Like last year’s F8 conference just as the Cambridge Analytica scandal hit, Mark Zuckerberg spoke heavily about users privacy on Facebook while also unveiling his $400 Oculus virtual reality headset.
Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company’s annual F8 developer conference Tuesday
with more details about his new “privacy-focused” vision for the social network
— including a major redesign of Facebook’s app and website that is built around
letting people connect with small groups.
The new
features are part of Zuckerberg’s strategy for batting away Facebook’s growing
array of critics, emboldened regulators and competitors. Zuckerberg
acknowledged the skepticism of the company during his keynote.
“Look, I get
that a lot of people aren’t sure that we are serious about this,” he said to
laughter from the crowd. “We are committed to doing this well and to starting a
new chapter for our products.”
Zuckerberg
and his lieutenant, Sheryl Sandberg, have apologized repeatedly over the past
year for Facebook’s ever-expanding list of mishaps over privacy, data misuse
and security problems. Last week, the company said it is setting aside $3 billion to cover a
possible fine from the Federal Trade Commission over privacy violations.
Facebook has suffered hacks, allowed hate speech and live-streamed
mass-shooting horror.
Private Messaging
Amid all
that, Zuckerberg is focusing Facebook’s future by emphasizing private messaging
and Facebook’s role in “communities.”
A redesigned
Facebook app and desktop version of the site puts private groups in the center
of the page. More than 400 million users are in “meaningful” groups — Facebook
pages meant to bring people with similar ideas together — according to the
company. The redesign is structured to make it as easy to connect with groups
as with individual friends, Zuckerberg said.
Recommended
groups will appear on users’ homepages, and Facebook users will now be able to
share a status to friends and a group from the same text box.
Groups have
also caused controversy for the company, especially as communities pop up
around extremist topics. Facebook is working to remove groups that have
“harmful content,” Zuckerberg said, and deemphasize groups that share
misleading information.
The
redesigned mobile app is live for U.S. users today, and the desktop version is
coming later this year.
A desktop
app for Messenger is also coming later this year — and Messenger will
eventually make end-to-end encryption the default setting for all messages,
rather than an opt-in choice. Facebook executives mentioned that eventually
users will be able to send Instagram and WhatsApp messages all from Messenger.
WhatsApp
Inside
WhatsApp — by far Facebook’s most secure app — the company is making statuses
more secure. Only people in each other’s contact books will be able to see
statuses.
The privacy
changes extend to Instagram as well — Facebook executives say the company is
starting to test new features that hide “likes” from photos. Users will still
be able to see how many likes their photos get, but the number won’t appear at
the bottom of each post.
Facebook
also announced expansions to its hardware devices, including bringing WhatsApp
to its video screen hub Portal and expanding sales of the device to Canada and
Europe.
Oculus VR Headset
The company
will begin selling the new version of its virtual reality headset on May 21.
The $399 Oculus Quest was announced last year.
It will be
accompanied by a new twist on Oculus’ original Rift headset. The new version,
called Rift S, also will cost $399. It won’t require being tethered to a
high-priced personal computer, like the original Oculus Rift.
Zuckerberg
said last week that Facebook’s focus on private
communications will be built out over the next five years or more. The
model for this, he said, will be WhatsApp, a Facebook service that already
offers end-to-end encrypted messaging — messages that can be opened by only the
sender and the recipient and not by Facebook itself. But that approach comes
with its own sets of problems. In India, for instance, misinformation spread on
WhatsApp has led to real-life violence and even killings.
A few years
ago, the company probably would have rolled out these changes right away and
dealt with problems as they came up, Zuckerberg said. But no longer. “We have
to change a lot of the ways we run this company,” he said.
Last
year’s F8 conference took place weeks after the Cambridge
Analytica scandal, in which tens of millions of Facebook users had their
personal data accessed by a political data-mining firm without their consent.
Zuckerberg had also just testified before Congress about that and other privacy
mishaps, but at F8 was already trying to put those troubles behind him.
Virtual reality may have all but disappeared from America, but it’s getting a second wind in China with a VR theme park in Nanchang. Facebook has invested heavily in VR with a new $400 headset, but as interest has waned, it’s all but dead in other parts of the world.
Liu Zixing
craned his neck forward for help with fastening the goggles for his first ever
taste of virtual reality. He took a break from the mining ore business to
travel to a VR theme park in this Chinese provincial capital not known for high
technology.
“It feels
like reality,” Liu said after shooting down robots in a virtual fighter jet,
strapped to a spinning gyroscope lit in purple. “It’s just like you’re riding
in a plane.”
Enthusiasm
for VR has cooled somewhat after years of hype, but China’s leaders are trying
to drum up excitement, hoping to take the lead in a technology they expect will
eventually gain wide use.
Hoping to
coax homegrown entrepreneurs to take the plunge, the government is educating
students, subsidizing office spaces, and sponsoring conferences and
competitions.
Nanchang’s
VR Star park offers 42 rides and exhibits, including VR bumper cars and VR
shoot-’em-ups. It’s the highlight of Nanchang’s “VR base,” a sprawling complex
of mostly still empty, futuristic glass-and-steel offices.
The city of
5.5 million is the capital of Jiangxi province, a relatively impoverished
region nestled in the mountains of south-central China, where the regional
industries are copper mining and rice.
Officials
hope that one day it will be a world-class hub for virtual reality.
“Frankly, VR
isn’t 100% necessary in the Chinese market at the moment,” said Xiong Zongming,
CEO of IN-UP Technology, one of dozens of firms being incubated by the VR base.
“But with the government’s push, many other companies, departments and agencies
are more willing to try it out.”
Xiong was
born in Nanchang but studied and worked in Japan for nearly a decade before
returning to China, where he settled in Shanghai. Nanchang officials enticed
him back home with offers of free rent and 150,000 RMB ($22,340) in startup
funds, part of an effort to lure back local talent from richer coastal cities
to help lift the local economy.
Beijing
began its VR drive a few years ago, when slick headsets from Samsung, Oculus,
HTC and Sony were making a big splash at electronics shows in the U.S.
Chinese
leaders were worried they might miss out on a boom.
VR is
included in Beijing’s “Made in China 2025”, an ambitious plan to develop global
competitors in cutting edge technologies including electric cars, solar and
wind power, and robotics. Nanchang is one of several VR hubs across the
country.
So far, VR
is mostly a niche product used in gaming and business training, held back by
expensive, clunky headsets, a lack of appealing software and other shortcomings.
Analysts say it could be many years, perhaps decades, before the technology
goes mainstream.
Last year,
just 5.8 million VR headsets were sold globally, according to market research
firm Ovum. That compares with sales of more than 1.5 billion smartphones and is
far fewer than expected when VR fever was at its peak a few years back.
“My
experience wasn’t good,” said Xu Xiao, a PC gamer who bought VR goggles over a
year ago after graduating from college. “When I wore them, my eyes got dry and
uncomfortable, and I got dizzy. I barely use them anymore.”
Stopping by
the Nanchang VR park, he was still unimpressed.
“The image
quality isn’t refined, and it’s hard to operate,” he said after a virtual flume
ride.
Even if it’s
a gamble, analysts say China’s state-led push into VR could pay off in the
future. Nanchang’s VR developers are marching on despite a wave of layoffs
across the industry in the past few years. Thousands attended Nanchang’s first
VR conference last October.
“It’s kind
of a good move to be there now,” says George Jijiashvili, a senior analyst at
Ovum. “It’s a long game, and I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.”
Beijing
still lags behind: Most VR headsets are designed by companies based outside
mainland China like Samsung, HTC, and Oculus and the major VR content platforms
are run by giants like Facebook and Google.
China’s
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology aims to change that by
encouraging banks to finance VR startups and directing local governments to
invest in VR products for public projects such as schools and tourist sites.
The
government has provided subsidies and purchases of VR software, mostly focused
on education, training, and health care software. Nanchang has a 1 billion RMB
($149 million) VR startup investment fund, and is setting up another fund to
attract established VR companies.
Entrepreneurs
and experts believe VR will get a boost from next generation, or 5G,
technologies where Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies are industry
leaders. 5G promises blazing-fast connection speeds that could smooth lags and
optimize multiplayer games and livestreaming so VR users might not end up with
the headaches some get with today’s technology.
“VR
e-sports, broadcasting concerts in VR format, remote surgery — all of this is
only realistic in the 5G era,” said Chenyu Cui, a senior analyst at IHS Markit.
“It’ll make VR better for a mass audience.”
Since the
main commercial market for VR is entertainment, many of China’s VR content
makers are game developers in Shenzhen or Beijing. They’re subject to booms and
busts and recently, business has been flagging.
The state
support is helping to protect Nanchang’s developers from the cycles of feast
and famine, but for now the industry is in a lull, and Xiong, the VR
entrepreneur, is focused on keeping his startup afloat.
His dream is
that one day, China’s bet on VR will turn his thirteen-person company into an
industry giant.
“I look
forward to the day we can go public,” Xiong said, “and become a role model for
the whole province.”
Only four minutes were left on the clock, and Manchester City team’s title challenge was on the line. With only four center backs on the field, coach Pep Guardiola was heard screaming “Get it in the corner!”
Cruelly
denied by VAR in its agonizing Champions League exit, Manchester City relied on
technology to keep its Premier League title charge on course on Sunday.
City scraped
past Burnley 1-0 thanks to a scruffy strike by Sergio Aguero that needed the
confirmation of goal-line technology.
The distance
over the line? Less than 3 centimeters.
The nervy
wait before referee Paul Tierney awarded the goal was in keeping with a tense
match at Turf Moor that ended with City having six defenders on the field —
including four center backs — and under instructions from Pep Guardiola to “get
it in the corner.”
A win by any
fashion is gratefully received by City as it looks to stay ahead of Liverpool
in the two-team title race that looks set to go to the final weekend.
With its
12th straight victory in the league, City — seeking to retain the title for the
first time — moved one point clear of Liverpool with two games left. City’s
last two games are at home to Leicester and away to Brighton, while Liverpool
still has to face Newcastle away and Wolverhampton Wanderers at home.
Aguero
joined Thierry Henry as the only players to score 20 or more goals in five
straight Premier League seasons.
Technology
has ruled City’s fate this season.
Another big
call in the league came in its 2-1 win over Liverpool in January, when City
defender John Stones cleared the ball off the line — off his own deflection —
with 11 millimeters to spare. That remains Liverpool’s only loss this campaign.
But it was
another story in the Champions League when an injury-time goal by Raheem
Sterling, which would have sent City through against Tottenham in the
quarterfinals, was belatedly ruled out for offside by the video assistant
referee.
At least
City knows it will have another chance to win the Champions League next season.
The same probably cannot be said of Manchester United anymore after its latest
disappointing result, a 1-1 home draw with Chelsea. Arsenal is also struggling
to qualify for Europe’s top club competition — by virtue of its Premier League
placing, anyway — after getting beaten 3-0 at Leicester.
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.
DE GEA DILEMMA
Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer has a decision to make about David de Gea.
The Spain
goalkeeper made yet another mistake Sunday, fumbling a long-range shot to allow
Marcos Alonso to convert the rebound and earn Chelsea a point at Old Trafford.
That canceled out Juan Mata’s early goal.
De Gea has
also produced errors to concede goals against Barcelona and Manchester City
over the last two weeks. Not long ago he was regarded as United’s best player
but he is turning into a liability.
“There is no
chance anyone can blame him for losing points,” Solskjaer said. “He knows he
could have had (held) that shot, but that is football. David is one who likes
to play games and I will have chats with him and he will respond in the right
way.”
It might be
too late to save United from dropping back into the Europa League next season.
United
stayed in sixth place and is five points behind Tottenham and three behind
Chelsea. Arsenal is a point ahead of United in fifth. Tottenham, Chelsea and
Arsenal all have a much better goal difference than United.
In the last
10 games involving the four teams in the race for the top four, only one of
them has claimed a win.
“It seems
nobody wants the third and fourth spot, everyone is struggling,” Mata said. “We
must get six points but it doesn’t depend on us anymore.”
ABJECT ARSENAL
Arsenal has
conceded three goals in each of its last three games for the first time in the
27-year history of the Premier League.
It could
mean the team’s best chance of Champions League qualification is through
winning the Europa League rather than finishing in the Premier League’s top
four.
Ainsley
Maitland-Niles was Arsenal’s biggest culprit in the loss at Leicester after
getting himself sent off for collecting a second booking in the 36th minute.
Youri
Tielemans put Leicester ahead in the 56th and Jamie Vardy added two late goals
for Brendan Rodgers’ team, which climbed to eighth. It is three points behind
Wolverhampton Wanderers in the fight for seventh place, which may still earn a
route to the Europa League.
BLADES PROMOTED
Sheffield
United secured a return to the Premier League after an absence of 12 years, but
only after a bizarre series of events in a match involving two of its promotion
rivals, Leeds and Aston Villa.
Leeds
manager Marcelo Bielsa instructed his team to allow Villa to score an
uncontested goal late in the game, which ultimately clinched a 1-1 draw for the
visitors. With that draw, Sheffield United sealed promotion with a match to
spare.
Leeds had
scored the opening goal at Elland Road while Villa had a man down injured. It
sparked a series of on-field melees, during which Villa had Anwar El Ghazi sent
off for violent conduct.
Bielsa, the
Argentine coach, then told his players to let Villa equalize, leading to the
bizarre sight of Albert Adomah running from the kickoff through the Leeds team
and scoring into an empty net. Only Leeds defender Pontus Jansson tried to stop
Adomah, attempting a swipe at the ball but missing it.
Bielsa then
argued with Villa assistant manager John Terry, the former Chelsea captain, on
the touchline.
Leeds will
now be one of the four teams in the playoffs.
President Donald Trump spent the past weekend rallying up his crowds while spreading misleading rhetoric about illegal immigration, health care, the 2020 census, and his favorite; Robert Mueller’s Russia report..
At a Wisconsin
rally, he suggested he’s launched his plan to transport
immigrants in the U.S. illegally to sanctuary cities in mass numbers — “my sick
idea,” as he proudly called it. There’s no evidence that’s happening.
He’s also
giving a confused outlook on the U.S. population growth, alternating between
assertions that the country is too full to accept any more migrants and that it
needs more migrants to fill jobs.
In the
meantime, Russia kept reverberating over the past week, even with special
counsel Robert Mueller’s report now part of
history.
As much as
Trump says he wants the United States to move on, he’s found it hard to turn
away himself, as seen in a torrent of tweets and remarks railing against
Democrats, trashing Mueller and painting his own actions in a saintly light.
A review
of rhetoric from Trump and his team, also touching on health care, the
economy and the census:
IMMIGRATION
TRUMP: “Last month alone, 100,000 illegal
immigrants arrived in our borders, placing a massive strain on communities and
schools and hospitals and public resources, like nobody’s ever seen before. Now
we’re sending many of them to sanctuary cities. Thank you very much. … I’m
proud to tell you that was my sick idea.” — Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally
Saturday.
THE FACTS: A mass transfer to sanctuary cities
is not underway. He proposed the idea in part to punish Democratic
congressional foes for inaction on the border, but his Homeland Security
officials rejected the plan as unworkable.
Trump said
this month he was “strongly considering” the proposal, hours after White House
and Homeland Security officials had insisted the idea had been eschewed twice.
“We’re in
the process of figuring out all the details on how that would work,” White
House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday.
Sanctuary
cities are places where local authorities do not cooperate with immigration
officials, denying information or resources that would help them round up for
deportation people living in the country illegally.
By all
signs, federal officials considered the president’s words little more than
bluster. His comments to the Wisconsin crowd appeared to be bluster, too.
People with
knowledge of the discussions say White House staff discussed the idea with the
Department of Homeland Security in November and February, but it was judged too
costly and a misuse of money. The people were not authorized to speak publicly
and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Come On In, With Exceptions
TRUMP on U.S. population: “We need people to come in.” —
rally.
TRUMP: “We have companies pouring in. The
problem is we need workers.” — Fox Business interview Sunday.
THE FACTS: His position is a flip from earlier
this month, when he declared the U.S. to be “full” in light of the overwhelmed
southern border.
In an April
7 tweet, he threatened to shut down the border unless Mexico apprehended all
immigrants who crossed illegally. But it turns out the U.S. is only “full” in
terms of the people Trump doesn’t want.
Immigrants
as a whole make up a greater percentage of the total U.S. population than they
did back in 1970, having grown from less than 5 percent of the population to
more than 13 percent now. In 2030, it’s projected that immigrants will become
the primary driver for U.S. population growth, overtaking U.S. births.
HEALTH CARE REVISITED
TRUMP: “The Republicans are always going to
protect pre-existing conditions.” — Wisconsin rally.
THE FACTS: He’s not protecting health coverage
for patients with pre-existing medical conditions. The Trump administration
instead is pressing in court for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act —
including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from
health insurance discrimination.
Trump and
other Republicans say they’ll have a plan to preserve those safeguards, but the
White House has provided no details.
Former
President Barack Obama’s health care law requires insurers to take all
applicants, regardless of medical history, and patients with health problems
pay the same standard premiums as healthy ones. Bills supported in 2017 by
Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law could undermine
protections by pushing up costs for people with pre-existing conditions.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA
TRUMP, calling Mueller’s probe a
“witchhunt”: It’s “the greatest political hoax in American history.” —
Wisconsin rally.
THE FACTS: A two-year investigation that
produced guilty pleas, convictions and criminal charges against Russian
intelligence officers and others with ties to the Kremlin, as well as Trump
associates, is demonstrably not a hoax.
All told,
Mueller charged 34 people, including the president’s former campaign chairman,
Paul Manafort, his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and three
Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to
election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts
during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread
disinformation on the internet.
Five Trump
aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, and a sixth, longtime
confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges he lied to Congress and
engaged in witness tampering.
Mueller’s
report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
was “sweeping and systematic.” Ultimately, Mueller did not find a criminal
conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. But the special counsel
didn’t render judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, saying his
investigators found evidence on both sides.
2020 CENSUS
TRUMP: “The American people deserve to know
who is in this Country. Yesterday, the Supreme Court took up the Census
Citizenship question, a really big deal.” — tweet Wednesday.
GIDLEY, when
asked whether Trump believes an accurate census count isn’t necessary: “He
wants to know who’s in this country. I think as a sovereign nation we have that
right. It’s been a question that’s been on the census for decades.” — remarks
Tuesday.
Moreover,
Trump’s position that asking a citizenship question in the census is needed to
“know who is in this country” ignores the judgment of the Census Bureau’s own
researchers, who say that it would not result in the most accurate possible
count of the U.S. population. The question is already asked in other government
surveys.
According to
January 2018 calculations by the Census Bureau, adding the question to the
once-a-decade survey form would cause lower response rates among Hispanics and
noncitizens. The government would have to spend at least $27.5 million for
additional phone calls, home visits and other follow-up efforts to reach them.
Federal
judges in California, Maryland and New York have blocked the administration
from going forward with a citizenship question after crediting the analysis of
agency experts. The experts said millions would go uncounted because Hispanics
and immigrants might be reluctant to say if they or others in their households
are not citizens.
Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross has argued that a citizenship question is needed to help
the government better comply with the Voting Rights Act. But the Justice
Department has been enforcing the 1965 law, which was passed to help protect
minority groups’ political rights, with citizenship data already available from
other government surveys.
The count
goes to the heart of the U.S. political system, determining the number of seats
each state has in the U.S. House and how the electoral votes that decide
presidential elections are distributed. It also shapes how 300 federal programs
distribute more than $800 billion a year to local communities.
Netflix’s exceptional “13 Reasons Why” show has come under fire for it’s graphic portrayal of suicide, and now a new study points a finger at it without being able to prove it. When I watched the graphic scene, I personally couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to do that as it wasn’t glamorous and looked extremely painful. I had my one teen son watch the show with me to understand the importance of communicating how he was feeling. I didn’t want to be the parent who missed all the signs and didn’t talk about this. It made a huge impact on him and wound up having him volunteer with a local suicide prevention hotline.
There are a multitude of reasons why people contemplate or commit suicide, and blaming it on one television show trying to make a difference isn’t the way to reach out to children going through this.
Suicides
among U.S. kids aged 10 to 17 jumped by nearly a third to a 19-year high in the
month following the release of a popular TV series that depicted a girl ending
her life by cutting her wrists, researchers said.
The study
published Monday can’t prove that the Netflix show “13 Reasons Why” was the
cause, but there were 195 more youth suicides than would have been expected in
the nine months following the show’s March 2017 release, given historical and
seasonal suicide trends, the study estimated.
During April
2017 alone, 190 U.S. tweens and teens took their own lives. Their April 2017
suicide rate was .57 per 100,000 people, nearly 30 percent higher than in the
preceding five years included in the study. An additional analysis
found that the April rate was higher than in the previous 19 years, said lead
author Jeff Bridge, a suicide researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in
Columbus, Ohio.
“The
creators of the series intentionally portrayed the suicide of the main
character. It was a very graphic depiction of the suicide death,” which can
trigger suicidal behavior, Bridge said.
Bridge
acknowledged the study’s limitations included not knowing whether anyone who
died by suicide had watched the show. Also, the researchers were not able to
account for other factors that might have influenced suicides. Those include
the April 19, 2017, suicide of former New England Patriots player Aaron
Hernandez and a man accused of a Facebook-publicized killing who died by
suicide the day before Hernandez. Bridge said those deaths couldn’t account for
the spike the study found for the entire month of April.
“They nicely
controlled for this by looking across years and showing a discontinuity for
this particular year only,” said Matthew K. Nock, a psychologist at Harvard.
In the analysis, a team
led by Jeffrey A. Bridge, of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, analyzed suicide data from the Center for
Disease Control between January 2013 and December 2017. After correcting for
trends and seasonal effects, the team found that rates did not exceed expected
levels in 2017 for people over age 18.
The
researchers analyzed data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention on deaths in Americans aged 10 to 64 from January 2013 through
December 2017. Their results were published in the Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The researchers found no change in
suicide rates in those 18 and older after the show was released.
The results
are plausible and add to evidence that compelling media depictions of suicide
can negatively influence young people, said sociologist Anna Mueller of the
University of Chicago, who was not involved in the research.
“This is the first report I’ve seen like this, and of course it was our
greatest fear that this might be a possibility” with the show, said Dr. Victor
Schwartz, chief medical officer at the JED Foundation, a teen suicide
prevention group.
Lisa
Horowitz, a co-author and researcher at the National Institute of Mental
Health, noted that suicide is the second leading cause of death for U.S. teens
and called it “a major public health crisis.” Her agency helped pay for the
study.
Teen suicide
rates have increased in recent years and other research has suggested that
bullying and heavy use of social media may contribute to the risk.
Netflix
included warning messages with some of the episodes and created a website with
crisis hotlines and other resources. In the second season, the show’s actors
offered advice to viewers on where to seek help. The series’ third season will
run later this year.
A Netflix
spokesman noted that the new study conflicts with University of Pennsylvania
research published last week that found fewer suicidal thoughts among young
adults who watched the entire second season than among non-viewers.
“We’ve just
seen the study and are looking into the research,” he said. “This is a
critically important topic and we have worked hard to ensure that we handle
this sensitive issue responsibly.”
Horowitz
said the new results highlight how important it is for parents and other adults
to connect with young people.
“Start a
conversation, ask how are they coping with the ups and downs of life, and don’t
be afraid to ask about suicide,” she said. It’s a myth that just asking might
be a trigger, Horowitz said.
“One of the
best ways to prevent is to ask,” she said.
Dr. Schwartz
also said that Netflix had consulted with the JED Foundation along the way, and
that the second season had incorporated several of his group’s recommendations.
In a surprise, boys
accounted for almost all of the increase in 2017. The research team had
anticipated that girls, identifying with the star of the show, would be more
vulnerable. Dr. Horowitz said that looking at suicide-attempt data, which the
researchers did not have, might have told another story.
Director John Singleton was a trailblazer for young filmmakers as he was the youngest and first African American to be nominated for Best Director Oscar at the 1992 Academy Awards after the massive success of his first film “Boyz N the Hood.” He was also nominated for Best Screenplay for a film that opened America’s eyes to parts of Los Angeles they weren’t used to seeing.
Singleton,
who made one of Hollywood’s most memorable debuts with the Oscar-nominated
“Boyz N the Hood” and continued over the following decades to probe the lives
of black communities in his native Los Angeles and beyond, has died. He was 51.
Singleton’s
family said Monday that he died in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and
friends, after being taken off life support. Earlier this month, the director
suffered a major stroke.
On Twitter, Ava DuVernay summed up Singleton’s impact and legacy,
especially among black filmmakers, writing, “There aren’t many of us out here
doing this. It’s a small tribe in the grand scheme of things. He was a giant
among us. Kind. Committed. And immensely talented. His films broke ground. His
films mattered. He will be missed. And long remembered. Thank you, John.”
Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in Singleton’s 2000 remake of Shaft, said, “Mourning the
loss of a collaborator & True Friend John Singleton. He blazed the trail
for many young film makers, always remaining true to who he was & where he
came from!!! RIP Brother. Gone Way Too Soon!”
Singleton
was in his early 20s, just out of the University of Southern California’s
School of Cinematic Arts, when he wrote, directed and produced “Boyz N the
Hood.” Based on Singleton’s upbringing and shot in his old neighborhood, the
low-budget production starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube and centered on three
friends in South Central Los Angeles, where college aspirations competed with
the pressures of gang life. “Boyz N the Hood” was a critical and commercial
hit, given a 20-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and praised
as a groundbreaking extension of rap to the big screen, a realistic and
compassionate take on race, class, peer pressure and family. Singleton would
later call it a “rap album on film.”
Released in
July 1991, “Boyz n the Hood” arrived
at a fraught cultural moment, months after the LAPD’s beating of Rodney King,
amidst the ongoing crack epidemic, the devastating War on Drugs and continued
gang violence. But it was also part of a black arts vanguard — gangsta rap, and
hip-hop in general, was more popular than ever (N.W.A.’s Ice Cube starred in
the film), and “Boyz n the Hood” was
one of 19 movies by black filmmakers that would be released in 1991, more than
any other year in the past decade. “Boyz N the Hood” also came out at a time
when, thanks to the efforts to Spike Lee and others, black films were starting
to get made by Hollywood after a long absence.
Though “Boyz n the Hood” was a financial
and critical success, the film was also myopically maligned as a “gang movie”
and much of the early media attention around the film focused on the violence
that broke out at theaters on opening weekend. Some also accused the movie of
pandering to this violence with a trailer that highlighted the few moments of
gunplay in the film, while minimizing the more prominent dramatic elements.
“It got motherfuckers in the theater,” Singleton said in interviews.
“That’s the bottom line. If the trailer for “Terminator 2”showed the part where he agreed not to kill
anyone, nobody would have gone to see it… People went with lower expectations;
they thought it was the same old bullshit action-adventure in the streets of
South Central L.A. But when they saw it was more, they really watched it.”
For many,
the release captured the explosive mood in Los Angeles in the months following
the videotaped police beating of Rodney King.
Singleton
became the first black director to receive an Academy Award nomination, an
honor he would say was compensation for the academy’s snubbing Lee and “Do the
Right Thing” two years earlier, and was nominated for best screenplay. (“Thelma
& Louise” won instead.) At 24, he was also the youngest director nominee in
Oscar history.
“I think I
was living this film before I ever thought about making it,” Singleton told
Vice in 2016. “As I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life,
and cinema became an option, it was just natural that this was probably gonna
be my first film. In fact, when I applied to USC film school they had a thing
that asked you to write three ideas for films. And one of them was called
‘Summer of ’84,’ which was about growing up in South Central LA.”
In 2002, “Boyz
N the Hood” was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress,
which called it “an innovative look at life and the tough choices present for
kids growing up in South Central Los Angeles.”
Singleton’s
death Monday followed a turbulent week during which his family members made
opposing court filings regarding his health. Singleton had been in intensive
care in a Los Angeles hospital since he had a stroke on April 17. A court
filing last week by his mother, Shelia Ward, requested that she be appointed
Singleton’s temporary conservator in order to make medical and financial
decisions while he was incapacitated.
Ward’s
filing said that Singleton
was in a coma. But on Friday, Singleton’s daughter Cleopatra Singleton, 19,
filed a declaration disputing that account. She maintained that her father was
not in a coma and that doctors did not “have a concrete diagnosis.” She opposed
her grandmother becoming conservator, or guardian.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our beloved son, father and
friend John Daniel Singleton will be taken off of life support today,” his
family said in a statement. “This was an agonizing decision, one that our
family made, over a number of days, with the careful counsel of John’s doctors.”
Singleton’s
passing prompted widespread praise for a filmmaker who, as his “Shaft” star
Samuel L. Jackson said, “blazed the trail for many young film makers,” while
“always remaining true to who he was and where he came from.”
Spike Lee
said, “We’ll miss you but your films will live on.” Jordan Peele, the
Oscar-winning “Get Out” and “Us” filmmaker, called him “a brave artist and a
true inspiration.”
“His vision
changed everything,” said Peele.
None of
Singleton’s subsequent movies received the acclaim of “Boyz N the Hood” and he
was criticized at times for turning characters into mouthpieces for political
and social messages. But he attracted talent ranging from Tupac Shakur to Don
Cheadle and explored themes of creative expression (“Poetic Justice”), identity
(“Higher Learning”) and the country’s racist past, notably in “Rosewood,” based
on a murderous white rampage against a black community in Florida in 1923.
He also made
the coming-of-age story “Baby Boy,” a remake of the action film “Shaft” and an
installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “2 Fast 2 Furious.” More
recent projects included the FX crime drama “Snowfall,” which he helped create.
Starring Damson Idris, “Snowfall” returned Singleton to the Los Angeles of his
youth and the destructive effects of the rise of crack cocaine.
“Drugs
devastated a generation. It gave me something to write about, but I had to
survive it first,” Singleton told the Guardian in 2017. “It made me a very
angry young man. I didn’t understand why I was so angry, but I wasn’t someone
who took my anger and applied it inward. I turned it into being a storyteller.
I was on a kamikaze mission to really tell stories from my perspective — an
authentic black perspective.”
Singleton
was married twice, and had five children. Besides his career in movies,
Singleton also directed the memorable, Egyptian-themed video for Michael
Jackson’s “Remember the Time,” which included Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson.
He cast hip-hop artists and other musicians in many of his films, including Ice
Cube in “Boyz N the Hood,” Janet Jackson and Shakur in “Poetic Justice” and
Tyrese Gibson in “Baby Boy.”
Following
the success of “Boyz n the Hood,”
Singleton continued to grapple with themes of racism and violence in
coming-of-ages stories like the 1993 romantic drama “Poetic Justice” — starring Janet Jackson and
Tupac Shakur — and 1995’s “Higher Learning.” In 1997, Singleton pivoted to historical drama with “Rosewood,” which was based on the 1923
Rosewood massacre in Florida, when a white mob decimated a black town.
During the 2000s,
Singleton also proved his mettle as a blockbuster director, helming the 2000
reboot of “Shaft”as well as “2 Fast 2 Furious,” “Four Brothers,” and “Abduction.” He also eventually turned
to television, directing episodes “of Empire and The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
In 2017, his latest project, crime
drama “Snowfall” premiered on FX. Set in Los
Angeles in the early Eighties, the show chronicled origins and rise of the
crack epidemic.
Singleton’s
early success didn’t shield him from creative conflicts or frustration with
Hollywood studios. He blamed the commercial failure of “Rosewood” on lack of
support from Warner Bros. He fought with producer Scott Rudin during the making
of “Shaft” and was furious when Rudin brought in author/screenwriter Richard
Price to revise the script. He had planned to direct a biopic about Shakur, but
quit after clashing with Morgan Creek Productions. In 2014, he chastised the
industry for “refusing to let African-Americans direct black-themed films,” but
Singleton was pleased in recent years by the emergence of Ava DuVernay, Barry
Jenkins, Jordan Peele and others.
“There are these stacks of (films by non-black filmmakers) where black people have had to say, ‘OK, at least they tried,‘” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, adding that now blacks were making the films themselves. “What’s interesting when you see ‘Black Panther’ is you realize it couldn’t have been directed by anybody else but Ryan Coogler. It’s a great adventure movie and it works on all those different levels as entertainment, but it has this kind of cultural through-line that is so specific that it makes it universal.”
Throughout his career, Singleton retained the vision and drive that
persuaded the Columbia brass to let him direct “Boyz n the Hood” at such a young age and kept him a singular
force in Hollywood for several decades. “Real acceptance comes when you make a good film, and it gets
widely accepted as a good film,” he said in 1991. “It’s not about the
novelty. Of course, there’s a lot of new black filmmakers now, but I ain’t no
fucking novelty. I’m in it for the long haul. And if you ain’t in it for the
long haul, you ain’t in it.”
“There’s hardly any precedent for a guy like
me to have the career that I’ve had,” Singleton told Variety in 2017. “Because I
grew up the way I grew up, I’m an in-your-face kind of guy. I developed that as
a defense mechanism to survive in the streets. I do that in Hollywood in the
service of my passion.”
Celebrities React To John Singleton’s
Death
Notable
reaction to the death of “Boyz N the Hood” filmmaker John Singleton:
“With His
Passion, His Heart, The Way He Talked About His Love For Cinema And Black Folks
I Could See John Would Make It Happen. And He Did. From Day One.” — Spike Lee,
via Instagram.
“So sad to
hear about John. I met him way before he did ‘Boys in the Hood.’ He had more
drive then anybody I’ve ever met.” — Chris Rock, via Instagram.
“Thank you
for all that you gave to the world the movies the messages the opportunities to
so many people like myself to grace the big screen in a major role with major
black actors you were and will allways be black excellence love you for life
and beyond.” — Snoop Dogg, via Instagram.
“Rest In
Power, my friend. One of the greatest to ever do it. Thank you GOD for blessing
us with this gift better known as John Singleton.” — “Boyz N the Hood” actor
Regina King, via Instagram.
“Mourning
the loss of a collaborator & True Friend John Singleton. He blazed the
trail for many young film makers, always remaining true to who he was &
where he came from!!! RIP Brother. Gone Way Too Soon! — “Shaft” actor Samuel L.
Jackson, via Twitter.
“RIP John
Singleton. So sad to hear. John was a brave artist and a true inspiration. His
vision changed everything.” — Jordan Peele via Twitter.
“John is
admired for putting a lot of people of color to work throughout his career. Our
prayers are with his children and family members. He will be sorely missed.” —
Magic Johnson, via Twitter.
“The
magnitude and world-wide impact that his ground-breaking film would have for
society cannot be measured. Helping to bring awareness of what it takes to come
to maturity as a black male in the ’Hood, or die trying…” — “Boyz N the Hood”
actor Morris Chestnut, via Instagram.
“Over the
course of his illustrious career, John remained steadfast in telling stories
that illuminate the daily challenges faced by African Americans, particularly
those living in the inner city.” — John Landgraf, chairman of FX Networks and
FX Productions, in a statement.
“John didn’t
just make his feature film debut in 1991 with Boyz n the Hood, he exploded into
Hollywood, our culture and our consciousness with such a powerful cinematic
depiction of life in the inner city.” — Directors Guild of America President
Thomas Schlamme, in a statement.
“Cruel. Not
what I want to say right now. But certainly how I feel. Cruel. Just… so
cruel.” — Barry Jenkins, via Twitter.
“There
aren’t many of us out here doing this. It’s a small tribe in the grand scheme
of things. He was a giant among us. Kind. Committed. And immensely talented.
His films broke ground. His films mattered. He will be missed. And long
remembered. Thank you, John. #RunIntoHisArms” — Ava DuVernay, via Twitter.
“This one
cuts deep. You’ll never be forgotten. Cause your work will live on.” —
Writer-producer Lena Waithe, via Twitter.
Simulation games might have prepared gamers to aid in preventing problems with future drone traffic. So all those hours playing SimCity weren’t such a waste of time after all. Captain America’s shield got some love at MIT as students covered the Great Dome with it in honor of “Avengers: Endgame.”
Drones ferrying medical supplies, packages, and even pizza could one day be crisscrossing the skies above U.S. cities, and a team at the University of Utah is working with regulators to keep that future traffic in check using a video game.
The
simulation unveiled Wednesday uses a 3-D model of Salt Lake City, similar to
games like Sim City, and data about planned drone paths to determine potential
problem areas.
“You can
play with all these variables and figure out a system that works,” said Mikaila
Young, a producer on the game and graduate student at the Entertainment Arts
and Engineering program.
Young and
her team are developing the game for the Utah Department of Transportation,
which is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to prepare for the
widespread use of commercial drones in the coming years.
“Basically,
it just says how many drones can you slam into this corridor or in this
airspace before we start breaking that minimum separation distance?” said Jared
Esselman, director of aeronautics at the state transportation department. The
game also includes simulations for drones that could one day carry people.
For now,
U.S. law now requires most drones to fly within the line of sight of an
operator and away from crowds. But companies and groups are already testing
drone deliveries in a number of U.S. locations.
A Google
affiliate is expected to begin delivering goods in parts of Virginia this year
after getting the first federal air-carrier certification drone this week, a
“potentially game-changing moment in the drone-delivery world,” said Jia Xu, an
engineer at the Rand Corp. think tank.
The first
regular commercial drone-delivery flight took blood samples on a short trip at
a North Carolina hospital in March. In west Africa, meanwhile, a new drone
service launched this week could eventually allow drones to ferry medical
supplies to remote corners of Ghana.
The U.S.
government recently estimated that about 110,000 commercial drones were
operating in the U.S., and that number is expected to grow to about 450,000 in
2022.
Drones hold
the promise of delivering medicine and food faster, especially to people who
need help getting around, and possibly reducing traffic and emissions.
If current
trials are successful, small-scale tests above urban areas could begin over the
next two years, and they could scale up quickly in the two years after if they
pass those tests and if it and makes business sense for companies, said Andrew
Lohn, an information scientist at Rand Corp.
Still, there
are a number of hurdles to overcome before widespread drone deliveries are
mainstream, said Ryan Calo, co-director of the Tech Policy Lab at the
University of Washington.
There’s the
question of how to develop laws that protect safety and privacy when drones are
flying over people. And there are still technical hurdles to overcome in
building drones that can carry larger packages long distances without being too
noisy.
“The hurdles
are not just regulatory. This stuff is very hard to do,” Calo said. Though
simulations are a commonplace tool in the tech world, “I think the Utah project
is important because it’s a step toward trying to validate that this stuff
would work safely.”
MIT Gives Avengers: Endgame Props With
Captain America Shield
Student pranksters at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology have struck again, drawing inspiration
from America’s hottest movie.
MIT students over the
weekend draped the university’s signature Great Dome with a giant cloth version
of Captain America’s red, white and blue shield.
Their efforts drew a
Twitter “Very cool!” from actor Chris Evans, the Massachusetts native who plays
Captain America in “Avengers: Endgame.”
The shield went up
Saturday night and was taken down Monday morning.
MIT students have for
generations centered similar pranks, which they call “hacks,” on the dome.
A realistic police cruiser
was placed on the dome in 1994. In 1999, it was decked out to look like R2D2,
the robot from “Star Wars.”
Major Airlines Outage Hits Ticketing
Systems
At least three major U.S.
airlines were briefly affected Monday by an outage
at a technology provider that shut down ticketing and check-in online and at
airport kiosks.
Sabre Corp. tweeted before
midday on the East Coast that it was aware of the outage affecting some of its
airline customers.
The company reported about
90 minutes later that the problem had been fixed and airlines were operating
normally or close to it. Some airlines said the outage was shorter.
Alaska Airlines tweeted
that its systems were back and running but the outage could cause a few delays.
JetBlue Airways told
customers about the Sabre problem and provided a link for booking flights.
American Airlines said the
brief technology issue was resolved.
Sinemia announced it was closing shop recently leaving MoviePass a reprieve in the movie ticket service, but co-founder Stacy Spikes is adding pressure with PreShow that lets you watch free movies. There is a catch though; you have to watch ads first.
Stacy Spikes co-founded MoviePass, a subscription service that lets you frequent movie theaters for a set monthly fee. After MoviePass sold off a majority stake in 2017, Spikes watched as the new owners quickly expanded, only to find the cost of all those movie tickets too high to sustain.
Now Spikes
has a new idea: free movie tickets for people who first agree to watch
ads. His new startup is called PreShow.
Spikes recently
talked about the state of movie theaters. Questions and answers have been
edited for length and clarity.
Why change moviegoing?
Spikes: If you do not evolve with the times,
you will wake up and find you’re like a record store or a video (rental) store.
To keep cinema at the forefront, we need to be innovating.
You get a free movie ticket after watching at least 15 minutes of video ads
on your phone. What’s to stop me from just leaving the ads running on a table?
Spikes: We had to build in facial
recognition so that you can tell that the person actually watched. If I look
away, it can detect that. It’ll pause if it doesn’t see me for five seconds.
That should really get conspiracy theorists attention.
Spikes: Nothing is recording. It’s a motion
detector. There is nothing leaving your device, nothing stored. (All
advertisers get) is this many people watched these spots.
How are longer ads better than 30-second spots?
Spikes: You actually get the time to go into
a story. It should feel like you’re being entertained versus you’re sitting
through painful ads. The more time you spend focused on an activity or brand,
the more you’re likely to spend your money.
How’s starting PreShow different from MoviePass?
Spikes: We were trying to figure certain
things out, like how much do you charge and how much are they going to eat (use
the service)? There were people going every day, and there were people who
maybe didn’t use the service. There were regions behaving differently. The ad
businesses are more straightforward. Facebook and others have figured it out.
With MoviePass, you took a loss as you covered the full cost of movie tickets
in most cases. Will you also be subsidizing tickets with PreShow?
Spikes: We’re expecting to run this business
such that you’re paying your way (through ads) to go to the movies. The way to
do that is to let in a few people, and you have certain advertisers to start,
and you grow over time.
The
investment community wants smarter businesses. There’s not the same tolerance
to, “Oh, we’ll figure it out.”
What advice do you have for others starting their own businesses?
Spikes: Do something that you know you love
so much, you’re your own kind of expert at it. I’m not going to do this for
sporting events or online gaming because I don’t know these worlds. But I know
cinema.
Sinemia
Latest Casualty
There’s
another casualty
among companies offering movies in theaters for a set monthly fee. It’s doubtful
anyone is surprised to hear this news as not many could see how the company could
survive with their basic structure. It’s marketing campaign seemed to be “We’re
MoviePass, but with a better value.” MoviePass wasn’t able to make that same
format work with 3 million subscribers,
so what chance did Sinemia have with only ten percent of that?
Sinemia says
it’s discontinuing operations in the U.S., just months after it started a
movie-a-day plan to fill a void left by the fall of MoviePass. Sinemia representatives
had no comment on whether the service would offer refunds to customers, some of
whom paid upfront for the year.
Both
services were financially
unsustainable as they paid theaters full prices for tickets, while charging
customers as little as $10 a month. Sinemia’s cheaper plans for one to three
movies a month are ending, too.
What remains
are subscriptions offered directly by theater chains, as they can still make
money from popcorn and candy. AMC started one last June, while Alamo Drafthouse
is testing one.
Sinemia has
this to state about their closing down the service.
Today, with
a heavy heart, we’re announcing that Sinemia is closing its doors and ending
operations in the US effective immediately. At Sinemia, we set out on our
journey with the vision to help as many moviegoers as possible enjoy an
affordable and better experience at the movies by creating a movie ticket
subscription service that adds value for both the moviegoers and the movie
industry. Since 2014, we’ve been fine-tuning our model and serving movie-goers
with a slate of affordable and flexible subscription plans.
We are all witnessing that
the future of moviegoing is evolving through movie ticket subscriptions.
However, we didn’t see a path to sustainability as an independent movie ticket
subscription service in the face of competition from movie theaters as they
build their own subscriptions. Thanks to the cost advantage and cross-sell
opportunities, movie theaters will be prominent in the movie ticket
subscription economy. While we are proud to have created a best in market
service, our efforts to cover the cost of unexpected legal proceedings and
raise the funds required to continue operations have not been sufficient. The
competition in the US market and the core economics of what it costs to deliver
Sinemia’s end-to-end experience ultimately lead us to the decision of
discontinuing our US operations.
Despite the best efforts
of our team, it has been difficult for us as a start-up to continue providing
our services to the moviegoers in the US without resources and enough capital
to meet increased operations and legal costs. We want to sincerely thank our
customers that believed in us and helped us along the way for their love and
support. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to share our dream with
you.
The “unexpected legal proceedings” referred to above presumably is an
acknowledgement of the class-action lawsuit that was filed against Sinemia last
November by angry customers, who contended that the service was falsely
advertising the true cost of its subscription plans. According to that lawsuit:
“Sinemia lures consumers in by convincing them to purchase a purportedly
cheaper movie subscription, and then adds undisclosed fees that make such
purchases no bargain at all. Sinemia fleeces consumers with an undisclosed,
unexpected, and not-bargained-for processing fee each time a plan subscriber
goes to the movies using Sinemia’s service.”
Will having one less competitor out of the game help MoviePass or just
give it a little bit of breathing room before gasping into the grave?
While many thought that an opening of $300 million was too much to expect in North American theaters, Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgames” defied expectations setting a whole new benchmark for how much the box office can expand. It truly is mind-blowing that it opened with more than $600 million than the previous record-breaking “Avengers: Infinity War.”
To see all the box office records “Endgame” has broken, check down here.
Even better, out of 378 Rotten Tomatoes critics, only 14 found fault in the film holding at an impressive 96 percent.
The universe belongs to Marvel. “Avengers: Endgame” shattered the record for biggest opening weekend with an estimated $350 million in ticket sales domestically and $1.2 billion globally, reaching a new pinnacle in the blockbuster era that the comic-book studio has come to dominate.
The “Avengers”
finale far exceeded even its own gargantuan
expectations, according to studio estimates Sunday. The movie had been
forecast to open between $260 million and $300 million in U.S. and Canadian
theaters, but moviegoers turned
out in such droves that “Endgame” blew past the previous record of $257.7
million, set last year by “Avengers: Infinity War” when it narrowly surpassed
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($248 million or about $266 million in inflation
adjusted dollars.)
“Endgame”
was just as enormous overseas. Worldwide, it obliterated the previous record of
$640.5 million, also set by “Infinity War.” (“Infinity War” didn’t open in
China, the world’s second largest movie market, until two weeks after its
debut.) “Endgame” set a new weekend record in China, too, where it made $330.5
million.
In one fell
swoop, “Endgame” has already made more than movies like “Skyfall,” ″Aquaman”
and “The Dark Knight Rises” grossed in their entire runs, not accounting for
inflation.
Alan Horn,
Disney chairman, credited Marvel Studios and its president, Kevin Feige, for
challenging “notions of what is possible at the movie theater.”
“This
weekend’s monumental success is a testament to the world they’ve envisioned,
the talent involved, and their collective passion, matched by the irrepressible
enthusiasm of fans around the world,” Horn said in a statement.
To
accommodate demand, the Walt Disney Co. released “Endgame” in more theaters —
4,662 in the U.S. and Canada — than any opening before. Advance ticketing
services set new records. Early ticket buyers crashed AMC’s website. And
starting Thursday, some theaters even stayed open 72 hours straight.
“We’ve got
some really tired staff,” said John Fithian, president and chief executive of
the National Association of Theater Owners. “I talked to an exhibitor in Kansas
who said, ‘I’ve never sold out a 7 a.m. show on Saturday morning before,’ and
they were doing it all across their circuit.”
Not working in the film’s favor was its lengthy running time: 161 minutes. But theaters kept added thousands of showings for “Endgame” to get it on more screens than any movie before to satiate the frenzy around “Endgame.” Joe and Anthony Russo’s film ties together the “Avengers” storyline as well as the previous 22 releases of the Marvel “cinematic universe,” begun with 2008′s “Iron Man.” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige might disagree as he likes to include the upcoming “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in with this batch making it 23.
“We want the movies to
reflect the audience and we want every member of our global audience to see
themselves reflected on the screen,” Feige said in a junket
interview. “And that’s what we’ve been doing for a long time. And
certainly, that’s what we’re focusing on going forward.”
For an
industry dogged by uncertainty over the growing role of streaming, the weekend
was a mammoth display of the movie theater’s lucrative potency. Fithian called
it possibly “the most significant moment in the modern history of the movie
business.”
“We’re
looking at more than 30 million American and more than 100 million global
guests that experienced ‘Endgame’ on the big screen in one weekend,” Fithian
said. “The numbers are just staggering.”
Further boosting
the results for “Endgame” were good reviews; it currently ranks as 96% fresh on
Rotten Tomatoes, the best rating for any Marvel movie aside from “Black
Panther.” Audiences gave the film an A-plus CinemaScore.
Single-handedly,
“Endgame” led the overall weekend at the domestic box office to a record $400
million in ticket sales, according to Comscore. “Endgame” accounted for a
staggering 88% of those tickets. The film’s grosses were aided by 3-D
screenings (a record $540 million in global ticket sales) and IMAX screenings
(a company record $91.5 million).
“Our
partners in exhibition have done a great job with us on this film. As they saw
the need, they opened up screens,” said Cathleen Taft, distribution chief for
Disney. “While there may have been a concern — Is there going to be enough
seats available? — I think that exhibition met that demand and rose to the
occasion.”
But if there
was any shadow to the weekend for the theatrical business, it was in just how
reliant theaters have grown on one studio: Disney.
Disney now holds all but one of the top 12 box-office openings of all time. (Universal’s “Jurassic World” is the lone exception.) The studio is poised for a record-breaking year, with releases including “Aladdin,” ″Toy Story 4,” ″The Lion King,” ″Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and “Frozen 2” on the horizon.
Following
its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Disney is expected to account for at least
40% of domestic box-office revenue in 2019, a new record of market share. The
company’s “Captain Marvel” — positioned as a kind of Marvel lead-in to
“Endgame” — also rose to No. 2 on the weekend, eight weeks after it opened.
But theater
owners regularly speak of a “halo effect” around a movie like “Endgame.” Such
sensations draw in new moviegoers and expose millions to a barrage of movie
trailers.
“This has
got to be the biggest weekend in popcorn history,” said Paul Dergarabedian,
senior media analyst for Comscore.
“Think of the gallons of soda and the hot dogs sold. This is going to continue
all week and beyond. This is going to have long-term playability for sure.”
An enormous
hit was much needed for a box office that, coming into the weekend, was lagging
16% of the pace of last year’s ticket sales, according to Comscore. “Endgame”
moved the needle to negative 13.3% but the boost was less significant since
“Infinity War” opened on the same weekend in 2018.
No other new
wide release dared to open against “Endgame.” Warner Bros.′ “The Curse of La
Llorona,” last week’s top movie, slid to third with $7.5 million.
The guessing
game will now shift to just how much higher
“Endgame” can go. Given its start, it’s likely to rival the top three worldwide
grossers: “The Force Awakens” ($2.068 billion in 2015), “Titanic ($2.187
billion in 1997) and “Avatar” ($2.788 in 2009).
North America Box Office
Estimated
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according
to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday
through Sunday are also included.
1.
“Avengers: Endgame,” $350 million ($859 million international).
2. “Captain
Marvel,” $8.1 million.
3. “The
Curse of La Llorona,” $7.5 million.
4.
“Breakthrough,” $6.3 million.
5. “Shazam!”
$5.5 million.
6. “Little,”
$3.4 million.
7. “Dumbo,”
$3.2 million.
8. “Pet
Sematary,” $1.3 million.
9. “Us,”
$1.1 million.
10.
“Penguins,” $1.1 million.
Worldwide Box Office
Avengers: Endgame Records Broken
Biggest Global Launch — $1.2 Billion
“Endgame’s” massive worldwide haul of $1.209
billion easily topped the previous record $640.5 million debut of “Avengers: Infinity War” on
the same weekend a year ago. It helped that “Endgame” opened
simultaneously in China, while “Infinity
War” debuted in the Middle Kingdom two weeks after rolling out in
much of the rest of the world. When factoring in China’s opening, “Infinity War” debuted to
roughly $847 million worldwide.
Biggest Opening in North America — $350 Million
“Infinity
War” was the
previous record holder at $257.6 million, followed by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”($248
million), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” ($220
million) and “Jurassic World” ($208.8
million).
Biggest International Debut — $859 Million
It took “Endgame” only
three days — Wednesday through Friday — to surpass the high-water mark of the
foreign debut of “The Fate of the
Furious”($443.2 million) before finishing Sunday with its
massive offshore total.
Biggest China Opening — $330.5 Million
“Endgame’s” foreign tally includes a
record-shattering five-day launch of $330.5 million in China, where it’s
already the No. 4 Western film of all time. The pic also scored the biggest
opening day of all time there with $107.8 million.
Widest Release of All Time in the U.S. and Canada
Disney made
up for “Endgame’s” three-hour running
time by opening the movie in 4,662 theaters in North America, besting the
location count of “Despicable Me 3”(4,529), “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”(4,475), “Infinity War” (4,474) and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (4,468).
Top Wide Opening Location Average — $75,075
“The
Force Awakens,” which
bowed in 4,134 sites, was the previous record holder with an opening location
average of $59,982.
Biggest Opening/Single Day Domestically
The superhero
pic earned a massive $156.7 million on its first Friday, including $60 million
in Thursday evening previews, to easily topple the mark set by “The Force Awakens”on
its first Friday with $119 million, including $57 million in previews.
Biggest Saturday Domestically
“Endgame” grossed another $109 million on
its second day, dwarfing “Infinity
War’s” Saturday gross of $82.1 million.
Fuels Top Domestic Weekend of All Time
Combined
ticket sales clocked in at $397 million-plus in North America, by far the top
showing of all time. The previous record of $314 million belonged to the
weekend “Infinity War” opened.
Makes History in Numerous Foreign Markets
In addition
to China — where it is already the No. 4 title of all time — “Endgame” scored the biggest
opening weekend in 43 markets, including the U.K./Ireland, Australia, South
Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and France.
Top Imax Opening
The
large-format contributed $91.5 million, an all-time best.
Top Advance Preseller
Online
ticket services Fandango and Atom Ticket say “Endgame” racked
up more advance sales than any title in history.
Try as he may, Donald Trump just can’t get away from Russia even now that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is part of American political history. While it may seem like months ago, the Russia report still weighs heavily over the president, and he’ll be using it as his battle cry at every rally through the 2020 presidential election.
As much as Trump says he wants the United States to move on, he’s found it hard to turn away himself, as seen in a torrent of tweets and remarks railing against Democrats, trashing Mueller and painting his own actions in a saintly light.
There is
little truth to be found in these statements.
A review of
a week of Russia-heavy rhetoric from Trump and his team, also touching on the
census and the economy:
RUSSIA JUST WON’T GO AWAY
TRUMP: “No Collusion, No Obstruction –
there has NEVER been a President who has been more transparent. Millions of
pages of documents were given to the Mueller Angry Dems, plus I allowed
everyone to testify, including W.H. counsel.” — tweet Wednesday.
ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR: “The White House fully cooperated
with the special counsel’s investigation, providing unfettered access to
campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely,
and asserting no privilege claims.” — remarks
at the Justice Department on April 18.
THE FACTS: It’s a huge stretch for them to cast
the White House as being “fully” cooperative and open in the investigation into
Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election and the Trump campaign’s
relationship with Russian figures.
Trump
declined to sit for an interview with Mueller’s team, gave written answers that
investigators described as “inadequate” and “incomplete,” said more than 30
times that he could
not remember something he was asked about in writing, and — according to
the report — tried to get aides to fire Mueller or otherwise shut or limit the
inquiry.
In the end,
the Mueller report found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump
campaign and Russia but left open the question of whether Trump obstructed
justice.
Also on the
matter of transparency, Trump is an outlier among presidents in refusing to release his tax returns. Providing
tax information as a candidate in 2016 and as president is something party
nominees have traditionally done for half a century.
GOOD ECONOMY MEANS NO CRITICS
TRUMP: “In the ‘old days’ if you were
President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism.
Remember, ‘It’s the economy stupid.’ Today I have, as President, perhaps the
greatest economy in history.” — tweet Tuesday.
THE FACTS: You can assume many previous
presidents would beg to disagree that a good economy shielded them from
criticism.
Under
President Bill Clinton, whose top campaign staffer James Carville coined
the phrase “the economy, stupid” to underscore what the campaign should be
about, the unemployment rate fell to 3.8% and the nation’s economy grew 4% or
more for four straight years.
Yet Clinton
was under independent counsel investigation for all but one year of his
presidency, 1993. The House impeached him in December 1998, at the height of
the Monica Lewinsky scandal, though the Senate acquitted him in February 1999.
In January 1998, Hillary Clinton alleged a “vast right-wing conspiracy” to take
down her husband, a widely mocked complaint about the relentless criticism the
Clintons faced from the right (which extended to ridicule over the title of
Hillary Clinton’s 1996 book, “It Takes a Village.”)
Under
President Ronald Reagan, the economy expanded 3.5% or more for six years in a
row, with growth rocketing to 7.2% in 1984. Yet Reagan was dogged in his second
term by the Iran-Contra investigation, which focused on covert arm sales to
Iran that financed aid to Nicaraguan rebels.
Both
presidents saw much faster growth than Trump has presided over, despite Trump’s
faulty claim to have “perhaps the greatest economy in history.” Growth reached
2.9% last year, the best in four years, but far below the levels achieved under
Clinton or Reagan. The unemployment rate touched 3.7% last September and
November, the lowest in five decades, but just one-tenth of a percentage point
below the 3.8% in April 2000 under Clinton.
ROBERT MUELLER NEVER FIRED
TRUMP: “Mueller was NOT fired and was
respectfully allowed to finish his work on what I, and many others, say was an
illegal investigation (there was no crime), headed by a Trump hater who was
highly conflicted.” — tweet Thursday.
THE FACTS: Trump is wrong to suggest that the
FBI acted illegally by investigating him. The FBI does not need to know if or
have evidence that a crime occurred before it begins an investigation.
Many
investigations that are properly conducted ultimately don’t find evidence of
any crime. The FBI is empowered to open an investigation if there’s information
it has received or uncovered that leads the bureau to think it might encounter
a crime. Apart from that, the investigation into the Trump campaign was
initially a counterintelligence investigation rather than a strictly criminal
one, as agents sought to understand whether and why Russia was meddling in the
2016 election.
Trump also
makes a baseless charge that Mueller was “highly conflicted.” Mueller, a
longtime Republican, was cleared by the Justice Department’s ethics experts to
lead the Russia investigation. Nothing in the public record makes him a “Trump
hater.”
According to
the special counsel’s report, when Trump previously complained privately to
aides that Mueller
would not be objective, the advisers, including then-White House chief
strategist Steve Bannon, then-White House counsel Don McGahn and Reince
Priebus, chief of staff at the time, rejected those complaints as not
representing “true conflicts.” Bannon also called the claims “ridiculous.”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
TRUMP: “I DID NOTHING WRONG. If the
partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme
Court.” — tweet Wednesday.
THE FACTS: He’d have a tough hearing at the
Supreme Court. Justices ruled 9-0 in 1993 that the Constitution grants sole
power of impeachment to the House and Senate, not the judiciary.
Under the
principle of separation of powers, Congress is a co-equal branch of government
to the executive branch and judiciary. The House is afforded power to impeach a
president by bringing formal charges and the Senate convenes the trial, with
two-thirds of senators needed to convict and remove a president from office.
The Constitution does not provide a role for the judiciary in the impeachment
process, other than the chief justice of the United States presiding over the
Senate trial.
In its 1993
ruling, the Supreme Court said framers of the Constitution didn’t intend for the
court to have the power to review impeachment proceedings because they involve
political questions that shouldn’t be resolved in the courts.
CONGRESS SHOULD STOP
KELLYANNE CONWAY, White House counselor, saying
there’s no need for Congress to continue
investigating with the Mueller probe concluded: “We all know if Director
Mueller and his investigators wanted to or felt that it was right to indict
they would have done that. He had every opportunity to indict and declined to
indict. Investigators investigate and they decide to indict, they refer
indictment or they decline indictment. That’s the way the process works.” —
remarks Wednesday to reporters.
THE FACTS: That’s not how Mueller’s process
worked. According to the report, Mueller’s team declined to “make a traditional
prosecutorial judgment” on whether to indict — that is, do what prosecutors
typically do, as Conway describes it — because of a Justice Department legal
opinion that said sitting presidents shouldn’t be indicted. “Fairness concerns
counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be
brought,” the report states.
As a result,
the report factually laid out instances in which Trump might have obstructed
justice, leaving it open for Congress to take up the matter or for prosecutors
to do so once Trump leaves office. Mueller’s team wrote that its investigation
was conducted “in order to preserve the evidence when memories were fresh” and
documentary material available.
“Accordingly,
while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it
also does not exonerate him,” the report states.
LOVE IT, HATE IT
HOGAN GIDLEY, White House deputy press secretary:
“He’s already denounced, multiple times, Russian involvement.” — remarks
Tuesday to reporters.
THE FACTS: Trump has had it both ways, at times
criticizing that involvement but more often equivocating, and long after U.S.
intelligence agencies and other parts of his administration became convinced of
Russian meddling. “Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,‘” Trump
said of Putin in November 2017. “I really believe that when he tells me that,
he means it.” In February 2018, he tweeted: “I never said Russia did not meddle
in the election, I said ‘it may be Russia, or China or another country or
group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his
computer.’”
Now he’s
assailed the report by Mueller, whose investigation fleshed out the audacious
Russian effort to shape the election in favor of Trump and resulted in
indictments against 25 Russians accused either of hacking Democratic email
accounts or sowing discord in America through social media, as well as Trump
associates.
BLAME BARACK OBAMA
GIDLEY: “It was Barack Obama who leaned over
to Dmitry Medvedev in the Oval Office and said, ‘Listen, we’ll have more
flexibility when the election’s over.’” — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: First, the conversation was in South
Korea, not the Oval Office. Gidley accurately recounted the gist of what Obama
was heard telling the Russian president on a microphone they didn’t know was
on. But Gidley did not explain the context of the remark.
Obama was
suggesting he would have more flexibility postelection to address Russia’s
concerns about a NATO missile defense system in Europe. The conversation with
Medvedev, who was soon succeeded by Vladimir Putin, had nothing to do with
Russian meddling that would be exposed in the U.S. election four years away.
CENSUS
TRUMP: “The American people deserve to know
who is in this Country. Yesterday, the Supreme Court took up the Census
Citizenship question, a really big deal.” — tweet Wednesday.
GIDLEY, when asked whether Trump believes an
accurate census count isn’t necessary: “He wants to know who’s in this country.
I think as a sovereign nation we have that right. It’s been a question that’s
been on the census for decades.” — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: Not since 1950 has the census
collected citizenship data from the whole population.
Moreover,
Trump’s position that asking a citizenship question in the census is needed to
“know who is in this country” ignores the judgment of the Census Bureau’s own
researchers, who say that it would not result in the most accurate possible
count of the U.S. population. The question is already asked in other government
surveys.
According to
January 2018 calculations by the Census Bureau, adding the question to the
once-a-decade survey form would cause lower response rates among Hispanics and
noncitizens. The government would have to spend at least $27.5 million for
additional phone calls, home visits and other follow-up efforts to reach them.
Federal
judges in California, Maryland and New York have blocked the administration
from going forward with a citizenship question after crediting the analysis of
agency experts. The experts said millions would go uncounted because Hispanics
and immigrants might be reluctant to say if they or others in their households
are not citizens.
Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross has argued that a citizenship question is needed to help
the government better comply with the Voting Rights Act. But the Justice
Department has been enforcing the 1965 law, which was passed to help protect
minority groups’ political rights, with citizenship data already available from
other government surveys.
The count
goes to the heart of the U.S. political system, determining the number of seats
each state has in the U.S. House and how the electoral votes that decide
presidential elections are distributed. It also shapes how 300 federal programs
distribute more than $800 billion a year to local communities.
ECONOMY
TRUMP retweet of RONNA MCDANIEL, Republican National Committee
chairwoman: “If Joe Biden wants to keep
score: In 8 years, Biden & Obama had a net loss of 193,000
manufacturing jobs. In just over 2 years, @realDonaldTrump has created 453,000
manufacturing jobs.” — tweet Thursday.
THE FACTS: McDaniel is right but presents a
misleading portrait of economic growth during Barack Obama’s presidency, with
Biden serving as vice president.
Obama’s
eight years in office began with the final five months of the 17-month Great
Recession, which began under his predecessor and included some of the worst
stretches of job loss since World War II.
Manufacturing
jobs bottomed out in February 2010, then grew steadily for the next six years
before declining during Obama’s last year in office. Still, during that stretch
the economy added 915,000 manufacturing jobs.
Not many people thought that Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” could possibly cross $300 million at the North American box office with it’s three-hour running time, but Thor and company are looking to prove us all wrong. Expectations are for it to hit over $345 million at 4,662 North American locations. Further, people are waiting with baited breath to see if it can possibly hit $1 billion in its opening weekend.
“Avengers:
Endgame” is crushing the competition by setting multiple records at the box
office a day after its release.
The Walt Disney Co. says
domestically the film opened Friday with a record $156.7 million (including
Thursday previews), besting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($119 million in
2015, though it played on fewer screens) and “Avengers: Infinity War” ($106
million in 2018).
Outside the U.S.,
“Avengers: Endgame” broke another record by grossing an estimated $487 million
at the end of Friday, surpassing “The Fate of the Furious” aka “Fast &
Furious 8” ($443 million in 2017).
The Marvel Comics
superhero film also broke the record for the highest opening weekend globally
of all time with $644 million at the end of Friday. The previous record holder
was “Infinity War” with $641 million.
Avengers: Endgame Breaks Star Wars The Force Awakens Box Office Record
“Avengers:
Endgame” has gotten off to a mighty start at the box office, earning a record
$60 million from Thursday night preview showings in North America, according to
the Walt Disney Co.
The previous record holder
was “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” which earned $57 million from Thursday
previews in 2015, though “Avengers: Endgame” was shown in more theaters.
Internationally, Disney
said on Friday that “Avengers: Endgame” has already grossed $305 million in its
first two days in theaters with over half of that tally coming from China.
Box office prognosticators are projecting that the film could earn anywhere from $260 million to $300 million domestically, and between $800 million and $1 billion globally when the dust settles and final numbers are reported Monday.
More Records Avengers: Endgame Has Broken Or Could Break
“Avengers:
Endgame” has become astronomical in its first three days, setting records in
the U.S., China and a variety of overseas markets. These are some of the
records the superhero
tentpole is destroying on its first weekend at the box office.
Biggest
China opening day: “Avengers:
Endgame” set the record on April 24 for the biggest opening day and biggest
single day in Chinese history with $107.2 million, surpassing China’s homegrown
production “Monster Hunt 2.”
International
record breaker: It
became the biggest single-day performer in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand,
Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Korea (by number of admissions), the
U.K., Brazil, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia,
Paraguay, Trinidad and Uruguay. It also registered the top opening day in
Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey and
Ukraine.
Thursday
preview record: In
the U.S., “Avengers: Endgame” set a record for top Thursday preview gross at
$60 million, beating the 2015 record of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at $57
million.
Domestic
weekend record: Disney
projected on Friday afternoon that “Avengers: Endgame” would finish the
domestic opening weekend at about $300 million, demolishing last year’s
record set by “Avengers: Infinity War” with $257.7 million.
Most
screens for one film: “Avengers:
Endgame” is setting a record by showing at 4,662 North American locations.
Here are more records that “Avengers: Endgame” has a good shot at breaking:
Top
market share: The
fourth Avengers movie has a good shot at taking the title for top market share
for an opening weekend among films that opened at more than $150 million. That
distinction is currently held by “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with 82% of the
total market when it opened with $233 million in 2015. Comscore indicated the
rest of the slate will probably take in about $40 million this weekend — which
could mean that “Avengers: Endgame” could have a record-setting share of more
than 85%.
Biggest
worldwide opening: Other
records that could be in jeopardy are for the largest international opening
weekend, currently held by “Fate of the Furious” with $443 million, and biggest
worldwide opening weekend, currently held by “Avengers: Infinity War” at $640
million.
The Marvel finale’s impact is so widespread that AMC Cinemas chain said: “Avengers: Endgame” will show a record 58,000 times at AMC theatres this weekend, breaking the previous record held by “Avengers: Infinity War” by more than 10,000.
Avengers: Endgame Takes Over 40 Million Social Media Engagements
As “Avengers Endgame” opens this week to huge crowds, sold out theaters and plot spoilers all over the Internet and in the press, social media is buzzing with its own brand of chatter. In fact, there have been more than 9.6 million mentions of Endgame in social media over the past seven days, with 40.5 million engagements (shares, likes retweets), according to international social media analytics firm Talkwalker.
Among the top 10 hashtags is #Don’tSpoilTheEndgame, which checks in at the fourth top hashtag with more than 330,000 mentions, Talkwalker reported.
Predictably, Marvel Studios is the top brand name associated with Endgame in social media, with 313,000 mentions, but Audi is second with 6,689 mentions, ahead of Coca-Cola (934), McDonald’s (650) and Mastercard (600). ). Audi is prominent thanks to Tony Stark driving a tall-electric E-Tron GT concept car in the newest Avengers film.
Last week
was the Season 14 finale of my favorite show, Supernatural. The last Supernatural season finale, ever; the
next one will be the series finale.
As season finales have done for over a decade, the ‘Road So Far’ was
accompanied by the song that’s become the unofficial theme song for Supernatural, Kansas’ Carry On (Wayward
Son). I immediately burst into tears, which isn’t the first time. I don’t even
want to think about the state I’ll be in when Carry On starts to play a year
from now and we all know it’s the last time.
Two days
later, I’m still conflicted about the episode – and damn, do I have a lot of
questions! I was not alone in my split opinions. My timeline literally alternated between
“Genius OMG!” and “Stupidest episode ever how dare you!” I had whiplash just trying to skim through
Twitter. The confusing thing is, I get it. I get both reactions. As often
happens to me, I’m caught somewhere in the middle instead of being firmly all
in with one group or the other. You can look at this episode from multiple
perspectives, and each sends me to a different emotional space. One thing is
for certain – I still care about this Show just as much as I always have,
because it kept me awake half the night and was the first thing I thought about
when I woke up this morning. That in itself is pretty amazing.
So, let’s
walk (or run, really, because this was a fast paced episode) through ‘Moriah’,
and see what worked and on what level – and what didn’t.
I love ‘The
Road So Far’ in every season finale. This one recapped pretty much all of
Season 14, from Michael to the return of John and the epic family reunion in
the 300th episode. There was some epic VFX and some emotional
moments, and then we pick up right where we left off – with Jack having blown
up the Ma’lak box and escaped.
He confronts
Sam, Dean and Cas, eyes glowing ominously.
Jack: You lied to me!
He throws
them across the room, but at least he didn’t incinerate them. And then he’s
gone.
Dean and
Castiel are still very much at odds in this episode, Dean arguing that Jack is
dangerous and needs to be stopped.
Dean: Now he’s just another monster.
Cas: (shocked) You don’t mean that.
Dean: The hell I don’t.
Fandom was still
split about Jack and whether he’s still a misunderstood nougat loving boy
trying to do the right thing or a soulless dangerously powerful being who’s
killed people. Logically I think it’s pretty clear the latter is true, but emotionally
the Show keeps making sure we remember the former version of Jack and thus feel
for him. So Dean still comes off as pretty harsh, and very very angry.
Director
Phil Sgriccia makes the emotional scene between Dean and Cas jump off the
screen with its intensity, and Ackles and Collins both bring it. They are both
angry, both convinced they are right and the other is wrong – and that the
stakes are high because someone (Jack or other people) will die if they don’t
do what they feel they need to. Sam is the emotional core of the audience in
much of this episode, cringing as the two people he’s so close to have it out
but unable to intervene.
One of the
things I haven’t liked in Season 14 is the lack of interaction between Dean and
Sam, which is why I started watching the Show in the first place. In this
episode, they actually get to talk, so that goes in the win column (though
their conversation is uncharacteristically awkward). Dean wants Sam to know
that he realizes how hard this is for Sam and what Jack meant to him.
Dean: Hell, he meant a lot to me too, he
was family. But this is not Jack anymore. We have to do the hard thing, the
ugly thing. Not like it’s the first time though, right?
At the time
I thought that was an odd thing to say. In retrospect, I see that Andrew Dabb (who
is both the showrunner and the writer of this episode) was trying to foreshadow
the eventual reveal that the Winchesters have been manipulated their whole
lives into doing all kinds of hard and ugly things – for the amusement of God.
I mean, Chuck.
It was
interesting that Dean continued to refer to Jack as “the kid” throughout this
conversation with his brother, even as he’s trying to convince Sam that he
needs to be killed. I saw this as evidence of Dean’s ambivalence. I said in my
last review, Dean is not as certain about this course of action as he seems.
It’s there in little tells like that. He likes to bluster and present his
decision as something he’s absolutely certain about, but Dean is a much deeper
thinker than that – and he feels things more deeply than he lets on too.
Meanwhile,
Jack is hurt that he was lied to by the father figures he trusted, and
hypervigilant for all the lying that humans do all the time – which of course
he finds evidence of everywhere. Jack’s temper gets the better of him again,
and he orders everyone to “Stop lying!”
Which they
do.
Sam and Dean
put on their fed suits (momentary detour to say that yes, the boys do look damn
good in their fed suits) and head out in the Impala to look for Jack. They
drive to a company called Mirror Universe which looks like it must be in
California (and seems like some sort of call out to every science fiction
episode ever that had one, including arguably Supernatural’s own AU). Either that or it’s a hint about what
eventually happens in this episode.
Dean scoffs
at the “nerds” but Sam isn’t having it. (Because Sam Winchester as we head into
the last season has had it up to here with not speaking his mind, and he’s
doing it – and I am here for it!)
Sam: Takes one to know one.
He proceeds
to prove it by rattling off all the totally nerdy things that fanboy Dean does,
including watching Jeopardy every night just like me; Dean doesn’t deny any of
them. Jared and Jensen were gold in this entire scene, their expressions on
point and their brotherly chemistry lighting up the screen.
Dean
beelines for the attractive woman at the desk, assuming he can charm her (not a
bad assumption).
Dean (flashing his badge per usual): I’m Dean Winchester and I’m looking
for the Devil’s son.
Receptionist: What?
Dean: What?
He tries to
correct himself and blurts it out again, ending with “And this badge is fake.” Ackles and comedy never cease to amaze me.
The formerly
peaceful employees of Mirror Universe are also suddenly unable to lie, which
results in confessions of affairs (and unexpected voyeurism), accusations of
yogurt theft with resulting violence, and someone walking around exclaiming “I
hate everyone!”
Dean proves
that they can’t lie either by demanding that Sam tell him who his favorite
singer is, because he knows Sam is lying when he says Elvis. (In fact, I’m
pretty sure he knows what the real answer is, he just wants to hear Sam say
it).
Sam says
Celine Dion every time he tries to say Elvis, which I admit annoyed me. Celine
Dion? Oh come on, really, Show?
That part
fell flat for me just because I can’t believe it (though perhaps this is my own
prejudice). But why not a shout out to Jason Manns, who we’ve seen Sam listen
to before? Opportunity wasted.
It was a
funny scene though, and Jared and also nailed it. Also I’m a little in love
with the Stapler Queen.
It’s a
little odd to have so much humor in an episode that is going to end up anything
but; however, Supernatural has always
excelled at being a roller coaster of feelings. The humorous part of the
episode is the first thing to go meta, another thing Supernatural has always excelled at. The episode nudges at the
border of real and fantasy with some social commentary.
Dean: No lying makes the internet really
quiet.
From a show that
has had a sometimes contentious relationship with its outspoken and opinionated
online fandom, that was a pointed reference.
Dean can’t
lie and also can’t seem to stop talking, telling Sam all about a mommy blogger
who he’s apparently read before, taking great pleasure in the fact that she’s
had to admit that her children are not so perfect and her gluten free popover
tastes like crap…
Sam: (WTF look)
Dean: I’ll stop talking.
Sam: Probably a good plan.
That was a
weird little inclusion because in real life at least one of the extended cast
family has a “mommy blog”. But then again, there’s a fair amount of research
that suggests that because we all try to portray ourselves as “perfect” online,
every time we peruse social media, our self esteem takes a hit.
And then
there was the political meta, as Sam and Dean catch a bit of a news program in
which it’s reported that “the President” has finally handed over all his tax
returns and fessed up to ties with Russia and North Korea – and making a demon
deal with someone named Crowley. I admit I laughed out loud at that one – they
really went there!
In the midst
of the chaos at poor Mirror Universe, a woman sits on the floor amidst the
carnage and laments “I just want to be loved”. Callback to Crowley when he was
in the throes of his human blood addiction or social commentary on internet
fandom, I wasn’t sure.
Meanwhile,
Castiel attempts to talk his way into Hell to examine the Cage (presumably to
see if it would hold Jack). The demon guarding the door refuses, but Cas turns
around to find – God!
Chuck: (shakes his head)
Castiel: (eyeroll) Chuck.
He tells Cas
that he answered his call, and that he’s also here because of Jack. Much of
fandom was spoiled for Rob Benedict’s return, including me, so I wasn’t shocked
to see Chuck. But I was shocked to
see Chuck so early in the episode. Most of us assumed he’d show up at the
eleventh hour, the veritable Deus ex Machina to save the day and take Jack with
him or something. But here he is, already.
Hmmm.
Chuck and
Cas meet up with Sam and Dean at the chaotic Mirror Universe, and they have a
rather tense conversation.
Dean demands
to know where Chuck has been (as their lives have been turned upside down and
Michael let loose and Lucifer wreaking havoc and their mother killed etc etc
etc).
Chuck: (takes out his guitar to tell the
story)
Dean whirls
on him, furious.
Dean abruptly
grabs the guitar and smashes it to the ground, and Chuck goes from harmless
seeming nebbishy guy to terrifying when he screams “DON’T!”
I actually
jumped during that scene. You wouldn’t think that Rob Benedict would be able to
pull off that kind of powerful and scary, but oh yes, he can. It’s the Chuck we
saw glimpses of with Metatron, in Robbie Thompson’s brilliant ‘Don’t Call Me
Shurley’. The powerful and frightening God who Metatron recognized instantly.
Chuck zaps
them all back to the bunker and tries to placate them.
Chuck: I get it, I’m the Deus from the
Machina and you have questions…
Another veer
into meta, and fandom’s frequent criticism of all the Deus Ex Machinas that
Show has tried to pull off over the years, right down to our assumption that
Chuck might play that role in this finale.
I like when
Show goes meta, and I smiled at that – but it was also meta with a bite. Kripke
always seemed to pull off that delicate balance of tossing in meta that let
fandom know he saw us. Sometimes he didn’t quite understand what he saw, but he
always poked fun with evident affection. I’m not 100% sure that was the case
here, but it certainly made a point.
Chuck says
that Amara is in Reno, that they’ve been together. The whole conversation – and
Chuck himself – are by this time starting to sound pretty off. Not the first
time Chuck has been far from a benevolent loving supreme being, but he still
seemed different. When Castiel expresses
surprise at Chuck pointing out that lying is helpful (hence the chaos in the
Mirror Universe), he shrugs.
Chuck: I’m a writer. Lying is kinda what we
do.
It’s a theme
of the episode, and it’s also more of that meta that might not be very
affectionate. It’s also a cynical way to look at writing. Writers create
fictional worlds, sure, but I’ve never connected that to lying in quite the way
Chuck (Dabb?) does. It’s all kinds of ominous, which I suppose is the point.
Sam and Dean
confront Chuck for not helping out when they’ve been through so much hell
(literally and figuratively) but Chuck reminds them that he’s “hands off.”
Chuck then
goes very meta, recounting some of the things the Winchesters have confronted,
from the multiple apocalypses to “going up against the British Men of Letters –
a little weak, but okay”.
It’s in the
tradition of Kripke’s jabs at early episodes that were also criticized by fans
like ‘Bugs’ and the ghost ship episode or the monster truck one, and it’s cute
and funny but I’m still not sure if that affection which makes it all okay is
there.
Chuck makes
it clear that Jack is a danger.
Sam: So Jack is apocalyptic?
Chuck: The world just went insane.
We hear
evidence on all the radio systems, ending with the Queen of England being a
lizard, which is a shout out to Misha Collins and another little meta tidbit.
Chuck snaps
his fingers and fixes it.
Dean: Celine Dion rocks. Yeah, we can lie
again.
Chuck
insists that Jack has to be stopped, and that he can’t do it – but Sam, Dean or
Castiel can.
He puts a
gun on the table, suggests some over the top names like “The Equalizer” or “The
Hamurabi” with its eye for an eye connotations, and tries to explain that
existence is all about balance. Which means if you shoot someone with it, you
die too.
Dean looks
resigned.
Dean: This is the only way.
Cas points
out that they thought the only way to defeat Michael was the Ma’lak box, and
that didn’t turn out to be true, which, good point, Cas.
Cas: There has to be another way.
Dean is
determined.
Dean: Either get on board or walk away.
Cas: (walks away)
Chuck looks
after him, an unusual expression on his face.
One of my
favorite scenes of the episode comes next, as Sam goes to Dean’s room looking
for him.
Dean is
sitting at a table in the corner, drinking.
This scene
is a perfect example of how gorgeous Supernatural
is, the cinematography and the lighting and the set dec and the direction and
the acting. All of it. I want to roll around in this scene forever, it’s that
beautiful and that full of brimming emotion that tears me apart and makes me
love these characters with all my heart.
Dean tells
Sam he’s glad he’s there, that he has something to say to him, and we all know
that’s not good. Sam knows too.
Sam sits
down on the bed, but he doesn’t even let Dean go on.
Sam: This is where you tell me you’re
gonna be the one to pull the trigger?
Dean: We don’t have a choice, Sam.
But like I
said, Sam Winchester is DONE with not speaking his mind.
Sam: Of course we do. Don’t we always? I
mean, isn’t that the point of everything we’ve ever done, that we always have a
choice?
It’s a
conversation about killing Jack (and sacrificing Dean), but it’s also the theme
of the whole episode – and more than that, of the entire Show. It’s a call back
to Swan Song and the point Kripke was trying to make all those years ago. Making your own choices, free will
versus destiny. It’s what Supernatural is all about.
The room is
dark, and the lighting makes the scene even more dramatic; it also makes Jensen
and Jared look unearthly beautiful. There’s so much emotion there between the
brothers, but they are heartbreakingly far from being on the same page. Dean
doesn’t feel like they have a choice, and he is always going to be willing to
sacrifice himself to keep Sam and everyone else safe. Sam wants to believe that
they do have a choice, and he’s hanging onto that belief and that hope.
Sam protests
that they haven’t even tried to save Jack (which is what much of fandom has
been screaming).
Sam: He doesn’t’ have a soul! I brought
him back, because he’s family. And he burned his soul off to save us! So you
want my permission? You want me to say that I’m cool with losing him and losing
you all at once? Because I can’t say that. I won’t say that. I’ve already lost
too much.
Sam is
anguished, the thought of Dean killing Jack – and of Sam losing Dean – too much
to even consider. He takes a stand; he refuses. Jared Padalecki is brilliant in
this scene, letting us see Sam’s desperation, his deep sadness. His fear. He
lost it a few episodes ago when faced with Dean going on another suicide
mission to trap himself forever in the Ma’lak box. Now Dean is determined to
sacrifice himself again, and it’s too much for Sam.
Sam walks out and Dean sits alone, literally backed into a corner. Jensen Ackles says volumes with the expression on Dean’s face, tormented and equally anguished. So much pain in his eyes, and so much determination in the set of his jaw as he downs a stiff drink. We know in that moment, that he hasn’t changed his mind and that it’s killing him not to have Sam on his side this time.
Meanwhile,
Jack is still trying to figure out how to reconnect with his human side. He
visits his grandmother, but Mrs. Kline doesn’t want anything to do with him.
She did some digging and realized Jack lied to her, that he’s not who he says
he is (theme, theme, theme…) She realizes that her daughter is probably dead.
Anguished, she lashes out at Jack, asking him what he did to her daughter.
Jack gets
angry and, eyes glowing, yells for her to “Stop!”
Break away
to commercial, and it seems like Jack has probably burnt his grandmother to a
crisp now too. Maybe.
Castiel goes
in search of Jack, and finds him in a cemetery (or they find each other). Cas
approaches Jack, and for a moment we don’t know what he’ll do – then he takes
the next step and sweeps Jack into a hug. Cas really does love Jack, as much as
an angel loves – maybe more. Cas was human for a while, after all.
They have a
heart to heart, Jack admitting that he’s trying so hard to do the right thing,
but that he keeps failing.
Jack: I killed my mother just by being
born. I used to feel bad about that, but now I don’t feel anything.
It’s
heartbreaking and also frightening, because both Cas and Dean are right about
Jack. But we do learn that at least he
didn’t kill his grandmother. He’s clearly made a little bit of strides in
keeping his powers in check. Instead he ran.
Sam is back
at the bunker as Cas and Jack are talking. He and Chuck have a conversation
that gets very meta again, about the various other realities that Chuck created
– some all yellow, one with all squirrels….
Sam: Michael said you create these worlds
and then toss them away like failed versions of some book. Is that what you’re
doing to us?
Chuck: No! Of all the Sam and Deans, you’re
my favorites. So interesting!
That is a
chilling admission. (It’s also confusing, because I thought at some point we
learned that Sam and Dean were only in this world, not in the others).
But most of
all it’s meta as hell, because we’re back to talking about Sam and Dean purely
as characters. As pawns in a fictional story that Chuck is writing. With story
lines tossed away and never followed up on, a frequent criticism of Supernatural fans to the current
showrunner who’s writing this episode.
Back in the
actual story, Sam is getting a clue.
Sam: (clearly also a bit creeped out) Do
you watch us, when you’re not here?
Chuck: Yeah. I mean, you’re my favorite
show…
Depending on
your fic preferences, that probably put some interesting images in your head of
what exactly you think Chuck is enjoying watching, just saying. I’m not so sure
that wasn’t the intent of the meta commentary, in fact. We watch them too, our favorite show, for our
own selfish and voyeuristic reasons. I hear you, Show. I’m just still not sure
you’re speaking with affection here.
Sam: Why does it always have to be on us?
Chuck: Because you’re my guys!
Sam: You’re scared of him, aren’t you?
[Jack]
Chuck: Aren’t you?
Sam (getting even more of a clue): Do you know where he is?
That moment
was incredibly well done, so kudos all around. I was shocked, not realizing
that Chuck was distracting and delaying Sam on purpose. I think my mouth
literally hung open.
From here
the tension amps up into overdrive and doesn’t let up for the rest of the
episode. Castiel and Jack continue their talk but now we know that Dean is on
his way to them with the gun that can kill Jack – and Dean.
Jack laments
that he keeps trying to do the right thing but it never goes right, and that
all he ever wanted was to be good.
Jack: Now I’m empty. I know you love me
and I want to love you back, but I can’t.
Cas: We just need time to fix this, we
need to get you somewhere safe…
But it’s too
late. We cut to Dean, standing a few yards away, holding the gun.
Castiel
stands between them.
Dean: Cas, step aside.
He doesn’t,
defying Dean and telling Jack to run away.
Jack
refuses, saying he won’t run anymore.
He zaps Cas
out of the way and faces Dean, dropping to his knees on the grass and waiting
for his fate.
It’s a
beautiful, sad scene, a statue of an angel or maybe Mary (meta…) watching it
play out in the graveyard.
At the same
time, here comes Sam, driving a big blue boat of a car (not sure why he didn’t
take one of the fancy cars from the bunker that would definitely go faster…).
Sam leaps from the car and starts running, Jared’s long long legs eating up the
ground as he practically flies toward his brother, yelling “Dean! Dean!”
I was
bouncing on my chair because this isn’t just Sam trying to save Jack, it’s also
Sam trying to save Dean!
Jack: I understand. I know what I’ve done.
It’s a
callback to other memorable season finales – Swan Song with one brother driving
up to try to save the other, and the Season 10 finale when Sam drops to his knees
and waits for Dean’s execution in a similar state of acceptance (a bit of
foreshadowing there as to the outcome).
Dean raises
the gun and takes aim.
Sam sprints
through the cemetery, yelling “Nonononono, Dean, hey” which is just so very
Winchester that it nearly made me cry.
Jack: You were right all along. I am a
monster.
Sam arrives,
but Dean tells him to stay back. Chuck zaps in too, and Cas runs up to join
them. Everyone holds their breath waiting for Dean to pull the trigger.
He cocks the
gun.
And Sam
looks at Chuck.
Sam: Are you – are you enjoying this?
He is,
clearly, and we the audience begin to get a sickening feeling in the pit of our
stomachs.
Jensen
Ackles shows us a whole dictionary of emotions on Dean’s face as he struggles
with this decision, with Jack’s granting of forgiveness and understanding even
without a soul.
Then he
slowly lowers the gun, and tosses it aside.
Chuck: No! Pick it up! This isn’t how the
story ends – this is Abraham and Isaac, this is epic!
But Sam has
figured him out.
Sam: He’s been playing us. This whole
time. Our entire lives. Mom, Dad, everything, this is all you. Because we’re
your favorite show.
Chuck offers
to bring their mother back if Dean will get back to killing Jack, and for a
moment it looks like Dean will cave.
Dean: No. No. My mom was my hero, and I’ll
miss her forever, but she wouldn’t want this.
Me: (thrown out of the moment) What? His mom was his
hero??
Sam goes OFF
on Chuck, and Jared Padalecki is hotter than hell in this scene, just saying.
Sam: Where were you? Sitting back and
watching us suffer? Losing people we love?
SO ANGRY AND
SO HOT.
I love how
the Winchesters do not give a fuck that who they’re going up against is God
himself. They are gonna tell it like it is and let you know just how few fucks
they give that you’re a supreme being, whether you’re Lucifer or Chuck or Amara
or whoever.
Dean: This isn’t just a story, this is our
lives! And god or no god, you go to Hell!
Chuck: (clearly pissed) Have it your way.
He smites
Jack, who falls to the ground, Cas leaning over him desperately trying to heal
him but unable to.
Dean: Stop it!
Chuck throws
Dean across the graveyard like the Yellow Eyed Demon did in a similar graveyard
all those years ago.
Sam (grabbing the gun): Hey Chuck!
He fires the
gun, and my heart stops.
Me: Sam, nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Jump to
commercial. I sat there gaping throughout the break. What did Sam do? If Chuck
is dead, so is Sam…
When we
resume, Sam shoots Chuck in the shoulder (and gets a wound to the shoulder too,
though the gun doesn’t shoot bullets but whatever).
Chuck is now
beyond pissed.
Chuck: Fine. That’s the way you want it?
Show’s over. Welcome to the end.
I teared up
at that moment, because that was way too on the nose. The Show really is going to be over. It really is ending. And that makes that meta
moment incredibly cruel.
Everything
goes dark. Dean checks on Sam, so all is right with the world in that aspect.
Dean: Hey, you okay?
Sam: Yeah, I’m good.
Jack, on the
other hand, really is dead, the outline of his wings singed into the ground.
Chuck had
said he couldn’t do the killing, but clearly that wasn’t true.
Cas (bitterly): He’s a writer. Writers lie (theme,
theme, theme…)
Jack wakes
up in The Empty, with the Entity approaching him, drawing a creepy smile on its
face. And then Billie is there (hello Lisa Berry!).
Billie to Jack: We should talk….
Motorhead’s
“God Was Never On Your Side” starts to play, a perfect song for this ending
that made the last scene so much more powerful. As Sam, Dean and Castiel watch,
souls begin to rise out of Hell, a call back to the souls escaping hell in All
Hell Breaks Loose Part 2 in another graveyard (as was the close up gun cock as
Dean prepared to shoot).
Then the
souls falling back to earth recalled that incredible scene of the angels
falling in the Season 8 finale, ‘Sacrifice’, one of my favorite episodes ever.
This time they’re the evil things that the Winchesters have killed come back,
from the very first Woman in White to the John Wayne Gacy evil clown to Bloody
Mary in the mirror.
Me: OMG
In the
graveyard, the newly released souls animate the dead bodies buried there.
Hundreds of them approach Sam, Dean and Cas. Part of me couldn’t help but see
it as a shout out to The Walking Dead and Jeffrey Dean Morgan and another part
kept hearing Jensen and Jared making fun of fighting zombies because they walk
so slowly that anyone could get away.
This time there are too many of them, though, and they have the threesome trapped. Cas pulls out his angel blade. Dean breaks off two rusted iron spikes from the cemetery fence and gives one to his brother. The three stand in the middle of the gathering horde, weapons raised as they all swarm in a full-scale attack.
Caps by kayb625
Fade to
black as Motorhead sings “God was never on your side.”
There’s no
question that making God himself the Big Bad for the last season of the Show
takes guts, and that it pulled off a twist that most of us didn’t see coming.
That’s no mean feat for a show in its fourteenth season. And turning what we assumed would be the Deus
Ex Machina on its head while making explicit reference to it in the story
itself? Pretty effing cool.
There’s no
question that was an epic ending. There’s no question it was a hell of a bold
move, essentially trying to wipe the slate clean and make the Winchesters start
over “saving people, hunting things.”
Many fans have wanted a return to the Show’s roots, myself included, and
this might be a way to focus more on ‘monster of the week’ episodes, since there
will be no shortage of monsters for hunting. A post-apocalyptic setting for
this Show is intriguing (apocafic is one of my favorite flavors, after all) so
that might also be yummy – and maybe we’re even going back to the dark palette
that the Show used in its first seasons. Fingers crossed on all that.
Supernatural has always been a show about free
will, questioning whether that exists at all. In this episode, the Winchesters
and Castiel defied God himself to demonstrate that yes, free will does exist.
Cas and Dean and Sam all showed it when they went against each other as well as
Chuck, each trying to do what they were convinced was the right thing. Chuck’s
assertion that he’s omnipresent and in complete control of the narrative didn’t
pan out – the Winchesters refused to play their part once again. I like that.
It meshes well with Swan Song and that ending I cherish.
Up against good, evil, angels,
devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose
family. And, well… isn’t that kinda the whole point?
It didn’t
have the same emotional punch as that episode, but it still revolved around
‘they chose family.’
All three of
Team Free Will got to be the hero in this episode – Dean by being willing to
make the hard (ugly) decision and sacrifice himself, Cas by staying steadfastly
loyal to his ‘son’, and Sam by listening to all sides and making his own
decision and having the balls to go up against even God to do what he felt was
right, trying to save everyone he cared about in the process – a call back to Sam’s
early seasons protest to his dad, “No sir, not the most important thing”.
So, from one
perspective, that was a rollercoaster of an episode, kept you on the edge of
your seat, gave you surprises you never saw coming, and tugged at your
heartstrings a bit for good measure. (I would always prefer more heartstring
tugging, but that’s just me).
From another
perspective, what the ever loving fuck have they done? Erased and undid everything that made the
Winchesters heroes? Turned on its head the very premise of the show – saving people,
hunting things? If they never sent those monsters to hell, who are the
Winchesters and why are we watching this Show? What’s their legacy now – what
do those initials carved into the bunker table mean? I don’t want the last
season to destroy what’s iconic about this Show. I don’t want to have its
legacy destroyed. I reacted strongly to Mary’s initials being added to the
bunker table because that SW-DW is so iconic and so meaningful. In this
episode, what at first reaction it seems they might have (sort of?) destroyed
was much bigger – Sam and Dean’s legacy itself.
So, I understand that if you look at it from
that perspective, you were pretty upset about this episode.
Does this
destroy what makes the Winchesters and Castiel so special? Could you say they
might as well never have existed if they haven’t made a difference in the
world? It’s such a core theme of the show, and one that’s been adopted by the
fandom as well. What does it mean if ‘always keep fighting’ turned out to be a
mantra that made no difference? To some fans, it felt like they invalidated
fourteen seasons, erased all the meaning that the Show has held and left their
accomplishments meaningless.
I didn’t
read it like that, but I understand where they’re coming from and I have
tremendous empathy for that sort of hurt. I’ve written before about how
important this show is to its fandom – I’ve written entire books about that, in
fact. If you feel like you’ve lost the very reason you love the show, that’s a
terrible and real pain indeed.
My reading
is different, especially after I’ve spent the past two days doing little but
thinking about this episode. For one thing, unless I’m reading this totally
wrong, Chuck’s do-over didn’t erase everything they’ve done. He let the bad
things they’ve killed out of hell, but he didn’t strike dead all the people
they’ve managed to save. It’s only the ‘hunting things’ part of the mantra that
got smashed – the ‘saving people’ is still intact as far as I can tell. At least I hope that’s the correct assumption!
All the people they saved from those things the first time around, they’re
still living their lives. (Though now there will be a lot more monsters that
might take them out in the future).
Chuck also didn’t open up Purgatory, I don’t think, so we probably won’t
have Leviathans and Dick Roman around to muck things up, so that’s also a win
they get to keep. Same goes for Eve and all the dickish power-hungry angels
we’ve encountered, since they’re not in Hell either. Everything that has
already happened, really did happen. All the things that made Sam and Dean and
Castiel who they are. So it’s not everything that’s been overturned. I mean,
it’s enough to be traumatizing, for sure, but I’m taking solace where I can
find it.
Some fans were
also understandably upset that God seems to be turning out to be the Big Bad of
Season 15 – or at least that’s how it looks right now. If that’s the case, it’s
a bold move, Show. I immediately went back over some of the other Chuck
episodes, struggling to make sense of them. Was Chuck ever actually a “good
guy”? Was he really put off about Sam and Dean going against their destiny in
Swan Song, or did his smile at the end mean that he approved of that story line
all along and was enjoying all the drama? Can any of us really hate a character
played by Rob Benedict??
There were
clues all along that Chuck wasn’t entirely a stand up guy, that’s certain.
Metatron recognized him most when he was selfish and throwing a tantrum, as the
God who the angels were all afraid of. He locked up his own sister for all
eternity, and while she was pretty awful when she finally got out, I mean, who
could blame her?
I was on set
when Rob Benedict filmed his very first episode as Chuck. It was called “The
Monster At The End of This Book”, and everyone was teasing me and Kathy that
the episode was “all our fault”. We were writing our first book about the Show,
and that meant that we’d been talking to Eric Kripke a lot – and he now knew a
whole lot about his show’s fandom. His way of dealing with that knowledge was
to go meta and take it right into the show, poking fun at us and him and the
Show itself, but always with affection and a self deprecating sense of humor
that allowed me to love every minute of it. This episode came full circle, in a
weird way. Rob returned, in an episode that went very meta indeed – and he
returned as literally the monster at the end of this book (ie this show).
I don’t know
yet how I feel about that. It might be brilliant; it’s certainly dangerous.
Is this
Chuck, who we see be so cold and manipulative and narcissistic, the same Chuck
we met back then? He did say he was “a God, a cruel and capricious God”. Maybe
he has been all along.
Some fans
weren’t so sure, and I’m not entirely sure. Is Chuck really Chuck? Lying and
people not being who they appeared to be was a repeated theme in this episode. They
made it a point to bring up Amara, and the balance of light and dark. Did Chuck
and Amara somehow meld together, and now Chuck is a whole lot darker than he
was? The world that Sam, Dean and Cas were thrown into was certainly –
literally – dark. Someone else tweeted
that when Chuck first appeared, they thought he was Lucifer. Someone else
wondered if the Entity from the Empty was just making itself look like Chuck.
Or is Chuck really just a dick, despite Rob’s adorable face that we all love?
If you look
at the episode from a purely meta perspective, that’s both fascinating and
maybe disturbing. Is Chuck in this episode standing in for showrunner (and writer
of this episode) Andrew Dabb? Chuck has long been considered an avatar of
creator Eric Kripke, but Kripke hasn’t been the puppeteer for these characters
in a while. This fandom is well known for speaking its mind (and its
complaints). Some fans wondered if this was Dabb saying to fandom, “Oh, you
don’t like what I’m doing (or the spinoffs that were attempted)? Then I’ll burn
it all down!”
I don’t
think so, but I can understand that reading. Any time the show goes meta, there
are messages to everyone in there – other writers, the network, the creator,
the actors, the fans. I want to believe
that most of them were affectionate, but there were surely some barbs in there
too.
We’re left
with so many questions as we head into Supernatural’s
last hiatus.
Where do we
go now? Fandom, in its infinite wisdom, has already remembered that back in the
day, the Original Death (Julian Richings) told Dean that someday he’d reap God
himself. Is that where Billie comes in, now that she’s returned? Will she and
Jack be the only ones who can stop Chuck? That makes me a little nervous. The
thing that I like the least is when Sam and Dean are not the focus of their own
story. This is the last season. I want – need
– the Winchesters, along with Cas, to be the ones to save the day. I need the
story to be about them. I fell in love with this Show because I fell in love
with Sam and Dean, and if the show isn’t about them, it’s not the Show I love. I get that the current team created the
original character of Jack, unlike the other three from Kripke’s tenure, so
they have an understandable affection for Jack and I think Alex Calvert is
incredible, but I need the characters we’ve loved for so long to be the focus
of the story for these last twenty hours we get to spend with them. It hasn’t
always seemed that way this season.
And what
about the overt theme of lying in this episode? What exactly is the lie in
“Moriah”? What is Chuck lying about? Is that not really Chuck? Is this not
really the same Earth that Sam and Dean and Castiel were standing on, or the
same monsters that they killed? Something is a lie, that’s for sure, but we
have no clue what it is.
What it
comes down to for me is a couple of burning questions, and I’m still conflicted
about them. Is this a perfect set up for Season 15, a way to get ‘back to
basics’ and see more old school MotW Supernatural,
fighting monsters and saving people and hunting things? Or is it another way to
bring back lots of characters as that dreaded thing called ‘fan service’ that
didn’t work well at all last time they tried it with the AU, and will leave
even less focus on the main characters?
(Ohgod, does that mean Lucifer? Again??).
Will the apparent reset that we got mean a return to saving people and hunting things, or will the Show retcon every iconic thing that has meaning in the Show and leave us without all that to hang onto when it leaves us? Nothing feels safe and it suddenly feels like nothing is sacred. And that scares me – not just for the fictional narrative, but for the meaning that this Show has in the real lives of so many fans. We wrote Family Don’t End With Blood because Supernatural has meant so much to so many – it has literally saved people’s lives, both actors and fans. I can’t even let myself think about the things that are iconic and integral to the Show, which have made it able to do that, being destroyed.
For now, I’m
going to hang onto my relentless optimism that I’ve managed to mostly retain
through fourteen years of this Show. I’m going to look forward to one more
season of the Winchesters, back to back and together as always, fighting
against impossible odds, of Castiel rebelling against the powers that be to
help Sam and Dean save the world.
Again.
Please, Show, don’t let us down with Supernatural Season 15.
