Nurse Ellen: He's trying to fire you.
Episode description: "Harry and Asta find what they are looking for but not what they need as danger closes in." Not a great description, but it lures you in. And, certainly, the episode supplies plenty of danger!
Many years ago, I read a creative writing piece suggesting that when something happens in a story, what follows should not be the most obvious option or even the second most obvious option. Instead, a story's creator should wait until reaching at least the third option. This approach maintains the element of surprise, which helps amuse the audience. I couldn’t help thinking about this with respect to Goliath. Asta asks Violinda if he is here and if she can meet him. But instead of a clear “Yes” or a clear “No” – the two most obvious answers – we learn Goliath has died and turned into stone.
So, yes, Asta can see Goliath but not interact with him. However, when Harry hears about Goliath’s condition, he insists on going to him. Harry smashes the statue and picks up an egg, and says he needs to take it. Violinda resists because it's her offspring as well, but relents when the murderous Lisa Cooper shows up.
Harry tosses Lisa Cooper out a window at the art gallery, but she’s not dead. After Asta and Harry leave Violinda’s with the egg, they have to deal with two sets of pursuers: the humans after human Harry, as well as Lisa Cooper, after the alien egg. Our heroes are lucky in that Lisa Cooper stops the pursuers of human Harry. Both Asta and Lisa Cooper have identical reactions to the pursuers of human Harry: "Who the hell are these guys?" Smile.
Kate returns early from visiting her mother, which is awkward for Ben because D'arcy spent the night in Max's bed. Ben shoos D'arcy back upstairs. I love how D'arcy just goes out the window but first takes the rest of the old joint and one of Max's candy bars with her.
Dr. Smallwood is incompetent. All agree that she needs to be fired, but Ellen steps up. That means Mayor Ben needs to find another doctor, and Harry is the best candidate. Ben decides that the best way to woo Harry is to get him a present for the birthday that is coming up.
Mike and Liv answer a complaint about Mrs. Hodges having a garage sale, with some guy dressed in pink calling it a murder sale as she is selling some of the possessions of her dead husband. As the law states she is innocent until proven guilty, she has every right to have a garage sale. And Mike begins to think she didn't murder her husband. He talks about it with Dan at Joe's diner. I really enjoy the bond between Dan and Mike, both former soldiers. Also love how Mike and Liv go and search the office that belonged to Sam and how they find the list of names in the back of a painting.
D'arcy finally does something to make her life better and goes to the gym, where she runs into Kate. They’re competitive, but they bond some too. Afterwards they go to The 59, where Kate, with her sense of taste and smell working at heightened levels, suspects she is pregnant.
Lisa Casper follows Asta and Harry onto the train and tries to take the egg from Harry. Even though she encountered Harry's superhuman strength at the art gallery, she only discovers at the last moment of her life that he is an alien. He kills her in a way that should prevent the actor from appearing in future episodes, but who knows?
Title musings. "Escape from New York" is the title of the episode. It’s also the title of a movie that was released in 1981. I haven’t watched the movie, so I don't know how it relates. Certainly Harry and Asta do need to escape from New York, and they manage to do it. A good enough title.
Bits and pieces
We get the backstory on the arrival of alien Goliath back in Brazil. The original Goliath was out painting at night – but painting a sign? Really strange. It’s not especially artistic and if it's legitimate, why not do it during the day?
The discussion between Kate and Ben is so familiar. Moving the coffee table a few inches without telling someone can lead to bruised shins and stubbed toes.
Thought Asta made a great point about how that egg would never clear the TSA.
I will not miss the murderous Lisa Casper. Not just because I don't like people who kill other people, but because she's too monotonous.
Like how "The 59" has so many extras: pregnancy tests and a drunken divorce lawyer.
I just finished watching through the end of season three. I won’t include any spoilers, but they made one thing clear: D'arcy is spelled without a capital A. Many websites were spelling it incorrectly. Even the closed captions in previous episodes had it wrong. Not yet sure if I will go back and correct the spelling in my reviews of previous episodes, but I will try to oblige with the preferred spelling in all the reviews to come.
Quotes
Asta: You are alien.
Harry: Well, I took some LSD on my tongue. And now I'm surrounded by horrible creatures. I just saw an alien take off its head, and there was a human inside! Do I have a human inside of me? How many licks does it take to get to the human?
Ben: Okay, I'll take it down.
Kate: No. If you wanna keep it up, you should keep it up.
Ben: Do you want me to keep it up?
Kate: I want what you want.
Ben: I mean, Dr. Smallwood is an institution. She literally delivered me as a baby.
Deputy Liv: Didn't she literally deliver your parents too?
Ben: Yeah, I don't think that's relevant.
Sheriff Mike: Look, you need to fire her ass before a bunch of elves move into my tree-trunk arm here and start making cookies.
Asta: Maybe this painting is just random.
Harry: It is not random. Everything my people do has purpose.
Asta: Okay, well, it's really confusing, 'cause it feels like he brought us here for no reason.
Harry: Not confusing. Impossible.
Mike: She seem like a woman who killed her husband to you?
Liv: No, sir, she doesn't.
Mike: No, that's grief right there. Plain and simple. I mean, a woman who kills her husband don't hang on to no old hat just to remember him by.
Kate: It's not like I know for sure that I'm pregnant.
D'arcy: Well, let's find out. Here at The 59, we cater to every stage of a relationship. Condoms, pregnancy tests, paternity tests, plus a divorce lawyer who starts his weekend bender on Thursday afternoon.
Asta: And we didn't have a choice. Pretty sure TSA won't let you on a plane with something like that in a bag.
Sheriff Mike: Look, between you and me, I think I made a mistake. I think I might've put the wrong person behind bars. Last time I made a big mistake like that was back in D.C., and my partner, he didn't go home that day.
Dan: Tough break. If I had my sage, I'd smudge you. Free pie is a close second.
Sheriff Mike: So why would somebody want me dead? Medical malpractice? I don't think so. I'm too damn good at what I do. Did I witness something? Did I know something that made somebody wanna kill me?
Deputy Liv: I was smart. If I knew something important and dangerous, I might've written it down.
Overall rating
I’ve been enjoying the show a lot lately. Three and half out of four coffee tables, all slightly out of place.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
It's been awhile since I saw this episode, but I do remember being a bit surprised that they killed off Lisa Cooper so easily and finally. I thought she was a bit more competent and dangerous than that.
ReplyDeleteEscape from New York is a great film, an absolute riot; you really should watch it when you have a chance. Kurt Russell is perfection as 'Snake' Plisskin; everyone in it does a fab job. The only tie to the egg scenario in this episode that I can think of is that the President's escape pod is egg-shaped. Maybe that's the link. Or maybe it's just a bunch of folks trying to get back out of New York City.
My thanks to Billie for using a macro to clean up the D'arcy spelling in my earlier reviews. However, as of this, the "incorrect" spelling remains in the closed captions of many earlier episodes.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome!
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