True Blood Season 5, Episode 3: “Whatever I Am, You Made Me”
We open this episode with Tara and her struggle to understand who she is now. She escaped Sookie’s house and now she runs around the woods at night. Tara happens upon a broken down motorist and Tara attacks her, almost eating her until she gets a glimpse at herself in the window. Tara apologizes to the woman and runs to Merlotte’s. Tara asks Sam for help and he gives it. Sam feeds her a ton of Tru Blood and doesn’t ask for too much of an explanation.
Meanwhile, Sookie and Lafayette search for Tara. Sookie goes to Fangtasia and asks Pam to summon Tara. When she refuses, Sookie blasts her with her light hands and leaves. Pam is pretty embarrassed to be tossed around in her own club.
Sookie goes to see Sam and discovers that he is lying about not seeing Tara last night. Tara is closed off in the walk-in freezer as it was the only light tight place Sam could think of.
The Authority gives Bill and Eric the chance to bring in Russell; however, to protect themselves, they make Bill and Eric wear iStakes – a device that looks like a harness and can stake a vampire remotely. This is some great insurance the Authority is investing in.
Newlin enters the Authority’s boardroom and Roman appoints him “the new Nan.”
A photo of Andy naked in Holly’s bed is making its rounds thanks to her teenager boys. Andy confronts Holly with it after being joked about all over town. Holly apologizes profusely.
Jason runs into one of his old teachers at the grocery store. They meet up at her place and we understand that the two had a fling when Jason was still her student. They sleep together again and Jason becomes regretful afterwards, leaving abruptly.
We learn of a very interesting connection between Eric and Pam and Bill and Lorena. We flashback to Pam’s brothel – the brothel where she’d previously found one of her prostitutes drained and dead. It turns out that Bill and Lorena are responsible for killing Pam’s women. Eric comes to Pam’s rescue and stops Bill and Lorena from draining another one of her girls. After Eric kicks Bill and Lorena out, Pam demands $500 for each girl they killed. Eric and Pam make out. I’ve always known they had the hots for their own power.
After Eric and Pam sleep together, Pam asks him to turn her. When he won’t, Pam slits her wrists and says that he can either turn her or watch her die. We know how that ends. It was really a shocker to see how deeply connected Eric and Bill are and I even gasped out loud. I love getting to see the background so much more.
Debbie’s parents ask Alcide if he knows anything about Debbie’s disappearance because he may have been the last one to see her alive. Debbie’s father gets quite aggressive, but Alcide handles it well. He tells them that Debbie is back on V and that he abjured her.
Andy questions Sookie about Debbie’s disappearance as her car was found near Sookie’s house. Andy seems onto them and this scares Lafayette. Sookie doesn’t seem too bothered, but we know there is still evidence of the murder that took place in her kitchen. Remember – she kicked that tooth under the fridge.
Salome at the Authority headquarters sleeps with both Bill and Eric, seemingly to find out if they are lying about their beliefs. She tells Roman they are not lying and are not fundamentalists. Fundamentalists – like Russell Edgington – believe that humans are nothing but food and should be bred as such. They do not believe in mainstreaming. You can see how this could be harmful to the Authority, whose goal is complete integration.
Meanwhile, Nora is being tortured and admits to being Sanguinista (a fundamentalist).
Jessica is at a store trying on some dresses to impress Jason and smells a man who stops by to get clothes for his girlfriends. She chases after him, saying that his blood smells amazing, but loses him in the woods. Jessica goes to Jason’s house and he tries to kick her out, saying that he is filling a void in his heart with sex. Jessica offers to change into sweats and stay as a friend.
Sookie tells Alcide that she murdered Debbie. He doesn’t take it too well – mostly because Sookie was lying to him, not because Debbie is dead.
Lafayette snaps at Arlene in the kitchen and grabs a gallon of bleach. He pours it into the gumbo he is making and the devil from Jesus appears on his face. When Lafayette realizes what he’s done, he trashes the soup.
This episode ends with Tara running from Merlotte’s and breaking into a tanning salon. She gets inside and turns the bed up. Pam senses this.
Pam is going to have to take charge of teaching Tara how to act soon or she will be successful in her suicide.
Leonardo Dicaprio’s films rarely disappoint. It was interesting to see him flex different acting muscles in this psychological thriller Shutter Island alongside Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams. When I say that I was not expecting such a turn in the story, I mean that my jaw was pretty much on the floor the entire time. Without any further ado, let’s dive into its mastery, shall we?
A cliché setup done right
We have been here before a million times. A character stumbles into a scene to solve a mystery. Everyone is acting just the right amount of suspicion to make you wonder. Dicaprio’s Edward ‘Teddy’ travels to an extremely remote island where a woman goes missing from a psychiatric institution. He’s experiencing migraines and flashbacks to his murdered wife while receiving little to no help from the hospital staff.
Teddy soon suspects that the hospital is experimenting on patients which fuels his theories on what happened to the missing woman. Things take even more of a turn when his partner also disappears. Unsurprisingly, everyone insists Teddy came to the island alone. Feeling like he’s losing his mind, our protagonist finds out that this is exactly the case. He is a patient in the hospital and the entire investigation is an attempt to get him to understand the truth.
While the whole ‘it was all in your head’ trope has a bad rep for the fans of any genre, this film uses it masterfully. Watching it for the first time not knowing what to expect is obviously a shock and then watching it again, looking at all the clues that were the which you missed – that’s a treat on its own. After all, there’s nothing inherently wrong with using cliches if they are done the right way.
Things that go bump in our minds
A huge part of this movie’s storyline is Andrew’s inability to process the truth. The roots for it stretch far beyond the plot twist. Andrew is unable to acknowledge that his wife is mentally ill and believes that moving them to the countryside will fix everything. After she murders their children, he is further pushed into the world of delusion, convincing himself to be a hero because he couldn’t save his own family.
It’s interesting to note that in his delusion, Andrew is the one who set fire to their house. Is this a little sliver of his mind whispering the truth to him? Is it his subconscious villainizing himself out of contempt, searching for answers that are never going to come? Andrew’s psychiatrist pointed out that his moment of clarity has happened before, only to be undone quite quickly. Perhaps it was easier for Andrew to shut it off rather than live with the knowledge that he could’ve done something to prevent a terrible tragedy.
Overall thoughts
Shutter Island is a movie that provides both the entertainment value you would expect from a suspense thriller and a deeper layer of thought. Coated with a perfect atmosphere and amazing acting, it’s a piece that will definitely hold the test of time.
(4.5 / 5)
We’ve reached episode four of Wheel of Time, which means we’re halfway through the season. While it doesn’t seem like much has happened so far, this is the episode where things start heating up.
The Story
We begin this episode with a flashback. Ishamael is raising something dark and twisted. As we watch, it takes the shape of a woman.
More on that in a bit.
Meanwhile, Nynaeve is healing from her time in the arches. She is quiet and withdrawn. She’s also awkward and uncomfortable around Egwene now that she’s initiated and Egwene is not. Her new friendship with Elayne isn’t helping.
But the three girls come together when Liandrin tells Nynaeve that Perrin has been captured by the Seanchan.
However, Perrin is no longer in the clutches of the Seanchan. He was rescued by Elyas and a pack of beautiful wolves. Beautiful and deadly AF by the way. If you have any fear of dogs, this episode might not help that.
Elyas explains to Perrin that he is a Wolf Brother. This means that he can communicate with the wolves, and eventually will gain some of their abilities. While Perrin and Elyas don’t exactly get off on the right foot, he does find a fast friendship with one specific wolf. After a time, he introduces himself by showing Perrin an image of himself jumping up and down. From this, Perrin assumes his name is Hopper.
Finally, we return to Rand. He and Selene have been off in the mountains. They haven’t done much more than each other so far.
And that’s exactly what it appears they’re about to do when Moiraine bursts into the cottage and cuts Selene’s throat.
Rand is surprised and furious until Moiraine explains that the woman he knows as Selene is the Dark Friend Lanfear. With this shocking revelation, the two run off into the night.
What worked
It should be a surprise to no one that I loved the wolves in this episode. Hopper himself was worth an extra Cthulhu. But this is not just because dogs are cute. It’s also because the dog playing Hopper just does a great job.
On a more serious note, I loved how Nynaeve responded upon coming back to the real world. She isn’t okay.
And it’s a good thing that she isn’t. Too often in fiction we don’t see the fallout of emotional damage. Hell, we don’t usually see realistic fallout from physical damage.
But she is hurt by what she experienced. And you can tell. That’s realistic character building, and we don’t see that enough.
I also really appreciate the special effects in this episode. The first time we see Lanfear, she’s eerie. She’s frightening. Part of this is thanks to Natasha O’Keeffe, who does a great job. But the effects are what really sells this.
What didn’t work
If Wheel of Time has any fault, it’s that there is far too much sitting about and talking about things. In this case, there’s a lot of standing about and talking about things. Some of this was necessary, and some of it could have been done better. Honestly, there just has to be a better way to convey that characters are struggling.
This was most apparent with Rand and Selene/Lanfear. Honestly, anytime the two of them were on screen it was a great time for me to catch up on Instagram.
This might come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t read the books, but Rand is supposed to be the main character. And here we are, four episodes into an eight-episode season, and so far all he’s done is mess about with his emo girlfriend!
That being said, the story is starting to pick up. With four episodes left, I can’t wait to see how far we go.
(3 / 5)
Movies n TV
Elevator Game, a Film Review
Elevator Game (2023) is directed by Rebekah McKendry and is the first feature-length production of Fearworks.
Elevator Game (2023) is directed by Rebekah McKendry and is the first feature-length production of Fearworks. It adapts the supernatural myth and creepypasta of the same name while providing an original plot. This unrated Shudder exclusive stars Gino Anania, Samantha Halas, and Verity Marks. In full disclosure, I had the opportunity to interview Gino Anania and Stefan Brunner about the film.
Ryan seeks to find answers to his sister’s mysterious disappearance. To do this, he infiltrates a myth-busting web series that seems to have some ties to her final confirmed moments. Desperate to force a confrontation, he encourages them to play the elevator game. Unfortunately, there seems to be more truth to the myth than expected.
What I Like about Elevator Game & as an Adaptation
I am lucky to have additional insight into the development hell this movie overcame due to COVID. It’s commendable that the film manages to make it of that, even if it requires a lengthy delay of the film.
Usually, I provide a separate section for adaptation quality. However, the source material remains the ritual, which Elevator Game performs accurately. While the myth inspires many creepypastas, Elevator Game doesn’t directly take or adapt any of these works from what I’ve seen. Instead, it makes its own film based on the legend.
As the Fifth Floor Woman, Samantha Halas creates an eerie and disturbing character. While I won’t go so far as to say terrifying, she certainly makes an impression. The revelation that the stunts and performance are all her, as an actual contortionist, I give her more credit.
Gino Anania, given a more complex role than most of his cast members, really does bring a strong performance that creates either friction or synergy with his cast members. I suppose I wanted more of these interactions as some cut sooner than appreciated.
Another amusing element is that the entire motivation for the plot to follow is a forced advertisement from an investor. Something about the chaos being a product of appeasing some investors feels uncomfortably real.
The alternate reality remains surprisingly effective. To be clear, it’s not impressively realistic but stylistic. It genuinely seems like an alternate world with a skewered impression.
Tired Tropes or Trigger Warning
I feel weird mentioning this, but endangering a sister’s life to push the brother’s story forward seems a common trend beyond one form of media.
No discredit to the actors, but the romance feels rushed and unnecessary. Without going into too much detail, to avoid spoilers, there is synergy between the actors but little chemistry in the plot.
What I Dislike or Considerations
Elevator Game remains set in providing a B-movie experience. Its tight budget leaves little room to surprise the viewer visually. While I am surprised at what it accomplishes, it’s far from overwhelming. This film also remains the first production of Fearworks, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I’m interested in the future, but Elevator Game leaves much to grow from.
Rebekah McKendry may have a directorial style that influences dialogue, but the line delivery evokes an overexpression that’s common in Lovecraftian films. I say this not as a direct negative, but it remains a required taste best known before viewing. As this isn’t Lovecraftian, I fear it removes some of the reality and tension of those haunting elements.
Many of the characters feel underdeveloped, making me wonder if cutting these roles might lead to more invested characters. While the performances hit their marks, a tighter cast might give each role more to work toward. As this is a tight cast already, it seems an odd issue to rectify.
Final Thoughts
Elevator Game provides an interesting B-movie experience for those who know the legend. For those expecting something different, this film may not work for you. This film overcame a lot to exist but doesn’t break the mold. While I am excited to see Fearworks pursue further ventures toward its ambitious mission statement, I find Elevator Game falling short of its goal. 
(2 / 5)
