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grimorieStill alive! Sorry but Tumblr is a blackhole of Time suck! And just, it keeps pulling me back in!
Fiona in prison is really an awesome arc and unlike the other game changing cliff hangers the past season, it really is game changing.
One of the other things I really love about this arc is how it shows that Michael doing anything to protect Fiona is not good.
A lot of shows these days uses the trope too much: putting the life of their loved one above all else. All in the name of true love and everyone, including the audience were expected to forgive and forget the hero's really crappy, and most of the time, psychotic actions (*I'm looking at you TVD*) not in this show.
Since Anson started framing Fi the show painted Michael's actions to protect Fi as dubious. Especially when Michael kept escalating and seemed more and more comfortable contemplating doing a lot heinous things to keep Fiona from prison.
This time it was Fiona who stepped in and set the line for Michael because Michael kept erasing the lines in the sand.
Judging from the preview for the next episode, it seems like Michael continues to push the envelope to the point that he seems to willingly put Sam in danger. I LOVE that the narrative continues to push the message that putting Fiona's life above everything and everyone else is not good.
Even Fi would say so.
It's interesting because in season 1 the narrative pointed out that Michael's distance (emotional and physical) to his loved ones isn't a good thing. This time, after gradually chipping at his armor Michael allowed himself to openly care for his family, Sam and Fiona.
Except, we learned that the problem with Michael isn't that he cared very little but because once he cared, he cared too much.
Since the beginning of the show Michael's team has always been composed of Fiona and Sam, while they were only a three man team, each of them have enough know how, skill and combat experience to act like an army.
Fiona in prison means they have to call on more characters to help complete a case: Nate and Madeline (thus making the Westen Family into a true spy family now!), Jesse and Agent Pearce. I really love that Pearce is back in Michael's corner, hell, I'm just glad the actress and the character is back balancing out the cast. For the longest time the only women in the cast were Gabrielle Anwar and Sharon Gless.
It also forces Fiona to be even more awesome. Fi is a character I wanted to love since season 1, and I did like her but the writers didn't seem to know what to do with her outside of the case/mission of the week. They were able to find a balance with Madeline and I thought they were finding a balance with Fi in season 2 except they kept going back and forth on Fi. The one thing that seemed consistent though was that at the end of each season Michael is the one who is forced to go away.
Last season, it's Fi's turn to leave and, unlike Michael's forced exits, this exit has far reaching consequences.
In prison, she has no team to rely on except the people she finds to help her and I love how we see more of her MacGuyvering and the things she has to make do with to survive.
One thing I've noticed is the episodes I truly love Fiona in are the episodes where Fiona is alone, backed into a corner and forced to improvise.
And, boy, this situation calls on all of those elements in spades and it is doing awesome things for Fiona's character.
This forced Fi to keep her infamous trigger happy, shoot first mentality in check. She's been holding it together pretty well but that's not bound to last especially when it seemed like she has trouble sleeping and is on alert 24/7. It was only a matter of time really that her infamous temper finally got the better of her and she almost strangles her one and only ally, Ayn.
Ayn is quick to forgive her because she notes: "Place changes all of us sooner or later. Looks like sooner for you."
Fiona gives Ayn a look but doesn't say anything. Because, of course, Ayn doesn't know her, that she's naturally a lot more prone to throw a punch first than to patiently wait for an answer. Ayn doesn't know in Fiona's case prison isn't changing her into someone more unpredictable and trigger happy but, actually, suppresses that side of her.
Michael reminiscing about how he first met Fi in a bar in Belfast and asked for a dance but got a gun to his face as answer only drives home that point.
That scene actually was surprisingly poignant, Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar acted the hell out of that.
Fiona in prison is really an awesome arc and unlike the other game changing cliff hangers the past season, it really is game changing.
One of the other things I really love about this arc is how it shows that Michael doing anything to protect Fiona is not good.
A lot of shows these days uses the trope too much: putting the life of their loved one above all else. All in the name of true love and everyone, including the audience were expected to forgive and forget the hero's really crappy, and most of the time, psychotic actions (*I'm looking at you TVD*) not in this show.
Since Anson started framing Fi the show painted Michael's actions to protect Fi as dubious. Especially when Michael kept escalating and seemed more and more comfortable contemplating doing a lot heinous things to keep Fiona from prison.
This time it was Fiona who stepped in and set the line for Michael because Michael kept erasing the lines in the sand.
Judging from the preview for the next episode, it seems like Michael continues to push the envelope to the point that he seems to willingly put Sam in danger. I LOVE that the narrative continues to push the message that putting Fiona's life above everything and everyone else is not good.
Even Fi would say so.
It's interesting because in season 1 the narrative pointed out that Michael's distance (emotional and physical) to his loved ones isn't a good thing. This time, after gradually chipping at his armor Michael allowed himself to openly care for his family, Sam and Fiona.
Except, we learned that the problem with Michael isn't that he cared very little but because once he cared, he cared too much.
Since the beginning of the show Michael's team has always been composed of Fiona and Sam, while they were only a three man team, each of them have enough know how, skill and combat experience to act like an army.
Fiona in prison means they have to call on more characters to help complete a case: Nate and Madeline (thus making the Westen Family into a true spy family now!), Jesse and Agent Pearce. I really love that Pearce is back in Michael's corner, hell, I'm just glad the actress and the character is back balancing out the cast. For the longest time the only women in the cast were Gabrielle Anwar and Sharon Gless.
It also forces Fiona to be even more awesome. Fi is a character I wanted to love since season 1, and I did like her but the writers didn't seem to know what to do with her outside of the case/mission of the week. They were able to find a balance with Madeline and I thought they were finding a balance with Fi in season 2 except they kept going back and forth on Fi. The one thing that seemed consistent though was that at the end of each season Michael is the one who is forced to go away.
Last season, it's Fi's turn to leave and, unlike Michael's forced exits, this exit has far reaching consequences.
In prison, she has no team to rely on except the people she finds to help her and I love how we see more of her MacGuyvering and the things she has to make do with to survive.
One thing I've noticed is the episodes I truly love Fiona in are the episodes where Fiona is alone, backed into a corner and forced to improvise.
And, boy, this situation calls on all of those elements in spades and it is doing awesome things for Fiona's character.
This forced Fi to keep her infamous trigger happy, shoot first mentality in check. She's been holding it together pretty well but that's not bound to last especially when it seemed like she has trouble sleeping and is on alert 24/7. It was only a matter of time really that her infamous temper finally got the better of her and she almost strangles her one and only ally, Ayn.
Ayn is quick to forgive her because she notes: "Place changes all of us sooner or later. Looks like sooner for you."
Fiona gives Ayn a look but doesn't say anything. Because, of course, Ayn doesn't know her, that she's naturally a lot more prone to throw a punch first than to patiently wait for an answer. Ayn doesn't know in Fiona's case prison isn't changing her into someone more unpredictable and trigger happy but, actually, suppresses that side of her.
Michael reminiscing about how he first met Fi in a bar in Belfast and asked for a dance but got a gun to his face as answer only drives home that point.
That scene actually was surprisingly poignant, Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar acted the hell out of that.
