Goodbye, fictional witches of Manchester!
Apr. 26th, 2024 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessDomino Day 1.6
Not a bad finale, my main quibble is that most of it was so literally dark, and my other quibbles are minor. There was a mostly satisfying resolution, with one or two threads for the future – Esme was only one of the Elders, Kat has her ring, Leon has been resurrected, but Domino doesn’t know it yet, and she’s now a member of a renegade coven!
After a bit of a chat with Kat’s ancestors, who didn’t exactly give clear step-by-step advice, Jules brewed a potion to put Domino in a trance, so that she could access her subconscious/go to the Endless. This was just as Esme and Silas were meant to be summoning the Banished who lived there. The Endless remains a forest where it was easy to film, and the Banished were depicted by woozy camera moves and some guy intoning. The use of lighting and a little girl to represent young Domino were effective and took her to meet her mother. An exposition dump wrapped in emotion followed, where her mother explained that she’d only drained her beloved witch husband to death because she was starving thanks to hiding from the Elders.
Domino begged for her powers back, her mother said that only if she wanted them for herself, but she really had to control them (how? I wondered.) Pretty bit of magic, and Domino returned to our world armed with a super special lamia magic book. Sammy warned her that life and death magic was not to be done lightly, but off Domino went, back to her flat to cast a spell, which would appear in bits. She marched on with the ‘a life for a life bit’, but it didn’t seem to work.
Then one of the minor quibbles I had happened, or rather it didn’t happen onscreen. Suddenly Esme was telling Silas that the lamia had her powers back, and one of the coven had spilled. Jules then admitted to Geri (the blonde one) that it was her, and I do not know why they couldn’t have just shown us that scene.
Change of plans, Esme was now going to do more magic in this episode than she had all series, kidnapping the coven so easily that I still don’t get why she didn’t try some kind of searching spell to get Domino before. She magically made Kat burn her altar to her ancestors because it was forbidden magic. Silas phoned Domino to distract her from Leon’s still dead body by taunting that they had the coven.
So she went to Esme’s, which Silas had turned into an echo of the party when he and Domino had first met – I didn’t find it all that effective or resonant. He was using Domino’s boss or a representation of her to taunt Domino some more. (Also, might as well use the actress!) Domino made her way to the well-appointed basement and found the coven and walked into Silas’s trap, where she wasted a lot of energy. Another unclear bit involved Kat, who claimed to be free and to have invisibility, but then maybe fell back under Silas’s control, but would later be able to use her invisibility to save Geri when Silas took her as a human shield.
Silas had magically weakened Domino enough that Esme could put the witch’s scold on her and start draining her powers with the use of the vengeful Banished. The visual of the mask was creepy, Siena Kelly did her amazing physical acting, and the coven were forced to chant along – their being used as dolls was one of the creepier things of the episode. Until there was a convenient power wobble, freeing Sammy, who decided to use her freedom to communicate with Domino and talk to her in a ‘you can do this, you can control your powers, I believe in you’ Pollyannaish way.
It worked! Domino started owning her lamia powers, repelled Esme and the Banished, freed the coven, smashed the mask and…decided to kill Esme. Silas ran, the coven had a quick chat, and Domino came after him. His punishment was not death (in a way, I thought his dying would have been fair as he killed Leon, but the coven seemed agreed that what Esme was seeking to do to Domino, as the last of the lamia, was Not On.) Instead Domino fed off him until all his magical power was gone, which is kind of apt. Sammy and the rest confirmed this and that he was still alive (and so could come back in the next season.)
Leon was still not alive. Sammy had to comfort Domino with the information that she was not alone, and the coven welcomed her, now that she had a bit more control over her powers and hunger, into their ranks by burning Esme. Some wispy magical essence flew up into the air and ended up entering Leon’s body, bringing him back to life, but Domino was too busy holding hands with her new coven around the pyre to know. Of course, we are left wondering if he remembers, if what he’s been through has changed him or if he’s got any of Esme’s ickiness.
I spent a bit of the episode snarking at Domino’s rashness, and I think a few choices were obviously constrained by budget, but it was reasonably tightly written. So, the question is: will they commission more?
Nothing for the show on AO3 that I can find.
Not a bad finale, my main quibble is that most of it was so literally dark, and my other quibbles are minor. There was a mostly satisfying resolution, with one or two threads for the future – Esme was only one of the Elders, Kat has her ring, Leon has been resurrected, but Domino doesn’t know it yet, and she’s now a member of a renegade coven!
After a bit of a chat with Kat’s ancestors, who didn’t exactly give clear step-by-step advice, Jules brewed a potion to put Domino in a trance, so that she could access her subconscious/go to the Endless. This was just as Esme and Silas were meant to be summoning the Banished who lived there. The Endless remains a forest where it was easy to film, and the Banished were depicted by woozy camera moves and some guy intoning. The use of lighting and a little girl to represent young Domino were effective and took her to meet her mother. An exposition dump wrapped in emotion followed, where her mother explained that she’d only drained her beloved witch husband to death because she was starving thanks to hiding from the Elders.
Domino begged for her powers back, her mother said that only if she wanted them for herself, but she really had to control them (how? I wondered.) Pretty bit of magic, and Domino returned to our world armed with a super special lamia magic book. Sammy warned her that life and death magic was not to be done lightly, but off Domino went, back to her flat to cast a spell, which would appear in bits. She marched on with the ‘a life for a life bit’, but it didn’t seem to work.
Then one of the minor quibbles I had happened, or rather it didn’t happen onscreen. Suddenly Esme was telling Silas that the lamia had her powers back, and one of the coven had spilled. Jules then admitted to Geri (the blonde one) that it was her, and I do not know why they couldn’t have just shown us that scene.
Change of plans, Esme was now going to do more magic in this episode than she had all series, kidnapping the coven so easily that I still don’t get why she didn’t try some kind of searching spell to get Domino before. She magically made Kat burn her altar to her ancestors because it was forbidden magic. Silas phoned Domino to distract her from Leon’s still dead body by taunting that they had the coven.
So she went to Esme’s, which Silas had turned into an echo of the party when he and Domino had first met – I didn’t find it all that effective or resonant. He was using Domino’s boss or a representation of her to taunt Domino some more. (Also, might as well use the actress!) Domino made her way to the well-appointed basement and found the coven and walked into Silas’s trap, where she wasted a lot of energy. Another unclear bit involved Kat, who claimed to be free and to have invisibility, but then maybe fell back under Silas’s control, but would later be able to use her invisibility to save Geri when Silas took her as a human shield.
Silas had magically weakened Domino enough that Esme could put the witch’s scold on her and start draining her powers with the use of the vengeful Banished. The visual of the mask was creepy, Siena Kelly did her amazing physical acting, and the coven were forced to chant along – their being used as dolls was one of the creepier things of the episode. Until there was a convenient power wobble, freeing Sammy, who decided to use her freedom to communicate with Domino and talk to her in a ‘you can do this, you can control your powers, I believe in you’ Pollyannaish way.
It worked! Domino started owning her lamia powers, repelled Esme and the Banished, freed the coven, smashed the mask and…decided to kill Esme. Silas ran, the coven had a quick chat, and Domino came after him. His punishment was not death (in a way, I thought his dying would have been fair as he killed Leon, but the coven seemed agreed that what Esme was seeking to do to Domino, as the last of the lamia, was Not On.) Instead Domino fed off him until all his magical power was gone, which is kind of apt. Sammy and the rest confirmed this and that he was still alive (and so could come back in the next season.)
Leon was still not alive. Sammy had to comfort Domino with the information that she was not alone, and the coven welcomed her, now that she had a bit more control over her powers and hunger, into their ranks by burning Esme. Some wispy magical essence flew up into the air and ended up entering Leon’s body, bringing him back to life, but Domino was too busy holding hands with her new coven around the pyre to know. Of course, we are left wondering if he remembers, if what he’s been through has changed him or if he’s got any of Esme’s ickiness.
I spent a bit of the episode snarking at Domino’s rashness, and I think a few choices were obviously constrained by budget, but it was reasonably tightly written. So, the question is: will they commission more?
Nothing for the show on AO3 that I can find.
