Doctor Who - 6.13: "The Wedding of River Song" Review

The one we've been waiting for: see the Doctor die, can he be saved, what is the question that can never be answered, does River marry her Doctor, will Silence fall...

London 5:02pm  22nd April 2011:  Cars fly on the end of balloons, a stream train storms through the Gherkin.   Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) on the news, interviewed by BBC journalists Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams, telling them of the ghosts, past, present and future all at the same time.   Children are chased by pterodactyls.   Meredith Kieira, speaks of Emperor Churchill (Ian McNeice).   There's a Roman centurion on guard outside the Palace, but it's not Rory (Arthur Darvill).  Churchill is being attended by Mahlokeh (the Silurian doctor from 5.8 The Hungry Earth and 5.9 Cold Blood) and he asks why the time is always 5:02 and the date is also stuck.   He summons the Soothsayer held in the Tower.

Enter the Doctor (Matt Smith) all beard and chains.   (He also sported a beard in 6.1 The Impossible Astronaut, when Canton Delaware III (Mark Sheppard) had him tied to the chair.   Churchill reminds him of the rhyme, "tick tock goes the clock" is what they say, only these clocks don't tick, "all of history is happening at once."  What happened to the time?  Doctor: "A woman."  Yes that's right, blame a woman for all of the world's woes!

Earlier:   The Doctor asks what you would do if you were afraid, away from home and "saw the face of the devil himself" donning his Stetson.   He approaches a wounded Dalek to retrieve info from its datacore about the Silence.   So how come all of these various species all knew of the Silence and yet, they Doctor himself, doesn't know of the Silence.   Would've thought he'd have known about them since he's been around forever.   Cos you don't remember them that's why, but the Daleks with their memory core would.   But Amy had that photo of them on her phone from 6.1.

The Doctor meets with Gideon (Niall Greig Fulton) - former envoy of the Silence who has been dead for 6 months.   Then goes about reeking havoc on the Teselecta's systems with his Sonic (6.8 Let's Kill Hitler).   They're investigating the Silence and he asks about their weakest link.   The Doctor then plays live chess with Gantok (Mark Gattis) where all the pieces are electrified.   Gideon and Gantok all wear eye patches.   So naturally there had to be a reason behind it.     Gantok works for the Silence.   The Doctor will die soon and he'd rather know why he has to die.   Dorian Muldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker) is the only one who can help.   He was killed at Demon's Run (6.7 A Good Man Goes to War) by the Headless Monks.   He's kept in an obelisk, at least his head is.   The Doctor says he hates rats, a line from Indiana Jones.  Gantok exclaims no one wins him at chess, pulling his gun on the Doctor and falls into a pit of live skulls, as opposed to snakes (as in Indy Jones again.)  Also there was Indy Jones style music there.

The Doctor tells Churchill in another reality, they're friends.   Churchill demands to know who the woman is.   Doctor: "Hell in high heels."  (His torment cos she won't let him die.)  Dorian tells him the Silence is a religious order and he is a man with a "long and dangerous past" but the Doctor's future is even more terrifying.  "On the fields of Transelor at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer a question that must never be asked or answered.   The Doctor will never reach Transelor."  The oldest and first question hidden in plain sight.   The Doctor asks what the question is - he has to die.   The Doctor asks Churchill if a  man knew a secret that must never be told, what would he do?  Churchill would destroy him.   Doctor: "I never realized it was my silence, my death.   The Doctor will fall."

Dorian tells him Utah is a still point in time, it's easier to create a fixed point, the Doctor's death is a a fixed point.   In the TARDIS, the Doctor calls Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and finds out he's dead.   Then looks at the envelopes, "it's time." He has to accept his fate.   He asks the Captain to deliver his messages for him and the Captain then asks, "Is there nothing we can do?" The Doctor tells Churchill he had to die, "but I didn't have to die alone."  So he planned a picnic with his friends, remember planned is the operative word here.

Some more clips/flashbacks to 6.1 at the Lake.   He invited River (Alex Kingston) and she came twice.  This scene wasn't filmed in Utah, when River and the Doctor speak with each other, as the background is CGI and they're in front of a green screen.   River in the spacesuit claims she can't stop it, he must run.   He did run and ended up here, it has to happen, "this always happens." She won't recall serving time for his murder.   Doctor: "You are forgiven, always and completely forgiven."  Now would someone who was dying at her hands actually forgive her, even if it is the Doctor.   River still claims time can be rewritten, she fires her weapons and drains them and he's still alive.   "Hello sweetie."  Fixed points can be rewritten.   The Doctor disagrees, everything is happening at once and can't be stopped.  "Time is dying."

The Doctor has a mark on his arm, he and Churchill have been defending themselves against the Silence in the Place, he has more than a few marks on his arm and there are hundreds of the Silence on the ceiling.   Cue, "Pond, Amelia Pond;" with eyepatch.   The Doctor wakes on a train to Cairo.   He tries to explain to Amy (Karen Gillan) that she knows him.    She has sketches of everything she's come across, Daleks, Amy as a pirate (6.3 The Curse of the Black Spot) and she gives him his suit.   Doctor: "Geronimo."  He said that in the season 5 finale too.   She tells him it's not an eyepatch.   They've noticed that time's gone wrong.   The Doctor's never had an office before, or and he wants an office/train office.   She has an idealistic sketch of Rory, cos it doesn't look like him.  Cos she doesn't remember Rory.   She recalls the Doctor's death twice, but in different ways, two versions of the same event.

He tells her time is disintegrating and reality will fall apart.   (Same as season 5.13 and he was the only one who could save it by not existing anymore and here he has to save it by dying.   We could call that two versions of almost similar events too.)  Rory enters, also with eyepatch and calls Amy, "Ma'am." He's Captain Williams.   The Doctor tells her she'll find her Rory, she always does but she doesn't look hard enough.   The Doctor is the epicentre of the explosion, he's the cause of it cos he's still alive.   The train enters the pyramid with Area 51 written on the side and an American flag.   They're not eyepatches, but eye drives and act as external storage devices.   The Silence are held inside the pyramid in tanks of water.   The Doctor wondered what they looked like.   But after what they went through, they still had no way of recalling their appearance.   They're in tanks as they draw electricity from anything and that's how they attack.

Rory doesn't like the way one looks at the Doctor, with menace in mind.   He suggests Rory should ask Amy out, she calls him "Mr Hotti-ness."  They should go out for texting and scones.   Rory says the Doctor hasn't done this dating thing before.   That was the TARDIS bell sounding again when they show the Silence after the Doctor and Rory leave.   Wonder if this was in response to what the Doctor saw in room 11 in 6.11, maybe to subtly or cunningly signal to us that's what he saw.

Doctor: "Hi honey I'm home."  River: "and what sort of time do you call this?"  Which they said to each other in 5.13, when he rescued her from the TARDIS.   Kovarian (Frances Barber) wonders why he didn't just die.   River and the Doctor flirt.   She used hallucinogenic lipstick on President Kennedy and Cleopatra to cause this pyramid to come about.   The Doctor tells River he doesn't have time for dinner.   River refused to "kill the man I love."  She knows what will happen when they touch.   The Doctor comes closer to her, "so you love me."  Ooh Doctor!  He grabs her arm.   They short out the differential if they touch - time will mend and there's no other way, she'll be killing him at Lake Silencio.

 River tells him of the theories about the woman who married him or murdered him.   The Doctor doesn't want to marry her.   Water leaks from above and Kovarian tells the Doctor the Silence weren't trapped, but waiting for him.  Which means when she took River from the university, (6.12) she knew all along River would find ways to save him and thus the Silence would be waiting for him, or rather it appears to be the Silence who are in control of Kovarian and not the other way round.

The Silence attack through the patches, which the Doctor tells them to remove.   Kovarian tells them the effect of the patches vary from person to person and can cause death or extreme agony.   Kovarian is also attacked through her patch, poetic justice really.  The Doctor wants this stopped now.   Amy is doing this for him.  He's angry, people are dying because of him and he won't thank her for that.   (He doesn't like people making choices for him, as we know from 5.2.)

Rory can't remove his eyepatch as it's been activated, he's holding down the fort.   Amy remembers Rory and comes back to shoot the Silence and save him.   Amy won't help Kovarian.   She took her baby and hurt her, she'll never see her baby.   Kovarian insists Amy will save her cos he would.   The Doctor is precious to Amy but he's not here.

River built a distress beacon, the universe is still turning outside their bubble and she sent a message everywhere.  "The Doctor is dying, please, please help."  He tells her she embarrassed him.   The solar flares were actually full of a million voices of help.  he touched their lives.   He may have decided the universe is better off without him, but the universe has not.   He insists he must die.   She can't let him die without knowing he is loved by so many and so much, including her.

He asks for a strip of cloth a foot long, then uses his bowtie (cos they're not only cool but come in handy.)  He wraps it around River's hand and asks for permission from Amy and Rory to marry river.   He whispers into River's ear and she must remember it, "tell no one what I said." He told her his name he says out loud and has a request from his wife, "you're the woman who married me." The world is dying and he can't bear it, she must help him and there's no other way.   They kiss and he promises to make it a good one.  Time begins to move and he dies, and his body is burnt at the Lake.   Doctor: "you are forgiven, always and completely forgiven."

Another verse of the rhyme; "Tick tock goes the clock
he gave all he could give her [his life and/or his love too]
Tick tock goes the clock
and prison waits for River."

River returns to see Amy from the Byzantium (5.5 The Time Of Angels, 5.6 Flesh and Stone) and she lets her know where Amy is now and she doesn't know who River is.   Amy says he's dead and she killed someone in cold blood.   Then River already knows that and tells her it was in an aborted timeline in a world that never was.   So the Doctor can't be dead, if you think about it and they aren't really married.   She calls Amy 'mother' and blabs to her about him being alive.   He didn't want her to tell anyone.   She asks if she wants to know the Doctor's last secret, but he didn't tell her his name, Rule number 1, he lies and so does River, she "has to lie all the time - Spoilers." But she eventually does know his name.   He's one step ahead of everyone, always has a plan, which is what I said last episode.   River's his wife and Amy's his mother-in-law.   Hey she does know his name since in season 4, this was mentioned, only she doesn't tell Amy, cos of 'Spoilers' and it's River's past.

The Doctor as a monk, puts Dorian back.   The Captain made a Teselecta version of the Doctor and he told River to look inside his eye when he whispered to her.  "A Doctor in a Doctor's suit," he tells Dorian.   He dressed for the occasion.   He got too big for his boots and had to "step back into the shadows."  River gets out on days and nights, "well that's between her and me, 'ey."  Dorian tells him everything is still waiting for him at Transelor and the first question, the one that can never be answered, is hidden in plain sight, the one he's been running from all his life, "Doctor Who, Doctor Who, Doctor Who?"

So there you have it, season 6 done and dusted.   Some good stuff in this episode and some, well some repetition and yet we still ended up with more questions than answers, some reveals, some spoilers, but we're not all that wiser.   As for a double of the Doctor's getting killed, always knew that was up Steven Moffat's sleeve.   He had everyone speculating on the Flesh Doctor, but here it was a Teselecta Doctor, but a double's a double so we were right!  That was apparent when the Captain asked him if there was anything they could do for him and as I wrote last episode, the Doctor's got a plan - he's always got a plan and River said it too here.   Remember he had a plan at the end of the season 5 finale too, too putting all those 'blue' thoughts into Amy's head so she'd remember him.

As for the question that should never be asked/answered, that was galling: Doctor Who? - should've spotted that right off.   Oh well, should've could've, would've.   Should've known from the episodes The Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, when the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) said there was only one way River could have known his name and here we finally find out how that came about: that only when he marries can he reveal his name.  But here, Dr Eleven didn't tell River his name, cos he only whispered "look into my eye." So it leaves open the question of, which can be interpreted in any number of ways, of whether they really married.   Since River tells Amy she's his wife and River in that episode from season 4 knew his name.   So even if they didn't marry, strictly speaking in this episode, they must have somewhere along the way, along one or other of their timelines.   Then the Doctor says she wanted to marry him and at the end  he says how she spends her nights is between them.

As for the title, at least it wasn't merely suggestive this time (or is it) and gave us a wedding, though River would have expected something more bigger and flamboyant.   Now we know why the Doctor was so insistent in having River go through with killing him cos he had  a plan!  Also she had to live up to her destiny.   Irony: they had to keep it hush, hush and she end up in Stormcage for a crime she didn't commit.  At least she gets to escape.   So anyway, back to the marriage they couldn't have genuinely married yet; since she'd know his name, he didn't tell her yet and that's the question, staring us in the face: "Doctor Who."   Oh well at least I was kind of right about the question, in a way; no?

River in 6.7 said this is where he forgets her, after their first kiss (for him that is) but she'll go on remembering.   Now we wait to find out WHO the Dr Doctor is as another future plot line is set up as to what will happen at Transelor when the Eleventh Doctor falls.   Though this sets up future plots and ensures they never run out of stories.

In the prequel to 6.13 - the rhyme is sung: "tick tock goes the clock, tick tock goes the clock, tick tock goes the clock, Doctor brave and good, he turned away from violence, when he understood the falling of the Silence."  Hey that's even more confusing.  However when he found out (and he said it often enough) that he MUST die for time to continue - that was how life would continue and not be stuck in stasis, therefore he had to die in order for the Silence to be brought down.   But they're not all dead.   The line: "he turned away from violence" has a double meaning - he doesn't go around killing if it can be prevented.   remember he's a healer, a doctor whose Hippocratic oath is: first do no harm.

That didn't stop Amy from being violent.   First she shot the Silence with a machine gun and then she put the eye patch over Kovarian's eye, so she'd meet her end.   Amy always packed a punch and had the potential to do anything to survive, as we saw in 6.10 The Girl Who Waited, when she was left behind, but many couldn't think she'd resort to cold blooded murder, including Amy herself and not behind the Doctor's back.   Then remember Kovarian said that whatever happens to the person wearing the eyepatch varies, as it can cause death or pain.   Leaving open the possibility she isn't dead.   Rory didn't object to Amy putting the patch over her, then, Rory didn't do much this episode, aside from attempting to take the final stand against the Silence.

Simon Callow reprises his role as Charles Dickens from the episode The Unquiet Dead.   Malohkeh (Richard Hope) was treating Churchill, but he was killed in 5.9.   The Doctor finds out Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart has died, after the passing of actor Nicholas Courtney.   This gives him the incentive to soldier on and meet his death.

In 5.13 the species/enemies gather to ensure the Doctor is put into the Pandorica so reality doesn't end and they all mass together.   Here River builds the beacon so all of the Doctor's friend, people he's helped, gather to say goodbye and show him he's loved.   Yet in 6.7  River tells him the Battle of Demon's Run occurred cos of what the Doctor does and has done, that they are afraid of him.   He's no longer known as a healer but as a warrior and perhaps here this is what the Doctor was trying to achieve, that he can still continue to help, but without being boisterous and loud about it.

So for a little bit, he'll be 'incognito', in the shadows (but for how long).   Probably this was needed after 6.11 The God Complex where he's woken to the fact he's always the one to save everyone and he can't help but interfere, as he told baby Alfie in 6.12 Closing Time.   Get the feeling if the Doctor wanted Amy to know he was still alive, he'd have told her or shown up, yet River went and told when he asked her not to.

Oh and a damaged  Dalek had to make an appearance for the Doctor to take info from its memory core on the Silence.   The last time we'll be seeing a Dalek.   So the Doctor knows more about the Silence than we do, they're a religious order like the Headless Monks.   Maybe the Monks are headless, cos they are the silence.  This episode was a little deja vu to 5.13 The Big Bang, in that the Doctor goes back in time to get Rory the Roman centurion to rescue him, creating a paradox.   Here he does much the same thing, in that he's a prisoner in the Tower and he has to relay events to Churchill as a soothsayer, yet all of history is a mish mash of events colliding and occurring together.  History was also mentioned in 5.13, regarding the Pandorica.    What does occur when a fixed point in time is undone, now we know.   That was one question answered.   More continuity from 6.1/6.2 with the use of the marks on the Doctor's arms everytime he's seen  the Silence.

Also what did the Doctor see in room number 11 in 6.11, that too was not resolved.   As for him eating an apple in that episode when he hates them, take it that was a red herring then and he wasn't a double there.

Matt and his brilliant acting had us completely convinced about the Doctor's death, his destiny and having to meet it.   All those scenes where we empathized with him, felt sorry, sad, mixed emotions and him accepting death with open arms, with a plan up his sleeve, I should say, Fez, or bow tie instead; only for the Doctor to be given a new lease of life.   Well that was inevitable.   Which he happily embraces, as do we, though in our off screen reality he was never going to die and intends to live in the shadows.   Must be hard with the Blue Box .

Then River's timeline can be a tad confusing - especially if you haven't been following closely, all this time she knew the Doctor would survive; that's what she didn't tell Amy he would die in 6.1/6.2, not in so many words anyway, but that he'll be fine.   But she's the one who has the horrible event waiting for her, which we think is her being imprisoned for murder.   Actually it's when she died to save the Tenth Doctor in the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, to save the man she loved, who didn't know who she was.   Then he saved her, putting her memories in a computer, so technically, a Doctor did die - back then - but not THE Doctor.   Semantics, ha.   Doctor Who Confidential did an excellent segment on the Life of River song.  Oh hey, River's memories in a computer, the Doctor inside the Teselecta, more deja vu?

 There were some aspects of this episode that stood out, firstly the oldest question of  'Doctor Who?' at the end, typical for two reasons, since the series first started in 1963 without any explanation as to who the Doctor was, it wasn't until the end of season 6 in 1969 that it was revealed he was a Time Lord; so this brings us back full circle as it was kind of suggested back in 1989 that the Doctor was half-human, half Gallifreyan and that the human side of him was, none other than Merlin the magician! This was  from the episode Battlefield in 1989.  

 Leading towards two nice possible connections.   Merlin season 4 returned just after Doctor Who finished, thus the question: who is Doctor Who...and here's Merlin on UK screens.   The episode Battlefield featured the final appearance of the Brigadier, mentioned here.   It was also speculated, but not confirmed, that the Doctor visited the Middle Ages and became Merlin when he first arrived on Earth.   Another Time Lord, the Meddling Monk disguised himself as a monk during that time when the Doctor was undergoing his first regeneration.

 The Silence in their tanks was reminiscent of the episode Earthshock, from 1982, with the Cybermen.   Everyone wearing eyepatches was reminiscent of Inferno and the pyramids from the episode  Pyramids of Mars. When the Doctor talks of everything g he could have done with the TARDIS being able to time travel - he thinks of seeing Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) when younger, so he could help her with her homework; attend Jack Harkness' (John Barrowman) stag parties in a night and mentions Elizabeth 1 again.  River pretended to be Cleopatra in 5.12.

 One of the Silent refers to Rory as "the man who dies and dies again."  We know how many times he's died.   Also 5.12 The Pandorica Opens was about the destruction caused when when River tries to re-write a fixed point in time - she tells the Doctor here that it can be done.   the tenth Doctor tried rewriting a fixed point in time in The Waters of Mars, but this backfired and failed.   Fixed points in time were also alluded to in the episodes The Fires of Pompeii and Cold Blood.  Mark Gatiis here was credited as Rhondo-Haxton. Also 'Death Is the Only Answer' was premiered on Doctor Who Confidential, a brief episode written by school children after a competition.   This was about Albert Einstein accidentally entering the TARDIS whilst working on his own time machine, sporting a Fez.   In one scene he turns into an Ood.

Doctor Who is one question that will never be answered - so there's no danger of the show ever ending...

There's so much that can be written about this episode, but it'll turn into a case of overkill if I keep doing that here and believe-you-me, I can write about this show all day, all night and beyond...

Lie To Me - 2.8: "Secret Santa" Review

Cal is sent to Afghanistan to determine if an American captive is telling the truth and to get him to admit the whereabouts of two missing marines. It's Christmas and Emily plans the office party,someone has to.

US soldiers ambush some enemy fighters in Afghanistan and one surrenders claiming to be American.   Emily (Hayley McFarland) buys a Christmas tree for the Christmas party Cal (Tim Roth) will throw his staff and Gillian (Kelli Williams) agrees.  Emily then introduces Cal to Rick (Carter Jenkins).   Cal and Gillian meet with Lennox (April Grace) who works for the President regarding the detainee.   Cal via satellite link asks the prisoner, Franco, (Michael Goorjian) some questions.   He claims to know the location of two missing marines.   He was an aid worker and his life was saved by the Taliban so he became one too.   Cal can't have Franco brought here - he's needed to ensure the rescue of the missing two but Cal must go to him, which appeared to be his worst nightmare.   Emily gets him to pick his Secret Santa and the expression on his face shows it's Eli (Brendan Hines) - well it has to be.   He tells her he'll be in Florida.

The commander of the US outpost in Afghanistan, John Parkstein (Jason Gedrick) is about to raid the position and Cal must question Franco before the raid.   Franco gives Cal the name of his aunt Wendy in Baltimore.   Cal immediately believes he's lying and suspects he worked for some covert government agency - maybe CIA.   Franco describes the location as the "safest" place where the Taliban can hide.   Gillian via the satlink knows he's lying since he used the word "safest" meaning there is more than one place.   The raid is aborted.

A man named Komisky (Mark Rolston) arrives from the Department of Defence.   Cal asks if Franco led them into an ambush and calls him a coward.   Gillian calls it a ploy to give Franco an opportunity to redeem himself.   Franco agrees to answer Cal's questions if he answers his questions in return then points out the location of the hideout on the map.   Ria (Monica Raymund) suspects Komisky who deliberately avoids being seen on the satlink and spills her drink on Gillian to get her alone.   They are convinced Komisky knows Franco.   Emily worries about Cal, she hasn't heard from him and Eli calls them back in, leaving her none the wiser.

Mohammad (Homie Doroodian) loses his temper at Franco for leading them into an ambush.   Ria moves the camera to show Komisky's face and Franco recognizes him.   Franco accuses Cal of getting high on war.  Cal was in Bosnia.   He tells them there's another way into the cave.   Lennox doesn't know who Franco is as there's no record of him anywhere.   Franco just wants his story told, which Cal has the power to do.   Emily sneaks into the video room and sees Cal under attack from mortar shells.   Franco's radio was used to find his location.   Wouldn't that have been anticipated and made alternative arrangements?   The marines are rescued but communication is lost.   Mohammad tells Cal he needs to leave in 18 minutes if he's not back.

Cal worked in Intelligence - MI6 in Bosnia and they made a soldier walk into sniper ally to determine the locations of the snipers.  Franco confesses his name is Glenn Welsh.   He got into trouble and was sent to the brig for manslaughter.   There he was stabbed in the back and was recruited to work here.   Gillian and Ria meet with aunt Wendy (Myra Turley) and Komisky lets her tell the truth.   She was "acting" for her country and wanted to help after 9/11.  

Gillian says everyone wanted to help and gets angry at Komisky for leaving him out there.   He replies his battery died in his tracker and when he didn't get back, they assumed he was dead.   Franco betrayed after he was abandoned to survive.   Cal uses pliers to pull a transmitter from his back, proving he was one of them.   They need to evacuate and Franco used his code word 'aunt Wendy' when he was caught.   Cal convinces John to let him stay and fight, providing him with a gun - to do what he came here to do.   Franco gives Cal his address in Iowa, also showing he wasn't a coward as Cal accused him.

In Iowa, Komisky doesn't want Cal to tell his parents the truth.   Cal calls Franco a hero and sometimes they have to take responsibility for their actions.   Komisky has a quick change of heart and wants to tell his parents himself.   Cal agrees as long as  it's the truth.   Emily was scared and doesn't want him doing anything like that again.   Cal gives Eli his secret Santa present - see it was Eli.   A paper snowflake from the outpost, which Eli places on the tree.

Some more insight into Cal's past this episode, but it wasn't that detailed, other than working for MI6 - he clearly isn't an advocate of war. It's a dirty business and wants the "past left in the past."  Thus his reluctance to tell Franco about himself.   But what he revealed wasn't heard by anyone else.   Ben was missing this episode and from this party.   Being a Christmas episode there had to be a happy ending - though not for Franco and his family.   Komisky felt compelled to talk to his parents pretty quickly - a way to allay his guilt perhaps.   Yet he maintained the lies for so many years and still didn't want to admit the truth.

Gillian: "You can't go to that place again."
Cal: "I've never been to Afghanistan in my life."  Gillian: "You know what I'm talking about Cal."
Which suggests Gillian knows something about his past  or his being in such a position before.   "Place" actually meaning his state of mind or emotions, rather than the country.   This episode aimed to show the ugliness of war and how those caught up in it react.   Also shown by the sniper story from Cal's past.

 Some flaws in the science here is revealed when Cal says he's only about 70% sure that Franco was telling the truth in the beginning, showing this isn't an exact science.   Cal reveals he betrayed himself not his country and helped a soldier to his death.   The irony being Franco can never return home after fighting against US troops.  Even when he says he shot above their heads at first but had to shoot back.   Cal once again found himself in "that place" where Gillian told him not to go - just as in his past, he now has to leave Franco to his fate: allowing him to do what he was sent here to do and redeem himself in those final moments.

Gillian and Cal once again show their closeness to each other as the hugs and kisses continue.

Merlin - 3.13: "The Coming of Arthur: Part Two" Review

Merlin, Arthur and the Knights battle to save Camelot and oust Morgana from the throne. Merlin hears from an old love, he never expected to see again, who provides him with the answer to defeat the immortal army.

Morgana (Katie McGrath) finds she has no support from the people of Camelot and the Knights themselves.   Her dilemma: how will she reign?  With terror of course, she reeks her wrath on the people.   This still doesn't convince the Knights to surrender and accept her as queen.   Gwen (Angel Coulby) suggests she be allowed to speak with Sir Leon (Rupert Young) and perhaps can make him listen.   Letting Morgana think Gwen will be an ally as she has felt the full force of Uther's (Anthony Head) might when he had her father killed.   Morgana agrees but only because she has something up her sleeve, knowing that Gwen will betray her.   She is aware her allegiance lies with Arthur.   It's actually Morgause (Emilia Fox) who has planned this - remember Morgana cannot think for herself, unless it's to seek vengeance.

Again the two watch the proceedings in the cell below.   At this point I have to berate Gwen for being so gullible, naive even.   How could she stupidly believe Morgana wouldn't have an ulterior motive for allowing her to see Leon;  who else but Leon would know of Arthur's (Bradley James) hideout.   As I've said before escapes from Camelot cells are far too frequent and easy and this was no different.   Even if Gwen thought she was being clever by sneaking into Morgana's chamber and making an impression of the key to the cell, before forging a copy of the key herself.  

Would Morgana really have left the key in the drawer.   This scene was only to illustrate that Gwen has forging skills of her own she can utilize (forging as in being handy with blacksmith's tools.)  Anyway why did they leave Uther behind in this plan of theirs and why not try and rescue him too at the same time; if escaping was so simple.   That's one part I didn't like, but still it was only so Arthur et al would effect a rescue of their own for him.  That's one thing no one thought of, but then again he was either guarded too well or not well enough.

Morgause casts a spell so that Gwen and Leon's trail can be followed.   Gwen has Leon disguise himself as a woman so he can leave freely, yes a woman with a beard would be hardly noticed!

Before Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Arthur fled Camelot, Merlin packed the water from the Lake of Avalon he was given by the Fisher King.   Locating the others who are hiding out in a secret cave.   Merlin encourages Arthur with hope that he must fight the invading army and free Uther; before tempting him with some rat, to eat.   Arthur admonishes himself for not knowing what Morgana was really like.  Arthur: "I've known her all my life - how could she do this to us?"

Merlin: "...you have a duty to your father, to your people."

Merlin clumsily allows the water to fall from his hands and it flows into Freya (Laura Donnelly) (Merlin's lost love and the Lady of the Lake.) She confides in Merlin and he is glad to see her.   He must retrieve Excalibur from the Lake, as only it can destroy the immortal army.   It has been forged in the dragon's breath.  Afterwards  he must then return it where no one will find it.   Freya telling Merlin where to find Excalibur when he was the one who left it there.

Freya: "In your hands it has the power to save Albion."  Something similar was said by the Fisher King.

Merlin sent out word to Lancelot (Santiago Cabrera) to come and help, wonder when he found the time to do that then.   He answers this call with Percival (Tom Hopper).  Cue lots of glances between Gwen and Lancelot, who only has eyes for Gwen and she is shocked to see him for the first time.

Ambushed at the cave, they flee, before arriving at a castle, where Arthur uncovers the Round Table.   A Table where everyone is regarded as equal and they all pledge their allegiance to fight, Merlin being the last one to do so.   Arthur: "...this Table belonged to the Ancient Kings of Camelot.   The Round Table afforded no man one more important than the other..."

Lancelot tells of how Arthur taught him the "values of being a Knight."
Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun) of how "...I was a commoner and a nobody, you were willing to lay down your life for me."  Well, no, he is Gwen's brother after all.
Gwaine, (Eoin Macken) putting things into his own perspective, "I think we have no chance, but I wouldn't miss it for the world!"
Merlin: "No, I don't really fancy it."
Arthur: "You don't have a choice Merlin."  Arthur bestows knighthoods upon them all, except Merlin, so much for equality, he's still seen as a servant.

Here in the castle, Arthur and Gwen display their feelings for each other in front of everyone when they kiss.   Arthur doesn't care who knows it.   Not many, if at all, words are exchanged between Lancelot and Gwen  and no mention is made of his feelings; that she's found another - the future king - no less and conversely, neither are Gwen's feelings for Lancelot considered either.   So much for her telling him she did harbour such thoughts about him in the past.   Okay it was the finale, but still so much was left in the air and they preferred to concentrate on action rather than emotion.

Merlin comments how Gwaine got his knighthood after all, but wasn't he of noble descent anyway, he just didn't want to acknowledge it.

Gaius (Richard Wilson) overhears Merlin and Lancelot's plan to find the Cup of Life so Merlin can destroy it.   Yet in their quest to win back Camelot, he and Lancelot were meant to head for the warning bell so it couldn't be sounded.   Lancelot also tells Merlin how Arthur has no clue about what Merlin does.   Lancelot: "You're the one Arthur should knight.   you're the bravest of them all and he doesn't even know it."
Merlin: "He can't...not yet."
Merlin: "You're a Knight - at last."
Lancelot: "For how long?"

When discussing their plan for the Cup, Merlin: "Aren't you forgetting something - I have magic."
Lancelot: "Doesn't make you immortal."  But there must be some spell which could bring him back.   Even if Gwaine's had to rescue him in the past.

Gaius plans to stay behind because they wouldn't need an old man, but he really sells himself short, as he has magical powers, so he must be able to help them out somehow.   Merlin insists he join them.   Infiltrating Camelot, the warning bell sounds, as Merlin and Lancelot didn't head there, alerting the soldiers to their presence.   Arthur: "...thought Merlin was going to take care of that."  They must forge ahead and fight, although they know it's futile against an army that won't die.

Arthur finds Uther and leads him from the cell, but the expression on Uther's face says it all.   He appears lost in a world of his own - no doubt, the consequences of Morgana's betrayal.   You wouldn't have expected him to have just given up so easily.   Where were his fighting words now, his determination to defend Camelot at all costs.

Merlin and Lancelot finally reach the room with the Cup and Lancelot is injured by a soldier.   Morgause enters to prevent Merlin from destroying the Cup and Gaius uses his magic to stop her in her tracks.   She falls to the ground.   So much for not needing an old man.  See he came in handy.   Merlin finally destroys the Cup with Excalibur.   Morgana finds Morgause in her state and cannot contain her anger, she screams (TV volume down for this) so shrill and so loud that the castle walls crumble.   Later the two have disappeared.

Merlin believes Arthur must take over Camelot and become King.   Arthur does acknowledge that Merlin can be wise.   Merlin places Excalibur in a rock - hence the 'Sword in the Stone', for safety, ensuring no one else can use it.

Merlin will return...

Many aspects of the Arthurian legend are rolled into one action-packed episode here and there's barely a chance to breathe: the Round Table, the Lady of the Lake, Excalibur, the Knights and finally the prospect  Arthur has to consider in the possibility of having to become king, thus the title of the episode.

Merlin's become his own man, as I said previously; the magical sorcerer, the wizard by Arthur's side and encourages Arthur to fight for Camelot, to save Uther and the people.   Uther's emotions - or lack of - towards Arthur clearly shows his feelings for Morgana are deep rooted.   The love of a father for his daughter is strong, he cannot bear to join his son in the fight for Camelot, as he did in the opening episodes of the season .   Once again highlighting the change in his character.   How he started off a strong leader and King, merciless, even when under a magic spell and recovering from this, he would do anything to defend Camelot and fight by Arthur's side.   Now he seemingly foresakes Arthur and his people to battle alone.

Arthur too has progressed, character-wise; from having to fight for Camelot in the series opener and again now.   This time he must be king.   But he is a far stronger person, more fairer and just.   He has stood up to the traditions of Camelot and defied Uther in knighting the men who have helped men and not all being of noble blood.   Something Uther would never contemplate, going against the code.  As well as expressing his love for Gwen, a servant, in public, making new rules of his own, something which a king would do in his own right.

Gwen dressing up Leon as a woman so he can escape unnoticed, uses her common sense, but at times she hasn't.   At least she got to do something here, instead of just being a romantic foil for Arthur.   Where did Gwaine, that's Sir Gwaine to all, stumble in from after the fighting was over.   Couldn't be the tavern, not enough time.

Also going against the legend of Camelot, it was Arthur who was meant to have used Excalibur, not Merlin, but that would have lessened the moment.   Merlin is the one with magic.   Merlin giving Arthur a rat to eat, he's seen him eat worse, was an allusion to rat stew being mentioned in season 1.   For Lancelot to side with Arthur, even after he sees Gwen kissing him for all and sundry to witness, shows his mettle and his loyalty.   Where once upon a time she wanted Lancelot; so kind of a betrayal there from her, when she falls for Arthur whilst Lancelot is out of the picture and she cannot have him!

We know why Uther never encouraged any romantic gestures between Arthur and Morgana, being his ward, would've thought it would have been something he would have opted for, but she was his daughter.   Why did Morgana and Morgause leave the room with the Cup guarded by soldiers and not by Morgause.

After seeing Freya in the water and not being able to touch her or speak with her for long, all Merlin sees of her at the Lake was her arm wielding Excalibur!

All in all a fitting end to a great season which has to be the best thus far, in my opinion.   Oh well only a year to go and counting for season 4!

CSI: NY - 1.19: "Crime and Misdemeanor" Review

Stella and Mac look into the killing of a woman at a hotel and Danny and Aiden look into the death of a human statue, which Mac wants him to leave to the police.

A dead woman is found in a laundry which washes sheets for hotels.   Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) bets on a "71,000 -1" chance of finding out where she came from.   Mac (Gary Sinise ) "I'll take those odds."  Given up before she's even started.   Hawkes (Hill Harper) finds it difficult to determine the weapon and thinks the killing was personal and pathological.   Mac doesn't see any signs of bruising.   Mac notices the unique arterial spray.   She was lying on the sheet and there's a void present, as if blood dripped off the side.

In story 2, Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) looks into the death of a human statue, found by a Swedish tourist.   There's money in the jar.   Officer Lilly (Larry Gilliard Jr) didn't know him.   Hawkes finds he wasn't shot or stabbed and he smells.   COD turns out to be natural causes.  He was dead about 48 hours before being found.   His beard was trimmed and the shaving cuts were post mortum.   Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) says it's not a felony so they've done their job.   Danny can't let it go since everything that was done to him afterwords wasn't natural.   Mac wants him to drop the case.   Danny believes suspicious circumstances were involved since he was redressed.   Mac calls it a misdemeanour.   Danny: "Last time I checked a misdemeanour was still a crime." Mac still insists, "Prioritizing is something I shouldn't have to do for you.   Stay on track."  Danny tells Aiden they're still on the case, "When I say we're good, we're good."

Chad (Chad Lindberg) examines the sheet in story 1 and finds the thread counts leads to Egyptian cotton sheets used in five hotels.   Hawkes finds caviar in her stomach contents: 'Almas' means diamond in Russian and the caviar was expensive.   Ann a waitress told him.   The Dunsmore puts up diplomats when the UN is in special session and Flack (Eddie Cahill) finds an order of caviar was made to the Trade Delegation:  Robert Costa (Dominic Fumusa), Tony (Andre Kristoff) is his secretary and Tom (Kevin Alejandro) is in transportation.   Frank (Steven Petrarca) is his chief aide, he suffers from partial hearing loss.   Well that was a clue right off.   The bed sheets are all clean, as you'd expect.  

Mac: "I love the smell of a cover up in the afternoon." Stella takes some hair from a brush and Mac turns over the mattress revealing a blood stain on the spring coil.   Ten years ago a college student, Susan Young was raped and murdered.   This DB has the same COD.  DNA analysis comes back to an unknown male and Robert.   They all took the stand for him.   Flack: "Crime may not pay, Robert Costa sure does."  The blood matches the female Jane Doe DB.   Robert claims he took her back to the hotel.

The prints of Danny's Vic match a John Hawkins.  He was arrested nine times by officer Lilly for disorderly conduct.

Chad finds everything in the same bin, the bleach, dress, possible murder weapon, the purse with a Wyoming driving licence and a champagne bottle.   Jane Doe is Jenny Lee (April Bowlby).   Mac pieces the broken bottle together.   Blood report shows she was roofied.  There are two patterns on the bottle so there were two bleeders.   Two DNA samples, one Vic.   Thomas beat his girlfriend and the sketch Jenny's roommate made looked like Tom.   He claims Jenny didn't mean anything to him and he cut himself that night.   Mac: "Not my tactics you need to worry about, it's my results."  The whole room was bleached, Tony had the roofies, which were prescribed by a doctor in Paris for sleep disorder.   Hawkes finds the cuts on her body were consistent with glass shards. Jenny had a fizzy naval: the saliva and champagne contained roofies.   She passed out in minutes.   Robert was amnesiac and had no idea what happened.   Blood is found on the rug from the Vic and epithelials with 1 allele in common: his grandmother.

The surveillance tape shows two days ago John was dead.   Measuring the length of his arms and legs, he finds the image was of two different people.  Aiden finds another hair on his clothes, silver paint and no skin tags.   Danny tells her he'll take the blame for this.   The paint was from an aerosol.   Danny finds the statues stand still all day and insoles were fitted to a specific foot size which has a serial number, coming up with Scott (Silas Weir Mitchell).   He says it wasn't  a joke.   He didn't thank him for the tip in the jar cos he was dead.   He took the opportunity to dress him up as he needed a day off, where he could be a real person and not starve.

They replicate unique blood patterns, one sheet when they were alone in bed and one where they were side by side.   One with Robert on top and one with Jenny on top.   She was knocked out first and placed on him.   Mac knows who killed her.   Stella examines the timeline when the champagne was spiked, coming up with he an imprint on the champagne cork and the roofies so the killer was someone else.   Mac notices traces of someone else being in the room.

Mac and Stella check the room again and a hearing aid is found at the side of the safe.   Frank hid in the closet and waited.   He put Jenny on top and killed her.   He heard the blood dripping and knocked his hearing aid out.   His motive was revenge.   He cut her arms and legs in the same way Robert cut Susan's.   He waited ten years for Robert to come face to face with what he did to the woman Frank loved.

Danny and Aiden share a moment where they would have had possibilities, but they're just friends, Danny: "You're lucky you and I work together, you know."  Aiden: "...You're cute but I'm way outta your league."  So much for the remark about working together, that didn't stop Lindsay pursuing him until he was cornered.   Mac has words for Danny when he was meant to give his case away and didn't follow orders.   Mac: "You've got to learn you're not a one man army, we're all connected.   What you do affects everyone here."  Danny turns around and looks at Mac.  

So much for being connected, he'll say the same thing to Aiden in season 2 (in the episodes she was around for) and also to others too.   Yet he never said that to Stella.   She can get away with doing whatever she pleases.   What was happening with Mac and Danny especially the way Danny turns around and looks at Mac? Mac and Danny's altercation of sorts, was just a taster of what's to come.   This was Danny's case. Did Mac just expect him to hand it over without solving it?   Doesn't say much about Mac's feelings for finding justice for the ordinary people.

Stella takes the credit for Hawkes telling her about the caviar as if she found this out by herself.   Mac's line was an allusion to Robert Duvall's line from Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

In CSI episode Big Middle, to test the blood spatter on the sheet, Gil (William Petersen) used Greg (Eric Szmanda) as a guinea pig to determine how much body weight was on the DB.   Also Gil and Sara (Jorga Fox) test spatter patterns on a sheet with blood, where the body left a void on the sheet.   In season 2 episode of CSI, Cool Change Nick (George Eads) and Gil find a broken champagne bottle at the hotel.

Doctor Who - 6.12: "Closing Time" Review

The Doctor visits Craig for a final farewell before his demise and ends up saving the planet once more, this time from the dreaded Cybermen. River's past catches up with her.

A woman named Shona, (Seroca Davis) disappears from a department store, after the lights begin to flash in the store.   Sophie (Daisy Haggard) leaves Craig (James Cordon) alone with their baby for a weekend, he can cope on his own, which the Doctor (Matt Smith) will ensure by episode's end.   The Doctor is here to pay "a social call" but hates the decor.   He's meant to say he's also fine and then leaves.   The light flashes outside and the Doctor knows something is wrong.   He knows that Craig isn't alone and the Sonic detects sulphur emissions, finding their baby.   Craig is beside himself admitting he's unable to cope with the baby, Alfie.   The Doctor shushes the baby from crying, but can't teach that to Craig.   He's not good at being a father.   The Doctor reads a children's book and laughs.

The Doctor speaks 'baby' as he tells Craig that Alfie prefers to be called 'Stormageddon'.   The Doctor is only here to see him and he's on a "farewell tour."  (Which is what the Tenth Doctor also did, but the Eleventh Doctor only visits Craig.)  He leaves and tells himself to stop noticing the lights flashing.   Then tells himself and the TARDIS he's going, "I am through saving them."  Meaning humans and ends up working in the same department store where Shona disappeared, also where Craig turns up.   He's got a name badge, "The Doctor - here to help."  He has to live in the moment.   The robot dog Yappy, isn't as fun as he remembers.   A reference to K-9, and notices something flash past on the floor.

The Doctor tells Craig about the missing people.   The council is putting in new cables thus the flashing lights.   He fixes the 'Out of Order' lift for Craig and then finds the Cyberman.   The lift resembled a teleport even before it was said.   The Doctor repeats what Craig says about "someones been using a 'beam me up' Star Trek teleport."  Which could be disguised as anything.   The Doctor admits he loves Craig and gets close to him, in order for him to not see the Cyberman behind him.   He even wants to kiss him and pouts, but Craig sees the Cyberman and the Doctor says he only loves him as a friend.   You get a hint of the Cybermen music when he tells Craig what they are, the one that reminded me of being  from Carry On Screaming, when something sinister was about to happen.

They linked the teleport relay to the lift but he's fused the teleport.   He tells Craig to leave and he refuses.   People get killed when they're not with him (and even when they are.)  So he's safer with the Doctor.   Telling him, "you always win, you always survive." In order for us to believe he won't this time, but that's hooey anyway, cos we're getting a Christmas special and a season 7 with our beloved Eleventh Doc.   The Doctor replies, lump in throat, well kind of, "those were the days."  They ain't quite over just yet!

Val (Lynda Baron) thinks they're both together - as in  gay couple with baby.   The Doctor tells Craig babies are sweet, that's why he's with a human, cos humans talk to you.   So he takes a human with him everywhere.   He calls Craig his partner, she thinks companion sounds old fashioned.   She tells him about seeing a silver rat.   Craig gets into trouble investigating on his own - until the Doctor happens along.   Everyone likes the Doctor, who (ha) can't find the rat.   The Doctor uses his "shush" on Kelly (Holli Dempsey) which works on her too, thought it only worked on babies.   She tells him about Shona and the changing rooms.   Craig loves him and the Doctor has never secreted any "alien gas" to ensure people like him.   He calls Alfie 'Stormy', who thinks Craig should believe in himself.   The Cybermat, as the Doctor calls the rat, collects power.   It sucked electric energy, but why from a shop.   What's happening isn't the Doctor's fault; was he trying to convince himself of that.

The Doctor sees Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) in the store, small world, as she signs an autograph for a little girl.  Sure he was tempted to talk to them, but he didn't go over and found it hard to stop himself from doing that.   Surprised they didn't notice him though, cos you always notice people around you in a store.   The Doctor turns to see Amy's poster on the wall, she's been advertizing perfume, called 'Petrichor.'  (See 6.4 The Doctor's wife).  "For the girl who's tired of waiting."  Doctor: "Ameila Pond."

Craig wants the Doctor to stop making noise with the Sonic but he tells him it's a Sonic, which means sound, so he can't make it quiet.   He then gives him a papoose for Alfie.   The Doctor catches the Cybermat, which snarls at them.   George (Chris Obi) is taken by the Cyberman and killed, whilst the Doctor is stunned and passes out.   He calls it being "chopped."  They've repaired the teleport already (handy for what's to come) and the Cyberman's parts were damaged, they were using spare parts.   The Doctor wasn't killed since he's not compatible.   Everything he comes across, makes less sense.     So how come they killed George and didn't want him assimilated.

Craig suggests they get back to base and the Doctor asks,  "when did we get a base?" Craig needs to go out for milk and we get a scene between the Doctor and Alfie, where we're meant to get all teary-eyed.   Alfie  has plenty to look forward to.   "Save the tears for later."  The Doctor is old.   "I am so old - so near the end."  The Cybermat comes alive.   He shows Alfie real stars in his room.   The Doctor dreamt of stars when he was little.  "I lived the dream, I owned the stage, gave it all."  The sinister beeping is heard behind him.   He runs and stuns the Cybermat, dropping the Sonic inside the kitchen.   Craig returns and wrestles with the Cybermat and the Doctor breaks through the glass to rescue him, why didn't he just do that for the Sonic.

The Cybermat was transmitting electricity to the Cybership, so the Doctor's going to reprogramme it and use it as a weapon.   It came after the Doctor and Craig nearly died cos of him.   He's a stupid, selfish man, he shouldn't have come.   Craig tells him he saved a planet.   He finally tells Craig he won't be here.  "My time is running out - Silence will fall when the question is asked - don't even know what the question is."  He thought he'd die still trying to find out..."Tomorrow is the day I ..." Craig is asleep, as we knew he would be.   He can't keep putting off the inevitable, which is what he has been doing.

Next day, Craig goes after the Doctor, he owes him.   Craig: "he needs someone, he always needs someone, only he can't admit it."  The bonded steel door is disguised as a wall.   The Cybermen climbed up from behind the mirror in the changing room.   Val thinks Craig and the Doctor need alone time so she looks after Alfie.   The Doctor confronts the Cybermen, it took him a while to work things out as he had other things on his mind.   Their ship came here centuries ago and was powered when the council relaid the cables.  The Doctor gives them a choice he always gives, deactivate themselves, or he'll do it for them.

Craig comes to save him, but is taken as the new leader.   The Doctor's brain and body molecular structure isn't compatible, but Craig is compatible and intelligent.   They will take his fear and he's strapped into the device.   The Doctor wants Craig to fight.   The Cybermen will "cleanse his brain of emotions."  The Doctor is going to die tomorrow, he tells Craig.   Alfie cries and this makes Craig fight.   The Doctor encourages him, it's his chance to prove he's a dad.   Doctor: "Daddy's coming home."  The Cybermen feel the emotional influx and are going to explode.   They escape through the teleport in the lift and they hug.   That was their alone time then.  Ha.

The Cybermen were destroyed by a human trait, to protect human genes.   Craig killed them with love, the Doctor finally agrees.   They tell Val they're not together and they're not married.   The Doctor leaves again.   He's fixed the house when Craig returns.    He went back in time and used his time for Craig and tells Craig, Stormy prefers to be called Alfie now and calls Craig dad.   The Doctor must leave now and no one can help him; taking that blue stationary from Sophie.   (The ones used in 6.1 The Impossible Astronaut for invites.)  He's going to America and must keep his appointment.   Craig gives him a Stetson, thus the Stetson in 6.1.

Outside children see the Doctor.   He tells them he was here to help them.   Their thoughts are heard, he seemed happy and sad, one liked his hat.   River song (Alex Kingston) reads eye witness accounts.   Cue Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) and that rhyme: "tick tock goes the clock and what now shall we play, tick tock goes the clock, now Summer's gone away."  (Yes it has.)  One of the Silence also enters and she tells River she won't recall them.   They're her owners.   She was made a Doctor (!) today - the "day the Doctor dies. The Impossible Astronaut will arrive from deep and strike the Time Lord dead." The story begins here, Melanie Pond didn't escape, Kovarian made her who she is, "the woman who killed the Doctor."
"Tick tock goes the clock and all the years they fly.  
Tick tock and all too soon your love will surely die.  
Tick tock goes the clock he cradled and he rocked her,
Tick tock goes the clock 'til River kills the Doctor."   River is in the spacesuit, floating in the water.

How can it be time for the Doctor when Amy and Rory aren't there, as they were in 6.1/6.2.   At least we know where he got those blue envelopes from and the the Stetson, as he puts his plan into action.   of course he's got to have a plan, he's the Doctor, otherwise he wouldn't have sent out those invites.   Still think that question is about weddings, cos of the title to the final episode but then again...That question about "Silence will fall when the question is asked" sounds like it has a double meaning, as do most things, that they will be defeated.  

Also River is a Doctor now too, perhaps implying she's the Doctor who meets her end, which is probably stretching the realms of Doctor Who on my part.    Then again which Doctor was actually made a Doctor, the one in her own world, or the one from Stormcage.   Since Kovarian says she won't recall them, this means River has been made to forget, but which part of her past.   She was at the lake when the spacesuit emerged from the water.   Think it's better not to ponder, let's wait and see and hopefully everything will be resolved, well it had better be!

That absurd rhyme now makes sense, as well as being audible, guess it was time for us to hear it coherently.  When did the Doctor actually cradle Melody, according to the rhyme; he only held her in 6.7 and Amy had her most of the time.  Oh and what sort of a name is Kovarian anyway.

All the scenes of the Doctor's impending doom feature some of Matt's best acting once again.   Bringing death up a few times which was also moving.   Even though he blames himself for the trouble he's brought on, as Craig rightly tells him, he's saved the planet and humanity countlessly now.   The parts about his childhood are especially endearing as he tells Alfie that he loved the stars.   But beneath the joviality of this episode there's the poignancy of it all.   David Tennant did something similar in his time of leaving the show.   Although the Tenth Doctor was only going to be regenerated - he still protested on numerous occasions that he didn't want to leave.   (At times I said it was almost like he didn't want to leave the show.)  Here the Eleventh Doctor seems to want it - not want, but embraces or accepts it, as he claims he's put it off long enough (right, the entire season).

Some re-used lines here when he he tells Craig, "you've redecorated, I don't like it," from the episode The Three Doctors.   The Cyberman say a line from the episode The Tomb of the Cybermen: "you will be like us."

It's meant to be 200 years since the Doctor left Amy and Rory and hence his line of being a "very old man."  He's aged another 200 years, but if we lose the Doctor (that'll never happen) what hope is there left for humanity.   So his appearance to Amy and Rory on TV etc, in 6.1, took place after 6.1 and before 6.12.

A bit of a twist here in that River - the older version - is the one in the spacesuit in the lake: the one who kills him and not River the child.   Let's call Closing Time, not just on the store but also on the Doctor.   The Doctor also spoke 'baby' in 6.7 A Good Man Goes to War.

Gareth Roberts wrote the episode wanting the Cybermen to return since he felt some sort of "history about the Doctor's final battle to save the Earth before he meets his death" should be represent.   He took Sophie's stationary to write and mail invites to everyone in 6.1, as well as to the younger version of himself.   Let's hope the season finale is something to write about, ha, as we say a farewell to the Doctor in more ways than one, since season 7 will not be aired until 2013, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the show.   Though there may be specials in the meantime.   That's going to be tough on fans!

The Tenth Doctor also said his farewells to everyone when he was leaving, in the episode The End of Time.   The Eleventh Doctor did much the same thing, though only to Craig and he didn't really have the heart(s) to confront Amy and Rory.   Anyhoo, it can't be the end for the Doctor, we're getting a Christmas special after all...

NB this episode was written before the final episode was aired.

NCIS - 7.16: "Mother's Day" Review

Gibbs and the rest of the team meet his mother-in-law, Shannon's mother, who was present at the shooting of heh fiancee. However things aren't what they seem, they never are.

A couple out for a walk, sing the mocking bird song to their baby, as Gibbs (Mark Harmon) used to sing to Kelly.   Then hear gunshots and find a woman kneeling over the man's body.   Tony (Michael Weatherly) says something very special "is happening to very special agent Anthony DiNozzo today." Ziva (Cote de Pablo) asks who he's seeing Kurosawa?  She didn't know he was into Asian women.   He's into all women as if she doesn't know!  Tony: "Kurosawa's a dude."  Ziva: "I certainly did not know you were into Asian dudes."  He's the greatest filmmaker, made the Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress.   Ziva mentions her book being a work of art and Tony asks her if she's got the new Judy Bloom.   He always liked 'God Are You there, It's Me Margaret'.  Another book comment from Tony, why has he read that particular book. Ziva meant the Declaration of Independence and wants to pass her citizenship test with "swimming colours."   McGee (Sean Murray) corrects her, "flying colours."

McGee mentions his whole apartment is wired to a single remote control.   Tony likes the clapper, clap on, clap off.   Gibbs tells them they're ona case, there's no time for coffee for McGee.   He has buttermints, taste like coffee.  Detective Phillip McCadden (Adam Kaufman) tells them the Vic's fiancee saw the whole thing.   Ducky (David McCallum) tells Palmer (Brian Dietzen) to put away his 'insidious device'.   It's a CS not a chatroom.   Palmer's got a date with a girl from the funeral home.   Tony warns him they like to do it in the dark.   They find an empty ring box.   Norton has multiple wounds to his torso.   They don't normally have witnesses.   Ziva questions Gibbs' ex-mother-in-law.

Flashbacks to Joanne (Gena Rowlands) Shannon and Kelly as a baby.   Joanne saw them at the funeral.   Tony: "All right McNosy what have you gott?" To McGee, who comments they're very estranged.   Tony comments "maybe she's cursed like a Kennedy."  Ziva read about that.   The shooter was in the "book suppository."  Tony corrects her "depository."
Gibbs: "I'm listening." He was.   Knew where the cameras were and how to avoid them.   Capt Norton was 6 months away from retirement.   Gibbs compliments Tony on his good work.   Vance (Rocky Carroll) wants to speak with Gibbs after he talks with Joanne.   Tony says he complimented him twice and suggests they keep an eye on him.   Vance replies that's not Tony's decision to make.  

Joanne sees Gibbs is still drinking coffee.   His father's stubborn.   Norton proposed to her and a stranger shot him.   He went for the gun, she wouldn't help.   How did she know he was a stranger, Norton could have known him.  Gibbs has to follow protocol as he's related to her, he declines to give up the case.   They've all lost people.   Vance thinks it could be a problem.   Gibbs tells him off the record, he needs to do this for Shannon, it's what she would have wanted.   Vance didn't step down from the Korean assassin case when that was personal for him too, even if he wasn't related to her.   Vance tells him if his judgement is in question he'll remove him from the case.   That should have been done anyway.

Half expecting Ziva to walk in on Gibbs in the toilet.   (As she does to Tony.)  Gibbs decided to leave but he was a Marine and had to take his family with him.   Tony interrupts his flashback and asks if he needs anything.   Gibbs asks him to leave.   McCadden tells him Joanne said the same thing about the ring, she's arthritic  Every woman knows her ring size.   Just incase.   Ziva's is size 5.  McGee finds the GSR shows she was within a foot of Norton when he was shot.   She'd be covered from the discharge so the test would be useless.   Gibbs recognizes the sketch Joanne did of the shooter as Kyle from high school.   Was Joanne really going to fool Gibbs.   He died in a car accident three years ago.   Gibbs asks if she saw the shooter or not.   Yes cos she shot him, That was obvious and suspect Gibbs knows that too; or at least his gut should have told him.

Tony drops Joanne off at home - he drives like a maniac.   More like Ziva does.  Gibbs doesn't trust many people.  Tony asks her what he was like when younger.   She liked him, but didn't understand him, happy Shannon married him.   McGee finds a laptop and two burn phones bought in Arizona.   Calls made to Nogales from the Renosa Drug cartel.   McGee says drugs were smuggled out when navy ships were in Mexican ports.  Ducky smelt Palmer's awful cologne and he wears disposable contacts.    Gibbs: "Smells like a French whorehouse in here."  (He'd know, ha, well he and Jenny (Lauren Holly) were in Paris.)  He asks if he's trying to raise DBS?   Ducky finds a parasite from infected sand flies found in Third World countries.   Gibbs comments like Mexico.

Abby (Pauley Perrette) test fires the gun, like a carnival, you can win a stuffed animal.   Like her hippo.   She examines the spatter patterns from Joanne's coat, she wasn't standing where she said.   If she was behind him, the blood spatters would be on her left shoulder from exit wounds.   Scrapings from under her fingernails reveal wool fibres.   Navy epaulets and aircraft fuel on the surface.  Officer bridgecoats have epaulets.   Gibbs realizes Joanne is lying, her story doesn't add up.   He wants honesty and respect.   She tells him Gibbs always had that, but only when Shannon was alive.  He did nothing when they died and he replies they all have that in common.   She slaps him.   Gibbs had his orders and he wasn't the one who killed them.   This is about Norton's murder.

Tony watches a movie and acts it out.   Study Japanese Samurai.   Like Gibbs, "with even bigger stones and less to say."  Tony checks her phone and financial records.   McGee finds one call was made to Nogales from the US side from a Martin Hendricks.  She paid him for two years.   Tony and Ziva pay a visit to Arizona, does he have to, he's already been there twice in season 6.   See it's always Arizona.   Tony wears his suit.   Tony: "are you hot?"  Ziva: "I've been told that before."  He's talking about the temperature.   Winter feels like this to her back home.   Tony tells her they're in the US (as usual) and they "embrace the central air not a melanoma." Hendricks is dead and Tony comments like a homemade toaster oven, "well done."  Ziva: "Thanks." Tony: "Not you, him."

Gibbs confronts Joanne, she hired Hendricks, she can talk to him cos it's only them.   She spent years looking for Norton.   Gibbs tells her she's leaving a trail.   He wants to give her a chance cos of Shannon and asks if she wants his help.   Which he gives anyway.   Another case of Gibbs wanting to help out even if it's not protocol or by the book.   (See the season finale.)  Allison (Rena Sofer) turns up at Gibbs' place.   His door' still open.   Still she calls him Mr Gibbs.   Gibbs asks if she does pro bono work as someone needs her help.   First he was complaining about her getting in his way and always turning up to get in the way of his cases and now he specifically asks her for help.   He wants her to represent Joanne.   It might be conflicted.   Alison "worst date I've ever had."  Who said it was a date.   Ducky says Hendricks died of extreme thirst.   McGee locates the phone calls were made to a Lt Shankton (Bryce Johnson) .   He met Norton in Mexico ten years ago.

Shankton confessess he's a drug dealer but didn't kill him.   Fibres are examined from his coat and he claims he's being framed.   Allison doesn't let Tony talk to Joanne.  Tony tells her she gets around.   Vance says they're holding Shankton for murder.   Gibbs tells him the evidence says he did it and has a connection to the Cartel.   Vance thinks she killed him and set him up.   Gibbs replies that makes her very clever and a vigilante.   Vance: "Go ahead Gibbs, cross it."  He asks if they arrest her will Gibbs be able to focus on the job..

Ducky finds three slugs, one in the spine and the other two passed through Norton.   Joanne couldn't have been behind Norton.  Actual blood spatter was further down, she was standing in front and facing him.   She fired the shots.  Allison tells Gibbs he can't talk to her alone.   He says she's family and has to.   She's been defending guilty people for too long.  As long as they bow to each other and somebody wins, she's done her job.  "Truth's overrated." She knew Norton was "guilty by association."   She knew about the Cartel and she killed one and framed another.   Joanne is a mother who lost everything.   Gibbs tells her Norton didn't kill them but he knows who did.   Flash to Gibbs shooting the killer (3.24)  "Did it feel satisfying."  She whispered their names and shot him three times and watched him die. "No one need know, we both did what we did for them."

Gibbs arrests Joanne and Allison conveniently walks in.   The arrest is illegal and unlawful, no Miranda rights and she can take legal action.   Gibbs tells her the case will never hold.   She won.   Oh the contrivance!  Vance says Shankton had means and opportunity.   The fibres match his coat and he's a drug dealer.   Joanne is no longer a suspect.   Palmer introduces them to Breena, (Michelle Pierce) a blonde, prompting Tony to utter life isn't fair.   Palmer loves her for her mind.   Appropriate song at the end, with Gibbs burning Joanne's file: "there's murder in my heart."  By Sheryl Crowe.

What is it with Gibbs and Allison, not another 'did they/didn't they' going on here, but it feels that way.   It was abundantly apparent Gibbs planned to question Joanne without her lawyer there, that's why he called Allison.   The go to gal whenever a stitch up is needed.   So much for them talking about justice in the Masquerade episode.   Now Gibbs has taken justic into his own hands again ( as he did when he shot his family's killer.  That'll come back to haunt him, which is why we got this episode now.) Took Joanne a long time to find Norton and even if he didn't actually pull the trigger, she finds satisfaction in killing him.   Oh she's ruthless.   Losing her family aside, she's not the only mother to ever go through that.  

This just reeks of injustice.   Something about this episode was really off, she got away with murder, no wonder Allison was here, it's her specialty.   Vengeance, retribution isn't justice but satisfying personal vendettas.   Gibbs letting quite a few people off throughout the series, like he did with the Marine's father whose son was killed in season 5 episode Tribes.  Suppose he had to she was family after all, but just goes to show how much can be swept under the carpet by those in the know.   Yes it all depends on who you know.   Sean Harmon's second appearance and the woman in the photo appears to be Pam Dawber, Mark's wife.

CSI: NY - 1.13: "Tanglewood" Review

A boy, is beaten to death in the park since he wants to be part of the Tanglewood gang, an old gang which Danny may have connections to. A woman appears to be killed in a hit and run.

Story 1: A boy runs in the park and is chased, then beaten with a baseball bat, even after he begs for his life.   A set of shoe prints are visible in the snow.   Mac (Gary Sinise) "Lucky for us it happened out here: best investigative tool money can't buy: snow."  Mac 'cooks' up some pure sulphur.   Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) paints the prints.   Mac pours the sulphur over them to get a cast.   A broken baseball bat is also found and Stella finds tyre tracks.   The Vic was Paul Montenassi (Nick Di Brizzi Jnr).   COD was blunt force trauma and has a tattoo on his back, which has been scraped or sawed.   High velocity blood spatter is present on his face.

In story 2: Marta Santo is found dead, with suspicious skid marks at the CS and silver paint is seen on a red car.   The flakes have been dried in.   Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) considers it a hit and run.   Hawkes (Hill Harper) determines the COD to be massive internal trauma, shattering her bones, bruising on her neck and wrists.   She was either raped or had rough sex.   Her husband, Ramir (Marco Sanchez) IDs her body, then loses it and cracks the window glass with his head.

In a possible third story, Flack (Eddie Cahill) is called to a bodega where the owner Lev's (Anjul Nigam) brother has been shot.  Flack thinks it's robbery/homicide.   A surveillance tape is also found.

Danny comments on Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) "Oh there she is, Crouching Aiden, Hidden Burn, you're on this case, you're on that case, the other case." Danny discovers the paint chip is the standard colour of a major car manufacturer and silver is a common colour in North America and most everywhere else too.   Using various techniques he finds unknown fingerprints on the paint chip.

Mac speaks with Paul's mother, Debbie Montenassi (Stacy Edwards) in yet another mother role, she was in season 7.3 episode, Damned If You Do, too and she knows Paul didn't have a tattoo.   She doesn't know how he spent his time.   Mac: "I understand what it's like to need to belong..."  He finds sawdust and shuffleboard wax on Paul's shirt.   DNA is found from the killing at the bodega, showing that Paul killed Lev's brother, but who killed Paul?  Stella looks at the footage showing Lev had a baseball bat, but he claims he didn't do it.   He was chased and he dropped the aluminium  bat.

Danny finds something on Marta's sleeve - sperm, from multiple donors.   One is from Ramir who has priors for domestic violence.  He apologizes for his behaviour, referring to Marta as a nymphomaniac.   She worked at a hair salon.   Danny comments on most massage parlours being owned by the Asian mob.   Once you're hired, you can't leave.   Aiden: "Come on act like you haven't been to a place like this before."
Danny: "You kiddin' me [Flack's line] I had girls for that, why would I pay."
Aiden: "You're paying one way or the other, trust me." Aiden discovers a white stone on the floor and towels in the bin.   The last client was an R Lee.   Danny checks DNA for a CODIS link.

Hawkes restores the tattoo by applying a secondary burn to the skin and letting it rise.   It reads: Tanglewood.   Mac: "I haven't spent much time there, but I know someone who has..." That someone being Danny of course.   Leaving the gang legitimately isn't allowed.   Danny played ball with them and they wanted him to join but he refused.  "I knew what they were all about."   All of their fathers are connected.  "Nowadays it ain't the mobsters you need to worry about, it's the next generation."  Any run in with them is deadly.

Danny asks Mac about his case, he keeps thinking of Paul and fake tattoos.   Mac joined the Marines to belong.   He wanted to serve his country and would have done anything to join.   His sense of belonging  was achieved in the wrong way, Paul's that is.  Mac: "...You were smarter than they are.   Look where you are today - you're respected, you're law abiding, you're performing an important civil service for the finest city in the world - you should be proud of that."  Danny insists he is proud.

The blood and DNA belongs to Johnny (Eamon Behrens) from Pelham Bay.   Danny tells Mac he hangs out at the mall, didn't he just tell him they all hang at the mall.   Flack finds mall security has Johnny, who says, "What are you guys, like a couple of Homos or something?"
Flack: "I was about to ask you the same thing?"  Johnny claims to have been hit by a bat outside a bar, which has a shuffleboard.   The baseball bat is missing and the prints on the case match Sonny Sasson (Michael DeLuise) .   He has seen Paul around.   Stella notices the truck has a new back window, new tyres and a shoeprint on the ground.   The tread pattern is consistent in size.   Different patterns for all three show they changed their shoes.   The ATM footage shows Paul with a girl.   Paul hit Johnny and shot the clerk at the bodega.

Ross Lee (Fredric Lehne) claims he's happily married and his wife doesn't know he was at the parlour.   She has a car.   The stone Aiden found was a cubic zirconium used on nails.   Flack gets a database hit on the paint chips.   Ariana Lee is the registered owner of a silver car.   The car has traces of red paint, but  the paint doesn't match her car.   The nail polish isn't  a match either.   Ariana wasn't there.   R  Lee doesn't match his writing on his business card.   His assistant, Tavia (Jordana Spiro) signs for him and she denies being there.   A Lee matches her reference signature and she has press-on nails, as well as driving a silver navigator.   Ariana told Tavia about his affair and Aiden tells her she wanted revenge.   She drove close to her to scare her.

Mac finds the car was cleaned with bleach and a Derek Jeter doll on the dashboard.   There's blood inside the doll but isn't enough for a full DNA profile.   It's also been exposed to bleach.   At the house, they find a high power, cordless sander, which Stella notices is visually positive for blood.   Sonny wants to settle out of court but he can't do that for murder.   Paul was tested to join the gang, and after getting him drunk, he shot the clerk.  He had to be kept quiet and his tattoo was sanded.   Paul was killed in cold blood.   Stella quotes how much she earns, exactly.   Sonny believes Tanglewood are the next generation of mobsters with their own rules.
 Sonny: "Ask Danny Messer.   He knows all about us and we know all about him."
Mac: "Sure you do."  Ooh Danny lurking out of curiosity or something more.   An episode which was definitely a Danny one as far as character development was involved, but they just didn't carry it through.   As for Mac saying 'sure' at the end, well Danny did tell him about the gang, so he can't really dismiss what Sonny said about Danny knowing him and vice versa.

Again Danny talks to Mac about the case, this time it's Mac's case he's more interested in and we also get more background on Mac's reasons for wanting to join the Marines, not only to serve his country but he felt he needed to belong somewhere.   The killer can actually be seen in the opening shot of the episode, this usually happens in CSI:Miami.   This episode is concluded in the season 2 episode, Run Silent, Run Deep, where Danny is linked to a past case and we get interfering Lindsay getting in on the act.  Turns out there was no third story since it was linked to the first story.

Lots of repetition from past CSI shows as far as the evidence is concerned, such as CSI:Miami season 3 episode Legal, where sheets and towels were swabbed for fluids after being found in a bin at a massage parlour.   CSI season 3 episode, Precious Metal, a missing false nail is found with a gem on it.   In To Halve and To Hold, a cubic zirconia diamond is found at the CS.   CSI:Miami season 2 episode A Horrible Mind, a Hawaiian bobblehead doll is missing from the dashboard of the car.

Smallville - 10.21: "Finale" Review

Time to say farewell to a show that has kept us entertained for a decade. Will Lois and Clark marry, can Oliver be saved? Or will Darkseid rule, we know of course, one man will sore the skies and save the day...

Chloe (Allison Mack) reads a comic to her son about the Blur and the boy who will become Superman.

Seven years earlier:  A fiery plant approaches Earth.   Clark (Tom Welling) tells Lois (Erica Durance) that some people take time off for their wedding.   Lois reminds him there won't be a wedding.   He didn't want to crowd her since she usually figures things out for herself when she 's left alone.   She wants to ring and cancel and he whooshes the guest list and her phone from her.   Lois is adamant he needs to save the day but Clark just doesn't see it, "You're a hero, that's how it should be."  There are some things he can't fix.   Every minute he spends arguing with her, he could be saving someone, she said that already last episode.  Lois is his future and that's what he wants.    She'll get in his way but he tells her, she's not in his way, "You're by my side."  He gives her an ultimatum that if she wants to cancel the wedding, then she'll have to leave him standing at the alter.

Chloe and Oliver (Justin Hartley) prepare the church.   He's relieved their wedding was hassle free.   Chloe would have liked to have recalled something and asks if he would still have married her if they hadn't been influenced by Zatanna.   Of course he would have, what sort of a question is that.   Oliver shows her the rings, simple and traditional.   That was for later as you'll see.  He likens Lois to Cinderella.

Granny Goodness (Christine Willes) visits Tess (Cassidy Freeman) in an attempt to recruit her to the darkness.   Tess is fixing the mansion to turn it into a symbol for good.   She tells her Tess was special which she also said earlier in the season.   Tess was different, "you were born to darkness."  Yes she was in a way seeing as she's the daughter of one of the darkest families around in the Luthor's dark legacy.   As Clark once said his children turned out the way they did cos of Lionel (John Glover).  Granny wants to save Tess from Darkseid's Apokolips, "evil in its purest form."  Tess refuses again and Granny tells her that the "hell's upon us."

Jonathan's (John Schneider) reflection is seen in the photo frame.   Martha (Annette O'Toole) is angry at Clark since she thought she was coming back to a home that both Clark and Lois were building.   He says they're doing that in Metropolis.   She didn't want the farm sold.   She hasn't let go of her past and she wasn't left behind since Jonathan is always with her and with Clark.   If only he would let himself see him.   Clark did see him last year, but he thought it was an excuse for him not to face his own future.  Clark had to move on.   He's forgotten his past and what made him who he is.   Martha tells him,  "You don't have to let go of the past to move on."   Looks like Martha can see Jonathan, or perhaps he was just around for us to see she could sense him.

Chloe comes to see if Lois has changed her mind yet about the wedding and gives her Clark's vows to read.   Clark can't listen  all the time, she tells Lois, he's a man, not a god and sometimes he needs rest and to love.   When he decides to "take to the skies" more subtle hints here about flying; he'll need Lois to ground him." That's exactly what Lois is afraid of, of grounding him and not allowing him to "sore through the skies."  Lois reads the vows and calls herself an idiot.

Tess attempts to access the satellite Chloe 2 from Watchtower, but it's been disconnected by Oliver, as Tess spots him on the surveillance.   All Queen Industries satellites are also off-line.   Tess sees the planet on another satellite, courtesy of 'everyone's favourite Martian.   Granny Goodness, along with Gordon (Michael Daingerfield) and Desaad (Steve Byers) has one more mission for Oliver, after he's done what they asked of him - to disarm Clark with a ring made from gold Kryptonite.

Clark speaks with Jonathan at his grave, saying he didn't want to say goodbye.   Jonathan appears and tells him he shouldn't then, but Clark can't see him.  Clark knows who he'll become but he can't lean on both of his fathers.   Jonathan believes that's just a cop out on Clark's part, since it's easier to stand alone, but it isn't better.   Clark's missed him and Jonathan places his hand on Clark's.   Clark needs him to let his father be there for him, they're a part of Clark.   Clark believes "to be the hero the world needs me to be" he has to go beyond Jonathan's and Jor-El's (Terence Stamp) guidance.   Oliver finds him there, wonder how, and tells him his graduation was the most important day of his life and he can recall his parents not being there.   Clark isn't here to mourn Jonathan and he thinks Lois may be right.   Oliver refers to him as Skywalker, as in Anakin, but Anakin became Darth Vader, surely Oliver meant to refer to him as Luke, on the side of good.    Clark wonders if Lois is part of his memories that he's meant to leave behind.  "What if heroes aren't meant to love?"

Clark helped Oliver out but Clark doesn't belong to either world, he needs to make his own path.   Even if this means letting go of Lois.   Just as Lois is about to change her mind, it's Clarkie's turn to have self doubts now and doubts about Lois too.   But he's been having doubts and been at odds with his destiny for a while now, so that shouldn't be anything new to him.   Time and again he should know he's not alone and doesn't have to do this by himself, since everyone has always been there for him, so how exactly would he be alone now.   Now that the world really needs him.

Clark goes to tell Lois she's right but she's changed her mind and written her own vows.   He tells her she can see things he can't.   Lois wonders why he'd want to be with someone as imperfect as her, he's made her a better person, just like being with her makes him a better man and a 'super hero.'  He has made Lois a better person, as you'll recall she used to be rather bratty and arrogant at times.   She recalls her mother said, "The ones you love are always with you."  The same thing Jonathan said.   Tess is taken by gunmen, probably sent by Lionel Luthor and leaves a message for the others on her phone about the planet.

Lois at the church, for a second, thinks Clark won't show, but he turns up and walks her down the aisle.   Jonathan takes his place by Martha's side.   They say their vows to each other and Chloe notices the ring isn't the same as the one Oliver showed her and she knocks it out of Lois' hand.  Oliver's eyes grow dark and Clark tells him he'll never join the darkness and he tries to talk Oliver out of it, he needs to fight it.   The water font breaks and Oliver sees the ring, how did it get that far down the aisle, in the wrong direction anyway.   They need to save the world together and Clark believes in Oliver.   The omega symbol disappears from his forehead.   Oliver: "Looks like the world's gonna need its heroes sooner" than he thought.

They listen to Tess's message informing them Darkseid is behind the eclipse.   Chloe heads to Starcity to access her database but Oliver needs to stay here, not that he did much and neither did she.   She hugs Clark before leaving, commenting "See you in the funny pages." Seeing as that's how we started the episode.   Oliver needs to be a hero she tells him, what he does best.  

The planet Apokolips can be seen from the sky now and Clark finally sees Jonathan, who knew he'd see him when he was ready.   Clark made a mistake, "Thought I had to leave you behind." But his mother and everyone he cares about makes this planet worth saving.   That's not the only reason though, since this is his destiny and why Jor-El sent him here to begin with.  Clark faced Darkseid before and he knows Clark's weakness and he needs Jonathan's help.    Jonathan tells him Darkseid "never saw the son standing before me now."  They prepared him for any challenges but their guidance isn't enough, he must let Jor-El guide him.   But Clark turned his back on him.   Jor-El is his father and will understand in the same way Jonathan understands Clark turning his back on him also.   Martha tells him not to doubt himself.   Before Clark came, they wanted a child, and when he found them in the field he was a miracle.  "Now the world needs that same miracle."  Jonathan: "Son it's time."

This is where the episode ended in the UK, it was like having an ad break that lasted a week.   At least we got to see their wedding as it should have been, well at least a glimpse of the wedding they never had, seven years into the future.

See Tess could only have been taken by Lionel and he underestimated her, she was a Luthor after all, didn't he think she'd fight.  He tells her Clark doesn't need anyone and she's wrong.   Lionel is the only one who believes in Clark.   Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) cloned himself, something we and Tess already knew.   To Lionel, Lex is a visionary and she isn't.   Lex couldn't duplicate a heart for himself but he will use hers.   Lionel appeared to be a bit pervy here, hands all over Tess.   Cue Lex...

Clark finds Tess's phone in her abandoned car.   Lionel wanted Connor's heart but she hid him so well, that wouldn't have stopped him before.   Lex is everything to him.   Tess fights to escape and finally shoots Lionel, like Lex threw the other Lionel out the window.   So Lionel didn't give in to Darkseid back then in Scion, but he does now, purely out of necessity.   Lex is more important to him so he sells his soul to save Lex and give him his own heart.

Lois comments on  the markings being like a planet.   Clark thinks he can find Tess by using the license plate number on the car, which leads back to a genetic research company.   Lionel's GPS tracker went down, but he can be traced back 15 minutes to the Luthor mansion, where else.   Lois reminds him of Clark's vows and how they were 'forever'.   Whilst he goes off to rescue Tess, she gets the ID from the Airforce One reporter, Janet (Laura Mennell) since she won't tell the president not to nuke the planet, cos the Blur will save the day.   She enjoys knocking her out.

Clark comes face to face with Lex incarnate; who tells him Lionel had a "change of heart." He kind of gives Clark a lecture on how men and women are defined by their enemies and he can't forget his memories.   Lex: "You were born to be the chosen one."

Clark: "That always killed you."  No, what killed Lex was that Clark didn't want his destiny.  Clark: "My destiny wasn't yours to take."  Lex embraced his own destiny and will be great.   They too "have a destiny together." Then calls him Kal-El.    A villain is only as great as his hero.   Lex read the Veritas journal foretelling of a chosen saviour.   Clark is the "light" inspiring the world out of darkness."  Clark Kent can't save the world, but Kal-El can.    Clark is sorry he couldn't save Lex.   Was that  a pep talk from Lex telling Clark to save the world and his destiny awaits him, if it was then he had his own ulterior motive for telling him that, seeing as he just said he needs his hero in order to become a great villain.

Oliver gets his armoury from Watchtower to go be a hero like Chloe told him to and confronts Granny, Desaad and Gordon.  Oliver's mark is gone and Oliver comments the Blur's "faster than a speeding bullet." Oliver's friend saved him, he's not here to vanquish Darkseid, but them.   Oliver: "I've got friends in high places."  Those Superman references were coming thick and fast now.   He takes all three of them out with his arrows.

Lois on Airforce One, tries to convince the Committee to give the heroes a chance.   The people showed their confidence in them and now the heroes should be allowed to show their worth.   Lois: "this is exactly the time for my hero." Clark in retrieving the crystal from the barn is stopped by Lionel possessed by Darkseid and Clark vows to fight him to the last breath.   There's always hope and nothing more stronger than love he tells Darkseid.   But Clark is the light, he cast the darkness from Oliver and has to be stopped.   He must surrender to him and lose his soul.   Clark is forced back and in that moment he recalls Jonathan: "let Jor-El guide him."  Jor-El: "...always had the power within you my son."  Then we watch a clipshow through Clark's eye from the past ten years.   Clark realizes they were his trials and this is his final trial.   Jor-El: "You are ready, seize your destiny!"  Clark floats and obliterates Darkseid with one feel swoop, final swoop?

Tess visits Lex, and he always knew she was his sister.   Tess wanted something she'll never have and Lex thinks it's Clark.   Why does everyone think women are just after Clarkie.   Tess tells him it's redemption, knew he'd kill her off.   This time he stabs her, not in the back though, which is his usual MO.   Never trust a Luthor.   He's saving her from becoming Lex, but he's too late since Clark already saved her as she infects him with neurotoxin.   He'll lose his memories, which had to be done since Lex can't know who Clark really is.   Just like Lionel couldn't either.   Also Tess had to die so Lex would be the only surviving Luthor.   Lex has flashes to his life - his last memories.   Luthorcorp sign becomes LC Corp.

Jor-El tells Clark his journey is over.   Clark realizes his strength is accepting Jor-El and his Kryptonian side.   Jor-El finally tells him he's proud of his son, of his soul.   Only he possess the "courage, determination and passion to lift the darkness from the earth."  Lift being the operative word.   Out comes the costume.   He must recall his abilities in his blood, but his time in Smallville and the people he knew made him a hero.   Jonathan hands him the suit and urges him to, "always hold onto Smallville."  He gives him the clothes and vanishes.   Clark gets poised to fly as he digs his heels in and as he does he changes into his suit/costume.   His first act as new hero being to save Lois on the plane.   Oliver also sees him fly, "come on Clark you can do this."  As he forces the planet away from earth.   Omegas are removed from people.   Well, Jor-El did kind of tell him what to do.   At least gave him the idea of "lifting the darkness," hence the planet.

We don't even get to see Clarkie in all his glory as Superman, only a comic drawing.   Chloe finishes the comic seven years into the future where we came in and their son looks at the arrows.   Also getting the original theme to Superman.   Chloe sends Lois a blue pin for her wedding and Jimmy Olson's brother (Aaron Ashmore) has taken his place as photographer of the Daily Planet, as Perry White takes his place as editor, we only get to hear his "great Caesar's ghost"  outburst from his office.   Lois wants drama in his photos.   Lex is elected as president in 2018.

Clarkie back in his clumsy, geeky mode and calls Lois, "Ms Lane" which she thinks is hot.  As if no one knew about them.   Clark has the rings, he's been ready for seven years.   Clark hears the news about a bomb in an elevator and all we get to see is him ripping his shirt away to reveal his costume, to the theme music!

So there it ends ten years of Smallville.   Not much happened in the second part of the episode, not the big battle or fight we were expecting with Darkseid, he just got brushed aside, so much for Clark almost being taken over by him earlier on.   Oliver didn't do much and neither did Chloe, so much for her heading to Starcity.   Jor-El guided him to lift the planet  and Jonathan told him to remember Smallville, as if he was telling us to do the same.   Anyway I'll miss the show, only wish they could have made Clarkie realize his destiny a bit sooner, so we could have seen Clark and Lois in action together a bit more, cos this show had great casting and Erica was my fave Lois ever!

Also we didn't really get to see Clark in his Superman attire in its entirety, just little glimpses, and no pants over tights either, so we were short changed there.  Chloe tells their son that Clark had to turn his back on both of his parents, on the page of the comic it says both his fathers, which is what he did here.   Michael Rosenbaum didn't shave his head for his scenes in the finale.   Michael McKean did an uncredited voiceover for  Perry, which you could tell was actually his voice.   John Williams musical score was used from the 1978 Superman movie and also included was 'Can You Read My Mind? aka Lois' Theme and the Superman March.

No one was concerned or overly bothered about Tess and wasn't she meant to be one of Lois' bridesmaids too, yet no one said anything when she didn't turn up.   They were only worried when they needed info on the planet from Watchtower.   Nor was anything made of her death.   Dr Emil wasn't at the wedding either, but he was invited to the stag do.   Oliver knows that Clark's powers will be removed with the gold Kryptonite, yet Clark also seemed to know this and we're not aware of how or when he found this out.   Oliver actually dug for it when he was taken over by the darkness and presumably Chloe knows since she knocked the ring out of Lois' hand.   Unless Clark realized what it was now.

 Ahh so sad...no more Smallville. It became part of the schedules and for a decade we just expected it to be on without fail every season.

The Closer 7.1 Unknown Trouble Review

As a hip-hop video plays the camera eventually pans away to show the Major Crimes team at work; investigating the homicide of seven Vics, including the rapper, C-Game (Reason).  The team ponders the IDs of the Vics and most likely posit they were gang members/drug dealers; until Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) recognizes one of them from his licence as being the sons of his deacon.  The Vics were from Clinton Street, a gang area but Gabriel refuses to associate the brothers with gangs and drugs.  Sanchez (Raymond Cruz) takes exception to this.

Flynn (Tony Denison) finds a case full of cash upstairs.  C-Game and his brother were college educated and he had a degree in music whilst his brother had one in economics.  The owner of their record label, Shank'd, Antwone Decker (Rockmond Dunbar) could be a possible suspect since the record has become popular and sales have rocketed.  Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) notices Taylor (Robert Gosset) listening to their conversation and being sneaky.  Pope (JK Simmons) shows Brenda a chart of restructuring of the Department under Delk (Courtney B Vance) and he'll announce at a press conference.

Brenda and the Major Crimes is safe and he's been relegated to Valley Traffic.  Taylor will replace him and become Brenda's boss, which infuriates her, she'd rather "stick pins in her eyes" as she bemoans to Fritz (Jon Tenney).  Confirming what I said about Taylor being pally with Delk last season and he obviously had an agenda to ensure he'd get he promotion.

Raydor (Mary McDonnell) informs Brenda the city, the department and everyone involved is being sued by Turell's mother for the wrongful death of her son.  (From 6.8 War Zone, the 'Shootin' Newton' murders.)  I.e when Brenda took him home knowing he'd be killed  and he was later beaten to death by his gang members.  Brenda denies any knowledge (but we know better) and Raydor is to audit the case and Brenda's actions.  Knew that'd come back to bite her in the final season of the show.  Brenda is angry and threatens to quit.

Brenda wants to question C-game's girlfriend, Keisha (Ciera Payton) but she's missing.  The team notice something's wrong, especially Provenza (GW Bailey) who has to help Raydor with whatever she needs pertaining to the Shootin' Newton case.  Fritz asks why she's looking into Antwone since the FBI and LAPD are running a joint investigation.  Brenda notices that pizza was ordered by someone after Tao (Michael Paul Chan) tells her of the calls on the phones but there wasn't any there at the CS.  Brenda returns to her office and her safety net of candy.   Later she vents at home and eats ice cream after flossing - really Brenda - whilst Fritz makes a list for her of possible suspects the FBI has.  He then tells Brenda he's naked under the covers, so she can repay him!  Cue the cat making  a hasty exit!

Antwone turns up the next day for questioning and his lawyer advises against it, said lawyer Braddock (David Costabile) having been here the day before when Brenda cunningly told him about finding the case, but not what was in it.  A tracker is paced on his car and Provenza was meant to remind Brenda that Taylor wanted in on the investigation and Buzz (Phillip P Keene) was to give her an earwig, which she refuses.

Brenda shows Antwone the empty case, save for the dollar bands and he walks out in a huff.  Flynn  tells her they found the pizza man dead and Sanchez works out the foam they found at the CS was from the pizza delivery bag, which was used as a silencer.  The FBI bug and tracker leads them to the home of Deandre Harmon, (Page Kennedy)Keisha's ex.  Provenza follows regs and puts on a police flak jacket and Flynn follows suit.  They arrive to save Keisha from Antwone and find Deandre with his head down the loo.

Raydor points out Brenda's pattern of behaviour in this case and that Turell's mother's lawyer will point to that too.  Pope mentions Brenda is exceptional at catching killers and they all got got off on the publicity her cases brought them.  Brenda notices the rose tattoo on Keisha's back and realizes the song was about Deandre and C-Game was humiliating him after he stole his girlfriend and got famous in the process.  Anyone could have worked out what the song was about.  Deandre gets angry and confesses to the 8 killings and how he looked out for C-Game all his life.

Delk comments on Brenda's good work but just them suffers a stroke and falls to the floor.

The actions from last season's episode were expected to be brought up again especially since Turell got away with murder.  However not being pedantic but he did want to go home - which is exactly what she did.  Even Gabriel repeatedly asked if that's what Brenda wanted to do.  Unknown Trouble was a reference to her actions last season, but this was obviously expected but Delk wasn't.  Didn't see that coming I can say for once, though this was the final season so something had to happen to ensure Pope stuck around and Taylor was rather eager to take his spot in Pope's office, relishing the moment which appears to be short lived.

Fritz: "Could it be someone has your back?"  Referring to Raydor.
Brenda: "She's put several knives in it already."  Brenda refuses to listen to Raydor when she tries to explain she's just doing her job but didn't instigate the audit and Brenda thought they were friends.