Your favorite summer TV binging couple is back for more! Last year, my boyfriend Frank and I tackled the first season of SyFy/Amazon’s The Expanse together – – two different perspectives on the same show, one from one person who’s seen it, the other watching it for the first time. Who just happen to be dating.
This year, we’re taking a look at the TNT adaptation of Top Cow’s Witchblade comic, which aired on the network from 2001 – 2002. And just like last year, this is a show Frank has watched, and I haven’t. Hilarity is bound to ensue (again). The series follows NYPD detective Sara Pezzini and her adventures with the titular Witchblade, which gives her powers to fight supernatural evil and those who want the Witchblade for themselves.
After the August 2000 TV movie last week, the TV series picks up in earnest, closing out some of the circles from that TV movie and opening others. It should go without saying at this point given age, but spoilers within.
Kate’s Five Thoughts
1. Comic Connections
While we all know that this show is based on a comic, there’s another connection to the comics world, courtesy of director and series showrunner Ralph Hemecker. After working on series from Numb3rs to Once Upon a Time, Mr. Hemecker returned to the comics world in 2014, directing several episodes of CW’s The Flash, one of those episodes being the return of Mark Hamill’s Trickster to television. He’s continued work on The Flash today, along with directing several episodes of Legends of Tomorrow as well.
2. The Old and The New
To ground viewers who watched the TV pilot, the opening act calls back to those events, with Sara facing an inquiry over the shootout at the theater that left Danny dead. It’s resolved very quickly, which gives time for unfolding of the mystery of the week: a routine shootout that uncovers secrets of an elite military training program called the Black Dragons, a cabal of super-assassins. One of the assassins, Hector Mobius, is on the rampage, presumably driven mad by his training.
There’s not much explicit Witchblade lore provided within this episode. The titular weapon doesn’t even make an appearance until the final act as Sara does battle with Mobius, who at this point has kidnapped Kenneth. It’s a fine opportunity to show off Sara’s detective skills that she will no doubt use in tandem with the Witchblade in the future.
Of note is Mobius’s comment to Sara, as he lay dying at her hand: “You got the wrong dragon.” By this point, we have learned that there are actually two Black Dragons that were still alive: one being the quickly expiring Mobius, the other being none other than Ian Nottingham. Who also saved Sara’s life earlier in the episode. Who is friend? Who is foe? Who can be trusted?
Perhaps Sara is wise not to immediate take up Kenneth’s offer of travel and close training with the Witchblade if it will put her close to Nottingham, and by extension, in danger.
3. Seizures and South Park
While Frank and I both mused on the timeless aspects of the TV movie, “Parallax” has a few references that put it solely in its time and place. Sara’s joke about South Park comes right at a peak of the show’s popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her conversation with the medical examiner over autopsy results for one of the shootout victims references that Pokémon episode that triggered seizures when it aired in Japan “a couple of years ago” (1997). And the motorcycle shootout that introduces us to the mystery of the Black Dragons shows off the influence of extreme sports, since we’re only a few years removed from the inaugural ESPN X games in 1995.
4. There’s Some Secrets Hidden in that Good Hair
Jake/Bucky With the Good Hair seems to be hiding some things from his new partner. He seems to quickly recover from being shot during the exchange with the motorcycle men and Nottingham. And his NYPD computer shows access to a top secret federal database where he provided Sara with details on the Black Dragons. What aren’t you and your perfect hair telling us, McCarty?
Continued below5. He May Have Been Your Father, Boy, But He Wasn’t Your Daddy
The episode’s B plot centers around Sara’s adoptee identity. On the occasion of the retirement of her mentor and close family friend Joe Siri (which I suspect isn’t all voluntary, but we won’t get into that right now), he leaves her with a box of secrets about her birth parents. I’m assuming that Mr. Pezzini entrusted his friend to hold on to this in the event of his death, but he’s also been dead for several years. Why does Joe wait until now to give it to her? Was it just hidden in a back closet in his office somewhere and he just happened on it when cleaning things out?
Sara’s initially of the mindset that she doesn’t need to know or care. The couple that raised her are her parents, even if they do not share blood. But the final scene places her and that box in a showdown on her kitchen table. It’s only natural she’ll want to know something about the people who share her DNA, and perhaps it may prove distraction from the Witchblade’s mysteries – – a case she can solve versus one that has layers and layers of riddles.
Afterthoughts:
- Someone on the writing staff is a fan of British literature, as this episode features quotes from both Shakespeare and William Blake. The inclusion of the latter fits with the tone of the show. Blake often spoke of prophetic visions throughout his life, and those visions have been quite the source of scholarly study.
- Kenneth’s offer to Sara to travel and study with him has some serious seductive and romantic undertones, which apparently is a callback to the comic when the two dated briefly before she discovered his evil nature.
Frank’s Five Thoughts
1. Super Soldiers
The series starts off with an old favorite story line we see in nearly every action TV show – a government-sponsored project to create super soldiers, usually with the help of some shady corporation with whom we know our heroes will be associating. In this case, Kenneth Irons’ Vorschlag industries worked with the US government to create the Black Dragon program. They used psychotropic drugs and audiovisual conditioning for aggression and obedience. We learn, however, that the program was not very successful overall, besides Ian Nottingham. Yes, our pal Ian was a part of the group that his surrogate father experimented on with psychotropic drugs and conditioning for aggression and obedience. We have a real candidate for father of the year! The program being dropped and the soldiers abandoned explain why the former Black Dragons’ leader, Mobius, is hunting down Nottingham and Irons.
This whole plot is mainly here to show the viewer that Irons’ company has reach in many areas and has not acted very ethically – seriously, did we expect that it would? Even though it appears that Irons wants to help Sara, or at least stay close to the WitchBlade, it’s important to remember that he has unknown motives and interests.
2. Parallax
Parallax is the term used to describe the phenomenon where the position or direction of an object appears different when viewed from different positions. It is a commonly used tool by astronomers to measure the distance to stars and other bodies in space. It is also the way that our brains use our stereoscopic vision to render what we see in three dimensions.
So, what then, is its significance as this episode’s title? Our answer to this question lies with dying super soldier Mobius’ final words, “You killed the wrong dragon.” Mobius saw himself both as a dragon meant to burn the world so it can be rebuilt, but also the dragon slayer aiming to kill Kenneth Irons before he can rebuild the world differently. The parallax exists with the fact that both men see themselves as the savior of the world from their individual positions. From Pez’s perspective, they also appeared as different – one worthy of saving, the other to be killed – but their end goals may be the same.
Continued below3. Confusion Tolerance
“Parallax” starts to introduce us to some of the other potential powers of the WitchBlade beyond as a weapon and ghost telephone. Ghost-Danny remarks that she needs to begin working on her confusion talents, which is met by a very Pez “Wha?” While we don’t see anything like this in the episode, it begins to hint at the greater potential in the WitchBlade and what Pez may have to unlock within the artifact and herself.
Of course, we don’t really know what they mean by confusion tolerance. Does that mean she will be able to see through illusion and remain clearheaded in confusion situations? Or does it mean that she will be able to distract her opponents and obfuscate her actions, aiding her in her work as a hero? We’ll have to keep watching to see if they return to this idea and expand on it further.
4. Secrets
As appropriate for the first episode, “Parallax” begins to tease some of the mysteries that will carry us through the first season arcs. There are two big secrets that loom in this episode: Jake’s source of information regarding the Black Dragons and other government research and Pez’s biological family.
Pez is a good enough detective that I do not think she needed the WitchBlade to see through Jake’s BS about where he got the information on the super soldier unit. It’s not a good way to build trust between new partners, when it is obvious there is stuff being hidden. Of course, Pez isn’t in the best situation to judge, since she is hiding the WitchBlade from Jake as well as her connections to Nottingham and Irons. I do think the show tips its hand a little too much in this episode by giving us the look at Jake’s computer screen with the CIA info. More recent shows probably would have left it at Pez’s suspicion and audience speculation until a later reveal.
The information about Pez’s biological parentage is important not only for her personal development, but also in developing the mystery of the WitchBlade. Exploring one’s roots or finding out a character’s parentage had some sort of agenda was part of something larger is another well-tread trope in television. It requires the character to question who they believed they were and to assimilate new information into their identity. Done well, this helps to make a character interesting, especially when you consider the nature vs. nurture conflict and whether her actions are determined by her upbringing or her parentage. On the macro-plot level, we are told that Pez is the end of a long line of WitchBlade wielders, so by learning more of her background and ancestry we will be able to learn more about the WitchBlade and its purpose.
5. Prop Change
Also noteworthy as we shift from the TV movie to the series proper, is that for some reason they changed the WitchBlade bracelet design. It goes from a much more delicate looking bracelet with an eye-shaped stone to something more robust with a circular stone. I don’t know why, but this change is something that stuck with me ever since I watched the show during its original airing. You can see the differences in the image below.
Stray Thoughts
– The painting that Mobius was kneeling in front of is a rendition of William Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. This is the same painting that is revered by Francis Dolarhyde, aka The Tooth Fairy, in Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, the precursor to his The Silence of the Lambs.
Continued below– The start of this episode was clearly trying too hard to be with the hip young crowd with its motorbike racing and jumps. Got to give it credit for the attempted Matrix-shot as Pez dodges a bullet on a motorbike midjump.
– Mobius should go back to his flamethrower dealer for a refund with how ineffective his was. The fire-breathing street performer earlier in the episode would have done better (yeah the show laid the dragon imagery on a little too thickly).
We’ll see you next week for “Conundrum,” and let us know what you think in the comments!
