Hey everyone!
Welcome to the season 1 finale review, the good news being it’s not the SERIES finale! This review of Small World brought to you by Disney World, where you will be forced to sing that annoying song over and over and over and over...
*ahem*
Anyway, this review contains HUGE HONKIN’ spoilers for Small World, and all ideas are my own, dreamed up while watching this eppy and driving in the car to gigs. I do both quite a bit. :-)
Overall:
And thus the tale of Darien and the WaterWoman from Heck (well, Cerberus :-) ) ends. Not that I’m surprised, Darien is ending up like one of the men from Bonanza...any female that gets close to him suffers or dies a tragic death. So of course after doing the invisible nasty it was just a matter of when.
Putting that aside this still is not a happy eppy for Darien, who ends up implanted with more stuff that (almost) can’t be removed without major damage, is Officialed once again, and in general just has the crap kicked out of him. Perhaps Hobbes needs to teach him some Wushu.
The Good:
-For quotes this week we get only one from Joseph Heller. In fact that’s the only voice over of the eppy as well. I guess Darien was afraid Stark would pick up his voice over’s too.
-ACME Ding Repair? :-)
-I like how the conversation between Darien and Hobbes at the beginning leads us to believe that Hobbes gave Darien a gun to shoot the guy with, and that’s why he’s upset. Only to find out later that it’s a camera he’s shooting, and is upset because he helped ruin someone’s life.
-"Say ‘I’m a crooked politician’!"
-Gotta love Hobbes’ unbridled glee at taking down the politician! I’m going with Hobbes on this one, this guy was taking bribes to do evil things, he deserve what he got and good for Hobbes to be the one to give it!
-"And if I decide to have kids they will bestow their undying
affection on the one who gave them life."
...uh, Hobbes? You don’t know that much about teenagers, do you? :-)
-I love how the Official just cackles merrily at the idea of 24 hour overtime.
-Darien Fawkes. Occupation: Thief/Government agent. Hobbies: making paper airplanes...and darn good ones too!
-Well I guess kissing Allinoria is one way to distract her so she won’t shoot Darien. Sure would distract me...
-And now for the Nifty Quicksilver Effect of the Eppy: invisible clothes pealing off to re-appear and be cast aside.
-I loved the "Maid" who comes to sweep the apartment for bugs! And I’m not surprised at all that she would know Hobbes real well and they’d be so friendly!
-And now for a flashback from Elementary School, the first time I ever heard the full rhyme: Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he? It’s just fun to say!
-Great Scene 1: The Official grills Darien and Hobbes on how the Leak was compromised. Hobbes stands up to "Officer Krupkie" and covers for Darien, Darien demonstrates that his lying skills have improved tremendously, and the Official gets pissed. Listen for Darien finishing Hobbes’ sentences, and the "So?" that flies back and forth!
-"It’ll end badly, mark my words."
"Marked."
...Hobbes must have read ahead in the script. :-)
-I love how Darien changes the plan to enter the Leak’s house ‘cause the last time he went in the front way he got attacked and so it’s Hobbes’ turn! Anyway it gives Hobbes a reason to show off his own lock-picking skills and then deliver a can of whoop-ass on a bad guy. Damn that was one impressive flying kick!
-Look how completely freaked out Darien is when the bad guy has a gun to his head. If you missed it, you get to see it later when Hobbes and the Official pretend to kill him.
-So Darien gets beaten up so much in this eppy he’s asked not once but twice "Are you OK?"...and his answer both times is an honest "I’ve been better."
-"Are you sure he wasn’t wearing thermal glasses?"
"Not unless they come in a new and improved contact version."
-Gotta love Darien’s response to Claire spouting computer technobabble, "Wow, that actually means less to me then most of the things you usually say."
-Thrill as meaningful looks fly fast and furious as Darien and Claire discuss how exactly he got "infected".
-Great Scene 2: Darien arrives at work air-guitaring to some rock, only to be belted by an agent and then get the crap scared out of him as Hobbes and the Official pretend to kill him so Claire can slip on the helmet. There’s two ways you can react to this scene, you can feel really sorry for Darien (and it’s easy, just LOOK at him!), or you can just enjoy the joke and laugh along with Hobbes, the Official, and Claire. Give me some time, I’m still trying to decide...
-"I did a little High School acting, once."
"Bobby, don’t quit your day job."
-Apparently Darien has become a magnet for substances that are almost
impossible to remove once attached: "Yea, but if we take it out of your
head it could cause serious damage, possibly kill you."
"Where have I heard that before?"
-"Boom, you’re good, you’re on a roll."
"Thank you very much, I’m here all week."
-Who needs a gun when you’ve got moves like Bobby Hobbes! We get Kung Fu Hobbes not once but TWICE in this eppy as he takes on the evil drug guys!
-Here’s Hobbes being protective of his partner again. He finds out that the spy-bug could cause long term damage, and is obviously upset that Claire hasn’t informed Darien of this risk just yet....
-...meanwhile Darien shields their position by reading X-Men and listening to more rock and roll. Although apparently he has the same problem I do when reading in the car for a long period of time, "I’m getting car sick."
-So the students react as any normal kids would when they see their principal get tackled...they laugh!
-Claire and Hobbes may feel bad for Darien in the end, but I think they’re both rather happy that Allinoria kicked the bucket. Can’t blame them either.
The Bad:
-So Darien makes both himself and Allinoria invisible while they...uh...romp...and doesn’t desperately need counteragent the next morning?!
-So in order to avoid being followed by anyone, the editor speed up the film of Darien and Hobbes in the van?
-With Hobbes standing on one side of him, and Darien on the other, they still can’t push/pull the Leak to safety when the car speeds towards them to attack?
-So Allinoria just HAPPENS to be sitting around watching the Dead Darien Channel (showing nothing but snow...reminds me of Poltergeist every time) just when Darien makes the oh so smart move of using his helmet (instead of another article of clothing like a shoe or jacket) to distract the guy with the gun?! Oh come ON!
-Someone tell Darien it’s OK to fight dirty in the real world when your life is at stake. WHY did he de-quicksilver before knocking the guy out? Double COME ON!
The Crap Count:
-"Cut the crap, Fawkes." The Official
-"Ah crap." Darien, when he realizes the helmet is busted.
-"Ah crap." Darien, finding himself trapped in the pool room.
The Nitpicky:
-This episode made me hungry. First we hear about the Chili con carne and hoogie Hobbes had, then Darien’s drinking coffee, later he and Hobbes are snacking on nuts, and then even later they split a bag of popcorn with Claire. Did they tape through lunch or something? :-)
-Allinoria waltzes into Darien’s apartment and pulls a gun on him, but leaves the door wide open for anyone passing by to watch....
-...and yet it stays open until they jump on the pool table for some invisible luvin’ and then it’s magically closed.
-Zippy Cola? So Darien picks up his clothes AND his appliances at retro shops then?
-It’s great that Darien puts on a seat-belt when Hobbes starts driving like a maniac...but seconds later he must have taken it back off just in time to fall over in the seat a few more times and then crash into the front window.
-What are Darien and Hobbes discussing when they arrive at the Leak’s house? Something about a window...
-Hobbes has an awful time shooting anything in this eppy. Darien notices it first when Hobbes fires on the getaway car and doesn’t hit anything vital, "Did you hit anything?" Later at the school Hobbes can’t nail the two bad guys (but Claire does fairly easily when given the gun), and then even with a clear line of fire at the pool can’t hit Stark!
-So to keep Chrysalis from hearing and seeing Claire tell Darien about what’s going on, she takes him into the now tinfoil lined padded cell. Later he’s forced to wear a dorky looking helmet. So all those nuts out there wearing tinfoil hats to keep the government from reading their mind are actually onto something? :-)
-Please...PLEASE tell me the reason Darien was listening to Yodeling was because he knew Chrysalis was listening!
-"Time for solution Beta to go into effect." Well I would figure with Darien being solution Beta that the next invisible man would be solution Delta.
-Lines That Will Never Be Added Dialogue: Darien, after they pretend to kill him, "OK then, well excuse me as I now have to go change my pants."
-This is the second week in a row Darien’s knocked his noggin’ against the hard floor with quite a bit of force. *wince*
"Well it looks like the leak’s been plugged. The leak’s got a leak." -Hobbes
