Maaan I hate the politics in this. I really really hate the politics in this. It just annoys me and makes me angry because of how similar it is to right now. But also the politics bothers me because: 1, what does it have to do with the plot right now? And 2, we haven’t had enough world building to really get connected to Mars and Earth. We don’t really know what’s happening in Earth, and we don’t really know the extent of Mars and why people from Earth even came here in the first place. So it’s really hard for me to care about this, but man Valerie sucks.
With that nonsense out of the way, these two episodes followed the same pattern. The girls meet legendary musicians that disappeared and learn some things from them. With Desmond, it was the beauty of music and of life and what it really means to express oneself. With Flora, it was about the dark side of the music industry, but that episode was a little stronger because of Flora being Carole’s inspiration, and Gus’ connection to her.
Episode 15 was pretty interesting I suppose. It’s just disappointing that Desmond fell into a coma at the end. Like, wow…didn’t expect that. 😐 They were a really interesting character and I would have liked to have seen them again later but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Which also makes me frustrated, because while the episode was very ethereal and tranquil, and Desmond’s songs were quite nice and his backstory was great, it didn’t move the plot at all. He did leave a nice message along for the girls to ponder, but jumping into the next episode, we didn’t see the girls go back to that at all (except in the recap but lol). Characters seem to come and go in this show, because it’s been so long since we’ve seen Crystal and I really liked her. We did see Skip again a couple episodes…that was something. Anyway, yeah. I hate complaining but that’s my two cents.
We did get some explanation to the Mars Androgyny (though it was a little random). The radiation on Mars is enough to mess with people’s hormones and such, causing this androgyny to happen. Desmond was born as a man but is turning into a woman, but describes themself as being both. Of course we’ve seen a case of this with Angela’s own mother. It seemed that Dahlia was also born as a man, but has turned into a woman (or is both, but she identifies as female it seems). I wonder how common this androgyny is, and I also wonder what other stuff the Mars radiation can affect. I hope it doesn’t cause more cancer, but it probably does. We probably won’t see anything about that though. 🙁
Episode 16 gave us Flora, the once huge musician who fell into darkness and loneliness. Looking back it now, I understand why Gus turned down that contract with Catherine’s label. Flora herself didn’t stand out too much this episode compared to Desmond, but her backstory and her relationship with Gus was very interesting. Carole is also a huge fan of her, but I wished we could have seen maybe a small clip of little Carole gazing up at Flora as she sang for her refugee camp. It would have made her love for Flora even more stronger and believable since…we haven’t heard Carole mention Flora since the beginning.
Also it was obvious that Flora was supposed to be a tribute to Whitney Houston and oof my heart. She was an amazing woman. I was just scared she would have met the same end, but thankfully she has a lot of support from Gus and the girls. Flora followed the same path a lot of musicians go down. She was discovered, first by Gus, then by a large company. Seeing as how this was her big break in life, she signed with them and instantly became famous. But being betrayed, with constant stress, Flora closed herself off away from everyone, dipped into alcohol and drugs. It’s really sad.
Thankfully things were able to turn around for her at the end of the episode. The music in this episode is probably the best we’ve had in a long time. I absolutely loved CandT’s new song, and again I say there’s such a difference when they have a backup band. Who are complete strangers, but ahh whatever. Also, Flora’s song is gorgeous and hits those Whitney Houston vibes I love so much, and Carole and Tuesday’s cover of it was fantastic. It was pretty emotional when Flora started singing along to it, and it was pretty great.
Seeing these once famous singers is great and all, but I feel like the show lost its direction at this point. Stuff is just happening and not happening at the same time and I guess I have to accept that. Like with Angela’s stalker obviously being the new dude whose name I forgot. I thought we would get into that this time but nope. I’m not even sure what to expect from Angela’s side of the story anymore, but I’d love it if we got to spend more time with her.
Also, when it comes to debuts, Angela hits the #1 spot unsurprisingly, and the girls are at a respectable #53. That’s not bad at all. I’m not really sure what the show is going to do from here on out with Carole’s family, Tuesday’s family, the election, the girls trying to get famous, whatever the hell the 7 minutes thing is, Angela and her stalker, Angela in general, etc. There’s so much but not much time left so who knows.
