Loneliness and Yearning to Communicate
SurrealEstate goes the corpse bride route, The Swarm has biological diplomacy fail and Ben asks for a new hologram

Wasn’t expecting there to be a theme to this week’s watches. Three episodes watched. SurrealEstate had a corpse bride and some very dark love, The Swarm had the Yrr trying to communicate the only way they can, and Ben, oh, poor Ben.
SurrealEstate Season Two, Episode Three “The Butler Didn’t”
Dear Susan, that house is obsessed with you. And possibly evil.
With that out of the way, the episode involves a woman who hung herself and is apparently telling them to find the killer while holding the owner hostage.
I worked out the whodunnit (although not the details) instantly, probably because of all the mysteries I’ve been watching lately.
The newest device for talking to ghosts is a radio. Or Susan’s house, which appears to be interacting with her psychic abilities in an interesting way.
Luke still doesn’t have his powers back. And the ghost is the best kind of ghost: A bride. Genevieve is terrifying, sympathetic and also problematic, all of those things. Her son is a total asshole, and 100% not the killer. I love that trope…where the detectives think somebody did it because they’re a jerk.
The actress playing Genevieve, Ruth Lawrence, did a fantastic job. Supposedly she’s also a pretty solid director.
A fun episode that explores love, obsession, and guilt.
And evil houses. Oh, and the best line was “No matter how many Shetland ponies you put through college.”
The Swarm Season One, Episode Seven
They’re heading north. North to find the unknown marine intelligence, the Yrr. Getting on a ship on this show is usually bad, but even with only two episodes left including this one, they should have some plot armor. Right?
Right. Still no fish.
They actually explain how the Yrr are mind controlling creatures and it should work on fish, so what’s with the fish?
It doesn’t quite work on humans. The Yrr manages to infect somebody, but it doesn’t go well.
However, it does seem as if the team is managing to communicate with this life force. Which we’re supposed to believe is old and dormant not alien. (Lovecraftian, in a sense?)
And Charlie sees something beautiful from the submarine…with some very nice special effects.
I’m enjoying this show (still don’t eat seafood while watching it), but it might be a bit slow for some. This episode felt like the first half of a two-parter. And the next one is the last, so I’ll be able to give full opinions.
Rumors are circulating that they may attempt a season two. I don’t know about that; unplanned season twos “because it did well” seldom work.
Quantum Leap Season Two, Episode Four “The Lonely Hearts Club”
Oh, Ben. As I suspected, yes, the scary line at the end of episode three was…well, not followed by “cut,” but it was an actor practicing, on his agent’s assistant.
No, Ben doesn’t get to be an actor, nor is this episode really about Hollywood. It’s about relationships. Despite being told the leap is to get the actor, Neil (whom Ben and Addison are both huge fans of) to the Tonight Show to revitalize his flagging career…and save his life…Ben tries to get Neil back with his ex wife.
I thought the hologram did the projecting, Ben.
Really, the real leap is to reunite Neil with his illegitimate daughter. Which also results in seven more movies to watch.
At the end, Ben asks for a different hologram. I suspect he’ll ask for her back after one episode of Ian…