One of things I really liked about K-pop Demon Hunters. (Spoilers)
Was that even if though I don't listen to K-pop or pop in general, that wasn't a barrier of entry, it's still a really fun and heartfelt movie.
But seriously it's the final act conflict.
Firstly, it feels earned because Juni threatens a few times that if Rumi doesn't tell the others, he will.
So when Rumi has had a few chances to do exactly that, and doesn't, you feel the tension just growing.
And when it is revealed, it doesn't come out of nowhere. When Bobby gets kidnapped the Saja boys have already left, so there's a plausible threat there. And you get the cut to Takedown, a source of Rumi's internal conflict, used against her and it's not emotionally satisfying, quite the opposite in fact, but it is very narratively satisfying.
Then when Mira and Zoey find out. It's the fact that Rumi didn't tell them that upsets them. It's the fact one of their closest friends and a part of their found family didn't tell them such an important and integral detail about herself. Made even worse by they've both tried to reach out to Rumi at this point. (Especially Mira)
Because again, there was that scene earlier where both Zoey and Mira bare their souls to the group and Rumi deflects.
It's not until Rumi lashes out and acts like a threat that Mira reacts in defence first then Zoey. (Probably because at that point Zoey is the only family Mira has left and is going to protect her to the ends of the world.) Then and only then does the conflict shift to Rumi being a demon.
I just really appreciate that the split arises between because Rumi betrayed the trust in their friendship and not just because she's a demon. (Btw I completely understand why and it's reasonable Rumi hid it that long, and that's another reason why the entire breakdown feels natural and earned and devastating.)
Like the movie has the over arching theme of relying on one's friends is their greatest strength and it holds that line all the way to the end.
Also the fact Golden is literally about embracing your insecurities with the help of good people around you, and because Rumi can't do that it's the inciting incident of the entire movie. And this is right after we're told that the girls have the power to resonate with people through song. It's good shit. This movie is just really tight with its symbolism, themes and metaphors. I could do a whole rant just about Golden.
Angel Dust: “D’ya ever get a weird feelin’ about this place?”
Husk: “Yeah. Sweet an sickening. Like fucking syrup.”
Angel Dust: “NEVER fuck usin’ syrup UGH.”
Niffty: “I think the floor right under the second story banister railings feels weirdest! Almost bouncy when you SMASH into it!”
Angel Dust: “Not what I meant, NFT. It’s more like-”
SOMETHING: (blurs past the open door behind them)
Door: (...crreeeeks softly on it’s hinges...)
Them: (turns and stare)
Angel Dust: “…it’s like, a cold draft, innit?”
Husk: (spooked) (fur fluffed) “Cheap as fuck place. Run down.”
Niffty: “Prime roach real estate!”
Angel Dust: “Unsettlin’. The word I’m lookin’ for is, unsettlin’.”
EYES: (blink open and glow in the shadowy corner above them.)
Angel Dust: “Creepy, even.”
EYES: (rotate 360 degrees) (still staring)
Angel Dust: “I dunno. Don’t ya just get the shivers sometimes in here? Brr.” (shudders)
Husk: “Guess the eternal pep can be kinda fucked up from the owner. No one in hell is really that fucking happy all the fucking time.”
Niffty: “I AM!!!”
Husk: “No one who’s not fucking Niffty is that happy in hell.”
Niffty: “I LOVE it here. You only got to die ONCE back in the living world.”
Angel Dust: “Once should be enough for anyone, Niffters.”
Niffty: (giggling) “Not for me! Not when it's comes to eating spiders.”
Husk: “Oh FUCK that-”
Niffty: “Think the thing watching us right now also eats spiders?”
Husk: “…”
Angel Dust: “…”
EYES: (blink) (vanish)
The Three of Them: (turn and stare)
Angel Dust: “….Husker? Any room in ya bed for guy who doesn’t wanna be alone tonight?”
Husk: “Fuck no. Anyone tries getting in my room tonight is being served a motherfucking Molotov cocktail on the house.”
Angel Dust: “I can make it worth ya while. Tire us both out so’s maybe we can get some actual sleep.”
Husk: “You think I’m gonna fucking sleep?”
Niffty: “Sometimes I eat the spiders in my sleep…”
Husk: “Niffty, I need you fucking shut up talking in that creepy little girl voice.”
Niffty: “Okay! But whyyyy~?”
Husk: “THAT’S fucking WHY.”
Angel Dust: “-shh! SHH SHHHH! D’ya hear that!?”
Husk: “Wh- don’t fucking touch me-”
Angel Dust: (strangling him a little with holding) “Husk holy shit!”
Husk: (claws out) (super floofed) “What? WHAT??”
Niffty: “Ohhh…..”
Angel Dust: “It’s COMIN’!”
Niffty: “Nooo it’s naaaw-auuuught~”
Husk: “WELL WHICH THE FUCK IS IT-!?”
Niffty: “It’s Here~”
SOMETHING: (drops in from the open window)
Them: (SCREAM)
Vaggie: “Have you guys seen- Stop screaming it’s just me- have any of you seen Charlie around?”
Husk: “FUCK! FUCK!!!”
Angel Dust: “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, MISS I CUNT USE THE FREAKING DOORS!”
Husk: “FUUUCK ME FUCK YOU FUCK ALL OF THIS-”
Niffty: “Aww.” (slumps) “Hi Vaggie….”
Vaggie: “Yeah hey… What’s got into you all?”
Angel Dust: “Into US? YoU-”
Niffty: “We’ve been terrified. It’s been fun!”
Husk: “YOUR FUCKING SHIT HOTEL IS FUCKING HAUNTED! Shit!”
Angel Dust: “You and ya rich girlfriend have hell’s worst unpaying guest creepin’ around, and ya wonder what’s up with US?!?!”
Vaggie: “Oh. So you have seen her.”
Niffty: “Ohhh…! It’s a her!”
Angel Dust: “HER WHO WHO HER YOU KNOW THE WHORE OF HAUNTING?”
Vaggie: “Sure. And don’t fucking call her that.”
Husk: “I don’t wanna fucking know I don’t wanna fucking know I don’t wanna I don’t wanna no no no fuck NO-”
Vaggie: (rolls eye)
Vaggie: “Sweetie? Can you stop with the friendship notes and come out now?”
Something: (from shadows) “I’m bi!”
Vaggie: (smiles) “Out in the open where they can see you, babe.”
Charlie: “Aww, Vaggieeee…” (slips out of shadows with notebook and pout) “You’re messing with the sterile observed conditions and data collection. They were bonding!”
Angel Dust: “TOOTS!?”
Husk: “Oh.. fuck… you.”
Vaggie: “They sure were clinging to each other at least.”
Husk: “Fuck you MORE I fucking wasn’t.”
Angel Dust: “TOOTS I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE!”
Vaggie: “Weren’t stopping him from climbing you like a tree though, were you?”
Charlie: “Sorry about that, Angel Dust. I just got so excited-”
Husk: “Get. Fucked.”
Vaggie: “My girlfriend takes care of that already thanks.”
Angel Dust: “EXCITED? To be stalkin’ a guy like he’s a freaking gazelle on a shitty nature doc that skips all the fucking an’ only shows the non-sexy rippin’ an tearin’ an eatin’ alive bits!?”
Charlie: “Well-”
Niffty: “Hi Charlie! Were you watching us like bugs in a bug trap? Right before they get SQUISHED?”
Charlie: “-um no. No I wasn’t-”
Niffty: “Awww why nooooooooot?”
Charlie: “I wasn’t... trying to?”
Husk: “Oh that’s not fucking terrifying to fucking hear.”
Angel Dust: “TRY HARDER NOT TO NEXT TIME! Ugh! I’m too shaky to even make a hardness pun- AND I think this gave me STRESS WRINKLES. I WORK WITH THIS FACE! Among other body parts- I cannot fucking AFFORD wrinkles, Charmeleon!”
Charlie: “Aw guys I’m sorry! I just saw you three chatting together and.” (waves notebook) “Y’know?”
Vaggie: “I know, babe.”
Angel Dust: “NO!?”
Husk: “Fuck. No.”
Niffty: “Nope! I would’ve gone STRAIGHT into hunt and kill mode!”
Husk: “Which is what it fucking FELT like you fucking did.”
Charlie: “Ooookay then, my bad. But! You all feel better now you know it was just me, right?”
Them: “….”
Charlie: “B- because you know I’d never actually hunt any of your through the halls of my hotel. Right?”
Them: “……”
Charlie: “…you, you guys know you’re safe here and I didn’t bring you here for some fucked up creepy personal murder torture reason… right…?”
Them: “……….”
Niffty: (raises hand) “I-”
Charlie: “NIFFTY THANK YOU!! See? She believes-”
Niffty: “I felt really GREAT thinking you were hunting me for sport! Can I go back to thinking that?”
Charlie: “-that, you, oh. No that’s-” (droops) “…sure … whatever makes you happy, Niffty.”
Angel Dust: “Oh yippie. Getting’ high off my ass and blackin’ all this out from my memory will make ME happy.” (flounces off) “Sweet dreams, toots! I sure as hell won’t be havin’ ‘em!”
Charlie: “I’m sor-”
Husk: “Anyone fucking needs me, don’t.”
Charlie: “Husk, I really-”
Husk: (already gone)
Charlie: “….”
Charlie: “….. fuck.”
Vaggie: “It’ll be fine.” (pats Charlie gently) “Don’t freak out about it. They’re just, shook up.”
Charlie: (tired) “Except Niffty.”
Vaggie: “Niffty’s uhhh, she seems like the exception to most things yeah.”
Charlie: “She likes being scared of me.”
Vaggie: “Well. Thrilled? By you? I mean she gets her kicks out of it, so…”
Charlie: “I don’t like being scary.”
Vaggie: “You’re not.”
Charlie: “I scared them.”
Vaggie: “Startled and creeped out a little. It’s not the same thing.”
Charlie: “Isn’t it? I’m- I hate that I'm-”
Vaggie: “No.”
Charlie: “Vaggie.”
Vaggie: “You. Are. Not.”
Charlie: “But-”
Vaggie: (takes hand) “You’re a lot of things, Charlie Morningstar. Sometimes you’re a lot of those lot of things- which I love-”
Charlie: “Heh.”
Vaggie: “But being scary just by existing? Isn’t one of them. You can be you, all the way, the whole demon princess Charlie package- and not scare anyone. I promise."
Charlie: "Tell that to my ex..."
Vaggie: "I'll carve it into his stupid fucking skull- kidding! I'm kidding."
Charlie: "I'd believe that more if you hadn't already tried."
Vaggie: "Well believe me NOW when I'm trying to say- You can get scary when someone you love is hurt or threatened, sure. That's, not a bad thing. There's nothing about you that you need to hide to have people in your life. Living with you, every part of you, is great."
Charlie: "....."
Vaggie: "Charlie c'mon- I should know. If we’re talking observed data and stuff, I’ve already got three years of it. Right?”
Charlie: “…right.” (weak smile) “I did it again though, didn’t I?”
Vaggie: “What, the intensely following around someone you’ve invited into your home trying to figure out how to make them feel more comfortable without bothering them or spooking them, working hard not to let them see how you spend hours just staring at them, taking in every little detail you can, but staring so hard they can feel it on the back of their neck anyway?”
Charlie: “And you’re sure that’s not scary. Like at all.”
Vaggie: “I always thought is was cute. Intense and a kinda worrying sign of how alone you’d been, sure, but cute.”
Charlie: “Hmph.”
Vaggie: (leans up to smooch her) “And our hazbins will too. Just give ‘em time.”
Charlie: “Our hazbins?” (grins) “Our? Oh now THAT’S cute.” (opens book and scribbles note) “Today… Vaggie.. bonded with…”
Vaggie: “I did not.”
Charlie: “…OUR- underline underline add some hearts- hazbins!”
Vaggie: “Charlie I didn’t. I barely even spoke with them.”
Charlie: “You’re comparing them to your past self and making connections between you when we first met and them now, aren’t you. You’re empathizing with them! That’s bonding! That’s ADORABLE!!”
Vaggie: (sigh) “That’s my cue to drag you off to bed.”
Charlie: “You’re adorable~”
Vaggie: “Says the cute demon lady lovingly stalking her new friends.”
Charlie: “Do you think they’ll be friends with me? I mean I’m friends with them, but-”
Vaggie: “Charlie, they’ve met you. It’s inevitable.”
Charlie: “Heheh. Juuuust like this kiss~”
(smooch)
(smooch some more)
Vaggie: “Whoa there!” (chuckling) “Save it for the bed sweetie, or we’ll never get there.”
Charlie: (giggling) “Sorry. I’m not used to not having everything all to ourselves. And I suppose making out in the public areas wouldn’t be very polite, even in the middle of the night with no one around.”
Vaggie: “Probably. We’ve freaked them out enough for one day I think.”
Charlie: “There are definite downsides to having a hotel with actual other people living in it, huh….”
Vaggie: “Worth it?”
Charlie: “Mm. I hope so. I hope they’ll think so too.”
Vaggie: “They will, babe. They will.”
-Next Night-
-Alastor’s Radio Tower-
Alastor: (humming and happily prepping the next track for broadcast)
SOMETHING: (slowly rises up beyond the window behind him)
Alastor: “….hmm…” (walks over) (wipes window) (smudge stays bc it’s on the outside) “Interesting...”
Alastor: (goes back to disc jockeying)
SOMETHING: (reaches up and drags finger through smudge mark)
Alastor: (stops and turns)
Alastor: “Ohoho? My my my, now isn’t THIS just droll! Who COULD have left a message here for me. On my own radio tower! Smudging my glass! (smirks and walks over) “Hmm? Something dire and THREATENING no doubt? Not something they will REGRET I am SURE ha ha ha!”
Alastor: (bends down to read) “It appears to say…”
Window: (smudge has the word ‘FRIENDS’ written through it)
Alastor: (snaps back upright) (stares) (steps back) (stares harder)
Alastor: “…how… amusing.”
Alastor: (goes back to control panel)
Alastor: “….”
Alastor: (relaxes) (picks up microphone and holds it casually at the ready)
Alastor: (reaches for a record-)
SOMETHING: (slips past window behind him)
Alastor: (turning) (Shrieking) “KKKKSSSSSSSSFKKKSST” (yeets record out through window)
Window: (shatters)
Vaggie: “….”
Vaggie: “….hope that one wasn’t important, pendejo. It’s on the first floor now. In about a hundred pieces.”
Alastor: (lowering microphone) “Oh my dear I DO apologize!” (simpering) (Glowering) “Poor thing. Not hurt, are you? Not frightened at all I hope? Really I don’t know WHAT would have happened if I had happened to HIT you!”
Vaggie: “Me frightened? No.” (tosses cleaning rag over shoulder) “The scary little smudge is gone anyway, so I’m off. Bye.”
Alastor: “Oh delightful! You KNOW ABOUT-”
Vaggie: (gone)
Alastor: “……hmmmmmm….”
Charlie: “….”
Charlie: “She’s so hot when she’s all ‘doesn’t even blink when something almost would've decapitated her if she hadn’t casually leaned back’ isn’t she?”
Alastor: (shriek is broadcast all over Pentagram city, shattering the remaining windows in his radio tower)
It's not just that they have drawn out this Eddie storyline for so much longer than was necessary (almost an entire season, especially in this show, where for example, the lawsuit arc was resolved in approximately two episodes), it's that for almost its entirety, it has been treated as a minor, occasionally brought up plot point. It's the fact that throughout 8a, Eddie's storyline and character got equal, if not less, attention and screentime to Brad Torrence, a character who is not even a member of the 118 or dispatch or related to either of those. It's the fact that instead of showing us most of the resolutions to this arc, they have kept it off screen, left it up to the viewers to fill the gaps on the resolution to probably the biggest personal arc of Eddie's character. It's the fact that even though this has been a major storyline, the show hasn't treated it as such. It's the fact that instead of resolving it before doing a major thing like the entire Contagion storyline, they ended episode 13 with it partially resolved (but still so open ended that we as the audience have no real idea of what the plan is with Eddie and Chris from now on), and then in episode 14 and 15 proceeded to almost act like Eddie's character had never even been part of the 118, with him not even being mentioned once in either of these episodes. It's the fact that in what is (whether it ends up being a massive fake-out or a real, genuine character death that changes the entire tone of this show) the biggest and most impactful storyline both in the sense of found family and also scale, Eddie was not just not present, but was flat out not part of it at all. It's the fact that despite being a main, and having been a main for seven years, Eddie has been kept on the sidelines of so many things this season (and to a certain extent last season), kept involved mostly through small details. It's the fact that every time they start dive deeper into his character and his relationships with other characters, the storyline is either dropped or ignored the next episode (in the case of 8a following Confessions and now, in the case of Contagion not just following the start to Eddie's resolution, but not even including him finding out on screen what happened to Bobby).
There have been so many places in this season, where the logical route would have been to not just include Eddie, but tie it into his character and its development, to have him fighting for not just Chris but his family in the 118. The biggest flaw in this entire season in terms of Eddie, is that they seem to have forgotten that the Eddie from the beginning of Season 2 who really only had Chris is not the same Eddie that he is now, and that Eddie and Chris are not the new, not really involved part of the family. Every other character (including now Ravi) has had their role in the large extended and complicated found family that is the 118 reaffirmed in some sense by their conversations with other characters. (The support of Karen and Hen for Chim when Maddie was taken, Athena talking to Maddie when she lost her voice, Ravi having personal conversations with Buck, Bobby, and Hen, and risking his life and potential charges of domestic terrorism for Chim, Buck and Athena working together in Contagion, etc.)
But Eddie has been, in a sense, turned into a side character. Not necessarily because of his move to Texas, because had that had the potential to merely be a source of growth not just for himself (which it was, to an extent) but also for his relationship with the 118 as a whole (which there are pieces of through the reassurance by Bobby---through the words of a different fire captain---that he would always be welcome with them). But because he has been excluded from the rest of them plot wise and his storylines have been treated as almost entirely secondary. Even in the beginning of 8b, when he was getting a lot of focus because of his move and his house, his character and his storyline was quickly overshadowed by the serial killer plot and made secondary. (That is not to diminish the storyline for Maddie, nor am I trying to say here that she matters less by any means, but that by having these two storylines occur at the same time, it did a disservice to both of them because neither story or arc could really get the focus it deserved.) His role and involvement with the rest of the team has felt very overshadowed and diminished, and not in the sense of his character is less important, but more so neglected. While a lot of 8b has been fun and better than I expected it to be, there is a strong inconsistency with the plots. Not even entirely just Eddie's, because the main thing leading to this with him is that they add new storylines for the 118 and focus on that hastily resolved plot for an episode or two between they return to Eddie, leaving the 118's story feeling slightly incomplete and Eddie's discombobulated.
The issue with the Eddie of it all in Contagion is that it not only harshly and quickly detracts from the ending of 13 by having it be entirely irrelevant to the plot, it also is the kind of storyline that is meant to highlight the dynamics of a team, a family. And it did, remarkably well for the rest of the 118 and Ravi and Athena, but in excluding Eddie, the storyline seems to make it appear as if Eddie is not---and has not---been part of this dynamic. All while it gets confirmed by Buck, that this is happening barely (if even) a month after Eddie left. That hole he left that was so obvious and painful in episode 11 and continued to be an underlying thing through 12 and 13 (particularly with Ravi trying to fill Eddie's shoes) was completely gone and thus, made it so Eddie was both not impacted on screen by the events and he was not impacting anything by his absence, which should have had a prominent impact. I do think that the Contagion storyline could have worked in this space, with Eddie still in El Paso, without doing a disservice to his character. But that possibility was made null the second his absence was not felt by the characters.
While it would not have made sense with where they ended episode 13 for Eddie to have been back in LA for this episode, let alone back with the 118, and it would have been too far to have him immediately fly back to LA the second the danger happened, he should have at least been made aware of what was happening. On screen. He is, and has been, just as much family to Bobby and the rest of them as every other member of the firefam, and regardless of where he was, regardless of how it would fit into the way the narrative was told, he should have been there, because even though he is in El Paso, focusing on Chris, Bobby was family too. And it truly feels like that aspect of his character, of his relationships, has been forgotten in these two episodes in particular.
There are three episodes left in this season, and while it truly isn't possible in my eyes to fix the disservice of these two episodes to Eddie, these could finally wrap up the storylines and plot points they have left hanging from Eddie this entire season. But if they continue to sideline his character, I find it hard to see how they will fix it. Eddie is part of the 118 family, and I really, desperately hope the writing will remember that because this is beyond a drawn out storyline.
