Episode 3 of the show finishes off the first storyline in the journey of Young Hercules, well unless you count the movie which we do so the second storyline. Hey who is writing this! Well if your talking about the episode it is a story by Rob Tapert & Liz Friedman while Hilary J. Bader wrote the episode itself.
Ares tells Hera that Hercules is the one who stole the chalice. It turns out that Zeus told Hera that anyone who touched the chalice is condemned to death so since Herc has it, his protection from Zeus is off. He is fair game for Ares to kill. Ares calls Strife to his temple. Strife is annoying, you can tell that Ares feels that way more than most. Ares and Strife have to stop Hercules and kill him before the chalice is put in Zeus temple or it is put back in her cave. Ares sends Strife to stop Hercules. Now if Ares wanted him dead wouldn't he have a better chance at completing that task? Herc, Iolaus and Jason head to Zesu temple but take a break to play ball. It doesn't last long since they are playing with fruit for the ball and it hits the ground and explodes. Strife steals the chalice and threatens that Hera will kill Hercs mom if he doesn't get it back in time. Ares shows up at Herc's moms house as a hurt man and gives Alcmene the chalice she doesn't accept it and Herc shows up. The two brother fight while Jason and Iolaus take the chalice back to the temple. Herc stays at his mom's side and tries to protect him. She tells Hercules to run, that he can't beat the god of war. He doesn't listen. He goes to fight his big brother. She is worried about him. Jason and Iolaus make it back to the cave just fine as Herc challenges his brother to a fight. Ares makes quick work of his little brother while Strife watches on cheering. Iolaus and Jason's path is blocked by statue men. It comes out that Ares is jealous that Zeus likes Hercules more That is why he is trying to kill him. Jason gives Iolaus the chalice to protect while he fights the two statue men. They kick his ass and he takes the chalice from Iolaus and tells him to run. He throws the chalice to Iolaus, early in the episode Iolaus missed the pass from Jason but this time he catches it and puts it back where it belongs just as Ares is about to kill Hercules. Zeus stops him, he doesn't show up or anything just stops the attack and warns him with thunder. Ares pretty much starts freaking out like a little kid and tells Hercules he will be back. Herc says he will be waiting. Everything is back to normal and Hercules tells his friends how much they mean to him. It's a sweet ending that is soon over shadowed by a food fight. They are kids after all.
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One of my favorite episodes in season 1 written by Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer. We start off in the zoo as four bratty kids go around picking on people. Starting with Buffy and moving on to some nerdy guy. Willow and Xander point out to Buffy that even if the zoo is lame at least they aren't in class and she suddenly likes it more.
The jerk kids take the nerd into the hyena exhibit that is closed off. Buffy gets ready to go in and help but Xander jumps the guy and goes in first. Buffy and Willow try to follow him but the grounds keeper keeps them out. Telling them that some times hyena's can call out your name. Creepy. Xander confronts the kids and the hyenas look up at them. Suddenly they aren't kids anymore but hyenas in kids bodies. With Xander as their leader. Willow tells Buffy how much she loves Xander and points out that Buffy feels the same way about Angel. She tries to deny it but Willow points out the leather coat that she is wearing. Xander picks this moment to show up. He is acting strange and not like himself at all. Xander sniffs Buffy, very weird. The rest of the pack comes in and seem to pack down to Xander. They pick on some kid, calling him fat and Xander laughs. Willow and Buffy don't find it funny. Neither do I. Principle Flutie chases a cute little pig with razors tied onto his back. This show seems to love pigs, or hate them depending on how you look at what happens to the little guys. Willow tries to teach Xander about math and he seems to be getting worse and worse at it. He freaks out and storms off. The pig is scared out of it's mind when it sees Xander. It's a rainy day so PE plays dodgeball. The nerdy kid is on the same team as the pack including Xander while Buffy and Willow are on the other side. Xander takes out Willow leaving Buffy against the pack and the nerd. The pack attacks the nerd and leaves Buffy be. Buffy goes to stop them but they all take off and the PE teacher says how much he loves the game. Willow goes to confront Xander and he tells her off, that he doesn't need her and he wants nothing to do with her anymore. The pack, lead by Xander eat the poor pig. It jumps from that to the scene where the pack walks through the cool looking way to cool. I don't know why but I have always loved this scene. It's so much fun and makes Xander look like a badass. Willow feels like Xander just loves Buffy and hates her now. Buffy thinks that something is wrong with Xander and Giles thinks that is it just Xander being 16 years old. Buffy figures out that Xander is acting like a Hyena and Giles figures out about the primals. Flutie calls the Pack, minus Xander into his office to confront about the poor pig while Xander tries to mate with Buffy by force. She puts him in check. He may be stronger but he isn't slayer strong. While Buffy is fighting off Xander the rest of the pack eats Flutie, thus giving us the end of the nice principle. Buffy locks Xander into the cage that sits in the library as Giles comes in and tells them about Flutie's death. Buffy leaves Willow to watch Xander while Buffy and Giles go to talk to the grounds keeper. Xander tries to talk Willow into letting him out. He tries to play on her feelings for him and turn her against Buffy but he over plays his hand. She figures him out. The grounds keeper seems to know that the hyenas can do weird things. He tells Buffy it can be reversed and that the rest of the pack will come for Xander, which means Willow is all alone with a pack of man eating teenagers. The pack frees Xander and Willow runs and hides. The pack finds Willow but Buffy saves her just in time. The two of them and Giles lock themselves in class to hide. The pack attacks a family trying to get into their car and Buffy stops them. She then leads them to the zoo. Giles goes inside to get things ready while Willow keeps watch outside. Giles figures out that the grounds keeper wanted the power for the hyenas himself and he set it all but failed to figure it out and the pack stole his power by mistake. Willow rushes in and the grounds keeper is there alone. He ties Willow's hands up and tells her that he is sing her as bait. She buys it at first but quickly comes to figure out what is happening. She yells a warning to Buffy. He does a spell and takes the hyena's spirits from the pack. Xander rushes to free Willow but the guy fights him off and Buffy tosses him in with the real Hyenas who make quick work of him. This is when Giles picks to wake up. Xander fakes not remembering anything and Giles tells him that he won't tell anyone. It's a fun episode that I've always enjoyed. Now I know you are wondering why I jumped to episode 6 and skipped 3-5, well Fox aired the show out of order, like it does with so many shows. So I thought I'd go through them the way they were meant to be seen instead of the way they were shown. So that would make the next episode Summer of Love by Tracy Tormé! The creator himself.
The episode starts with the damn hippie from the last episode getting arrested by the FBI. He is taken to Quinn's basement and shown pictures of everyone who vanished. The FBI is looking into where they could have gone. They have even figured that the Crying man is gone as well. They think that the hippie knows what happened to them. He tells them that the bridge that Quinn is talking about leads to another Earth. The four sliders exit the wormhole on an Earth that seems to have no people on it. The timer is sparking. Things are not going well for our heroes. A swarm is entering the town and the four friends have 10 minutes to escape. Remy starts freaking out demanding to go home or at least get out of there. Quinn says the timer is on its last legs, if it doesn't cool off it could break, he opens it anyways. Wade and Remy jump through and the vortex closes, the bugs close in and the vortex reopens so that Arturo and Quinn can enter, a few bugs catch a ride. Remy and Wade are dumped out in the middle of a hippie camp as the vortex closes. No sign of Quinn or Arturo or the damn bugs that all get dumped out elsewhere. Is it the same world? Who knows. How fast do those bugs reproduce? Who knows but it could be the end for this world thanks to these two. One of the bugs is on Arturo's back about to bite him. He asks Quinn for help, he picks up a rock and tells Arturo that he use to be a quarterback. He throws the rock, hitting the bug and knocking Arturo out. He must not have been a good one. Wade and Remy think that they are stuck on this strange new world forever. The hippies introduce themselves to them, they think that they are gods. Remy thinks they might be home until he asks who is president. Quinn uses a bandana to help Arturo's wound heal. This world seems to be stuck in the 60's. It could be the same world that the others are on, it seems to fit together nicely. Remy loves all the attention that he is getting and thinks that it is all because he is the crying man. Remy's go rivals my own. You have to love it. He goes into town to look for their friends and the hippies tell them that they will do anything he ever asks of them. The hippies are rich and worship Remy. He drives right past Quinn and Arturo and didn't even see them. He visits his old house and some kids are scared to see him. There is a party going on and he crashes it just to see what is going on. Turns out it is his doubles funeral. It gets worse, there is no body, he is just MIA and believed dead. Remy stays and listens to them talk about him, he is going to get himself in so much trouble. His brother, or his doubles brother starts talking about how he is better than Remy. Even a better singer and Remy steps out and talks shit. Making everyone there think that their Remy is alive. Now if his Remy never became a professional singer, doesn't it click in his head that the hippies aren't loving him because of the crying man? His doubles wife is the one who got away on his world. Quinn and Quinn meet the hippie from their world, he is a clean cut republican on this world. Far different from his counter part on Earth Prime. Earth Prime is what the sliders will call their Earth soon. Remy is good with staying now. He has everything he ever wanted. It's as if his life is perfect. Remy finds out that he had to bug his wife for 10 years before she even goes out with him. She isn't who he thought she was. Wade is loving being in charge of the hippies. She is worried about Remy but not enough to go looking for them. Arturo and Quinn figure out that the timer is broken and have to rework everything. The two men rent a loft from a crazy old lady who thinks that they are hippies and reports them to the government. She says that they are planning to kill the president. What the hell? Crazy old lady! Arturo is hard at work on the equation while Quinn is sleeping. They switch roles, Arturo goes to sleep and Quinn has to get to work. After the first night of crazy loving Remy is worn out. His son is rude as hell to him. This life is not what he was asking for. His double is the most whipped man alive from what his doubles son says. She starts nagging as soon as she gets up. His day of fun is ruined. The hippies ask her what happens when you die and she tells them she never died and now they think she is immortal. These people are crazy. Wade plays along, not sure what else she can do. Remy is hating his new life when his doubles son brings in a note saying that his double has been found alive. His double's wife goes to get her shotgun and chases Remy out of the house, firing the gun at him. Quinn makes it back to the loft and brings food for Arturo and tells him what the war is about. All the food he brings is junk food. He has to be a collage student, I would have done the same. He also gets Arturo hippie clothes. Arturo stayed awake all night working on the equation and was having a great deal of trouble. Quinn figured it out in no time. He is just about to explain it to Arturo when the feds show up and arrest them. They hear Remy singing outside. Arturo gets an FBI agents gun so that Quinn can run after Remy. He catches up to him. They now know that they are on the same Earth. Arturo runs after them with the FBI close on his tail. They take off in a hurry and Arturo tosses the gun. Wade is so excited to see Quinn but that happiness comes crashing down when she gets into it with Arturo about if they should get involved in the worlds they visit. They open the vortex, the argument not finished and hop through the vortex as the FBI shows up. They end up on another world that seems empty and the timer now counts down. Once more the city is empty and a tidal wave is coming right for them. They have 48 minutes till the slide and the wave is a hell of a lot closer than that. Another great episode of a great show! Welcome to my favorite show! Now I know a lot of people are going to point out I say the same thing about Buffy and Firefly and that is fair, I do. But I came to Firefly through Buffy and long before I feel in love with the Slayer and her journey I fell for Sliders. It was the show that captured my imagination as a kid and never let it go. This show means everything to me. I use to track every episode that I had seen, that's how much I loved this show. Also how nerdy I was and still am.
The first episode that sets up everything is written by Tracy Torme with a story by both Torme and Robert K. Weiss. The episode starts with Quinn freaking out about his anti gravity device, well not working. It did something completely different than what it was supposed to. The opening credits for the episode is a master class on character development. With just a slow pan/tilt from the roof to where Quinn is sleeping in his bed we learn everything we need to about the man. Everything that he loves and helps to make him who he is. This scene is the very definition of show don't tell. We meet his mother who nags him about working too hard and learn all about how his father was hit by a car. It fills us in on everything we need to know without feeling like we are learning anything. He watches tapes showing him discovering the wormholes. It's cut short by him having to run to class. We meet a crazy homeless man ranting about communist taking over the world and the USA falling, as he believes it should. Quinn is in Professor Arturo's class. Quinn plays dumb but knows all the answers. Arturo seems to really hate his students, he feels like they don't try and aren't smart enough to understand what he is teaching them. Quinn makes it t work where we meet Wade Welles who clearly has the hots for Quinn. We see once more that Quinn is smarter than most the people that he is around. He gets home and we see that he has a creaky gate, this is very important because it is how he always tries to find out if he is home or not. He has already created the timing device and has started using it to send other things into the vortex and having them return. He wants to know what is on the other side, the only option he has is to go through the gate himself. He films a goodbye to his mother incase he doesn't make it home. He then jumps through the vortex, changing his life and mine forever. He ends up back in his basement and thinks that it didn't work. If only he knew how well it works. It's simple at first, he drives past a green light not knowing that on this world green means stop and red means go. It is a very small difference but still a difference. We also hear that JFK is stepping down from the office of President, Americans are sneaking into Mexico for better jobs and Elvis is still alive. The last clue? His gate doesn't make a sound as he opens it. Oh and his mother is married to the gardener. The vortex opens and pulls him in, returning him back to his house. He figures out what had happened and runs to hug his mom. He is so happy to be home. He rushes to class to tell Arturo what he has discovered but Arturo hates him, telling him ever to talk about him that way again. What did Quinn miss? The hippie in the class, we see him on many worlds and he is always a dumbass, well a smart dumbass but still. Quinn also got fired from his job. He had a double come to this world and messed everything up for him. His double kissed Wade and Quinn says that she is like his sister, why would he kiss her. Thus breaking her heart, poor guy. He freaks out and Wade tries to comfort him. He goes home and finds the on his board finished. He asks himself who finished it and meets his double. He thinks that he was split in half like James T. Kirk but his double explains to him about sliding and the parallel worlds. This double will trouble him again. The double tries to warn him about something before vanishing into the vortex but our Quinn can't hear him. Arturo and Wade show up at Quinn's house, Arturo is under the impression that Quinn wants to apologize. At the same time Rembrandt "the Crying man" Brown is getting ready to make his big return to the spotlight. Arturo is beyond impressed by Quinn's discovery. I almost forgot how much Arturo detested Quinn in the early episodes, he doesn't believe that Quinn could have built the timer or that it could work. So Quinn shows him. He opens the vortex for him and both Arturo and Wade are in shock. Arturo doesn't want to go but Wade talks him into it. Quinn increases the power, the very thing that his double had tried to warn him about. Rembrandt and his beautiful car gets sucked into the vortex with everyone else. He ends up separated from the others and with no idea what has happened. It seems that this world is froze over with no life on it other than the four of them. They run into Remy and hide out in his car as things get worse weather wise. Remy demands he forces the timer to reopen early but Quinn says it is a bad idea, the weather gets worse forcing his hand. He ends up opening the vortex and they all go through it. Quinn helps everyone through but falls backward into the car as the vortex starts to close. The others worry that he didn't make it and Wade wants to go back but Arturo talks her out of it. They wouldn't be able to control it. At the last moment before it closes he falls out of the vortex. They all made it. They believe they made it home and Remy takes off trying to make it to the baseball game so that he can restart his career. He gets picked up by he cab driver, the same one that is on a great deal of universes. Wade takes off to check in with home. Quinn and Arturo talk about why the timer sent them to the wrong place. It is a few seconds later that Arturo finds that the wrong statue is in the park. They aren't home. Remy pays the cab driver in American money and gets himself in trouble. After all the country is owned by Russia and American's are the evil underground. Remy is placed under arrest. Poor Remy has no idea what is going on. Wade catches up with Quinn and Arturo and the three of them make their way through the city, seeing how messed up everything is. They are stuck there till the timer recharges itself. None of them seem all that worried about where Remy is or what happened to him. He is being interrogated. His double was killed 12 years ago so they think that he is an American spy. He is sent to the people's court. Things are not looking good for him. Quinn and co see how messed up the city is in this world and they finally decide to go find Remy. Arturo goes for a hotdog and uses American money, how did he not know that it would be different here? The phone company comes looking for Wade, lucky the hotdog vender helps them hide. It seems that on this world Wade is someone important who was just captured a few days ago. The three of them meet the underground resistance. Wade has a boyfriend there, she doesn't know him but oh he knows her. Arturo's double is one of the bad guys on this world. The resistance didn't believe them at first but Wade's lover knows she isn't the real Wade and it makes him believe them. They find Remy on a judge show. He tries to explain to the judge what happened but no one believes him. He gets sent to Alaska for 15 years. The resistance's Wade is in the same holding camp as Remy so they can save them at the same time. If the resistance doesn't succeed in this mission than it all over and what is left of America dies. Arturo gets them into the camp. Wade goes off to find her double while Quinn and Arturo free Remy. The alarm goes off and they have to take off before reconnecting with Wade. Everything goes to shit. The resistance escapes but Wade is dead. Quinn freaks out, after all she is his best friend. Everyone is in shock, lucky for us it wasn't our Wade, it was her double. Our Wade is safe and sound. Remy gets to sing the anthem like he has been trying to the whole episode, but instead of doing it to fix his career he is doing to send off the dead. Not the way he wanted but hey, it's something. Arturo and Quinn fix the timer and if they return to the spot they slide in on they could increase their chance to get home. Someone tries to stop them and Wade knocks him down and they set off running. The cops close behind, the timer won't work. They are doomed. . . . at the last second he gets it working and they waste no time going through the vortex. Once again they think they are home, even find the homeless man from the start of the episode sleeping. Quinn uses his gate to test if they are home or not, it squeaks. They go inside, all seems well. His mother is even worried about him as if he had been gone for a long time. Arturo tells Quinn they should destroy the timer, it is too dangerous for them to keep it. It could fall into the wrong hands. The four friends are so happy, it's the perfect ending, until Quinn's father walks into the house. There goes the perfect ending. This episode is so perfectly crafted it's just a masterpiece. If it was a movie it would go down as a classic like Back to the Future. Sliders should get more love! Man of Steel! The darker version of Superman written by David S. Goyer, the man who said on an episode of Scriptnotes that She-Hulk was nothing more than a giant green porn star for the hulk to fuck. Great guy, who clearly knows next to nothing about comic books, but let's not let our dislike of this man color our viewing of Man of Steel.
Now I remember when this movie first came out and I saw it in theaters, I liked it. The look and feel of it blew me away, but I did have problems with it. Namely the Kents, I hated the way they made them. They gave Jonathan's role as Clark's father figure to Jor-el and that really bothered me. Jonathan is the one who gave superman his moral compass and that far more than any super powers made him into the hero that we all know and love. People complain about what happened in the end with Zod but that didn't seem out of place, even less so with this version of the character. It is really just how badly they messed up the Kents that hurt this movie the worst for me. Now I haven't seen this movie since I bought the collectors edition from best buy a few years ago. I thought in honor of Batman V Superman I'd go back and watch it again. See how I feel about it now. It's an experiment of sorts. Let's begin! The movie starts off with Kal-el being born. He is the first natural birth on Krypton in a very long time. Making him different than the rest of his kind. Krypton on this film looks so amazing and really makes me wish that the sy-fy show would hurry up and come out. I need to see more of this planet! Like in all versions of Superman, Jor-el is telling the rest of his peers about the planet being doomed and no one listens to him. Zod interrupts and takes over, he will remake what is left of Krypton in his image. He places Jor-El under arrest but he manages to escape. Krypton is a battlefield and Jor-El rushes to the codex, he means to save the DNA of his people so that they can carry on elsewhere. It is a really cool idea. We punny humans have a lot to learn from these people. They found a way to save families and keep their species alive even if the world dies. Take that nature! One point for science! Zod makes it to Jor-El's home just as the ship is about to takes off. Jor-El tells him everything, because why not give your enemy what they need to know to beat you. In al honestly no one was supposed to make it off the planet so it was kind of a screw you to Zod, I would have done the same. The ship takes off and Zod kills Jor-El. Zod tries to take down Kal-El's ship but he and his men are captured and sent to the Phantom Zone. Oddly enough saving their lives as the planet blows to kingdom come. It is an ironic twist of fate. On Earth Clark grows up and works on a boat as a fisherman, when a rig is set to blow and the captain orders them away Clark vanishes and goes to save as many lives as he can. It's who he is after all. As he lays drifting in the water he remembers as a kid when his powers first started to kick in and how his mother helped him deal with it. It wasn't easy but he survived. He washes up on shore and steals some clothes, remembering back to when he pulled his school bus out of the water as a kid. Show off! And here comes the scene that pulls me out of the film. Now before you all tear me apart, I understand it. I get that Jonathan is trying to protect his son and he is right to do so. But he shouldn't be telling him to let people die. That isn't who he is. Who any of them are. The reveal to Clark of who he is is beautifully done. It is so emotional, the line "Can't I just keep pretending to be your son?" "You are my son" breaks my heart every time. That is some mad writing right there! In the present Clark is working as a busboy and stops a girl from getting beat up by her boyfriend but in the end he just walks away. The hero he wants to be is in there but not ready to come out. He is still scared to show the world who he is, but he is more than willing to destroy a town's phone lines to get revenge on the truck driver who was rude to him. In the words of uncle Ben, with great power must also come great responsibility. Amy Adams is my least favorite Lois Lane. Teri Hatcher was too perfect for the role. She gave the character life and a spunk that she needed. Made her an equal of not just Clark Kent but of Superman. Erica Durance picked up the part and made it her own, not an easy task but one she made look easy. Noel Neill and Phyllis Coates were both amazing in the role back in the 50's making the character seem like she belonged and could hold her own in the boys club that was the daily planet. Now if you are saying well that is TV, for a movie Amy Adams did a good job, I'd have to ask if you remember Margot Kidder? Ask anyone, when you think of Lois Lane you think of her. She owned the role, everyone else just borrowed it. To be fair to Amy Adams, I don't much remember what I thought of Kate Bosworth's take on the character so she might have her beat, I'd have go watch it again. Clark and Lois both find the Kryptonian ship at the same time. Clark has a key that let's him inside and brings to life a hologram of Jor-El, another part that I take issue with this movie on. Clark has always talked to a hologram of Jor-El and asked him for advice that part is fine but I just feel like in this film he took over too much of Jonathan Kent's role. In case you haven't figured it out yet, he is one of my favorite comic book characters and I don't like how this movie treated him. Clark saves Lois from one of the droids, Clark, no secret identity needed. To be fair she has no idea who Clark is and there is no Superman yet. He flies the ship out of the ice right in front of the military. The ship had been there for over 18,000 years. Damn! That's a long time. Lois reads Perry White her story where she correctly guesses that it was aliens. Now Laurence Fishburne owns the role of Perry White. He may not have lot of screen time but when he is on the screen you can't look away. He is one of the highlights of the film and I really hope to see more of him! The only person who I like better in the role is Lane Smith, I'm sorry but no one is taking the title from him, cept maybe the king. If you get the joke I like you, I really do. Holo-Jor-El, which is what I will call him from now on, fills Clark in on everything he needs to know. Telling him who he is and where he is from. The man of steel is on he verge of waking up. Clark puts on the costume and goes out into the world. Meanwhile Lois Lane puts together that Clark is the mystery man. For the first time ever Lois Lane figures out Superman's identity before he even becomes Superman, she may not be as interesting as the others but she is a better reporter. A teenage Clark tells Jonathan, you aren't my dad right before he dies. Right out of Spider-man. Gotta love when DC steals from Marvel. Jonathan Kent runs back into the storm to save a dog when Clerk could have done it, he orders Clark not to go save him. He didn't have to die right there. He could still be alive with just a little foresight. It breaks my heart, like good movies are supposed to. Clark uses this story to tell Lois that he can't tell the world his story. Perry tears Lois a new one for going against his orders. Clark returns home, his mother is so happy to see him. It must have been some time since he has been home last. He tells her that he knows who he is now. It's a bit ungrateful and you can see that it hurts her. It's as if the parents who gave birth to him mean more than the people who spent their whole lives raising him. The Kents deserve more love! At least Clark tells her that he won't leave her and calls her mom. That is something. Harry Lennix, the man who played Boyd on Dollhouse, great show by the way!, plays General Swanwick in the film. He is in charge of responding to Zod's invasion and he kills the role! After all he is a Whedon actor! Zod taking over the TV's to tell the Earth that we are not alone and to demand to have Kal-El turned over to him is so cool! love this scene. The FBI arrest Lois and tries to force her to tell them who Superman really is. After all Zod gave the world 24 hours to turn him over before they destroy everything. Clark goes to a priest for advice and tells him that he doesn't know if he can trust mankind. The Priest tells him that sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust comes later. Superman turns himself into General Swanwick, on the condition that he lets Lois Lane goes. Superman tells him that they can never control him but he will allow them to turn him over to Zod. He wants to protect the Earth not be the cause of its destruction. Superman turns himself over to Zod's men and they demand Lois Lane as well. The military says no but Lois agrees to it. Superman and Zod meet but Superman gets sick. Turns out that he can't live on their ship. He never experienced it since he spent his whole life on Earth. Zod and his men have been looking for Kal-El since Krypton blew up and the only reason they found him is because Clark turned on the damn ship he found with Lois and it sent out a beacon calling for them. Zod tells Clark that he needs the codex to bring Krypton back to Earth, of course the humans would have to die to allow this to happen but it is a small scarfice. Clark says no, he won't be apart of this. Lois gets ahold of Clark's key and uses it, thus bringing Holo-Jor-El to her. He helps her escape from the ship. He then goes to find Superman and tells him that he can save the Earth from Zod and his men. Zod and his men go to the Kent's farm looking for Clark's ship. They quickly find it but the codex isn't in it. Superman flies out of nowhere and attacks Zod. Zod gains Superman's powers far too quickly and the fight is now turned against Superman, after all he is out numbered. The US Military enters the fight. It is a full on war in Smallville. And in the midst of this war they manage to get in some ads, like Ihop! Smallville gets tore up! Like hardcore tore up! The military attack Superman like he is one of the bad guys but he still saves them when they get shot out of the sky. The guy is a hero after all. The more I watch this movie the more I feel like it is Superman II on steroids, not that that is bad thing. It's a lot better than I remember it. Zod's men take off and the military stops attacking Superman, they are starting to see that he is on their side. Oh and they get in an ad for Sears. Bloody hell the ads like a crazy person. Martha Kent is still alive and kicking. Clark can be a good son sometimes. He rushes in to check on her and make sure she is ok. Lois figures out how to stop Zod's men at the same time tat Zod and his people figure out that the codex is inside of Kal-El. Things get tense. Zod sends out the world engine to remake the Earth so that he and his people can live on it without having to adjust to the environment. Metropolis becomes a battle ground and wastes no time in being tore apart. Superman rushes to take out these world ship on the otherside of the planet while the military tries take out the one in Metropolis. Zod forces himself to adjust to Earth and gains more powers. Zod takes control of the ship that will allow him to use the codex to bring their people back to life. The citizens of Metropolis try and stay alive as their city falls apart all around them. We see this first hand through the eyes of the Daily Planet employees. Superman has trouble taking on the world ship as Zod shuts down Holo-Zor-El. Perry risks his life to save his people, now you want to talk about heroes, that man puts everyone to shame. After all who is more heroic? The man who can do anything or the normal guy who risks everything? Superman destroys the world ship. When one was destroyed it shut down both of them. He did it! It took a great deal out of him. He can barely move after destroying it. Lois tires to active it but the key is broken and won't work. It messes up their whole plan. If the ship won't turn on they can't use it to get ride of the other one. Zod locks his ship onto theirs and is about to blow them away when Superman crashes into his ship. Zod tells him that this shop is Krypton's only hope and Superman tells him that Krypton had its chance. He could have saved the ship. He didn't have to kill his people's only hope, there had to be another way. But Superman didn't even try. A quick victory was better to him than a longer harder one. The ship that Lois is on gets attacked by Zod's right hand woman and all seems lose but the key finally goes in and they create their black hole, bringing everyone into it. Somehow Lois falls out of the plane and avoids that fate. Superman saves her in the nick of time. It seems like it is all over. Zod's men are gone and Superman kisses Lois as Perry and the others watch on. It seems Zod didn't go down with the rest of his men. He is still here and not happy at all. Zod tells Superman that one of them dies. Their battle takes Metropolis back to the stone ages. The two men are going toe to toe, it is a great fight that has you on the edge of your seat. Zod is winning, Superman is winning, Zod is winning. It changes back and forth so fast that you have trouble keeping up. It's the best kind of fight. And once more with the product placement, a Wayne Industries Satellite. Come on like Bruce Wayne needs their money. SMH. Zod forces Superman's hand and makes him snap his neck. This is the scene that so many people have a problem with. It makes sense with who the character is. There is nothing about what happens that makes him any less Superman. In fact I think it makes him a greater hero. He is willing to make the hard choices that need to be made. He is willing to take on that burden so that others don't have to. The film ends with Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet and Lois playing dumb. I know I had a lot of bad things to say about this movie but over all it is a really good film that I enjoyed a great deal. I can not wait to see Batman V Supermen tonight! And you should all be excited too! Don't let critics tell you what movies you should and shouldn't like. And yes I see the irony in what I just said. Deal with it! The fifth episode is written by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. The episode starts off in the most annoying way possible, well for the characters. It must be such a pain in the ass to be in the middle of a shower when gravity turns off and the water floats away. Poor Archer falls hard to the ground as it turns on. The early days of Space travel seem like such a drag. I wish I could go!
The ship keeps having more and more problems. Tucker is sure that he can handle it but as it gets worse he orders them out of warp. T'Pol figures out that something is messing up their warp field. They fire behind themselves and find a cloaked ship following in their wake. They are the reason that all of their systems are having problems. Archer calls them and asks them to move away from their ships. The cloaked ship does as it is told and tells Archer that they are having problems with their engines. They were trying to use the Enterprise to make repairs. Tucker goes over to the other ship to help fix their engines. He is going to be stuck there till the work is finished. He isn't to thrilled with the idea. Tucker goes into a room that is filled with gas and starts to freak out. He has to stay in here for 3 hours before he can enter their ship. It is how they decontaminate people. Trip does not handle this well. He keeps calling and complaining to Archer. I love Trip but he is a bit of a diva. He makes it onto the ship and it is amazing! They have animals swimming through hallways and everything. Very cool. He has a hard time getting use to the environment. He can't focus or breath right on the ship. It turns out he just needs some sleep. Archer orders him to take a nap and if he still feels like this than he can come home. Reluctantly he agrees. When he wakes up he feels more normal. It seems that the captain was right. The ship grows food all over the ship. That is very awesome. These creatures don't drink water, that's weird. The female engineer feeds Trip, the two of them start to build a connection, maybe too strong a connection. Trip thinks he's Kirk hooking up with aliens and what not. True Kirk won't be born for another hundred years or so but still. Trip finally starts to work and is loving it over there. He loves that they have grass growing on the ship, almost as if they are Andalites. If you don't know what Andalites are than you have never read or seen Animorphs and I feel sorry for you. The woman shows Trip their holodeck, something that humans will not get until The Next Generation about 200 years after this. It takes some getting use to for Trip but he loves it. There is nothing I would want more than a holodeck, it would make playing as a kid so much more fun. She plays a game with him, you just put your hands in weird crystals. She doesn't tell him anything more than that. She really should have told him more! The two of them put all four of their hands into the crystals and start to see inside each others minds. It is very weird and creepy. There good time is cut short by their work finishing. Trip goes back home, he loved it over there. He was almost sorry to come home, almost. The trip over there made him remember why he set out into space to begin with. He loved it and can't wait to get back out there into the void and see what else there is to learn. Once back on the Enterprise he starts to feel weird. Doctor Phlox asks him if he had sex over on the other ship, Trip tells him no and the doctor informs him that he is pregnant. It's JR. all over. He isn't the father, he is just a host for the baby. T'Pol starts digging into Trip and tearing him down. Phlox tells him that he had to do something in order to exchange this much DNA. He tells him about the game they played. Phlox says that is most likely how it happened. They can't seem to find the ship, without it they don't know how to get the baby out of Trip. He is getting more and more moody. They tell him that he might have to give birth to the baby. He is due in another 5 weeks or so. They finally find the ship, it is hiding in the wake of a Klingon ship. The Enterprise hails them but they attack in return. Archer tells them about the ship and the Klingon's orders them destroyed, Archer doesn't accept that. T'Pol tells the Klingons about how Archer and the Enterprise saved the Klingon empire. They are in his debt and owe him this. Archer has to tell them about how Trip has been impregnated, the Klingons allow him to come with them. They manage to transfer the baby to anther host and the aliens give the Klingons the hologram technology. The Klingons tell Archer that their debt is paid. They have nothing more to say to each other. This was a fun episode that shows what classic Star Trek can be when done right. Episode 4 is written by the one and only David Greenwalt. Who is he? He's the co-creator of the spin off show Angel! This is the first episode that he put his pen to, how cool is that?
The episode starts off with Xander slaying a vampire, wooing Buffy and more or less being a rock star. The stuff that dreams are made of, or at least Xander's dreams. He wakes up in science class where Buffy is put on the spot to answer a question about ants. She gets it wrong and the teacher takes her aside after class to tell her that he expects great things from her. She is smart and an go far as long as she doesn't let negative opinions get her down. She leaves class feeling great, so of course the teacher is killed moments later. Later that night at the Bronze Xander walks around trying to fit in, news flash, he doesn't. Nothing he does it right, or cool. He's a loser, well not really. He's a teenager trying to find his place in the world he just doesn't know where it is. He takes a seat next to some classmate talking about how much sex they have. The jock says he slept with about 8 girls and Xander tries to pretend that he is hooking up with Buffy and Willow, but Buffy takes off the moment that Angel shows up. She clearly only has eyes for her mystery man. He clearly likes her as well, he gives her his jacket and Xander couldn't be more jealous. Angel is a bit tore up, hey he is finally doing something around here! He tells Buffy about a vampire with a fork for a hand and Buffy goes to tell Giles who doesn't seem too worried. The Science teacher who has faith in Buffy is now gone, well duh he is dead! So they have a sub, and all the guys couldn't be happier! None of them can take their eyes off of her. Xander is even drooling a bit. He can't get out a sentence and the jock swoops in and takes the teacher away. Xander is left standing dumbfounded. As they go into class Buffy finds their real teacher's glasses on the floor. Buffy starts to figure out that something is wrong. Any normal person would have picked them up. Cordy opens the fridge at school and the teacher's dead body falls out, minus a head. Buffy and Giles figure out that whatever killed her teacher might not be the same guy who Angel warned her off. Buffy goes to the park to check it out. While there some old homeless guy warns her to go home, that this isn't the place she wants to be hanging out at night. She finds the vampire with a fork for a hand and they fight it out but the homeless man shows up, turning out to be a cop. The fork vampire then tries to attack the sub but she takes one look at him and he runs off freaked out. Why would a teacher scare a vampire? The plot thickens! She tells Giles and he admits that it doesn't seem right. She needs to keep an eye on her. So Buffy runs to class but gets stopped by Principle Flutie who makes her talk to a specialist. She over hears Cordy talking to one about how it is helping her lose weight and the death has helped her so much. Only Cordy! Buffy finally makes it to class just in time to see the sub's head turn all the way around. She even puts together that she might be an insect and that the jock who worked with her yesterday never came to class. Buffy is becoming a real detective. The sub tells Xander to come meet her at her house and he agrees. He is in danger. It's nice how on Buffy the role of damsel in distress can be a guy as well a woman. Willow's hacking skills are getting better and better. Giles finally comes around to believing Buffy and Buffy runs to tell Xander what they have found out. He thinks that Buffy is just jealous and tells her to stay out of his life. He gets to the sub's house and she is in a sexy little black dress and gives him booze. She is not a good teacher, she even starts hitting on him, asking him if he has ever had sex before. She is seducing him. She tells him that she knows he is a virgin and that is what she likes. He hears someone crying for help but she tells him it is nothing, as the drugs kick in he tells her that he loves Buffy just before he passes out. Xander wakes up in a cage with the jock who tells him that the sub mates with you before cutting off your head. He tells her that she is a bug, proving Buffy right. Xander stays more or less relaxed. Hanging out with Buffy has mellowed him a bit. Giles finds out that she is a praying mantis who feeds on virgins. Buffy needs to hurry if she is to save Xander. Buffy and co show up at her house to find an old woman. Turns out the praying mantis stole her identity to get into the school. They are now at a loss as to how to find and save Xander. And he needs them fast! The mantis comes for Xander and he attacks her breaking free and making a run for the stairs but she knocks him down. She sets Xander up for mating. He's all but dead. Buffy finds the vampire with the fork and forces him to lead her to he mantis, figuring that since he is scared of her that he can detect her. He breaks free after leading them to the house and Buffy slays him. She breaks into the basement just in time to save Xander. She uses the tape recording of the bat to hurt her but it's just a recording of Giles voice. One of the funniest moments of the first season. They finally get the tape right and play the bat sound. Buffy makes quick work of killing the mantis and saving the guys. The jock threatens to sue if they tell anyone that he is a virgin. Very funny. Buffy offers Angel his jacket back but he tells her it looks better on her. The start of romance is at a start. The new science teacher is dreadfully boring. Now the ending of this episode, much like the last one is an example of season 1 setting up so much that never came to pass. The last scene is mantis's eggs in the closet getting ready to hatch. Now if it is getting ready to hatch it isn't going to take 3 years to finally hatch, that just doesn't make sense. Also does that mean that the science teacher was virgin? So many questions that I now have. Over all this was a cool episode and the first to really give Xander a spotlight which we can never have enough of. Unlike most of the online Buffy fan's I love Xander. He's a great character. This episode starts off with a bang as Ollie tells Diggle about him being the vigilante. Ollie thought that Diggle would join him but Diggle takes a swing at him and calls him a crazy murderer. Moira Kirland & Lana Cho give us this very emotional episode that just keeps swinging right off the bat. As soon as Oliver gets home Laurel is there waiting for him to tell him how selfish he is and how he needs to get over himself and think about other people for once.
Back on the island five years ago the mystery man is helping keep Oliver alive by feeding him birds. Oliver is acting ungrateful just yelling at the guy to speak English. In the present Oliver tells Thea his problems, she talks him into telling Laurel how he feels. Ollie wakes up the next day to find that Diggle has quit. Oliver now has a new body guard, luckily Diggle didn't tell anyone what Oliver told him. It takes Oliver all o five seconds to ditch the new body guard. The arrow shows up at Laurel's apartment and she pulls a gun out on him. He asks her for help in proving that the man who murdered his wife didn't do it. He is being put to death for a crime that he didn't commit. Her boss killed her because she was going to blow the whistle on him. Oliver tracks down Diggle and tells him what his mission is. He shows him his father's list, he even tells him about how his father killed himself to save Oliver. He tells him how the guy he stopped in the last episode was the man who killed Diggle's brother. Even though he didn't, long story, watch season 4. Oliver's mother covers up a missing 2.6 million dollars that is missing from the company. Her husband doesn't seem to buy it. Laurel is starting to fall for, if not the arrow, the idea of the Arrow. This makes the whole, Luis, Clark and Superman thing look like a joke. Laurel, Oliver, Tommy and Arrow. It's so soapy and I love every minute of it! Never jump to conclusions, that is a lesion that Felicity Smoak learns when she yells at her boss for firing her when he was really just putting her on a special task, what is that task? He wants her to find out where that 2.6 million really went. The mystery man tries to teach Oliver how to take care of himself in the past while in the present the Arrow teaches Laurel that sometimes going outside of the law is the only way to get things done and help people. Detective Lance puts together that Laurel is working with the Arrow and it causes problems for the two of them. Smoak finds out that the 2.6 million was used to create a underground company and bought a warehouse. The Arrow goes to get a signed confession from the boss, he won't do it so the Arrow shoots him through the hand. He is saved by a phone call that tips the arrow off to the fact that someone is going to kill the prisoner, and Laurel is there with him. Arrow runs to go save them. Meanwhile Diggle talks to his sister-in-law and starts to come around to joining up with Oliver to help the city. The arrow saves them just in time. A prisoner gets the drop on them and almost kills Laurel but the Arrow stops him and loses his cool, Laurel sees him for the crazy man he is and loses all the respect she had been building towards him. He messed up bad. He just lost his cool, we see that the bird back on the island 5 years ago was his first kill. It changed him. Oliver's step-dad goes to check out the warehouse that was bought with the money. He goes inside and finds what is left of the boat that Oliver and his dad were shipwrecked on. Why would his mother have the ship? Detective Lance goes through the footage looking for the hood and finds Oliver pulling out a ski mask. Laurel gets the wrongly accused man set free. The day was a win even if it did cost them a lot to make it one. Oliver crosses another name off of his list. Back on the island Oliver eats the bird and finds out that the mystery man speaks English. He tells Oliver to forget about Laurel and that the only way he will live is if he hunts. Oliver's mom meets with Malcolm Merlyn, the father of Tommy. He tells her that the Arrow isn't targeting the rich, he is going after people who work with them. Diggle shows up at Oliver's house and tells him that he will help but he isn't a sidekick, he is his partner. The two men agree. Just in time for Oliver Queen to get arrested for being the Arrow. What a great ending to a great episode!!!! Episode 3, written by Dana Reston, starts out with Giles having a meltdown because Buffy is trying out for cheerleading. After all it's safe right? When does referring to something as safe ever seem like a good idea? It almost always means the show will cut to something bad happening and sure enough the moment the words are out of her mouth the episode cuts to a witch preparing spell.
Xander gets Buffy a bracelet that says yours always. He ties to play it off that it came like that and he didn't tell them to put that. Willow is clearly jealous. After all she loves Xander and all he has to do is stop being blinded by the hot blonde they hang out with. Buffy and a girl by the name of Amy hit it off. Turns out she is an old friend of Willow's. The girl is all about cheerleading and wanting to be just like her mother. The girl trying out while they are taking catches on fire. Just like that. Giles assures them that they are not dealing with Vampires. They think that the problem is with amber. That she is the one that caused this to action. Willow calls her and Xander the slayeretts, not yet the Scooby's but not a bad first try. Buffy goes home to talk to her mom about her day and her mom could careless about what is happening in Buffy's life. Buffy tells her that she is doing cheerleading and Joyce says that will get her out of trouble, Buffy points out she isn't in trouble and her mom says not yet. That's the type of person Joyce is. The online Buffy fans love Joyce and I just don't get it. She is a horrible mother, the worst. She hates her daughter all you have to do is watch the show to see that. Cordy threatens Amy not to get in her way. She wants to be a cheerleader and she isn't going to let anyone get in her way. Amy doesn't seem happy about the threat. Buffy and Amy are both alternates while Cordy made the team. The hidden witch does a spell on Cordy while Joyce tries to tell Buffy to join year book. Telling her that whatever it is that Buffy does gets her in trouble and got her kicked out of school. Blaming Buffy for all their family problems. You can tell she felt bad afterwards but she still should never have said it. Cordy is made blind and wrecks her driver's ed car. Buffy saves her at the last minute from getting run over. Buffy and co quickly put together that it must be Amy. She wants to be a cheerleader so bad that it has to be her getting rid of other cheerleaders. Giles tells Buffy they have to make sure it is her before they go after her. Willow says they need to check who rented all the witch books out of the library. Turns out all of them were rented out by Xander so that he could look at the naked pictures in the book. The perv! Buffy manages to put a potion on Amy showing them that she is a witch but the fact that she looked scared when she saw what happened convinces Buffy that maybe she isn't sure what she is doing. They need to talk to her mother. Meanwhile at Amy's house we see how scared her mother is of her. Buffy is infected by a spell that makes her way too hyper. It's starting to kill her and even gets her kicked off the team. She is acting almost drunk. Amy makes it on the team. Giles and a dying Buffy confront her mom who seems far too scared to be normal. Buffy figures out that Amy and her mom switched bodies. Giles finds all of Amy's books. He can now undo the spells. Amy, or Amy's mom is in the middle of cheering when Giles starts undoing the spells. She starts flashing back to her body. She knows something is up and isn't happy about it. She storms into the classroom Giles is working in right as the spells are undone. Buffy protects Amy, now back in her body, from her crazy mother. She does a spell to end Buffy once and for all but Buffy uses a mirror to reflect the curse and she vanishes. Is this the end of Amy's mother? Like a lot of plot lines in season 1, they leave it set up for a sequel to this episode but never does anything with it. Her mom is trapped inside a statue in the display case and with the exception of Oz looking at it and thinking the eyes move with her, and Xander figuring out that Amy is following in her mom's footprints, they never really bring it up again. A lot of cool storylines that could have been continued but never were. Oh well, still the best show ever made. |
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January 2021
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