Desperate Housewives - 8.15: "She Needs Me" Review

Orson tries his hardest to hold onto Bree and when he can't have her and she leaves him, he posts a package to Fairview police. Susan wants to help porter with the baby and Lynette falls out with her over this.

Mary Alice: "When it came to raising her children, Lynette Scavo was used to doing things without help...just when she was used to doing everything herself, doesn't mean she liked it."  Porter (Charlie Carver) has a job in a restaurant but they don't have child care.  Tom (Doug Savant) thinks it's good news he has a job.  Lynette (Felicity Huffman) still thinks it's a bad idea for him to raise a baby as she's almost done with the heavy lifting of babies.  Porter will name her Lynette, for which she hugs him but she's still not helping.  Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) "Yes Lynette Scavo had help and she was determined that Porter would do the same."

Mary Alice: "Orson Hodge had a plan.  He was determined to reclaim the heart of a woman whose loss he had never gotten over...he obsessed over every detail until at last the moment arrived when she was within reach."  Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) has a book for Bree (Marcia Cross) of all her fond memories and then gives himself away by mentioning the letters she received. Bree only told him about one letter.  He claims one of the women told him.

Gaby (Eva Longoria) has brought champagne for herself to celebrate when Carlos (Richardo Antonio Chavira) returns home and has a balloon for him.  That's nice, she's going to drink in front of him when he's just out of rehab.  She wants Roy (Orson Bean) to patch things up with Karen (Kathryn Joosten).

Mike (James Denton) dropped Julie off at the station.  Susan (Teri Hatcher) was hoping she'd come back home.  Porter tells Susan he wrote his resume and Susan offers to look after the baby when he works (well she would seeing as she can have the baby around that way).  Karen saw Gaby taking flowers from Bree's bush and Gaby was being selfish by wanting Roy at home.

Porter wants the bassinet and helps Susan paint the nursery, making Lynette even more angry at being left out.  Renee (Vanessa Williams) tells Ben (Charles Mesure) she paid off the loan and she does what she wants.  Tom offers to take the children for a week and Jane can look after Paige too, wasn't Lynette a little perturbed by Jane having her baby.

Gaby asks Roy about his first wife. Even after Karen told her not to tell him, she goes ahead and breaks her promise.  Donnie (Sal Landi) comes to Renee's for more money and threatens to burn down her house.  She doesn't seem to be afraid.

Bree wants Orson to take his monogrammed hat with them on the trip, but he didn't bring it and he tries every possible excuse to avoid taking her home.  So why leave that display up on his wall where anyone could see it? I mean it wasn't hidden in a closet or something so he was bound to get found out.

Porter decides to name the baby after Susan's mother, Sophie.   Lynette and Susan then argue over baby names and Susan calls her a pushy grandma.  Lynette takes the bassinet away.  Orson sends Bree away on the pretext of forgetting his key and then quickly removes the incriminating photos from the wall, but he won't be thorough enough.

Bree picks up a piece of paper on the floor, which quell surprise, looks suspiciously like the one the letters she received were written on, then spots a photo in the bin of Carlos et al carrying out Alejandro's DB.  The penny finally drops and Orson admits to killing Vance for her and he was protecting her when he wrote the letters so her friends would turn against her cos he'd always be a second.  He loves her and thus wants her all for himself.  He's nothing to her and took advantage of her at the "darkest moment of her life."

Tom talks with Susan and Mike with Lynette about their situations, or rather stalemate.  Tom explains Lynette wanted to do nothing with all five babies.  Mike tells Lynette he's from white trash and Lynette isn't like that.  Susan says, "She needs to be needed."

Karen knew she couldn't "trust the jumping bean to keep her mouth shut."  Roy wants to be with Karen.  Renee's at the hospital and calls Mike which turns out to be convenient for the plot.  He notices a light on in her house (she could have left one on and Renee didn't think of warning Mike about Donnie paying her a visit earlier).  Donnie trashed her house and he and Mike fight. Mike doesn't want to see him again, in which case Donnie states Mike should have killed him.

Gaby has lots of balloons for Carlos.  She hates the idea of dying whilst the other one will live through it.  He calls Gaby brave and how she's been the rock and held them together.  Lynette brings the bassinet back.  Orson calls Bree with the news he's making the ultimate sacrifice which she confuses with suicide.  Mary Alice: "Yes there are times when we all could use a little help when our generosity has been repaid with cruelty... And when our future has become terribly uncertain.  But then there are those who are past the point of help and in their wake they leave nothing but destruction."  Orson posts an envelope to the police homicide department.

Finally the truth is revealed about Orson being responsible for the death of Vance - he admits it, but it wasn't that climactic as it was something many had already worked out.  Bree realizes the depth of his betrayal and how he used her when she was down for his own selfish ends.  What irked was how she walked away form him when he knows all her secrets, but about the other women too. There were no flashing red lights that her enemy - which he has become now - would retaliate; which he does by his final act of posting the envelope.  He's either confessed; highly unlikely; or he puts all the women including Carlos, up for the death of Alejandro, or maybe just Bree.  So he wasn't any different to Vance then and they say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. What about a man? Or can't they be in the same position?

The Lynette/Susan rivalry was on the cards since last episode, emphasizing once more their varied parenting methods.  Still at least they made up after their husbands give them a talking to: swapping husbands that it.  I thought Lynette would have been more angry at Tom for taking Paige to be looked after by the other woman, Jane.

Oh one thing about Bree, it was Orson who helped her through her rough patch and saved her from the assailant.  None of the women were really there for her and this episode they forgot about her completely.

Did Renee really think she'd tell Donnie she's not from here and so can't be threatened and he'd just roll over and play scared?  Then Mike had to get involved as we knew he would.  Lynette propositioning Mike to pee off Susan!

The title of this episode was from a Stephen Sondheim song, Illya Darling, but wasn't actually recorded.  Also Orson bean was in this musical.  How could Bree imagine Orson was contemplating suicide? He wasn't in such a frame of mind when she walked out.  Again she was only thinking of herself and how she was driven to taking her own life. Her religiousness showing there.

Gaby was showing some maturity for once when she helps Karen and gets Roy to go to her in hospital.  Also the same with Carlos which was rather touching, if not a little maudlin - until Carlos suggests maybe Gaby can cark it first.

As for the photo Orson had , it only showed Carlos et al, taking something out, not that it was an actual DB.  Did Orson have photos of them burying Alejandro? Anyway, this DB was removed by Mike and Orson couldn't have known this was going to be done.  So without a DB the police can't prove murder per se.    Orson blending into the crowd was quite creepy.

Doctor Who - 5.8: "The Hungry Earth" Review

The Doctor and Nasreen being captured and put into decontamination, where Amy has just escaped from cos of him. The Doctor attempts to negotiate peace for the future.

CWMTAFF, SOUTH WALES 2020 AD.   Nasreen (Meera Syal) is excited about the drill hitting a new level of 21K.   Mo (Alun Raglan) returns to work after reading with his son, Elliot (Samuel Davies.)  The Doctor (Matt Smith) steps out of the TARDIS and thinks they've arrived in Rio.   But it's a cemetery and he notices something strange: blue grass.  Amy (Karen Gillan) notices herself and Rory (Arthur Darvill) on a hill and they appear to be waving.   The Doctor comments they can both relive past glories from their future.   Amy is surprised they're still together in the future.

Doctor: "I love a big mining thing."  Rory takes Amy's ring and puts it in the TARDIS for safe-keeping and for a future plot line.  Mack (Robert Pugh) and Nasreen notice the hole in the ground.   Elliot asks Rory if the TARDIS is a portable crime lab, as they think he's a policeman.   Ambrose (Nia Roberts) shows Rory the family plot from which bodies have been disappearing.   The Doctor eats the blue grass, he's only been disgusting recently, was that when he became the eleventh Doctor.   Amy: "I dressed for Rio" which she'll reiterate a few times.   The Doctor sees something on the screen, something's moving, "shifting when it shouldn't."  The ground that is.   Steam rises from the ground and the Doctor says the ground is attacking them.   Of course Amy wouldn't stay away form the earth and she's taken again, once more down the hole with her.   The Drill's shutdown.

Rory investigates the grave and it appears to be eating people as Elliot puts it.   He's listening to Sherlock Holmes audio book.   Coincidentally bringing up Sherlock Holmes as we in the UK were about to get the new Sherlock in July 2010.

The Doctor says it's not quicksand, when the drill was restarted the ground retaliated.  "Bio-programming," it was an attack to stop them drilling.   The Doctor demands "Absolute silence." (!)  He can still hear drilling underground.   The patches of blue grass appearing were warnings to keep away.   Nasreen was drilling down and someone's drilling up.   The noise he can hear is a transport coming up.

Outside he uses a sling shot to find the sky's surrounded by a forcefield: an energy barricade.   Rory's just noticed Amy's not there.   Doctor: "I'll get her back."  The same story here, he'll find her and they both have an argument over her, at least Rory gets angry.   They head to the church for cover.   Nasreen is sure the Doctor's the only one who's made sense of what they've seen.   They need to trust him as he can get them back.   Always the trust word with him, another one of his lines and Rory will say the same thing next episode: that he trusts the Doctor with his life.   They set up a defence and place sensors around themselves.   The Doctor tells Elliot he can't make a decent meringue, which is hard to believe.

The Doctor tells them not to use weapons and asks Ambrose nicely, "put them away."  The Doctor tells Elliot he got away too and couldn't wait to leave home when he grew up.   Monsters are afraid of him.   Elliot laves the church for his headphones.   The Doctor says they're surrounding them with darkness.   The Doctor tries to open a door and says the Sonic "doesn't do wood...oi don't diss the Sonic."  When Rory complains about it.   No one notices Elliot didn't come back and the Doctor realizes he saw him last.   A bit of a bad habit of the Doctor not realizing until the last minute he's lost people.   The creatures creep about and scans Ambrose.   Mack gets stung on the neck by the creature's tongue, I was going to say he gets tongued but that doesn't sound right.

Doctor: "There is always hope."  He promises to find Elliot too, that's 3 now and 3 promises to keep.  He uses IR (infra red) glasses and sees the creatures are cold blooded.   He knows what they are, though we're not told until later.   They capture one in the 'Meals on Wheels' van and can use it as a hostage.

Amy's given gas for "acting out."  The Doctor has seen a different species and the sting takes 24 hours to recharge itself.   The Doctor removes the creature's mask: she's beautiful.   They used geothermal currents to travel.   He's going to negotiate for Amy (no mention of the others.)  She claims to be the last of her species.   She isn't the last because he is and "I know how it sits in the heart - so don't insult me!"  He gets angry when he talks about being the last of his species cos of what he had to do to them, but we know he can't be the last of the Time Lords.   Alaya (Neve McIntosh) claims they were attacked and their warriors were activated.   She defers to humans as 'vermin.'  Again it's a case of humans v aliens for the Doctor or rather humans v reptiles here.   (Like V.)  She's ready to die for her cause and asks what he's sacrificing for his.   The doctor will negotiate for the others below.

 He calls them Silurians: homo-reptilia - aliens - earth-aliens.   The humans are the invaders and the Doctor says Alaya is their bargaining chip, as soon as he said that you realize something will happen to her.   He tells them they have to be "the best of humanity they can be...nobody dies today."  Nasreen wants to accompany him and the TARDIS is pulled down into the earth (like the Daleks were pulled towards the magnetism in the earth's core in one of the earlier Dr Who movies.)

Alaya calls the humans apes and she knows one of them will kill her and there'll be a war.   She knows which one will kill her.   The TARDIS fell to the bottom of the tunnel, further than  21K.   This is every other day to the Doctor.   Amy and Mo are being decontaminated in chairs.   The Doctor thinks there can't be more than a dozen of them but they find an entire civilization living beneath the earth.

The Silurians last appeared on the show in the 1984 episode Warriors of the Deep.  As soon as they utter no one will die today, it's ironic since that always happens, someone has to die for them to realize their mistakes and what they do wrong, though sometimes that's not the case.   Also there was talk on the Web that when the Silurian doctor scans Amy, the camera focuses on her stomach indicating she may be pregnant.   Though really a bit too early to focus on that aspect, since although this season was about Amy, it was also about the Crack and the Doctor's entire existence being in jeopardy.

The Vampire Diaries - 3.7: "Ghost World" Review

On Founder's Day Night spirits of the dead are brought back as they wreak havoc on the town, well almost, and Elena gets some help with Stefan from Lexie.

Mason (Taylor Kinney) says "This is gonna be fun."  Now that he has Damon (Ian Somerhalder) in the chair - without his ring.  Damon: "Low blow Stefan." How could he think it was Stefan, not exactly here to pull pranks on him is he?   Damon can't see Mason and Stefan (Paul Wesley) unties his hands, he'll just untangle himself.   Mason then opens the curtains and Damon begins to burn.

Carol Lockwood (Susan Walters) opens the Night of Illumination.   Alaric (Matt Davis) says he'll fail Tyler if he's not here, well Tyler wasn't here so he never got to see Mason.   Anna (Malese Jow) makes some funny comments about the Founders stealing from vampires, causing Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) to laugh.   Bonnie (Katerina Graham) has a direct line to the other side and she's paying for bringing Jeremy back.   Damon turns up, needing help as usual with his witty remarks, (well, sometimes they are).  "Greetings, Blondie, Witchie." Bonnie got her wires crossed when dispensing with Vicki cos "I got spit roasted by Mason" Damon tells her.   Then goes on to say, "When I kill someone, they're supposed to stay dead."  Good luck with that in this show.

Elena (Nina Dobrev) still desperately tries to save Stefan.   Lexi (Arielle Kebbel) brought Stefan back everytime he went over the edge and she wants Jeremy to reach her.   Jeremy tells her Anna is here by herself.   Matt (Zach Roerig) hasn't seen Vicki.   Bonnie's Grimoire drops and opens to a particular page: a manifestation spell, "used to reveal veiled matter." Caroline (Candice Accola) has to ask what that is.   Anna claims not all supernatural things go to the other side and they don't all find peace.   Stefan has forgotten how much he used to care, but Elena hasn't.   Stefan tells her not to torture herself with the past, then saying "There's gonna be lots to eat tonight."  He's joking he tells them, but he does 'eat' people still and has been doing that all the while he's been with Klaus.  

Bonnie and Caroline go back to the house where she brought back Jeremy, and she reassures Caroline the hundred witches aren't in the house anymore.   Caroline just as concerned as Damon was about the witches for her own selfish reasons of course.   Anna says Jeremy must lie to Elena about seeing her cos she's Bonnie's friend, and swears she's alone and no danger to anyone.   Jeremy kisses Anna.

Alaric tells Damon they're not a team - he tried to kill him, not tried, he did kill him.   Damon tells him about Mason and how they conspired to kill him. He's still angry.   Well Alaric has first hand experience of that and he's also still angry at Damon for killing him.   Grams (Jasmine Guy) appears before Bonnie as does Lexi to Stefan.   Alaric can now see Mason, who smashes a glass on Damon's head.   Lexi wants to help Stefan since he's off the rails, so how did she know, being dead 'n' all?   Lexi smashes Stefan's head against the car window now.   Boy these two brothers still getting their fair share of beatings and the like which many will say are their just desserts.

Bonnie tells Grams she couldn't let Jeremy go, she loves him.   An old witch took advantage of Bonnie bringing him back and has given a free pass to anyone on the other side who has unfinished business and any concerns with original vampire business.  Bonnie must close the door and the necklace is the power source.   Bonnie needs to destroy it (That darn necklace again), which Damon is meant to have.   Elena catches Jeremy kissing Anna, what still.   Lexi's going to engage in "Ripper Detox 101."

Mason wants Damon to apologize for killing him.   He's here to help Tyler.   Damon letting on that Tyler can't be helped as long as Klaus is alive.   Mason knows of a weapon that can kill him.   Damon didn't have to kill Mason, he does a lot of things he doesn't have to do, that's the extent of Damon's apology.   Alaric asks if Damon is incapable of remorse, cos he didn't get any apology either from him.   They need to go to the Lockwood cellar with a shovel and Damon asks if Mason's going to bury him alive.  

Lexi now has  Stefan tied up, just as Damon was earlier and Caroline before that.   It's never ending.   Lexi's going to dry him out first to save him.   Damon says he hit a snag with Mikael.   Mason tells him about the Lockwood legend about a weapon capable of killing an original vampire.   They can't be buried either.   Lexi tells Elena Stefan is hallucinating as he's going forward in time being deprived of blood, up to 5 years so far.   Elena calls Bonnie telling her she needs to delay sending the ghosts back.   It appears Elena doesn't seem to have the stomach or the heart to do what Lexi is doing to bring Stefan back.

Caroline lets slip (as usual) "boyfriend dramas,"  blabbing about Jeremy kissing Anna.   Frederick turns up for Anna, calling her Pearl's daughter and he has unfinished business with the Founders.   Stefan begs for help and Lexi knows he's lying.   When he's weak, make him feel the pain and see past the blood, until he's ready to be saved.   She stabs him over and over with the stake and Elena can't bear it.   Bonnie and Caroline search for the necklace at Damon's house and probably an in-joke here, with Caroline looking in that same soap dish where Katherine found the moonstone, yeah cos it's such an obvious place, ha.   Jeremy calls about the necklace and they find someone else has it.   Anna swears she didn't take it.

Mason knows Damon will do anything for Stefan and he won't do anything to jeopardize that, telling Damon he has trust issues, along with every other issue going.   They enter the cave and Damon gets impaled and stuck there alone.   Elena forgets Katherine knew about the necklace.   Jeremy always loved Anna.   Elena attempts to make him see reality, that Anna is dead and gone so is he going to love a ghost forever.   Well, everyone else is dead too, or died - and that includes her.   She tells him Anna's holding him back.   Anna gives Jeremy the necklace and Elena wants the ghosts gone.  

Mason releases Damon and he believes Mason's 'buddy act' can't be true.   Mason replies they're alone on the other side watching those left behind and "we regret our decisions."  He doesn't want revenge, but redemption.   That's pretty much what Anna and Vicki said about being alone on the other side, with Jeremy and Matt falling for it, well they are alone on this side too, most of them but at least they can move on and go forward, as Elena says, by finding someone else.   Mason wants to help Tyler, which he's already said before.

Caroline finds Lockwood's car in a wreck and sees Frederick.   Bonnie must go alone since Caroline has to stop him.   Did she think she could fight Frederick just as she did Damon?   Jeremy says her leaving doesn't have to mean goodbye, but Anna tells him it should be goodbye and she took the necklace.   She thought she could find Pearl.   Now Lexi's going to return too.   Stefan comments she wasted her whole life on him and now she's dead.   Lexi knows when he found the necklace it represented hope for Stefan, who says it's "ironic it's getting blown to pieces."

Damon can't get through the rest of the way in the cave being a vampire and Mason will have to and wouldn't you know it he's going to vanish at the time too.   Bonnie performs the spell and Grams holds her hand.   Lockwood watches Caroline fight.   Lexi makes sure Elena knows Stefan is still in there and she has to break through.   Elena knows what to do.   Anna finds Pearl (Kelly Hu).   Grams tells Bonnie she's strong and she's proud of her.

Damon called Alaric as he doesn't have anyone else he could call who is human and besides Elena, he doesn't trust anyone.   Alaric has to get over what he did.   He was his friend and Mason got over it.   Damon: "Sometimes I  do things I don't have to do." Repeating what he said to Mason.   Alaric: "You gonna recycle that same crap ass apology you gave Mason?"  Damon didn't mean it with Mason.   Elena has to go home and do her stuff.   Stefan wondered when she'd give up, but she still has hope and Stefan needs to get his back.   To 'fight, feel' or he'll lose her forever.   Elena: "I won't love a ghost for the rest of my life."  Unlike Jeremy and it's the same advice she gave him that she repeats here to Stefan about herself.   And so she should, she can't tell him one thing and then do the opposite herself.   No she won't love a ghost she'll just move onto Damon.  

Jeremy tries to explain to Bonnie and say sorry, but she wants him to leave.   The necklace returns in the fire.   Alaric sees the cave drawings but he doesn't know what they are.   Plenty more ghostly goings on in this episode, as yet more ghosts return and on Founders day/night.   Some to exact revenge, some to help and others to say goodbye and move on, cos they have to.   But it's still the same old repetitive stuff.   Lexi had to come back to show Elena what she needs to do to bring Stefan back and how she used to handle him back then.   Wonder how many times she put him through detox.

Mason leads them to more clues about how to fight Klaus and kill him, but of course can't hang around either, just as he gets to the paintings.   Damon being his usual obnoxious self, hey that's what I said Damon would say - to just get over it.   Great now I think like Damon too, ha.   Also he says the friend part too,  what I said back in episode 3.4 Disturbing Behavior, when he killed Alaric.   Then again, Damon said that to Elena too in 3.3, when he left her in Stefan's apartment in Chicago and he arrived with Klaus.

Jeremy looked a bit foolish holding hands with Anna, when no one could see her.   So much for Elena going on about Jeremy loving ghosts - she's in love with a vampire or two.   She won't love a ghost but it's okay to love a vampire, where's the logic in that statement? He's still dead, then again she has died too.   Anna had a legitimate reason for taking the necklace in wanting to find Pearl and that was one happy ending this episode, (cos you don't get many in the show) when she's finally reunited with her mother.   Seems that was Pearl's unfinished business for being here, to find Anna.

Now Mason's told them about the Lockwood legend (anything to take the show and story forward). That'll take a while to decipher as even Alaric doesn't know what they are or what they mean.

NCIS - 7.4: "Good Cop, Bad Cop" Review

The episode that reveals what happened to Ziva when she left NCIS and stayed behind. The mission her father sent her on and how she was held hostage at the end of season 6.

Fishermen catch the remains of a DB in a net.   Tony (Michael Weatherly) refers to Ziva (Cote de Pablo) as the "Wee Probie."  He should have said that in his Sean Connery accent; which he's used on many occasions but not here now when it was called for.    He then refers to the head and the heart as a reference to Edgar Allan Poe, he does read.   See past episodes where Tony's reading, or lack of, has always come into question.   Especially since he says he reads National Geographic and GSM.   At least we know he's read McGee's (Sean Murray) novel.   Ziva scared Tony so he tells them to dial 91 and the wait for him to tell them to dial the remaining 1.   Then they have to dial 991 since you need to get an outside line.   Ziva comments Tony can't even work his e-mail as he replies to all.   That's just like Gibbs (Mark Harmon) though.   Tony: "Sneaky people expect sneakiness." As Ziva thought Gibbs was behind her.

A DB is found in Tanzania and Gibbs liaises with Vance (Rocky Carroll) who's no longer chewing his toothpick, as he's got a splinter.  They look at the CS photos of  Cryer (Erik Palladino)  a marine deserter.   He was UA  6 months ago and was on a ship called the Damocles, which sank without survivors.   The same ship Ziva was on.   Gibbs says she survived and Vance saw this coming.   He asks Gibbs if he didn't.   They'll play 'good cop, bad cop' to get to the bottom of this.   McGee calls a code blue, Ziva's got a red flag on her file.  (This episode partly explains why Ziva hadn't been approved for fieldwork yet, since not all things from her past have been resolved.)  Her application to become an agent has been rejected.  

Vance questions Ziva first and explains she has a problem; there are unexplained inconsistencies.   She won't talk about her loyalty to her father, which predates everything else; or surviving prison camp.   Vance orders her to talk if she wants to stay here.  Well, practically orders her.   He asks her how she reached the camp and McGee uncovers a virus in the system.   Tony claims they have bigger issues.   Need to check out Cryer.   Tony on amassing info, his mind "absorbs things very quickly...take a breath, have a keyboard."  He comments Ziva was "lost at sea, before lost at sea" and brings up Aliens (1979) saying that Cameron's version, as in James, has more action.   [He had to say that since he was in James Cameron's Dark Angel.]  McGee adds Ziva hasn't been herself since she got back.   Tony explains they need to see what pops out of her chest.   Not metaphorically McGee adds.   That could have been a one-track minded comment from Tony.   He then says he "should stay in Paris."  (Cue a future episode when Tony and Ziva get to Paris.)  Lots of quick-fire dialogue here between Tony and McGee, especially Tony, which was easy enough to follow.

Abby (Pauley Perrette) studies thermal images of weather patterns off the Horn of Africa.   Ziva said that the ship was in a storm, but the body was found away from the storm, not that far south.   Thus the ship wasn't really near a storm.   McGee suggests they should backtrack to determine where the ship went down.   Tony tells Ducky (David McCallum) his specimens look like a sushi bar.  He's studying the feeding patterns of the sea creatures to confirm how long the DB was in the water; 16 weeks.   There's a GS wound near his left ear and no exit wound.   Tony picks up a skull, alas Poor Yoric (from Hamlet) surprised he didn't comment as such, since he reads, but not Shakespeare it seems.

Vance tells Ziva she took Rivkin's place in the Kidon unit.   When Ziva tells him she can't comment on her investigations, Vance posits he was the one to give her father the Intel.   Yes but if she wants to be an agent with them, why's she keeping secrets when the mission is over and done with.   She can't have it both ways and protect people she no longer wants to work with, her former Mossad colleague in particular and her father.   Cos that's what she's doing when she said she can't talk about it.   Not really showing her loyalty now lies with NCIS.   McGee believes the entire crew of the Damocles was executed.   Ziva appeared to be lying, as she looks left when being questioned.   Would've thought with her training she wouldn't do that.

Ducky comments Gibbs is on the wrong side of the glass and thought  he would have wanted to question her himself.   He's punishing her.   Gibbs calls it tough love.   Ducky replies there are other kinds of love.   Vance hasn't charged Ziva with a crime yet, but there is the crime of omission.

Aqaba, Jordan.   Ziva boards the ship, along with two others.   She carries the same photo of herself with Ari and Talia from season 6 and the one her father has in his office.   Cryer is caught checking out the cargo on the ship and Ziva rescues him, they kiss to throw the sailor off the scent.   Ziva knew he was a marine as he didn't fit in.   His alias was Shalev and she doesn't trust a man "whose loyalty has a price."  Then she didn't really trust anybody, not Gibbs and certainly not Tony after the way she treated Tony last season.   Not to mention the fact she trusted the wrong people, her father, Rivkin and Ari.   He tells her to take off her necklace but she would die first than remove it.   Speaking of, where was her necklace when she was being held hostage in the season opener.

Tony tells McGee to answer Gibbs' phone, as Tony's in charge in Gibbs' absence.   Ziva says she learned one of her first lessons from Gibbs: that there's no such thing as an ex-marine.   Malachi Ben-Gidon (TJ Rimini) comes to NCIS and Gibbs tells him he "missed his chance to rescue Ziva."  He replies he's in time to rescue her from Vance, whom he claims is holding her hostage.   Her father sent the Kidon team leader but NCIs were the ones who actually rescued her from danger.   Tony tells Gidon he should have allowed him to collect him from the airport and return the favour in showing him the same hospitality they showed Tony.   Vance comments they left Ziva to rot and now her father wants her back.   My thoughts exactly, where was her father for all those months she was being held hostage and no rescue from him.   He let his own daughter go there alone, on that mission.   The same way he used Ari to infiltrate terrorist groups.   Getting his children to do his dirty work for him.   Now he wants her back when she's been saved.

Gidon was there on the ship too.   He doesn't trust anyone and says he's changing their plan.   Her father said to carry out the mission "by any means necessary"  irrespective of what happens to Ziva; what did happen to her and then leaving her to rot as Vance put it.   Abby's philosophy is that when large amounts of evidence need to be analyzed, there is no plan.   You just go for it.   She accuses Gibbs of not acting like he's on Team Ziva.   Ducky speaks to Ziva with Tony around.   He's her escort.   Ducky says she needs to trust them like they trust her.   She's carrying the weight of the dead sailors around her.   The truth may set her free.  Or it may not, as she adds.

Gidon tells Ziva their outgoing transmissions were monitored.   There's a shoot out on board and Ziva says his plan was to shoot everyone.   Cryer shot the captain.   She tells Ducky to keep her distance since "the ones who end up close, always end up dead."  Vance says Gibbs should give her a chance to deny.   Gibbs asks if Vance was playing the good cop.   They put Ziva and Gidon together but she has nothing to say to him.   Tony spots Ducky with a folder and so that means he's got news.   COD was from 9mm wounds, a single, large caliber wound to the head.   .45 hollow points.   Abby has three slugs without any organic matter, so they missed at close range, which doesn't sound like Ziva would miss.   Tony asks her for an "unmushed" .45  slug.   Gidon was wounded in his shoulder, he accuses Ziva of killing Cryer.

It's Gibbs' turn to tell the story.   Cryer didn't betray them, but Gidon shot him as Gibbs has the kill shot.   (Which of course he doesn't since the bullets were all "mushed" as Abby said.)  He tells him that her father sent him to burn Ziva.   She asks if he's following orders.   Of course he is, why else would he be here, just like Rivkin was also following his orders and she was too, when she arrived at NCIS to help Ari.   Gibbs tells Ziva her father's dirty, which we already knew.   He tells Gidon to leave and to give a message to her father to keep away from Ziva.   Ziva uses Gibbs' rule, to "never apologize.   It's a sign of weakness."  Vance gets his toothpick back, cos he's just not Vance without it.   Ziva was on a mission for her father; "at any cost."  Including her own life.

Mogadishu, Somalia.   They have to kill Saleem.   Gidon tells her Cryer was the leak, but was he?  Ziva must undertake the mission alone and he just lets her go, like her colleague that he is, saving his own skin.   She calls it her choice to go it alone.   She was overpowered, well duh.   How many were with her to help her.  Ziva: "I had nothing but death in my heart."  Gibbs concludes her father raised her to be a ruthless killer.   It was Ziva's choice since it seems she was on a death wish, having nothing and no one left.   Which wasn't true.   She chose not to come back with the team, preferring instead to continue working for her father.

Yeah, too right he did raise her to be a killer.   She always was an assassin.   What sort of a family was that anyway, when sending his children out on such missions.   Ziva's been through the ringer and the men in her life have all been ruthless killers too since that's the only company she's known and the only line of "work."   Is it any wonder she had a hard time believing Tony when he killed Rivkin as he was watching her back.   As well as thinking Ari was innocent and didn't kill Kate (Sasha Alexander) or anyone else.   She knew he was a killer, same as her.

Plenty of mileage from this storyline carried over from season 6.   So has Ziva laid all her ghosts to rest now?

CSI: NY - 1.02: "Creatures of the Night" Review

The CSIs are involved in investigating a rape on a woman in central park, which becomes personal for Stella, as she's unable to reach any clear conclusions without help in solving it. Mac looks into a case involving rats.

This was the first episode of the season which looked at two separate cases.   In the first, a woman turns up at  party, attacked and bloodied; leaving a bloody handprint on the car outside.   Her name is Robin Prescott (Michelle Hicks) and Flack (Eddie Cahill) says she only recalled her name after being asked four times and was attacked in Central Park.   Mac (Gary Sinise) : "We've got ourselves an 800sq metre crime scene."

In the second case, Jordy (Sven Holmberg) is shot.   No shell casings are found and Aiden (Vanessa Ferlito) believes the murder weapon to be a revolver.   He appears to be a drug user and has track marks on his ankles.   The entry wound appears to be larger than a needle.   The tissue around the wound is uneven and fibres are frayed outwards.   The gun spatter also seems unusual.   Mac: "something exited our entrance wound."

Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) takes the Vic's clothes at the hospital and processes the Vic, attempting to be nice to her.   Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) analyzes her underwear and clothes.   He brushes her dress and finds a leaf of peony.   He looks it up on the database and discovers it's found near North Strawberry Fields and tries to see if there's any other trace evidence, indicative of the area, and finds magnolia.

Hawkes (Hill Harper) analyzes the second Vic and finds he received a gunshot wound to the abdominal cavity and bled to death.   There's no bullet inside of him.   The track marks are actually puncture wounds made by small, central lateral incisors.   There are post and ante mortum bites. "The gunshot wound was the main course."  Mac: "and the dinnerguest?"  Hawkes: "This is where the story gets tasty."  He found tiny footprints on the DB.   Mac: "The rat ate the bullet."  Hawkes: "That was dessert."

Stella processes the CS at Central Park, coming across a wallet and a shoeprint.   Danny: "I guess this is what you do when there's no one to go home to." Stella needs to find evidence so she can find DNA and has to document everything to see what she can connect to the crime.   Danny thinks there were two of them and had a heavy workbook, knelt next to the Vic.   At least he was right about there being two people there.   Stella thinks Robin fought hard and finds a bloody nosering.

Aiden recounts how she lived in a six story walk-up in Brooklyn and could hear rats on the staircase, she didn't flinch.   Mac: "That's because they recognized you.   They like familiar surroundings."  Being creatures of habit and they travel the same path home.   It was too windy in Chicago for rats, well lucky for some.   Letting us know Mac hails from Chicago.   They need to "ID the rat that ate the bullet."  With the use of an alloy gun, left hair was pulled away so giving them the direction in which the rat was moving.   The grocery store is officially their CS.   The read out shows the composite bullet is there.  Karl (David Marciano) gives us a history lesson on the number of rats in NYC (for 2004 that is) 70 million.  That's 8 rats for every person.   Karl leaves poison in some eggs to catch the rat, which doesn't turn up, but a dead rat is found in the store.

Trace from a steak which was found at the scene, leads to Ramon's takeout.   From the employees, one wears a nosering and Donovan (Joseph Thomas) claims he didn't do it, though he was at the CS and saw her bag.  Robin grabbed him, he's not a rapist but a thief.   Robin claims she left for work early and took a  taxi.   She went through the Park and doesn't remember going out.   Her father, Arnold (William Russ) comments boys are easier to raise.   Stella doesn't give him a straight answer only that their investigation is ongoing.   Robin fought and picked herself up, shown by her blistered fingertips.   Dr Giles (Brett Albrecht) conducts a DNA analysis on the semen which is problematic.   The sample from the Vic isn't enough for typing and the assailant was shooting blanks.   Can't be compared to a blood sample from Donovan.

Stella is overwhelmed with this case, what she's given up already.   Mac asks her if it's "focus or frustration?"  She can't prove who did or didn't do it.   Mac: "City's the city.   Use your head and not your heart."  But she can't be blamed for not using her heart, she hardly ever does.   Danny finds traces of linoleic acid and walnut, which eliminates Donovan as a suspect.   Also found in fish, pumpkin and walnut is used to clean statutes in Central Park.   Sending Stella to the end of the Park, east of the bridge.   Someone brought walnut dust to the CS.   The workers are rounded up and swabbed.  There was no DNA left behind.   Dr Giles calls it a "perfect crime."  Stella interjects "there's no such thing."  Well if you can't solve the case then there is such a thing.   Stella needs to go over the details and Danny attempts to reassure her they'll get him.

Hawkes refuses to autopsy the rat so Mac has to do the honours.   The rat choked to death as the bullet blocked its windpipe.   Mac measure the incisors to distinguish the bite marks from the stria of the bullet.  Aiden tests the bullets and finds a match on IBIS.   Two bullets were retrieved from the wall at a corner deli two hours before.   Calvin (Josh Hammond) denies killing him and needs a fix and stole $50 from the deli.   He tossed the gun but didn't shoot Jordy.   Then asks "who ratted me out?"

Stella questions the gardener  Billy (Fred Koehler) who denies it was him.   City maintenance was reassigned to the north end of the park.   Danny watches from the other side of the glass, his fave place ha, see later episode.  Danny matched the boots to the CS but without a confession they can't prove he did it.   Robin doesn't attend the ID parade to ID him.   Mac tells Stella about his folder of 9 unsolved cases (is that all).   He makes calls, dusts off the evidence to see if something is there, before he used to have 12 folders.  

Mac: "Have faith in the evidence Stella." How can she manage that when she doesn't have faith in herself and her own abilities.   She goes over the evidence again with the help of Mac, Danny and Aiden.   Mac notes traces of tree sap on her undies.   It's an intimate place so indicates secondary transfer.   There's a beetle infestation on the north side of the park, so trees were being cut.   The tree sap on the pants and the underwear position matches.   Proving  Billy was her attacker.

The storyline with the rat was interesting but rats have been covered in CSI episodes before this one.   A bit of history on the characters, Aiden being from Brooklyn.   Mac from Chicago.   Stella failing to grasp that in letting herself down in not being able to conclude the case without help, she would have been letting the Vic down even more.  

As for her taking a shower, she wasn't the one who was attacked.   However, originally, Robin's reason for not turning up at the ID parade/line-up was that she was meant to have committed suicide and was found by Stella, thus she takes the shower to wash her blood away, but in itself this scene was pointless.  This isn't Stella's first rape case and it won't be her last, but she acts like it is with her defeatist attitude, which doesn't do much to bolster the younger CSIs confidence if she's seen to be giving up already.   After telling Robin's father about Robin's resillience, she gives up.   Danny having the chance to make another comment about Stella and her not having a personal life, then to be fair it could refer to any one of them.

Rape cases seem to be the downfall of CSIs in this show, as we know from watching the later episodes with Aiden.   Hawkes doesn't do rats, so what did he do in high school when you had to dissect rats in science.   Flack didn't make much of an appearance, aside from his easy collar of Donovan.   Creatures of the Night could refer to the predators lurking in the night and preying on hapless Vics, as well as the rats who do much the same.   Or a reference to a KISS 1982 album of the same name.

Certain criticisms were levelled on this episode and the rat story being more funnier, detracting from the seriousness of the brutal rape; but searching for the rat was also to close a case and to call the Vic who died any less important is to detract from the work of CSIs.   They solve cases for all Vics and this gunshot Vic didn't have a voice and needed the CSIs to speak for him.   That was like saying the same thing as Mac does in a later episode when he pulls Danny off a case, leaving it to the police to solve as he doesn't deem it urgent ebough to warrant their attention, but Danny, rightly refuses.

Supernatural - 6.12: "Like a Virgin" Review

Apparently all the virgins are being hunted and abducted, all for the sake of opening the door to purgatory. Lots of myths in this including dragons and treasure.

 A woman, Penny (Darla Taylor) in a plane sees something outside and the pilot, Stan (Zach Martin) is pulled out of the window leaving the plane to crash.   Cas (Misha Collins) does his 'thing' again on Sam (Jared Padalecki) i.e.  puts his hand inside of him.  Sam's soul is in place but he probably won't wake up.   Dean (Jensen Ackles) once again asks what he was meant to do.   Cas felt his soul  and it was "like it had been skinned alive." That's how angels and Lucifer get their kicks, so much for them being angels.   If Dean wanted to kill Sam he should just do it.   Why is Cas suddenly so concerned for Sam?

Bobby (Jim Beaver) is sure Sam will be okay, he always bounces back.   Bobby tells about Stan whose body was found away from the plane, but Penny wasn't found.   Sam wakes and recalls events form the season 5 finale.   He's starving, as you may recall he also wanted food when Dean brought him back in season 2 finale.   Sam doesn't recall the year and a half he's been back.   Dean is glad he's not in hell, but he will eventually find himself in another kind of hell.   Sam needs to know what he did.   It was Dean and Death, the "slate's wiped."  Bobby isn't too happy since he knows first hand what their deals consist of and what they can do, him having one with Crowley not so long ago.

Someone should let Cas in on the secret about not telling Sam he didn't have a soul.   Bobby is still angry that Sam "went Menendez" on me.   He's having trouble looking at Sam.   He was still part Sam although he didn't have a soul.   What's the bet Sam will find out or someone will tell him about his past?   Bobby: "We're Shining him."  Aghh there's that movie again.   Sam wants to go to Oregon on the case.    He feels fine.   Dean suggests Sam should watch TV and he replies, "Because that's what you did when you got back from hell."  Bobby makes excuses about helping Rufus (Steven Williams) and declines to go, that was convenient seeing as he can't look at Sam, so he wouldn't want to be stuck with him on a road trip.

Sam asks if Dean tried to live after Sam went to hell.   Dean says he did and he's the same and it didn't work out cos of Sam.  Penny's sister (Rhonda Dent) is questioned.   What was the gun for when Dean enters.   Penny went in the plane for Stan.   Notice her pink room, hey there's nothing wrong with pink.   Sam mentions the promise rings etc.   Dean stole Penny's diary which is all about purity.   All the missing girls are virgins.   Sam is concerned Dean took the diary, well now that he has a soul.   Dean reads, "I've decided I'm going  to give Stan my most precious gift."  Sam tells him that sounded creepy coming from Dean.   Dean prefers ladies with "experience." Well, Dean, how'd they get that experience to begin with?

A girl, Melissa (Jodi Balfour) walks home and is attacked but ends up in hospital.   She was rejected cos she's not pure.   Melissa says it looked like a bat.   Sam actually displays sympathy now and he means it.   She has a scratch on her back and lost her ring.   Dean asks if she should be wearing it since his radar goes off.   Sam asks "Batman tried to rape her."  Dean's still not funny.   He looks up the World of Warcraft fansites and comes across dragons.   Bobby says they're not real and asks how Memento's doing.   Sam thinks of Dad's journal and the Neverending Story.   Sam wonders if they met with a skinwalker recently cos he must remember something from the journal and Dean lies.

Dr Visyak (Kim Johnston Ulrich) teaches medieval studies and dragons live in caves.   She and Bobby had a falling out.   Dean goes to San Francisco to see her and they need to kill the dragon.   Visyak tells Dean he'll need a blade forged with dragon's blood and she happens to have one.   It's the sword in the stone.   She mentions Brunevik, the love of her life.   A brave knight willing to kill the dragon is needed to pull the sword out.   Dean has a go and fails miserably...well he's no knight, so has to blow it out and loses a piece.  

Sam calls Bobby and he suggests underground sewers, as usual.   Something Sam should know.   Bobby mentions Godzilla and says they had their moments last year but it was nothing to do with Sam and hangs up.   Didn't Sam feel a cold shoulder.   Sam calls Cas, who happens to oblige.  Usually he doesn't turn up when Sam calls and he mistakenly thinks Sam knows everything. Sam wasn't tricking him, but Cas is naive.   He's glad to see Sam alive.   Sam would hug but Cas adds, "That would seem awkward."  Cas is surprised Sam survived and getting his soul back didn't kill him.   It comes as a shock to Sam that he didn't have his soul and wants all the info.

Dean learned from Bobby and he's a genius.   For a moment there Sam wanted to tell Dean, who is busy with the treasure stash he's just found.   Being Dean he has to pocket some.   Sam sees the alter with a book and the dragon (Ilia Voiok) returns.   He got the sword from ComicCon, that's an injoke, the number of conventions Jared and Jensen have attended.   Sam fights with yet another poker but one of the dragon's escapes as Sam tries to retrieve the sword.   Dean: "I rarely have wealth."

Sam comes clean and apologizes for what he did.   See that's Sam's soul talking.   Dean can only blame Cas, "friggin' child." Sam should know so he can fix things but Dean tells him what he did wasn't Sam and he has to know what he did.   Bobby finds the book is in fourteenth century Da Vinci Code language and isn't paper, but skin, after they touched it.   It talks of the place of worst nightmares; as the dragon takes girls for sacrifice to bring back, 'Mother' from purgatory.   It's an instruction manual showing them how to open the door, but that page is missing.   Sacrifice a virgin or two, ain't that always the way.   Some thing's coming here, "Mother of all."  Oh come on how could that not click, especially when the Alpha vampire was talking about his mother and the mother of everything? Sam can't recall that.  He's got an excuse but why didn't Dean?

Lots more references to past episodes too, like when Dean made a deal to bring Sam back in 2.22; also when Dean came back from hell in season 4.  In 2.1 In My Time of Dying, Dean makes jokes about prude chicks.   Also in this episode he told Tessa, "My corpse is gonna rot in the ground and my family's gonna die."  In my Supernatural book (Dudes and Demons: Unauthorized and Unofficial Guide to Supernatural) I've commented "but his soul won't rot."  How true that was for Dean as his soul was still intact in hell, but not the case for Sam.   So Sam knows about not having a soul but also needs to apologize for what he did when soulless, even if he doesn't know what that is.  

Sam knows he's getting the cold shoulder treatment from Bobby and Dean.   Dean when he was talking about their past year in the car, and Bobby when he didn't want to go on their road trip since he couldn't stand to be in the same space with him, and when he hangs up the phone on Sam.   But it was good to have our old Sam back.   He no longer has to pretend about his feelings or make excuses or lie - though Dean's glad to have him back he walks around on egg shells.

As for dragons being fearsome and fiery creatures, these two were anything but and in human form weren't much to be reckoned with, so much for Melissa describing them as bats.   Didn't even look like a sword was needed to dispatch them.   Supernatural has done some great monsters in its own version of mythology in its time, but these were just lame by comparison.   Cas wanting to hug Sam who just sits down, wouldn't have expected that from him as he always kept his distance from Sam.   Dean not being able to pull the sword out was kind of expected and funny.   He believed he could take it no worries.  

As for my earlier comment about Dean not being a knight, I meant knight of old cos he is knightly with his trusty Impala.   Sam understands why Dean and Bobby lied to him but somehow it doesn't even come close to the lies Sam told Dean et al and the things he did. Not having a soul didn't make it okay but just puts his actions into context.   He now has to understand how they felt and more precisely how he made them feel.  At least it didn't lead to Sam walking out after being 'betrayed' in that way,  after he finds out they didn't tell about his soul, especially since he does have a lot to answer and atone for.   In the past Sam usually has run when confronted by such things.

Dean's reference in letting T-1000 walk around alludes to Terminator 2 Judgement Day as T-1000 has no emotions.   He called Sam Robosam a few episodes back in 6.7 Family Matters.   Bobby saying Sam went 'Menendez' on him was a reference to the Menendez brothers, Erik and Lyle, who were convicted of killing their parents.  As for Memento, Sam now has his soul and so must go backwards and find out what he did when he was soulless.

Doctor Who - 5.07: "Amy's Choice" Review

The Doctor, Rory and Amy alternate between dream worlds or are they real, as the Dream Lord tells them to choose which world is real and if they choose incorrectly, then they will die. Really it's about Amy deciding between the two.

The episode opens with a house in the country and Amy (Karen Gillan) pregnant in the kitchen.   She's baking and acts the proper little housewife, oops, she wouldn't like being called little.   Rory (Arthur Darvill) sports a ponytail and they hear the TARDIS.   The Doctor (Matt Smith) takes one look at her and exclaims "you swallowed a planet."  The Doctor hasn't changed in appearance but has aged in the 5 years they haven't seen him.   He comments on Rory and then Amy's size and asks if she's pregnant.   Rory says they live in Upper Leadworth now, not so you'd notice any differences.   The Doctor tells them, "This Time Lord's for life."  He refers to this place as boring Upper Leadworth, so there's not much time for birdsong and all three fall asleep on the bench.

They all wake up in the TARDIS and the Doctor had a nightmare about them, he's "getting on."  Red lights on the TARDIS console.   Amy and Rory had a dream too, they were married and lived in a village.  They all had exactly the same dream, which is impossible.   The Doctor had a nightmare, he calls it a "good...mare."  There's more birdsong and they wake up on the bench.   The Doctor wants them to trust nothing they see, hear or feel, what about what they say.   Rory asks if they're flashing forwards or backwards.   Returning back to the TARDIS.   The Doctor threw the TARDIS manual in the supernova cos he didn't agree with it.  They shouldn't talk to him when he's angry.

The Doctor thinks this could be a dream, but Rory adds, "maybe what rings true isn't so simple."  Since they are on a ship bigger on the inside.   The time machine dies.   Amy thinks Leadworth is a dream.   Back in Leadworth, an old woman, Mrs Poggit (Audrey Ardington) says hello to Rory, he's a doctor now and no longer a nurse.   Maybe this is Rory's dream.   The Doctor realizes something is awry here and Poggit asks if the Doctor is a junior doctor (what as in 'young for his age', ha.)  The Doctor notices she's very old and birdsong appears again.   Amy now says the TARDIS is real.   The TARDIS is drifting.   An oldish man in a bow tie appears ( big clue that!)  They can call him the Dream Lord (Toby Jones).   He creates dreams which the Doctor refers to as "cheap tricks."  The Dream Lord calls Rory a gooseberry.   Amy has to choose her man, but she's already chosen Rory.   And says her customary, "Stupid."

The Dream Lord has seen her dreams and they make him blush.   He refers to the Doctor and his "tawdry quirks" and tells them one dream is real and the other is false: one danger is real and sends them to sleep again.   Or not.   The Dream Lord could always see through the Doctor.   If they die in a dream they can wake up but if they die in reality; Rory asks what happens then.   Dream Lord: "You die, stupid."  Hey only Amy can call Rory stupid.   (As in season 6.)  The Doctor doesn't know who he is.   All the old folk have disappeared.   The Doctor's quirk is figuring things out.   Rory's a doctor so he can help Amy when she feels contractions.   They're both doctors.   Amy doesn't want the Doctor to ever call her life boring.   Well it was until he came along.

The Doctor mentions Rory's ponytail and if she holds him down, he'll cut it off.   Rory comments on that coming from a man in a bow tie.   Doctor: "Bow ties are cool."  Heard that practically every episode.   The Doctor should have gotten angry over that, he always sounds so defensive when he says that.   Birdsong is heard and Rory wants a dream life.   Amy asks why they would give up the TARDIS for that life.   Rory's insecure since Amy ran off with another man.   But it wasn't like that.   She went looking for adventure.   The Doctor hands Rory a whisk, which is a generator.   There's a cold star outside and they're drifting towards it.   This is the danger part of the dream, or is it reality.

The Doctor believes this might be a battle they have to lose.   Rory tells him the Doctor is so him - he's the only one who can save the day.   Amy comments about the wedding, they can get married anytime and they keep putting it off, ('til the Doctor's "end.")  The Dream Lord appears with a little ditty: "There was an old man from Gallifrey who ended up throwing his life away; he let down his friends and they ran out of time..."

Rory feels the village is real.  The Dream Lord asks Amy what he thinks, the "tall, dark hero."  Loves when he does that.   He loves a redhead.   Mentioning Elizabeth I.   There's only one person who hates the Doctor as much as the Dream Lord does, i.e.  the Doctor himself.   The old folks mouths open revealing eyes.   The creatures are inside them and the Doctor calls them Ecnodines. A proud race driven from their planet by the Crack.   They were destroyed and now they're going to destroy others.   The Doctor says they need to leave.    Heard that before.

Rory calls Amy, "chubs."  Amy ran off with the Doctor and left him alone.   The Doctor stumbles into the butcher's shop, where the Dream Lord calls him a "floppy haired wuss."  He almost falls asleep and yet more birdsong.   The Doctor covers his ears as he struggles to stay awake and get away form the old folk.   Ends up in the freezer and then in the TARDIS.   They must agree on which is the dream.   Rory and the Doctor ask if they're disagreeing or competing.  Amy asks over what.   Over her!  Amy gives them ponchos to wear, calling them "my boys."  As in the previous episode.

The Dream Lord wants Amy and the Doctor can have "pointy nose."  I.e.  Rory, always with the nose!  It's all about Amy again.   As the Doctor finally realized in episode 5.5.   The Doctor escaping from the freezer by using his Sonic on them, takes over a camper van, rescuing all the people in the village.   The Dream Lord tells Amy the Doctor always leaves her; he doesn't have to apologize and now he's left her with him.   The Dream Lord changes into a robe, so he was the smarmy version of the Doctor.   The Doctor trusts Amy.   The Dream Lord posits the Doctor hasn't told Amy his name, so who would Amy choose.   Well the Dream Lord hasn't told anyone his name either.   Would she give up the handsome hero for a "bumbling Doctor." (That could mean Rory or the Doctor.)  If she chooses a world, it'll end, he's waiting for her to make a choice.  "Amy's men, Amy's choice."  But she has made her choice, thereby rendering this useless, unless it was an allusion to the final episode.  

The Doctor needs to find his friends.   Rory cuts off his ponytail.   The Doctor climbs through the window of the house where Amy and Rory have taken refuge in the village.   He's not sure which one is real now.   Rory is attacked by the creature and he dies.  So this one's the dream cos he has to come back - be alive and Amy has to choose him again.   Amy begs the Doctor to save Rory, "it's what you always do."  Doctor: "Not always."  Amy: "Then what is the point of you?"  As said, Amy picks the village as the dream since she doesn't want this reality.   She loved Rory and didn't tell him.

They awaken in the TARDIS.   The Dream Lord says Amy got it right picking this world.   It's all from their imagination.   He was an evil Doctor.   The Doctor is going to blow up the TARDIS.   Had to choose the star burning cold and the Dream Lord has no power over the real world because the Doctor realizes who he is.   Psychic pollen fell in the rotor and "induced a dream state."  The Dream Lord was the Doctor, well duh.   The pollen feeds on the darkness in them and he's got 907 years worth of darkness.   Only shows he has plenty of darkness in him and is capable of this.

The Doctor chooses his "friends with great care."  Amy tells Rory he was already dead but she didn't know it was a dream.   This is Amy's choice; to go anywhere she wants.   What did the Doctor notice was so strange when he's at the control panels of the TARDIS.   Or was he thinking about who that other man really was and how he led them a merry dance.

This could've ended up being a confusing episode - running around between dreams, reality and which is real.   A bit of a re-imagined Groundhog day, only instead of waking up to the same events occurring over and over, they woke up between worlds of both dream and reality.  But the Doctor being dark and becoming so cos of the psychic pollen, shows he does have darkness in him as we've seen glimpses of it now and then.   Amy being pregnant here which is what Rory wanted in his dream and Amy finally getting pregnant and disappearing in season 6.

The Dream Lord calls the Doctor, "the oncoming storm," a phrase used by the Daleks in The Parting of the Ways and the Girl in the Fireplace (one of my fave episodes.)  As for referring to him as a "veggie" and him ending up in the butcher's shop, was alluding to the Doctor trying, but failing to become vegetarian.

Elizabeth I was from the Shakespeare Code and carried further in The End of Time episode; as well as The Beast Below: the Doctor is meant to have been on intimate terms with Elizabeth I, when they were married for a while, which he hasn't told anyone about to my knowledge.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - 12.2: "Tell-Tale Hearts" Review

The CSIs investigate the slaying of an entire family within their own homes and the case looks fairly cut and dry, until they're met with three identical confessions.

DB (Ted Danson) arrives and takes over the CS.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) it appears had another axe to grind with her heavy handedness and has she taken a leaf out of Stella's book when it comes to treating suspects in such a hostile way.   He was a paedophile - yes - but there was an easy solution to that if the parents of Fiona had taken care of their daughter and reported him.   Then she changed her tune when she needed the same suspect, John Lee's (James Harvy Ward) help in identifying the other suspects who came and went at the house.   Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) also showing the Vegas brass (!) can be as humiliating and cold as the CSI:NY lot used to be.   They've come a long way as far as the treatment of suspects harshly is concerned but the Vegas team appear to have gone back to the older NY ways, at least some of them.

The CSIs investigate the murders of an entire family in an environmentally friendly house after blood spurts out from sprinklers onto a couple making out in a car outside.   The blood was draining out of a DB in the shower, who had been stabbed with a towel bar.   The husband, Cal was shot twice and the grandmother was also stabbed.   Their four year old, Fiona (Kyla Kennedy White) was shot once.   Catherine notices she was redressed and cleaned up, showing someone cared about her.   That was the first clue.   The case is so serious even Under Sheriff Ecklie (Marc Vann) is at the scene.   Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) arrives after getting lost and Nick (George Eads) comments on Ecklie being at the scene too should be fun for her.

Fiona's bedroom window was broken from the outside in and DB notices blood on the glass.   A blood trail leads to across the street and there's blood on the front door.   Brass tells them to wait outside, until he gives them a Code 4.   DB hears him arresting a suspect and assumes that's the Code 4.   John Lee has Fiona's clothes.   Everything in his room is identically arranged to that of Fiona's even down to a dollshouse by the window, but Catherine spots the dollshouse is different.   On the roof are photos of her as a baby and older, so he's been watching her for years.

John claims he didn't kill them and he cleaned her up.   Catherine processes him instead of a male CSI and he is embarrassed.  Brass resorts to turning down the thermostat and opens the blinds more.   He's left to shiver and remains naked whilst they question him.   He confesses to the killings when Brass frightens him with what will happen in prison.   Morgan finds boot prints outside Fiona's widow which are deep impressions.   Greg (Eric Szmanda) processes her bedroom.

Leslie Gitig (Amy Davidson) walks into the station and confesses to the killings of the Chambliss family, cos Cal didn't leave his wife.   She even tells them where she dumped the gun and wants to be video taped.   She's a legal secretary so she knows the procedure.   Greg finds a vast amount of baking soda in their house; so Morgan thinks they were dealing drugs.   Sara (Jorga Fox) posits they didn't find any cos they weren't looking and they return to the house.   Sara's driving as she knows the way.   Sara discovers a hidden panel in Fiona's room, where John used to see people coming and going.   His confession is in doubt since he admits he loved her and so he wouldn't turn around and shoot her.

Leslie claims to have used a knife on the mother when she  was actually stabbed 24 times by a towel rail.   The family was dealing  to make ends meet.   In the panel where the drugs were stashed, they locate a print belonging to Lonny Gallows, a former drug user with a record.   At the construction site where he works, Nick finds bloody boots inside his truck, and a gun, which his father, maurice (Chris Mulkey) claims are his.   He admits to killing them cos his son was in rehab but when he met Cal he began using again.   That doesn't explain why he would kill the whole family though.   Since his beef was with Cal.   Maurice's confession results in Leslie being freed and John released on bail.

DB goes over their confessions and finds they're identical. "I did it.   I killed the Chambliss family."  Remindig him of "I killed Cock Robin," which Nick, Brass and Ecklie don't get.   So he clarifies with his explanation of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train.   They all got together.   Catherine finds the  connection: Leslie had a car accident and met up with John and Maurice when she'd sit outside and watch Cal.   She killed the grandmother, the mother and shot Fiona cos John couldn't do it.   Maurice killed Cal.   Catherine wants to talk to DB but he's interrupted and she decides not to go through with it.

 DB: "There is no perfect crime, but if you create enough reasonable doubt, you might just have the perfect defence."

DB mentions his family a lot and seems his world revolves around them.   Even pointing out John has the mind of a child cos of the food he kept in his freezer and thus his reasons for liking Fiona.   Being family orientated, he has a "family meeting" with Greg, Nick and Morgan, where he asks them to put their hands up if they agree or disagree with a certain scenario.   Greg changes his mind at one point.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) in another funny mishap scene burned his hand when he put it in battery acid, leaving Nick with another antic to laugh over.   It's just so Hodges to do something like that.   Also Brass telling Maurice he can relate to a child being addicted as his own daughter, Ellie, went through the same.   DB looks at Brass wondering how he could relate to him.   It was good to see Brass in a humanizing moment after his earlier taunts.

A dark episode for CSI and this was reflected in the film quality  and events taking place at night, in contrast to the first episode of the season which was much lighter in terms of the filming.

Morgan is fitting in really great and she's one character I really like as a newcomer.   She's young and brings a different approach to the show, also bringing in fresh eyes, but she's got talent and experience.  "I love it when I'm right,"  she says when they find the drugs.   So do I!  ha.   Greg calling Morgan 'Hollywood' was sweet and she didn't seem to mind either.

New ballistics expert, Xiomara Garcia (Monique Gabriela Curnen) is recruited.    The thing with them is they don't last long.   She also didn't do anything any of the CSIs couldn't have done.

There were variables in the suspects' plans which could have gone wrong and there was no way they could have accounted for these.   The most obvious one: human nature.   When John turns around and kills Leslie cos she shot Fiona - he couldn't do it himself.   The other one was Maurice and his son and Leslie probably counted on him taking the blame, but then she went free.   Leslie as a legal secretary didn't realize what could go wrong - which is why she was just a secretary and not a lawyer.   Aiming for reasonable doubt would not have worked  since one of them would be caught and accused of the killings.   So why go along with it?   If John didn't want to shoot Fiona he had the gun, he could have shot Leslie instead and saved Fiona since he shoots her in the end anyway and then shoots himself.

Larry Mitchell who plays Det Mitchell wrote the story for this episode.   Jaime Gomez, Officer Cantelvo was last seen in CSI:Miami season 9 ep On the Hook as the parole officer, Neil Perkins Horatio threw out of the window.   CSI has already delved into Strangers on a Train in the episode A Night at the Movies where ironically the film being screened was Strangers on a Train and CSI:NY had  a go with Commuted Sentences.   In CSI:Miami Slaughterhouse, the murder of an entire family was investigated, the only survivors of which were the baby and father.   Season 1 CSI Blood Drops involved the investigation of a quadruple murder of a mother and father and two teen sons.   The survivors were two daughters.   Also the season 6 episode Gum Drops where they suspected the murder of a whole family but needed the DBs to actually prove this.  The evidence showed three were killed but Nick believed the daughter was still alive.

The title Tell Tale Hearts made me ponder over why the episode was called this and I keep coming back to Edgar Allan Poe's short story, the Tell Tale Heart.   Probably nothing in it, but it's just in this story the narrator killed the old man he lived with cos of his eye he believed kept watching him.   After burying the old man he gives himself away to the police as he can still hear his heart beating underneath the floorboards.   Here the only suspects the CSIs had was John.   No one even knew about Leslie or even Maurice until Leslie walked in with a confession.   So these two might have gotten away with the murders and were home free with John's confession.   So why bother making herself a suspect?

In attempting to set up reasonable doubt, they all end up being caught and guilty of murder.   Just as in Poe's story, the narrator in trying to show he is sane leads himself to admit he committed the murder.

Lie To Me - 1.5: "Unchained" Review

Cal and Ria look into the parole of a prisoner and decide whether or not he has changed. Gillian and Eli look into the death of a fireman which appears to be murder.

Cal (Tim Roth) and Ria (Monica Raymund) need to ascertain if a violent gang member, Manny Trillo (Paul Calderon) in prison has reformed and should be released pending a pardon from the governor.   As the guards escort Manny to be questioned by them Cal notices the hostile intent towards Manny from the other prisoners.   Anyone can see the prisoners will attack him and Manny is stabbed in the neck during the furore.

Gillian (Kelli Williams) and Eli (Brendan Hines)  probe the death of a probie fireman who was left inside a burning building.   Mike Adams (Carlos Lacamara) introduces them to Eric's (Andre Kincaid) grandfather, Mr Mitchell (Antonio Fargas).   Eric was already dead before the fire reached him and so Mike suspects he was murdered.   Gillian says Tom Clayton, the lieutenant (Brad Beyer) should question the men instead of them.   Gillian and Eli will then gage their reactions.   Tom was too likely a suspect especially that expression he made with his face, before Gillian tells him he'll be questioning his men.   All of the firemen answer his questions in exactly the same way, all responding within one second.   Eli says this is cos a lie is more easily told than the truth.  All the men are lying.

Manny explains his love of reading and Ria is cynical from the start - that he hasn't reformed and people can't change.   Manny seems to be remorseful about his past actions.   Cal brings out his lunch and hopes Manny doesn't mind him eating.   Cal pushes the burger in front of Manny's face, speaks with his moth full and slurps his drink.   Didn't think Cal used to eat that sort of food.   Notice the burger change in size in each different camera shot of Cal eating.   Thus the problems with filming with food and taking a break in each scene then coming back to it.   Manny felt disrespect when Cal spoke to him whilst eating and Gillian notices Manny is ashamed of what he's done as a gang member.   Gillian suggests Ria should look at old footage of Manny and tells Cal she doesn't think Ria should be on this case, as she's clearly hostile towards Manny.   She has her own preconceived views.  Cal always has Ria working with him, most of the time anyway, is it to see how a natural works or does he really share a more personal affinity with her.

Cal looks at their firemen footage and believes Doug Donovan (Ross Thomas) is remorseful and should reveal the truth due to his guilt.   During a training fire drill, inside the house, Doug notices a probie is unconscious and carries him out.   The probie turns out to the Chief, Jack Morrow (Brett Rice).   They make the distinction Doug carried out the Chief but not Eric and he replies he should have carried him out too and thinks he's just as guilty as the others.   He doesn't name anyone but says Eric was hazed.   The Chief is aware of the hazing, as it proves their manhood.   As Eli and Gillian talk about firemen and the hazing, she notices Kerry (Christie Ann Burson) the Chief's niece, 'shushing' herself.   i.e.  placing her fingers in front of her mouth. She knows something.

Cal looks at Manny's tapes from before and sees Ria can't see any differences in his behaviour, where clearly there are plenty.   Ria is adamant she doesn't want Manny released as he hasn't changed and will just get back with his gang.   Cal truly believes people can change - wonder if he's speaking from personal experience.   Holly (Deidre Lovejoy) the widow of the man Manny murdered is going to speak on Manny's behalf before the Parole Board and wants him released.   Obviously she has an ulterior motive, she hasn't had revenge for her husband's murder and she's had all these years to think about it.

Gillian talks with Kerry in the toilet and she's afraid the firemen will kill her if they knew she was talking with her.   Looking at  Eric's hazing video, Wallace looks at Eric with disgust.   Holly tells the Parole Board of how she was shocked at Manny's passion in his book and thinks Manny has changed.   Cal watches her shake her head from side to side when saying he should be released, meaning she doesn't believe what she's saying.   Ria is sure Manny has got someone to threaten her, missing the obvious here, she could only have one possible motive for wanting him released.   (As already mentioned.)

Wallace didn't hate Eric, but Eric brought trouble onto himself when he complained about his treatment and the hazing.  He thought it was racial but Wallace has been here nine years and just thinks of everyone as firefighters.   They knew of his peanut allergy and gave him some peanut butter but that was a long time ago.   He thinks someone tampered with Eric's equipment.  Gillian and Eric put the firemen through a training exercise where they are given adjectives describing JFK and President Obama.   They take longer attributing the same adjectives to President Obama, than to JFK.   David (Matt Bushell) took the longest and he argues he isn't racist and didn't have any racial problems with Eric, revealing that he did have a different problem with him.   He states Eric "couldn't keep it in."  Eric was seeing a white woman, who was Kerry, since she's the only one around.   They don't realize this until they speak with Mr Mitchell who tells them a woman came round after Eric was killed.   That was a slow reaction on Gillian and Eli's part!  The Chief wasn't aware of their relationship and that she and Eric were going to marry.   Tom however (my suspect from the outset)  knew and insists he was following the firefighter's code and didn't see Eric as one of his men.

Cal has finally cottoned on this case is personal for Ria, as did we and Gillian.   She is certain people like Manny never change.  Cal wants the police to follow Manny upon release and sure enough Holly turns up at his house gun in hand.   She registered the gun a few months back.   Why bother registering it if she was going to kill him with it, unless she wanted to be caught afterwards.  Manny talks her out of it and is repentant for killing her husband.   Showing everyone and especially Ria that people can change sometimes.   Cal gives Ria Manny's book, as she puts away a photo which appears to be of her family.  

Cal: "I'm sorry about before, sometimes I see so much, I don't know how not to tell people."
Ria: "I get that." Cal is also certain some people can change and she's had her nose done - so he can't read that reaction of contempt from her anymore.   He knows she's a natural because of what that big man did to her when she was little.   From his abuse he made her a natural.   Cal had to learn his skills scientifically but Ria picks up on there being another reason for Cal being the way he is.   When she asks him why he's like that, he doesn't answer.   Saving that for another day of course.

Another episode where two different cases in which the plots boil down to the similar thing, how people react to other's around them and how some change but there's no changing for others and their hardened ways, such as Tom.   Eli was a mathlete at MIT and Gillian believes hazing "can serve an important psychological function."  She's the one who has the opposite views to most everyone else and especially to Cal.   Not one of the best episodes and the show seems to be slow finding its feet.

Castle - 1.8: "Ghosts" Review

A DB is found in a bathtub full of motor oil, who turns out to be a wanted criminal from an old case. Plenty of suspects in this one and Castle and Beckett play poker.

Castle (Nathan Fillion), Beckett (Stana Katic) and the rest of the team play Texas Hold 'Em, so Beckett finally took up the offer to play poker, thought she didn't want to earlier.   So what made her change her mind.   Martha (Susan Sullivan) has to interfere as usual and tells everyone that when Castle blinks too much it means he's got a lousy hand.   When he taps his fingers, it means he's bluffing and he "might have the nuts."  Castle asks Beckett if she isn't afraid of a little action and lets her win.   A woman is drowned in motor oil and Ryan (Seamus Dever) comments: "murder never sleeps." That'd be straight out of a book then.   Castle is excited and Beckett thinks he's like a kid at Christmas.   Ryan: "...with a dead body under the tree."  How crude was that comment.  Murder is nothing to laugh about.

Castle believes the killer is sending a message with the use of motor oil.   The room was rented 5 days.   Lanie (Tamala Jones) finds a contusion on the DB's head and she came in on a train from Westchester.   Causing Castle immediately to associate the Vic who being married, was here for sex.   Lanie finds the drink had sleeping pills.   Her husband, Michael Goldman (Alex Carter) reported his wife Alison missing.   Castle assumes he could be the killer and put out an alert before the DB was found to avert suspicion from himself.   Beckett replies she questions before convicting, that's not what she's said before and besides she doesn't convict, she only arrests!

Michael says Alison worked part time at a Manhattan boutique, which reminded her of the good old days.   The good old days for her, turn out to be not so good.   Esposito (Jon Heurtas) put out a call to the employer who said he's never heard of her.   But Alison had $400.   Ryan thinks Castle is right and it is about sex.   Castle thinks she had a boyfriend, which gets Esposito going with the boyfriend angle.   Well, men tend to be so narrow minded don't they.   He probably wanted her to leave her husband.   Beckett asks if this 'imaginary boyfriend' has an 'imaginary address'.   Michael tells them about Alison using her maiden name Porter and that according to his lawyer, Alison died at 3 months in 1963.   Their life was a lie.   Such as this episode, full of lies.

Alexis (Molly Quinn) also makes the assertion she was crazy and living a lie.   Martha is certain she had to be a criminal; a Mata Hari.   Yet Mat Hari was a spy, not a criminal.   Martha knows Castle let Beckett win, which means he learned to act from a very good actress.   Beckett isn't a bimbo and Martha tells him a real woman, like Beckett, doesn't want to be patronized.   Ryan accesses Alison's e-mail account, she had e-mails from an L Wax, Lee Wax, the writer and they assume it's a man.  Surprised Castle didn't know Lee was a woman with his literary connections.    Lee writes true crime and maybe wanted to commit a murder of his own.   Beckett returns her winnings and wants a rematch.   Martha blabbed again.   Castle suggests with the Captain (Reuben Santiago-Hudson), the Mayor (Joseph C Phillips) and Judge Markway (Dan Catellaneta) ; i.e.  "her boss, her boss's boss and the guy who signs her warrants."

Lee Wax (Joanne Kelly) turns out to be a woman.   Castle: "Look who's stalking."  (Paraphrasing the movie Look Who's Talking (1989) when he sees photos of Allison and Michael in her room.   Lee wants to call her lawyer as her publisher advised her to do.   Castle asks if she's confessing.   She didn't harbour any fugitive.   Castle finds Alison's real name Cynthia, on the FBI sheet.   So when they found out she wasn't really Alison, why didn't they run her prints, in this case, they should have come up with Cynthia instead.   Gosh this episode was elaborate the lengths the writer here, Moira Kirland, went to, to uncover what was really happening.   Thought she might have been writing a book of her own!  Ha.

In 1989, some friends set off a bomb on a boat and the Captain recalls the case.   Lee says the ship was meant to be empty and no one was meant to be on it either.   Cynthia contaced Lee to write her memoirs.   Castle is sure Cynthia wanted public opinion and sympathy on her side, before she turned herself in.   She tried to get out of the bombing with Susan (Julie Armenante) and they argued.   Lee was paying Cynthia and has an alibi for Tuesday.  She gives Beckett her manuscript, or as is known in publishing, her MSS.   She wants to be kept in the loop, obviously she has something to do with it, even if she didn't kill anyone.   Beckett tells her she's got a list of writers looking for favours.   Lee gives Castle her card, "an all access pass."  Most writers would kill for such a story.   That can be taken as a clue or a red herring.

 Castle comments he'd buy the movie rights to this story.  a domestic terrorist clipping coupons.   The Captain asks who would hold a grudge for 20 years?  Sam Pike (Jack Forbes) the Captain being the apparent suspect.  Mrs Eleanor Pike (Susan Ruttan) says Lee didn't tell them about Cynthia.   Their son Adam (Fred Koehler) helps out with money and  these two have been in the Mentalist.   Beckett questions Adam and yes of course he'd have motor oil in the garage, so why ask such a ridiculous and obvious question,  oh it's one of Beckett's questions she has to ask before she "convicts."  Castle tells him the killer had a personal connection to the bombing.   Of course he just gave himself a clue, even though he doesn't realize.Adam also had an alibi, which Castle hopes is true since he'd write a happy ending for that family.

Jared Swanstrom (Keith Diamond) was caught after the bombing.   Esposito says an anonymous call from a woman turned him in.   Jared spoke to Lee and doesn't hold any grudges against Cynthia, she wanted to run and he felt guilty, since he built the bomb and Cynthia told him the bomb exploded early.   Castle thinks this is Cynthia's story since they had an argument over the bomb and Susan set the bomb.   Alexis points out Jared didn't mention any argument.   Castle posits writing is about choices, knowing what to include, how much etc.   A ghost writer can only write what they're told.

Castle, who of late is always in Beckett's chair, read the interview notes and Lee left out this from the book.   the publisher told him Cynthia had full approval over everything that was written.   The publisher didn't like the book.  Then he comes up with a catchy title along the lines of, 'Kaboom: The true story of a suburban housewife and the crime that shocked America.'  Adam lied about his alibi and admits he was at Cynthia's hotel, but he didn't go in.   Awoman went in as he could hear voices, which could point to Eleanor, but that's too obvious and she only wanted the money; which was sent to them after the bombing.   Castle next door, erratically or excitedly thinks it was Lee.

Lee tells them only a novelist could come up with such a twist, as she told her publisher Cynthia was lying.   Castle wouldn't write a memoir as he could paint himself to look good.   A memoir is about truth.   Cynthia's memoir was to garner sympathy, she didn't send the money.   They mull it over at the poker game and Judge Markway believes the FBI.   The Mayor asks what they know about the case.   Giving Castle the clue this time.   Susan wanted to save the Pikes, so where did the money come from.   (Susan of course.)  Beckett folds on purpose and the others wanted to see Castle cry like a girl.   The Mayor comments, "no matter how down he gets, he manages to rise like the dead." Which is Castle's clue.   That's what he calls the twist: that Susan is alive.

They're drinking lots of coffee this episode.   The most recent money envelopes are postmarked Pennsylvania.   The post master doesn't recall anything Beckett asks him but does remember a woman with scars, when Castle specifically asks that.   See she can't ask the right questions either.   When interviewing Susan, she looked so guilty looking down and left all the time.   Cynthia wanted to kill Susan, so she killed her instead.   Cynthia only wanted the book written.   Susan e-mailed Lee's request for info.   Cynthia met her and she offered her a drink, but Susan doesn't drink.   SO if they were friends wouldn't Cynthia have known that.   Cynthia rented the room and it was her plan to murder Susan.   She saw the oil and realized what Cynthia was going to do.

Castle states Cynthia wanted to make it look like suicide.   The publishers wanted a true crime story when her  DB was found.   When they were talking to Susan it seemed like Castle and Beckett were filling in the blanks for her, instead of her telling them what happened.   Cynthia's dead now (as I say a lot) so Susan can say anything she wants to about her and what happened.   Castle tells Lee she'll hear about the arrest in the news.   If it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be a case.   Castle replies she just wanted Cynthia in prison so she could write a true story.  What she did was slimy and he revokes her pass.   One day he'll use this in a book.

Castle and Beckett agree to a rematch when he returns his money to her.   She says the same thing he did, that he didn't want to embarrass her in front of her friends and vice versa.  Castle feels sorry for Susan since she'll end up in jail now because of Cynthia's greed and Jared is no longer responsible for the bomb being defective.   Beckett says Cynthia is dead though.   Yeah like she'd care about what happened to a criminal.   Castle asks if they're going to play for pride or clothing.   Castle wants the top cards and she asks what he's got up his sleeves.   Castle: "Aside from my muscular arms."

Maybe it's me, but Susan looked guilty, she really wanted to get Cynthia, not for the book, but for revenge.   That she got blown up and Cynthia lived a life in public, whereas she had to live in the shadows with her scars.   As I said this episode was all about lies and they so easily believed Susan was the Vic here, especially Castle.   So much for the both of them being able to read people.   I was disappointed with Castle (the man) here for this reason.  That's a first.   Anyway, the storyline here wasn't new or original, as it's been done in many shows, where a bombing takes place from years ago and someone turns up alive.   In the Flame Red episode of the Mentalist, Patrick (Simon Baker) thinks one of the men who was meant to have died in a fire, his DB never found, is behind the deaths of others in fires.   His motive being revenge.   Only the man was really dead and Patrick disguised himself as the dead man to draw out the real killer.  

As for calling Jared Swanstrom, they may as well have called him Swansong!  Some bloops: The DB in the morgue blinks and also breathes.   The mayor apparently folds and raises even before Castle and Beckett have made their moves.   Cynthia's FBI sheet lists her weight as 14 lbs.