Tag: episode 5

The Path: Why We Source – Pressure (Recap/Review)

Aaron Paul in The Path

The Path “Why We Source” increases the pressure on all the main players and at least one peripheral character gets thrown out of the movement. After Cal learns that a mole for the FBI  is in their midst he calls upon Abe, to help him sniff out the informer.

Sarah’s refusal to drop the water issue results in Hawk being arrested for domestic terrorism and Eddie comes to the rescue. Cal is not happy at this turn of events and later, when he asks Sarah about her meeting with Eddie she lies about her feelings.

In Juvenile Detention Hawk is accepted into another group of black inmates led by one of his cellmates. He also gets into a fight with a lad who crawls into his bunk.

Abe plants a burner phone in Shelby’s examination office to throw suspicion away from himself. It works brilliantly and the doctor is thrown out of the community.

Eddie gets together with Sarah to confront Libby, who will not return Sarah’s calls, and he puts DeKaan’s son Brendon on the phone to talk to her. This, and Sarah’s promise to stop testing the water, prompts the woman to drop the charges against Hawk.

Mary and Sean blackmail Cal into getting them a new fridge and the Meyerist leader learns that the baby Mary is carrying could be his. Sean is not, it seems, overly pleased with his part in the blackmail process and it seems that this action could have long term repercussions for the couple.

Cal lies to Richard, by omission, during the interrogations taking place in the movement. The pressure of his guilt, not just about the murder of Sarah’s mentor but of his writing the last three rungs of the Ladder, are taking their  toll on the leader.

Eddie and Sarah get together and have sex. Afterward they talk and he reveals that he is seeing Chloe. Sarah tells Eddie, when he asks, that she and Cal are not seeing one another. “I can’t see him that way,” she says.

Hawk is released from jail and when Eddie goes to meet him the teenager tells his father that they should have left him inside rather than call off the water testing.

Sarah goes to see the farmer with the sick cows. The man’s favorite cow is dying and he sticks the dying animal with a knife. The fluid that sprays over Sarah is black, not the color of blood at all. “It is poison,” says the farmer and Sarah screams her outrage as the scene fades to black.

Things are heating up in The Path. Abe shows that he believes the entire group to be corrupt. He also reveals to his boss that he wants to win. He cold-bloodedly sacrifices the movement’s medico in order to protect his cover and it seems clear at this point that he will do whatever is necessary to put Cal and Sarah away.

Eddie and Sarah’s continued contact will not end well for either of them. Sarah, who is already in a position of authority, much to Richard’s chagrin, will be punished severely she and Eddie do not stop breaking the group’s rules.

Cal is under the most suspicion and pressure, Kodiak is certain that their leader killed Steve, and when he breaks someone else could die, just as Silas did.

The Path airs Wednesdays on Hulu. As the second season progresses the movement is faltering without its comatose leader. Tune in and see what happens next to the cult of the light.

Cast:

Guest starring Allison Layman as Shelby and Molly Price as Libby DeKaan

Sleepy Hollow: Blood From a Stone – Acceptance (Recap/Review)

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Last week’s episode had Molly stepping in to save Ichabod from his overwhelming despair, and a noose, while this episode of Sleepy Hollow “Blood From a Stone” gets back to the main storyline in this season. Malcolm Dreyfuss and his search for those artifacts is the focus in this segment.

Peripherally, we have Diana accepting that Molly is the new witness after learning that her little one may not have to battle the evil demons at all. The path that Abbie Mills’ replacement takes is still all up to her.

Jobe, the demon who struck fear into the hearts of Jake and Alex, is not the big bad everyone assumed he was. Early in this episode, after the demon kills the conman preacher and takes his stone, another more powerful creature turns up and takes Jobe out with minimal effort.

Speaking a bit of latin defeats Malcolm’s buddy easily and the artifact now belongs to Ansel. “Blood From a Stone” gives us a bit of backstory on Dreyfuss and his obsession with collecting all the stones.

It seems that Ansel, Malcolm’s old business partner was “the face” of the company that Dreyfuss created. People ignored the shy genius with the bad haircut and instead gave all the credit to his partner.

Malcolm struck a drunken deal with Jobe; send Ansel to hell in return for all the credit and Dreyfuss’ soul.  Malcolm’s collection of the stones was all about cheating Jobe out of collecting on their deal. When the last artifact is collected Dreyfuss will become immortal.

Ansel spent in time in Hell working on a way out. He arrives to exact revenge on his former business partner by killing him and destroying their old company.

Apart from this demon heavy tale, there is a peripheral plot line which features Jake and his massive crush on Jennifer Mills. He actually “pays” Alex to put in a good word with their new team member.

The big reveal in this episode is that the broken bit of rock that Malcolm, and now Ansel, want to put back together is the Philosophers Stone. Ansel wants to erase his pain and become immortal while a terrified Malcolm is also after the everlasting life carrot so he can cheat on selling his soul.

There is one piece missing and that can be found back at Crane’s old stomping grounds; Sleepy Hollow.

Ansel is defeated as part of a team effort. Alex and Jake help Jenny to find a latin spell which will counteract the pissed of business partner’s magic. Mills arrives in the nick of time and neutralizes Ansel.

His reaction is to grab a tube of greek fire in order to burn everyone to a cinder. Crane throws a knife into the new demon and kills him. Ansel drops the tube of fire and Diana leaps into action and catches the glass full of internal fire before it breaks.

In all the confusion, Dreyfuss escapes. Later, Diana explains to Molly about being a witness and Mills, Alex and Jake realize that the last bit of the Philosophers Stone is in Sleepy Hollow.

It looks like the series will be shifting back to where things all began for Crane and his cronies.  It will be interesting to see if this move will bring Molly closer to being a witness and what other ghosts from season’s past will reappear.

As mentioned before, it seems like the show is taking the one stop forward two steps back approach to season four. The fate of Molly and just how she will fill in for Abbie Mills remains to be seen.

The theme of this week’s episode was acceptance. Diana accepting her daughter’s role in Ichabod’s quest and the new team members accepting their own place on Crane’s team, along with Jenny.

Sleepy Hollow airs Fridays on FOX.

 

Cast:

 

Guest starring Kamar de los Reyes as Jobe, Jessejames Locorriere as Preacher and Bjorn DuPaty as Ansel. 

The Mick: The Fire – Smoking Irreverence (Review)

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Is is wrong to find The Mick funny when its humor is so irreverent that it makes a joke out of a terminally ill man taking the fall for the fire that burned down the neighbor’s guest house? (At least one viewer was offended at Sunday’s “special” episode, where the theme of a  “druggy” clown was bandied about – although Sully turned out to be a diabetic.)

This begs the question of just what is “too far.” Thus far Mickey has doped up her niece, with a concoction of sleep inducing cold medication and promoted the same kid’s sexual activity as “a minor.” This was pointed out in last night’s episode. Sabrina is, apparently, underage – and smoking like a chimney…

Sunday’s episode also had Mickey burying two fingers into Ben’s throat in an effort make him throw up the mystery balloon, which is clearly full of something, but we never learn what.

The previous episode, “The Grandparents” allowed Granny Pemberton to slap Sabrina not once, but twice and turned the “hero” veteran Grandpa Pemberton into a slack jawed paraplegic stroke victim. While not on par with the tastelessness of the new TV version of “roasting,” The Mick is not highbrow comedy.

“The Fire” has Chip “teaching” Ben how to ride a bike; allowing the kid to crash and then covering his open wounds with nicotine patches. Wrong? Oh yes, all kinds of wrong, but it is funny.

It is the very “incorrectness” of Mickey, Chip, Sabrina, Alba and Jimmy that makes the show so incredibly funny. Similar to the poorly received “Uncle Buck” over on ABC last year, this sitcom has characters who are outside the pale.

In other words, these people, despite the trappings of money, the class system (of which Mickey, Alba and Jimmy fall into a different structure than the sister’s kids) and education, are all pretty outlandish. They are impolite, believe the rest of the world is beneath them and do not think rules apply to their family.

Sort of like Donald Trump and his family…

All the characters are unpleasant, but funny with it. Sabrina is headstrong, chain-smokes, is having “underage” sex and drinks alcohol.  Chip is self absorbed, self aggrandizing and narcissistic. (That Trump comparison seems pretty apt now, does it not?) Ben is just lost in the shuffle here.

It seems odd that anyone would get upset at the comic misunderstanding that Sully the clown was a heroine addict and not diabetic.

“The Fire” was full of comic moments. Alba telling the almost fully bonded Sabrina and Mickey that she was given cigarettes as a child, “like candy,” and then later smoking in the bathroom with the two Pemberton females.

The entire family believing that the guttural talking Ben was going round the twist with his “imaginary” friend. The two Pemberton women covering up and hiding in the bathroom to smoke and getting busted by Alba was funny, but even funnier was Sabrina’s assertion that smoking with nicotine patches was a “game changer.”

Burning down the next door neighbor’s guesthouse by not extinguishing their butts was also funny, and (here we enter completely and thoroughly into un-PC territory) allowing the man with lung cancer to take the rap for it.

This is, admittedly, one step below “banana peel” humour.  In this show, the gag is not slipping on the item. It is setting up a “crippled” victim by placing the peel in front of them. In fact, The Mick would go so far as to put the banana peel in the path of a blind person with severe arthritis.

They would do so, however, with a straight face and then, as they did in “The Fire” towards the end, look shocked when their victim hit the ground. The Mick is the modern-day equivalent, intellectually at least, of The Three Stooges.

The boinking of eyes and other physically violent comedy has been updated to include victims who would normally be left alone.

The Mick airs Tuesdays on FOX. Tune in if you are not afraid of that “horrified laughter” associated with the old “Hamster in a micro-wave” gag (“Pop goes the weasel” and extra points to any who can remember this one) and prepare to fall in love with the incorrectness of it all.

Cast:

Guest starring Rodney J. Hobbs as Lt. Brody, Susan Park as Liz

‘Crazyhead’ Episode 5: Downward Facing Dog – Namaste B*tches (Review)

promotional image for Crazyhead

Crazyhead episode 5: “Downward Facing Dog” sees Raquel getting closer to Harry and Amy struggles to convince her friend that her new guy pal is going to attack her.  Apart from her prophetic dream showing that Harry is not what he claims to be, Amy also seems to see her own death.

Amy attempts to warn Raquel about Harry but the half-demon has shut her mobile phone off.  The date goes well right up until one of Weaver’s henchmen follows Raquel into the bar’s  restroom . Harry intervenes and shoves the demon’s head into a faeces filled toilet bowl.

He then reveals that Sawyer, Raquel’s dad, sent him to protect her. Harry is a demon hunter who was friends with her father, he says. Raquel is upset at first but then forgives Harry for lying to her. They kiss in the public lavatory and he walks her home, forgetting that his car is back at the bar.

Amy and Raquel have their first real falling out over Harry after revealing that he is a demon hunter. She tells Amy everything that Harry told her but Amy insists that he is going to hurt her.

Amy insists that they should double-date. Raquel reveals that she snogged Harry’s face off in the toilets and that he attacked a demon for her.  Mercy and Weaver talk about “the plan.”

The two couples go bowling. Jake meets Tyler and is not impressed, he is also very aggressive toward Raquel’s brother.  Amy gets Harry some bowling shoes and quizzes the demon hunter.

Harry tells Raquel that Amy does not like him and she confronts Amy about her attitude.

Raquel is completely swept away by Harry and later, when Callum’s henchmen try to kill Amy, she and Harry save Jake and Amy. Harry even leaps in front of Raquel and takes a bullet for her.

The wounded demon hunter goes into hospital to recover. After Raquel goes to visit him, Callum drops by and we learn that Harry has been possessed by a demon.

Mercy seems to have second thoughts about having her child possessed by a freshly released demon from Hell.

Raquel, whose nature allows her to react rather spectacularly when use, is the key and in the rescue scene, she once again moves things about telekinetically.

The best bit of the whole episode had to be the kidnapping of Amy and Jake. Flung into the boot of a car, the two have their hands and mouth’s taped up by Callum’s henchmen.

Amy’s friend discovers a sharp piece of metal and begins struggling to cut the tape on his wrists. As he rhythmically rubs the tape against the object, it looks, and sounds, as though Jake is having sex with Amy.

Funny and awkward, it is the highlight of the episode and may just qualify as the comedic high point of the series. Show creator Howard Overman is letting his Misfits roots shine through here and it results in making this supernatural comedy horror a cut above the rest.

Crazyhead is streaming on Netflix and can be downloaded as well.  Head on over and catch this one. This series  is irreverent, funny, rude and worth every minute that one spends watching this brilliant offering from E4.

Cast:

Shut Eye: The Magician – Burned (Review)

KaDee Strickland, Jeffrey Donovan in Hulu's Shut Eye

In Shut Eye “The Magician” it is Eduardo who manages to make something disappear. In this case it is a relative of Fonzo’s; Fabiana.  This is after Linda and Gina make Emma’s body disappear, in an unmarked grave, in the woods.

In “The Tower” Nick’s high school friend snorts the scopolamine that Linda hid and overdoses. The girl dies on the kitchen floor foaming at the mouth.  Linda puts the body in the new car that Eduardo gives Charlie and she and Gina dispose of the girl’s body.

After the chore is done, Linda tells Gina to leave and drives off stranding her former lover in the middle of the forest. Linda tells Gina to call Lyft.

She gets home to find Charlie talking to Gina as he makes coffee. He convinces his wife that Nadine is ready for a seance.

Charlie and Fonzo help Fabiana, a medium who is also a relative of Fonzo’s, to get her parlor set up in Van Nuys. The woman is overweight, pushy and annoying. She keeps pushing Charlie to fix the place up and put in a cat door amongst other things.

After the Gina seance, Charlie tells his wife’s ex lover to leave and not come back. He knows that she and Linda had a fling and later he confronts his wife about it. He is still having the visions of fire and when Nadine is talking with Linda in the kitchen he sees the flames and hears screaming.

Fabiana catches sight of Nadine leaving Charlie’s place and threatens to tell Fonzo if she is not cut in on the deal. He decides to ask Eduardo to get rid of the woman.

At a party thrown by Eduardo, he gets the vision again, this time as he watches a pig that his benefactor is roasting. He sees the dead animal’s feet and ears twitch and throws a bowl of punch over the animal.

Eduardo knows that Charlie is having visions and he believes that he “is the man.” Charlie asks Eduardo to smooth things over with Fabiana and he agrees.

At the meeting between Eduardo and Fabiana he explains that she needs to leave Charlie alone. The medium reacts angrily and throws a lit candle at Eduardo. Her place catches on fire and she attacks Eduardo, he pushes her back and her trouser leg catches on fire.

Fabiana begins to scream as the fire spreads.

Later, Charlie is visited by Eduardo who brings the medium’s cat, he rescued the animal. He gives the cat to Charlie and tells him that she is in the burns unit at hospital.

Fonzo apparently knows about the accident but believes that someone else is responsible. Charlie speaks with the doctor again and tells her that he is still having the visions. She gives him an MRI scan and while he is in the machine, he has a vision of himself drowning in deep water.

Shut Eye continues to be evocative and damned interesting. It is ironic that a man who makes his living lying to “marks” now has the capacity to see the immediate future.  The visions shake him and he has no real idea how to translate what he sees.

It is a further irony that Eduardo, a gangster who want to go legit, actually  has a better idea than Charlie about how to use the visions.

Each of the characters in Shut Eye are multi-layered. Linda and Charlie have a complex marriage and Eduardo is much more than a cardboard cut-out villain.  These three characters are the deepest of the lot with Fonzo being more two dimensional overall.

The scam that is being played out with Nadine looks sure to end in tears instead of the new beginning that Charlie and Linda so desperately want. It also seems pretty clear that Emma may rise metaphorically from the grave to implicate either Nick or Linda.

Shut Eye is streaming on Hulu and all the episodes are available to watch now. Head on over and check this one out. Jeffrey Donovan is killing it as Charlie and KaDee Strickland is matching him scene for scene. David Zayas is spot on as the bad guy who want out of the business. This is excellent stuff and should not be missed.

Cast:

Guest starring Tara Karsian as Fabiana and Roan Curtis as Emma.

 

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