bluerosefairy

This one was totally the "let's remind the audience that Ray's not a total wanker" one. Which I do appreciate.


- Alex, sweetie, what did we tell you about talking to the telly? It just makes you look as bonkers as Sam. Also, am really rather creeped out by the puppet. Camberwick Green and the puppet from the first season weren't bad, but this one totally looks like a demented bird.

- Chris! Mangling French! Sam would be so amused.

- Um, wow. Why's the guy all tied up in the boot of the Quattro? And why are they putting him in the . . . they're shipping him to France?! That's, uh, quite a way to get rid of criminals there, Gene.

- Bwahahaha, Chris, Ray, and Gene's simultaneous double-fingered salute. Yes, I know it means "fuck you", and while it's hysterical, it remains that no one flips people off like Keeley Hawes.

- "Right now, we need something to shut them up, like a bloody big collar." "Burglary at #2 Stanley Road, Guv." Well, then. Whatever the Gene-Genie wants, the Gene-Genie gets.

- OH SHIT. Peter Drake. Molly's dad. Oh jeez, Alex, you don't go hugging the in-laws you haven't met yet.

- She named her daughter after a cat?! *laughs* I swear, if Alex mutters that she had a lot of fond memories of that cat, I will have the biggest laughing fit known to mankind.

- I, er . . . what? And I ask again, only slightly louder, WHAT?! Alex, you DO know he's a 14 year old kid who hasn't MET you yet, much less abandoned you and your daughter? Do you know how insane you sound?

- Ew, Ray, your leering is creepier and more obvious than usual. Stop that. And by "stop that", I don't mean switch your morality off and on like a robot and beat the crap out of people when Gene tells you to. Although that little "I've had enough of this shit" is very telling - a revolt, possibly?

- Hah, Gene really likes beating people up in restrooms. He used to smack Sam around in the men's room, and we've had at least three scenes this season in A2A of him beating the pulp out of people in bathrooms.

- Awesome belt, Alex. Shame about the coat.

- "Oh, so that's where she gets it from." Well, she certainly doesn't get that from you, Alex. When you lie, you look off to the side. You're also about as crap at it as Peter is.

- "I can't change what happened. I'm kind of learning that, now." It took you freaking long enough, Alex. That's really one of the major differences between the way Sam's 1973 worked and the way Alex's 1981/82 works: Sam had to change things - save Annie, keep Tony Crane in prison, go back to shut down Morgan's operation. Alex can't, she has to accept that certain things, the big things, can't change. Very Whovian of them, really (like how Four's choice to not blow up the Daleks lead to the Time War, but how Ten absolutely has to let Mt. Vesuvias erupt and bury Pompeii).

- O RLY, Gene? You're the Sheriff again, are you? Haven't been acting much like one.

- . . . whoa. Ray? Joining the army?

- Awww, bless. I like Mrs. Staines. She's sweet and old and uses Cockney rhyming slang and okay, probably evil or a serial killer, considering this show's parental issues. At the very least, she's lying about having any money saved.

- And there goes Alex again. "I'd remember." "Just trust me." Just like there couldn't have been a bomb under that car Ray checked out, right? C'mon, Alex, Sam's story should have taught you better.

- "Under Pressure"! Heeee!

- Damn, Alex. Threatening a man's nuts with a squeezing so hard he'll "have a voice like a Bee Gee". NIIIICE.

- Gah. Just when I start unequivocally hating Ray again, Dean Andrews goes and nails a scene like the one with Alex in the locker room. It's short and powerful and you get everything that's been going on with Ray in such a short time. Because he's not just brainless muscle - the Guv and the Masons (especially Mack) gave him a purpose. Gave him prestige. He was an officer of the Met, and all the beatings he dished out were for all for the goal of keeping that purpose and prestige. And now everything's gone - no Mack, no Masons, Gene under the thumb of the Commissioner, Chris getting married. No wonder he's pondering joining the army.

- Hmm. That's another mention of people being alive when they should be dead, and the third mention this episode of Spain. My inner fangirl's ears have perked up and are inquiring whether or not we might find a Sammyboy chilling out in Madrid.

- Totally shallow moment, but George Staines? Hot.

- Heee, I do like Ray stonewalling Gaynor.

- *headdesks* Gene. Alex. STOP IT. Just give up and admit you're shagging already. Because no one can survive those choking amounts of sexual tension.

- DUDE. So that's the infamous "Martin Summers"? Looks like a copper. Talks like a crazy copper. And come the hell on, no way he and Alex are the only dimension-hoppers or whatever you want to call them. Gene is totally one too, if he's not the Wizard wanting to keep everyone there.

- I really, really adore the lighting in this confrontation between Summers and Alex. The horizontal stripe of bright light. The spot on Alex, the shadows on the corner where Martin starts out, slowly bleeding into the light. Alex in white, Summers in black (in an almost identical suit to the type worn by Sam and Alex in their respective "home" times).

- *punches the air* Summers was a cop! I knew it! His cadence and chain-smoking and body language totally screamed "cop".

- "Don't cry, Bolls. That's an order. I mean it, if you're crying, I might have to do something drastic. I might have to put a comforting arm around you." THEEEEEEMM. *squishes them*

- *winces* Yikes, that is a nice gash to the forehead. For a minute there, I thought we were going to have to add another mostly-innocent dead woman to Gene Hunt's total.

- Ew, Alex, stop being so creepy. There is no reason you should admit to knowing what Peter's bed sounds like. And you should not be lecturing him on all the annoying crap he did when you two were married if he is still only 14!

- *dies of laughter* Gene Hunt, ladies and gentlemen. Cannot deal with the idea of a transsexual. And wow, that's definitely an interesting thing for Staines to have done. Shame, really - he was a great-looking guy. And according to Chris, Ray, and Gene, a great-looking girl as well.

- Ohhhh, ouch. That Elton John pun was painful.

- "Gender-bendy weirdy-beardy freak of nature." Hooo boy. And that's what you get for being a tosser, Gene - kneed in the bollocks by a trannie. I particularly love the entire hospital watching the proceedings.

- Hah, we knew Alex was a shoe girl, but name-dropping Jimmy Choos? Nice.

- D'awwwww. Shh, Alex, don't tell everyone that Gene's actually a decent guy. Would kill his rep.

- Oh, Alex and Ray! "Stay". "You're not such a bad copper . . . for a bird." Paying for her drinks. I really like the look we get at them when they're not sniping and bitching at each other.

- Ooooooh. That scene, with Summers and Alex, and Gene being all jealous because it totally looks like she's about to leave with him, and then it looks like she's just dumped him. And that musical cue - Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". Just perfect. Nirvana's riff is more sinister, and I think it could have potentially been seriously awesome to stick just that riff in there for subtle foreshadowing, but still. Awesome scene.


Went to Seoul on Tuesday. OMG LOVE. If I ever decide to come back to Korea after this year, I'm going to teach in Seoul. It's almost exactly like New York - to the point where I mastered the subway system after five minutes and some translation from Jenna.

To put it in geeky English major terms -

Daegu : Philadelphia :: Seoul : NYC.