Shackles - Episode 3x11 - Being a Grandmother

Did anybody say speechless? I don’t have a clue where to start. Somebody would have to be crazy if they were to say that this wasn’t a good episode. It was amazing. End. Of.

I guess we can start with the conclusion. We FINALLY discover who the Architect is. At about the halfway point of the episode, I actually started to have a feeling it might Milgate himself. It was a crazy hunch, but it was damn close. Mary-Lynn turns out to be the Architect. Was it a shock? Hell yeah. Who would have thought that the Architect would be somebody who we haven’t seen until just now? Nobody.

Then, we find out what the body, head, and Xera would be used for. Bringing Milgate back to life is something that I NEVER saw coming. We still have an entire season of this show left, so it’ll be very interesting to see what the new Milgate will do from now until then (this is also assuming that he would make it to the end of the final season).

One thing that stung me is that Xera was forced. She had no other option if she wanted to stay alive. It sucks that that is what it had to come to, but it worked. Xera was obviously upset, and now that she has aged quite a bit, it’ll be neat to see how she copes with the changes to her body, as well as with what she was forced to do.

Now, I made a note to remember another cliffhanger that we got, although it wasn’t quite front-and-center as the others. We still have Brett, Kylee, Matilda, and Kaeto stuck in the Kenyan jungle. We also were just told that Xera has healed Matilda four times. That is insanity. I wonder if all of these heals were due to strokes, or if it was just old age (although both are sort of inter-related).

You told me long ago (even showing me the picture of him after one of my reviews), that we would see Zachary at one point or another in the future. Now, although his stint was quite brief, it shows us that viewpoints on who to heal have only changed for Milgate (as far as we know). His grandfather, father, and Xera all say that they won’t heal someone after they are dead. I found that a bit interesting.

I enjoyed the glimpse into Milgate’s childhood. Getting to see the tragedy in his early life was a good treat, giving us some key knowledge. On the note of childhood – Angelo, what the hell is with you and the killing of children? I swear you must get a large grin on your face (like Verna) every time you do. Now I see who Verna’s character was modeled after… YOU!

All in all, this was a PHENOMENAL finale. In other words – This was my favorite episode of the entire series. It’ll definitely be tough to top this one.

And finally, a word from our theory police – The last of Season 3:

Jimbo’s Final Season 3 Theory
We’ll get at least one joke from Milgate about how his dick looks different (smaller, bigger, shape; who cares what kind of joke really) than it did before. Make it happen, Shrine. I’m counting on you.