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Euphoria is back like a rager that never ended. From the somber specials that gave us extreme close-ups in lingering slow motion – this episode is going 100 miles an hour… literally. All of our favorite characters are back and the ones we love to hate too. Everyone is talking about this episode because there’s so much that transpired that you need more than a couple of days for it to sink in. Without further ado, this is the Euphoria recap you’ve been waiting for since the premiere of the Coronavirus. Although it goes without saying:
Spoilers Warning! It’s a recap. Please also note, some of the content is triggering. The show features drug use, sexual behavior, and many experiences that are traumatic in nature. Feel free to skip sections and take care of your well-being.
Fezco’s Grandma was a MotherF-ing G
Yes! We begin with Fez’s grandmother, a bad mother – shut yo mouth! Ok, she’s not Shaft cuz she’s still a white woman, but I won’t deny she was a G. She rolls up in the royal blue pantsuit strolling through the strip club-ready to throw hands, and everyone can see it. She steps into the head office, head for more reasons than one, and shoots the head honcho in both legs and walks out. You then see a young Fez in the car, and his grandmother says she had a talk with his father and Fez coming to live with grandma. Soooo Fez’s dad is the Ron Jeremy of Euphoria, and she just shot her son in both of his legs. OKAY, I think I understand the ride we’re going on this episode.
We then take a hot and heavy trip through Fez’s childhood. While our grandmas were giving us Werther’s candies while we sit in the car at the post office, Fez’s grandma was asking him to keep the car running while she beats the sh*t outta this guy with a crowbar real quick.
We also get a glimpse at Ash’s origins. He was plopped into Fez and his G-ma’s house as collateral by his mother. The saddest story isn’t even the fact that Ash’s mom used her own kid to pay off some debts, but that the debt was too large she left her child and never came back. That better be some Squid Game level of crippling debt. But Ash had Fez at a head nod, and on some Fast and Furious vibes that baby became his flesh and blood that day. Through thick and thicker, Ash will F-k someone up. Oh, and his name is Ash cuz as a baby he ate some cigarette butts that were next to the sink while he was getting a baby bath. YUP! Ash is for ashtray.
Oh back to brass knuckles, I mean brass hammer – excuse me brass taxes. Last we saw Fez he was handling a mess he was stuck in with his supplier. The same guy who forced Rue to take Fentanyl and almost die is back looking for his cash. Before they can square everything away, Ash does a barrel roll over the couch and molly whop this dude in the head with a hammer! That man got knocked the F-out! No forreal! He is out for the count…forever! In the same swing, he knocks off the henchman’s nose. Now we’re in a pickle…
To iron this out, it seems Fez and Ash are being taken to the head supplier’s home to – ya know, just talk it out over dinner. For some reason, Rue is with them in the car. I feel like she would have learned from the last time she got involved and was force-fed fentanyl but learning from mistakes is not totally in her character. They stop and meet the no nose henchman and his high AF girlfriend who gets in the car and proceeds to shoot up heroin while Jules gets freaked out. They both get ripped from the car and taken inside and told to strip. Yea, it’s getting even realer than a hammer to the skull. Thankfully, Rue does not strip but is thrown in a shower and forced to prove she is not wearing a wire. Now, a very well-mannered soft-spoken white woman brings over a suitcase of drugs ready to do business. WTF!
Back in the car, Rue is reeling on the experience as if she was just in a scene of a movie and none of it was actually real which ticks off Fez. Honestly – fair reaction. Like, she keeps getting in these life-or-death moments and just keeps it pushing. But if we remember from our special Euphoria episode, she does not plan on being around that long. Ooof, yea what a devastating line.
There’s Some Girl Like Passed Out in Here
Now, we’re at a New Years’ party, and it looks like the cops should have showed up like hours ago. But we are in rural CA, and I guess this is where no one cares if teenagers are doing coke in bathrooms. We see Lexi frantically looking for Cassie. Apparently, they had a huge fight, and now she can’t find her. I have a lot of questions. One, how did you have a fight in the car, and she gets out and what? You just leave her? Did the Uber just drive away? It is confusing how Cassie got left at a convenience store, but we see her sitting in the parking lot eating a donut when the worst human being on Euphoria steps into the scene…Nate. He looks like he’s been gaming all school break, because his hair is not styled and he just looks kinda…tired. He offers to give Cassie a ride to this party, and she says yes. While LITERALLY drinking and driving, he speeds up to 100 miles an hour and Cassie looks terrified – then turned on?? Mind you she is drunk AF, but what in the hell is even going the F**k on?! Nate? Maddy’s Nate? I don’t want this, Cassie – you don’t even want this. Euphoria then cuts to them smashing in the bathroom at the party. Is it weird that I’m like, “oh thank God?” It’s better than them dying in a horrible underage drinking car crash.
Maddy is at the party in her best 90s skin-tight attire and has to pee (of course.) She is banging on the door that – yes her ex and best friend at Fking on. Cassie looks like the fear of God has just crept inside her and can’t even operate her limbs. Now, we’re in a horror film. I’m thinking Maddy is gonna break down the door and kill everyone in the room. Euphoria cuts to us at a funeral, and we finish the season with Maddy’s prison story. (She’d be a G in prison.)
BUT instead, Cassie hops in the shower, Nate comes out, Maddie comes in and pees, and then arer joined by another gentleman waiting for the bathroom. Welp, Cassie is stuck in the tub.
Euphoria got the suspense is out of control. Not to mention there was no toilet paper, so Maddy wiped her pee on a towel and threw it in the tub on Cassie’s face. Her phone is now going off. The nice gentleman throws open the curtain and says, “There’s some girl passed out in the tub.” It’s over. Cassie is caught. Maddy is going to prison. Instead, in true Maddy fashion, she says “so what,” and asks her gentleman caller to dance. Crisis averted. But oooh girl – that happened…
To make matters worse, Cassie’s ex Chris shows up. Like dude, why are you at a high school party right now? You’re in college…BUT obvi he is there to see Cassie. She looks messed up. He’s just trying to get closure. Why did they break up? As far as he knows, there is no reason. However, her choice to not keep their baby is most definitely weighing on her mind, and she says she doesn’t think of herself as a “good person.” This triggers Chris, and right now I bet he’s thinking she cheated on him or something to that tone. He doesn’t really have a choice but to leave it at that. What happens after is the disturbing part. Nate, once good friends with Chris, starts asking in a disgusting dude-bro way what happened in the room. Chris is honest and says they just talked, but Nate cannot let it go. He keeps berating him, getting more and more explicit asking where he came and legit uncomfortable about it – in his face and getting violent (as Nate does.) Chris is like, man get off me and leaves. Why are we at high school parties anyways?
I Didn’t Mean to be Mean
We also see Fez and Rue have made it to the party. Yea after casually being stripped searched by major drug lords they were like let’s stop off at this high school party real quick. Either way, it’s great to see all of our Euphoria friends, Kat, and her new boo Ethan. Lexi is having a couch confessional session with Fez, and it’s an interesting development. He gets her number, is like aight I’ll holla, and has a quick chat with Nate involving fists and teeth. It was a mess! Although Lex looks absolutely terrified, I feeeel like it’s not terrified enough to completely count him out of the dating pool. I really hope they get together, despite Lexi’s obvious fawning over Rue.
Which reminds me. Rue! She is looking bored and makes her way back to the car to explore that stash of heroin the whacked-out girl had in an Altoids tin. I’m like girl, girrrrl, guuurrrrl – no! Heroine?? That is a step too far. That’s not even a, find euphoria high. That’s a let’s alter my body chemistry and forget how to live otherwise high. You don’t wanna go down that road. We don’t actually get to see what she does with it. She just flicks the bag and cut to – she is back at the party. Now, what I’m hoping she didn’t do is heroin of course, but I’m also hoping she didn’t cook that shit up and use that random girl’s needle. THAT would be a whole new low. At most, I’m hoping she rubbed it on her teeth. OK, I am getting too far into the many uses of heroin. Back at the party, Rue sees Jules hanging with Kat and is actually hiding – not avoiding or evading – literally ducking under counters. She makes her way to the laundry room where she meets a sweet loner kid snorting off the dryer. She convinces him to share and then feels herself start to go into cardiac arrest. Now, I am not a licensed physician, but can you even really feel that? She tells the kids to crush up some Adderall so she can snort it and restart her heart. Is that even a THING? I swear Rue – you need to carry naloxone around like a damn EpiPen.
Later, we see Jules looking for Rue. She knows she’s here…she can feel it. Once she finds her sitting by a bonfire, she takes our young drug Padawan’s seat, and they chat. Jules can obviously see she is off the wagon. She asks her when she relapsed, and, flippantly, Rue denies like she isn’t obviously high on multiple drugs and says it’s just weed. She then fesses up and tells Jules it was the day she left. Heartbreak – check. The pressure, the sadness, the feeling of responsibility it’s all too much and I’m just a spectator! Back at the party, Rue finds Jules to apologize.
She says she didn’t mean to be mean, and she misses her. Jules misses her too! And they kiss, and we’re all crying. But secretly, the pessimist in me was like, none of this is happening, and Rue is about to wake up passed out by the bonfire. Thankfully, it was real. We then have again one of the most beautiful cinematic moments where each corner of the room is seen like the flash of a polaroid. Snapshots of this overworked party are being lit as if burned into our memories and everlasting portraits for our characters. This is the beginning of an unforgettable season for sure of Euphoria.
Catch up on past recaps of Euphoria here.
Cover image via TVLine
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The post Euphoria Season 2 Premiere Recap: Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Euphoria is back like a rager that never ended. From the somber specials that gave us extreme close-ups in lingering slow motion – this episode is going 100 miles an hour… literally. All of our favorite characters are back and the ones we love to hate too. Everyone is talking about this episode because there’s so much that transpired that you need more than a couple of days for it to sink in. Without further ado, this is the Euphoria recap you’ve been waiting for since the premiere of the Coronavirus. Although it goes without saying:
Spoilers Warning! It’s a recap. Please also note, some of the content is triggering. The show features drug use, sexual behavior, and many experiences that are traumatic in nature. Feel free to skip sections and take care of your well-being.
Fezco’s Grandma was a MotherF-ing G
Yes! We begin with Fez’s grandmother, a bad mother – shut yo mouth! Ok, she’s not Shaft cuz she’s still a white woman, but I won’t deny she was a G. She rolls up in the royal blue pantsuit strolling through the strip club-ready to throw hands, and everyone can see it. She steps into the head office, head for more reasons than one, and shoots the head honcho in both legs and walks out. You then see a young Fez in the car, and his grandmother says she had a talk with his father and Fez coming to live with grandma. Soooo Fez’s dad is the Ron Jeremy of Euphoria, and she just shot her son in both of his legs. OKAY, I think I understand the ride we’re going on this episode.
We then take a hot and heavy trip through Fez’s childhood. While our grandmas were giving us Werther’s candies while we sit in the car at the post office, Fez’s grandma was asking him to keep the car running while she beats the sh*t outta this guy with a crowbar real quick.
We also get a glimpse at Ash’s origins. He was plopped into Fez and his G-ma’s house as collateral by his mother. The saddest story isn’t even the fact that Ash’s mom used her own kid to pay off some debts, but that the debt was too large she left her child and never came back. That better be some Squid Game level of crippling debt. But Ash had Fez at a head nod, and on some Fast and Furious vibes that baby became his flesh and blood that day. Through thick and thicker, Ash will F-k someone up. Oh, and his name is Ash cuz as a baby he ate some cigarette butts that were next to the sink while he was getting a baby bath. YUP! Ash is for ashtray.
Oh back to brass knuckles, I mean brass hammer – excuse me brass taxes. Last we saw Fez he was handling a mess he was stuck in with his supplier. The same guy who forced Rue to take Fentanyl and almost die is back looking for his cash. Before they can square everything away, Ash does a barrel roll over the couch and molly whop this dude in the head with a hammer! That man got knocked the F-out! No forreal! He is out for the count…forever! In the same swing, he knocks off the henchman’s nose. Now we’re in a pickle…
To iron this out, it seems Fez and Ash are being taken to the head supplier’s home to – ya know, just talk it out over dinner. For some reason, Rue is with them in the car. I feel like she would have learned from the last time she got involved and was force-fed fentanyl but learning from mistakes is not totally in her character. They stop and meet the no nose henchman and his high AF girlfriend who gets in the car and proceeds to shoot up heroin while Jules gets freaked out. They both get ripped from the car and taken inside and told to strip. Yea, it’s getting even realer than a hammer to the skull. Thankfully, Rue does not strip but is thrown in a shower and forced to prove she is not wearing a wire. Now, a very well-mannered soft-spoken white woman brings over a suitcase of drugs ready to do business. WTF!
Back in the car, Rue is reeling on the experience as if she was just in a scene of a movie and none of it was actually real which ticks off Fez. Honestly – fair reaction. Like, she keeps getting in these life-or-death moments and just keeps it pushing. But if we remember from our special Euphoria episode, she does not plan on being around that long. Ooof, yea what a devastating line.
There’s Some Girl Like Passed Out in Here
Now, we’re at a New Years’ party, and it looks like the cops should have showed up like hours ago. But we are in rural CA, and I guess this is where no one cares if teenagers are doing coke in bathrooms. We see Lexi frantically looking for Cassie. Apparently, they had a huge fight, and now she can’t find her. I have a lot of questions. One, how did you have a fight in the car, and she gets out and what? You just leave her? Did the Uber just drive away? It is confusing how Cassie got left at a convenience store, but we see her sitting in the parking lot eating a donut when the worst human being on Euphoria steps into the scene…Nate. He looks like he’s been gaming all school break, because his hair is not styled and he just looks kinda…tired. He offers to give Cassie a ride to this party, and she says yes. While LITERALLY drinking and driving, he speeds up to 100 miles an hour and Cassie looks terrified – then turned on?? Mind you she is drunk AF, but what in the hell is even going the F**k on?! Nate? Maddy’s Nate? I don’t want this, Cassie – you don’t even want this. Euphoria then cuts to them smashing in the bathroom at the party. Is it weird that I’m like, “oh thank God?” It’s better than them dying in a horrible underage drinking car crash.
Maddy is at the party in her best 90s skin-tight attire and has to pee (of course.) She is banging on the door that – yes her ex and best friend at Fking on. Cassie looks like the fear of God has just crept inside her and can’t even operate her limbs. Now, we’re in a horror film. I’m thinking Maddy is gonna break down the door and kill everyone in the room. Euphoria cuts to us at a funeral, and we finish the season with Maddy’s prison story. (She’d be a G in prison.)
BUT instead, Cassie hops in the shower, Nate comes out, Maddie comes in and pees, and then arer joined by another gentleman waiting for the bathroom. Welp, Cassie is stuck in the tub.
Euphoria got the suspense is out of control. Not to mention there was no toilet paper, so Maddy wiped her pee on a towel and threw it in the tub on Cassie’s face. Her phone is now going off. The nice gentleman throws open the curtain and says, “There’s some girl passed out in the tub.” It’s over. Cassie is caught. Maddy is going to prison. Instead, in true Maddy fashion, she says “so what,” and asks her gentleman caller to dance. Crisis averted. But oooh girl – that happened…
To make matters worse, Cassie’s ex Chris shows up. Like dude, why are you at a high school party right now? You’re in college…BUT obvi he is there to see Cassie. She looks messed up. He’s just trying to get closure. Why did they break up? As far as he knows, there is no reason. However, her choice to not keep their baby is most definitely weighing on her mind, and she says she doesn’t think of herself as a “good person.” This triggers Chris, and right now I bet he’s thinking she cheated on him or something to that tone. He doesn’t really have a choice but to leave it at that. What happens after is the disturbing part. Nate, once good friends with Chris, starts asking in a disgusting dude-bro way what happened in the room. Chris is honest and says they just talked, but Nate cannot let it go. He keeps berating him, getting more and more explicit asking where he came and legit uncomfortable about it – in his face and getting violent (as Nate does.) Chris is like, man get off me and leaves. Why are we at high school parties anyways?
I Didn’t Mean to be Mean
We also see Fez and Rue have made it to the party. Yea after casually being stripped searched by major drug lords they were like let’s stop off at this high school party real quick. Either way, it’s great to see all of our Euphoria friends, Kat, and her new boo Ethan. Lexi is having a couch confessional session with Fez, and it’s an interesting development. He gets her number, is like aight I’ll holla, and has a quick chat with Nate involving fists and teeth. It was a mess! Although Lex looks absolutely terrified, I feeeel like it’s not terrified enough to completely count him out of the dating pool. I really hope they get together, despite Lexi’s obvious fawning over Rue.
Which reminds me. Rue! She is looking bored and makes her way back to the car to explore that stash of heroin the whacked-out girl had in an Altoids tin. I’m like girl, girrrrl, guuurrrrl – no! Heroine?? That is a step too far. That’s not even a, find euphoria high. That’s a let’s alter my body chemistry and forget how to live otherwise high. You don’t wanna go down that road. We don’t actually get to see what she does with it. She just flicks the bag and cut to – she is back at the party. Now, what I’m hoping she didn’t do is heroin of course, but I’m also hoping she didn’t cook that shit up and use that random girl’s needle. THAT would be a whole new low. At most, I’m hoping she rubbed it on her teeth. OK, I am getting too far into the many uses of heroin. Back at the party, Rue sees Jules hanging with Kat and is actually hiding – not avoiding or evading – literally ducking under counters. She makes her way to the laundry room where she meets a sweet loner kid snorting off the dryer. She convinces him to share and then feels herself start to go into cardiac arrest. Now, I am not a licensed physician, but can you even really feel that? She tells the kids to crush up some Adderall so she can snort it and restart her heart. Is that even a THING? I swear Rue – you need to carry naloxone around like a damn EpiPen.
Later, we see Jules looking for Rue. She knows she’s here…she can feel it. Once she finds her sitting by a bonfire, she takes our young drug Padawan’s seat, and they chat. Jules can obviously see she is off the wagon. She asks her when she relapsed, and, flippantly, Rue denies like she isn’t obviously high on multiple drugs and says it’s just weed. She then fesses up and tells Jules it was the day she left. Heartbreak – check. The pressure, the sadness, the feeling of responsibility it’s all too much and I’m just a spectator! Back at the party, Rue finds Jules to apologize.
She says she didn’t mean to be mean, and she misses her. Jules misses her too! And they kiss, and we’re all crying. But secretly, the pessimist in me was like, none of this is happening, and Rue is about to wake up passed out by the bonfire. Thankfully, it was real. We then have again one of the most beautiful cinematic moments where each corner of the room is seen like the flash of a polaroid. Snapshots of this overworked party are being lit as if burned into our memories and everlasting portraits for our characters. This is the beginning of an unforgettable season for sure of Euphoria.
Catch up on past recaps of Euphoria here.
Cover image via TVLine
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The post Euphoria Season 2 Premiere Recap: Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Writers: Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver / Artists: Ariel Olivetti, Nik Virella, Todd Nauck, Andrei Bressan, and Hi-Fi / DC Comics
Justice League Incarnate spins out of DC’s Infinite Frontier book that set up the landscape of the new DC Multiverse.
This Justice League team is made up of heroes from across the multiverse as they team up and combine their resources to act as the protectors of every world in every universe. We’ve got Earth-23 Superman, Flashpoint Batman, Captain Carrot, Avery Ho Flash, and Doctor Multiverse to name a few. They’ve got a tall task, but for the most part, they’re able to keep the peace.
That is until a rift in the multiverse is opened. The destruction of everything is already a stressful enough situation, but to make matters worse, Barry Allen is on the other side of the rift, in unobserved space. Darkseid is hellbent on opening the rift wider, causing more death and destruction as a result. The Justice League Incarnate have a lot on their plate, and to be honest, it doesn’t look like they have what it takes to get the job done, at least not yet.
Justice League Incarnate #3 follows the team as they’re split up into different worlds. They’ve got to find their way back to each other so they can resume their time-sensitive mission. Superman and Doctor Multiverse are on a world where comics tell the stories that they live, Batman is on the cartoon world where Captain Carrot comes from, and Flash is on a world with Amazonian pirates. It’s pretty fun stuff.
Traveling to different universes also gives the artists the opportunity to convey the differences between worlds with different stylistic choices in the art. That’s why we’ve got five different artists on this issue alone. Each one brings a unique aesthetic to their world, hitting home the point that everyone is in a different place. This is a technique I see a lot in comics, and it never ceases to amaze me. It’s so simple, yet so effective.
8 Nimrod Squads out of 10
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**Warning: Spoilers Ahead**
Hello, Dexter Morgan.
Dexter has a contentious place in television history. On one prosthetic hand, its final season and finale remain one of the worst of all time even now almost 10 years after it aired. On the other dismembered hand, the Season 4 closer featuring the surprise murder of Rita Morgan (Julie Benz) at the hands of the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) continues to top lists of the most shocking moments in TV history more than a decade later. It’s a production of extremes, and today’s reboot New Blood follows in its footsteps.
I have loved Dexter from the very start. The vigilante justice of his code fills an important vacuum for victim/survivors, and watching him dismantle criminals who escaped the law was cathartic. But where I really fell in love was during Season 5, the rape-revenge season, where Dexter (Michael C. Hall) takes down a gang of perverts who kidnap women to torture, rape, murder, and film it all, dumping the women after in the Everglades in trash barrels. As he dispatched each pervert one by one, those were the moments when Dexter received my devotion permanently. In fact, I adore Dexter so much I didn’t think the Season 8 finale was as atrocious as everyone complained, and I long suspected that Dexter Morgan never intended to survive that hurricane he rode into that garnered so much fan hate.
In Marcos Siega’s sequel Dexter: New Blood, my suspicion was finally confirmed that the eighth season closed with a suicide attempt. When Dexter accidentally survived, he took the opportunity to reinvent himself. From the opening moments of New Blood we see these changes in action in Dexter’s new alter-ego James “Jim” Lindsay who has made a home in upstate Iron Lake, New York. Jimbo has amplified Dexter’s previous office-donut persona and has compartmentalized his old self so deeply he hasn’t killed a single bad guy in this entire time away from Miami. The ghost of Harry Morgan (James Remar) has been replaced with a fabulously demented version of Dexter’s sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), who bullies Dexter into staying straight, while providing disturbing evidence that under Jimbo’s affable veneer he is even more psychologically damaged than before.
With the shooting of a sacred white buck on Seneca land by local murderer Matt Caldwell (Steve M. Robertson) — who killed five people and covered it up — coupled with the return of Dexter’s estranged son Harrison (Jack Alcott), “Jim Lindsay” can no longer hold back the truth about Dexter Morgan and wraps his shed in plastic to kill Matt. Unfortunately, Dexter’s first victim in 10 years is the son of Iron Lake’s own serial killer of runaways Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), who is almost as prolific as Dexter himself and also hides behind a good guy veneer. As Dexter’s actions once again put Harrison in danger, his cat and mouse game with Kurt has explosive consequences.
Dexter might not be killing just before we meet him again, but he’s still flirting with the law. His girlfriend is Police Chief Angela Bishop (Julia Jones), the first Seneca woman to hold that role, who slowly begins uncovering the truth about Dexter Morgan: He is the Bay Harbor Butcher, and she’s been sleeping with him for almost 3 years.
As the stakes consistently ramp up, New Blood reminds us that while this is a sequel to Dexter, it’s a new and evolving monster entirely. Sunshine, beaches, and sandbars are replaced with snow, forests, and the blue light of winter. The iconic title credits are absent, along with the haunting lullaby melody of Dexter’s theme songs. Instead, we’re hit with an intense Cormac McCarthy-esque visual collage that hints to future events, as well as the episode title hidden in the scenery like a superhero comic. Every episode has an actual soundtrack to complement the score, including songs from Iggy Pop, Blondie, Beck, Lunachicks, and many others. The tone has shifted into much more ominous territory, helped along by the new characterization of Debra, whose unsettling ghost presence is the veritable opposite of who she was alive. It’s both thrilling and terrifying to see this new side of Debra, and Jennifer Carpenter attacks the role with gusto.
Yet New Blood is still so familiar. There are many echoes to the original, starting with the return of Dexter’s internal monologue, which feels like an oddly comforting, strange homecoming. After the past three years of the real-life pandemic, Dexter’s voice felt like a restoration to some semblance of normalcy, being back with an old friend even though he remains problematic. After all, Dexter has killed at least 135 people in his original run, and adds five to that number in New Blood.
Nostalgia in New Blood is subtle, and effective, without much reliance on cameos from Dexter’s old world. In many ways, this return feels quaint, as the storytelling is straightforward and there are no massive twists like we’ve come to expect in a show since the first Dexter conclusion. Still, New Blood definitely banks on these moments of morbid remembrances, like when Dexter’s internal dialogue finally resumes after killing Matt Caldwell, along with carefully placed hints of the original theme song and the occasional steak and eggs references to the original run.
Where New Blood diverges is in Michael C. Hall’s performance, which reads much more like a play than a TV show. Hall uses his considerable theater chops to fantastic effect, and it meshes well with all the new blood infused into the show with fresh characters, the unique setting, and the actual gallons of blood spilled on screen as we see aspects of Dexter’s process we never did in past seasons.
In New Blood, everyone grapples with the fact that the past isn’t through with them. With Harrison’s return to Dexter’s life, and Dexter realizing Harrison also has a corresponding Dark Passenger, Dexter can no longer deny their shared generational trauma. A cycle of violence has continued, even with Dexter and Harrison living apart. It’s as heartbreaking as it is troubling, and New Blood explores these intense personal and psychological dynamics with powerhouse performances from all main characters. It’s a gut-punch when realizing young Harrison might not have a choice in following in his father’s footsteps. Jennifer Carpenter’s darkly dreamed Debra is horrifying and captivating, stealing every scene she’s in with an unsettling force that reveals just how broken Dexter really is deep down.
But where New Blood shines extra bright is in its Indigenous representation and focus on a real-life American problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Chief Angela Bishop’s main motivator is solving the case of her missing best friend Iris (Jessica Perry), as well as all the other Indigenous and runaway women who have gone missing in the area. She suspects a serial killer, but has no idea it would be kindly Kurt Caldwell, whose performative sanity is even more effective than Dexter’s “cultivated affability.”
In nonfiction America, the FBI suspects multiple serial killers are working through Indian Country, as the systemic epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women grows each year without even receiving a modicum of national news coverage. This kind of Indigenous representation in television, especially in a police procedural, is almost nonexistent, so seeing New Blood take time and care to explore these important issues sets it apart from Dexter’s own history as well as similar cop shows. If more shows and movies focused on America’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, we might be seeing more urgency and justice for these women and communities in real life just through simple awareness.
“What would justice feel like to you?” Dexter asks Harrison when describing Harry’s Code, and every single character in New Blood has both individual and collective ideas of what justice means to them, both legally and otherwise. For the fans who felt the original Dexter ended with an ambiguous injustice, I hope you’re satisfied now that the closure in New Blood is concrete and irrevocable with Dexter’s death. I wasn’t prepared for a freshly broken heart this early in the year, and I am self-soothing by remembering the collateral damage of Dexter’s rampages Sargent James Doakes (Erik King) and Captain Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Velez) will finally receive their long overdue vindication. As sad as I am, I still understand Dexter’s story could end no other way.
Goodbye, Dexter Morgan. I will miss you even more this final time around.
You Know the Kitchen is Lit if they Talkin’ Smack
Listen, I know some of you folks love some QUALITY cooking competition shows. Some of you love you that good baking competition that will have you buying vanilla paste in bulk. Some of you enjoy good ol’ fashioned kitchen rage (I’m not judging you, just saying you deserve better.) Then there’s some who want a little bit of everything. Well, let me introduce you to something you been waiting for: The Great Soul Food Cook-Off on Discovery+. It got your classic shit talking, instigating, immaculate plates, legendary judges, and celebration of a beautiful cuisine. When I talk about how food competitions be trying to dilute soul food into “rustic”, “simple” and “unrefined” I be wanting to cuss them out. Soul Food comes in many variations. It’s wonderful, inventive, and has a rich history. It confuses me when people downplay it. This show presents flowers to your shrimp n’ grits and gives a standing ovation to your granny’s pound cake.
The Great Soul Food Cook-Off is that energy you need to start your year off right. We have Miss Melba Wilson (Owner of the Legendary restaurant Melba’s in New York City), Eric Adjepong (a personal favorite finalist from Top Chef, and a chef whose specialty lies in West African Cuisine), as well as many guest judges and an invigorating host, Kardea Brown. This show gives you Black people living their best chef life, creating dishes based off various challenges that touch on the history and importance of Soul Food. As a Chef Dorian and Chef Chris fan when I saw that they would be entering the arena, every Saturday night I pulled up a delicious plate then proceeded to scream and snap at my television.
Give Me That Black Joy
Through this show, I got to learn about soul food chefs that I wish I knew about before. Each chef had a different approach to soul food, whether it was simplicity and preservation or innovation and pushing boundaries, each person’s vision was valid and supported in the show. The Great Soul Food Cook-Off pushed forward flavor and appreciated presentation. Many cooking shows would demean food where the presentation didn’t seem “proper” in their eyes. Presentation was a story of themselves instead of a vehicle to prove they’re capable of “fine dining.”
The Great Soul Food Cook-Off touches on the colonization of the kitchen through stories of the chefs. Being Black in the culinary world is still challenging despite Black folks’ historical inspiration behind great dishes we know and love. We get to hear stories of overcoming odds that goes beyond “we grew up in a poor family, and now I’m using my skill to hopefully bring us out.” There are so many cooking-competitions that try to idolize the come-up story. The “cream of the crop” where they need to prove their worth. The Great Soul Food Cook-Off already recognizes the worth of the competitors, because they’re not competing for a white audience. The competitors know their skill, instead what they’re fighting for is specific to them. They’re not heralded as a representation of a race but as a representation of their own narrative and goals.
Take Heed, Take Example
Cooking competitions need to take an example from The Great Soul Food Cook-Off, because it gives flowers to being yourself. There hasn’t been an episode where I wasn’t engaged. I want people to see this show and imagine what a respectful cooking show looks like. Something that brings critique and doesn’t question the worth of someone who doesn’t fit in a box in their head. Appreciate the specialty in others and what makes them different. The Great Soul Food Cook-Off brings infectious Black joy, delicious food, and inspirational stories reflective to your own. Shows like this are important because it doesn’t force representation, it celebrates it in all of its forms. The Great Soul Food Cook-Off in its entirety is streaming on Discovery+ now!
Cover Image via rottentomatoes.com
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The post ‘The Great Soul Food Cook-Off’ is a Kitchen Lituation appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.