The Musketeers 1.5 "The Homecoming" Review

                                              
Porthos (Howard Charles) celebrates his birthday by getting drunk what else, and shoots a jug off Aramis's (Santiago Cabrera) head.  They leave and Porthos leaves later on and is attacked.  He wakes to find himself with a dead man nearby.  He's arrested by the guards and the judge orders a swift sentence of execution immediately.  Treville (Hugo Speer) wants to appeal to Louis (Ryan Gage) which he's entitled to do and he orders the Musketeers to distract them.  Howevrr Porthos is kidnapped by some masked assailants.  D'Artagnan shoots at one of them and he turns out to be a criminal.  Aramis says he knows where they're headed.  As they find the inn, the woman asks if it's "raining Musketeers outside?"
Aramis; "I'm guessing you saw my friend here."
Woman: "Tall, better looking than you."
Aramis: "There's no accounting for taste."

The Cardinal (Peter Capaldi) and Louis plan on making a new and better modern France and to this end they must clear out the criminal quarter, known as the Court of Miracles,as Athos (Tom Burke) explains to D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) it's where miracles can happen.  D'Artagnan thinks Porthos may have shot him cos he was drunk, but Aramis tells him it's Porthos.  They head to the court but have to run back as the people don't want them there.  Athos will return later disguised and is met by Porthos's childhood friend, Charon (Ashley Walters) who gives him a message for Porthos, that they haven't given up on him, but of course, he doesn't convey it to him.  Porthos meets up with his former lover, Flea (Fiona Glascott) as well, who wanted him to stay but he wasn't right for this place and left to become a Musketeer.

Treville tells them to investigate the dead man and they go to the morgue where they find he was shot at close range, Aramis saying it was murder.  D'Artagnan takes his key and a necklace, the inscription bears his name.  Aramis: "killing is not an exact science, but a messy business and as soldiers, it is our business."  Treville tells them he was a man from a great family and they search his place where his father, Emile de Mauvoisin ((Anton Lesser) told him he had gone to live.  Here they find letters and leaflets from a Hugonet church and also a half burnt letter which bears the dead man's name, Jean, having both barrels of stolen gunpowder.  Ye olde gunpowder plot repeated in season 3.  After giving chase and shooting at a masked man, how could Aramis have missed that shot.

The cardinal plots with Emile to blow up the court and Charon plans a celebration for the people, with expensive bottles of the king's wine.  They find out that the gunpowder stored at the church wasn't put there by Jean nor was he planning to blow it up, as Pastor Ferrand (Michael Jenn) tells them, it's not his writing on the letter.  Which just leaves Emile (common name in this show) their family was Hugonet but became Catholic as it was more lucrative, but they're bankrupt.

Porthos relives his youth here and spends a night with Flea, which Charon knows about and he plans on getting Porthos to escape Paris.  As he's shot he asks if the bullet was meant for him, then why not Porthos, yeah cos who exactly knows he's here aside from the people of the court.  Charon tells Flea to pack as they want to leave here and Porthos finds the gunpowder barrels wired to explode.

The Musketeers foil their plans and Flea is shot saving Porthos from Charon.  They find Charon and he fights with Porthos and tries to stab him, Aramis finishing him off and saving his brother.  Treville gets a confession from Emile and asks for his pistol as he's still a gentleman, shooting himself.   Porthos is pardoned and goes back with the others, asking if any of them doubted he did it, D'Artagnan replying not for a second.  They also ask if he didn't think they'd come after him and help him.  Some backstory on Porthos showing where he grew up as an orphan and how he doesn't know when his birthday is but just picked a date as a child.

Seems in this frst series everyone is guilty of something or suspected of it at least and is sentenced to execution, D'Artagnan, then Athos and now Porthos, seems Aramis hasn't been, not yet anyway.  But he's too busy with women to get into nay sort f trouble, though his mistress Adele was killed by the cardinal for her dalliance with him.  Porthos's account of what he did as relayed to the judge: took a walk and "admired the beauty and the serenity of Paris after dark."  Was hardly believable.

Aramis: "religion without art is so much less...seductive."  So what art will he find when he leaves and becomes  a monk at the abbey later.  He usually has the conversation about religion and also how men have killed for less?  More so than the others.  More religious than the others and also as the queen gave him her cross.

The Whispers 1.5 "What Lies Beneath" Review

                                            
Sean (Milo Ventimiglia) is questioned by Wes (Barry Sloane) who says the wrong questions are being asked so he takes over the interrogation himself.  Asking what happened to him, as he says he recalls flying and then ending up with a huge piece of rock in his back.  He knew he had to survive by taking it out, which may explain why he gets those tats on him and how all of them end in disaster.  But by far the best lines he's had in the entire 5 eps so far.
Sean: Look at me, I have nothing, no memories.  No past.  Barely a present and the future.  The mere mention of a future scares the hell out of me.  My shadow knows more than I do."
Which is true, as Claire (Lily Rabe) tells Henry (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf) he can't be home soon cos he needs to be helped by the experts first.  How Drill brought him home like he said he would. Jessup  (Derek Webster) drops by for her files and says that she can see Sean cos she's got connections in the DOD.

She asks Wes if she can and meets his assistant, which was some foreshadowing here.  He listens in to their conversation and leaves when he thinks it's getting personal, as she reminds  him of how they met and her father set it up by crashing the car in a ditch.  Sean returned home from training and he asked him to dinner.  She hated him at first but then had feelings for him.  As he says he "swept you off your feet."  Also a reference to him being a superhero here, which he may yet turn out to be.  He shows her the tats and how he went to every place, Seville had a train crash, Bordeaux had a flood each was accompanied by some sort of catastrophe and energy was involved.  But he doesn't know the significance of As33.

Funny she doesn't tell him how they were together and no she wouldn't, but she just says they were married, which doesn't say much cos you can be married to someone and not love them.  But the reason for the affair with Wes isn't revealed to us either.  I mean if you were married to someone like Sean why would you even contemplate an affair!

Claire thinks tat's to do with arsenic and if that's added to nuclear energy it'll cause the mother of all explosions.  Wes thinks his polygraph is a result of his subconscious and the waves resemble the rock structure in Mali.  Of course what they didn't get is that this too was another diversion just like in the previous ep with Henry and the nuclear plant.  He also thinks it's to do with volcanoes since the energy is under it and he hears Callie (Alison Araya) talking about it outside to her son.  Obviously she's Ethan's (Terrell Ransom Jr) mother, as Claire finds As33 is the baseball team.  She speaks with Ethan who tells her about the volcano not having enough power so his mother told him to get another battery.  Drill told him to build it.  Claire realizes too late that Wes was sent there to be taken care of.

But Lena (Kristen Connolloy) hasn't heard from him.  It's silly, one minute he wants her to go to her mother's, but she wants to stay and next minute she's taking Minx (Kylie Rogers) to the party and loses her for a bit.  Obviously she's still being use by Drill who tells her if she helps then her parents will get back together.  Which they kind of do for a bit and Lena leaves a message on his voicemail. In Mali he orders the rock to be raised as it emits a blue light around them.

Jessup is still following Claire and Frommer (David Andrews) tells him it's not what he can see that frightens him, but what he can't.  "...the unknown, that's what this is about."  As they think the nuclear blast was contained so it can be used in some form of deadly chemical weapon.
Previous ep had some X-Files incidental themes music going on in the background, when Henry was on his way to the nuclear plant.
This just keeps going round and round really, not much happened this episode aside from the meeting between Sean and Claire.  Wes seems eager to jump in and raise the rock when he doesn't really know anything about it or the harm it can do, especially since he also heard Sean's recollection of it, which wasn't much..

The Musketeers 1.4 "The Good Soldier" Review

                                            
As the Musketeers are on guard at a parade, Louis (Ryan Gage) welcomes the Duke of Savoy (Vincent Reagan) and his men to the court.  He's here to sign a treaty with France and not with Spain.  As they stand on parade, with Porthos (Howard Charles) being bored, he thinks he should faint, for something to happen.  D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) thinks he spots someone in the trees but doesn't follow up on it, not good training or having his instincts honed yet as a Musketeer.  There's a shot and it misses the Duke but gets a servant.  The Muskeeters look for the assassin and Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) finds a rope which he used to climb down into the palace with.  He then finds Marsac (JJ Field) an old friend of his and they fight.  He asks Aramis not to give him away cos he's here to avenge the slaughter of twenty Musketeers as they slept.  Marsac also saved Aramis's life when he was wounded and dragged him into the forest to hide out.  He then left and Aramis owes him cos he saved his life.  D'Artagnan finds them and he also wants him not to tell anyone until he's heard him out.  A lot of that happening this ep.

They take him to Constance's (Tamla Kari) and she lets him stay in D'Artagnan's room.  Aramis needs to find the truth and get to the bottom of it.  He tells them the orders were signed by Treville (Hugo Speer) and as they head before Louis, Treville asks them why they didn't catch the assassin.  D'Artagnan saying he slipped in the wet grass.  Which Treville doesn't really buy, at least he didn't look like he did.
Treville: "There's a killer ont he loose, the security of the nation hangs by a thread but at least little D'Artagnan didn't get a nasty bruise."
Athos (Tom Burke) knows they're up to something and D'Artagnan tells them if Aramis doesn't tell him then he will.  He tells him and Constance is livid they bought a deserter and assassin into her house.  Secretly enjoying the intrigue of course.  Athos doesn't believe Treville could sign their death warrant and neither does Porthos.  They'll need proof and they confront him.  Treville refuses to answer their questions and Marsac says the traitor or the leader of the Duke' men has a scar on his back.

Treville and the Cardinal (Peter Capaldi) both agree Cluzet (Simon day) mustn't be found as he's a Spanish spy in the court and he's locked up by the Cardinal.  Paying him a visit they talk of his five years in solitary, but why did they keep him alive.  They need him kept here otherwise Savoy will sign with Spain and Louis can't have that.  How many sisters did Louis have anyway, as we see another one, married to the Duke of Savoy.  At the inn, Porthos sees the jailer with Savoy's man, Gontard and he takes him to the prison where he sees Cluzet  (no to be mistaken for Clouseau!  ha.)  But Porthos didn't tell them he followed him there and only later does he say who was there.

The cardinal says the treaty must be signed but Savoy challenges his best man to a duel, that being Athos who is a wonder with a sword.  First to draw blood wins, which Athos does.  Treville tells him to apologize cos he should've let him down and not humiliate him like that.  The treaty will be signed and as Athos apologizes for his over zealousness, he sees the scar on his back....

Aramis confronts Treville again and strikes him down when he's talking with the cardinal and how Cluzet mustn't be found.  He admits to him that he ordered the men to leave for Savoy.  Later explaining that he didn't know they'd be betrayed.  Also that Louis did it to protect his sister who was a French spy in the Savoy court and had to be protected.  She, the Dutchess of Savoy (Phoebe Fox) comes to the Musketeers after learning they have found Cluzet and will be heading for the prison with the Cardinal.  They arrive beforehand and take him to another cell, with D'Artagnan dressed as the jailer, the Cardinal sees him and realizes all is well.  Savoy also admonishes his man for being mistaken and a fool.  Aramis tells Marsac he was right and he heads to confront Treville and after a fight, Aramis must shoot his friend to save Treville.  The orders came directly from the king to protect his sister.

Aramis buries Marsac saying he lost his spirit back there and his body now caught up with it, but his soul is at peace now.  Seems Aramis gets the best of the storylines in these eps thus far.  Having to take the life of the man who saved him.  Elsewhere Constance wants D'Artagnan to teach her how to shoot and sword fight since why should ladies carry themselves with dignity.  D'Artagnan thought he was getting propositioned by her when she tells him her husband shouldn't find out.  All in good time hey!

The Whispers 1.4 "Meltdown" Review

                                           
Well it's great to binge watch a show as they say cos you don't have to wait around for a week to see it and especially if there's certain bits you want to skip over in a hurry, which just weakened the show. It's apparent Wes (Barry Sloane) still has feelings for Claire (Lily Rabe) and she giving him those long, lingering glances when she wanted to get Henry (kyle Harrison Breitkopf) out of the nuclear plant.  As he's now been utilized as another piece of the puzzle by Drill, this time by Minx (Kylie Rogers) who went over to play with him and gave him directions on where Drill wanted him to go. As again another request is answered by Drill, though not sure request is quite the right word to use here.  Henry asks for his father back and this is exactly what happened.  Seems this lockdown at the plant did nothing to prevent what was really meant to happen and Drill gets his own way.

Lots of unnecessary scenes which just chose to make this longer, not with Sean (Milo Ventimiglia) though, as Sean breaks into the plant so easily with Maria (Catalina Davis) and is able to access unlocked doors, (my typo here was unlicked doors, hmm, could be amusing, ha!) leading Wes to think he has inside help.  Once inside he hands the gun over to Maria and tells him to shoot her if he does anything bad.  He then goes into a seizure and she doesn't realize what's happening to him. Sufficed to say they end up being caught and interrogated later on.  Sean draws on the wall of his cell, which seemed like he was trying to make a way out for himself.  Wes tells him his name and wants to know what he's doing here, of course he doesn't know, only that something bad will happen.

Henry follows the clues and finds himself at the plant and Claire sees him in the area which will be flooded as the plant's gone critical and it's the only way to prevent a meltdown and a catastrophe.  She wants to go after him and Wes tries to hold them off as long as possible and as she arrives there she misses Sean by minutes, only Wes sends her in the wrong direction.  Isn't it obvious any exit will be on the ground level and not upstairs.  She climbs up to see Henry down there and there's nothing she can do, but it wasn't a shock to know that's exactly where Sean was headed to save him, he physically closes the door.  Thus preventing the water from entering.  Yeah let's waste time having a reunion inside instead of getting out.

Minx is like a scary kid isn't she and a tad arrogant too.  Thinking whatever she's doing and playing is just a game, but she doesn't understand the bigger picture, that it's not a game, but she says it's adults who don't know what they're doing.  But Lena (Kristen Connolly) should be keeping a better eye on her, not leaving her in the garage all day, without checking up on her and was she really going to kill Grammy (Dee Wallace) well she's creepy enough to do it, with some prompting of course.

As the plant reaches critical point, the explosion and clouds from it disappear into what looked like a portal in the sky, catastrophe averted, still leaving open questions as to why , but it was meant to happen.  That nuclear energy has gone somewhere for some purpose, to help some sort of alien invasion perhaps.  I know a lot of viewers were having a meltdown here themselves on the story and whether to continue watching anymore eps, maybe I'm a glutton for punishment at times, but I always have to finish what I begin to watch.  Besides we can't go wrong with Milo!

Jessup (Derek Webster) didn't get much out of Maria as he questioned her being there and why would she even have anything to do with what happened there.  What was she meant to have been part of some secret sleeper cell come alive.  It's obvious she had no choice but to help Sean, though it's not apparent why he chose her to do so, out of anyone at the hospital or if it was just she would be easy to kidnap.  Though later episodes explain this a little better in her medical expertise being required and she was already involved since she treated him.  Claire was on cloud nine seeing Sean back again and this was also Henry's gift from Drill for helping him in getting ot he nuclear plant and also in helping him harness the energy from the explosion.

The Musketeers 1.3 "Commodities" Review

                                            
The Musketeers are entrusted with the task of escorting Emilie Bonnaire (James Callis) back to Paris to appear before Louis (Ryan Gage). Who is building a miniature ship and wishes they had French flags instead of Dutch, he wants to steal the Spanish Armada.  The Musketeers find Bonnaire at an inn and have to fight to get him from there, as well as his wife, Marie (Emma Skellern)causing trouble as she has a score to settle with him.  He asks for a moment alone with her where they fake being intimate, as she picks the lock to escape.  But Porthos (Howard Charles) waits for him in his wagon, which he wants since he wants to present his exotic wares before Louis.  He offers Porthos some wine and talks of slavery and where Portho's ancestors hail from.  His mother escaped slavery and came to France, but he was looking after himself since he was five.

They find that two scouts are following them and are met with Bonnaire's business partner, Meunier, whom he doublecrossed.  Athos (Tom Burke) tells him they can't have him cos they're on the king's business and Porthos is wounded in the fight with his men.  Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) needs to stitch his wound but he can't be moved, yet they manage to move him to a house nearby, which turns out to be Athos's mansion.  Aramis remarking on his nobility.  As he walks through the house, he has a flashback to his wife and giving her a forget-me-knot flower.  As she eventually turns around, we know that his wife is Milady de Winter (Maimie McCoy) whom he had hanged cos she was a cold blooded killer.

Aramis stitches Porthos up and he needs to rest after he's punched out to make the task easier. Bonnaire would buy this place but it's not for sale.  A shame D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) didn't lift up the torn painting to see the woman's face, nor did he see the flowers in her hand, just like she laid them on his pillow at Constance's house.  Marie comes to rescue Bonnaire and they escape for a while, until they're caught and Marie is shot by the Spanish who have been following Bonnaire. Porthos must remain at the house in his condition and can't give chase so he gets bored and looks at the plans Bonnaire has been carrying.  They show the construction of slave ships and Bonnaire admits he wants to raise tobacco in the colonies, but he needs men to do it for him.  Athos knows slavery is disgusting and objectionable but he has a duty to the king and they must take him there. Saying Louis will deal with him and his slavery.

Athos dreams of Milady and of hanging her as he rides away without seeing the task to completion. She survived since she seduced Roomy as she later tells him and he remains behind to see him, but finds him dead, stabbed.  He goes back, gets drunk and sees her with a torch, she sets the house on     fire Jane Eyre style and tells him how she seduces Remi and he went back for her and revived her. But she killed his brother and put Remi (Tomas Masopust) out of his misery too since he was already half dead.  D'Artagnan returns to the house, since he did look back at it before leaving and rescues Athos from the fire.  I mentioned Jane Eyre cos in 2016 Tom Burke read the part of Mr Rochester in the BBC radio production, but I said he'd make a good Rochester in a proper dramatization, all dark and brooding.  Also thought Wuthering Heights with the scene with the tree where she was hanged.

Bonnaire goes before the Cardinal (Peter Capaldi) who tells him to tell him his plans in detail as his life depends on it.  He's impressed with the venture so the cardinal personally invests in it and he is to set sail.  Bonnaire buys drinks for everyone and the Musketeers ensure he sets sail but on a Spanish ship to Spain.  Athos gives Meunier (John Warnaby) the keys to Bonnaire's warehouse and suggests he empty it before the cardinal finds out.  Also it's treason so they won't speak of it.

Milady and the cardinal makes plans of their own and he asks if the flowers are for him, was he expecting flowers then, ha.  As she ask if he requires her services in the future as she has personal business.
Cardinal "Any notion of a personal life ended the day I picked you out of the gutter and made you my creature.  Even assassins should have a holiday now and then."  As her personal business was no doubt with Athos and the house, as well as Remi and she also makes the acquaintance of Constance (Tamla Kari) as she requires a dress made by her husband.  Mentioning D'Artagnan too.  When he returns he tells Constance he hasn't heard of Milady de Winter and Constance was afraid of her.

An episode where we get to know the background on Athos and Milady and find he was the Comte de Fere, hailing from a noble background, so Milady would've been out of place if she had told him the truth of who she really was.  But would it really have made him change his mind and not marry her, clearly he was besotted with her.  Also a bit on Porthos and his backstory, how he abhors slavery and learned to survive by himself at an early age.  Porthos: "...man is not a commodity."

The Whispers 1.3 "Collision" Review

                                                
Claire (Lily Rabe) looks trough Sean's (Milo Ventimiglia) bag which was conveniently left behind and tells her mother, Willi (Dee Wallace) that he's still alive and she saw him, but he looked right through her.  Her mother thinks it was like before she imagined it, but she says it was real.  She finds a receipt with numbers and says what Wes (Barry Sloane) says to his team about if needing to know where a man's going, you need to know where he's been, as she follows up the lead at the bakery. Obviously the man, Hamal (Riyaz Janif) wouldn't tell her anything even if she flashed her badge, but his wife, Nathifa (Camilla Mahal) stares at her, in that fashion which says, 'I know stuff but I'll only tell you if my husband doesn't find out' deal.  Claire speaks with her and she replies the numbers are an account (for an FBI agent she couldn't tell or have an inkling) after telling her the man's her husband, but Claire doesn't care what they're doing here. She saw him a month before as well, which makes her connect it to the building involved in the earlier explosion.

Wes watches footage of the building explosion and he sees the boy walk into the room which then explodes, he sees a man enter the room and says he was the target.  There was a flickering of lights there too wasn't there, unless my Internet connection was bad and I shouldn't have been watching through a thunderstorm! ha.  He's given a file which the dead man was sending out but the only thing that got through was an attachment, so you weren't so clever in destroying that were ya Drill.  But he doesn't know what's in the photo, it was sent to Harrison Weil (Jamison Jones) the Head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Right that's torn it, nuclear stuff's involved now.

Sean takes Maria (Catalina Davis) hostage and makes her drive to a gas stop where he makes her buy shaving stuff, as he shaves his beard.  He doesn't know where he's going or why until he gets there and she leaves Claire's card in with the money, with the assistant, being slow off the mark in calling her number.  Obviously she wouldn't be there as Jessup (Derek Webster) been assigned to the case by director and he doesn't want any judgements about her, he needs to do the work and she'll fix all the personal things in her life.  He answers the phone and gets en route to the station.  In the bathroom, Sean gets a message through the flickering lights and after all that the message turns out to be 'run.' Stealing a car he makes her drive to the nuclear facility.  But she doesn't answer him as to why she has the gun.

Wes talks with Harrison who tells him the photo shows some pipeline and he locks down the facility, after Minx (Kylie Jones) reluctantly agrees to talk with Claire after Lena (Kristen Connolly) asks her to and what she found, a symbol which is the mark of the facility and she has other plans which make a larger puzzle.  There's unexpected activity at the nuclear facility and Harrison is called but Harper (Abby Ryder Fortson) texts back saying he'll handle it and then disposes of the phone.  Her mother (Autumn Reeser) awakes cos she's played her part of the game.  Minx also has a session with a psychiatrist and he tells her Drill's not real, but he's not too happy with that and as she told about the plans, he makes the doctor have an accident by using a child whose ball rolls in front of his bike and he drives into a car.

Maria crashes the car and ends up at the facility, but Sean doesn't get hurt, he instead fizzles out the electricty barrier.  She got him right where he wanted to be.  Of course it's anyone's guess whether Sean is really bad or being manipulated, but Claire's decided he is bad as she tells Wes this.  Henry (Kyle Harrison Breitkpof ) asks Drill to bring back his father, who left for his mission three months ago, after he found out about her affair.  As Claire blames herself for what happened to their son. There's quite a bit of exposition on the affair between Wes and Clare which slows things down a bit and really isn't very exciting to know about.  People have affairs yeah, guess the main question will be why did they and how did Lena find out.  Other than that they should've concentrated on the main plot about the children, Drill and Sean and how they're all connected.  Maybe that wouldn't have made 13 episodes but it could've been done.  There needs to be more character development and right now the only interesting aspect is Drill/Sean (and no this is no indication of any bias towards Milo either!)

Though Sean does get some hilarious lines about seeing a psychiatrist and he told him he was crazy, as if he wouldn't!  And Maria: "What do you think you're seeing?"
Sean:" I can't explain it. It's like deja vu...it just feels familiar."
Maria: "It's hard to have deja vu when you've got no memories."  Ahh but that's Sean the man without memories, he appears to be influenced by something, as we know, so the thoughts of what he's doing or has to do, might have been embedded in his mind which also caused him to lose his memory, as he also asks who the woman is who was looking for him.  But I have to say I had deja vu whilst watching this show!

The Musketeers 1.2 "Sleight of Hand" Review

                                                 
As D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) has a duel with another man, the guards arrive to arrest him, as duelling is prohibited.  This is what Treville (Hugo Speer) reiterates to them at the garrison and D'Artagnan is in prison and will be executed for this as an example.
Athos: "Nothing more we can do for him."
Pothos: "No point all of us gettimg arrested."
Aramis: "He knows the Musketeer motto: 'every man for himself.'  Yeah since when?  Ha.
Here he befriends, Vadim (Jason Fleyming) a criminal who is plotting the execution of Louis (Ryan Gage) and queen Anne (Alexandra Dowling).  He shows D'Artagnan a magic trick with a coin and he tells him the trick is to make the audience look the other way, which will be brought up again twice in the ep later on.  Word gets out of his plans and the Cardinal (Peter Capaldi) asks where he would kill the king and how, as Vadim's stolen gunpowder.  A good place Treville replies is Notre Dame where Louis and Anne show their faces to the public after the service.

Constance (Tamla Kari) is livid that they didn't help D'Artagnan and abandoned him in danger, then slaps Aramis, "God, I love that in a woman...violence."  What with that slap and Suzette (Denise Gough) complementing him on his "lovely eyes" which Athos (Tom Burke) was meant to have mentioned to him in the morning and then getting slapped on the other cheek by Constance again, this was becoming a bit of a habit with Aramis, not to mention getting a private audience with Anne as well.
Aramis: "I don't like this, I've never been unpopular before...I'm the more romantic hero type."  As opposed to Porthos (Howard Charles) who is the unpopular one.
Constance's husband, Bonacieux (Bohdan Poraj) also catches her with the Musketeers, helping them out and is later glad he could help when they explain why.

Anne also likes to pardon prisoners and pays a visit to the jail, she never picks a good day to do anything does she and always gets into trouble, see series 3 where she hands out money to the poor and has to be saved and also as she wants to help the poor of Paris with reading and she also needs to be rescued from the rabble crowd.  Here it's the same thing and as she hands out money Treville tells her the hardened criminals would consider her soft for doing this.  Vadim tells D'Artagnan he's going to escape and walk right out the door.  He pretends to have a fit and knocks out the jailer, with D'Artagnan begging him to take him too, cos he's not a Musketeer.  Outside guards open fire and he takes Anne as a hostage demanding the door to be opened, which Treville orders to be done. Surprised no one saw D'Artagnan signalling to Treville to give the order.  His men are waiting outside and he kisses Anne and lets her go.  She just stands around in the middle of the gunfire and commotion and Aramis dives in to save her and protect her.  For which she's grateful and later she gives him her cross, so it will protect him in the future.

D'Artagnan is taken to his hideout where he learns of Vadim's plans, saying he can be trusted.  He later leaves and D'Artagnan follows him to Suzette's house, his mistress.  D'Artagnan is caught by his man and tells him he's visiting his mistress too, Constance and he kisses her, so she must play along and invites him inside.  Athos and the others arrive and he tells him of the plans, but he has to continue and returns.  Vadim tells him he should ask if he wants a conjugal visit next time and he hands him a map of the route and where they will use the bombs.  Then tells him to get some wine to celebrate.  D'Artagnan is awfully naive in these early eps, since he doesn't realize Vadim is already aware of his working for the others.  He gives the map to Porthos and they are ready for the attack the next day.

Vadim tells them they have a traitor and he ties up D'Artagnan with some gunpowder giving him eleven minutes.  His men attacks Louis and Anne by throwing the bombs and D'Artagnan tries to free himself.  They realize it's a rouse after they find out Vadim used to work at the palace and was shown the queen's chambers and the palace on an educational tour.  Also the diamond necklace of Anne's was stolen.  Athos says they're really after the jewels at the palace and again that's the same as the series 3 ep where Grimaud was after the gold and the release of the prisoners was a diversion.
D'Artagnan gets out but can't prevent the gunpowder from going off.  But he manages to foil Vadim's plans as he attempts to escape with the jewels.  They also know Suzette was lying to them when she told Athos and Aramis she didn't know where Vadim was.  As she plans to leave, Milady (Maimie McCoy) ambushes her and steals the necklace, later telling the Cardinal that she didn't come across it when it's right round her neck. Obviously she's playing anyone and everyone here to get her own way and what she wants.  (Suzette was a little crepe Suzette thinking she could get one over on Milady!)

See D'Artagnan missed Vadim's plans twice, when he gave him the map he should've known it was a decoy and not a real map, but he didn't realize it cos he was looking the wrong way, hence the title, sleight of hand.  Constance was warming to D'Artagnan and nay fool could see she was really falling for him, even if she is married.  She kind of married in haste and repented in leisure with him, as she said once, he was all she could have at the time and didn't want to be left without any prospects, even if it was a boring life.  Some funny moments again and Aramis putting his foot in it, especially where the ladies are concerned.  Of course he'd save Anne and as their eyes met...!! ha.

The Whispers 1.2 "Hide And Seek" Review

                                      
As Claire (Lily Rabe) follows up on the lead of the photograph, she calls Jessup (Derek Webster) to ask him to hold off putting it out in public and tells him to meet her at the hospital.  Henry (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf) tells her about his new friend and when she asks about him, she's interrupted by the doorbell, of course that was Drill ensuring he doesn't tell her anything.  But really couldn't the doorbell wait, it's not like anyone who's there will go away if it's someone she knows, or will be doing more than cold calling! At the hospital as he asks Harper (Abby Ryder Fortson) questions about the photo and if that's Drill, her father, Harrison Weil (Jamison Jones) tells her to answer the questions, but she says she can't otherwise her mother won't get well, it's a game and she has to play and win.  She asks Harper if Drill stops her from answering Maria (Catalina Denis) and she says it might be okay but then doesn't tell her anything.  Maria sees the photo and tells Claire the man was her patient and ran away.

Obviously they don't know his name but he had tattoos and spoke Arabic (hey look Arabic speaking aliens!! ha and I mean aliens as in little grey men!)  As Claire watches the surveillance footage with Jessup, Sean (Milo Ventimiglia) strikes down a guard.  She pauses it and zooms in, he asks her who he is cos she's keeping something from him and she replies it's her husband.  They only found his plane and no body, but the man here wasn't behaving like Sean cos he doesn't speak Arabic or have tattoos.  She gives Maria her card and tells her to call only her if he turns up.  Now wait a sec, we see Sean had an appointment with her which he cancels, but he couldn't have been the one with the appointment.  He just said that to ensure she wouldn't be at home, cos I was thinking (for a change) if she had an appointment with him she'd have told him and secondly she wouldn't have had an appointment cos he was meant to have remained in hospital, not run away.

En route to the hospital, Wes (Barry Sloane) stopped Claire in her car and she told about the sketch and the man being Sean.  He doesn't think it's a good idea to talk in public as Lena (Kristin Connolly) just told him the whole of the neighbourhood probably knows about his indiscretion and affair with her.  He also says he had a second chance with Lena and Claire says she hasn't been given a second chance.

Sean heads to Maria's house where he finds a gun and showers before passing out in the shower! Right any ol' excuse to go shirtless and nakked!  ha.
                                            
Seems he was in there quite a while without getting wrinkly skin!  He comes out and then draws on the floor, another symbol.  Thought that symbol looked a little like the swing where Minx (Kylie Rogers) headed after leaving home, saying she doesn't want to be there anymore cos she doesn't like her parents arguing and the way they look at each other.  Of course she was getting up to her own tricks according to Drill, as she tells her friend about a new game she can play and then she'll show her some magic, that's their secret though. Why are children so mesmerized by talking figures and lights, just a general comment, since Minx had lights everywhere in her room and she's had them since she was little, as we see in flashbacks later on.  Guess that's one of Drill's attractions with the lights, as well as only being able to communicate with the use of electricity.

Wes's home is investigated by the FBI since secret files were downloaded and he said it wasn't him. Lena argues with him some more thinking she's been spying on him, but she's still more concerned about his affair.  Which he doesn't seem to be quite over with, no matter what he said about his second chance.  Especially when she tells him he doesn't know what he's talking about and they were much more than that.  Looks like she heard that.  Wes has put a tail on Claire and follows her to Maria's house where she almost runs into Sean, he makes a run for it through the window and she chases him, leaving his bag behind.  Of course she must've been some kind of fast runner cos getting a headstart on her, he didn't get very far, or was that his intention.  Cos after losing her, he shows himself and then vanishes.  She tells Wes she didn't get to see who he was, but she did really and wouldn't tell him.

Henry watches TV in the night and Grammy (Dee Wallace) tells him she heard someone talking in     the room, which he says was the TV, of course he can hear now, but he's hiding that.  That's just another 'reward' Dill's given to him, like teasing Harper about giving her mother back if she listens to him and does what he wants, winning the game.  Satellite footage showed some form of anomaly from where Sean's plane went missing and Wes tells Frommer (David Andrews) he turned off his transponder which cant be done on an F-22.  Minx has plans which show the same symbol Sean drew on the floor and he gets into Maria's car with the gun.

There is something about this show which had more of the supernatural element than anything alien or otherwise cos of the flickering lights, something associated with spirits, rather than anything out of this worldly.  There wasn't much revealed in this episode and no reasons as to why Claire and Wes had their affair to begin with, it doesn't look like there was anything wrong in their personal lives at home, but seemed like a plot device the writers used to plod along, ensuring Minx was told by Drill of this and that made her an easy target to manipulate, as she'd want someone to talk to.  Just like Sean appearing before Claire was just to prove she wasn't imagining things and that really was him, otherwise as I said if he's got amnesia and he's running away why stop and reveal himself, cos there'd be no point in running.

Then there was Wes and Claire, two people who had the oft mentioned and repeated affair, yet she finds it comfortable to lie to him about who she saw and Lena thinks he's still lying to her.  Then if the adults lying wasn't bad enough, we see their children do it too.  Henry keeps the fact he can hear from her and Minx just seems to do whatever she wants whether there are consequences or not, like being able to leave the house at night without anyone knowing.  It's easy for Drill to make them promise not to tell about him or what his game is, cos their parents keep secrets too.  Suppose the only interesting aspect was why Sean would take Maria hostage.  Though the fact he had a storage unit with various clippings and other stuff shows he's been trying to figure out this puzzle for along time.

The Musketeers 1.1 "Friends and Enemies" Review

                             
D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) and his father, Alexandre (Oliver Cotton) ride to an inn and as D'Artagnan puts away the horses, the men inside are attacked.  One is killed and his father is also killed as one of the men says he's Athos (Tom Burke) of the king's Musketeers.  Of course it's not really him as this is the opening we're not meant to know what he looks like yet at least in the show, oh you know, having to suspend disbelief and all that, even though we do know who Athos really is.  The real Athos wakes up in a room and after drinking wakes himself up with a cold bucket of water and dunking his head into it. D'Artagnan rides to Paris to avenge his father.  He gets a room and in the night a woman arrives with another man and he challenges D'Artagnan to a duel the next day.  She waits for him upstairs and takes his pistol from him when they meet on the stairs.  Later sending the night together.  When D'Artagnan wakes in the morning he finds a bloody dagger in her pillow and takes it with him when he hears a scream.  The man she was with is dead in the bath and they see D'Artagnan with the knife, he escapes through the window.

At the garrison D'Artagnan challenges him to a sword fight.  Athos trying to explain he didn't do it. Constance (Tamla Kari) also telling them they should be ashamed of themselves: three against one. He finally gives up and she takes him to her house and bandages him up.  Louis (Ryan Gage) tells Treville (Hugo Speer) he must find Gaudet (Philip Brodie) who has important letters of his, which he's written to Phillip in Spain in the hopes of peace.  He doesn't want Cardinal Richelieu (Peter Capaldi) to find out.  Treville sends the Musketeers after the men, but Athos is arrested for murder and is thrown into prison, after the same impostor robs a carriage and kills the occupants, telling the drier to tell everyone that Athos spared him.  He accuses Athos before the king.

D'Artagnan helps the others cos he wants to know the truth and they find the men at a castle, the only way is over the bridge.  He knows someone who can help them and Constance pretends to be a prostitute so they can overpower the guard and get in.  D'Artagnan fights the man and is about to kill him when Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) tells him they need Gaudet alive.  But he draws his sword and D'Artagnan has to protect himself, so much for that.  Also Constance is shocked at having to fire the pistol and kill a man to save D'Artagnan.  Porthos (Howard Charles) finds the Musketeers uniforms, however the cardinal already has his hands on the letters, as procured by Milady (Maimie McCoy).   Which was a waste of time really, since Louis already admits to the cardinal what he's done and he says he won't do that again without his counsel, but could come in handy for blackmailing purposes.

They arrive just in time to save Athos before being executed by firing squad with a letter from Louis, as Athos wanted it to be over.  Especially with him contending with the demons of Milady and what he did to her, of course, we know it's Milady who is his wife (reading the books aside) as she also showed D'Artagnan the scar around her neck from the rope.

Aramis has his own woes as he spends time with Adele (Emily Beecham) and has to escape when the cardinal arrives early, aka Armand.  He jumps from the window, or at least must hang there until the Musketeers find him, leaving behind his pistol.  Which she kicks under the bed but doesn't get rid of or sends it back to him.  Of course the cardinal was going to find it and use it against her.  He needed to find who it belonged to but Aramis already told him.  He kills Adele for her betrayal with his pistol and Aramis believes she's deserted him for the Cardinal and to stay at his summer house.  Whilst he's also plotting with Milady who killed the Spanish traitor Mendoza who was a poor lover and he would've betrayed the Cardinal eventually as she tells him.

As an opening episode it had all the right amount of interesting scenes and dialogue to get you hooked and jokes.
Treville: "I've had complaints, an allegation you've been duelling with the cardinal's Red Guards, is it true?"
Athos: "let me think...no...because that would be illegal."

 As already we see the Musketeers are a force to be reckoned with and in constant fights with the Red Guard and detested by the cardinal.  So it's no wonder he does away with his mistress, Adele after he finds out she was with Aramis.  Who jumps out of a window to escape as much the same as D'Artagnan did.  The plot where D'Artagnan spends a night with Milady when we know who she really is was kept going for quite some time as he doesn't know she is Athos's wife and Athos doesn't know about them either.  But already D'Artagnan has an eye for Constance even if she is married and we thought Aramis was meant to be the amorous one!