Once Upon A Time 2.2 "We Are Both" Review

Lots more background in this as we now get three realms into one land, well kind of, there's the Enchanted Forest or the corner that's left of it, with Regina (Lana Parrilla) admitting to Charming (Josh Dallas) that it still exists, then there's Stroybrooke and the Enchanted Forest, as was, when Regina was just starting out with her magic.  Here we flash to how she got magic, well Gold/Rumples (Robert Carlyle) had to be behind it, was it me or did his accent sound different back then. Regina desperately wants to get out of marrying the king but her mother, Cora (Barbara Hershey) insists she go through with it.  There's even one scene where a young Snow (Bailee Madison) looks at the necklace Regina's love gave her and puts it round her neck, Regina strangles her with it, but alas it's only a dream.  She hadn't turned completely evil back then, though she does have an evil streak.  She tells Snow her mother had him killed, or rather that he's dead.

She even laments to her father about not wanting to get married but she's powerless to act until Rumples gives her that little nudge and the book.  Which is how her flashback began as she wants magic back, that way she can get her claws into Henry (Jared Gilmore) once more.  Regina wanting Cora gone and pushing her into the mirror with that little pull from Rumples was fun to watch showing how she didn't want to resort to using magic, becoming her mother but circumstances and fate dictated otherwise, with that all important push over the edge from Rumples.

She sits in the garden and using the magic her eyes change colour and the apples on the tree turn red.  She then uses the magic tree to set a trap for Henry as Cora used on her, Capturing her with its tentacles when she was trying to escape the marriage.  Using magic Regina forces the townspeople into a stalmate and Henry must give himself to her in order for her to leave them alone.  Taking him back home he exits bedroom window and is held by the tree.  She wants him to stay cos she loves him but he just thinks he's a prisoner cos she loves him which isn't fair.

Charming needs to know how to use Jefferson/Hatter's (Sebastian Shaw) hat after Henry shows him his pic in the storybook.  Thus he has to turn to Gold who gives him a potion to use.  Charming asking what he wants in return, they agree to stay out of each other's way and Charming also tells him what the seven dwarves found out as they tried to leave town.  That when they cross the line, they become their Storybrooke selves and don't recall who they really were, after Sneezy (Gabe Khouth) drew the short straw and had to cross the line, pushed more like.

Charming uses the potion on the hat and he comes across Jefferson stuck inside a car, he was like that all the time.  Nice touch with the teaset and the rabbit cuddly toy.  He's no help, ahh Jefferson! and mentions the curse being inside his head, before making a run for it.  Well that's prob the last we'll see of him, more's the pity.  Well until next ep at least.  Charming tries to chase after him but Ruby (Meghan Ory) tells him about Henry and he also leaves the hat behind too.  Charming goes for Henry with the aid of his trusty sword and Regina has a change of heart and lets him go.

Charming then has to give a pep talk to the townspeople and stop them from leaving.  Giving them a rousing speech about how they are the townspeople and also the people from the Enchanted Forest.  "We are both." and they have to stay together and help each other as before.  Charming doing a lot of rallying round now that Mary Margaret/Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Emma )Jennifer Morrison) are no longer around but he hasn't given up on them.  Henry and Charming sit sipping their glass of cola and Henry tells Geppetto (Tony Amendola) about August.  He doesn't find him in the room but does find his hat.

Snow and Emma find themselves led to the safe haven in ropes by Mulan (Jamie Chung) and Aurora (Sarah Bolger) and Snow is hurt when they try to make a run for it.  After being thrown into the pit, Cora asks if she can help them.  Back in Storybook Regina almost burns the magic book but finds she can't.  Recalling how Rumples told her she was more like her mother than she knows.  Also Gold stands at the line, wonder what he was thinking, maybe he'll end up crossing it with his magic.

Best line had to go to Whale (David Anders) "Are the nuns still nuns, can they, you know, date.  Don't say it's me asking!" To be expected after Snow's ref to "once night stands" as far as he's concerned.  But last ep he wanted to kill Regina and this ep it's as if nothing's happened! ha

Did Cora get pushed and pulled "through the looking glass" and somehow end up in Wonderland?  Then how did she end up in the pit?  She could be the Red Queen.  As you'll recall Regina needed Jefferson's help with his hat to 'rescue' her father from Wonderland after she killed him last season.  One more thing, why doesn't Mulan recognize Snow, surely she must know who ruled here?

The people also retain their Storybrooke memories since Charming lets on to Henry he didn't know about the Mad Hatter when he was Charming but he's read Alice in Wonderland.  Thus wouldn't they have some sort of insane trip recalling these memories back there and here.  Isn't that one reason Jefferson was meant to be mad, he recalled the curse and he also knew what was happening here.
Jefferson: "Then all we'll do is both sit, stuck.  Two lives in our heads cursed worse than ever.  Two lives forever at odds.  Double the pain.  Double the suffering."
What happened to his daughter?  Also what happened to the crypt with Regina's collection of hearts?
As for Charming's speech, I think Jefferson gave him the idea in the first place with his two lives cursed speech to him, now his was much more of a pep talk!

Hopefully Sebastian Stan will be cast as the Hatter in the Once Upon A Time spin-off Wonderland, it won't be the same with another actor in the part!

CSI 13.8 "CSI On Fire" Review

                                                    
Some hikers in the desert see some debris from the sky and it's all hush hush as it's from a nearby airforce base, cue FBI (Litha Johnson) on the scene.  When DB (Ted Danson) and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) arrive they have a war of words with them over whose CS it is and Finn has the last word by saying their bodies trumps their X-Files convention, but not before DB exposes them to some long winded rule over jurisdiction, he never though that'd work!
DB: "you know if you keep insisting you're gonna be in violation of NRS197.190, interfering with public officers in the discharge of their official duties."
Finn: "In other words, our body trumps your X-Files Convention."
DB was called in when a local police officer thought he saw something akin to some mass graves. The grave is dug up and there's a DB in one of them belonging to Janet who was part of the case in Seattle which Finn worked on and was fired from.  Okay not fired per se but resigned, as she likes to put it.  She takes the necklace from her neck and finds it matches exactly the same one Janet was wearing when she disappeared.

Finn now knows she was not only right about Tom Cooley (Dylan Walsh) being the killer but he is also a serial killer.  She wants to rush through the exam of Janet by Doc (Robert David Hall) and he tells her she's not in charge here.  Also she wants Greg (Eric Szmanda) to put a rush on the DNA to which he reminds her he's no longer in DNA but they're a team here so he'll help.  When the results are in Greg tells DB Finn was just here but he tracks her GPS to Seattle and Greg asks if he's keeping tabs on them all.  DB calls Mike (Brian Van Holt).

Hodges (Wallace Langham) and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) working together, oh come on someone must be trying to tell us and them something here, sift through the soil which was also transported from Seattle.  Morgan finds a man's ring which Hodges surmizes could belong to the killer since all the Vics were female.  The ring reads Hardison High Cchool class of 1987.  In the yearbook online Hodges finds Cooley was class president of that year.

Finn is pulled over by Mike whom we find out is her ex and she's rearing at the bit to bring come closure to Janet's mother.  Giving us a flashback to Finn talking with her mother (Lili Birdsell) in the past.  Mike shows Finn Cooley's ranch which has been developed and so any evidence which was there no longer exists, no wonder he had the DB's shipped to Vegas.  Thing is why pick Vegas of all places, especially since that's exactly where Finn ended up, if she hadn't well the case would still be open.  That was convenient for all concerned, but mostly to give us the backstory on Finn and why she left Seattle, with DB reminding her last time she went after Cooley she not only lost her job but the Seattle PD was also sued.  Mike reminds her she won't need to tell Dr Warren since the press beat her to it.

They find the ring belongs to an Eric Louie (Eric Steinberg) as Finn calls claiming to be Captain Robinson and asking if any high school rings have been missing, Mike reminding her to ask if anyone's asked for a replacement.  Then he tells her did she really expect this to be so easy and have Cooley's name come up.  He is a fellow officer and he recalls he gave the ring to his girlfriend, Marla (Sarah Joy Brown) who is now sis wife.  She says she lost the ring and she used to go to parties, just as Eric did, they were wild days. She dated Cooley's friend, Max Liston a few times.  Both Mike and Finn realize she's hiding something.

Liston turns out to be the contractor Cooley hired to develop his land.  Finn calls DB with the news and also tells him he was later found dead after being paid all that money.  He was paid to move the DBs.  Officer Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) tells Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) to watch the news where Cooley makes himself out to be the Vic, of how he went out with Janet before she was killed and how that turned his life upside down.  They find that Cooley used a date rape drug on the girls.  Finn watches the conference and gets mad, with Mike telling her to put the cup down, cos obviously she was going to throw it at the TV.  He knows her so well!

Nick (George Eads) gets through red tape to find the land became Federal which means it can never be developed so the bodies would never be found and it once belonged to Cooley's family who were also hotshots in Seattle.  Finn meets Cooley in his hotelroom and has a drink.  He's arrogant and claims how she can still not get his prints. She taunts him about how she's blonde, just his type, 5' 4" but he would have sex in the car cos he couldn't wait to kill them, but he couldn't get it up.  Making him angry.  Finn turns up at the lab just as DB gets word that Cooley has hanged himself.

DB passes a man and boy talking about how the soda machine ate his dollar.  Brass won't let Finn enter the CS since she was seen leaving here and also seen by a waiter banging on the door with a gun in a uniform.  He wants a statement from him.  DB tells Brass you don't need to be high up to strangle yourself since he was hung from a door.  Doc finds he was drunk and had an unhealthy liver due to drinking, also wants Finn out of his autopsy until she's been cleared.  She's adamant it was murder.  Since he was so narcissistic on TV then why would he kill himself.

Finn return to talk to Marla and she tells how she was with Cooley, Liston and Pearson (Scott Lowell) and she passed out.  When she came too she was in  a grave and Pearson (now Cooley's lawyer) was pouring dirt onto her.  She went home and never told anyone.  Cooley raped her and Finn adds she was drugged. Returning to the hotelroom with Greg, DB knows Pearson had time to kill Cooley.  He couldn't use his keycard to get into the room and recalls the boy and his soda machine.  Greg tells him he can get a soda from another machine but he removes the magnet which Pearson placed behind the machine, that's why his keycard wouldn't work.  If he had put it behind the ice machine he would have gotten away with it.  Even though both doors were locked from the inside Pearson used the magnet to gain entry and leave the same way.  Not such a clever lawyer after all.

Brass says it will be better for him if he tells them the names of the remaining Vics which he does.  Once again we get Finn rearing to go as she repeats her actions all over again and goes off in a huff to Seattle and without even getting permission or telling anyone, being headstrong and taking it upon herself to inform Janet's mother when the evidence hasn't even been processed.  Those aren't the actions of a CSI, yes you can be passionate about your work and many of the CSIs such as Sara, Nick have all done that in the past, really go out to obtain justice for the Vics but she just goes overboard.  There's not much DB can or does do to reel her in.

She's not the only one who feels for their Vics and her actions could have proved detrimental to everyone else, as Hodges said when he refused to answer her phone straightaway, he's not going down with her, as did Brass when he was instrumental in keeping her away from the CS and so was Doc.  Okay she has a bad relationship with her ex and for all her moaning about failed marriage when she first arrived last season, didn't look like she hates him much.  Especially when she decided she wanted to stick around and have ex sex with him, cos they miss each other.

Nick and insects yet again, showing he's clearly taken on Grissom's mantel now pinning the insects to the board and then joking how one breakthrough find should given him a payrise.  Sara was missing and none of the others had much to do as this was a Finn episode.  At least we've got that background story of hers dealt with now and it wasn't that much of a surprise since it was mentioned many times over how she went after the suspect, Cooley and wanted his prints for evidence, even asking him for the glass now when she's alone in his room with him.  Cooley comes out and asks her how she knows he won't kill her and that's what makes it more thrilling for her.  He still thinks he was in the clear.
Finn: "two years, two  jobs, one marriage, but I got him."

Revenge 2.15 "Retribution" Review

"Emily: "In its purest from an act of retribution provides symmetry, the rendering of payment for crimes against the innocent.  But the danger of retaliation lies in furthering the cycle of violence.  Still it's a risk that must be met when the greater offence is to allow the guilty to go unpunished."

Emily (Emily VanCamp) returns home and is told by Nolan (Gabriel Mann) not to rush over and mete out any revenge on the Grayson's. She should take some time.  She washes her hands and still has Amanda's blood on them.  They can't got to see Jack (Nick Weschler) until they're told about him.  Aiden (Barry Sloane) arrives and Nolan explains what happened.  Emily holds the locket, looks at their photos inside it and cries.  Nolan: "Why do I get the feeling this isn't what Takeda had in mind when he handed you your revenge degrees.?"  Ooh where can I get one of those?

The Grayson's also contemplate whether their plan to cast suspicion over Helen's disappearance onto Amanda has worked or not and Daniel )Josh Bowman) doesn't have any stomach for this cold bloodiness.  Even Ashley )Ashley Madekwe) accused Conrad (Henry Czerny) of killing Amanda saying she had nothing against her.  Suggesting his alibi was his gubernatorial announcement, so he'd have witnesses.  He reminds her who come up with the plan to go into business with Nate.

Emily and Nolan arrive at the hospital to find Jack is in a coma.  Charlotte (Christa B Allen) lets Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) babysit Carl.  Padma )Dilshad Vadsaria) also comes down and Nolan tells her no one is getting Carrion until they can confirm it's her father's finger, which is done.  Everyone seems to be gunning for Nolan here, well practically everyone.  Even Daniel hounds him again telling him he better not have deleted his R'n'D files and he replies, "control, alt, delete - got it."  Daniel wants the programme to go after the Initiative.  Later Nolan tells Emily what Daniel said and how he threatened to digitally blow off his kneecaps.  Daniel also keeps watching that clock in his office and Aiden comes to see him by wanting to go into business with him.  He tells him how he convinced Prosser to not go with the firm on his own dime.  Victoria tells Daniel to test Aiden's loyalty against the Initiative.  If he carries out the trade then he can be trusted.  Which he does.

Conrad is in search for the missing laptop and he insists on paying Jack's bills, telling him he didn't know what Nate would do.  Jack now wants this mysterious computer and confides in Emily and Nolan about it.  He was definitely not in the loop since they already know about the computer.  But then he's not one up in many secrets between them.  Jack is brought home from hospital and looks at Amanda's coral in the bottle before he smashes it to pieces, revealing a locker key.  Here he finds the computer and a lot more besides.  I.e info about them being  sisters and being at juvvie together.  He wonders why Emily didn't tell him about Amanda or herself and she replies the same reason he didn't about the Stowaway.  Pride.  Jack wants Emily to give the eulogy.  Whilst he 'cosies' up to Conrad when he gives a press conference being oh so endearing towards Amanda.

Emily got to meet Trask (Burn Gorman) today who introduced himself as an investigator and Aiden's heard his voice but they haven't found out he's part of the Initiative yet.  Charlotte looks for Amanda's old friends but can't find anyone to invite.  Emily asks Daniel to come also.   After her heartfelt eulogy, to which Daniel brings an umbrella, ha, didn't need one 'til later, everyone feigns liking Amanda especially the Grayson's and Victoria has even gotten Charlotte back as a result of Amanda's death.  Whilst they're at the funeral, Aiden breaks into the Stowaway and steals back the computer, so much for Jack asking help from Nolan.

Daniel wants the clock fixed as it's slow and even tells Grace to keep it if she wants, yes but the Initiative will always have other ways of surveilling.  Emily throws the computer into the ocean, it interfered with her true purpose which is what we said all along, as do the Initiative.  So throw it into the ocean right under the Grayson's noses.  She returns to the grave where a man tells her how Amanda burned own his house, he's her brother.

Liked how everyone was relying on Nolan so much this episode and how he was the voice of reason as far as Emily and her instant retribution was concerned.  Also convincing her this isn't the right time to confess to Jack who she really is, since he's mourning Amanda now.  "You can't take Amanda away from him again."

Emily: "Death is a thief.  It takes and keeps all that a person is, the person was.  When it takes from us someone as extraordinary as Amanda, it takes with it not just her past but who she was to us
everyday.  Amanda was special but she never had it easy.  A childhood torn from her, a rough adolescence and a damming identity which was thrust upon her which she bore with dignity until she made herself a new name..."  Yes a name that Emily gave her and she had to wear the mask of Amanda.

Oh and this time round, Padma had the red 'Special K' Dress! ha

Doctor Who 7.9 "Cold War" Review

A Russian submarine in 1983 runs into trouble, as a sailor on board thaws a creature found in the ice which the professor believes to be a 5,000 year old mammoth.  The TARDIS materializes cue the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his "Viva Las Vegas" cos we presume that's where he and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) have been as she's in a dress.  The TARDIS disappears as things hot up in the submarine and the Doctor tells them to manoeuvre it laterally so it lands on the seabed, or at least a bed of rocks.  The metallic shelled creature is loose and the crew hold Clara and the Doctor hostage.  They're not enemies and the Doctor loses his sonic as it falls to the ground in the surge of water.  They have very little air left to breathe.

Professor Grisenko) (David Warner) into his 1980's music especially Ultravox and his "oh Vienna."  The Doctor identifies the creature as an Ice Warrior and even knows its name Grand Marshall Skaldak (Spencer Wilding).  As he soon gets it on his side, one of the sailors uses a cattle prod on it.  Thus attacking him and declaring war.  Skaldak is chained up and he manages to send a message out to the rest of his people.  He's from Mars and believes all his people are dead.  The Doctor tells us his history and wants to communicate with him and Captain Zhukov (Liam Cunningham) refuses to let him go, he may be needed.  Clara coughs, so she's the one to talk to Skaldak.

The Doctor watches her and tells her what to say in a reversal of 7.1 Asylum of the Daleks where we first encountered Clara as she was watching them. The thawing of the Iceman is reminiscent of how the Daleks have been revived  in the past and this is no exception, bringing to mind how Rose (Billie Piper) touched it in one of the early episodes with  the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) in Dalek.  The Warrior breaks his chains and gets free leaving his suit of armour behind, which the Doctor says is a dishonour.  Now he's given up any hope of being rescued and he's got nothing to lose.

The crew and Doctor search for Skaldak but he's fast on his feet as the Doctor explains.  Skaldak corners Stepashin (Tobias Menzies) who wants to form an alliance with him, together they can win the Cold War in a mutually destructive capacity.  Skaldak kills two more crew and the Doctor says it's analyzing them, it's "turned forensic."  A particular stand out moment was when the professor asks Clara if she's really from the future so she must tell him about it, he must know, if Ultravox break up.  She laughs as he's funny.  Skaldak grabs hold of the Professor and Clara asks him not to kill him.   He pauses allowing enough time for the Doctor to reach them and try to talk Skaldak down.  He almost gets there when along comes the captain and a sailor who pulls a gun on him.

Skaldak escapes and arms the missiles mentioning the mutually destruction line once more.  The Doctor who now has his screwdriver courtesy of the professor who found it on the floor and the Doctor threatens to blow up the submarine with everyone on board.  He wants Skaldak to show mercy and save the billions of innocent lives on the planet.  Once again earth is in jeopardy.  Clara reminds him of his daughter and how he fought with her in the war since he just recalls her as dust now.  How they used to sing about the red rain.  The Doctor and Skaldak have a face off eye to eye and Skaldak asks who will blink first.  Clara sings now, a line from Hungry Like the Wolf,  who'd have thunk it, Duran Duran saves the world!  Was thinking of this song the other day.

Skaldak's people bring the submarine to the surface with their traction beam and then he's taken too.  They think it's over but the Doctor says the missiles are still armed.  Finally Skaldak shows mercy and disarms them.  As they watch the ship fly away, the Doctor tells Clara he was trying a new system on the TARDIS he hasn't used for a while where it disappears at the first sign of trouble.  Only thing is it's ended up at the South Pole and he needs a lift there.

A different setting for Doctor Who this episode as we've all seen the claustrophobic films ad shows where the characters are stuck in one place with nowhere to go and the air is fast running out.  It was the same here as we got a dire sense of being stuck and there was no way up or down, or out.  Skaldak was revealed to be a creature with red eyes and scrawny fingers with long claws, but still seemed to have tentacles a bit like the Daleks.  This was the first time the Doctor had seen him too as the Ice Warriors are always in armour.  Some great acting and scenes as once again Matt Smith shows why he's so good as the Doctor and Clara firmly sets herself up as a great companion adding they saved the world, "it's what we do;" echoing the Doctor's sentiments.  He also reminds her that anything can happen and history is in flux and can be rewritten, thus she may never have been been born.

Some stunning moments as the Doctor asks "is that gas" when the Warrior is standing behind him and still he doesn't look.  Would the Doctor have blown up the submarine to save the world, we won't know, but do you guess that he just may have done exactly that.  Oh and since everyone was speaking perfect English it was left to the Doctor to explain they were really speaking Russian cos of the TARDIS translation matrix.  In response to her saying she's not a spy, she can't even speak Russian. So the translation still worked when the TARDIS wasn't around.

A bit more singing on show here as this time it's from the '80's so that's allowed since most of us will agree it was a terrific time for music.  Even the Doctor recalls the big shoulder pads, ha.  Not everyone's cup of tea this episode but now that Clara's firmly established  and is introduced to us properly over three episodes, it's time to move forward with the action and next week's haunted house episode looks cool and scary too, just what we need from the show.

Other previous appearances of the Ice Warriors in Doctor Who were in The Ice Warriors (1967) The Seeds of Death (1974)  The monster of Peladon (1974) The Curse of Peladon (1973).

The Mentalist 5.17 "Red White and Blue" Review

                                           
Step away from the gardenias!
Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Patrick (Simon Baker) are called in to investigate the murder of a medic whose DB has been found and before long the Army CID turn up to take over the case.  Lisbon insists it's their case but Lt Lewis (Matt McTighe) thinks the policeman should decide.  Patrick asks what he can see on the DB's hand and points out the discolouration, she had a stamp on it in the shape of a cat.  There's a jazz bar nearby.  Before that Patrick asks Lisbon to identify the music she has tattooed on her leg as Lisbon played clarinet.  It's 'Kansas City' and he asks her how that goes, so she hums and then sings it and he joins in.  Thought he didn't know.  The policeman gives the case to Lisbon.  Also Patrick isn't introduced to Lewis,  he just says he's with her and she just smiles.  No partner or associate this time round.  Hey they could have crossed over eps and had Col Mann from Army CID and NCIS on the case here!

At the army base they question doctor Bowman (Jim Holmes) (he was a dead giveaway, sorry but I got Dr Shifty straightaway as the killer talk about acting suspiciously and was in a rush to leave.)  Especially when Patrick works out he's divorced and it's been a year.  Patrick says he's overdoing it on the cologne.  A fire alarm goes off as Code Red is announced on the base and all medics are required to leave.  Also a patient asks the doctor for directions to his group therapy meeting, he's forgotten where it is.  Prompting Lisbon to think whoever made the 911 call could have forgotten since Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) sent her the call tape and after reporting the crime, the man walks off.  Loved the way Patty wafted the air when the doctor walked away, ha.

At the meeting Lisbon plays the recording and asks whose voice it is.  Pete (Jesse Lukin) identifies the voice as his own but he can't recall anything, only up to the attack in Afghanistan.  He led his buddies into a road where an IAD exploded and killed them all.  His PDA beeps and he has to take his meds.  He was close to the Vic Lucy (April Billingsley) and a man comes into interrogation and Pete forgets his chain of thought.  Lisbon has to tell Pete all over again that Lucy was murdered.

Rose (Lily Nicksay) at the hospital shows them Lucy's locker and how she was a stickler for regulations.   Pete recalls the taco stand and Patrick says he needs one.  He gets to the church since Pete loved walking when he can't sleep and Lisbon adds the church is two miles away.  Patrick arrives at the church but he's too early for the taco van.  Instead he smells the gardenias and has a kip on the bench!  Surprised he wasn't moved on, ha.  Notice he didn't go inside the church not that there was any need to but he seems to be over the traumatic events of last episode There Will Be Blood and there was in last ep and this one too.

Lisbon sends Rigsby to talk check out Pete's room and tells him he may have to remind him of what's happened and to be gentle.  Cho (Tim Kang) talks with Lettner (Stephen Martines) who Lucy helped talk down and now he's free to live by himself.  He reluctantly tells Cho about sexual harassment trouble she told him about but didn't go into details.  This explains why her own unit treated her badly as the waitress at the club told Cho.  Sgt Hawkins (Eddie McLintock) investigated but didn't find any case.  The complaint was made anonymously and adds he won't betray an officer by giving his name without any evidence.  Well he already gave it away since he called him an officer.  Rose is questioned but she doesn't say who it is either, it's regulations.  Even when Lisbon tells her she knows an anonymous complaint wouldn't amount to much.  She asks if Lucy died cos of her accusation.  Since Lisbon knows Lucy made the complaint on her behalf since she could handle what was dished out.  Likes the way Lisbon worked out it was out of character for Lucy to stay quiet when she was a sticker for rules, thus she must have been covering for someone else.

The search of Pete's room leads Rigsby to his laundry and a bloodied jacket of his.  Lisbon is about to bring Pete in when Patrick calls and asks her to bring him to the church.  Patrick gets his taco and gives it to Pete and tells him senses can help with memory.  He eats the taco but nothing happens and then Patty picks a gardenia and makes him smell it.  Still nothing.  Hey leave that gardenia alone!  Finally he hears the church bell ring and recalls he saw Lucy at the garage and a flashlight was shined in his face so he couldn't see.  She held his hand.

Liked the way Cho made Hawkins investigate the complaint further even if he could get his ass kicked by a  lieutenant.  Telling him he should watch their back just liked he'd want his own watched and should talk to Rose.  Cho was really disgusted with the handling of the sexual harassment case since he's been in Special Forces and knows what army life is like.  "Be someone your unit can respect, be someone I can respect." Lettner is questioned when they find out he wasn't taking all of his meds.  Turning the investigation towards Dr Shifty.  Patrick needs a padlock which Lisbon doesn't have (hey could have used the one on his attic door, ha).

Visiting Pete he tells him he can help him to sleep using hypnosis and makes him recall all his memories and then turn them black.  He falls asleep and Patrick takes his PDA and adds a note for him since he's meant to write down everything he remembers.  The rest of the suspects are summoned at the hospital and Lisbon shows them a locker key, number 107.  Rose says it's the key to a locker and on cue Rigsby pulls the fire alarm.  Code Red is sounded and everyone leaves.  Thus Dr Shifty returns to the locker and tries to pry the lock open with a fire extinguisher, all very symbolic.  Where Patrick does a great job of imitating him when he tries to speak.

Dr Shifty tells Rigsby he needed to sell off the prescription drugs for his alimony and child support and his wife was asking so much.  Blaming her for his killing Lucy and that it costs to date.  Rigsby is clearly disgusted too and comes up with the line "in prison a date won't cost."  Cho waits for Lewis to be questioned for the harassment of Rose and salutes Hawkins for doing his job.  Patrick apologizes to Pete for using him like that but he's happy they caught Lucy's killer.  Patrick helps him with his memories and asks him to picture a place which he picks as his tent with his fallen comrades.  One of them was lazy so he asks him to remember what he used to do everytime he wakes up as the voices fade out.

An episode which gets us away from the action and seriousness of last episode to a certain extent but there's the reminder there, an allusion if you like, to how Lorelei was killed and how Lucy was killed too, lots of blood shed by a cold blooded killer just like Red John.  A few red props dotted here and there too, such as red cars, fire alarms, red fire engine which is what I meant when the fire extinguisher was symbolic, symbolic of the colour red.  Thought Rigsby was going to make a comment about Van Pelt again when Cho sat down opposite him but that didn't happen.  No comments on Rigsby having being attacked by Lorelei last ep either.

In fact we didn't even get a mention of the events of last ep which I suppose was fine considering the context of this case and it would have only distracted from the investigation.  Lisbon also showed her caring side towards Pete as she's done in past eps, but here she had to change her mind calling Pete a suspect and all it took was a look from Patrick to do this.  They know each other so well, to a degree.  Also another one where Patrick had the opportunity to show how good he is at what he does and showing his own empathy towards Pete and how he helped him in the end.  NO arrogance, no showing off, just Patrick being normal and moral and not a hint of deception, showing him the "memory palace" technique.  How cool was Simon in that scene!

Strange Patrick telling Lisbon to read the music since in the reunion episode Rose Colored Glasses, he guessed she played an instrument but couldn't decide which one.  Here he says she played clarinet.  SO why couldn't Patrick read the music himself since he played the double bass.  In 3.22 Rhapsody in Red, Patrick also gives Lisbon a flower, a hydrangea and she asks if it squirts water.  He tells her it's a little trick to "maybe catch the killer."  Lisbon listening to Patrick and singing the song here was so sweet.  Kansas being mentioned here as The Wizard of Oz has too when Minnelli tells Patrick he's not in Kansas anymore in 1.11 Red John's Friends.  Loved the way Lisbon told him to stop when he was kind of mimicking with his singing.  SO sweet and cute.

The Vampire Diaries 4.17 "Because the Night" Review

Damon (Ian Somerhalder) arrives in New York with Elena (Nina Dobrev) and we get a flashback of him being here in the 1970's.  A place where he tells Elena "a little death can go unnoticed."  She disappears to get her hair done which didn't suit her at all.  Anyway Damon's flashback involves killing two people and then walking away as if nothing happened.  Where the man calls him "Son of Sam" before he's killed.  Damon replies, "Son of Giuseppe."    Thus he garnered a name for himself as a notorious serial killer leaving Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Lexi (Arielle Kebbel) hearing about him all the way in Mystic Falls.  Stefan sends Lexi to keep an eye on him which was pointless really since Damon uses her, feigning being in love with her for six months just to get her off his back.

Damon's humanity is switched off and he and Lexi party hard in order for Damon to switch his humanity back on.  This is also Damon's plan but cue Rebekah (Claire Holt) into the picture when she tells Elena he's here for the cure and Damon tires to convince her otherwise.  Elena later tells Rebekah she's no fool as she knows exactly what Damon is doing here only she wants to find the cure before him.  Rebekah using that same old story of wanting the cure cos she wants her own family, so they team up here in order to dupe Damon out of finding where Katherine is.  Damon finds Katherine's file in the hoard of stuff in Will's office and has to ask Stefan what her date of birth is, which makes him the "better boyfriend," as Damon calls him. That being 5th June 1473.

Damon tells Elena he and Lexi did it on the bar, causing Elena to move her arm off it, as well as the stage and the roof, she heads for the roof bottle in hand and then tries to seduce Damon to reach into his pocket for the paper he found in the file with Katherine's whereabouts.  Oh Damon why were you so silly enough not to have read the paper.  Also how did Elena know he had found what he did and it was written on paper. All he had to do was make a note on his phone and burn it.  Ugh, no they make Elena out to be more intelligent than a centuries old vampire, especially considering she's so ruthless now.  It's true she doesn't care about him after all.  Damon tells her he was the one who invented seduction for ulterior purposes to begin with.

Flash to Lexi and Damon on the roof and how he took her ring and left her on the roof before telling her his humanity was never switched off to begin with.  He also tells Elena in the present how he regrets everything he did, the guilt caught up with him of killing Lexi and perhaps hate was the first emotion he got back.

In Mystic Falls, Stefan calls in Klaus (Joseph Morgan) to help them with Silas and to find the expression triangle location.  Where Caroline (Candace Accola) tries to resist her attraction to Klaus.  She finds a book in Shane's (David Alpay) office and draws where the triangle could be and Klaus draws another one.

Bonnie (Kat Graham) knows that she's with Silas and he tells her he didn't lie.  She's invited him in and she must carry out the third sacrifice of killing twelve people and she can bring them back.  Those twelve being witches and they try to convince her father (Rick Worthy) she still needs his help even when he wants Shane out.  He calls her mother but Aja (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) turns up instead since she helped with expressionism before and has been through it herself.  She's brought eleven witch helpers with her.  Bonnie tries to go through the process, but says it's too painful.  Stefan finds Bonnie and tries to get her to stop but he's thrown back.  Caroline takes the dagger and kills Aja thus saving Bonnie but unleashing Silas in the process and all the supernatural creatures from the other side, including those Klaus has killed.

Stefan tales Bonnie home who can't recall anything and he has to tell her about Jeremy and that they didn't get the cure.  Caroline realizes she's killed twelve people since Klaus would have let Bonnie die.  He says she's in need of comfort but she should find it with someone who is less terrible than him.

Shane turns up and wants Klaus to help him find the cure, he has the white ash dagger which he easily obtained by reading Rebekah's mind and leaves half of it in Klaus's back as a reminder.
Elena and Rebekah drive off in Damon's car in search of Katherine and he calls Stefan telling him he failed and Stefan couldn't stop the massacre.

The scenes with Damon and Lexi in 1977 new York were great to watch and Damon didn't have that much of a change of outfit.  He was trying to teach Lexi not to mess with him back then and doing practically the same to Elena, in that she shouldn't mess around when she has no humanity cos it'll come back to bite her, but she wasn't in any mood to listen, having the cure on the brain.  She played Damon liked he played Lexi, so who was the better teacher, ha.  Though that conversation Damon and Elena ha don the roof about whether his emotions were really off was a it off-putting (ha) since he was acting out revenge on Lexi, this being an emotion and thus was his humanity really off.
Stefan asking where Elena is, Damon replies, "exploring, maybe she's eating a hotdog...vendor." Oh he gets the best lines.

The title is a song written by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen from 1977 which isn't used here and the lines of the chorus include: "because the night..belongs to lovers."

CSI 13.7 "Fallen Angels" Review

                                               
A Reverend gives a sermon and later his DB is found on Warrick's grave.  DB (Ted Danson) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) show up and talk about Warrick.  DB notices a plant by his grave and Nick (George Eads) says he left that there for him, showing how much they still miss and think about Warrick.  David (David Berman) finds Reverend Rick Renken (Harrison Page) was shot through the head.  DB thinks Warrick may be able to provide them with answers but Brass adds they don't need to bother him as they'll have other answers in this neighbourhood.  Nick leaves to find evidence and Brass follows him, talking about how Warrick would be there on Fight Nights at the Strip.  He hasn't been here since the funeral, but he thinks about him.

They question gang leader Aaron Voss (Malcolm Goodwin) who knew Warrick as well and he tells Nick seeing blood on Warrick's grave has them 'riled up.'  He knows what this is about and he's the one who's keeping things intact for everyone who lives there.  Warrick didn't like Voss and wasn't secretive about it.  He tells Nick to say a prayer on his behalf to "St Warrick."  Nick heads out to talk to Tina (Meta Golding) and sees a drawing on the ground make with chalk, being careful not to step on it.  He sees Eli (Terrell ransom Jr) Warrick's son and Tina won't talk to them, telling all the CSIs to stay away or she'll call the police.  Most likely would ave been an idle threat seeing the state of her house and how Eli was living in that squalor.

Evidence found on the Reverend's DB and clothing revels he had been to see Tina as there's blue chalk under his shoes, which Nick overhears and also powdered Oxycodon on the bottom of his pants.  Sara (Jorga Fox) returns there with Finn (Elisabeth Shue) and have to force their way in.  Sara finds Oxycodon on the arm of a chair and Finn overturns the plate revealing cockroaches, as well as the jeans of a man on the chair.  The drugs belong to Cliff Paul, someone Tina has been seeing.  Brass finds him dead outside his apartment.  DB and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) search his apartment and find a torch belonging to a CSI with blood and gravitational blood drops which are old.  As well as a broken beer bottle.  They theorize someone opened the door and Cliff stepped back and out the window.  Also finding a .45 in the sofa.  Reverend was shot with one.

Morgan thinks the case is spooky since he was found on Warrick's grave and now no one stepped into the beer, as she follows one set of footprints back to the window.  DB doesn't think there's anything supernatural involved in not stepping into beer.  Finn finds he had an alibi at the time of the murder, he was watching Internet porn.  Morgan finds the blood on the torch belongs to Cliff and the blood from the ground belongs to an unknown suspect.  Morgan takes the batteries out and finds a print belonging to Warrick so it was his torch, Tina being a suspect now.  Greg (Eric Szmanda) thinks that's good of her to analyze the battery.  Greg didn't have much to say about Warrick this episode considering he knew him too.

Whilst at Tina's Nick saw a man in a hoodie and they later find him at the cemetery.  He was a friend of Warrick's who used to look after him and Tina gave his CSI kit away to James (Kofi Siriboe).  He was looking out for Eli and Tina but the police wouldn't answer his calls since Cliff was abusing her.  He saw him and hit him with the torch in self defence. The Reverend had also paid a cheque to Cliff for $1,000 showing he was engaged in illegal activities.   He made Tina sign her house over to the Reverend.  James mentions having strange things happen to him, as if someone was looking out for him as he recalls a bully, Ben stealing his shoes which were later returned to him and no one saw Ben again.  James's aunt, Jolene (Michael Hyatt) tells of his mother having mental problems but James is a good boy.

They find the shoes at James's house and Finn shows DB signs of blood spatter.  Also there's dirt on the shows which came from a scrapyard near to the restaurant where Ben worked.  Finn and Nick search and Finn brings a key fob which will help them find Ben's keys since she saw he had one on his key chain, it will beep if they find him.  It's a long shot but it pays off and they find Ben's DB buried underground.  The bullet is still inside his head which David will tell Doc (Robert David Hall) about and there's a hair from the liner from the boot of a car.  Henry (Jon Wellner) analyzes the hair and finds it belongs to James's father, i.e Voss, well that was obvious since there was no one else there who would have done any killing.  Inside Voss's car they find the Reverand's monogrammed handkerchief.  He must have left it there when he got into the car knowing he wouldn't return.  He was driven to Warrick's grave and shot.

Voss was attempting to protect his son by taking care of anyone who messed with him.  But that wasn't being a father.  James tells Nick he doesn't know how to deal with him and Nick tells him he wasn't his father since he didn't act like one so he doesn't have to deal with him.  Warrick was more of a father to James and he misses him.  Nick tells him how Warrick never leaves his side and helps him everyday, James shouldn't let go of him either.
Nick: "Warrick walks beside me everyday.  He's the source of a lot of my strength.  He's a good friend to have man.  Don't ever let him go."

Tina tells Sara she's sorry about not contacting them four years ago but she couldn't have lived if she had seen them.  The only one who stopped her from ending it all was Eli cos he needed her.  Sara tells her he will always need her but she has to make things right with herself first.  Eli will be in foster care until they ascertain her situation in a few days but he's here to see her now.  They hug and Nick sees the reunion too and smiles at Sara.  Tina will stay in touch with Sara.  Sara telling Finn how she came to see her before she went away but Tina wouldn't open the door and Eli would be crying.

Seems Voss killing those people also helped out Tina otherwise she'd still be in the same predicament now.  It was touching to see how Nick, Sara and Brass all remembered Warrick and still think about him and how he's still beside Nick everyday.  That was poignant since it shows how much he misses him and how they were such good friends.  They didn't have Greg saying anything like this which was a bit of a shame.  We recall how Warrick left Tina his grandmother's house after their divorce and how he was trying to get custody of Eli.  Sara also recalls how he bought a new stereo for so much of his salary and this makes her smile, except when she sees cigarette butts on top.  Also how Nick tells Eli he looks like his father and Eli remarks he must have been handsome.

Warrick opened a bank account for James and when he died Voss kept making deposits into it.  Another thing which showed he acknowledged his son but not in the way he should have done and killing to keep him safe was going to extremes.  Fallen Angels sums up all Warrick was and how he still lives on the minds and hearts of his friends and was a nice way to see everyone reminisce about him, though they would have liked for him to still be here.

The angel Brass pointed to in the beginning, wanted to shout out, "don't blink."  Doctor Who fans will know why.

666 Park Avenue 1.8 "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" Review

                                             
Olivia (Vanessa Williams) Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) and Henry (Dave Annable) are confused, and worried about Jane's (Rachael Taylor) disappearance and good ol' Det Hayden Cooper (Teddy Sears) is on the case.  Nona (Samantha Logan) said she was last seen in the basement when they were searching for her grandmother.  Henry passes out flyers with Jane's pic on them with Gavin offering to call the mayor and the commissioner.  Henry also takes out the engagement ring he bought last ep but by eps end looks like he's not going to propose for various reasons.  Jane finds herself in Times Square but the crowd don't see or hear her, except one woman tells her she shouldn't have come.  Finally the crowd comes alive and Jane is taken to the hospital.  Here she's kept for observation for 48 hours but she doesn't remember what happened to her.

Henry thinks she's lost the plot and is well, far from the concerned boyfriend as he reminds her that her grandmother had mental problems, yeah subtle Henry!  Nurse Potter (Kerry O'Malley) is about to take her blood pressure  and Jane resists.  She has a vision of someone talking to her and her arm being tied.  She's sedated but lucid enough to hear the nurse talk of another patient here Julian Waters found in the same circumstances as Jane.  He's in D wing, maximum security.  Jane takes the pills the nurse gives her, wonder why she didn't spit those out before and gets into D wing.  Was that a 'D Gavin' name written on one of the doors, or did I imagine it?

Anyway she opens the hatch to speak to Julian but he thinks she was sent here.  Jane tells Hayden about the other man and he says he'll try to get her out sooner than later, as well as giving her an envelope that Nona left for her; saying she'll understand what it means.  It's her necklace and photo as a child.  Jane tells him it's of sentimental value and she thanks him for believing her.  Yes Henry that should be you.  Anyway Henry sees her hugging Hayden, wonder what he thought then.

When Jane goes to see Julian again she finds him hanging and mysterious symbols drawn on the wall which she later copies using crayons.  Yeah that's how you make someone loony give them crayons and let them draw in a hospital.  She's given more pills and this time Doctor Anton (Rocco Sisto) comes in just as she's hiding them.  He drags her out and Hayden is there to take her home.  The doctor needed help with a DUI.  Jane finds the ring in the drawer but as said Henry's probably having second thoughts about her now especially since he doesn't want to be lumbered with her if she's got 'mental problems.'   She doesn't tell him Hayden got her out.  Nona comes to see her reminding her she went down the spiral staircase and never came out.  There's someone who can help her remember and outside the door, Jane finds a similar symbol that she saw in Julian's room.

Louise (Mercedes Masohn) gets home and admits to Brian (Robert Buckley) she was in rehab, thanking Gavin for sending her there.  Alexis (Helena Mattsson) later tells her a sob story about being involved with a married man and how his wife's a bitch. Brian and Louise think this will be a fresh start for both of them and Dr Scott is mentioned and that's about it, we don't know what happened him after he brought Shaw home and whether he's still alive or not.  Great, what was the point of that character then since everyone else got an ending.

Brain tells Alexis it's over between them and she tells him he's writing now but it won't last long.  When he returns he find she can no longer write, his computer won't work, neither will any pens or pencils.  Confronting Alexis she tells him he writes cos of her, what is she his muse? and suffers writer's block cos of Louise before they're in the throes of passion once again.  Alexis tells Gavin she can't do this anymore and he adds she should have questioned her conscience before she agreed to this.  Whatever this is.

On the other continuing storyline Kandinsky (Misha Kuznetsov) tortures Shaw (Nick Chinlund) for the whereabouts of the box but he's not talking.  Gavin knows his real name after his father who left him and his mother in the east and defected, he knew his father.  Also Shaw tells him Sasha didn't die in an accident but committed suicide.  Olivia knows all about it.  He confronts Olivia who tells him she had a note from her which she burnt.  She didn't want to hurt him cos of what it contained and she loved him.  She suggests he should us the same kind of treatment on Shaw.

Gavin makes Shaw think he's seeing his father and he gives away the whereabouts of the box, where his mother's buried at a church.  Thus we get o see Gavin enter a church and talk with the priest, Father Douglas (Remy Auberjonois) who was told he wouldn't be able to enter hallowed ground.  But he can and he just loves churches.  Thus making us believe Gavin really is the devil, incase anyone had doubts about that.  The song would have been a giveaway too, Sympathy for the Devil.

Olivia slaps Shaw around for mocking her when he tells her Sasha is alive since no one else knew about the note.  He'll take her to Sasha.  Gavin finds him gone when he returns.  The action is meant to be hotting up but we don't get any answers instead we just go round in circles and are left with more questions.  Such as not finding out what really happened to baby Jane.  Though Julian reveals he came up the stairs and didn't go down.  Did he come out cos Jane opened the mosaic and she was taken instead of him, replacing him?

Aggh had my share of Henry, how much more can Jane take of his lack of supportive anyway, he just doesn't know what to do or say.  He's so annoying, as is that Alexis and her storyline.  So Sasha is meant to be alive but how could Gavin not know about this since he seems to know plenty of what's going on with other people.  Not even when he sat there a few weeks ago on that same bench where Olivia burned the letter.

Obviously the title is from a Bette Davis movie but they probably used it here for Jane.  Rachel Taylor gave a convincing performance of 'playing crazy' though and showing her desperation in not being able to recall what happened to her having to resort to looking for answers on her own.

Once Upon A Time 2.1 "Broken" Review

A man walks in NY and returns to his apartment where it's raining and there's a postcard from Storybrooke which reads, 'broken.'  Back in Storybrooke everyone recalls who they are and there's a big show of hugs and kisses but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is far from pleased.  Snow/Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin)  finally sees her daughter, as does Charming/David (Josh Dallas) and want to spend time with her but she doesn't want to.  She seems uncomfortable with the reality of them actually being her parents but it's actually for different reasons as she later reveals.  That they could let her go and separate her from them, even though it was to give her a better start.  She didn't mention there'd be no Henry (Jared S Gilmore) if they hadn't done that!  The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) can't use magic since she doesn't have a wand or fairy dust, some fairy she turns out to be, ha.

Archie (Raphael Sbarge) warns them of the others stampeding to Regina's (Lana Parrilla) seeking revenge and if she has her power she could slaughter them.  The witch hunt, okay wicked stepmother/evil queen hunt being led by Dr Whale (David Anders).  Seems there is more to him after all than we know.  Regina opens the front door and thinks she can use magic now the curse is broken, but she's got nothing.  Seems the townsfolk aren't the only ones in search of revenge Gold (Robert Carlyle) is out to exact the same too, after he realizes that she left Belle (Emilie de Ravin) in a living hell until she could kill her too.

The others save Regina since Henry made Emma promise nothing would happen to his "mother."  Whale says Charming isn't his king, thus they know nothing about him.  Snow suggests they lock her in a cell for her own protection.  Belle makes Gold promise he won't kill Regina and he promises HE won't.  Later he takes a medallion and uses his dagger saying "the dark one calls" and stabs the medallion releasing a wraith, aka soul sucker/Qui shen (more like the ghost of Christmas Future, depending on which A Christmas Carol version you watch!)  Like Regina has a soul to suck! since Gold marks her hand with an imprint of the medallion.

The others want to know what the purple haze is but he's not talking, instead he reminds Emma of saving Henry.  There's crashing and car alarms sounding off as the wraith hits town.  Belle confronts Gold about his promise and he says he's not going to kill her.  She can't believe he lied to her and hasn't changed at all, thus walking out on him.  They have the wraith cornered in the police station as it tries to suck Regina's soul and Charming uses fire to keep it back.  Regina has the Hatter's hat but can't get it to work.  That is until Emma touches her arm, she has magic now.  The hat swirls and opens up a portal dragging the wraith through, along with Emma and Snow follows since she won't lose her.  Unfortunately Charming is slow off the mark and lands on the hat and the floor instead!

Regina and her "destroy," favourite word since she used it often enough in season 1 and now she starts the trend again!  As she tries to strange him with a vine.  Henry interrupts as Ruby (Meghan Ory) brings him back and Charming says he will look after his grandson and takes him home.  Telling Henry he has faith.  Belle returns to Gold since he's still a monster and that's why she must stay, finding her chipped cup.

The curse destroyed their land but there's a small part of it which survived which is overrun with creatures like the wraith. As Mulan (Jamie Chung) explains.  Prince Phillip (Julian Morris) awaken Aurora (Sarah Bolger) with a kiss and he is marked by the wraith.  Thus his soul is sucked and Aurora knows Mulan loved him too as they travelled in search of her together.  There's a hole in the ground wherein lie Snow and Emma (just thought it's easier calling her that instead of Mary Margaret, too much to type, ha."

I think I liked it better when there was no other land to turn to as that now gives them an endless supply of characters to introduce.  Didn't much like Aurora or Phillip I have to say.  They really were no match for Charming and Snow!  Suppose they had to have a part of fairytale land intact otherwise with the curse being broken they wouldn't have much to use for stories as they take place in both worlds.

Who sent the postcard, was it Jefferson and more importantly who is the mysterious man, Henry's father, Gold's son?  An infinite number of possibilities, okay we get the show late so a lot would have read spoilers, or have already seen it, so we can only speculate.  They called August a "mysterious stranger" last season and now we get the "mysterious man."

Then there was Emma seemingly in awe of her parents being "heroes, leaders, princes and princesses," but doesn't think much of herself.  She does have magic now.  Also she doesn't berate herself for adopting out Henry since she too wanted to give him a better life, wonder if they'll touch upon that?  Now Emma is back in the world she always wanted to remain in, it'll be interesting to see how that develops and what she thinks of it.  Not to mention the fact it's Snow that gets to go after her rather than Charming, especially since she bonded with her mother last season and had very little to do with her father.  Think it might have been more interesting the other way round this time with father/daughter.

Charming's surprise at Emma and Snow having talked about one night stands.  Snow: "and we talked about things we shouldn't have talked about, one night stands and the like."
Charming: "one night stands?"
Snow: "Whale...we were cursed, that's neither here nor there."  Well Charming was married to someone else!

Revenge 2.14 "Sacrifice" Review

                                              
Emily: "Sacrifice by its strictest definition demands takes something precious for the appeasement of a higher power, an abiding devotion to a cause that cannot be satisfied with a simple promise, because an oath, no matter how solemn asks nothing in return.  While true sacrifice demands unspeakable loss"

That was so true in the light of Emily losing Amanda and for Amanda to have made that sacrifice of herself to begin with.

As Jack (Nick Wechsler) and Amanda (Margarita Levieva) get close on their honeymoon, Nate (Michael Trucco) hides out biding his, time ready to pounce.  We're led back to where we came into the season opener as the Amanda lies in ruins and a diver finds a pocketwatch.  Also we're shown the hand again in the water.  Has to be Nate as I've been saying all along!  Conrad (Henry Czerny) laments what Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) has done and how she's "sacrificed" them all, as they try to dispose of Helen's DB.
Conrad: "Congratulations Victoria, with one bullet you've slaughtered us all."

Helen's chauffeur calls her and Victoria gets the idea to ride away disguised as Helen. They know who they will use as a scapegoat for Helen's disappearance, Amanda Clarke, er, a little premature on their part since other events supersede their planning, but they will get the target off their backs as the Grayson's so highly excel in it.

Victoria later shows up at Daniel's (Josh Bowman) office and they feign some acting about Helen being invited to their Labour Day party, back to Labour Day again as in season 1, seems events of a dramatic nature always take place in the Hampton's at this time of year, well more dramatic than the rest of the year.  Thus the person listening and watching on the other end of the camera was bound to show up.  Victoria also invites Charlotte (Christa B Allen) to stay at the house, for Carl's sake and for the sake of appearances, reminding her that she stood by her at the press conference and accepted her as a Clarke.  Victoria is proud of her, she so knows how to manipulate!  She'll come if Declan (Connor Paolo) can be there too.  Funny Victoria did not invite Emily this time round, neither did Daniel, now that Helen's out of the picture, more readily since Emily was otherwise occupied.  Think if Daniel had invited Emily after their break-up it owuld have given the game away about Helen.

Emily (Emily VanCamp) Nolan (Gabriel Mann) and Aiden (Barry Sloane) have a threeway (ha if only as some people would imagine) conversation, this time round Nolan calls him Mr Bean, er rather unlikely, ha.  Mr Bean is the bungling buffoon, ha.  Now maybe if it was Johnny English from the movie of the same name, ha.  Emily is weary of trusting Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) and Aiden thinks she's the only way in to Helen.  Of course they don't know of said woman's demise and so forge ahead.

Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) is called in early for work and Conrad is announcing his running for governor sooner.  She runs off to Emily to warn her about Amanda and using the leverage she has on the computer against the Grayson's since they'll always win.  Emily thanks her, but really Ashley was looking to get into her good books again.  Emily visits with Charlotte wanting her earrings back that Amanda borrowed for the wedding and looks at the photos Charlotte is making into an album.  Noticing Nate in the window of the Stowaway.  Oh how amateurish, if you're meant to be hiding, stay like that!  She tells Nolan and finds they are unreachable.  Though Nolan lies and tells Declan they arrived safely at their hotel.  They leave Aiden with Padma and Nolan calls telling her to trust Aiden since the Initiative kidnapped his sister, whilst they search for Jack.

Nate makes his move and wants the computer.  Amanda lies and tells him she wanted to get the Grayson's back and that's why she used Jack, buying time.  She tries to talk him round saying he can get money from Conrad and she's got the means to do so.  Jack finds Declan's laptop and Nolan hacks in to see Jack on the webcam.  Amanda and Jack argue whilst Jack prepares the life raft and Nate searches for the computer below.  Amanda finally tells him where it is and locks him in, yeah that'll hold him in.  He fires and Jack is shot.  Amanda struggles with him and loses her necklace in the process.  Amanda puts Jack into the raft and let's him go.  He's found by Nolan and Emily and is taken to hospital by Nolan.  Emily helps Amanda but Nate manages to fire into the propane.  He wonders who Emily is and she replies he'll never know, and he didn't either, ha.  As they leave Amanda forgets heh necklace and is caught int the explosion as Nate ignites the gas.

There goes the Amanda or should I have said, there she blows!  Amanda is injured but she makes Emily promise to take care of Jack and Carl and thanks her for giving her a family.  Flashback to Emily giving Amanda the necklace when she leaves juvvie and telling Emily she loves her and they're sisters.  Emily can now only say the words back to her, "I love you too."

Padma calls Helen's phone and Trask (Burn Gorman) answers, he being the new thorn in the Grayson's side and looks even more shiftier than Helen.  You see Victoria spills the beans about Amanda being after Helen as she's now disappeared and had the opportunity to plant the gun and her scarf at the Stowaway when inviting Charlotte, which he finds.  Anyway Padma demands proof of life for her father and tells him she has Carrion but the rest of it is with Nolan.

The Grayson's stand at their balcony with Victoria commenting on the heat dying down and Daniel can't believe they're going to set up Amanda to take the fall but he does nothing.  After trying to get out from under his parents' shadow, he still comes round full circle and goes along with everything they say.  I mean hadn't Amanda suffered enough with the imprisonment and murder of her father.  No Daniel goes back to playing the Grayson spineless lackey, more so than son.

Emily lets Amanda go into the sea and Nolan comes back for her...so now hopefully Emily will focus her full attention back on bringing down the Grayson's instead of getting involved with that ridiculous Initiative nonsense.  Losing Amanda like that should give her revenge purpose once more as it seems they have found a convenient scapegoat in Amanda.  Conrad might be thinking his troubles are over, but he doesn't know the real Amanda is alive and well and gearing up for bigger punishments, hopefully.  SO with the sinking of the Amanda and the death of Amanda, or so everyone believes, we move past an era since there can be no option left bit for Emily to come clean with Jack about who she really is.

Emily: "Sacrifice demands the surrender of things we cherish above all else.  Only out of the agony of those losses can a new resolution be born.  An undying devotion to a cause greater than one's self and a moral duty to to see a journey through to its absolute completion."

Oh Emily this quote was so heartwrenching and one of the best so far!!

Padma and that finger being her father's proof of life was a bit silly, yes a  fingerprint will match but it doesn't prove anything.  Nolan saying he'll do anything for Jack, so touching, well he was one of his first friends he ever had who he could trust.  Think Amanda redeemed herself for the person that she used to be.  She saves Jack and even goes back for the necklace that shows her entire devotion and love for Emily and that all important word, family.  No Ashley you could never do that!!  Amanda meant more to Emily than I think even she realized until now.  Last ep she was crying over what could have been with her and Jack and this episode she cried for Amanda, will guilt get the better of her?

In the Labour Day episode of season 1, Daniel was meant to have been shot and Jack and Amanda were in the fore of the action.  This time round it's Jack and Amanda again with Jack being shot and Amanda being killed, Daniel just looks out over the ocean with his 'family' and they think how all is well.  Whereas they were the ones panicking in season 1.  It was great they had Emily show her human side and really feel pain and hurt over losing Amanda.  Since at times she took her for granted.

Victoria and Charlotte dressed in those Special K red dresses again which look pink in photos!  Hey my mum looked like Madeleine Stowe when she was younger!

Enrique Murciano - Always Disappearing...

We don't get to see Enrique Murciano very often and these days we've been lucky in that we got to see him revive his role as Det Carlos Moreno in CSI but that didn't last long since he was no longer seen after that great scene he had with Nick (George Eads) too in 13.3 Wild Flowers.  The one where they talk about Finn (Elisabeth Shue).  What was the point of bringing him back only for him to vanish "without a trace!"  Seems like we need him to revive his character as FBI Agent Danny Taylor on Without  A Trace to solve the mystery for us, considering this has happened on many occasions.  That'd be funny, get Danny to investigate why we don't get to see Enrique ever finish a role.  Oh let's blame pesky writers/producers! ha

Let's not forget CI-Ray in NCIS.  He was mentioned so many times when he was a faceless character by Ziva (Cote de Pablo) and Tony (Michael Weatherly).  Finally he arrived on the scene in season 8.20 Two Faced and 8.24 Pyramid, wooed her, made some promises he didn't keep and finally in season 9.13 A Desperate Man he returned, only to kill a woman in the process which made him a fugitive, but hey this wasn't new to him, he was CI-Ray after all.  Next thing we see him getting on a plane fleeing and begging Ziva to come with him.  So there's another character he played who disappeared, perhaps into the Bermuda Triangle!

 Then there was 666 Park Avenue, we saw him as Dr Scott, a bit of a womanizer and gambler with debts reaching sky high, thus he had to sell his soul to Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) and what happened with that?  Not much since last we saw he was riding in an ambulance with Kandinsky and returning to the Drake with Shaw, take it he didn't save Shaw's life and then they disposed of Scott in the process too, ha.  Especially since there were many photos circulated on various websites (see above and below) which had Enrique as Dr Scott in scenes which weren't even shown in any episodes but looked interesting none the less.  Hark another mystery for Danny to get his teeth into beckons.

So there's The Saint pilot airing soon and this only makes me wonder what will happen to his character of Inspector Henry Fernack in that?  Oh you know if the Pilot gets picked up.  By the way the trailer for that looks excellent, all very intense.

Doctor Who 7.8 "The Rings of Akhaten" Review

This time the Doctor (Matt Smith) is on the hunt for Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) and who she really is.  He 'stalks' a man, Dave (Michael Dixon) who walks on the road and is accosted, well he was, by a leaf falling and sticking onto his face, the same leaf Clara had in her book last ep.  He walks onto the road and a woman, Ellie (Nicola Sian) saves him.  Thus love at first sight.  He saved the leaf cos they were destined to meet and before you know it they have a baby girl, Clara.  The Doctor reading a Beano Summer Special comic this time round, from 1981.  The book has Clara's ages in it as we saw last episode and then finally he follows them to the cemetery where they have buried her mother.

Clara waits for him as he promised to return the next day and didn't she remind you of Amy sitting there all packed and ready.  She doesn't know where to go and he takes her to somewhere 'awesome.'  The Rings of Akhaten.  It's a magnificent solar system where a ritual of sacrifice is about to take place, a "Festival of Offerings".  Interacting with the aliens she comes across many species.  Doesn't like the blue fruit and to hire a moped,  (last time it was a quad bike, anti-grav,) you have to give them something of sentimental value.  The only thing he has is his trusty screwdriver.  He also tells her he came here with his granddaughter, who was Susan, as we remember from William Hartwell's time.

He disappears leaving her alone and she sees some men in red robes searching for a girl.  The girl then appears, she's Merry, Queen of Years (Emilia Jones) and they run to the TARDIS but Clara can't get in as he hasn't given her a key.  Merry hides behind the TARDIS she's afraid she'll get the song wrong.  She is a vessel of her peoples' history.  No wonder she was the sacrifice since she was to feed the god with souls, as the Doctor explains, souls contain thoughts/memories not actions.  The men appear to get her and are known as The Vigil.  Clara reassures her she won't get the song wrong and recalls her mother.  First telling her she'll always be there for her and she says was afraid at first when she got lost once, but was found by her mother.

Merry is taken by the men into the 'arena' and the Doctor arrives, blue fruit in hand, whisking Clara off to the very same singing.  After a few lines, the god, also known as 'grandfather' is shown to awaken.  When the singing is done Merry is carried away to the distant pyramid.  Thus Clara wants the Doctor to help and thinks he's running away.  He tells her, "we never run away."  The only way to get to Merry is by the moped and Clara needs to pay Dor'een (Karl Greenwood) with something of sentimental value.  She gives her mother's ring to her.  He hasn't got anything even though he's been around for a thousand years, barring his screwdriver, as said.

There's no way in to the pyramid but hearing Merry scream makes them more desperate.  Doctor: "..a frequency modulated acoustic lock.  the key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second."
Clara: "Can you open it?"
Doctor; "Technically no, in reality no, but let's give it a stab." He finally uses the Sonic, as "it comes in handy" to hold the door open but it's a heavy door.  Clara enters to get Merry cos she won't leave, thinking she sang wrong.  Then holds Clara in a purple mist whilst the 'god' awakens.  The Doctor lets the door close and as the so called god wakens, Merry won't let Clara go since she is afraid and the Doctor convinces her he'll tell her a story and they will leave here, he promises to help her.  Letting Clara down, the Vigil appear and the Doctor manages to hold them off with his Sonic long enough for Clara to ask Merry if there's another way out and for the Doctor to get out too.

Returning to the planet they find that the so-called monster in the glass cage wasn't the 'god' or grandfather, but rather the god's clock (grandfather clock?) signalling the awakening, the god is a parasite in the form of a huge sun, thriving on memories.  The Doctor stays and tells the god to take his memories, he has plenty, such as the being Last Time Lord, the Time War, being at humanities end, the future etc.  The silhouette of he Doctor against the orange backdrop of the parasite god looked amazing, like it was him alone with this gigantic enemy.  Finally it's Clara who saves the day with her book of 101 Places to See and her leaf.  She sacrifices her leaf and all the memories it has until the parasite is finally consumed by the memories and disintegrates.  The Doctor saying there's more memories in the future.

Clara returns home, gets her ring back as a thank you from all the people she saved.  Then recalls she saw him at the cemetery.  Lots of Star Wars references or similarities with the aliens, which I won't mention, it'll get too long, but as I said in last week's review, this was more The Beast Below since Clara encounters aliens for her first trip out in the TARDIS, just as Amy did. But why did she say the TARDIS doesn't like her?

This was Doctor Who's musical episode.  There was the 2010 Christmas Special one a few years back with Katherine Jenkins, A Christmas Carol.  You could say aside from this being an episode where we learn more about Clara's background, the memorable performance of the Doctor as he once again mentions everything he's been through and survived, he also talks about secrets, that can never be shared and all the rest, that there wasn't much going on in terms of anything we hadn't seen before.  Aside from Clara being the companion the Doctor needs and that she really excels as one.

Another episode where the Doctor meets Clara as a little girl, just as he did Amy but doesn't talk to her this time, only secretly watches her.

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