Ugh, had about a half way done review going and my Macbook air froze on me so I lost the whole thing. It p***** me off but I'm ready to try this again.
I'm glad you did though, gives us so much to talk about!
This is my least favorite of the evil leaper trilogy; adding Zoey as a leaper took it too far in my opinion. Up until Sam pulls a screaming Alia out of what they called "The Box" is watchable but then with all these leapers and holograms competing with each other it essentially became a leaper Hunger Games. It took away from the QL atmosphere in my opinion.
I actually found it really interesting and entertaining, but yes you are right, not really QL-like...
Still there are aspects if this episode which were interesting. Once again we learn slightly more about the evil project and even meet a new character. The reveal that Zoey was intended to be their leaper but she'd appealed to them to send Alia to repay a favor was interesting but they should have elaborated. To only tell half that story made little sense like a professor assigning the second half of the book to read but not the first.
I get the feeling that the Evil Project would have been elaborated on in Season 6 had the show not been cancelled, so I can forgive them for that. But yes, I too would have loved this to be elaborated on.
The notion to use hypnotism to cloak Alia from Lothos was very clever and opens up the possibility that for Sam to find a way to better control it so that he may intentionally tap into a leapee's mind. I however feel that when Al put the idea out there the reference he should have used is Dreams not Shock Theater. The leap in which Sam had actually literally been put into hypnosis and nearly falling victim to that sociopath psychiatrist. During that scene Al had mentioned barely being able to establish a lock on him. So in that way that could be a superior function that the evil project did not manage.
100% agreed, they should have talked about the "Dreams" leap, but Shock Theatre fits too, as by Sam changing personas then, Al was losing the lock too, and by hypnotising Alia they were essentially changing her persona...
Lightning McQueenie's take that it had also effected Alia's leapee thus causing her condition in the waiting room is quite intelligent.
That indeed was one of the highlights of the episode, it absolutely amuses me how when Liz snaps at Al that "The waiting room doesn't tell me chip" he gets this priceless 'ok backing off' expression.
As for why he did not show sympathy for Angel, he was probably ignorant. He clearly saw her condition as a typical effect of leaping. He says as much when he tells Liz that "It's a bi-product of how you here."
Not to mention his sympathies seem to have to either be earned or hit home such as with Jimmy or Running for Honor.
Mind-merging is definitely a two-way street, as we saw in LHO when Oswald in the Waiting Room was able to recite String Theory, and later even took on Sam's persona.
This actually got me thinking - Angel in the Waiting Room should really have taken on Alia's persona. In fact, maybe Al could have even hypnotised her to make the memory transition easier on her. Doing this, he could have even had Angel (as Alia) tell him more about the Evil Project, including any weaknesses...
This and the fact that she'd sent a bullet into her abusive husband thus ending up in the prison establishes Liz as one badass b****. Which brings me to Lightning McQueenie's other question regarding a planned rape. There is no way I'd buy the actual Meyers trying that on the actual Liz, she'd probably castrate him. As for Zoe in the role, though I never got the impression that she'd planned to rape Liz, yeah she'd knowingly rape Sam. She made a display of being attracted to him in Deliver Us... as no exception to her having a level of lecherous-ness which rivals Al's.
The first thing she said when she saw him was:
"Who is this tasty morsel?"
But that's the thing though, "Myers" wasn't actually Myers at the time, and Zoe wouldn't have known (or cared) about how "Liz" would react.
In any other situation, I agree, Zoe would drug and rape Sam in a heartbeat, but in this case, she was so obsessed with revenge I'm sure she'd give her loins a rest for a leap
Returning to the hypnotism, lets look at the scene I mentioned as the last which is watchable for me, Alia in "The Box". This came across to me as a piece of Alia had come through with Angel's claustrophobia. Remember she'd been tortured after failing to kill Sam in Deliver Us.... Being chained to that wall may have triggered that memory. She'd been sobbing:
"I didn't do it." a statement that wasn't clear to Sam and Al.
Al even said at the beginning that at best she'd only absorbed a little bit of Angel's memory.
So that was pretty interesting and being a sucker for mush I liked seeing Sam comforting her when he'd gotten her out of those chains.
See I always thought that it was just Angel's claustrophobia coming through, but you have a point, part of Alia may have broken through. This may even explain why Lothos was able to get a lock on Alia in the box. It's just lucky that Vivian had already moved her.
As for the "I didn't do it" line, I just assumed that it was Angel coming through, saying that she didn't kill Carol. It would make sense, because later she tells Sam that Carol had said something to Liz earlier that night. This is what prompted Al to interrogate Liz in the Waiting Room...
Speaking of Vivian though, I loved her character, and her line "If I'm about to step into the Twilight Zone, I need a damn minute!" - it's especially funny if you realise that Carolyn Seymour (Zoe) was IN the Twilight Zone
Also I noticed a line that may or may not be an error.
Somewhere near the beginning Zoey demands of Thames as a response to not being able to find Alia to talk to her leapee in their version of a waiting room called the Holding Chamber. To which Thames' response was:
"There's no one there."
I assume he simply wasn't counting Meyers but I feel the line still should have been more clear about that such as:
"Meyers is the only one there." or
"There's no one there but Meyers."
I noticed this as well. Either Thames omitted Myers in the Holding Chamber because it was irrelevant, or they had checked before Zoe leapt and found it empty, and Zoe had just forgotten due to the partial swiss-cheesing of her memory.
Then I've already discussed with Lightning McQueenie in his Interesting observations thread about the whole controversy over the shoot off at the end and theories of how a bullet had grazed the blue leap light over Alia and then produced a disoriented but psychically unharmed Angel. A similar event occurred with Zoey. The logic behind that is not clear but I wish there had been more exploring of it because I need it for the climax of my fanfic.
Over all about 3/5 stars.
Whatever your take on the shooting incidents is, by all means use it in your fanfic. There really is no right or wrong. My opinion is that the bullet intended for Alia missed them both - just being absorbed by or passing through the empty aura in that split second where they were being switched out, and that the bullet intended for Zoe did in fact hit her and wound her. I personally think that Thames initiated her leap out (he was frantically pressing buttons on the handlink) to try and get her medical attention back at the project (it was within 48 hours so she should have been able to be retrieved). The bullet must have gone with her, because it didn't appear that there was an exit wound, and when the real Myers had returned, completely unharmed, the bullet had disappeared.
I personally really enjoy this episode and there is a lot to talk about, and I would have liked to see more of the Evil project storyline in future episodes had there been a chance. Shame it never came to pass...
