Last week's Snowpiercer delivered a major game changer. For weeks, Wilford's political machinations have poisoned the well for Andre Layton by fomenting a groundswell of distrust and dissatisfaction in Layton's leadership.
Now Wilford has moved on to mechanical manipulations that puts the train itself in danger and imperils the small patch of humanity that dwells upon it.
Wilford engineers (pun intended) a break down in Snowpiercer's key operating system and guess who has the only working part to keep Snowpiercer up and running?
Wilford saves the day and makes sure the train knows it. The episode ends with Layton in cuffs being led to the back of the train where he started two seasons ago and Wilford himself sitting in the engineer's chair at the front of Snowpiercer, a big old smug, satisfied smile on his face.
Wilford is an evil sociopathic bastard but hell, give credit where it is due, he set in a motion a plan of Machiavellian complexity to regain control of Snowpiercer and I'll be damned, it worked.
The look on Layton's face as Wilford repairs and saves Snowpiercer is the look of a man who knows he's done been beat. Layton saw it coming, he tried to control it and he tried to stop it and in the end, Wilford still defeats Layton.
We're not up to the point in the narrative where the train rushes by Melanie Cavill, leaving her stranded in the snow. But that scene does tell us that whatever wonders the people thought they would get from having Wilford in charge again will be short lived.
The two hour season finale event will tell that tale next week.
Marvel's latest Disney+ series dropped last week with Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I don't see F/WS tapping the pop culture Zeitgeist like WandaVision did. Lacking the trippy what the hell is going here sitcom motif of WandaVison, F/WS seems like it will be a more straightforward story, your basic action buddy movie Sam can fly. Bucky has a metal arm. Together, they fight crime. Sometime we don't need much more than that.
I say "seems like it will be" because by the end of the first episode, it ain't as Sam and Bucky's paths have not yet crossed.
F/WS opens with a fast paced sequence with the Falcon in high flying action and we get an intense flashback to the Winter Soldier on a deadly mission. But these happen early with rest of the episode focused on Sam trying to help his financially struggling sister and Bucky not quite grappling with his guilt for his actions as the Winter Soldier.
“Every time something gets better for one group, it gets worse for another,” Sam Wilson notes at one point, addressing life in a post-Blip world as well as the looming threat of the Flag Smashers, a movement with a lot in common with current extreme conspiracy-theory groups.
The episode ends with a game changing reveal. Sam Wilson may have forfeited the role of Captain America by donating Steve Rogers' shield to the Smithsonian. But the Department of Defense has other plans.
Andrea and I were watching Wheel of Fortune last week when this player named Scott was having an extraordinary run of luck. He headed to the bonus round with $45,000. As the puzzle board lit up, I had two premonitions.
1) Scott was going to solve the puzzle. He was too good a player not to suss out this last puzzle.
2) And he was going to win $100,000. He was too lucky to not land on the $100,000 prize.
And I'll be damned but he does. And he does!
I don't know what it is but sometimes I get a certain feeling things are going to go a contestant's way.
Scott recently said he would be donating his total winnings to a pair of charities.
Meanwhile, is Pat Sajak's job as host coming to an end? It seems that after a series of on-air slip ups, Wheel of Fortune producers are ready for Sajak to "take a break."
Pat has had moments of being snappy or even insulting to some of the contestants. I think such jibes on the show might be more forgivable if Pat Sajak was less of an asshole off the show. Pat has not been shy about expressing cringe worthy opinions in social media about how he thinks climate change is a hoax and other right wing conspiracy talking points.
It is pointed contrast to how Jeopardy's Alex Trebek was warmly embraced right up to this death while 74 year old Pat Sajak is getting the old "here's your hat, what's your hurry" routine.
I recognize that at his best, Pat Sajak has an easy going charm and deft control of the game, qualities that were sorely missed when Vanna White was called up to guest host when Pat had emergency surgery. But as nervous as she was at the beginning, White really came into her own by the 3rd week of her gig. When she hosted her last game before turning things back over to Pat, I told Andrea, "I'm really going to miss her as the host."
Over on Jeopardy, Katie Couric finished her run as guest host. She was genial and professional but I noticed that a lot of time questions were still on the board at the end of a round. Andrea observed that Katie speaks a bit slower than other hosts we've seen which I would attribute to her training as a news anchor.
Dr. Oz is coming up as host and I have no idea how this charlatan scored this gig. I'm not going to boycott the show but I'm not going out of my way to catch up any episodes I might miss.
TV News From the Future
While we still suffering the interminable "droughtlander" awaiting the debut of season 6 of Outlander, speculation still won't stop about season 7.
Until....
So great! There will be a season 7.
So why do I think that will be the final season?
Because Caitriona Balfe cannot have a bigger trailer?
My thinking is there is a long range plan to lock the cast and crew in place now to make sure everyone is in board for bringing Outlander to an end.
No speculation on Killing Eve. It's been announced there will be a season 4 AND it will be the last season.
Which is probably a good thing.
Don't get me wrong: the cat and mouse games between MI6 agent Eve Polastri and international psycho killer for hire Villanelle is a fascinating mess to behold but after 3 seasons, I can't see how many more permutations of Eve and Villanelle's will they/won't they we can go through. And when I say "will they/won't they", I mean either have sex or kill each other. Really, it could go either way.
The scene with Eve and Villanelle in the bridge at the end of season 3 was so heartbreaking.....
I'm not really sure how much more of this I can stand.
Coming up next on Tuesday TV Touchbase:
Next week, the TV show I'm NOT watching and why
The week after that, I assess the fallout from the 2nd season finale of Snowpiercer.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya? I'm tryin' to watch some TV over here!
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