At the beginning of this, with Maggie being tormented, I had "Every Breath You Take" going through my head.... She calls out to David to ask if he's doing all this... you mean hyperventilating into a loudspeaker? David does that?
Ooooh, Megan's back, looking as good as I've ever seen her. Just her first few small, angry movements as she walked away from the window really got me. I had to rewind. Meg's mad at Philip for having been away too long. Well, then I guess I should be mad at the two of them for staying away from DS for so long, though Philip could stay away a little longer so Meg and I can get acquainted further.
It's really interesting seeing the Todds struggle internally with their contradictory and irreconcilable priorities. I don't think I've ever caught how good this stuff is before. I love the conversation where Meg's getting more and more furious and vindictive with Philip. Great extreme close-up of her face as she struggles with whether to utter the next few words she's been leading up to, which can only be "I'll kill you!" She didn't say it, but came so close...
The loosening of the Leviathans' control doesn't just seem like a clumsy anti-climax to me this time. It makes perfect sense, and is inevitable. The Leviathans can't use automatons; they need their slaves' brains intact so that they can solve problems, and simulate normal behavior to avoid suspicion. The Todds can't look after the child properly without their reason. Original creative thought is required. Total programming, loss of will, would make this impossible. They'd be like very simple robots, following rules and unable to improvise.
Philip's reason must be free to function, but it leads to his perceiving the illogic of bits of the plan [spoiler](then the whole plan),[/spoiler] to start with, and sometimes he even has to look at the immorality, out the corner of his eye. Then he rushes head on into the mental brick wall of Leviathan control. As President Bartlet of The West Wing once said, "Cognitive dissonance, anyone?"
The Todds are meant to play traditional family roles, as mother and father to the child, to raise and protect him. Philip is practical, Megan dishes out the unconditional love. Superimposing all this over an evil plot to destroy the world as we know it is, of course, utterly perverse, but also self-defeating. Mother and father are forced to try to kill each other periodically to pursue their roles.
The Todds are sleepwalkers, fighting both to wake up and not wake up.
I instantly LOLed the second Roger walked into Collinwood. With all that's happening, for the millionth time he walks into the place like Ward Cleaver! It was a Pythonesque moment for me.
Is that blue vase there just to be broken? Guess not.
I really enjoy the storyline, suddenly. Maybe there just needed to be enough plot elements intertwining to get me interested.
Megan's turtleneck needs to be at least one size smaller. No reason. I am to Megan as Taeylor is to Quentin. We should double-date.
