#unshakable faith episode reviews
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 38 Breakdown
In the cave Ji Danyang pleads with Dr Bai to help convince Nurse Bai to do the right thing but she dismisses both of them and reveals Dr Bai's Ghost Owl codename in retaliation. Dr Bai argues with Nurse Bai about kidnapping Ji Danyang and his fear that he'll die before Nurse Bai decides to change her mind.
Dr Bai convinces Liu Simao that getting the camera is their chance for leverage to survive, so when Liu Simao is told to guard the door Dr Bai steps up as well and they attack Fake Li Qiuchen and his contacts. Nurse Bai intervenes, shooting the man who is attacking her father and Fake Li Qiuchen uses the chance to shoot Liu Simao and stands off with Nurse Bai. Fake Li Qiuchen orders everyone to leave the cave in case the gunfire alerts the police. Officer Hongmei finds the cave shortly after they've gone and the doused fire is still smoking.
As they march through the forest fake Li Qiuchen tells Nurse Bai not to let her father disrupt anymore of their plans, and Dr Bai secretly tells Ji Danyang to be ready as he will create a chance for him to run, but Ji Danyang wont leave without the camera.
When they come to a narrow steep path, Nurse Bai refuses to part with the camera or split up and Mu Sen tells fake Li Qiuchen that Nurse Bai's demands are going to make trouble, so fake Li Qiuchen plans to kill her and Dr Bai when they get to the ferry. The group pauses for a break and Ji Danyang declares it's pointless as he would rather die than give up any data and Dr Bai takes the chance to snatch the camera from Nurse Bai and tries to run for it but is shot in the back by Mu Sen. Dr Bai manages to throw a scalpel at Mu Sen before falling down the steep hillside with the camera. Nurse Bai screams in anguish, turning to shoot the already dead Mu Sen several times until the fake Li Qiuchen holds a gun to Ji Danyang and yells at her to stop. Composing herself she says that she can still complete the mission and he gives her one last chance and continues up the trail.
Officer Hongmei hears the gunshots and they run towards the origin, finding Dr Bai shot but still alive. He gives them the camera, telling Officer Hongmei that her father saved his life and recruited him to the CCP but her father was the only person who could confirm it. He tells them to hurry to the ferry as they still have Ji Danyang before dying in her arms.
She gives the camera to Officer Xu and tells him to take it back to the factory and goes on ahead. He quickly runs into Police Captain Chen and tells them what they've found and he is sent to take the camera back alone while they run to catch up. Alone in the forest, Officer Xu is shot by Nurse Leader Ge who takes the camera from him.
At the riverside, fake Li Qiuchen leaves to find the radio equipment to notify the KMT of their progress, and Ji Danyang challenges Nurse Bai that she took the film out of the camera and still has it, and that she'll have to shoot him because he won't let her leave with the film. Officer Hongmei reaches the riverside and Nurse Bai hold Ji Danyang at gunpoint, refusing to take Officer Hongmei's offer of leniency if she repents. Fake Li Qiuchen returns, shooting at Officer Hongmei but she dodges and fires back from behind a tree. Ji Danyang escapes Nurse Bai's grasp and lunges for fake Li Qiuchen's gun, but is soon overpowered and is held hostage again as both Officer Hongmei and Nurse Bai turn their guns towards fake Li Qiuchen. He demands that Nurse Bai hand over the film and she eventually capitulates, throwing it towards him. Ji Danyang jumps to catch the film instead and both women shoot fake Li Qiuchen dead before standing off against each other. Ji Danyang tells Nurse Bai it's over, pulling open the film roll and ruining the photos. She screams and shoots at them but Officer Hongmei pulls Ji Danyang away, taking bullet to the arm and shooting Nurse Bai, and the police team arrive as Nurse Bai dies.
The police Chief receives the report of the successful rescue, and they find the last information the need to identify the seamstresses former boss, the female doctor. Nurse Leader Ge goes to the expert office but is stopped by Police Captain Chen and the police team. After learning her identity is exposed and her lover fake Li Qiuchen is dead, she reaches for the camera in her bag but they grab it from her and toss it over the balcony where it explodes and they take her away in handcuffs.
The KMT General Kou is forced to report his failure to his superiors and step down from his position.
Officer Hongmei celebrates their success with Ji Danyang and contemplates the future.
.........................................................
AND THAT'S ALL FOLKS.
What do I like about how it ended?
True to form, all of the enemy agents died or were arrested, as were anyone who assisted in treacherous deeds like Secretary Lu and Dr Bai. I would have much preferred to see Secretary Lu and Nurse Bai arrested rather than dead for their characters sake to own their actions, but it doesn't change the story.
What don't I like?
Why the fuck was Officer Xu sent back to the factory alone when he was carrying something as important as the camera?? Come on Captain Chen you had plenty of men to spare!
What do I feel about Nurse Bai's ending?
As Nurse Bai said, she was only concerned about repaying 2 people, General Kou for saving her when she was kidnapped, and Dr Bai for raising her since. So she was serving two masters in a way, but not any political cause. She negotiated for Dr Bai to come with her and having Ji Danyang was a valuable asset, but clearly the KMT guys only planned for a certain number of people to go. Sure, fewer people are easier to hide and transport secretly, but the KMT used a very "scorched earth" approach which has some reason to it, in that if a spy is dead they can't compromise anyone else, but at the same time they also lamented having limited numbers of agents on the mainland. Surely China is big enough that they could give them new identities and place them elsewhere?
It did seem that that was the initial plan but the situation got tighter and Nurse Bai started making demands and not following orders, which turned her into a liability. If she'd followed orders, would she have lived to go to Taiwan? She clearly didn't want to risk being left behind once fake Li got the camera hence her demands.
It got..... messy. Nurse Bai in the end was clearly serving herself and her personal loyalty to Dr Bai and General Kou. But she had no strong conviction for the cause of either side beyond wanting revenge for her parents.
Did she truly believe she could be free from her debt in Taiwan? She told Ji Danyang that her path only led to death and it was the only one she had but she kept talking about living in peace in Taiwan.
Once Dr Bai died she started unraveling, which is to be expected, and she only had one master left so had to see it through for her own sanity.
What do I feel about Dr Bai's ending?
It was interesting to see how his relationship with Hongmei developed into a semi fatherly one, and he was trying to do as much for her as for Nurse Bai. I was going to say that I didn't like that he put so much towards searching for Snow Wolf when it only served Hongmei's father and not Nurse Bai's parents as well but I realised that it actually was a good parallel to Nurse Bai - he also had a split debt of loyalty which took him in two directions.
I don't like that he died because I really liked him, but I'd predicted it and I understand. I don't imagine he would have been ok being free if Nurse Bai died or was imprisoned.
He very much got to the point of realising Nurse Bai was too far gone, and even though he kept trying to convince her to turn around, in the end his dying act was not to protect her physically, as I half-expected, but to try and do the right thing and reverse some of the damage she'd done by stopping the camera falling into enemy hands. His last act wasn't personal, it was for the cause.
Also - he WAS undercover CCP with Hongmei's dad!
What do I feel about Ji Danyang and Hongmei's ending?
While it is expected that a patriotic show like this would end on a high note focussing on the success of the experts and the police team, I personally would like to have seen some of the aftermath of Nurse Bai and Nurse Leader Ge's betrayal. How does Hongmei feel after killing her sworn sister? How does our math man reconcile his fond memories of Nurse Bai with what he witnessed at the end? If she'd been arrested maybe they could have been able to speak to her and get some closure, but with her dying that will never fully be closed off.
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Kinou Nani tabeta. aka My Heart is Full
aka I suck at titles
Let me just say before anything else. This is not a recap or a review. This is me feeling the need to write down my feelings because they are pouring out of me. This is more a personal note than anything else so skip it if that's not your thing.
I always watch this show on saturday mornings, with my coffee and breakfast, because it gives me a boost for the weekend. And I wanted to postpone the final episode as much as possible but I just couldn't. I gave in.
Second FYI. This will probably be incoherent and a mess because that's how I feel. Also, this fucking menopause (surgical, don't give me too many extra years) is really making a mess of my emotional state this week, so I'm all over the place. Also I might've had some wine. Also this may be a bit long. I think that's it.
How I got here
So, I've loved cinema since I was like 7. (yeah I'm going really back in time) Because my mom like films, she dragged to the cinema even when I was way too young for whatever was on. [ Fun Side note- The first film that I saw in the cinema was Bram Stoker's Dracula, when I was like 6, and my mum got into an argument with the cinema employee because" I am her mother, and I'll decide what she can or can't watch"and so I did watch it.]
So I always loved watching films, talking about them and eventually went to uni to learn how to make them. During that time, I went through a phase (which happened to a couple other people in my school) where I kinda got emotionally detached from the stories. I could only see the camera angles, the lighting, the editing, etc.
When I was done with uni, and had decided that editing was my favourite thing I started doing a bit of work in editing, mostly online stuff and a couple of ads in London, and 3 years later I was done. Obviously there were life factors and health factors that contributed to this, but still I left it all behind.
Then, I quickly went back to being able to watch stories with all the emotions.
Let's skip forward to present day.
Kinou Nani Tabeta? feel in my lap by way of my very first BL.
Seven Days. I watched those films and went through all the emotions and needed more. More of that serotonin please.
So I got in research mode and that's when I found this wonderful world of BL and eventually this show.
Now, a little bit more about me, just in case you aren't sick of me talking about myself. I'm not a jolly person. If you asked anyone that knows me irl, they would describe me as someone who always thinks the sky is falling. However, I also love a lot of things deeply, and when it comes to things that I can't find a word big enough for it I call it magic. So I'll use it here.
Kinou Nani Tabeta? is magic.
If this show was a meal then the absolutely right ingredients were found, they were put in the hands of the best cooks and everything was prepared with love and care. This show that I love, was put together by people who love it, and couldn't not make it. This is what I believe. It's my kind of faith.
I've seen so many shows, I've loved so many of them, a lot of them touched me deeply. But only a few touched me this way.
When there is love in something, real care and empathy in the making of something, you can feel it, I believe. And I feel it so much watching this show. I get emotional just writing this.
I wish I could thank every single person that made this show possible. And we could argue all day about the quality of a show, its actors, writers or directors. I could argue why my favourite show is better than your favourite show, and why your show is more important than my show, and why that show failed and another succeeded. I will not argue about the importance of this show and my faith is unshakable.
Maybe because I love food so much and in my life my love filled moments were always around food, I connected at first with Kenji, because his reactions to food resemble mine. But this season Shiro stole my heart and soul.
His quiet but profound way of loving Kenji made cry more than any sad scene ever could. And onions and chicken thighs will forever have deeper meaning in my kitchen.
These two characters are so well written and so well acted, the words are so layered and so meaningful, that it's a miracle to me that it exists and that I got to watch it.
I'm sure other people will write much better posts about this show, and will probably be better (at a hell of a lot more on point) at writing about all the amazing things that this show has done. But I'm an emotional wreck and I could only write from a personal place today.
I'll be rewatching this show in it's entirety soon, because the evolution of these characters, Shiro specially, was such a joy to witness.
If you read this far, thank you. 💜
#kinou nani tabeta?#what did you eat yesterday?#what did you eat yesterday S2#it has never been so hard to hit the post button#i'm having so many feeling about posting this#i'm a wreck right now
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The hidden movie little girl
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and five stars from me.more However I continued reading the story, I can understand why Louise Fein included these topics in the book, it was well written and you certainly question the ideas, morals and medical treatment at the time. To be honest, half way through The Hidden Child, I wasn’t sure I could finish the book, I found the whole idea of the science of genetics and eugenics horrifying, the medical treatment and attitudes towards children especially distressing. Eleanor's desperate to help her daughter, she loves her and the doctor treating Mable won’t listen to her at all, and she comes up with a plan and is determined to save her. This cause’s immense tension in the couple’s relationship, when Eleanor discovers Edward has been keeping a secret from her for over twelve years and she starts to question his honesty and his beliefs. Mabel she has a fit, the Hamilton’s can’t ignore their daughter’s condition, they seek medical advice and she’s diagnosed with epilepsy.Įdward’s very concerned about his career, Eleanor’s in shock, and she has no idea how limited and horrible the treatment was for epileptics in the 1920’s. When Mable starts having funny turns, she goes blank, mentions a lady she sees during her episodes and Eleanor puts it down to her being tired. For me this was a rather controversial topic, using Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, adults and children would be put into categories and it also involves more controversial ideas and practices.īoth Edward and Eleanor believe in eugenics and for Eleanor she has a personal reason for her beliefs. Edward’s a professor, he’s interested in psychology and the science of eugenics. The Hamilton's live in a beautiful home in the English countryside, they own a London apartment and are well off. For me this was a rather controversial topic, using Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, adults and children would be put into categories and it also involves more controversial ideas and practic Eleanor is married to world war one hero Edward Hamilton and they have a four year old daughter Mabel. Alarmed, distressed, and no longer able to bear the family’s burden, she takes matters into her own hands.moreĮleanor is married to world war one hero Edward Hamilton and they have a four year old daughter Mabel. When Eleanor discovers Edward has been keeping secrets, she calls into question everything she believed about genetic inferiority, and her previous unshakeable faith in her husband disintegrates. Mabel’s shameful illness must be hidden or Edward’s life’s work will be in jeopardy and the family’s honor will be shattered. Her wealthy husband, Edward, a celebrated war hero, is a leading light in the burgeoning Eugenics movement-the very ideas that will soon be embraced by Hitler-and is increasingly important in designing education policy for Great Britain.īut when Edward and Eleanor’s otherwise perfectly healthy daughter develops debilitating epileptic seizures, their world fractures. How far are they willing to go to protect their charmed life-even if it means abandoning their child to a horrific fate?Įleanor Hamilton is happily married and mother to a beautiful four-year-old girl, Mabel. How far are they willing to go to protect their charmed life-even if it means abandoning their child to a horrific fate? Eleanor Hamilton is happily married and mother to a beautiful four-year-old girl, Londoners Eleanor and Edward Hamilton have wealth, status, and a happy marriage-but the 1929 financial crash is looming, and they’re harboring a terrible, shameful secret. Londoners Eleanor and Edward Hamilton have wealth, status, and a happy marriage-but the 1929 financial crash is looming, and they’re harboring a terrible, shameful secret.
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Simoun, a review
(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.)
Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry!
Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price for Season (MSRP): 25.00 USD
How much I paid: 23 Dollars USD.
Number of Episodes: 26 Episodes
Price per episode: 1 Dollar per episode
Length per Episode: 25 Minutes on average. 21 Without Intro and Ending song.
Number of Discs: 5 DVD Discs in total.
Episodes per Disc: 5 or 6.
Licensed and Localized by: Media Blasters
Animation Studio: Deen
Audio: Japanese Audio with Subtitles available
Bonus Features: Staff and Voice Actor Commentary.
My Personal Biases: I actually saw Simoun a while back but never reviewed it. I like other shows in the Shoujo Ai genre such as Mai Hime, Mai Otome, Maria Watches over Us, Strawberry Panic and yes, even Kannazuki no Miko/Destiny of the Shrine Maiden.
My Verdict: Simoun is probably one of the best shows and anime series I’ve seen even if it wasn’t part of the shoujo ai genre. It stands up to one of the best in the business with its beautiful animation, amazing soundtrack, incredible world building and interesting characters. But its tone and message is joyless, sullen and grim. Even when the series has a handful of hopeful (not happy mind you) scenes, there’s still the sense of loss. If you can stomach some truly heart wrenching scenes, check this show out when you can.
A/N: Okay, so Media Blasters is the official licenser of the show and translated most of the subs. A lot of the names were also translated but a lot of fans noticed a change in names. Mainly, a lot of characters whose names end with a “u” end up having the “u” dropped. So Caimu is Kaim, Anubitufu is Anubituf and Aeru is Aer. Also, Rodoreamon is apparently Rotreamon now. I’m going to use the names Media Blasters chose for the characters for the sake of simplicity.
Simoun, a review
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I consider myself a fan of shoujo-ai or Yuri anime. I own a couple of boxsets of Yuri anime. I watch Yuri anime. Even the stuff that bores me (Strawberry Panic) or annoys me (Kannazuki no Miko/Destiny of the Shrine Maiden) at least makes me rewatch it again and again. Like all things, I tend to have agreements of which shows I like and which shows I detest like the fucking plague.
But, then comes a series that not only makes me rethink preconceptions I had about religion, war, politics, children, innocence and romances, but also makes me rethink myself and how I rate things on a good or bad rating.
Simoun is a particularly hard series for me to review. It’s a study of contrasts.
While I can honestly say the efforts put forth by the director, the animators, the voice actors and the writers is nothing less than something I find in a movie studio and the passion put into this project is nothing less than soul bearing, it remains one of the most polarizing and controversial shows I’ve ever reviewed.
So, let me say this upfront so you can understand where I’m coming from:
Simoun is a fantastic anime that covers the concepts of children at war, religion rivaling technology, gender roles, maturity, war in the name of religion, and the loss of innocence… that also happens to have lesbian romances.
It’s probably one of the few shows that’s legitimately good and can recommend to people who aren’t shoujo ai fans.
The scope magnificent, the animation, even the stilled shots, are gorgeous to look at, the music is haunting and the characters and voice actors do their absolute best to make the characters come alive. Even the use of CGI ships against a 2D backdrop manage to still look compelling (if a bit dated).
A war breaks out between three nations Simulacrum, Argentum, and Plumbum over Simulacrum helical motor technology that powers the airships known as Simouns. Two fleets of the Simoun, Chor Caput and Chor Tempest, stumble upon a huge Argentum airship fleet attempting steal a Simoun. Suffering massive losses in the battle, the pair Neviril and Amuria of Chor Tempest attempt an extremely powerful but extremely dangerous maneuver out of desperation named the Emerald Ri Mājon. Neviril hesitates after making eye contact with the enemy, and the pair fail resulting in an explosion that takes Amuria with it. The fight leaves the sibyllae or members of Chor Tempest extremely demoralized and Neviril in despair.
This is not Strawberry Panic, an all-girls school romance; this is Ender’s Game and Top Gun for the Shoujo Ai Genre. I would even hesitate to use the word Romance to describe this show because of how dark and at times bleak it can get. But, if you can stomach through the hardships and the gut wrenching scenes, you will find a light at the end of the tunnel and will find hope for the world and its characters.
The people of Daikūriku are all born female. In Simulacrum, the girls grow up until age of seventeen, when they make a pilgrimage to a holy place known as "the Spring" to select their permanent sex. Four new sibyllae join Chor Tempest, one of them an excellent pilot with an unshakeable morale named Aer. Aer immediately decides to partner with Neviril, however despite her persistent attempts, Neviril remains too mired in her grief over Amuria's death to accept her.
How committed are the producers to this premise of everyone being born female? So committed that they literally hired only female voice performers to voice all the characters, even the older men with facial hair. It’s that fact that haunts the world around them. Certain countries do not have access to the well so they have to perform sex reassignment surgery operations for half of the population to keep them afloat. And the use of such technology is polluting their world to the point of seeing nothing but red and black.
This show came out in 2006 before the idea of there being more than 2 genders, debates on whether gender and general roles are a social or biological constructs and gender fluidity became popularized on internet sites like Tumblr.
(I will point out to my internet skeptic friends that the show’s setting depicts EVERYONE as being born biologically female and, according to this world, that certain members MUST transition to the male gender to keep society functioning.)
But be warned; the show can get bleak and downright depressing at times. If you thought it was hard to sit through some of the darker parts of Kannazuki no Miko or My-Hime, you haven’t seen anything yet!
For example, as early as Episode 4 (one of the ‘filler’ episodes), Aer and Rimone take an unauthorized flight and get ambushed on the ground by an enemy soldier. The Soldier dies only to have his body stiffen up with his hands on the controls of the Simoun. Rimone points out that prying his hands off will break the controls, stranding them there in enemy territory while the enemy comes closer.
So Aer has to take her tiny pocket knife and SAW OFF THE SOLDIER’S HANDS FROM THE REST OF HIS BODY.
It’s not even the amount of blood or gore that’s disturbing; it’s seeing a child having to endure and do such a thing that’s so messed up.
See, one of the interesting things I love is seeing how characters interact or react to the world around them. In Simoun, the Sybillae are so used to the idea of war that hearing about people dying is nothing new for them but the idea of having to deal with a mouse is frightening. It’s the type of world where a kiss on the lips between women is so commonplace but Rotreamon cutting off her braids is more dramatic.
If there’s a consequence to the proceedings it’s the characters.
Don’t get me wrong; the characters aren’t ‘bad’ per say and a lot are very interesting and have interesting dynamics, such as the incestuous undertone of Kaim and Alti, the mechanic Waporif dealing with the idea of faith and technology, the class struggle between Roderamon and Mamina. Even Floe, the cute girl and comedic relief, doesn’t escape the world unscathed.
It’s just that the world and the situations and the conflict are so interesting, that you start to notice that the characters are a bit on the stock type. (Then again, I think you need familiar stock types so you can digest some of the bigger concepts.)
But our main pair, Neviril and Aer, are the center of the proceedings and it’s their relationship that nails it. You get the sense that Neviril and Aer are both locked in a sense of immaturity, albeit from different perspectives. Neviril is locked in the idea of being pure and being a priestess forever, even going so far as to not fly again once Amuria dies. Aer, meanwhile, is an impulsive hothead who wants to do nothing but fly, even at the cost of being an adolescence.
But as the war rages on and the casualties of people they know and love start piling up, the two eventually find comfort in each other’s arms. It first seems like Aer is the stronger of the two only for her to completely break down when one death becomes one death too many.
If Junji Nishimura’s direction and co-writing are what brings the characters alive, Toshihiko Sahashi’s music is what makes them transcendent. Every so often, he would incorporate pieces of church music, classical music and tango to make the dichotomy and juxtaposition of certain scenes blow you away.
Yes, Tango.
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Towards the latter half of the series, I noticed that the animation liked to use still shots with characters still talking.
At first, I thought this was intentional by the showrunners. But, as I rewatched the series, it dawned on me that the animation budget was probably blown on the CGI battles and the rest of the team had to resort to cost saving techniques for the show.
CAVEAT: Shows like Simoun do not get made every day. Directors and writers willing this bold of a risk to tell this dense of a tale should be rewarded. And yet for the same time, it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s not for the casual viewer. In some ways, it’s not even for anime fans. This is the anime version of 12 years a Slave as it provides a brutal, harsh and unflinching look at the world.
Do you hate this show?
No, because if I hated it, I’d simply write it off and say it’s a piece of crap just to be done with it.
It’s not. If anything, Simoun is an ambitious anime made by well-intentioned people that for a lot of people is not going to resonate with them. And I’m not even throwing shade on religious viewers who have trouble digesting the heavier concepts. Even more progressive minded viewers are not going to sign on to a lot of the negative and just melancholy tones throughout the work. The work isn’t so much dark as say parts of Kannazuki or Mai Hime are as it is bleak. There’s a sense of melancholy in the air that just persists and there’s no getting rid of it with glimmers of hope scattered here and there.
Why is recommending the anime so hard for you if you thought it was good?
Because for a lot of people, a lot of the world building, concept provoking and issue debates are not what they wanted. Aside from the heavy themes and messages, a lot of the technical flaws do stick out. Neviril and other character designs were a bit off putting to me the first time I saw it, resembling more like dolls than usual anime characters. The CGI Simouns are interesting in concept (and I like the idea of rendering them in CG to show off how alien/foreign they are) but do show a dated look. And for some people, the slow (intentionally deliberate or not) pacing will drive them nuts.
I came upon Simoun as I was exploring Yuri anime and wanted to see, yes, anime girls kissing. What I got instead were thought provoking concepts that only changed my view but changed the views of people around me.
Buying this show just to watch girls kissing each other is like, as Jeff Foxworthy said, buying a 747 just to eat the peanuts.
Erica Friedman, writer of the blog Okazu Yuri, once said this show is not for the Lowest Common Denominator. And upon rewatching Simoun, I had the startling realization that not only was Friedman right but also that I was part of the Lowest Common Denominator.
Simoun is more of a show that I admire and respect the hell of, than I actually like and the fault lies more because of me than what the show did. And for 23 USD with the amount of content AND the numerous special features including Director Commentary and cast interviews, this is truly a must buy!
That ending shot gets me every time.
Verdict: Buy it!
#simoun#neviril#aer#aeru#caimu#kaim#alti#alty#dominura#rimone#limone#mamina#mamiina#roderamon#rotreamon#junji#nishimura#junji nishimura#toshihiko#sasashi#toshikiko sahashi#yuri#shoujo ai#lesbian#lgbt#fumi#akira#aoi hana#aoi#hana
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Review of 14x10 “Personal Jesus”
So many people were fantastic in this episode, but my review mainly focuses on April’s story as she is the one I connect with the most.
“In a course of one day, Job received four messages with separate news that his livestock, servants, and ten children had all died. He continued to be a faithful servant. He praised God. He persevered. Job’s faith was tested, and he passed the test. And for his faith God rewarded Job with twice what he had before.”
There is an idea in many circles of Christianity that has been perpetuated for years. To really be a Christian, you must prove yourself. You follow all the rules, you stay as far from all forms of sin as possible, and you never question the teachings of the Bible. If you can do those things, and do them well, then maybe you will be a good enough Christian.
April Kepner was taught those same ideas. She grew up believing, knowing, that God is the answer for all of life’s difficulties. All she needed to do was to believe in him and follow his teachings, and life would go according to plan.
Except it didn’t.
It didn’t go according to plan in that hotel room in San Francisco when her feelings for her best friend contradicted everything she had learned about sex and virtue. For the first time in her life, she stopped following the straight path that was laid before her. She took a detour and found, that if she let it, life could be fuller and hold more joy than she ever imagined.
And it was. For a moment.
But the guilt and shame that come from being taught your whole life that good Christians don’t sin quickly caught up with her, and her unshakeable pillar of faith swayed just enough to crack the surface.
Christians fail, though. She knew that. She only needed to ask forgiveness and to reaffirm her faith, and eventually she did. The on-call room escapades stopped, and she grounded herself again, back on the right path. She would work harder at being a better doctor, a better person, a better Christian and eventually, God would reward her.
And the she met Matthew, who was seemingly everything she ever wanted. A kind, handsome man who was strong in his faith and loved her completely. Her world had been set right. Except for that quiet spark, deep in her soul that yearned for more. She heard it in still moments. It would whisper to her that there is more to life than settling for what you are “supposed” to do. She continued to silence that nudging voice, until the day she was supposed to marry Matthew, and the voice became a roar. It was so loud that it was all she could hear as she turned from the altar and ran from the church with Jackson, terrified and overjoyed all at once.
Her faith shook once more, unsure that she had made the right choice, but then peace came.
God had brought her happiness. She married Jackson, they were expecting a baby, and all was right with the world. Until it wasn’t. Until she was given an unimaginable test. Her child was sick, and no medicine in the world could cure him. She held her son and watched him take his last breath. She had no explanation. She prayed for a miracle. Her whole life she had been taught to be faithful and obedient and God would answer her prayers. Yet he didn’t. And this ripped a hole in her faith so large that it could never fully close.
The hole grew as she traveled to Jordan searching for healing, but she lost her marriage instead. Jackson was her rock. He was one of the few people in her life who had ever truly believed in her. Losing him made the hole grow bigger.
Oh, but Harriet. Harriet is her strength. Her reason to keep going. Her light in the darkness.
But she is still hurting. She has to ask herself, how can someone like her, a good Christian, face so much pain? And why would a loving, caring God allow one of his followers to suffer when he could prevent it all?
This season has been building to April being forced to look at her life and the decisions she has made, and this episode is a turning point in that journey.
April walked in to season 14 with a broken spirit when she told Jackson that what they were doing was causing her pain. Her heart was broken over Jackson, and things only got harder from there. All season, she was repeatedly reminded of Samuel, Jordan, leaving Matthew at the altar, losing Jackson, and her insecurities as a doctor.
Like Job, she has been tested. Job lost everything that was dear to him, and yet he still kept his faith. He was patient because he knew that, no matter what, God was with him. April did the same. Through her trials, she kept believing in God and his grace. Until today, when all of her struggles and all of her failures were placed in her path at once.
Paul is brought in as a hit and run victim and April treats him, while Meredith, Jo, and Alex discuss how best to handle the situation. Mer goes into the room to check on Paul’s status, and tells April not to kill him. “You really can’t lose him.” April is constantly being told she is not as good as Meredith, but this is not actually a moment of Meredith distrusting April’s abilities as a doctor. Mer tells her she can’t lose him because she is afraid Jo and Alex will be charged with murder. Unfortunately, April doesn’t know that, and it comes across as Mer doubting her. We see that when April calls after her, “Thanks for the vote of confidence!” Once again, April feels that she is not good enough.
Because she is so trusting, she thought that Webber had asked her to run the contest because she is a good leader. She soon finds out it was simply so he could compete, and now, she is missing out on a great surgical opportunity. This is another small reminder that she is still not valued as a surgeon in her peers’ eyes.
She doesn’t have time to dwell on that, though, because Karen Tayler is very pregnant and will not make it to Labor and Delivery before her baby is born. So, April steps in for Robbins, delivering the baby who turns out to be Matthew’s daughter. It seems that Matthew, the man she left at the altar, has the happy life she dreamed of, and she is forced into a front row seat to witness it. She is happy for him, though. He deserves happiness, and this is reassurance that she made the right decision leaving him. He is happy. Even if she isn’t.
(Side note: Arizona claims she didn’t tell April that she was treated Matthew’s wife because of HIPPA. Arizona sure didn’t care about HIPPA when she told Jackson that April was pregnant.)
Deluca drives the pain in a little deeper by telling April that Matthew’s wife is just like her. At this point she is visibly frustrated, but she spots Jackson and heads over to him, knowing he will understand. They have an adorable exchange about the embarrassment of treating Matthew’s wife as well as the contest. April tries to get Jackson to take back the contest, which he unbeknownst to her, created. He, of course, says no, and we get our first hint that this contest is going to be big for both of them.
Their conversation is cut short as April has another incoming trauma. A twenty-year-old man tried to cut off his own hand because he couldn’t stop masturbating, and according to his interpretation of the Bible, this was the only logical thing to do. This patient is a message directly for April, but also for the audience. The Bible is a book of stories that has wonderful teaching and morality lessons. However, in no way should we interpret what it says literally at all times. It has been translated countless times and was written by human hands. Fallible human hands. It is a guide book and not a how-to manual.
The next trauma is another sign for April that God doesn’t always intervene, even when he can. Eric, a twelve-year-old boy, was shot by a police officer climbing in the window of his own house. Jackson and Bailey are visibly angered by this, as things like this happen too often in our country. He is an innocent child who was shot for no reason other than the officer’s assumption he was a criminal based on the color of his skin. April does not have personal experience with this, but she can see the cruelty and unfairness of the situation. She jumps in to help and the weight of the day’s injustices begin to weigh heavily on her.
Like Jo tells Jenny, “The good outweighed the bad. Until it didn’t.”
Everywhere April looks she sees bad. Paul, Karen and Matthew, Eric, Jackson, her career. But she still has faith, and she tries to explain that to the guy who attempted to cut off his hand. “God doesn’t tempt us beyond our ability. He doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” And one of my favorite lines, “When God created the world, he also created metaphors.”
The only problem with this is that God does give people more than they can handle, and April is feeling that right about now.
Eric’s family arrives and April watches as his parents and Jackson have to fight for him to be treated as a child, a human. How could these cops, who swear to uphold justice, clearly be so wrong?
She exchanges a silent look with Jackson, a look that holds so much tension and unspoken thoughts, but Karen Taylor is in pain, and she is pulled away again before she can decide to speak.
Karen has a blood clot on her vagina, and April finds herself in the embarrassing situation of having to drain the blood clot off of her ex-fiance’s wife’s vagina. Talk about humbling. But that’s okay, because as Karen reminds her, “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”
This message is repeated for April because she is feeling overwhelmed with sorrow, but her Christian upbringing has taught her she is suffering this much for a reason. God is teaching her something, and she just has to be patient, like Job.
During Eric’s MRI, April hears about the discrimination Jackson faced from police and she realizes there are things she doesn’t know about Jackson, but again, she doesn’t have a moment to get deeper into what he tells her because she is paged back to Karen Taylor.
Karen is still waiting for a room, and she ends up catching up with Matthew while they wait. She gets to hear all about how Karen is the love of his life. Even after April hurt him so much, he found something better. “She the love of my life, you know? Of course you know. You have that with Jackson.” In that moment, we all heard April’s heart break. Jackson is the love of her life, but she feels that she failed in that, too. Instead of telling this to Matthew, she pretends to be happy. At least something good came from her leaving him. God gave Matthew a great life and she doesn’t want to take away from that. But that happiness is hard to fake when Matthew says, “I heard from the pastor that you were pregnant. So, you have, what a three-year-old now?” Samuel. He would have been three had he lived. “I had – I have – We have Harriett. We have a beautiful daughter named Harriett. She’s one. She is the light of my life.” And the love that April has for her daughter is heard in the emotion that comes through in that line. Harriet is her life at this point.
Matthew is happy for her. “So, it worked out perfectly for both of us, didn’t it? God used that pain and turned it into something beautiful. Guess he knew what he was doing all along.”
He returns to his wife, and April’s face falls as she walks away.
Karma reaches Paul’s room as he injures himself in his angry fit, causing a head injury that leads to him being brain dead. Can’t say I’m sad. Jo is told that she gets to make the call on what to do with Paul. Her reaction from laughter to tears was perfect. And the way she reached out for Alex’s face for support and relief was everything.
Robbins finally shows up to help April with Karen who is in extreme pain just as Eric crashes.
April, Jackson, and Bailey get him to the O.R., and Bailey tells April they can take it from there. April backs away feeling helpless, only to turn back to run into Karen’s O.R. She is shamed as usual by her co-workers, and she is overcome with guilt. Maybe she isn’t a good enough doctor. Maybe she did something wrong. Did she cause this like she caused all the other bad things in her life?
In this time of despair, she turns to the only source of strength she can think of – God. She heads to the chapel to pray for her patients, only to find an angry Matthew. He leaves her, and she sits, beginning to pray for healing and good, but the words of the prayer fail her. She hears no answer. And all she can do is cry.
Cry for Karen, whose body is failing her when her child and husband need her the most.
Cry for Eric’s family, who have to bury their child way too early.
Cry for Jackson, who has to live with bias in his life every day because of his skin color.
Cry for a system that has failed. A system that is supposed to be good. “How am I supposed to have any faith in a system like that?”
Cry for Ben and Bailey who have to explain their son how not to get killed by the police.
And she cries because she has no answer for the patient who questions his own faith.
“Then tell me what to do! If I can’t trust this, if the word of God is just a bunch of stories, what does anything mean? What is any of this even for?”
And that’s the question April cannot answer. That is the questions that brings her faith tumbling to the ground. What is the meaning of a new mother dying and leaving her daughter motherless? What is the meaning of a twelve-year-old boy being murdered outside his house? What is the meaning of her son, Samuel, dying? What is the meaning of her marriage to Jackson ending? What is any of this for?
She has spent her life being good because that is what she is supposed to do as Christian, or so she believed. But why? So she can die with no explanation one day? So she can experience suffering and loss over and over again? So she can watch good people suffer daily? Why is she trying so hard to be good when God allows these terrible things to happen? Why isn’t he doing anything? Because if he is not going to intervene, then there is no reason to try to live this perfect life. There is no point to any of this.
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Job asked the question, too. But he kept the faith. And what did he get for it? Replacement children. PTSD. Was it worth it, to be a faithful servant? Or would it have been better to just curse God’s name from the beginning? Where was God throughout all of Job’s suffering? He was winning a bet with Satan. Makes you wonder where he is through all of the unfairness and inequity and cruelty in the world. Where is he now?”
To April, God has forsaken her. She was a good and faithful servant. She was patient. And it got her nothing. So, she is done being faithful. We saw the pain on her face as she drank herself numb at the bar and as she stood in the shower, desperate to wash off the pain of the day, the light in her eyes burnt out. This is where April’s journey begins.
Her decision to let Vik in the shower had nothing to do with love or lust. It was just one more thing to numb the pain. She sees no reason to continue to always do the right thing because it has gotten her nothing. She is alone and broken, and those feelings will guide her decisions from now on. So stop saying that the show made April a slut or that this decision was out of character. The character we know as April is not the one who made this decision. This decision was made by a woman who feels abandoned and lost. This decision reflects her hope leaving. I agree that April only having been with Jackson was beautiful, but calling her a slut perpetuates the idea that women, particularly Christian women, should be shamed for having multiple partners. April has felt that shame her whole life. That statement would never be made about Jackson, or any other character on the show for that matter, and April should be given the same grace.
But as Sarah said, this story is not over. Job’s story did not end in the middle of his pain. It ended with him being rewarded with twice as much as he had before. I believe that is where April’s story will end, too. She will come full circle and find her faith and happiness again, so don’t be angry at the turn of events in this episode. Just wait for the moment that forces April to feel again. The moment that forces her to stop being numb. That is the moment when everything will change for the better. Because even though April was reminded over and over again that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, that’s just not true. He does. He gives us so much to handle that we need to turn to him for help and answers. April knows this, but in this moment, she doesn’t believe it. But she will find her faith again. Good things are coming for April, and I still believe for Japril as well.
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Evil Season 2: Has Kristen Finally Lost Her Mind?
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This Evil review contains spoilers.
Evil Season 2 Episode 8
What was she thinking? Why did she do that? Does she really say that? You will find yourself asking these and other questions about Dr. Kristen Brouchard (Katja Herbers) on Evil season 2. Episode 8, “B Is for Brain.” The episode is about a machine at the center of a Cornell University study. It measures and records everything going on in someone’s mind when they are too zonked out to block things. But Kristen has too many secrets, and far too much on her mind to let an EMF-on-steroids machine take notes, and it might be driving her insane.
It’s not that we don’t get it. As a matter of fact, I was surprised the people in line behind Kristen didn’t applaud when she went upside the head of a grocery checkout line cutter. Kristen is repressing something almost every minute of every day. She’s been functioning as a single mom, and now that her husband’s back, it’s just another fork grinding in the garbage disposal of the cacophony of her daily life. Of course, her kids can’t be expected to talk one at a time at any time, and yes, it is a brilliant idea to make them take a breath of helium between sentences. But they probably should take a lesson from last week’s episode, “S Is for Silence.” It was golden, Kristen had a good time, she didn’t have to worry about what she said.
Kristen’s sex life is pretty crazy too, and she’s got a mad collection of toys in the attic. Gags, animal masks, and stovetop crucifix wounds, which give Evil its first taste of body horror, make for a great coming home bash for her husband, Andy (Patrick Brammall). Kristen has been pushing herself on many levels this season, and stretching boundaries as far as her psychoanalytic mind will allow her. She’s been jonesing for dangerous sex. A lifetime of regulation marriage sex, standard issue even by mountain climber standards, is a fractious encroachment on sanity. At least Kristen can agree with her mother on one thing. It’s his fault, and it’s maddening enough for afternoon gaslighting. She’s just looking for a match.
But Kristen is also holding something else back, and we finally get the full blow-by-blow in “B Is for Brain.” T is also for temporoparietal lobes, and when hers get aroused it is enough it can’t be contained in one psyche. It is so significant that both she and David Acosta (Mike Colter) have to share it as a religious vision. When confronted by an illusion of the truth, Kristen takes all the guilt which comes from getting away with murder, pushes it into a little ball, and tries to use it to get away with more. One dismissive definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome, and Kristen is crazy enough to make an end run on the cycle. She goes to her therapist in the mecha-augmented reality, and tells him what she thinks he wants her to hear. She does the same in her real reality, and her takeaway might be a breakdown.
The illusion is the solution. Kristen knows this as well as Leland Townshend (Michael Emerson), who is incapable of deluding Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin), the clearest visionary on the series. Sister Andrea is a force of nature, and the scene between her and Leland is one of the tensest of the series. It’s all done with acting, and a little footwork. But Sister Andrea sees through everything. There is a very real possibility Kristen’s illusion will be shattered, and the people she is closest to will have to deal with the broken pieces. Much like David concludes at the end of the episode that the god helmet is too tight a fit for the minds of the Vatican College, Kristen resists the study. She agrees with the findings, but they are too relevant to her. She shuts out the idea before she even walks into the room.
When the three members of the assessment team are taking in the testimony of the people who underwent the temporal lobe manipulation, their expressions are very telling about the characters, and how they are judging the results. Ben (Aasif Mandvi) is held in rapt attention. He sees something in their stories which fascinates him with possibilities. He may have to debunk those options in the near future, but his expression says he is hungry for the details. David looks like he’s peering into the naked essence of the person in front of him. He isn’t looking to poke holes in the stories, but he is invested, personally, in what the meanings are. We can see him actively searching for something uniquely special.
Kristen offers the subjects a look of beneficent indulgence. She is also very quick to judge the outcomes as being skewered by the church’s intent and, at the end of the episode, gives medical assent. She sees the religious visions as collateral to the overall therapeutic value. Kristen is the most resistant. Ben is the most eager to go along for the ride. “A chance to see god and Keith Moon,” he enthuses while the EMF meters are being spirit glued to his temples. “How could I pass that up?” It takes a mother of a toll. Mandvi may have to trade in his comic actor card after this scene. There is no trace of funny business in it.
Ben has been undergoing the most traumatic arc of the season, and Mandvi should be up for some kind of dramatic acting recognition. He pushes emotions through his eyes into the pupils of the viewer. In this episode he does it with goggles on. His projection is amazing, and while this scene isn’t his most subtle, it is the most glaring. David Acosta’s Ben has an invitational presence, informed by an assured trust in his beliefs, and the intelligence to back the trust. The highly-educated Ben is willing to toss intelligence away for a more revelatory emotional truth. He trusts he will not be wiped clean of his accumulated knowledge, and here he lets faith shake the shit out of him. Kristen remains unshakable, possibly psychopathically so.
When Kristen is first strapped into the headgear, she doesn’t get a reading and immediately comes to the conclusion she “doesn’t have a soul.” She is being facetious, but personal soul-searching is what scares her the most. She doesn’t want to look at herself, much less through David’s eyes. It is like Spock looking at Medusan ambassador Kollos on the Star Trek episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty?.” All that ugliness can drive someone to madness.
Is Kristen crazy enough to admit to murder? Is it insane to want to confess to it? Is contrition a placebo? Kristen is making Luciferian decisions with a therapeutic mind, and the church is doing the same for possible conversion. David deliberates the benefits of technology and it burns out regions in his brain. Evil continues to blur the mental with etheric supplementals. “B Is for Brain” presents a fundamental. Don’t think too much. It can drive you nuts.
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Evil airs Sundays on Paramount+.
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The God Complex - Doctor Who blog
(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)
Oh great! Another Toby Whithouse episode! They’re always good for a giggle!
I’ve always felt Whithouse was the obvious candidate to take over from Moffat as opposed to Chris Chibnall. Granted not everything he writes is amazing, but he always maintains a decent level of quality and he seems to have a good handle as to what makes Doctor Who such a unique show. I absolutely adored School Reunion and while The Vampires Of Venice was a tad flawed, it was still hugely entertaining due to its camp silliness. The God Complex is very much in the same vein as Vampires. Although problems do crop up toward the end, it’s still very enjoyable overall.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive at a hotel, only to discover it’s not a hotel at all. It’s a prison made to look like a hotel with other ‘guests’ trapped inside, their worst fears hidden behind every door and a hungry Minotaur roaming the corridors. Bit like a hotel I stayed at in Rome during a school trip.
Now of course the advertisements describe the rooms as containing their worst fears, but I do hope Whithouse didn’t actually intend this to be scary. Because if he did, he may have fallen short by a few... light-years. See the thing about fears that are personal to you is that only you find them scary. Everyone else just finds them either tame or just plain hilarious, especially if it’s something weird like a gym teacher or a man in a gorilla suit clutching some toilet roll, both of which appear in the episode and both of which are hysterically funny. So I’m assuming that Whithouse was going more for surreal rather than scary. And yeah, it works. It works really well. If Whithouse was going for surreal, this is definitely surreal. The hotel is a great setting and it does lend itself to some very weird imagery, like the dining room full of ventriloquist dummies. A lot of it feels very reminiscent of Stephen King. The most obvious is The Shining with perhaps a little bit of It thrown in for good measure. Not very original granted, but it’s executed very well. And I did like the Minotaur. Okay the design is a bit crap, but the use of fisheye lens and inventive camera angles help to make it somewhat threatening.
Let’s talk about the characters, starting with my favourite. Rita, played by Amara Karan. Having had to put up with obnoxious plot device in a mini-skirt Amy for what feels like two ice ages rather than series, you can imagine I was very excited when the Doctor offered to take Rita with him in the TARDIS when all this was over. A woman that’s not defined by her physical attractiveness or her importance to the Doctor and is actually a fully realised character in her own right? Whithouse, please, remind me what that’s like! It’s been such a long time!
Needless to say, I really liked Rita. She’s funny, really smart, she’s got a good head on her shoulders, and is able to keep her cool while everyone else is losing their’s. I particularly liked the exploration of her faith. She believes the hotel is actually Jahannam, the Muslim version of Hell, and I liked how she’s able to take it all in her stride. She’s confused as to why she’s been sent to ‘Jahannam’, believing she has lived a good and moral life, but remains steadfast that everything will be explained and that she will get out of this somehow. Plus it’s just nice to have a Muslim woman on Doctor Who. I certainly would love to see a Muslim woman become the Doctor’s companion. I was utterly heartbroken when she died, although I suppose I should have seen it coming. I thought Amara Karan gave a really good performance and would have fit in really well with Matt Smith’s Doctor. I feel she would have provided a nice rational counterbalance for him. I especially liked her calm rejection of the Doctor’s all mighty saviour mentality.
I could have done without the stereotyping though. When Rita opens the door to her room, her worst fear is revealed to be her strict dad berating her for getting a B in mathematics.
Really Whithouse?
In fact this episode contains a lot of stereotyping now that I’m thinking about it. I mean look at Howie. Bespectacled nerd with a stutter who blogs about conspiracy theories, likes Star Trek and is afraid of talking to girls. Joe doesn’t escape this either. He’s a gambler and we know this because he wears a horseshoe pin on his tie and dice cufflinks. It just feels really lazy on Whithouse’s part.
The other character I liked was Gibbis, played by David Walliams. Now this surprised me because David Walliams worked with Matt Lucas in the sketch show Little Britain, which I’ve always thought was about as funny as passing a kidney stone. They also worked together on the short lived mockumentary series Come Fly With Me, which was quite possibly one of the worst comedies I’ve ever sat through in my life. In fact I still vividly remember that Christmas. My family and I staring open-mouthed at the telly watching David Walliams and Matt Lucas in yellowface singing a really offensive, mock Chinese song about Martin Clunes. I actually consider it an insult to my backside that I had to sit through that deeply racist pile of dreck and to this day I still don’t know what possessed the BBC into thinking that was in any way appropriate. To cut a long story short, I don’t like Walliams or Lucas very much. What can I say? I have a thing against talentless hacks thinking casual racism is funny. It’s a quirk of mine. But yeah, I really liked Gibbis. It’s a great idea. A race of aliens that have survived by sucking up to their invaders and oppressors. It lends itself to some really funny moments (their national anthem is ‘Glory To... Insert Name Here.’ LOL), I liked how Gibbis’ cowardice is used to pit the characters against one another, and as much as I’m loath to admit it, I thought David Walliams did a good job in the role. Well I suppose even a broken clock is right twice a day (unless it’s digital of course).
As I said, I do mostly like the episode. It’s very surreal and engaging. Silly but entertainingly so. It’s just a shame the whole thing had to go a bit tits up at the end.
So the Doctor works out that the Minotaur isn’t actually feeding on fear, but on faith, and that the reason the TARDIS was drawn there was because of Amy’s faith in the Doctor. Okay, not a bad idea. It’s certainly a good way to explore their relationship and how Amy has never really grown up, as demonstrated when the Doctor talks to her and he sees her as young Amelia. The problem is the whole faith aspect isn’t done very well. For instance, I can see Amy having faith in the Doctor, Rita having faith in Allah and Joe having faith in luck, but Howie’s faith in conspiracy theories? That’s a bit of a stretch. And what about Rory? He’s repeatedly shown the fire exit because apparently he doesn’t have any faith in anything.
BOLLOCKS
Everyone has faith in something.
And then there’s the resolution. If Amy’s faith in the Doctor is so strong, would a two minute monologue really be enough to break it? It feels very similar to a moment in The Curse Of Fenric where the Seventh Doctor had to break his companion Ace’s faith in him, but the reason that worked was because it was genuinely shocking and uncomfortable to watch. He coldly attacked parts of Ace’s self esteem and made her feel like little more than a piece on a chessboard. Here it just feels a bit pathetic and half-arsed in comparison. Also you never get the sense that the Doctor and Amy’s relationship has actually changed once her faith has been ‘broken’. They’re still laughing and smiling like they normally do. With Seven and Ace, while he does apologise and explain why he did it, you get the sense that their once close relationship is slightly more fragile now going forward.
But one thing that puzzles me especially (and this is in no way Whithouse’s fault) is why is Amy’s faith in the Doctor so strong considering everything that’s happened. Would Amy’s faith really be that unshakeable after the Doctor failed to save her daughter? Or when he coldly left her alternative self to die in The Girl Who Waited?
Which brings me to this. Remember in my previous review when I said I had a problem with how The Girl Who Waited was resolved, but it wouldn’t become apparent until now? Well this is it. Wouldn’t it make so much more sense if Amy and Rory left after that episode rather than this one? The God Complex is really jarring at the beginning because the three leads are getting along, but surely after what happened in the previous episode there would be some tension between them. Can they actually trust the Doctor after everything that’s happened? So I have a really hard time buying that Amy would still have faith in the Doctor. Or at least that her faith would be as strong as they’re claiming it is. I would much rather have seen Amy and Rory take some initiative and choose to leave the TARDIS of their own accord because of what the Doctor did rather than having them get unceremoniously dumped for the weakest and most patronising of reasons. He’s worried they’re going to get killed if they stay with him. Well big whoop! Get over yourself! Yes it’s dangerous travelling with him, but his companions are well aware of that. They want to travel through time and space because it’s cool, not because they’re too stupid to know better. If Amy and Rory want to take the risk, that’s their choice. By stripping them of that choice, the Doctor is basically treating Amy like the child he just encouraged her to grow up from and leave behind a few minutes ago.
The God Complex was never going to be special. I realise that. But it was still a decent enough story that was both imaginative and enjoyable to watch. It’s just such a shame that ending had to spoil it.
#the god complex#toby whithouse#doctor who#eleventh doctor#matt smith#amy pond#karen gillan#rory williams#arthur darvill#steven moffat#bbc#review#spoilers
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6 x 07 - Imminent Risk and the L Word
Hi all-
Okay, so I know I’m now a hefty four episodes behind in my reviews. I’m hoping to write another article on Homeland after this season so hopefully, that will afford me some time to catch up.
Mild S6 spoilers ahead....
But what I would like to talk about today is the above exchange between Dar and Quinn.
I’m struggling with the whole sexual abuse storyline and I think I might need a little bit more time to unpack this. I’m just not sure it’s as straightforward as the exchange appears. This is Homeland after all.
Anyway, so what I want to talk about is the way that Dar characterises Carrie’s relationship with Quinn, playing with his heart like an effing puppet master.
Why Carrie saved Quinn’s life and why she has been taking care of him is a massive theme this year. It’s even on the end of the bloody credits. We got the raw edit of the answer to this question in 602 when Carrie couldn’t even believe that Quinn has asked her. I still can’t watch this scene without crying.
Since then, we’ve had demonstrations of Carrie’s feelings for Quinn and vica versa.
1) She’s staunchly protected him when the world thought he had taken her daughter hostage.
2) We've had Quinn bonding with Carrie's daughter - the most important person in Carrie's life.
3) We’ve had Quinn quinning to protect Frannie and Carrie, and I’m not just talking about the hostage situation, I’m talking about his investigation into the man across the street.
4) We've had Carrie telling Quinn, very honestly, that seeing him and Frannie together was the best feeling she'd had in a long time.
5) We have Carrie still defending Quinn, even when custody of her daughter is on the line.
6) And lastly, we have Quinn prepared to walk back to New York to help Carrie, even when they didn't part on the best of terms.
Now, we’re at this separation point where Quinn was right, and Carrie is feeling like shit because she should have trusted his judgement. And where Quinn is still determined to protect her, even though he’s in the middle of nowhere.
This is leading, or could lead to an eventual reunion of some description. Carrie still has a massive hold on Quinn. He’s still head over heels in love with her, even if he doesn’t know what the hell to do about it, or how their relationship should go. I think the awkward scene following the nightmare is evidence enough of this. But, Quinn knows that he has Carrie’s trust on the things that matter - like Frannie. And in his mind, his relationship with Carrie is definitely healing because of that. She is trying to build bridges with him and he wants so desperately to be completely trusted. He’s off back to New York to protect her, find out what’s going on and build some bridges of his own. He goes back to New York for her. Dar confirms this for us
“With you, I thought maybe.... just maybe...”
Enter Dar. Not only does he appear to play evil incarnate in this episode but one of his most dastardly deeds here is to attempt to plant seeds of doubt in Quinn’s mind about his relationship with Carrie.
Dar is a masterful a-hole and a manipulative SOB here. He knows that Carrie loves Quinn. He saw for himself how dedicated she was to his welfare after Berlin and I would wager he knows that there is a deeply complicated romantic history between them.
He knows, and I’m sure that we know, that pity is a part of this, and guilt is another, but there is no doubt in my mind that love is the primary factor here. But the thing is, these emotions are linked. Carrie feels guilty because she realised how he’d always been there for her, and she hadn’t returned that loyalty. She feels guilty for not saying yes two years ago. She feels guilty because she waited too long to try and find him and only then did she realise how much he meant to her. And yes, she feels guilty for waking him up, but she wasn’t the only guilty party here.
Quinn loves her (Dar knows that, for sure) and he knows that she holds a lot of control over him, which he doesn't like. So he strikes at the core.
You see, the thing is, because of the complexity of their relationship pre-Season Six and especially post Season Six, Quinn has always been wondering ‘why.’ Why is saving him? Why is she inviting him into her family, letting him bond with her daughter?
Does she love you? - The ‘why’ scene would certainly suggest some seriously deep feelings on Carrie’s part.
Or is she just taking care of you out of guilt? The awkward post nightmare scene may suggest something like this. If she loved him, wouldn’t she want him sexually? Quinn already feels a shadow of his former self, he already feels less of a man. Cheap shot, Dar.
These are the things that will shoot right to Quinn's heart. He is deeply in love with Carrie, and now he adores her daughter as well. He would love nothing more than to hear those three words from her. But after the awkward incident after his nightmare, and all this stuff with Frannie, combined with his paranoia, and now hearing this from Dar about his condition in Berlin, it is bound to give him food for thought.
But what I think is most important here is the use of the 'L' word. It's been floating around Carrie and Quinn for seasons now, and I think it's really interesting that it's Dar that brings it up explicitly. Okay, he's saying that Carrie is taking care of Quinn out of guilt, but he is the one that mentions the alternative scenario here. It's not, 'Do you think it's because she cares about you...' or 'Do you think it's because she has feelings for you', nope, Dar launches straight in with the 'L' word. Once again, it’s being put out there that this is a romantic thing. Call the cops, it’s already out there.
This, for me, makes it more clear that this is how we should characterise the relationship between Carrie and Quinn. We're not gonna agree with Dar on anything in this scene, but especially not with this.
This is yet another delaying tactic for the OTP. Let's have a disruptive character (evil incarnate, Dar) plant seeds of doubt about the connection of the OTP. But ultimately, Quinn will believe in them, he won’t doubt Carrie’s intentions and their connection will triumph and prove itself. Their reunion will seem so much sweeter. They are doing this so we root for them even more.
And if this thing with Dar is actually sexual abuse, then we are gonna root for them even more. No-one is more deserving of the woman of his dreams than Peter Quinn.
I do think that the letter is going to rear its head again. When the dust settles, or if we get (as we will by the looks of the promo pictures) more C/Q scenes, this stuff will come up. Maybe Quinn will call her on Dar’s explanation of events and she will be forced to explain what happened in a bit more detail... and then casually slip it into conversation that she read his goodbye letter, where he beared his soul to her, and saw that he said the L word too.
This, friends, is a love story. Pure and simple. Dar’s inadvertently just told us.
Keep the faith. Mine is genuinely unshakeable at this point.
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 36 Breakdown
Nurse Bai runs into Nurse Shanshan inside the hospital and welcomes her back, asking if she's ok and Nurse Shanshan tells her that she intends to prove her innocence.
Late at night, Secretary Lu is awake and remembering his conversation with Factory Chief Han and all of his encounters with Nurse Bai. He writes a confession, considers ripping it up, reconsiders and eventually leaves it on his desk before going to bed. That night Nurse Bai creeps into his room.
The KMT can't make contact with their team in Lumen and assume the radio station is compromised but their main agents are still in play.
At home, Dr Bai talks to Nurse Bai about the project being over and counselling her to let things go back to normal, hinting at knowing that she's changed. She denies hiding anything from him, but he pulls out the music score book, demanding she return it and have nothing to do with it again. Nurse Bai ignores his advice and collects another coded note on her way to work the next day.
That morning Secretary Lu is found dead in his dorm room with a suicide note about having "lost his love forever". The police team are suspicious that he wasn't carefully dressed and a high heel print is found on his doormat that doesn't match Nurse Bai's shoe size. Officer Hongmei questions Nurse Bai about her relationship with Secretary Lu and the altercation that was seen between them, and she advises she firmly refused him that day and he got angry.
Nurse Bai visits Nurse Leader Ge to discuss Secretary Lu's suicide, revealing that she knows he died by a drug injection not by hanging and that her medical review of the expert who collapsed was altered to clear her for the experiment. She suspects Nurse Leader Ge is her superior Snow Wolf, and Nurse Leader Ge commends her on her intelligence, revealing she doctored Nurse Bai's timesheet and killed Secretary Lu to protect her, burning his letter of confession as proof. Nurse Bai makes it a condition of her last mission that her father leaves with her, and Nurse Leader Ge agrees.
Officer Hongmei remembers the music scores in the Snow Wolf's cellar and Nurse Bai's room, and along with Officer Jiang they find a copy at the library and eventually break the codes on the papers left in the cellar which detail the order for the Lumen massacre.
Nurse Shanshan accidentally spills some medicine on Nurse Bai's white coat and offers to swap coats so Nurse Bai can attend Expert Chief Chu, but she remembers she left the music note in her pocket and sees Nurse Shanshan find it and tells her to throw it away. Officer Tongbin later comes to find Nurse Shanshan and apologise for the investigation and she gives him the music note from Nurse Bai's pocket.
Nurse Leader Ge learns that Expert Chief Chu is leaving for Beijing the next day, and advises him to visit Factory Chief Han who is distraught after Secretary Lu's suicide, giving Nurse Bai the opportunity to search his office for the camera with the photos of the experiment data. Nurse Leader Ge gives her a knockout drug and a poison to use at her discretion.
Fake Li Qiuchen visits Dr Bai to tell him that Nurse Bai has a final mission and it's up to him if he joins her or not at 3 Jump Gorge.
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Oh goddammit they just straight up killed off Secretary Lu! Poor poor man. He really deserved better than that. That breaks the rule of the coerced traitors being imprisoned, but I guess he both knew too much and was threatening to tell. I do like the mention of Secretary Lu being very particular about his appearance and how his clothes were pressed and ready for the next day but he died in his sleep/under garments, which was spotted by Captain Chen.
I'm glad we got a little bit more of Nurse Shanshan and Officer Tongbin together, but it was bittersweet and it must have hurt her to have to suspect her friend of the sabotage and of framing her.
I find it interesting how the confrontations between Dr Bai and Nurse Bai are written. He only asks her if there's something she's hiding, and warns her sternly to have nothing to do with the music score - which would be a weird thing to be angry about out of context! - but he never explains outright why it's dangerous and she never calls him on it. They dance around the fact that they each know at least a portion of the other's involvement with the KMT, and may or may not have the other know about their involvement, but never confront the other fully for fear of having to fully out themselves as well. Dr Bai is totally willing to forgive any involvement of Nurse Bai's because he loves her and he knows he doesn't have a clean slate either. They each want the other to hold onto some innocence or normality and will fight to let the other have it, and if they are completely open with each other then the illusion that they can remain normal breaks. For all I'm angry about Nurse Bai's choice of actions, I absolutely love how the Bai family relationship is written and these characters are so amazingly well acted.
Snow Wolf is Nurse Leader Ge!!! Holy shit. She's been hiding under their noses this whole time! I dont know if I feel betrayed or impressed. But then I felt the same about Nurse Bai at first and now I just want her in handcuffs. And we know that Snow Wolf has done So Much Worse.
No math man in this episode, but Snow Wolf's reveal did give us a lovely collection of homoerotic close ups.
2 episodes left!
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 35 Breakdown
Dr Bai grabs Seamstress Miao by the throat, demanding to know who Snow Wolf is, but she refuses to unmask her leader. He leaves after threatening to kill them all if anything happens to Nurse Bai again. Electrician Liu Simao sees Officer Ding watch the shop, and creeps in the back door to advise Seamstress Miao that she has been compromised. She immediately sets out to burn several papers and a book before being stabbed by Liu Simao. He tries to take her bag but she holds tight, and he has to flee empty handed when the police arrive, and she dies without any confession. Searching her shop, the police team find her radio equipment, maps of the air raid shelter location and the negatives of the blueprint photos.
On the last day of the experiment, Expert Chief Chu returns to the lab and instructs Ji Danyang to make the coundown and announcement of the experiment's successful end. The cabin team are helped out of the sealed cabin, rejoicing in the sunlight and Ji Danyang finds He Xiwan still inside. She completes logging the last page of data and gives it to him before collapsing from exhaustion.
Master Welder Niu finds the hidden compartment in the cabin with the empty phosphorus bottle inside, concluding it was made by Assistant Rui. Police Captain Chen debriefs Officer Xu who participated in the experiment, focussing on the movements of Nurses Bai and Shanshan, but is at a loss as to how they would know they would get inside. Police Captain Chen has the Hospital Chief review the medical checks of the cabin participants and they discover that the expert who collapsed shouldn't have been given clearance at all. He compiles a list of the medical staff involved in the fitness checks and the Police Chief suggests allowing Nurse Shanshan back to work to see what reaction is provoked.
Officer Hongmei, still recovering from her mercury poisoning, visits Dr Bai and informs him of the seamstresses murder and identity as a spy, and that they'd found her father's body with the help of an anonymous key. Ji Danyang takes a break from analysing the cabin data to visit Officer Hongmei in hospital and they discuss where they might go now this part of the project is coming to an end.
In the expert's office, Lei Peizheng notices one of his titanium samples is missing and reports it to the police team. They check Factory Chief Han's samples and find the missing piece amongst them, but one of his absent. Factory Chief Han questions Secretary Lu about the missing titanium, stating that if a man makes a mistake he should have the courage to correct it, but Secretary Lu still denies his involvement.
Secretary Lu is angry and meets Nurse Bai, demanding to know once and for all if she is a spy and when she doesn't commit to an answer he tells her he plans to confess and if she if a spy to run. She slaps him. Their altercation is noticed by Nurse Zhang Ling and Nurse Leader Ge and Nurse Bai sees Nurse Ge watching from the window.
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He Xiwan is all about the mission! Good grief girl you'll go down in history but you'll go down with mercury poisoning too.
"I can't be like Li Guangming". Ok so Secretary Lu does know what happened to Security Captain Li and is FINALLY realising he's in the same spot. Good for him for finally deciding to confess, although will that slap make him change his mind? I really hope he does come forward on his own. He knows the scrutiny is closing in and so does Nurse Bai now. What's she going to do? She can only pin so much on Nurse Shanshan (which I'm still fuming about btw)
Seamstress Miao stabbed in the back (or front) by your cohort. That's what your loyalty to the wrong people will get you.
So who's left now? The still unidentified Snow Wolf, Nurse Bai (who is suspected), fake Li Qiuchen (who is suspected), electrician Liu Simao (who is confirmed and being searched for). At this point Nurse Bai and Fake Li haven't heard about the murder of the seamstress yet but it's not a secret in town so it wont be long. Do they even have another base of operation in town now that the seamstress shop is compromised? How will they pass messages along now?
3 episodes to go! What am I expecting? Whoever the fuck Snow Wolf is, they're going to have to show their face for one final attempt on the project (maybe trying to grab or destroy the data before it can be transported to Beijing?)
As a rule, the commited spies have died (Zhang A Shui, Lai Guangrun, Assitant Rui and Seamstress Miao) and the coerced traitors have been imprisoned (Security Captain Li, the messenger & the digging team). So Liu Simao and Fake Li wont survive, and Secretary Lu will be imprisoned... but what about Nurse Bai? She's a fully committed spy, but she's also one of our leads. I can't imagine her being killed off, it would be too tragic for our other leads. I'd wondered earlier about the possibility of a change of heart upon learning it was the KMT who killed her parents (the reveal of which I still expect) but she's done so much more sabotage since then that there's little to no room left for turning around. Will she just be imprisoned? Or will Dr Bai try and convince her to run away?
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 34 Breakdown
Ji Danyang gets his team to check their equipment but the vibrations havent caused any errors, and Officer Tongbin goes to check on the cooper mine.
Inside the sealed cabin Nurse Bai opens a secret compartment left by Assistant Welder Rui and pull out a tool and a small bottle of phosphorus powder and uses it to start a fire in a side chamber. The cabin team have to use water to douse it but the air quality is compromised. He Xiwan convinces Ji Danyang to not abort the experiment and they increase the air filtration and wait.
Fake Li Qiuchen spies on Expert Chief Chu's hospital room but it's guarded and the windows are covered. Expert Chief Chu is recuperating elsewhere and Factory Chief Han visits to advise him of the cabin fire.
Officer Hongmei and Police Captain Chen look into possible causes for the fire and Ji Danyang gives the cabin team the good news that the air filtration system has worked and the air levels are back to normal.
Fake Li Qiuchen spies on Expert Cheif Chu's room again and notices the IV bottles the nurse is carrying hasn't changed. He figures he's been moved and discharges himself from the hospital.
The testing of Expert Chief Chu's medicine reveals a rare virus mixed in, and when asked Nurse Leader Ge advises the police that Nurse Shanshan was in charge of his medicine.
Another vibration rocks the cave, and Ji Danyang and Officer Hongmei check the cavern behind the sealed cabin, finding a miasma of dust that's coming through the cave walls. The digger team has reached the concrete wall of the air raid shelter and set up their next explosives. The police team does a fully manned search of the back hill and Liu Simao watches as they find a trail in the grass leading to the cave. The police enter and arrest the digging team, extinguishing the lit fuse just in time to stop the next explosion.
The digging team confess to being recruited by Electrician Liu Simao and they search his house and find evidence that links him to Lai Guangrun and the molotov cocktail attempt on Officer Hongmei.
With 4 days left in the experiment, Nurse Bai loosens the bolts around a mercury pipe and then hides the tool in Nurse Shanshan's pocket. The mercury leak is detected in the cabin and the team is evacuated into the transition chamber, but He Xiwan stays behind to try and clean up the spill, refusing to withdraw even when Ji Danyang orders her to. Officer Hongmei enters the cabin to drag her out and replaces her while the emergency clean up crew is preparing. Once the clean up crew gives the all clear, Officer Hongmei is send to the hospital and He Xiwan insists on finishing the experiment. An investigation finds the loosened bolts and the police call for Nurse Shanshan to exit the chamber for questioning and they find the tool in her pocket but she protests that she doesn't know where it came from.
Dr Bai attends to Officer Hongmei in the hospital, and Police Captain Chen deliberately lets it slip that it was sabotage. As he leaves, Dr Bai runs into Nurse Leader Ge and learns that Nurse Bai is now in the sealed cabin.
With only a few days left and everyone exhausted, Ji Danyang gives a speech of encouragement to the cabin and laboratory teams.
Officer Ding searches for the tailor shop that Liu Simao used and sees Dr Bai enter Seamstress Miao's shop. Dr Bai closes the doors and confronts the seamstress about their sabotage endangering Nurse Bai.
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Good for the hospital and nurses to keep up with the guise of Cheif Chu still being onsite, but why was no one noticing that fake Li was skuking around the same corrider all the time?? Surely they could have had a covert guard on him while he was there.
They've identified Electrician Liu Simao as a spy, now they've just got to find him.
Blaming Shanshan for Chief Chu's medicine! And hiding the tool in her pocket!?!? The only reason Shanshan is in the cabin is to be a scapegoat?? You bitch! Shanshan is in tears and Tongbin isn't looking much better.
Thats it. I'm not giving Nurse Bai any more grace, she's irredeemable now. Enjoy prison.
I find it curious that when the police team has to interrogate a friend, the officer closest to them is involved in the investigation. When they questioned Nurse Bai at various times Officer Hongmei was always present, same for when they questioned Dr Bai. When Ji Danyang was facing the fallout of the miscalculation he was questioned by both Hongmei and Captain Chen. And when Shanshan is questioned here, Tongbin is one of her interrogators. It would seem rational to have them interrogated by someone else as to not have a conflict of interest (like Hongmei was accused of when she led the tampered medicine investigation), but at the same time the officer who knows them the best would be able to see more flaws in their story? Would a suspect be more truthful in front of a friend, or more likely to hide their shame in front of a friend? I'd love to know the in-universe reason. Maybe it also demands the police team to be transparent with their own feelings and biases.
Dr Bai looks to be out for blood, but with Officer Ding right on his heels I can't imagine he'll walk off without being questioned. And how's he going to feel when he learns that Nurse Bai is a willing participant in the sabotage and not being coerced like the seamstress told him? That's going to break his heart especially if he learns about the Nanshen Training class.
4 eps to go!
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 24 Breakdown
The pressure readings are normal as they begin their test, but after 30 minutes He Xiwan starts struggling for breath and bleeds from her nose. Nurse Leader Ge advises the signs of toxic gas poisoning and they shut down the experiment, having to adjust the unbalanced air pressure before they can open the hatch, and He Xiwan is rushed to hospital.
Police Captain Chen is released from hospital and joins the investigation as they check with Master Welder Niu for any signs of vandalism, but this time the experiment has been under fulltime guard. He confirms that the drawing specs were all verified before they were sent to the workshop and the only copy in the workshop has been locked in the office.
The expert team review all of their calculations and designs, Expert Lei Peizhang eventually finding an error in Ji Danyang's air intake percentages, which is double checked and confirmed by another expert. Everyone is shocked that he could make such a mistake. In his dorm, Ji Danyang has come to the same conclusion as he rechecked his workings and is visibly upset, and Officer Hongmei calls him into the police station to be interviewed.
He admits the miscalculation came from him and takes responsibility, but has no explanation why he made the error. Officer Hongmei takes his original calculation paperwork for their investigation. The rest of the expert team is speechless when Expert Chief Chu is forced to suspend Ji Danyang from their team. He Xiwan wakes after the hospital calls in a specialist, and even though she is starting to recover, Expert Lei Peizhang attacks Ji Danyang blaming him if anything happens to her.
Police Captain Chen examines the calculation paperwork, looking into who had access to Ji Danyang's dorm while he was working on it, and Nurse Bai is the only person other than the rest of the expert team. Police Captain Chen remarks on the change in Nurse Bai's demeanor when he was in the hospital and how she is now friends with Nurse Zhang Ling, which surprises Officer Tongbin and Officer Ding.
The police team update Police Captain Chen on the stabiliser sabotage case, and they debate if Manager Yang is a suspect or has been set up as the evidence seems too convenient, and how Assistant Welder Rui was too casual about the stolen acetylene. They recieve the reports that confirm the pressurised cabin was built to code, and that the fault was in the calculation. They aim to help Ji Danyang resolve where the error came from.
Nurse Bai visits Ji Danyang in his dorm room, but he's not leaving his bed. She relays her concerns to Officer Hongmei who visits him as well, pulling open the curtains when he closes them and stripping the blanket from the bed, yelling at him to get up and fix his mistake.
This prompts him to visit the hospital but doesn't enter He Xiwan's ward as the other experts are with her advising her of his miscalculation and suspension. Officer Hongmei revisits Ji Danyang to apologise for yelling at him and he admits that she was right, but he can't forgive himself.
Nurse Leader Ge explains to Officer Hongmei and Nurse Bai the danger of depression and how it can cause erratic behaviour, and Nurse Bai decides to visit his dorm that night after work. She convinces him to sneak out of the factory grounds by climbing the wall, and leads him through the forest to watch the dawn from the top of Dongshan mountain, unaware that someone is following them.
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This episode is all the moping.
As I expected, our math man's grief has affected his work and now everything has gone to hell. Or did someone really add a number to his calculations when he wasn't looking? It would be a clever move, especially to time it with the death of his teacher so that it could be chalked up to human error.
Hongmei is absolutely the right person to irritate him out of bed and I'm glad it worked. I know that their personal dorms have a study area as well as a sleep area, but there is only a partial privacy divider so it feels very weird to me given the year this is set, just how often they will walk into each other's bedrooms without any embarrassment, even when our math man is sitting in bed in his singlet.
It's good to see Captain Chen back on his feet and I'm glad he's seen the change in Nurse Bai because it's almost creepy. Previously, she was bright-eyed and earnest and soft in her dealings with people. Maturing to take on the responsibility of being head nurse is one thing, but it's the calculating way she turned Nurse Zhang to her side that makes me second guess her motive for everything now. Like taking our math man on a trip up the mountain at night, right after she's been told that his depression could lead to self harm? Is she planning on throwing him down the mountain too and claiming he jumped?
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 22 Breakdown
Police Captain Chen is awake and weak, but still teasing Officer Hongmei and Officer Tongbin. Investigating the incident, the police team find a footprint by a loosened window in the worshop as well as a wire tool that's been wiped clean of fingerprints, and are slowing checking the alibis of each factory worker.
The KMT recieve a message from Snow Wolf that Flying Fox and Earthworm set up the accident at the factory to target Expert Chief Chu but failed. They discuss the fortunate opportunity of Flying Fox, who was from the Nanshen Training Class, being in Lumen, and give the order for Snow Wolf to make contact with Ghost Owl but not reveal themselves if they can help it.
The herb seller delivers another basket of herbs and a message for Dr Bai from Snow Wolf with an invitation to meet, rolled up with a painting of Nurse Bai.
In the experts office everyone is busy working and Ji Danyang has to plug his ears with cotton to block the noise and concentrate. The police team, Expert Chief Chu and Factory Chief Han are all worried because the experts have been working day and night without stopping for food, so they deliver some fruit and cold foods to the experts office. While the Chief gives a speech of encouragement, Ji Danyang is still working away and is only aware of the visitors when Officer Hongmei pulls the cotton from his ears.
He Xiwan and Ji Danyang take a break and discuss their different approaches to the stabiliser problem. Later, Expert Chief Chu compares their work with the team and announces that they need to pick one approach to follow. Most of the team are in support of He Xiwan and continuing to try and create the stabiliser despite the large cost of resources, but He Xiwan changes her mind and supports Ji Danyang's approach of focussing on the submarine itself and finding a different way of stabilising it as they build.
Nurse Zhang Ling is scolded for missing a dose of medicine and confronts Nurse Bai for tattling. They discuss the head nurse position and Nurse Bai states that neither are suited for it, and it should go to Nurse Shanshan. Nurse Zhang Ling considers this and comes back later with a different proposal, that she will support Nurse Bai in becoming the head nurse, and with her recommendation it is made official.
Dr Bai is surprised when Nurse Bai tells him of her promotion, and Secretary Lu comes to the Bai residence to congratulate her, meeting Dr Bai for the first time. She pulls Secretary Lu outside to talk in private, making it clear that she can't be with him romantically but only as friends. He accepts that and promises to support her at work as her friend and gives her his poetry. After he's left, Dr Bai comments on the young men in her life and that now that the war is over he only wants to see her live a a happy life.
Late that night when Nurse Bai is busy decoding her musical score, she hears Dr Bai leave the house. In an abandoned warehouse Dr Bai finds a phone and receives a call from Snow Wolf. Snow Wolf confirms their code number and asks if Dr Bai remembers the Grey Building, referring to the massacre. Dr Bai states that he knows that Snow Wolf killed the traitor Pang Shi Zhao back then, but Snow Wolf counters that Pang was an undercover CCP agent. Dr Bai insists that he has no interest in the Water Drop Project and if they want to convince him to rejoin then they have to meet face to face, but to stop threatening his daughter or he'll tear them apart. Snow Wolf reiterates their threat to both father and daughter and Dr Bai searches the warehouse to find them, finding only a note, a photograph of a young man in uniform and a voice changer on the phone.
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Captain Chen cracking jokes just made me day. He's survived! He also made the remark of dreaming he was back in the Korea War, which only ended 5 years before this is set so makes sense he could have been a soldier then. Most of the references to the past have been regarding the liberation 9 years prior when the CCP became the ruling party and the KMT retreated to Taiwan, so it hadn't occurred to me that the Korean War happened so recently as well.
Ok so Flying Fox must be Nurse Bai because of the training class, but she wouldn't have been the one to climb in the workshop window, so Earthworm must be one of the factory workers.
Nurse Bai convincing Nurse Zhang Ling to play nice is quite a thing to see, and I feel like she's playing with Secretary Lu as well, first by accepting the hand cream and then threatening to not be his friend if he keeps pushing his confession of love, because it's clear to see he'd to anything she asks and that will get dangerous given the access he has.
Snow Wolf finally appears! (Kind of). We got a distorted voice and a glimpse of black hair in a mirror, so the big secret of their identity still remains. It does seem that Dr Bai has his own reason for wanting to see Snow Wolf face to face, rather than actually rejoining their cause. My first thought is that photo is a young Dr Bai, but it might be Pang Shi Zhao??
It sounds like Officer Hongmei's dad really is dead, and that Dr Bai didn't know that he was undercover CCP - Or is he just shocked that Snow Wolf knew that?
Ok. My brain is theorising.... what if Pang Dad isn't dead (because no body to confirm, and to give Homgmei a happy ending narrative), that Dr Bai saved him and squirrelled him away somewhere (making Dr Bai a good guy to pay off our audience's investment in him), that he's worried about Snow Wolf knowing Pang Dad was undercover CCP because he was also undercover CCP and doesn't want to be exposed, and he want to see Snow Wolf face to face to get revenge????
Ok that's now my theory for Dr Bai. Let's see how that plays out.
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 18 Breakdown
Officer Tongbin interrogates the messenger but he admits to only passing letters for money and isn't a spy. Security Captain Li threatens Lai Guangrun now that he is exposed, and is told that his sweetheart is a spy and that there was never going to be money or passports arranged for him, but when Security Captain Li threatens to destroy his paintings, Lai Guangrun offers up his own hidden money and fake ID from the temple on Dongshan mountain.
Lai Guangrun tells Dr Bai that Security Captain Li will be at the temple and to kill him as a final test from Snow Wolf. Dr Bai dismisses him, but reconsiders after he is reminded of the target on Nurse Bai. On Dongshan mountain Dr Bai watches as Officer Hongmei and the police team get to the temple first and exchange fire with Security Captain Li. After running out of bullets and fleeing from the back door, he eventually surrenders after Officer Hongmei confirms that the sweetheart he is trying to save is the spy she met in Hong Kong.
On the morning of the pool construction, Expert Chief Chu is given his medicine that Nurse Bai makes, but soon after taking it he collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Awake but weak, he appoints Ji Danyang as temporary Commander in Chief for the pool construction.
At the construction site the experts and labourers gather as Factory Chief Han and Ji Danyang rally their spirits and order the construction to begin. In the middle of mixing the concrete, Master Welder Niu brings it to their attention that it's setting too quickly, and it is soon revealed that a silicate has been added to the current concrete mix. Ji Danyang gives the order to start over and calls in more cement to be delivered from town to make sure they have enough for the pool. Lai Guangrun comes in on one of the trucks delivering concrete, but just observes.
When a fire breaks out in one of the machines at the power station, all power to the site shuts off and their cement mixers stop, and it will take too long to get generators up and running so they rally to finish mixing the last of the concrete by hand.
Factory Chief Han and Ji Danyang announce the successful completion of the pool and the experts and all construction workers celebrate while Nurse Bai rushes to tend to their injuries.
The police team now have Lai Guangrun's full identity but miss catching him at the construction site, so follow him into town. He stops to see Dr Bai who confirms that Security Captain Li was taken away by the police. Even knowing that he's been compromised, Lai Guangrun still doesn't reveal to Dr Bai who Snow Wolf is. The police team eventually corner him at the art gallery in front of his painting.
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I always feel like Lai Guangrun is talking out of his butt whenever he mentions instructions from Snow Wolf because we've never seen him recieve any and they always seem to be self-serving requests.
Uh oh, who messed with the Chief's medicine to implicate Nurse Bai??? because come on, everyone knows that she's been making that medicine so she'd be stupid to sabotage it herself.
I had actually thought a couple of episodes ago that whatever they were planning on doing to sabotage the pool, the discreetest way would be to mess with the concrete proportions, because how do you track that many bags of concrete mix? And that's is exactly what they did!
Our math man proves that he can keep his cool under pressure and leads the team to success, that'll look good on his resume. I really like the dark blue lab coats the experts have. I do find it amusing how big and glorious the music is for what is just the pouring of concrete, but hey, it makes it entertaining.
And some more queering of the AI subtitles, featuring the arrested messenger.
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 14 Breakdown
Ji Danyang is rushed to sugery and the police team wait worriedly outside. The Police Department Chief suspends both Officers Hongmei and Ding, pending investigation. Nurse Bai is interviewed and asked what happened and if anyone else knew of their plan to go up the mountain. She admits that she was delayed so didn't meet them as planned and only made it to the mountain in time to see him fall. She advises that the nurses station heard the phonecall but doesn't say anything about her father or the woodcutter who saw him there.
The police team search the mountain for clues, and the experts are given the bag of rutile stones that Ji Danyang had collected and bemoan the situation.
Dr Bai shows up at the factory because Nurse Bai hasn't come home, angry that she is being treated suspiciously. Police Captain Chen allows her to leave as she saved Ji Danyang and has cooperated with everything they've asked of her. Back at home, Nurse Bai confronts her father and admits to him that the wood cutter told her he was seen, but she withheld that information from the police because she didn't want to risk him being implicated.
The next morning Nurse Bai asks her father if he would treat Ji Danyang like he did Zhang A Shui but Dr Bai is reluctant, using the excuse that if his treatment didn't work then they would be blamed for his death.
Police Captain Chen takes pity on Officer Hongmei and even though suspended, he assigns her to watch over Ji Danyang. Nurse Bai is not so fortunate, despite Nurse Leader Ge speaking up for her, the factory chief will only let Nurse Bai work in the general hospital area but not the ward where Ji Danyang is. The expert leader, factory chief and head surgeon discuss his prognosis, and worry that the travel to any bigger city's hospital would be too risky. Officer Hongmei tends to Ji Danyang, promising him that she won't be combative if he will just wake up.
Nurse Bai's involvement with Ji Danyang, the investigation and her subsequent restrictions are gossiped about by the other nurses. Officer Hongmei visits Nurse Bai and they each blame themselves for not protecting Ji Danyang and for taking him up the mountain at all. Officer Hongmei asks Nurse Bai for her father's help, and visits Dr Bai herself to beg for his assistance. Truck driver Lai Guangrun watches on as Dr Bai refuses her too.
At home Nurse Bai studies for any possible cure, and refuses to stop being friends with Ji Danyang when Dr Bai tells her to. Even after being told that if Ji Danyang doesn't wake up in the next 2 days he will be crippled for life, Dr Bai continues to refuse to help, but is feeling the toll of all of the requests.
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This episode is ALL the crying and ALL the begging. Our math man is in a bad way and everyone is hit hard by it. But as my dad always said "if the show is on again next week, then he'll live."
Dr Bai is such a great character in this and his conflict is so brilliant to watch! He hurt our math man because he would do anything to keep his daughter safe and now has to refuse his daughter's plea to help.
The story has set up the parallel of Zhang A Shui and Ji Danyang having similar head injuries, how do you justify agreeing to save the enemy but denying to save the expert when the truth is mixed with treason? When he knows he must be being watched?
He may have nearly killed our beloved math man, but I can't hate him for it. I WILL hate Lai Guangran however, all he knows how to do threaten the women in his cohorts lives. And he's a terrible painter too! (Actually we've only seen one of his paintings, I'm just being spiteful)
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Unshakable Faith (2023)
Episode 13 Breakdown
Truck driver Lai Guangrun hears the police kicking in doors and flees. They find the radio and his notebook left behind and search outside for him. Officer Hongmei finds a pen on the ground but is scuttled by a falling crate and the truck driver narrowly gets away, hiding in storm drain from the police team.
Ji Danyang and one of the technical experts inspect the speaker that was reversed into a microphone, and test it out with Police Captain Chen. During the test Ji Danyang jokes about Officer Hongmei being excellent at investigating but terrible at taking care of herself, knowing she will be listening on the other end. The police suspect the eavesdropper is likely Zhou Jun the painter, due to the style of the handwriting in the notebook.
Expert He Xiwan jokes with Ji Danyang about their nonsense speeches ruining the experts meeting, but thanks him for trusting her and Ji Danyang visits the construction site to meet Niu Peixian, the Master Welder, for help creating a vital submarine component.
Officer Hongmei found out that her bracelet was crushed for testing and Ji Danyang runs off after promising to replace it. Police Captain Chen is impressed when Officer Hongmei admits that getting a replacement bracelet means they will have found the rutile the experts need and she's just pushing him along.
Truck driver Lai Guangrun visits Dr Bai to treat his foot and congratulate him for retrieving the box from the well. Dr Bai says he just wants to live a simple life but is told that you can't erase your past, and is threatened to be exposed. Their conversation is cut short when Nurse Bai comes home and tells them that she will be going up Dongshan mountain again with Ji Danyang the following day.
The next morning Officer Hongmei swaps escort duty with Officer Ding. Dr Bai asks Nurse Bai to deliver some medicine across town before her outing which makes her late, and Ji Danyang and Officer Ding go ahead without her.
Dr Bai intercepts the truck driver Lai Guangrun on Dongshan mountain and refuses to rejoin the cause unless Snow Wolf meets him face to face, but is told he has to prove his trust before they can meet. Lai Guangrun indicates to kill Ji Danyang while he's up the mountain.
Nurse Bai's finishes her task and races up Dongshan to catch up with Ji Danyang, meeting a woodcutter along the way who tells her that her father is on the mountain too.
Ji Danyang spots a large deposit of rutile down a cliffside and Officer Ding climbs down a vine to investigate it, leaving him alone at the top where the truck driver knocks him unconscious. Dr Bai refuses to shoot him, settling to make it look like an accident by pushing him over the cliff when Lai Guangrun threatens Nurse Bai. Officer Ding climbs back up the vine to find only a patch of blood on the rock and Nurse Bai arrives at the mountain base to find Ji Danyang bleeding and unconscious, and flags down a passing truck to rush him to the hospital.
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It's good to see Officer Hongmei and our math man talking on better terms, even if Ji Danyang's guilt is getting the better of him. But he desperately needs some poker face lessons from Police Captain Chen, because our math man can't lie worth a damn.
I want to know how this truck driver with his fractured foot is able to jump out the freaking window and evade the police team. In fact, I want to know how he was able to slip in and out of Zhang A Shui's hospital room with a newly injured foot! At least his eavesdropping operation is overturned even if he wasn't caught, but fuck him for choosing to target our math man!
Another "Expert in Seduction" translation, this time from Officer Ding when they're talking about Nurse Bai. Ok I'm officially keeping a counter now -
Expert in Seduction: 4
A guilt trip, a hike and a fall down a cliff, our poor math man is straight up not having a good time, and there's still 25 episodes to go!
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