|
You spoke, and we listened*—welcome to the first official recap of Star-Crossed, the CW’s new Romeo and Juliet with aliens. (You can read a review of the pilot episode here.)
This second episode gave us a lot more information on Atrian culture. We learned that they’re a tribal people, and aren’t spiritual, but are big on ritual. We even learned some Atrian terms, which I’m sure I’ve massacred below. I’m no good at languages, and it’s worse when they’re fictional.
*OK, so, we likely would have recapped this show regardless of interest … it just has too much promise (i.e., high likelihood of utter ridiculousness, in true CDubs style) to ignore.
This episode started off with a bang—quite literally. A group of Atrian terrorists, the Trags, have determined that violent revenge is the only way to get back at the humans for the accidental killing of Nox in the pilot episode … that and threatening the family of the guard who shot Nox, which happens to include Emery. Roman is most definitely not a fan of this train of thought.
Emery’s dad steps down from the SEU for a while, passing the leadership on to Officer Jack Beaumont (played by Tahmoh Penikett, who is in everything). Officer Beaumont seems like a stand-up human, but he’s hiding a pretty huge secret.
Speaking of leadership, Roman is quasi-forced to take on leadership of his tribe, the Zwahan, so that his shady uncle Castor (Johnathon Schaech), who’s apparently prone to violence, won’t get the job. Pretty sure that this extracurricular that won’t allow much time for hanging out with his human soul mate, but it does give him plenty of opportunity to skulk around, looking brooding. Which Roman apparently realizes quite quickly, as he’s given the job of Iksen to his uncle. All of my instincts still say he’s wholly untrustworthy.
And speaking of untrustworthy, we got to meet a few more humans, too, including Robert Vartan (Marcus Hester), member of the Red Hawks and militant bigot/terrible human being. He’s obviously up to no good, and I see him definitely causing trouble in episodes to come.
The penultimate surprise came thanks to Julia’s veins lighting up after she touches Roman’s arm. She now has a pretty strong inkling that Roman was the one to cure her, her “blue angel.” I can’t help but roll my eyes at the hero worship that’s sure to follow.
This week’s “You’re Awesome!” award goes to Grayson. 1. For being a friend to Emery, even though she’s obviously pining for Roman, and 2. For pulling a knife on Vartan when he threatens her. Sure, part of him just wants to get into her pants, but he’s a teenage boy. We can cut him some slack.
He also, however, gets the “Two-Faced Bastard!” award for the last few minutes of the episode.
Oh, The Humanity:
The biggest failure of humanity in this episode was by far Vartan, who started spewing Bible verses during the school board meeting. He paraphrased Genesis 1:26, which reads:
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
I’m pretty sure that he was trying to insinuate that Atrians are different, but THEY LOOK JUST LIKE HUMANS, so his point was totally lost on me.
Atrian 101:
It’s official, Ciper, although it has the worst name ever, is an amazing plant. Combined with an Atrian’s blood, it creates a magical glowing serum that heals. Ground up, to release its energy, is used in Atrian funerals.
The Future is Now:
- Do you think the mason jar Grayson drank out of at the restaurant is an ironic statement, or just a nod to the fact that they live in the South? Side note: I’m SUPER glad that fried pickles are still on menus in 2024.
- Since when are school board meetings like bad talent shows? I kept expecting Gloria and the principal to burst into song, what with those wireless microphones and all the circling around each other they were doing.
First Kiss Watch:
Emery and Roman were thisclose to their first kiss in the pilot episode, but #becauseCW, they were separated right before their lips could touch. Sadly, they didn’t have much alone time this episode, since Roman was too worried about his troublesome people to focus on her, but they did have a seriously cheesy moment in the hallway at school:
“We’re from two different worlds, Emery. We can’t keep pretending like that doesn’t matter.”
“It only matters if we let it.”
I’m guessing it’ll be at least ten episodes before we see any lip-to-lip action. Just enough to keep viewers (yes, like me) caught up in the anticipation, but not enough to drive us over the edge into “don’t care anymore” territory.
So … Did you see those twists coming? What’s your guess on how many episodes before we’ll see a smooch? Are you still as perplexed by Roman’s ridiculous hair as I am? Let’s discuss below.