What if none of this is real?

This is a cross post of @gwajnberg/the-ritual-not-a-simple by @gwajnberg.

my thoughts about the ritual

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Fallout Season 2 Episode 4 might be one of the most fun episodes of the season so far, like they realy found their groove with mixing humor, action and that weird wasteland chaos that makes the show work so damn well, although it seems many Fallout fans havent like Season 2 as much and I guess its always the same problem where characters do not stick to the lore, but in my opinion as a regular viewer who have never play the games, everything just clicks togeather in a way that keeps you wanting more without feeling like they are trying too hard. Right from the start with that Alaska flashback showing Cooper in busted T45 power armor getting saved by a death claw of all things you know this episode is gonna throw some crazy shit at you and it does not disappoint at all, the entire opening was intense showing Cooper stuck in malfunctioning armor, getting attack by Chinese soldiers who were mocking him about how faulty his gear was and then a death claw shows up and rips them apart before just walking away from Cooper like he wasnt even worth the effort because the death claw did see him but for some reason decided not to attack him. The whole Lucy on buffout thing made me laugh my ass off because finally we get to see her break out of that vault golden rule role and just let loose, shooting up those Elvis gang ghouls like she has been waiting her entire life to pop off, when The Ghoul says "thats them drugs talking ....and I like it", the scene where she goes full Rambo mode with that lever action shotgun while Cocaine Blues plays in the background is probably one of the best action sequences the show has done so far, not necessarily because the action was intense but how everything come together, the shooting, the music, Lucy having a great time, everything works. Sure the drugs are doing the talking but sometimes thats exactly what a character needs to evolve and watching her go full wasteland badass while hopped up on steroids feels earned after three episodes of her trying to be the moral compas in a world that does not give a fuk about morals, she even gives Cooper a thumbs up after shes done unloading on those ghouls.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

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Now the part that annoyed me AF and I really though the series was past it, I got to admit it did improve but the Maximus storyline sometimes pulls me back into hating his character because of how weak he is, although got way more interesting with him trying to overthrow Quintis but not being able to go through with killing him, that whole scene really showed how he is stuck between wanting to be good like his father wanted and dealing with the rigid bullshit rules of the Brotherhood, he literally had the guy at gunpoint and just couldnt pull the trigger because deep down Maximus aint a killer unless its absolutely necessary. Then you got Thaddeus pretending to be the Commonwealth envoy while barely being able to walk in power armor and the chaos that follows when everything goes to hell at the meeting, just peak comedy mixed with real stakes as all the Brotherhood elders start stabbing each other and shooting up the place once they realize someones been playing them all along, the civil war that breaks out feels earned considering how much tension has been building between all these different chapters who all want control of that cold fusion core. But the real star of this episode is that death claw taking over the strip, the thing looks absolutely terrifying and the fact that one also showed up in the flashback makes you wonder what the hell is really going on with these creatures, like were they always this dangerous or did something change after the bombs dropped that made them even worse. Episode 4 nails the balance between moving the story forward and letting the characters breathe, plus it actually made me laugh multiple times which is always a good sign when a show can mix humor with serious moments without one overtaking the other, the whole thing just flows so naturally that you dont even notice how much ground they cover in just one episode.

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Source The Alaska flashback at the beginning realy sets the tone for everything that comes after because it shows us a different side of Cooper, back when he was still human and still believed in doing the right thing even if it meant sacrificing himself for his squad, his power armor keeps glitching out and sparking all over the place witch makes sense considering he complained about it in season one to that West Tech guy who designed them. Charlie shows up in his own busted armor trying to find their missing squad mate and Cooper lies to him about retreating just so he can save his friends life, witch is wild considering how ruthless the Ghoul is in present day, its crazy seeing how much the war and everything that came after changed him into what he became, the scene where the Chinese soldiers are about to execute him but then get torn apart by the death claw was brutal and showed just how powerful these things really are. What gets me is that the death claw doesnt attack Cooper after it kills the soldiers, it just sniffs him and walks away like it recognizes something about him or maybe it was programed not to attack people in US military gear, either way that moment is gonna come back later when he faces another one at the end of the episode and you can see the fear in his eyes because he knows what these things are capable off. The whole backstory about how death claws were created by the US goverment as bioweapons to replace human soldiers is messed up but also very on brand for Fallout, like ofcourse the people who were supposed to protect everyone ended up making the most dangerous predator in the wasteland, thats the whole point of the series showing how corporations and governments fked everything up for their own gain.

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Source The vault storylines this episode were kinda meh compared to everything else but they still serve a purpose in building up the bigger mystery, Regs inbreeding support group is thriving because people just want free snacks and a place to hang out witch is hilarious but also shows how desperate everyone is for any kind of normalcy. Betty is dealing with the water shortage and trying to keep things under control but Reg is starting to undermine her by being more popular with the rest of the vault members, theres definitely gonna be some kind of power struggle between them down the line. Norm and the Vault 31 people are still wandering around outside trying to figure out what to do next, Ronnie mentions something about phase two and Future Enterprise Ventures witch spells out FEV if you take the first letters, thats the forced evolutionary virus that creates super mutants so maybe Thaddeus is actualy turning into one of those instead of a ghoul like everyone thinks, but the truth behind all this people who got out is that Norm knows nothing about it and its why now Ronnie is like testing him to really understand how much he knows, Norm only wanted to get out of there reason why got everyone out of their crio pods. Steph over in Vault 32 is being her usual shady self, wanting Hanks keepsake box in exchange for water witch makes you wonder what the hell is in that box thats so important, probably something that ties back to Vault Techs original experiments or maybe proof of what Hank was really doing before the bombs dropped. The whole vault storyline feels like its building toward something big but right now its just a lot of setup without much payoff, yes some tense conversations happening but the end of each of them is like "will continue soon", hopefully the next few episodes give us some answers instead of just more questions.

The ending in New Vegas is where everything realy comes together and sets up what should be an insane next episode, Lucy and the Ghoul finally make it to the strip but instead of finding a thriving city they find a dead wasteland with broken Securitrons and no people anywhere. The Ghoul knows something is very wrong because this place should have defenses and systems in place, Mr House built Vegas to survive the bombs and kept it running longer than anywhere else so seeing it like this means something catastrophic happens that took down all his protections. After Lucy took down that entire Elvis Ghoul gang, she and The Ghoul walk deeper into the strip and you can see all the abandoned casinos and clubs that used to be full of life, the Ultralux, the Tops, the Gamora, all empty and covered in dust and radiation, witch is the first thing that The Ghoul though about, its like walking through a graveyard of the old world. Then Lucy still all hype up because of the drugs picks up what looks like a giant egg, joken its from a chicken but thats where it click for The Ghoul and they hear this roar and the death claw bursts out of the Brimstone nightclub looking like it just crawled out of hell itself, the thing is massive and terrifying and for the first time all season you see genuine fear on the Ghouls face because he knows what these things can do. Lucy being high and overconfident says they can take it witch makes the Ghoul look at her like TF you crazy now and going to get us kill, then she realizes how fked they are and just says okie dokie in the exact same way Cooper did back in Alaska when he was about to die, that callback was perfect and shows how much these two have rubbed off on each other over the course of the season. The episode ends with them staring down this death claw with no way out and no plan, just two people who are way in over their heads but have no choice but to deal with it, its the perfect cliffhanger that makes you desperate to see what happens next.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #fallout, #deathclaw, #lucy, #cooper, #wasteland, #buffout, #vegas, #brotherhood, #maximus, #alaska, #ghoul, #recap, #episode, #action, #combat, #survival, #addiction, #chaos, #violence, #flashback, #vault, #mutation, #guns, #crazy, #cliffhanger

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Over the past few months, I’ve watched one of the longest series I’ve committed to in a while: Kleo.

And today, I want to share my thoughts on it. Overall, I really enjoyed it, but there are a few things I’d like you to know before you dive in no spoilers!

Kleo is a German-language series, and the cast is full of actors I hadn’t seen before.

The actors were almost perfect in their roles, in my opinion. The story takes place during the time of the Berlin Wall coming down, and it goes around among many elements and smaller stories that feel like they could actually have happened (not literally, but very realistically).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15135104/?ref_=fn_t_1

Storyline

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a former spy killer is set free and embarks on a revenge spree against the people who conspired to betray her.

The main character, Kleo (played by Jella Haase), is an agent caught up in a really bad situation. After some events, she’s determined to uncover the truth. During all this time, a persistent cop is chasing her, trying to get to the bottom of the mystery too.

After they meet each other, there is a lot of interesting scenes around them that keep the viewer hooked.

One thing I really enjoyed is the action scenes in the movie. Dont expect the American style action, but they do keep you hooked and there is a natural flow, while the plot is mostly well executed.

Beyond the suspense and intrigue, there are some really funny and interesting characters sprinkled throughout the episodes, which lighten the mood and make the series even more enjoyable.

This is Thilo, one of my favorites and a highlight in the series!

If you would enjoy a German thriller, with strong performances, a historical backdrop, and good played characters, Kleo is definitely worth checking out.

Its imdb rating is 7.5/10 and I would definitely place it above 7/10

Make sure you also check out the trailer:

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Murderbot Season 1 is one I had two episodes pending and last night binge both so I wanted to share how much I like it although at first like the first two episodes you dont know exactly what to expect, specially when you havent read the books, because most of the main character and humor side comes from inner monologue, all those sarcastic thoughts running through Murderbots head while dealing with humans and their bullshit, but honestly they pulled it off way better than I expected, even though it has some issues here and there that bug me, I mean no series is 110% perfect but this one I really enjoy. Alexander Skarsgard plays the this robot that is suppose to keep safe humans during a research expedition and he does a solid job bringing that dead man flat energy to life, you can see how much Murderbot just wants everyone to leave him alone, so he can binge tv shows in peace, which I personally so damn relatable sometimes that I understand the bot, like I get it sometimes you just want people to shut up and let you watch your series without all the small talk and leave you alone for 1 hour. The season starts hard with disaster after disaster where each situation gets wrapped up without destroying everything, there is conflict sure but you know the main crew is going to make it through and honestly that works for this kind of thing, because you are not here for some dark twisted ending where everyone dies, you are here to hang out with a robot who hacked their own programming just to watch soap operas and avoid conversations, which is the most human thing ever when you think about it realy. What I really dig about this adaptation is how they handle the bots personal angle almost like he is human and at the same time faking he is a bot although I never felt like they were going over the top with but it was very sarcastic most of the time. Murderbot just want to be treated LIKE a person although doesnt mean he wants to feel like a human, he just want to have some damn autonomy, which feels way more interesting than the usual AI wants to be human crap we see everywhere else, the friendship between Murderbot and the humans around grows naturally too and it is not forced by programming or some code bullshit, these people actually earn Murderbots trust over time and you can feel that weight as the season goes on, especially with Mensah who becomes Murderbots favorite human, lol favorite human like he was a dog or something but yeah he doesnt want to be human so its expected.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source The thing builds up with Murderbot basically working as a bodyguard at this mining facility, where its been slowly hacking its governor module for months, this module is basically what keeps robots like him from harming humans and forces them to obey orders no matter what, so getting rid of it is a huge deal but also super dangerous for everyone around the bot, although very very dangerous for him as he will have to cover up for his strange human like reactions and behavior that he usually slip with. Once Murderbot finally breaks free from that control, it doesnt go on some rampage or try to escape the planet, it just keeps doing its job because running away would get it caught and melted down for parts, which makes total sense when you think about the corporate world this show builds up, everything is about money and contracts, and nobody gives a shit about the bots themselves unless they malfunction or kill someone. Murderbot gets asigned to the Preservation Alliance team, this group of researchers who are basically hippies from outside the Corporation Rim and they treat bots like actual people instead of property, which freaks Murderbot out at first, because its not used to that kind of respect from humans at all, well except for one of them called Gurathin, so its just obvious that the rest of humans just see bots as walking weapons that ocasionally need charging and updating. The team includes Mensah whos the leader and a terraforming expert, Arada the biologist, Pin Lee the lawyer, Ratthi whos into wormhole travel theory, Gurathin the augmented human who can interface with data streams directly, and Professor Bharadwaj the geochemist, at the start of the season Arada and Pin Lee are married and then Ratthi joins their relationship later when he signs a contract to become part of their trio, which Murderbot finds disturbing as hell but also uses it to mess with Gurathin later, when he tries to hack into Murderbots mind during a tense moment between them since he has this enhancements that are basically robot parts added to him. Things get intense real quick when this giant centipede creature attacks during one of the mining operations and Murderbot has to save Arada and Bharadwaj from getting eaten by this thing, the special effects on these creatures are actualy pretty dam good for a TV show and they dont look cheap at all so that was cool, no green screen like crap CGI. After the attack Murderbot does something weird, it takes off its face shield and shows Arada its face to calm her down, then it tries to do small talk using techniques it learned from watching Sanctuary Moon, which is this cheesy soap opera about a ship crew and a romance between a captain and a navigation bot, this moment is huge because it makes Gurathin suspicious as hell and he thinks Murderbot is malfunctioning, because bot units are not supposed to act like that at all or show emotions to humans. Its that moment that start to get things complicated for Murderbot and its when things get interesting although its because of all those inner conversations that Im sure most of use are not use to that at first the show feels weird but they make it work.

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Source The whole Sanctuary Moon thing is honestly one of the best parts of the show, Murderbot has downloaded thousands of hours of this space opera because yeah he pirates this shows too and uses it as a coping mechanism, whenever things get stressful or humans start talking to it too much, its so stupidly relatable that I found myself loving these moments, even when they felt a bit repetitive after a while, the show uses clips from Sanctuary Moon to show whats going on in Murderbots head, when its processing trauma or trying to figure out how to deal with human emotions, without actually having to talk about feelings with anyone on the team so you can image how hard and strange must be to keep your mouth shut specially when you are starting to learn and like the human emotions, its all so contradictory. The season really starts to heat up when they try to contact the Delta research team on the other side of the planet and get no response at all, so Mensah decides they need to go check it out, even though Murderbot thinks its a terrible idea and warns them multiple times that its dangerous to just fly over there, without knowing what happened to the entire team first. When they finaly get to the Delta habitat, they find everyone dead, with all the humans slaughtered, and the bot units destroyed in different ways too, turns out someone hacked them and made them kill their own teams, which is exactly what Murderbot was afraid of happening to itself this whole time, those flashbacks it keeps having of the Ganaka Pit massacre where malware caused all the SecUnits to go rogue and kill 57 people including ComfortUnits who tried to stop it start making more sense now and you realize Murderbot might have been used as a weapon before it hacked itself free from company control years ago. A rogue SEC unit ambushes Murderbot and beats the absolute shit out of it in this brutal fight, dumps it on a work table and installs a combat override module, that would force Murderbot to kill the Preservation team and make it look like it went rogue on its own, without any outside interference from GrayCris or anyone else, but Murderbot fights back just long enough for Mensah to save it and they escape together barely alive, and covered in synthetic blood and oil leaking everywhere. Surprisingly Murderbot realizes the override is already taking effect and in a few seconds it will lose control completely and murder everyone on the team without even knowing what its doing, so it tells Mensah to kill it right there, but she refuses because she actually cares about this damn robot, so Murderbot grabs her gun and shoots itself in the stomach to protect the humans, this temporary at least would shut him down, stop the attack override from taking over and let the humans diagnose him, which is one of the most emotional moments of the entire season and Alexander Skarsgard plays it perfectly, without going over the top with the drama or making it feel fake and forced.

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Source After Murderbot shoots itself, the team has to remove the combat override module before it fully takes control of its systems, Bharadwaj does the surgery while Gurathin digs through Murderbots code and discovers that it hacked its governor module months ago, which means its been free this whole time and could have killed them whenever it wanted to without any consequences. The Delta survivor Leebeebee turns out to be a spy working for GrayCris, the company that orchestrated the whole massacre on the other team, she pulls a gun on everyone and admits she blew up the emergency beacon that would have called for help from Preservation, and then gets killed which shows how dangerous the situation really was all along, the whole thing proving that yeah Murderbot can be a killer when it needs to be, but only to protect the people it cares about now and not because programming tells it to, but because it chose to and thats the whole difference between being property and being a person with proper character. The final episodes deal with the team trying to escape the planet, while GrayCris sends more SEC units to hunt them down and eliminate any witnesses to what happened at Delta, Murderbot comes up with a plan straight out of Sanctuary Moon, where it pretends to betray the team to get close to the enemy, then launches the emergency beacon from the GrayCris camp itself, and blows everything up in a massive explosion that takes out most of their forces, Mensah flies in to save Murderbot at the last second and they barely survive the blast together.

The series at some point look like it was going to end in a very frustrating way because after they get rescued and make it back to Corporation Rim territory, the company wipes Murderbots memory completely and installs a new governor module, turning it back into a mindless slave that follows orders without question or thought, but the Preservation team fights back hard and threatens the company with a massive lawsuit, until they agree to return Murderbot to them which shows how much they care. Gurathin does this insane hack where he transfers all of Murderbots memories back into its system, including every single episode of Sanctuary Moon that it had downloaded over the years for comfort, this detail was hilarious, so when Murderbot wakes up and recognizes the team again, its one of those moments that makes you feel joy and happy for all them even for Gurathin who was a dick most of the time. They just look at each other and you can tell everything has changed between them and they are actual friends now. Mensah offers Murderbot a home with them on Preservation but makes it very clear that its a choice not an order, she wants Murderbot to be free to decide its own future, which is all its ever wanted from the very beginning and in the final scene Murderbot leaves anyway, because it needs to figure out its past and deal with those memories of the Ganaka Pit massacre years ago, you can see it hurts Mensah to watch it go but she gets it. Overall this first season is way better than I thought it would be, it a type of series that Im not use to considering most of it is from Murderbot perspective and his internal problems, its like watching Inside Out but playing inside an androids mind. The main character feels real from the start even though its a robot considering how annoyed he gets from other people bullshit and see through them, stuck between worlds and identities, and the production quality is solid, even if some of the costumes looked a bit cheap, especially the SEC unit outfit which looked more like crappy jumpsuits than actual body protection that could stop bullets or alien claws from ripping through. Alexander Skarsgard carries the show and brings so much depth to Murderbot, without making it too human or too robotic, he gets that balance just right most of the time, my only real complaint is they show his face way too early, I would have preffer a bit more mistery but I guess that was to enforce how much he wanted to feel whats been human even though the whole point is that Murderbot hides behind the face shield to avoid human interaction and eye contact with everyone around them which is a huge part of the character, that was one of the first things Gurathin actually pick up, eye contact. The pacing drags in a few episodes especialy in the middle where they spend too much time on the drama stuff between Arada, Pin Lee and Ratthi having relationship problems, I did not really care about their feelings, when there iss a conspiracy happening and people are getting murdered by rogue SEC units all over the planet and nobody knows who is behind it all. 7.5 out of 10 for me sounds fair and solid, if you like sci fi that focuses on characters over non stop action or speed light traveling, and you enjoy that dark humor with a twist of emotions, then I think Murderbot is absolutely worth watching, just make sure you are not waiting for a ton of action or adventures discovering planets but more about a slow dragging series about a robot who just want to watch TV and be left alone.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #murderbot, #scifi, #android, #robot, #apple, #skarsgard, #sanctuary, #construct, #mensah, #preservation, #corporation, #autonomy, #freedom, #hacking, #governor, #humans, #alliance, #delta, #override, #gathan, #series, #season, #artificial, #intelligence, #drama

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Winter Fire just wrapped up season one and I got mixed thoughts bout how this whole thing came together, the finale had some really cool moments but also a few parts that felt rushed or not fully thought through although I cannot denied it works, its still entertaining as hell. The big reveal that Marge is actually Richies mom from the original IT movie was pretty damn good, I did not see that coming at all and it ties everything together in a smart way and its why I consider this the best synergy between the big and small screen going form the movies to Tv Series, now we know why Richie was so terrified of clowns his whole life because his mom literally faced off against Pennywise when she was a kid and that trauma got burried deep inside him probably thats why his comedy side just came naturally growing up. Bill Skarsgard continues to be incredible as Pennywise, the dude just owns every single scene he is in and I think he does a better job here than he did in the movies because the show gives him way more room to be creepy and funny at the same time, that circus parade scene where he is hoping towards the kids while playing tuba on his wagon was terrifying all them flying deadlight and hilarious exactly what Pennywise should be with way more creative freedom on a tv show, the moment where he takes the principal head off like futball and does his litle jig before opening the deadlights on all those school kids was pure horror gold very Stephen King at his best. The post credit scene with Sophia Lillis showing up again as young Beverly Marsh made me lose it for a moment because I never thought they would bring her back but they did it and she still looks exactly like Beverly from the first movie seeing her standing in front of her moms body at Juniper Hill while Ingred drops that line about nobody really dying in Derry I was like ssshhhttttt, this episode gets an easy 8 out of 10 from me for sure because it wraps up so many things while setting up even more for future seasons and giving us a proper season finale, the entire series is an 8 over all in my opinion.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
• Platform: HBOMAX

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Source The rest of the episode is basically the kids trying to get the dagger to the tree while Pennywise is picking them off one at a time and eventually the military and the adults as well trying to stop both sides at once witch gets complicated real fast, we start to get a bunch of Pennywise cosmic entity timeline explainers that honestly blew my mind a bit because this show is realy leaning into the whole infinite time and space thing. Pennywise does a lot of deep lore explaining here to Marge specifically he names her Tozer saying that she will eventualy get married will eventualy give birth to Richie and name him Richie in honor of Rich and when he shows her literaly a picture of Richie from the book the first IT movie, its the same exact poster that Pennywise shows to young Richie inside the well house during the IT movie witch is such a cool callback, he doesnt go word by word but you get it right away, he explains that because he exists outside of space and time he is an energy being from another dimension that exists outside of space and time and he can see the past present and future all simultaneously tomorrow yesterday its all the same for little Pennywise so therefore he also knows and has seen the future 1980s losers eventually kill him and wants to kill Marge now but after all this talking I dont understand why he didnt right away instead of talking that much and basically waiting to be stop. Hes going to try to get her back in the past to try and avoid that fate and as they explain later in the episode he is going to do the same thing back in the 1930s and then again in the 1908 timeline through future seasons, this is what he means when he says that its his death or his birth basically hes going to jump back into his body in the past like his consciousness will just travel back into the past in the 1930s and will try to change events so that he avoids the fate that he falls to in the 1960s with the dagger. Marge is then saved when Pennywise is stooped dead in his tracks because of Halloranns focus shining ability going into his mind and then messing with him thats why he is inside the cart here seeing all these things because Hallorann is tripping out, we get another turtle reference when they go back to the deadlit kids that are also freed when Pennywise gets stooped dead in his tracks where they show the turtle standing up, Shaw and the military show up to try and stop them from destroying the barrier because they want Pennywise to get free witch is a terible idea specially after what we seen him do.

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Source Eventually Shaw gets his compass from Pennywise who consumes him after he recognizes him from the 1908 cycle saying I never forget a smell you are that kid from way back then witch was satisfying as hell to watch because Shaw was such a dick the entire season always getting in the way of the good guys, really loved all the scenes inside Pennywises mind, inside Bob Greys cart like this whole mind space area just super trippy and I do not think that we have ever actually been inside Pennywises perspective in any other movie before. Will becomes the Frodo of the group having to take the ring to Mount Doom the rest of the way, the are the Losers Club from their time, having to do it as a group like they have to perform some kind of rite together just like the group here in the 1960s had to put the dagger in the tree together as a unit, we finaly see our revenge moment when Hallorann sees the ancient Native American spirit Rose hears but does not see it and he sees Richs spirit return to give Pennywise the middle finger that was actualy a hilarious, very Rich like as he helped the rest of the Losers put the dagger in the tree. Then Pennywise turn into basically a dragon or some sort of bird or at the end a winged clown I would say, assuming this was the first form he took when he crashed to Earth millions of years ago he became a bird like creature before he became anything else, theres a very big explosion of light effect connecting all the pillars around town when they place the dagger and Im assuming that everybody was able to actually see this bright light connecting everything across Derry, then I think the idea here is that he cycles backwards through the forms that he took this season to set up the idea of him traveling backwards in time in future seasons so he goes to Pickle Dad and then to the demon baby that he was at the beginning of the season finally back to the clown form until he goes to his original Deadlights form and then goes off but its not clear if in fact he was about to travel in time or back to his lair.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pennywise, #derry, #horror, #skarsgard, #richie, #marge, #deadlights, #finale, #stephen, #king, #beverly, #hanlon, #halloran, #shining, #losers, #circus, #winter, #fire, #cosmic, #turtle, #ritual, #massacre, #juniper, #revival, #bloodline

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The city will end up devouring you

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Denzel Washington is the only reason this whole franchise works and anyone saying different is lying to themselves but what reall kills is that most of the time it all comes down to the action scenes that often you forget the rest of the movie, why I decided to watch all three movies again. Denzel Washington just has this presence where he can go from being super friendly and charming to absolutely terrifying in like two seconds flat and you believe every word coming out of his mouth when he threatens someone. This third movie takes him to Italy where he gets tangled up with the mafia and honestly I was not sure how that was going to play out at first because the whole point of The Equalizer is supposed to be this everyday guy helping strangers in trouble, not flying overseas to fight organized crime syndicates but they actually made it work pretty well by the end. The violence in this one is just as brutal as the other two, consider the first two were not too gory movies where you see someone getting their stomach rip appart, but I still think they did set the bar a bit higher like more than the first two movies, Denzel literally goes full psycho on these guys with bones popping out and guns going through heads and all that nasty shit which I loved because it looks like for some scenes they use practical effects instead of going full CGI and done right it makes the movie feel more real, this is the kind of stuff that makes you go damn thats gonna hurt. The Italian mobsters do some really messed up stuff throughout the movie that makes you pissed off and want to see them get destroyed so when Denzel finaly goes on his rampage it feels so damn satisfying to watch these assholes get what they deserve, they terrorize this entire small town and you get attached to the people living there so by the time McCall starts his killing spree you are totally on board with it.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17024450/
• Platform: HULU

Rottentomatoes Rating Source

Anyone who watch this movie probably agree that the pacing drags like crazy, there are so many filler scenes of Denzel just walking around Italy or making tea or random transition shots that add absolutely nothing and make the whole thing feel way longer than it actually is, I thought this was like two hours and twenty minutes but turns out it was under two hours which is wild when you think about how slow it moves in the middle, essentially its here where you only remember the action scenes and forget everything else about the movie. Dakota Fanning shows up doing CIA subplot stuff that kind of ties together at the end but mostly just slows everything down even more and feels like they only brought her in because of Man on Fire nostalgia rather than the story actually needing her character there at all, dont get me wrong I loved seeing them together again after all these years but her character does not do much. The movie opens up with Denzel already in Sicily taking out an entire vineyard full of mobsters trying to recover some stolen pension money, witch by the way makes no sense at all because why would the Italian mafia need to hack some brick layers pension fund for like 370 grand when they are importing drugs from Syria and selling them in the United States, this sounds more like something coming out form a lower tier drug dealer and not someone who is directly importing drugs, the math does not add up but whatever I guess, sometimes as I mention before you have to downshift your brain to enjoy some movies. That opening scene is absolutely insane, Denzel is sitting in a chair surrounded by dead bodys and these gangsters come in pointing guns at him, he gives them his famous nine seconds speech and then in one wide shot he takes out all three of them by shooting through one guys head into another guy behind him and then blasting the third guy with a shotgun, its cold blooded and sets the tone for the rest of the movie perfectly.

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Source After that Denzel gets shot in the back by some kid, the grandson of one of the mobsters he just killed and he tries to shoot himself but the gun is empty witch seemed weird to me because if he really wanted to die why not just go back inside and grab one of the five other guns laying around, anyway he gets on a ferry all bloody and somehow makes it to this small coastal town on the Italian mainland where a cop named Bonucci finds him and takes him to a doctor. The whole middle section of the movie is Denzel recovering and getting to know the people in this town, theres a lady who runs a coffee shop that seems like shes gonna be a love interest but nothing really happens with that, theres a fish market owner named Angelo who becomes his friend and just a bunch of regular town people living their lives witch was actually pretty nice to watch because you get to see Denzel be charming and funny with them. The problem is they spend way too much time on this stuff, like we get it hes bonding with the town and starting to feel at home for the first time in forever, we do not need fifteen minutes of him walking around, sitting on benches drinking coffee, some of it felt like a damn travel commercial for Italy instead of an action movie, aside form this the whole movie looks amazing and you can tell they had a real budget to work with because everything is shot so well, but pretty scenery can only carry you so far when the storys moving at a snails pace and here my problem with it.

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Source Emma Collins a CIA agent; played by Dakota Fanning, who Denzel calls to tip her off about drug money being laundered through a winery in Sicily, she shows up in the town to talk to him and they have some good scenes together where you can tell they still have that chemistry from Man on Fire, theres even a funny moment where shes trying to take pictures of him secretly and he poses for her witch made it a bit cringe but I still smile about it. Later on we find out shes actually the daughter of Susan from Equalizer 2, the lady who was Denzels freind and got killed, so that explains why he called her specifically and it was a nice touch to tie the movies together like that but her whole subplot with tracking down Syrian terrorists and busting drug dealers does not really go anywhere interesting, what I mean is that it doesnt add that much to the investigation, this is the problem with most Equalizer movies and is that Denzel doing McCall character is probably too much for everyone else to matter?!. She gets car bombed and spends the rest of the movie in the hospital so what was even the point of having her there, they could have cut her character completely and the movie would have been fine but I get it, its part of the touching details that McCall character gets to soft a bit his character, but at the same time it feels like they only included her because people loved Man on Fire and they wanted that nostalgia boost. Meanwhile the Italian mobsters are going around terrorizing everyone in the town, they firebomb Angelos fish market, they beat the shit out of Bonucci the cop in front of his wife and baby because he called for help, they are just being complete idots to everyone and the movie does a good job making you hate them so much that you cannot wait for Denzel to start killing them off one by one, what is a movie if it doesnt make you feel pain and joy?.

As many other worth watching action movie when it hits, it hit hard, it finaly happens and it is absolutely worth the wait even though theres not nearly enough of it, I would say there was in total like seven or eight minutes of actual action in the whole movie witch is crazy for an action franchise but the kills are so brutal and graphic that they make up for the lack of quantity. Denzel does not just shoot people and move on, he makes them suffer, the last guy always gets it the worst because hes putting on a show at that point, one dude gets a wine bottle smashed in his face and then gets stabbed with the broken glass, another guy gets hit by a bus out of nowhere witch was hilarious and the final boss Vincent gets injected with a lethal dose of his own drugs and Denzel literally sings to him as hes crawling away dying and foaming at the mouth witch was one of the creepiest things in the entire movie. Theres this whole horror movie vibe where Denzel is The Boogie Man, Baba Yaga if you know what I mean, walking around in the shadows taking people out and you barely see him, its like trying to fight a shadow that just absorb them and then spit them out, and the mobsters are the victims, Anton Fuqua should honestly direct a horror movie because he nails that entire vibe. The big showdown in the town square was kind of dumb though, the mobsters have Bonucci and they are threatening to kill him unless Denzel comes out, so he does and then the entire town pulls out their cell phones and starts recording everything witch apparently scares the bad guys away, that scene was so ridiculous and felt like they did not know how to write themselves out of that corner so they just threw in some social media cancel culture bullshit that made no sense for drug dealers. This is the type of bull shit that movies either directly or indirectly try to push and ruins everything, probably in a decade would be normal but for anyone who grew up with movies like Scar Face or Tv Series like The Sopranos, you know they wouldnt give a shit if the whole town film them, because they all know whats going to happen if they win. Overall I still enjoyed it because Denzel is just that good and the kills are satisfying as hell, but the pacing issues, lack of action compared to the first two movies keep it from being great, aside from the very short and random subplots, its more like a 7.5 out of 10 for me, still worth watching if you watch the first two for some clousure, although Im not sure when will I watch them again.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #equalizer, #denzel, #washington, #italy, #mafia, #action, #violence, #brutal, #sicily, #dakota, #fanning, #revenge, #thriller, #pacing, #slow, #killing, #mobsters, #CIA, #Anton, #fuqua, #sequel, #trilogy, #cinematography, #horror, #slasher

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The Equalizer 2 dropped back in 2018 and its Denzels first ever sequel witch is absolutly wild when you think about his whole career so I decided to watch all three since this is one of my favorite actors, I remember watching the first one at the cinema although the second and third at home. Denzel has been making movies for decades and never did a part two until Robert McCall came back. The whole thing builds the story around McCall trying to figure out who killed his friend Susan, shes played by Melissa Leo and she gets murdered in Brussels while investigating some sketchy shit, turns out it was his own team that went rogue and now he has to kill every single one of them. I saw the betrayal coming from miles away because the movie kind of throws it in your face early on but that did not ruin anything for me, sometimes you just want to watch Denzel beat the crap out of people and this delivers on that. Antoine Fuqua directed again and he knows what hes doing, the action is brutal and feels very fast and agresive, you can feel the calculative rage, like when McCall clicks his stopwatch and starts mapping out the room before going to work on seven guys in thirty seconds, it almost cliche but Denzel makes it work. What I really liked about this sequel compared to the first one is how much more personal everything feels, in the first movie he was helping some random girl he met at a diner but here his actual best friend gets killed so the things are much more different, you can see it all over Denzels face even when hes not saying much.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3766354/
• Platform: TUBI

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McCalls working as a Lyft driver now witch sounds dumb on paper but it actually works because it lets him interact with regular people and get involved in there problems, like theres this young girl he drives home from a party and she tells him about these Wall Street bros who drugged her. The way he handles those guys is so satisfying to watch, he tracks them down to this penthouse and just destroys them while giving this calm lecture about how there daddys money is not going to save them tonight, one of them gets his nose broken and McCall does not even break a sweat to kick their ass. The opening scene on a train in Turkey sets everything up perfectly, McCalls sitting there with this ridiculous fake beard that looks like it came from a Halloween store and then he just wrecks an entire crew of kidnappers while classical music plays, its over the top as hell but Denzel sells it completely because his presence is just that strong. Melissa Leo does not get enough screen time but the scenes she has with Denzel are really good, the best one of the them is this place where they having dinner listening to music and you can tell this two have been friends for a long time and know each other well enough so when she dies you actually get to care about her because the movie took the time to make you care about her, character build up. Then starts the entire investigation where McCall goes back to the hotel to reconstruct the crime scene in his head, putting together the puzzle, he notices tiny details like elevator buttons and bullet angles that show you how smart this guy is, hes not just a killing machine, hes actually thinking three steps ahead of everyone else.

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There is this aspect of the villain on the movie, Dave becomes too predictable but it still works because of how much history they have together, Dave was McCalls partner for seven years and they went through absolute hell side by side, but money and greed turned him into someone else entirely. Pedro Pascal in on this movie back in to 2018 where he was still not the big figure we all know now days, he plays Resnik who is part of the same crew and but he doesnt get a ton of screen time you can feel this menace coming off him, the final fight between him and McCall at the end is brutal with eyeballs getting stabbed and throats getting sliced before McCall throws his ass into the ocean. That scene where McCall confronts the whole team in the middle of the street and tells them Im going to kill each and every one of you but the only disappointment is I only get to do it once, is such a badass line is almost like he wants to be hell for them, he says it with this little smile like he already knows exactly how its going to end. The problem with the villain is that by the time we get to the end they all act like complete morons, these are supposed to be highly trained operators who were on McCalls level but they split up and wander into buildings alone witch makes zero tactical sense because it feels they basically running away from McCall instead of trying to trap him. One guy is trying to snipe people from a tower during a damn hurricane where you can not see shit and the winds blowing everything sideways, good luck measuring wind speed to take a shot, it just felt lazy to me. I wanted to see McCall actually struggle for once maybe get hurt or at least look like he might lose but he dominates everyone without much effort, its still fun to watch but it could have been more tense.

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The subplot with Miles is probably my favorite part of the whole movie even though it has nothing to do with the main revenge plot, Miles is this young kid played by Ashton Sanders who did Moonlight and hes trying to stay out of gang life. McCall takes him under his wing and gives him work painting murals around the neighborhood, teaching him about making smart choices and not throwing his life away over dumb shit. The scene where Miles almost joins a gang and McCall shows up to stop him felt like how a father will protect his son but in a really rough way, dont get me wrong I know pointing guns is no parent ship advice but he makes the kid point a gun at his head and asks him if he really wants to be a killer, when Miles can not pull the trigger McCall yells at him about how he does not know what death really is and honestly sometimes you got to be like that, also consider this is a movie so its all fantasy. Its one of those moments where you realize how much pain McCalls carrying inside, he has seen so much violence and loss that he does not want this kid going down the same path, towards the end of the movie when Miles gets into art school it feels earned because we saw his whole journey. Theres also this side thing with an old Holocaust survivor trying to find a painting that belonged to his sister who died in the camps, McCall helps track it down and reunites the guy with his sister whos actually still alive, that was moving but honestly was a bit over the top. These side plots add so much heart to the movie and show a different side of McCall where he is not just out there breaking bones, he is actually trying to make peoples lives better even though he knows he is not going to change the world but with one person is enough for him.

At the end on that abandoned beach town during a hurricane is where everything goes completely off and the movie is about to blow your brain with action, McCalls old team comes after him thinking they can take him out but he already set up traps all over the place and starts picking them off one by one like he has been planing this for many years but in fact he didnt. He kills one dude with a harpoon gun, blows another guy up by filling a grain silo with flour and turning on the fans so it explodes when they toss a flashbang inside and just straight up cuts another guy into pieces with a knife while the winds howling ass at hundred miles per hour outside. The whole sequence looks amazing with rain and wind and waves smashing against buildings, director really knew how to use that environment to create chaos. I think the movie peak out when McCall finally kills Dave by stabbing him in the back of the neck and watching him fall off a cliff into the ocean, theres no satisfaction in it for McCall because this was his friend and you can see that conflict all over Denzels face, its both that mix of cool, calm but at the same time calculative assassin that makes Denzel character work just as in the first movie, like its everything he does, its a brand, going from the face, the watch, the fighting. The hurricane battle is pure entertainment even if the logic behind it has a lot of holes, after all again its a movie so downshift your brain a bit, watching Denzel set traps and outsmart his enemies in the middle of a massive storm is worth watching this movie. If you liked the first Equalizer you are going to love this one, its bigger and way more personal, Denzel Washington is still at the top of his game even in his sixties, I am giving this movie a very well earn 7 out of 10 because because of the pacing issues in the middle and the dumb villain tactics during the entire movie, dont get me wrong I do like this movie but its not that great, if you really think about it is just too focus on certains scenes, this is not American Gangster, but yes it delivers exactly what you want from a Denzel action movie.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #equalizer, #denzel, #washington, #action, #sequel, #revenge, #mccall, #fuqua, #betrayal, #lyft, #hurricane, #pedro, #pascal, #miles, #mentor, #susan, #assassination, #thriller, #violence, #creative, #kills, #team, #rogue, #beach, #storm

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Episode 7 of IT Welcome To Derry, I think was the one that finally gave us what we have been waiting for all damn season, a full dose of Pennywise in all his glory and honestly this was by far the best episode of the season hands down. The opening with Bob Gray back in 1908 performing as the clown for a bunch of kids was actually touching as hell because you start to imagine where the hell is he and that relationship he had with his daughter, watching him do this little routine about losing his wife and the gopher handing him a flower made me feel bad for the guy, the real Bob Gray more than anything else on this show has done with its main characters, witch is kind of sad when you think about it because I still do not care much about most of these people besides Will and his family, the rest they all have some kind of attitude or problem that make you want to feel distant, probably is that rage at times that is the Pennywise effect for them been in Derry. The Black Spot fire was brutal and intense even though the CGI flames looked very green screen heavy and nobody was acting like they were actually choking to death from all that smoke, but whatever I can forgive that stuff because the chaos worked pretty damn well. Rich dying on top of that cooler to save Marge was hilarious for me, he took it like a champ almost like Spartans, beautiful death!! but he would not shut up talking the whole time and it just went on way too long, I get he was trying to be romantic but damn let the moment breathe and look like you are feeling the heat. Pennywise showing up in the fire eating faces and then meeting Ingrid outside was so good, Bill Skarsgard killed it as always and seeing him deadlight her after she realized he was not her real father was satisfying as hell to watch, mainly because she was so fkn dumb after all this years and all the sacrifices she brought to him was still thinking it was her father, come on.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19244304/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

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The 1908 opening was probably one of the most unexpected parts of the whole episode because nobody was expecting them to go back that far in time, seeing Bob Gray perform as the original Pennywise before the creature took over his identity but I guess they wanted to make the connection between Pennywise and Ingrid even stronger, before the horror clown got loose and also bring that sad clown story to real life through Bob. Bill Skarsgard plays Bob Gray completely different from how he plays the entity version of Pennywise, you can see the human side in his performance with all the sadness and grief behind the clown makeup instead of that creepy dead eyed stare we are used to seeing from him. The whole performance he does on stage is basically a tribute to his dead wife Periwinkle who used to perform with him before she died, the show never tells us how she died but you can see Bob is still torn up about it by how much he drinks after every show and how depresed he looks when he takes off the makeup. His daughter Ingrid helps him with the sound effects during the show and you can tell she loves her dad even though their life is pretty rough living out of a wagon and traveling with this sketchy carnival, the scene where she shows him her Periwinkle outfit was really sweet from her ngl and from Bob too the way he recognize her performance and effort is worth of a father that loves his daughter, may be through this I can understand why she spent the next 50 years trying to bring him back even though it was never really him at all. The creature shows up as this creepy street kid who lures Bob Gray into the forest and you know from the moment that kid shows up something bad is about to happen, the way his eyes dont blink and how he just stares at Bob is unsettling as hell and then boom Bob Gray is gone forever and all that is left is his bloody handkerchief on the ground, but its weird because thats not exactly how the show explains Pennywise operation, he doesnt do those solo acts unless you are too close to his territory, probably back then he was mainly staying in the forest.

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The Black Spot fire sequence takes up most of the episode and holy shit it does not hold back on the violence or the chaos at all, but had some scenes that tames it a bit to make it humorous like Rich and not to to horror gory style probably because there are kinds involve, I doubt the whould show Pennywise snatching a kids head like he did with the old member of The Legion of White Decency. This guys show up wearing these creepy masks like Dracula and Frankenstein and the Wolfman, they chain the doors shut and just start throwing molotov cocktails through the windows while shooting anyone who tries to escape witch is one of the most evil things during the show, this is not a show to let your kids watch unless idk they are like 15 or older. I like the camera angles and tracking people around inside the bar as everything goes to hell, gives you more details of the chaos that Pennywise just unleash, you see people catching on fire and getting trampled and suffocating from the smoke and its all happening so fast you dont have time to process any of it before the next horrible thing happens on screen, its like all that chaos is just a distraction so when the clowns comes to scene generates a bigger impact, the real door kicker. Dick Halloran starts seeing ghosts everywhere because of his shining ability witch is a nice callback to The Shining, he sees dead Civil War soldiers and Native American warriors and all the people who are dying around him in real time witch must be absolutely terrifying for him to deal with on top of everything else, they also started talking to him making things really creepy for him so he couldnt put the bottle down and just keept drinking until he was not drunk anymore, he was looking into intoxication that takes him off the place. Pennywise shows up in the middle of the fire just casually eating peoples faces off like he is at an all you can eat buffet, the way he just walks through the flames without giving a single shit about anything is pretty badass even though he is a monster. The entity taunts Dick about his shining ability saying the dead can see you too and then manifests a bunch of corpses to chase him around but Sesy the Native American ghost shows up and leads him to safety and helps him escape through the floor where the fridge was leaking and rotting the wood last episode.

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Rich sacrifices himself by climbing on top of the ice box to protect Marge from the smoke and fire, he gives this whole speech about knights protecting fair maidens witch is sweet but also way too long for a kid who is suffocating to death from smoke inhalation. He talks about the first time he saw Marge and how he fell in love with her right away, he mentions some story about guinea pigs getting loose in the hallway at school witch was supposed to be funny but honestly just felt random and out of place in such a serious moment like this one, at least if he was probably pretending more to get suffocated from the smoke would make it better. Marge holds his hand one last time and you can see she is completely destroyed by what is happening but not so sure if it was mainly about Rich dying though, the actress playing Marge does a great job selling the grief and trauma of watching someone you care about die right in front of you when there is nothing you can do to stop it from happening. Rich dies with his eyes open witch is extra sad because Marge has to close them after he is already gone, the whole thing should have been more powerful but the script just went on for too damn long on this one and killed the mood. The Stanley Kersh death scene was probably the most satisfying moment of the entire episode because that guy was a complete piece of shit who deserved everything he got and more, watching Pennywise split his head in half with a butcher knife was brutal as hell but also kind of hilarious in a dark way because he does this right infront of Ingrid and she still think thats her dad?. Ingrid confronts Stanley outside the Black Spot while wearing her Periwinkle outfit and he threatens to beat her up if she doesnt take it off, you can tell this guy has been abusing her for years and she has just been taking it because she had nowhere else to go. Pennywise shows up behind Stanley and grabs this huge cleaver from his car, the same kind Stanley uses in his butcher shop witch is a nice ironic touch, then he just slices the top of his head clean off in one swing like he is cutting a melon in half instead of bone and skull, he is a God after all so you got to go with it.

On the Military side of things General Shaw finally gets revealed in the last part of the episode and honestly it is one of the dumbest plot twists I have ever seen, the whole plan makes zero sense but I guess thats the purpose of his characted, to be hated and he is not necessarly the bad guy though. Shaw has been lying to Leroy this whole time about wanting to capture Pennywise and use him as a weapon against the Russians, turns out Shaw actually wants to destroy the pillars and let Pennywise roam free across America so he can spread fear and make people easier to control for the government, like somehow he is going to cut a deal with the monster to protect a selected group of people, stupid idea. Shaw gives this whole villain speech about how Americans need to be scared into submission because of all the protests and womens rights movements and civil rights stuff happening in the 1960s, he thinks unleashing an alien demon clown that eats children is somehow going to solve these problems witch is absolutely insane on every level you can imagine. Ingrid tries to hug Pennywise thinking he is her father who returned to her after all these years, she tells him she was the one who tipped off the mob about Hank being at the Black Spot because she knew it would create enough fear and chaos to bring him back from wherever he was hiding all this time, just think about it for a second, she was having an affair with Frank to setup the spark for the chaos around the hole town but Pennywise front run her with his theater massacre boosting up chaos so who was playing who? was it Pennywise controlling Ingrid all this time? I think so. Pennywise plays along with her delusion for a minute, doing the little head tilt that Bob Gray used to do during his performances, then he tells her he has to go to sleep for another 27 years now that the augury event is complete and his feeding cycle is over for now. Ingrid panics and grabs his arm demanding him not to leave her again, thats when Pennywise reveals he is not her father at all but something else entirely that ate Bob Gray decades ago and has just been wearing his face this whole time like a costume, you can see the exact moment when Ingrid realizes she has been played this entire time and everything she did was for nothing at all. Pennywise opens his mouth and shows her the deadlights witch are these three glowing orbs of pure energy that represent his true form, anyone who looks at them goes insane or dies instantly depending on how strong their mind is, Ingrid gets deadlighted and starts floating in the air with her eyes going all white. The military destroys one of the 13 pillars using some kind of incinerator witch breaks the barrier that was keeping Pennywise contained inside the town limits, you see Pennywise wake up at the end of the episode covered in blood and body parts down in the sewers witch means he felt it so he knows this is his chance to escape Derry, remember he was not staying there by choice. I am giving this episode a solid solid 9 out of 10 because even though it had some problems with pacing and dialogue, the overall execution was strong enough, this is exactly what the show needed after all the boring character drama nobody cared about watching at all.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pennywise, #derry, #blackspot, #horror, #recap, #episode, #season, #rich, #marge, #ingrid, #bobgray, #fire, #massacre, #deadlights, #halloran, #hank, #will, #clown, #military, #shaw, #hanlon, #periwinkle, #stanley, #tragedy, #creature

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