The Spoiler's Review

!! SPOILER ALERT !! - LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BEFORE YOU COME HERE!

What…. Who the hell….am I on the right podcast? Did I accidently turn on the iTunes radio?

Oh it’s an advert.

I promise I’ll refrain from spamming LOTR references (Lord of the Rings) because that’s no doubt going to be smeared all over the forums until this character passes away and that just stinks. However I can forgive its usage since we are nerds after all. Good nerds though… because we like zombies more than hobbits.

I absolutely must bring some attention to this thread started by member iheartkc (I know right). She noted that the characters of WA have names with origins that correspond with their personality or situation. Such as the name Durai meaning “chief, leader” in the Tamil (Indian) language, or how the pilot Kalani means “the Heavens.” Most of names originate from Bible stories but you don’t have to be religious to see the connections. Regardless of your beliefs, it’s an intriguing read and quite foretelling of what may come.

Chapter 21.1 - Blondie and the Beast

Angel lets Pippin (Latin for foreigner, stranger) in the Tower for inspection. Michael describes him as a hot swollen mess. He has an accent of some sorts, something European. Tanya is allowed to fix him up and comments on how fresh his wounds look. This smells even fisher than the last episode. Scratch told us she was going to drop Pippin off in the last chapter so the assumption is that he’s been planted into the Tower as a mole. But whhhhhhhhhyyyyy is this all so obvious? Writing, what are you doing? This isn't your style. What kind of trickery is this? You NEVER just hand over answers this easy. I think you’re trying to poison me, poison me with lies. You are, aren’t you?

Post-Colony Michael 2.0 seeks advice from Angel on what to do with him but, as usual, instead of showing off those officer training school skills he puts control back in Michael’s hands to play second fiddle. Dude, do you really need to get laid in order to show some balls? I mean-*sigh*… nevermind.

Moving on.

An explosion up north steals their attention. The Arena is burning. Dun dun duuuuunn.

We cut over to what’s left of the Maller’s convoy. They count their losses which unfortunately includes some of the tankers they’ve spent months collecting. A light bulb goes on when the happenings of chapter 5 start to make more sense. I’m digging the two extra voices portraying the Mallers by the way.

Through this conversation we learn that Durai is alive (yay!) and headed South (eh?) with the other convoy; this convoy is headed north to the Arena (ruh-roh); they have a mission to destroy (or at least severely cripple) the creature base; Tardust is brainier than he appears, go figure.

Bricks character is starting to show some consistency but not in a good way. It’s given that he’s a brute but a little slow on the uptake. He had to be told to protect Lizzy from Tars Johnson (yeah, I’m not gonna let that go) and now he’s walking around with a mutated severed arm looking for a recycling bin. Writing has made him out to be a big softie and the audience falls right into the love trap. Thankfully the voice actor plays this character well and naturally.

Cue creepy music as Lizzy (Bible, a woman who was told by an angel that she would bare a son) describes the mysterious arm. It carries over the rest of the conversation beautifully adding to the eeriness of the scene and ends abruptly in a great spot. Audio, great job with the volume changes on the rigs.

I note Scratch’s amazing devotion and loyalty to Durai (Indian, chief or leader). She doesn’t want to disappoint him or lie to him and even killed a man to cover the loss of their tanker in Chapter 5. What is she to him? What is he to her? I don’t sense that they’re lovers. It’s more like he’s a father-figure of some sort… I can’t put my foot on it. She tells the others that Durai understands something about the creatures. Since the Mallers have been collecting tankers since the beginning, that means he knew about the Arena HQ early in the game. Too many questions.

Cue more cool creepy music.

Angel runs into drunk Riley on the rooftop (the perfect opportunity, no?). She’s bitter towards Burt (Old English, meaning memorable) and blames him for losing Lizzy, and everybody. This is unusual behavior for her character since she’s the one that gives everyone a pep talk. I think almost everyone from the original Tower group has gotten some kind of boost from her. She vents her frustration on Angel who is more than willing to listen. Her “tall blonde” is gone and probably dead. Angel, you can be a real sweety when you’re in love but you just don’t get it.

Enter Kalani and Datu who are going over landing preparations for the helicopters. They catch the tail end of Riley’s BF (bitch-fit) and fail to realize how lucky they are when she walks away at that moment because my God, she probably would’ve defenestrated them all. We then have an awkward moment where the three guys try to figure out female problems while sad music blares in the background. I guess it is a sad moment because, guess what, they’re ALL wrong.

Please Riley, just come out already. Stop prolonging what we already know. I want Angel to be totally broken before he sees Scratch again. Then let the unforeseen hookups begin! Yeah, Ra1th I said it.

We get back to the Mallers just as Scratch gives her team the green light to move in on the Arena. Tar lets Lizzy in on a tidbit of notable info. The Mallers aren’t entirely aware of how the creatures operate. Surprisingly slow Bricks is the only one to realize that the Tower folks actually called the creatures to the War in chapter 12. Consistency FTW?

Congratulations to the zombie growl winners! You’re now WA Zelebrities! Nice job working them in Audio!

The End

So the story was told out of order in this episode. Since we’re telling two sides of the story from different POVs I think it worked well. The storytelling was much smoother and cleaner than the juxtaposing format used in 20.3. Again I like that the producers are trying new things. This chapter really opened up new questions that we’ll likely have to wait for Season 3 to hear an answer for. Who is Durai? Who is Scratch? What’s their relationship? How does Durai know what he knows even though he was locked up at Eastern Bay before the fallout? I’ve become more interested in the Mallers and what they can bring to the table in this post-apocalyptic world.

I know Lizzy is alive from her journal entries. Scratch better be too (W.I.F.E.S.W.A.P.). I expect a whopper of a cliff hanger next episode. If the Tower people don’t intercept the 2nd convoy on their journey south, they’ll probably never find Blondie and have to deal with the creatures trailing them. If the Tower does manage to capture the convoy (after Riley comes out of course) then that’ll give Angel and Scratch some time to “catch up.” Heheehehehehe!

Writing 92%
Audio 97%
Acting 97%
Episode Rating 95.3%

0 Likes, 0 , 0 , 0