The long awaited Season 3 premier of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D kicked off recently, following on from the jaw dropping finale of the explosive second season.
The previous season saw many changes to the show and events that carry into the third season- Bobbi Morse and Lance finally rekindling their relationship, Skye discovering her origins and name- Daisy Johnson (which she now uses instead of Skye), Phil Coulson losing his left arm, Melinda May taking a much needed extended vacation and Ward taking charge of the disbanded Hydra whilst also declaring war of S.H.I.E.L.D. As for Simmons, well you’ll find out later on in the review.
All in all, a lot happened last season and thus I was expecting an equally explosive epic season premier, and you know what? It was delivered.
The most memorable moment of the episode was definitely the first sequence. We are introduced to our first new Inhuman of the season, Joey, and no less in a good old fashioned game of capture-the-flag, albeit capture-the-Inhuman between S.H.I.E.L.D and the ATCU in this case. We are introduced to a new government secret ops team which rivals our favourite secret ops team. This was what I loved about the first two seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D- the espionage-centric themes and tropes such as our heroes having to deal with Hydra in the first season and in the second season with Gonzales’s ‘so-called’ Real S.H.I.E.L.D.
Another great and memorable moment was the introduction of Lash, interestingly only a recent addition to the comics (first appearing in Inhuman #1 last year). Lash is clearly a villainous Inhuman and a powerhouse with superhuman durability, evidenced when he was able to withstand attacks from both Daisy and Lincoln at the same time, and is also able to take bullets from Mack. Another important detail to point out is his ability to drain the life force of people, with his goal apparently being to search out other Inhumans for their presumed greater life force.
A few other great moments to point out include Coulson and Rosalind Price’s back and forth, Bobbi and Lance showing what a great couple they are, and finally Coulson and Fitz’s emotional scene regarding Simmons’s situation.
Just a few things to address which include the absence of Grant Ward. Hydra was name dropped as still active but not significant enough to gain their attention with the missing new Inhumans, but expect Coulson and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D to get a big shock when he returns. No appearance from May, with it being stated she is on extended leave. I must say, even with almost half of the original cast missing, the episode was still exciting whilst still making it a traditional Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D episode.
In traditional Marvel fashion, the end-credits scene leaves more questions than answers. After Simmons disappeared in the Season 2 finale, fans have been speculating for a long time as to what happened to her. Even though we don’t get many details, we see that Simmons is on an alien world. We’ll have to keep watching to find out what will happen to her…
In my opinion, the episode was very enjoyable. The episode introduces us to great new characters like Rosalind and Joey, while also catching us up quite admirably with how the world is moving on from The Battle of Sokovia and the Pym Tech incident. I am looking forward to seeing what the cast and crew of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D bring us for the rest of this season.
My rating: 8/10
By Al Basharu
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
As you know if you read my review of The Big Bang Theory’s Season 9 premier, while there were parts I enjoyed I felt like they made a poor decision with the direction to go in with the wedding. You’ll be happy to know that I think the second episode of this season turned things around and reminded why I’ve always kept watching the show.
While my main complaint with the premier was (in my opinion at least) the mis-handling of the wedding, I felt the premier was (surprisingly) lacking in humour and I felt like it needed more. Inside the first few minutes this episode had turned that around, with a hilarious dream of Leonard’s where Sheldon and Penny kiss and get a bit physical (one for the shippers which should hold them over for a while). I thought it was an excellent start and the episode only got better.
The episode features the debut of Melissa Tang as Mandy Chao, the woman Leonard kissed on his expedition to the North Sea. While the scene with Leonard and Mandy may be uncomfortable it’s well acted by Johnny Galecki and Melissa (and some funny jokes from Howard and Raj), it’s important as it helps Leonard realise what the problems is with his and Penny’s relationship on his side.
The episode handles the Leonard and Penny situation very well, such as when Penny realises how much she has changed Leonard- helping him to become more confident among other things. I’ve found it interesting in this and last season how the roles in the relationship have changed, with Penny the insecure one and Leonard not being so. The contrast this shows compared to earlier in the show (when Leonard was insecure) has been very interesting to watch in the recent seasons. The scene where they both talk and Leonard says he has loved her since they first met is excellent (until Leonard makes it cheesy of course) and Leonard asks her to stay married to him. They then head into Penny’s bedroom to consummate their marriage.
The episode also features another edition of the fan-favourite “Fun with Flags”, though it does feel a little weird without Amy hosting with Sheldon, but she does watch it and identifies several comments Sheldon makes that are clearly insulting to her- showing how little Sheldon still understands about relationships and he’s only making things worse. The ending where Sheldon actually believes Amy still wants him is hilarious, even more so than him buying tickets for Leonard, Penny and himself to go to San Francisco.
In other character moments, Bernadette feels guilty about keeping the Mandy secret from Penny. However, I don’t feel this was expanded upon. It was shown in one scene with the three leading ladies but afterwards the writers didn’t seem to follow up on her guilt, which I felt would have added another twist to Leonard and Penny’s marriage.
In my opinion, this episode was the perfect follow up to the (in my opinion) inconsistent first episode of the ninth season. While it had its moments, the premier had several problems and the mis-handling of the wedding was the obvious one. That said, the episode restored the relationship perfectly, continued the Sheldon/Amy drama brilliantly, had outstanding humour and excellent character moments. My only flaw was not expanding on certain character moments that could’ve done with more exploration, particularly Bernadette’s guilt. However, if you were disappointed in the premier I’m sure you’ll think the second episode has turned the season around.
My rating: 9/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The latest episode (and penultimate episode of the first season) of Fear The Walking Dead reveals the National Guards plans for Los Angeles, as the episode sets up the first seasons finale in a big way. Fun fact: “Cobalt” is not only the name of episode and the militaries plan for Los Angeles, but it was actually the working title for Fear The Walking Dead as well.
I think the episode did a really great job explaining the National Guard’s plans- “Cobalt” being a command code to initiate military evacuation from Los Angeles and to kill off any surviving civilians. While in previous reviews I’ve speculated that the National Guard’s presence was going to turn out to be a bad thing, I like that (if you really think about it) they’re not being made into villains. They have orders and you can understand why they may feel the need to kill off remaining civilians if the area becomes uninhabitable (the previous episode states there’s only a certain number of safe-zones), but it’s not good news for our heroes once they learn of the militaries true intentions. The evacuation is set to take place at 9 the following morning according to Andrew Adams.
I really liked what they did with Andrew’s character in this episode. In the previous episode I wondered why they had Ofelia get into a relationship with him, but the way the group ended up using him for information in this episode was very cold and well done (the torture being a bit too much for Ofelia), but it helps Daniel, Madison and Travis learn of the intentions in the above paragraph. Andrew had it pretty rough in this episode…
The death of Griselda was unfortunate and I think they handled it very well, though I had predicted it ever since I saw that Patricia Reyes Spindola wasn’t credited among the main cast (but Mercedes Mason/Ofelia and Rubén Blades/Daniel are). It’ll be interesting to see how Daniel and Ofelia react to her death though, and I liked how Liza decided to be responsible for putting her down.
I do have one small complaints in an otherwise excellent episode. My complaint is the writer’s decision to kill off Moyers in the way that they did. I didn’t expect him to last beyond the first season, but considering the way they set him up in the last episode (with numerous similarities to The Governor) I wasn’t impressed that they killed him off-screen. I don’t mind characters we see in one or two scenes killed off-screen, but Moyers got a pretty big set-up in the last episode and it felt like they decided to cheaply write him out.
In terms of other characters, we see Nick meeting a new cellmate called Victor Strand (whose purpose is still unclear) and Alicia and Christopher bonding a little bit over smashing up someone’s house.
The episode ends with Daniel heading to the arena, where he hears the infected outside the doors growling (in a shot that is reminiscent of Rick looking at the “Don’t Open Dead Inside” door and hearing growls from the main series).
In my opinion, this was an excellent penultimate episode to the first season of Fear The Walking Dead. The reveal of the National Guard’s intention for Los Angeles was handled perfectly without making them necessarily villains, the death of Griselda was sad and the ending showing the Walkers outside the door was excellent. My only complaint was the decision to kill Moyers off-screen, but otherwise I thought it was an excellent episode which sets up a big season finale.
My rating: 8.5/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
After their excellent Series 9 premier, surely Doctor Who couldn’t match the quality for the second episode of the newest series? Never doubt in The Doctor as this episode continued where the last episode left off in perfect fashion.
Even though they’re not my favourite Doctor Who villains, the new ideas the writers chose to go with for the Daleks were very clever. The graveyard (made of decaying Daleks) was horribly creepy and The Doctor saving the young Davros and teaching him about mercy (revealing the purpose of the final scene in the previous episode) leading to the Daleks knowing the concept of mercy was a great idea. Also, Clara posing as a Dalek was very interesting as well though it almost led to her dying. Definitely one of the better episodes for the Daleks in the revived series of Doctor Who.
Like in the previous episode, the interactions with The Doctor/Davros and Clara/Missy. The Doctor’s and Davros’ interactions were meaningful, especially Davros learning the truth about what happened to Gallifrey, and the scenes where Davros appears to be dying and they’re seemingly making small talk is interesting to watch. Of course, in some way all villains are deceitful and Davros comes very close to taking The Doctor’s regeneration energy, though it does allow him to create Dalek/Time Lord hybrids which (unfortunately for him) The Doctor suspected was his plan and tricked him, allowing The Doctor to defeat the Daleks again.
As far as Missy and Clara are concerned, their dynamic is also complex. Clara is wary of Missy and Missy is completely in control, as shown when she convinces Clara to pose as a Dalek and then Missy later on almost gets The Doctor to kill the Dalek that is really Clara (after Missy tries to convince him that Clara is dead). It’ll be interesting to see how The Doctor and Clara react when they next see Missy after what she tried to do…
Even though I touched on it briefly, I do have to say the ending to this episode with The Doctor saving the young Davros and teaching him about mercy was brilliant. The ending of the last episode was great as well but did leave questions (like how The Doctor escaped) but this episode explained it perfectly and I couldn’t find any flaws with the writing in this episode.
If I had one minor complaint about this episode, I would say that I would have liked to have seen more of Skaro. Aside from a few areas (Davros’ control room, the Supreme Daleks’ area, the graveyard and a little of the outside) we really didn’t see that much of Skaro when you think about it. That said, this is my only complaint in an otherwise excellent episode.
In my opinion, this episode carried on perfectly from the opening episode of Series 9. The episode perfectly explained a few questions raised at the end of the previous episodes, the performances in this episode were excellent (The Doctor, Clara, Missy and Davros naturally standing out) and the ideas they came up with the Daleks were handled well. My only complaint is that we didn’t see more of Skaro but it doesn’t affect my rating too significantly.
My rating: 9.5/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The latest episode of Pokémon XY not only features the first festival in a while, but the first Jessie-centric episode in a while and (after how good the last one was) this was bound to make for an interesting episode. Note: Anyone else notice that Ash and co. read the first part of the episode title and Jessie the second part?
Surprisingly, the episode turned out to be a complex episode in some ways. Team Rocket is approached by the head of a castle, Count Pumpka, whose Pumpkaboo has taken a liking to Jessie’s and Team Rocket pretends Ash, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie are criminals leading to multiple interesting confrontations.
However, the most complex parts of the episode revolve around Jessie and Pumpkaboo (some turn out well and others left me scratching my head). Count Pumpka wants to trade his Mawile for Jessie’s Pumpkaboo so the latter can be in a relationship (without stating the word ‘relationship’) with the prince Pumpkaboo. Even though Jessie gives a speech about how their hearts one (and stating that Pumpkaboo was the only one to remember her birthday). Somehow I can’t quite believe that when she has been with James and Meowth since the start of the show… and other things that made little to no sense. It would make sense if there had been any development with the two, but bar the early XY episode where she catches Pumpkaboo is there any major development with the two? It was like this was the episode for development but that led to some things (like the birthday flashback) not making any sense, however little things were revealed like that it is female which was nice.
Minor complaints aside, Jessie has a change of heart and (against Pumpkaboo’s wishes) makes the trade. However, upon Count Pumpka opening Pumpkaboo’s Pokéball, it suddenly evolves into Gourgeist (the last Team Rocket Pokémon to evolve was Yanma in the Diamond & Pearl series). It was a very nice evolution scene but again it felt weird given the lack of development prior to the episode (I guess all of the battles against Ash and co. may have helped). It gets more interesting as Pumpka’s Pumpkaboo is no longer interested in Jessie’s Pumpkaboo now that it’s a Gourgeist, so Team Rocket decide to reveal themselves, attempt to steal some Pokemon and end up blasting off. Story of their life.
The episode concludes with Ash, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie and Count Pumpka watching the conclusion of the festival with a fireworks display.
Can I take a moment to say that the gang’s festival costumes were all excellent? Serena’s Florges costume was especially great, and the reference to previous episodes by having James disguised as a girl was funny. Speaking of references, Inkay uses the same Pikachu disguise from an older episode of the XY series.
In my opinion, this was a really good episode, but at the same time an episode that had its flaws. The plot was pretty complex and I think the writers handled that area well, and it was good to see Jessie get her second centric episode of the XY series. While the interactions with Jessie and Pumpkaboo (later Gourgeist) in the episode were good, there were confusing moments in this episode that stemmed from a lack of developing their relationship prior to this episode. Even though the episode was Team Rocket focused, on the heroes side their costumes were all nice and there were various nods to previous episodes sprinkled in this episode if you caught them. A really good episode that suffered slightly from the lack of development with Jessie and Pumpkaboo prior to it.
My rating: 8/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The ninth season of the CBS’ sitcom The Big Bang Theory kicked off in the biggest way possible- the long-awaited marriage between Leonard Hofstadter and Penny. However, the handling of the wedding couldn’t have gone more differently than some fans hoped for…
Now, before I get into my opinions on the episode, I do want to preface something. This is obviously our first review on the website about an episode of The Big Bang Theory but if you’ve listened to our live podcast you’ll know we talk about episodes of the show a lot and I am very passionate about the show. While some people couldn’t get into the show or stopped watching after a few seasons, I’ve always stood by the show (even though I think the first three seasons are the best and won’t be topped) I still have a lot of respect for the show and the cast and crew who have worked on it for so many years, because that’s a lot of time they’ve spent on one TV show.
However (and I am trying to be constructive here), I think they made a poor decision with this episode). An on-going joke on our podcast is that I don’t get excited about anything in case of disappointment, but somehow I was still disappointed. As a fan of The Big Bang Theory for several years (since around Season 3 or 4 was airing), I’ve only wanted to see Leonard and Penny get married if they were truly ready and happy with getting married. Regardless if was the last episode of the show, only when the characters were happy. I understand the drama they were looking to get by having them not happy (and I know other reviewers felt the drama actually made the episode good), but I felt just once they should have left out the drama and had a good wedding (with maybe one or two little gags for humour).
The problem with the wedding is it’s the complete opposite of Howard and Bernadette’s wedding before. Howard/Bernadette’s wedding was amazing and done right. Here’s a list of the differences between both weddings:
- Howard/Bernadette’s was done in front of friends and family. Leonard/Penny’s wasn’t and was literally empty.
- All of the gang was present for Howard/Bernadette’s wedding.
- Even though other relationship issues were mentioned in Howard/Bernadette’s wedding, they didn’t take away from the wedding and added some humour. The issues ended in Leonard/Penny’s wedding being a disaster.
- Lastly, one was in a season finale and one was in a season premier. I personally think wedding scenes work better as a finale.
I’m not saying they should’ve made it a carbon copy, but long-time fans of the show wanted a proper wedding with Leonard and Penny done right and didn’t get it. The only good things to come out of the wedding was the Toy Story reference and Jim Meskimen’s guest appearance.
On the other hand (and even when critical I do look for positives), the showrunners handled the uncertainty (and later certainty) of the fate of Sheldon and Amy’s relationship perfectly. Even now Sheldon says things that manage to shock me and it was no wonder Amy felt the decision was easy in the end. My only problem with these scenes is (you guessed it) Sheldon ruining the rest of the groups moment watching Leonard and Penny’s wedding, but otherwise the Sheldon/Amy scenes were handled excellently and it makes you wonder what the writers are planning for the characters.
I have to say, I half wonder if the showrunners did the wedding badly on purpose so they can have Leonard and Penny divorce quickly and later on in the season have a proper marriage that fans would love. If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t want that. It would feel like trying to get out of a situation where you’ve shot yourself in the foot and while I’ve always wanted to see a good marriage between Leonard and Penny, I wouldn’t want it in this scenario.
In my opinion, I really wanted to like this episode and maybe when I come back to watching this episode (after the rest of the season airs) I’ll end up liking this episode a lot more. But as of right now, I’m not happy with how the wedding with Leonard and Penny was done. Fans like myself have waited eighth years (since the pilot) for a good wedding with the two characters and I feel like I’d rather still be waiting. The highlights of the episode include the Sheldon/Any moments, the Toy Story reference and Jim Meskimen’s guest appearance but the episode only gets a slightly above average rating from me.
My rating: 6/10
By Ruari Williamson
PS: If any cast or crew members of The Big Bang Theory are reading this, I still love most of the shows episodes and I hope you can turn things around. I don’t want to appear like I’m bashing you as The Big Bang Theory is still a really great show that will be remembered for many years.
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The fourth episode of Fear The Walking Dead- already an episode of the companion series where no Walkers appear.
While this frustrated a lot of The Walking Dead fans, I personally felt that this was a good move. You’re probably thinking that I’m in insane. Why do I think this was a good move? This was a good idea by the showrunners because the characters are led into a false sense of security, actually believing that the virus could be contained (though we ‘the viewer’ know otherwise). The main series has had episodes with no Walkers in them, but I will admit that I felt the companion series having such an episode was risky. In my opinion the risk paid off for the most part. More on that to follow…
Instead of focusing on Walkers, we got to see the effects the National Guard had on the area. It’s revealed that several days have passed since the events of the last episode and the National Guard effectively has the estate on lockdown (with curfews set up). Several new characters are introduced including Andrew Adams, Bethany Exner and Moyers.
As I speculated in my review of the previous episode, the National Guards presence is bad news. While they have everyone in the estate protected, their attitude is wrong and several characters (namely Chris and Madison) become suspicious of their activities. The former noticing a flashlight from someone outside the area and the latter comes across an area of dead bodies (with at least one not being a Walker). Travis (who we can safely say now is the moral compass of the group) tells Officer Moyers about the flashlight, and the episode ends with (in case you weren’t able to figure it out) the National Guard storming the building the flashlight guy was holed up in and killing him. Travis witnesses this from afar meaning the next episode will be very interesting.
Getting back to the new characters, all three bring something new to the table. Officer Moyers is especially interesting because (for anyone who didn’t notice) there are various references to The Governor in his character. He acts as a solid leader but behind everyone’s back he does bad things and he likes playing golf, so it’s safe to say he’s actually going to be a bad guy. Andrew Adams is a National Guard soldier who has an attraction to Ofelia and we see a kissing scene with the two of them, and Bethany Exner is a nurse who seems like a pretty complicated character (she seemed nice but put Nick on the list of people to be brought to the hospital so who knows what her deal is).
We also see further exploration on a few characters that weren’t featured hugely in the last three episodes (even though they’re main cast members), Lisa ‘not really a nurse’ Ortiz and Ofelia ‘I’m going to flirt and then kiss with a random soldier’ Salazar. Don’t ask me why I gave them both those taglines. In all seriousness, they were the two main characters I felt we hadn’t seen explored so far so I thought their development in this episode was excellent. With the end of the episode (seeing Griselda and Nick taken away with Liza forced to go with them) it will be interesting to see two things in particular: 1. Madison is shown to be angry at Liza at the end of this episode so it will be interesting to see if her view changes and 2. How Ofelia reacts to Griselda being taken away.
In my opinion, while I consider it the weakest episode so far, I think it’s another solid episode from Fear The Walking Dead. The idea of having an episode without Walkers so soon was risky, but I think it worked well in this context- showing the National Guard and giving the characters a false sense of security. The development of the new characters (as well as the first real development for Liza and Ofelia) was great to see as well and the ending hints at the last two episodes of the first season being very interesting.
My rating: 7/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The revived Doctor Who series marches on with the premier of its ninth series, and what an excellent start to the series it was.
I’ll be the first to confess- while I did enjoy most of Series 8 (unlike a number of people who really didn’t like it) this episode was by far better than most of what we saw in Capaldi’s first series. This may sound a bit contrived or bizarre, but this episode truly did feel like Doctor Who. Sometimes (not mentioning any specific examples) there are episodes I feel don’t feel altogether like Doctor Who, but this was perfect- Davros’ return, Daleks, Skaro, Unit HQ, the voices of previous Doctors and other things I’ll get into later being some examples.
Like Series 8, the Series 9 premier is similar in that it doesn’t necessarily focus only on The Doctor. While some people don’t like how Clara Oswald is such a huge focus on the show, I thought the Clara/Missy ‘team-up’ was handled very well in this episode as they tried (and successfully managed) to locate The Doctor. The reveal that The Doctor gave Missy his will (which can only open when The Doctor is dead) leads to some interesting moments between the two characters.
Peter Capaldi again puts in a stellar performance as The Doctor, especially with it being such a difficult scenario for the character. From travelling back in time and encountering a young Davros, seeing the Daleks again and discovering that Davros had lured him, Clara and Missy to Skaro (before the Daleks exterminate Clara and Missy)- it certainly was a difficult episode for The Doctor and Capaldi put in one of his best performances as the character yet. Not to mention the TARDIS is seemingly vaporised too…
The number of characters returning this episode was really stellar if you could keep up and remembered them all. Here are the notable ones: Missy, Kate Stewart (both seen not too long ago in the Series 8 finale), Davros, The Shadow Architect (both last seen in the final Series 4 episodes) and Ohila (a character who featured in “The Night of the Doctor” mini episode and recently returned in a Series 9 prologue). Dorium Maldovar’s market settlement The Maldovarium also features.
The villains in the episode were handled really well. We had the return of Davros and the Daleks, but also an interesting new villain called Colony Sarff (a character composed of snakes) who we’ll hopefully see more of.
Is it just me, or did the episode not reveal how Davros survived in the Series 4 finale? I don’t remember an explanation being given. On the one hand, while I feel we need an explanation for his survival on the other hand I worry that Moffat’s explanation could be pretty forced. I guess we may or may not find out in the next episode. Also, it’s pretty strange that they bring Davros back just to hint that he’s dying…
The episode ends with The Doctor travelling back in time again to where a young Davros is still trapped, holding a Dalek gunstick and shouting the iconic Dalek line: “Exterminate!”
In my opinion, while not perfect “The Magician’s Apprentice” is still one of the best premier episodes of Doctor Who to date. It’s one of Peter Capaldi’s best performances as The Doctor so far, Clara and Missy’s interactions were interesting to watch and the return of Davros (as well as other characters) was great to see. Even with a large cast list (for one episode of Doctor Who) it didn’t feel crowded and still managed to flow perfectly. A lot of things included, including characters and locations, were nice nods to the fans that were thrown into the episode. The only problem I would have is that no explanation is given to how Davros survived the events of the Series 4 finale, but it was a very interesting idea to explore Davros as a young boy prior to his disfigurement.
My rating: 9/10
By Ruari Williamson
Fun fact: This is the first episode where both Davros and Missy (The Master) appear.
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
Carrying on from Serena’s first showcase win in the last episode, Pokémon followed up with an entertaining episode in “Rotom’s Wish”.
While the episode is unlikely to be significant (or referenced) in future episodes of the show, it’s a good episode intended to entertain rather than include a lot of major events. While episodes with significant events happening are always preferable, entertaining episodes like this one (when done right) can please fans just as much.
The episode features Ash, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie travelling back in time (not that Ash remembers he has already travelled back in time before…) to help a Rotom change the past by making things right at the hotel they were staying at. Anyone else find it funny that only Bonnie doesn’t freak out when they’re going back in time? We learn that the rightful owner, Weston, had been outed on the hotels opening day by Mantle- exactly ten years before our heroes visited the hotel, finding that Weston had been kept around as a desk clerk.
So, Rotom brings Ash and co. back in time to change the events of that battle between Weston and Mantle- even though Rotom needs some encouragement (and the use of its ability to absorb various objects allowing it to use various types of moves), Weston and Rotom manage to defeat Mantle and his Krookodile (one of few Unova Pokémon to be featured in the XY series so far).
I have to say, it was great to see a Rotom featured in this episode. I’ve always liked that Pokémon and wanted to see more of them. That said, I remember when I first heard about this episode I was hoping it would feature Professor Oak and his Rotom travelling to Kalos. Oh well… but still great to see a Rotom featured.
I think the episode handled going back in time really well. For a lot of shows (excluding shows that are actually based around going backwards or forwards in time like Doctor Who) it can be a challenge to make the story of going back in time plausible, but it’s handled really well in this episode and even the return to the present time was handled perfectly.
Upon the return of Ash and co. to the present time, everything is fixed with Weston the rightful owner. We’re briefly left to wonder if there’s any evidence in the hotel that our heroes were there, when they spot a framed photo featuring the group of heroes (with Ash shaking Weston’s hand) after they save the hotel from Mantle which ended the episode on a nice note.
In my opinion, this was a really nice entertaining episode. It served as a good follow on to a significant episode and I felt it was a good choice to have such an episode right after Serena’s first showcase win. The idea of travelling back through time was handled really well and the episode ends on a very nice note. As I said earlier in the review, I don’t think anything in this episode will be referenced in the future of the show but it still serves as a good episode.
My rating: 8/10
By Ruari Williamson
Note: Anyone else feel like this episode was similar to the Battle Frontier episode “Time Warp Heals All Wounds”? The episode starts with a place that looks like it has seen better days and features characters going back in time to change certain events (though in that episode it was May and Meowth).
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The time has come for Serena’s second showcase. After the disaster in her last showcase which could have been avoided, this episode marked a big step forward for Serena’s dream of becoming a Pokémon Performer and you can tell she is even more determined now.
The return of Miette from the episode “A Battle by Any Other Name” was a great inclusion into this episode. It made sense that she would become a Pokémon Performer and true to form (her promise at the end of her first episode), she makes Serena uncomfortable and blush a lot with sly hints that she likes Ash. She doesn’t tell Ash how she feels like she said she would in her previous episode, but the scenes with Miette and Serena where Miette makes subtle hints were very entertaining. Hopefully Miette returns again so Serena will have to tell Ash how she feels about him.
The showcase in Dendemille Town had two rounds. The first being a Poke Puff bake-off (Serena narrowly winning and Miette and Jessie/Jessilia easily going through the round in their respective groups). No problems there then, but naturally it wouldn’t be interesting if Serena won without any difficulties. After Jessie/Jessilia does her second round performance she knocks into Serena in the hallway, resulting in Serena falling and ripping her skirt (which is eerily similar to Fennekin’s fall in the previous showcase).
The second round was a freestyle performance (pictured at the top of this article) Serena was the last to perform and just about managed to fix her skirt in time and then gave an excellent performance with Braixen and Pancham. The tension and music in the scene that would decide the winner of the Princess Key was very well done (and even though Serena had her eyes closed at first from nervousness and wasn’t looking at the number of votes) most of the audience voted her as the winner of the showcase, earning Serena her first Princess Key on the way to becoming Kalos Queen.
The episode ends with Serena, Ash, Clemont and Bonnie celebrating Serena’s success and the group saying goodbye to Miette (with Miette once again flustering Serena by telling her that she hasn’t forgotten about the competition for Ash).
I have to say that the cameos were really great as well. We see a number of XY characters who have supported Serena make small appearances in this episode including Grace, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Aria and Professor Sycamore. Sycamore definitely gets the best cameo as he tries to hug his assistants after Serena wins the first round. Priceless.
In my opinion, this episode was a really great second showcase and perfectly shows not just how determined Serena still is to become a great Pokémon Performer, but how far she has come on her journey as well and this was marked by her winning her first Princess Key. The return of Miette and the cameos from other XY characters also added to a great episode, though Serena better act fast before Miette returns again. I remember when I first heard about showcases I was worried that they would be too similar to contests, but this episode (more so than the previous showcase episodes) showed how unique they are. A truly fantastic episode and a great success for Serena on her way to becoming Kalos Queen.
My rating: 10/10
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
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