Personal Highlights
Witchever Path: Sentry Finale – EAT. SEE. FOLLOW. It’s a tense and horrifying ending to the Sentry arc. It’s been a powerful story, dealing with transphobia and violence towards trans kids. There are some awful revelations in this finale, as You continue in your investigation to find your missing son; leading to a claustrophobic confrontation in the dead of night.
Don’t Mind: Cruxmont – Episode 4. The plot definitely thickens with the last few lines of this episode, in a very interesting mirroring of the reason that brought Gwen to Cruxmont in the first place. The mystery surrounding the village grows, with more strange encounters and plenty of overall bad vibes about the place. But those last couple of lines? What on Earth is going on??
InCo: Episode 43 – Astos. There was me thinking, it’s going to be an episode with Hatov and his mother, dealing with the chasm between Hatov’s expected role as a royal child and him wanting to escape it all (which, don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely here for Hatov’s growth), then… Surprise Nova! She’s unsurprisingly cagey about the complete truth behind her journey to Astos, but it’s clear that it’s had a big emotional toll on her. Even the difference in her voice, the exhaustion obvious, is such a sad indicator of what she faced. But even so, she’s far from done with her investigation.
ROGUEMAKER: Episode 2 – Odd-Size Baggage. I really enjoyed how the episode opened interesting world-building via a piece of in-universe media, which adds to our understanding of the societal and cultural context in which the story is set, while also asking some intriguing questions. We get to know some of the passengers and crew of the Plutonic flight (or, know better, in one case), now each in their own escape pod, and there are some interesting mysteries that have only started to unravel.
In Transit: Episode 2.13 – Canary. I adored the scene with Alnitak and Cairo in the rain. Among all the darkness and hopelessness of life on Notos this season, there’s a moment of joy here like the two have never experienced before, and there’s also hope for a new beginning. It’s a beautiful scene between the scheming and power games, as some of the citizens of both ships look for some escapism. The ships are on the cusp of a whole new life, but the end of the final scene reveals that the fight for existence for our characters is far from over.
Chaika: Episode 3 – What portion of me be Assignable. Chaika’s situation is incredibly sad, but the difference between how she and the two AIs are approaching her journey and the fact that she might be the last human only highlights how hopeless she feels. Even though HYGGE and LEQU are aware of what’s going on, they’re always so positive and hopeful, when Chaika’s existence is so bleak. They’re also hiding something, which they only hint at, which is concerning. There are also some more intriguing glimpses of what happened on Earth, but we can only imagine what the full picture of this global catastrophe was.
The Amelia Project: Episode 56 – Curtain. It’s the finale of The Amelia Project’s fourth season, and… wow. I was absolutely engrossed in the emotion of the episode, following the Interviewer and Amelia as they walked through the streets of Paris. Looking back now, there’s been a gradual build-up this season to get to this finale, right up to the heartbreaking revelation towards the end of the episode. Much like a walk up to the hill of Montmartre itself, the emotion in this episode builds higher and higher, progress is made along a journey where jigsaw puzzles are finally put together, until a full picture is revealed – looking out at the true story of the Interviewer’s life, much as one would look out at the Paris landscape below. However, there is much yet to be revealed, as the episode closes on the beginning of a story.
Debuts
Echoes (In) Between is a new sci-fi podcast from Brystal Studio, which very much opens with the feel of a non-fiction talk podcast. The first two episodes were released this week, and in the series opener we meet our two hosts, Gemma Avots and Thomas Fonte. As we get to know them, they explain the reasons behind why they have decided to make Echoes (In) Between, a podcast which they explain will discuss memory and how fallible it can be.
Trailers and Prologues
The Pasithea Powder released a second teaser for their upcoming third season, and it has a very different feel to the first. Here, the focus is on the other half of our protagonist pair, Sophie Green; and there’s a very interesting insight as to what she’s been experiencing since the cliffhanger we were left on at the end of season two.
A promo for Rapture 518‘s second season was released, which is due to launch in late summer/early autumn. There’s a certain amount of catching up to do in order for us to understand where Sarah is talking from – wherever that may be at this point – and I’m very intrigued to hear what’s happened since we last heard from her.
A Sky Full of Pods 