RvB Revelation, Episode 20

[shichahn]

Did you click it? Have you not seen it? Jesus fuck what is wrong with you, go catch up already.






Okay? Are we good?














Last warning.












SPOILERS BELOW GODDAMNIT.
















Now I'm all paranoid and don't want to type anything because some of you losers will click on every single fucking thing that says SPOILERS DON'T READ THIS! because you're idiots. Oh well. I guess I can't do anything about that but give in, now.

Was that not the sweetest, most beautiful little monologue at the end there? Epsilon, you're adorable. He will never be Alpha (who is still around, I swear, there is a way that that can happen, now!) but he's still adorable and I do love him.

I'm of mixed feelings about how the season ended. I think there were a lot of questions raised by the Recollections trilogy that didn't get answered well at all. Or just weren't even touched. I kept waiting for Ep to go insane from the burden of his horrific long-term memories, if he even accessed them at all. I think he must have, and was able to get past them, but if that's the case, how depressing is it that his favorite memories are 1) one he had to fill in himself based on Caboose's stories, hence Reachified Blood Gulch, and 2) one who has gone missing, who he now hopes he'll find someday because he just can't help but love her that much. I mean, my god, we all know RvB can be awfully dark for a supposed comedy, but that's just so sad. And sweet, at the same time. Really, really sweet.

Meta's death (if he's indeed dead, which, I hope so) was epic. I have a newfound appreciation for Sarge, haha. Wash becoming a Blue finally was beautiful irony and I love it. I love that Burnie found a way to let him survive the series in a way that made sense, too, because I couldn't really see any end that didn't involve him dying after the Recreation finale. And now what? Will we ever see Halo 3 and the "real" world (I now have doubts about its reality, argh) ever again? Or will the next season be Reach-only? Or the opposite - are Church and Tex gone for good? I know a couple of small facts about season 9 that I won't state here that are somewhat related to those questions, but they don't really answer them entirely. For the most part.

I don't really feel like writing up a big thing about the nature of reality and the cycle and what it all means for Church and Tex, Alpha and Epsilon and their individual Tex incarnations, because that would take a lot of effort and it doesn't entirely make sense to me. But boy oh boy did this season end in a place and in a way I definitely didn't anticipate. Feel free to comment on that, and maybe we can hash something out in the comments that makes sense. I think we're missing a large piece of the picture still, though. They may not address it for a while (read: after a couple more years' worth of seasons in new-BG), but when they do, I think some big assumptions about this show are going to be dissolved immediately. We'll see. But I think that the trailer for Recreation is a major, major hint. Or at least, I hope so.

Comments

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

So it's like 4:30 a.m. and I'm braindead and can't articulate, so... basically... THIS.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

When you're not braindead and can articulate, I'd love to read any additional thoughts you have. ;)

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

Um, I dunno, I did some similar flailing at Manda about how incredibly sweet Epsilon's speech about love and memory is. And d'aaaaaaawwww what a big softie he is!! Like, first off, how he admits how much he loves Tex, and secondly... okay, I know a lot of his memory is stuff Caboose told him, but I think it's sweet that Blood Gulch and all of the idiots who live there is a good memory for him. And I loved the bit where he tells Caboose to remember him - and not to let Tucker help because he'd just mess it up, ka-burn! ...The thing with Tucker is a joke, but I love it because it really shows how much he actually likes Caboose. Again, I know Epsilon's relationship with Caboose is a little different (or rather, he's more able to admit to it), but... AAAAAWWWWW!!

Yay Wash joining the Blues! Also, Wash vs Meta = HOT.

Ummmm I can't remember if I had any other profound thoughts. Just that Manda and I agree that Epsilon and Caboose have an adorable relationship and we'd love to see fic exploring their storytime. XD

...Also, pffff, is it just me or are we a little Life on Mars here now? Epsilon is trapped in his mind in those last few seconds before death....

Anyway, it was lovely and ARGH I WANT MORE, but as season finales go I don't think it can really top finding out Church is the Alpha and the Director is Leonard Church. Nothing can beat that OHMIGOD HOLYSHIT 8O feeling.

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

...I WANT DONUT!!! TT_TT

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

Patience ;D

I don't know about Life on Mars, he's trapped in his own mind but I wouldn't say it's during a few seconds before death. I think it's going to be more than one season before the whole cycle is undone, but it's actually a little bit more like Inception, as much as I hate to compare it to that film (because that doesn't seem fair when it's Inception that's like RvB, seeing as how Burnie has probably been sitting on this idea of his for years now). We have multiple layers of reality - two or three at minimum depending on if "the cycle" really does imply that everything we saw before Reach was the last layer, created by the previous Epsilon/Alpha. But it's a little too convoluted for me to fully work out because, as I said, I think we're missing part of it.

And yeah, sorry Burnie, but until anyone actually understands what just happened in Revelation, Reconstruction is still my favorite season. It had a clear plot, which certainly raised questions but actually answered a few more than this one did, and it sure is hard to beat that double-whammy of episodes 16 and 19. If the "revelation" this season is that we had the entire concept of reality in this show wrong the whole time, and if that had been presented in a way that made that very clear and actually explained it, that would have been just as big, but instead I just really don't know what's going on anymore.

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

...Yeah but I thought the thingy was that that storage device was all fucked up? Didn't they just watch it break? Destroying anything inside? Isn't it implied that he and Tex will be lost forever (not that I think he actually will be)?

...The Inception metaphor is very appropriate, though, yeah.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

They watched it lock down so that they can't open it back up again. Not without the proper tools to do so. Epsilon had a few seconds in which he could have made it back out again, maybe, though still probably not because it was supposedly a one-way deal the whole time so he wouldn't be able to escape on his own. But they were going to have to be able to get him out eventually, as evidence. Argh. Anyway, he'll have to find Tex, and maybe some time after he does (hopefully), the Chairman will have found a way to extract the storage unit's contents as, well, evidence. Maybe. Someone in the level above Epsilon's dreamworld will have to bring them up out of it, anyway. And then up out of the level above that, if that was what we were seeing with the Recreation trailer, which I suspect might be the case. Or I could be way off the mark. But that looked like a Church who had found his Tex and they seemed to have figured things out to some extent.

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh okay, I guess yeah the Inception thing does make a lot more sense.

Also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH okay so last night I watched the finale but hadn't gotten around to watching the extra just-for-sponsor bits on eps 13, 14, and 15. I literally JUST NOW finished watching episode 13 and ASKHJDFIGHLBLZHGJIZZKGH DONUT!! ...WHAT A HORRIBLE THING TO LEAVE OUT OF THE OFFICIAL VERSIONS OF THE EPS!!!! WHAT THE SHIT!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

...I am so happyyyyyyyy!!! T_T Also wtf he's a program too? Or something? @_@

*goes to watch other eps*

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

Did 14 and 15 even have an extra stuff in them? Was it just 13? Was it other episodes and not those? *confused*

..TOTALLY WORTH IT FOR 13 THOUGH.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

You know, Burnie told us they would, but as far as I know I can't figure out if they actually do or not. So maybe he lied.

As for Donut, no, he's human. And got blood on his new shoes. But his armor locked down when he was shot to prevent further injury to him... Except, as it's worded currently in the show, he wasn't released from armor lock, he was let out of recovery mode, which implies not that he is an AI but that he's hosting one. I honestly really doubt that, and attribute the whole scene to some very confusing writing. Burnie posted an explanation in his journal, and I'll dig it up and paste it here in a bit, but it wasn't a very good explanation because the way he specifically words it seems to say that Donut and CT both were carrying AI and I don't think that was what he actually meant.

Finally, the reason that scene wasn't included in the regular cut was that it didn't fit with the story. He didn't want people seeing Donut pop up in the middle of the season, only to not see him the rest of the season at all. We will see him next season, however. So apparently we'll be seeing part of what may or may not be the real world, in addition to the world in Epsilon's storage unit.

[hyper-amychao.livejournal.com]

Sorry but I had to jump in.

And yeah, sorry Burnie, but until anyone actually understands what just happened in Revelation, Reconstruction is still my favorite season.

I couldn't agree more!

[hyper-amychao.livejournal.com]

I agree with you soooo much!

The ending was beautifully done, but it definitely left me with a couple questions.

I, for one, am glad Meta's finally dead. I hope. XD

And Wash joining the Blue team? ffff yeeees!

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

A couple? Just a couple? I really don't think this season answered anything we'd thought to ask about before. We now have a better handle on what Tex is, but we still don't exactly have anything conclusive. We have an indication of what the cycle might be, but we don't know for sure, and we still don't know why memory is the key or what it's the key to. We don't know what happened to all of those horrific things in Epsilon's long-term memory and why they don't seem to be bothering him to the point of suicide, or if what Wash told us is even completely valid (he certainly was having problems of his own during that time). And... I could go on and on.

[martienne17.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was definitely disappointed with the level of reveal in this season - where did they get that name, again? And the ending actually got me so upset I was fighting off tears for 14 hours after I saw it.

I kind of had this theory going about how Sidewinder was a messed-up recollection of the attempted Alpha rescue (after Tex talked about Alpha not even recognizing her anymore), and nothing they revealed in any way confirmed or denied that. And they didn't really clarify what happened with Epsilon - was it actually a suicide, or did the previous incarnation of Tex shoot him?

I do have an ending for BK now, though. I didn't really know how I was going to wrap that up, before.

/disjointed comment

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

I think the problem was that there was so much story that needed to be packed into this season, more than 20 episodes could ever cover. I really wish he had found a way to balance that with Recreation, in which nothing happened except that Epsilon got to laserface a one-off villain and Wash shot Donut and Lopez and teamed up with the Meta.

But yeah, argh, Sidewinder. Obviously, a hugely critical location, between what happened to Epsilon there, and Tex's rescue attempt or whatever that was. I think you're right about what we do know of Sidewinder being a seriously distorted version of the truth through Church's memories. That was my interpretation as well. I don't get why Wash was all "The only place that's left!" or whatever he said about it when the beacon pointed there, and I really wish we had been given some indication as to whether Wash's story that Epsilon tried to kill himself was true, and what exactly happened there at the end of their relationship. I hadn't thought about him possibly being shot by a previous Tex, but that's kind of an interesting idea. If only we had actually been told what exactly the stupid goddamn cycle that they were supposed to prevent even is.

Sigh. Too many questions. And not the good kind of questions, like the ones Reconstruction raised. No, I feel like these are questions that really should have been answered before "the end of Tex's story" as he keeps putting it.

[martienne17.livejournal.com]

Yeah, more story than 20 episodes could cover, so they tortured us with all that filler instead. Guess they couldn't even decide what to reveal.

[fourteenplusone]

Burnie, Burnie, Burnie. A mad genius except for when he fails to deliver. Not that he did, because there was a lot of really good stuff in this season. I really did like it. And Epsilon's little speech at the end was so beautiful. But man, the number of loose ends is unbelievable. I really want to come up with a list of questions and paste it to Burnie's journal, but I don't want to bother him, and I feel like it just isn't very fair that so much of this series should have to be explained outside of the story. I guess what I really want is for him to know we have all these questions and to know that we would like for them to be answered in some way, in some season or other. I dunno.

Uh, pardon the RP journal. Internet is too slow here to make switching back and forth very fun.

[martienne17.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, part of next season is going to delve into Freelancer back-story, so it has been speculated that more of the history between Tex and the Director will be expanded upon. Maybe what really happened at Sidewinder will be revealed then.

I neglected to mention that I was extremely unhappy with the redemption of Wash thing at the end there. I suppose this may be an unpopular opinion, but when Wash became a self-aggrandizing crusader of justice I started hating him.

[fourteenplusone]

I'd heard Burnie was thinking about doing Freelancer backstory sometime in the future, but I hadn't heard it would be as soon as this next season. That would be pretty interesting, though. Definitely something I want to know more about.

Oh, Wash. Poor Wash. He's been written so inconsistently that I no longer know what to think of him. I quite like him as exposition-guy-with-personal-agenda-who-gets-backstabbed-regularly, as he was in Recovery One and Recon. I was fine with him in Recreation, too, as the guy who'd had just a little too much and was out to fend for himself regardless of who got screwed over, because that's just standard Freelancer operating procedure anyway. But he was all over the place this season. Villain, comedic ineffectual villain, friend and ally, etc. etc. I like that he's a Blue now because it's hilarious that Sarge thought so the whole time anyway. I do not like that the Reds are apparently okay with considering this guy a friend, when he shot Lopez and Donut, killing both of them as far as they know. They just sort of... forgot that part. Somehow. ... So I'll just keep remembering Wash as he was in the first couple of things he showed up in, and maybe he'll become consistent again eventually.