21 Jump Street - Revisited and I Don't Mean the Movie!

                                            
Yes Dennis Booker (Richard Greico) was misunderstood by his Jump Street colleagues.  But also by fans and others who couldn't see why he was actually added to the show.  There's the saying 'don't fix it if it ain't broke,' but there were reasons to the addition of his character and quite frankly it amazes me how blinkered teens could be at that age (many adults too, even now!)  Yes they're teens but I wasn't like that, not to sound condescending.

There comes a time when you need to let go and actually enjoy something for what it is, entertainment.  Perhaps somebody should tell me that now, that I'VE GROWN UP, ha.  Yes I criticize and all the rest of it whilst watching, or writing reviews but I don't go OTT, hopefully, though no one's told me that I do.  Maybe they're too afraid ha.  My friends this means you more than anyone else!!

                                               

ANYWAY not to get off point here, the main gist of this post is how Booker was misunderstood.  Of course he was from day one.  It didn't help the case they were investigating in Fun With Animals involved several areas of controversy: rape and race.  It all boiled down to the Vic not actually coming out and correcting her statement.  Added to all this was Tom Hanson's (Johnny Depp) immediate dislike at having to work with the newbie.  So he wanted to court not only controversy where there was none but also going along with so called witness statements who claimed they saw Booker with the Vic, Tracey at the lockers and also he saw her later with a "coloured girl" in the bushes.   Some could be seen as a way of not having to work with him, but he was pre-judging, knowing nothing about him.  Said girl turned out to be Judy Hoffs (Holly Robinson). Okay we can spout the sayings, 'first impressions,' 'don't judge a book by its cover' and all the rest of it, which in this case could be true, but then we were in the same boat as Hanson since this was the first time we met Booker.

                                           

Another reason for Hanson's reaction was that Judy didn't hold the same pre-conceptions or misconceptions as Hanson since she was willing to accept Booker and give him a go.  That was just in her nature.  They went to a movie together and besides it really wasn't anyone's business and she didn't need to offer any explanation to anyone.  The other area of controversy was the confrontation, of sorts between Hanson and Booker when he told Hanson he's just as 'rasicst' as him and that he won't admit he's glad he was "born white."  Not having to face the hardships that minorities endure.

What was amusing was how Hanson bagged Booker out any chance he got, that he was seen with her and yet he really believes Booker is the one behind the rape and that he is his one and only suspect, especially when Booker mentions the cigarette stubs in the shower where Tracey was found.  Since no one else knew about those.  Oh and it didn't help when they found out Booker was really IA, cos no one likes IA!  But it was okay for Hanson to break into his apartment and steal a confidential file, cos you're a cop and that's what you do, right.  How did that justify having a badge and being loyal to it?

This was followed up by Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise) hating having being partnered with Booker in Coach of the Year where they played brothers who were more like enemies and their rivalry was matched on and off the field.
Seems like Booker had to prove himself with everyone including Harry Ioki (Dustin Nguyen) this time round when the police go on strike in The Blu Flu.  Everyone was worried by their jobs being on the line and job security and when Booker tried to put his point across about not crossing the picket line, he was berated by Ioki who didn't want to lose out on his pay.  Even when he was called a scab he still had the intentions of returning to work and crossing the picket line.

Thought Booker redeemed himself in this ep not only in the eyes of Ioki but also Capt Adam Fuller (Steven Williams) (not that he needed to with him).  When he found out how unions really operate and took responsibility for slashing Fuller's tyres even when all concerned knew it was Stubbs and Booker didn't want him losing out on his pension.  As well as the rousing pep talk he gave fellow strikers to not throw in the towel by the city's threats of being fired.
But then Hanson asks where he is in one scene, Penhall, "he gets nervous in a room full of cops."  Funny line would that be cos of IA?

                                                           

Nemesis was the episode which proved Booker as a character in his own right.  The first time he's sent undercover without any back-up and this case has a huge impact on him both personally and professionally.  His undercover life on this assignment overlaps into his personal life.  He has a girlfriend whom he can't admit his feelings to, yet when he's undercover he has to do the same to a possible murder suspect.  Okay she wasn't a suspect she was the killer (knew that all along).  He's forced to 'act out' with the teens as well as to take drugs and become one of the crowd.  Yet he can't come to terms with one of them being killed cos he's suspected of being a "narc" when in fact the actual one is him.  Smashing the windows must have been a welcome relief to letting out his pent up anger and repressed feelings at the entire futility of the life and strife people get into.  Lots of personal conflict here to give Booker a well rounded character and story he deserved.

3.16 High High was another episode where Booker encountered this same futility and meaningless to lives along with the rest of the team whilst undercover in a performing arts school.  Where it appeared even the teachers turned a blind eye to what was happening around them.  Students needing drugs to achieve and to get through.  Booker had to face up to another student who would get high and the rush helped with playing basketball.  Once again he was 'forced' to take drugs but was able to 'fake it.'  Showing he played ball without the euphoria of being on drugs.  He got a good ending here when he returns and finds that the kid on drugs was still doing the same.  SO really nothing changed at that school.  They left and things went back to as they were.  Some case.  Also Booker got to smash some TVs!

Next Victim was one of my fave Booker eps of Jump Street.  It was like they took Fun With Animals and added a post script to it, since here once again Booker goes undercover as a racist radio shock jock DJ.  This time the conflict is with Judy as she thinks he really believes in the controversy he's creating on air, reinforcing a "white America" but believes it personally too, resulting in disgust from her and a showdown at the end.  Once again Booker redeems himself when he refuses to kow tie with radio station policy and really reveals his true feelings about what happened here and generally on air.  Cue phonecall from Judy in approval and by way of apology.

Well if Booker made any headway with becoming some sort of a member of the Jump Street team it all went out the window with the second of two-part episode Loc'd Out.  Not only cos Hanson ends up in jail for shooting a cop, after breaking into the dead cop Tower's house, the second time he's done that (he broke into Booker's in the first ep) but no bullet is found in the house.  The thing about this ep was that I always suspected Buddy's partner, Frank anyway.  Since he made the boo-boo at trial of saying he was sitting waiting for his partner outside, wouldn't he have gone inside with him, or at least made his presence aware.  Since he was his partner and first at the scene, he could have easily removed the bullet anyway!  Glad I was proven right next season.

Anyway Booker is labelled the bad guy here again cos he's made to work with Frank and this time round it's Booker's purview to believe Hanson might be dirty.  As he tells Penhall, "doesn't matter if the cop was dirty cos Hanson's dirtier."  Oh take that back! ha.  So in a way it's ironic that it's Booker who finds the clue to break the case next season and is the one who actually helps Hanson get out of prison, but doesn't even get so much as a thank you.  Not like he was the one who put him behind bars and threw away the key.   In fact in 4.1 Draw the Line Penhall won't even entertain his theory, let alone listen to him, so much for wanting his best friend out of that hell hole!  So he gets punched for his troubles by Hanson when Booker does come to get him out to attend Ioki's funeral (not that he was dead) who had always wanted to do that since season 3.1!

                                                        

As said he didn't get a thank you but got relegated to a uniformed officer to the ,library!! So he gave his badge up instead of putting it to that sort of a shame.  Fuller didn't blame him for that but not much input from his colleagues as said before.  In fact he goes out of his way to help Hanson when he realizes Frank lied about Tower's shooting.  Funny, as in ironically, Booker was a stickler for the rules which Hanson broke as an officer and then Booker comes round full circle doing the same when trying to clear him.
Fuller: " you work with young people, I don't suppose you consider yourself young, ...because you stopped asking yourself the one question young people want answered, 'what's going to happen to me?'  Just because they're young doesn't mean it's a foolish question."

SO he went all out to get Hanson released, lost his badge and fought for justice, but a policeman's lot is a difficult one and resigning was the only option available.  That or he'd never have got his own spin-off show in Booker.  Yet his addition to 21 Jump Street provided season 3 (which remains one of my fave seasons) with the fresh injection the show needed especially since Johnny Depp wanted to leave and some of the storylines were becoming a little deja vu-y.  Yes I make up words, it's my prerogative as a writer, ha. Richard was/is enigmatic, handsome, charismatic and funny, not to mention having killer-long, perfect eyelashes which were to die for and made the character of Booker the same.

Booker even said as much in the season 4 two-parter Wheels and Deals, that he wanted to get Raymond Crane since he was responsible for murder, getting Ioki shot, another partner in jail and for Booker losing his badge.  He was the only one determined to do so and tried.  But only called in his former colleagues as a last resort (cos it was written that way, ha).

I thought it all made for entertaining TV and some thought-provoking stuff along the way too. Booker's fate was that he was meant to be shot at the end of season 3 anyway!  But got Booker instead, short lived since as per the norm it was cancelled by Fox.  Which has a lot to answer for as FAR  as cancelling shows: Space Above and Beyond, Killer Instinct, Dark Angel.  To name but a few.

My disclaimer before I'm inundated by moans, comments and heckling, I liked Hanson too - honestly!

Revenge 2.12 "Collusion" Review

                                               
Emily: "Every human is born of collusion.  We come into this world as a result of a covenant.  Sometimes made of love, sometimes of circumstances.  But almost always made in secret."

Lots going on here in the usual fare, or should that be fair! at the Hampton's.  Emily (Emily VanCamp) dreams about Aiden (Barry Sloane) in bed together but he rolls over and turns into Daniel (Josh Bowman) her subconscious trying to tell her something or was she just having a nightmare, didn't seem that way.  Also now we know she has racy dreams!
Anyway she meets Aiden next day and loved his hard done by, dumped lover act and tells him she's sorry, he tells her about Helen (Wendy Crewson) and how they've got to find out what she's up to, also that Daniel isn't being very subtle by taking her to lunch with oysters.

Daniel takes Emily to LA and she's caught out by this surprise.  He wants her to help him seal the deal with Donna (Sherri Saum) from Stonehaven, whilst Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) works the opposite and wants Prosser (Dylan Walsh) to take the company instead.  Aiden is contacted by Helen and shows him a video of Colleen, anyway that video didn't show proof of life, it could have been taken anytime.  In return for Colleen staying alive he must kill Victoria.  That came out of the blue, why take Victoria out of the picture when she's more of hindrance when it comes to Daniel.  He doesn't exactly listen to her.

Conrad (Henry Czerny) meanwhile gets even deeper into the political game and Victoria is shocked by that skank Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) being his 'media communicator'.  Commenting, the "cat's dragged itself back in."  Wouldn't have used cat myself.  She jets off to LA too in a bid to help Prosser steal the company and calls Charlotte (Christa B Allen) to tell her she's not going to the ballet with her.  The usual mother/daughter birthday tradition.  Amanda (Margarita Levieva) gives her a handprint of Carl's and reminds Charlotte she's not really a Grayson, putting ideas into her head. as she later reveals what she wished for at the surprise party.  Surprises galore in this ep!  She's filed a name change to Charlotte Clarke and Emily overhears this with a smirk on her face.

Conrad tells Jack (Nick Wechsler) he will only help with the drug charges but not the murder charges and Amanda blabs it was Matt (Jonathan Adams) who killed Joe Ryan.  Ashley wants to inform the police but Jack doesn't want that.  Amanda insists that Carl didn't see his grandfather but she doesn't want to lose her husband before they're even married, or for Carl to lose his father.  Jack talks to Matt and tells him the police found the gun in the boat.  He should confess which he does and Conrad pays Kenny (JR Bourne) $50,000 to buy out the Stowaway.  Kenny signs but Nate (Michael Trucco) isn't happy about this.  Kenny trying to convince him it's over but it's not since he wants the docks and to turn it into a gambler's paradise.  Conrad is interested in the idea and wants to get into bed with Nate, in a business capacity.  Anything to make a buck!  Or as I said why don't they just shove Nate onto the Stowaway and scupper it!  That'd be the end of that problem.

Daniel is surprised by Victoria in LA and thinks she's here to upset his business acquisition and Emily asks why she wants Daniel to lose the bid.  Daniel's met with Donna and tells her his intention in acquiring the disaster relief company is to turn the global name into a world vision and not global as in acquisition, or world domination. Of course Victoria is messing with his assets, as she is with Prosser and Emily calls Aiden and finds he's there as well.  But he doesn't tell her the real reason he's here.  Emily thinks he should talk to Prosser and convince him to back out of the company, thereby letting Daniel win.  Since he wants to make it a trifecta victory after becoming CEO of Grayson Global, acquiring NolCorp and now has Stonehaven in his sights.  Victoria's not giving up though and Prosser admits he wants Victoria and isn't concerned about Stonehaven.

 Nolan (Gabriel Mann) has troubles of his own with Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) and she wants him to buy the house they're viewing.  He doesn't want a key it's so old fashioned for starters,  later she rifles through his drawers (ooh er) at the office and he walks in on her.  Would have thought he'd have planted the Dolphin cam already for safety purposes but he doesn't think of doing that until later.  She gives him the key attached to a keyring with the avatar of Hanuman, a protector against evil spirits, she being one of those spirits.  He tells Padma Marco was just a fleeting phase.  Daniel calls Nolan for help in digging the dirt on Prosser and Emily texts him to help and she'll buy him a house and also asks him to locate Aiden.

Nolan hacks into Aiden's phone and finds the text with his sister on there and she wonders why he didn't tell her about it, then working out it's cos he's after Victoria.  Aiden tries to take a shot at Victoria through the window, but she closes the curtain.  Daniel digs up the dirt and lays it before Donna telling her Prosser was part of some big oil/gas deal but he insists it was his subsidiaries.  Daniel gets his hands on Stonehaven and Emily gets to Aiden before he can take another potshot at Victoria after Prosser accuses her of using him to help her son.

Aiden is sent a video with Coleen's last moments as if she Od-ed but as said she could have died anytime.  He thinks she may be alive but if she isn't it will be Emily's fault.  Emily comes clean to Daniel about Victoria wanting her to help and Daniel tells her he was already aware.  Nolan catches Padma with the cam after telling her he's left his card in the office.  She finds a flashdrive and copies it in the computer.  His suspicions being alerted when she mentions Carrion being a computer programme and last time she called it a person.  He tells Emily this since she's the only one he can trust and refers to Aiden as Thomas Crown, this time, ha.  Emily's advice is for him to play Padma like she's playing him.

Emily was brave sticking her neck out telling Aiden to fight the Initiative instead of following their orders since it's obvious he would hold her responsible for anything that happened to his sister, which he does.  She's now in his bad books so he'll be out for vengeance.  Nolan also tells Emily Carrion is a programme that is incomplete cos the rest of it is in his head.  It's a programme that can turn Manhattan dark in milliseconds but she wonders why the initiative would be after it.  AT least he's found out about the other skank and turncoat Padma now and that love does not run smoothly.  It's apparent Padma is being used just like Aiden though we don't know yet what they hold over her.

There was no end narration from Emily this time.

The Mentalist 5.14 "Red In Tooth And Claw" Review

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) is at her customary Thursday night poker game where Bertram (Michael Gaston) loses to Judge Manchester (John Rubinstein).  She's called away to a CS at the natural history museum where the DB of a student, Linda (Jen Kuhn) has been found.  She's been eaten away by bugs and worms and Lisbon has a fainting fit at the sight of them.  Er, she's been to how many CS over the period of her career, why was this one so different, thinking she must have encountered some bugs along the way too.  It was so out of character for her.  Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) calls reminding her to ask Bertram about her stipend for the computer hacking course, White Hat (what no red?) she wants to go on.  After discussing this with Bertram who is too busy thinking about his losing streak, he refuses since they don't have it in the budget.

Linda's colleagues are questioned about her and Megan (Samantha Quan) says how she had won a scholarship whilst the rest of them will be paying off their student loans from their social security cheques.  Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) finds a substance in Linda's desk which turns out to be sugar and Megan says she had a boyfriend but doesn't now who it it was.  Obviously she was lying.  Department head Dr Sonia Kidd (Zuleikha Harrison) tells Patrick how they are a family.
 Patrick replies, "people murder family members everyday, it's natural"
Sonia "Murder is natural but abnormal."  Can't help but wonder if Patrick's line here is loaded, especially since his family was murdered by RJ but with the theories flying around as to who this is, even that it's actually Patrick himself, it kind of reinforces this here.  Yet he didn't say this with any kind of regret, it was made to sound like an ordinary comment.

Again with the next part of their conversation when he asks what animal Linda studied.  It matters cos "nobody picks what they dedicate their life to by accident.  It says something."
Sonia: "I study primate brains.  What does that say about me?"
Patrick: "You have dark thoughts inside your head that you want to believe are normal and natural. (Laughs) Which they are of course."  Agian with this reply.  Firstly the part about nobody picking what they dedicate their lives to by accident.  Patrick was a dedicated conman made to follow this route by his father.  Then he's dedicated his life to finding Red John and killing him for revenge.  This says something about him and his character too.  Can't help but think this comment was about him. Remember the CBI team are a family too!

The dark thoughts aspect is also intriguing and well a bit dark in themselves.  He has dark thoughts all the time particularly in earlier seasons as to what he'll do to RJ when he finds him as he's told Lisbon on several occasions.  As well as going through pretty much a dark patch in his life not so long ago.  Leaving CBI, meeting Lorelei and not telling Lisbon about his plans at the end of season 4.  I thought the dark aspect was interesting since this season of the show is meant to be dark, but not all the episodes are like that.

Patrick (Simon Baker) returns from the museum bearing gifts: a butterfly impression for Van Pelt, Triceratops for Cho (Tim Kang) and T-Rex for Rigsby.  Clearly as far as dinosaurs go these two seem to be having a juvenile rivalry going.  But it's fun to watch.  Rigsby clearly believes his dinosaur is superior and Cho believes it's his, calling the T-Rex a chicken with small feet.  Whereas Triceratops was just a veggie eater.  For himself he brings back jelly dinosaurs which come in handy at the end.  What did Lisbon get?  They question Jeanette (Rosalie Ward) who tells Lisbon that Linda was dating a cop and Gregory (Casey Graf) introduces them to adjunct professor Paul Friedman (Rob Benedict) yep he was my suspect straightaway!  Not cos he was prophet Chuck in Supernatural, ha, Chuckie you should have known better, he just looked suspicious.

Cho and Patrick question Officer Ray Moran (Drew Rausch) but turn up when he's investigating  a theft, where money was stolen by the thief reaching in under the window and taking it.  Obviously Patty has time to solve this cos the answer's staring everyone in the face as was the thief.  He tells the assistant, Shainu Bala) to put his hand under the gap in the window and then take it out.  Of course he wouldn't be able to, duh, didn't think of that before.  Officer Ray tells Cho about how Linda was perfect and made him change too but then he dumped her after someone had emailed him the link to her dating profile.  She'd joined a dating site so he doesn't know if she was seeing other men or not.  Van Pelt finds someone had set up the fake account and she was able to get into it using a common password; "QWERTY".  Oh how can they have Lisbon asking what that is!  Lisbon is impressed but Van Pelt is unhappy at missing out on the course.

Patrick reads over the profile and picks out key words which will help them play bingo and pick out who actually set it up.  Giving Rigsby and Cho bits of paper with the key words on it.  "Hot guy, bad ass,"  they should question her colleagues and see who speaks like that.  He himself talks to Sonia and Paul who is baiting moths using his own recipe of beer and brown bananas.  It would be Patrick who finds out who wrote the profile since Megan uses the same words in her conversation.  She tells Cho Linda had all the luck and the man, why shouldn't she be happy too.

Patrick offers to give Sonia and her students a memory seminar since she's so impressed with his memory skills.  It's easy to remember if you don't forget.  He wants tables set up and props from Linda's office, just animals.  Whilst he later goes on  a museum heist with Cho and Rigsby.  Who wonders why he wants those things, Cho adds he gave up asking years ago.  Yeah go with the flow man.  Rigsby distracts prof Papadakis (Dakin Matthews) and visiting children there by holding a tarantula in his hand, whilst Patty breaks into the display case and steals the moth in the petri dish.

He's arranged the animals on the table and will  recite the order they appear in from memory after he briefly looks at them.  Jeanette thinks he set them up so he gets Paul to change their order.  Of course Patrick comes to the moth which isn't there.  Talk about giving yourself away!  Patrick had also given a note to Jeanette compensating for future eventualities and she reads it now, "the moth is in the prof's pocket."  Linda discovered the moth but he wanted it for his failing career so he killed her.

In between all this Patrick has the opportunity to help out Van Pelt by revealing Betram's tells when he plays poker and this way he'll win Manchester, which is exactly what happens.  He tells Lisbon her plan of getting Patrick to coach him worked and offers Van Pelt the stipend after all.  Rigsby spouts facts about dinosaurs and Cho tells him he read those off Google, which he did.  Cho wins since Rigsby's a coward cos he's in love with Van Pelt but won't admit it.  Well we knew that too.

Hey Patty uses his wedding ring to fend off females, on the prowl, ha.  I was going to say he puts it to good use.  Yes he's more enamoured/lustful of Lorelei but he's clearly flattered when Sonia comes to thank him for solving the case and says it's a question of natural selection: all the good ones are taken.  He tells her to re-name the moth and she'll name it after Linda.  Ahh Patty you heartbreaker!!

Patrick and Lisbon play poker using his jelly dinosaurs as and he wins her.  She thinks it was a nice thing eh did for Van Pelt. So no red John this ep as we take yet another break from the mystery to get a routine murder investigation, which I thought wasn't very good, nothing exciting happened, aside from Cho and Rigsby's scenes.  Rigsby: "You date pregnant hookers and your dinosaur eats grass!
Why are professors at museums so cliched in having to be Greek!  This ep focused more on some characterization of the team than placing more emphasis on the case which was good cos it distracted us from the ordinary case, ha!

Patrick hasn't come bearing gifts since season 1.6 Red Handed has he,when he bought those expensive watches and necklaces, so he went out of his way again and yet no one even thanked him.  Patty hasn't been so generous and selfless in a long time and how he came through for Van Pelt was great to see.  They have more of a close relationship than the others on the team, aside from Lisbon, as we've seen in many episodes, how she always calls him out on his 'tricks' and challenges him to rove his comments and thoughts on cases and just in general.  Like when he got her to write "Rigsby" on the paper in a mentalist game and he read it whilst she was writing, showing she still has feelings for him and here Cho brings up the same thing.  Haven't mentioned that in a long while.

The Vampire Diaries 4.14 "Down the Rabbit Hole" Review

Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) have another heart to heart about the cure and how he wants to take it since he's seen every side of being a vampire: power, guilt, which basically sums up Klaus (Joseph Morgan).  Rebekah (Claire Holt) sees Elena take his hand when he says they'll be friends.  Elena calls Caroline (Candace Accola) and tells him Klaus must have the sword hidden somewhere since he can't get to it.  SO she and Tyler (Michael Trevino) find the sword in his attic, not a very good hider is he just like Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and his soapdish!  Tyler notices the writing on the hilt and Caroline says you have to decipher it like a decryption, she's seen The Da Vinci Code.  Klaus can help anytime he likes but he prefers to smirk for a while.  Especially since the language is Aramaic, to which Tyler asks what that is, Duh Tyler, a dead language.  Klaus claims it was Kitsia's language.

Anyway he can't resist helping and translates for them,  When Caroline comes up with a serious of symbols which don't mean to her. She calls Caroline with a map and location of the cure and Klaus tells her there's only one cure and Tyler hangs up, too late.  Klaus is adamant he will still go ahead and kill Tyler in vengeance for turning his hybrids against him and for Kol.  SO it would have been okay if he had killed his own sibling.  Yet he killed Carol Lockwood so thought they'd be even now.  Caroline tells Tyler she will beg Klaus for mercy since Tyler is worried about himself being killed.  He'll have to leave Mystic Falls again.  Klaus finally relents and says he will forgive and show 'mercy' if he leaves now.  Then adds he'll give him a headstart before he hunts him down and kills him.

Tyler and Caroline have a bit of an emotional farewell with Tyler saying it won't be forever, they're immortal and will find a way of being together one day.  She makes him promise to be happy, to lead a full life and to forget about her.  Klaus also telling Caroline she wouldn't take the cure since she loves the power of being a vampire, of being strong.  Damon actually being selfless for once, ha and Rebekah commenting on thinking how he's becoming a person.

Elena, Stefan and Rebekah arrive at a lake and Elena suggests Rebekah leave the phone incase she can't cross it.  Stefan makes her go first and Rebekah tells Stefan there's only one cure.  Even if she felt pity and let him take it, he'd only give it to Elena so she breaks his neck.  Elena and Stefan have yet another heart to heart and he tells her of the cure  being just one.  She then recalls Bonnie's (Kat Graham) spell won't hold Klaus for long and they should forget their "pity party" and get down there.

Damon is being man handled (ha) and led by Galen (Charlie Bewley) the Scottish hunter and he also tells him he needs to give Silas the cure before he kills him.  Also telling him there's only one cure.  Damon doesn't want it.  He asks Damon about the tattoos and Damon says he knows nothing about them, he has a "flawless body."  Shane (David Alpay) leads Bonnie and Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) down into the cave, having taken care of Massek, or was that Caitlin who did it,  Wait no, it was the surprise visitor to the island who did it.  Since neither Damon or Galen are claiming prizes for taking out the islanders.  Bonnie cuts her hand when she gets it the bottom of the rope.  Then once again has a great time pawing a shirtless Jeremy.  Enjoy it while you can since he may not be around for long.

Bonnie works her spell and Jeremy's tattoo disappears.  She also tells him she'll take care of Shane even if she has to kill him herself.  There's a rock slide as the magic works and Shane injures his leg.  They leave him behind.  She finds it amusing that a "newbie hunter and a witch who needs adult supervision" made it this far. She then sees Grams (Jasmine Guy) who tells Bonnie she's close to bringing her back for good since the dead can communicate with the living here.  Jeremy snaps Bonnie out of it to tell her Grams wasn't here since he couldn't see her.  Silas was in her head and she has to keep him out.  She should only listen to Jeremy's voice.  Oh man, juts had a thought what if Silas was inside Jeremy too somehow, oh scratch that it sounds far fetched.

Caitlin appears to Shane and he realizes she isn't real either.  Just like The First in Buffy when it appeared to her and others in the form of their dead loved ones.  Damon is about to be killed by Galen and Rebekah arrives to stop him but he uses his new fangled gadgets on her.  Didn't we see something similar to that device in Blood Ties.  Damon is trapped by a noose round his neck and Stefan needs to help him.  Elena is sent ahead whilst Stefan tells Damon he's just going to give up on her without a fight.  If she becomes human she may not love him.  Damon helps Rebekah, don't know why, and she she says much the same thing of giving up.  He needs a siesta.

Elena is attacked by someone and Bonnie finds they need to feed Silas their blood to awaken him and to release the cure from him.  Elena arrives and saves Jeremy from Galen killing him and then she bites Jeremy's neck and uses his blood to feed Silas.  Bonnie is helpless after being stabbed by Galen but couldn't she still use some of her magic to help.  Stefan finds Elena and we realize it's Katherine.  What a way to bring her back. She's been hiding somewhere but knows all about the cure and where to be, so who clued her in?  She takes the cure and leaves Jeremy to Silas who breaks his neck.  There lies Jeremy, a Gilbert who keeps getting killed over and over.  Will it be for good this time?  Will his ring work to save him?  Will he become a vampire too?  Will Bonnie use magic on him?  This will be a huge blow for Elena who has lost all family members, not to mention she became a vampire for his sake and wanted the cure for his sake too, kind of but also for herself.  It's a bit of a cheap shot having Jeremy being killed like that, if he's dead in much the same way Damon is the one to be tortured and captured most of the time.  Wonder why he bothers.

But the cure couldn't be given to everyone and we wonder just who would have actually taken it since it would have altered the dynamic of the show so much.  What does Katherine want with the cure anyway, thought she liked being a vampire.  Maybe cos no one really likes her.  Is she going to use it on someone or herself.  She bit Jeremy and killed him so anyway how will she deal with the hunter's curse and even if she takes the cure and becomes human it won't affect her.

Oh and Klaus gets out too seeing as Bonnie's spell won't work now as she's injured.  He tells Caroline he saved Tyler all for her, "love."  Showing mercy for Tyler and walks off.  We also got to see Klaus trying to convince Caroline they're both alike which is why she asked for mercy for Tyler as she'd show Klaus the same, but would she?  Stefan and his torch thought vampires could see in the dark.  Oh and the show gets an Alice in Wonderland title too.

Once Upon A Time Season 2

                                            
Season 1 of Once Upon A Time was a sure-fire hit and already fans can't wait for then new season in the UK, which aired 30th September 2012.  Naturally we always have to wait longer, don't know why Channel 5 didn't just show it in the same way they do The Mentalist, in two half seasons so that we're not behind the US that much.  We just end up getting spoilers before, during and after the show is over.

So if you enjoyed Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) the evil Queen/stepmother/Regina (Lana Parrilla) the Mad Hatter, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge) Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) Red Riding Hood (Meghan Orhy) the Seven Dwarfs; et al, you may be excited to hear of other fairytale characters making it to season 2.  Then again some of you may not and may feel not so many should be added.  Preferring to stick to the old lot.  This includes Captain Hook for Peter Pan lovers, or those obsessed with pirates.  Personally I have a penchant for Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) so Hook won't get a look in as far as I'm concerned! Ha.  Captain Hook will be played by Colin O'Donoghue.  Wonder if this will lead to Peter Pan making an impromptu visit himself, which I doubt and even Tinkerbell, considering the show has many fairies.

There's also Sir Lancelot (Sinqua Walls) heading into Arthurian legend territory but this wasn't a fairytale in the classic sense.  Mulan (Jamie Chung) is also high kicking it onto the show, does this mean more dragons will feature too?  There's also Ariel, Jack (from the beanstalk, he's meant to jack from many other stories too, a kind of Jack of all trades.) Aladdin and Jafar, so there's another genie since we've already had one in the form of Sidney and the mirror.  Prince Phillip (Julian Morris), Sleeping Beauty/Aurora (Sarah Bolger).  The Miller's daughter, to name a few.

Oh and Emma's (Jennifer Morrison) VW is actually Herbie The Love Bug, noo...We also meet Milah (Rachel Shelley) the deceased wife of Rumples.  hey how come Rumplestiltskin didn't vanish when people found out his name since that's what happened in the original story.

The Mad Hatter is also on the cards but won't feature too much which is a shame, had a bit of a soft spot for him too.  ABC were thinking of this character getting his own spin off show, only problem being Sebastian Stan is unavailable for the project since he will be in the Broadway production of Picnic and the next Captain America film, so the network was looking to recast the role with another actor.  I think this would be a mistake cos Sebastian really made the character his own and someone new just won't measure up.  It just won't be the same Hatter without him.  Sebastian is the Mad Hatter.  But being a network making serious bucks, they probably won't wait until he is available and pray tell, why didn't they come up with this idea when he was filming season 1?!

Anyway lots to look out for only hope season 2 lives up to the same quality storylines and emotion as season 1, seeing as "magic is coming..." for most it can't get here fast enough.

CSI 13.4 "It Was A Very Good Year" Review

                                                  
Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) waits for DB (Ted Danson) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) to arrive at a CS in the desert where he plays Chopsticks on the piano, he used to dabble when younger.  The DB of a woman is bloodied and Greg recognizes her as Alison (Jessica Lee Keller).  She helped him with his book a few years back and was a music journalist.  DB is surprised about this, what that Greg can actually write, ha.  About time his book was mentioned since it seemed to have been forgotten about over the seasons.  Obviously there's more going on with Greg but he doesn't let on or else he'd be taken off the case.

The piano was being taken to LA for repairs and she was cut over 27 times with a box cutter (that's carpet knife to you and me).  Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) sees Greg cleaning Alison's DB and has a few words with him.  He admits Alison was more than just a friend and he they spent a week together, of fun.  It was a fling and they didn't stay in touch but that's cos she probably didn't want to as he didn't hear back from her.  Greg doesn't want DB to know the extent of his involvement with Alison.  She also says she's not one to give relationship advice, so he abruptly tells her she's right.  Which is true, I mean he was attracted to Morgan at the start but nothing came of it.  SO she can't really hand him advice now, of course he was being harsh.  Especially since he's upset.

Morgan begins to tell him about her own parents and their divorce when Greg has a brainwave.  Her other piece of advice, don't go to autopsy.  Anyway as said why was she handing gout advice anyway, Greg didn't need it or want it.  This should have been left to someone he's known for longer, someone like Nick (George Eads) or especially Sara (Jorga Fox) as I liked that special bond the two of them shared in earlier eps.  Morgan was more interested in Hodges (Wallace Langham) but that aside the producers/writers were trying to lull us into some false sense of security over Morgan actually having romantic feelings for Greg when she doesn't really.

No, DB attends autopsy himself and Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) mentions the stab wounds.  They find the man transporting the piano was Lenny (Channon Roe) who has a criminal record, surprise, surprise.  He goes by the name of 'Moondog' and asks about witness protection cos the piano was being transported for Tommy Grazzetti (Jay Acovone).  Also asking Brass if he's interested in the guitar.  Lenny discovered the DB in the piano and dumped it in the desert out of sheer panic and fear.  Greg knows all about Grazetti's mob connections. 

Morgan brings back reams of evidence from Alison's including Greg's book, so we get to see a hard copy of that at least!  Which DB checks out and compliments Greg on a good photo on the back cover.  Hey it looked like he was wearing the same clothes in the photo as he was now.   Nick and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) blast the piano with luminol and find so much blood trace, as well as black fibres which Greg found on the piano.  Hodges analyzes these and finds they're some sort of polyvinyl but doesn't know where they're from.  He also analyzed the trace as glue from horse hide.  One side of the trace has indents on it.

Greg and DB arrive at Grazetti's theatre and get a smidgen of a song from Frank Sinatra impersonator Jeff Lummet (Toby Huss).  He didn't look or sound like Sinatra to me.  Greg recalls the story of Ledo (Erhun Akpinar) a legendary piano player who was meant to have been shot by Grazetti, but no DB was found so no case could be made.  They check out the room where the piano was stored after being told Grazetti is out of town.  Think he should have stayed out.  There's lots of cleaning up done there and the outline of the piano legs are left.  As well as a spot of blood and Greg finds similar fibres.  Grazetti turns up and Greg loses it accusing him of murdering Alison.  DB takes him aside and wants him to run the case away from here.  Greg reminds him how he acted when his granddaughter, Katy was missing with the rulebook going out the window and he agrees he didn't act in the best way.  But he made progress when he took his heart out of it.

Sara processes the scene further and finds a cleaned up blood trail which leads to a room where music is being played.  Here she finds Jeff with a glass balanced on his chest as he lies on the floor.  She asks what he's doing at a CS.  He claims he helped Alison when she was researching Sinatra but has an alibi.  He was checking out tunes at a club using an App, Note Seek, which notes the few bars of music and then gives the title of the song.  He gives them his history which appears to check out with Note Seek.  He also blames himself for Alison's death since she found out things about Grazetti which may have led to her death.  More like he was attempting to cover his tracks.

Finn asks DB how he's doing with Barbara who has returned home but sees Maya at weekends in Seattle.
DB listens to one of Barbara's Sinatra records and the record stops as there's a scratch on it.  He takes his own box cutters and chips away at the scratch which leaves black shavings behind.  The same trace found at the scene so they know what it is.  Also he determines the glue trace has record grooves on it so they can find the song and find the killer.  Sara pieces these together and finds four different pieces.  DB uses his App to identify them and one is found to be a Sinatra recording of a live performance from the Sands.  Sara also finds that the set of numbers they found from Alison's belongings was the serial number on this rare recording.

Leo says he sold the record to Jeff.  Thus he killed Alison.  He tells Nick he was interested in her but she asked him for that recording.  She then told him it was for a friend, Greg and that's when he lost it and attacked her.  Oh come on what a psycho, he really thought she'd be interested in him, as Nick tells him and so does Brass, he's an impersonator and  not the real thing.

Greg also gets to solve the Grazetti mystery and finds a print from one of his photos matches to Ledo Wright and as they now have Grazetti's print, they find he's really Ledo.  Well Grazetti gave himself away there when he said he was at the Sands casino with the Rat Pack, since a list shows Grazetti was banned from going there since he was counting cards.  It started with Alison's GPS which led to 850 Timber Lane on the same days he was killed.  Greg found the photo she had of Grazetti going to that same house in 1966.  The photo was from a PI who worked from Sam Braun and he had Grazetti followed. The house belonged to Linda who was a radical and robbed the Rampart casino.  Also Grazetti was wearing an Irish Claddagh ring but he was an Italian. Grazetti admits he's Ledo but they made up after they fight and Grazetti choked on a chicken bone.  He was dodging the Draft so he and some men came up with the idea of his taking over Grazetti's identity.

A Greg centred ep which was good to see.  Why was Greg allowed to wash her body anyway, usually it's David (David Berman) or Doc who does that.  Didn't like Morgan interfering though and she does the same at the end.  Looking like she and Greg could have real possibility of getting together.  Oh forget it, it's too late for them and besides Greg deserves someone better not second best. Greg is shocked when he hears Alison was in Vegas cos of him and they had a possibility chance of making a go of it.  That was the kicker really since Greg has never even successful with the ladies and to think that he had a chance here.  Well it's sad but also cliched since anyone he likes either gets mixed up with murder or is murdered.   See 11.12 A Kiss Before Frying  for another great Greg ep.  Morgan tells him she should apologize even though Greg makes the first move.  He told her about their last night in New York and how he told her he'd meet her there, but wouldn't really.  Morgan tells him not to hold on to the past but hands him a Sinatra record and quotes him, "The best is yet to come."  But it won't be with Morgan, which is a relief! I like Morgan but she's not right for our Greggie!

Then there's Jeff who delusionally believes he is Sinatra and even better than the original.  Er, he didn't even sound like him as I said.   Liked Hodges's demo with the hide glue being spread over a record to clean it and then scraped off with a box cutter, giving the glue a negative copy of the record.  Sara is a Radiohead listener whilst DB listens to The Grateful Dead.

666 Park Avenue 1.5 "A Crowd of Demons" Review

The mystery about the 'smoke' in the suitcase is revealed as Halloween plans get underway at the Drake.  Olivia (Vanessa Williams) being instrumental in decorating!  The 'smokeman, Peter Kramer (Jim True-Frost) gets into the lift with another man in 1929 and says there was nothing he could do about the deal, but he knows what to do now.  He goes home and the little girl that Jane (Rachael Taylor) has been seeing hugs him, he's Jocelyn's father.  He removes his ring and gets out the axe to kill his wife.  She'll be happy in heaven.  She gets stabbed and manages to find Jocelyn to give her the necklace.  Yes that ugly thing Jane wears round her neck, telling her to "keep it in the family."  Thus it appears she is related to Jane since the necklace belonged to her grandmother.

Olivia and Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) are out when Olivia gets a call which she must take, standing near the edge of the road.  Gavin receives a text, "you're going to pay for everything you did" and calls out to Olivia before she's run over.  Another text states the driver " just wanted to introduce myself."  Olivia just thinks it was some maniac driver who came out of nowhere, but Gavin knows better.  He gets Tony (Erik Palladino) to keep an eye on Olivia at the party and Gavin opens the safe to put some papers away so we're shown a mysterious ornate box.

Henry (Dave Annable) is interviewed on TV after saving  lives at the mayor's and is labelled 'single.'  He has a girlfriend but it's not good TV to say that.  Also a media consultant, Laurel (Tessa Thompson) turns up questioning him about politics and wanting to turn his 15 minutes of fame into a lifetime.  He hasn't thought of bigger things since he works in the mayor's office, but the thought hasn't crossed his mind.  Jane and Henry are given costumes to wear to the party.

Brian (Robert Buckley) stumbles across Louise (Mercedes Masohn) with another man and she has her top off.  Apparently he's doctor Scott (Enrique Murciano) who lives in the building and was massaging her ribs.  She's stiff after the dancing last ep but Brian thinks there's more going on.  Especially after Alexis (Helena Mattsson) and him, who turns up dressed as a nurse, a bit cliched don't you think since she'll be meeting the doc and tells him she's sorry about the kiss and pursuing him and returns his key.  Yeah  that'll happen.  She is being set up on a date with Scott by Louise, who is addicted to pills.  Henry and Jane meet Peter in the lift and he stares at her necklace which he looks, Oi eyes up smoke man!

Jane's costume is Tippi Hedren's outfit from The Birds with three starlings attached to it, let's milk that film for all it's worth!  Henry is a cowboy/sheriff.  Louise hands Jane a drink and someone spills it on her so she has to change.  Whilst changing, which took forever but Henry didn't notice, as per usual.  The girl appears to her again and tells her he' out -her daddy.  Jane looks in the case and it's empty.  Said suitcase apparently ending up under the bed now.  Thought she put it in the closet last ep.  She finds a clipping with the newspaper headlines about a slaying in the building in 1929 and sees the man is Peter.  But she decides to stay there and research. hey she's wearing that red dress again and no shoes!

Alexis and Scott get all steamy and bothered and she steals his phone and puts it in her stocking, so when he had his hands all over her practically, why didn't he feel the phone! Enrique fans would have loved the comment about him being attractive!  Laurel talks to Henry about Jane and how he should marry her now before things get in the way.  New York changes people.  The lights go out and Louise and doc get stuck in the elevator, since he was going to give her another massage.  Alexis sends a text to Louise's phone using doc's phone saying they  should meet upstairs.  Brian sees them enter the lift together and Alexis suggests he should go up.  But they're actually trapped in the lift and he finds the message on Louise's phone.

Olivia shows her friends round the Drake and takes them to room 5F where one leaves after she tells them about the murder and one enters as a dare/bet.  Olivia is knocked out and is taken by a man in a gas mask.  Where was Tony during all this since he was meant to be looking after Olivia.  Even Gavin doesn't notice she's gone until the lights went out.  Peter comes for Jane and she manages to escape when the lights went out trying to reason with him that she's not who he thinks she is.  She runs and ends up in the basement and uses a dumb waiter to escape.  Could she make anymore noise?  Finally bumps into a guest dressed as a devil and uses his phone.  Peter kills him.  Jane ends up in a room and when he finds her she's saved by the birds which attack him.  One reason why Gavin wanted those starlings left where they were.

Louise and doc talk and she tells him about her addiction to speed and she's been taking pills.  He tries to kiss her but got mixed signals from her.  Brian sees them come out of the lift together and he clearly thinks she could cheat on him especially since she's been seeing him for a few weeks now without telling him.  Just cos he was ogling Alexis and having feelings for her, doesn't mean she would too.  Well he was.

Jane calls Henry and he tells Laurel to call the police, why didn't Jane do that.  Apparently Tony finds the gas mask man opening Gavin's safe and then loses him.  Gavin receives a call about him playing with peoples' lives.  Then finds Tony struggling with  a noose around his neck.  Had a feeling there that the voice on the other end of the phone was Tony's.  He could have easily hung himself there in time to be rescued.  Gavin finds Olivia on their terrace but she can't recall anything.  The axe, Peter and the dead devil disappear through the floor.

Jane plays with her necklace again whilst Henry is fast asleep as usual.  His wife went through an ordeal and he can just sleep soundly, oh what a wimp, he's so useless.  Obviously that girl is connected to Jane for her to have the necklace, perhaps her great grandmother especially since Jane doesn't know the whole story here, nor why she and Henry were 'drawn' here.  But she hasn't clued it altogether yet.  Come on even Brain punched Scott for what he thought they did together.  Take note Henry!

Also Peter Kramer had more dealings than just business here as he spoke with the man in the beginning about the ritual going wrong.  They have "blood on their hands."  Yet another deal he made.  Obviously with 1929 we're meant to think of the Wall Street crash of that year.  Gavin and that box which is bigger than the both of them.  Gavin: "whoever you are, wherever you are, I'm coming for you."  Gavin keeps the gas mask, what ho forensics on there?  Wasn't that a stupid place to leave it?  Still I'm suspicious of Tony he was there when he opened the safe and it was a digital one so you could hear the numbers beep, so could be gotten into easily.  I mean he can't just sit there all day at the desk and not notice things.

A bit of creepy ep but not scary enough for my liking, Jane acting like she was in some slasher flick and Scott was too smarmy for words, I mean he just had a make out session with Alexis and now he goes for Louise too and he's only a surgeon so why's he giving rubdowns, I mean, massages! I man curious enough to want to know his story though.  Okay photos are for all you Enrique fans!

As for the title there must be quite a few demons hovering around especially since its Hallowe'en too.

Revenge 2.11 "Sabotage" Review

                                               
 Aiden (Barry Sloane) escapes and a hooded person lies in a pool of blood.

"They say the best laid plans often go awry, because no matter how detailed the preparation, a plan will always have a weak point and there will always be those looking to exploit it.  To doom a plan to failure and the perpetrator with it."

Two Days Ago  Aiden returns to the beach house and tells Emily (Emily VanCamp) about Helen (Wendy Crewson) and Coleen is still alive.  She tells him he needs proof otherwise she could be lying.  Either way Helen wants him to do something so they come up with some plan of drawing her out and for Emily to meet her.  Emily invites Daniel (Josh Bowman) and other investors to a charity wine auction and overhears a call from Helen wanting him to acquire Stonehaven.

Conrad (Henry Czerny) meets with Jason Prosser (Dylan Walsh) an old rival of his and Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) interrupts to tell Conrad about Daniel's plans, after Emily tells her about this.  He reminds her how the Initiative acquires dead weight companies and then makes then their slaves. The end result being another plane crash as Victoria tells him.  She's going to prevent this from happening and will use Jason to sabotage the acquisition. Victoria wants Emily to invite Jason to the auction.  When Emily is with Daniel she mentions   getting another investor to the event and she mentions Helen.  Cue untimely phoncecall from her, thus giving   Emily a chance to meet her.  Emily suspects the office is bugged as she looks around the room.

Helen also tells Daniel about 'Carrion' which was an R'n'D by NolCorp which Daniel says he hasn't found anything on.  Daniel relying this to Nolan (Gabriel Mann).  He wants this file. Does Helen have nothing else to do than to perve on Daniel, ha, the way she was watching him with Emily was just plain creepy.  What did she do before the office was wired?

Mario (EJ Bonilla) still wants Nolan to trust him but Nolan has his doubts.  Enter Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) just at the trust word was being floated around.  Well don't trust her and haven't since she was introduced on day 1.  She's here to throw a spanner in the works and begs Nolan for a job.  He invites her to the auction.  Which gets underway with Daniel and Jason vying for the same bottle of wine, with Nolan upping the ante by bidding half a million.  Daniel wins the bid with a million which is just what Victoria wanted.  She later tells Jason about the Stonewall bid and lets it slip, actually.  SO he's going to steal the company from under Daniel.

Nolan calls Aiden '007' this time as he calls him Q and actually pays Nolan a compliment of sorts.  Emily is introduced to Helen and she gives her a cheque but doesn't want a bottle of wine since it clouds her judgement.  See Daniel's back on the bottle again.  Nolan dims the lights, cue for Emily to get ready.  Helen and Aiden enter a lift together and soon the lift comes to a sudden stop.  Gas pours through the ventilation shafts.  Padma arrives late and blames Mario for making her work late, as well as letting slip she overheard him talking with Daniel.

Aiden and Helen come too in hoods and a gunman, who is Emily of course, threatens them both.  Aiden gets the better of her, pretends to shoot her and releases Helen who is eager to lift the hood.  Just as another gunman enters.  Shots are fired and they escape.  Clearly a bid to get Aiden into Helen's good graces.  Does she even have any?  Silly question.

Nolan returns to the office to have it out with Mario and he insists he should look at his e-mails, of course Padman would have altered them and the ghost leads back to an e-mail sent to Daniel.  He denies it was him and Padma was smirking too much.  Wait, Nolan why would he tell you to look at e-mails if he's just been contacting Daniel, a bit stupid.  Later we see Padma calling Helen and telling her Nolan is hiding 'Carrion'.  AT least she's revealed to us but it's no good if we already knew what she was up to, it's Nolan who needs to know!

Amanda (Margarita Levieva) pays a visit to Jack (Nick Wechsler) in prison and tells him to let Emily or Nolan pay his bail.  He doesn't want their friends involved and tells her about the gun and the drugs.  He suspects the police were involved and warned Nate (Michael Trucco) about the raid.  He also tells Declan (Connor Paolo) the truth too.  Amanda tells Charlotte (Christa B Allen) who says her mother won't help even if Victoria publicly welcomed Amanda into their family.  Charlotte suggests her father who owes her.  But he refuses to help.  Offering Declan a safe haven at their house instead.  Amanda takes his watch.  Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) has reared her ugly head again and has gotten her job back, helping Conrad make a vie for public office in his political career.  She thinks it would be good for his image to help Jack.

Nate offers to buy the bar for a dollar and Kenny (JR Bourne) doesn't want Declan to interfere with Nate, so what's his game.  Amanda uses the watch to buy a gun but just as she threatens Nate,  Ashley walks in.  Jack's been bailed by Conrad since it would be a good idea to root out corruption in town.

Daniel comes over with the wine and it tastes off.  As does Aiden to pick up his bags.  Helen doesn't tell Aiden who she thinks was behind the kidnapping though she has suspicions.  Ashley had to worm her way back in threatening to expose Grayson secrets she has learned over the years.  Conrad running for public office, won't that give Helen another chance to get her hands in vying for favours.  It had to be Emily in the mask since they showed the double infinity tattoo, no one else has it.

Emily: "Every plan has a fatal flaw.  Sometimes it's the heart.  Even in those who are supposed to be the most careful.  But a careful nature doesn't always ensure success.  When a plan is built on an unstable foundation, failure is not only a possibility, it's a certainty."

Didn't find this ep half as exciting as the one before, it just seemed to be setting up more plots for the future.  Aside from the reveal about Padma which was an anti-climax anyway and Daniel wanting Emily has also been building up for a while.  Just wish they'd get those Ryan brothers over with and gone.

The Mentalist 5.13 "Red Barn" Review

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) finds Patrick (Simon Baker) hold up in his attic with the door locked from the inside and I commented someone could just padlock the front and leave him in there, although he'd have his phone.  Wouldn't think he'd be using a padlock though, they're easily broken. Also ever since he's been working on narrowing down who he's shaken hands with he's become more confined to that attic of his and being secretive. They're called to a CS where the Vic is still alive and kisses Lisbon.  It's her 10 year anniversary after she left the San Francisco police and joined the CBI.  She tries to escape the annoying stripper! )Nate Scholz).  "Get out of my butt" she tells him!  Cho (Tim Kang) and Patrick leave when they're called to a real CS.  The discovery of two DBs in a barn from 1988.  The scene gets a bit too much for Patrick as he says and so he walks outside where he turns around after staring into the sun and sees the Red John smiley face on the side of the barn.

Cue lots of suspects for us and Patty and a lot more closer to Red John being a member of Visualize, with Brett Stiles being conveniently out of the country that very same morning.  Lisbon and Patrick speak with Jason Cooper (Robert Picardo) who tells them Stiles was forgiving after his attempted coup last season.  He tells them about the farm which was started by Stiles but they weren't farmers and it failed.

Chief Rick Anaya (Jacob Vargas) tells them to head to Ellie's diner for Chilli and there Lisbon and Patrick talk to a school teacher Miles MacCambridge (George Gerdes) at least patrick reads him as such and he's the town gossip, though he doesn't really tell them much.  Lisbon tells Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) she won't forgive him for that stripper and she enjoyed herself, as did Rigsby with the tequila.  Cho and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) tell him Lisbon will get him back.

It's career evaluation time for Lisbon, although not of her own choosing, it's Agent Ray Haffner (Reed Diamond) who brings it up.  He wants to see her for lunch and she kind of reluctantly told Patrick that when he asked her what he wanted, especially since he was the one who got Haffner gone from CBI as their boss.  Strange then he should make an appearance now and just when Visualize is in the spotlight again as is Patrick's narrowing down of the Red John pool of suspects, I was going to say gene pool for some reason, ha.

Haffner wants Lisbon to come work for him at a security firm he's starting up and tries to tempt her with big money.  She's here to stay since it's her job and she likes doing it, irrespective if money.  He brings up Patrick and that's one reason why she doesn't want to leave, as if there's more between them, which isn't the case, as far as we know.  She tells him Patrick's easy to handle if you know how.  Of course Lisbon wouldn't take the job since she was there long before Patrick came along and will be there long after.  When he left last season, she didn't have any qualms about staying and continuing her work without him around.  But he is a big help to her, sometimes a hindrance, but as she says at the end, they're partners.

The way the DBs were tied up and shot, though Lisbon says guns are not Red John's weapon of choice, he would have been young at the time and probably just starting out, but it's rather creepy, scary to know that he has been killing for so long and just starting out.  As is the case with serial killers, they start out with animals and move on to humans.  Thus it was probably a fluke or something more that led him to hone in on Patrick and his family.  Going back all the way to when Patrick was on TV.  Also clues as to Red John's involvement was Patrick being uneasy at the CS, as if he had a feeling at the back of his mind.  It's not often he walks off leaving behind vital info he could have given to Cho and getting one over on law enforcement officials.

There were quite a few suspects for the murders, the Vic's brother, Gordon (JD Cullen) the disgruntled tax avoiding farmer, Tom Creyhew (Chris Mulkey) the disgruntled tax avoiding farmer,the vet Ellen Preston (MJ Karmi) her daughter, Holly (Jenica Bergere) the chief and the priest, father Peter DiBuono (Kyle Secor).  But it was apparent the chief was corrupt, hence he has a long tab at the diner and why the teacher ran off when he arrived.  Crayhew points them to Ellen who was angry at the way the cult, notice they call Visualize a "church," members treated their animals, bringing up Satanic rituals.  Ellen has Alzheimer's (conveniently) but Holly has many qualifications so we and Patrick wonder why she ended up dog walking.  She was hiding something though and even Patrick noticed whilst playing with the dog.

The Vic, Lester (Gregory Marcel) used to give the workers drugs as they were made to work long hours and DBuono tells Van Pelt it was was probably speed.  Patrick has time to catch up to him to ask about the smiley face and he can only tell him that was creepy and he saw it the one and only time he went back after leaving.  Yet he doesn't know who put it there.  Patrick also gets the chief to admit he was the drug dealer and he would have been in high school at the time.

Haffner comes in to see how the investigation is progressing, but really under the guise of the job, which Lisbon tells him she doesn't want.  He lets slip Jason Cooper's name and Lisbon is as sharp as ever telling him no one but her and Patrick knew about his involvement.  He's a member of Visualize, thus another suspect in the list of Red John suspects.  He can't give her a list of members dating to 1988.

Patrick knows who killed Lester and wants the suspects gathered at the diner, where the night before he uses lemon juice to draw the Red John symbol onto some paper.  Hey he was a dab hand at that drawing wasn't it, me thinks it came a little too easy to him.  When he puts the coffee pot down the symbol appears which causes a reaction Ellen.  Holly admits she killed him only cos he was harassing her mother and shot their dog.  They buried him in the barn, but the other two DBs were already there.  She also felt they were being watched.  Hey Patrick had a bit of a smirk on his face then.

Haffner tries to get Lisbon to have the charges increased from manslaughter to murder one but she believes she was protecting her mother.  He is also surprised Lisbon didn't make more of his being a member of Visualize, but that's where he's getting part of the money to fund his firm.

Lisbon gets into the attic and finds Patrick has been a busy boy mapping out everything on to a board and telling her he's narrowed down his suspects to about 408 but with the Visualize members he can narrow it down more.  He doesn't believe it was any women, well that's a pity, do we believe that?  Lisbon says they can't get a warrant since Visualize is a church and no judge will give them one.  He's sure he's got more to go on now.

Oh and CBI Ron (John Troy Donovan) was mentioned by name at the beginning by Lisbon as most fans believe he is Red John or has ties to him. Also Patrick at the time must have been how old, in his teens too, so either he isn't Red John at all, end of story or maybe he could be as he was just starting out.  Surprising Patrick's power of recall when he dismisses people he's remembered meeting or having brief encounters with.  Yet he does dismiss some of them too readily since even a brief handshake can lead to another encounter or rather friendship.  Lorelei said she's surprised after their handshake Patrick hasn't made friends with Red John already.

Cho and Rigsby and how he was embarrassed by Rigsby singing Bohemian Rhapsody on the table, Cho was embarrassed.  Van Pelt still thinks Brett Stiles is doing a good job and clearly the impression he made on her in His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts and that bit of subtle brainwashing is still lasting on her when she thinks his work isn't a bad thing and can improve your life, especially if you're a good person.  Showing her vulnerability a little to need something of Brett Stile's teachings in her life.

The same with Haffner, he must have had a difficult period in his life to become a target of Visualize, or more particularly I want to know why he asks Lisbon, "Why would you ask me that?"  When she wants to know if he was at the farm.  Then she doesn't let on to Patrick about this little morsel she's found out, that he's a Visualize member, instead she asks for names on Patty's list to see if they can narrow them down, but maybe to see if Haffner may be on it.  Was she playing Patrick here: friends with Haffner, partners with Patty?
Lisbon: "You think you're so mysterious in there.  I know what you're doing in there."  Yet she still manages to 'force' her way in and get a look see.

Actually we seem to be getting mysterious with Lisbon aren't we, especially from the time she keeps a hammer in her desk, to telling Patrick he doesn't know all her secrets and here she doesn't tell him about Haffner.  Also why did the Father not know of Red John he's big news in the media.

Agent Haffner: Sure. And you guys-you guys have a track record, I-I understand why you wanna stick with that. But if there's one thing that I've learned about Jane, it's that catching bad guys is a game to him, and-and he's gonna quit someday. Maybe because he gets Red John, maybe because, what, he just gets bored. When that happens, you're gonna be on your own. Driving out to some crime scene in the middle of nowhere at 5:00 a.m., asking Rigsby what sort of sad story you gotta unravel this time. Is that what you really want? Because I think you deserve better. Think about it.

Liked this conversation quite a bit about Patrick and Lisbon has also been though that, being alone when Patrick went of to do his Red John 'thing' meeting Lorelei and trying to get him to reveal himself.  It is a game to him, what he does but also he has said in the past for him, it's something to do.  But for how long?  As well as being on the inside for all the Red John scoop.

There was a real murder in a red barn in 1827 in Suffolk, England.

Illusions or allusions to Ellis Mars in 3.9 Red Moon and Ellison farm here perhaps?

That photo of Patty at the top of the page, uncanny or creepy, it could be a mirror image, Patrick smiling whilst basking in the sun and that smiley face behind him.  otherwise it could be a little prophetic, mocking him from behind!
Has Patrick shaken hands with CBI Ron? Agh will have to re-watch eps now!!