Mr Selfridge Series 4 Episode 10 Review

                                           
As the news of Jimmy's death rocks the tabloids and papers alike, Harry (Jeremy Piven) places himself in a shell at home and doesn't want to do anything.  So much for Harry telling Jimmy to "pay your price..." cos this is what happens to him.  Gordon (Greg Austin) tells Harry that he's needed back at the store and they need to pick up the pieces and deal with the stock embargo, but he doesn't want to do anything.  He tells him either Harry comes back or he puts Gordon in charge and he needs to decide fast.  Meanwhile Keen (Oliver Dimsdale) wants to see Harry's personal accounts, those of the chairman's cos of the furore Jimmy caused with his mismanagement.  Rosalie (Kara Tointon) tells Harry that Mae (Kathleen Kelly) wants to talk to him, but he doesn't talk with her.  He needs to get out and stop closing himself off from people.  As Gordon talks with Keen, Hardcastle (Ian Ashpital) storms raving that Harry made a fool of him and he isn't even here.

At work, Mae is ostracized and ridiculed by the customers, the object of gossip and she has to retreat to her office as Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) offers to take over.  Now known as Mrs Grove of course.  Tilly (Mimi Ndiweni) grabs the paper from the other girls and tells them they're here to work and not to gossip, as Mae walks in and agrees.  Harry returns to work with a spring in his step and gets to deal with the stock seller's embargo.  He comes up with a plan to hold a reception for the sellers and convince them to settle the debts of Whiteleys at a later date.  Jimmy didn't leave a will so Gordon and Harry will inherit his share of Whiteleys and that will take at least a month and there's not enough time to help them now.  However Hardcastle at the reception refuses the plan Harry explains to them the exclusive three year contract to buy stock just from them.  "I built Selfridge's from nothing."  Like they care!  Hardcastle still says they want the debt of Whiteleys paid first cos they've got to deal with employees, and unions.  Harry is quite literally left with egg on his face.  If he can't afford to pay them, then how did he afford the reception.

Harry makes Miss Mardle Deputy Manager, taking over Grove's position and she accepts, sitting in his office.  As she makes her first executive decision of promoting Tilly to Head of Dressmaking, whereas she thought she was getting her marching orders.  As well as getting her chance to meet Harry for the first and last time.  Crabb (Ron Cook) tells Gordon of Keen asking for Harry's chairman's accounts and Gordon says if the reception works out then they won't need to see them, as Crabb files them away in the drawer.  Of course that's not what happens.  Mae tells Harry she's leaving and she's given her notice and is heading back to Paris, after his plan to woo her with flowers backfires.  She needed him but he didn't need her as much as she did after Jimmy died and she knows he's got his troubles, but even after that's over, he'll still have more to deal with.  Stocks dwindle and some items are out of stock in the store, as plans for the twentieth celebration goes ahead.

Rosalie tells Mae that Harry didn't want her to see him at his lowest and he always shuts himself away just like he did when he fell.  He thinks that she won't love him when she sees him like that. Gordon goes full steam ahead with his own plans and meets with Keen late night to discuss a deal. What we might call backstabbing even if he was attempting to save the store.  Next day Harry's called to a meeting with the Civic and they lay out their plans for him.  They will pay off the debts for Whiteleys and in return when the store is theirs, they will sign it over to the Civic.  They want Harry removed and he can have a token name as President if he so wishes and a meagre sun of £6,000 a year.  They looked at his personal accounts and he owes the company £118,000.  If he can pay it immediately then they'll reconsider but of course they know he can't.  As well as telling him about his past conduct such as the Dolly sisters and his gambling, which he says is over with.

They want Gordon as Managing Director and he handed over his accounts to them.  Harry says he is the Selfridge name with Gordon interjecting "our name."  Crabb tries to defend him but to no avail. Harry can't listen to anymore and walks out of there dejected, Crabb takes him back to the store.  I remember when I used to write about those lift scenes in the past, it was always with purpose and there was always something going on with Harry and business in mind and his vision to keep the store going.  That's long since past now and when he comes out of the lift, he's a broken man.  Crabb tells him he's resigning too.  Also adding to Miss Mardle that the Civic were after Harry long before Jimmy and everything else happened.

Wynnstay (Robert Pugh) reads the proof copy of Harry being "ousted" and changes the headlines to "The Earl of Oxford Street Bows Out."  Actually giving Harry a fitting send-off for all their differences.

Gordon tells Harry he had to do it to save the store and that's how he got to be Managing Director of Selfridge's and if I'm not mistaken he did seem a little arrogant as he sat in his Pa's chair! Harry wants to walk out of there together so they present a united front, as the staff all bid him a fond  farewell. Before leaving, Harry reminisces about the store and its twenty years.  Plenty of flashbacks galore to the very first episode and the staff, such as Agnes, Henry, Grove and Kitty and everyone starting out. The remainder of the staff also bid him farewell and he says goodbye with a speech about how most have been here for twenty years and how they started here together.  That there are new faces now and they'll all carry on the store and the celebrations.  A new generation as he looks at Connie (Sacha Parkinson) and George (Calum Callaghan) and their baby called Victor George Towler.

What an emotional final ever episode it was too.  Though of course being TV and having dramatic licence Harry gets the fitting ending he deserved.  He walks out of the store with his head held high, but with tears in his eyes, as he looks at Lady Time and sobs.  Then to hear Mae's voice as she returns.  Saying she heard what happened and he's much better than that.  "You're Harry Selfridge." She loves him and she asks him to go to Paris with her or anywhere else she might want to go.  And he's right he doesn't deserve her.  In real life of course Harry lived out his days with Rosalie and penniless.

Therein ends four years of drama, romance and shopping at Selfridge's!  What a blast!

Paranormal Lockdown 1.1 Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

                                                                     
We've waited a long while for Nick Groff to get back into the paranormal investigating saddle on TV and have his own show again!  Ghost Stalkers was good and it's a shame that wasn't renewed but Paranormal Lockdown is just as food, if not better and aims to take the limits of investigation to a new level.  And by that I mean better as it challenges investigations and delves into an area that hasn't been done before: lockdowns involving 72 hours: day and night.  This means longer time to investigate and also a new style of investigation.  How many people would actually bed down for the night knowing what they're surrounded by and how anything can happen.  It's dangerous and adrenalin pumping at the same time.

Nick is quite the seasoned investigator and the paranormal certainly is his calling and in his blood, so it was good to see him team up with Katrina Weidman; who's had her own experiences too.  She was on Paranormal State; and how emotional it was listening to the story of the gruesome murders that took place there without anyone being able to stop it.  As well as how brave she was actually spending the night in the same room!  Even if she did pull the covers over.

This show speaks to new challenges and stretches the investigation to its fullest and taking it a notch higher.  Showing that results can be captured both during the day and night and who says spirits actually sleep.  Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a particularly memorable one for me too, cos it was the first episode I ever watched of Ghost Adventures and I recall Nick being locked down in the morgue.  But it certainly bought back a whole lot of memories for Nick.

The Geobox is a great invention as it doesn't have the same interference as the spirit box, especially the SB11.  So it's clearer to hear and understand any voices captured.  It was exciting and creepy at the same time, that both Nick and Katrina got their names said by the spirits.  As they were growing and had grown familiar with them.  As well as getting intelligent responses to their questions, such as Katrina saying she'd leave if they can say her name.

As well as spending the nights there which did have an impact on their investigations as their energy waned and opened them up to more experiences and encounters.  If only it had been actually on for an hour or two and not just listed as such, cos the other 15 minutes are always the ad breaks!

This was a heart stopping episode and I can't wait to see what other evidence is gathered over the course of the series as new inroads are made into explaining the paranormal and the afterlife further. I liked the way in which both Nick and Katrina explained their feelings and what they were going through during the investigations in an emotional and reasoned way, without any hysterics and how impassioned they were about their findings! They drew us in unsuspectingly.  Making us feel we were also there too!  Also loved Nick's skull shirt, creepy and cool at the same time!
Wonderful seeing Nick back, it's been too long and along with Katrina, they have great chemistry!

Can't wait for episode 2 at the Anderson Hotel.

The Vampire Diaries 7.15 "I Would For You" Review

                                                
Rayna (Leslie-Anne Huff) wakes up cos as we know now, she can't die and makes her way to Mystic Falls as Matt (Zach Roerig) and Penny (Ana Nogueira) are out killing off the vampires.  They get ambushed by some more and she saves their lives.  In return Rayna wants to know the whereabouts of Stefan (Paul Wesley).  They owe her. Stefan and Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore) look for the herbs that Freya used on him to make a paste so that the scar can't be sensed by Rayna and when they get to the place where the witches keep their herbs, they find there is none there.  It's been stolen and is very rare.

Damon (Ian Somerhalder) tells Bonnie (Kat Graham) that he can't have everyone saving his life over again and so he's going to take care of Rayna as she's his problem.  As Bonnie keeps getting apologetic texts from Enzo (Michael Malarkey).  Rayna holds vampires hostage and kills them off until they tell her where Stefan is and Damon shows up. Matt called him and he takes her heart before chopping her up into little pieces and throwing her down a whole.  He has to figure out how to kill her once and for all.  As she was given everlasting life by the shamen.  He tells her she looks like his girlfriend so he throws her down some of her clothes. Before he finds out that there was a 'Mr Huntress' but she doesn't talk about him.
Stefan calls Caroline (Candice King) and she's busy helping Alaric (Matt Davis) with the babies and enjoying it, with her motherly instincts kicking in.  She tells him Dallas is a good place to stay after he suggests they could travel the world just the two of them.

Bonnie goes to see Enzo anyway despite Damon telling her to stay away and she meets Alex (Mouzam Makkar).  As well as the eight shamen who live on through Rayna.  As she is killed one of them vanishes.  Bonnie texts Damon to tell him her lives are linked with theirs and he kills her again and buries her.  Enzo discovers what she's doing and tells her to read the spell.  Which has a footnote, there's a failsafe. When she reaches her last life all of her victims die with her.  As shown by Stefan as he dies.  So Damon has to dig her up and bring her back to life.  She's not happy about that and now wants to kill him but she'll give him a headstart.  He doesn't run away, runs for the shovel but she's too fast for him and is about to stake him for good.  As she tells him the man she loved was also a vampire.  She's taken down by the Armoury people and apparently Damon tells her they never miss either.

Stefan gets back to Mystic Falls and Damon has some letters for him.  He didn't want to tell him but he's leaving.  He's going to desiccate himself in a coffin next to Elena.  If that ain't a slap in the faces of his fans.  Elena's gone, boo hoo, now let's just have him give up one everyone cos of her.  He's only a good vampire when she was around.  Another cop out of course.  Cos we know he's got it in him to be better than that and he also has Bonnie now.  Also selfish to leave them to fight and struggle on their own.  Just so he can save himself for her.  Stefan said it best when he said he can't leave him now after everything he's going through.  That's his repayment for getting in the way of the sword and saving his life.  Oh and before I move on, let me add it was pretty stupid of Damon to give Rayna's sword to Matt to get rid of.  Cos he'll just give it back to her.  Shouldn't he have taken it and hidden it or given it to Bonnie.  How dangerous was that especially when he knows what it can do! Stefan couldn't even make Damon stay by using emotional blackmail on him.  That if he loves him he won't walk out the door.

Matt threatens Stefan, he wants his home back and he wants him to leave here.  They may have been friends but he's doing it for his home.  Yeah more like that Penny dame turning his head. Stefan takes the letter to Dallas for Alaric and watches Caroline with the babies as he leaves with Valerie. Bonnie finds Damon and tells him he's not going to say goodbye in a letter.  She asks him if they're friends, then how can he do this.  He's leaving and she'd never see him again.  Guess we're sensing there's more going on with Bonnie's feelings than just friendship.  And he didn't even call her BonBon either one last time!  Bonnie saying he hurt her as she walks away.  One final look at the world...As he lies there desiccating, he's woken by Stefan.  He needs him as his wound's opened up again.

Three Years From Now

We get the flashbacks to everything's that gone before.  Plus Bonnie in a support group, really, she couldn't have lost the plot and especially not over Damon.  She could've just spelled herself better, no?  Maybe Enzo drove her to it.  Rayna has Stefan tied up and says she could kill him but she's not going to.  She can also transfer the mark to Damon, it's intended recipient to begin with.  Stefan thinks she's going to pit them against each other, but Damon tells him he asked her to do this!  Oh no now he wants to suffer in Stefan's place and take all that back.
Hence the title: "I would for you..."  Does this mean we're going to stay in the three years and there's no more jumping back and forth.  Wait, they have to explain what happened in those three years and how everyone got to where they are now in more detail.  No wonder Alaric was so shocked to see Damon back, after we find out he was desiccated like a bit of coconut!! ha. And no Rayna looks nothing like his girlfriend!  How many times did we have to hear that! The armoury, bunker, mark of Cain, Supernatural, the Huntress's mark, oh let's just have a crossover ep and get it over and done with!

Mr Selfridge Series 4 Episode 9 Review

                                             
Mae (Katherine Kelly) finds out about Wynnstay (Robert Pugh) and his reporter Joe's (Mitchell Hunt)  investigation into Jimmy (Sacha Dhawan) and orders him to stop looking into the matter since he's hurting Harry (Jeremy Piven) and everyone connected with him.  Adding that Jimmy was at his mother's.  She threatens him with an action for slander if he doesn't stop snooping.  Jimmy finds out stock is running low at Whiteleys and they can only stock the store for another three days.  He doesn't know what to do but asks Mr Crabb (Ron Cook) after hearing the suggestions for the Selfridge twentieth anniversary parade.  The council has approved it and there'll be a sale too and promotions.  With Mae's girls making twentieth anniversary rosettes as well.  In the stockroom Jimmy sees the stock being put away as George (Calum Callaghan) shows Jimmy how they do things.  Like putting the stock for the anniversary at the back cos they don't need it yet.  This gives him the idea to use that stock for Whiteleys.

Harry meets with the man from the wholesalers, Hardcastle (Ian Ashpitel)  who has influence with the other creditors.  He's the largest supplier of linen to the store and he can help them.  He says he'll need to speak with the others and then he'll get back to them within a week.  Jimmy impetulantly asks for a couple of days.  Gordon (Greg Austin) tells him they need to give them time to do things and that' how it works.  Crabb is reluctant to help as Jimmy tells him the store will close without stock and Harry's name will be tarnished.  He can't tell Harry since he doesn't need to know with the Civic and Keen (Oliver Dimsdale) on his back.  The chairman of the Civic telling him to keep an eye on the Selfridge's.

Crabb agrees and he tells George to move the stock.  He does this at night in unmarked vans and he sees what's happening.  George says it's for the Shoreditch warehouse as there's shortage of space at the store and the stock isn't needed yet.  Next day Keen asks Crabb about the Shoreditch warehouse, after finding out the warehouse had been sold and it's where the stock from the provincial stores was held.  Crabb confirms he sale.  Only George neglected to tell Crabb what he'd said.  They rush to tell Harry but Keen's already told him.  They didn't know about it but they're disappointed in Crabb and George.  Keen tells Gordon he stood up for them and wasn't their enemy and but he has to tell the Civic.

Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) copes with being a mother to the children and sends them off to school with lunch.  She got up at 5am to prepare it and Earnest (Joey Price) wanted cheese and pickle instead of a pie and an apple.  She tries to cope and Meryl (Lottie Tolhurst) can see she's doing the best she can.  Crabb packs away Grove's things and he's still missing him.  He can't believe he won't be here for the twentieth anniversary as he was here for those twenty years and he'd be angry at missing it.  Harry says they've lost a lot of people.  He takes the box home and then tells her the new Head of Fashion didn't turn up for her job and Connie (Sacha Parkinson) has to go on leave.  She left it really late working so long.  He then asks Miss Mardle if she'll come back to work, which she gets angry over. Meryl thinks it's a good idea and she says she has to be here for the children.  The children aren't coping and neither is she, as Earnest asks if eh can keep his father's pen.  They cry at night and she says they need to cry together, after Meryl tells her they all need to grieve.

Freddy (Sam Swann) meets a woman at the tea room and Meryl thinks he's seeing her.  She's disappointed when he asks her out later but she can't do that.  She's just an old friend, in which case Meryl asks for five tickets to the circus for tomorrow night.   They arrive to go to the circus but Freddy tells her that the circus is finished.   However he has an idea.  Meryl tells Miss Mardle that she should return to work it'll be good for her, but she can't leave the children.  She tells her to ask the children.  At home, they find the circus has come to their garden and the children say she should work since their father worked and that didn't make the unhappy.  As long as Earnest still gets his bedtime story and gets tucked in too.

Harry is quizzed by Rosalie (Kara Tointon) by Mae staying over and his intentions.  She's been hurt by men and he tells her she's the one keeping her distance from him.  She tells hims Mae needs time to get over things and he should give her some space.  Connie goes into labour and has a son.

Wynnstay's reporter is told to drop the story as he's got nothing solid but he doesn't want to. Wynnstay adding that Jimmy was with his mother.  Joe tells him the police didn't pursue that angle and his mother was at church.  The Vicar swears to it.  Well he could've been just at her house, she didn't have to be with him.  He also found out from the staff that Victor was having dinner alone with Mae.  Wynnstay takes the story to Harry next day and tells him they're going to publish it.  Harry thinks it's all lies and he can't publish it in his rag.  Wynnstay says it's not and he's going ahead.

Harry tells Mae he's going to wait for her and also later tells her about Jimmy.  She tells him she knew something was up since the reporter questioned Jimmy and he got upset.  Harry wants to know why she didn't come to him and before he went into business with him.  Now this'll hurt his family. Mae in green attire again.  She always wears green.  Harry's despondent with her now too as she also betrayed him in a way.  She could've told him but she didn't think there was anything to tell.

Harry is disappointed in Jimmy and tells him they're going to have a press release denying it all. telling him Mae said he was at his mother's.  He breaks down and admits he killed him.  That it was an accident.   They argued when he was jealous over Mae and he fought, but he didn't mean for Victor to fall.  Harry's angry and hurt and disappointed as he's betrayed again by someone he trusted. He doesn't want anything to do with him, thinking he could hide behind him, and going in to business with him was wrong.  He should've come to Harry and not hidden it.  Jimmy didn't cos of that look in Harry's eyes now which he would've given him.  He walks out.  Jimmy goes to the bridge and jumps.

Taking the easy way out cos there's no way he'd be found not guilty, even if it was an accident, as his mother said to him.  Jimmy thinking it better than the hangman's noose and sparing his mother the anguish of a public trial.  Well that was the final nail in the coffin, no pun, for Harry as everyone he knew have all hurt and betrayed him in one form or another.   And this is the end for him and his days at the store.  Final episode next week.

The X Files 10.6 "My Struggle II" Review

                                           
Scully's (Gillian Anderson) turn to do a voiceover as Mulder (David Duchovny) did in the opening episode of this season relating to the conspiracy aspect of the show.  Scully follows this up with narrating the beginnings of the X-Files, at least her part on it in joining and also the conspiracies and bad things they uncovered.  Summing up the most important players in this, especially the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B Davis) and their sinister plans of world and global domination.  Including everything she went through with her abduction and finally we see Scully's head morphed into an alien.  We know she has alien DNA, but doesn't mean she's an alien or will become one, though that scene was funny.

Scully heads to the office apologizing for being late and finds Mulder isn't there and then gets a call from Tad O'Malley (Joel McHale) telling her to come to Mulder's apartment, which has been trashed. (Well not trashed like the Home Again ep trash!)  Scully asks Miller and Einstein to help look for him and suddenly is concerned of the genome tests she carried out on herself and is especially concerned when a disorientated soldier arrives at the hospital with a lesion in his arm.  There's increased reports of people getting sick and she worries that a global contagion has been released but she doesn't know why now.  She takes blood from Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) to analyze and says she can probably tell her what's wrong without having to wait for the results.  Explaining to her about her own genome test and having alien DNA.  Of course Einstein is sceptical, thinking there's an explanation for this.  However Scully finds the soldier is being infected with Anthrax, as soldiers sent to Iraq were given this as a vaccine and now it's affecting them.  Miller (Robbie Amell) commenting they're killing their own soldiers.

Miller heads back to the office as we see Mulder driving on the road after being beaten up.  He's driving to South Carolina and Miller uses the phone locator app on his computer to pinpoint his location.  Mulder meets with the Cigarette Smoking Man who tells him he can be cured, if he just asks for it.  He saved Scully and he can save him too.  Scully is paid a visit by Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) who disappeared, as she explains why.  She spoke with Cigarette Smoking man years ago, after he was badly burned (by rockets in the season 9 finale) and he wanted her to go with him, threatening to kill everyone in the world.  She tells her that he saved her and also Scully.  As we get a flashback to the clip where he was being given a cigarette, which turned out to be Monica's hand.  He wants to play God and recreate the world in his own image.  The contagion has spread the world over as Scully already told us it would.

Miller finds Mulder as he's practically passed out on the floor and holds a tissue to his nose, as he's bleeding.  He carries Mulder out of there and Mulder tells him he can be cured if he asks him for it. But he refuses.  Cigarette Smoking Man telling them they won't get far.  Flashback reveals as Monica told Scully, he sent a man to make a deal with Mulder.  Which consisted of trying ti kill him.  Beating Mulder up in their fight and Mulder manages to escape.

Scully finds that there's no alien DNA present in her sample and Einstein needs to help her make a cure to save everyone with her alien DNA.  She realizes she didn't donate a bigger sample and the genome shows up.  She gives Einstein a drip and she needs to administer the same to the other doctors so they can make more, as she runs out with a bag in her hand.  She tells people not to fight and to go to the hospital where they will be helped.   Finally meeting Miller on the bridge with Mulder, she finds he's too far gone and that the cure he needs will be with their son.  Lo and behold, a bright lights appear in the sky.  It's a UFO or is it that of the government's making from 10.1.  Maybe it's William, I mean all these messages and talk of him.

Of course it had to end on a cliffhanger since everyone wants a season 11, but I for one could do without the alien eps for a bit.  So much for Cigarette Smoking Man's appearance he didn't really get to do much or be much of a formidable foe.  Guessing that's cos his plan of world domination had already been set in motion ever since the barbies were injected years ago and he saved a chosen few. Scully being part of this few.  I didn't think Mulder would be found so soon, if at all, cos I said he's turned off his GPS, but alas no, he didn't.  Maybe he wasn't thinking straight after getting his noggin beat up!

As for the tagline in the beginning "This Is The End" - this is most definitely not the end.  Perhaps it was more a reference for the end of the world as we know it.  Also I have no idea why Scully didn't recognize Monica's voice when she called her?!!  This was someone she worked with and had close contact with, not to mention helped deliver William!  Too much was made of the exposition between Einstein and Scully, with her thinking Scully's wrong and contradicting her too, instead of going along with her.  After all, Scully's the more experienced one and has been through it all from the beginning.  She knows what she's talking about.

So it ends, but more could've been made of this ep and I have to say the entire season 10.  It had it's good points and bad moments, but I can't really say I enjoyed every single bit of every single episode, which is a shame, cos in its heyday it was such a brilliant show.  Guess the 'revival' needs more work next time round in season 11.

The X Files 10.5 "Babylon" Review

                                          
Two Muslim suicide bombers blow an art gallery in Southern Texas due to a painting it was displaying.  Leading up to this, one bomber, the one that survives, Shiraz (Artin John) is shown at prayer and then eating peanut butter afterwards, before he meets up his companion to carry out the dastardly deed. Showing how normal life is for him, until he's not really normal at all, but a terrorist. He's the one who survives and is in a coma in hospital.

Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) meet younger versions of themselves, there's no way else to put it.  Agents Miller and Agent Einstein, as Scully lets the into the office, "nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted."  She waited 23 years to say that.   Miller (Robbie Amell) is the Mulder of the pair and is willing to keep an open mind and believe.  Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) is the Scully, the sceptic and the scientist.  Einstein being a distant relative.  They ask Mulder what advice he has for communicating with the terrorist so they can gain information about the cell.  Einstein doesn't believe it can be done but later she offers her help to Miller and meets him in Texas.  She's got a plan in mind especially after her experience with her mother int he last episode.

Einstein is called by Mulder who has his own suggestions about how she can get information out of him.  She turns up at the office and he talks to her of magic shrooms.  She laughs off his idea of him getting high on them and being able to communicate with the man.  Mulder and Scully find themselves attempting to keep the terrorist alive as they're approached by two agents claiming to be from Homeland Security and wanting them to leave.  Miller hearing them speak Arabic.  He takes out his phone and snaps their photos, prompting them to leave.

Mulder takes the pills and later disappears from the hospital.  He walks out high and waving to people, whilst ending up doing some line dancing, donning a cowboy hat and gambling with the Lone Gunmen, as well as Einstein as a dominatrix.  He finally sees himself on a ship being steered by the Cigarette smoking Man (William B Davis) as he whips Mulder.  Finally he spots the man with a woman who cradles him in his arms.  He whispers something to Mulder in Arabic.  Mulder wakes to find himself in the hospital, as Einstein denies giving him the pills, but only a placebo in front of Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).  Who mentions the rodeo.  Topical for him as he was in the new Dallas.

Miller communicates with the man in Arabic as he was stationed in Iraq and Scully notices his brainwaves increasing.  Also another agent turns up telling them they have a responsibility to keep him alive and the nurse (Janet Kidder) turns off his life support, until Einstein enters his room. Mulder is released from the hospital and sees a woman trying to get into the hospital.  He says he knows her and lets her in.  She's his mother, Noora (Nina Nayebi) and the woman he saw in his induced state.  She speaks with him but can't tell them who he was in contact with.  She can't believe her baby would even do something like this, since he could never kill anyone.  Mulder tells them he heard him whisper to him but he doesn't know Arabic, finally recalling he said, 'Babylon Hotel' as translated by Miller.  Where the rest of the cell is taken down.

Einstein has a change of mind as they head back home and how she's curious of mysteries now. Whereas Mulder and Scully talk of unconditional love and how to deal with unqualified hate.  Mulder also has a change of mind as he talks of the bible and God even being real.  As we hear the sound of trumpets, Mulder asks if she hears that, looking up at the sky.  So what's with the holding hands, as Einstein surmizes the only way Scully puts up with Mulder is cos she's "clearly in love with him."

Of course there were references to the Pilot in this episode as with our first meeting between Scully and Mulder.  Also with mention of Scully's thesis: "Einsteins Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation."  Mulder tells her "that's a credential, rewriting Einstein."  To the point where we get an Agent named for him, ha!  Scully's quote here was first uttered by Mulder when she knocks on his office for the first time.

The X Files 10.4 "Home Again" Review

                                             
This episode focuses on the homeless of Philadelphia as they are being evicted from the area where they congregate to make way for new housing.  A man returns to his office and is subsequently ripped apart by a tall and shadowy figure.  As he then gets into the back of a rubbish truck.  Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are assigned as detective Dross (Chris Shields) on the scene asked for them since he's heard they have experience with these "spooky" cases.  Scully finds the man, Joesph Cutler (Alessandro Juliani) was torn apart as several body parts are found dotted around the room and his head is found in the bin.  The forensics man says he didn't have any sort of prints or footprints even.  Mulder looks out the window and sees a piece of graffiti depicting a tall man in black clothes.  Where those meant to be trashbags?

Scully gets a call from William Jnr as the phone first shows 'William' on the screen and he tells her their mother's had a heart attack and is in the hospital.  He's in Germany.  Mulder tells her to go.  As he continues investigating the case, he notices the security camera on the wall.  Having analyzed the footage, he finds that the graffiti, okay it may have been street art but I called it graffiti, appeared overnight and wasn't there before the attack.  If they find out who made it, they can see if he saw anything.

Scully arrives at the hospital and is told by the nurse that her mother asked for Charlie.  Scully asks if she didn't ask for her or Bill, but only her estranged son.  She says that her mother made a living will where she wanted to be kept alive but the nurse finds her directive which she altered without telling Scully, in not wanting to be resuscitated.  Bringing back memories of Scully's own time in a coma with Mulder by he and how her mother survived the last time too.  Mulder looks into the case and finds two people arguing in an alley one of them,  Peggy (Nancy Huff) doesn't want the homeless to be moved to a nearby hospital as they redevelop the area, as it will be close to her school.

Mulder returns to Washington to be by Sully's side and as she waits for the inevitable and plays with a necklace, a quarter which her mother (Sheila Larkin) wore now, but doesn't have any significance for her.  Time was could make a phonecall with a quarter.  Charlie calls and she wants him to speak with her.  After she hears his voice, Margaret regains consciousness for a brief minute and holds Mulder's hand saying, "my son is named William too."  Scully feels guilty that she should say this as she understands later why her mother said it.  That she wanted to see Charlie cos he was her responsibility and she wanted to know he was ding well.  She gave birth to him and he was her son. But she gave William up for adoption.

Meanwhile there's more murders taking place as the Band Aid Nosed Man (John DeSantis) continues to kill, including two people who stole the artwork to sell on.  As well as Peggy as she tries to outrun him in her home to the theme of  Petula Clark's 'Downtown.'  Obviously this was a theme on trash and recycling and the inordinate amount of waste humans produce.  Everything in her home went in   the trash.  Scully returns to Philadelphia as she wants to work and their lead takes them to a man buying a certain type of paint at a store, found by forensics.  They follow him and he leads them to the Trashman (Tim Armstrong) the creator of the art.  He hides in the darkness so he can't see him. Telling Mulder he created it and comes to life as a Tulpa.  Mulder says it's not a Tibetan thought form (think Supernatural and season 1's Hell House ep).  Besides it wouldn't harm anyway.

Trashman talks of the trash humans produce and is taken to landfills.  Band Aid Nose Man is protecting the homeless, Scully telling him he's responsible for him and their deaths.  "You're responsible, you put it out of sight so it's not your problem, but you're just as bad as the people you hate."  Which is a rounabout way of Scully referring to herself and she's responsible too for giving up William when as his mother, she was meant to look after him.  Of course everything here all points to William and how season 10 is really about him in many ways.

I do have to add the funny scene of where the man who leads them to Trashman runs away when he says it's all dark there and Mulder tells her he wasn't gong to shoot him.  Scully saying she used to do stairs in the dark in three inch heels, er, not quite three inches and they certainly weren't stiletto type heels either.  But weird place to wear a skirt! Mulder replies, "this is back in the day."  They find Band Aid Nose Man's next target is the developer, Daryl Landry (Daryl Shuttleworth) at the hospital, but they're too late as he does his work and all that's left of him is his bandaid under his shoe. Trashman leaves and there's another piece of art on the wall.

This episode is more about Scully's guilt, her thoughts and her enduring love for William.  She gets some form of closure in realizing why her mother wanted to see Charlie but we don't really get any sort of conclusion to Band Aid Nose Man, who Trashman will probably bring back again wherever he's needed to do what he wants done.  Scully saying "I need to believe that we didn't treat him like trash."  She said that about William, I mean he's not trash, she didn't throw him out like garbage but gave him up out of a real sense of caring and wanting to protect him.  A mother's first instinct.

The Vampire Diaries 7.14 "Moonlight on the Bayou" Review

                                           
Three Years From Now

Caroline (Candace King) arrives at Klaus's (Joseph Morgan) bar looking for him with the twins, it's their first and last time in a bar until they're 21.  The bartender tells her he's gone and no one's seen him.

Stefan (Paul Wesley) heads for New Orleans as Valerie's (Elizabeth Blackmore) given him the heads up on the same bar frequented by Klaus et al, which will help him keep Rayna (Leslie_Anne Huff) off his scent.  He stops at a station for a phone charger and Valerie tells him to keep moving cos Rayna will find him if he stops, which she does and he manages to escape just in the nick of time.  He arrives in New Orleans and sits at the bar until Klaus sends a drink his way. Stefan lies and says he's got family troubles with Damon (Ian Somerhalder) well it wasn't really a lie cos he has and he's on some R'n'R as they drink.  Valerie tells Matt (Zach Roerig) they've got to find Rayna and Caroline tries to speak with Matt over the phone as she's trying to keep the twins from crying.  She's decided she'll accompany Alaric (Matt Davis) to Dallas and get him settled in, when really she just wants to stay with the twins.

Valerie has a map which may pinpoint Rayna's position and Matt reminds her how he needs help from her and that's ironic since she killed the entire sheriff's department.  She sees the irony of it but then she did help Caroline deliver the twins.  Matt will see if there's any stolen vehicles reported. Damon calls Stefan and he hangs up on him.  As Damon and Bonnie (Kat Graham) head out to meet Enzo (Michael Mularkey) at some mansion called The Armoury.  Apparently he's been working for them for four months and tells Damon he needs to call Stefan back here so they can trap Rayna here and they can lock her up.  The place collects supernatural artefacts.  He's working for them in
exhange for information on his family.  As he later tells Bonnie after Damon finds out from Valerie that the Armoury can't be trusted and are just using him to get Stefan there.  That they should leave. Yes, Enzo tells Bonnie he was left in the workhouse and thought a trip on the Italian line might help him, but he's got no one left, not Lily or anyone, so he needs to help them.

Damon refuses to get Stefan back here and Enzo injects him.  Oh come on Damon you could've done a better job of lying than that.  He also knocks Bonnie out.  Damon wakes to find himself in a glass cage with Tyler (Michael Trevino) who's in a coma after the Armoury people found him and bought him back here.  He'll recover as soon as he becomes a werewolf and surprise, surprise tonight's a full moon.   That's why Enzo has Elena cos Tyler was working with the Armoury all along.  Oh here we go now we've got this Armoury business.  Anyone thinking Buffy and that awful season 4 with the Initiative.  Damon tries to keep Tyler from morphing and injects him with a sedative which plays havoc on his body.  As Enzo offers Bonnie an icepack she doesn't want.  He asks her why she always wants to save Damon.  After everything he's put her though she jumped at the chance when she heard he's in trouble with Tyler.  She hits him over the head and manages to find Damon.

Tyler warns him not to open the door cos he'll kill Bonnie too, which she doesn't listen to as she goes back and chops off Enzo's hand so she can access the panel.  Damon and Tyler fight and scuffle and Bonnie's pushed against the glass, passing out.  Damon tells Tyler to leave or he'll kill him.  But he can't revive her with his blood cos of what Enzo injected her with.  At the hospital he tells her he can't break in a new drinking partner and he can't let her die for him.  The same thing with Stefan.  He can't let them keep destroying their lives and putting themselves in danger for him, which is what Klaus says to Stefan too.  So Damon decides he's going to do something about it tomorrow and take himself out of the picture.

Back in New Orleans, Stefan and Klaus reminisce about old times when Stefan asks if he can spare any blood for Damon incase he gets bitten by Tyler.  As Klaus notices the blood cross come through his shirt and tells Stefan to leave.  He's got his family to protect and the rest of the city.  Stefan leaves his phone and Caroline calls.  Having a heart to heart of sorts as Klaus hears the baby crying. He tells her she can't give them up, is sorry to hear about her mother and realizes she loves Stefan. Stefan drives on route 90 and Valerie tells him to keep off that cos that's where Rayna is on a motorbike.  Well, too late.  She wounds him with arrows and tries to stab him with her sword until Klaus finally arrives.  She's dead for now but they have to leave cos it's werewolf territory.  Stefan wants to be dropped off at the train station but Klaus takes him back.  He needs to stop doing that for Damon if he really loves Caroline.  It's the same thing Elijah does for him over and over.

Oh and the gruesome twosome, Mary Louise (Teressa Liane) and Nora (Scarlett Byrne) well they get caught by Rayna as they stop in a store for too long, so much for keeping moving.  Enzo gets his hand sewn back on but he tells Alex (Mouzam Makkar) he's out.  She's told him nothing about his family.  She tells him she was testing him and she knows about his father.  He started the Armoury and she's his family, Alex St John.  Oh here we go, as I said, they're going to get Rayna now and whether they help or hinder remains to be seen.  But as she's still on the loose three years later, doesn't look like they're successful.  Wonder what plan Damon has to stay off the grid, as we know everyone ends up in New York in three years.  Is he going to put himself in a coffin and wait for sixty years to pass.  Of course Caroline wants to stay with Alaric, but she's not going to come out and tell him that.  He tells her she's done enough for them already.

Mr Selfridge Series 4 Episode 8 Review

                                             
Harry (Jeremy Piven) and Jimmy (Sacha Dhawan) look at the plans of Whiteleys in the club which Jimmy recalls wouldn't even allow him in here before.  Harry commenting on how the Brits love money, cos we know Harry was in the same boat too when he wanted to start the store.  A meeting with the accountants at which Harry isn't present shows Whiteleys is in trouble.  Harry and Gordon (Greg Austin) know they can do this and go ahead with their plans to purchase the store, with Harry eventually calling a press conference to announce the acquisition.  Exchanging words with one of the Whiteleys as Harry tells him their father would be rolling over in his grave right now as to how they've treated his store. They have no idea what the Whiteleys have been doing with it.

Wynnstay's reporter digs into Victor's death and asks Jimmy about his business dealings and his relationship with Victor.  Of course he didn't have any business with Victor and Jimmy loses his temper again asking what the reporter's insinuating.  As Mae (Kathleen Kelly) watches him, she also recalls Jimmy's temper.  She later asks Jimmy about the reporter and he tells her it was just business he was asking about.  Jimmy's mother, Clara (Kim Thomson) tells him to keep his cool or he's going to walk straight to the gallows.

Mr Crabb (Ron Cook) volunteers to have a look at Whiteleys' accounts for Harry and he'll do it discreetly without the board of Selfridge's finding out.  He won't tell if Harry won't tell and Harry appreciates it.  Crabb finding the office is a mess and no one's bothered doing anything with the accounts.  His wife, Mildred (Wendy Nottingham) later brings him food as he's working late of which he's been doing a lot of for Harry and drops a file on the floor.  An important file as it happens, its a list of the store' creditors, wanting money before they sell anymore stock.  He tells Harry about this and how they're not willing to accept anything on credit even from Harry but cash only.  Leaving them with a dilemma.  They pay a visit to the store's stockroom and find how dangerously low on stock they're running.

Grove (Tom Goodman-Hill) changes his mind about retiring just yet.  He's been with the store for thirty years and finds it hard to leave.  He sets about helping to formulate a business plan for Whiteleys, resorting to nicking supplies from the store, as George (Calum Callaghan) spots him doing that.  He tells Miss Mardle/Mrs Grove (Amanda Abbington) he doesn't want to leave just yet and takes more of his medicine.  More than he should, as he collapses.  He says it's nothing and shows her the plans he's come up with.  Miss Mardle shows Harry and Grove decides the store's floors need to be rearranged and they should lead with the women's department and accessories since it's the women who take their men shopping and not the other way around.  Also utilizing the space to put together a fourth department on one floor.

Harry's impressed with it and would like Grove to be an adviser with them.  Miss Mardle says only for one day and Grove fees he can manage two.  Harry comes up with a solution to resolve their stock problem.  They can buy the stock of the provincial stores they sold and can use that for Whiteley's. Gordon says he can give the stock to them on credit as he's CEO of the provincial stores.  Thus solving their problem for now.  As none of them have anymore money left to sink into Whiteleys.

Meryl (Lottie Tolhurst) is upset with her father since she finds out from Miss Ellis (Ria Zmitrowicz) that he fired Tilly (Mimi Ndiweni) for an indiscretion.  She visits her at home and finds she has a child, out of wedlock.  She tells her father he needs to do the right thing and how she's been bullied by the other workers.  He takes this up with Miss Ellis who says it's a mistake hiring her and bringing her back.  Grove accepts her resignation and she leaves in a huff, saying she didn't resign.  Mae tells her she heard the same.  Grove isn't in any position to see Tilly so Mae goes on his behalf.  Tilly's adamant she's not returning and Mae tells her how Meryl went to bat for her.  It wasn't charity but loyalty.  Also telling her she was on the stage and not a very reputable stage either.

Miss Mardle takes Grove home and gives him the plans of Whiteleys and later on as Meryl returns home, she fin s he passed away in his sleep.  That was obvious as soon as he sat down in the chair. Harry announces his passing to the staff and how he was a part of the Selfridge family.  Then pays a visit to Miss Mardle who says he didn't have to come.  That they wasted too much time over the years and should've been together sooner.  As Harry tells her, they were together in the end and that's all that matters.  Probably thinking of Rose when he said that.  She doesn't know how she's going to cope being a mother to his children.  Meryl's sad cos they fought before he died.  Mae tells Meryl how he was proud of her and how he offered Tilly her job back all cos of her.  Miss Mardle adding she's his father's daughter and just like him.  George tells Harry how he used to look after Ernest (Joey Price) when he was a baby and George worries how he'll be a father.  Harry tells him he'll be good cos they can do better even if their fathers weren't around for them.  Wonder what happened to Ernest's father since he was so set on wanting him when he was a baby.

As Mae leaves, the reporter confronts her and asks about Jimmy and how he knows Victor.  She pays him a visit asking why he lied to her since he didn't talk to him about the business dealings but about Victor.  Jimmy asks if she thinks he could've murdered him.  Even if she has seen him lose his temper.  He tells her the reporter works for Wynnstay so whatever dirt he can dig up on him will also hurt Harry and blacken his name.  She's sorry for coming.  As they drink a toast to Grove at dinner and recall how Gordon was afraid of him and how nice he was to Rosalie (Kara Tointon).  Harry asks Mae to stay the night and how he needs her.  He should never have let her go to Paris.  Well that was obvious but doesn't appear that romance is going to go anywhere.

This ep seemed like it was included to make the show stretch and reach number 10 in terms of episodes as nothing much happened.  Aside from Grove passing, weren't Harry and Mae at the cemetery last ep too.  Wonder who else will 'cark' it by the time we reach the end?  Whitelys and having trouble with the store was covered already, as was the finger of suspicion being placed on Jimmy, only Mae thinks it now too.  Wonder if he will get the noose even if it was an accident, not like anyone's going to believe that, firstly as he didn't come forward and secondly cos of his colour no one would've believed him even if he did own up.  So he'll have to live with it, even if he was tormented by having to lie.  As they say he shouldn't have been too quick to lose his temper.