CSI:NY 9.1 "Reignited" Review

                                             
The final season opens, or should I say reignites, with an ice hockey game between the NYPD and the FDNY and there's clearly animosity between the players, as NYPD try to achieve a win.  Mac (Gary Sinise) meets with his friend and Captain of the FDNY Curtis 'Smitty' Smith (Louis Herthum) and discuss old rivalries as well as Christine (Megan Dodds) and what Mac will buy him for dinner when they win.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Adam (AJ Buckley) have a few words as Adam's in goal and Flack (Eddie Cahill) interrupts them cos they need this goal, however Danny misses the shot, hitting the goal post instead.  Was fun watching the three of them in action, but wasn't long enough!!  FDNY win and a Danny and a firefighter brawl and everyone else gets in on it too.  A call comes in about a fire and they arrive at the scene.  Smitty enters one of the rooms and fire engulfs him.

At the funeral, Mac recalls six months ago and how Christine was there for him after he was shot, but he doesn't recall what happened at the time.  Flack tells him he's at the CS and Leonard Brooks (Rob Morrow) is arrested.  Leonard is an arsonist and has just been released and he tells Mac he didn't start this fire, why would he?  He wants his cuffs removed and tells Mac he's addicted to fire but there's no chemical running through his body.  He wants to help as an arson investigator cos he's got "an incentive to find out what happened."  He says he's being framed.  Mac shows him photos of the fire and how it used his MO of spreading wax paper and dryer paper in the hallway to spread the fire.  Flack tells Jo (Sela Ward) how he started 10 fires but they only caught him at the last one.  He's been inside for 15 years.

Mac and Flack take him back to the scene and he smells the ash from the fire and tells him about a metallic object being found there, but he won't tell them what it's used for since they'll use it against him.  Leonard was only arrested cos he went back to help a Vic when he started the first fire.  Flack doesn't believe Leonard is innocent but Mac gives him the benefit of the doubt.  He won't tell them anything cos of Flack's attitude, but hey that's just Flack for you, ha.  However Mac reminds him of his incentive.  The metal was used as a time delay trigger.  Mac: "Arrogance is often the criminal's Achilles Heel."
Flack: "Yeah great genius, that was a tough one.  Can I lock his ass up now, please?"  yet more great one liners, will miss those!

Mac recalls telling his doctor he's been having trouble with his memory.  He knows what you can do with the phone but not what it is called and he can recall certain foods but not their names.   He's suffering from Anomic aphasia.  In time the memories can return or in the worst case won't.  Mac wants this kept to himself.
Lindsay (groan) (Anna Belknap) always first on the scene!! tells Mac what was used to set the fire and when  this is exposed to water,the fire is even more devastating.  Water was used in the balloons and metal rivets were found on the walls, to secure a tripwire, thus Smitty set it off when he entered the building.  The trap was set to kill a fireman.

Adam goes through the footage at the CS and hopes to see the arsonist there.  Jo asks him how long he's been doing that and he replies four years.  Jo notices one of the fireman is from the 233 which is based in Brooklyn, so he's not meant to be there.  Adam gets a match on Marshall Hilson (Scott Subiono) who was charged with criminal impersonation.  Adam recalls one of his friends was fraudulently accosted.  Hilson tells Mac he can't do more than five years.  He didn't start the fire, instead he set fire to an abandoned car and things got out of control.  He was rejected from becoming a fireman.  Flack tells Mac that Leonard's escaped.

There's a call about another fire and when Mac and Flack arrive a fireman is beating up on Leonard.  Flack hauls him off and gets in a few punches of his own, just to ensure he didn't miss out at the match!  Flack tells him he can't beat him up cos he thinks he may have done it.  Mac has him arrested for assault.  He tells Mac the sprinklers were on when they arrived otherwise someone else would have been killed.  Mac finds the lock on the sprinkler was broken so Leonard must have turned it on.  Maybe he had a conscience all along. There was a note in Leonard's pocket giving the address of the fire.

Leonard tells Mac someone put it through his door and he happened to know which building it was.  Mac thinks he might not be working alone.  The prints are analyzed from the sprinkler but only match Leonard. Hawkes (Hill Harper) tries to get prints from the gloves found at the scene and says they may get lucky since you have to put one glove on with your bare hand.  Danny and Jo come up with nothing.  Hated how Danny didn't have much to do here, once again Lindsay gets more screen time than any of the other CSIs!! Oh why?!!  She finds a logo but can't match it yet.  Danny says fire gel was used to spread the fire from one room to the next found in some tubing.  There was also a sewing needle found where the fire was ignited. Hawkes finds prints and says they may have solved the case. They match Eva Mason (Mageina Tovah) she lives at a motel and that was the logo.  The needle came from a sewing kit from the motel.

Eva visited Leonard in prison and was studying psychology.  She interviewed him for her research on arsonists.  They find lots of clipping relating to Leonard and his fires and Lindsay finds a sewing kit, did she have to give it a 180 degree turn just to undo the button on it! Huh.  Jo finds Eva was watching Leonard on her laptop in his apartment and she's there now.  She pulls a gun on him.  Leonard tells her he doesn't remember her and she demands to know why he turned the sprinklers back on.  He was trying to save her from his life cos he hates it and hated being in prison with animals.   He notices the gas is on, and the bulb on the table and a syringe rigged to the fan.  Then pulls out the rug from under her and jumps out the window. Eva can't get out of the apartment.

The look on Flack's face when he arrives at the scene with Mac, then finds Eva's DB.  Leonard recalls how he bragged about the fires and Jo brings him what's left of his belongings.  He thanks Mac for treating him like a human and Mac replies "that's what we do."  He tells Leonard he can still be helped and not to go back there to that place in his mind.  Leonard arrives at another place and watches the gas burn on the cooker.  Mac gives Christine flowers thanking her for being there for him.  He's booked a place for dinner but can't recall her favourite dish by name.

So one down and another 16 to go, though we've seen one episode as the CSI crossover.  Couldn't watch this episode in the same way as the others knowing it's the last season.  Gotta savour every moment cos we won't be seeing our fave CSIs together as a team anymore.  So would have loved to have seen more of Flack, Danny and Adam on the ice and this was the last time we'll get to see Flack in a suit again!!
Let's hope all of the cast get equal screen time and it wasn't just all about Lindsay, though one episode will be when she meets her father again.

Anyway Rob Morrow was hardly recognizable here from his usual roles but enjoyed every moment of playing Leonard, not a bad guy per se here.  We'll have to see what happens next episode as he makes another appearance.  Mac has to deal with the aftermath of the shooting now and how it affects him personally.  We're shown the scar on his back when he gets out of the shower and he still has to take pills. Gradually we'll see if he'll make a full recovery or not and whether he'll get his memories back.

Funny scene when one fireman insults Flack's sister and mother, Flack replies his sister died six months ago then adds she's still alive and he'll get punched for the next insult.  Funny he mentions six months considering that's how long it's been since Mac has been out of hospital.  Sid (Robert Joy) telling Lindsay Manhattan is better than Annie Hall.  Though Lindsay has to get in on the act and trade her own insult when someone in the crowd yells, "Messer, you suck."  Shouting he should come down here and say that. Agh, she does my head in! ha

Once Upon A Time 2.16 "The Miller's Daughter" Review

A young Cora (Rose McGowan) is made to trip over by Eva (Eva Allen) a Princess and is made to kneel and apologize to Eva otherwise they'll not be taking anymore flour from her.  She is humiliated by  King Xavier (Joaquim de Almeida).  The others sail back in Hook's ship and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) tells Gold (Robert Carlyle) she will do anything to help him cos they're family now.  Cora (Barbara Hershey) and Regina (Lana Parrilla)can make him do anything with the knife.  Including killing them all.  Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) with a red apple in her hand, Regina and Cora were listening in with a phone tap, which Cora calls an 'enchanted box.'  She needs to get Rumple's powers before he dies.  She must not kill him fast but stab him and take his powers, which is what she wanted all along.  Henry (Jared S Gilmore) was never part of the plan.  Which Regina doesn't realize until now but still goes along with it.  Cora doesn't want to spend the rest of her life on her knees before them.

Cora gatecrashes the ball at the palace but couldn't remove that tell tale piece of straw from her dress which the King notices.  She tells him she can spin straw into gold and the King challenges her to do this or die. Enter Rumples and his contract, he wants her first born child.  Regina, he's seen the future.  He will help her spin but it will take "bloodlust."  All the hatred she feels for the others will help her spin.  If she can do this she will marry the Prince (Zak Santiago).  Rumples to Cora: "Not a pretty name is it, sounds like something breaking."
Also his "The future is a gift" line.

Rumples returns when Cora is allowed to marry the prince since she's made the kingdom rich again, but she promises Rumples his first born child in an amended contract. She falls for him and he loves her.  But to me it seemed she was just using him to gain his secrets and not because she really loved him.  Rumples recalls the man who made him kiss his boots in front of Bae.  He teaches her how magic is made.

Charming (Josh Dallas) tells Snow she has the purest heart of anyone he's ever known and she reminds him of Cora killing her mother.  Henry knows they'll stop Cora.   Gold tells Emma to take what's in the bottle and she puts her hand inside to find invisible magic chalk which she must mark in front of the door.  They have to fight the others but then how can they when they don't have magic.  Gold also gets Emma to cast a protection spell, she has to feel it and use her emotions.  Gold tells Snow only the candle can save him, she's "all grown up now" and they have the same interests.  She has to whisper Cora's name over Cora's heart and then put the heart back in her body.  Gold: "The heart will know."

On the day before her wedding, Cora declares her love for Rumples and she must take the king's heart in vengeance.  However she tells the king she doesn't love Prince Henry and yet he tells her love isn't everything.   That's why Cora didn't think much of Regina's father in season 1 and why she was more powerful than him.  However Regina did love him and that's why she called her 'son' Henry.

Cora and Regina attack and Emma manages to take Regina but Cora gets the dagger back cos Bae (Michael Raymond-James) didn't pick it up when it was lying on the floor all this time.  Snow makes her getaway and arrives at the crypt, cursing Cora's heart.  Cora sends Regina to look for her and protect her heart as she feels weak, when she arrives Snow tricks her into taking the heart as it's the only way Cora can ever love her.  Snow sits outside and tells Charming he was right, she shouldn't have done this.

Cora puts her own heart inside the box and tells Rumples it's cos she loves him and that's her weakness. Now he wont get Regina but he won't get his own child either as he changed the contract.  Which explains why Rumples made Regina turn against Cora and teach her magic, sending her to Wonderland.  He wanted revenge.  She breaks through the forcefield spell and Rumple's name almost disappears from the dagger.  She tells him she did love him really.

 Regina puts Cora's heart back and Cora feels love for a moment.  Then dies saying "you should have been enough."  Gold is back to his old self and Regina swears vengeance on Snow, again.  It was so easy to put Cora's heart back wasn't it.  Regina didn't listen to Snow before and yet she listens to her now. But Cora took Eva's life so she should know how Snow feels.  How come Regina couldn't use the spell of purple smoke to conjure herself at the crypt.  Rumple's line to Cora of there being irony in being "Snow White" was good.

Gold and Bae manage to make up after all these years as he tells him how sorry he was and he calls Belle (Emilie de Ravin) to tell her he's dying and she was the only one who saw the goodness in him as she does in others.  He wants to go back to his good self.  Bae wouldn't think he'd hear that from him.

So how will this affect Snow now since her heart is no longer pure, but it was bound to happen since most of the characters are evil or bad before they turn good, such as Red (Meghan Ory) but with Snow it was the opposite.  Surprised to see Eva was mean when she was younger, so who taught her to be good as she taught Snow, who has regressed now.

As for the 'enchanted box' couldn't they just use magic to listen in to their conversation.
Gold: "...so when you look in the mirror and don't know who you are, that's who you are..."  Was this a clue for Belle, also Regina was the one who used to look in the mirror to see her true self, well you know, "mirror, mirror..."

The Miller's Daughter was of course based on the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale.

Scandal 2.4 "Beltway Unbuckled" Review

                                        
Mellie (Bellamy Young) stands over Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) in the nursery and berates him not only for sleeping there since they have other rooms but also cos he won't let Olivia (Kerry Washington) go, he's bene having wet dreams about her.  He doesn't sleep anywhere else cos the press will get hold of it but she thinks he can make up a story like he doesn't want to disturb her whilst she's pregnant and he had a late night solving the nation's troubles and keeping them at safe.  Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and David (Joshua Malina) spend the night together, twice over and his mother calls which he must take privately, mother being Alissa (Brenda Song) so he was kind of using Abby to begin with as I said last episode but now it means more to him.

The parents of a missing college girl ask Olivia for help in finding her.  Senator Davis (Norm Lewis) thinks Olivia can help. She used to date diplomats and then blog about them, but her blog hasn't been updated as Harrison (Columbus Short) finds out.  Olivia suggests Jenny's parents, Janet (Eve Gordon) and Peter (Todd Waring) go public and alert the media.  Jenny's secret life is made public on the news and the reporter asks where her parents were in all of this, questioning how she was raised.  Quinn (Katie Lowes) finds out a girl is in a hospital and her picture is being faxed over, maybe it's Jenny.  Olivia gets a call from Bill and IDs a DB found in the woods as being that of Jenny.  That scene was a little Without A Trace, whilst they wait for the fax to come through, Olivia finding out Jenny is dead, nicely done.

Jenny was at a State Department party when she disappeared and Harrison has a list of the guests whilst the car wind screen glass found by the ME identifies which car she was in.  The ME also says her injuries weren't enough to have caused her death, so she was lying in a ditch for five hours losing blood.  Olivia is horrified at that and makes it her mission to find the killer.  Harrison and Quinn cross reference the drivers of the car to the party and find one match to Alexander Lavich (Creighton James) a Kurkistan diplomat, so he has diplomatic immunity.  He can't be brought to justice in the US unless the President asks Kurkistan to revoke his immunity, he refuses to do this as Olivia already knows why when she speaks with Cyrus (Jeff Perry) cos the country's help will be needed if the US raise an air strike over East Sudan.

Cyrus tells her to leave before he arrives and he does arrive.  Telling her the same thing.  Mellie is frustrated at her 'duties' and doesn't want to be seen with children puking on her cos their parents don't want to immunize them, she wants to do more and sit at the 'adult' table.  Though Cyrus refuses to help.  Olivia knows Jenny's parents must protest in order for the President to take notice.  So this is watched by Mellie and she protests outside not as the First Lady, but as a mother who is outraged at what happens to women in Kurkistan and doesn't want that to happen to her daughter, to her or to Olivia even.  Cyrus tells Fitz about the two women in his life and Fitz can only laugh at how they got together.  Cyrus: "The women in your life play a very mean game of political chess."

Cyrus arranges a meeting at their usual place but Fitz turns up instead and tells her he deported Lavich, it was the only thing he could do since Kurkistan refused to revoke his status.  He asks Olivia if she wants to "hitch a ride on Airforce One".  She can't do this anymore and they should just go their separate ways, she can't join his mile high club and do nothing else.  He wants to face up to his responsibilities and leaves and she cries.

Huck (Guillermo Diaz) attends his AA meeting and meets a cocaine addict who tells him about how rats bleed when they're tested with artificial sweetener.  Peter is angry at Olivia doing nothing and Huck tells him not to get that gun and shoot him cos he'll never live with himself after that.  Speaking from experience of course, so Huck does the next, not so best thing and ensures Lavich pays for Jenny's death.  As the news reports he suffered a heart attack.  Huck attends AA and talks of falling off the wagon and enjoying his perfect whisky again.

David finds Quinn's ex boyfriend had a phone conversation with an oil company and he meets with Doyle (Gregg Henry) who won't let him speak with his Head of Security.  Abby breaks into his apartment and finds his 'wall.'  She confronts Olivia about not keeping secrets and wants her to talk to her, but Olivia doesn't. She has a call instead.  Prompting Abby to see David and ask if what they have is something more.  He tells her he doesn't think it's about Olivia or Quinn but about Cytron.  Olivia arrives at a meeting with the Supreme Court judge, Verna (Debra Mooney) whom she was just supporting through chemo, Mellie, Cyrus and Doyle to talk about David.

Harrison is happy to let Olivia have her secrets cos without her help he'd be behind bars and studying for an 8 year book keeping degree.  So why are Olivia and Mellie both in on the meeting cos whenever they've seen each other or had words about one another they've painted a very different picture, of hating each other etc and here we see them sitting round a table. What another conspiracy of which Quinn is a part of?  Not sure if this story is actually going to get interesting or not.  Does this also mean Olivia and Fitz will be taking  a break from each other so we won't have to watch them make googly eyes at each other!

Oh Abby do not like you, she's always got a bone to pick with someone, air her rants and raves and even if it turns out she is on Olivia's side, I still don't like her.   Neither does Quinn so I'm not alone, ha!

2.2 Sherlock "The Hounds of Baskerville" Review aka "My Mind Palace"

                                               
Okay I added the aka in the title! Ha
Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) has to come home on the tube cos no taxi would take him as he's covered in blood and with a harpoon too, harpooning a pig as Watson (Martin Freeman) tells us, so wasn't anyone overly suspicious of him on said tube, or street etc in this day and age.  He's bored out of his mind and needs another case.  More than that he's craving a smoke and can't find his secret stash when Watson tells him he's been doing so well.  What weren't his  nicotine patches working?  His addiction to cigarettes was so obvious then, like he wanted something more than just cigarettes.  Think of the other Holmes adaptations and you'll know what I mean.  Someone's e-mailed him about a disappearing rabbit called Bluebell which glows and has vanished now.  He's mean to Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) this time round when he tells her about Mr Chatterjee and his wife in Doncaster, advising her to read his blog on perfumes.

He even suggests a game of Cluedo to Watson but he's not into that especially when Sherlock says the Vic did it.  Which is something we used to say when we played back in the '80's.  Ooh should have copyrighted that!!!

Finally Sherlock catches a break when in walks Henry Knight (Russell Tovey) claiming strange goings on in Dartmoor.  Sherlock proceeds to tell him how he arrived here, on the train, met a girl, what he ate and insists he smoke as he inhales the fumes!  Sherlock isn't interested in poetry otherwise he would have read Watson's e-mails to his girlfriends.  Watson didn't want him to tell Henry about himself since he's just showing off, "which is what we do," replies Sherlock.  He's not interested in the case until he tells him he saw a gigantic hound.  SO he takes the case.  Outside in the cafe Mrs Hudson argues with Mr Chatterjee and Sherlock adds wait until she finds out about the wife in Islamabad.

Sherlock and Watson check into the local inn and they can't get a double room but Watson's really not bothered with explaining they're not a couple.  Oh Sherlock driving!  No taxis 'ere mate! Ha.  He manages to get them into the local not-so-secret military base using Mycroft's (Mark Gatiss) card which can get them in anywhere cos he "is the Government."  And reckons they have 20 minutes before alarm bells sound.  Putting up his coat collar cos he's cold.

Watson also gets to pull rank as he's a Captain which he admits he enjoys doing.  The facility is into testing and developing all sorts of weapons, biological, chemical, etc and they run into a Dr Frankland (Clive Mantle). Also Sherlock finally gets 'Bluebell; now when he meets Dr Stapleton (Amelia Bullmore) her daughter e-mailed about the rabbit.  He thinks it's time to leave as the security check comes up and Mycroft is informed of the breach, texting Sherlock to find out what's happening.  They're stopped by Major Barrymore (Simon Day) and Frankland vouches for him being Mycroft.  Admitting he's a fan of Sherlock's and mentions his hat, which Sherlock tells him wasn't his.  He also enjoys Watson's blog.  He gives them his cell number but can't talk now.

Watson asks Henry if he's rich after seeing his house, well he would be.  As they drink coffee and we're meant to particularly notice the sugar Sherlock puts into his, cos watching it first time round, we're meant to think it's a clue.  Henry's recalled 'Liberty In' with the help of his therapist, Dr Mortimer (Sasha Behar).   Sherlock thinks they need to go out on the moor.  Which they do.  Watson gets separated from them as he sees flashing light and thinks it's Morse code.  Then there are sounds and a mist as Sherlock and Henry are visited by the hound.  Sherlock insists he didn't see it.

Later at the inn, he is sweating and nervous, he says he's experiencing fear.  He's divorced from all emotions but his body is shaking and he drinks.  Also telling Watson his mind is fully intact.  By showing how a couple are a mother and son, he's a fisherman, needs money, wearing a jumper his mother gave him, she's got a dog, a small terrier called Whisky cos she was on the train with it and just wants Watson to leave him alone. Admitting he saw the hound and that he has no friends.

But this is Sherlock and he thinks there has to be an explanation for it, like being drugged.  He thinks of the sugar as we're meant to since Watson wasn't affected and he doesn't take sugar.  So he makes him a cup of coffee which Watson says he never does, as Lestrade (Rupert Graves) is here on holiday (coincidence?) and questions the inn owners about the extra meat they've ordered and the hound they keep.

Sherlock tells Watson to question Mortimer but she can't talk about Henry.  Frankland turns up to mess things up asking how the investigation's going?  Henry thinks he sees the hound at home as the lights come on.  Watson finds the lights weren't Morse code but coming from a Lover's Lane, of sorts.  Sherlock takes Watson back to the lab cos he's cunning! ha and he wants to get his own back on Watson for doubting his faculties, well not really.  He wants to test his sugar theory and locks him up whilst making him believe the hound is about to come in and get him.  Adding to his paranoia.  He then tells him it was meant to be the sugar, but testing it doesn't reveal anything.   He wants to be left alone in "my mind palace" so he can think.

Thus we get a demo of the inner workings of the Sherlock mind, with lots of words coming up and being moved around his mind.  Until he finally clicks to Liberty, Indiana.  The place where experiments were conducted.  Accessing the computer files using Barrymore's password of 'Maggie' as in Thatcher he finds the names of the people experimented on spell 'HOUND.

Henry attacks Mortimer with a gun and she calls for help.  Ending up on the moor once again.  With the hound approaching.  Sherlock realizes Henry saw a man with a gas mask when he was little and with glowing red eyes.  (That was all very Doctor Who).  Said masked man approaches and so does the hound, which wasn't really dead.  Lestrade and Watson shoot at the hound, with Watson being the better shot and Frankland manages to escape.  Of course it was him, he was making himself very conspicuous by showing up practically everywhere, using the word 'cell' aside.  He's chased into the minefield.  He was Henry's father's friend and didn't want to be found out about the experiments.

Sherlock and Watson talk about him thinking the drug was in the sugar but it was actually in the mist.  Watson wasn't exposed to it until later and not for very long.  Watson saying it wasn't the sugar as Sherlock thought it was.  Also at the end Moriarty (Andrew Scott) is released from his padded cell, after scrawling Sherlock all over the walls, in a scene straight from The Return of the Pink Panther when Dreyfus had written 'Kill Clouseau' all over his padded cell.  Obviously it's for the final episode in this season and possibly, possibly using Sherlock as bait or something more sinister.  Won't give it away here here since maybe some out there won't have watched the next episode yet.

Yet more great moments here, like Sherlock turning his collar up, not cos he's cold but as Watson tells him he does that to look cool with his cheekbones and all!  Also Watson mentions Spock here, which was Mr Spock and well before Start Trek: Into Darkness!  But then there was Sherlock and the raising of his eyebrow when he was looking under the microscope, again very Mr Spock!

Loved the 'mind palace,' didn't we all.  Only a palace would do for Sherlock!  And no he didn't get that from last week and being at the Palace!  As we know by now, whatever case Sherlock gets or turns down as irrelevant or boring has some forbearing on the bigger investigation he does take up.  Last ep it was the bodies for the plane and this time it was the glowing rabbit.  Nice touches too with Stapleton in the original story being the naturalist and conducting his experiments just as Stapeleton did here, albeit she's a woman here, as well as the hound being kept hidden in secret by the inn owners.  Barrymore also in the original whose wife was hiding her convict brother and thus signalling on the moor, Watson's flashing light here.  Frankland is also in the story and Mortimer was the one who went to Sherlock for help.

Dr Frankland:" Oh Mr Holmes I would love to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
Sherlock: "That would be tremendously ambitious of you."  Indeed considering Moriarty tried and was stopped and try he will again!

CSI 13.22 "Skin in the Game" Review

                                                  
DB (Ted Danson) and Ecklie (Marc Vann) attend a Black Sabbath concert where they're to meet a reporter John Merchiston (James Callis).  DB recalls being at The Dead concert at the same time Ecklie last watched Black Sabbath in concert.  He's to follow DB around and Ecklie thinks it will be good PR.  DB gets a call and agrees to let John accompany him.  Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) has already met him and he tells him how he had forensics training at Scotland Yard before he accompanied them.  Brass reminding him not to touch anything even if he has latex gloves.  Brass explains the CS is a porn stage and has been closed for 48 years.  The DB is mummified and is found on a bed, Brass referring to as the "lambskin linings playbook."  Finn (Elisabeth Shue) sees she's wearing new lingerie and Brass and John both smell Honeysuckle Summer.  So there are new additions added to the CS as well as old.

Nick (George Eads) sees a Bible on the nightstand and inside he finds some of the pages have been cutaway revealing a wooden box with markings and inside the box is a spider, Finn refers to as the Black Widow but Nick explains it's a fake one.  David (David Berman) Greg (Eric Szmanda) examine the DB and Doc (Robert David Hall) thinks they can restore the Vic's face using a new technique involving hydrating the DB.  Doc is able to give the Vic a face.

Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) shows DB the killer's possible signature, a gold heart charm which was placed inside the Vic's heart.  Brass thinks they should show the Vic's photo in public and this leads to stripper Miss Kitty showing up.  She now goes by her real name, Angela (Tangie Ambrose).  The Vic's name is Megan Ramirez and she wanted to leave just as Angela has done, she was helping her through it.  With help from the Fellowship of the Fallen Angels, run by Brother Larson (Eric Roberts).  She shows them files of missing girls and Brass is shocked when he sees Ellie's photo inside.  He calls his ex, Nancy (Annabella Sciorra) obviously so we can get to meet her now.

Finn visits Theresa  in the hospital after the Doctor (Michelle N carter) found her photo in the missing person's file.  She's in a coma and Finn wants to process her.  Morgan shows up and goes through her belongings, finding a charm bracelet with another gold heart charm.  Adding this is more than a coincidence. Nick and Greg find another Vic, Chloe, this time from a food fetish porn site.  The camera was on and inside the freezer is her boyfriend with the ice cream.  Chloe choked on a chocolate covered cockroach! There's another Bible and inside this is a gold heart charm.  He says they have a "serial."

Greg finds Chloe was strangled due to her hyoid bone being broken and Hodges (Wallace Langham) notices some abrasions on her back, which when read are from the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not bear false witness."   The killer wanted them to find this.  Finn and DB concur that the killer doesn't have a signal signature and John thinks it strange Teresa wasn't killed by him.  Finn doesn't think her CS was staged.

Nick and Greg go to the Fellowship where Larson is delivering a sermon and Jake (Luke Kleintank) stops them from entering.  Liked the way Nick said, "po-lice."  He doesn't speak like that, ha.   Nick notices the Bible and inside he finds a wooden cross.  Larson cuts out chunks of pages from the Bible.  He also mentions Ellie being missing and he's also questioning them since it takes her to be missing before the police take any notice of the other missing women.   Larson's prints are on that Bible but the boxes and the other Bibles were wiped clean.   He has a record for pimping and pandering and has a licence for a .38, similar weapon used to kill Chloe's boyfriend.

The camera at Chloe's fetish show was turned on by remote and the address is traced back to the Fellowship.  Inside Greg and Nick find a girl and outside John notices a man smoking.  He gets knocked out. So did the man take the cigarette butt John was going to pick up.  Angela denies killing anyone and the girl was an addict.  She tells them DB knows her and John figures out a pattern, all the circular objects at the CS.  In the first one there was a bicycle, a clock and DB realizes they're circles.  Leading him to Dante's Inferno and the Nine Circles of Hell.  Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger which was meant to be Morgan undercover.  Larson is questioned and admits to making money.  An anonymous caller asks for the girls and he drops them off at a street corner where they are picked up.  He knows where Ellie is since he heard from her this morning and wants a deal.

Morgan has a plan to be bait and act like one of the girls.  Ecklie is against it but Finn convinces him that there are other father's like him out there too.  Morgan tells him she was undercover in LA and she's LVPD now.  Morgan is picked up by an SUV and Nick and Greg follow.  She's taken to an apartment where the man inside has lots of scientific things, including an old abacus.  Finn IDs him as Oliver Tate (Tim Matheson). Morgan shows them his place and the things he has inside using the cam in her necklace and he gives her a present, inside is a box with the picture of 'Anger.'

Nancy arrives with a box and inside they find a memory stick.  This reads 'Fake' on it and a message from Ellie saying, "we have sinned."  Oliver takes the necklace from Morgan and says he's not interested anymore. (Yeah after getting her to remove her clothes!)  Morgan comes out and Greg tells Nick they should pick her up.  The SUV takes her away and DB tells them to stop it but it's too late.  Jake is driving but Morgan is missing.  DB saying the killer has Morgan and Ellie.

So we get Tim Matheson playing a bad guy again and did you notice his driver's license DOB 1960, when clearly he is older than that.  Again why didn't Nick maintain visual on the SUV, they didn't have to be that far behind. See Ellie was calling out to help now from dad, when really she doesn't want to know him and has gotten into so many scrapes and trouble over the years.  Also Nancy didn't even tell him that she saw her a year ago when she gave he the engagement ring.  Nancy doesn't think much of Brass either aside from telling him he's "a good cop."

Dante's Nine Circles of Hell was nothing new and has been used before in many shows/films but this episode moved along nicely.  With the added benefit of having a journalist on the scene too, which are usually hindrances than help most of the time, but you have to wonder what his angle is, as he conveniently turns up to shadow DB just when they catch the serial killer case.  Well you do and he's a stranger to them too.
Morgan's hair wasn't as curled as it was when she got inside the apartment.  Thought it was good to see her get into trouble for a change, she's a newbie and most of the cast have seen their fair share of trouble over the years, especially Nick when he was kidnapped in Grave Danger.  More mentions of Nick being 'Bug Guy' and how he says he had a good teacher.

Angela/Miss Kitty was in the episodes Willows in the Wind and Terminal Velocity.

Once Upon A Time 2.15 "The Queen Is Dead" Review

It's Snow's (Ginnifer Goodwin) birthday and Charming (Josh Dallas) makes breakfast but she reminds him he promised.  She has a flashback to her own mother, Queen Eva (Rena Sofer) preparing to celebrate Snow's birthday by throwing her a ball and giving her a tiara.  Snow catches Johanna (Lesley Nichol) trying it on and reprimands her.  Her mother telling Snow off for being rude as everyone is treated equally.  How she must be good all the time.  A present arrives for Snow and Charming didn't give it to her.  Snow doesn't open the card first but is more interesting in throwing it aside for the present.  It's her tiara from Johanna. Snow goes to see her and she's tending to some snowdrops.  That's why her mother named her Snow.  They hear a noise and she finds Regina (Lana Parrilla) and Cora (Barbara Hershey) digging for Gold's (Robert Carlyle) dagger.  They don't think it's there and think Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) may have duped them. Well if he did that's score one for him then.  Makes a change! ha.

Charming gets to work and is attacked by Hook, for his hook from the drawer.  Oh so now Hook's going around knocking others out after suffering the same fate.  Gold wants Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to convince Neal/Bae (Michael Raymond-James) to return to Storybrooke but she says she's already fulfilled her deal.  Henry (Jared S Gilmore) likes the pizza it doesn't lie.  Gold knows Emma lied to protect herself and that she still feels for Neal.  It's in her face.  Neal wants to take Henry to the museum and they return for the camera. Where Hook awaits them and he pounces on Gold and attacks him with his hook, only to be knocked out by Emma, this time courtesy of a bin!

Snow finds her mother is ill and doesn't want to lose her.  Johanna tells her of the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) who can help with magic.  The Blue Fairy finds Snow and says she can't help but dark magic could.  She gives her a candle she must place over the heart of her sacrifice and her mother will be well.  Of course Snow refuses to do this since it means taking one life for another.  Obviously Cora gave the game away when she said she has to place the candle over the heart!  Though it's Regina who's big on heart ripping and manipulation.

Snow tries to give Regina a last chance as she doesn't know how evil Cora is.  She doesn't care about her.  Regina turning her nose up at Snow for being hypocritical and reminds her of her own mother again.  Who dies since Snow refuses to sacrifice an innocent life and her mother is proud of her as she's learned to be good now.  Snow says goodbye wearing the tiara.

Gold has been poisoned and there's no cure here as Neal tries to help him.  There's magic in Storybrooke so they need to get him back.  Emma's tied Hook up in the basement and gets his map.  He sailed here on the Jolly Roger and it'll be the quickest way back as Neal tells them.  Obviously he can sail it cos he's been on there before and he also knows Hook.  He needs to get a car to take Gold to the ship.  Henry shows Emma the message Snow sent her about Gold's dagger but he tells them it's safe.  Neal and Emma go for the car and he tells her it belongs to a friend.  Along comes Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green) his fiance and Emma is disappointed.

Snow and Charming find Mother Superior, who's still going by that name and think the dagger is probably in Gold's shop.  She can't manage to get the door opened with her wand but Snow tells her she should try dark magic.  She's never done that before but Snow insists as she's kept her secret.  Emma calls Charming and tells him where the dagger is, in the cock tower.  Should've guessed that as it was shown in the opening credits.  So it would have been better to leave it there since Cora had no clue of its whereabouts until now, but that's not how the story goes.

As if by purple magic, Regina and Cora arrive and demand the dagger.  Also bringing along Johanna for leverage as Regina takes her heart.  She realizes Cora poisoned her mother all so Regina could become queen. As well as Cora being the Blue Fairy.  Snow still thinks good has won but she's forgotten Cora and Regina both have magic.  Snow throws the dagger to the ground and Cora swoops in.  Regina returns Johanna's heart but Cora throws her out the window.  Well that clock's gone, for a while.

Cora returns to the Mayor's office and Regina hates being there.  She also realizes she ensured Regina would be queen, how she made sure she;d be out riding when Snow was there too with the King and she'd save her.  She's worried that Henry will know about the dagger now when they kill everyone.  Don't know how Regina can trust her, she's got ulterior motives and reasons and the way she touched the dagger also shows she's got feelings for Gold, or at least did.  Also mentioning she was just a miller's daughter.

Snow doesn't want anymore lives to be lost and recalls how she was good and so she saved Regina from being killed and all the other good deeds she did.  Now she's going to change as she promises she's going to kill Cora.  As her mother said "as long as you hold the spirit of goodness in your heart, I will never leave you." That's been eroded from her now as Snow no longer wants to be good when she harbours thoughts of killing Cora.

Don't know why Cora didn't just grab the dagger from Snow when she was holding it, duh magic.  Why did Regina have to dig for the dagger instead of just using magic and the King wasn't even at his wife's funeral or there to comfort Snow.  Also it seems Cora knew all along about Regina and Daniel without Snow having to reveal it to her, so Regina blamed her for nothing.  Though it does appear it was a set up for Regina to rescue Snow, but she must have known with her magic.

Seems Hook is doing his own spot of double crossing now but doesn't manage to get very far with it.  We also got Gold snapping at Henry and blaming him for his predicament as he brought them here.  Really, it was Gold who wanted to find Bae and it was Rumples who killed Milah.  As for Tamara she could be anyone but also could be that 'HER' in the texts on Mendel's phone.  I only said that cos she's an 'outsider' whom Bae is conveniently engaged to.  So they know where to find Hook's ship and finally a phone with batteries that need charging!! Oh and Johanna was Mrs Patmore from Downton Abbey.

Scandal 2.3 "Hunting Season" Review

                                            
A Senator talks of how the President (Tony Goldwyn) almost took them to war over Sudan and Olivia (Kerry Washington) watches him and calls him telling him he shouldn't wear pinstripes and he's her client now.  Olivia finds a man in her backseat who tells him they're after him and will kill him, that they've been spying on him and she yells for him to get out, as she drives off he shouts they know about the calls to the West Wing and she drives back.  Oh she heard that!  Artie (Patrick Fischler) is a low-level data entry clerk at the NSA and claims to have stolen their programme, Thorngate, showing they've been spying on American citizens.  Nothing was done by his supervisor so he stole it.

Olivia meets with the NSA to discuss this programme but it is denied, Olivia says she's confirmed Artie is crazy.  Olivia tells them to take him to a  safehouse and then Huck (Guillermo Diaz) unencrypts the programme to find Cyrus (Jeff Perry) on the phone to Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry) talking about the President going hunting.  The programme goes into self destruct mode and Olivia questions who else knows about this.  Artie mentions Monica.  Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and Harrison (Columbus Short) are sent to talk to her and Abby wants to play good cop, she manages to get them into Monica's apartment but they find her dead of an apparent suicide but Abby claims it's not and there's a black sedan outside.

Olivia wants info from Senator Davis (Norm Lewis) who is on the Intelligence Committee but he doesn't give her anything since it's all top secret.  Cyrus shows a photo of their meeting to Fitz who loses it.  He was her former boyfriend.  SO much for playing nice with Mellie (Bellamy Young) who received baby clothes from Queen Elizabeth (really?)  Olivia believes if they can blame the NSA for the murder then they can corroborate Artie.

Olivia is taken hunting to talk with Fitz and he is riled up for getting involved with this and believes Davis provided her with info cos they looked so cosy in the photo.  They kiss and Olivia pushes him away saying "I am not yours" and he can't just take her anywhere.  Thorngate is used for anti-terrorism.  Olivia thinks they can protect Artie if they go public and involve the TV station into broadcasting the story, but only if Huck can hack into the NSA.  But the TV network has been given an injunction from the Justice Department insisting if they go ahead they will be traitors.

She shows the Head of the Network his wife at home with his baby and he decides to air the interview. They need the autopsy reports and the black sedan.  Abby manages to get hold of the report which shows Monica died by an insulin injection.  Quinn (Katie Lowes) is shown in flashback telling them about Artie's allergies and his Type 1 Diabetes.  Artie sets the smoke alarm off and escapes from the safehouse.  Olivia realizes he played them as he needed someone to hack the system.  He can now sell it to the highest bidder.  Olivia agrees with the NSA if they can get Artie back they are off the hook.

David (Joshua Molina) is still obsessed with Olivia and thinks that maybe Quinn is innocent after all.  Lindsay is harassed by Abby who keeps calling her Lindsay, a liar and fraud.  Quinn has enough of her and gets her own back.  David wants Abby to buy him a drink and they end up together.

Mellie finds out Fitz saw Olivia whilst hunting which explains his mood change and threatens Fitz with bringing him down and that she can ensure he won't be elected for a second term as she has all the attributes in her life and the sacrifices she made for him to ensure she is.  He should stop seeing her.  Fitz is called a ticking bomb by Cyrus, saying he knew about the calls to Olivia since he's ensuring Fitz is protected from himself.  Davis is removed from the Committee and says he's on Olivia's books now and he's her client pro bono.  Huck tells Olivia not to worry about him.

So much happened in this episode and it was good to see Olivia put Fitz in his place, that she's not there for him at his beck 'n' call doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. She was played by Artie cos as Harrison says, her gut is off cos of Fitz.  She needs to step back from him.  Abby was irritating, they way she kept hounding Quinn, cos she's so perfect.  How does she know David's not gonna use her for info about Olivia, you know, pillow talk.

Mellie back to her old self and it was her who wanted Fitz to go on the hunt to begin with, since he said he can cancel it cos of his pregnant wife.  Was she really expecting him to get back to playing 'happy families.'  Well she's shown her true colours once again so much for asking forgiveness last episode.

CSI 13.21 "Ghosts of the Past" Review

The episode begins with three so called ghost hunters, Owen (Billy Aaron Brown) Doug (Yani Gellman) and Carrie (Erica Dasher) filming and looking for ghosts inside a slaughterhouse the site of several murders committed by serial killer Walter Sims.  After much talk, Doug is killed by being hoisted up on a meat hook and stabbed when checking out the 'hanging room.'  After Doug took out a knife used by Sims to stab his Vics so that he can summon his spirit with it.  Brass (Jim Guillfoyle) tells Finn (Elisabeth Shue) how he investigated the murders twenty years ago after a security guard, Sims, kidnapped seven boys and slaughtered them here.  Sims dies in the same way and now Doug is killed too.  A man, Thomas Pope (Ian Bohen) turns up who is selling the place and tells Brass he knew this would happen, he had a strange feeling when he went inside there, now if that wasn't a big clue then I don't know what else would be!

Finn and Sara (Jorga Fox) examine the slaughter room and Sara hates being here cos of the slaughtered animals,that's  why she stopped eating meat.  David (David Berman) tells of how when the killings happened  they used to talk about it at school, saying if you called out "Walter Sims" three times he'd appear.  A bit like the 'Bloody Mary' legend.  There's Doug's camera in the pool of blood in which Owen fell whilst getting his DB down but the memory card is missing.  Finn suggests they luminol the entire area for blood and Sara opts to luminol outside the room.  Here she finds a set of prints which are leading away from everyone else's and towards the wall, where she finds the knife, the murder weapon.

Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) process Owen and Carrie for evidence and Owen can't stop raving about how his spirit appeared and everyone's gonna go wild.  Carrie however felt a presence in the room and shows him her protection amulet.  Owen admits to taking the memory card so he can put the footage on the Net.   Doc (Robert David Hall) calls DB (Ted Danson) to Autopsy and he's a bit reluctant to be there, until after Doc's finished the autopsy.  He tells him the original incision has also made in Doug's DB and this wasn't released to anyone.  The killer was carving an 'S' shape.

At the CS, Morgan and Greg find a shrine for the boys, some of the toys are new and others are much older. Greg looks like he can sense something and Morgan finds an earring, she says could be Carrie's since one of hers was missing.  Greg doesn't think it's hers.   Nick (George Eads) tells DB that Owen's camera stopped filming for about 98 seconds, which would have been enough for him to have killed Doug.  Sara finds Owen's prints all over the knife.  Owen admits to bringing the knife there as something belonging to the killer is required for their spirit to be enticed.  Carrie tells Greg she believes he has psychic ability and that he gets it from his grandmother, who has a funny name, Olaf.  She gives him her amulet and she says he'll need it. Now as soon as she took that off, you knew she was in trouble!!

Hodges (Wallace Langham) has to help Nick in locating Owen at the time of the killing and uses his EVP (electronic voice projector) to do this.  He need Henry's (Jon Wellner) help since it means returning to the CS as he's not going alone.  These two are great for laughs, as we'll see Hodges' fear and Henry's scientific motivation which leaves him fearless.  They manage to prove Owen wasn't in the same room as Doug and Henry notices the presence of infra sound on the computer.  These are invisible to the human ear.  He says they should find out what's causing it since it leads to a feeling of coldness, butterflies in the stomach and make people think there is some sort of a ghostly presence.

He finds a fan and turns it off, curing Hodges' butterflies.  They then hear  a scream and find Carrie bludgeoned with a baseball bat at the shrine.  DB introduces Finn to Scott Tunicliffe (Eric Lange) he wrote the book on Sims and Finn asks if he's writing a sequel.  He's brought his files and shows them photos of a woman who appeared at Sims' trial, a trial groupie.  Finn notices she's wearing the same earring Morgan found.  Greg and Morgan collect the toys to examine from the scene and Greg admits he was a bit of a psychic when he was little, since his grandmother had the gift.  Carrie came here to talk to the boys.  He also finds her EVP and plays it back, he can hear children's laughter in the background after Carrie is killed.

Finn tries to find the woman in the photo and Sara tells her to try locating her by seeing if her photo shows up on the Internet, matching a Monica Downs (Kiersten Warren).  Mitch (Larry Mitchell) brings her in and says she's crazy.  Monica admits she was at his trial and recalls Brass there too. She tells them about Sims and their boys, the family he created for her.  Henry finds male DNA on every single one of the toys but it's not in the system.  DB and Nick know the boys were in the back of Sim's car but his accomplice must have been at the front, someone who lured them.  They suspect Tunicliffe, but he has an alibi.

Greg tells Morgan he's returning to the CS and he takes Pope with him to let him in.  Pope asks what he's looking for but Greg doesn't know.  Pope shows the hammer he's hiding under his jacket and then that laughter is heard again!  It's his ringtone and in that instance Greg knows it's him.  Yes as said.  He was the eighth boy abducted by Sims and he was afraid the ghosthunters would speak to the ghosts of the boys who would reveal his old identity, Jonathan Harris.  Finn tells him he's not to blame for the killings since he was only 11, but he still hears their voices.

Morgan apologizes to Greg for not believing his psychic ability.  Their work is about science but there still could be the spiritual around them.  Greg is a little sceptical since not one of the ghosts gave him a sign that Pope was the killer.  Morgan believes something must have been looking out for him.  Greg takes the amulet and hangs it in his locker, he closes the door and it opens by itself.  Yes he didn't think of Carrie's amulet which she gave him for protection and it worked.  Sara needs some time to go to SF and ensure a serial rapists isn't paroled and DB tells her to take some time off too.

Not so much a scary episode but one that focuses more on Greg and his 'ability.'  Though there was that eerie presence to add some credibility to the presence of ghosts.  A must for Supernatural lovers and I mean the TV show as well.  Also in an episode of  CSI 6.19 Spellbound, where Greg revealed to Grissom that his grandmother was a psychic.  SO it's good that they mentioned this again here.  Also in that episode the woman was killed after she foretold her own murder and was a fake.  Greg mentions he's got some of his Grandma Olaf's skills, but Grissom just shoots him down, saying he hasn't.   Cos it's all about science, something similar to Morgan here.  Greg: "I have an  expertise in the occult."
Greg: "My Nana Olaf ...was a psychic.  She didn't have a store, just a sixth sense and the family thinks I might have inherited it."
Some good continuity too with Sara reminding us she's a vegetarian and Morgan being just that little bit sceptical especially as the season finale approaches and a storyline that puts her in danger.

Don't know whether you believe in the supernatural/paranormal, but a lot of people do and there are some strange spooky goings on in real life.  Had a few encounters myself as did my father.  I fell down the stairs two years ago and it felt like a hand pushed me from behind, but there was no one at home and no one would do that even if they were.

Watch this clip here which I thought was kinda cool, not scary though, especially the bit with Richard Grieco and his paranormal encounter!
    http://www.biography.com/tv/celebrity-ghost-stories/videos/ana-ortizs-boombox-plays-without-power-35741763532

Revenge Season 3

                                                     
SO it's been decided and Victoria's (Madeleine Stowe) son Patrick has been cast and will be played by none other than Justin Hartley.  No stranger to TV he played Oliver Queen/The Green Arrow in Smallville as well as Wade's (Wilson Bethel) brother Jesse in Hart of Dixie.

However we won't get to see mother and son bond since the action moves forward five months( but our Revenge cast will be looking as young as ever!) unless we get this in flashbacks, which seems most likely to be the case.  We all know Revenge is no stranger to the use of this concept/plot device.

This also means that Jack (Nick Wechsler) will have mourned Declan's passing, at least the shock news, or will he still be suffering the fall out and Carl will be five months older now.  Also Charlotte (Christa B Allen) will be on the way to having Declan's (Connor Paolo) baby - right?  Anyway hopefully we will see how Jack took on the news that Emily (Emily VanKamp) was really Amanda in flashbacks as said otherwise there will be a missed golden opportunity.

Once Upon A Time 2.14 "Manhattan" Review

                                                
Gold (Robert Carlyle) Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry (Jared S Gilmore) arrive in Manhattan and straight to Bae's apartment but he's not around, or so they think until Emma hears him getting away via the fire escape, didn't need to make that much of a racket if you're running away.  So she gives chase and finds him.  Realizing who he is, she thinks she's been played by Gold and Neal (Michael Raymond-James) cos it's always about you Emma, isn't it.  They argue about him not knowing who she was and didn't find out until after they met and until August showed him the typewriter.  Of course he always kept his typewriter in that box, should have known that - duh!  Which is what my sister said last season.  On it he's typed: "I know you're Baelfire."

Neal: "I've spent a lifetime running from that man, I'm not gonna let him catch me" and what lock him up, cast a spell on him.

Emma: "You let me go to prison because Pinocchio told you to?!"

Cue Rumples' backstory and the ogre wars where he tells a delighted Milah (Rachel Shelley) how he's been called up to fight.  Think she didn't really love him after all, the way she was so excited to watch him go off to war like that, not even a little sadness, oh cruel woman!  At said wars and before he goes into battle, he is left to guard someone who will be of help to them. A seer (Shannon Lucio) who tells him his future: about Milah having a baby and how he will die tomorrow on the battlefield when the army rides on cows.  Which he finds strange.  However he's told that they will use these 'cows' since the Duke has sent supplies.  Saddles for them to ride to their deaths.  Since they call cows saddles.  He searches for the seer but she's gone and sees a hammer nearby which he uses to club his foot.

Milah expects him back and has already had the baby, fast job, ha since rumours from the war spread fast and she hates that he's just like his father, a coward and it would have been better for him to have died on the battlefield.  But Rumples wanted to be here for his son and not abandon him, and he didn't.  So when Bae says he left him, he was there for him for 14 years at least and didn't abandon him like his mother did, all for another man.

Neal doesn't want Emma to tell Gold about him but she has to since they have a deal.  But when she gets back she goes through with the lies.  Gold breaks into his apartment in the hope of a clue or two.  Notice red apple on the table and the sign near the door which reads: "Cleaners and Hatters"  surely a reference to Jefferson!  Yay ha!  Emma notices the dreamcatcher and Gold knows there's something she's not telling him. Henry is sent to the bathroom so they can talk, as if he's not old enough for their conversation.  Henry is far more intelligent than that.

Neal doesn't believe in coincidences since Gold taught him that there's only fate.  But he doesn't want to return to a land of magic.  Neal realizes Henry is his son, he's eleven and Henry is angry she didn't tell him, she said his father was a fireman, well she was half right in terms of names.  Then Henry runs to the FIRE escape! ha.  Gold wants to talk and he has 3 minutes, which were a very long 3 minutes indeed!

The seer comes to Rumples as the Dark One now and tells him he'll find his son but not yet, also there will be a curse which he will need and someone to break it too, but they won't be up to him. She gives him all her knowledge and  everything's jumbled up so he has to sort out the puzzles from what is and what can be. Though she does tell him he will be reunited with his son.  Also there is a boy who will be Rumple's downfall, Henry no doubt.

So anyway who set up the meeting between Neal and Emma all those years ago.  Emma calling Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) for advice on whether she should tell Henry about his father and Charming (Josh Dallas) wondering if he can have more than one grandfather!!  Which makes Regina (Lana Parrilla) his step- great grandmother. This ep was about fathers and sons wasn't it, seems Henry was more upset over Emma keeping the truth from Henry than realizing Gold is his grandfather!  Which makes them all a family an  they can be reunited in their struggle against Regina and Cora (Barbara Hershey).  Of course Rumples recalls this about Henry and realizes the only way for this not to come true is if Henry is not around.

Also it seems Rumples fulfilled his own prophecy since he didn't fight on the battlefield but still lost his son in his own interpretation of the prophecy.

Oh and wasn't Emma holding the dreamcatcher in the ep, The Cricket Game, where Cora killed Archie and Gold saw her holding it.  Here he sees her holding the dreamcatcher again and surely he must have thought that wasn't a coincidence either.  That a dreamcatcher could be used to see Pongo's memories and Emma has to capture those memories using her powers.  Also she had those memories with Neal when she got hold of the dreamcatcher from the window.

Regina and Cora cook up their own plans of course and Cora wants Rumple's dagger so they can control the Dark One and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) thinks he'll get his revenge when he does.  She goes to he hospital and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) tells her she doesn't know who Gold is, she knocks her out using magic, so much for abstaining, well she won't get her one year badge at this rate.  Then uses magic to remove the contents from her bag and finds an ISBN number.  Leading her to the library.  They search for a book and Cora finds a piece of paper so how come they didn't realize it was a map. Agh!  SO much for them having magic.  Hook has to intervene of course and tells them it's a map and even deciphers it for them.  Surely Gold wouldn't need a map for the dagger and even if Belle would, why keep it written down, she could just as easily remember a few numbers, considering the number of books she reads.

Hook gets double crossed again, ha, really again?  He should know not to come between a daughter and her mother and is knocked out; kissing the floor once again!  Did he really think they'd let him have something so precious just for meagre revenge.  Cora explains how they can control the Dark One who'll kill Emma, Charming and Snow and then she'll have Henry and he won't suspect Regina of anything.

Mendell (Ethan Embry) makes another call again and plays a video of Regina using her magic.  As once again no one's learned the moral of the story, allowing an outsider to wonder the hospital alone.

Henry is angry Emma lied just like Regina did and compares the two of them, even if Neal was a thief, a liar, it really didn't mean she should have lied, after everything he's been through he would have understood and he tells her that too.  Emma admits she lied to protect herself and it's what I said, it's always about Emma even when it shouldn't be.  Snow being ever the optimist thinking they will get on better now since they are all related.  With those family ties comes so much baggage.

To those of us who always knew Bae/Neal was Gold's son we were finally rewarded for our patience!

References to Tallahassee here and also The Cricket Game.

Sherlock 2.1 "A Scandal in Belgravia"

                                          
Well it's been said Sherlock Holmes met his match in this one in the form of Irene Adler (Lara Pulver) but I think not!  Though she does set her plan in motion to meet him by arranging that phonecall to Moriarty (Andrew Scott) so that we don't get much of a showdown at the swimming pool.  What all that suspense and waiting around for the second series for nothing!  Well when it was aired the first time round.  Seems Irene had more plans afoot and thought she could engage Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) in a more 'great-er game.'

Lots of good bits in this one and by that I don't mean certain body parts either!  No, Sherlock and Irene were getting one up on each other and in the end Sherlock had to get the better of her, well he did.  It was only fair.  Okay not fair, but right.  All those people looking to him for help and being turned away, had to have been there for a reason and not just cos they read Watson's (Martin Freeman) blog, which was more intriguing than Sherlock blogging about the 473 of different types of tobacco ash, hmm, wonder if he tried them out?

Then the one 'case' that catches his eye is the one about the motorist who sees a man in a field and the car backfires and he drops dead!  Not really intriguing at all, save for getting both Sherlock and Irene to solve it.  Since "brainy's the new sexy."  Or as Sherlock puts it, "thinking is the new sexy."  Millions would agree, 'ey Sherlock!  Said man having been killed by a boomerang.

So whilst he's driven to Buckingham Palace and Watson gets a helicopter ride, we get allusions to what Sherlock and Irene are doing, i.e both looking at photos of each other, he in bedsheet, not his customary form of dress and her in her many Dominatrix attire, well, okay, one in particular.    Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) telling him to dress but he didn't and thus his sheet almost falls down as he steps onto it, sure many would have enjoyed that sight!  Funny though, we get Irene being introduced in her best armour and Sherlock also naked here, barring sheet and going out in public like that. Watson not knowing where to look, but he's a doctor!  He's seen it all before.  That scene between the two was like it was almost ad libbed on the spot, when they couldn't stop laughing and Watson wasn't the one to steal an ashtray, Sherlock did.

This time Sherlock was after compromising photos concerning a certain female royal and yet there was much more going on than that, there always is.  So there's banter between the two and obviously she was naked so he couldn't read her, but even that wasn't necessary in the end.  Especially when he did read he measurements.  With Watson finding himself facing the barrel of a gun this time round, pheww that was barely after the bomb at the pool.  A bit of a slo mo fight scene, great to watch and Sherlock gets his hands on the phone but doesn't manage to hang onto it.  Oh Sherlock turning your back on her!  The photos would be on a phone, that's how far tech has advanced but so is practically everything in a Sherlock ep.  There was the pink phone in A Study In Pink, and so on.

So with Sherlock out of it she takes the phone and his coat and beats him up too.  Cue his provocative ring tones and we get to Christmas.  Once again Sherlock being nasty to Molly (Loo Brearly) when he thinks the present she's wrapped in red is for someone else and she has to compensate for it.  Said present being for her and he also gets Irene's phone back.  There's only one way she'd part with that cos her life 'depended on it.'  So he IDs her DB but it's apparent she's not dead and I knew that first time round too, cos even if her face was bashed in, he knew her measurements!  Hey that was her copying his ploy of getting beaten up and pretending to be a man of the cloth when he came to see her.  Their line about disguises from earlier on.  Irene: "Do you know the big problem with a disguise, Mr Holmes, however hard you try, it's always a self-portrait."  Alas it would have been better if it was acknowledged by Sherlock she'd have known what he looks like anyway and I don't mean after his pic in the paper with the deerstalker hat either.

So he smokes a cigarette to feign being a tiny bit upset and then proceeds to compose a sad ditty for the violin.  Mycroft's woman, ha turns up and takes Watson on a drive where he meets none other than Irene and thinks she should tell him she's alive.  But he already knows!  She's been texting him, 57 times was Watson's last count and she reads some out, with ones asking him to dinner after every other text.  She was flirting with him.  Yes plus also she was after info from him considering she's in league with the 'Criminal Consultant.'  And off goes Sherlock's text message tone again, so why was he there anyway, looking out for Watson or did he just have to see her again.  Watson wanting everyone to know he's not gay!  Irene is.

Finally she turns up at Sherlock's place and in his bed and after some more guesses on what the locked code on her phone could be, she shows him the e-mail she has that everyone's after and yes he deciphers the code in under a minute or even less.  As he also recalls Mycroft mentioning "Bond" on the phone and the flight is 007.  Irene of course texts the message to Moriarty who else.  These scenes and script must have taken Benedict a long time to put to memory, wonder how many takes they needed.  Later he takes her hand and takes her pulse, you'd have thought she'd have known that, ugh.  It was Patrick Jane's ploy after all from The Mentalist, to take someone's hand and their pulse.  Giving away their true feelings.

Sherlock is driven to the airport this time and mentions Coventry and how the government knew it was going to be bombed in World War II but let it happen anyway so as to not let on they knew the German code.  A dilemma for Mycroft too, or it looked like it as Moriarty texts him, showing the game's afoot.  At the airport where we have "Flyaway Airlines" Mycroft tells him the plane's not taking off since the terrorists know they know and he was only going to use DBs anyway, thus explaining all those people who came to him looking for help.

Irene has her demands which Mycroft must meet or he won't get the info on the phone, but our Sherlock foils her plans.  He works out the code cos of her racing pulse and her dilated pupils, showing she has feelings for him even if she denies it.  The password being "Sher" as in "I am Sher-locked."  It was staring us straight in the face first time round!

Mycroft turns up to tell Watson she's dead, for real, no, Irene was never killed off in the book and he should tell Sherlock she's on some witness protection programme in the US.  Again he was one step ahead of them since he saved her and is one for keeping secrets!  He'll keep her phone though.

She's a woman, "the woman;" who came close to his 'intelligence' level but not quite. And the one who had his heart.  The "ice man and the virgin" could be another ep title, ha.  Did you think Sherlock found his match in Irene, my opinion, no.  She made common, silly mistakes throughout trying to prove she was just as good or even better, but wasn't.  No one can come close to matching the world's greatest consultant detective.  
As for the 'CIA' man falling from the window and turning up alive and well, with hindsight, this is kind of a foreshadow towards the last ep of season 2, when Sherlock falls from the building.  Cos we know he's not dead!

Mycroft's line to Sherlock: "All lives end.  All hearts are broken.  Caring is not an advantage..." reminded me of Doctor Who for some reason, maybe it was the way it was delivered, all very cold and straight faced.

Cote de Pablo Says Farewell to NCIS

                                             
SO we all know the news by now of Cote de Pablo's departure from NCIS where she played everyone's beloved Agent Ziva David (or Diva Zavid as some of us affectionately called her!)  I can't say the news was unexpected since she was the only cast member who didn't have a contract.  Cote's contract ended after season 10 and she had yet to sign a new one.  But I think it was just a matter of time before she did break this news of her decision to leave since if she had wanted to stay on she would have signed already.

CBS announced: "We respect Cote's decision, thank her for being an important part of the NCIS team and for eight terrific years playing Ziva David...we look forward...to an appropriate closure in this chapter of Ziva's  story."  Cote: "I've had eight great years with NCIS and as Ziva David" and showered tremendous respect on the other actors.

I will miss her along with many others since she formed an integral part of the show and settled in very quickly into the show and our hearts.  Ziva became one of my fave characters and admittedly I liked her more than Kate (Sasha Alexander).  She showed  immense on screen presence, was funny, alluring at times and very funny, making the character of Ziva her own.  Through good times, heartbreaks, a few love interests, being left out in the cold, all the fights and arguments and all those sensuous scenes with Tony (Michael Weatherly) Ziva had her share of every emotion going - practically.

Cote joined the cast in season 3 and was only meant to appear in the show for a few episodes, she ended up staying for 8 seasons, a testament not only to Cote's incredible ability as an actor but also her ability to fit in anywhere as a newcomer.  Though fans have lamented about there not being a Tiva relationship after all the teasing, I was one of many who didn't want or expect them to get together, since past romances have shown how the dynamic is greatly altered and sometimes can do more harm than good to a show.

Of course this is not the end for Core as we are bound to see her in much more to come in the future and here's wishing her the best for whatever she may decide to do and appear in!

Oh with hindsight, had I known she was leaving I'd have included an extra section on Cote in my book!
http://www.amazon.com/My-NCIS-Unofficial-Unauthorized-Guide/dp/1291032177