Here's a recap of the latest session of my Sentinels RPG campaign "The Alternates"! As per usual, there's a narrative recap (written as if it was in-metaverse) and then I go over the actual running of the game, and any lessons I learned as the GM.
If you're lost, you can catch up with the previous Game Recaps: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5
Brief Description of the Game: In the meta-verse (where Sentinel comics is a published comic book multimedia empire), there is a premium cable computer-animated (in a style similar to “Into the Spider-Verse”) television series (which itself is based on a comic series called "The Alternates"). This RPG campaign represents that show, with each game session (ideally) representing one hour-long Episode of the show. The recap below is written in-metaverse as if it was an article on a popular website that posts recaps of episodes.
The PCs are Cytoblast, Dr. Comet, Jersey Devil, Kid Radical, and Quasar Kid. The characters Bouncer and Starshadow are featured NPCs. Enjoy!
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The Alternates Episode #6 Recap:
“Funeral for a Friend”
By Eddie Jaczerkowski
Hello, fans of The Alternates! Today I’ll be recapping Episode #6, “Funeral for a Friend,” an episode about loss, guilt, and alternate timelines. As usual, spoilers for this episode are below, but no spoilers for what might lie in the future!
Episode Recap
The sixth episode begins with a look at the story of Cytoblast, a.k.a. Dr. Douglas Hemlocke. Unlike the previous character vignettes, the story is told through a series of flashbacks, not just a single scene. First, we see Dr. Hemlocke working as a surgeon in an operating room when the patient flatlines. Hemlocke keeps working, but an assistant puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “You can’t save everyone, Dr. Hemlocke.”
In the next scene, Dr. Hemlocke is in a hospital administrator’s office. The administrator makes it clear Dr. Hemlocke can’t handle losing patients. Repeating the phrase, “You can’t save everyone,” she recommends that Hemlocke takes some time off. We cut to Dr. Hemlocke arriving at a large mansion that was left to him by his great uncle. He meets a caretaker at the property, and tells her that he has’t been there since he was a kid, but it feels like home. She tells him that it is, indeed, his home.
The final scene of the vignette is Dr. Hemlocke in an old office inside the house, presumably the office of his great uncle. He reaches for a staff over the mantle, and the staff begins to sprout vines which wrap around his arms. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with his origins, this ancient staff gives Cytoblast his powers.) Dr. Hemlocke smiles as he attunes himself to the magical staff...
The episode then cuts to the modern day, where Dr. Douglas Hemlocke, wearing a suit, walks with a cane (that looks a great deal like the staff from the previous scene). The camera pans out, revealing a large funeral taking place in Arlington National Cemetery (or something very close to that). This is the funeral for Lt. Tyler Vance, better known as Bunker.
There’s a large crowd of mourners on the other side of some barricades, while certain VIPs are let into the funeral ceremony itself. We see Cytoblast approach the rest of the Alternates. Dr. Comet is wearing a smart pantsuit, and next to her stands Kid Radical in an ill-fitting (but otherwise appropriate) suit. Jersey Devil is wearing a long trench coat and wide-brimmed hat, his shadowy form shifting beneath the clothes. Quasar Kid is dressed in full costume, but he has added a cape and epaulets (later, he explains this is his dress uniform). Finally, Bouncer stands with them in a suit and tie.
Through conversation, we learn that this is one of the last funerals for the heroes who died fighting Oblivaeon and Voss. The final funeral, in a few days, will be for Heritage. We also see Stuntman, who survived being under a collapsing building in Episode #3. However, Stuntman appears to be severely injured, and he is using a wheelchair.
The group is first approached by Assistant Director Zambrano, who introduces himself to the team. He was a government liaison with the Freedom Seven, and he is now concerned about the lack of superheroes to defend the country against “super-powered terrorists.” Zambrano talks to the team about their willingness to be on call to defend the country, and all of the team members agree they would do so.
Cytoblast stands in the back of the group as this conversation begins, but eventually he disappears entirely. Later during this scene, we see vines slowly (but still quickly, relatively speaking) growing up a nearby tree. Is this Cytoblast brooding by joining with the local flora?
The assistant director then asks the gathered heroes if they are “a team” (he’s somewhat familiar with their careers, and hadn’t heard they worked together). The camera cuts to each hero looking at the other heroes, until it finally gets to Quasar Kid, who exclaims, “Yes! We are a team.”
When the Assistant Director asks “the team” what they know about Oblivaeon, Quasar Kid and Kid Radical start to chatter. Kid Radical tries to explain the super-science, and Quasar Kid talks about timelines, and suggests the Assistant Director talk to Starshadow. Meanwhile, Dr. Comet, who cannot get a word in edgewise and definitely understands all this stuff better than they do, grows visibly angry and grumbles, “Well, fine. I guess you know everything about it!” She storms off.
Moments later, the Assistant Director excuses himself and catches up with Dr. Comet to ask her about Oblivaeon.
As they move towards their seats, the rest of the team is met by a man in a blue suit with stars and moons patterned on it. He introduces himself as Alan Burke, a.k.a. The Arithmetist! He describes himself as a “mathemagician” who employs the magic of numbers in his spellcasting. His personality is obviously excessive, and his words and motions are exaggerated for dramatic effect. Expressing regret, The Arithmetist explains that Heritage had no way of contacting him, and was far too late in reaching Megalopolis to help them.
The Arithmetist asks about Dr. Comet, and soon she approaches the group. The Arithmetist is very excited to meet her, explaining that he admired her scientific work, but is also intrigued because he’s heard her powers are magical in nature. Dr. Comet, as any viewer of this show might expect, is visibly annoyed, but The Arithmetist is oblivious. He invites her to dinner to discuss magic and math, and she is clearly not interested.
(During this conversation, a tree in the background is once again seen with slowly writhing vines covering it - more hints at Cytoblast’s lonely mood throughout this episode.)
As the Arithmetist walks away, Jersey Devil pipes up to the rest of the team. “I exist partially in a dimension where everything travels at the speed of light, and time has no meaning, and all moments exist simultaneously forever,” he says ominously. “But if that man had talked much longer, I would have killed him.” It’s a great line.
Finally, the team sees Starshadow walk into the funeral. He is wearing a suit and tie, but also his mask, which is a weird look. But I suppose superhero costume designers don’t really think about how those suits will look at a funeral. Starshadow nods to the other heroes, and everyone in attendance takes their seats.
The ceremony for Bunker begins. The episode launches into a montage, with military officers and others giving their eulogies. (We hear short sentences as a sober military march plays under the scene.) The funeral ends, and guests line up to pay their last respects.
Then we see a huge man, towering over the other guests, walking toward the casket. This is Steven Graves, the villain known as Fright Train! Fright Train is being escorted by military police (who are armed to the teeth), although he is not shackled in any way. The hulking man walks to the casket, gently places a military medal on it, and then turns and solemnly walks away. He is escorted out of the area by the military police, and everyone in attendance stares in confusion for a moment.
On their way out of the funeral, the heroes meet Governor Hamilton Hughes and Senator Graham Davis, who both gave eulogies for Bunker. Both the governor and the senator express their gratitude for each member of the team, and they seem to be familiar with all of their careers (which is surprising, because these are not world-famous heroes). The two of them are effusive, and as they leave, Starshadow approaches the team.
(Interestingly, Cytoblast reappears in this moment, standing silently by the group as if he was there the whole time. But he definitely wasn’t.)
“I need to talk to you,” Starshadow says to them. “I know a good Indian place nearby”
In the next scene, the team is sitting at the back table of a restaurant with various curry dishes laid out before them. We find out that something happened to Starshadow when all those crystals were destroyed in the last episode. Because he was in contact with the crystals in Voss’s back, somehow he was also able to connect to Oblivaeon himself.
As the crystals overloaded, Starshadow was able to “piggyback” himself to Oblivaeon’s location in the Multiverse, and follow events that transpired there. He saw that, in this world. Baron Blade becomes a hero, and he saves the Freedom Five (not Seven) when Oblivaeon destroys Freedom Tower. Baron Blade then becomes key in the final destruction of Oblivaeon, when that timeline’s Rainek Kel’Voss betrays Oblivaeon. Starshadow can’t see what happened after that, but he knows that Oblivaeon was destroyed.
More importantly, he knows that Baron Blade is alive in that timeline, and that Baron Blade saves many of the heroes - especially Heritage (or Legacy, in that timeline - Multiverse stuff gets confusing).
Starshadow then relates to the heroes what happened many years ago, when Baron Blade killed thousands with bombs in Megalopolis (the Mad Bomber event). Legacy (Paul Parsons) pursued Baron Blade into space, where the Baron had a hidden orbital base. Starshadow joined Legacy in pursuing the Baron, and they arrived at the space station together. There, Legacy attacked the Baron angrily, decrying the murder of so many innocent people. In fact, Starshadow says he thought Legacy might actually kill Baron Blade (whether that’s true, or just Starshadow’s perspective, is a topic for fan debate!).
But Legacy, being as principled as he was, left the Baron alive. Starshadow, who had stood by for the whole thing, felt the Baron had gone too far this time. And, using the full might of his cosmic powers, he reached out and found every molecule of Baron Blade’s body, and pulled them apart into a pile of disconnected dust. Both he and Legacy left the base in silence, and the news stations soon reported that Baron Blade had been killed in a fight with Starshadow.
Clearly, Starshadow is hung up on the idea that killing Baron Blade doomed all his fellow superheroes. By his logic, if he hadn’t killed Baron Blade, then Baron Blade would’ve become a hero and saved Heritage, and possibly all the others. He mumbles something about it all being his fault, and the other heroes sit in silence for a moment, searching for something to say to him, but the scene ends before any of them reply.
The last part of the episode takes place at Heritage’s funeral. The Alternates are gathered there, including Cytoblast.. They are introduced to Senator Emily Parsons, wife of Heritage, mother of Legacy, who thanks them for defending humanity. She is obviously in a great deal of pain, mourning the loss of her family. They make short small talk, during which we learn that Starshadow, one of the only surviving superheroes who knew Heritage, will be delivering a eulogy.
The heroes also briefly interact with Senator Graham Davis again, who begins by asking, “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” The conversation is awkward, as Senator Davis basically repeats the questions and comments he made in their earlier conversation, with slight variations.
Later, Parse arrives. She is not herself. Staring off into space and seemingly unaware of the presence of anyone around her, Parse is led through the funeral by another young woman, who holds her hand. Whatever happened when Parse tried to use her powers of evaluation on Oblivaeon, it has left her without much awareness of the world around her. The young woman introduces herself as Parse’s caretaker, and tells the heroes Parse would certainly thank them for saving her life. (The team made sure the newly-catatonic Parse was safe during the events of Episode #4.)
Finally, everyone takes their seats, and we see a montage, over music, of speakers at Heritage’s funeral. These speakers appear to be government and civilian officials, possibly philanthropists, and a religious official or two. Finally, we see Starshadow, wearing a suit and tie, but also his costume mask.
Starshadow praises Heritage, marking high points in the fallen hero’s career. Starshadow also mentions the few times he and Heritage worked together (but he doesn’t mention the incident that ended with Baron Blade’s death). The speech praises all of Heritage’s moral strengths, but then it begins to go off the rails.
Starshadow says that Heritage knew which decisions were the right decisions, whereas Starshadow questions if he himself can make good decisions. He recalls that, once, he thought he knew better than Paul Parsons, and he was wrong, and that decision cost lives. (He’s obviously referring to his disintegration of Baron Blade, and what he feels are the results.)
There’s an awkward silence as Starshadow takes a long pause. He finally says, “This is all my fault,” then turns into his signature cosmic shadow form, and launches himself skyward. He disappears into the atmosphere as the crowd watches. There are gasps, and the people in attendance start to murmur. The priest who has been leading the funeral quickly grabs the podium and says, “Thank you, Starshadow. Now if you’ll all please join me in singing the hymn, ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth.’” The priest starts the song, and everyone joins in.
The attendees sing in unison, and the camera pans upward. As their voices become distant, the guitar intro to David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” plays. The credits roll.
Final Thoughts
This is obviously an episode that focuses on loss, guilt, and how the various characters are dealing with it.
We find out that Cytoblast has a problem handling the massive loss of life in the Oblivaeon Crisis. Much like when he was a doctor, he feels responsible for those he could not save. Similarly, when Starshadow learns that there’s a universe where Baron Blade saved the day, he is overwhelmed by the feeling that he’s indirectly responsible for the heroes who died.
On the bitter and jaded side, we have Jersey Devil and Dr. Comet. It’s not that they don’t care about those who died, but rather their negative outlook anticipates trauma, whether or not it helps them deal with it. They aren’t surprised that they’re at the 20th funeral in a row for a superhero - this sort of thing is inevitable to them.
Finally, Quasar Kid and Kid Radical try to be buoys at these somber events. They aren’t upsettingly positive or optimistic, but rather they are supportive and respectful. (Yes, I was somewhat surprised that Kid Radical was respectful, and didn’t launch into a spiel about saying “no” to drugs or something, but apparently he isn’t completely oblivious to what’s going on around him.)
The episode does an excellent job of telling these different, parallel stories of handling loss, but without making me even more depressed about all the heroes of Sentinels comics being dead. The episode was much more about these surviving characters than retraumatizing the viewers.
I’m not going to end this article, though, without talking about the choice of the closing song for this episode, “The Man Who Sold the World.” Obviously, the showrunners have carefully curated the music used in this show, so what does this song mean with regard to the episode?
This Bowie song (my favorite Bowie song) is about identity, especially being uncomfortable or unsure about parts of yourself (and here, I’m paraphrasing David Bowie himself). “The Man Who Sold the World” means “The Man Who Tricked the World,” I think, given how David Bowie talked about the song’s original meaning.
But I think given the episode we just watched, the showrunners intend a different interpretation of “The Man Who Sold the World.” In this case, “sold” would be something akin to “betrayed” rather than “tricked.” In other words, it is “The Man Who Sold Out the World.” This could refer to the internal conflict in both the characters of Cytoblast and Starshadow, but I think the song is keying in, specifically, to the realizations Starshadow shares in Act II (which themselves are another perspective on the key elements of Douglas Hemlocke’s backstory - feeling like you have betrayed those you were supposed to save).
For Starshadow, he is confronting himself, here, in a way. Although he does not see “himself” when he peers into the mainstream Sentinels Comics timeline, he sees Baron Blade become a hero, so he knows that the Starshadow in that timeline didn’t kill Baron Blade. (We can assume he doesn’t know that Baron Blade’s “Mad Bomber” plot didn’t succeed in that timeline, so he may think his decision created the “Duality” that split the timelines.)
In the context of the song, Starshadow is the Man Who Sold the World, and he’s just come face-to-face with it. He has learned something about the consequences of his actions that has brought him guilt and shame. Also, considering that he is actually aware of two timelines with two different outcomes, and he believes he made the decision that determined those outcomes, he probably feels like he has perfect clarity into what was the right choice and what was the wrong choice. Is he correct? Well, keep watching - this story has a few more beats left in it.
Ultimately, Starshadow is a relatively minor character in the story of The Alternates, but he nonetheless introduces key story elements to the series, like the weight of choices and consequences. Plus, if he’s right, then the whole reason the Alternates end up becoming a superhero team in this timeline is because Starshadow disintegrated Baron Blade!
Nerdy Notes:
- The hospital administrator is named Violet Oleander, which is the secret identity of the obscure super-villain Plantasia (who fought Cytoblast on one occasion in the 1970s). I don’t think this administrator is meant to be Plantasia, but rather it’s just a fun Easter egg.
- The man pushing Stuntman’s wheelchair into the funeral is actually Caleb Greene, the husband of Dr. Medico (who has not been seen so far in this show).
- “Funeral for a Friend,” an Elton John song that shares the title of this episode, does not actually appear in this episode! A red herring!
There’s a lot more going on in this episode, but saying any more would be spoiling it!
Next week’s episode will be a little bit of a shift in tone and setting. It’s titled, “Potato Salad and Hot Dogs,” so that ought to be a hint that we’re shifting gears. See you then, dear readers!
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
Running the Game
More Starshadow stuff?! Yep! This game caps off the first story arc, and that story arc is mostly about the background of the timeline we're in, and the story of how that timeline is different. And I realized early on that, if Starshadow knew that Baron Blade became a hero and saved Paul Parsons... well, then he'd have a very different perspective on killing Baron Blade (and setting off so many of the events in this alternate timeline). Still, it is Baron Blade's fault for succeeding at killing a lot of people in Megalopolis. "But how did he succeed?" you may ask? Where does this timeline's divergence really start? Well, it was probably some hero coming up short during the Mad Bomber event, honestly. Maybe with time that'll become an interesting thing to explore, but for now, we don't know, exactly!
This was an entirely social game. There were no action scenes, and the Scene Tracker never came out. And that worked great! I thought we'd roll some dice at a couple points, but we never did, which is pretty great, too.
Cytoblast's player was absent this game. Coincidentally, it was the week for his character flashback. This lead me to work with his player to come up with the idea of his guilt over losing patients, and now his guilt over so many other heroes dying. In combat, he uses a protective Reaction a lot, so I suggested that could bleed over into his personality, and thus he'd have a focus on saving others. And if he was a medical doctor... well, it all came together. So the player and I worked on it, and it came out great. And I knew that his kind of guilt would work well with Starshadow's guilt in this episode, and I think it all came together to make a great story.
Anyway, I tried to use Cytoblast's absence to tell its own story.
My players decided to name their first collection, "For Want of a Nail." One of my players suggested it, and I was kind familiar with the phrase but I had forgotten it's part of a whole proverb (check out the wikipedia page for more). The basic idea is similar to "the butterfly effect" - that one small thing can domino into a big thing. Or maybe like my boy Kosh said, "The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." Anyway, it's a great name for the Collection, because it's exactly the kind of idea that Starshadow was expressing in his story, but also, as I reminded them, Heritage had told them (in Episode #2) that, basically, someone had time-travelled from the future to specifically tell Heritage to put those character in that place to save the timeline. The team itself is kind of a "nail" in the "For Want of a Nail" proverb.
I think that's all for this week. Don't run games sick! Then you just feel worse. But also, I got an additional health issue going this week, so I was not able to color my Cytoblast sketch. Still, I will give it to you in its black & white glory. I used a different style this time, employing hatching to add shading, so it actually works really well without color! Hooray! Enjoy!