TSCC 2x11: “Self Made Man”
Feb. 20th, 2020 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsTSCC 2x11: “Self Made Man”
If we didn't sometimes get episode titles as easy to track as the last couple I'd question if I had a good source for them when we get to something like this. Yes I know the same could be said of a lot of B5 titles that I rarely complain about, but a title like this on this show seems like it should be used at an optimal moment but it seems fairly random here.
But I really liked the episode. It might be more accurate to say I'm really glad this episode exists, and wouldn't mind having more like it. It's quiet and character focused; while also showing them (at least Cameron) not sitting on their hands in times we wouldn't usually see what was going on, and furthering John's ongoing story.
I was a bit worried that Cameron's story was going to be a collection of flashbacks and cover story humor, but that didn't last that long. But it was there as a vehicle to figure out a time travel plot. It introduced us to the idea that time travel can get the dates wrong, and that either the resistance didn't send anyone after this guy, or got the date right and the counter-agent won't show up for a few years. Or because John doesn't know about it and it's wrapped up by things already in position nothing will happen. At some point I do need some answers on how the different sides know when to send counter-agents; do they have time-stream monitors or something; or just the time travel equipment gives off specific energy that can signal the destination; or is it based on what John knows as I've concluded since T1.
I don't have a lot to say about Cameron's plot; she still has a lot to learn about being a person though. And that the stardate system has a remarkable similarity to those three dots they're looking into; though I have a hard time believing resistance man could have been super accurate when drawing it on the wall. Unless my note about Cameron not finding the wall earlier in that episode was a clue and she has secret subroutines and she added the bloody dots...that her primary program either doesn't follow or has overrides to keep her from saying anything. Look, I'm suspicious of robots, and Cameron isn't helping.
One weird thing in John's plot is that the previously on segment didn't include a reminder of Riley's secret plan; but since I just watched that episode, I had it clearly in mind and this is a lot to unpack with it in mind. In that light, the move to get John out of the house and connected to people instead of Cameron probably seems like a good idea; continuing to try and bond him more with Riley so she'll be able to keep him from falling into his supposedly weird mental state by that point in the future is a fine notion; but both could easily backfire.
The first backfires here; John has been training his entire life to lead people in a world without hope, not to fit in with normal teenagers in the modern world. Even last season, the people we saw him bond with at school were also outcasts (not sure what happened to them), usually bullied by the people Riley was trying to get him to hang out with. He's an actual soldier who has actually killed someone, and these guys are mocking him for not understanding controller buttons. While it's not a straight path to get there, it's stuff like this that likely contributes to him using robots as his sounding board in the future; not to let Sarah off the hook entirely since he was raised to not really trust anyone with his secrets, and he can erase the robots if need be.
And I stand by what I said last time, Riley playing him like this can only end badly, and the longer it goes on it can only get worse.
Maybe I just don't have a lot to say about this one in general, even though it has a fairly intensive bit of time travel logic I didn't really get into it too much, and aside from that it's mostly stuff I talked about before regarding John's present arc and future actions.
If we didn't sometimes get episode titles as easy to track as the last couple I'd question if I had a good source for them when we get to something like this. Yes I know the same could be said of a lot of B5 titles that I rarely complain about, but a title like this on this show seems like it should be used at an optimal moment but it seems fairly random here.
But I really liked the episode. It might be more accurate to say I'm really glad this episode exists, and wouldn't mind having more like it. It's quiet and character focused; while also showing them (at least Cameron) not sitting on their hands in times we wouldn't usually see what was going on, and furthering John's ongoing story.
I was a bit worried that Cameron's story was going to be a collection of flashbacks and cover story humor, but that didn't last that long. But it was there as a vehicle to figure out a time travel plot. It introduced us to the idea that time travel can get the dates wrong, and that either the resistance didn't send anyone after this guy, or got the date right and the counter-agent won't show up for a few years. Or because John doesn't know about it and it's wrapped up by things already in position nothing will happen. At some point I do need some answers on how the different sides know when to send counter-agents; do they have time-stream monitors or something; or just the time travel equipment gives off specific energy that can signal the destination; or is it based on what John knows as I've concluded since T1.
I don't have a lot to say about Cameron's plot; she still has a lot to learn about being a person though. And that the stardate system has a remarkable similarity to those three dots they're looking into; though I have a hard time believing resistance man could have been super accurate when drawing it on the wall. Unless my note about Cameron not finding the wall earlier in that episode was a clue and she has secret subroutines and she added the bloody dots...that her primary program either doesn't follow or has overrides to keep her from saying anything. Look, I'm suspicious of robots, and Cameron isn't helping.
One weird thing in John's plot is that the previously on segment didn't include a reminder of Riley's secret plan; but since I just watched that episode, I had it clearly in mind and this is a lot to unpack with it in mind. In that light, the move to get John out of the house and connected to people instead of Cameron probably seems like a good idea; continuing to try and bond him more with Riley so she'll be able to keep him from falling into his supposedly weird mental state by that point in the future is a fine notion; but both could easily backfire.
The first backfires here; John has been training his entire life to lead people in a world without hope, not to fit in with normal teenagers in the modern world. Even last season, the people we saw him bond with at school were also outcasts (not sure what happened to them), usually bullied by the people Riley was trying to get him to hang out with. He's an actual soldier who has actually killed someone, and these guys are mocking him for not understanding controller buttons. While it's not a straight path to get there, it's stuff like this that likely contributes to him using robots as his sounding board in the future; not to let Sarah off the hook entirely since he was raised to not really trust anyone with his secrets, and he can erase the robots if need be.
And I stand by what I said last time, Riley playing him like this can only end badly, and the longer it goes on it can only get worse.
Maybe I just don't have a lot to say about this one in general, even though it has a fairly intensive bit of time travel logic I didn't really get into it too much, and aside from that it's mostly stuff I talked about before regarding John's present arc and future actions.
