2018

The month of May holds a special place in the hearts of Asian American and Pacific Islander Star Wars fans. For starters, May has been AAPI Heritage Month since 1990, though it originally began as “Asian Pacific Heritage Week” when it was proposed in Congress by Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Y. Mineta in 1977. That’s […]

Season 4 / Episode 21, Harry and the Harrisons / The CW

And you say C-City!

From jump, the writers remember that Iris is more than the new leader of Team Flash. She’s also an investigator. She’s a truth seeker. Iris da Melanin GAWDESS about to expose DeVoe for the maniacal bastard that he is. Yea, they let us know early that reporter Iris back!!

S.T.A.R. Labs

The team thinks DeVoe’s got big plans for his intelligence zapping satellites. He’s gonna set them up in perfect position so that he can blast ayebody with the stupid juice. Fortunately they realize his movement has pretty much come to a halt, so something must be off. They’re left wondering why he hasn’t made a move when he has everything he needs. Nevertheless, the team comes up with a pretty solid plan to shut that shit down.

Friends in Low Places

They can’t use technology or sound-based attacks because Kilg%ore and Ralph’s powers negate all that, so they have to find an organic approach to take out megamind. Their solution: Amunet Black. Amunet’s dark matter-created metal shards can be combined to create a big enough projectile that they’ll be able to squash the brainwave frying satellites.

Elsewhere in the lab, Harry is pulling out all the stops on this quest to get his IQ back. He asks Cisco to call in the Counsel of Wells and you already know ridiculousness is bound to ensue. Dana Garvey Wells is brought in, but Harry fails to answer one of his questions right. This leads to Dana calling Harry a moron and kicking him off the squad of intellectuals who help other formidable intellectuals in their times of need. No more assistance from the counsel, but don’t worry Harry! Cisco got plans.

Caitlin and Barry pull up to Amunet’s old lair but the slug-face cyclops sidekick says Amunet’s been in the wind since the ARGUS deal went sour. They head back to the Lab, and together the team does some real deal recon and tracks down Amunet’s guvment name and get to searching. Why weren’t they able to get that birth certificate before this episode? Cuz the writers ain’t shit.

Before heading out, Barry pulls Iris aside to talk about her article and his fear of how the public might react. The soft music plays so we know it’s serious. She low key agrees to chill but also says she’s gonna keep goin when she gets more evidence.

Missions

Harry and Cisco out here hosting a Klumps dinner with all the new Harrisons running around. We got Matthew McConaughey Wells lookin stoned as can be. There’s Pepe Le Pew Wells eatin croissants, lookin stuck up artsy and absurd. Lastly, there’s Pacino Bambino Harrison lookin like every Yankees hat wearing, chicken parm eating, Brooklyn born son of an Italian immigrant. They all cool though and agree to help our boy get his intelligence back.

Central City Streets

Caitlin and Joe are on their Sherlock and Watson flow. They pull up to a bodega looking for Amunet aaaaand issa club. Well a gambling ring to be exact. Shorty in the back countin stacks and Joe whips out the badge (I’m convinced) just to see the poker roaches scatter. They get Amunet to come back and help the team. Kinda hard to argue with “You’ll be as dumb as rocks if you don’t help us.”

S.T.A.R. Labs

Amunet puttin her feet up on all the furniture. She in the crib with the jokes, calling out the Flash on his secret identity, and touchin shit like your 3-year-old nephew. The team hits her with the real. Methodical, power absorbing, genocidal killer got satellites ready to hit everyone on Earth with a Slowpoke psychic beam attack. She’s like, “I’m wit the shits…BUT imma need a helluva lot more of my metal shrapnel. Kilos fam. Thing is my stash spot got hit, but let’s check out the area and see if we peep anything.”

Before going, Cailtin pulls Amunet aside and convinces Ms. Iron Man to give Caitlin the splicer that she used to “fix” her a while back. But hookups don’t happen without a price. Caitlin agrees to do Amunet on favor once their brains aren’t turned to mush. Caitlin desperate fam. They head to the train yard where she keeps her stash and run some diagnostics on the way the thief got into the train car. After some hilarious guesses by Amunet, they find out venom is how someone got in. She realizes the substance must belong to Medusa eye, Norvok.

S.T.A.R. Labs

Joe calls out Caitlin for going just a tad too hard on finding Norvok and the stash. He storms out upset “Killer Frost is gone forever.” Cisco and Harry have a breakthrough after the Harrison squad visit. Harry might be able to help the team with a different, emotional angle.

Iris drops her article on Barry and he still shook it’s gonna cause a panic. She thinks the citizens need to arm themselves. Barry thinks it’s too risky, so she leaves the decision up to him. (Nah Iris, NAH) But I guess she feels it’s time for the Flash to put his faith in the people, like they always have done for him.

Venomous Villainy

Amunet and Caitlin are kickin it in the Pipeline and the truth finally comes out. The Splicer never worked. Killer Frost has been inside her the entire time. Amunet also realizes that she knows where Norvok is…which is selling all of her wild metallic alloy to some of Central City’s finest thugs in suits. Norvok with the good eye been holed up in the old underground deal fake out spot. This is also why Team Flash’s hacked satellites couldn’t pick up on the metal.

Flash comes in to shut shit down. He sends Medusa eye flying then does his typical ‘Flash gets bodied by someone he should’ve easily beaten’ thing. Norvok unleashes his Slytherin peeper and pumps Flash full of that Black Mamba mist. While Flash writhes in pain, snake face stalks Amunet, ready to take out his former capo. But with a little Team Flash assist, she gets her hand on her special metal and turns Norvok into the snake man in the iron mask. Amunet remembers she’s a villain and chucks up the dueces on Team Flash. Buuuuttt not before blessing Team Flash with a dark matter infused metal shrapnel bomb. She curtsies then metal hurricanes outta there.

To end the episode, they break out the violin music so Barry can tell his wife that she was right. He wants Cocoa Butter Kisses to drop that article and boy does she! They wake up in the middle of the night to her social media hotline blingin. The City want the static with DeVoe. They ain’t goin down without a fight.

Flash Facts

Back at the lab Harry tells the team he’s figured something out. He strains himself drawing 3 faces on the board. A happy DeVoe and a sad Marlize equaling a meh face. This is the reason DeVoe hasn’t popped off yet.

Was it me, or was the actress who plays Amunet on a whole nother level this episode? Her hair was mad rockstar, she was cackling at jokes, and shooting crazy eyes all over the place!

Joe and Caitlin go get a drink like partners who just caught a break on a big case. She buys a round and thanks Joe for being there for her, then she hits him with that status update. Killer Frost has always been there, she just has to dig deep to bring her out.

Flash Fan? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.

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The post The Flash Recap: Harry and the Harrisons appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

On Saturday, a bride tied the knot to the love of her life in a wedding ceremony in Zimbabwe.  Just days prior, she was attacked by a crocodile who bit off her right arm.  25-year-old Zanele Ndlovu and her now-husband Jamie Fox were on the Upper Zambezi River enjoying a canoe ride when the 8-foot croc launched itself from the water and snatched the former tennis star by her arm before dragging her down reports USA Today.  Fox, 27, was thrown from the other side of the boat as Ndlovu desperately fought with the animal to free her appendage from its mouth.  "Jamie swam over to where I was struggling with the crocodile that was trying to pull me to the bottom of the river and grabbed my waist and with the other hand he rained blows down on the crocodile," she told The Telegraph. "The pain was excruciating but Jamie was by my side and I summoned the strength to fight through it." The bride was flown to a nearby hospital where doctors had to amputate the remainder of her arm and treat injuries sustained to her left hand.  With her surgeon's medical advice in tow, the bride and groom didn't let a lost arm or a change in venue disrupt their plans to say "I Do" or damper their outlook on the day.  "I spent a lot of time preparing for my wedding day, running around for a venue, decor and so forth," she told the Zimbabwean newspaper, the Chronicle. "I didn't know fate would have me wed in a hospital chapel, with one limb missing. But in all this, I'm not complaining. My wedding was the best, and I have a wonderful husband." The groom added, "I never even at one point thought of calling off the wedding.  I love her even more and this incident made me feel even more the deep feeling behind our vows. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, that’s just how it’s going to be." After Ndlovu gets the all-clear from doctors, she and Fox plan to move to the UK. 

Season 3 / Ep 5: Triple Point / SyFy

Episode 4, Reload, ended on a few tenuous points: the Martians were supposed to share Avasarala’s info with their high command. Pastor Anna was supposed to remind the SecGen what kind of asshole Errinwright really is. The crew of the Rocinante was supposed to finally get all the way on the road to reconciliation. Some of these things happen and some don’t. In each case, this episode, Triple Point, is full of surprises.

The Roci on the way to Io

The two Martians, Alex and Bobbie have begun trading barbs and acting chummy, which is a thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, character-wise. I mean, Bobbie didn’t desert Mars so much as pick the good guys to fight for. Alex on the other hand… but here we are.
The crew agrees that if they see any hybrids on Io, they will run like hell and nuke the place from orbit. This has been solid advice since Ripley gave it to another group of Marines back in 1986.

MCRN Ship, Hammurabi

Here we are again with another Martian ship named for a famous figure from non-western history — Hammurabi, the Law Giver. On board the Hammurabi, the smart Martian, Ensign Sinopoli, is called to the Command Deck to talk to Captain Kirino.

Sinopoli is good for his word and in the face of serious doubt he delivers his message. Kirino tracks down the Agatha King and Admiral Souther, who are currently on route…away from the battle to Io. Well ain’t that interesting? Kirino may not be willing to deliver the message, but she sure as hell is willing to investigate.

UNN Agatha King

The flagship of the Jupiter fleet is now under the command of Admiral Nguyen, who is proving to be more than up to the task of being Errinwright’s errand runner out in space. He’s directing the ship to Io, against the recommendations of Souther’s loyal bridge crew. Nguyen again boots Souther off of his own CiC, adding insult to injury.

The Roci

Avasarala, of course, doesn’t want them to nuke Io. She needs that sample, the data, all of it. She decides to come clean to Holden, mostly because she doesn’t seem to have a choice. She tries to sell Holden the “savior of the species” line, which he doesn’t seem to be buying. At least that’s one thing he won’t buy. He’s let other people, and his passions, dictate so many of his actions, it is interesting at this point to watch him try to stay neutral. Isn’t it too late for that? Aren’t they already caught up in the Churn?
One thing that Avasarala says that is 100% on point: Holden is a better man when he’s being the adult in the room. At some point he has to stop pretending not to care about his situation and actively start trying to direct it. She continues to be able to read a person with very little information.

Even Prax is down for nuking the site, having realized that if Mai is down there, and has been infected, killing her would be a mercy. Amos continues to his mission of mercy to soften Prax’s heart, or at least to try to keep it soft. Amos’ work with Prax, and indeed Prax seems to be a project that Amos cares for, is touching as he continually tries to keep the plant guy focused on the love of his daughter instead of revenge against the guys who took her.
Speaking of Amos, he’s the only member of the crew who continues to treat Naomi like the sneak she is. Somethings, he says, can’t be fixed.

Agatha King

On the flagship, the bridge crew has realized that Nguyen is up to no good. The crew hints to Souther that if he wants to “make a move”, i.e., regain control of his ship, they’re behind him. Them and half the Jupiter fleet. How’s this gonna work out?

Io

Katoa has now been completely engulfed by the protomolecule. When he is in his own mind, he complains of the pain, which Jules-Pierre pretends to give a shit about. But really Mao and Strickland are in it for the protomolecule — what does it want, what is it doing? Why disassemble? Katoa, still obedient to their requests, tries to tell them. But between the squelching and the screaming all he manages to say is “The Work, You can’t stop the work!” and if that isn’t ominous coming from an alien, I don’t know what is.

Agatha King

Oh, and btw, Hammurabi does send that recording to Souther on the Agatha King. The Churn is everywhere now, all the rules have changed.
Souther needs to confirm that the message is real, so who does he talk to? The only person he *knows* is alive and should have been there: Cotyar.
Now, why Nguyen let Cotyar continue to draw breath, I have no idea. I’d have killed him, or had him “try to escape and oops we shot him” by now. Cotyar is literally the only person they have in custody with the info to bring it all down around them. But maybe Nguyen doesn’t know that? Anyway, Cotyar who has been waiting for Souther to get his head on right for 2 episodes, sings the whole story, convincing Souther that this whole thing stinks. Which he knew, but yay for confirmation?
Leaving, Souther is caught and arrested. But they still don’t kill Cotyar? Nguyen and crew need to up their evil mastermind work.

The Roci

And here it is. Naomi, for her own internal reasons, finally comes clean about her past. Why she picks this particular moment isn’t clear, at least to me. Of course, she has a former lover who’s in the OPA. Of course, she has a kid she can’t see because that former lover is an asshole. Of course, she gave the protomolecule to Tycho out of some desire to protect this child she doesn’t know and hasn’t seen. Of course. Of course. This has all been hinted at throughout the series to the point where I think Holden was the only one who didn’t know. The timing lends itself to an “I know you’re going away to maybe die, so here’s the truth” kind of trope, which makes the scene corny in a show that usually is anything but. I wasn’t moved by it, which continues to be my issue with their relationship — each character alone is solid, but together they just fall flat for me.
In truth, Naomi has been necessarily restrained thus far this season. Once she puts herself back out there, I suspect all of the personalities onboard the Roci will get kicked up a notch.

Io

In talking to the creature formerly known as Katoa, Mao and Strickland discover that the Work is coming to an end. But just like any other unwilling informant, providing that info leads to the alien becoming…well…unusable. So they’ll have to infect another kid and get another, as Mao says “conduit”. Mai Meng, you’re up!
While Mao is pretending to care that his surrogate daughter is about to be consumed by the protomolecule, Nguyen shows up demanding the control codes for all the hybrids.
Remember, that’s what he was going out to Io for in the first place, to get the hybrid soldiers to use again Mars. Nguyen, and by extension his boss Errinwright, doesn’t know about the child hybrids. Man is Errinwright gonna be hotter than hell when he finds out.

In orbit around Io, the mutiny of Souther and his loyal bridge crew is kicking off.

Also in orbit around Io, the Hammurabi is threatening to start flinging missiles around. They don’t, because, in fact, the only adult in the room is Captain Kirino. She decides to wait and see what the Agatha King is going to do, wasting her long-distance advantage.

Also in orbit, and descending on the other side of the planet, is the Roci and crew.

Errybody Same Place, Same Time

Now the crew of the Roci doesn’t get up to much, so don’t worry about them.

While Nguyen is doing his damnedest to get those hybrids, Kirino hangs chill, waiting for something to happen. Nguyen is having trouble keeping hold of his own ship though because he was dumb enough to bring Souther to the bridge. Souther announces to all ships in the area, Earth and Mars, that he is standing down, there’s a conspiracy afoot.

The whole episode picks up speed now. Control of the Agatha King flips back and forth, competing messages flying around like a rumor of a new Frank Ocean album on Black Twitter. People get shot whose names you couldn’t even read on their uniforms. Once there’s enough blood on the floor of the Agatha King, Nguyen starts firing at UNN ships. Because the best way to put down a mutiny is to start killing your fellow soldiers.

Kirino really does play the role of the wise Hammurabi, staying out of the fight while the Earthers tear each other to shreds. She’s even wise enough to volunteer to help any of the Earth ships if they want to opt out of the madness.

How does Nguyen respond to all that? He pops the hybrid pods up from Io, directly at the Martian fleet. The Crew of the Roci gets to watch them take off.

We’ll be covering all of The Expanse so come back weekly for new recaps and other news under the The Expanse tag.

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The post The Expanse Recap — “Triple Point” appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.