Welcome back to Boomb Tube! Here, we will be catching you up on the week in comics TV, both through micro-reviews, as well as links to our full-length TV reviews. We also tend to review series that are dropped all at once weekly so there are a few ‘older’ shows mixed in for good measure. Are we missing your favorite show? Let us know in the comments!
Dead Boy Detectives – “The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers” (S1E4, Netflix)
The quartet investigate a series of suicides at Port Townsend’s lighthouse, where they eventually learn Angie, a sea monster, is luring meals by mimicking the voices of people’s late loved ones after Crystal herself is tricked into believing her mother is in the sea. Rather than kill her, they decide to use a music box to put her to sleep (no pun intended), although they’ll need to lather it in pig parts discarded from Jenny’s butchery to bait her into swallowing it. During their investigation, Edwin wanders off to confront the Cat King again, and the fiend gives him something else to think about: does he have feelings for Charles?
Meanwhile, the Night Nurse arrives in town, and attacks Jenny for information on Crystal’s whereabouts, before leaving her with only her memory of them claiming to know her, meaning she winds up leading them to where she’s waiting by the shore. There, the Night Nurse makes Charles relive his traumatic memories of his murder and his father’s abuse, trying to persuade him to leave this plane of existence, but the inhuman creature has unsurprisingly miscalculated, and Charles attacks her, pushing her off the cliff with the music box and into Angie’s waiting maw. Edwin is shocked by his “extreme” reaction, but realizes now that his friend’s happy-go-lucky demeanor is a coping mechanism, and promises that he can tell him anything.
Charles responds likewise, and Edwin ponders opening up about his sexuality before retiring for the night in Niko’s room, where she introduces him to Scooby-Doo. Realizing from Crystal’s experiences that she’s been taking her mom for granted, Niko decides to open her letters. Over in Crystal’s room, she and Charles finally give into their feelings for each other. All in all, this was another good episode, although it was my least favorite so far, as the mystery itself wasn’t the most interesting, and the episode knew it with the amount of set-up for character arcs, but Charles’s catharsis was a great pay off that ensured this one was on par with the others. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Dead Boy Detectives – “The Case of the Two Dead Dragons” (S1E5, Netflix)
Crystal and Charles decide to take their relationship slowly, with her still being plagued by her demonic ex, and Charles is understanding, though he still decides to tell Edwin it’s happening. In the meantime, she and the boys are asked by Brad and Hunter (Burkely Duffield and Jude Wilson), former high school baseball players, to investigate their apparent murders. The trio discover the beloved pair were drug dealers and douchebags, who drove Brad’s ex-girlfriend Shelby (Sarah Desjardins) to suicide, and shared intimate photos of his last girlfriend, Maren (Mya Lowe); it was Maren who accidentally killed them with spiked drinks, in a botched attempt to steal their phones. Crystal nearly falls victim to the same tactic until the boys warn her, allowing Maren to come clean with her and the authorities.
The case proves difficult for Charles, whose mindset is still clearly stuck in the ‘90s, unable to understand why Shelby and Twitchy Richie (Harrison Houde)’s allegations matter more than what everyone else says about Brad and Hunter, although it becomes clear some part of him is struggling with how bleak the state of the world really is. He tells Edwin he worries he’s just as bad as them or his dad, but Edwin reassures he is a good lad, and the two hug, inadvertently leaving Edwin further conflicted about his feelings for his best friend. Brad and Hunter are thankfully prevented from plotting any reprisal on Maren and Richie when they’re informed of the truth about their deaths, as a demon drags them to Hell, while the detectives hide from Death in Charles’s rucksack – and here I thought that was a big ask.
Continued belowMeanwhile, while posting a letter to her mom, Niko discovers Jenny’s secret admirer is librarian Maxine (Lindsey Gort), and she arranges a date for them. Alarmingly, Maxine turns out to be a stalker and a possessive psychopath, who attacks Jenny when she becomes uncomfortable, though (bittersweetly) she is killed when she slips and impales her head on a piece of butchering equipment. Edwin doesn’t hear about this, as he goes to rendezvous with Monty in the park, where he tells him he doesn’t want to see him anymore as life is becoming too complicated for him. Monty responds by kissing them, prompting Edwin to clarify he wasn’t the boy he has feelings for that he was talking about. It’s an awkward moment that compounds the sense everyone has in this chapter, that love is a blessing no one can find in this town. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Star Trek: Discovery – “Erigah” (S5E7, Paramount+)
Moll and L’ak’s warp pod had been picked up by Commander Nhan and her crew of the U.S.S Locherer. While the show wasn’t announced to be in its final season until it had mostly been filmed, the return of Nhan does have a nice final reunion feel to it. Even if she is pretty grumpy about the whole situation, and that includes Book being wrapped up in Moll’s life, even tangentially.
L’ak is dying from his injury. Culber finds an old Breen refrigeration unit that could bring the temp down low enough for him to regenerate. And as per usual when the Federation tries to help someone from a war-first society, things get dicey. Burnham assumes that Moll and L’ak will be left at headquarters, but the Breen have somehow learned that Starfleet has them and are heading straight for them with a Breen Dreadnaught. This leads to a sit-down diplomacy chat before they arrive. Rayner’s fight first demeanor causes issues and shows that even in the 30th century some racism still exists. Which is expected when an entire race presents itself as warring people and genocide is a typical mode of action for them. And unsurprisingly, Rayner’s homeworld was used as a Breen outpost, with an outcome you’d expect. So, his animosity towards them isn’t unfounded.
The entire story shifts from the chase to a brace for a fight. The tension is as high as it’s been this season and that wait for the war ship is a huge benefit to the episode. From beginning to end the stakes feel raised, even beyond the great and terrible power of the Progenitor’s tech. Lives we care about could be lost.
And since we shouldn’t get away from the clue hunt, Tilly and Adira are going through Betazed information to figure out the current piece of the puzzle. Reno has a past with, well a lot of things, but it includes rare manuscripts and she could be a help in finding the final clue. This show has never given enough time to Reno and including her in this part of the story is so welcome while adding to her backstory. After this there are only three episodes left to the season and I need Reno on Betazed by the time the show is over. The humor that could be derived by that brings me joy just thinking about it.
While the writing and acting in the episode is really solid throughout, I do have some issues with the directing and camera work. Silly angles, stylized edits, and absurd picture flips end up being distracting and annoying rather than adding any flair to the dramatic or excitement to the action scenes.
The various threads and levels to this episode add strength to the story as a whole. The pacing of the story and balancing of anxious tension, interpersonal drama, and even humor is done deftly, making this one of the best episodes, in an already very strong season. And without a doubt, one of the best episodes of the entire series. This has been the easiest season to sit down and enjoy since the first and it is definitely the best written overall. Aside from some quibbles, I have very little negative to say about this episode or season. – Chris Egan
Continued below
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (Disney+)
Read our full review of the complete miniseries by Brian Salvatore.
X-Men ‘97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” (S1E9, Disney+)
The X-Men have 12 hours until the Earth’s magnetic field dies thanks to Magneto’s wrath. Believing Erik can be persuaded into changing his mind if they take out Bastion and his Sentinels (who aren’t affected by the blackout thanks to Bastion’s technopathy), the team separates into two groups: Gold, led by Jean and Storm, who’ll place an inhibitor collar on Bastion, and Blue, led by Xavier, Cyclops and Wolverine, who head to Asteroid M to confront Erik. However, Erik makes an extravagant entrance on Xavier’s grounds first, calling him a failure, and persuading Rogue and Sunspot to defect to his side. What a stinging turn of events; and to think Roberto was surprised that Jubilee got so mad at him later.
Gold’s mission goes south, despite Morph deploying the Incredible Hulk’s powers against the Sentinels, with Sinister revealing he has control over Cable, and siccing him on Jean. Jean sends a farewell to Cyclops, who – realizing Gold Team needs more time – stops Xavier from lobotomising Magneto. Livid, Erik turns the tables on Charles, crushing his head with his own helmet, forcing Wolverine to intervene by stabbing him: unfortunately for Logan, despite his severe injury, Magneto is still able to fend him off, before spitefully tearing the adamantium from his skeleton. I wasn’t shocked, Logan losing his adamantium seemed like a perfect set-up for a season two arc, but damn: imagine that happening back in the TV-Y7 era.
One more note before we head into the season finale is the decision to have everyone wear older outfits still in storage on Muir Island, complementing Storm donning her original black costume. Rogue going back to her green-and-white cleverly reflects her falling back into her dark past, and I’m always happy to see Wolverine wear brown like his namesake, but Cyclops and Jean did look rather funny in their ‘60s costumes: I much prefer Scott with his hair out, the cowl always makes him look like Diglett from Pokemon. The callback to the first movie, with Cyke asking if his son was expecting a black leather costume, was pretty groan-inducing too: do people still actually hate the black costumes? I get they’d be boring in 2D, but they did look cool. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
