It's been an ongoing joke on this blog (and my actual life) that Leo is the worst friend to have with you when you're single and looking for female companionship.
It's not intentional. Leo has actually been known to say to me (verbatim), "Let's get you out of that condo and into vagina." He always wants to help me out. But it's a problem when you're a hot piece of eye candy for girls. It's not his fault.
* * *
I haven't seen my old roommate since he moved home to save up for our European adventure, so needless to say I was excited to reunite with him for a night of boozing... just like old times. Leo met up with me and a group of our high school friends at The Blue Moon bar in Portland. He walked in the door in a long, black pea coat and Chuck Taylors. He gave me a hug and offered to buy my first drink.
Monica, a friend of a friend not known for her use of subtle hints, shot me a look as soon as she took notice of Leo. She quickly beckoned to me when Leo was occupied elsewhere and I approached her.
So@24: What's up? Monica: Um. Your friend over there is fucking hot. So@24: So what... you want me to put in a good word for you? Monica: God yes.
I know Leo doesn't ever need it, but I always like to feel like I'm helping out when the opportunity arises.
So@24: Hey, my friend over there thinks you're cute. Leo: Who? That girl?
Leo clearly wasn't interested. Another one bit the dust.
Moments later, Nancy walked into the bar. Nancy was a coworker of mine when I worked at my very first job in high school. It had been years since I've last seen or even had contact with her, but through the magic of Facebook... these things tend to be possible.
She had texted me and wanted to meet up, so I told her I was at the bar with friends.
Nancy and I weren't extremely close when we worked together at the movie theater, but I do remember sharing good conversations with her while we slaved together cleaning out the greasy popcorn popper.
She was much more attractive than I remembered her; I guess people tend to grow up and change physically from high school to post college, eh? Or maybe she looked better when she wasn't wearing that beloved movie theater uniform: the vest. In any case, she had a pretty smile, ample bosom, and cute freckles. Nancy had grown up.
Nancy gave me a hug and I bought us a round of shots to start the night off. It was fun catching up with her and reminiscing over our movie theater days. I was starting to feel pretty confident about the situation. We were both drinking (heavily) and the conversation never had an awkward moment.
At some point in the night, Leo took notice of this and pulled me aside.
Leo: So what's going on? Think something might happen with you and Nancy? So@24: I dunno... maybe? Leo: I think you're doing alright. Remember: cool as a cucumber, baby. Cool as a cucumber.
The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. I mingled with old friends, bought rounds of shots, introduced Nancy to a few choice members of the old gang, etc.
However, as fun and light as my exchange with Nancy was all evening... my Spidey Sense was tingling and not in the good way. I think this sixth sense develops when you're single. If you have to question whether or not the girl is interested: she's probably not. I had a feeling Nancy's interest were elsewhere...
Nancy: So your friend Leo is pretty cute. So@24: Ahhhh... yeah, he gets that a lot. He's a good guy. Nancy: What do you think?? Should I go talk to him? So@24: Sure, go for broke. Nancy: I just ordered you and I drinks, I'll be right back!
Leo was at a different part of the bar, catching up with our friend Markus. Nancy jumped out of her bar stool and bounced in his direction. I wasn't too upset, this was a situation I've run into before. I raised my whiskey and coke and downed it in just a few gulps.
Moments later, Leo tapped me on the shoulder.
Leo: How's it going with Nancy? So@24: She's not into me! Leo: Really? I thought things were going pretty well. So@24: She's into you, you bastard. Leo: Oh fuck that. So@24: Eh. It's not a big deal.
Leo left to rejoin our friend Markus. I turned back to my conversation with my cousin Mimi and other friends.
I felt another tap on my shoulder again. It was Leo.
Leo: I just kissed Markus. So@24: ... ... what? Leo: I told Nancy that Markus and I were a couple. So@24: You told Nancy you were gay?? Leo: Hahaha! Yeah! She didn't believe me and called me out, so I grabbed Markus and gave him a big long kiss.
I choked on my drink and busted up laughing.
So@24: Wow. Just. Wow. You really didn't need to do that, man. I wasn't that into her. Leo: Eh fuck it. It was pretty funny. You should have seen the look on her face. Fucking priceless. So@24: A for Effort, but I don't think I'm down with being "default". I still got your next drink though, you fucking weirdo.
Leo threw an arm around me and lead me back to the bar.
Leo: Besides, she wasn't that cool anyway. We still got New Years to look forward to.
I've heard of friends talking up their buddy to girls. I've heard of friends taking home "the ugly girl" in order to help out their friend in need.
But I've never, ever heard of a friend kissing another guy as a means of helping his buddy get the girl.
Diva - Beyonce More blatant MK from Beyonce's latest... sigh (wtf do people think they're looking at when they watch this?! just totally meaningless mannequins + limbs [in a car-boot, which she blows up at the end], chains, symbolic sunglass things, usual Beyonce robot depiction [2:22], etc how fucking braindead do you have to be), back in 2009 (when I'll expand this one probably). Interesting article here I'd recommend reading (wrote my take on it in the much-edited Miss Asia MCM post).
To be honest, I'm actually strangely calm about it. This will be the second relationship she has been in since our break up (that's a total of 3 relationships for Lynn, if you're keeping count) and her revealing it to me this time is astronomically better than the first time around!
That being said, am I going to invite her new guy out to join me for a couple of suds, go in for a bro hug, and bond over "Have you tried this one on her?" stories? Probably not. But I meant everything I said to her in my email back to her and I do wish her well.
Lynn and I have talked a couple of times since she informed me about her new relationship. She'll subtly try and slide him into the conversation ("He came over for dinner the other night" or "... and since I'm kind of seeing someone now..."), but I refuse to take the bait. I think that she wants to tell me about him, like any friend would want to when they are still in that honeymoon stage of new relationships.
I'm sure she wants me to ask questions and have me be interested, as any good friend should. But, I just can't bring myself to indulge her and urge her to tell me more about him. I'm still very much an "ignorance is bliss" kinda guy. I'd rather delay for as long as I can the fact that some day, I'll have to eventually learn his name, what he looks like, and all other details until that come with knowing someone.
I mean for this to be a segue to something I've found myself struggling with, these past couple of weeks. I've found myself comparing where I'm at in the romance department with everyone around me. Probably not healthy and I know that I gain nothing from this, but I've discovered that it's force that I can't stop!
For example... Leo, who makes a conscious effort to keep his toe out of the dating pool, gets set up by a friend to a cocktail party with a very attractive girl. A cute blind date (although if you mention the D-word within earshot of Leo, he'll fight it tooth and nail) who he ends up having uninhibited, drunken sex within the very first night of meeting her!
God, I miss drunk sex.
Jack happens to mentions in conversation, that at a party, he made out with a girl in her car. I'm barely able to focus on any of the other details about the party as I am completely baffled how he can be so damn casual about this! To him (and the rest of the world, it seems), it's like a fucking to-do list one would quickly scribble on a notepad on a lazy Sunday afternoon:
Pick up milk, eggs, and jar of sweet pickles
Drop off a package to Aunt Silvia at the post office
Meet girl at party, follow her to car and make out
Walk the neighbor's border collie
People are still making out in cars??
God, I miss making out in cars.
And out of complete boredom (and maybe a pinch of masochism), I've clicked through Facebook profiles of my old high school acquaintances and said through gritted teeth, "This fucking guy better not have a cute girlfriend" and when this indeed turns out to be the case, I quickly close out the window in bitter frustration.
I just reread that. I'm disgusted with myself.
I know I'm not being fair to myself by trying to compare where I'm at on the game board of romance to those around me. But, fuck! I keep landing on the damn chutes and everyone else is climbing ladders.
But what we know to be good for us and actually acting on it, often times we find that it isn't a union that comes easy. I'm finding myself more and more obsessed with the "when is it my turn?!" mentality.
"I've paid my dues!" is all I can whine about though. I should be happy that my best friend is breaking his dry spell and sleeping with hot girls on Date One. And good for my buddy Jack for bringing it back to the roots and coppin' a feel in a motor vehicle.
I really am okay with where Lynn is at now. As okay with it as I can be as an ex boyfriend of six years.
I think that when I am steadily seeing someone (or at the very least, having sex consistently!) I will be even more "okay". Maybe even able to have full conversations about it like real friends do.
I just can't do it feeling like I'm such a loser for being so far behind, awkwardly adjusting and readjusting my position in the starting block while she is near the finish line about to enjoy having a giant victory tub of Gatorade poured on her.
The main femme fatale/sex-kitten/Delta-Beta agent/slave SarahWalker of the MKTV show Chuck is played by an actress from Oz called Yvonne Strahovski who is insatiably beautiful, single-handedly making up for the shows many problems. It is loaded full of MK and quite a bit of occultism also (all the 'flashes', triggered [i.e seeing a person who he has a fragment stored in his mind about] 'memory fragments' from "the intersect", programmed into his mind through the subliminally [really fast] flashing of the imagery on his screen [the first few putting him in the right trance/altered-state for the memory fragments to be stored in] for an entire night [he has the standard 'zomg so much time has just passed!' you find in stuff like this, depicting lost time and the 'flashes' depicting how things [[memories/programs/alters/etc]] are triggered in MK (by anything)]). But I don't really want to go into the overt MK symbolism in this; I'd rather keep this post focused on certain things rather than posting on every single shattered glass/mirror/other MK themed scenes.
She's a computer. [promo photo]
Sarah Walker (very symbolic name; walking on the yellow brick road/controlled path, Sarah is the name of numerous things such as the 2001HAL-esque A.I. in Eureka) is typical of MK victims used by intelligence agencies in reality, as her father was involved in shady dealings and was generally a bad man... as a child she developed various aliases (aliases always = alters in this type of thing, one called Katie O'Connell; probable sexualter, kat/cat and Rebecca Franco, Sarah Walker obviously isn't her real name also) as her father used her in his criminal schemes (i.e. he makes her ride a pink bike and actually get hit by a security van so he can rob it; no real thought to her pain, like she breaks an arm), taking her from place to place around the country [as Monarch slaves are used in smuggling drugs (etc) and are taken round the country to stay off the grid and other relevant similarities]. More on her past from wiki: "Little is known about her family, and she is quite protective of her past. The episode "Chuck Versus the Cougars" [more cats] implied that her father was involved in questionable dealings with shady people, and repeatedly moved with her around the country using a variety of aliases..."
"I feel like I've developed an alter ego who gets dressed up and walks red carpets and does interviews and is recognized on the street." [note black/white stripes]- This show is her 'big break', she describes at as being "like a fairy tale" and also in that link she tells of her meetings with the mysteriously named 'McG' [Mind Control + Freemasonic G, real name Joseph McGinty Nicol, psychology degree; born in Kalamazoo(lmao, fo real?), nickname: The Zoo] who is directing the next Terminator MK Movie and has been involved in MK things like Pussycat Dolls: Search for the next Doll. "I play a spy, so I'm always changing my look." In the classic Princess Leia 'Slave Girl' outfit. LA City Hall's Pyramid tower.
The show is set in Los Angeles (with all [all major cities have] it's occult architecture), ground zero for MK (Own Worst Enemy also set there, scroll down) in terms of the entertainment industry anyway. Above we can see Sarah, on her checkerboard floored bathroom (a personal/private area, quite symbolic), in front of two mirrors wearing leopard print (you can clearly make out the spots/colour) as she is a delta (assassin, see below images)-beta (sex/cat/kitten symbolized by the leopard print/anything feline) slave, though she is preparing for her first "real" 'date' with Chuck (overt plot not as important; it's all allegory/symbolism).
Edit: Butterflies backbone outline and Mulholland Drive (1919) from s2e9 [apologies, some of the pictures are randomly placed around the post as I had edited them in later].
She is often treated in a sexually suggestive/demeaning manner (being a sex-kitten and all), one she dresses up in zebra-print and is felt up to illustrate this...
This type of thing (sex object) is shown earlier too as she originally worked at a hotdog place called Wienerlicious... (if you're not getting the phallic implication then there is no hope). Anyway, they do shots with her bending over, but I really wanted to show this, not because I'm a perv... but because of the double headed eagle (superimposed over a shield) on one of the ogling kids' T-Shirts, which you can clearly make out if you click it.
To confirm this double-headed eagle symbolism is 100% conscious, in the pilot episode; we also have another 'randomly' placed double-headed eagle (ish; it doesn't matter what style/colour it is, Freemasons etc use different variations of it too) shirt... quite the cowinkydink! [remember double-headed eagles/MCMs (see them here on Freemasonic shizzle, Eyes Wide Shut, victim Lindsay Lohan ) go hand in hand, also pointed out recently here (Smirnoff/Russia ((see it on Anne Hathaway in Russia link also uses this symbol showing it's prevalence and how controlled the world really is)] There was another, very small one in Season 2 on a drum kit in an 'elite' style party where the Rothschilds are invoked (with the make of wine) but it is extremely blurry and you can only just make out the outline so haven't pictured it [also a bunch of other subversive stuff like the British Royal coat of arms, which is also to small to see clearly].
Also in the pilot, a random ballerina scene (many are MK'd, this is their type of MK humour; with the images within images within images [etc] on the TV's also)... where Chuck works is quite funny, in that it's an exaggeration of the suggestion/subliminal persuasion in advertising... with obviously the name of it 'Buy More' and the various humorous confusing/circular-logic such as the below one, "When you buy more you save more. When you save more you can buy more. And when you buy more you save more..." The green(baum/Mengele, Emerald City etc)/yellow (brick road) colours are also symbolic probably, this location/setting reminded me a lot of Reaper.
Note robots + Hello Kitty below, the show is obviously a product placement corporate wet dream [MUST BUY CALL OF DUTY 4! (game constantly focused on by the show, more programming of the kids for WW3), the show does so much product-placement it should surely be illegal!]. Chuck's attractive sister called Ellie played by Sarah Lancaster (standard MKTV actor, passed around various shows as 'guest stars', the roles they play are worked into their programming [some performances seem so real and emotional (many don't however), purely because they are; in the victims' head it is anyway, programmed to 'block out' all the cameras and crew etc, aided by the bright lights shining on them and live purely in the moment of the scene], she starred in this suspect film [as a billionaires wife]) + white rabbit. As I said before, "the intersect" programmed all it's images (basically an all-encompassing database of global intelligence information) into his mind [the above one is of him, tranced out (put in the right brain-state to absorb all the info) during this], these "memories" (programmed false-ones)/images are triggered by seeing the person they relate to (or the object, etc) they usually have a one eye shot which is another common theme of MK... The symbolic title sequence of Quantum was designed by... MK12
The latest 007 is predictably not so great (makes it a lot more interesting if you can pick out the blatant symbolism and themes [hidden 'elite' conspiracy, all seeing eye etc] though) and, as I stated ages ago it has major one eye usage also. Checkerboards are (including Daniel Craig in a yellow/black checker cab one later) also featured prominently at the start, as are shattered glass and other MK metaphors throughout the film (all of it appears to be ritual [with the symbolic/ritualistic opera going on whilst the MK'd agents were fighting is one I remember]), such as near the beginning a collapsing scaffolding (collapsed internal structure leading to their system's breakdown, metaphor also seen in The Ninth Gate [as Depp runs away from the structure collapsing behind him]) with copious shattered glass (shattered mind) scene particularly stood out (not pictured).
Victims in cages [slaves] are taken to another underground cage... this whole thing felt so ritualistic it was a little surreal. Sex-kitten (portrays a standard MI6 one in this) Gemma Arterton played Strawberry Fields... this is how she ended up [Strawberry is a term used for sex-slaves; probably also the name of a specific sexual program, girls who sell their bodies for drugs (one method of MK, get them hooked on cocaine/heroin/etc so they become dependant on the dealer/handler and will do anything they want) are called 'strawberries'... so 'strawberry fields' is obviously very symbolic]. For more on this type of thing (and more on the main Bond Girl in it Olga Kurylenko), see my Hitman post [the barcode is another very important tool for marking specific slaves, instead of a tattoo though it is focused on in the intro-sequence on Chuck's identity card thing]; there has been a distinct rise in movies/shows about the tragic 'psychology of MK'd spies' over the last few years (shattered minds/programmed multiples; Jason Bourne, My Own Worst Enemy etc). $11
But back to Chuck, the protagonist; who is played by Zachary Levi (Tribe of Levi, props to Avril Lavigne commenter; + an 'evil' anagram), performed in a regional production of the Wizard of Oz (Zach loosely Zo) and such. A recent movie he was in is Spiral (spiral = big MK theme; wizard of oz cyclone, spiraling into an altered state [hypnotic spiral for the most obvious use of spiral in MK], another SPEYEral [these phonic similarities are not coincidence]) the movie featuring all the standard themes ('inside the darkest corner of the mind', 'confusing memories/imagination', mask near end of it), watch the below trailer.
Zachary Levi is probably bloodline/slave (Union Jack often used like this [assassin in Mulholland Drive another example]), but he is told by a veteran agent (who would know many of the access codes/keys/triggers/etc) to turn up to Sarah's apartment (attempting to woo her) with a rose and a specific bottle of wine/champagne (forget); which is a combo probably known to trigger a sex program and/or a certain romantic alter-personality or something along those lines [but her ex is there so it fails]. The overt plot is full of that relationship/love interest crap (made slightly more interesting with the whole MK'd agent backdrop)]. Sarah often does those random 'sexy slo-mo' scenes where she crawls like a cat (above) and the like (below she quickly jumps up like a cat up a tree). She lives in apartment number 832 (=13; opposite 833), which is very green, even with a green door (Mengele AKA Dr. Green; the Children of God cult leader used 'green door' as a term for molesting little children) and furniture, and obviously with a big mirror + her aforementioned checkerboard bathroom. Their new base also has a (large squares) checkerboard pattern. That is Adam Baldwin (Firefly; kind of actor you've definitely seen somewhere), as delta-slave (no emotions/robotish) John Casey apparently (to my surprise) he is not part of the Baldwin Klan. Sarah practising her delta(assassin)-training, with checkerboard bathroom in frame; she is of course not the only delta-beta agent/slave in the show as I previously posted on there is a Russian one played by Melinda Clarke (click post for her other sex-kitten images). Paris Hilton's former BFF and victim Nicole Richie also plays one; like High School Musical (GO WILD CATS!), the main sports team is feline-based, in Chuck they are Cougars (GO COUGARS!) and there is an extremely evocative (I thought) scene which has Sarah and Nicole Richie's character fighting in the school changing room/showers [this is at a reunion] with The Prodigy's feminist masterpiece (joke) 'Smack My Bitch Up' playing over it, watch it below (or better quality but less concise here). Note COUGAR behind her, as she is depicted in a dishevelled/traumatized state; the fight ends with her being kicked into and shattering the trophy glass case (shattered mind; note all the winged trophies/twin pillars/etc), then she is knocked out (over the head) by a metal Cougar head. Very symbolic scene here after defeating a fellow kitten (Richie), traumatized beauty queen (a la Twin Peaks + other things) type thing. She is essentially Chuck's main love interest in the show; so a 'Bride of Chucky' if you will... (split mind/doll poster) Chucky of course being the psychotic doll from the Child's Play movies (all of those types of horror are pure MK). Other famous Chucks (Norris etc)
He works at the NERD HERD part of the Buy More, half face in darkness = split mind (similar symbolism to Chucky above, My Own Worst Enemy and many others).
We learn of her history; how her father's incarceration was used/manipulated by the CIA (so they could take over her control from him basically) to recruit her and how she assassinated various people (kind of traumatic thing you force a victim to do [lower level would be something like killing a cat or anything that fundamentally goes against their instict/nature] to embed the programming [as they think because they have done it, that makes them evil, increasing their sense of helplessness/guilt; rather than the reality of them being forced into it] so they almost feel on the same side as the programmer and thus are further trapped/controlled); her codename seems to be Hummingbird (or she was part of some project with that as it's codename; like Project Bluebird) or something as that bird is often shown in Chuck's flashbacks about Sarah.
Edit: Since posting this (it's 4th January 2009 now), I just watched Nikita and WOW; talk about confirming to my mind everything I've written about here! 'Programming Nikittens' post coming soon!
This MK suggestive (inspecting a test subject/victim's eye [seeing how the pupils react etc in an altered/trance-state]) image is often flashed up too, like it is in the programmed 'memory fragment' of the above Sarah assassination (but also many times; showing it is all about MK). Another one of Sarah's aliases/alters EL-ANA from Leon, Yvonne is a Leo in real life. And other random images are flashed on screen (this is not from the above one) such as phallic Big Ben and the illuminated Eiffel [Eye-Full] Tower. The French ones (eiffel tower + above passport) are from a different (false, this is obviously assumed so I won't say 'false' everytime I describe a flash) 'memory' fragment, showing another successful assassination of hers.
Chuck flashes on other agents such as Chinese Intelligence ones, a real life one helpfully is a Kat,called Katrina Luang (slept with FBI agent [kitten programming; the below tiger image comes up in the flash from the above tattoo] to gain sensitive information), though it was quickly kept out of the news, and you'll never hear about the ones doing the main work in the controlled media. It was an intentionally messy case (charges dropped eventually, to stop anymore investigating I guess), obviously they cannot let the truth out; see this long-winded (haven't read most of it myself) article called China Doll for more on Katrina. And a few other random syncs/programming from the memory fragment flashes (I can't remember which they're from specifically having capped them a few days ago; the ones on the computer screen are when they are originally being programmed into his mind as false memory fragments [triggered when something related to them is seen]).
Horse breeding (a "rich man's game"; in episode 3 of Leverage, the British girl [the one with all the accents/personas] pretends to be called something like Kit so there is the odd 'Kitty Kat' reference in there) and MK are very much connected, it's all in the bloodline (intergenerational abuse families [pretty much all 'elite' families] easier to dissociate; horses from the right bloodline run faster), Sirhan Sirhan was likely programmed (programming/training methods for horses and humans aren't even that dissimilar) to kill RFK at a horse race-track.
Even random kittens are shown, Kitten-Komputer! [suggestive of programmed sex-kittens] Edit: Obviously the screen caps with the images on the computer screen are from the pilot episode where the images are imprinted/programmed into his head (and the ones in full screen are him actually having the flashes in his head). Standard MK features also with mirror symbolism, below (diving into water is also MK symbolic) angular staircase shot that is similar to spiral staircase symbolism. Lincoln with his twinfasces. MDM? Looks like a key through the heart. And below in the morning after standing there for hours being programmed, he collapses; note the skull and bones and the Hitchcock movie poster, North by Northwest which is about mistaken identity (a massive theme of Chuck; people not actually being who they say they are). Finishing Chuck off, WONDERLAND Sound and Vision is displayed at the end confirming where this show [programming, as in Alice in Wonderland programming] is coming from. The company was co-founded by the previously discussed 'McG'; Freemasons' use of G is not disputed, perhaps this has something to do with in the symbolic (head symbolically cut off [MK]by the Chinese knife-star throwing things) Chuck intro (below); the letter G is focused/zoomed in on while all the other keys change.
Edit: I'll just quickly add a few symbolic screens from later episodes, there are obviously a lot more; here is an extremely MK symbolic mask and a 'chuckerboard' I hadn't seen before in Chuck's room, with Jordana Brewster as Chuck's latest meeting with a delta-beta/sex-kitten, who you originally think is just his ex/present girlfriend (forcing me to look into her history ;p, with somewhat interesting results as her father is an American investment banker and her mother is a typical wife of an American investment banker, an MCM [mind controlled model]; her paternal grandfather was President of Yale University [so Skull and Bones] and she graduated from it herself in 2003, she also went to the same 'Sacred Heart' Catholic school as Lady Gaga [and some Kennedy's, Hilton's etc, obviously not at the same time] in Manhattan, Jordana was in Chainsaw Massacre: the Beginning and other interesting roles; I'll probably add more images + some words on them and edit it if the story with Jordana changes when I watch the next).
Just before this scene, they have a chase of sorts through the fairground, with the various symbolic rides (the episode starts off as a flashforward with Chuck and Jordana sitting on a ferris wheel [sun/internal structure]; a spinning UFO ride etc) acting as ritual for their MK'd 'star' and allegory for the thousands (probably more) of MK'd spies that exist/have existed. Jordana also runs into the mirror maze thing (ritualizing her MK), it's all smoke and mirrors (and checkerboards ;). Leonardo Da Vinci (based on a drawing byhimself, half face in darkness [the real Da Vinci Code?]) from the episode with the MK multiple faces/personalities mask, as is the Iron Mask/torture MK symbolic one below. Check out the gold owl behind their superior/handler. Her father is your typical sociopath, as he seems like a nice guy on the surface... despite his taking advantage of her as an innocent child, she still loves 'daddy' (which is often the case with long-term abuse victims; they begin to empathize with their abuser for various reasons); note the 322 framed (click) with him (to the right of him) for more Skull and Bones, also (as well as the sign below) on the same building it reads MAISON23, a subtle Masonry suggestion (though obviously maison is 'house' in french).
I went on longer than expected with Chuck; firstly to confirm the split-mind symbolism discussed further up, the poster for it features this and the fractured word (fractured mind) [fractured/shattered/compartmentalized/fragmented/split etc all essentially the same] usage which I have gone into in the past. The show itself, My Own Worst Enemy is about a split-personality agent and is 100x more interesting if you understand (I don't fully [I don't think you can properly without first-hand experience though], but at least in part) MK. I have gone into this show in the past (I don't mention all of it so see wiki for general outline overt themes and also elluminati) so I'll just show some of the many checkerboards (not going through them all, I'm sure there are clearer images with more checkerboard in the frame and whatnot), rather than discussing all the overt MK themes (microchip used to switch between alter-personalities, speaking 13 languages/other programmed 'super-human' skills necessary for spying, elevator internal structure already discussed etc). But in the latest episode; electroshocks are considered a viable option (I view most of these shows as allegory of MK victims, and all the various different types [this post focusing on the split/shattered minds of secret agents]) in controlling the switch between alters (which became uncontrollable in the pilot episode, randomly triggered; most of the show revolves around his missions and how they can 'fix him' [the fact that electrshocking is shown to be the 'key' for achieving this and was saved for the season finale should tell you a lot]). The below promo poster thing, features this (half face in darkness on the left one) and black/white duality on the words (further confirming the conscious intent behind all the checkerboards in the show).
Like Sarah in Chuck; Henry Spivey/Edward Albright's parental situation (his are killed in a 'car accident', standard espionage covert murdering technique) is used to manipulate him into joining the company (the type of parents/family factors in to how MK victims are selected [i.e if they're not alive then no one to care about them and stop them from joining or breaking out later on; if they are abusive then the child has already had their mind split/dissociated to a degree; etc]). Henry and Edward alter-names match up to Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde; from Jekyll and Hyde [oldschool split-personality fiction]. His personalities are polar-opposite from eachother, which is often the case [DID is often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder] in reality with some of the alters [if they only have a duel-personality (usually multiple), then they tend to be polar-opposites I think. This is perhaps why the checkerboard is used so much as it symbolizes duality; black/white, evil/good, nasty/nice etc., of course the Freemasons' obsession with it is very important to [and other reasons]. Like Chuck, it also airs on NBC; there was a period when NBC was airing Chuck, then Heroes (filled with MK also), then My Own Worst Enemy... yet people still don't wake up, it's amazing really when you think about it.
Split personality symbolic painting behind Slater, more cats (kind of sphinx looking, but could always be a dog [any animal can be used in dehumanizing the victim, the dog would be the type of animal used in creating farocious 'attack-dogs'/assassins]) from the pose/face in the same office and of course it's checkerboard floor.
Henry Spivey's (the 'family man' alter/with Edward being the delta[assassin]-agent/slave; intentionally programmed as polar-opposites [so the naive/innocent one would never suspect his alter-personality, obviously that failed]) wife is played by Madchen Amick who you may remember from Twin Peaks, where she plays an abused wife (the whole of that show is MK, as most of you know and I've gone into it before) "Amick's character endured terrible abuse at the hands of her husband, Leo". Madchen herself was given a weird name intentionally and has all the standard hallmarks of a programmed youth (numerous 'talents' like ballet, tap, many instruments, etc before being sent off to Hollywood where appeared in movies like incest/cat-programming [more Werecats] based Stephen King movie, Sleepwalkers).
Like Chuck (going along with the previously mentioned similarities); it is alsoset in LA but they work for a company called AJ Sun with a symbolic logo; which is a cover for Project Janus (AJ|JA SUN|NUS switch/mirrored, AJSUN/JANUS; Janusis the two-faced Roman god, with more MK symbolism in his other attributes [doorways/gates/etc]) with all it's sun symbolism and whatnot (hexagons are all over the shop, very symbolic [though all geometric shapes are really]; hexagon represents the cube/box and has very deep meaning/resonance [my header uses it; really should change that picture at some point]). The names of each MOWE episode are interesting too, as the aforementioned (bird shown in chuck) 'The Hummingbird' is the title of the second episode, the first being obviously called 'Breakdown' (with his system [his internal structure seems to be each alter living on a separate floor, accessed by the elevator; although this is portrayed literally in the show (he goes inside an elevator and they use the chip to trigger the alter between floors) I do think it is an allegory for his internal structure (i.e. where each alter 'lives' in a victim's system)] having broken down, leading to his switches occurring randomly).
Slater is electroshocked in an attempt to control the switching (allegory for electroshock usage in MK [they saved it for the season finale for a reason]; obviously the trauma from it can trigger altered states/dissociation and has been fundamental to Monarch/MK's success), his two alters have different brain activity; this is what they are trying to see on the below image. They eventually do it with ice in a tub [more traumatic], when he is shocked he switches between alters over and over, in a loop of sorts (a very dangerous state to be in); which is something DID sufferers have described as happening to them on occasions. Random snow leopard shot from the first season finale. Some of the countless hexagons in the show (they're everywhere).
