Wolverine: The Lost Trail 3, first impressions [spoilers] #richardarmitage

Continued from here. Disclaimer: I’ve never seen any Wolverine films or read any comics. I have not relistened to last year’s Wolverine: The Long Night, so my series and genre knowledge are limited to a vague memory of that. Also, I am making no comparisons to Hugh Jackman; I’ve only seen in him in Kate and Leopold and Oklahoma.

TL;DR: An episode that is simultaneously fun and just a bit scary! Things I liked — Logan’s pithy observations, and the way that Armitage continually conveys Logan’s sense of dysphoria and unease along with his dogged determination to keep going. Also, I’m really warming to this universe in a way I never could have last season, as there are diverse and likeable characters and we learn about them. Looking forward to next week!

The Coldblooded

Lead-in to the episode: The Cold Blooded gang members are playing pool, as Miss Bonnie (Blair Brown) tells them that they will be tracking Logan and Marcus (Weapon-X put a tracker on Marcus, something Logan hinted at in the previous episode). However, they are not supposed to kill them, but just observe. Bonnie’s henchman, Judson (Gordon Tashjian), is resistant to this directive, but Weapon-X says they should “stand by for extraction.” They have tranquilizer guns to take Logan down with a substance a thousand times more powerful than morphine. We get more information about Logan: he’s 5’2″, he worked for the government. The gang people get into a fight over whether the U.S. government should employ mutants, Judson points out Bonnie’s taking government money, and she beats him up and then threatens to put a cigarette out in his eye. “I might take their money,” she says, “but I don’t work for them. Coldblooded don’t work for anyone but me. And our job ain’t done until this country’s purged of mutants.” They take off to do their dirty work.

Cue episode titles / music.

After the music, we pick up with Logan and Marcus visiting Miss Guma (Kianne Muschett), who wants to know if they have any information about her Matthew. She’s suspicious of them and Logan in particular, because he has an ugly look on his face. They’re “trying to know more.” Marcus saw a notice she put in the paper about Matthew’s disappearance. They raise the problem of all the disappearances and Logan notes that it can’t be a coincidence that Maureen was collecting reports about disappearances, then went missing herself. They were interested in her remark that “Matthew may not have been in his right mind.” Matthew had begun hearing and seeing things, after a tall man in a suit in his 50s with black hair, a funny mustache, and a condescending smile showed up. The man had a voice “smooth as molasses” and thanked Miss Guma “for sharing her husband.”

“Jason Wyngarde,” Logan says, and Miss Guma says that sounds right, but Logan is unsure, wrestling with his memory. The man wanted her husband to build him a compound or refuge for mutants/humans, but Matthew said it was too risky because of the mutants. After that Matthew started sleepwalking into the bayou “to do a job.” Logan’s memory is shaky, but he’s bothered by this news and tries to shake Marcus off. Guma shares some blueprints she found in Matthew’s workshop. They are titled “Greenhaven.”

Fade to a new scene — Logan and Marcus in the city. Marcus presses for more information but Logan is still struggling to remember. Marcus thinks that Greenhaven must be in the center of Maureen’s map (from last time) and wants to go there. Logan is resistant, and then Marcus is distracted after he steps in a puddle (full of “street tea,” the Bangkok term for the combination of waste liquids in the street), ruining the shoes he shucked many oysters to get.

Logan enters a bar (the “Jolly Roger”) and asks to see Flamingeaux (Terrence Clowe). The bouncer calls him “short stack” and demands a ten dollar cover and Marcus’ ID. Logan gives him $50 (presumably to let the under-age Marcus in). Inside, they hear a kind of droning dance music and Marcus is stunned at what he’s seeing. He asks Logan where he gets his money: “Some friends in Tokyo owed me a favor.” Logan greets Flamingeaux with a kiss (or maybe it’s the other way round), who invites them backstage. He objects to the smell coming from Marcus’ shoes but is relieved it isn’t coming from “Lolo.” He offers to get Marcus some new shoes.

Flamingeaux seems to be a drag queen, not a mutant but “he does have the superpower of fabulousness.” They met on a security patrol of Palestine. He knows that Logan is in a world of trouble and wants to help. But he doesn’t know anything about Greenhaven. He does know about the disappearances as a friend, Atticus, a “water talker,” disappeared without notice about a month ago. Those who hate mutants are now “more generous with their hate.” Logan gives Flamingeaux $500 to get Marcus to a safe house in Canada, telling Marcus he’s not prepared for what is going to happen.

Neat sound effect as we realize we’re now listening to the conversation on a radio. Pierce wants the gang to grab Logan and she will get Marcus; she orders Bonnie to use the tranquilizers or “he will tear you apart.”

Back to the “inside the bar” perspective, where Marcus is protesting vociferously; he doesn’t believe Logan’s insistence that he’s not up to what’s about to happen. Logan exits the bar and says “pleather and sweat” — he’s smelling the gang. They trade insults and it’s really funny. (If anyone / non-native speakers want me to transcribe this part leave a note in the comments and let me know.) As Bonnie taunts him, Logan unsheathes the knives and taunts right back —

abrupt cut back to Marcus. He’s still protesting vociferously when the stage manager breaks into the dressing room to tell Flamingeaux that an FBI agent is looking for him and they can’t stop her —

cut back to the street, where a melee is well underway, before Logan runs away, looking for Marcus. He encounters Pierce and notes she has a different voice than in Japan. The knives come out and another fight ensues — then the sound of a motorcycle and Marcus shouting “come on!”

Outside of town they stop. Marcus is angry — in his view, Logan tried to betray him, and Marcus came back for him. Logan notes that Marcus is smart and his heart is in the right place, but he could have gotten himself killed. Marcus states that he is going to find his mama (too many feelings for Logan, he asserts), either with or without Logan. Logan will need his local knowledge and a guide through the bayou. Logan tells Marcus that the bikers are working for Weapon-X, “a war machine breathing down our backs.”

-finally, an information dump on Weapon-X, which I needed. A covert part of the US government that uses mutants as a “living arsenal,” an activity from which Logan has separated himself-

A car stops and Logan beats some people up in order to get footwear for Marcus, who protests that he doesn’t wear cowboy boots. They get back on the motorcycle to go back to “Greenhaven,” which is in the bayou. (We get better directions, it’s not “north of Mississippi,” but north OF the Mississippi. Whew.

~ by Servetus on April 1, 2019.