sholio | Invisible Man watch/rewatch

I know I kinda fell off schedule with these posts. I figured rather than trying to play catchup, I'd just skip ahead and do today's post on schedule. I plan to do "Impetus" on Wednesday and "The Devil You Know" next Saturday - how does that work?

Spoilers for future episodes should be hidden using one of the following methods:

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LJ spoiler cut: <lj-spoiler>spoiler text</lj-spoiler> -- does not work on DW
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Invisible Man 1x04 - Tiresias

Okay, so -- this episode. I loved all the bits of the running subplot with the Official's "creative accounting", but overall, this is by far my least favorite of the season one episodes. It wouldn't have frustrated me so badly if Darien wasn't having the (accurately prophetic) dreams, but I couldn't understand why he was having the dreams, why there's a connection to the psychic guy, why psychic powers are a thing in this episode but never before or again ... and why everyone had to be such monumental IDIOTS in order for the prophesies to go ahead and play out as predicted (such as Hobbes and the Keeper both missing the obvious warning signs that Darien is teetering on the edge of quicksilver madness, and Hobbes GIVING HIM HIS GUN, wtf?!). The whole "blind prophet" trope is not one I'm fond of anyway and I greatly disliked the literal way it was handled in the episode. I wished that the prophet had turned out to be the fraud he seemed at first, and Darien's dreams hadn't come to pass in quite such a literal way (as in, every frame in his dream actually happening in the show -- metaphor I can handle, and makes sense as something he'd be having nightmares about, but exact prophesy ... maybe not so much).

That said, focusing on the things I liked:

- I continue to love Darien's antagonistic relationship with the people he works with/for, and the mutual distrust on both sides.

- The "creative accounting" subplot mentioned above was great (the Official and Eberts covering things up whenever Darien would walk in!) and there were quite a few cute/funny bits throughout the episode ("I'm going to kill Hobbes." / "What'd he do this time?").

- We also got more of Darien's worries about doing something really terrible when he snaps, and Darien actually going after Hobbes hits my "under mind control and trying to kill your friends*" buttons. There was some pretty good character stuff in this episode; I just wish it hadn't been wrapped up in a plot that really annoyed me.

*for certain values of friends

- I also liked Hobbes figuring out the solution to the mystery. He really is smart, even if he often doesn't show it, and I like it when it comes out.

Anyway, that's just me! What do you think? Feel free to disagree! (Or not, as the case may be.)

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I was pretty darn baffled by the whole psychic powers plot. Especially now that you say they're never going to come up again. That said, hah, the Keeper and Hobbes being stupid about was, well, stupid, but, in my view, not out of place. I mean, I feel like so far there's a strong tendency for the other characters to not really acknowledge Darien's experiences and emotions, even when he's telling them he's about to go violently insane. This could just be me, and it could be because I've seen so little of the series, but it does seem to me like the Keeper sees Darien as a lab rat she's kind of fond of, and while Hobbes isn't that bad, he doesn't seem willing/able to acknowledge that Darien's experiences and reasons are wildly unlike his own. Dying for your country doesn't feel nearly so noble when your country is shoving you in the line of fire with little to no regard for your safety.

That said, I actually feel like this episode gave me more insight into the non-Darien characters. The Keeper does seem sort of fond of Darien, and she doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. It was stupid of her to ignore his insistence that the quicksilver madness was coming, but the issues with the counter agent are real and serious. If it has a short shelf life (as revealed last episode) and tolerance is a real risk, then she has a lot of factors to contend with. That doesn't make it smart or right to ignore Darien, but I can see why she would want to tell herself that he was imagining things.

And like you, I enjoyed seeing Hobbes solve the case. It's becoming more and more clear that he's a had a pretty rotten life, and I can see why he's latched onto his work for the agency to give his life meaning. Once again, he should realize that Darien has extremely valid reasons not to share his POV, but I can see where that POV comes from.

Hell, even the Official. I know he's manipulative as hell, but I'm ready to believe his tirade at Darien was genuine. It's fucked up, but I can believe that he believes it. (And yes, watching the Official's creative accounting was a great sub-plot.)

The whole psychic plot was ... somewhere between "confusing mess" and the kind of crack that is just so bizarre that you have to relax and go with it, I suppose. (Like

alessandriana said over on LJ, "Was the old guy giving Darien these dreams? Is Darien just independently psychic? WHO KNOWS.") It was so weird.

... that said, you're right that we got quite a bit of background and saw more of the other characters this time around. Like I was just saying in a comment on LJ, my initial thoughts on viewing was that the Keeper should have been more alert to the signs of Darien's quicksilver madness. But upon reflection, I think she did the only thing she could, really, considering the short shelf life and tolerance issue. At least half the problem here is that she doesn't give him all the information at the outset -- and I can even see why she's doing that, really (I get the impression that it's partly ingrained classified-data habit and partly because she's busy and he keeps interrupting her and she doesn't have time, perhaps with a side of not being terribly good at people), but it seems like sitting Darien down and explaining everything she knows about his condition would help a great deal with securing his cooperation.

but it does seem to me like the Keeper sees Darien as a lab rat she's kind of fond of, and while Hobbes isn't that bad, he doesn't seem willing/able to acknowledge that Darien's experiences and reasons are wildly unlike his own.

No, I agree with this assessment, at least at this point in the series. I think the Keeper sees Darien as a science project (that she's slowly getting to know as a person) and Hobbes views him as a rather unwelcome assignment (that he's slowly getting to know as a person).

I think the Keeper should have been more alert, but I can also see why she wasn't. People reporting side effects should be listened to, particularly when said side effect is violent, uncontrollable rage. The fact that they know so little about how the quicksilver works is all the more reason to pay attention when Darien reports a problem. But the Keeper does have to balance that with all the issues that come with the counter agent. Not giving Darien the counter agent could cause him to go into quicksilver madness, but giving it to him too often and too early will cause it to stop working or be significantly less effective. And it's just easy to believe that Darien's reacting out of anxiety and paranoia. After all, it's pretty natural that he'd be feeling that way.

I do feel that the Keeper isn't good with people. Acknowledging that I'm going off only these episodes, I'd guess that she's used to working with literal lab rats, who don't interrupt her or make demands. She really doesn't exactly know how to deal with him as human being. (I could be totally wrong about all of this.)

Yeah; I have more episodes to go on, and I still feel this way about her -- that, while she has a lot less visible emotional damaged than the other characters, she's been a fairly isolated person, who is primarily focused on her work and her (literal) lab rats. She really does care about Darien, but she's terrible at displaying it.

Regarding the counter-agent - I always wondered why there wasn't a way to give him a partial dose. (Or if that was mentioned and I'm just not remembering it now.) So rather than dose him when the tattoo is all the way full, do a small dose when it's a little full. Though, I'm not sure the implications of that either.

I can kinda see why that might not work from a perspective of building up immunity -- the immunity issue would still be a problem, even if it might not happen quite as fast.

It does seem like they should have at least mentioned the possibility, though!

Yeah - I can't remember if they mention that facet or not. I know they mention a few times about 'No, Darien, the quicksilver STILL gets all up in ur blood, even when u don't go see-through... so - u haz to b careful.'

Invisible Man watch/rewatch - 1x04 Tiresias

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