GAME OF THRONES: Requiem for a Dragon (S7: Ep 6)

(Cross posted at AgonyBooth.com)

Now, you’ve really done it, Night King! I stuck up for you when people said bad things. I thought you were just “misunderstood.” I was digging your style, your cool hand gestures, the magical charisma you had. Whenever you entered a snow bank, all vacant undead eyes were immediately on you! (And it’s really hard to get un-deadies excited about things, these days!)

Don’t you look at me with those puppy dog eyes, of yours. You know what you did!

But this? So not cool! It’s all fun and games until somebody brutally murders, then zombifies a dragon! It was the last straw for me. I’m afraid I’m going to have to unfollow you on Instagram . . .

Before we get started, let’s pour one out (or two, or ten) for Viserion Targaryen, guys. (Not to be confused with Dickish Brother Viserys, who bought it back in Season 1.) I’m talking about the cool, loyal, oddly adorable, world-saving dragon one, who gave up his life for a great cause, and has now been doomed to second existence as a pretty gosh darn horrifying big baddie, by no fault of his own.)

It’s a sad, sad day in Westeros. That’s for sure. But how the heck did we get here? Let’s backtrack a bit, shall we?

A Zombie Hunting, We Will Go!

Nothing says “an excellent opportunity for male bonding,” like a journey into a snow storm on the way to get murdered by a bunch of zombies and creepy ice dudes. Cold weather expert Tormund sets the mood for this jolly Team Breathing Party by instructing his warmer blooded pals how to keep the blood pumping in sub-zero temperatures.

Yes, you read correctly. Tormund has just suggested that he and his friends fight the cold by . . . engaging in a GIANT ORGY. Your move, Game of Bones . . .

In response to this overture for group sex, Gendry pipes in about that one time at Baratheon Camp when Melissandre stripped him naked and covered him in leeches. Now, if that kind of traumatic experience doesn’t make you want to row a boat nonstop for four seasons, I don’t know what will.

In other romantic news, when the Hound bluntly admits to Tormund that he hates all gingers, the Wildling tries to ingratiate himself to Mr. Grumpy Pants by telling him which girl he wants to ask to prom. It’s Brienne of Tarth, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed! In fact, Tormund is so confident that Brienne will accept his advances, that he’s already thinking ahead to Prom Night.

Is this baby making going to be happening before or after your Giant Team Breathing Orgy, Tormund?

While Brienne’s prom dance card has already been decisively filled, Dany’s is still open. And Jorah and Jon Snow clearly both want a spot on it. But rather than beat the crap out of one another for the honor of a girl (at least not yet), the two heroes share a sweet moment in which Jon passes on to Jorah the latter’s deceased father’s sword, Longclaw.

We interrupt this heart-warming exchange to bring you a BIG SCARY EVIL ZOMBIE BEAR!!!

Zombie bears, I’ve learned, are kind of like Care Bears, only really f*&king terrifying. OK, actually they are not like Care Bears at all. But imagining them as Care Bears will maybe, but probably not, help me to not have nightmares when I go to bed tonight.

Zombie Bear advances on Team Breathing with a vengeance. Not one to play favorites, he (or she?) efficiently takes a bite out of pretty much every one of the Team Members. (Hey, at least this isn’t one of those shows where getting bit by a zombie turns you into one. Otherwise, they’d have to change the name of the show to Game of Zombies by Season 8.)

Then, of course, one of the Red Shirts on Team Breathing (When did this guy get here? Who invited him?) has to actually get killed by Zombie Bear to remind us that these undeadies are NOT screwing around. Happy Drunk Thoros also gets chomped on by Zombie Bear a bit more than the others. (Perhaps, the bear was looking for a contact high?)

Eventually Jorah manages to put Zombie Bear out of his undead misery using the recently acquired Longclaw Sword. Then, Beric Dondarrion (who we know has to be cool because he wears an eye patch like a pirate) uses his awesome fire-breathing sword to cauterize Thoros’ wounds (Ouch!) Now, the Team, minus Red Shirt Guy, can advance even closer to certain doom.

But how will they know where to go, you might be wondering?

Hound instantly recognizes the arrowhead mountain he saw in the YouTube trailer with a Google Maps link that BranBot3000 sent him last week, and tells the gang as much. So, they head toward it. He fails to mention, however, the giant Neon Sign above that mountain in the trailer that says, “Die here, please.”

Way to bury the lead, Hound!

Face Off

Because I feel like you might need a break from all this zombie carnage, red shirt death, and bloody wounds cauterized by cool pirate fire swords, I’m going to take an abrupt southern turn to Winterfell. This way, I can tell you about how much the Stark sisters, Arya and Sansa, hate each other’s guts!

Things start cordially enough with Arya relaying to Sansa a sweet story about Papa Ed watched the younger sister practice archery, cheering her on and being supportive of her interests, despite them being “unladylike.”

“Annnnnnnd then you got him killed . . .” Arya adds conversationally. (Oh, yeah, she went there!)

It’s at this moment that it dawns on Sansa that Arya found her letter to Robb Stark back in Season 1, in which the older Stark sister called her father out as a traitor and begged her brother to offer fealty to Joffrey. And just in case Sansa wasn’t entirely sure Arya found the letter, the younger Stark takes this opportunity to READ IT TO HER, WORD FOR WORD.

Sansa reacts to this accusation, as you might expect, by claiming she acted only out of necessity and fear for her life. The newly-minted Lady of Winterfell then proceeds to get a bit haughty by claiming full credit for Jon’s victory at the Battle of the Bastards. This was probably the exact wrong thing to say to Arya, in that it confirms to her that her older sister has designs on making her position of power in the North more permanent.

Fearing that Arya will turn the North against Sansa by showing this letter to them, Sansa runs to Littlefinger, of all people, for advice. All of the sudden it’s like the moment in the horror film where the young big-breasted teenager goes alone to investigate a “strange sound” in the dark spooky basement. And you find yourself screaming at the screen. “DON’T GO IN THERE, YOU MORON! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? DO YOU WANT TO DIE?”

Littlefinger, of course, jumps at the opportunity to further cement the rift he’s created between the Stark sisters, even going as far as to suggest that Sansa get Brienne to intercede on her behalf (with violence, if necessary) to keep Arya from harming the Lady of Winterfell.

Sansa, to her credit, does not take Littlefinger’s advice. In fact, she does the exact opposite, by sending Brienne to Kings Landing to act as her proxy for the Come See the Zombie party she was just invited to attend at King’s Landing. “I don’t think I should leave you with that creeper, Littlefinger,” Brienne quite rightly asserts.

“Hot Jaime Lannister will be there . . . ” Sansa responds.

“I’ll send you a postcard. See ya,” Brienne answers, before dashing off to change into the most feminine piece of giant armor she owns.

Sansa ultimately comes to wish she had heeded Brienne’s initial advice. Later in the episode, she sneaks into her sister’s room to find the younger female Stark’s briefcase filled with faces. (And people think I keep a lot of random crap in my purse.)

Arya comes upon Sansa snooping in her room. And we all kind of expect her to act like Leighton Meester in this College Humor video.

But instead, Arya’s all, “Hey, do you like my face collection? Would you like to become a part of it? Say hello to my little knife.”

Ahhh, nothing says sisterly bonding like cutting off your sibling’s face, and wearing it as a mask . . .

Ashes, Ashes, We all Fall Down!

Back North of the Wall in this next installment of “Holy crap everyone is totally going to die.” Captain of Team Breathing Jon and his pals encounter the Dreadlocked White Walker and his football team’s worth of zombie pals.

Unlike most of the battles on this show, this one actually seems like a pretty fair fight, with each member of Team Breathing matched against a Team Dead counterpart. But then Jon murders Dreadlock White Walker and all but one member of his football team conveniently collapse. This lucky lone survivor seems like a perfect candidate for Cersei’s zombie Christmas gift, so Team Breathing gift wraps him accordingly, and sets him aside for next week’s episode.

Jorah and Jon later surmise that the reason all the other zombies died was that they were all turned into zombies by the Dreadlocked White Walker, so their undeaths were linked to his. As for Gift Wrapped Zombie? Well, I guess that makes him the guy nobody ever invites to the party, but somehow always manages to show up, anyway . . .

Beric gets the gold star for the episode by taking Jorah’s and Jon’s supposition one step further. Specifically, he reasons that since the Night King was the genesis for all the White Walkers and zombies that came after him, all you have to do is kill him and the entire undead portion of this series is over. We can go back to fighting over uncomfortable chairs again! (This kind of information probably should have been included in Gendry’s message to Dany later in the episode. Just saying . . .)

Hold that thought, Beric, because here come an ENTIRE FOOTBALL STADIUM WORTH OF ZOMBIES, AND THEY ARE SUPER PISSED THAT THE ENTIRE HOME TEAM JUST CROAKED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD.

Jon, who has been on this show long enough to know when he’s been massively out matched, sends Gendry south to get a message to Dany and her dragons that help is needed ASAP.

RUN, GENDRY RUN!

JON! NO! Don’t you realize you just sent the guy who took four seasons to row a boat across a single river to deliver a message across the world that you need to have been received about ten minutes ago?

Fortunately, Gendry must run faster than he rows. And by that I mean, this guy must have a secret identity as the Super Hero, Flash, because he gets back to the Wall in about three seconds. Then, GendryFlash gets the “SOS, 911. Don’t let the hot guy who would be a good daddy to your dragons become zombie chow,” text to Dany in under four.

Try not to die in the next five minutes, Jon! Help is on the way! Maybe . . .

A Fireside Chat with Tyrion Lannister, a.k.a “Why listening to Tyrion will keep your dragons alive.”

Back in Dragonstone, Dany and Tyrion are chilling by the fire, gossiping about boys. “Ugh, Tyrion,” Dany grouses. “I am so glad you are not a hero. Because heroes are so annoying, and macho, and like totally sexy, like Drogo, and Dario, and Jorah, Jon . . .”

“Ooh, I know the answer to this Jeopardy question,” Tyrion interrupts. “Who are people who would die to f*&k the Mother of Dragons?”

“What? Nuh-uh! Jon doesn’t want to have sex with me,” Dany responds, but in this way that indicates that she knows that he absolutely does, and the idea thrills her.

Once Tyrion has Dany all heart-eyed and softened up, he decides to casually let it slip that he thinks the Breaker of Chains has anger management issues . . . the kind of anger management issues that would cause a girl to Dragon Murder a nice guy like Brickon, Rickon, Pickon or whatever his name is from a couple weeks ago. I guess you could call this a friend-ter-vention.

Tyrion once again instructs Dany to act with patience and diplomacy, rather than impulsivity and violence. He assures her that doing so will ensure that her reign will sustain beyond her passing, even if the only babies she can have to succeed her on the throne are the green kind with scales.

“You are totally right, Tyrion. I’m going to be less impulsive and angry from now on. Ooh . . . I just got a text from Gendry. He says some zombies are being mean to that hottie Jon Snow. I’M GOING TO BURN DOWN THIS ENTIRE F*&KING PLANET, AND EVERYONE ON IT. Come on Dragons. Toodles Tyrion.”

Why People Who Live in Snow Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones at Zombies . . .

Back North of the Wall, Team Breathing experiences another marginal win, when Tormund uses Gendry’s hammer to break the ice between them and Team Dead. This not only puts a temporary body of water between the Team and THOUSANDS of zombies. It also causes about 100 dumb as dirt zombies to walk right into the water and off themselves AGAIN. (Then again, maybe it was suicide. As a boss, Night King seems like a bit of a task master.)

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Team Breathing is pretty much surrounded by zombies on all sides, and has literally nowhere to go. Also, Drunk Thoros succumbs to his wounds, which sucks. (Why do these shows always have to kill off the guy who’s the most fun at parties?) Fittingly, Beric uses the poor guy’s flask to ignite his body on fire, and prevent him from turning into Zombie Drunk Thoros.

Thoros . . . good to the last drop.

Then, Hound gets bored and starts chucking rocks at the zombies heads, which is actually pretty funny . . . at least until one of the rocks lands at the zombie’s feet, thereby proving that the lake between Team Breathing and Team Dead has finally refrozen over.

Now, that’s not funny at all . . .

A Daring Rescue, A Gut-Wrenching Defeat

Considering they are vastly outnumbered, Team Breathing does a really solid job of holding off the zombie hoard. Swatting them away like flies. Tormund occasionally gets thrown around like a rag doll by about eight zombies, but Hound rescues him from them, even though he’s a Ginger.

But Team Breathing can’t hold off Team Dead forever, as the zombie hoard closes in on them completely. Fortunately, this is the exact moment when Dany and her dragon trio arrive to save the day!

It’s so exciting and cathartic! Watching the dragons burn zombies is almost as much fun as watching them decimate Lannisters! But when it comes time for Team Breathing to hop aboard Drogon and blow this popsicle stand, Jon inexplicably decides to stay and kill a few more zombies.

WWWWHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY??

So Night King takes this opportunity to utilize his high school track and field team skills to javelin a spear at poor Viserion, sending the smallest of Dany’s dragon’s tumbling into the sea. It’s awful, and sad, and the only thing we can do to make ourselves feel a little bit better about this is to post cheesy pictures on Instagram of Night King as an Olympic athlete from an enemy country, wearing silly short shorts.

We sure showed you, huh, Night’s King?

Eventually a devastated Dany and co. leave the scene of the crime as Jon poorly fends for himself alone in a literal sea of zombies. At one point, Jon falls into the icy drink, only to find trusty sword Longclaw there to give him a hand back to the surface. How did that get there?

And when did it develop facial expressions?

In other good news, enter Uncle Benjen, whose own brush with death, gives him total zombie-dar. He offers Jon his horse, so the King of the North can ride toward the safety of the Wall, while Benjen gives himself over to the Team Breathing cause.

Licking His Wounds (Dany wishes she was!)

On a boat back to Dragonstone, Dany is still in mourning. However, she’s not so in mourning that she doesn’t notice a half unconscious Jon’s naked sexy body, covered in the tell-tale knife wounds of his first “death.”

Jon, to his credit, has enough sense to understand the part he played in the demise of one of Dany’s beloved kids. He apologizes profusely for this.

Dany, in a response that’s uncommonly diplomatic for her (maybe she listens to Tyrion sometimes after all), tells Jon that she doesn’t regret what happened beyond the Wall, as it was necessary for her to see for her own eyes the undead threat in Westeros. Now that she knows it’s there, she will stop at nothing to defeat it, and to ensure that her child didn’t die in vain.

Jon uses this sudden camaraderie with the mother of dragons as an opportunity to speak more informally with the woman who would be Queen, calling her by her shortened, informal name, Dany. “Nobody calls me that anymore,” Dany mused. (Actually Dany, lots of recappers call you that. Your full name is super long and occasionally really hard to spell!)

Jon isn’t too wounded to know an overture when he sees one, and turns his charm full force on the Breaker of Chains (and Hearts). He decides to call her his Queen. He tells her he’d bend the knee to her, if his knees weren’t feeling so un-bendy. Jon believes that Dany’s heroism at the Battle Beyond the Wall has proven her to be the Queen that his people deserve.

I wonder how Sansa and Littlefinger will feel about this . ..

Don’t You Dare Wake THAT Dragon!

Back beyond the wall, we see a surprisingly well-organized crew of zombies working on a chain gang. (Where did the Night’s King get all those chains? Is there a Home Depot beyond the wall?) They are pulling something out of the icy water . . . something big . . . something that’s going to be really bad news for Team Breathing and the rest of Westeros.

It’s Viserion. And he’s looking decidedly dead . . . at least until the Night King approaches him with a new giant pair of bright blue colored contacts, and his eyes open again.

RUH-ROH, guys! I think we all know where this is going, and it’s nowhere good.

Harvey Dent once said, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.”

Viserion the Dragon, unfortunately, gets to do both . . .

GAME OF THRONES: At least nobody died! (S6: Ep: 6)

This week, Bran fast forwards Warg DVR to reunite with a relative; Arya gives acting notes to a porn star; we meet Sam’s dad Archie Bunker; Tommen becomes the poster child for incest baby brain damage; and Dany gives her pregame speech while on a dragon, because walking is for pussies.

While not the season’s strongest episode (or second strongest, or third strongest), “Blood of My Blood” did have some fun and exciting things to offer loyal viewers, like for example the chance to re-experience a porn star version of that little sh*t Joffrey’s death . . .

Also, after last week’s bloodbath of an hour, the Grim Reaper decided to take a well-deserved vacation from the show. So, that was pleasant, I guess!

Let’s review, shall we?

Uncle Ben-jen . . . it’s not just a box of rice anymore

When we last left Oat Bran Stark, he was taking a much needed rest after EFFING UP ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, AND FORCING ALL HIS FRIENDS TO KILL THEMSELVES. (Ruining lives is tiring, y’all). In present time, he is still napping to the dreamlike images of his trusty Game of Thrones Warg DVR, while poor Meera is frustratedly attempting to drag his lame ass to safety.

“Are we there yet?” “No.” “Are we there yet?” “No.” “Are we there yet?” “Ask me that one more time, and I swear, I will turn these feet right around and, we will go home!”

This week’s Warg DVR installment of Game of Thrones is less a single episode of dubious importance and more a fast forwarding of the “previously on” segments from every Game of Thrones episode ever. I get it, Oat Bran. You’ve spent the past few months with an Old Man in the Tree Game of Thrones Zealot, who insists that you watch and rewatch all the most mundane scenes of the show and discuss and analyze them in great detail, when all you are really interested in is the murders and the shots of peoples’ boobies!

So, of course, among the many scene snip-its, we would get to see Jamie Lannister murdering Dany’s daddy, Aerys Targaryen, Mr. “Burn them All” himself. Because murder is cool, and crazy demented old people are always good for a few giggles.

Also, we get to see Oat Bran himself being pushed out of a tower by Jamie back in season 1. This must have been annoying for Bran to watch, because, obviously, he knew that happened to him already.

This “previously on” Warg DVR installment also contained some scenes from the Red Wedding (but not the Purple Wedding, though we’ll get that a bit later in the episode), Ned’s beheading, Dany’s “birthing of dragons,” young Ned seeking, but not getting, any answers about his sister’s whereabouts at the Tower of Joy, some folks making fire, and a whole bunch of stuff involving what Bran’s new man crush, the Night’s King, does in his spare time, when he’s not terrorizing Bran.

“I make this look goooood.”

If you are a GOT fan less like Oat Bran and More Like Old Man (Now Dead Man) in a Tree, I’m quite certain you can find a variety of fan sites that break down and analyze in detail all of Bran’s visions. Like this:

https://youtu.be/Tnf1f4w23Ic

And this:

http://www.thewrap.com/game-of-thrones-everything-bran-stark-saw-in-his-flashback-montage/

But since I’m a bit more of an Oat Bran-type fan myself, I’ll just tell you that there was lots of murder, but minimal boobies . . .

Eventually, Meera gets tired of dragging around a lifeless sack of Oat Bran, and drops him to the ground, just as he finally wakes up from his nap. Unfortunately, this is exactly the time when Oat Bran’s skeleton friends have found him in this not-very-challenging game of hide-and-seek.

“It looks like Warg DVR is about to be cancelled due to increased subscription prices, and because it keeps people from watching any commercials,” Meera says dejectedly. “Sorry about the whole, ‘You Are About to Die,’ thing, Oat Bran. Hopefully, there are Game of Thrones reruns in heaven!”

But then . . . some dude comes by on a horse with a whole lot of conveniently stored weapons in his coat, and he kills all the skeleton things!

It’s Benjen Stark . . . back from the dead . . . kind of!

Benjen explains that he should have become a zombie or White Walker, but the Tree People cured him using dragon glass . . . information which I imagine will come in handy later on this season. Also, we’ve added back another Stark to the show! And everybody wants more Starks . . . unless, of course, your last name happens to be Lannister!

Samwell Tarley: More than Just a Meathead

Back in the hilarious family sitcom portion of the show, Sam and Gillyland, Sam, Gilly and Little Sam (which, you should know, is the actual name of Gilly’s baby, and not a euphemism for Sam’s penis), head to Sam’s parents’ house at Horn Hill. Sam briefly reminds Gilly that her dad is a racist, and a perpetual grumpster, who absolutely hates Wildings, loves hunting, and occasionally sings off-key with his wife in front of the piano about the “Good Old Days” for sh*ts and giggles.

“Whatever you do, don’t tell my dad you are a Wilding!” Sam cautions Gilly.

Then a laugh track interrupts the scene out of nowhere, because we know that’s exactly what Gilly is going to do. And it’s going to be . . . wait for it . . . hilarious!

At Sam’s house in Horn Hill, Sam’s mom, Edith Bunker, is super nice to Gilly, making you wonder how she wound up with an asshat like Archie in the first place. (Maybe his sexy spouting of showtunes makes up for his generalized assholeishness.)

As for Gilly, she’s super impressed by how friggin rich Sam is! He grew up in such a fancy place! Here people take real baths . . . and more than once every two years! And they wear clothes that aren’t made from the carcasses of dead animals! And they eat food that hasn’t been pre-chewed by that creepy wildling guy who boned all his daughters to make incest babies! In fact, within minutes of first entering Sam’s house, Gilly feels a bit like this . . .

https://youtu.be/_nM_-CFRBS8

. . . or maybe more like Julia Roberts’ character from Pretty Woman . . . you know, without all the prostitution stuff.

But then, hijinks ensure at family dinner (as they tend to do on sitcoms like this). Sam’s dad, Archie Bunker, is super mean to him, calling him Meathead, deriding him for reading too many books, and eating too many bad carbs. When Gilly tries to defend her sort-of-boyfriend / husband’s honor, she only ends up inadvertently revealing the one thing she was forbidden to reveal in the first place. She’s a Wilding! (Insert laugh track here.)

Despite all his blustering, Sam’s dad does agree to raise Gilly’s child, and let Gilly stay, but only if she works as his “Sassy Maid with a Heart of Gold,” which, if we are being totally honest, is something All in the Family was sorely lacking.

But Sam’s all, “This is the Sam and Gillyland show! I’m not agreeing to a spinoff series, until I’ve at least lasted on air long enough to get syndication rights.”

And so, Sam and Gilly escape the Evil Archie Bunker together with Little Sam (again, the baby, not the penis), but not before Sam takes daddy’s sword, because petty larceny is super funny! *insert laugh track here*

Stupid is the Head that Wears the Crown

Back at Kings Landing, Margaery (whose hair is looking more fabulous than ever, thank you very much) is finally reunited with her husband, Twerpy Tommen, mere hours before her supposed Naked Shame Walk O’ Poopy.

“Wifey, I am so very sorry, you are going to have to get poop thrown at your boobies today,” sympathizes Tommen. “If only your boobies could have super powers like Dany Targaryen’s. Then, all the poop thrown at you would bounce off your boobies and hit all the poop-flinging poor people. Because poor people are just the worst, aren’t they wifey?”

“You know Tommen, during my time in Religious Nutbar Jail (and by “during my time” I mean “in the last five minutes before you showed up”) I’ve decided to convert to Scientology like Tom Cruise and John Travolta!”

Tommen wrinkles his nose. “But High Sparrow isn’t even a Scientologist,” he argues.

“Oops,” corrects Margaery, “wrong cult whose premises I don’t really believe in, but whose allegiance might be beneficial to my career. What I mean to say is, I’ve decided to become a Religious Nutbar, and you should become one too!”

“OK,” Tommen says excitedly, drinking the Kool Aid, Margaery has carefully packed into his Care Bear lunch box.

“Don’t you want to know why I think you should become a Religious Nutbar?” Margaery asks curiously.

“No, I don’t need an explanation,” offers Tommen. “I just generally agree with the last thing anybody says to me at any given moment. It’s pretty much my only defining character trait.”

Then, comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Naked Poop Flinging Time!

But wait! A hero has come to rescue Margaery from the indignities suffered by his sister (probably because the actress who plays Margaery has smartly included a “no haircuts” and “no poop boobs” clause into her contract).

It’s Jamie Lannister, and he’s on a horse that can climb stairs!

This is almost as exciting as a CGI Dragon that people pretend to get burned by, while staring at a Green Screen!

“Sorry folks, there will be no poop flinging today,” Jamie explains gallantly.

“You are absolutely right,” responds High Sparrow, before laughing malevolently, stroking a fake mustache, and decapitating an entire basket of cute puppies with a single hand.

(No cute puppies were harmed in the making of this recap.)

“I proudly present to you the new Mr. and Mrs. Religious Nutbar,” High Sparrow pronounces, “They are here to remove all your First Amendment Privileges, erase the already barely there separation between church and state, and star in the best shampoo commercials ever made by man.”

And that was how King Tommen and Queen Margaery became card-carrying scientologists . . . oops, I mean that other religious cult thing from this show.

Of course, new Religious Nutbar Tommen has to punish Jamie for “walking up the stairs on a horse.” So he sends him to Riverrun so he can meet up with Brienne and have awkward sexually tense encounters with someone who isn’t his sister . . . um, I mean recapture the land for Lannister ally, Walder Frey.

Back at the castle, Jamie Lannister is soooo done with this Religious Nutbar plotline. “It’s already episode 6. Can’t we just murder High Sparrow already? Surely the show is ready for another Big Bad by now,” he explains to Cersei.

“Not until the Season Finale. Patience, Jamie,” responds an uncharacteristically serene and calculating Cersei. (Haircuts and poop boobs must be really good for your mental health!)

Then, the brother and sister pair have to make out, because, as a rule, every GOT episode needs something nauseating to happen during it. And nobody gets their head chopped off, face smashed in, poisoned until they turn purple, or has their innards pulled from their stomachs, this week, so there you have it . . .

Arya Stark: Porn Star Murderer for Hire?

Back in Braavos, Arya is still watching Game of Thrones porn. (Coach potato-ism must be a recurring genetic trait in the Stark family.) This time, Arya is watching a reenactment of my favorite all-time scene of Game of Thrones: the one where Joffrey gets poisoned by bad wine! (The play scene is almost as good as the original scene. But it would be way better with the purple face, buggy eyes and gaggy noises of actor Jack Gleeson.)

After the show is over, Arya heads off to do her Burgerless White Castle duties of poisoning Pornstar!Cersei’s rum flagon. Shortly thereafter, Pornstar!Cersei finds Arya lurking around and weirdly enough asks her for “notes” on her performance. “You should play Cersei much angrier,” Arya notes. “Also, consider painting Pornstar!Joffrey’s face purple, making his eyes bug out of his head, and extending his death scene for another ten minutes, because that would be awesome.”

“Thanks!” Pornstar!Cersei exclaims gratefully.

“You’re welcome,” Arya replies, finally realizing that maybe Burgerless White Castle isn’t such a great place to work, seeing as they insist on killing the world’s sweetest pornstars. “Hey, I wouldn’t drink that rum, if I were you.”

Like a boss, Arya, knocks the poisoned flagon out of Pornstar!Cersei’s hand, fingers Pornstar!Sansa as the woman who likely hired the hit on Pornstar!Cersei, in the first place, rescues her trusty sword Needle from the rocks, and escapes Burgerless White Castle for good, like she should have done weeks ago.

Oh, I should probably mention that Ginger Chick wants to kill Arya now, instead of just beat the shit out of her, like she’s been doing all season. This probably means that Ginger Chick is finally going to die next week! Hooray for soon-to-be dead annoying gingers!

We’ve Got Spirit, Yes We Do! We’ve Got Spirit or My Dragon will Kill You!

Finally, over in Dothraki territory, sexy Daario questions Dany about her plan for governance of Westeros, once she inevitably uses her inflammable boobs to take over the world. “Huh?” Dany responds blankly.

In case it hasn’t already been made painfully obvious, Dany Targaryen would make a crap president. But she’d make an AMAZING FOOTBALL COACH! And so what follows, in the last five minutes of the episode, is the best pre-game locker room speech ever . . . not because of what Dany says, mind you. Because what Dany says is the same empty crap coaches have been telling their teams for years, “Work hard for me. You are all equally important members of my team. We are going to destroy our opposition, blah, blah, blah!”

But she does it while on top of a dragon. And dragons, in case you didn’t know, are like chocolate and sex. Add them to anything, and it instantly becomes irresistible.

Until next time, Westeros!]

Cross post at Happy Nice Time People.

[Buy my book. Please?]

Heroism for Dummies – Once Upon a Time Recap Episode 5:6

You know what’s hard? Being a hero on a Show About Heroes. Why? Because every time you try to do something heroic, there are always at least ten other people lining up to do it first.

Daydream Believer – A Recap of Teen Wolf’s “Strange Frequencies”

Love hurts . . .

Those wacky head shrinking Dredd Doctors are at it again, Werebangers! For the second episode in a row they are hard at work, forcing our Scooby Gang to confront their darkest fears and kinkiest sex fantasies, one CGI’ed hallucination at a time.

Question: Why they are doing this, when it seemingly has no conceivable link to their ultimate plan to craft the ultimate teenage chimera murder machine?

Answer: Because mentally torturing teens is hilarious, obviously . . .

Also because when the characters are spending 98% of their screen time battling Big Bads each week, the most convenient type of character development is not the kind which is deftly drawn out through dialogue, facial and body language (Zzzzzzzzz, bo-ring!), but the kind that is beat into viewers brains with a sledge hammer and ground into a fine paste.

Let’s psychoanalyze, shall we?

[As always, special thanks to Andre, whose screencaps are always so spectacular, that I sometimes find myself wondering whether the episode he watched was better than the one I did.]

Playing Hard to Get Versus Just Getting Hard

When we last left Evil Theo and Stiles, Evil Theo had just saved Stiles life from a guy who liked to eat electric wires so much! It was like he was a hormonal female, and the wires were his favorite brand of potato chips for that special time of month (You can’t eat just one!).

“Hey, speaking of dead teens with effed up teeth, how about that douchebag you impaled a couple of weeks back. His chompers were insane, am-I-right?” Evil Theo brings up conversationally.

“Grrrrr, Evil Theo,” fumes Stiles. “It makes me totally furious that you would know about my deep dark past of two days ago, because I totally hate your guts, and aren’t at all interested in ripping off your clothes to have sex with you. So, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to throw your Adonis body hard against this chain link fence, grip your strong muscular shoulders in my fingertips, press my face millimeters from yours, and show you just how not attracted to you I actually am.”

“This is spectacular! Everyone on this show wants me!” Theo exclaims to himself, laughing maniacally, as he thumbs the lettering on his ‘I am Evil’ t-shirt. “After I murder a litter of puppies, engage in some light devil worshipping, suffocate some adorable babies, and have intense animalistic sex with Kira and Malia, I am totally going to come back and have my way with Stiles.”

“OK, so here’s the deal. I won’ t tell Scott you are a murderer, if you don’t tell him I’m a murderer,” Theo offers his new boyfriend.   “And just to make sure our mutual friend isn’t at all suspicious of us, we should (1) never play ‘Never Have I Ever’ with Scott at a party, just in case he’s tempted to say “Never have I ever murdered a hot teenage boy with weird teeth, in which case we would both have to drink, obviously, because no one can lie during ‘Never Have I Ever’. It’s the law. (2) Bring him this dead body to fondle, as we know how much virtuous Scott loves to manhandle the bodies of the recently deceased.”

“Awesome ideas, Theo!” Stiles responds. “Let’s also put some sunglasses on Dead-y over here, so we can drive around Beacon Hills with him in the back seat, and pretend he’s still alive, Weekend at Bernies’ style.”

Meanwhile, Liam is trying to charm his love interest, Hayden (I tried so hard not to learn her name, but then the Dredd Doctors said it about 85 times this episode, just to screw with my plans), by telling her she is a science experiment gone horribly wrong. Now, if a line like that isn’t enough to make your panties drop, ladies, you must be dead inside!

Then, Liam doubles down on the seduction techniques, by transforming into monster, and trying to chew Hayden’s face off . . .

Hayden is unimpressed . . . possibly because she is legitimately dead inside . . . because the Dredd Doctors made her that way. So, she punches Liam in the face and runs away.

These two are going to be the best couple ever!

Habeas Corpus (Translation: “You should have the body.”)

Scott is thrilled that Evil Theo and Stiles have brought him a brand new sexy chimera body to play with.

“I really hope that bastard, Naked Garbage Man, doesn’t take this one from me, like he took all the other ones,” Scott pouts. “I mean, seriously. What’s a guy got to do to keep a corpse as a pet around here?”

“Stiles and I will babysit the body for you tonight, while we have sex in the car outside,” Evil Theo offers generously.

“What?” Scott asks, confused.

“I said Stiles and I will babysit the body for you tonight, and Naked Garbage Man will have nowhere to hide,” Evil Theo covers cleverly.

“We will also keep the video camera on my cell phone trained on the body, so we can see who tries to take it. I am offering to use my cell phone to film this eight-hour snuff film, because even though I want everyone to believe I’m dirt poor, my cell phone has an insane unlimited data plan,” explains Stiles.

Stiles and Scott conveniently leave Evil Theo alone for a few minutes, so he can yell at one of the Dredd Doctors for not keeping him in the loop on the whole Naked Garbage Man thing. “Inconsequential,” the Dredd Doctor repeats over and over again to Theo’s lecture.

Why? No reason. It’s just a cool word . . .

Back on the spinoff show Baby Wolf and Friends, Hayden’s car has mysteriously broken down, and the radio in it will only play one channel: It’s All Dredd Doctors, All the Time. Now, the Dredd Doctors may be totally awesome at Frankenscience and giving people hallucinations that are thinly veiled metaphors for their life, but they suck at other stuff . . . like talking. This makes them horrible disc jockeys for the radio station to which Hayden is being forced to listen.

First of all, the Dredd Doctors are nearly impossible to understand most of the time . . . they sound like I imagine Darth Vader would sound . . . if he was lying at the bottom of the ocean underneath something very heavy.

“Hey, I resemble that remark.”

And then, when you do manage to hear what they are saying, it’s almost always something totally lame. (The word “inconsequential” notwithstanding.) Here’s what they say on Hayden’s radio: “Hayden . . . Hayden . . . Hayden . . . (wait for it) . . . Hayden.”

And “Your condition improves.”

Fortunately, Liam hops on top of her car, and bashes in the window, to free her from the mind-numbing nonsense of bad radio.

So, to recap, Hayden and Liam repeatedly punch one another in the face. And when they aren’t doing that, they are destroying one another’s private property on a regular basis. How can you not ship these two?

(Recapper’s note: In all seriousness, I actually do ship these two, which I think makes me a terrible person . . .)

Speaking of terrible people . . .

Child Abuse is Adorable!

Kira’s been calling out sick lately from Scott’s Scooby Games, because she might be possessed like Stiles was a season or so ago, and doesn’t want it to interfere with her friends’ Fight Against Evil, which makes her super considerate as far as possessed people go . . .

Kira’s parents aren’t satisfied though, and decide to trick her into going to school on the weekend, so Kira’s mom can try to impale her with a katana. At first, Kira doesn’t fight back, because it’s her mom, and she’s like, old and stuff. But then, Kira’s mom is all “Come at me, BIATCH!”

She starts really coming at Kira hard, and getting all stabby with her.

So, eventually Kira starts to fight back, and knocks the sword out of her mom’s hand. Kira’s mom immediately crumbles in the corner, looking totally horrified and insulted that her daughter had the nerve to defend herself against her mother’s TRYING TO KILL HER. HOW DARE SHE? She should have just rolled over and died, dammit.

Kira’s mom blames the kitsune on Kira’s violent behavior. But, personally, I blame her parents being assholes . . .

Later that night, Kira’s mom gets back at Kira for the whole defending herself thing, by sticking a bunch of needles in her back. She says it’s to help “balance” the power between Kira’s human self and her foxy self. But if I wanted balance, I’d buy myself a scale, not impale myself multiple times over just for fun . . .

Kira starts to cry, and Kira’s mom asks her if she’s in pain. “DUH! OBVIOUSLY, SHE’S GOT ABOUT 85,000 NEEDLES IN HER BACK!”

(Yeah, I know . . . I know, acupuncture is supposed to be about pressure points, and it’s generally not supposed to be painful. But considering this woman just tried to kill her barely legal daughter a few moments ago, excuse me for being a bit suspicious.)

I actually felt kind of vindicated when Kitsu-Kira, took all those damn needles out of her back, used them to make the number 115 on the headboard of her bed, and escaped, leaving her asshat parents to think about what they’d done.   Hopefully fox Kira was smart enough to call Child Services on her way out the door . . .

In Which Every Supporting Character in Beacon Hills is Gay (and wants to sleep with Mason)

Watch out, Evil Theo. You’ve got competition in the Sex Pot Department. Mason’s been macking it with so many chimeras and wolves lately, his tongue probably has rabies.

He gets another one this week. This time it’s the boyfriend of the chimera he made out with a couple weeks ago, before the latter was brutally murdered. (AWK-WARD!) Mason flirts with him long enough to realize, by golly, he’s a super healing chimera too!

Hey Mason, do you have any chimera in you?

No? Do you want some?

I love you like you’re my sister . . . who I may have murdered, coincidentally.

Outside on Sexy Stakeout, Evil Theo and Stiles eye f*&k one another so hard that if one of them was a woman she’d probably be pregnant by now. Evil Theo is trying to convince Stiles that murdering people is totally cool, if they are douchebags like Donovan and the guy who ate electric wires all the time. “See, I killed Electric Wire Eater, and my eyes didn’t even turn Murderer Blue. That’s God’s way of saying he approves,” Theo explains.

Or it’s because you are not an actual werewolf, but a chimera, made by science, and, therefore, not bound by wolf law . . .

“Yeah . . . I have to admit killing Donovan was kind of fun, especially when all that blood poured out of his mouth like a geyser, and it kind of looked like chocolate . . . a chocolate geyser,” Stiles admits.

“You remind me so much of my sister, who I pushed off a bridge, so she broke her leg and fell near a lake. And then I watched as she died of hypothermia,” says Theo.

“Um? A little help here? I’m dying, kind of?”

“Not really feeling up to it, to be honest. It looks a little chilly down there.”

“WHAT??!!!” Stiles asks incredulously.

“I said I really want us to be friends. And you are hot. So, I’ll always protect you, and occasionally bone your brains out.”

“That second thing you said, didn’t sound at all like the first thing you said,” Stiles muses suspiciously.

“Do you smell something burning?” Theo asks, quick to change the subject.

Speaking of burning . . .

The Scooby Gang (and new chimera, Hayden) all gather at the school. They have this ridiculous idea that they are going to trap the Dredd Doctors there by using high frequency dog whistles or something. Parrish is there too, because he has no friends his own age, and finds all girls over the age of 18, so crusty, old and gross.

“Hey Scott, I know you are supposed to be like my were-dad or something, but I think it’s kind of mean that you are dangling my new girlfriend in front of a bunch of psycho killers, and making her wear a sign on her back that says ‘Please brutally murder me,’” Liam admits.

“Don’t sass me, boy,” Scott lectures. “This is an excellent plan. Trust me, nothing will go wrong.”

“You’re right, Wolf Daddy. I’m sorry,” capitulates Liam.

Five seconds later, everything goes straight to hell . . .

The Dangers of Kinky Sex Without a Safe Word

It’s Dredd Doctor Hallucination time! Let’s start with the sexy ones and work our way back, OK?

Anybody who has ever watched the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey knows that all weird sex should come with a safe word, to make it stop when things get too intense. Ideally, that word should be something you wouldn’t normally say during sex anyway, like “Ohhh,” or “Ahhh,” or “Owwww,” or “Are you almost done? Big Brother starts in five minutes.”

Parrish and Scott clearly didn’t get the memo about the safe words . . .

Parrish is sitting outside the school in his cop car, fondling his Lydia playing card, when Lydia herself appears in the flesh. Now, THAT is a great magic trick!

We know something is off about this soon-to-be sex scene immediately, because (1) Lydia is wearing a completely different outfit than the one she had on a few minutes ago; and (2) Lydia is ravaging Parrish like he is a juicy steak, and she has been on an all kale smoothie diet for weeks.

Sometime during the sex act, Lydia’s makeup comes off, and she starts to look a little rough . . .

Just kidding! Parrish completely burns off her face with his Naked Garbage Man hotness. Fortunately, Lydia doesn’t seem to mind a bit . . . Talk about a ride or die, girl!

Clearly the Dredd Doctors have tapped into both Parrish’s guilt at desiring a high schooler, and his fear that he may be an Evil Naked Garbage Man, who burns kids bodies on a big ole tree, just for fun . . .

All this self-awareness really pisses off Parrish, as we will see in just a bit.

Elsewhere in sexual guilt land, Scott is beating himself up over the fact that he’s totally turned off by Kira, now that she’s constantly wearing that dorky fox costume, and is kind of evil . . .

So, of course, his Dredd Doctor Fantasy involves rough kinky sex with Kira that ends in his own demise.

But what a way to go, am I right, boys?

The Trap Queens

The girls’ Dredd Doctor fears are a bit more shallow then the boys, which is saying a lot considering what you’ve just read above.

Malia spent eight years of her life as a coyote, living in a town covered in coyote traps placed by her own father, so of course, her fear would look something like this . . .

Lydia is a really good kisser, so her fear involves the ripping out of her tongue . . .

Just kidding, I think the loss of tongue fear comes from Lydia worrying that she will never truly be able to harness her banshee power (i.e. her scream) in a way that can actually help her friends. And if that’s the case, then she might as well not have that power at all . . .

In which the most likeable character on the show is murdered, a.k.a Stiles’ jeep

So, remember how I told you that Parrish was really angry that the Dredd Doctors called him out, via hallucination, for being a creeper. (Not to mention the terrible case of these, he undoubtedly received . . .)

Well, Parrish’s anger ended up being bad news for Evil Theo, who got punched in the face. Worse news for Stiles, who got smushed under his car, when Parrish knocked it over. But it was the worst news for Stiles’ poor jeep, Roscoe, which Parrish burned to death.

(I wonder if Theo would consider THIS justifiable homicide . . . you know . . . due to the whole blue balls thing. Not to say that the blue balls were Roscoe’s fault, or anything . . . )

Speaking of Evil Theo, he rescues Stiles from the burning car, saving his life A-GAIN, while Naked Garbage Man Parrish conveniently gets away with yet another chimera body completely unnoticed . . .

Am I being naïve to think, Stiles may be able to revive Roscoe for one more car accident . . . just for old times sake?

Just in case I am, R.I.P. Roscoe. You will truly be missed.   I always liked you better than Scott . . .

In which Scott shows himself to suck just as much at fishing as he does at regular life

When Scott and friends are all done daydreaming, they learn that the Dredd Doctors have kidnapped Liam and Hayden . . . oops.

You see, that’s the thing about bait. In order for it to work, you actually have to keep it attached to the fishing line, not just throw it to the fish, and hope they come onto your line out of the goodness of their hearts . . .

Well . . . THAT happened . . .

Having a slightly better day than her son is Scott’s mom. Not only did she have a pretty adorable flirt session with Sheriff Stilinski (Take that, Lydia’s mom!), she also figured out the relationship between the chimeras. As it turns out, all of them had surgical procedures in which dead people’s body parts were attached to there’s, making them real chimeras/ wuzzles before they became fake monstery ones.

Scott’s mom is feeling pretty darn good about herself, when she arrives home from work. So, of course, Jeff Davis has to crap on that . . .

Until next time, Werebangers!

Scott versus The Paperback – A Recap of Teen Wolf’s “Required Reading”

Throughout the seasons of Teen Wolf, Scott McCall and his wolfpack have battled numerous formidable enemies . . . and the Alpha Pack, which was totally lame, obviously.  They have fought Evil Alphas, Kanaimas, Daraches, Berserkers, and a really grumpy-old man, always ultimately reigning victorious.

But now, Scott McCall must face down a new evil, one much more terrifying than all the rest.  And that evil is . .  . a paperback novel at a fourth-grade reading level!

As a recapper who regularly joked about the thinly-veiled illiteracy of Scott and his wolf pack, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel mildly vindicated by the fact that Jeff Davis and co made this into an actual plot point.  Let’s put it this way, of all the main characters in this series, the only one who was actually able to finish that crappy dimestore novel without taking a break for “naptime,” was the one who spent half her young life, eating roadkill and sh*tting in the woods . . .

But what really made Dredd Doctors: A Novel so horrifying, at least to our characters, was not that it was simply “too hard” for our heroes to comprehend (because it was!), it was the memories that attempting to read it brought to the surface of each of the main characters’ minds . . . (none of which actually had to do with the Dredd Doctors, like they were supposed to . . . but hey, why mess with a formula that works, in order to do something as silly as advance plot , right?)

That’s right Werebangers. “Required Reading” was this season’s “Motel California,” and “Party Guessed.” Like these two previous episodes, which, in my mind were two of the strongest in the series’ history, “Required Reading” utilized (though not quite as successfully as its predecessors) a mixture of hallucination and repressed memory to illuminate aspects of our characters’ (like Lydia and Stiles) psyche that wouldn’t necessarily be evident at first blush.

They also made Scott look like an even bigger doofus than usual. . .

Let’s review, shall we?

[As always a special thanks to Andre for all the awesome screencaps you see here.  Without them, this recap would probably as much fun to read as Dredd Doctors: A Novel .  . .]

Digging up those HOLES

The cops find eight holes dug up on the football field, and Sheriff Stilinski thinks they each represent new chimeras, i.e just enough freaks of the week for each new episode of this season.  “Though in some episodes, we will probably have to double up on freaks, so everyone on Team Chimera gets a chance to play,” the Sheriff Muses.

I, on the other hand, think Shia LeBeouff dug up those holes, as part of his juvenile delinquent sentence, after he was falsely accused of stealing some sneakers that fell on his head .. .

The Sheriff and Malia then helpfully recap our past freaks of the week, by literally X’ing out pictures of their faces with red marker a la Emily Thorne from Revenge.  Excluded from this board is that creepy black-faced guy from the premiere, because he is not an attractive Abercrombie-model looking teenager, and Teen Wolf, therefore, would like you to forget he existed.  Or, if not forget he existed, at least forget what he looked like . . .

Donovan is hot and young enough looking to be included in this list though!

Sheriff S wants to put an X over his nemesis’ face, but can’t because he hasn’t seen is corpse yet.  And he hasn’t seen his corpse yet, because our Friendly Neighborhood Naked Garbage man has already converted it to Evil Tree Fertilizer.  “Every horror movie ever has taught me that ‘no dead body’ equals ‘no dead teenager,” Sheriff S helpfully offers.

“That’s generally true, except for those situations where said dead teenager, gets made into a shishkabob by a falling ladder part, and his innards erupt into a puddle of grey goo,” mutters Stiles under his breath.

“What?”  Sheriff S and Malia ask.

“I said ‘I’m really hungry for shishkabobs, and I love you too,” replies Stiles.

Then Stiles pees in his pants, because his continued guilt over this asshat’s death is essential to the plot, even though it was totally done in self-defense, and if his dad had watched him do it, he probably would have cheered him on . . .

Briefly during this scene, the characters pose the question of what the chimeras have in common, that makes the Dredd Doctors seek them out, when they are still human.  My theory . . . they’ve all had organs removed  / transplanted.  But more on that in a bit . . .

Punch me if you are horny, baby

“Oh, I know, it hurts so good, baby! So good!”

Half naked, Parrish and Lydia, get hot and sweaty together to pop music under the guise of “jujitsu training.”  The lessons don’t go particularly well, because every time Parrish tries to disarm and take down Lydia, she feels the need to sigh amorously and nuzzle her head into his neck.  And he feels the need to take a break so he can sniff her hair and fondle her breasts.

Apparently, all this foreplay somehow managed to transform Lydia into the badass ninja we saw in the season opener.  I suspect this is because Parrish transferred his ninja powers to the banshee by infusing them into her boobs, while the two were getting to second base .  . .

Mid nipple tease, Lydia gets a Dredd Doctor flashback of some sort, which totally turns her off to future sex acts . . . er . . . I mean “martial arts training” with Parrish.

Don’t worry, Parrish.  I hear bursting into flames on top of a corpse encrusted evil tree is a great cure for blue balls . . . better than cold showers and a self-inflicted hand job, even!

Scott McCall’s Book Club for Kids Who Can’t Read Good

Scott’s entire Scooby Gang meet to read the Dredd Doctor book together, while laying on top of one another on the couch, because apparently reading is contact sport in Scott McCall’s world.  It’s also exhausting, obviously, because after reading exactly two pages a piece, everyone falls asleep.  I suspect this is because most of the crew’s idea of “reading” is doing this . . .

https://youtu.be/O35j9pKAmmo

(Kira, at least has an excuse, according to Mason, because foxes are like soooo illiterate.  Everyone else is just dumb and/or lazy.)

Once the group is safely comatose, Theo helpfully changes into his “I am Evil” t-shirt, grows a black mustache from his baby face, so he can twirl it malevolently, and creeps up to Kira’s bedroom, so he can leer over her for a few minutes like a child molester, and tape her sleep talking with his iPhone.

“Hey Scott,” Theo says to his new/old pal the next morning.  “You don’t know this, but while you were passed out last night after an excruciating  twenty minutes spent sounding out the word ‘Doctor,’ I went up to your girlfriend’s bedroom and dry humped her while she was unconscious.  Does that bother you at all?”

“No, should it?”  Scott inquires, clearly confused.

(Other things that confuse, Scott: sneakers that come with shoe-laces instead of Velcro, double-sided tape, and doors that have the word “Push” written on them, even though they have handles . . .)

“Cool, well, I also taped her pillow talk, and then typed what she said into Google Translate.  It turns out her and her fox costume want to murder us all!”

“Dude, you are so racist.  Not every phrase in Japanese automatically means, ‘I want to murder you all.  Only like 95 % of them do!’” Scott retorts.

“Did you hear me, Scott?  I said I found it on Google Translate.  And Google Translate never ever takes sentences out of context, or attributes to them American meanings that don’t jive with what they actually mean in other countries!”  Theo argues.

“Oh . . . well, in that case, I hate Kira now.  She is evil, and we are totally breaking up,” responds Scott.

“Then, you won’t mind if I have sex with her then, me being secretly evil, and really sh*tty at hiding it and all?  I think we’d be a good love match.”  Theo muses

“Didn’t you already have sex with her last night?”  Scott asks.

“No, we just dry humped . . .” Theo offers.

“OK then, be my guest,” replies Scott.

“Thanks, you are the best!” Theo responds, before heading off to the gym to corrupt and steal Stiles’ girlfriend too!

Obligatory Shirtless Scene in 3 . . . 2 . . .

In the school gym, Theo sees Malia coming to visit him, and quickly disrobes, so that he can hypnotize her into submission with his sexy man nipples.

“I think I’m supposed to be having a conversation with you about how I’m lying to my boyfriend about how my mom, the desert wolf, killed my adoptive mom, but I am too intoxicated by the smell of your man musk, and the way your pecs look covered in sweat to really concentrate on what’s being said in this scene,” says Malia.

“Mwah-hahahaha,” Theo laughs evilly, wishing he didn’t have to be naked for Malia, so he could put on his ‘I am Evil’ shirt again.  (How else will Teen Wolf fans realize this guy is up to no good, if they aren’t reminded of it every three seconds?)

That Will Teach You to Read Books!

Now is the part of the episode, where our main characters get punished for trying to be scholarly.  First up is Lydia.  While helping a fellow student, who she thinks is a chimera, but who actually just suffers from trichotillomania (Google it!) . . .

. .  she flashes back to a time when she accidentally walked into Eichen House to find her grandmother bleeding in a tub, after having supposedly drilled a hole in her own head.  (Though based on the scene where the Dredd Doctors threaten to do the exact same thing to Lydia, Poor Grandma might not be entirely responsible for her own mutilation.)

“They are coming for us, Lydia.  They are coming for us all,” Grandma warns ominously.

I guess it’s pretty obvious why someone would want to repress an effed up memory like that, am I right?  I mean, seeing your grandma naked?   YIKES!  But also the “hole in head” thing . . .

What’s interesting about this hallucination is that it actually tells us quite a bit about why Lydia might have subconsciously been hiding her own intelligence in the first season or so of the series.  We all assumed she did it to be popular.  But, perhaps, there was a part of Lydia that took her grandmother’s terrifying warning to mean that she should cover up those things that make her different from others (i.e. her genius IQ, her banshee powers, etc) at all costs, or risk being persecuted, or worse, hurt, for it . . .

Speaking of Lydia’s banshee powers, after hearing the name of Liam’s love interest chanted during one of her hallucinations, and seeing the gory operation done by the Dredd Doctors on this week’s nameless freak of the week, Lydia figures out that she is somehow able to tap into the memories of other chimeras.

So, Lydia inexplicably gets new powers every week that have absolutely nothing to do with her being a banshee, which makes her Super Girl, basically.

In other heartbreaking hallucination news, Stiles remembered a time when his mother, suffering from dementia caused by a brain tumor, tried to jump off a roof, because she was convinced that Stiles, who was only ten at the time, was trying to murder her.  She even attacked Stiles when he tried to confront her.

Up until this point, we’ve heard bits and pieces about Stiles’ mother’s illness and subsequent death, while getting hints that Stiles felt somehow guilty or responsible for it.  (A perfect example of this was his hallucination during “Party Guessed.”)  However, this is the first time all those pieces are finally put together.

Clearly, there’s a part of Stiles that subconsciously wonders if his mother was right . . . if there is something in Stiles that is inherently wrong or bad.  This part of Stiles may have been what made him such an easy target for possession by the Nogitsune.  It also may explain why Stiles is so wracked with guilt over the part he played in that dirtbag, Donovan’s, death . .  .

In Which Liam Appears to Be On a Completely Different Show Than Everyone Else . . .

While the rest of the cast is suffering from identity crises caused by violent hallucinations, Liam is making googly eyes at new love interest Hayden, while he practices lacrosse, and she inexplicably practices soccer two inches away from him, because, apparently, Beacon Hills High only has one sports field left, after the other one became infested with chimera birthing holes.  Isn’t that . . . like . . . dangerous . . . or something?

Speaking of dangerous?  I bet you all have been losing sleep at night wondering why Love Interest Hayden “hates” Liam.

You haven’t?  Well, too bad.  Because I’m going to tell you, anyway.  Apparently, Liam got into a fight with someone at school, tried to punch him, and accidentally punched Hayden, so her picture for the sixth grade year book was all jacked up.

Why does Mason still have Hayden’s sixth grade yearbook picture on his cell phone after all these years? That’s just weird . . .

I get it.  I mean, it’s totally understandable that Hayden would vow vengeance against Liam for life.  After all, your sixth grade yearbook photo is the most important photograph you will ever take in your entire life . . . aside from your wedding photo, and your graduation from high school photo, and your graduation from college photo, and your “I just had a baby” photo, and your EVERY PHOTO YOU’VE EVER TAKEN AFTER THE AGE OF TEN!

During this episode, we also learn why Hayden needs money so badly that she’s whoring herself out as a bar wench every night at the local gay club.  Apparently, she had a kidney transplant, and the medication she needs for it costs $200 a bottle, which she hopes to repay her sister, who is footing the bill.

So, Hayden is incredibly good at kicking balls, and vain, and poor.  “She must be a chimera,” Liam decides for no reason whatsoever, as he heads to the club to eye screw her some more and pay her back for knocking over her glow sticks a few episodes ago.

(Actually, Hayden’s kidney transplant might actually indicate that she’s a chimera, as evidenced by the fact that according to her sister, she’s suddenly no longer taking her medication, yet experiencing no ill effects from it . ..)

Also, there’s the little fact that Hayden’s eyes get all ghostlike under a blacklight . . .

Speaking of chimeras, we meet another one at Club Cinema.  (The Dredd Doctors must really like the gays.)  Did you catch him?  He was the one that complained to Hayden that his glo-stick burned out, then proceeded to effect the electricity of the entire town, by repeatedly eating electric wires, everywhere he went.

Dude! Just buy a flashlight, and be done with it . . .

We’ll talk more about this week’s Freak in a moment.

But first . . . we must talk about how much Scott sucked at life, this week . . .

True Alph-Failure

Sleeping on the job again . . .

While attempting to sign a drop form for his AP-Bio class, Scott, like Malia, Lydia and Stiles before her had a hallucination about a memory from his past.  In the memory, Scott was attacked by a pack of wolves (who murdered his dog, Roxy?) and it caused him to have his first asthma attack.

Unlike his friends’ hallucinations, Scott’s says nothing at all about his psyche.  It merely notes the irony that a wolf attack initially brought on Scott’s asthma, and a wolf bite cured him of it.

Did I say cured him of it?  Because, apparently, much like herpes, Scott’s asthma is back . . .

Immediately sensing through Pack Mind that his Wolf Daddy is having an asthma attack, despite the fact that Scott has never had an asthma attack in the entire time Liam has known him, Liam rushes to offer Scott an inhaler from a classmate.

Of course, Scott is too dumb to save his own life, so Liam has to go all wolfy on his ass to get him to take a puff in front of a ton of students, possibly blowing his cover as a werewolf in the process.

In other Scott fail news, at the hospital, a Dredd Doctor crushes Scott’s pilfered inhaler, and he proceeds to lay on the floor and take the abuse like a b*tch, forcing Malia and his own human mother to fight his battle for him . . .

“We should never have read that book,” Scott exclaims, as he is cowering in the corner of an elevator like a toddler.

Sure, Scott.  Blame “reading” for your problems . . .

Meanwhile, on a roof somewhere . . .

R.I.P. Electric Wire Eating Guy.  We barely knew ye . . .

If Scott is a failure at life, Stiles fails at luck.  I mean, the poor guy can’t even have a good old-fashioned traumatic hallucination from his past, without his life being put in danger once again.  Stiles awakens from the memory of his own mother attacking him to find Electric-Wire Eating guy doing the same thing.

Fortunately, Evil Theo arrives just in time to quickly and brutally murder Electric Wire Eating Guy, like it’s no big thing.  (Take note, Stiles!)  As we know, most werewolves eyes turn perma-blue after they commit a murder, but Theo’s stay gold, indicating that he might be a chimera as well.  “Don’t tell Scott about my chimera murder, and I won’t tell him about yours,” Theo promises Stiles.  “You can trust me.”

“But you are wearing an ‘I am Evil’ t-shirt, drinking blood and murdering a tiny puppy with your bare hands while we are having this conversation,” Stiles muses.

“Yeah, but I’m attractive,” responds Theo.  “And everyone knows that hot people are always honest.”

“Works for me,” replies Stiles, as he shakes the devil’s bloody paw.

And that was “Required Reading” in a nutshell.  Until next time, Werebangers!

Weddings are the Worst – Game of Thrones “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” Recap

WOW, George R.R. Martin must REALLY HATE marriage. (My apologies to his current wife, who I am sure is lovely.) Think about it. So far on GOT, we have had six weddings. One of them was red . . .

One of them was purple . . .

One of them ended with the blushing bride taking a flying solo honeymoon out of a moon door.

Sansa’s first marriage to Tyrion Lannister, though filled with great booze, wasn’t exactly a joy to behold either.

The fact that GOT’s “best” wedding was a marriage that could almost literally be considered a cradle robbing says something about the author’s views on holy matrimony.

This week, on Game of Thrones, the series’ war on weddings continues, when poor Sansa Stark experiences a wedding night so horrifying that, even if the producers didn’t thankfully fade to black after the first few seconds, most of us would have watched through our fingers anyway.

Also this week, Arya gets a promotion at Burgerless White Castle. Queen Margaery gets a major demotion. Bronn and Jamie play dress-up. And Tyrion and Jorah make some new friends with benefits, but, perhaps, not the kind of benefits they were hoping for.

Let’s review, shall we?

Two Truths and a Lie

When we last left the Artist Formerly Known as Arya Stark, she was scrubbing the naughty bits of some dead naked guy. When we meet up with her again, she’s still doing it. (He must have been REALLY dirty!)

“What’s up with all the creepy corpse washing we do?” Arya asks her new frenemy and fellow scrubber of dead nudists. “Is there like a Dead People Beauty Pageant in Burgerless White Castle that I should know about?”

Arya’s coworker at Burgerless White Castle, the highly unpleaseant Frenemy, is so very unwilling to give up the details about the Corpse Top Model reality show going on behind the Secret Door, she slams said door in poor Arya’s face, when the youngest Stark sister tries to get a peek.

In an effort to distract Arya from what a thankless, sh*t job it is working for Burgerless White Castle, Frenemy then decides to play a game with her colleague, which reminds me a bit of the game Two Truths and a Lie. In the game, Frenemy tells Arya this sob story about how she came to be a creepy corpse washer at Burgerless White Castle (something about an evil stepfather, I think?), and Arya has to determine which parts of the story are true, and which are fake.

“I have an androgynous haircut, just like you.”

(If this is what teenagers did for fun before the advent of technology, I can understand why the average life expectancy was so low. People were bored to death. Also, you know, murder, lack of modern medicine, poor nutrition and stuff. But mostly boredom.)

Later, Arya tries to play the same “fun” game with Jagen Hager, only this time, she’s the one telling the origin story, not Frenemy. Jagen, being Jagen, “generously” tries to make the game a bit more exciting and “high stakes” by punching Arya in the face whenever she lies, which is kind of rude, to be honest. Geez, Jagen! At least when the people who work at Burger-FULL White Castle get abused at work, they get free(or at least deeply discounted) bullet-hole ridden meat patties out of it. Arya gets bupkiss for her troubles! Just the opportunity to wash more smelly dead people. It’s not exactly a winning corporate bonus structure. (And for sure, Burgerless White Castle doesn’t offer a dental plan. Have you seen Jagen’s teeth?)

Given Jagen’s interpretation of Two Truths and a Lie, I’d be really frightened to see his take on other childhood classic games like Duck Duck Goose, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and Simon Says. Something tells me his versions of those games involve regular and frequent ass kickings for Goose, the Donkey, and the person who didn’t listen to Simon’s instructions, respectively. Also they probably involve people talking like Yoda from Star Wars, because Jagen does that all the time. And I used to find it cool. But now I think it’s super annoying.

Still love Yoda though. Best dancer ever!

Later that day, Some Random Dad arrives at Burgerless White Castle with his dying daughter, and orders a cheeseburger with a side of fries. Just kidding, he orders the prompt death of his Terminal Disease Kid. “Would you like that homicide supersized, sir?” Arya inquires.

“Nah, just your standard mercy killing with a side of ketchup should be fine,” replies Some Random Dad.

Arya expertly murders Some Random Dad’s dying kid by claiming that, if she drinks the Instant Death Water from the Burgerless White Castle Fountain, it will heal all her pain. (She must really want to wash this girl’s corpse!) The young girl does as instructed.

“Dad wanted me to die at McDonalds instead, but I insisted on coming here after seeing the Harold and Kumar movie. That sh*t was awesome.”

Jagen is thrilled. (Such a Sadist, Jagen is!) So thrilled, in fact, that Arya gets to walk behind the Secret Door of Really Clean Corpses as her reward. Hooray!

Since I guess Braavos Next Top Corpse Model is on hiatus, all that Arya finds behind the door are a bunch of candles and some scary face masks, which may actually be real faces. How very Texas Chainsaw Massacre! While admiring one such face, Jagen tells Arya, that, even though she isn’t quite cool enough yet to be “no one,” she is currently cool enough to become someone else other than herself.

I hear the role of Donald Draper has recently become available, Arya . . .

Never Trust a Guy Whose Name is a Variation of Pinky

Meanwhile, over in Kings Landing, Littlefinger breaks the news to Cersei that (1) Sansa Stark is alive and well in Winterfell and set to marry that freak of nature, Ramsey Bolton; and (2) Stannis and his army are marching to Winterfell to murder the Boltons and take Winterfell for themselves. Two situations, which, coincidentally, Littlefinger has orchestrated himself.

But because playing god with three quarters of the cast of Game of Thrones is not nearly enough for this meddlesome Hand-y Man, Littlefinger makes Cersei an offer she can’t refuse. It involves Littlefinger sending his own army from the Vail to fight on behalf of the Lannisters, and taking Winterfell from whoever isn’t left dead of Roose and Stannis once they are done fighting. (Did YOU know Littlefinger had his own army? I didn’t know that.) In return, Littlefinger only asks that Cersei name him Warden of the North.

So to recap, Littlefinger has told Sansa that she will be Warden of the North, told Roose and Stannis each that they will be Warden of the North, and told Cersei that he will be warden of the North.

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

Speaking of shady . . .

The Trials and Tribulations of the Tyrells

Olenna Tyrell arrives in Kings Landing to throw some customary shade Cersei’s way, in hopes that she’ll shame Cersei for imprisoning Loras based on (1) his homosexuality, and (2) the fact that Loras doesn’t want to get into Cersei’s pants as much as her own brother does. “Everyone on this show who hasn’t already been brutally murdered, is pretty much gay,” Olena explains matter-of-factly to her granddaughter before entering into her verbal smackdown with the Queen Mother. “If the religious nutsos put all the gay people on this show in jail, GOT would become Orange is the New Black, basically.”

Unfortunately, it’s Cersei who has the last laugh, this time around. After waiting patiently while Loras admits under oath to Old Dirty Poo Smelling New Pope that he never “lied down” with another man, and Margaery swears to the truth of his statements, Loras’ erstwhile squire calls them both out as liars. He even goes as far as to describe a birthmark on Loras’ inner thigh, and to accuse Margaery of walking in on the couple in flagrante and not batting an eyelash. (Which, as we know, she most definitely did, in a way that was totally awesome, and most certainly did not deserve to be punished.) Margaery should only be punished for being the Most Popular Pedophile on the Show and nothing more. Because, aside from the whole pedophile thing, she’s positively lovely.

Boo Cersei! You are the worst! (Well, actually Ramsey is the worst. And Joffrey was the second worst. But you are a very close third.)

As both Margaery and Loras are dragged off to jail, Margaery calls to her prepubescent hubby, Tommen, for help. But he just stares off into space blankly, undoubtedly dreaming of all the pussy he’s going to get to play with now that his wife is no longer sharing his bed. I’m talking about his kittens, obviously. What did you think I was talking about?

Fun with Sand Snakes

Over in Dorne, Doran Martell hasn’t moved from his chair for about four weeks now (not even to go potty). I’m beginning to think he might have no legs. Book readers, is this true?

Meanwhile, young lovebirds, Myrcella Lannister and Trystane Martell ,are playing some serious tonsil hockey, and are super excited about their impending nuptials. It’s nice to know that some romance exists on this show that’s actually age appropriate, AND isn’t between two people who share DNA.

Speaking of romance, enter Jamie and Bronn, with their new groovy threads and super cool black stallions, to come rescue Myrcella from super sexy Spring Break Vacation Dorne, and return her to her rightful home in Smells Like Shit Kings Landing. Little Lannister Myrcella is understandably miffed by this idea.

Then, the Sand Snakes come to fight with Jamie and Bronn so THEY can kidnap Myrcella, except what they do looks must less like fighting and more like the cheesy line dancing you did at your cousin’s wedding last year.

Then Doran’s henchman, whose voice sounds eerily similar to James Earl Jones, rounds them all up and arrests them.

Because that’s just what this season needs, more characters in jail. Also, more cowbell . . .

Everything is better with cowbell.

In Which We Learn a Not-So-Little Dwarf Anatomy Lesson

Outside Valyria, Jorah and Tyrion get captured by a bunch of guys who think Tyrion’s weiner has magical powers, which is pretty much the most awesome compliment you could give Tyrion, when you think about it. (Maybe it’s like the hair on those troll dolls, where if you rub it enough, it brings you good luck. Though, admittedly, this trick most certainly did not work for Shea.)

“Should have gone with the four-leaf clover instead.”

The guys want to cut off Tyrion’s magical weiner, and carry it around like a lucky charm or rabbit’s foot, maybe even sell it for some serious cash. But Tyrion wisely explains to the men that his weiner is only worth something if people know it comes from a dwarf.

“We just assumed your Johnson was adorably, pint-sized like you,” says one of the guys.

“Actually, you should never judge a dwarf by the size of his dong . . . unless that dwarf is me, because my dong is massive,” Tyrion explains. “And I am awesome.”

Wait to go, Peter Dinklage! It’s not every day a male actor gets to admit to the television-watching world that he’s well endowed!

Anywhoo, Tyrion wisely convinces his would-be captors to keep his man bits intact, and not kill him and/or Jorah, by informing them that Jorah is a spectacular fighter. This gains Tyrion and Jorah passage to Mereen where they can battle in Dany’s recently-reopened fighting pits for cash and for the Mother of Dragon’s love, of course!

Well, Jorah will fight for cash and Dany’s love. Tyrion will just walk around town waving around his Magical Huge Cock.

Do you take this Psychopath to Be Your Lawfully Wedded Husband?

Wedding bells are ringing in the North, as Sansa suffers the indignity of being bathed by that bitch, Myrcella in preparation for her marriage to awful Ramsey. “Did you know that I help Ramsey kill all his former lovers, after he gets tired of porking them?” Myrcella notes conversationally.

“Wow, grow some self-respect, girlfriend. It’s clear your boyfriend is just not that into you, if he makes you wait around while he occasionally sticks his hot dog into others,” retorts naked Sansa.

It’s not even a nice looking hot dog. Kind of crooked, if you ask me.

It takes real balls to win a verbal smack down while in your birthday suit. And Sansa is going to need those balls for what’s about to happen next.

Dressed in her wedding finery, Sansa hears a knock at her door. It’s Theon / Reek ready and waiting to take her to her doom, er, I mean wedded bliss.

It’s fitting that the wedding takes place in the dark of night, and looks more like a funeral / ritual sacrifice than a happy occasion.

After the wedding, Sansa meets Super Scary Ramsey in his bedroom for her first official deflowering. (Too bad she doesn’t have Tyrion’s magical cock with her. It would come in extremely handy at a time like this.)

Ramsey, being a sadistic bastard, forces Theon/Reek to watch, as he savagely rips the back of Sansa’s dress, and violently enters her from the rear repeatedly. Her cries of anguish can be heard throughout the room, as the screen fades to black.

Unfortunately, there will be no mercy for Poor Sansa. At least not right now . . .

But if Joffrey’s death was any indication, something tells me the inevitable murder of Ramsey Bolton will be both absolutely disgusting and glorious to behold. No one messes with Darth Sansa Stark and lives to tell the tale.

Until next time . . .

Xanax Makes Everything Better – A Recap of Galavant’s Episodes 5 and 6

Ladies and gentle donkey turds (Madalena’s words, not mine), we have arrived!

After two weeks of Medieval musical foreplay, and countless songs about lady who-ha’s and male ding dongs, Galavant has finally reached his rousing CLIMAX!

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The episode where our hero, and the guy who is supposed to be the villain but is actually MY FAVORITE, meet again in (sort of) epic fashion and prepare to do battle for the heart of . . .

. . . this b*tch . . .

Also this week . . . more guest stars . . . like the guy who made fun of all those Michael Jackson songs in the 80s . . .

And the British version of Steve Carrell’s character on The Office . . .

But most importantly, Daisy from Downton Abbey . . .

Playing the part of . . . well . . . Anna from Downton Abbey . . .

So reign in your horses and hold on to your drawers, because even the cook gets lucky in this hour . . .

You can check out the rest of this recap here.