The Act Season 1 - Episode 4
This was, at times, a flat-out brilliant episode, that came into its own when it focused hard on the emotional connection between Apollo, Adama and Starbuck. My overriding impression of it? Edward James Olmos rocks.
The Act Season 1 - Episode 4
The episode does end on a slightly happier note, with the four-day fog finally lifting and the sun shining through. Though Elizabeth is still left wondering what might have happened had the smog continued while Churchill still clung to power and the government floundered.
Well, according to the text at the end of the episode, it would be safe to say even more people would have died. Especially since the list of casualties is now thought to have been around 12,000, instead of the previously thought, 4,000. At least it eventually led to the Clean Air Act of 1956 getting passed. Because even smog clouds have silver linings.
But Churchill is the focus here and by association, his secretary, Venetia Scott (Kate Phillips). Although introduced in the previous episode and already established as someone who the Prime Minister is fond of and who gave him a bit of confidence boost, Venetia is used here as a sort of grassroots look at the effects of the smog. Her housemate is terribly ill and when forced to escort her to the hospital, Venetia is hit by a bus and killed. Churchill is clearly upset by her death, but uses his grief to fuel himself and deliver a speech about the smog that he hits out of the park and really puts his scheming colleagues on the back foot.
With a series of tornadoes hitting downtown Austin, 9-1-1: Lone Star shows no sign of stopping or slowing down. Unfortunately, this is the first episode this season that leaves us breathless, but not in the most exciting way.
As someone who grew up around tornadoes all the time, this episode is a major letdown and not entirely realistic. If a couple of EF 4 tornadoes had really gone through Austin, more properties would be totaled.
Good news: All of Act 2 will hit Netflix at the same time on November 13 at midnight. In a fairly unusual release method for Netflix, Riot Games is releasing one three-episode Act of Arcane each week throughout November. Act 1 was released on November 6, Act 2 is out tomorrow, and Act 3 concludes Arcane on November 20, 2021.
Episode 3 contained the first additional battle pass other than the Act Pass. The YR 1 Anniversary Pass was added to celebrate VALORANT's first anniversary, with all its rewards on a free track. This pass was only available for the first patch of the episode, 3.0. In 3.05, the 3% XP bonus was added.
This week, Batwoman is being blamed for not capturing a new criminal on the scene called Magpie, a master thief who goes after rare and expensive baubles and leaves explosives behind. There are a ton of moments I like in this episode, and it does a good job of threading the needle between developing the ongoing plots in meaningful ways while also giving Batwoman herself some time to develop as a hero.
Elizabeth exits this episode a little wiser, though perhaps more gun-shy. Having come quite close to asking Churchill to step down, the dangers of listening to people who would leverage her position to improve their own are going to be on her mind as her coronation approaches.
In season one of Lost, it was difficult to imagine just how out there the show would get. Sure, the supernatural element was there from the beginning, but time travel? Purgatorial alternate realities? A giant frozen wheel that functions as a teleportation device? Ageless deities fighting a proxy battle over a magical light at the center of the universe? Compared to later episodes, most of that first season felt downright grounded, emphasizing basic island survival that would gradually fade as the show continued. A typical episode might revolve around a debate over the safest place to set up camp or the building of a raft to find help.
"Conduit" is the fourth episode of the first season of The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on October 1, 1993. The episode was written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and directed by Daniel Sackheim.
Episode 4 of WandaVision carries the title \u201cWe Interrupt This Program\u201d, which is about the most accurate description possible. Rather than the assumed scheduled broadcast of Wanda and Vision adjusting to life as new parents, we get instead an episode almost completely devoid of both starring roles. Episode 4 instead recaps the events of the entire season so far from the other side of the fence. And with it comes\u2026 well, pretty much everything we\u2019d already guessed.
But while Wanda\u2019s reveal provides episode 4\u2019s final big moment, this is a chapter primarily dedicated to SWORD, now revealed to be the MCU\u2019s Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division. Key among their staff is Wanda and Vision\u2019s strange neighbour Geraldine, better known in the real world as Monica Rambeau. Last seen in Captain Marvel as the young daughter of Carol\u2019s friend, Maria, Monica is now a Captain at the agency. She\u2019s not the only MCU connective thread SWORD has provided; the web pulls in Thor\u2019s chatterbox Darcy - now complete with a PhD - and Ant-Man\u2019s FBI agent Jimmy Woo. All three bring their respective expertise to solve the mystery of WestView. It makes for an episode that really hammers home that MCU signature style; an interconnected world rather than separate projects under the red banner.
The Marvel energy is present through the whole episode, generating a very familiar feel that is a significant departure from WandaVision\u2019s established style. SWORD\u2019s Response Base on the outskirts of WestView calls back to the SHIELD tents set up around Mjolnir back in Thor, while mentions of cosmic threats and broadcast signals entwined in radiation cement that particularly Marvel flavour of sci-fi. The episode even opens on Monica being brought back from the blip, neatly calling back the MCU\u2019s biggest event while also clarifying the show\u2019s time period. All these things considered, anyone looking for some reassurance that WandaVision is a show about the universe they care about will certainly find it here.
Seeing the events of the first three episodes play out from the perspective of SWORD neatly declutters a lot of what\u2019s been going on so far. But the impact of the episode lies in your wider understanding of the Marvel universe. If you were previously unaware of SWORD, then this acts as quite a major milestone episode, pulling back the curtain on that mysterious logo that has been peppered through the season. But for anyone well-versed in SHIELD\u2019s sister agency, Monica\u2019s pendant, the helicopter, and the \u2018bee keeper\u2019 from the sewer had already demonstrated that the agency was quite clearly observing the sitcom. For those viewers, this episode is about establishing that SWORD are not responsible for trapping Wanda in a comedy prison, rather than introducing any further wild quirks.
All of this darkness and serious MCU business does mean that episode 4 is almost completely lacking in comedy. Kat Dennings does, as ever, bring some lightness with Darcy, and Randall Park continues his gently funny, out-of-his-depth act with Agent Woo. But any sitcom elements are purely viewed through the lens of an observation experiment, completely sidestepping the show's delicate balance of comedy and underlying menace, as well as its signature retro camera work. WandaVision\u2019s unique position as many things to many people means this will likely be seen as both the strongest and weakest episode so far by differing camps. But regardless of your feelings on WandaVision\u2019s paused dedication to comedy, episode 4 is a statement: WandaVision is not strictly a Marvel sitcom with a \u2018serious\u2019 framework. This promises to change the dynamic of the show going forward, and may well dilute the overall strangeness of its atmosphere in exchange for something that feels more befitting of the MCU as a whole.
Ndlovu Youth Choir had a magical moment on the stage, but is that too easy? These superfans have been stepping outside the expected with their choices this season, picking a lot of acrobatic and aerial acts over traditionally successful acts like singers, dancers and magicians.
If Darius picked up the third slot, then for the first time this season we'd be on the exact same page as the Superfans. There's no way that could be, right? Amazingly, it was as Darius took that third and final spot. With Aidan in our number four spot, we were feeling good about our picks.
We had Darius in second, but he landed in third. Does that mean the Superfans love of acrobats propelled our third place act all the way to number one? Maybe they booked the same Superfans as the "AGT: Extreme" season, because that's exactly what happened. In a stunning upset, Power Duo took out Ndlovu Youth Choir.
Peach continued her streak of surprisingly strong performances. Despite not snagging a win yet, her growth on this season so far feels like exactly the sort of story Drag Race likes to take to the finals.
After several weeks of small performances, it felt as though Boop allowed herself to take up space through this episode. She was fully enjoying herself in both the reading challenge and the acting challenge, and as a result she finally came across to me as the larger-than-life figure she seems to be for all of the other queens in the show. 041b061a72