Welcome everyone, to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This is a big week for me. Not because the episode was pretty good, though that did help, but because something I’ve long awaited for finally happened. What was it? Well lets dive in and find out!
The big news of course is this: Lala Ru talked! And did stuff! And it was good! I know some think that I’ve been a tad harsh on her recently. That she’s supposed to be withdrawn and quiet after everything done to her by Hamdo and others. But this episode is proof of what I was saying before. About how you can animate and emote withdrawn or quiet characters without making them emotionless dolls. Just look at all of the subtle movements Lala Ru takes throughout the episode. Clutching on to Shu as they drive, the way her voice sounds when talking about her past or how she reacts to Shu’s proclamations. Just the fact that she responds when he asks her questions but not when talking about himself is, alone, a sign of her mental state. This episode is everything I wanted now that she was free of Hamdo.
And I loved it.
As for the specifics of what she did, and what it means, we have a lot of talk about. Lala Ru did more this episode than in the rest of the series combined. From her love of the sunset and dislike of the sunrise to her past, a lot is revealed. My favorite of this being: This isn’t her first rodeo. We can infer from her comments regarding the necklace that Hamdo isn’t the first to do this to her. This isn’t the first time she’s been locked up for her powers, that she’s been doing this for a while. How long we don’t really know. She could be hundreds of years old. The important thing though is that this has gone on long enough that she’s lost faith in humanity. So more than being beaten down by trauma and Hamdo, she’s forsaken humanity almost entirely.
What I really like about this whole sequence though is how it explains her actions leading up to now. Before I was always a bit curious why she reacted to Shu with just as much disinterest as towards Hamdo. Did she not trust him? Was she just that beaten down? As it turns out though, its a mixture of both. She believes that Shu is honest in his actions. Just that, if she responds and helps him back, that her help will start to be taken for granted. She effectively doesn’t believe that people can be innately good. Instead wanting something in return, expecting things in return, for their help. It’s a subtle difference to being beaten down I feel, but one I quite like. It’s a different flavor of melancholy to the more standard abusive trauma.
Part of what makes this conversation with Shu so interesting though is that we are seeing evidence to the contrary all throughout Now and Then’s story. In this very same episode, as Lala Ru talks about the greed of mankind and Shu about innate goodness, we see examples of both. Take for instance Hamdo’s gorging on water, his treatment of Abelia until she comes to him with a plan to use water as a fuel source. He is everything Lala Ru hates in humanity. And yet in the same episode we see a roving stranger save Sara’s life, despite not knowing a thing about her. Or Nabuca bend his rules to protect Boo. An extension of his greater focus on protecting and caring for the kids rather than truly believing in Hellywood and its laws. This framing is making Now and Then feel like a contest of philosophies almost.
As for the rest of the show, not much of import happened, narratively at least. The whole thing with the plant monster and the rock was fun. We got to see some native life on this barren world and I liked how it was adapted to survive on this unique planet. This is starting to turn into a more proper adventure than it was before, the kind with hope on the horizon however small. It fell like a bottle episode almost. One where the narrative and world stands still, requiring all of the drama and story to come from the characters rather than the plot. A good bottle episode, like this one, can do great things for the characters, like what happened here with Lala Ru. A bad one though… well this wasn’t a bad one, so lets not talk about that.
Finally I do want to bring up one criticism: Hamdo is starting to grate on me a bit. His initial introduction was fine, he made a strong impression, but it’s starting to get a bit old. Even with his framing in the larger narrative as all the worst traits of mankind, I was hoping for a bit more… nuance? Something to make him more interesting as a character rather than just an ideological force? Now to be clear: It’s entirely possible Now and Then addresses this moving forward. Multiple times I’ve critiqued some aspect of a character only for the very next episode to address exactly what I was saying. Now and Then has been pretty good about know when a character needs their time in the spot light. So hopefully, by saying this here, that exact same thing will happen once more. If not… I’ll also take more Sara.
So yeah all in all this was a pretty good episode. I’m really happy with what it did for all of the characters this week. Yeah the main plot about getting home and dealing with Hellywood didn’t really progress, but like… Is that really important? Now and Then isn’t a show about defeating the ultimate evil and saving the day. This isn’t a shounen action series. So I don’t mind if that takes a back-seat for a bit and allows the characters time to just… be and grow as people. As long as Now and Then’s ending regarding Hellywood and Hamdo doesn’t crash and burn, destroying all the characters have been built up to be by the end, I’ll probably be fine.
I know that’s a weird take to have, but its just a difference about what a show is going for. Now and Then is about the characters, not some “fate of the world” plot. And I’d rather it focus on and absolutely nail one than attempt for, and fall short of, both. Hopefully that makes sense. I’ll see you next week for another episode!
Tabol is a much better antagonist than Hamdo and hi is just a supporting antagonist. You will see what I mean later
With what I’ve seen, I’d believe it.