Feb
03
2019
Today was a particularly good day on the treadmill. I kept a faster pace through the entire workout than I have since last November, and while it was a battle towards the end it felt really good. I feel like I am pushing myself back in the right direction. In terms of my five-day moving average I am certainly back on the right track. I keep trying to tell myself that this is not about weight, but honestly it kind of is a little bit. I mean, don't get me wrong - I am thrilled with what I have achieved with this ridiculous project, but I also feel like I can still achieve a bit more. As for Class, today's story was a Bottle Episode. So that's kinda weird.
Detained
(TARDIS Data Core recap)
Miss Quill is up to something nefarious. So in order to keep the kids off her back, she throws them all into detention for an hour. Unfortunately, the Bunghole of Time conspires to make detention particularly secluded, when the Meteoric Asteroid of Truth comes flying through a tear in the universe and transports the classroom into a timeless and spaceless pocket of void.
The rest of the episode is pretty much just each of the five leads getting progressively angrier, and every time each one of them touches the fragment of meteor they are compelled to confess some deep Truth. Along the way they learn that the rock contains a sentience, a creature who has been imprisoned in the nothingness due to its homicidal past.
Mostly, though, it's just The Breakfast Club with fewer hijinks and more explosions. Ultimately the creature is destroyed and the detention room is returned to normal space/time. Oh, and Miss Quill shows up at the end with a big red scar on her face, her slavery-inducing brain parasite in a baggie, and an all-new free-will outlook on life. Oops.
It appears that tomorrow's episode will be set concurrently with this one, and show how Miss Quill rid herself of the parasite. It also looks like a special effects extravaganza, which explains why this episode perhaps cut some corners in order to shift some budget over to the next.
That being said, as bottle episodes go this one was perfectly enjoyable. Nothing groundbreaking or shocking, but as usual with Patrick Ness everything is all about exploring and expanding character. It is an effective little one-room story, and there are great performances all around. The casting on this show really is top-notch, with not a single weak link in the bunch.
Honestly, though, I am much more interested in tomorrow's story. Miss Quill is a great character, and it will be fun to see her off on her own without having to play unwilling bodyguard to Prince Charlie.
STATS:
Companion(s): Charlie Smith, Matteusz Andrzejewski, April McLean, Ram Singh, Tanya Adeola, Miss Quill
Episode(s): Detained
Steps Walked: 7,735 today, 4,373,589 total
Distance Walked: 4.21 miles today, 2,289.37 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 10,600 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 4,865 total
Weight: 263.56 lbs (five day moving average), net change -43.44 lbs