NCIS - 7.9: "Child's Play" Review

The death of a marine found on a scarecrow leads to an exclusive school where children are paid to test out computer simulated military strategies. Ducky asks the team to join him for Thanksgiving dinner.

McGee (Sean Murray) takes the stairs.   Tony (Michael Weatherly) comments, "You have been looking increasingly Kate Mossish there McTim.   What are you down 2-3 lbs?" Yet another reference to McGee's weight.   Been a lot of that this season since Sean trimmed down.   Perhaps Tony should take a leaf out of his book! Ha.     Ducky (David McCallum) asks everyone to spend Thanksgiving with him, but they all have plans.  Tony's attending a poker tournament.   Ziva (Cote de Pablo) asks after Ducky's mother and comments she hardly recognizes Ducky these days.  Gibbs (Mark Harmon) tells them of the DB in the cornfield and Ducky gives him his invite.   Gibbs returns the favour; an invite to a cornfield.   Tony talks about maize, which is the Indian word for corn.   Ziva corrects him the Indian word for corn is "makki." He meant the American Indian, in which case he should've said Native American.

Ducky thinks about corn chowder as a first course for his dinner.  The DB was recently shot but not here and has a missing hand.  His name is Trevor, a corporal in the marines.  Tony comments perhaps the crows took his hand.   Ziva tickles Tony with a feather.  Tony recognizes he has a tattoo of the PCs, a local gang, lasered off.  Gibbs makes Ziva stand on Tony's shoulders and makes her look around the field.  Ziva aks Tony to "bend over," which causes Gibbs to smile.  Tony wants her off him now.

Gibbs finds Trevor has been at a Government Think Tank for over 6 months, the Sateler Institute.  Tony suggests "Smarty Pants McGee" should go there.   At the institute Krista (Lisa Sheridan) asks how Trevor died and Tony says, "not very nicely." The children at the institute test adult intelligence (no wonder Tony's there, ha.)  He had to try out the bike video game, did he think he was in Top Gun.  He associates this with a movie, Real Genius ( with Val Kilmer.  Trevor, was a bodyguard.   Angela (Madeline Carroll) was close to him.   Tony then has to try out the guitar.   Gibbs is impressed with the artwork.   Greg (Gabriel Olds) is the Youth programme Director .Gibbs questions Angela, she did the paintings and she offers him a cupcake.   Just as well Tony wasn't there.   He notices a fountain outside her window.

Trevor's car is located with a bullet in the door.  The fuel line was cut and there's a phone inside.  He was called by Eddie (Francis Capra).  Tony calls them both "esses." Eddie had unfinished business and calls him Zorro.   Tony asks if he had an alibi and Eddie refers to it as a lullaby.  Ziva says Trevor's hand was needed to access the door, which requires a palm print.   Two of Angela's collages are missing.  Angela is placed in protective custody.   Abby (Pauley Perette) attempts to recreate her Great Aunt's cranberry sauce recipe in the lab.   Abby: "What can I do for you, Gibblet?" Abby asks if he's going to Ducky's, cos someone's gotta carve the turkey, eat too much pie.   Gibbs tells her the recipe needs more sugar.  Again, Tony could have eaten all the pie!  Ziva asks Tony if he's "letting some blonde bombshell baste his bird?"

Ducky determines Trevor suffered a GSW to the head.  He's going to conduct a Psych evaluation on Angela.   Ducky asks where Gibbs goes on Thanksgiving?  D'Arcy McKinna (Carlease Burke) is asked in to be Angela's Guardian and Gibb's remembered what soda she likes to drink, as in episode 6.19 Hide and Seek, it's orange soda.   Angela asks Ziva if she's killed anyone.   Ziva has to tell her no, cos what else do you tell a child.   Angela stopping the lift, a la Gibbs.  Ducky talks about his first pet, a guinea pig named Hunker Munker and concludes Angela has secrets, she's a sensitive girl.  Eddie wanted Trevor to talk to his cousin.   Tony thinks Eddie was jealous of Trevor, as he couldn't get into the corps for himself.

Abby finds Angela has her own language code, she turned her art into letters and wrote a poem about a 'lady in a fountain'.   Well several clues there then.   Firstly it's the fountain that Gibbs saw through her window and secondly she must have seen someone in the fountain, or at least knows what happened.   The code relates to a frequency jamming signal for navy and marine ships and planes.  There were three deposits made into her mother's account for $60,000, so someone was selling the codes.   Tony thinks her painting looks like dolphins in the moonlight from those 'Magic Eye' posters.   Gibbs slaps Tony, he needs to focus.  (Which is what you do in one of those posters.)

Tony comments on the movie Bad Seed this time and wonders if Angela's seen it.   Ziva tells him she's just a girl.   Kristin's sister, Debra is missing.   So she must be the lady in the fountain.   Another movie reference from Tony in the form of this being Hannah and Her Sisters meets The 39 Steps.  Gibbs plays chequers with Angela and if she wins she'll tell him everything and replies she wasn't hiding anything.  Angela's mother says the money belongs to Angela for college.   Debra is found in the fountain at the Institute.   Angela saw what happened and runs away from Ducky's house when he and Ziva are charged with watching her.  Gibbs blames both Ducky and Ziva for Angela being missing.

Krista admits they sold the info to China to be made into games.   The info was old, but Gibbs adds it was still classified, so technically they committed treason.   Debra was seeing someone, no surprises for guessing who, Greg anyone?  Ducky posits Angela had everything in her room from the outside world, but there was nothing of herself.   Angela uses Ducky's credit card and is heading home.   Abby finds the connection between Trevor and Debra, she drowned in oil-based paint.   Thus paintings and thus the killer is Greg.   Who holds Angela at gunpoint to secure his escape.  Gibbs asks Angela the probability of Ziva missing her kill shot.   Calculated at 99.6%.   Of course she wouldn't miss, she's an assassin.   Thereby also answering Angela's question, well practically demonstrating it, she may have replied no, but she's killed Greg now, in front of her.

Everyone ends up at Ducky's Thanksgiving dinner, including Gibbs, who couldn't get any rolls.  Well another routine episode for NCIS; could have been better.   Another girl for Gibbs to relate to like his own daughter.   Ducky's on his own, but not everyone's noticed he isn't his usual self.   When Ziva called Angela's mother, the phone was off the hook, causing Ziva to get a busy tone, she says no one answered.

Angela asking Ziva if she's killed anyone and Tony thinking of the movie Bad Seed, in which a girl was suspected of killing a boy near the lake on a school picnic, with her ballet shoes.  Did Tony really suspect Angela of being a killer here.

Merlin - 3.5: "The Crystal Cave" Review

Merlin and Arthur, being pursued by bandits come to the Valley of the fallen kings. Merlin is taken to the Crystal Cave where he is shown future events which he must prevent.

Arthur (Bradley James) and Merlin (Colin Morgan) are being pursued by bandits in the forest, in a scene reminiscent of the BBC's other successful drama, Robin Hood, as fans of this will recall.

Arthur tells Merlin they'll outrun them before asking why Merlin never trusts him.  Of course they don't outrun them and Arthur leads Merlin into a cave, and  tells him he should trust him and that's coming from a future king.

It's actually called The Valley of the Fallen Kings.  Merlin tells him it's cursed but Arthur says it's only a myth.  They'll be safe from the bandits and Merlin should, "trust me."  Arthur is shot in the back by an arrow, as expected whenever he says to trust him, that's when things go awry.

Merlin sees no possible way out for them and attempts to provide comfort to Arthur.  He believes Arthur is dying.  In this time of need he is forsaken by his magic, the one thing he could rely on.  Merlin wishes Arthur would wake.  Merlin cries for Arthur.

He is then approached by an old man, named Taliesm (Karl Johnson), who tells Merlin not to waste his tears on Arthur, as his time has not yet come.   He knows who Merlin is and their meeting has been predestined, calling him by his name, Emris.  Their meeting has been written about for years.  Taliesm cures Arthur of his wound and saves his life.  Finally taking Merlin to a Crystal cave.  Merlin refuses to look into the cave; at the visions he is shown.  The future is apparent to him and Taliesm tells him there's a reason why he's here now, because of "secrets and futures not yet born" and they only show him secrets which are unique to Merlin himself.  He has to use these visions for good.

Merlin sees Morgana (Katie McGrath) with a dagger, dripping blood, a horse neighing, Morgana cloaked, stabbing Uther, Merlin screaming out.  This sets Merlin on a path where he believes he has to change the future and ensure these visions do not manifest themselves in reality.

With Arthur now conscious and recovered, he doesn't feel the wound in his back, Merlin comments that Arthur doesn't look like a toad and may magically transform into a handsome prince.  In their usual jokey banter.  Arthur tells Merlin he gives the orders and wonders what Merlin is hiding as he isn't his usual self.  He compliments Merlin on doing an excellent job with the bandits and gives him some credit in front of Uther.

As fate would have it, it's Morgana's birthday.  Gaius (Richard Wilson) tells Merlin he's lucky to have seen the cave as it has been mentioned by wizards in the past.   He also informs Merlin that Taliesm died over 300 years ago.  He was a seer to the old kings and the cave formed a part of his prophecies; stressing the urgency of Merlin's visions.  Gaius tries to explain it doesn't mean the events will happen now, if at all.  I said that even the name Taliesm is similar to "talisman."

There are more scenes in Arthur's bed chamber: he's getting a dagger for Morgana's gift.  Not exactly a gift for a lady, but then some would say she's far from a lady.  (There's a joke here between critics, that Arthur and Merlin have more than a prince/servant relationship and even more than a friendship as they are always in Arthur's chamber and Arthur is usually shirtless!)

Merlin spies Morgana with the horse as in his vision and believes the future he foresaw has begun, but Gaius still doesn't believe this signifies any impending doom.  Arthur shows Merlin Morgana's gift, which turns out to be nothing more than an ugly looking dagger.  But Merlin doesn't keep his mouth shut and has to tell Arthur that he should get her jewelry instead!

At the feast, Arthur now presents Morgana with a bejewelled dagger, as ornate as the one in Merlin's vision.

Merlin now takes the first shift outside Morgana's chamber spying her every move, believing his visions were shown to him for a reason.  Morgana is given a mirror for her birthday and as she breathes on it, a message is revealed from Morgause, asking her to meet  in the woods.

Merlin mistakenly believes Morgana is on her way to kill Uther (Anthony Head) and tries to stop her with a magic spell, this backfires on Merlin and Morgana falls down the stairs.  Morgana is having problems breathing and the bleeding in her head needs to be stopped.  She suffers from a broken cranium.  Merlin needed to prevent the future but he had no intention of hurting her.

Later, Merlin finds Arthur comforting Gwen (Angel Coulby) and feels guilty.  Arthur tells Merlin that he holds Morgana to be a sister to him and just as Arthur utters this comment, you know there's got to be something more to it.  Uther pleads for Gaius to use magic to cure Morgana.  He must "cure her, I don't care what remedy you use."  Referring to the old religion and sorcery.  Signifying the hypocrisy within the king.  Now that he needs her to be saved magic can be resorted to, but he's killed many for doing exactly that which is outlawed, i.e. using magic!

Uther reveals that Morgana is really his daughter.  So there it is, as soon as Arthur mentions the "sister" word, it's revealed that she is his sister.  The common people mustn't know who she is or there will be uproar.  Obviously Morgana could hear him when he said this, even though she was unconscious.  Thus setting in motion a new theme to the show: now Morgana will not only strife to kill Uther, but also to remove Arthur form the throne and to have it for herself and Morgause (Emilia Fox), or "Mongoose" as we prefer to call her.

This explains why Morgana could do no wrong in Uther's eyes, but what about the episode when he locked her up and almost had her killed.  Uther comments that Merlin is like a son to Gaius and he'll do anything to see children happy and not suffer.

Merlin, unable to bear the pain of everyone's suffering, summons the Dragon to cure her.  Poor dragon, even when he's been freed, he still can't be left alone to enjoy his freedom, with Merlin using blackmail on him, that he is the Dragon Lord and must be obeyed.   Even to the point of ignoring his warning that Morgana should not be saved, that "the witch must die."  The Dragon, knowing all along that Morgana was Uther's daughter.

The Dragon tells him that whatever evil follows will be a result of Merlin's doing.  Merlin saves Morgana leaving Uther to believe that Gaius came through with a magic remedy.  Merlin admits he had to save her, as watching their suffering was too much and Gaius warns Merlin he's playing with things that are beyond him and he has no control over.

Morgana urges Uther to admit she is his daughter, but he doesn't and he tells her feelings are more important than what people know.  Margeuse kills a servant boy to gain entry to the castle and she tells Morgana she now has a legitimate claim to the throne, whereas Morgana can only seek revenge for all of Uther's lies.

Gaius says Morgana knows the truth and so Arthur must be careful: she's of Royal blood, if Uther died, then Arthur is the only one standing between her and the throne.

Why did Morgause have to kill the servant anyway, alerting everyone to the presence of an intruder?  So that Merlin's visions can be fulfilled, as the vision of the blood dripping from a hand now comes true.  Merlin attempts to stop Morgana from killing Arthur, but she throws him against the wall, starting a fire in her chamber.  This is the real vision Merlin saw, the one where she stands over Uther, not the one when he saw her leaving before.  Merlin uses magic to break the window in Uther's chamber, causing Uther to wake up.  Morgana can only say she was afraid of the intruder and kicks the dagger under the bed.

Merlin is convinced he caused the future to occur: he didn't stop it.

An episode that shows Merlin's infallibility, that he can't do things because they seem right for him, that he can't save everybody and still be able to use his powers for good.  That evil will prevail no matter how hard he tries to make the right choice.  Sometimes there isn't a right decision to be made.

Also showing how Merlin, the boy, must now become Merlin the man.

Desperate Housewives - 8.11: "Who Can Say What's True" Review

Carlos is in rehab and Gaby needs Lynette's help to land a deal for his company. Lynette misses Tom but refuses to admit she's useless at odd jobs and Susan spills about Alejandro.

Mary Alice: "It's always easy to know who our friends are...when we're deluding ourselves - but the best of friends will  tell you the truth even when they know it will upset you."  Bree (Marcia Cross) shows the note to Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and Gaby (Eva Longoria).   Gaby asks why someone would kill for them.   Susan isn't here and so can't be pencilled in with the news.   She'll accuse them of keeping yet another secret from her.   Then she's keeping one from them too.   Lynette says they're still angry about each other.   Gaby implies Bree knows about the letters and the link between them and Lynette agrees.   Bree doesn't believe this is about her.   Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) "Yes, only your friends will tell you the truth, so when they warn you about someone suspicious; maybe you should listen to them."  Someone watches Bree.

Mary Alice: "Susan Delfino (Teri Hatcher) was on a mission and planned it down to the last detail, the right ID, plenty of cash...the small detail she hadn't  planned was what to do when she got there."  Susan calls Mike (James Denton) cos she doesn't know how to get into the house.   Renee (Vanessa Williams) calls on Ben (Charles Mesure) and she misses him.   That's unusual cos she never misses people.   Renee tells Bree Ben will never be "down under again."   Another of her sexual references.   Renee thinks her friends suggested botox to Bree and that's why she's drinking.

Gaby and Lynette forgive each other and decide to stay angry at Bree.   Renee suggests taking Bree to a 'naughty place' (that had connotations of its own as far as Renee's mind is concerned!) and she reluctantly agrees.   Bree just can't stop drinking maybe she should try rehab..   Marilyn (Jayne Entwhistle) brings by Carlo's mail and Gaby rakes the leaves over to her neighbour's lawn.  He can't make it to the meeting to land a major client.   Connie (Edie McClurg) [remember her from Valerie and the Hogan Family: the busy body neighbour] tells Susan Claudia Sanchez's husband disappeared so she's selling the house.   He has a step child.  Susan wants to help by buying Claudia's (Justina Machado) Lego pieces.   Marissa (Daniela Bobadilla) the step daughter is being abused just like Gaby was, it's obvious by the look on her face.  Susan buying them off with money as if that will ease her guilt.

Lynette decides to change the wiring in the house for herself and why doesn't she know where Tom keeps the flashlights.  Mike hasn't got any money and hasn't been paid and Susan's off squandering money.   Gaby needs needs Lynette's help with the meeting and maybe she should have just taken Lynette with her.   She wants Lynette to teach her.   Bree hates the "dive" Renee's taken her to and refers to Renee's assets as "Brontee sisters." Ah there were three of them, not two!  Gaby overdoes the use of "fiduciary" and even Penny (Darcy Rose Byrnes) knows what it means.   Lynette thinks Gaby should apply herself instead of using her looks and charms, which she's done "for as long as I've known you."

Bree talks to a man, Bradley (Rick Peters) who claims was at his reunion and he was "about to blow my brains out." What a thing to say especially as Bree was just doing the same last episode.   Susan talks with Marissa telling her she's got nothing to worry about cos Alejandro won't be back, ever.   Bree decides to swim naked in the pool with a complete stranger.   She's way out of her comfort zone.   He's caught by his boss and he's just his assistant.   In fact, the pants on him weren't even his.

Ben is stopped from taking a loan from a loan shark (Sal Landi) by Mike, who will remember his name.   Now that's another enemy Mike has so it increasingly looks like he'll be the one killed off.   Well I have to say it again.   Ben will never be able to pay him back and later when they share a drink together, Mike tells him about Renee's divorce settlement of $12 million.   Gaby uses big words at the dinner with the use of her trusty menu, which is given back to the waiter.   Oh those fake Brit accents were so irritating.

Lynette tells the kids she needs to learn this stuff cos Tom won't be back.   Ben comes over to wine and dine Renee by sweet talking her.   Renee knows he's sorry cos the wine is expensive...he's more interested in her now cos he can get money from her.  Lynette apologizes to Gaby, she's forever lectured Tom and now she misses him, as does Gaby miss Carlos.   Gaby thinks Lynette is right she can't use her looks anymore.   Lynette asks cos she's "getting older."  Gaby replies cos Carlos isn't here.   They have each other and keep touching each other's hands.   Also reminded me of last season when Carlos told Gaby to stay away from Bree and she did exactly the opposite, turning up in places like the two of them were having a secret affair.

Susan returns home, "I think this whole Alejandro nightmare is finally over." She spoke too soon.   Marissa suggests Claudia sell his bike since he won't be back.   Yes Susan give her a cheque with an address on it.   Who writes addresses on cheques anyway, they have the bank address, not home address?   Renee thinks Ben enjoyed himself.

Mary Alice: "Yes good friends will tell you the truth...even when the truth might be something we're reluctant to hear...we still have a great deal to learn...need to ask for help..we may be overlooking a golden opportunity.   Hearing the truth can often set us on another path but we never know where that path might take us or who might be watching."

I think Orson's watching Bree.   I just have this feeling.   Mind you it could be Rex, know I've said that before, come to think of it, let's just throw her entire family into the mix.   Susan  just goes on repeating the same mistakes she's always made in the past and hasn't developed as a character a great deal.   Going round telling things to complete strangers which could get her and her friends into strife, hasn't she learned anything from Vance and that entire fiasco?   As long as she gets a bee in her bonnet and attempts to appease herself, that's all that matters.   What happened to Gaby and the account? Think she probably lost it which is why she's so readily forgiving of Lynette, who is her usual self-controlling self.   Any wonder Tom saw sense and left.

In 1.15 Impossible, Susan caught Andrew and Justin in the pool.   Here Bradley is caught by his boss.   Bree's morality was abundant in this early episode, also here she just loses the plot.  Though she wasn't perfect in the past, don't think even Bree realizes what she's doing and how far she's unravelled as the person she once was.

In contrast to this season, in 1.15 again, the women decided to call the police regarding Martha's murder as they didn't want to withhold evidence.   Here they just covered up Alejandro's death.   Also in this episode Susan broke up with Mike after she found out the extent of his lies and what he had really done.   Just thought I'd mention it here for future reference, though I could be wrong with what's to befall them.   Not a patch on last week's episode which was more entertaining.

CSI: Miami - 8.10: "Count Me Out"

The CSIs chance upon a meth lab and soon there are explosions and CSIs getting injured. Natalia fobs off Jesse's weak attempt at an apology and then loses her hearing.

Jesse (Eddie Cibrian) enters a building and appears to shoot at Walter (Omar Miller)  who is clearly shocked.  

8 Hours Earlier they both play basketball - hearing sirens.   Jesse thinks they could use their help.   A car crashes after the police chase  and the occupant runs.   Jesse and Walter apprehend the driver, finding a DB in the boot of the car.   The driver says he didn't have a choice, to which Horatio (David Caruso) replies, "Everybody has a choice."  There's no blood in the car and fibres on the DB's sweater, which Horatio believes could be from insulation.   The driver says he was hijacked.

ME Tom (Christian Clemenson) finds the COD to be chemical.   Ryan (Jonathan Togo) trying to be clever, says he's no ME but believes the COD to be a blow to the head.   It's actually chemical asphyxia, leading to respiratory and cardiac arrest.   His trachea and lungs were inflamed.   So he was probably in prolonged agony and took about 12-13 hours for him to die.   His federal ID shows he worked for the US Census Bureau.

Jesse apologizes to Natalia (Eva La Rue) for the other night and standing her up.   Natalie comments "something in a sequin dress" came up.   Natalia refuses to work with Jesse, but goes to canvas the houses with Ryan.   Calleigh (Emily Procter) can't wait to get the boot in, "Something tells me this happens to you a lot." Same thing can be said for Calleigh!

Marie (Sharon Pierre Louis) is outside washing cars and works for Paula Olson (Kathleen York).   She has nothing to say and her employer, Olson sends her in abruptly and Calleigh explains that assaulting a police officer is a crime.  Ryan and Natalie come across a foreclosed house and Ryan sees insulation inside the house and calls Horatio.   Ryan gets to kick in the door here.   Natalia smells ammonia, thought Ryan would've smelt that when he was outside, since he appeared to be sniffing.   There's a rat poison box, duct tape, a bottle of ammonia and latex gloves.   They chance upon the meth lab in the next room and it's about to blow.   Natalia and Ryan are caught in the explosion.   (That's been done before, they always seem to find themselves in danger in CSI:Miami, more so than in the other two shows.)

Natalia can't move and Horatio and Ryan must help her out.   She calls Ryan brave for helping her out.   Ryan says she should go to the ER but she wants to stay on the case and already you can see that something's not right with her.   Also everyone who gets injured in CSI:Miami, refuse medical help, if they can.   Just like Calleigh refused to go to hospital after being caught in the fire.  Horatio is adamant they need to find who owns the house.

Marie is concerned about the explosion, which Calleigh picks up on.   Did you notice Marie look down and left when Calleigh was questioning her, a sure sign of lying; when she said she didn't see anyone in the house.

Tripp (Rex Linn) traces the house as belonging to Kevin's (John Patrick Amedori) father and shows him the keys to his house.   Kevin explains he was good at chemistry and a messenger, Tech, (Alexander Bedria) at uni  paid him to cook meth.   He tells them about another meth lab.   Ryan finds a clock and Horatio finds copper wire from the house that exploded.   There was a time delay device, so the house didn't just explode but the meth labs have bombs planted in them.   Starting a frantic attempt to warn Jesse and Walter, but both their phones are off.  Once inside the building, Jesse hears a sound  and spots a trip wire and a clock.   It's a pipe bomb, he shoots at the clock and not as it may have appeared, at Walter.   Walter's shaken and needs to sit down and Jesse comments that "Boa was in the middle of the blast and she's still standing."  Walter pulled the wire when he opened the gate.   The clock was a time-delay detonator.

Horatio accuses Kevin of setting up his team and loses his temper, which is a rare moment indeed!  Christopher Perez (the census taker) was invited into the house by Kevin and was tied up in the meth lab.   Kevin claims he was dead when he went in there 30 minutes later.    Horatio tells Kevin he'd "better hope he finds him."

ME Tom after further analysis concludes that Christopher died a quick death within 30 minutes and he ingested rat poison.   The gas from the poison entered his bloodstream.   Natalia reads up on th decibels explosions, which can be as high as 150-153.   She puts on her headphones and turns the volume high.   Ryan likes this song but she can't hear him.   Natalia replies that she always used to listen to music and Ryan asks since when , which is what I also said.   He tells her his ears are ringing.

Calleigh notices the scarf in the evidence brought to the lab.   The evidence links Marie to murder.   She left it at the house when she went to see Kevin.   He was helping her by getting money for her to leave her employer.   She came here to get an education, but she beats her.   She knows Tech and tells her he hangs out at Bayfront.

Tripp tells Tech he's lucky he didn't break his neck, after giving chase and that they have his "lifestory in paperback."

Natalia processes the scar and finds saliva from Christopher with traces of rat poison, but no prints.   Horatio tells her "nothing is impossible."  When she doesn't get anywhere with her analysis.   He takes the scarf and conducts his own analysis using gold dust to lift prints.   Which Jesse has never seen before.   The process is called vapour metal deposition.   The gold dust is attracted to the oils, when heated, evaporates and the dust attaches to the prints forming a thin coating.   Partials are revealed during this process and they could be from the same finger.   Jesse compares them to Tech and Kevin, naturally they would belong to Tech.   He manipulated Kevin into thinking he'd killed Christopher.   Horatio tells him he'll get a surprise in prison.   Jesse tells Kevin drug dealing is a first degree felony and they're trying  to help Marie.

Calleigh arrests Olson for imprisonment and she says she pays her salary,  Calleigh adds, "in which case, I deserve a raise."  Natalia's hearing is affected as we knew after all.   Horatio says Marie will be able to go to school now.

Don't much like the use of showing events first and then turning back the clock to show how we arrived there.   CSI:Miami  uses a lot of those scenes, media res, and CSI:NY has too.   Here it doesn't feel necessary or interesting, since we know Jesse would never shoot Walter.   Now Ryan - maybe (joke!)  Calleigh being the one to help out Marie this time round and noticing that something was wrong between her and her employer, what a vile woman, pity she didn't resist arrest more violently, ha.

Natalia shrugging off Jesse's attempt at an apology, which he just seemed to mention for the sake of putting it out there, cos it was necessary and not because he sounded like he wanted to.   Natalia showing her obvious abruptness to Jesse for brushing her off like that when Ryan suggests she and Jesse check the houses together.  Then Jesse refers to her as Boa Vista (we sometimes call her 'Boa Constrictor'.)  How many shades of red and orange did you notice when Natalia was in the lift and everyone was walking around in the lab.

John Patrick Amedori is of course lead guitarist and sings harmony vocals in Carmine Giovinazzo's band, Ceesau.

The Closer - 6.8: "War Zone" Review

Shootings of three men outside a nightclub suggest gang violence, which is what turns out to be the truth in a roundabout way, as does mistaken identity.

Three men are gunned down in a drive-by outside a nightclub.   When Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) arrives at the scene, the coroner notices one of the men is wearing army dog tags, as is the other one.   One of the Vics is taken to hospital.   Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) tells her about one of the men being called 'T-Ball.'  It was very typical and stereotypical for them to assume the men were gang members cos of the way they died and their colour.   Provenza (GW Bailey) tells Brenda one of the men is still alive and she races to the hospital to question him.   Ty (Ace Gibson) is critical and Brenda asks him to squeeze her hand twice if he knows who shot him.   He doesn't know but he does know what the shooting was about.   Flatlining at that point, Brenda picks up his bloody tags.

She needs Pope (JK Simmons) and someone from the army called in.   Ty doesn't make it and it's ascertained the three men had just returned from Afghanistan.  'T-Ball' is a member of the 1-10 Cripps, from the same neighbourhood Ty hailed from.   Army contact Major Dorcet (Gary Cole) wants the FBI brought in since it could be a possible terrorist attack and he wants the military alerted to this.   Brenda wants it kept quiet since she's not sure what they're dealing with yet.

Taylor (Robert Gossett) informs Brenda that Turell (Ace Gibson) is at the station, Ty's twin brother and Taylor warns Dorcet against raising the threat level for a gang-related shooting.   Brenda asks for 15 minutes to question Turell who turns out to be T-Ball.   He asks for police protection for himself and his sister, since he was the intended target.   He claims to have been shot through a black Sedan on a street corner.   Sanchez (Raymond Cruz) is sent to investigate along with Tao (Michael Paul Chan) and to retrieve any bullets.   Sanchez confirms reports of a shooting there.

Turell then tells about the shooting at a store, where the owner and his grandson were both shot, but everyone knows the store is off limits to such robberies etc.   Flynn (Tony Denison) finds out that Reggie Moses (Dennis L.A. White) was believed to be the shooter by the police.   Brenda asks for the FBI liaison to be contacted - being Fritz (Jon Tenney) and asks Taylor to contact Pope again and drag him down here.   Brenda allows Dorcet to inform the families of the Vics but for them to keep quiet.   She then asks until noon to continue her investigation.

Tao matches the bullets found at the street corner to the ones used in the store killings and those used to kill the the three.  Turel's prints were on the counter in the store and that he also owns a black Cutlass.   All pointing towards Reggie being the killer.   Which appears to be a bit cut'n'dry.   Dorcet wants them to give Turell immunity as he asks and Pope agrees.   Brenda refuses since they're not certain what happened yet.   Yeah leave it to men to botch things up.   Dorcet comments twice to Fritz about how they can work with someone like Brenda - the second time he thinks she "needs to get laid."  Fritz replies that's not the problem.   Glad Dorcet wasn't told Brenda's married to Fritz.   Pompous jerk!

Reggie demands a lawyer and denies killing the store Vics.   Pope warns Brenda not to begin a war with the army, as it will affect her chances of becoming Chief of Police.   DDA Andrea Hobbs (Kathe E Mazur) grants Turell immunity.   He admits Reggie killed the store Vics and he found the boy in the backroom.   After he followed a blood trail .   That was a lie since the CS photos show the absence of any blood, proving Turell was not only there but that he was the shooter, confirming Brenda's worst fears.   He'll walk for two murders.   She tells him if he lies about anything in his statement then the immunity deal is off and he admits he shot them both.   A huge shock for all concerned, but it was heading that way, showing Brenda was right to be doubtful and wanted to take this slowly.   Also showing the red tape and bureaucracy she'll have to put with if elected Chief.   Well, maybe no more so than now.

Reggie will get the death penalty if he confesses to the killing of the three soldiers and Turell will be free.   Gabriel gets Turell to write his statement.   Reggie still thinks there's no witness to the shootings.   Brenda tells him he should withdraw his request for a lawyer and tells her what happened.   Turell killed them and she pulls the plug on the videofeed to the others.   Reggie is going to get the death penalty for killing the three men.   She lets Reggie make a call - as many as he wants cos she knows he'll call his gang and others to go after Turell.

 Pope says again he wants to stay friends and Brenda says she has a plan for handling Turell.   Brenda, Sanchez and Gabriel  drive Turell home and she tells him his family will be out of police protection as he signed the immunity agreement, so protection is no longer needed.   Men approach from all directions and converge at Turell's house.  Brenda gets in the car and wants to leave.   Gabriel is apprehensive but she insists and he wonders how anyone knew since the media aren't aware of the story yet.  Sanchez comments Reggie must have made a call - several calls.

Another good episode with more twists than usual.   Especially when Brenda knew there was more to Turell than he was letting on - but his admission to the shootings came as a curveball.   Didn't think Brenda had it in her to remove Turell from the picture like that, even if he did deserve some sort of retribution.   If the others had listened to her then she wouldn't have been left with that dilemma of a killer walking free.   Reggie was getting the death penalty and so was Terrell in the end; with his attitude that everyone owed him something and getting his brother and two other innocents gunned down and the store shootings too.

Some background on Brenda, she was born on  a military base and her father was in the air force .

CSI 12.11 Ms Willow Regrets Review

A man and woman enter a building and kill the staff at a law firm and then a third man in a raincoat turns up to kill off one of the women who is hanging on to dear life.  Nick (George Eads) and DB (Ted Danson) are called  to the potential CS where the three DBS were found by campers in the woods.  Nick notices the DBs are skeletons and the bodies have been picked clean which is unusual since they only died 24 hours ago.  The DBs are covered with beetles.  Nick, as we know is now resident 'bugman'.  There are too many beetles for that amount of decomp to have taken place so quickly.

The DB was a lawyer and Sara (Jorga Fox) and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) process the law office only to find it's been thoroughly cleaned.  The 'team' seem to have done a miraculous job in getting in and out in record time.  Morgan sprays with luminol and finds the presence of blood, so they didn't do such a thorough job on close inspection.  Sara also finds this and luminols the outline of the DB where he fell out of the closet.  Note shoddy patch up job on the door.

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) hears the lawyer's name, Malcolm (Kevin Dobson) being mentioned and immediately thinks of her friend, Laura (Annabeth Gish).  He was the lawyer she recommended to her in the episode Zippered.  She fears for her life as Laura knew a secret about her husband Mark (Titus Welliver).  Laura is missing.  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) can't find any trace of her.

Nick and Greg (Eric Szmanda) engage in an experiment  involving chicken and the beetles polish it off in record time.  On closer inspection, Nick finds the beetles physiology has been dramatically altered, it's reproductive organs are replaced.  Nick and Greg also manage to polish off the chicken too, though they're not allowed to eat in the lab. What DB doesn't know won't hurt.  Nick takes his findings to Catherine.  The beetles are super beetles and this is another field Ceressus was involved in.  They have been bio-engineered.

Mark is brought in for questioning and feigns concern for Laura and then leaves again.  Catherine's mother, Lily (Anita Gillette) arrives with a card for Catherine which was mailed to her and she finds it's signed by 'David Campbell,'  Laura's father.  Sara finds a memory card inside and clearly Catherine didn't notice the card was a musical card and it didn't play any music.  The card has photos of the couple on holiday, obviously it had to have been more than that!  There's also a recent photo of Laura in front of a house which Catherine recalls belongs to Laura's cousin.

At the house, they find the DBs of the couple and Catherine recalls the hiding place under the floorboards.  Laura is found alive and tells of hearing a man's voice with an accent. Why was Laura sitting outside in plain sight when she was a target not a few hours ago.  The raincoat man (Jack Dimich) sits and watches and could have finished her off then and there.  At Hodges' (Wallace Langham) say so, he notices the fish in the photo has no shadow, Archie (Archie Kao) finds info stored on the card.
 The info contains transactions to Switzerland.  CFO of Ceressus is brought in, Arthur Martens (Mark Aiken) and he finally confesses to knowing the man in the raincoat, a hired mercenary, but he hasn't operated on US soil, until now.  He gives up Mark.

DB brings in Agents Pratt (Matt Lauria) and McQuaid (Grant Show) of the FBI again and McQuaid is assigned protection duty on Laura.  At the hospital, Catherine walks past the rest of the FBI agents and amongst them is the same woman from the beginning, part of the assassination team.

As the team go over surveillance footage they work out how the team managed to clean up the office and then notice the raincoat man.  He was obvious a mile off, don't know why he wasn't already on their radar.  On the footage is also the same woman whom Catherine recalls was at the hospital.  She's too late as she and DB arrive at the scene of the carnage where Laura and McQuaid were killed.  SO far the DBs are only identified cos of his badge and her ring.  Maybe it's far fetched but writing this before watching the second ep, I was thinking  perhaps it's not really them.  I mean what about Catherine's burgeoning attraction and relationship with McQuaid and what about her dwindling one with Vartann (Alex Carter).  Catherine loses her cool with Pratt asking how he could let this happen.  DB sends her home.

Later Catherine sends an e-mail to DB containing her letter of resignation.  Vartann drops her off at home but she doesn't invite him in, not much passes between them in terms of conversation for two who were meant to have been one-time lovers.  Once inside Catherine puts down her gun, bad idea since you know what's coming next.  Bullets fly and she manages to knock out the lamp and reach her gun, shooting her way out.  Once outside she stands in front of an approaching car, who turns out to be DB to the rescue, bullets rain and she is shot.  I thought Vartann would have had a niggling feeling or would have driven by to check on her but no such luck.

Vartann notices the closeness of Catherine and McQuaid and has to ask about him. Yet once again can Catherine really be so unlucky in love, even though she wanted to keep everything professional for the duration of the case at least.  Small scenes for Greg and Morgan this ep as it clearly belonged to Catherine. She owned the drama, the highs and lows in the second part of the three episode arc marking her departure from the show and a veritable milestone in the show's history.

Loved the scene between Greg and Nick and the chicken but eeww, Nick was handling those beetles and he ate with the same gloves on.

This ep also continued from Zippered and will conclude in a third episode arc.  Catherine's mother was last seen in The Case of the Cross Dressing Carp.  At least this episode was a great one in terms of CSI shows since they have been inconsistent this season.  The action was kept moving along and was in marked contrast to Gil Grissom's (William Petersen's) departure from the show.

Nick: "It's amazing.  They picked it clean in less than an hour."
Greg: "Yeah. They eat even faster than you."  Nick has been shown enjoying his food in several episodes, especially the breakfasts the team used to have together  in many a CSI episode. A thing of the past?

CSI: NY - 1.7: "Rain"

The CSIs investigate an apparent robbery at a bank, which leads to a kidnapping, as well as to numerous suspects and a few twists. Lots to analyze, forensics as it should be.

A man comes out of a building in Chinatown on fire in the rain.   Mac (Gary Sinise) comments on his eyebrows and eyelashes being singed.   There's bruising on his his cheek but his face hasn't got the same degree of burns as his chest.   Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) comments on there being "something gooey here."
Mac: "gooey that's a good forensic word, gooey, I'll have to use that more."  Mac notices the trace of melted plastic and finds a discarded mask.   Inside the bank, the safety deposit vault was cut away from the wall.   Flack: "Gotta wear a mask for a bank robbery, it's a rule."  Two bank security guards fired shots and the acetylene tank caught fire.   Martin Hummel (Matt Bushell) one of the guards thinks there were two, but he was trying to save his partner, Tony's life.   One shot the other and Tony (Andre Ware) was DOA.  

Stella follows a blood trail to the alley and the trail ends outside as it's washed away by the rain.   Mac takes Hummel's gun and retrieves a bullet from the wall.   Another mask is found inside.   Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) "ballistics is gonna be fun on this one." They all seem to get lines with 'fun' in them this first season.   Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) got one in the third episode American Dreamers about being able to reconstruct the Vic's face; calling it "big fun." Six months ago the bank was a shoe store.   The wall was cut and Flack says the robbers entered through the empty store after the alarm was switched off.   Giving them 30 minutes to rob the place.   They had to leave the way they came in.   So Danny says the first robber knocked over the tank.   Aiden wonders why they didn't just take items from the boxes in one area.  

Stella had to have the answer on that one.   Box numbers all ended in '8'.   Which Mac explains is the lucky number in Chinese culture.   They believed their money would be safe in boxes with the number 8.   Danny asks why box numbers 12, 14, 45 were also opened.   This question doesn't get answered, which left us wondering too, so why have him ask it to begin with.   Hate when that happens, cos it leaves you hanging.

The leasing agent received a letter from the owner a week ago saying he didn't want the building rented out.   Mac asks Flack: "You buying this story?"
Flack: "You know me, everyone's a suspect until you prove otherwise."  Finally we begin to see the funny and witty side of Flack, which will become synonymous with him.   At least he was given more lines than he has in the past.   Mac finds an umbrella shell outside which was used on the hole in the door to open it.

Hawkes (Hill Harper) finds the Vic suffered secondary and tertiary burns over 52% of his body.   Abnormal accumulation of fluid in his chest led to pulmonary edema.   There's no smoke or soot in his throat and he was instantly suffocated.   He was holding something in his hand.  There's damage on his outer tissue of his hand so they'll have to work inside out for prints.

Stella examines the fragments found at the CS, including a Jade monkey; part of a charm and the clasp reveals a partial print.  Aiden examines the bank tape and all the robbers were wearing the same mask, constructed from a real face.   Which happens to be Aiden's specialty.   Aiden uses a laser to outline the face print from the mask.   The burn Vic was Carlton Heinz, the other is a John Doe.

Chinese characters signifying love, prosperity, were taken from the vault, but why?  The contents in the boxes were worth over $10,000 so they knew what was in the boxes, suggesting an inside job.   The print on the clasp leads to Joanne Cho (Samantha Quan) she keeps the bank keys and has an eleven month old daughter, Dolores and she recognizes the Jade monkey.   Stella: "The first time I looked at them, it took me a while to figure out what they were."  Cos she's implying she's not Chinese, but you don't have to be Chinese to work out what they were.   Joanne doesn't know Carlton.   Mac says the monkey is significant cos 2004 is the year of the monkey.   A young, female, Chinese child had the charms for prosperity and good fortune.   Dolores was kidnapped.   The bank robbery turns into a kidnapping.  Joanne shows them the note with missing letters, telling her they have Dolores and what she should do.   The letter 'x' is missing from the word 'boxes.'  She was threatened with Dolores' death if she called the police.   Flack discovers the phone number is a public phonebox at Madison Square Gardens.   The clothes and the note is analyzed.  Danny test fires bullets from the guns.

They go over the sequence of events inside the vault.   Hummel heard the shot, as Flack says, the first shot from the robber's gun hit  Tony.   Hummel wasn't there when it happened and he fired at someone in the smoke.   Flack asks Danny: "You believe me?"
Danny: "yeah I do, but then there's the evidence." Clearly showing what Mac said to him on the previous episode and in 1.5 A Man A Mile rubbed off on him and he knows he needs to follow the evidence to find the answers.

Mac analyzes the note.   Aiden accesses the parole database for the mask and the facial features match Luthor Willet (Alex Sol) he was involved in a bank robbery 4 years ago.   She and Flack interview Willet, "wow cops around here just get prettier everyday."
Flack: "Watch it."
Willet: "Well, hey don't get upset.   I just got out of prison, you both look good to him." Which isn't something Flack wants to hear.   Though yeah, Flack does look good!  He claims he can't help them since he had 15 different cellmates in prison.

Stella analyzes the clothes.   Danny uses a laser to map out the trajectory of the bullets.   Each of them talk to themselves here when they analyze the evidence and that disappeared soon enough in the show, which was a shame in some cases.  Stella finds the presence of sodium polyacrylate, found in disposable nappies/diapers and artificial snow.   Mac finds the letters used on the note are from 3 different magazines.   The snowflakes could be from a play set in winter, called Winter Retreat.   There's a hole on the door of the theatre and a DB inside.   Small handprints can be seen in the blood.   There's a hair on the DB.   A paper test proves positive for the presence of cocaine.   There's a missing letter 'X' on the inside of the magazine cover.   The DB is identified as Moretti, he was in jail with Willet.

Hawkes discovers a gunshot wound to the neck, hit the carotid artery and he bled to death.   There was shattered glass at the scene, lead paint.   Hawkes doesn't know what to make of it.   Mac: "usually you have all the answers Sheldon." His lungs contain mercury and traces of lead in his trachea.   The same trace found in the clean-up crews at Ground Zero.   Moretti was sick 3 years ago, over a period of time glass fibres settle in the lungs, this was more recent.   The paper has a dragon symbol.

A ransom note is sent to Joanne, but no prints or DNA can be lifted.   The handwriting is analyzed to reveal the same person wrote both notes.   Mac: "some sort of gooey residue on the top of the paper."
Stella: "great choice of words."  Well knew that was coming.  Stella raises the imprint from the page above and needs a translator.   Joanne wants to pay the ransom and the Police Department has to respect her wishes.   Stella places the money at the newsstand at Central Park and waits with Flack.

A man approaches the stand and sirens blare, causing him to run.   It's a Police Terrorist Response Drill.   Stella: "Did you know about this?"
 Flack: "They don't send out a memo."  Duh Stella, yes they'd advertize it wouldn't they, then how would it be a drill if they're aware it's going to happen.  The same principle of having fire drills at school and work, you don't know they're coming.   The money is still there and a mask is left on the ground.  The stand is dusted for prints.   Stella seems to have an irritating side, what another one, ha, she doesn't answer her own questions.

There's a message on the notepad.   Nina Chang (Kym Hoy) is a make-up artist who worked on the play at the theatre.  The name 'Chang' is searched in a 10013 partial zip code.   Mac comments on 'six degrees of separation'.   The hairs on the body, being out of prison, needed a place to live, leading to this zip code.  The debris in his body leads to the fallout zone in Lower Manhattan.   The drug packet has a dragon logo.   The address leads to Nina Chang.   She made the masks and met Moretti (David Guzzone) at the theatre.   She left him there to die.   Mac asks her to write the Pledge of Allegiance to check her handwriting.

Danny finds the computer trajectory doesn't match the sequence of events of where the bullets were fired from.   There were 5 shots at the CS, five casings were found.   One hit and killed the security guard, 1 was found from the wall behind him, 1 recovered from the adjacent building; missing discharge from Tony's gun was found in Moretti, 1 found in the vault pillar.   He recreated the scene and found that the bullet didn't hit the pillar.   Hummel's story doesn't fit cos his bullet stopped in midair, turned left and then hit the pillar.   Rain diluted the partial found at the newsstand, but it belongs to Hummel.   Danny tells him he shouldn't have fired his weapon.   He didn't shoot at anything, his casing was found out of the vault.   Hummel says no one was meant to get hurt.

 Hummel could have been a hero and returned the baby, no one would have known.   Mac: "It's always something, something you didn't expect or count on.   Something that always screws everything up...if only it hadn't rained." Alluding to the episode title.   Nice line that cos it's true, something always goes wrong especially when people think they can get away with committing crime.

Also some foreshadowing here, with Danny analyzing the bullets and casing and determining what happened at the CS, cos it'll happen to him too later on in the season.   Think someone was having a sneaky laugh here at his expense.

Mac mentioning Six Degrees of Separation, a play.   Which means everyone in the world is connected by six people.   Also mentioned by Gill Grissom (William Petersen) first in the CSI episode Let the Seller Beware: "to connect you to the Vic is one degree."  Also CSI episode $35K O.B.O.  where there was rain which affected the CS and the evidence collected.  Funnily enough typed this out after the season 9 CSI:Miami episode FTF was aired.   That had water from a  fire hydrant contaminating the evidence.   CSI:Miami season 2.12 Witness to Murder, rain clouds loom so no evidence can be processed until they reach the lab.   In CSI episode Friends and Lovers, string is used to map out the blood spatter traces.  

CSI:Miami season 2 episode Witness to Murder the bullet trajectory is traced.   I love writing about deja vu and how other episodes of CSI shows and the same show itself uses similar storylines, plots and evidence in their own episodes.   I just find it interesting.   If you do too, or if you just want to read up on the three shows and how they began, as well as an in-depth look at CSI:NY season 1, then check out my book, New York Minutiae: An Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to CSI:NY.

Great thing about this episode was that the producers got to actually film a real terrorist alert drill when filming on location in New York, as well as getting caught in a thunderstorm.   New scenes were filmed due to this drill and used in this episode.

Castle - 2.2: "The Double Down"

Castle and Beckett investigate a murder which turns out to be connected to the case Ryan and Esposito are assigned. To make matters worse they bet on who can solve their case first.

Chaos at the precinct and Castle (Nathan Fillion) comments the "full moon brings out all the crazies."  They've got "madness, mayhem now all they need is" murder.   Which they get.   A husband finds his wife, Ashley's body at the office.   Castle again mentions those science shows, where they can build a bird's eye view of what the fish saw from the tank.   Lanie (Tamala Jones) wears a dress which opens Castle's eyes and he can't stop staring and it ain't at the dress either.   There are words written on the Vic's face and Castle also adds the killer didn't have any sense of grammar.   That "who or whom would be tougher to use" but not 'your' and you're'.   The killer also murdered the English language.   Jason (Brennan Elliott) claims to be at a game and Esposito (Jon Huertas) and Ryan (Seamus Dever) have another murder to deal with.   Ryan will miss warm milk and honey with Jenny.   He wasn't meant to say it out loud.

Castle claims Ashley had dinner with someone with bad grammar.   Perlmutter (Ayre Gross) finds the second Vic was shot and the "body is speaking."  Don't know how many variations we'll get of that line.   It was probably a mugging.   Castle thinks by writing on the murder Vic, a point was being made.   Could have used proper language though.   Oh enough with the language.   The mugging Vic, Frank was a retired teacher and Castle is curious to know how the body was found.   Esposito replies, "in the ground."  No, that's on the ground.   Language!  He posits muggings are one of the hardest cases to close and they can close theirs first.   They bet on this.   Only if they don't tell Beckett (Stana Katic).   Castle: "Secrets, murder and gambling, three of my favourite pastimes."

Martha (Susan Sullivan) doesn't think much of the bet.   Ashley's friend, Brandi Rossini (Amy Stewart) had dinner with her and she was going to take a restraining order out against someone.   Castle corrects Beckett, when she asks who? "Whom."  She has an alibi and Jason's alibi also checks.   So they're left with the patients,  Ryan and Esposito find Frank's family, Christine (Linara Washington) and Eric (Marco Martinez).   Castle tells Ryan and Esposito it can't be gang kids who killed Frank cos it's their regular haunt.   Hey Ryan isn't reading any of Castle's books, thus far.   Beckett suspects they're up to something.

Hal (Jim O'Heir) had a doctor's appointment and he heard arguing in the session before him.   Well Castle was wrong about him, he wasn't the killer.   The session before was attended by Hinkel (Matt Winston) who doesn't have any record.   Castle posits he could have "snapped after two years of therapy." Kerpowsky (Diana-Maria Riva) gets in on the bet as do others.   Ryan and Esposito have a suspect already and Ryan suggests they 'double down.'  Esposito says the loser should wear a dress for a week and shave his head.  Beckett runs her hand through her hair at the same time.   Hinkel didn't do it as Ashley cancelled his appointment and had lunch with Jason.   Beckett wonders why Castle is playing supercop.   The entire office is buzzing.

Jason and Ashley were arguing at the restaurant and she was getting an order against hm, gee that was obvious.    Castle made it apparent there was a bet going on when he collected the money and Beckett wants in.   He claims the money is for Girls Scout cookie orders.   Really he couldn't come up with a better excuse than that?   Didn't think Beckett would be cool with the bet, she's changed this season - she may even be growing on me - I wearily say.   Jason took out life insurance on Ashley which he claims she wanted him to do.   Castle writes a note to Ryan and Esposito on the other side of the glass and they both prove Jason's alibi by watching the basketball game on TV.   Castle puts his mother's dress against him in the mirror, was Castle really contemplating defeat, when he knows he's been the reason why so many cases were solved.

Alexis (Molly Quinn) still has Owen issues.   Frank lived in a rent controlled apartment which stays controlled if it says in the family.  Eric was cut off, that was motive right there and the life insurance too where Jason was concerned.   Castle doesn't want to shave his head.   Lanie calls all four to tell them their cases are connected.   Both Vics had traces of salt water compound from the same body of water.   Eric and Christine have alibis too.   The fish tank was a red herring !  Beckett assumes the perp was in her office too and the Vics were killed by the same person.   That didn't sound right.

This isn't random anymore and Christine picks out a name from Ashley's patient list, Grovner (Gareth Williams) but he is wearing a GPS on his ankle for missing parole.     Castle was just saying there aren't any coincidences in murder and here was a coincidence.   He hears Martha and Alexis arguing but they're rehearsing.   Martha tells him there's a connection between everyone in New York city.   Beckett gives Castle a clue this time as does Alexis.   She recalls her mother and how Christina thought it was a random death, but she needs to know why.   Beckett tells Esposito and Ryan they should swap cases, "You take our murder, we'll take yours."  Had a feeling Hitchcock would be involved.   Strangers on a Train.   The connection is the killers themselves.   They could kill each other's Vic's and have an alibi, but not for any of  the other murders.   Castle notices Jason takes the ferry, thus the water connection, and it matches from the Hudson.   They need a confession.

Jason is the alpha in this conspiracy and he made a pact with Eric that if they don't break no one can prove what they did.   Beckett and Castle tell Eric that Jason confessed, leading him to break first.   They argue over who won the bet.   There was no other way out of the bet if the cases weren't related, though I didn't think that from the outset, but luckily I worked it out before they did, ha.  They couldn't have heads being shaved and dresses being donned.   Castle in a dress is so imaginable!  I wanted to see that.  The highlight of this episode was the comedy, screwball at times and trust Castle/Nathan to pull it off so convincingly.  

Castle: "If this was one of those super scien-cy forensic shows you could stick some electrodes in these fish's tanks."

Strangers on a Train, or boat in this case, makes for an interesting story and Castle (the show that is) executed it to perfection.   Other shows have mentioned this great book and film including, NCIS in 12.5 Stakeout, by Tony, who else.   Also 7.3 The Inside Man; Bones 2.15 Bodies in the Book; CSI 3.19 A Night at the Movies, The Simpsons Tree House of Horror XX, to name a few.

Supernatural - 6.17: "My Heart Will Go On" Review

Sam and Dean check out mysterious deaths and discover the Titanic never sank, but their descendants are being killed off. They meet one of the fates and Cas must help them.

Chester, Pennsylvania  a man in his garage has near misses and finally the garage door falls and decapitates him.   Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) both want each other to say something to Bobby (Jim Beaver) and Dean suggests they let him sleep.   Bobby doesn't believe it's about Rufus since he had it coming when he met him and the only question was who would go first, Bobby or Rufus.   Sam reads an article about Chester and they decide to investigate.

The Impala is no longer an Impala but a Mustang and the number plates changed to KAZ 2Y5, the plates the Impala had when the show first began.   Bobby is married to Ellen (Samantha Ferris) who has been hunting with Jo.   Now as soon as that happened alarm bells rang, something's not right.

Chester, Pennsylvania  They check out the garage.   Sam doesn't think it's about vengeful spirits (hey I miss those.)  Sam finds what appears to be some sort of tinsel like fibre and thinks it's gold.   Dean: "accidents just don't happen accidentally."  Sam looks at him when he says that.   Dean says they should speak to his next of kin and poses as a genealogy professor.   He asks if there have been any violent deaths in the Russo family and Shawn Russo (Jason Schombing) is in danger and could the next Vic.   The next Vic actually gets her scarf caught in the copier when a woman appears and throws her keys by the copier and drops another tassel on the floor.    How careless was that , leaving clues at the CS? Well, they were crime scenes.   Anne (Jill Morrison) wasn't related to the other man.

Ellen tells Bobby accidents have been happening globally.   The families came to the US in the Titanic in 1912 and it's just a boat.  No one's heard of it.   Sam finds the first mate's  name is 'IP Freely.' The picture is of Balthazar (Sebastian Roche).   The Titanic was meant to sink but he saved it, cos he hated the movie.   "God awful Celine Dion wanted me to smite myself."  Some would take offence at that especially Celine's fans.  Sam tells him they're all dying now and he "totally Butterfly effected history."  Dean doesn't want any [Ashton] Kutcher references.   Ellen and Jo are alive.   Sam posits the descendants of the survivor's are being killed off.  Balthazar: "You have me confused with the other angel...  the one in the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with you."

Bobby says they're dealing with Fate, at least one of them.   Sam comments the sisters from Greek mythology.   Dean: "nerd." Thus the gold thread.   They can't stop fate but can get an angel to sink the boat.   Which is different to dying since they won't have been born.   Dean tells Bobby about Ellen and Jo and then Bobby looks at the photo with him and Ellen at the B&E Scrapyard.   He doesn't want the ship sunk.

Russo gets run over by a bus anyway (like the bus in season 2.5 Simon Said.)  Dean laughs at the sign on the back of the bus, "Justice matters."  Sam sees Fate who lures them into a building.   Sam tells Dean she looked like a librarian.   Dean: "Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?"  Sam: "Well she was wearing clothes if that's what you mean." (Don't picture the librarian in The Big Sleep movie with Humphrey Bogart, stereotypically she too wore glasses.)  Sam and Dean enter the building and time stands still and she turns on the gas cooker.   Cas (Misha Collins) arrives in the nick to save them.   Sam suggests Dean should use his lighter when the torch goes out.   Dean's lighter never works which is just as well and it appears he hasn't replaced the old one yet but then again it may have lit.   By some turn of fate, ha.

Cas takes them to white Russia and hates them for stopping the apocalypse.   Cas knows her and has to kill her.   Sam: "Kill fate."  Wouldn't that be great.   Balthazar has a weapon.   Dean tells him he needs new friends.   Cas is "trying to save the ones I have."  Cas calls it "tempting fate."  Ellen meanwhile tells Bobby "you can't stop fate."  She thinks it's easier to sink the ship.   Bobby is angry and they'll be missed.   Bobby blabs about her and Jo's fate and he needs her.   Dean thinks they can meet their fate at anytime.  Blondie's One Way or Another plays throughout lots of scenarios, such as in season 3's Mystery Spot episode with the trickster.  They have to walk through knife throwers, jugglers with hatchets and fire, as well as dogs.   Why walk through them obviously to tempt fate as Cas put it.  

Atropos (Katie Walder) says Sam and Dean ruined her life, so did Cas.   Cas doesn't want her to get emotional since freedom is better.   She's no longer required.   This isn't about the movie, it's about souls and Balthazar is under Cas's orders.   Atropos tells him it's about 50,000 new souls for Cas's "war machine."  That was a clue to purgatory and why it's whereabouts need to be found.   If he doesn't sink the ship, she'll kill his fave pets: Sam and Dean.   "Fate strikes when you least expect it."  Balthazar was meant to kill her.   He agrees to sink the Titanic.

Dean wakes up to to My Heart Will Go On on the radio.   Dean has to wake Sam up and tells him his dream was weirder and Sam dreamt the same dream.   Cas says it wasn't a dream and he had to correct what happened for them.  Sam can't believe he killed 50,00 people for them.   Cas says what Ellen did, they were never born.   Cas wanted them to remember and to know what fate is.  Sam and Dean taught him you can make your own destiny, to choose freedom and he wanted them to understand that.   Dean "Titanic's not so bad - Winslet's rack." That was Dean's whole raison d'etre for watching it no doubt, ha!  Bobby still sleeps and Singer Autos' is now the sign in the photo with Bobby alone.

This was kind of going back to the earlier episodes where Dean used to not believe in fate or destiny - which Cas reminds him of at the end here.  Oh so everyone was liking this episode with Final Destination once more, just like from season 1.4 Phantom Traveler.   Yet it was different enough to maintain its own identity.   Final Destination involved death seeking out its survivors.   This episode concerned fate since these people should never have been born.   I should say they weren't fated to be born.   Also a swipe at Sam and Dean who have forever been "toying" with their own fates and keep bringing each other back from the dead or are brought back by someone else.   The argument about making your own destiny has been Dean's from earlier seasons and  what the show all entailed in its heyday.

Bobby and Ellen made a convincing couple; they have just enough similarities in their characters to make such a marriage work.  Bobby losing another wife - but when it came to the crunch he didn't want to lose her - even if it meant people were being stalked by fate.   For Ellen it wasn't the same thing since she was born and she died so her loss and her presence were both felt.

Were we meant to be convinced that Cas having all those souls for his war in heaven was his reason behind not wanting the ship sunk.   Considering there are considerably more souls in purgatory for the taking.   Balthazar was funny as usual, he did all that on the basis of not liking a song, clearly he showed he can mess with Fate if he feels like it and can get away with it for as long as possible.

Atropos, aka Aisa, was the eldest of the three fates.   Her sister was Clotho who spun the thread.   Lachesis measured the thread and Atropos took lives by cutting the thread of mortals with the use of her shears.   Atropos was also called "inevitable" or "inflexible" and she lived up to this title here.   Showing Cas she is a formidable force and she would do anything to ensure Sam and Dean met their fate as he couldn't be around to protect them all the time.   He could have just brought them back again as he will say to Crowley.

A bit of a Bad Day At Black Rock from season 3 episode, instead of bad luck we had Fate, though some may argue it's much the same thing.  The number of times the Titanic was called boat here, it was a ship.   Also Balthazar says what most have been thinking about Cas being in love with Dean.   Well I didn't think it, but that's been the joke.   He's more in awe of Dean and how he can do whatever he wants and get by, or get away with it no matter what.   That's more akin to Balthazar.

NCIS - 7.8: "Power Down" Review

NCIS investigates the death of a woman at a robbery which turns out to be more complex than it appears. Also Washington DC is hit by a power failure as a result. Can the team cope?

There's a shoot-out at a building where server info is stored, resulting in a power failure.  So why's Tony (Michael Weatherly) playing with all the electrical equipment, not everything will work even with their generators.  Palmer (Brian Dietzen) tells him Ducky (David McCallum) sent him up for a Sit Rep.   Gibbs (Mark Harmon) will get angry if Ziva (Cote de Pablo) and McGee (Sean Murray) aren't at work.   They happen to be stuck in the lift and Ziva breaks McGee's watch, cos he keeps looking at the time.  There's a silver lining, according to her, they could be worse off and be stuck here with Tony.   Oh no, then she'd have to mention his sweat again! Ha.  

Ziva comments Gibbs is feeling right at home, which he is, never was into all that techno stuff.  Tony adds you don't need electricity to drink bourbon and use hand tools.   McGee asks if Gibbs is behind Tony.   Tony quickly adds a cocktail wouldn't hurt now or then, just to cover himself, avoid a head slap in the process.

Ducky arrives late at the CS as Palmer has trouble navigating even when the street lights are on.   The Vic is Navy Lt.  Emma Paxton identified by her credit card in her boot.   The security guards shot three of them, she was still alive and was presumably shot by the others, nothing can be that straightforward.   McGee needs to take photos of the server farm, which he explains connects Net to Net users, but his battery runs out.   Cue Gibbs and his Polaroid, hey I've still got mine too.

 Tony notices tyre tracks from the car.   McGee asks how they can run prints through AFIS and the photos from the cameras without power.  McGeek shouldn't have to ask that! Emma was organizing concerts for military overseas.   Tony believes she was robbing the farm.   She married her high school sweetheart, Anthony Paxton ( Corey Sorenson), Tony: "nice name."  McGee resorts to using board and pins since his touchscreen TV no longer works, he says it's going to be a long case.

Abby (Pauley Perrette) needs her Caf Pow and attempts to make her own and needs to run a diagnostic on her "babies." She doesn't have any power.   Gibbs tells her Ducky has corpses that she doesn't have.   Abby will have to identify the tyre print by hand so he shouldn't expect her normal miracles, at least for an hour.   Tony is flashing to the fourth grade where his teacher thought he was cheating on his Geology test, when Gibbs uses the copy machine.   McGee refers to it as a brontosaurus and who'd know how to use it.

Gibbs questions Anthony who wants her buried with full military honours.   McGee says according to the CEO of the farm nothing was stolen.   Tony looks at the map and comments McGee hasn't seen Dragnet, Baretta or Kojak, thus "this will mean nothing to you, Who loves ya baby."  Tony complete with lollipop in hand.   Of course everyone will remember Kojak and his famous catchphrase and lollipop.  "Right boss, Telly on the telly, sorry." (Referring to Telly Savalas, the actor who played Kojak.)  Tony adds what's a cork board without a map! McGee has to go through the credit cards and bank statements and says he doesn't do hard copies.   Tony and McGee flip for who will talk with Emma's CEO and Ziva sneaks off with Tony.

Ducky says his tools don't need electricity.   Two gunshots were fired at close range.   He lets the staff use one of the lockers for storing food, cue influx of staff.  Made a change from hardly anyone going down there.   Emma suffered from severe trauma, broken bones and GS wounds, but she's never been in combat.  Emma's CEO (Cara Buono) tells them Emma called in sick and she is allergic to perfume.   Ziva doesn't wear any, it's Tony's eau de cologne, as there's no hot water.   There, see I saved Ziva the sweaty comments from earlier on by mentioning them myself, ha.

 Emma was lying to her husband as she was seen with another man.   Tony asks for a description.  "He was a male."  Tony comments, "A male man." McGee suffers from paper cuts and Gibbs provides him with band aids.   McGee was acting like a big baby here, as if he's never encountered paper before, he uses a typewriter to write his books!!  He hasn't gotten any paper cuts then?!  A commentary on the computer age and how technology's made people lazy! McGee ponders "how did people survive before search engines." Er, they didn't, they all used to live in caves.

Tony returns and throws files off his desk onto McGee's papers on the floor, yes more juvenile antics from him.   Tony wonders how people survived before e-mail?  Again he doesn't use e-mail that often or even the Net as he's said to Gibbs on many occasions in past episodes and yet here he's given that line.   Tony is old enough to have gone to school, college, etc without the use of computers!  Also the Baltimore PD wouldn't have been that computer savvy when he was around, especially in the early days! It took Abby two hours to find the make and model of the Chevy Impala '99.   She ponders how people survived before algorithms.  

An abandoned car report was heard over the police radio.   Here they find the car and a blood trail.   As well as a container with computer equipment.  McGee mentions it's like the TARDIS from Doctor Who, which Tony hasn't heard of.  Tony: "Doctor Who, who watches that?" (I do.)  Tony says it's more like Nic Cage in Lord of War.   Also there are Jason Bourne Identikits: passports and weapons.   Ziva's used such places before when she prepared for Ops.   McGee is glad it has its own generator, which gives out.

Tony notices a second car was used to leave in and he feels like Davy Crockett.   Ziva finds blueprints for Swiftcast, the server farm.   Tony had to say it, that Anthony is married to Mata Hari.   Emma also had a fake passport for him which he denies seeing.   He hired a PI, Emma wasn't cheating on him.  McGee views the tapes in MTAC and Tony asks if he needs help.    McGee doesn't and Gibbs tells him McGee was just rubbing it in since he was left with the paperwork earlier, and why not I say! ha.   Gibbs notices a man following her on the video and he leaves his handprint on the wall.   They have to physically go through the fingerprint cards from the local LEOs.   Now it's McGee's turn to flash to the fourth grade and Mrs Johnson's science fair.   Tony says "you never see this crap on Columbo." That's cos he doesn't need files, or fingerprints, ha, he only needs his Columbo brain and logic!  Abby matches the prints to Donovan Graham and it only took them all night.)  His photo matches the sketch.

They find two DBs in the house, both from the robbery and Emma's CEO, Cmdr Resnik.  Tony asks if she had a make-over.  She's NSA and Gibbs has to squint to read her ID.   They were working on a classified project.  She and Emma were the only two people who had their iris coated into devices, like a masterkey, enabling them to open any lock which has an iris scanner.   The passports were just incase their cover was blown.   She doesn't know if Emma had gone rogue.   Ducky says the CS was staged, both of the men were moved after they were killed.   Palmer asks who one of them was.   Gibbs: "Don't know Jim, do you have any ideas?"  Ducky also finds they had been digging.

Tony: "Think McToma, it's a classic cop show switcheroo."  They swapped it with a bugged copy and bugged the Net.   McGee says all government agencies were exposed explaining why the power went out.   Abby finds Emma wasn't selling info, she ran the blood, whilst drinking non-alcoholic whiskey,  to find she had ingested a vaso dilator, which would have blocked Emma's ability to unblock any iris scanner and mentions MacGyver.   There were traces on the guard.   When the power comes on, the security guard attempts to access the server.   Tony walks in repeating the lines from Dragnet, 'where the names have been changed to protect the innocent.'  Gibbs: "Book 'em Dano-zzo." Oh Gibbs you've been watching Hawaii Five-O.

Emma had a choice, as Gibbs tells Anthony and "that's what makes her a hero." Tony enjoyed being unplugged, no spam  no e-mails to return.   It gave McGee time to think, yeah of everything he could be doing on a computer, ha.  Elf Lord.  Gibbs switches off his computer and relaxes.

Good to see an NCIS episode where they had to resort to good old fashioned legwork without having computers and other equipment around to rely on and a chance for Gibbs to show them how it used to be done.   As said already, Tony should have been all for that as he's old enough to have been around before the computer revolution.  Probably he'd have liked to have been doing something else whilst the power was down and I don't mean eating either.

Merlin - 3.4: "Gwaine" Review

Arthur once again fights in a tournament, with someone who wants to kill him. He's helped again and this time by a knight who doesn't want to admit he is titled. Merlin sees in him something that will be helpful to Arthur.

After a day of hunting, Arthur (Bradley James) insists he's in need of some mead.  Merlin (Colin Morgan) mistakenly believes it's sleep that he needs, not mead.  They stop at a local tavern where Arthur posits he can tell what people are thinking about him in such a place.  Merlin won't be Arthur's servant when they enter the tavern, but just a "simple peasant."

Merlin replies, "The simple part's right," referring to Arthur.  The bar wench pays a compliment, which Arthur thinks is directed at him, but it's Merlin she finds handsome!

There's the usual trouble in the tavern; as we know by now, where Arthur goes, trouble is never far behind.  A man asks the bar wench for his share of the takings and insists on getting more than a coin.  Arthur, forever so chivalrous, has to come to her rescue.  The thug whistles for the rest of his men.  Arthur berates Merlin for having to open his mouth and speak, for the fight to ensue.  A stranger comes to their aid in an all-out bar brawl, or in this case, tavern travesty.  Merlin uses magic to dispose of a few of the unsightly lot.  He then meets Gwaine (Eoin Macken), the stranger who comes to their rescue.  (Gwaine is from Arthurian legend, he was one of the legendary knights of the round table.  Also note for the purposes of this series, the spelling of 'Gawain' is changed to 'Gwaine'.)

Gwaine is hurt and is taken to Camelot, but not before the thug leader is put into the stocks.  Arthur introduces himself as the king's son before he leaves.  Gwaine saved Arthur's life and he's in his debt.  (That's becoming a habit -- also Lancelot saved his life too in earlier episodes.)  Gwaine is adamant if he knew who Arthur really was, then he wouldn't have saved him.  To him, Arthur is nothing more than a noble.  He's not enamored of kings and refuses a reward.

As per usual, there's another melee -- with knights in a tournament.  Arthur calls it a "test of strength and courage."  Merlin wouldn't know what the melee involves since he's not a knight, which Merlin confesses is just as well, as he wouldn't take any pleasure in being hit on the head.  To which, Arthur throws a goblet at his head.  (Dangerous!)

The thug from the tavern crops up again, as we knew he would and demands "stulorne blades" from an old man.  The blades are unique and magical, as they appear to be blunt, but are sharp.  He buys some crystals.  (So why didn't the old man not realize he would be killed as soon as he activated the crystals magical properties?)  Whoever has possession of the crystals will take on the appearance of the dead, host body, after touching their blood.  Now he can have his revenge on Arthur.  (Lots of shirtless "eye candy" in this show, if you like that kind of stuff!)  This time it's Gwaine who is shirtless!

Gwaine notices Gwen (Angel Coulby).  Everyone has eyes for her and attempts to place a flower in her hair.  She looks like a princess.  (Ahem that's the future queen, he's leering over!)  She returns his flower.

Sir Oswald (John Hopkins) is killed by the thug and his body is taken over with the help of the crystals.  The thug's accomplice takes on the appearance of Sir Ethan (Philip Brodie).  They head for the melee.  Arthur tells Oswald that Merlin loves to work hard, so that's exactly what they do, make Merlin work hard.

Gaius (Richard Wilson) questions Merlin as to whether he's eating or inhaling his soup.  Merlin frets he's been treated despicably by Oswald, but Gaius can only recall Oswald as being nothing but kind.  Gaius: "not all masters are good to their servants as Arthur."  Merlin would find that debatable!

Gwaine gets drunk in the tavern and can't pay, so Merlin suggests Arthur should pay.  Gwaine tells Merlin about Caerleon's army and how his father was a knight and was killed.  He never knew his father, just as Merlin didn't know his either.  Merlin only met his father for a brief moment, he had been banished.  Merlin tells him Arthur isn't like a bad person.  Merlin offers to pay for the tavern bill and Arthur makes them both clean boots, for the entire army.  (More references to pickled eggs, 14 dozen, as mentioned in the second episode of this series, being Arthur's favourite breakfast food.)  Merlin thinks Gwaine should tell Arthur his father was a knight and then he wouldn't be here.  Gwaine believes titles mean nothing, the only things that matter are feelings and the sort of person you are.

Arthur practices for the melee and he and Oswald fight.  They bet on who wins and naturally Arthur does.  Oswald can't wait to use the stulorne blade on Arthur.  Merlin would have to notice the sharpness of the blades when he picks it up and cuts his finger.  Gwaine has witnessed those blades in practice, they entail the use of magic.  Gaius warns Merlin he can't accuse Oswald without any proof; he's a knight.  (Lately that's all Gaius seems to be telling Merlin, first with Morgana (Katie McGrath) and then with Oswald.)

More on the differences between knights and common peasants, demonstrating the inequalities of the time.  Merlin attempts to retrieve the blade, but he sees Oswald change his appearance into that of the thug.  Merlin is caught, leaving Gwaine to fight with Oswald, who demands an audience with Uther (Anthony Head).  Gwaine says he fought for Merlin and Uther forbids Gwaine from talking to a knight in such a way.  Uther: "For a commoner to attack a nobleman is in violation of the Knight's Code." Arthur pleads on behalf of Gwaine, he saved him, "he may not be of noble birth, but I can vouch he has a noble heart." (But it's okay for a nobleman to be lawless and unjust.)  Gwaine is exiled.

Oswald is aware that Merlin knows about him.  Gwaine asks Merlin to look after Arthur, as "maybe that one's worth dying for."  Gwen (Angel Coulby) reassures Gwaine that Arthur is not like Uther.  "He will be a great king."  Now Gwaine realizes why Gwen wanted nothing to do with him, she has feelings for Arthur.

Merlin will have to use his powers to protect Uther, who gives Arthur his sword, the same with which he won his very first melee.  Merlin asks Arthur to recall the times when he tells him that something isn't right and Arthur just ignores him; well this is one of those times.  He doesn't want Arthur to enter the melee.  But this is Arthur's chance to prove himself "a worthy leader."

Merlin throws Ethan off his horse using magic, whilst Oswald attempts to kill Arthur with the sword.  Arthur is joined by a mysterious knight in armour.  (Obviously it's Gwaine.  So why can't Merlin tell it's him until much later?)  Arthur concedes victory and Gwaine removes his face-guard to reveal himself.  Uther orders his arrest and execution.  Gaius removes the crystals from around Oswald's and Ethan's necks and reveals their magical trickery.  Gwaine is ordered to leave Camelot again.  Arthur knows Uther's wrong in his decision and if it were his choice, then Gwaine would remain.  Merlin thinks he should tell Uther who he is and Uther will pardon him.  They fought together and Gwaine thinks perhaps he will fight with Arthur once again.

Arthur is impressed with him and knows he would have been a good knight, but the rules only allow a nobleman to become a knight.  Arthur spots Gwaine with Gwen and comments "they seem very friendly."  Merlin reminds him that "Gwen can never consort with a nobleman -- that's the rule."  She kisses him goodbye.

This episode shows a brief, future glimpse of how Arthur will be a good king and how Camelot and Albion will change under him.