Took the morning off from writing work to do paperwork instead. Every now and then I have to do that. This weekend I have a story to start, an essay to write and two stories to get back into submission. If I can manage those things, I’ll be happy.
Everything on TV that I normally watch was a rerun last night, so I got caught up on Wednesday night shows, read for a while and made headway on the jigsaw puzzle that’s always going on the library table.
I read Nick Kaufmann’s Chasing the Dragon, from ChiZine Publications. There’s enough material for a novel, but Nick has pared it down to a fast, bloody and furious novella. The protagonist is a descendant of Saint George, the famous dragon slayer, the last of a long line of people who have fought the dragon over the millennia. There’s always been only one dragon, and each time it is defeated another rises again at some point in the future. As with any hero’s journey, this one has a period where the heroine rejected the call, running away from her inherited duty to fight the dragon. Instead, she ends up chasing a different sort of dragon: the metaphorical kind. Heroin. Ultimately, though, she accepts the call and pursues the dragon, which appears randomly and causes mayhem, a kind of entropy. It kills people who get in its way and reanimates them to fight Georgia. They’re a kind of zombie, though Nick gives them the unlovely name “meat puppets.” Georgia has confronted the dragon several times and always managed to escape, though not unmaimed. It all comes down to one final battle in a tiny western town. As I said, a fast, furious read and pleasingly original. I really do think this one could be fleshed out into a novel.
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior had one of the most cringe-worthy scenes in recent memory: the one where the perp put the ice pick into her second victim’s ear. Yikes! I’m not sure why they went to such lengths to hide the identity of the killer from the audience for so long. Put Justine Bateman’s name in the opening credits and don’t show her as the cop of the week and, well, you don’t have to be an FBI agent to figure that one out. Forest Whitaker talks way to fast to mumble the way he does. I almost needed subtitles to figure out some of his dialog.
Justified introduced a lot of new characters the other night. First, there was Kyle’s friends, the ones who want Boyd to help them out with some sort of scheme. Kyle, as you may recall, was last seen hanging out the window of Boyd’s car after Boyd took none to kindly to having his quiet after-work drink interrupted. Then there’s Orlando, the halfway house program manager and one of its residents, Clinton, a guy with anger management issues who wants to get away for a day so he can give a present to his 12 year old son for his birthday. Clinton just happens to be Rachel’s brother-in-law and, oh yeah, responsible for Rachel’s sister’s death, which is why he’s in the halfway house. Clinton reaches out to his old buddy Flex, who aspires to be the “first big bad-ass magician,” gleefully announcing that he learned all the basics on YouTube. That’s before he and Clinton get in an argument over whether Flex will drive Clinton to his son’s house and Flex ends up with a bullet in his hand for his troubles, which may put a serious crimp in his plan to be the next Criss Angel. Flex is a hoot, though I’m not sure he survived the episode. Would love to see him again.
To keep the Bennetts in the mix, lest we forget them, Raylan palavered with them to let them know that he knows that Dickie was involved in the robbery of the Oxy bus operated by the Frankfurt branch of the Dixie mafia. The last thing he wants to deal with is a full-out drug war in Harlan. Mags doesn’t take too kindly to his intervention, though she does offer him a piece of pie (I wouldn’t take anything that women offered me to eat or drink!) and upbraided her offspring for straying from her program. Dickie is a bit of a loose canon and his brother the sheriff warns him against taking any action before consulting “someone who can think.” Another allusion to the “history” between the Bennetts and the Givenses, without explanation, except that it somehow led to an incident 21 years ago that meant that Dickie “hasn’t walked right since.”
We got to learn a lot more about Rachel, who said that until her father got cancer she always thought they were the Cosbys. Raylan says he never had similar illusions about his family, to which his boss responded: You’re family wasn’t funny.” Sharpshooter Tim said that at least Raylan got to shoot his father. “Mine died before I got back from basic training with some skills and a loaded weapon.” Raylan laughed. “I thought it was going to be way more fun than it was.”
Rachel’s nephew, Nick, had a funny scene where he’s playing on a computer at HQ. He’s supposed to be playing solitaire but he’s gotten into the database. “I found you a husband,” he tells his aunt. “I know, he’s old and he’s white, but he gets out in three years.”
Most of the episode dealt with getting Clinton back under wraps. The furbie (a cheap knock-off furby that only spoke Chinese) got wounded in the shootout, and also got a bit of blood, presumably Flex’s, on it, but his son seemed happy with the gift. Other incidents: Gary asked Winona for a divorce, though Raylan perceived some double-dealing. Raylan met with a guy who used to represent the Dixie mafia to try to head off any possible violence. The guy was sitting at his desk, wearing a suit coat and dress shirt but no pants. “Well, I suppose there’s no reason for you to get up,” Raylan says.
Looks like Boyd is going to give in to temptation next episode. Should be fun. Nice scene between Boyd and Ava on the porch. Boyd, who’s reading Of Human Bondage, says that if he had long hair, he might be the lead singer in a rock band, even though he can’t sing a lick.
