eliot: You think you know what I’ve done?  The worst thing I’ve ever done, in my entire life, I did for Damian Moreau. I’ll never be clean of that. Parker: What did you do? Eliot: Don’t ask me that, Parker.  Because if you ask me, I’m going to tell you.  So please. Don’t ask me.

And Parker just sort of nods, because she understands that this might be a point of no return, so she’s just…not going to ask. 

This was the shit-just-got-real moment for me.  Most of this series is pretty lighthearted.  You know everyone is broken, damaged goods, but it’s mostly played for laughs with a few moments of seriousness. But this...whatever Eliot did it wasn’t a personal tragedy that he experienced and emerged from scarred (like Nate) it was something he made a choice to do, and whatever it was was bad enough Eliot doesn’t think he can ever recover from it or make it right. He’s done something unforgivable and hasn’t forgiven himself. 

Anyway.

Holy shit so the final fight scene was epic and fanservicey and epically fanservicey and I don’t even care.

Oh oh oh and then, when Parker and Hardison overload the bomb and hop off the train to their waiting getaway car (driven by Sophie)…

Parker: You know what I’m in the mood for? Hardison: What? Parker: Pretzels. Me: FJDKSL:FJDSKLFJSDF

Cue flailing and high-pitched bat-sounds.

In which, among other things, Parker wants a white Christmas, but the weather is not cooperating.

Parker:  I want flurries.  Make it happen. Hardison: Dammit, Parker, I’m a hacker, not a miracle worker!

Hardison is broken up about losing Lucille Two.  What I love even more than Hardison being heartbroken about losing his van though, is Eliot using “You killed my friend’s van” as a driving motivation for taking hacker-villain Chaos down.

Awww, Eliot.  You spend all your time bickering with and mocking Hardison, but nobody kills Hardison’s van (or makes Parker cry) and gets away with it. (Protective!Eliot is my faaavorite)

Chaos: You have to admit, it was a good plan. Hardison: Yeah, but there’s one thing you didn’t count on. Chaos: Oh no- Hardison: You forgot – Chaos: DON’T YOU SAY IT Hardison: about the True Meaning of Christmas. Chaos: Ohhh, that barely applies here!

So when Hardison and Eliot are pretending to be cops, Hardison caves in to a request to transport a prisoner back to the precinct,  Eliot bitches about detours and Hardison is all, “We’re the police, man, we have to!”

In the midst of bickering in front of the witness/prisoner they hear a code come over the radio for an incident involving a weapon and Eliot does an instant 180.

Eliot:  That’s right up here.  We’re taking it. Hardison: What?  No we ain’t! Eliot: Someone’s got a weapon!  There could be kids in that house!  We’re taking it!  

(Eliot’s overriding concern for the safety of children continues to be amazing.)

In other episode highlights, Parker leaves their captured, wanted fugitive duct-taped and gift-wrapped in the trunk of the FBI agent she thinks is kinda sweet. 

Seriously, she’s like a cat.  “Look!  Look what I brought you!  It’s a tied up criminal!  Do you like it?  Huh? Huh? Pretty neat, right?”

I continue to love Eliot’s weakness for waifs and strays.  He’s so good with kids, I love it.  

I love how “going straight” has affected all of them, and makes them (occasionally) think about the collateral damage they may or may not have left in their wake.  I love Sophie losing her cool over a little girl bullied and threatened into carrying stolen artifacts and landing in detention while the smuggler goes free and calls it “an acceptable loss”.  

And I love Nate not being the only one emotionally compromised for once, and giving his team what they need to feel better (and get the job done).

A good 50% of Eliot and Hardison’s interactions end with Eliot threatening Hardison with physical injury.  The other 50% end in Eliot storming off in a huff.  

Best Storming Off Line so far: “Damnit, Hardison!  I’m going out for Baba Ghanoush!”

(Elioooottttt, you and your adorably not-tough-guy thing for fooood.)

…oh my god, is Sophie using her actual identity to run a con? Fdjkafljdsakfljdsal;fjdskl;