Let me say this up front - I absolutely hate dream sequences in movies and TV shows.
That's just a personal thing for me.
I hate them because there are never any real stakes involved. It's just
this weird glimpse inside the mind of a character.
So yeah, I hate dream sequences...
Except in this one specific case.
I absolutely love this Everett and Baron dream sequence. It's like all Ups from me.
I'm in love with this whole thing because somehow this show - through all of Everett's prior
heightened mental episodes - has set me up for a dream sequence with a sense of genuine danger.
Every time I was convinced it was just a dream, director Christian Taylor did
something to make me think it might be one of those wide-awake hallucinations.
Every time I was convinced it was just a hallucination,
they did something physical with Baron and that convinced me this had to be a dream.
Then Phoebe came along and it was absolutely a dream, but then the light shifted.
And if it was a dream it was somehow fully immersive tickle-your-balls virtual reality.
But enough about the way it was put together, let's let's get into the specifics on this.
Up for the growly naked guy in the corner.
Up for this new thing Everett does to check his current status.
Solid as a rock.
Up for "I don't actually need my medication".
I know people are going to scream that folks with mental illness often go off
their meds thinking they feel fine when they're actually not.
Sit down Karen. It's an up in this very specific case.
Huge up for this "back in the mirror" thing.
I have no idea. I don't know exactly why this creeps me
the F out but creeped the F out I am. So good.
And can we just sit with this image for a moment?
A werewolf literally forged in fire.
Big up for me for burning wolf.
Okay, the naked Baron thing was almost a down for me. I haven't
seen this much ass since I canceled my Only Fans subs.
I don't know why but this began to annoy me.
Maybe it was just one cheek over the line in this sequence? I don't know.
Anyway, it's not a down but it almost was.
Okay, this really should be a down.
This effect does not work on so many levels. The perspective is off. The
lighting isn't right. So many things wrong with this - but it is really effective.
I don't know why but hovering, ghost-white sprite face scared
me more than if they'd had the big wolf lunge through that opening.
This technique has to be lifted from somewhere, it's a film or something
that I can't remember right now. It's got a real feel of familiarity about it
but Kabuki face Baron there, oh such an up.
This is going to take all day if I do every single thing, so quickly now -
Up for the water adding an element of WTF. Up for Phoebe and the callback to American
Werewolf in London where the victims of the werewolf come back for a visit.
We get a specific up for Phoebe's line about Baron turning on the pack if they make him mad.
Also for wide mouth radio Phoebe broadcasting what may be Austin's last performance.
Up for Chase Liefeld throughout this entire thing.
Bro is ass-out naked all day shooting this, but manages these emotional peaks and valleys.
There's way too much awesome in all of this to mention every single thing. I
renew my description of Baron as the lost and wandering confused ghost. I love this character.