The flashback open evidently aimed to show two things; First and most important Caitlin was a good woman who rejected abortion not even to save the mother's life. Second, that she was fanatically invested in Andy, even though that's evil, showing why she would go dark in the torture scenes. I too am tired of torture scenes, but I have to say that this one was simultaneously more plausible than most, yet more gratuitous. Graph's brother was murdered. You would expect the dude to want to cooperate. Also, Kick is supposed to boost powers temporarily, a kind of speed that actually works to make people more creative. I think biologically this is highly unlikely, but this is SF, where the point is not to be believable, but to be plausible in the story. The groundwork was laid for torture to actually work in the story.
The big "but" of course is that the dude shouldn't need to be tortured at all, just convinced he might get away with some payback. The scene is there to highlight how awful Caitlin's devotion to Andy is, even as it relishes her feminist agency, pretending not to enjoy it by moralizing against Caitlin. Like Daredevil the human lie detector torturing people, the scene is there for fun. Personally I prefer gratuitous nudity, or gratuitous spectacle in general. But that's just me.
But as dubious and trite as the torture scene is, the really, really awful backwards, mean-spirited, ignorant and downright hateful part of the show was the insistence that crazy people are a bunch of animals that will either savage each other on sight or utterly helpless, even if they were merely labeled insane as a subterfuge to imprison them. The callous indifference of the supposed good guys to their plight is astonishing. They should have been ashamed not to help, rather than try to stop the escape. Marcos was ready to risk killing Lorna to stop her, just as Andy risked killing Lauren when he stopped her. The difference of course is that when Marcos burned people and killed them (the show is coy on this but it is really unlikely he didn't) for the cartel, he was just an Ordinary Decent Criminal. As The Godfather taught us, fundamentally criminals are just another set of businessmen, and that's what this country is all about. Andy is the dregs of inhumanity with puerile revolutionary ideas and that is unforgivable. Anything he does is manifestly evil, even acting goofy for the camera.
The advertising for the show coded the Mutant Underground as team red state. They are indeed examplars of total devotion to the status quo, and will like all loyal Americans kill to keep things from changing. The Inner Circle was coded as team blue state, and like the disloyal fake Americans they are tearing down everything America is. By the way, my limited experience is that people with strong non-conformist political beliefs like to talk politics, and mostly can't be shut up. This show never shows the Inner Circle talking politics. In this episode in particular, Inner Circle people talking about how great it is to free the prisoners might inadvertently make the Mutant Underground look bad. So, they don't talk. (None of the prisoners say a word. I imagine Fox would have liked to have them scream curses against the Inner Circle for opening their protective doors and casting them out of their safe places.)
There is one discrepancy between dialogue and action. The amount of time team blue state spent in the hospital rounding up prisoners and arranging the propaganda broadcast was entirely unnecessary unless one goal of the raid was to publicize the mutant rights issue. Yet, the dialogue explicitly condemned people in general for taking that seriously. To emphasize the point, the doctor spoke of things getting hot out there. We've seen two parents shot down for simply getting in the way. But of course this tells us that things getting bad is the Inner Circle's fault. By the way, it is not at all clear why they would need to release the prisoners cover their escape. As they drove away they would immediately lose their supposed protective cover of mutants running on foot.
The PR invited us to choose a side. Then the show loads the dice in favor of team red state. Well, it is Fox. But in spite of it all I tend to favor team blue state. The show's even handedness is supposed to be showed in the Jace Turner character, who exemplifies how right-thinking Americans can go a little too far, and get sucked in despite themselves. Although last season has been so ret-conned that at this point we can only rely on this season's flashbacks to confirm which events from last season are still revised canon, I can't help but think the dude that handed over a couple of minors to a mad scientist or ordered the massacre of everyone in the mutant headquarters has his heart in the wrong place. When he said there's not even justice in the world for Grace, he meant there's not enough blood to spill in the world. I don't believe that's right thinking, but defective thinking and defective morals. The guy's objections to the Purifiers are the superficial trappings. That's as superficial as his morality.
Since it is officially required to bag on Andy, that idea Andy might have been aborted and the fictional world made a better place? Was it cruel to tease us, or a happy thought to brighten our day? Still, if Reed has been home to turn Andy in, there wouldn't have been so much misery for us to enjoy.
PS The Inner Circle knows where the Mutant Underground in D.C. is, Andy gave them up. If they wanted to kill team red state they would have done it already. It's team red state that wants to do the killing, even if they hope Lorna sees the light. (Reeva need not apply.) I think this says something, thought I'm pretty sure the show does not.
2nd PS After correcting some typos, it occurred to me I should have just recapped team red state's fundamental mission, Marcos' custody dispute, to wit: He's getting violent about it.
The big "but" of course is that the dude shouldn't need to be tortured at all, just convinced he might get away with some payback. The scene is there to highlight how awful Caitlin's devotion to Andy is, even as it relishes her feminist agency, pretending not to enjoy it by moralizing against Caitlin. Like Daredevil the human lie detector torturing people, the scene is there for fun. Personally I prefer gratuitous nudity, or gratuitous spectacle in general. But that's just me.
But as dubious and trite as the torture scene is, the really, really awful backwards, mean-spirited, ignorant and downright hateful part of the show was the insistence that crazy people are a bunch of animals that will either savage each other on sight or utterly helpless, even if they were merely labeled insane as a subterfuge to imprison them. The callous indifference of the supposed good guys to their plight is astonishing. They should have been ashamed not to help, rather than try to stop the escape. Marcos was ready to risk killing Lorna to stop her, just as Andy risked killing Lauren when he stopped her. The difference of course is that when Marcos burned people and killed them (the show is coy on this but it is really unlikely he didn't) for the cartel, he was just an Ordinary Decent Criminal. As The Godfather taught us, fundamentally criminals are just another set of businessmen, and that's what this country is all about. Andy is the dregs of inhumanity with puerile revolutionary ideas and that is unforgivable. Anything he does is manifestly evil, even acting goofy for the camera.
The advertising for the show coded the Mutant Underground as team red state. They are indeed examplars of total devotion to the status quo, and will like all loyal Americans kill to keep things from changing. The Inner Circle was coded as team blue state, and like the disloyal fake Americans they are tearing down everything America is. By the way, my limited experience is that people with strong non-conformist political beliefs like to talk politics, and mostly can't be shut up. This show never shows the Inner Circle talking politics. In this episode in particular, Inner Circle people talking about how great it is to free the prisoners might inadvertently make the Mutant Underground look bad. So, they don't talk. (None of the prisoners say a word. I imagine Fox would have liked to have them scream curses against the Inner Circle for opening their protective doors and casting them out of their safe places.)
There is one discrepancy between dialogue and action. The amount of time team blue state spent in the hospital rounding up prisoners and arranging the propaganda broadcast was entirely unnecessary unless one goal of the raid was to publicize the mutant rights issue. Yet, the dialogue explicitly condemned people in general for taking that seriously. To emphasize the point, the doctor spoke of things getting hot out there. We've seen two parents shot down for simply getting in the way. But of course this tells us that things getting bad is the Inner Circle's fault. By the way, it is not at all clear why they would need to release the prisoners cover their escape. As they drove away they would immediately lose their supposed protective cover of mutants running on foot.
The PR invited us to choose a side. Then the show loads the dice in favor of team red state. Well, it is Fox. But in spite of it all I tend to favor team blue state. The show's even handedness is supposed to be showed in the Jace Turner character, who exemplifies how right-thinking Americans can go a little too far, and get sucked in despite themselves. Although last season has been so ret-conned that at this point we can only rely on this season's flashbacks to confirm which events from last season are still revised canon, I can't help but think the dude that handed over a couple of minors to a mad scientist or ordered the massacre of everyone in the mutant headquarters has his heart in the wrong place. When he said there's not even justice in the world for Grace, he meant there's not enough blood to spill in the world. I don't believe that's right thinking, but defective thinking and defective morals. The guy's objections to the Purifiers are the superficial trappings. That's as superficial as his morality.
Since it is officially required to bag on Andy, that idea Andy might have been aborted and the fictional world made a better place? Was it cruel to tease us, or a happy thought to brighten our day? Still, if Reed has been home to turn Andy in, there wouldn't have been so much misery for us to enjoy.
PS The Inner Circle knows where the Mutant Underground in D.C. is, Andy gave them up. If they wanted to kill team red state they would have done it already. It's team red state that wants to do the killing, even if they hope Lorna sees the light. (Reeva need not apply.) I think this says something, thought I'm pretty sure the show does not.
2nd PS After correcting some typos, it occurred to me I should have just recapped team red state's fundamental mission, Marcos' custody dispute, to wit: He's getting violent about it.
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