Hey everyone!
Welcome to this weeks ramblings on Insensate! As always this contains HUGE HONKIN’ spoilers for that eppy, and all ideas are my own. Remember kids, plagiarism is wrong. :-)
Overall:
With two outstanding episodes in a row, it would have been impossible for IM to pull out a third amazing eppy...and it was hard not to feel let down after two weeks of the best IM has to offer. This eppy felt a bit stifled by too much exposition...there were just to many scenes of two people talking with each other, relaying backstory. Not that that’s usually a bad thing, but after a whole episode of finding out about Kevin from the man himself, it was ponderous to have another filling in more.
And once again Darien’s desire to get the gland removed coupled with his sympathy for fellow lab rats has been used to pull him into a dangerous situation. I’m beginning to think that all human experiments are given some internal radar that lets them find Darien, since they just pop up all over the place! Yes Darien wants the gland removed, and yes that’s always going to be sitting in the back of his mind, but as an audience we know that he’s not gonna be successful until the end of the series...and to pull up that hope every week to get Darien into the plot simply dilutes the impact of that hope. How many times can they dangle the carrot of freedom in front of Darien’s face before both Darien and the audience are sick of seeing it?
The Good:
-A bit of Shakespeare (the whole quote being "Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; the thief doth fear each bush an officer."), Hitchcock, and Nadezhda Mandelstam...a name that took me five rewinds on the CC to get down!
-Armin’s portrayal of Tommy Walker was creepy, melancholy and in general very well done! His low whispered voice was either creepy or somber depending on what he was saying (and who we think he is at the time), and he manages to convey quite a bit without being able to use much body language.
-"I still have a sense of touch...and a sense of humor."
-Darien’s never been one who enjoys others suffering, so it’s no surprise that his reactions in the Mental Hospital are so gutwrenching to watch. Yea he’s got a touchy spot when it comes to insanity in the first place, but the insensates he sees there go way beyond simple insanity, and you can clearly see the pity, sympathy, horror all over his face.
-...of course the demented guitar music in the background of that scene helps add to the creep factor!
-I love the showdown moment between the Official and his two agents (Eberts and Hobbes) with SWRB Guy and his two agents. You can fell the tension in the room, like two lions just coming face to face and no one knowing if they’ll attack or make friends.
-"They call me The Agent, this is The Bean Counter, and we call him The Chief."
-This is probably the first time we’ve ever seen the Official so scared...SWRB Guy certainly shakes him up, enough that he’s still a bit terrified later when begging Darien to forget the last day. Kudos to Eddie for believably showing such a powerful individual so scared.
-Watch Ebert roll his eyes when Hobbes says, "You gonna give me credit for saving his butt this time?"
-Gotta love the frantic "NO!" Claire exclaims as Darien hangs up on her!
-Apparently Darien and Hobbes have gotten good at not mistakenly attacking each other, to the point where neither even flinches as the other prepares to strike. Darien’s baseball swing goes way high to avoid Hobbes, who simply gives the door a look as if inspecting for damage...and Hobbes keeps his trigger finger under control when pointed at Darien, who simply waltzes into the house without pause.
-Only Darien would take a seat in the cell on the toilet.
-I love Hobbes once again yelling at the guards to let them go like he did in ‘Cat and Mouse’! I think it’d be great if that actually worked one of these days!
-"SWRB, what is that? Silly Words Written Backwards? Is that
it?"
"Secret Weapons Research Branch."
"Huh...well, I tried."
"Written would be with a W...it’s not SWWB!"
-It’s great how Hobbes and Darien can work well enough together to coordinate attacking the guards, and yet still manage to argue about who’ll go first!
-Yea, one jolt with a cattle prod and I think I’d jump up and run from the door the next time it opens!
-Great Scene 1: The Official pleads with Darien not to investigate further, revealing how freaked out he is. Then Darien first guilt’s Claire into giving him the info he wants, then Hobbes into coming with him to help. The Official should have known Darien would run off anyway after a possible gland cure, Claire is beginning to realize that Darien’s discovered exactly what buttons to push to get what he wants, and Hobbes is feeling too guilty anyway that it doesn’t take much for him to offer to help!
-"Fawkes, if there is ever a time you took an order from me, please let it be this one."
-"Fawkes, I just wana go on record that this is a bad idea. You got good ideas...this ain’t one."
-The confrontation between SWRB Guy and Darien is interesting to watch...SWRB Guy seams to have quite a bit of respect for Darien, and yet you can see he’s still willing to take him down to get what he wants. Darien is just trying to use whatever he can to get the information he wants, and hides his disappointment and foolishness as much as possible when he realizes who Tommy Walker really is.
-Poor Hobbes makes what looks like a delicious calzone, only to serve it to someone who can’t taste it! But damn did it look good!
-"You know Fawkes, this really isn’t your battle."
"It isn’t? Damn...could you take me to my battle?"
-I love how Hobbes doesn’t actually say anything when he almost shoots Fawkes, but you can tell by his body language he’s pissed he almost shot his partner and that Fawkes wouldn’t warn him he was coming in!
-Great Scene 2: Darien confronts Tommy about who he really is, only to discover that Gaither honestly thinks he’s Tommy. For extra fun watch Darien and Hobbes realize at about the same time that Gaither really thinks he’s Tommy.
-As much as the Official may brush off Darien’s, "I’m sorry, sir." I think Darien was being very sincere when he said it...plus this may be the first time Darien’s said he’s sorry to the Official, or called him ‘sir’!
-How screwed up is Tommy gonna be when he realizes he’s Gaither? Especially after that announcement about what Tommy would do to Gaither if he ever had the chance!
-It was nice for Kevin to have some vindication in the end.
The Bad:
-I already ranted a bit at the beginning about some of the overall problems I had with this episode.
-The SWRB project was supposed to be the precursor to the Quicksilver project...Kevin’s first attempts at invisibility. So why call the project "Tommy Walker"? It’s a clever reference to all the lab rats being turned into insensate, but that has nothing to do with going invisible! And how would quicksilver cause someone to loose all of their senses? I just don’t understand the connection.
-Hobbes is right to be upset that the Official and Eberts are suggesting he’s just been "accompanying" Darien on missions! In several of the cases they describe Hobbes was just as an important part as Darien...and in a few of the cases they didn’t mention, if Hobbes hadn’t been there Darien would have been killed! So of course as if to prove the point Hobbes is relegated to a supporting role in this eppy...and once again one of his skills is ridiculed simply to further the plot (him being able, or unable, to loose a tail). I didn’t find the scene funny at all...it was simply degrading to Hobbes...plus I can’t believe that the Official and Eberts truly think that Hobbes is that useless!
-Darien’s wardrobe this week really needed to just stay in the house that got blown up. Especially that one with the horses that’s a repeat from Legends. BLEH!
-How convenient that Darien discovers the Secret Ultra-Destructive Garage Door Opener just before he could really use one!
-You think with the top level clearance that the SWRB has they would have access to the Quicksilver files so they could discover how exactly to see Darien when quicksilvered (with thermal goggles).
The Crap Count:
-"Aw crap." Darien, tripping over the cart in the Mental Ward.
-"Crap!" Darien, realizing there’s nothing they can do for the patients.
-"Aw crap." Darien, realizing Thomas is Gaither
-"Aw crap!" Darien, after being told Gaither tested the experiment on himself.
-"You’ve gotta stop with this prisoner crap and start treating me like an ally." Darien, to SWRB Guy.
The Nitpicky:
-Was it me, or was that the shortest opening sequence ever?
-So if Gaither had been a woman, would the code name for the project have been Helen Keller?
-There’s something ironic in hearing a former Star Trek actor talk about "sensor arrays"
-Imagine trying to keep up with Hobbes and Darien’s conversation with a Braille device! No wonder Tommy was usually quiet when Hobbes and Darien were chatting!
-So with all the invisibility that Darien was using this week, he must have received quite a few shots.
-Someone wana tell me where I remember the actor who plays the head of the SWRB from? I’ve wracked my brains and come up empty, but I KNOW I’ve seen him before!
-Apparently Hobbes has a key to Darien’s apartment, you can hear him use it after knocking.
-Well so much for Darien getting through this eppy without getting hurt. Cattle prod?! *shudder* The writers are sure getting creative...
-So when we see the Tracking Device, the blip that’s Darien sure is hauling ass!
-Cool Fire Moment: Watch the left window of the house as it explodes...you can see the bomb suck in all the air and cause the windows and the curtain to pull inwards before exploding. Cool!
"Ever read comic books, Mr Fawkes?"
"Read them? I live ‘em!"
-Tommy and Darien
