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beccatoriaSO. Four word review: meh, needed more Olivia.
This is super short for me. Like, almost a sane length for a review. I should be ambivalent enough not to be overly interested in dissecting my ambivalence more often!
Which, okay, it was vaguely reassuring that the whole thing was at least about her and her mindset and shit but it needed more actual Olivia. The animation was gimmicky and while I didn't hate it it didn't really add anything either. William Bell seems to be dead again (though I'm not assuming it's the case) and therefore leaves me wondering why they brought him back in the first place? Cus like, he didn't say anything interesting to us about anything like, say, THE DAMN MACHINE or whatever. So it seems he was brought back for...no massive narrative value. Which is odd.
As to the shape of the story itself, I did like that what at first looked to be a story about Olivia getting rescued ended up, ultimately, being Olivia having to rescue herself once again. Though honestly it was hella cheesy in places around then. I guess what I mean is, the disconnect of Olivia and the things she is afraid of - the lack of control she never allows to take hold of her the way it was imposed on her as a child - there are things to be said for having all that locked away in her subconscious where she does not normally have to deal with it. I suppose it's as good a reason as any for her fearlessness in reality - she took everything that could hurt or scare her and boxed it up, and then William Bell forced her to live in that box. Guy's a giant dick. I didn't buy death as redemption last time he croaked and it turned out I was right. I don't buy it this time either. Partly I just don't buy he isn't coming back somehow, but even if he isn't, I can be grateful to him for not being a bigger dick by sticking around without forgetting he caused alllll the problems (including the part where Olivia's subconscious is a nuked wasteland) in the first place.
So, where was I? Right, it wasn't so much the idea but the rather pat execution of the ending that felt trite and less complicated than it should have been. Though, even with the ending, I'm not expecting this to be a herald of a "fixed" Olivia, so we'll see.
Peter is the other person I wanna discuss here. I know I'm a raging antishipper, but I was okay with him guessing where Olivia was and what she would do. I think the thing about Peter - the picture of his character I'm building up - is that I think there's a split between the charming conman who is brilliant at reading the surface and predicting how someone will react, and the child who was stolen and never managed to connect emotionally to anyone again, not properly.
And I think that at least some of Peter's inability to recognise it wasn't Olivia in the start of the season was because of that emotional disconnection and at least some of his ability to recognise the false Olivia in the dream was because of his skills in predicting behaviour in set conditions. And I don't take issue with either because they could point to a very cohesive and complex individual with specific strengths and weaknesses in varying situations, but I can't help but feel that was supposed to be the punch-the-air moment that reassured us that Peter did better this time.
I can't think why else it would be there. But for me it just...doesn't work. Because once again, the show hasn't shown us anything about Peter. What's changed? The same question I asked when Olivia decided to give things another shot. What changed? Something might have, but we didn't see it. Why can he tell now, when he couldn't before? Bluntly, it feels unearned. And I still want Peter to express, just once, something he likes that is unique to Our Olivia. But whatever, I've had this rant.
One thing that really, really disappointed me was the COMPLETE lack of discussion about the shape-shifter killings. Like I'm actually wondering if she even remembers it? Because, just after waking up no, they wouldn't talk about it, but she invites Peter in at the very end like there's no big deal and they don't even talk about it. I mean even if she wasn't pissed (which would piss me off, but I recognise it's a [stupid] direction they could go in), surely Peter would be like, "So, um, that giant secret I told you? Had a reaction yet?" Hell, it could even be a function of her weird new zen attitude. But still, A LINE PLEASE.
Partly I think they may be saving that up for the next episode judging from the promo, but idk, it felt odd to have it totally dropped. They went to such pains to make Peter look like a creepy psycho killer in that episode, and then they have him admit to it and...we get nothing? Honestly, I'm gonna be pissed if that's it.
And how 'bout that ending? I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that Olivia ATE SOMETHING ON SCREEN for the...first time ever, I think? Or that she was like, "Yeah, totally, no idea who he is but that dude's gonna kill me," like she was asking if anyone wanted to catch a movie. The "move forwards" line was...cheeeeesy, like one of those lines you want to burn out of a script and force someone to rewrite with less weird words, but I am vaguely interested in this new attitude she seems to have.
Like I said earlier, I do not buy that mind trip experience as a permanent transcendental healing moment, but I do buy that it was a powerful experience that it causing at least a temporary shift in perception. I mean, for starters, can she see the future now? Secondly, I...have no idea why she's so happy and chill about everything, but it's...kind of awesome that she's not freaking out about it? Like that she's just, "Hmmm, okay that's interesting."
Basically I'm genuinely unsure how I feel about the way Olivia was acting in that last scene and it will depend on the next episode, but even with my current feelings of "meh" about this ep, and some of the directions the show is going in, I don't think she's having a wholesale personality transplant any time soon and I think this could be...interesting. I mean, it positions Olivia in a position of knowledge, power and wisdom, potentially. So I think that's interesting. We'll see.
Final thoughts: OH BROYLES YOU ARE ADORABLE. OH ASTRID, IF EVER I AM FORCED TO TRIP FOR SCIENCE, PLEASE LOOK AFTER ME.
This is super short for me. Like, almost a sane length for a review. I should be ambivalent enough not to be overly interested in dissecting my ambivalence more often!
Which, okay, it was vaguely reassuring that the whole thing was at least about her and her mindset and shit but it needed more actual Olivia. The animation was gimmicky and while I didn't hate it it didn't really add anything either. William Bell seems to be dead again (though I'm not assuming it's the case) and therefore leaves me wondering why they brought him back in the first place? Cus like, he didn't say anything interesting to us about anything like, say, THE DAMN MACHINE or whatever. So it seems he was brought back for...no massive narrative value. Which is odd.
As to the shape of the story itself, I did like that what at first looked to be a story about Olivia getting rescued ended up, ultimately, being Olivia having to rescue herself once again. Though honestly it was hella cheesy in places around then. I guess what I mean is, the disconnect of Olivia and the things she is afraid of - the lack of control she never allows to take hold of her the way it was imposed on her as a child - there are things to be said for having all that locked away in her subconscious where she does not normally have to deal with it. I suppose it's as good a reason as any for her fearlessness in reality - she took everything that could hurt or scare her and boxed it up, and then William Bell forced her to live in that box. Guy's a giant dick. I didn't buy death as redemption last time he croaked and it turned out I was right. I don't buy it this time either. Partly I just don't buy he isn't coming back somehow, but even if he isn't, I can be grateful to him for not being a bigger dick by sticking around without forgetting he caused alllll the problems (including the part where Olivia's subconscious is a nuked wasteland) in the first place.
So, where was I? Right, it wasn't so much the idea but the rather pat execution of the ending that felt trite and less complicated than it should have been. Though, even with the ending, I'm not expecting this to be a herald of a "fixed" Olivia, so we'll see.
Peter is the other person I wanna discuss here. I know I'm a raging antishipper, but I was okay with him guessing where Olivia was and what she would do. I think the thing about Peter - the picture of his character I'm building up - is that I think there's a split between the charming conman who is brilliant at reading the surface and predicting how someone will react, and the child who was stolen and never managed to connect emotionally to anyone again, not properly.
And I think that at least some of Peter's inability to recognise it wasn't Olivia in the start of the season was because of that emotional disconnection and at least some of his ability to recognise the false Olivia in the dream was because of his skills in predicting behaviour in set conditions. And I don't take issue with either because they could point to a very cohesive and complex individual with specific strengths and weaknesses in varying situations, but I can't help but feel that was supposed to be the punch-the-air moment that reassured us that Peter did better this time.
I can't think why else it would be there. But for me it just...doesn't work. Because once again, the show hasn't shown us anything about Peter. What's changed? The same question I asked when Olivia decided to give things another shot. What changed? Something might have, but we didn't see it. Why can he tell now, when he couldn't before? Bluntly, it feels unearned. And I still want Peter to express, just once, something he likes that is unique to Our Olivia. But whatever, I've had this rant.
One thing that really, really disappointed me was the COMPLETE lack of discussion about the shape-shifter killings. Like I'm actually wondering if she even remembers it? Because, just after waking up no, they wouldn't talk about it, but she invites Peter in at the very end like there's no big deal and they don't even talk about it. I mean even if she wasn't pissed (which would piss me off, but I recognise it's a [stupid] direction they could go in), surely Peter would be like, "So, um, that giant secret I told you? Had a reaction yet?" Hell, it could even be a function of her weird new zen attitude. But still, A LINE PLEASE.
Partly I think they may be saving that up for the next episode judging from the promo, but idk, it felt odd to have it totally dropped. They went to such pains to make Peter look like a creepy psycho killer in that episode, and then they have him admit to it and...we get nothing? Honestly, I'm gonna be pissed if that's it.
And how 'bout that ending? I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that Olivia ATE SOMETHING ON SCREEN for the...first time ever, I think? Or that she was like, "Yeah, totally, no idea who he is but that dude's gonna kill me," like she was asking if anyone wanted to catch a movie. The "move forwards" line was...cheeeeesy, like one of those lines you want to burn out of a script and force someone to rewrite with less weird words, but I am vaguely interested in this new attitude she seems to have.
Like I said earlier, I do not buy that mind trip experience as a permanent transcendental healing moment, but I do buy that it was a powerful experience that it causing at least a temporary shift in perception. I mean, for starters, can she see the future now? Secondly, I...have no idea why she's so happy and chill about everything, but it's...kind of awesome that she's not freaking out about it? Like that she's just, "Hmmm, okay that's interesting."
Basically I'm genuinely unsure how I feel about the way Olivia was acting in that last scene and it will depend on the next episode, but even with my current feelings of "meh" about this ep, and some of the directions the show is going in, I don't think she's having a wholesale personality transplant any time soon and I think this could be...interesting. I mean, it positions Olivia in a position of knowledge, power and wisdom, potentially. So I think that's interesting. We'll see.
Final thoughts: OH BROYLES YOU ARE ADORABLE. OH ASTRID, IF EVER I AM FORCED TO TRIP FOR SCIENCE, PLEASE LOOK AFTER ME.
