At the end of The Walking Dead’s last episode, “Coda,” we mourned the loss of Beth. It was a stunner of a mid-season finale, and we were left wondering what would become of Rick, Carl, Judith, Michonne, Daryl, Carol, Gabriel, Noah, Sasha, Tyreese, Glenn, Rosita, Eugene, Abraham, Tara, and Maggie. Where would they go now and, more importantly, what we will call them now that “GREATM” doesn’t work anymore? We need a full sentence to describe their large group, like “READJuSTiNG CouRaGe CoMMiT.”
A well-dressed yet desperate-looking woman makes her way through dark alleys to find her dealer, who says, “Taylor. What brings you back?”
“My brother’s funeral’s tomorrow,” she replies. She buys two filled syringes and scurries away to shoot up. But before she can, the streetlights around her begin to explode. A hulking figure approaches her, throws her around mercilessly, and then shoots both needles into her chest. As police examine the body, lined with black veins, the woman snaps back to life.
At Jasper’s, John enters and Chas asks him if he remembered the cilantro. “I got tanas root, adder’s tongue, and catnip. So no.” A spool of yarn, the other end somewhere down one of the millhouse’s mysterious corridors, lies beside the scry map in front of Chas. Continue reading
There are some people who happened to look at the TV listings and notice that The Walking Dead is returning from its mid-season hiatus, while there are others who have been checking the days off their calendar. We fall squarely in the second category, as so far this season has been suspenseful, unexpected, and emotional. After a long break, Season 5 of The Walking Dead returns with Episode 9, “What Happened and What’s Going On,” directed by Greg Nicotero and written by Scott Gimple who were also responsible for the action-packed season opener “No Sanctuary.” We look forward to the return of almost everyone on The Walking Dead, but are especially intrigued with Carol Peletier and Daryl Dixon because of how they have each transformed as characters over the life of the series. Here we explore what it is about these characters that make their journey so engaging.
[We discusses specific plot points, storylines, dialogue and events that have happened to characters during the series.]
Wood engraving from Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (Croker).
You’ve heard of the Irish leprechaun, but do you know about the Cluricaun? Although considered by some to be the same creature, just more liquored up, the Cluricaun is among the “solitary” class of creatures of Faerie, who “are nearly all gloomy and terrible in some way” (Yeats). Like other Irish elvish creatures, Cluricauns are said to be descended from the Tuatha Dé Danann. The naughty drunkard of the family (called Clobhairr-ceann in Irish), the Cluricaun is a trickster, thief and mischief-maker who inhabits beer and wine cellars. He (for, as with leprechauns, there is no lore of the existence of females of the species) is known to go out drunk-riding on the backs of hapless dogs and sheep on moonlit nights. His face is flushed with gin blossoms and his clothing is neat and bright, and often includes blue stockings, gold-laced hats and silver-buckled shoes—but rarely an apron or tool belt. Unlike some other, more industrious creatures of Faerie, a Cluricaun doesn’t work! Continue reading
This week’s episode of Constantine marks the return of Ritchie Simpson, when some of Ritchie’s university students find themselves in another dimension with a homicidal scientist. Ritchie only appears a few times in the first dozen or so issues of Hellblazer, and the TV show version is turning out to be perhaps more interesting than the book character. We really enjoy Jeremy Davies’ portrayal of the tech-minded, pill-popping Ivy University professor with an apparent fondness for John Lydon (and Constantine’s own old punk band, Mucous Membrane). We also like it when Chas and Zed are elsewhere once in a while—John Constantine is not meant to have sidekicks. In the weekly one-line explanation of where missing members of the Constan-team are, we’re told that following the events of last week, Zed is on bed rest and Chas is off bonding with his family.
