Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:00

End of the month to you? The final week of our March leprechaunathon celebration.

SPEAKER_06 0:08

And we'll be saying farewell with our discussions of leprechaun colon origins and leprechaun no colon returns. Then we'll review the new movies Ready or Not 2 Colon. Here I come, big colon day here on the pod. And we'll be talking about Project Hail Mary.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

And for TV, we'll be discussing episode four of Monarch Colon Legacy of Monsters and the season two premiere of Daredevil Colonel Born Again.

SPEAKER_05 0:44

We are rich in colons this week. So I guess let's get into the colons here.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

This is we should have that episode 30.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Can you believe it? It's a nightstone.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

The time has come. We knew this was our fate as we end our leprechaun a thon with movies seven and eight.

SPEAKER_06 1:20

Origins wasn't funny nor good. What the hell, WWE? At least in returns, we'll be back in North Dakota with our dumb friend Ozzy.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

So, thank you, listeners, for putting up with our awful rhymes.

LEPRECHAUN-A-THON Feature #1: Leprechaun: Origins - discussion and review (with spoilers)

SPEAKER_06 1:35

As we run that leprechaun a thon theme one last time. Okay, first off, it's incredibly important that you know that this is produced by WWE Studios. Okay? And instead of leading with our king, Warwick Davis, we get the pro wrestler Hornswoggle as the leprechaun. And I gotta be honest, why? Like genuinely, why? This thing barely even looks human. So why are we doing this? Why do you even need an actor to play it? Just make it some horrifying animatronic monster. I mean, it doesn't even talk. So what's the point? Okay, all right, I'm spiraling. I'm spiraling, but I I apologize. Let me get back to business here. Okay. So the movie opens with a couple running through a field, immediately getting wrecked by something. And you're like, okay, cool. We're setting up the leprechaun as a creature of some kind. Great. And then we cut to four really shitty American college tourists who, yeah, right off the bat, they're very annoying. The dudes, especially, they are assholes. And immediately, uh, there was a lot of I hope you die first kind of energy going around. I was trying to pick who I wanted to die, but it could be any of them. And these kids are in Ireland because one of them, Sophie, is into history. Okay. So their driver drops them off near this weird stone monolith with a symbol on it, which of course is going to be important for later because it basically acts as a magical you shall not pass to whatever's out there. But is it that important later? Is anything important? This movie had me questioning everything.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

Hey, and not in a good way. So they head to this bar and they meet this old guy Hamish. And yeah, I would not trust this man, dudes. What's wrong with you? He gives them this whole like quaint village with a dark past speech about gold mines and abandoned caves. And of course, the group is like, Yeah, man, that sounds fun. Let's stay here. Awesome. Okay. So Hamish convinces them to take a detour on their trip to these abandoned caves, offering them to stay at a creepy cottage, of course. And that night, things go full horror movie. So there's noises outside, something sprints past the window, and oh surprise, Hamish and his sons have locked them in. And then they seal the student's fate by placing a gold Rolex on the cabin's porch as leprechaun bait. Because yeah, the villagers, number one, have Rolexes, and uh they're sacrificing tourists to whatever this leprechaun creature is so they don't have to sacrifice themselves. Okay, great, left that for them. And then the quote leprechaun shows up, kind of. Okay, so this is where the movie goes from annoying to nearly unwatchable. It is dark, it is so shaky, and we make it 50 minutes in and still haven't seen a leprechaun. Like, where's the leprechaun? Where's the origins? My eyes were hurting from squinting, trying to figure out what was actually on screen.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, because it's not even like good dark scene stuff, it's like somebody just literally filmed in full light and then dialed down the brightness of the picture after afterwards to make it look gray. It's stupid.

SPEAKER_06 5:55

Yeah, it's horrendous. And when we do finally get a glimpse, yeah, that shit is not a leprechaun. I'm sorry. Okay, so we still haven't seen like full leprechaun, but we see that he's a predator type goblin. He's got night vision, he's like skittering around making weird ass noises. Um, it bites one guy, it rips a gold earring out of someone else, and it just generally lurks. Also, the rules are very unclear because, like, yes, it wants gold. Okay, we know that me gold. We've established me gold, but here it'll just attack anyone anyway. It's just attacking, yeah. And that's something that drives me nuts in movies when a predator is killing for no reason, you know? It's gotta be motivated by something, yeah. And then from there, that's just a parade of betrayals and deaths. The group they manage to escape to a cellar where Sophie learns from a book, a conveniently placed book, that the thing is also called Tuata de Danan. I don't know. My family is Irish, but I can't pronounce that. Basically, it's like a feral leprechaun that the villagers pissed off by stealing gold. And now, for some reason, they figured out they gotta offer two sacrifices a year. I don't know how they decided on the number.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 7:28

And also the leprechaun can't pass the monolith symbol, which is why they showed us that thing. Okay. Um, then you get one of the wildest moments, and I'm gonna say the only moment worth seeing, which is when they're trying to escape, and two of the friends think they're gonna chop up the leprechaun, and they actually accidentally just chop their friend's face in half trying to fight the creature. So that was cool. But RIP to her, she was the girl with a mole who was on manifest, and she's the only actress I recognized.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 8:07

Then eventually it turns into a final girl situation with Sophie. Everyone else dies in increasingly like who cares why type of ways. Um, like at one point, a leprechaun rips out a guy's spine, and I'm like, okay, but he doesn't have a gold spine. Like, why the spine? When he rips out someone's jaw because they have a gold tooth, that's genius. When he rips off a finger because they got a gold ring, perfect. But a spine, come on. Okay. Gotta get centered here again. This movie truly drove me insane. So finally, when we see the creature clearly over an hour in, it's like this gooey, grisly, like melted wax, no seratu goblin thing. You know what it made me think of is when candle has been dripping for hours and it's just dripping on top of it's it's just uh oh, it's so waxy. It's it's a little gargoyle.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

It's so waxy.

SPEAKER_06 9:13

A little Frankenstein. It's a little like, why did they do this? Who is to blame? Just be Vince McMahon because I want to blame him. Okay. So Sophie escapes, whatever. She uses the gold coins to distract the thing. She grabs a knife from an uh that I guess you know we'd seen earlier, of course. And in a genuinely funny moment, I don't know if it's genuinely funny. I don't I don't know. But she says, fuck you, lucky charms, and chops his head off, which, you know, thank you. Finally, something a little bit light. Yeah, uh, and then she makes it past the monolith. Good for her. It turns out there's like three more leprechauns running around in the grass. Um and then it ends. Thank God, sweet mercy. So, yeah, this one ditched the camp, ditches Warwick Davis, replaces him with a mute, blurry goblin uh with night vision. Somehow, honestly, it looked cheaper than the original movie.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

And that's sweet.

SPEAKER_06 10:18

It looked cheaper than Leprechaun in space. That's saying something. And again, this is a leprechaun movie.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Well, I don't know if you want to go that far because the nightclub on a spaceship thing is oh no.

SPEAKER_06 10:30

I mean, it looked bad, but it looked beautiful. That's a whole other thing. But yeah, it's a leprechaun origin movie with no leprechaun and no origin, basically. And it's a piece of garbage. What'd you think, Sush?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Well, I already know most people consider this movie the worst of all the leprechaun movies, and that it's basically just a slasher movie with the leprechaun as the killer. But I wanted to give it a chance to at least be so bad it was good or something like that, you know?

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Uh unfortunately, I kind of realized pretty quickly this wasn't going to happen.

SPEAKER_06 11:05

No.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

And I admit maybe it's my own fault for knowing too much going into this movie, but I'd argue that if anything, in the end, having some awareness before seeing it probably allowed me to be less frustrated and more indifferent towards this movie. Like I have zero investment. Still, that didn't make it any better. I mean, without even getting into anything that actually happens in the movie itself, you're already down one Warwick Davis as our infamous leprechaun.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

So sad.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, he's been replaced by WWE's Hornswoggle, but you literally don't even see the leprechaun for pretty much the first three quarters of the movie. And when you do, you can't tell it's horn swoggle because it's just some rubber suit of a goblin-looking ass monster. Also, part of what makes the leprechaun movies worth watching is that the leprechaun is a fucking scamp. A little stinker, as they would say.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

Oh, big time.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah, and you've just completely left that out of a leprechaun movie by making him a monster that doesn't talk. Cool. Mm-hmm. You don't have an unlikable female protagonist. Or any protagonist who is just unlikable due to some specific incident or characteristic. Honestly, the main cast is just boring. I don't care at all about any of them, nor do I know any of the actors. So I just didn't care if they got killed or not. Again, zero investment. This seriously felt like a weird throwaway direct-to-cable movie. So it's even weirder that this was actually made by WWE Studios. But the WWE talent in this movie was literally in a fucking rubber suit. So who would have even fucking recognized him? Like, why even make a movie in this franchise? Because I assume they had to pay something to acquire the rights, right? Or if not, does that mean we could just ask to make our own leprechaun movie?

SPEAKER_05 13:09

Oh my god, I would love that.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I think the only notable moment of this movie was when the leprechaun tricks two of the protagonists into killing one of the others in their group with axes. I admit that at least looked cool, but that's about it. Uh I seriously just couldn't wait for this movie to end. Not only was it boring, but the coloring of this movie was just various shades of gray. Like seriously, I'm not talking even monochrome because I would at least assume by that I'd be implying that there's some white, but no, it's just gray and darker grays.

SPEAKER_06 13:49

It was very swampy.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah. So going into my pots of gold enjoyment rating, I gave this a 0.5. That is half a point. Honestly, the only reason why it even has half a point is for the axis thing. And uh with that said, my end of the rainbow favorite moment is well, if I have to have one, it's the axis thing.

SPEAKER_06 14:17

Yeah. And you know what? Exactly the same for me, baby. Yeah, if a point five, because I just don't know ethically about giving a movie a zero because so many people work on movies, you know. But but yeah, I'd give it a zero if I wasn't thinking.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah, it's weird because there was clearly effort. There's clearly effort put into this movie, but it's just like it was just so boring and horrendous.

SPEAKER_06 14:45

Yeah, and the accidental friend murder. That's the only thing I put for my pot of all.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

And also the fact that this leprechaun is isolated somehow in Ireland. Like, why do I even care? I don't live in Ireland, I can just avoid that part of Ireland.

SPEAKER_06 15:02

You like having him be a threat on the move. Yeah, he could be anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I like a better one. He could be anywhere, literally anywhere, even space.

SPEAKER_06 15:10

Yeah, that is pretty cool. So, all right, let's stop talking about this dumb, dumb movie. Do you have any final thoughts though?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Uh no.

SPEAKER_06 15:21

I guess my final thoughts would be if you're gonna watch a WWE movie, go with the RKO one. What is it, 12 rounds?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That's like 12 rounds two.

SPEAKER_06 15:32

12 rounds two.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I think the original 12 rounds was John Cena.

SPEAKER_06 15:37

And here's a fun fact: both John Cena and Randy Orton were kicked out of the Marines and were in a Marine movie. Okay, all right. Well, salute to them and let's move on to better things.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

All right, guys. We're just gonna pretend that Leprechaun Colon Origins never happened. Yeah, just just put it in the past, you know, denial. It's helpful sometimes. And we're excited moving on because one of our favorite cult directors, Steven Kostansky, who directed, tell them to share Frankie Freiko Psycho Gorman.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Ah, that stalker is the new one.

SPEAKER_06 16:25

Yeah, that's right. He is at the helm of Leprechaun Returns, and he's here to wipe that bad taste out of our mouths. All right, now, right out of the gate, we're back, baby. Uh, this movie opens with a leprechaun all oozing green goo, the fun goo, not like the last movie. This goo is like neon green, like ectocooler goo. And he's got gross practical effects going on. It looks cool as fuck, and the leprechaun's like crawling around, going down a well, cursing like a little goblin king guy. So yeah, immediately I'm like, okay, yes, this is the energy we have been missing. And then we jump to Lila, who shows up at the house from Leprechaun One, which has since transformed into a janky old sorority house. Uh, shout out to the sorority being called AU. Love that. And Lila's there to help, quote, greenify it, which is pretty funny because the movie is uh like an eco-friendly horror, but also absolutely drenched in green blood. So that's kind of fun. And she gets a ride from Ozzy. Yes, that Ozzie, Ozzy Jones from the first movie, the one who seemed like he was boinked on the head with a with a mallet. He's back.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

He seems considerably less dumb, too.

SPEAKER_06 17:53

He does. He does seem like he got what was it, the smart pills that the kid wanted to get the the surgery or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yes, to fix his brain.

SPEAKER_06 18:03

Yeah. So his brain's a little better. And we learned that Lila is the daughter of Tori Redding, which is Jennifer Anderson's character from the first film. And honestly, I love it. We're back to basics. Fantastic. Anyway, Ozzie, oh, poor Ozzie. So he drops his phone by the house when he's dropping Lila off. And when he goes to pick it up, he gets blasted in the face with this gross green well water. I'm like, oh no. And then I'm like, holy shit! When the leprechaun literally punches his way out of Ozzy's body. Actually, I think technically his feet come out first, then his head, there's intestines everywhere. He grabs the gold coin, which Ozzy swallowed in the first movie 25 years ago, and then just casually goes, ha ha. And it starts leprechaun rhyming at him.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

How did he not poop that coin out since then?

SPEAKER_06 19:07

I know. I got issues with his digestive system. But as we know from the first movie, clovers last for like decades in this, uh in this universe. So I guess you know, maybe the digestive system works differently. But yeah, from there we meet the rest of the crew. We've got Lila's sorority sisters and a couple of dudes, which includes a wannabe filmmaker who literally does an Alfred Hitchcock presents intro to his own footage, which was fantastic. And then there's there's this whole vibe that's very modern and or at least modern for a leprechaun movie, in that it contains cell phones and the internet. Um and it's got fake Instagram called Funstagram. Google is boogly.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Boogly.

SPEAKER_06 19:59

And yeah, it's just uh dumb fun. That's what we're looking for in these movies. Um, the leprechaun, he's a little diminished at the beginning. He's weak because he's been without me gold for so long. So naturally, his solution is you know to start killing people to power up. That's what I'm saying. And uh the kills, oh, we are back, baby. There's this whole sequence where he uses a solar panel to slice a dude clean in half while saying some rhyme like one for me, two of you. Yeah, uh, and then the body just like heels off of the panel. And of course, there's green blood everywhere. At one point, Lepp pulls a guy's head into a mailbox, runs him over, and then gets annoyed that there's guts on his shoes. Incredible. Zero notes. Now, I do have to point out there is a Werner Herzog moment in this. The um the film-obsessed one who's there to make a documentary says, if Werner Herzog can do it, so can I. And uh one of the girls says, Werner hurts cock. So appreciated that. Also, this leprechaun is just unhinged in the best possible way, a classic leprechaun way. He's popping out of hats. I loved that. That I was very into. He's screaming like a maniac. He's oh my god, flipping people.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

He's more high-pitched than Warwick was for sure.

SPEAKER_06 21:40

Yeah. And he is flipping people off while riding on a drone, which yes happens. And then, of course, kills a dude with the drone blades, which is sort of zzz.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:53

Um, then, oh, another nice moment. He throws uh a pair of crocs in the trash for no reason. Yeah. Well, technically we know the reason. It's because he's upset and you know he's got a refined taste as a cobbler aesthetics. Meanwhile, Lila starts getting help from the ghost of Ozzy, who's just wandering around with his guts spilling out. He can't talk. So he's doing like pantomime while making all these squelching noises.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:24

And his guts are so falling out that she's just like, here, let me help, and gives him saran wrap to hold himself together. Um I cannot stress enough how much more personality this movie has than the last one. It's yeah. Then there's a group betrayal or a betrayal of the group. One of the girls, the drunk one, you gotta have a drunk one in a sorority. She tries to sacrifice Lila to save herself, which does not go well, obviously. And the leprechaun just keeps picking them off in increasingly ridiculous ways. Um, I think one highlight is when a girl is in the field, then all of a sudden the sprinkler nozzles start like sort of donking her on the head. And then one of them gets jammed into her face and basically is spurting blood out of it, like the sprinkler is still on.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Yeah, like she is a sprinkler. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:27

She is a sprinkler, a sprinkler of blood. Um, and then eventually Lila, Katie, and Rose track down the leprechaun's gold using a hidden map that uh Ozzy helps him uncover. Because, of course, there's a map. But surprise, some of the gold has already been spent on the Eco project, which feels, you know, kind of thematically funny. Love the green and the green here. Um, they try to trick the leprechaun by giving him a fake pot of gold stuffed with tampons, which I've really appreciated. You know, they put the tampons underneath to make the gold look more full. I used to use tampons to sneak food into the movies because they would check your purse, but you just put a whole mess of tampons on top, and they're not gonna want to look around in there.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

Good movie.

SPEAKER_06 24:19

Um so then from there, they decide they're gonna trap him in a circle of iron objects, which you may recall, wrought iron is one of his class classic weaknesses.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:32

And then from there, it turns into full like Looney Tunes chaos. They make clover juice, they shove holes in his mouth with the clover juice, and then boom, he explodes like a full-on shamrock shake of gore. And then you think you're in the clear. Well, we know we're not in the clear, but this is the eighth we've seen, but uh, his guts turn into a bunch of tiny little leprechauns.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Oh, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:02

Because of course they do. So all the little bits of flesh and gristle somehow manage to reconstitute themselves into teeny tiny little leprechauns, which then somehow all jump on top of each other and morph into a regular size version.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:20

Woo. Okay, so Rose gets taken out in the aftermath, and it comes down to Lila and Katie, who finally finish him off by surrounding him with gold and then electrocuting him, blowing up the house in the process. Because why not? You know? In the end, Lila says goodbye to the ghost of Ozzy, which is kind of sweet. I love that it ties back to the first movie. And she makes a little comment about how sometimes the best green footprint is no footprint.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Ah, funny.

SPEAKER_06 25:52

Beautiful. And then cut to the fire, obviously, and you think it's over, but no, of course it's not. The leprechaun survives, hitches a ride on a chicken, on a chicken truck, like the absolute menace he is heading off to Bismarck to get me gold back. And honestly, yeah, this one gets it. It's gross, it's stupid, it's funny, creative. Feels like a leprechaun movie. You know, is it lower budget than God? It's crazy to think that you could be lower budget than the originals. But but yeah, it's lower budget, so there's some constraints there. Um, but and it's not quite the level of constant madness that you get in the highlights around um the one in Vegas and the one in space, but pretty dang entertaining. Um what do you think, Sush?

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Well, I thought the mood of this movie kind of started off weird. I mean, I'm sure part of it is that we're still recovering from whatever the hell Leprechaun Origins was.

SPEAKER_05 26:57

Oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Uh regardless, all I know is that this movie didn't start off in any way funny. True. But I did appreciate that early on we reunite with Ozzie. Yes, from the very first Leprechaun movie. And we also established that our main character, Lila Jenkins, is the daughter of Tori Redding, the character Jennifer Aniston played from that same movie. Going back to the mood, it wasn't long though, before I took that one. Um we get introduced to the rest of the cast who's staying at the sorority house, which happens to be the house from the first movie. Uh, they're mostly stereotypically horrible young adult archetypes that you're just looking forward to getting murdered by Lep.

SPEAKER_06 27:50

Not as bad as the last one, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah. But then before you really even settle into that, we just snap into full-on crazy mode when Ozzy gets sprayed by green water when he stops by the well that they trapped Lep in during the first movie, then reforms within his body, like through a similar transfer and reformation process as Leprechaun 4 in space.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

This is basically the moment that we both realized that this movie is a direct sequel to the first movie, meaning that the events of the other six movies since the first basically didn't happen. And that this movie might be as wild as some of the previous films, at least, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_06 28:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

I don't think the lead Taylor Spreetler, who plays Lila, is a bad actress, but I find it weird that her character seems to be the only one that's taking their situation completely seriously. And as an actor, she's playing her role completely seriously.

SPEAKER_06 28:53

Yeah, yeah. They're really young actors in this.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah, like she's here to play Lila in a serious horror film, while everyone else is here to play a character archetype from a modern-day goofy slasher film.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

I don't know if Steven Kostanski wanted it that way, or the writers wrote the characters that way, or Spritler just plays the character that way because the movie she was in before that was uh Amneyville The Awakening, which is the more serious horror film, but sometimes it unfortunately takes away from the comedic vibe.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

Yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

While he's no Warwick Davis, I think Lyndon Porco is good at playing a leprechaun that might be a bit more serious, but still is capable of playing the crazy and comedic aspects that I'd argue what fans love the most from this franchise.

SPEAKER_06 29:45

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I was most excited to have great pre- and post-murder quips back. Conversely, I just quickly want to mention that it was also fun having the rest of the cast make really bad quips before they got killed most of the time. So yeah, that was fun. Uh I know we really only had one bad, overly serious leprechaun movie since the ones with Fort Wick Davis. But I swear, with how bad that one was, it's felt like an eternity that I'm just happy to even get someone like him back.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Uh, this movie might not reach the level of insanity of movies like Leprechaun 4 in space, nor Leprechaun 3, but I do think that they have some really great kills in this movie, and that they do get the aspect of Lep not being so overpowered that someone can't just beat him with an object, right? In this movie. Like, I especially love that at one point Lep is chasing after them uh on a flying drone, but ends up getting caught impaling susters at head on a tree branch. Yes, yes, which totally works because the fact that Lep can even fly a drone as well as he can, given that he's just been released from the well after uh over two decades is already amazing.

SPEAKER_05 31:11

So there's also some funny moments where he reacts to modern technology that are true, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Good point. Sometimes, though, I feel like they do randomly give Lepp an advantage over other characters for the hell of it. Like when he's able to just lift Andy above his head. Oh, yeah. I'm not even talking like carrying the dude on his shoulders, but full-on shoulder pressing the guy horizontally, clear above his head.

SPEAKER_06 31:41

Yeah, that was some super serum shit.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Yeah, I like that shoes are still a thing for Lep in this movie, but even someone that's as into shoes as he is isn't into crocs. Yeah, that was great. The pacing for this movie, like the mood is kind of inconsistent too.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Uh like we get a ghost Ozzy in this movie, and we don't even really figure out he's a ghost, as in one that can pass through walls and stuff until several minutes after he attempts to saran wrap his guts back into this midsection and mines his entire story to Lila since they saw each other.

SPEAKER_06 32:19

Like well, yeah, she asks if he's a ghost and he shrugs, like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah, I was about to say I didn't understand how this was a funny, weird horror comedy movie that oddly felt different in a franchise known for funny, weird horror comedy movies. But then I remembered that this is from the same director as Cycle Gorman and Frankie Freiko. Yeah, which I definitely feel like the latter did kind of edge past my capacity for weird.

SPEAKER_06 32:47

Oh, that yeah, Frankie Freiko's yeah, weird.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Which I honestly think is significantly higher than most people, but whatever. Like I still loved it, but I was like, Oh, that was idea. Okay, I did like that further into the runtime we got, the characters other than Lila really accept the situation that they're dealing with, like the whole killer leprechaun thing, and let it really sink in. Uh it and it really starts kind of getting zany from that point on. But weirdly, the callback starting pre thing too. Like they really start talking about how to deal with Lap by referencing aspects uh of the lore from previous movies, like iron and four-leaf clovers, even if it's supposed to be a direct sequel to the first movie. Lastly, I did kind of like the timely green angle, like from green energy references to the energy efficient one-liner before Katie electrocute the left near the end. So that was kind of fun. Alright, so going into my pots of gold enjoyment rating, I gave this movie a 3.25, which I usually get only like halves, but I had to specifically give this rating because I gave the original Leprechaun a three and Leprechaun 4 in space a 3.5. And I honestly think this movie is definitely somewhere between those two for me. So that's why. And for end of the rainbow favorite moment, I had a tie between one Lep poking his appendages and head out of Ozzy's belly and just saying Papa before fully busting out of him. And then two, the whole scene with Lep reviving as multiple tiny leps after being blown apart, and the whole fight that they have with Rose from the MC Hammer reference to Rose just snapping and taking a bite out of one of the tiny leps to unceremoniously just tripping and falling face first onto the shovel trophy that was fully set up like minutes before. Yeah, like all of that was amazing.

SPEAKER_06 35:08

So, yeah, that's what I there's some good moments. All right. So for my pot of gold, I gave it three and a half.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 35:18

Um, I thought this one was super entertaining, very enjoyable. For my end of the rainbow moments, uh, I had to go with two as well. First is leprechaun on the drone. Oh my god. I screamed when I saw it. It was so insane looking and so hilarious. And of course, it's gonna impale someone, which reminded me a bit of um lawnmower tits from uh which one was that? Was that three or four? I forget.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Those and then actually a two, yeah.

Movie Review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

SPEAKER_06 35:54

And then my other favorite moment was the tiny leprechauns. It was so funny. I love an unexpected moment where you're like, well, I never would have predicted that. And this movie had a lot of those, so definitely ending on a much better, thank god they made this. What a waste it would have been to have leprechaun origins be the it's not even an origin. I know. Oh my god. All right, friends. So I'm so sad to see the leprechauns go, but I am happy to talk about our movies this week. So new in the theater, we have ready or not to colon, here I come. First of all, I gotta talk about how this is structured, okay? So they can't just call it ready or not, here I come. That would be amazing. That would be perfect. But then where would they put the two? Ready or not, here I come to that's bizarre. But then to put ready or not to colon, here I come also really interrupts the flow. As a copywriter by day, I really felt for whoever had to make that final call because it's a real lose-lose situation, you know. But okay, moving on to the actual movie. Ready or not to is directed by the duo of Matt Bedinelli Open and Tyler Gillett or Gillet, I'm not sure. So, okay. I have to admit, I liked the first one, but I don't remember it super clearly. I just know that I loved the humor, the horror, and Samara weaving. So I was just really looking forward to what they have going on. I thought the trailer was super fun and the cast had me sold. I've really liked Catherine Newton and everything I've seen her in. Then, I mean, Elijah Woods, Sarah Michelle Geller, David Cronenberg acting. I love it. So it's a really fun mix. And this is just a super over-the-top, chaotic horror comedy. The directors really lean into that kind of anything can happen energy. And the violence is big, ridiculous, and played both for shock and humor. Um, it's the kind of movie where the set pieces are clearly designed to be memorable, but also funny. And uh, I love that in a horror movie where you're gonna be shocked and scared. We have some jump scares, and then you're gonna crack up with the audience. I also liked, you know, how they expand the world a bit more. You're not just dealing with one family, so it gives you a broader sense of how unhinged this whole satanic for power system is. It adds variety, keeps things feeling fresh. And at the center of it, you have this relationship between two sisters, which I really liked. You know, their banter works, I think their personalities bounce off each other well. And you feel like there's history there. I do think that they could have pushed a little bit further on this. I don't know about you, and we're not gonna get into spoilers, but once they reveal what their conflict is, I kind of felt like, oh, okay. I mean, yeah, it like it wasn't as big and dramatic as I anticipated. And where the movie didn't ful fully work for me, I think was one key villain. Again, I'm not gonna get into who, but there's a lot of threats in play. But the one positioned as the main danger didn't feel quite as intense or developed as I would have liked. It's not bad. It just didn't quite hit at the level of menace I was expecting. That said, even when some of the character stuff doesn't land fully, the movie is just so fun. There are some fight scenes. There's one in particular set to total eclipse of the heart. When you see the movie, you will know what I am talking about. It's creative, it's interesting, it's something you haven't seen before. And that's really what I love about these movies. I also visually liked what they're doing with the costuming and overall style. In the first movie, I loved the way you saw Grace's beautiful wedding dress get bloodier and more mangled as it went on. And you see something similar in this one. It's fun to see how the wear from the night shows up in their clothes, how the layers of blood develop. I love that you can see something that happens to blonde women is they can get their hair constained. You see, her hair is almost pink looking from all the blood. So I thought that was cool. And there is one, oh my God, there's one gorgeous outfit she wears near the end that I've already thought of as a Halloween outfit. So um, but yeah, overall I thought it was pretty fun. Um, I don't know if they're gonna make another one just because I don't know how far you can push the concept. Yeah, but if they do another one, I will definitely be there opening weekend. Um, and either way, I want to watch more from these directors. Like they have a really cool handle on this horror comedy space. And um, you know, I'm always down for rich evil people being wrecked. So yeah. What do you think, Sush?

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Well, I saw the first Ready or Not movie, and really that was my only awareness of the filmmakers. As far as the new cast members for this movie, I know Katherine Newton from some other movies we've seen. Pokemon, Detective Pikachu.

SPEAKER_06 41:36

Oh, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Uh, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania, and Lisa Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_06 41:44

Oh, I love that one.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Most of the other notable casts I know from previous work because I'm old and either they were or still are well-known names in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Uh but surprise, surprise, the trailer spoils the first movie, and I think seem to lean into the comedic aspects from the original with an ensemble chaos of an antagonist from different families this time, I guess. By the second and final trailer, those were pretty much reinforced as the selling points of this movie for me. So I think I already kind of eased up on expectations for anything original as far as the plot was concerned. In seeing the movie, I personally think that the direction and writing in this movie were at least as good as in the first. If any aspects were better in this movie than the previous, I'd say they'd be the comedy, action, and the visual style, which I see as like a combination of the cinematography, the makeup and practical effects, etc. And the overall pacing. I thought it did better. Samara Weaving, Returning as Grace was a great protagonist throughout another movie. Catherine Newton is her sister, Faith was a great addition. In my opinion, having someone consistent to work off of was definitely one of the elements that I feel contributed to improved pacing in this movie. I think all the ensemble cast was great, but as most of us probably expected, the bigger names, Sarah Michelle Geller and Sean Hatosi as siblings Ursula and Titus Danforth, as well as Elijah Wood as the lawyer, get more of the focus, if not more screen time. Regardless, the characters each have their own unique personalities, so that was a fun aspect that carried over from the first movie. But was again stronger, most likely due to the plot involving multiple families this time. As I mentioned earlier, I think the design elements for this movie were stronger than the previous one. Probably just because they defined a style in the previous movie, and in this one they just kind of repeated it and refined it a bit.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

I don't think the set design was any more original than the previous movie, uh, except for some sets later in the movie. But otherwise, I think overall this movie did pretty much expand and/or improve on the design elements of the first movie. As far as how this movie turned out, I think the movie leaned more into the comedic and action aspects of the previous movie and built further on the lore, but this was pretty much as I expected it would be based on my experience with the trailers. Going into the ratings. Uh I give it a four for enjoyment and a three and a half for quality. Overall, I thought this movie was a great theatrical experience and a fun movie that leaned more action comedy than the previous movie, which I'd consider more of like a horror comedy. Maybe suspense. I think that change in tone for this movie following the original definitely contributed to my enjoyment rating for it. Comparatively, even though we didn't review the original, I do think I would rate that lower on enjoyment, mostly because it took some time to set up the plot for that movie.

SPEAKER_06 45:16

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

And there was definitely a stronger suspense element that I felt was nearly non-existent in this movie.

SPEAKER_06 45:24

They got right into it.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah. Additionally, I think with Grace being more aware of what she's dealing with after the first movie and being able to immediately bring her sister Faith up to speed, allowed the filmmakers to quickly fast track into the action comedy at the start of the movie. Even though I enjoyed this movie more than the first, I probably would rate them equally at 3.5 for quality. Well, I think what contributed most towards the quality of the first movie was how original the story and visual style were. I think this movie made up for its inability to have as original of a story uh compared to the first by putting more into the cast and really gave us more of the visual style we love from the first movie by kind of dividing it among the different characters and their personalities, cultures, etc. As I mentioned before, this movie leans more action comedy than the first movie does, and a bit less on the horror and suspense. But even with the slight genre pivot, it's able to maintain more or less the same level of overall quality.

SPEAKER_06 46:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

And then uh as far as recommendations go, weirdly, the cult and succession aspects of the ready or not movies kind of remind me of the movie Chronicles of Riddick with Finn Diesel. What? I mean, specifically the movie that was a sequel to Pitch Black because there's a whole necromonger lore thing that kind of feels similar, a vibe as the satanic cult in these movies.

SPEAKER_06 46:53

Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Yeah, I don't know. I like movies and movie franchises with some good lore, and I assume others do too. Since they're supposed to be doing a follow-up to that Chronicles of Riddick movie, even though they tried to go less sci-fi action with the franchise overall, with the movie that followed it immediately. Anyway, enough Chronicles of Riddick, but that yeah, wow is what I thought about this movie.

SPEAKER_06 47:20

I love it, I love it. So I gave this one a four for enjoyment and a 3.5 for quality. We are on the same pace here. So I really loved this one. I mean, man, see it in a theater if you can. Yeah, I love the way it's sitting next to you. You would jump and then everyone and everyone would jump and then everyone would laugh. You know, I just think that's such a wonderful experience to have with a group of people. I think that the characters were great. I loved the expanded characters. There's so many I couldn't name all of them, but I love that each family had uh a very different type of vibe. The humor was great. Love the setup where Grace, you know, she's already been through this one. It's not her first rodeo and she gets to teach the ropes to her sister. I always think that's a fun structure for something because we've been with her through her first adventure. And now, in a way, we know what she knows and is sharing with with uh her sister. So really liked it. And for quality, I also gave it a 3.5. I think that it's incredibly entertaining, looks great. I only really didn't rate it higher because I think some of the big bad type characters and that type of plot could have been a little more developed. But yeah, I would definitely recommend it. You're talking about Chronicles of Riddick. Man, I'm trying to think of what it reminds me of. Um, okay. I would say it actually reminds me a little bit of John Wick II in that it's that expansion from the first movie. You know, the first movie's a little more serious. The second one, you got all kinds of wacky characters. It's brighter, it's more colorful.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

Weird. Um I thought you were gonna say blade two.

SPEAKER_06 49:17

Ah, well, it doesn't remind me of that, no. But uh yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

So that's true.

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary

SPEAKER_06 49:27

I do love man, there's some good sploding in this movie. So yeah, I love it. And hey, check out Lisa Frankenstein with uh with her co-star here. I think you'll really like it. Cool. All right, let's move to the big blockbuster. So Project Hail Mary's directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the famous Lord and Miller of well, you know, everything you like that's comedic, I guess. 22 Jump Street. The they did the Lego movies, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:00

And it's based on a novel by Andy Weir, who did Oh my God, what is it called? The Mars movie.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

Is it called Martian?

SPEAKER_06 50:09

The Martian. Oh my god. So it's by him. It stars Ryan Gosling as a middle school science teacher who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is, how he got there. And as his memory slowly comes back, he realizes he's been sent on a last ditch mission to save Earth from an extinction level threat, which is obviously a lot for one guy to deal with, especially when he didn't sign up to be a hero. Uh the movie mixes big sci-fi stakes with surprisingly personal problem-solving vibe. So it's less about action and more about watching him figure things out in real time. And yeah, that's what we're gonna get into here. So from the trailer, okay, I was looking forward to it immensely. I thought the trailer made it look a little more straightforward, you know, like we figure out the science, we go save the world, we are in space. But I knew it was Lord and Miller, and they always have a clever twist on things. And I knew it was Ryan Gosling, who is great at serious stuff, but also just immensely funny. And what the movie actually does, which I really loved, is it kind of slows down more than you would expect in a big movie. And really, you get to live in the process of him figuring out who he is at first, then why he's there, then what the problem is, then how to solve it, especially when it comes to communication and problem solving. So, right from the beginning, the tone is really clear. It's zany and funny, but it's also serious and the stakes are real. And that's kind of an interesting place to be. There's a moment early in the movie where Grace is talking to his students about what's happening to the sun, because basically the planet is not going to be livable for much longer. That's what he's trying to solve here. And he kind of dodges the question. He goes, uh, maybe talk to your parents about that. And the way he plays it off is funny. But I thought about that line a lot as we went further and further into the movie because it kind of tells you exactly who he is. He's smart, he's kind, got a sense of humor, but he's avoidant. And he doesn't want to be responsible for delivering bad news. And I think that that became kind of one of the cores of his arc. Um over the movie, you really watch him grow into the responsibility where he's in this crazy position and it feels earned. Um, it's not like he suddenly becomes a hero, it's more like he finds a reason to step up. And a huge part of that relationship is this is not a spoiler if you've seen the trailer, is Rocky, the alien, which is easily one of the highlights of the movie. And he meets Rocky, who is on the same mission as him, trying to figure out how to solve his planet. And there's a really beautiful thing where they're building communication and how they can get through to each other step by step. And it's really satisfying to watch. It actually reminded me a lot of the Deddy Vilneaux movie Arrival, in that they're really trying to figure out how to come together and understand each other, and they're looking at it in a scientific process way. And what I realized watching this is that I just really love movies where humans and aliens have to figure out each other. I don't know. I wish we had more of them versus aliens being uh sort of an unknown threat. And it's not a rushed movie either. You know, you really sit through the trial and error of figuring out the problem they have to solve, how to communicate, all of these things. And that makes the relationship feel really earned. And it's not just interesting, it's also really adorable. Rocky and Grace, which is Ryan Gosling's character, they have this dynamic where they have a lot of humor. Uh uh, they joke about all kinds of things, and it's amazing that they can both communicate and find that deeper level uh through humor. On the design side, I mean, I'm no expert, but all the science and engineering stuff looked pretty dang cool. Um the ship, especially just about everything in outer space, like the contraptions, the problem solving, it all feels really well thought out. And I I kept wondering what the guiding logic was behind how everything looked and functioned, um, because it feels grounded enough to buy into, but it's still visually interesting. And I think tone-wise, it really works. It's funny, but the humor feels like a coping mechanism kind of humor. Something where they're trying to get through a very real high-stakes situation. They have to let off steam. So instead of undercutting the tension, I think the humor makes the characters feel more well, human in Gosling's case. Yeah. And I I think emotionally it really clicked for me. I was super duper invested. Um, I loved the messages about responsibility and connection and the idea that being brave is easier when you have something or someone to be brave for. So yeah, I I really loved it. I loved it. And we saw an early screening. Our theater clapped at the end, which I thought that was a pretty good sign. And since then, you know, there've been a lot of great reviews and reaction. And I I think it's really easy to see why. So yeah, what'd you think, Sush?

SPEAKER_01 56:11

Well, before seeing this movie, I think my interest in it was purely based off the trailers, specifically the premise of a science teacher played by Ryan Gosling, teaming up with a rock-like alien in space to figure out a way to save their respective star systems. Mostly because I enjoy movies about space and this seemed like another great comedic Ryan Gosling role. Also, even though this movie was about an uh potential oncoming apocalypse for Earth, the trailers had a unique, somber but hopeful feel to them that I was kind of hoping would extend to the actual movie. Uh, with that said, in the week leading up to seeing this movie, I think I just became more aware of the filmmakers and source material since it's not like the trailers were shy about including them. Honestly, I was going to see the movie just based on what I mentioned earlier, but I guess the fact that it was based on a novel by the same author as The Martian, which is probably in my current ongoing top 10 movies I've actually seen. And uh being directed by and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have worked on a lot of movies, I really enjoy the 21 Jump Street movie franchise, the Lego movies, the Spireburst, Sad Didn't Hurt. Um going into the movie, uh after seeing it, I really love the direction and storytelling. I think having the ongoing main timeline where Ryan Gosling, as Brian Lynn Grace, meets and works with Rocky and finding a way to save their respective homes, along with the flashbacks of Grace's life inserted appropriately throughout, not only get us better acquainted with him as a character, but also show us how he ended up in the exact place and situation he's in when the movie begins without causing too much drag in the pacing.

SPEAKER_06 58:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

Ultimately, it's the combination of these aforementioned elements combined with the acting talent of Ryan Gosling, James Ortiz, as well as the other Rocky Puppeteers and the supporting cast uh that make this an overall standout movie. Ryan Gosling does a great job playing another likable goofball and reluctant hero role. Uh science teacher, Dr. Rylan Grace, uh, that I definitely think makes up for the unfortunate box office outcome for his similar role in The Fall Guy.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

Oh God, I love the Fall Guy.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

Yeah, which I know Ashley still loved. Uh Dandra Hewler, who was the human who probably had the most dialogue following Ryan Gosling playing Eva Strat, head of the Hail Mary project, added some seriousness, but also heart to an otherwise fairly informational role in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

I was pleasantly surprised to see Lionel Boyce from the music group Odd Future with Tyler the Creator.

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:15

And TV show Loiter Squad that was on Adult Swim. I know he's really been branching out and acting, so it was cool to see him pop up in a big budget studio film like this. Also cool to see Ken Leon, who I've seen in Lost and various movies, and even Milana Vine Shrub, who I'd say guys probably are aware of is the top ATT sales lady uh from the commercials between 2013 and 2016. I love the design elements of this movie. I appreciate how the style was mostly based in reality and everything was primarily done with practical effects, especially Rocky being a puppet instead of CG. And even though the alien elements like Rocky and the ship had to be created, I felt like the look was impressive while also not too seemingly excessive. Yeah. Overall, the look was beautiful. There are certainly moments where you sit and enjoy the look of space or something Grace or Rocky have come across in the story. But they're more there to enhance the experience you're having with the story rather than take away from it. I think this movie was way better than I expected, which is crazy considering I already had pretty high expectations due to it being a high-budget studio movie, having Ryan Gotling starring in it, and being another heartfelt space drama, which I feel experienced substantial box office success more often than not. So going into my rating, I gave this a five for enjoyment and a four and a half for quality. Overall, this is a great movie that will appeal to pretty much all audiences and is definitely a great family watch. If you're looking for something that you can either see now with your family or maybe on streaming over the summer holidays, I sure it's all enjoyed this movie, and I know that even before getting my notes together for this movie, because I really find it difficult these days to not be hyper aware when a movie has a runtime that's over two hours. But even though that was the case with this movie, I eventually was thinking to myself, damn, this movie is almost two and a half hours, and I honestly could watch at least three hours of the story.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:26

If they have it ready. Yeah. As I've mentioned before, and our listeners probably know I'm a fan of sci-fi and space travel stuff, so I knew I was going to enjoy this, but I think what made this a five was that all of it was done so well and felt original. And I think that this movie is one of those great examples of quality also contributing heavily to the enjoyment because what's enjoyable is just made with so much more effort and care.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

With the overall quality high for obvious reasons, like I mentioned, the visual elements and acting, I think the most important contributing factor is the decision to lean on practical effects, especially puppeteering for Rocky over CG. I think that decision in turn allowed greater authenticity as far as gosling's performance. And for me, even kind of changed my perception of the character over the course of the movie. As far as recommendations, there's definitely a few movies that are similar in vain to this movie as far as conveying the vastness of space, maybe Interstellar at Astra andor Gravity. But the most obvious, because of the books being from the same author, would be The Martian with Matt Damon. That one has a similar tone and vibe, and even as far as uh some storytelling elements, but is obviously more about a story of isolation and patience instead of problem-solving buddy adventure.

TV Episode Recap: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - S2E4 - "Trespass"

SPEAKER_06 1:02:49

Oh man, this movie. You know, there's that cliche that used to be in trailers, like I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me. But it did, and I did, you know. Um, I also gave this one. This is crazy. We are twinsies this week because I also gave it a five for enjoyment and four and a half for quality. So, in terms of enjoyment, I know that I turned to you at least once and said, I love this. Yeah, I know that I turned to you and said, I can't wait for my mother to see this. Spoiler alert, she loved it. Yeah, it's a movie that feels so human in terms of our fears, in the way connection is both terrifying and also the most important thing in the world, you know? And and I loved the way you really saw the process of everything he's doing. All those things make it special. And it's a movie you're gonna want to share with other people. So I mean, if you have family nearby, see it with them. I think we saw some younger kids in the audience. I think there is some stuff that would be scary, but I think maybe tweens, the high school kids, see it with them too. Loved it. And for quality, I gave it a 4.5. To be honest, it's funny. The only criticism that I could think of for it is that I wanted more. And the great thing is, there is more. There's a book. So I'm gonna be downloading the audiobook and listening to that. And I look forward to that sort of expanding on my experience of the movie. Uh yeah, really loved it. And I as far as my recommendations, not a space movie at all, but see the fall guy, dude. Like Ryan Gosling. You know, I saw a a headline that compared him to Tom Hanks level like ability. It's like that. He is so charming, so funny. Fall guy is great, and I'm also obsessed with uh the stunt art. And that movie is about a stunt, man. But yeah, go see it, man. All right, let's get into TV. Hey Sush, tell us what we have going on over in Monarch Coleman Legacy of Monsters.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

So over in Monarch Legacy of Monsters, we're on episode four, trespass. We start the episode with the flashback storyline where you pick up after Billy finds Keiko's letter to Lee. We get a short montage of Bill from 1962 to 1973, which happens to be the year he died in the movie Kong Skull Island. And we show him drifting farther away from his connection to Hiroshi and the memories of Keiko and throwing himself further into his Titan research. We follow his belongings after his death, going into Mount. Storage, and eventually we see the old picture of him, Keiko, and Hiroshi, along with a portfolio being retrieved for Apex. Later, we see a moment in the past with Bill looking exhausted, head down at his desk, writing, and young Hiroshi entering and telling him he doesn't want to go. Presumably, this is the last moment they share before Bill heads out to follow Titanneck. Since we jump between scenes from the flashback timeline showing this and scenes in the modern day timeline showing the map he created now posted up on a wall with an Apex offices where the team eventually finds the remnants of Hiroshi's prototype. We follow up with the modern day storyline on Ofu Beach, America, and Samoa immediately following the opening credits. We see two surfers sneaking onto a beach lined with red Titan warning flags as they argue whether they should be there and enter the water. We see something moving in the sand behind them. A monarch ship spots the surfers and gets on their loudspeaker to announce that they're in a high alert Titan area and to head back to shore. Unfortunately, for anyone human, it's about to be a bad time, as this is also where the scarabs are trying to meet with Titan X. The surfers made it ashore only to be attacked by the scarabs, and Titan X's tentacles reach out of the water to wrap around the monarch ship and crush it before dragging it underwater. In San Francisco, Kate wakes up outside, presumably somewhere close to where she was looking up and crying at the broken Golden Gate Bridge following her night of trying to get wasted and forget her part in bringing a Titan next to Earth. She notices a bunch of mix calls from Hiroshi and initially seems like uh she might be hungover, but soon we realize it's more like she's hypnotized. She follows vibrations like the ones we've heard between the scarabs and Titan X, feeling the water as she walks in the ocean, still fully clothed from the night before. In the Outpost 18 command center, it looks like they're detecting the same vibrations as Trisop remarks it could be Titan X. While Tim seems concerned about the human population, Trisop only seems focused on whatever mission Apex has assigned him. Even after Trisop reveals to him that he's basically considering this an opportunity to solve his Titan problem and demonstrate what Apex is capable of, and even lets Tim know that he can take credit for it. Tim still seems hesitant to fully trust in them. In Pensacola, Florida, Kentaro, Hiroshi, Keiko, and Shaw meet with Korra at a motel room. Shortly after they arrive, Shaw gets a text message from Tim saying they estimate Titan X will make landfall in San Francisco in about 23 hours. Once Hiroshi hears this, he begins panicking over Kate's safety, leading to an argument between him and Kintaro over not interfering versus not helping her, which eventually prompts Keiko to jump in and defend Hiroshi. Fortunately, Shaw prevails in calming everyone down and keeping them focused on luring Titan X away from San Francisco, reasoning that it's the best thing they can do for Kate and everyone else right now. Back in San Francisco, we see Kate slowly walking mindlessly down a crowded road full of stopped vehicles when a parent of one of her students spots her. As she begins reminding Kate of who her son was, Kate begins to cry, uh expecting to hear that he died because she wasn't able to save him. Instead, she's met with an eternally grateful parent and her student, making her finally realize that the fact she took any action that day was more than most people did. Back at the motel room, the team tries to come up with a plan to get their hands on the prototype Suzuki device, Apex stole from Hiroshi's workshop in Tokyo, in order to lure Titan X away from San Francisco. Cora handles identifying someone with the level of access they need for them to retrieve the device, while Shaw talks everyone through the plan. Afterwards, the team execute their stressful but amusingly elaborate plan at a bar to steal and copy a key card from an Apex employee. Back on Outpost 18, we get a glimpse into how impatient Tris up is when he sees a news report mentioning a Titan alert and criticizes Tim, assuming that he didn't bother to contact Barris to update them that he and Apex have the situation under control. However, Tim did and apparently has assumptions of his own about Apex and how they're unprepared to deal with the situation properly. Soon we realize that Apex has moved past attempting to kill Titans and accepted that coexistence is unavoidable. So while Tim still seems skeptical about their involvement, it seems like they're at least on the same page for now. Kate returns to her mother's house in San Francisco as she and her partner are in the process of packing up to evacuate. Her mom tries to get her to leave with them, but Kate seems renewed with purpose and says she needs to leave to help her friend and reveals her part in bringing the Titan to Earth to her mom. While her mom initially refuses to let her go, Kate seems to convince her that she came back because she wasn't sure what to do with herself, but now at least knows her friends are out there trying to fix the situation, so she should be with them too. Shaw, Keiko, Hiroshi, and Kintaro arrive at Brenda from Apex's house. So Kintaro can mess with her car and keep her from arriving at the offices before they're able to retrieve the Suzuki device. Meanwhile, Kor is at the Apex offices creating a fake radiation leak so the building is evacuated and she can help them through all the layers of security between them and the Suzuki device. On outpost 18, it looks like Apex soldiers are getting ready to head to San Francisco Bay to follow up and uh research the remains after the Navy presumably blows up Titan X. However, after Trisop and the Apex soldiers leave, Tim is told they still don't have visual confirmation of Titan X and eventually decides to switch off the Apex systems and back to the monarch systems, uh, leading to them discovering that they've been set up and we're tracking a whale this entire time. Back at Apex offices, the radiation alert ends sooner than expected, and Brenda arrives at the offices. Cora does a horrible job attempting to distract Brenda, and it soon seems like Apex has something else she needs. Purpose instead of the other way around. When Brenda reveals that Apex has been able to tame Titans temporarily, but just needs her, Korra's help, to make it permanent. We soon also realize why Brenda seemingly didn't realize Cora was trying to distract her, because she actually did know, but didn't care because Apex currently holds all the winning cards when it comes to being trusted to deal with Titans, even if that might not always be the case. Given the failed distraction, Shaw and Kintaro release some territorial but otherwise harmless Titans being held by Apex to create another distraction. Unfortunately, after Hiroshi and Keiko finally enter the room with this prototype, they see it's been far too dismantled to be useful. Shaw and Kentaro meet up with them in the room, and Kintaro soon realizes that the room has Bill's research posted on the walls. Seemingly the same belongings uh that were taken at the start of the episode in the flashback scenes. Uh, after looking at the lines drawn on the map, Sean and Keiko find that Bill was able to map out the migratory path of Titan X. As the team leaves Apex offices, it seems like Cora's decided to stay behind, at least for now, and presumably will try to do what she feels is right within Apex. However, they're not down a teammate for long as they return to the motel and find Kate waiting for them. They're surprised but happy to see her as they have a heartfelt reunion. However, the episode ends on a spicy note as Roshi finds and reads his mother's letter to Shaw as she returns to the van just in time to see his reaction to it, and the episode ends.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:37

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:38

Ashley, what'd you think of this episode?

SPEAKER_06 1:14:42

Well, I think this was a pretty fun episode, but it's one where a lot of important character and story pieces kind of came together. I think the biggest thing for me was the development involving Kate. Okay. So I know that you've had some frustration with Kate's character.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:02

I generally have not, but I have been wanting her story to move past just being drenched in guilt. Um and I like the way this story picks up. You know, seeing her on the beach, she goes into the water, and you're like, Whoa, is she trying to drown herself? What's happening? And then you realize, oh, okay. So she is being drawn once again, pulled into the water almost by some sort of communication or vibration or feeling. For sure. Um I thought that was fascinating. Also is interesting because the Titan alerts turned out not to be true. And yet, here she is in San Francisco feeling something there. So I'm really wondering what that story is. Like the tech's not wrong.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:58

That's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:59

Yeah, the tech's wrong, but Kate isn't wrong. So it leads me to think that there is something going on there that's not being detected. Also, I thought it was a really beautiful, sort of sad, but then awesome moment where she's depressedly walking through the streets when there's this evacuation going on and runs into the mother of one of her former students.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:24

Yeah, I thought that was cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:25

I thought that was awesome. Really great acting, too. You really felt how her heart dropped when she heard it was the mother of one of the kids. She was just so ready.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:35

Yeah, she was so ready.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:37

Yeah, so ready to hear that she had done something wrong. But instead, she got the message not only did she do something heroic, but as the mom said, you could have just walked away. You did more than other people could do. And I think hearing that from an outside figure, getting that reassurance, that combined with this growing connection she's having.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:01

Yeah, and also seeing the kid there alive.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:05

That was crazy. I'm sure she wasn't expecting that.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:09

Absolutely. So I thought that was really cool. On the apex side, these guys aren't so great. I I love the whole Cliff Curtis being sort of a douchey tech bro sort of vibe, you know, not very caring about the situation. It's all about growing their business and numbers and stuff like that. And yet, for all of their money, they really don't have the insights into the Titans that this family and Monarch has. So I thought that was interesting. And then we get the whole thing where we discover that they are capturing these Titans, putting them in those teeny little cages. That was awful. And then trying to control them to reduce their anger. That's pretty terrifying.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:03

And um But also it's kind of like, what are you gonna do if you have to coexist with them? You know, is it the lesser of two evils? Probably is. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:14

Oh, sush. I didn't think you'd have that take. But a real real apex apologist over here. No, no, but they are in a difficult position. Yeah, but it's pretty terrifying to think of the implications. And it just makes me think of how people have been experimented on throughout history to cur try to control, you know, and uh I don't know why. That's just what came to my mind when I saw that. Maybe it's because I'm overtly political sometimes, probably. I also for a minute seeing Nay slash Cora's face when she sees the discovery, I thought, oh my God, are they gonna put her on a whole guilt spiral because her code was used to do this? I was a little nervous about that. But we do get at the end that she's staying to sort of figure out what's going on. And I'm kind of assuming because she always seems to have some sort of double dealing going on when it comes to Apex.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:12

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:13

I I'm sure if she won't be actively working against Apex, she'll at least still be working with and communicating with our our monarch fam. So I thought that was interesting. Then you've got, oh my god, the Suzuki device heist. Yeah, one silly thing happening. I really liked them leaning into some of the silliness uh there. And I love, love, love seeing Kurt Russell playing a dude playing another dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:44

I think we've talked about this, but in Big Trouble in Little China, he's like this character is supposed to be tough, but is kind of incompetent. And then he goes undercover as a nerd. And I just think it's he gets so hammy. He was so peak, Kurt Russell hamminess, and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:02

Cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:03

I also love like some of the relationship building between Hiroshi and Keiko, that moment where they're in the van, and she says, Oh, he wants to make his father proud. And he said, I am, and she's like, hmm, does he know that?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:19

I got some things to say about that.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:21

Yeah, yeah. I thought that was really touching. And when when uh Kentaro comes back to the car and he says, Hey, good job, you can see in his face that he's not used to getting that kind of affirmation. And it's beautifully played because they play it like people who don't want other people to see what a big deal it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:43

But you can tell it's something that I think it's funny that that's your take on it, because I had a different take on that.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:49

But oh my god, I can't wait to hear. Well, and obviously there's cultural stuff going on there that that I'm not gonna understand because I'm obviously from America, so I thought that was cool. And then we get a really great ending to the episode. We find out, okay, they've just taken apart the Suzuki device. Like, what the hell, Apex? They're not doing what Monarchs uh and the gang is anticipating. But what they have done, which is even a bigger development, is from taking Bill's notebooks, they've figured out this migratory pattern. And I think that's gonna be really key to what happens going forward.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:32

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:33

Then also, oh my God, the scene with poor little Hiroshi wanting to go with his dad and his dad be looking extremely haggard and being like, Yeah, you can't. I have work to do. And then we close with him finding out about his mom's infidelity. Like so much happened. Yeah, I thought it was really a jam-packed episode. Okay, tell me what you think. I want to hear your take.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:02

Well, let's say Titan X crushed the ship near the beginning of the episode. I thought that was cool. Because even though seeing these Titans fully revealed is usually cool enough, given how good the VFX are on the show, there's just something even more awesome about seeing Titans actually interacting with man-made things over just like appearing and maybe like tearing up some nature or building.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:28

Right. Or another big monster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:32

I think the fact that Apex is acting like they're trying to help Monarch when it seems like most people can see they're actually trying to eventually take over, or at least you have some kind of ulterior motive. That whole thing is pretty amusing to me. Also kind of timely given that it seems like this has kind of become a tactic that's used more and more in real-world business these days. Like people saying, like, oh yeah, we got consultants, they're got some people that come in and help you, and then in reality, they're just trying to take over the stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:05

Oh my god, they're all out for theirs.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:07

Yeah, kind of amusing. Um man, they really made Cora do basically all the work for the heist.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:16

She did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:17

At Apex. I was thinking about that while I was watching it. Uh, they wouldn't have been able to plan it out, let alone make it through everything successful without her. And I'm sure it doesn't help either, considering she might be having second thoughts about whether Apex are really bad guys by the end of the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:37

You know, it's like nobody's helping you already, and these people have the resources for you to help yourself, so why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:45

So yeah, that was funny. I found the look that Keiko gave for Roshi after he tells Kentaro, good job, son, when they're leaving Brenda's house to be so hilarious, mostly because it's like a bad parent looking proudly at their child, who is also a bad parent, for doing the absolute minimum parenting way too late in their child's life. Yeah, that's a good because it's almost like it's like they don't know that they're doing something that's you should just do as a parent. Well, yeah, Keiko's all like, wait, oh good job parenting. It's like, all right, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:27

Well, I think there's levels to it because she's in a way almost congratulating herself on telling him to do that. Whereas he didn't do a lot of padding where it's like each of them trying to make themselves feel better about not getting it. Yeah. That's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:46

Um, what else? Oh, nothing like a classic radiation leak situation to create an opportunity for people engaged in the last-minute heist to sneak into a secure building without being monitored.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:58

Easy peep.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:02

Um I find it funny that someone on the show always needs to be having a bad time.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:07

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:08

Yeah, like this episode, Kate finally works through her shit and reunites with everyone, only for Hiroshi to come across Keiko's now infamous letter to Shaw from years ago. Uh, so presumably either one of or both mother and son will now be the ones having a horrible time on the show. It's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:29

It's like hot potato, you know? You have a better time, you pass it off to someone else, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:34

For sure. But yeah, overall, I thought it was a good episode, even though we don't get a lot of Titan action. What's important and kind of funny though is that we basically just established that Apex is probably neither better nor worse than Monarch. And it's really all down to whoever's doing the actual work at either company, probably. Luckily, we have Korra over at Apex now and the rest of the team still at Monarch. So while I presume they need to basically take down the bad leadership at Apex, I think ultimately with Korra there, whatever they're working on will probably end up benefiting our protagonists at the end.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:12

I would have enjoyed some more flashback storyline scenes, but I was okay with the lack of them in this episode since it seems like we've covered a lot of ground as far as everyone's true motivations or what we believe to be true so far, at least.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:28

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:30

Good episode.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:31

Cool. I'm also wondering if the flashbacks are gonna slow down once Bill reaches his final destination.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:40

Well, I know they did show that he pretty much is about to die because the first uh flashback scene was a montage up until the year that he died. Yeah, it was interesting.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:56

No, I can't wait to see. I really gotta know some more about Kate's connection to the Titans. So I hope we get that next week. Is there anything you're looking forward to in next week's episode?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:07

Probably more monster action.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:10

Yeah, I do like the monsters.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:11

Yeah.

TV Episode Recap: Daredevil: Born Again - S2E1 (Premiere) - "The Northern Star"

SPEAKER_06 1:27:12

They gotta space out their budget though, you know? That's true. Yeah. Cool. All right, soosh. It's Daredevil time. He has been born again once more for season two. Uh, what do we have going on in the season premiere?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

Well, in the season premiere, the Northern Star, we waste no time throwing Matt Murdoch back into the fire. The premiere opens with carefully curated optimism. New Yorkers on the BB report praise Mayor Fisk for making things better while the camera quietly exposes dissent through background graffiti and uneasy framing. The message is clear, order is being sold, but not everyone is buying it. That tension explodes aboard the Cargo ship, the Northern Star, where Daredevil launches a ferocious takedown, sporting a blacked-out suit now bearing the iconic DD logo. Matt moves with a brutality that feels sharper and more desperate than before. His investigation uncovers a hidden room full of weapons, confirming Fisk is smuggling arms through the freeport. When the ship's captain triggers a distress alert and abandoned ship, Daredevil plants a watch among the weapons before escaping as the Northern Star sinks beneath him. Matt soon reunites with Karen Page, and the two are clearly back in sync, personally and professionally. While Karen works her contacts to trace the weapons, Fisk goes into damage control mode. He publicly brands the incident a terrorist attack, unleashes the Anti-Vigilante Task Force, uh the AVTF, as we'll be referring to them as, and quietly orders any remaining loose ends tied off. Behind the scenes, Fisk's power is shown to extend far beyond City Hall. A mysterious figure known as Mr. Charles inserts himself into the fallout, overriding state officials with the call from CIA director Valentina Allegra defontaine. Even Fisk bristles at this presence, making it clear that there's always someone higher up on the ladder. Public sentiment proves just as frustrating as political interference. Despite the sinking ship and mounting rumors, many citizens openly support Fisk and the AVTF, convinced they're being protected. Karen's growing despair contrasts sharply with Matt's stubborn hope that the truth can still break through. The episode weaves in multiple dark subplots. Witnesses are hunted, interrogations are manipulated, and the legal system bends further under Fisk's reach. All of it builds towards a harrowing climax. Daredevil arrives just in time to save Cherry from execution, but his focus falters under trauma and grief. He's beaten, unmasked, and on the brink of death until an unexpected savior steps out of the shadows. Bullseye's sudden intervention, killing the AVTF agents with surgical precision. Closes the episode on a chilling note. Ashley, what'd you think of the episode?

SPEAKER_06 1:30:34

Well, geez, I think it was a pretty strong premiere. Uh mainly because it immediately resets the power dynamics and puts everyone in an uncomfortable place. Um the opening with the watch on the sinking ship, I thought that was really cool. I'm really curious to see what's gonna come next.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:52

I think that's a callback because Daredevil did that, I think last season for something.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:58

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:59

Yeah, I can't remember where exactly he did that.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:03

And it's it's just cool to get back into Daredevil's world and all the cool echolocation type stuff we can do. He has such a unique set of powers, so I think that's really awesome. And then we've got this big addition of Matthew Lillard as Mr. Charles, and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:21

He's been getting around, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:23

He has now rumor has it that his uh addition to the show might have to do with playing DD with the show creates. Oh, right. I have not verified this, but it seems right. He seems like he's having an immense amount of fun. Um I loved the way he sort of interrupted Fisk's meeting, casually tells them that they're gonna get an important call. And hey, it's battle. That's really interesting. And I love seeing her get interwoven in all the sort of Marvel-y things. I hope they're setting her up for something in the Avengers. Yeah, and I think that whole sequence, uh, just like you're saying, it just does a really good job showing that Fisk is not at the top of everything, you know. He is used to being in control, but he still has to answer to other people. And there's consequences for him when Daredevil goes after him. Daredevil is not merely an annoyance, he can really fuck up his situation. And uh it's very satisfying to see him get sort of spoken down to and taken down a peg. Yeah, so I think that's great. I kind of was having fun with the BB storyline at first. Her videos seem like straight up propaganda, but yeah, like you're saying, you can sort of see things on the edges that make you feel like something's not quite right. And I I mean, honestly, it was kind of creepy because right now we're dealing with a lot of um propaganda in the US and in a really uh full-throated, kind of shameless way. So seeing it reflect in the show is interesting. And then we've got Heather Glenn coming back, and that's kind of interesting too. Um, first of all, I want to call out that she's a terrible uh therapist or psychiatrist.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:20

She's making huge conclusions with no real evidence, uh, which we know.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:25

Well, I think it's interesting that near the end of the last season, her character more seemed to be siding, or at least like made the decision to work with Fisk based on nothing but just fear.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:42

Right. I mean, that's that's her main driving factor, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:45

Yeah, but even in this premiere episode, when we see her interrogating the swordsman or doing the psyche vow, yeah, it almost seems like she kind of enjoys it.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:58

Yeah, she's she seems to like feeling in control.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:02

Exactly. Yeah, that's the feeling that I started getting from it. So pretty big contrast considering last season, it just seemed like she's doing it in order to try to protect herself in some kind of way from being in a situation like that again. But now it's a completely different thing because he she actually wants to hurt people or something.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:20

Yeah, yeah. And you can see how dangerous that is. She's been made to feel powerless, and now she needs to have power to feel like she's in control of things. So that's interesting. Because yeah, at first I wasn't sure what she was doing. I thought she was just out at her job, but then it clicked that she's intentionally skewing things. And it's kind of funny. That actress, did you ever watch that show Revenge a Million Years Ago?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:44

No, I know all of it though.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:46

So in that show, and in pretty much I everything I've seen the actress in, she's played characters who are going back and forth between alliances. So it's interesting to see her do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:58

Well, that makes sense then.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:00

Yeah. I love seeing the swordsman, Jack Duquesne. Yeah, he is immensely fun, and I really hope we see more of his case and what goes on there. Um another moment that really stuck out to me and it is when Fisk's guys go into the Greek restaurant, they're trying to get information on the captains of the ship that went down.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:27

And they interrogate the the restaurant owner. And basically she says, I don't know what what you're talking about. And they immediately just like punch her in the face.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:36

Punch her in the face, yeah. And it was like jumping to a pretty big extreme right away.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:42

We both screamed like we had a visceral reaction to it. Yeah. And uh it was really shocking, but also it sort of, to me at least, brought to mind some of the violence we're seeing in the country right now from authority figures. And also, I think that ties into how this show uh is being very direct with its political commentary.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:04

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:06

You know, the parallels uh they're drawing with Fisk are not subtle. Um but it's less that I think that the show is imitating real life, and I think our current political situation is imitating evil supervillains.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:22

Yeah, you know, not even like a lot that well.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:25

Yeah. I mean, a lot of the things that are happening could literally be a story from any comic book over the last 50 years, you know? So that's interesting. Oh, one more thing about uh Heather. I think they do a cool job of showing her PTSD. I mean, the acting I think is good. You can really see her face drop when she's remembering or seeing a vision of her attacker. And then there's all kinds of cool sound design things.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:58

Like it feels like Well, they brought back that transition that they always use in the past when people are being affected by Muse, like where the whole frame just turns, just starts rotating.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:10

Oh, that's right. Yes, I forgot about that, but I think it does a lot to showing her state of mind. So I think that was cool. And then just the whole closing scene is amazing. It starts with Cherry calmly answering the door, knowing what's coming, then it explodes into violence, and then the fight there is really great. It's like a classic Daredevil tight close quarters hand-to-hand combat thing. And then what elevates the tension is Cherry's heart. So Daredevil obviously can hear all kinds of things going on in people's bodies, and he can hear that Cherry is in extreme distress, possibly at the verge of having a coronary here. Is and it escalated the tension. It was almost like a ticking time bomb, like how long until he has a heart attack? And that sort of put a lot of pressure on the scene. And then his reaction to that, sort of like you mentioned, him thinking about losing another person, is what throws him off and allows the goons uh to get the better of him. Then man, you close with bullseye just murdering everybody who just saw reveal of his identity. I wasn't expecting that.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:29

What the carcass knife, just like the characters.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:33

Yes, I was sarcastic knife. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:37

It's very cute, it's just purely a messaging knife, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:40

Yes, and then I noticed he shot all the dudes in the eye again. Perfect bullseye.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:46

Either that or he's throwing knives in there.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:49

Oh, right. It could be that. Oh my god. Yeah, but yeah, I thought I thought it's just what you want in a premiere. It sort of resets, shows you where all the characters are. I also like seeing James Gandalf's son being a smarmy hanger on and uh how BB's really using him. Um I would not be surprised if she used cleaning his house, one of the things that she does after going to a party at his house. Yeah, she's she gets a cleaning service, and I'm like, ooh, I wonder if they were like rifling through his things.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:21

You know, I just she probably hired people who are investigators that she knows that do that stuff, make it seem like it's a cleaning service or something. Because that'd be an easy way to like yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:34

And it's just interesting. I liked this in the the last season too, seeing the different things that motivate people to be in Fisk's orbit, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

True.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:45

Um, you've got the woman, I forget her name, who's on his staff, who's sort of reluctant but dedicated. You've got his hitman dude who seems to have some qualms, some kindness to him, but obviously something's off. You've got James Gandalf's son, the deputy mayor, who's clearly in it just because he wants to feel popular, you know? And then you've got Heather, who's like psychologically driven to do it because she needs to feel in control of her life. So yeah, lots of interesting pieces in play. I'm excited to see kind of how everything plays out. What do you think of the episode?

SPEAKER_01 1:40:26

Well, I've been really looking forward to this new season of Daredevil Born Again, mostly because as someone who's been a longtime comic book fan, I've always enjoyed Daredevil stories the most when the chips are stacked against him. And even better, if he's got nothing else to lose, because that's usually when he really gets brutal. And as a street level hero typically only uses his body and handheld weapons. You know, that also means that the violence will be that much more visceral and personal. I love that we finally get the DD logo on a costume. But even more, I think it fits the story really well that we find out in the close-up that it's really just his usual costume, spray painted over in black and yeah, he probably wouldn't have the resources or time to get a new costume while hiding from the authorities.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:16

So I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:18

I like that this episode makes it clear that BB is helping Karen and Matt by acting as their mole. I'm not sure though, if I like how much she actually seems to care for Daniel. Yeah, really. He's already proven last season how much he's bought into Fisk's Soul Racket. Also in other red flag situations, I'm not really thrilled that Matt and Karen have a thing again since they both have so many problems individually. They simply haven't had the time to work out, uh, considering how crazy their lives have been across all these seasons of Netflix and Disney Plus shows.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:59

You know, they need like a superhero therapist.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:03

Oh, they kind of have like a story like that in DC comics, but it's uh yeah, it doesn't end up being a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:11

I figured.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:13

Anyway, I I like that we kinda see that the good guys all around, including Kristen McDuffie and Cherry, haven't been doing well either since Fisk has taken over. Uh, mostly because, like I mentioned before, Daredevil stories seem better, the more him and other protagonists have to fight to make things right again. Uh even though we didn't get to see them yet in this episode, with how much we're already leaning into the prime drama angle of this story, I think the mood totally fits for characters like Jessica Jones and The Punisher to appear. So I'm just hoping we'll see one, if not both of them, soon. But yeah, overall, just a great episode. The acting is better than before, given that this cast has worked together for a season now. But beyond that and the overall writing, I have to say that I love the cinematography for this episode and appreciate seeing beautifully shot and choreographed fight scenes taking place in the dark again. It's just always so cool and a pleasure to watch those on the uh OLED. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:22

Awesome. I'm excited for next week. Um, so stay tuned, guys, for Daredevil Season 2, episode 2.

What We're Watching Next

SPEAKER_01 1:43:32

Ashley, what are we watching next?

SPEAKER_06 1:43:35

We're gonna be watching the movies They Will Kill You and Forbidden Fruit.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:40

And for TV, we're in the second season for both shows we're watching. We'll be talking episode five of our Monarch Legacy of Monsters and episode two of Daredevil Born Again.

Outro

SPEAKER_06 1:43:52

Excellent! Hey guys, thanks again for listening. We really appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us weirdos here.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:03

Yep, and uh just make sure you subscribe, rate, and review. I'm gonna apply some light pressure and say positively, as uh my boy Wilson Fisk would be doing in uh this situation. Also, uh follow us on the social medias, uh TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. But other than that, just thank you again for checking in on another episode. And uh yeah, we got big plans actually lined up for the next episode. So make sure you tune in next Friday.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:41

All right. We'll see you then. Bye, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:44

And later, bye.