Once Upon A Time 7.9 "One Little Tear" Review

                                           
We see Rapunzel (Meegan Warner) in the Other Realm as she tries to forage food for her family and her daughters, as she mentions Anastasia, knew she was really Victoria, she had to be related to one of the characters in the Other Realm.  She's caught by the witch aka Mother Gothel (Emma Booth) and she makes a deal with her: that her family not want for anything and in return for this deal, she basically sacrifices herself as Rapunzel is transported to the tower.

In Hyperion Heights Victoria (Gabrielle Anwar) speaks with Ivy/Drizella (Adelaide Kane) and she's still determined for Anastasia (Yael Yurman) not to be resurrected.  Did she really expect Victoria to help her in telling her where she hid her.  Weaver/Rumples (Robert Carlyle) then comes in and Victoria makes a deal with him too.  They can stop playing this game cos she knows he knows who he really is.  Thus she says she will tell him who the Guardian is if he helps her get out.  Even calling him Rumpelstiltskin for that added extra touch.  She's released since Hook Rogers (Colin O'Donoghue) didn't have a warrant for that place when he arrested her.  Rumples also letting drop he knows she's Rapunzel.  So Hook proceeds to get into Rumples' storage locker and finds a number of files all to do with them and with their photos.  He sees Sabine/Tiana (Mekia Cox) and he questions her again (see he deffo has a soft spot for her).  She draws him the dagger that Rumples questioned her about.  Obviously he was seeing if she could be the Guardian and thus wielding magic.  Saying it was used to jimmy open the door.

Victoria gives Jacinda (Dania Ramirez) her files regarding Lucy (Alison Fernandez) and says she was the one who signed her away it wasn't Victoria, but now she wants Jacinda to have her back.  She's glad she got in touch with Nick (Nathan Parsons) as her lawyer.  Victoria saying it was a test to see if Jacinda would fight her custody application, but she didn't at first but she did later and clearly she's passed.  Victoria was trapped in the tower for six years without seeing her children so she does know a little about family and fighting tooth and nail for them. As she was trapped in the tower Rapunzel gets the idea to escape after seeing some lanterns floating by, she uses her hair as a rope and chops it off.  Shame those scissors were left lying around.

Reaching home she finds Marcus (Matty Finochio) is married to Cecilia (Cindy Luna) and has a step daughter, Ella/Jacinda.  Gothel shows up again and tells her she should get rid of the competition, thus giving her some poison in a toadstool.  She throws it onto the fire but then she becomes a slave to the family and isn't happy when Drizella ignores her at her birthday party.

Jacinda asks Nick if the papers are authentic and says she wants Nick in her life after she kisses him, but only so that he can get to know Lucy.  She then picks up the mix tape again.   Victoria heads to the mausoleum but it's only to pick up her bag and some other ingredients she needs.  Rumples expected to find Anastasia there.  He tells her about Baelfire and how he wanted to have a better relationship with him before he lost him.  After he finds Ivy and Gothel following them.  She disappears by the time they arrive after saying she has plans for them.  Gothel has words with Rumples as she tells him by letting Victoria go he's done something very bad for his great grand daughter, Lucy.

In the Other Realm Rapunzel used the mushy but it made Cecilia fall asleep and as she and Marcus grew closer together and were on the verge of sharing a kiss, Ella walks off as the snow man's hat blows away and ends up falling into the cracking ice.  Anastasia tries to save her, but Marcus can only bring out Ella.  She takes Anastasia to Gothel who manages to save one last breath in her lungs.  Gothel wants to return Anastasia to the tower but Rapunzel gets one over on her as she steals the bottle from her and sends her to the tower instead.  Which is where she will meet Hook and escape as we saw earlier.

Victoria shows Lucy the vid she took of Jacinda kissing Nick and shows her the Once Upon A Time book, telling her the stories are real.  As she then proceeds to break her innocence by telling her that she and Henry won't be together, thereby catching her tear on the book, which she uses to wake Anastasia.  Just barely, I mean how long was she going to mess around with that tear before she lost it, but also it didn't dry up already.  They search for Lucy and she returns home where she passes out.  Anastasia wakes and Ivy walks away despondent but not giving up.

Hook confronts Rumples about what's happening, he's either a corrupt cop, he can't decide.  Rumples tells him he won't believe him, but he is looking for his wife.  It's crazy but Hook believes him and helps him.  Now some of the pieces begin to join together as we near the mid-season finale.  As we get answers to who Victoria really is and how Gothel ended up in the tower, as well as how Ella lost her mother.  Even if Victoria says she believes in family, she still manages to put her own family first and in helping Anastasia, she lets Lucy suffer.  So her good deed of letting Jacinda have custody back was just for her own purposes and not out of the goodness of her cold heart.  Well Rapunzel should've stayed locked in the tower.  Explains Victoria's  taste for buildings and high rises.  Ha.

Once Upon A Time 7.8 "Pretty In Blue" Review

                                                 
As Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) meets up with Alice(Rose Reynolds) she says that they can now hug as father and daughter since she got the curse lifted and it will no longer poison their hearts.  But as they hug, Hook zooms away into the air and lands with the poison in his heart.  She runs away and Reggie (lana Parilla) tells Henry (Andrew J West) and Ella (Dania Ramiriz) to go after her.  She goes though the portal to Wonderland, where else, as Ella tells Henry and they follow.  Of course Ella wanted to go through here for her own motives.  As we find she's been here before since she knows about the maze of infinite possibilities and she shows Henry the half heart locket, which she said was her mother's and how she and her step father loved each other.  She accepted her step father and it glowed showing their eternal love.  But then her mother left and he went looking for her.  One day it ended and it stopped glowing thus her father thought her love for him ended too!  Of course she was wrong.  She drinks the shrinking potion and there's only enough for one as Henry gets left behind.

As she wanders through the maze, she follows the sign to the tea party and here she finds Alice.  She tells her about her mother and shows her the other half of the locket, which Ella says belongs to her.  Alice always has all the trinkets doesn't she, like she's some thrift store.  More importantly she conveniently brings them out in the hopes of jogging some memory and the curse being lifted.  Alice tells Ella about her mother and how she tried to save them from Drizella (Adelaide Kane) but she couldn't, her heart was poisoned and she wanted to search for a cure.  That's why the glow went out.  However Drizella sets her sights on Henry once more as she tries to poison his heart too with the mushroom.  Something she learned from Reggie of course.  But Ella and Alice arrive in time to stop this from happening.  Ella repeating what Henry said about his grandparents and their saying of always finding each other.  Which Ella dissed as being silly and then she says it herself to Henry now; that she would always find him.  Alice doesn't go back with them but they tell Hook what she said and she gave him a white horse chess piece.  Still the chess piece business continues.

Back in Hyperion Heights, Hook Rogers is hailed as a hero for rescuing Eloise but Weaver (Robert Carlyle) repeats again that he doesn't know what he's leashed onto the world, as did Victoria last ep.  Eloise (Emma Booth) thanks him in person and leaves him a cake, probably containing more poison to affect his heart and make him stop this search, but for him the search was over, he found Eloise, but she's not his daughter.  Here I must apologize for suggesting this a few eps back!  Don't know what I was thinking, she was more his baby mother!  She's back in the building with Ivy again and she tells her to work her magic and make the plant grow since she must wake Anastasia.  But she doesn't know where Victoria's keeping her.  As she has so many properties Ivy believes the search will be easy, but not so.  As she finds, Victoria was one step ahead of her and when she retrieves the coffin, it's empty.  Thought she would've checked before bringing it all the way here.

Reggie visits Hook and stops him from eating the cake when she finds out who it's from and tells him it'll only make him fat (what fat bellied Hook once more, perish the thought ha!) as she throws it into the bin.  She wants Weaver/Rumples to join forces with her to rid them of Eloise and he claims the fifth as not knowing what she's talking about.  Obviously as Ronni/Reggie says, "you're always awake."  Which is true and I said that too a while back.  He doesn't recall Rumpelstiltskin and when Reggie mentions Belle wouldn't have wanted this, he pauses for a second, but still he doesn't entertain her idea.  So she decides there's only one person who can help her, even if she hates her and she decides on San Francisco.  Well that would've been Zelena no doubt, perhaps, so now we know Robin will be in the show, it must be Zelena's daughter she's seeing maybe.

Reggie also tells Hook he should take Alice/Tilly under his wing cos she doesn't have anyone and that's why she did what Weaver told her to.  But Rumples was looking out for him and making sure Eloise didn't get out.  He sees Alice and takes a chess set with him as she selects the white horse from it.  Also she apologizes for what she did cos Weaver told her to.  Reggie of course ensuring Hook finally meets up with his daughter one day and what better way than to get him to spend time with her, so Ivy can't do much more damage with the curse.

Henry decides on a road trip too as he's had four beers already getting over a broken heart cos of Jacinda.  She is told to hire Nick (Nathan Parsons) her ex and Lucy's (Alison Fernandez) father, but Tiana (Mekia Cox) and she doesn't want to but she must.  Even dressing up for him.  Henry liked him when they met cos they had the same taste in music and Nick agrees to help her.  Only she admits to Henry that she was the one who gave up Lucy to begin with and signed over her parental rights.  She doesn't believe Lucy will understand or forgive her.  However Henry tells her to tell Nick so he can help her.

Henry brings the book to Lucy and she looks something up in it and says Nick isn't her father, but Henry is.  Henry fixes the truck for them and sees Jacinda with Nick.  Apparently in the Other Realm, Henry knows Nick as Jack (and the Beanstalk?) and he thought he was in Agrabah.  So is he an ally or someone more sinister.   Seems everyone's just been added to make the story go on longer and drawn out, especially since as one hurdle is overcome another one pope up, like Nick here, Anastasia being missing now and Reggie needing to go out of town to find allies. 

Once Upon A Time 7.7 "Eloise Gardener" Review

                                             
Jacinda (Dania Ramiriz) goes on about the "foot" truck again (sorry but that's what it sounds like) and how she won't have enough money and won't be able to get Lucy (Alison Fernandez) back.  So Ronni (Lana Parilla) suggests she could work here as things have picked up and she agrees.  Yes but how will that go down with Social Services working in a bar as opposed to some lame chicken burger store which was burned down cos of her allowing Sabine (Mekia Cox) to bake there.  No matter cos by episode's end, Lucy is taken away anyway since the complaint against Jacinda still stands.  Ivy (Adelaide Kane) still getting, or trying to get her hands on Henry (Andrew J West) too as she suggests he should do a podcast.  (Next ep.)

Back in the Other Realm Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) chances upon Reggie looking for passage on his ship to escape the clutches of Snow and Charming who are hot on her heels.  Though we didn't get to see them, nor did we get any ending to their story and where they are now. Hook agrees to it but first he must take care of his own business and he looks for a way that will help him seek revenge on the Dark One once and for all.  This being a flower.  He comes to a tower and climbs up where he meets Rapunzel (Meegan Warner) and she tells him of being imprisoned here by the Witch and she can't get out unless he finds the flower from her garden and that way they can both have what they want.  Well Rapunzel as we know was freed a while back, but you can never tell which direction this show will take when coming up with stories that will confuse some viewers even more.

Hook ventures to the garden with Mr Smee (Chris Gauthier) and he must sing to find the flower only awakening a giant gnome (now Sheila in Aussie soap Neighbours would've loved one of those!)  Anyway Smee suggests he sing a different song and he ends up singing a lullaby which turns the gnome to dust.  He recalls his mother would sing that to him and his brother and when he no longer heard it anymore he guessed it was a lullaby.  So apparently this Hook is the one with the daughter (ie fat bellied Hook.)  This was his story.  As he returns with the flower, Rapunzel is so grateful at getting her freedom that she wants to get it on with Hook there and then and being the pirate that he is, he obliges.  Now Rapunzel wouldn't have done that.  Next morning it's actually the Witch (Emma Booth) that Victoria is holding prisoner and she has a baby.  "Bloody Fast work mate" he thinks to himself, as she tells him it's magic and she needed to leave her bloodline behind to escape the tower.  She wants Hook to come too leaving him a petal for his purposes but he can't leave the baby alone.  His baby.

Hook gives The Jolly Roger to Smee and tells him to take Reggie away.  He's got other business, as he sings to the baby again, he names her Alice.  Thus Alice (in Wonderland) is his daughter, wonders will never cease.  No wonder she was so vested in Hook Rogers back at Hyperion Heights and practically told him it was her last ep as she held that chess piece right under his nose, but he didn't get it.  Still thinking misguidedly this Eloise is his daughter, or some familial connection with her.  He sets out to find her once more and chances upon the man with the tat's DB and calls in Weaver Rumples (Robert Carlyle).  He promptly reports to Victoria (Gabrielle Anwar) about what he's doing and she wants it taken care of.  Sorry but didn't he tell Victoria he was no longer on her payroll.

Hook thinks Alice (Rose Reynolds) is the only one who can help him as she did last time and Henry tags along to help.  He won't turn her in for selling stolen watches and she tells him she'll help him if he meets her in two hours with a sandwich.  A marmalade sandwich Hook replies.  Heck man that should've given away what she was going to do.  When she does turn up she tells him Eloise was killed in a car accident and gives him the painted page from his journal.  However Hook rubs it and the paint runs off onto his hand.  He confronts Rumples about this who marvels at the Dark One's dagger which is kept in the evidence lock up, silly place to have it.  Rumples warns Hook against pursuing this and also tries to convince him he's not working for Victoria but he can't stop him from confronting her.

Victoria finds out that the Witch has had a visitor who's tracked dirt in and she tells her it was probably Victoria anyway.  Victoria finding Ivy's shoes as she's not at her desk and knows Drizella has her memories intact.  Hook manages to find Victoria and handcuffs her releasing Eloise and Victoria is arrested.  Which is a joyous day for Ivy but Victoria tells her she's making a big mistake unleashing her into the world.   As things backfire for Jacinda too since she can't have Lucy until her complaint is properly sorted out.

Hook telling Henry he feels a family connection towards Eloise and he doesn't know what that is.  Well that'll be the one night stand they shared together, but Alice standing by at the end knowing she's his daughter and she can't do anything about it cos he won't believe her, but also how Rumples wanted to tell Hook what was going on but he wouldn't believe him.  Just like sceptical Henry.  How frustrating is all this anyway.  As we know now how Hook came about his daughter, it wasn't even a night of passion in that sense, he was used, a mere object for her to gain her freedom!  What would the witch have done if she wasn't approached by this handsome guyliner dude, oh never mind, she'd have gone for anyone to gain her freedom, scruple-less as she is!!  Eloise has an apt name though considering she had that garden as a Witch in the Other Realm, but also how she's meant to be green-fingered here too in attemting to make that plant grow.  Rumples doesn't take the same approach with Reggie in the next ep when she tells him about joining forces!

The Halcyon Series 1 Episode 8 Review

                                              
The final episode of ITV's wartime drama series kicked off with some explosive actions and not just since it was the finale but also turned out to be the season finale too.  Seems everyone was getting their share of kicks and knockbacks, especially when D'Abberville (Charles Edwards) gets his comeuppance as Toby (Edward Bluemel) finally comes clean about being a traitor really and being blackmailed by by D'Abberville with him having the lowdown on his secret, which he tells Priscilla (Olivia Williams) is sordid.  Also adding that if anyone finds out about him then he'll go down as a traitor too.  Of course Toby would wait the entire season to come clean about his goings on and stealing secrets to Garland (Steven Mackintosh) now, when it's over.  Though he tells him that he came to him shows he is not a coward and is willing to act, well took his sweet time.

Of course Priscilla wouldn't believe Garland when he told her about D'Abberville since she doesn't like him at all with added sarcasm thrown in when Garland tells her he wouldn't lie to her, which is exactly what he did do when he covered for her husband's dalliances and indiscretions.  Not the same thing though and he was also his employer after all, considering good jobs are hard to find and so is the hired help.  So doing a mad, drastic dash through D'Abberville's belongings, she finds his passport and his ticket away from here; but of course he high tails it back to his room after Toby confronts him and tells him he's called Special Branch.   D'Abberville tells Priscilla about Garland too and not being who he seems, as he confronted him too earlier about the Sgt Green mystery and what he did in the woods.  Of course there were several new stories/plots being set up for a series 2, which didn't happen.  Ain't it always the way: they always end on a cliff hanger and can't be bothered to finish what they started, not even in a special, at least they could've got a Christmas special out of it to tie up loose ends, before everyone went their own way.

But you just knew that Priscilla Lady Hamilton (not Lady Emma Hamilton though there is an Emma in the characters!) was going to get the vest of D'Abberville, especially when he threatened Toby and conked him on the head with the paperweight.  It wasn't as though he was going to let things go, thought he was going to get her for a minute.  Then to top it off, she calls on Garland to help her. That was rich after how she treated him, then asking him why he's helping her, well cos she asked was his reply.  As he clears up, too late Special Branch arrives and he manages to get the DB into the bathroom.  Although for Special Branch they didn't really do a good job of searching the room, aside from finding out that Garland was hiding something.  Aah yes, Priscilla's romantic interlude with D'Abberville.

The love triangle also continues as Joe Vs (the volcano ha! - sorry) well Joe (Matt Ryan) vs Freddie (Jamie Blackley) continued with Joe punching him out and Emma (Hermione Corfield) just happened to be there to see.  That was some kinda macho bravado going on there.  D'ya think Joe realized he did the wrong thing since Freddie was in uniform after all and fighting for his country, as well as his girl.  Though later in the lift Freddie tells Emma that he loves her and that it's probably too late. Emma was stringing them along it seems especially as she glances at both of them longingly.  She can't decide and as Betsey (Kara Tointon) said to her, she should have both of them cos there is a war on.  Well many of us know who they'd go for!! (Ahem Joe perhaps?!!  Well he is more of the manly man and not a, erm, boy.  In the sense he's also a doer, a thinker, reporter...)

Betsey having her own feelings and declaring she loves Sonny (Soph Dirisu) which you knew was going to be too little too late for her.  Also the music band leader thang being already done in Downton Abbey.  Toby is given the note from Adil (Akshay Kumar) as he prepares to commit suicide and Toby manages to get to him in time, missing the bomb altogether.  As The Halcyon celebrates 50 years, it's hit by a bomb, seems they didn't have five minutes after all.  Just as Joe looked like he was going to declare his love for Emma too, with Freddie standing by and watching, everything goes awry.  Telling her to go to Freddie after he helps out a woman.  Betsey singing a song A Nightingale in Barkley Square, as she looks for Sonny and then sees him, but he vanishes as Emma calls out to her. She lies unconscious and Sonny is no longer around.  Well at least it was good news for Klein (Nico Rogner) as Garland managed to find his family and bring them back to London.

Of course it'd end on a cliffhanger, why can't they just once finish things on a final note instead of giving viewers the runaround.  They know if we like a show we'll come back to it, but it's always the viewers who get short changed.  Not the TV companies or the networks cos we invest so much more in the programme and the characters and cast than they do!

Matt did a great American accent, it's funny when I spoke to him I mentioned how he didn't have to do an American accent in Criminal Minds :Suspect Behaviour which was an American series, cancelled too on a cliffhanger I might add.  But how he did one in this, which happened to be a Brit show!  Strange!  But he pulled it off as he would do!

Well there you have it, Priscilla and Garland saved by the bomb as D'Abberville's DB was conveniently blown up in the proceedings, with Priscilla aimlessly wandering around like the walking wounded, which she was, as was Betsey too. Seems Garland and Priscilla would've forged some semblance of a fleeting friendship from this ordeal had there been a series 2.  Having this dark secret hanging over them, but he did come through in the end as a loyal employee, much to her chagrin earlier and throughout the series that he was more liable to help Lord Hamilton than her and quite frankly she hated him for it.  Yet Garland saved her 'soon to be' rationed bacon here!  As well as Garland also getting to have a tender moment with Peggy (Liz White) that was obvious throughout the series too.  Peggy was married but her husband's away, doesn't make it right, but after what she went through with Billy, she needed some tenderness.  Garland and Emma came across as practically a couple of potential heartbreakers, like father, like daughter in many ways.

Yet there was also the way that Garland understood what Priscilla was going through, he did the dirty too (guess all's fair in love and war - again) when he killed the diabolical military officer during the last war.  Now her hands are tainted with blood too, albeit to save herself and Toby.  Garland was also saving a life as he saw it.  Besides D'Abberville was a nasty Nazi after all, as Garland warned him, "if you think you can act this way in my hotel without consequence..."  Only to be met by his revealing Garland's real name of Sgt Green.  Well if Priscilla hadn't done him in, Garland surely would have.

Then Priscilla mentions to D'Abberville that perhaps, "why not ask the American to write it? Apparently he’s rather popular on the wireless."  When threatening to tell the world about Toby, well okay not the entire world, but their little corner of it.  Before she grabbed the paperweight.  Well Joe was extremely popular and yet D'Abberville would've been outed eventually as a Nazi.  Wow for once I didn't have to defend Joe against snide remarks from critics, must be they were too busy crying shed loads that this was the final ep!!

Longmire 5.10 "The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of" Review

                                            
As Walt (Robert Taylor) and Henry (Lou Diamond Phillips) sit in different rooms at the Res police station, Henry tells Mathias (Zahn McClarnon) about Walt's suspicions of him being Hector.  Mathias reminding him that Walt has samples of Henry's blood when he collected samples where Malachi (Graham Greene) was beaten.  Mathias can't remove the evidence without breaking the law.  Milgrom  (Patch Darragh) tells Walt that he can't let this feuding get out in public cos of the civil trial and Walt tells him Henry is his best friend, which kinda makes it worse.  Mathias tells Milgrom Henry will drop all charges if Walt doesn't pursue the Hector issue anymore and accuse him of being Hector, which Walt agrees to, as both men leave the station injured and dejected.

Walt arrives home to find Donna (Ally Walker) waiting for him, she's been subpoenaed to give a deposition and Walt tells her when she was missing, he and Vic (Katee Sackhoff) broke in and stole some of her patient files and if they hadn't done that, they wouldn't have found her.  She doesn't blame them but he tells her to go ahead with the deposition.  Knighthorse (A Martinez) has new bodyguards and Henry tells him about the Malachi situation and Walt too and he doesn't know if he and Walt are still friends.  He's grateful to Knighthorse for getting his bar back, but he wants to know if Knighthorse went back and killed Malachi.  He didn't, but Henry tells him he's confused since someone wrote "Hector Lives" there with stones.  Knighthorse thinks it could be Malachi himself to throw the scent off him being alive and if he is, then Henry adds that makes him more of a threat.  Should've heeded his own warning.

Cady (Cassidy Freeman) comes in to get Darius out and she thinks Mathias has spoken to him without her being there.  He says Darius is bad news and she shouldn't be doing this.  However she reminds him of how everyone's entitled to a defence and she won't go into that with him.  Mathias still thinks she's making a big mistake.  Which she was but as she said when called upon, lawyers have to defend no matter how abhorrent the defendant, otherwise they're not doing their job.  Cady returns to the office and finds Mandy (Tamara Duarte) already there and she tells her she can play her $25,000 a year and then see how it goes.  After getting Knighthorse to foot the bill for one more employee after she tells him she's hired all the people on his list.  She also warns him about Walt when she says the same thing she did to Walt about him being tunnel visioned when it comes to Knighthorse.  Who tells her how he and Walt have had that volatile relationship for years.  She loves her father but she wants to do what's right with her job.  She sees him laying down his stakes for when he meditates.  Obviously that's going to be relevant for the end.

Vic hears that Chance Gilbert (Peter Stormare) has been found guilty and will serve at least twenty years inside.  She's relieved and Ferg (Adam Bartley) breaks the news to Walt.  Chance later calls Walt and tells him he wants to get to death row cos he can't live cooped up without his freedom.  Well tell that to the people he killed.  He calls it a cruel and unusual punishment for himself.  However Walt refuses cos he deserves what he gets and cos he can suffer behind bars.  What is usually cruel and unusual is languishing on death row for years.  Walt tells Vic what he wanted which was a mistake cos she wants to see him die and he tells her he's not going to act on it since the judge gave him his sentence and that's how the law operates.  he's been accused of doing too much outside of the law.  Chance tells Vic where to find the gun when he murdered the courier.  When she goes to find it she's met by his brother's wife and she fights her.  With Vic getting kicked in the stomach.  The DA takes the gun and it has his DNA on it.

Travis (Derek Phillips) is moving into the trailer park to keep an eye on Vic and he takes her to the hospital the next day as they hear the baby's heartbeat during the ultrasound.  The mayor buys Walt a milkshake cos he's temporarily suspending him and has gone to the county commissioners to do this.  He wants to be treated with respect and he knows it' re-election year so he wants a smooth ride.  Walt isn't happy and as we later see the mayor wants Walt out co he has big plans for the county and a stickler for doing the right thing like Walt will only get in the way.  He recruits Knighthorse onto his campaign for this reason.  Also telling him that the FBI has info on Walt pertinent to the case.

Walt asks Ferg to find Monte (Stephen Louis Grush) and when he does, he breaks into his house and finds the FBI flashdrive, as Ferg distracts Monte with the threat of a ticket for running a stop sign.  The flashdrive reveals details of a phonecall Walt supposedly made to Barlow from his house.  A call lasting five seconds.  But Walt didn't make the call and it wouldn't have been enough time to invite him over.  Besides why would Barlow even entertain the idea of being summoned by Walt when Walt could've just gone to see him at his place as he always did.  He tells Tucker (Brett Rice) he's been withholding this vital information and Tucker reveals Barlow handed him over the reigns of his company making him CEO.  Walt telling him Barlow wanted it to be a case of 'suicide by cop.'  Tucker also saying when he finishes with Walt he won't have all this land cos he'll have to sell up in   the settlement the judge will order.  As he calls his phone and makes a call in four seconds.  Er, he didn't take into account how many seconds the call would actually take to connect and for Barlow to pick up, cos he wouldn't answer right away!!  Not so clever Tucker!!

Milgrom tells Walt to see his accountant and to give his money away.  So I said he should just give his property to Cady now and put it in her name, or sell it to her dirt cheap instead so greedy guts can't get his hands on it.  Wanting to build a golf course resort.  Oh man if that ain't bloody Drumpf I don't know what is!  That's all Absaroka needs after a casino!  Donna and Walt share a Rainier and she plays truth or dare, asking him who's the better kisser, her or Vic, as he sips his beer.  He does the same asking if it's him or her husband, as she also takes a sip of beer.  Their relationship isn't really going anywhere romantically.

Henry is duped into taking Tina (Tinsel Korey) to her home as she's lost her coat with her car keys where Henry sees Malachi.  He then ties Henry up after beating him to the same stakes that Knighthorse uses to call his dog soldiers.  Leaving him there to bake in the sun.  Cady undergoes a sweat ritual as Mandy's aunt wants to initiate her into the tribe.  Here she sees many images such as Henry hanging from a tree with his phone in his hand, as well as seeing the empty sheriff's station with Walt's hat on the rack, she sees the land and walking in blood.  Obviously a warning, foreboding of what's to come next season.  With Walt having another fight on his hands with the civil trial and the golf course plans now and this time on his own land.  They don't do things by half in this show!!  Roll on the sixth and final season!!

Venus In Fur (Play) Review

A magnificent feast for the senses, a tour de force, comedy of fun errors, what can I use to describe this delightful piece of writing, acting, directing.  A must see for anyone who loves comedy and more appropriately it's almost "ripped from several headlines" message.  It's meant to be based in around 1870 when women were mere objects to be ogled, lusted after and put on pedestals.  Treated as goddesses (hence the title in some ways) and yet it slowly turns all the stereotypes onto their heads and ends up with a winning formula and taking the gender roles, the archetypal gender roles and reversing them to achieve an immensely satisfying conclusion!!  The book of the same title written by Leopold Sacher-Masoch and as Thomas says in the play that's where the term "sado masochism" originated.  However at the time the book was written the man's 'quest' to be physically abused wasn't thought of as pornographic or perverse in any way.  But shows how society came to view it as such and it culminated in Vanda adding that's what it really is about.

Bravo and kudos to brilliantly great acting, 90 minutes of marvel.  Vanda Jordan comes to audition for the part of Vanda in Thomas Novachek's play.  Remarkably and not coincidentally, as I saw it, she  really did ingratiate herself into the audition and she shares the same name as the female protagonist in the play.  She thinks Thomas wrote the play but he's merely "adapting" it.  This repeated several times over as if trying to make us believe that's really the case, or convince us Thomas actually adapted Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name; as Thomas explains to ditzy Vanda, however, don't be fooled by her blonde tresses, she's not what she appears to be.  But a cunning vixen, who really plays him and does set his heart afire.  "The inexplicable becomes the inextricable" in many ways.  As she keeps getting "ambivalent" and "ambiguous" mixed up.

Thunder, lightning and Vanda arrives wet at Thomas's attic studio.  The train was late and everyone's gone but through her clever tactics and manoeuvrability, she manages to convince Thomas into giving her an audition.  As they read the play, she questions why Thomas doesn't play the part for himself.  As they read, their innermost thoughts and desires are revealed, as are their tremendous American accents, Vanda's New Yawk accent becomes posh English when reading the script, allowing Thomas to be more enamoured with her.  She also gets him to talk 'posh' and then we get a little German accent; ooh it was Earnest (Victoria) all over again.  As Natalie also finally slips in a German accent too.

Thomas says he's taken in by her and falls like the thunder and lightning.  Plenty of this followed, painting the picture that each time there was that roar, it was Thomas falling deeper and more deeply for Vanda.  The astute vixen has the script already and says her agent gave it to her.  But she's also secretly read the book as she produces it when remarking on the cover, if he used that as a poster it'd be reminiscent of "porn" and he'll sell lots of tickets.

That's what this revolved around: the abuses suffered and endured by women at the hands of men for centuries.  Seen by Vanda's heartfelt machinations that she longs for a woman to be an individual and to be seen as such.  Not admired for her beauty alone and to be 'used' for the needs of men, but to be given an equal footing.  Therein lies the modern aspect to this.  All the scandals appearing in the news now, the abuses (suffered by men and women alike).  It was akin to Thomas as he talks of the abuse suffered at the hands of his aunt, as his pants were pulled down and she beat him, over and over.  It was so poignant a moment that it felt as if it were true.  That he really suffered this and wasn't just spoken by the character he was playing within the play.  Hence also their talk of fur stemming from this and how the fur plays a pivotal role in that abuse and yet it's so appealing.

After much 'seduction' and many home truths being revealed, more thunder and more times that Thomas fell for this Venus in Fur, this Aphrodite.  "All hail Aphrodite"  Vanda finally gets Thomas where she wants him: succumbing and finally playing her role, as she ties him up and shows him how women are treated.  As said, roles reversed, she's now the dominant one, in the position of power.  And as the heavens rained red, Aphrodite is finally hailed; also as exacting her revenge.  The goddess wins!  The "idiot woman...idiot actress" reveals in the depths of her victory!

It felt to me as if Thomas was actually imagining this, writing, I mean, adapting his own play and his own version of events.  Especially with that "twisty" ending!  It was such a pleasure to watch Natalie Dormer and David Oakes live on stage; that it's no wonder many have flocked to see this many times over.  It does deserve more than one viewing.  That atmosphere, there's so much to take in.  The costumes without being too lavish suit the entire play and it's good there wasn't an interval which would've distracted from the main scenes, which were actually all the scenes in my opinion.  Every moment, every scene had an enormous impact on everything being said and acted.

Thomas mentions he was beaten by his aunt and it was watched by the servants and even the cat.  It was hilarious in a way, not the beating aspect, but that cats were mentioned in this and I gave David a silly cat painting I did!  Hey another uncanny moment of mine!

I would say this should be filmed and shown in theatres/cinemas in all its glory.  Loved it and as said, one visit wasn't enough, neither were two!  Third time's the charm.  Amazingly directed by Patrick Marber and a gorgeous set by Rob Howell.  Breathtaking, exuding sexiness and so very dark!

Venus In Fur Theatre Royal Haymarket until 9th December!! Hurry!!