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 Creeping Forest” (S1E6, Netflix)
Crystal wishes on a magic heart-shaped gem to prevent David from entering her mind again, but winds up gaining the unexpected side effect of losing her powers. Monty tells the detectives his ghost friend “Gladys” is missing, leading the boys and Crystal to learn something is scaring the specters in the forest. She’s forced to come clean soon to the others about her powers not working, but they still manage to uncover an elemental fungus from another dimension is devouring ghosts for their energy, and they split up to make it easier to find its point of origin – unsurprisingly, Edwin goes with Monty, and Charles accompanies Crystal. It’s then the Cat King pounces (no pun intended), revealing to Edwin Monty is Esther’s familiar, and leading them into a trap.
Edwin is incensed, and feeling guilty, Monty confronts Esther, who painfully turns him back into a bird. Edwin tries to warn the others, but she shows up with the giant mushroom, Teeth Face, who tries to swallow the boys whole. Crystal, remembering the words of the Washer Woman (Katie Prasad-Keough) from the Lighthouse Leapers case, looks within, and encounters embodiments of her female ancestors, who help her reach out to Teeth Face, making him realize what he was doing was wrong, and causing him to return to his realm with Esther in tow. It was a cool extension of the subtext in the first episode, where Esther had kidnapped the young Black girl Becky to maintain her youth, and not only racially; there’s a strong contrast between Crystal’s ancestral powers, and Esther’s faulty immortality too.
This was an eventful episode, with David also showing up to taunt Crystal, only to be batted away by Charles, who sweetly reminded her she was still special even without her powers; the Cat King losing his cool after Edwin’s refusal to “thank” him; and Niko and Jenny trying to patch things up after the date from Hell in the previous episode. Last but not least, the Night Nurse managed to escape Angie’s belly after the mysterious Kashina (Cheech Manohar) encouraged her to try a gentler approach. She confronts the boys in Crystal’s apartment – after Edwin comes out to Charles, but before he can confess his feelings for him – only to realize Edwin’s Hellbound destination isn’t necessarily set in stone. Unfortunately, the damage is done, as a demon comes to drag him away until a final decision is made by the Lost and Found department. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Dead Boy Detectives – “The Case of the Very Long Stairway” (S1E7, Netflix)
Charles demands the Night Nurse open a portal for him to rescue Edwin from Hell, but refuses to have Crystal accompany him, leading her to decide to find and make David open one for her instead; Jenny, only understanding she’s going back to her abusive ex, follows suit. The Nurse refuses until Niko suggests she look into Charles’s mind, and on watching his poignant first meeting with Edwin, is moved enough to consent. Using Edwin’s notebook, Charles traverses the eerily empty Hell and Limbo, only encountering a confused Maxine, before making his way into the Doll’s House, which has nothing to do with its Sandman counterpart, instead deriving its name from the giant spider composed of doll parts that dragged Edwin back to Hell.
However, we do get another Sandman tie-in when Edwin encounters Simon, the boy who sacrificed him, after he notices Despair (played again by Donna Preston) spying on them through a mirror. Edwin travels into her realm, but she sends him back, saying she wanted to watch him take his anger out on Simon. However, Edwin chooses to forgive and absolve Simon after learning he had feelings for him, and was similarly confused and ashamed, allowing Death (indicated by her telltale blue light and the sound of her wings) to relocate him. Meanwhile, Crystal confronts David, who admits he can’t return to Hell, before possessing Jenny. However, Crystal has become stronger thanks to her ancestors, and she recovers her memories before sealing him away in the recesses of her mind – albeit leaving Jenny and David’s original host very confused.
Continued belowEdwin falls prey to the spider again after Charles finds him, as we learn the monster devoured him every time he ran, but with his friend by his side this time, he manages to escape again. As they climb up the titular stairs, Edwin confesses his love for Charles, and while Charles doesn’t feel the same way, he admits he wouldn’t have done this for anyone else. Back on Earth, the Nurse gives them 30 seconds to say goodbye to everyone, but Niko – who spent the whole time studying the Nurse’s journal and asking questions – points out she needs to file a request to remove spirits who’ve returned from another plane. As irritated as she is at being played like this, the Nurse concedes, buying them another reprieve. Man, Niko is just the best.
Afterwards, Charles tells Edwin he’s happy he came out to him, reminding him they have a literal eternity to figure out how to deal with his crush. Edwin then reveals the Cat King’s bracelet is gone, meaning they could leave now to evade the Nurse if they wanted. Happy ending right? Well, Esther reemerges from the ground, and taking a leaf from Crystal’s book, viciously beats the Cat King for telling on her (ending one of his nine lives.) Learning from him that Edwin is an escapee from Hell, Esther realizes the sheer amount of power she could harness from his trauma could make her a goddess, and she threatens Tragic Mick into constructing a device that would allow her to extract it. Crystal also begins absorbing her memories, further leaving us on an uncertain note. The end montage is set to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Burning,” which was the theme song for Echo – now if I had a nickel every time a comic book TV show this year used it, I’d have two nickels, but it’s still weird it happened twice. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Star Trek: Discovery – “Labyrinths” (S5E8, Paramount+)
There is a lot going on in this episode that essentially only has three locations. The Discovery, the Breen dreadnought, and a new and fairly imaginative spot, the great archives of the galaxy, nestled deep within the stretch of dangerously stormy and uninhabited space known as The Badlands. Previously seen in both Deep Space Nine and Voyager. As the Discovery heads for the next clue, a Betazed tome held at the archives, the Breen are holding a funeral for L’ak. The Breen acknowledge L’ak’s crimes and need to ignore the Breen ways, but also noting his place within the royal family and that his funeral should be no different than if he were leading the Breen.
Moll uses this to her advantage creating a maze of truth and lies to keep herself alive and useful to the Breen Primarch. Hoping that her marriage to L’ak will give her at least some say in matters pertaining to the Progenitor’s tech, she uses it as leverage doling out just enough information to the primarch to get them to the next clue and Disco’s location. At the same time, Disco has come in contact with the head archivist, an alien female name Hy’Rell. A bubbly, friendly, and maybe too helpful librarian who helps the Disco crew navigate the uneasy path through the Badlands to get to the archive. She’s a great one-off character that added a lot of needed silliness to a mostly serious episode.
The tensions ramp up as the power and allegiances change within the Breen ranks, Michael finds the steps to the next clue within the Betazed book, Labyrinths of the mind, that leads her into a literal mind maze that she must not only navigate, but prove herself worthy to be a holder of the clues, and eventually, the technology. While quite on the nose with its usage of actual labyrinths and maze-like metaphors, the script is both classic Trek and decidedly Disco. Talking out feelings and seeing one’s personal truth are all major ideas being played with here.
There’s some great one-on-one acting here and a lot great action too. “Labyrinths” continues to be another really solid stepping stone in the greater mystery, but with two episodes of the season left, it feels that the big reveals and events will be dropping over the next two weeks.
Continued belowHighly entertaining from start to finish, but certain moments did leave me scratching my head here and there. Moll ends up gaining far more power and sway over the Breen than she should, Michael’s time within the mind mind maze is fun, but the viewer comes to a certain conclusion way before she does, and while the Archive is a very cool set mixed with digital effects, it left me wondering again, why aren’t we on Betazed? We’re at a library in the middle of space hell. Again, awesome setting, and Hy’Rell ruled, but I want far future Betazed! – Chris Egan
X-Men ‘97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3” (S1E10, Disney+)
Read our full review of the season finale by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
