Haha! The opening shot is Spivey’s hole in the head. Reacher is incredibly consistent so far at beginning with the next beat in the story.
ONE
Reacher shines the flashlight on the dead guy on the ground, and back to Spivey filling the trunk space. He goes through everyone’s pockets and breaks their cell phones. Behind Spivey is a bag of spy equipment that Reacher looks into and tosses back.
Then he shoves the two dead guys on top of Spivey’s corpse, breaking the last man’s legs so that he’ll fit. (Crunch.) The trunk lid now closes.
Roll credits.
TWO
Panting, Reacher calls Finlay. They discuss Finlay’s discovery that Hubble quit the bank a year ago, and then agree to meet at the site of a reported burnt out rental car. It could be Joe’s. Reacher asks who else knows, and Finlay says, “Only those who need to.”
This is one of the more fascinating themes of the story. Quarians invent Geth as a servant robot race, but they’re AI and they evolve into consciousness. When the Quarians realize this, they decide to wipe out the Geth. The Geth resist and fight back. Eventually the Quarians are driven from their homeworld and have since lived for centuries on the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of nomadic spaceships that house the entire race.
Again, this episode begins where the last left off. Roscoe paces in her living room, just after discovering her break-in. When Reacher tries to reassure her, she jumps down his throat for being condescending. (He did suggest she was afraid.)
ONE
She’s not scared, she’s pissed. Her family founded this town, she refurbished her house with her own money, and someone who thinks they’re untouchable invaded her home.
TWO
Reacher wants a gun, Roscoe recalls. She goes into her closet and pulls down a decorative wooden box. Inside is a cannon of a handgun. It was Gray’s. Reacher respectfully takes it. (Then he pops the magazine and clears the chamber, checking the gun. I appreciate this level of safety detail.)
As Roscoe starts to pack, Finlay messages. Meet him at the morgue.
Walking out the front door, Reacher turns to a stump in the yard and shoots it, making Roscoe flinch. “Never trust a weapon you haven’t personally test-fired,” he says. She gives a bit of an eye roll and follows him to the truck.
Chase Boy through a dead forest again. This time shadowy smoke figures fade in and out, while our dead companion’s voice (either Ashley’s or Kaidan’s) relives their last moment. The dead haunt Shepard.
Just as Shepard reaches Boy, a Reaper light shines on him and he runs, giggling as if he’s playing tag. (Is it wrong I wish Shepard could draw her gun? Too Renegade?) Again he finally stops and gives a last, soulful look as he bursts into flame.
The idea that Shepard doesn’t sleep — she’s too busy to rest — and then when she finally does it’s not restful, may or may not resonate later in the story. She’s still mentally and physically sharp. It’s only when she awakens that she’s not herself. Weakness and vulnerability are not normal characteristics for her. However, this is immediately after Mordin’s scene, so fatigue born of anguish is logical.
And now Udina, the politician Bioware wants us to hate, actually becomes a villain. We’re called to the Citadel. Cerberus, with Udina’s cooperation, has attacked.
Our first encounter with Kai Leng, the Illusive Man’s henchman, is here, and we barely rescue the Council from a kidnapping. Also, our teammate (Kaidan or Ashley) doesn’t understand. They defend the Council, following Udina’s lead to usher them into the waiting shuttle. We actually have a guns-drawn showdown before we can resolve the stand-off.
Anderson and Miranda, separately, mention knowing Kai Leng and fearing his fighting skills. For Shepard, though, he’s a new character.
It’s strange to introduce someone critical at this point in the trilogy. He’s just a dude, probably enhanced and indoctrinated, but he feels like a lazy creation. I wish they’d incorporated him earlier. How awesome would that have made our fights! And I wish they’d given him a more distinct character design. Nothing about him furthers the story. He’s just a boss battle with none of the pizazz.
One little story drop that only makes sense later: Anderson asks why Cerberus would be interested in taking control of the Citadel. In retrospect, after playing endgame, I realize that the Illusive Man has a small part of the Prothean archive data from Mars. He has the Catalyst portion. I like when a game ups the replayability with subtle plants like this.
Wrex has one condition for leading the Krogan against the Reapers: cure the genophage. He wants his people to thrive, and he also wants some payback. Salarians invented the genophage and Turians distributed it across the Krogan planet. Now these two races need hardy and indefatigable warriors to defend their homeworlds.
We find Mordin with a Krogan female who is immune. As he brings her back to health, he also develops the cure. Meanwhile, we assist the Turian Primarch in defusing a bomb, and Wrex with a Krogan team that’s discovered a Rachni nest. (Consequences related to the Rachni queen decision on ME1 are relatively insignificant here, a huge disappointment.)
When the cure’s ready, Mordin’ll use the same delivery method the Turians used for the genophage, a monument called The Shroud, to spread the airborne cure across the world.
As we prepare to deliver the cure, a Reaper latches itself onto The Shroud, cutting off our access. The Turians send air support, and the Krogan travel overland with Mordin. It’s not going to be enough, though, to defeat the Reaper.
And then the Krogan remember Kalros, the mother of all Thresher Maws who lives beneath the planet’s surface. Shepard must activate the hammers that call her. (I had forgotten how difficult this moment is. As I gasped with only one health bar I finally remembered to stop fighting and run like hell. Heh, good times.)
Kalros attacks the Reaper in an epic cut scene. Great game making, oh yeah.
The way is now clear, and Mordin can go up the tower and disperse the cure. Ah, dear. So many variations are possible at this moment based on earlier choices in ME2. It’s everything gamers want, all the consequences that can result from our actions, and the final scene is as emotionally powerful as the end of ME1. In every way that Bioware failed with the Rachni result, they exceeded all expectations with the Krogan plot. This is stellar storytelling. Sometimes the genophage is cured, and Shepard genuinely celebrates with the Krogan. Sometimes it isn’t, and Shepard flat out lies to their happy faces. And every time, the wonderful Mordin is dead.
Margrave, Georgia. Nighttime, with a man running through a field under an overpass. Someone, arm and head obscured by clothing, raises a silenced pistol and shoots the man. This person’s hand, wearing latex gloves, picks the shell casings from the grass. The foot is covered in cloth booties. They, or another person wearing full hazmat clothing, violently and repeatedly kicks the downed man. Dissolve to black, and then someone drapes the body with a flattened cardboard box, dirty and weathered. Dissolve again to black, and roll credits.
This is the well-received Amazon original, Reacher, based on the Lee Child book. I’ve seen the series once and really enjoyed it. I thought it might be fun to break it down. As always, my Story Enneagram will contain detailed spoilers. Go away, watch for yourself, and come back!
ONE
A lovely over of Howlin’ Wolf, and we see a boot step from a transit bus in the rain. It’s a deserted crossroads surrounded by open land. The man begins to walk the road, the angle close on his work boots. He passes the Margrave town sign, and approaches a diner. So far we’ve only seen him from a distance or from the back, but it’s obvious he’s a big guy.
Before he can enter the diner, a young couple exits. In the parking lot, the man, a weasley fellow, abuses the woman. Our big man takes a step in their direction. The camera comes around and we finally see his face. Handsome, strong jaw — your basic Clark Kent in road clothes.
Hahaha! The camera lingers on his silent face, and then Weasel starts apologizing and backing away.
Cut to inside, where the waitress sets down a black coffee and peach pie slice. He sits alone at a corner booth. This is basically our introduction to how his biceps move in a polo shirt, lol.
Alright, back to the action! As we know, the Council won’t help Earth. Each species wants to defend their own planet first, which isn’t completely illogical. However, the Turian Councilor meets with Shepard and Udina separately and suggests that the leaders of each world organize a war effort that bypasses the Council. His Primarch is a military general fighting on the Turian homeworld’s moon. Shepard will go there and recruit him.
However, when we get there, we learn that this general is dead. War with the Reapers is everywhere. The next in line for Primarch is another general defending a distant location. We march to him, fighting along the way. Also, we get a little backstory about the different races and some of the IP’s history (for those gamers who started the trilogy here). Garrus is with us, which is great. And the scenery, the game design, is utterly magnificent.
We find the general, inform him of his promotion, and take him with us on the Normandy. We’ve got one leader! Millions are dead, though, and the Turian military is overwhelmed. If we want to stand any chance, he says, we must convince the Krogan to join us. The Asari and Salarians won’t like this, but we need every species in the galaxy if we’ve any chance of winning.
Brace yourselves. Anyone at all familiar with Avatar, knows what happens in this episode just from the title.
ONE
The gang stops in a rocky wilderness.
Toph, touching the ground, says that actually a lot is out here. Aang shushes her: Don’t ruin the surprise. Sitting, he plays a flute that causes prairie dogs to pop up out of their holes and sing. (Sing is a generous term. Ouch.)
Plugging the flute end, Sokka stops him. “We should be making plans.”
Ah. They’re each picking mini vacations, regardless of Sokka’s protests. Well, Aang trains hard every day. On their down time they’ll do something fun. Sokka still argues. “We don’t even have a map of the Fire Nation.”
They’ll worry about it when they’re done. Katara’s turn to pick! (The singing prairie dogs must have been Aang’s choice?)
TWO
She chooses a pristine natural wonder that turns out to be a dried up water hole with raiders hanging about. At the bar they run into a man who recognizes Aang as an air nomad, a living relic. The Professor, very excited, questions Aang about air temple life. Jumping in, Sokka asks if the Professor has a more current map.
He does, but it’s mostly of the desert where’s he’s been searching for a lost library. As he extols the wonders of this library and its clever fox workers, he unrolls a drawing of the building with its domes and spires. Sokka wonders if this fabulous place would have information about the Fire Nation. Of course!
That settles it. Sokka wants his vacation to be at the library. Sadly, the Professor says, the desert is impossible to cross.
Perhaps the Professor would like to see our sky bison?
THREE
When they go outside, the raiders are too close to Appa. The Professor shoos away the “sand benders,” who jump on gliders with runners, earth bending little dust devils to power the sails.
We’re at the Citadel, rejected once again by the Council. We do the usual — tour the tower, meet some old friends, gather a news person who will travel with us. It’s no surprise. Atmosphere and some fun moments are good content.
When we return to the Normandy we transition into a dream. A foggy, wooded landscape surrounds us. Laughter, and there’s the Boy. We must chase him, moving through molasses. Finally, he stops, looks at us, and dissolves into flames. Waking, Shepard is shaken.
Is Boy a metaphor for Shepard of the suffering on Earth? Perhaps he’s just an avatar, a storytelling way of keeping the invasion in our minds, to keep us connected to the threat of the Reapers. Or, he’s a ghost, a former corporeal being who haunts Shepard.
This sequence in the middle of a shoot-em-up game is pretty damned annoying, especially if the game glitches and I have to play it again in all its slowness and with no chance to skip. (Yes, that happened.) Boy is still twee, and I still feel frustrated by having to watch him at all. When a developer stops my action to give me feels, they’d better earn it. The ending of ME1 is an example of this done brilliantly. At an early point like this, though, I feel emotionally manipulated. I want to learn fight mechanics and try out my skills. I don’t want an author’s message.
To be continued later, if I’m remembering correctly.
