Mike: "Oh, yeah? How many have you killed?"
Harry: "With my hands or with weapons?"
Mike: "Either."
Harry: "Well. I would have to count."
Mike: "How long would that take?"
Harry: "It's not long. How about you?"
Mike: "About the same."
Mike and Harry chase after the Mantid, and they get plenty of help.
As most of our heroes go into the tunnel to join forces, this episode – the penultimate in the series – gives us many scenes we've been wanting for years. We also get some scenes we (or at least I) was not waiting for, but nevertheless found appropriate.
The scene I did not know I wanted – and frankly, I had no emotion invested in it – was the original mining tragedy, 138 years before, when 59 died in the misguided approach to saving one. We see the very old mine, the original miner who was injured, and the cave-in. A case in which love for others led to death, because the miners should have known the tunnels could not hold so many. Nevertheless, as this event has been talked about so much, Resident Alien was kind enough to give it to us, and there is a sense of completion.
Fortunately, our heroes are more intelligent than the miners were in their approach to ridding the planet of the Mantid. Maybe it's because they have an alien with them? Anyway, Resident Alien only sends in the main cast, skipping D'arcy (she's looking after the baby, and although she is usually the bravest, perhaps skipping a dangerous scene is necessary for her recovery) and Deputy Liv (the actor is playing the Mantid, so the actor, if not the character, gets to participate). I found it uncharacteristic for Sahar to refuse to go in, but this allows Max to interact more with his parents.
Mike and Harry work together. Both Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk are terrific actors, and Sheriff Mike always gets such great dialogue. Mike, although he likes being the alpha male, acknowledges that Harry is much stronger than he is.
Ben and Kate understandably feel that they need to discipline Max for lying and disobeying, but in my opinion they are the ones who deserve to be disciplined. They totally messed up for years. I mean, I get it, if your kid claims he sees aliens, you are going to question him, and then to find out he has been fighting aliens instead of doing book reports – which must seem pretty lame in comparison – makes you realize you have been completely off course. To their credit, they do, and naturally Kate loves wielding that taser.
I liked how Resident Alien chose to do the fight scene between Harry in his alien form and the Mantid in its natural form. There was absolutely no way to make this look realistic and the special effects were probably very expensive. So instead they treated it like panels from a comic book – after all, Resident Alien is based on comic books – and just showed us various poses. They even made this artistic choice logical, by using the flashes from Ben’s phone to do it.
Deputy Liv is alive, which is great, and the reason was also logical and dangerous, the latter being wonderful for the excitement of the episode. Now we know that Mantid Liv was the one at the Mining Day celebration. Mantid Liv did a pretty good job at imitating Deputy Liv, but did not realize that Liv has never called Mike just Mike during the entire series. I actually wondered about that before, and if it was just a way to show how self-effacing Liv is. But now we see it was not just a matter of character, it’s a plot point!
Asta is stung by the Mantid, falls ill and nearly dies. I love how her wandering, all-seeing spirit connects to the jingle dance and how she appears to Harry, to warn him, and to D'arcy, who needs her (I wonder if she appears to Dan but we don’t see it?). She is only saved by an infusion of Harry’s blood and her decision to return to life (her father’s words show deep understanding). Harry, now that he has been cleared by the Galactic Housing Council and has recovered his alien essence, plans to go to Heather to help her raise their offspring. But the fact that Asta has his blood in her means that he will always be with her. They are not lovers; instead they are closer: blood brothers. The infusion of Harry's blood has also increased Asta's appetite for pie.
Title musings. "Tunnel Vision" is the title of the episode. It’s also a medical condition, in which the peripheral vision is lost and one focuses only on a narrower range. I didn’t really see this in the episode, unless you take it as a metaphor for the fact that our heroes were really concentrating on what they needed to do, to focus on killing the Mantid and its offspring.
However, the title applied in other ways. First, they were in the tunnels of the mine, so that’s one way. Then the storage facility sure looked as if they were in underground tunnels. Finally, Asta’s spirit projection reminded me of how spirits, at death, seem to go through a tunnel.
Also, others had tunnel vision. Ben and Kate did not really see Max. D'arcy did not really see Asta. Asta’s vision has also expanded.
A great title!
Bits and pieces
We learned that Biddy Henshaw, the “first female miner” introduced in the previous episode, was also killed in the accident.
I was surprised they didn’t invite Jay to Asta’s sickbed. But maybe they were keeping it just to those familiar with aliens.
I have also had a visit from a dying person – admittedly in a dream – but it was not someone I was thinking about; I was 2000 miles away; and it turned out the details in the dream corresponded exactly to his death – including the last words of his wife to him. So, although I would like to dismiss such things, I cannot.
Max doesn’t finish his book reports, but back in school I always liked doing them. So now I write for Doux Reviews!
Quotes
Max: No! I want to help. Why does everyone keep telling me I can't?
Harry: Because you are a child. Yes, you are tall. And yes, in the evenings, you smell like a dead animal, but a child.
Mantid Liv: Shoot him.
Harry: Shoot her.
Mantid Liv: You know me, Mike. And you've never trusted Harry. Not since you first met him and said he walked funny.
Harry: That is very mean.
Mike: Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?
Harry: Because Asta's dying.
Mike: What do you mean, Asta's dying?
Harry: I think her soul is trying to leave her body. She is between life and death.
Mike: How did she find you?
Harry: I cannot explain it without doing a jingle dance. She's part of everything now.
Peter Bach: I knew I would never find Robert by just wandering the Earth. Plus, every time I get wet, I glitch. And I have to put myself in rice. I figured that those government folks had kept an eye on Robert this whole time. I knew it. So I turned on my tracker. I let them find me. And I made a deal. They get me to Robert, and I will help them when they need me.
Kate: We've been trying to protect him and guide him in a book report world when he's been out there living – who he is. But he couldn't tell us who he is because he knew that we wouldn't let him be that.
Ben: So again, bad parents.
Kate: No. No, what kind of parents let their kid go out fighting aliens?
Ben: I'm just trying to keep up.
Kate: Yeah, me too. This shit's not on the mommy blog.
Dan: I can wish for Asta to stay here. She has a lot more to do here, I think. But it's the person who's on the edge of life who gets to decide how it will go.
Overall rating
I loved this episode. Four out of four book reports!
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
Victoria, I also thought this episode was terrific. I particularly liked the Harry/Mantid cave fight for all of the reasons you mentioned. It just worked.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm very glad you like writing book reports. It was certainly to my benefit as well as our readers. :)