#s1e4 rewatch

[arthurslesbian]

nimueh saying "i expected so much more" she is such a compelling villain

#LIKE #s1e4 rewatch #like she clearly knows all about the prophecy #about mordred and how arthur would be the one to unite the land of albion and bring magic back the whole thing #idk if she knows about the whole emrys thing but she clearly wants to off merlin so 🤪 #and like the way she's like eh i don't see it #while also getting revenge on uther #her connection to arthur!!! she is the reason he was born!!! #just gets me i wish she had stuck around bro ngl #nimueh

[skitskatdacat63]

"Fernando" S1E4 - Fernando Alonso & Carlos Sainz Sr.

#im sorry i also thought i qas done gifing this season #but then i was rewatching it today and remembered this scene existed #ive talked abt this before but ahhhh theyre very cute to me #like how theyre both older drivers but act very young with each other and tease each other #but in this ep especially nando is so so so cheeky with him #but the mood lighting and the camera angles my god #its filmed like a gay romance drama i swear #'do you think two old racing drivers can fall in love? 🥺' #fernando alonso #carlos sainz sr #what's their ship name?? #carnando #??? is that it??? #f1 #formula 1 #fernando(show) #we do a little bit of f1 #fernando s1e4

[canonically47]

their first official break-up

sniffles.. nowen save me nowen

#rewatching for fanfic purposes #*cough cough* TD:TBBG *cough* #nowen #noah x owen #owen x noah #tdi noah #td noah #noah tdi #noah td #owen tdi #tdi owen #td owen #owen td #total drama #total drama island #s1e4 #dodgebrawl

[kirjavas]

i remember watching episode 4 with my parents for the first time and when lyra took out the alethiometer to tell iorek where his armour was my dad said "bear with her" and couldn't stop laughing at his own joke

#hdm rewatch #his dark materials #hdm #bbc his dark materials #hdm spoilers #s1e4 #s1 #alice’s rambles

[c0ffeeb1ack]

kind of interesting how we never really see the events of the hargreeves' "missions" as kids other than that first episode, but we do see the aftermath of them with both luther's unconsensual monkeyfication and ben being dead. someone better at media analysis pick this up please 🙏

#tuamre #tuamre s1e4 #tua mass rewatch extravaganza

[overheard-at-easing-the-badger]

Thom: *explaining the effects of the madness and gentling the Power had on his nephew*

Rand:

#this was inspired by that one scene in S1E4 of the show that we're rewatching now that the S2 date has been officially announced #the wheel of time #the wheel of time show #rand al'thor #wot #wot spoilers #wot show spoilers #thom merrilin #wheel of time #wheel of time on prime

[yellowjacketslesbian]

van protecting nat from travis in S1E4 and then having to watch nat date him anyway like a week later is literally every lesbian having to watch their bi bestie date an awful man when they know their friend could do so much better (lottie)

#yes I am rewatching S1E4 again for the millionth time tonight #vannat #vannat are goofy butch lesbian and their alt bi bestie rep to me

[charcoalowl]

It always gets me the way Ben tries to guide Klaus in his life, partially because that is the only way for him to exert any control over the world. It's not like he has a life of his own. While the other siblings are exasperated by Klaus and simply choose to ignore him, for Ben Klaus is everything. No other way

#tuamre #i'm gonna be making a post about how Ben as a character works as an allegory for chronic depression once we get to a more fitting episode #tua mass rewatch extravaganza #s1e4

[infinity2020corner]

Still think Bates slamming Thomas into a wall and threatening him with more bodily harm is a disproportionate, not to mention alarming reaction to Thomas acting like a little shit

#thomas barrow #S1E4 #downton abbey #casual rewatch

[state-of-being]

When Prudence brings Stolas to Blackwood's office because she caught him spying in the girls showers...

Lilith, girl, there are better ways to see Sabrina naked.

#madam satan #lilith #caos #chilling adventures of sabrina #sabrina rewatch #s1e4 #black sabbath

[honeysucklepink]

Moonlighting Rewatch, S1E4: "The Next Murder You Hear"

Synopsis from Wikipedia: "Maddie and David investigate the on-air shooting of a radio talk-show host. Although David thinks the case will be great publicity for the agency, Maddie is unsure whether to take it when she learns that the host was having an affair with a married woman. The host soon turns up alive, having faked his own death to keep the affair from his boss, but is then accused of the murder of his lover's husband, who was also his boss. Both the host and his mistress hire Blue Moon to prove their innocence, and Maddie and David disagree over who they believe actually did it."

Original Airdate: March 19, 1985

Fun Fact (esp. for Gleeks): Guest star Quinn Fabray's dad!

Rewatch window is from 8 pm eastern Tuesday, November 7th to 8 pm eastern Wednesday, November 8th!

#moonlighting #moonlighting rewatch #moonlighting on hulu #moonlighting s1e4 #the next murder you hear #bruce willis #cybill shepherd #gregg henry

[arthurslesbian]

no but the poisoned chalice may be one of my favorite eps ever 😭

#it's got so much to it #a chance for all the side characters to really shine since merlin is the main character ofc #morgana telling arthur 'sometimes you've got to do what's right and damn the consequences'??? #gwen risking her life to get the flower from arthur?? #arthur going on an epic journey by himself #merthur soulmate bond where merlin knows when arthur is in trouble and can send his magic great distances to save him #gaius using magic!! #nimueh being the absolute most villain to villain AND knowing the prophecy #uther telling arthur he's proud of him #can it get better than this??? #s1e4 rewatch #ash watches merlin again #i was only dropping by to make sure you were all right AND WHEN I SCREAM

[free-to-be-no-one-but-mee]

Realizing how many different things they dealt with and how long it takes for actual religion to show up

Like there are demons, but they're just demons lol

jensen's ass curve shot!

Bed head

FLIP PHONE

The brother's have so fucking good looks between them. Just a slow turn and everyone knows what they are saying to each other

boy MADE and emf and sam's the smart one? Pfff

Agile motherfuckers

"whY Do yUO thINk i DriVE eVeRYwhErE SaM?"

Jensen has such large eyes, ofc no one says no to him

#spn rewatch #s1e4

[stemroses]

Tell me how I forgot this man was out here muttering/moaning (but in a sick way) Arthur’s name while on his deathbed

Babe in episode fucking 4

#merlin rewatch #screaming #Merlin s1e4

[c0ffeeb1ack]

#tuamre #tuamre s1e4 #tua mass rewatch extravaganza #the umbrella academy #tua #this was the only episode i forgot! #hopefully everyone still remembers the context of all these lines #tuamrepoll

[biblioflyer]

Four episodes into rewatching Season One of Picard: some general thoughts.

As I’ve laid out, this season so far challenges our assumptions about Picard, the character, and the world building of the setting in ways that are discomforting but I am not inclined to dismiss them as invalid or “CW edge” - a sort of snarl word to stand in for angst and oppressive bleakness that mimic the complexities of dark, introspective works such as Breaking Bad or the Ur prestige drama: The Sopranos. 

This is part of a series of essays reevaluating Star Trek Picard and interrogating the widely held fandom criticism that Picard made the Federation into a Dystopia.

Definitely on a rewatch, I am struck by how well suited Picard the character is for this sort of meta-dialogue. And it very much is a meta-dialogue. Picard is a legacy character, a hero from another era where the contrasts between good and bad were sharper and to some extent, the lines of social conflict were drawn in such a way that people who thought they were heroes are now the villains in someone else’s story.

Picard is a great character to represent this because unlike so many other people, when he is put in the position of villain, Picard’s first instinct is to reason and erudite his way out of it, but his second instinct is to listen empathetically. Picard doesn’t begin and end with doubling down. 

Picard is in some sense programmed to seek solutions from within the norms and institutions he is familiar with and comfortable with but season one in particular and to some extent, season three, are teaching him to approach the universe more holistically. Picard is learning to appreciate the limits of power and to recognize that Starfleet is not the right instrument for every problem. More discussion here and here.

I think this is a worthwhile conversation for Star Trek to have. Star Trek is THE science fiction franchise about the virtues of a virtuous institution, an armada of stellar individuals virtuously riding in week after week to save the day upon chrome steeds. Contrast this to Star Wars which has always held institutions, even the Jedi Order itself, in contempt. At best institutions in Star Wars are well intentioned but myopic and prone to being outmaneuvered by opponents who figure out how to weaponize the virtues and proceduralism of the good guys against them. More typically institutions in Star Wars are incompetent and malignant.

That isn’t to say that Star Trek doesn’t question power or is incapable of critiquing its own heroes. A thread from the Star Trek Subreddit catalogs NINE admirals who are villains in just TNG and Insurrection. The list balloons to almost two dozen when TOS, DS9, and the Kelvin timeline are added. Note that this is from 2019 so Discovery and Picard are not included. This also doesn’t include lower ranked villains like Captains, such as Captain Maxwell.

Of course this list does include some explicit subversion of people’s autonomy: alien parasites and such. Others are acting according to their own understanding of what “the good of the many” means. Twice in a hundred years the Federation experiences attempted military coups by those who believe the Federation is too soft to capably deal with its enemies. Admiral Satie was a ferocious defender of the Federation’s ideals as she saw them but in the same way that Senator Joseph MacCarthy was a ferocious defender of American ideals.

Seeing Picard spend four episodes getting dressed down for various oversights is challenging if you’re a longtime fan like me for whom TNG hit at an extremely impressionable time. Yet he consistently models something that I think matters a lot: Picard is defensive but ultimately he is willing to listen and to question his own judgments in good faith. 

That more than anything else answers the anxious question at the heart of every crotchety elder millennial, gen xer, and boomer watching Picard: “is this Star Trek?”

Yes.

You have to be willing to question your own assumptions about how well you remember TNG or whether you, the audience member, made the characters into superhumans in your memory, but if you can do this, then this is Star Trek.

As to my other research question of “Did Picard make the Federation into a dystopia?” by now I feel like that too is well answered.

No.

The Federation has always had limitations and been far less than omnipotent or omniscient. I think there are specific situations and contexts in which these limitations are being exposed and interrogated that are making some members of the audience extremely touchy because they are more emotionally invested in the idea of a purified, post-material society free of “sin” as it were. A secular Kingdom of God, ruled over by democratically elected, perfectly wise Philosopher Starship Captains.

It's still a pretty awesome place, it's just that everyone is subjectively instead of objectively moral and are merely doing their best rather than having perfect knowledge. Picard’s season one “apology tour” illustrates this nicely. That season three’s Captain Shaw has made some of the best consequentialist arguments of all time while Picard, Riker, Seven etc. take turns arguing for a sense of ethics rooted in the morality of actions themselves also beautifully illustrates that these are not bad people, they’re just people and they are authentically trying to do the right thing.

The Mystery Plot Evolves

If sinking your teeth into the emotional and moral depth is the first reason to rewatch Picard’s first season, grappling with the metaplot is the second. I too fell victim to finding it confusing and irritating the first time through. What I’m seeing now seems to show that it was laid out with more care and just generally less convoluted than I remember. Maybe it's just because I already know the answer now.

The Disordered are an interesting way to introduce the concept of the Admonition and the origins of Zhat Vash’s intense hatred of AI. 

Narek starting to show his dark side in prodding Soji about the inconsistencies in her cover story moves the plot along but also illustrates another reason I’ve just not had much to say about this side of the plot, even though whether or not the mystery makes sense in the end is kind of critical.

The fact of the matter is I hated the romance subplot the first time through and I hate it more knowing that Narek is not a “complex” character, a Romulan protagonist playing the part of antagonist because of corrupting influences. No, he’s a manipulator who is trying to maneuver Soji into putting herself unknowingly in danger. His interest in her secrets is entirely selfish even if raw curiosity is warring with his view of her as a harbinger of doom.

I’ve also been the rebound partner a couple times with people who have come out of relationships defined by nesting dolls of deceit and manipulation. As a consequence, I detest seeing these things on the screen. I can’t do “Reylo” ships or long for the “sad boy” to be fixed. I hate these characters because they inserted poison pills into relationships I found deeply meaningful before those relationships ever began.

So if the next time I address the Romulan snake in the grass, it’s an extended rant don’t be surprised.

Carrying on my Wayward Sons

I’ll close out by saying that I have no idea how much of the season’s script and its developments the actors already had access to or in what order scenes were shot, but the interactions between Raffi and Picard are phenomenal. With the benefit of hindsight and knowing the dark turn of events looming when it's Raffi’s turn to try to reunite with her son, well her trying to talk JL out of going to Vashti just shines all the more.

I think you could read it in a few ways. She clearly already knows why Picard is going to Vashti. On how many levels she knows, it's hard to say. Elnor is the obvious one since she’s only coming along for a ride to Free Cloud to try to talk her own estranged son into letting her back into his life. 

The second is that as much as she’s tried to prepare Picard for the realities of life outside the Federation in a post-Hobus star universe, I suspect deep down she is worried that after having just gotten the old JL back, seeing the poverty and seething resentment will break him all over again.

Finally, recruiting a Sister of Absolute Candor would simply confirm for Raffi that Picard is prepared for saving Soji and confronting Zhat Vash to be a suicide mission. He will not be deterred by danger or reason, and that too represents the high likelihood of losing JL again and in a more final way.

#star trek #star trek picard #Picard s1e4 #raffi musiker #star trek ethics #star trek picard rewatch #absolute candor #dystopia