Month: January 2016

This episode is the required Halloween special for the series. Now I recognize that usually Halloween specials are often cop-outs as the writers can turn off their brains and write a generic script around something “spooky”, but I love Halloween specials. In fact, I love all holiday specials. I have no idea why, but they all seem to have a charm about them that just draws me in. This one is especially good as the writers of this series always came up with the most interesting ideas.

Summary:

Another cold open with a flashback. In this one, we see Ned in a line waiting for mail. He usually gets nothing, but on Halloween he gets a postcard from his father. His initial excitement wears off as he learns that its a notification that he moved. This prompts Ned to run away from the boarding school and visit his father’s new house in costume. When there, he’s heartbroken again as he finds his father with a new wife and two new sons. The cold open then flashes back to the present and we come to focus on a man in a horse stable. His night ends early as he gets trampled by a costumed, fire-breathing horse.

After the cold open, we move to the Pie Hole where we see that Chuck has decorated for Halloween. Olive explains that its a bad idea since Ned hates Halloween. Chuck dismisses this because, as a child, Ned loved Halloween and the time they spent together. The two then discuss Chuck’s secret with Olive believing that Chuck faked her death.

Ned then enters the diner and sees the Halloween decorations. Even though he is visibly distraught, and Chuck offers to take them down, Ned lets them stay up. From this scene, we move to Olive’s bedroom and see her reveling in the fact that she knows more about Ned than Chuck does.While jumping on her bed in excitement, Olive learns of the murder of Lucas Shoemaker on the news, clearly recognizing the victim.

In the meantime, Ned and Chuck talk in the kitchen about Halloween. Ned deflects the questions about his newfound hatred of the holiday, and Chuck deflects the questions about why mentioning Olive made her visibly nervous.

After this, we follow Olive to a safety deposit box, where she takes out a large trophy and a bag of money. We return to the Pie Hole and Olive hires Emerson to investigate the murder. We learn from Olive that the victim was a farrier and an old competitor of hers when she was a professional, and quite renowned, horse jockey. This causes a giggle from Emerson, but Olive is quite serious.

At the morgue, Ned and the other two find the body of Lucas Shoemaker. Ned reawakens the body and Chuck cements herself as lead interpreter of the group since she is the only one that can understand him because of his broken jaw. Shoemaker believes that he was killed by the ghost of John Joseph Jacob and warns that he will kill again. With the other jockeys in danger, they return to the Pie Hole and tell Olive. She faints at the mention of John Joseph Jacob and the gang splits up: Emerson and Olive going to a jockey bar, Chuck going to the stables, and Ned going on his own personal, secret mission.

We cut to a flashback of Olive’s days as a horse jockey. We learn that while Olive was exceptional, John Joseph Jacob was the best in the world. At the “race of the century” where the best jockey compete, John Joseph Jacob falls off his horse and is trampelled by his competitors. Olive wins the race, but the trauma forces her to quit racing. This points us to the possibility that someone might be looking for revenge.

At the bar, we come to meet Pinky, bar owner and past competitor in the race, and Gordon, a drunk who was also in the race. Gordon believes that it was actually the ghost of John Joseph Jacob and he will come for revenge against the other jockeys. This leads Olive and Emerson to the tomb of John Joseph Jacob. While Olive comments on the cracker crumbs scattered across the floor, Emerson finds that the lid of the coffin is broken, like Gordon had suggested. They open the coffin and only find the bones of a horse, curiously with its legs missing.

We then cut to Chuck at the stables at night with Digby. While initially scared, she finds courage in the fact that both herself and Digby have already been killed once. She also finds cracker crumbs on the ground before running into Emerson and heading off to investigate more.

Before the audience heads off with them, we join Ned on his quest. We find him in his childhood home, lamenting his past and the holiday. He gets distracted and sees Chuck’s aunts across the street, scaring off local kids.

Emerson, Olive, and Chuck meet at the house of John Joseph Jacob’s mother. After entering and the mother making backhanded compliments to Olive and Chuck, we find that she has made peace with the death of her son. We also find the urn of John Joseph Jacob, the mother explaining that he always wanted the horse to have a proper hero’s burial, so she cremated her son and buried the horse in secret. The mother says she forgives Olive and the trio prepares to leave. After suggesting that they should make sure Pinky is safe, we cut to his bar, where we find him being attacked by the same horse that killed Shoemaker.

While all this is happening, we find Ned in the house of love’s aunts. We come to realize Ned’s motivations as he asks the aunts about his absentee father. Lily simply insists that his father was a jackass and he was better off without him. While sharing this conversation, Ned recognizess that the pie he was going to enjoy was actually from his diner after a strawberry rots from the touch of his mouth. He realizes that Chuck has actually been having this secret connection with her aunts this entire time. As he goes to leave, Vivien stops him and comforts him.

The audience meets up with Olive, Emerson, Chuck, and eventually Ned at the bar. On the floor in Pinky’s dead body with Olive grieving over him. Chuck takes Olive out of the bar so that Ned can perform his magic. They reawaken Pinky and find that he also believes the ghost of John Joseph Jacob killed him, though he explains the motive better, Pinky actually cut the saddle of John Joseph Jacob before the race. Olive reveals that the other four jockeys kept the sabotage secret since none of them could prove that the others did. Olive initially protested the idea, but was forced into it. When the two are alone, Chuck tries to convince Olive to confront the ghost and also thanks her for keeping the secret of her death.

While at her apartment, Olive finds a golden horseshoe outside her window. Recognizing this as a gift she gave to John Joseph Jacob before the fateful race, she climbs up to the roof to confront the ghost. As Olive reaches the roof, she finds the very alive John Joseph Jacob, only now much taller. He reveals that he had actually survived the fall and his broken legs were replaced with the horse’s. We also learn that he believes the fall was an accident and that he has been in his mother’s basement ever since. After their talk, John Joseph Jacob becomes ready to leave his mother’s basement.

We move to his mother’s house with Olive and Chuck in tow. He leaves them to grab some crackers, explaining that he’s hypoglycemic and gets angry when his blood sugar gets low. This immediately tips off Chuck as she realizes that were crackers at every crime scene. They grab the urn and check to see what’s actually inside. Olive recognizes that it is the ashes of a saddle and that John Joseph Jacob’s mother knew the secret of the sabotage all along. Just as this realization comes to fruition, a horse kicks down the front door.

We cut to Emerson and Ned in a car with Gordon. Gordon tells the two that Shoemaker had actually revealed the secret to John Joseph Jacob’s mother before he had died. They connect the points and figure out that she was actually posing as the ghost and killing the other jockeys.

Back at the house, the mother reveals her plan. The two run from her and initiate a chase. Chuck falls and Olive decides to sacrifice herself, knowing that the mother is really only after her. But at the last minute, Emerson and Ned appear and save her.

In the epilogue, we find the mother in jail and Olive has donated her trophy and winnings to John Joseph Jacob. We also see Ned and Chuck in a car in front of the aunts’ house. Ned reveals that he knows about Chuck’s secret pies and he is okay with it. He lets her visit the house in costume and trick-or-treat so that she can see her aunt’s face-to-face again.

Pros:

-This mystery is really well written. It’s complex without being too hard to follow.

-The focus on Olive is very refreshing and we get to see some new combinations of characters in this show.

-It’s always great to see backstory, and while Olive being a jockey is out of the blue, it totally fits her character and this weird universe.

-Ned backstory is heartbreaking and beautifully done. It creates a nice compliment to the forced estrangement that Chuck has with her aunts.

-Everything perfectly makes sense without relying on coincidence. The twist at the end is also surprising, but not unbelievable.

Cons:

-Not very many cons at all, the only problem is the horse’s fire breathing. It’s never explained and it’s never utilized in any way.

Overall:

This is probably one of the best episodes of the series. While the mystery isn’t very quirky and charming like they can often be, it’s very engaging and well written. The twists are completely unexpected, but make sense in context. In addition, seeing Olive in a more active role is great as she is quickly becoming one of the more interesting character on the series. The parallel between Ned’s and Chuck’s family relations is handled very poignantly without having to explain the metaphors. It also leads to the possibility of more plot threads down the line.

Rating:

9/10 Daisies

Music has been my world since I was a child. My musical upbringing consisted of all the modern clichés of how an opera singer is born: “she sang before she could talk” people would say and naturally the big voice inside a small girl was discovered at church, I began piano lessons at five and was obsessed with the one CD I owned after saving up my allowance for weeks.

After that, the momentum of one opportunity brought me to next, an opportunity which I could not possibly say no to, until I ended up here. Where exactly is here? Here is my (victory lap) senior year as a Vocal Performance major at the University of Michigan. Here is having performed in over 25 productions in the past 4 years and more recitals than I kept track of. Here is having gone from uncontrollably crying in a high school counselor’s office because I was waitlisted at the one music school I applied to (a truly ill advised move looking back) to performing as a preliminary winner of SMTD’s Concerto Competition. Here is sitting on a panel this morning answering questions about my experiences as a music major to scared perspective students on the day of their audition. Here is defined. Here is expected. I’m very comfortable and very good at Here. While I may not know exactly what will come next week, I can guess with remarkable accuracy – class, practice, homework, work, recital, coaching, more homework, more practicing and an audition I may or may not go to depending on my mood. What hit me this morning is that in three months that will never again be my hectic but very predictable routine.

I can admit that I live a charmed life – part of that is my uncanny ability to always find free parking within five minutes of looking (even in Kerrytown during the middle of the day) and another part is that things just tend to work out for me. One opportunity grows into the next, somehow turning the little girl who auditioned for the church choir by singing Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid into a music major at a top university. A major benefit of this is that since I was little my life has been planned out for me, guided by the opportunities which I fell into. However, graduation is impending and my predictable musical life will soon be part of my past.

Obviously I have some semblance of a five year plan – it would be foolish to graduate from college and not – but this plan consists of large, vague brush strokes rather than neatly sketched outlines (just waiting for the details to be filled in) that I have become accustomed to. Freshman year of high school I could have guessed the majority of important details about my life in 2015, but right now I can’t even tell you where I will be living six months from now.

Sitting on the Q & A panel this morning for perspective voice majors made graduation real. It is no longer that far off, mythical event that you have heard of but cannot picture yourself being there, rather graduation is coming and it will change everything. Opportunities will be less common and more competitive. Voice lessons will cost real money and a good pianist will be hard to find. Yet the one thing that will not change with graduation is my devotion to the art form that colors my world and brightens my days.

The large wooden lion head, hanging from the wall directly above the escalators coming up from the Minskoff Theatre entrance, suggests that there is only one play that will grace the stage inside – again and again and again. Given that it was during the Christmas holiday season, the place was packed with tourists, many of whom, I assumed, were seeing the stage version of The Lion King for the first time.

I must admit, seeing the paper sun basked in an orange and yellow light and hearing the all-to-famous song, Circle of Life, creep, yet brazenly, ring in my ears, brought a tear to my eyes. For some reason, seeing animals with awe through an artistic medium, whilst being accompanied by appropriate music, makes me cry. I admittedly cry when I see the ending of the film The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where the second planet Earth is jump-started and the life cycle begins. The images are rather objective but awe cannot help but creep in, causing me to have this inexplicable emotional reaction.

The Lion King was not the Disney film that I watched over and over again. In fact, the Disney films that I did find myself watching repeatedly were: The Fox and The Hound, Tarzan, Hercules, Dumbo, and Robin Hood. I specifically really liked The Fox and The Hound, and I really can’t tell you why my childish mind at the time enjoyed a rather sad film.

Seeing The Lion King live, in a theatre in New York, was certainly a new experience. I’d seen some Broadway shows prior to this event. I’d seen Wicked, Peter and the Star Catcher, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the last of which was particularly notable because it was the first time I’d seen nudity in a stage performance. I was sitting there, thinking, this wasn’t in the movie. Then again, I’d never read Truman Capote’s novel either, so who am I to say? Although, I didn’t complain, after all, it was Emilia Clarke playing the role of Holly.

But the category, in which all these other plays pale in comparison to The Lion King, is costume design. Seeing all the animals march down the aisles was a treat, seeing the elephants, the rhinos, the birds, etc. I noticed the costumes never tried to mimic the animals completely, but they were well thought out, remembering, regardless of how accurate they were to the real animals, it was still a person beneath it all. So the lions heads were attached to beams that hooked over the actors heads, folding backwards when they were upright and then jutting outwards over their faces when they crouched like a lion. The hyenas had the same principle, with the addition of limbs. Zazu had a puppeteer, something that was actually addressed directly in a strangely Meta moment. Timon was a puppet as well, while the costume for Pumba, was essentially, his head that covered the entirety of the actors body. But all of these costumes allowed the actors to move gracefully in perceived animal movements.
The play was very similar to the film as well. So watching the play, I kept wondering, “How are they going to deal with the stampede scene?”

Well they dealt with it, and they dealt with it well, creating perspective through layers in order to really create a claustrophobic scene that was at the same time, wildly epic due to the dynamism of the movement that was happening through the depth created via stage design. It was the first account of when I truly saw the, lets call it the z-axis, utilized so explicitly. Another case was when the giraffes leaned their heads forward, almost touching the audience sitting in the front row.

There were cheeky moments that were at once references to the film as well as a reference to contemporary Disney. In the film, Zazu, while a prison to Scar, sings It’s a Small World After All, the wildly accepted “annoying” song of Disney at the time. In the play, when I saw it, Zazu sings Let it Go. It is one of those changes that makes me chuckle, but I’m both slightly annoyed yet charmed at the same time.

There was one thing that confused me more than anything. They changed Rafiki to a girl. I don’t know why. I get that there aren’t that many female characters in the film, but what does this add? Perhaps it adds female wisdom. But I found myself more confused then thinking, oh, that makes sense. It came across as a rather trivial shift that could have been handled better to justify it more precisely, but then how can you without changing a classically adored film like The Lion King?

I can’t say that I would have hated this play going into it. I knew I was at least going to enjoy it. I never knew how to critique theatre, but I found myself seeing why some things worked and others didn’t because I had the film to compare it to. I can’t say I’m an expert on theatre yet, nowhere near that level in fact. But I certainly appreciate it just a little bit more.