Scandal 2.8 "Happy Birthday, Mr President" Review

                                              
As news gets out of Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) being shot, several times over as broadcast by the news, we get plenty of flashbacks.  The Secret Service appeared to be a a bit slow off the mark when they rushed to the President's side, as well as with Britta (Keiko Agena) and Mellie (Bellamy Young).  At the hospital, Mellie is frantic and a man's voice is heard to be telling Fitz he can't die.  Which is heard by Olivia (Kerry Washington).  She finds his US flag pin on the floor and picks it up.  Cue first flashback where Olivia gave him the pin after he was elected President and before his inauguration.  It was a genuine flag pin belonging to Eisenhower.  She pins it to his lapel and Mellie sees it too but is oblivious to their attraction.

Later they meet in the Oval Office and Fitz can't resist being with Olivia and neither can she, to the point where they get physical on his desk of all places.  Of course no one's told him about the cameras, he must have been naive, at least not until the next day when the agent tells him where the cameras are located, when Fitz is out jogging in his Navy shirt.  He hates jogging.  Edison (Norm Lewis) calls Olivia to tell her they're being taken to the bunker.  On the news it's said Fitz is in surgery and Langston (Kate Burton) wants to be flown to the South lawn.  No one lands there except the President and Cyrus (Jeff Perry) loses his cool with her.  She's not the President yet since Fitz is still alive and until he dies or she takes office under the Amendment where the Cabinet signs her in, she is not the President and will have her forcibly removed if necessary.

We also get to see how Langston came aboard based on their promise she'd pick the Supreme Court Justice, of course the job was promised to Verna Thornton (Debra Mooney) and she demands her position. Also Olivia sees Cyrus with Jack (Ray Bucatinsky) as the two of them break up.  Olivia takes hold of the crisis and comes back to the Whitehouse for as long as they need her.  Telling Jeannine (Samantha Sloyan) she needs six outfits from her place.  She then holds a press conference telling them the President is holding on.  In another flash, Olivia is told about a reporter who is looking into vote rigging at the election and she relays this to Hollis (Gregg Henry).  As the name Cytron comes up and Huck (Guillermo Diaz) tells her their employee Jesse Tyler leaked this info.  Huck all long haired and dirty has been living on the streets, is given Olivia's key so he can stay with her.

Olivia meets Fitz once more and he tells her they're in this together.  They belong to one another and she can't drive him away.  "I exist for you."  Kind of another moment they will have in the future in the park when he went hunting and she told him that she's not his.  Britta is declared dead and the newscaster, Reed Wallace (Stephen Collins) can't hide his emotions as she used to work there.  Britta was press secretary and was under Olivia's wing as she let her go to the inauguration ball.  Edison calls to tell Olivia Langston is lobbying the Cabinet for their signatures to take over as President.  Olivia tells Cyrus and says Mellie is the only one who can stop this.

Olivia reluctantly approaches Mellie who won't let her sit beside her since they're not friends.  She sends Olivia for clothes and Olivia finds his Navy sweatshirt and weeps into it.  Er, it wasn't placed on the top of the other shirts, it was between them Olivia, but funny she didn't have any tears showing, red eyes or even a runny nose after she cried.  She takes an outfit for Mellie who assures the people that he is alive and is a believer in hope.   They shouldn't give up on him cos he hasn't given up on them.

Cyrus gets Jack to write a story about Langston's nominee for the Supreme Court and his juvenile record is disclosed.  Langston's angry and says that from now on, she's in it "for me."  Harrison (Columbus Short) Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) watch the news from the office and Quinn mentions Huck being in the CIA.  He's meant to be on a date.  Don't know about you, but did anyone get suspicious at Huck not being here.  No really, at such a time of crisis, he's on a date!  He'd be back there quick smart seeing if Olivia wanted his help and to find out if she was safe!!

Another flashback where Olivia is told about an explosion which just happens to be at the Cytron offices, which Hollis says was 'taken care' of by him.  He's going to make an employee called Lindsey (Quinn) the scapegoat.  He's not perturbed that he killed seven people and Cyrus calls them collateral damage and patriots as well as heroes.  If they expose this, it will signal the end of the Presidency even before it's begun. Olivia finds this disgusting but she manages to go along with it and has been ever since.  Though she did try to help Quinn.  Mellie notices Fitz's pin is missing and one of the agents hands it to her later, when she finds out Fitz had been to see the Constitution, saying he'd have taken her with him.  Infact he took Olivia and she became the seventh person to touch it.  Mellie returns the pin and senses there's something not quite right.

The doctors have removed three bullets from Fitz but there's no change.  Olivia walks into the room and hands Mellie the pin which she places beside him on the bed.  Langston is sworn in as president and Cyrus loses his cool by wrecking his office!  The news broadcasts the description of the gunman, wearing a red hoodie with dark hair, which Harrison says describes plenty of men in Washington.  But this one describes Huck to a tee!  Knew it was him, like I said before.

Olivia's face when he finds Mellie turns up with Fitz to have dinner with her!  Olivia declaring she loves Fitz after touching the Constitution, makes you wonder if she'd feel differently about him if he wasn't the Pres? Well it does, since she didn't want anything more to do with him tendering her resignation, well she still found herself back there many times over and they still continued their illicit affair, so who was fooling whom, or rather us.  Course we weren't fooled  I mean if she really loved him she could have exposed the 'scandal' (!) re vote rigging and they could have run away together!  SO she either believes he wanted to stick by and do his job, or he wanted the job and her.

As for Huck, many reasons behind him having to shoot the President, cos think if it was anyone else as the shooter, he'd have been dead since he'd have a perfect head shot.  Sorry to sound so morbid but it's true. As we recall Hollis's threat of taking everyone down last ep, not clear what this would entail, but we've seen the man is merciless with the explosion at Cytron and framing Quinn.  Anyway we have a long while yet before we get any explanations, cos we're always behind!!

An explosive episode and I know a lot of fans loved the steamy scenes between Olivia and Fitz. Well we had to have those since that's what the entire show is about really when it boils down to it!  The relationship between two people who can't be together.

 

CSI:NY 9.4 "Unspoken" Review

A teacher writes a note on the board, "You are special.  Be better, be stronger."  As Mac (Gary Sinise) tries his exercises and attempts to name some colours.  He gets stuck on naming red, yeah maybe cos it was more pink than red!  Lindsay (Anna Belknap) and Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) take Lucy (Brooklyn Silzer) to a political rally for Grant Hamilton (Neal McDonough) but Lindsay is so useless as a mother that she can't keep hold of Lucy and then drops her bag.  Yeah cos no one ever told her to get a crossbody bag so her hands would be free, or even to close the zip on her bag.  Then she does the most dangerous thing a parent can do in such a public place, let go of her!!  She runs away chasing a penny to pick up.  Lindsay finds her and she shows her the penny.  Lindsay then spots a man, the teacher from the opening, with a gun who looks straight at her, but she does nothing and then just shields Lucy, and she calls herself a detective.  He could have just as easily have shot her!! He fires shots at Grant on the podium and then runs away.  Lindsay still crouched there, instead of moving now, gets hit by the burger cart!!  Ugh what was this, a typical lesson in how not to act like her in public, but use your own brains and show some initiative!

Flack (Eddie Cahill) gives chase and sees the man run around a corner where two children are playing.  The shooter dumps the gun in the dumpster and climbs over the fence, also dropping his baseball cap.  The boy picks up the gun and Flack gets to the alley as he hears a shot being fired.  He finds the girl shot and tries to help her, but there's no signal.  Didn't that girl remind you of a little Vanessa Ferlito?  An ambulance takes Lindsay away as Jo (Sela Ward) takes Lucy and Danny rides with her.  Flack tries to help the girl but she dies.  That's right kill off the poor girl but not Lindsay.  Actually we always used to say it would be good to see Danny as a single parent, but no joy there!!

As Adam (AJ Buckley) processes the alley and Hawkes (Hill Harper) processes the rally CS, Flack stands by and watches but has to leave.  Ah poor Flack he gets a chase scene but it ends in disaster.  So sad for him losing the girl like that but his face said it all.  Adam finds a hair in the baseball cap and blood on the fence where the shooter cut himself.  Adam doesn't get any match to the hair or the blood sample.  Mac tests the bullet from the gun and Jo analyzes material from the jacket where Grant was wounded.  Flack sees the boy, Lonnie (Terrell Ransom Jr) give a description of the shooter.  As he has flashes to Amiee (Bobbie Prewitt) and tries to recall the shooter.

Of course all this early action was played to the songs of Green Day from their then new album.  So everything was either cryptic or shown in gestures such as Danny sending the text to say she's got a hairline fracture, dizziness and will be in hospital.  He takes Lucy home and the shooter sees Lindsay on the news and sees her in hospital.  He breathes on the window and leaves a message, anyone knows it was him saying sorry.  He gets out the knife and then sees the picture Lucy's left for her.  Saved again!

The gun comes back a match to Grant and Adam thinks he may have tried to shoot himself to get more votes.  Hawkes doesn't think he was the intended target since there were two other shots fired.  Of course there was a woman standing next to him.  Flack and Mac interview Grant who didn't know his gun was missing.  He didn't know where it was and so didn't report it.  Flack loses his temper with him when he says he'd like to speak to the girl's parents.  Yeah that'd be a good photo opp Flack replies!

Danny finds out the man was there and the others arrive, Jo gives Danny his coffee and notices what he
wrote on the widow, letters, " M RRY" which Flack guesses, "I'm sorry."  Flack's notebook with the man's description written in it.  The print Danny finds on the window matches Evan Westcott (Jeff Hephner)  a teacher.  From the news footage they find the shooter was after the woman, public schools supervisor, Beverley McCord (Sara Mornell). They can't find her but Adam traces her through her phone GPS, to a church.  He tells her he was fired for the wrong reason, she suspected him of being too friendly with his pupils, hugging them was inappropriate, which he doesn't agree with.  He finds it disgusting that she even thought he was capable of such behaviour.  Flack and Danny arrive and he jumps over the balcony, prompting Flack to jump after him. "That's the last time you make me chase you."  He says to him.

Lindsay IDs him as the shooter as does Lonnie, who thanks Flack for trying to help Amy and hugs him. Evan tells Flack how he was invited to Grant's boat, got a little drunk and took the gun.  He wanted to get her back, it was just ironic it was with Grant's own gun and at the rally.  Flack tells him he hurt a child and he doesn't even know it.  Showing her Amy's photo in the alley.  That's what was ironic.

Mac meets with Dr Kevin Phillips (John Cothran Jr) saying he's frustrated at not being able to remember and wants something done medically.  Kevin tells him he'll need to carry on with those exercises and to tell Christine, but he refuses to do so.  It's his problem and it's a case of his pride and not wanting to open up about it which leaves him even more frustrated.  At least he managed to get the colour red when he was writing on the board.

Parts of this episode were enjoyable and the experiment of having music accompanying the actions, though has been done before, it hasn't been done so extensively for almost half the episode.  Though couldn't help thinking of the comical factor of a silent movie when Lindsay made all those gaffs!!  The storyline wasn't that good and infact a reason why this show was cancelled, whereas they had so many excellent episodes over the years.  Kind of think they gave up a little here, instead of having the show go out on a blaze of glory!! Notice Mac pick up the gun int he alley with his glove but still manages to put part of his fingers onto the gun!  Should have been re-shot (no pun! ha).  Danny calls Lindsay 'Montana' here cos she was injured, ha!  Cos he hasn't used that name in ages.  She'll be going home to the cows soon!
Danny: "I think you might have been dreaming, was I uh, naked in that moment?"

However Flack was able to convey so much emotion which is a testament to Eddie's natural and superb acting ability when he didn't need words to express his emotions.  Also when he interviews Evan he manages to keep his feelings in check and not lose his temper.  His coolness conveyed everything he wanted to say and didn't hide his disgust at this man and his reckless actions, as he changed the lives of everyone there!
So yeah, loved his chase scenes, they were missing for a while now, at least we got to see some in the final season!

Some great Flack lines too: "What it wasn't in your sock drawer, so you figured it was where, with your golf clubs?"
Flack: "This is the last time you're making me run."

Flack: "You could have made a different choice, Evan...when you fired that weapon you changed the lives of every person there.  You violated their sense of security, but worse than that, you hurt a child and you don't even know it."

Once Upon A Time 2.19 "Lacey" Review

                                              
Gold (Robert Carlyle) dreams of Henry's (Jared S Gilmore)  birthday party where he lets him have anything he wants from the shop, he picks a wand and Gold shows him how to use it and turns Henry into porcelain, before smashing him to bits!  Adding he would have been his downfall.  Gold and his red sheets!  Good to see he always has his signature red around him.  Regina (Lana Parrilla) comes across Gold and she finds out he's Henry's grandfather.  Gold: "Guess that makes us family.  He's got my eyes don't you think?" She says he won't have him for long when he  finds out what he's really like.  She tells Gold he was the one who procured him so he already knew who Henry was.  He was the one who orchestrated the curse.  Also strange in some ways that Gold dreams of eliminating Henry when Belle (Emilie de Ravin) dreamt about Gold earlier on and his dark side.  Kind of a reversal for him to be doing this now when the ep is about the two of them.

Gold goes to Charming (Josh Dallas) for help and asks how he got with Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) even when he was David and was with Katherine.  Charming tells him that there was always something of them deep down even with the curse, which he must look for in Belle.  Gold goes to the hospital to get her discharged to spend more time with her (took him long enough to show her he's still alive after that call - yes the one that had everyone in tears) and he tells her she brought out the good in him so he needs her back and he will help her remember.  This of course sets Regina off on her usual evil ways and she goes to the hospital after he's already been there.  She introduces herself, cos yeah the Mayor will really take an interest in the little people and she picks up a matchbook which she says belongs to Belle.  Funny how Regina still thinks the Mayor represents any position of power in Storybrooke since she only tells it to people who don't really know her, she told Greg (Ethan Embry) last ep and tells Belle here.

Gold flashes back to being Rumples and how Belle sobs at night after he first took her. He comes in telling her he can't spin for her noise, he does his best thinking when spinning, oh well, judging by what he taught Cora to do on the spinning wheel, curse those she hates, seems like his thinking has a different meaning.  He gives her a pillow which she thinks is to help hr sleep, but rather, it's to prevent him hearing her crying.  Cue Robin Hood (Tom Ellis) who comes to his place to steal a magic wand and tries to shoot Rumples with an arrow, which he manages to do, but he removes it.  Rumples tortures him and Belle wants him to stop cos there's good in him, "you don't know what someone is like until you get to know them and see the good in their heart."  She tells him.  When he's out waiting for his apron to dry, she lets Robin go but can't come with him cos she made a deal with Rumples to protect her family.  Rumples wants to go after him and she'll accompany him.

Snow and Charming take Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to the bean field which is entirely the wrong thing to do considering she didn't really want to go back to the Enchanted Forest and doesn't want Henry to go there either, even if they can be a family and fight the ogres.  Snow has a change of mind too, but it's her heart that made the decision. Maybe she will become good again if she rid evil from the forest.  Emma meets with Tiny (Jorge Garcia) again and Grumpy (Lee Arenberg) drags him back to work.  Emma tells Regina she was going to tell her about Henry's father but she and Cora were trying to kill her family.  Letting slip that one day she'll lose Henry cos he won't always be around.  Trust Emma to spill the beans all the time!  They really should not tell her anything.  Regina realizes she's hiding something which she will find out.

Rumples chances upon the Sheriff of Nottingham (Wil Traval) who tells him he knows who stole his wand and where he can be found but he wants to "spend a night with your wench."  Rumples takes his tongue and will tell him where he can find the thief.  In Sherwood Forest of course.  Funny how all these lands just seem to converge onto the Enchanted Forest in one way or another.  Sheriff being the same man who was coming onto Lacey/Belle in the bar, The Rabbit Hole.  Where Charming tells him Gold should ask her out, which she agrees to.  Rumples gets talked out of killing Robin by Belle cos he used the wand to cure his woman, Marion, who is with child and Rumples shoots to miss, then feigning he missed, but he can't really miss.  She hugs him.  Lots of talk about him being the Dark One and being even darker than people say!  "Much darker, dearie!"

At Granny's (Beverley Elliott) she orders chicken and not burgers and also wine.  She then repeats the line she said as Belle about, not knowing what someone's like until you see it into their hearts and he spills the drink on her cos he thinks there's still a chance she'll remember.  But Regina told him she will only recall her cursed life since she crossed the town line.  Surely with all his powers Gold is unable to help get his Belle back.  She doesn't return but he goes after her and finds her with the sheriff, the same man she turned down at the bar, cos she really wanted to be with him.  He later returns and hopes they're good since he didn't realize he was with Lacey.  Gold takes his tongue again and uses his stick to beat him.  Lacey returns and is attracted to his dark side, she was only being polite before when she agreed to the date.  SO he shows her how dark he can really be.  Guess if you an't beat 'm, join 'em, hey, one way to be with Belle.

Regina uses a spell to track the tyres of Charming's truck when he brings the dwarves back to town and finds the bean harvest.  Greg and Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green) hatch their plan and she tells him the package is easily accessible, this being Hook! (Colin O'Donoghue).  SO after a long absence, we get to see Hook,but he's all tied up!  I mean if he's not getting beaten up, he's in ropes!! ha.

Strange Belle's alter ego was Lacey at The Rabbit Hole of all places, seems she fell down the rabbit hole and ended up the polar opposite of who she really was.  But then Regina had her locked up in the hospital when Jefferson let her go last season, so how could she have been Lacey? So Jefferson knew everyone's alter ego and where they were, shame he isn't around still!  Doesn't reallyn make sense, cos if Regina found her the bar and brought her to the hospital, that means she should have been there for the duration of the curse, some odd 28 years.  Not really  along time to become like she really is.

 Belle getting to call Rumples a "beast" over and over!  As said I like how Rumple's red shows up everywhere and how he's meant to be a little imp and his surroundings are much larger than him.  Proving Rumples still may have a heart beating some good, he lets Belle clean his library.  Oh does that sound right? ha.  So Lacey was a hustling barfly and nothing more than the town's scarlet woman!  As for Granny saying she raided the back of Ruby's closet, blue was not Ruby's colour at all!

Gold asking Charming for help since he'll owe him a favour, didn't see him making that deal with him when he was on the hunt for Belle after the curse was broken and she had been kidnapped by her father.  Oh what would Henry say if he saw what Gold was up to know.  Seems just like Regina he has to revert back to his evil self cos they have their heart's broken, for them and there just doesn't appear to be any way out. Actually scratch Henry, what would Bae (Michael Raymond-James) say if he knew what he was up to again?!  Proving his point when he said he wanted nothing to do with him.  But we have seen the extent of his cruelty especially with Milah.

As for Robin, well a bit of a wuss, can I say that? without the fans beating down on me, ha, look he needs magic arrows to ensure he hits his target, so much for being an expert marksman!!   Besides his story of stealing Marion from the sheriff was just like Hook stealing Milah so it was a surprise to see Rumples let him go and not be reminded of that scenario.  Robin next time will be played by Sean Maguire in season 3. Funny how they manage to find actors who end up with other filming schedules, yes I mean Sebastian Stan!!
SO when is Henry's birthday?  It would be good to see how exactly Gold got Henry to be adopted by Regina.  Oh and why didn't Snow return to teaching at the school?

Aladdin's magic lamp is shown in Gold's shop used by the genie of course, turned into Regina's looking Glass, aka Sidney, who should be back soon, it seems.
Also Rumples has in his stash Thor's Hammer and the Golden Fleece.  Oh and loved Rumple's little Aussie accent!  Gold adding he made a deal with Don Juan too, is there anyone he hasn't come across?

Belle's golden dress is like the one she wore when dancing with the Beast at the ball in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which was an obvious observation.  As worn in season 1 Skin Deep when Rumples came for her.  Also Robin's bow is meant to be the one he gave Snow in 1.16 Heart of Darkness, hmm, funny that title since that's what her heart is now after she listened to him and got her to kill Cora through Regina!  But Snow is an expert marksman and doesn't need the magic the bow possess, or does she?  Belle was reading The Rise and Fall of Galaga, which became an arcade video game in 1979 and is the logo at the end of the episodes for Kitsiss/Horowitz.  Of course the Rabbit Hole is a reference to the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

What I thought was that when Regina found the matchbook, well magicked it and handed it over to Belle, she implanted the suggestion in her memory that she was Lacey.  When in fact Regina had her locked up as Belle all this time, so when did she get out and have a life as Lacey?  Also the bar was called The Rabbit Hole and we all know the connotations associated with Alice and drugs.  That belle was/could in this place seemed uneasy, rather it was more like an illusion Belle had, as Lacey of being there.  If that makes sense?

Scandal 2.7 "Defiance" Review

Edison (Norm Lewis) recounts the number of women he's dated and tells Olivia (Kerry Washington) all about it, but she's not willing to talk about who she's been with for obvious reasons.  Instead she tells him that "when something big happens in the Senate today, you should be one of the first Senators to show your support."  Edison believes whoever she was with hurt her.  Olivia is saved by the bell and heads in.  David (Joshua Malina) hands James (Dan Butcatinsky) the files on what he's uncovered about the election vote rigging but he doesn't want to pursue the story cos there's nothing to it.  He tells James how Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry) wants to run a pipeline through the middle of the country.   David also leaves a message for Abby.

Olivia is hired by Harold Pierce's son, Skip (Jason London) as his father is going mad, he drives a motorbike through his house and there's their company and his wife, Anne (Patricia McCormack) thinks he's having  a breakdown.  Harold (Chelcie Ross) is living with Jenna (Kate Lang Johnson) an actress who could also be coined a gold digger.  There's an IPO to come out on their company but if they get wind of this then it won't happen.  They decide to get Harold declared unfit so Skip can take over the company.  The judge tells Harrison and Abby that they need an independent assessment from a doctor.

Quinn (Katie Lowes) questions Huck (Guillermo Diaz) on the drug he would use to put someone like Harold to sleep and then they could put him in the closet and take him out of the house later.  Huck tells her M99, so she's convinced there is such a drug.  Of course she's conducting her own inquiries into what happened to her and how she ended up from Sonoma to DC.

Mellie (Bellamy Young) is throwing Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) a party with friends for his birthday and then a gala later on.  Here Fitz mentions Defiance, Ohio and how that town came through with them in the election and James recalls reading about defiance in David's file.  Jenna tells Harrison to call for a doctor since Harold is sick and then when they arrive inside they find the couple are married.  The doctor was one of theology.  Now she's his next of kin, he can't be committed without her consent.   James finds out how the voting machines would be rigged.  If someone voted for one candidate five times the receipts would show this, but the final tally would show the real result.  The machines have a memory card.  When he arrives he finds none of the machines have a card, but one is missing.  It's t a school and here he prints out receipts and finds the final tally reads Fitz and Langston's name on it.

Fitz is handed more surveillance photos on Olivia and he sees her with Edison together.  He told them to stop the surveillance but he can' help showing his anger.  Harold shoots Skip in the arm and Olivia tells Harrison to deal with it, he can do it.  Harold was saving Skip from the heartache and lack of enjoyment in running a company and didn't want him to become like him.  Whereas Skip loves working there, so they were each doing what they believed the other wanted.  They give a press conference cancelling the IPO.  Edison is voted the head of the Senate as the Whitehouse publicly backs Hawley, something which Hollis was against.  He threatens Cyrus (Jeff Perry) that he will take them down and Cyrus is relieved Fitz has finally moved on.  Which he hasn't.

Quinn finds out it's possible to take passengers onto a private jet without naming the passengers and she thinks someone put her on this, she finds a jet in the name of Verna Thornton (Debra Mooney) Olivia's client.  Mellie and Fitz arrive at the gala but she changes her mind and doesn't want to go in.  He tells her Olivia isn't his mistress anymore and exits the car before saying, "you can't always get what you want."  Repeating what she said to him when he was against the gala.  As they walk out, a shot is fired and hits Fitz.  Olivia tells Edison there was someone but he's in the past and she doesn't want to talk about him.  Yes but for how long, especially now this has happened.

SO plenty of suspects , Hollis being the most obvious, then you've got the Sudan crisis and also Mellie too, as she changes her mind at the last minute and doesn't want to leave the car.  Of course it could just be nerves on her part or maybe she knows what's coming, just like Olivia knew what was going to happen in the senate.

CSI:NY 9.3 "2,918 Miles" Review

                                            
Mac (Gary Sinise) chases a man down a busy street and is finally caught by him, he tells Mac to take it easy but he replies, "I'm not from around here."  Cue back drop of San Francisco.

72 Hours Earlier
A DB of  man is found at Brooklyn Bridge and he is identified as Ethan (Sean Harmon).  There was no wallet but Flack (Eddie Cahill) IDed him from a tag on his backpack.  Inside was an envelope containing photos which looks like a DB of a girl.  Hawkes )Hill Harper) says COD is exsanguination as a result of stab wounds.

Jo (Sela Ward) is in her apartment and going at it with some man when she hears a noise, taking her gun she investigates and finds Ellie (Sydney Park) in the kitchen with a boy, Jordan (Colton Shires) she was meant to be at a party downstairs but came back for drinks.  She calls the man a "surfer dude with a hairy chest."

Sid (Robert Joy) tells Mac about the eyes and has found a contact lens in the Vic's hair, probably belonging to the killer, well that was easy.  The DB girl, Mary's (Christina Scherer) parents arrive and Mac tells them he will find out who did this.  They had argued and she presumably ran away, taking the $700 she had saved in her account.  None of them recognize Ethan.

Lindsay (Anna Belknap) analyzes trace to find fooprints which could belong to anyone and she couldn't ID the orange particles she found on EDNA.  Hawkes finds drug paraphernalia.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) comments on getting body armour fro Lucy when she's older.  Sid arrives for his jaunt out of autopsy which he likes to do for a 'photopsy' and finds the headwounds could be caused by blunt force trauma, thus COD is most likely cerebral hemorrhaging but he doesn't know if she's faking it, since his daughter tried that with food colouring but there's no way to tell.  They notice the time on the watch and put the photos together according to the time on her watch.  Also in one of the photos Sid notices condensation on the watch which means she could still be alive and was alive when the photo was taken.

Lindsay doesn't find any way to ID the CS but Danny finds a reflection of the Flat Iron building in the broken beer bottle.  This gives them the height of the building and where the photo was taken.  A canvas of the apartments by Lindsay and Lovato (that's all we needed!) (Natalie Martinez) doesn't reveal any CS or wooden floors.  Hey missed my Flack canvassing the apartments, those were fun times never to be had again!! (Except on DVD re-runs!)

Mac IDs the orange paint as being used on the West Coast, thus there are more than one Flat Iron Buildings and this one's in San Francisco.  She needs Cade's (Peter Horton) help in this case as he's FBI and he reluctantly agrees since he's on vacation.  Ellie refuses to talk to Jo about Jordan and doesn't want dinner either.  She finds Jo will do all the talking and Jo doesn't want to talk about Cade either.

Mac watches the surveillance footage of Ethan being attacked, notice the time was stuck on 3.33, that's a nice harkback to Mac and when he used to get those calls at 3.33 in season e episodes.
Mac sees Ethan was there at the wrong time cos the killer was lying in wait for anyone.  He stole the drugs since Ethan didn't have a wallet.  Adam (AJ Buckley) matches the DNA from the contact lens to Boyd Hackman (Jullian Dulce Vida).  Ethan  called a man named Oliver Epps (Trent Garrett) who Mary's parents recognize as attending the same school as her but is 19 and she had a crush on him.   His phone signal is local but the calls were made from the West Coast.

They manage to track down the CS this time and find traces of blood.  Flack and Lovato argue about the Mets and Yankees and who's better, Flack being a Yankee fan since his father steered him in the right direction.  Oh no another repeat of a scene with Angell and Flack before they got together, I mean could they not have done things differently here!  Lovato notices Boyd and is out the door already in an effort to showcase the same stunt from last ep where she trips his bicycle wheel and knocks him over.  I could scream just about now!  Another CSI:NY woman who needs to throw her weight around, barring Jo of course!

Boyd tells them they can't prove it was him from the footage and Flack threatens to set Lovato on him, please do and end our misery so she can be taken away!  But they have his contact lens that's why he can't see.  Adam tells Hawkes he ran away from home three times but never far, once was over a girl but then two other guys showed up.  That's cos his homelife will be revisited in an episode later on.  He thinks it's better with the evil you know.  Adam finds Oliver's prints all over the drug bundle but can't work out the symbol, that's cos it's from the menu, the daisy, also shown in one of the photos.  Jo narrows this down in San Francisco and they find Oliver there.

Mac gives chase to Presidio Park and that's where we came in.  He says Mary wanted to send photos to her parents so she could stay away from them and he also gave her drugs, which would lessen the pain when he hit her over the head with the bottle.  He finally tells them where Mary is and Jo and Mac bring her home. Jo liked the look on her parent's face when they saw her and then tells Mac he'll know the feeling when he and Christine start "plopping out little blonde babies."  Mac walks away.  Jo in front of her computer gets a video call from Cade and she hopes to come down there one day, as she tells Ellie at home.  Ellie is willing to move if she buys her new clothes and Jo can't believe she'd do that for her.

A bit of a routine episode and one that I didn't really get into at all, which is a departure from the norm from me, since I am always into my NY eps.  Guess they could have been in San Francisco longer at least and yes I thought CSI:San Francisco too!  ha.  Have some of the cast moving there, except Lindsay!!

The orange paint used on Golden Gate Bridge was developed in the 1930's, called 'International Orange' and can only be used on the bridge as Mac says.  The title of course refers the distance between New York and San Francisco.  Sid asking Mac if he's familiar with the words of "Heraclitus or Ephesus."  Lovato dressing up Flack's desk in Mets colours was all we needed! Not.

Hey Ethan was played by Sean Harmon, Mark Harmon's son, didn't recognize him there for a minute!  Jo and he r'love' interest came out of the blue, figured she needed someone to give her this personal storyline, since everyone else was getting one this season.  Those Post-Its have been removed from her computer, there were only two there now.  One saying something about 'Employee evaluations in 6 days.'

Once Upon A Time 2.18 "Selfless, Brave and True" Review

                                       
Charming (Josh Dallas) makes breakfast for Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) thinks it's about time she came out of her stage of self pity.  She takes Henry (Jared S Gilmore) to see Neal (Michael Raymond-James) and he hopes he can tell him some stories from the storybook.  Tamara's (Sonequa Martin-Green) coming down and he wants Emma to stay too.  Snow heads to the woods and whilst shooting arrows to vent, she hers a noise and finds part of a broken arrow and a trailer.  Here she chances upon August (Eion Bailey) with the tip of her arrow in his leg.

In Phuket, August's leg is turning to wood and he believes he needs the hospital.  Here he's thought a psycho after he sticks a scalpel into his leg.  On the run someone stops him and tells him he knows someone who can help.  Here he sees a woman drop her phone and this woman turns out to be Tamara.  The Dragon (Tzi Ma) tells August he needs a personal item from him and the necklace he wears will do but also $10,000, which he doesn't have.  He takes his whale necklace but it's the cord that's magic since his father used it when he created him so he could be animated.  August meets Tamara in a bar and of course she tempts him with the money cos it was all a set up from the start, she wasn't dying that much was obvious and tells him the Dragon took her grandmother's photo.  The lure proves too much and August steals the money.  When he's given the potion she shows up and takes it from him, she paid for it.

Emma tells Neal to be honest about her and tell Tamara where he comes from, after small talk over bagels, like Henry asking how they met, he spilt coffee on her blouse and gave her his scarf, sense another set up here, Emma leaves and Neal tells her where he's from, showing her the book.  Funny they always manage to show the Hatter's pic in there!  Well we need something as a reminder, seeing as he's not around!

Snow finds he's been living here since the curse broke but he didn't get better, that's why he was missing when Geppetto (Tony Amendola) came to find him.  She wants him to return where they can help him and also to see Emma but he refuses.  He's seeking redemption but can't find any, something close to Snow's heart (no pun) cos she's in search of that too, how to move on from what she did.  Regina (Lana Parrilla) sees Mendel (Ethan Embury) at Granny's diner and thanks him for telling her about Henry in the woods.  He seems familiar though they haven't met.  She tells Snow that the special is blackened sole (soul.) Snow tells Gepetto and Emma about August.

August is missing and that's cos Tamara pays him a visit and tells him the bottle he seeks is in New York and if he leaves now he can have it.  Tamara confronts the dragon in Phuket and he tells her about magic but she doesn't know about him and as he begins to change, into a dragon, presumably, she tasers him, why are these men so weak against women?  August finds him dead and as he drives away, he finds her photo in the car and turns around.  At the sheriff's station he doesn't find Emma, but he calls her and Tamara cuts the wire to the phone and then tasers him too, so underneath all that wood, his heart wasn't wooden, cos she managed to get him too.  Well that sounds better than that taser!

Regina tells Mendel she recalls him as Owen and she kept his keychain he gave her.  His father left after he did and she tells him he's not around and he should leave otherwise he will know what it means to disappear for real.  They find August and he tries to tell Emma about Tamara.  The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) might help after Henry recalls, "selfless, brave and true" which is what August tried to be.  The Blue Fairy turns him back into little Pinocchio and he can't recall what he was telling Emma, well conveniently, otherwise there'd be no story to continue!  Tamara watches and feigns belief in magic.  In New York, August tells Neal he's going to find Emma to break the curse so she can help him and Neal doesn't think it's a good idea cos then his father will recall all about him.  Sorry but he already knew.  Tamara watches and then pretends bumping into him with her coffee.
She pays a visit to Mendel in his room, obviously they're lovers and in on it together, but now we'll get the boring story of how they met, ugh, don't really care!

SO was that meant to have Mulan's dragon, considering he was a bit useless, well he was.  Of course her taser isn't magic but it is made to destroy people connected to magic and look Hook's vanished, cos he'll come to their aid later on.  Though Regina seemed to still have a soft spot for Owen, it's a shame with her magic she couldn't see past this at what he's really like and what he's up to!

August's SFX were kind of brilliant since he could still move around even if he was wood and he was okay living out his life in a trailer in the woods until Snow had to lure him out and Tamara had to show up.  Just cos she's Neal's fiance what made them so sure she'd be okay with magic and she could even be trusted.  I mean look at Emma, and how long it took for her to believe in the entire magic is real scenario.  So naive on their part, just as letting Owen/Mendel wander around town.

Snow slapping Geppetto when he admits there was room in the cupboard for two, thus Snow could have been with Emma, but she understands and apologizes, it wasn't her who hit him, she'd have done the same to be with Emma.  Yes but the entire purposes was to get Emma away from Regina.  Also Emma promising Henry she will never lie to him again as long as he stops pushing her away!  Snow comes clean about wanting Regina to kill her and how her heart is blackened.

Though fans regret August having to become a boy all over again, even if his father can make up for lost time now.  Something Snow and Charming can do with Emma, but she's not a little girl.  Just as well, we can't have all our fave characters being turned into children, next we'll get a little Hook, ha.  Tamara and her conducting every scientific experiment she could on the liquid in the bottle, as if she'll be able to defeat magic with her science or whatever she wants to do.

Did you notice August finds his leg turning to wood at 8.15, when Emma arrived in Storybrooke and the clock was forever stuck at that time, not also mentioning 815 was the number of the flight/plane in Lost, noticed that and blabbed it out too! Ha.  The pages Tamara flicked through in the book showed The Mad Hatter's pic was from the episode 1.17 Hat Trick,  Hansel and Gretel in 1.9 True North and then Bae in 1.8  Desperate Souls.  Snow was listening to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bad Reputation.

Scandal 2.6 "Spies Like US" Review

                                              
A man hurriedly gives an envelope to the mail and when out of sight, he takes out his gun and shoots himself.  The envelope has Olivia's (Kerry Washington) name and address on it.  Olivia listens to the conversation between Abby (Darby Stanchfield) and David (Josh Malina) and wants it handled.  He asks Abby if she wants a drawer here.  Huck (Guillermo Diaz) is with Becky (Susan Pourfar) and he takes photos of her ID, credit cards etc.  Cyrus (Jeff Perry) reads the article James (Dan Bucatinsky) has written on Hollis (Gregg Henry) and he realizes it's a quote straight from Cyrus when he wasn't well.

In the envelope Olivia finds a cheque and a sheet of music, which Huck finds is a coded message containing names of a CIA team, the B613 and lead by Crosby the dead man.  He killed himself in public so Huck would know it was a hit.  But it contains his real name and asking her to protect them.  It means if they have his real name then he must leave and go into hiding, but Olivia is adamant she doesn't want him to leave.  She can help and he gives her 24 hours.  They find the name of a hacker named Sarnoff (Ron Ostrow) and he has done such things in the past.  There are other clients he could be working with and Olivia needs their names.

Sarnoff's lawyer, Barry (Richard Gilliand) is found and Sarnoff talks to Olivia via computer and he tells her they are all spies who have killed in the name of their country and people need to know.  Olivia wants the other five spies brought in as Sarnoff doesn't have the info yet, he's bluffing.  But one of them will give him the info.  Huck sends out a message over the radio for them to come home.

Harrison sees Olivia in her office and asks her what he can do for her, he will do anything cos she sat with him in his cell.  She says it was "my job" but he doesn't want to be seen as her job.  She tells him to break up Abby and David but she can't say why and that Abby was beaten so he has to use tact.  Yeah that was tactful.  Harrison pays off David's ex, Teresa (Jennifer Sommerfield) to make it look like he beat her too, which is a sore subject for Abby.  She finds photos of his ex all bruised and he tells her she fell down the stairs, he didn't touch her.  She then finds one of herself.  David tells her he investigated her before they even were together, but she refuses to give him the benefit of the doubt.  You know what don't care.  Abby rushes in so gung ho, she's meant to see the signs by now isn't she, of abuse and potential abusers since she's been through it herself.  Especially cos of her job and how quick she is to judge others.

Everyone vies for Stephen's office and Olivia doesn't want any of them to have it.  Harrison telling her she's been saving it as is for some reason.  What, she was expecting him back.  Cyrus feigns crying in order for James to not write anymore on Hollis cos his job is in jeopardy and will hurt the President.  After Hollis pays him a visit and tells him to call off James, his wife or whatever they call each other.  Cyrus adding "the things I have to do."  Well we all know about those since last season.

Olivia has Quinn (Katie Lowes) monitor their calls and what they talk about when Huck has planted surveillance cameras in the conference room.  Each of them have made a new life for themselves and want to keep it that way!  Olivia threatens Sarnoff's lawyer that they will come after him cos he knows where Sarnoff is but he claims ignorance.  He does have a bank account which he gives Olivia and this matches a call made by Dr Melvin Feen (Sam Anderson). No big surprise, I suspected it was him from the outset.  There's a stand off as they all pull their spare guns on one another and Harrison must talk them down.  The Swiss bank account numbers match the call he made for a patient's prescription.  Charlie (George Newbern) wants to shoot him but Huck talks him down cos they all have lives now.  But Maggie (Sarah Aldrich) shoots him instead and they clear up the room.

Olivia tries to console Abby who goes on about trusting her and she lets her carry on.  Edison (Norm Lewis) pays her a visit and she cries as they kiss.  The tension is meant to be building up with Olivia doing anything and everything to protect her people, here Abby but it just isn't like Olivia to be that manipulative, and this conspiracy is kind of dragging, what with James having to be muzzled by Cyrus and Abby kept from David, it really is just a way to make us stay tuned without giving away much of anything.

Harrison telling Olivia he's her gladiator.  Oh she has many of them around.  Abby saying she relies on her gut but really seems that's not working here as far as David is concerned.   Her gut was all wrong about him, she sees a couple of photos and cos Teresa gave her a sob story with tears, she couldn't see past the lies as her own life mirrors the same, or so she thought.  Clearly she hasn't moved past her abuse even if it looks as if she has.  She's meant to be an investigator.   This story was more about Huck too and it appears for a moment that Olivia's perfect team is unravelling.  Quinn gets her own office and Charlie calls someone saying he may as well hang around whilst he's back and conduct some business.  So who did he call and will he be used to take out someone involved with Hollis and Cytron?

NCIS Cote's Final Episodes Revealed

                                              
Oh another show we're behind with here, need to wait for the DVDs of season 10 to be released so can catch up on that too.  The first two episodes of season 11 have been revealed though and it seems there may be a reunion on the cards for the entire team, as stated by TVGuide.   Colin hanks will reprise his role and make another beeline for Gibbs (Mark Harmon).

Gary Glasberg comments how Tony (Michael Weatherly) has to look for Ziva (Cote de Pablo) continuing that "...I hope, delivers all the things the Ziva fans are going to want."  Which seems to point to Tony and Ziva actually getting together for a brief moment making the Tiva shippers happy, but not so everyone.
Michael, said, "the will they/won't they is answered.  Tony's going to face his sword of Damacles which has been hanging over him since season 3."  This phrase however suggests Tony being in peril and having to face up to it.  In the Greek cultural legend the sword hung over Damacles as he wanted to taste fortune and power if being a king but ultimately decided that he didn't want it anymore, as it also involved having to face danger.
We can only watch and see, not everyone though...!

Supernatural Season 9

                                                 
Normally I'd have a lot more to say about season 9 of Supernatural but we're just getting through season 8 here and I don't want to read far ahead on it without watching more eps yet.  But I had to mention the new character in season 9 as episode 4 Slumber Party will involve flashes to the 1930's and this character, Dorothy will make an entrance, she's a hunter.  Only she's not meant to be real.  Turns out she may be real. Oh we're not talking about Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz here are we?  Don't know what to say about that, maybe it'll be too surreal if that's the case.

If she is Dorothy then we all know how Supernatural likes to delve into those areas and especially those involving fairytales. Author, L Frank Baum who wrote The Wizard of Oz book, intended it as an American fairytale, but it is also seen as encompassing childhood to adulthood and how dreams need to be reconciled with the reality of life in the real world.  And I will write no more.  It does sound intriguing though and if I'm wrong, well I'll eat all of Dean's (Jensen Ackles) pie!

The Mentalist Season 6 Reveals

                                             
Oh it's August and time once again when I usually delve into a Mentalist article, though this year, this isn't the one I wanted to concentrate on, I wanted to look at the Red John candidates more closely and in depth. Maybe I'll get round to it later.

So Amanda Righetti, who plays Grace Van Pelt and Owain Yeoman, Wayne Rigsby, are rumoured to be leaving The Mentalist after season 6 ends.  Doesn't come as that much of a surprise since Amanda's husband tweeted something along those lines a while back and then deleted the tweet.  But they only just got back together.  As long as they don't get killed off.  Lots of people will miss the Cho (Tim Kang) banter between the two partners, if the rumours prove true

                                           

Also this season is where all the fan's patience comes into its own, and believe me fans have been more than patient when that list of suspects on the Red John list is finally narrowed down and Red John is finally revealed probably by November.  Maybe some are predicting this will mark the end of the show and season 6 will signal its conclusion.  Oh let's hope Channel five in the UK will show it here in October like they always do so we won't have to wait for the spoilers and can actually watch the episode not too far behind the US.  Otherwise there'll be a lot of Mentalist news, tweets etc to be avoided and dodged!

Creator Bruno Heller told TVGuide, "we're bumping off the suspects one by one...some will meet an unhappy end, others will live to the denouement."  Also adding that whether Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) will actually get to kill Red John or not remains to be seen.  (Something I mentioned in an earlier article of mine, from 2011 found here, http://www.popstar.com/News/Shows/Article/1021 )  How Patrick told Lisbon (Robin Tunney) he will kill him and nothing will stand in his way, and she replied she won't let him do that.

As Bruno said this will become a reality now, so it's no longer moot point.  personally I think Patty should torture Red John and watch him squirm, but somehow Red John isn't the type to let torture phase him or affect him even, seeing as he's used to seeing the results of his own punishments on his Vics all too readily.

CSI:NY 9.2 "Where There's Smoke" Review

                                             
The episode begins with Leonard Brooks (Rob Morrow) talking about the first fire he started to his shrink and how he felt in control.  Today, he traps a woman in a lift and sets it on fire.  When Mac (Gary Sinise) et al arrive, he watches them from outside in his truck, makes you wonder why no one else saw him, I mean all the area's a CS right, not just the lift and surrounding area.  Said Vic is burnt to a crisp and Jo (Sela ward) is horrified at what she's seen, Mac calls it "a torture chamber."   Noticing the pipes across the roof is where the fire started.  Flack (Eddie Cahill) IDs the Vic as Rita and security footage shows Leonard at the scene.   Mac and the team go to Leonard's apartment but he's not there.  Flack wonders what he's up to and Mac responds he had "fifteen long years to plan it."  The phone rings and Mac replies to it as Flack looks through the window but sees no signs of him anywhere.  Oh Flack looking through the window again!  Leonard tells Mac this Vic wasn't innocent.  Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Lindsay (Anna Belknap) process the scene and she finds a hidden camera.

Sid (Robert Joy) conducts the autopsy and finds her internal organs weren't really damaged even though her DB was charred.  The heat was strong enough to kill her but she wasn't burnt by a single flame.   Hawkes (Hill Harper) notices she's wearing a personalized pendant, "To Jen with Love."  Jo ponders why Leonard has started killing people now when he only set fires to damage property.

A new officer arrives at the precinct (groan, ok huge groan)  another Det Angell, only give me Angell (Emmanuelle Vaugier) anyday, at least she was pretty and had a sense of humour to boot.  She and Flack were made for each other.  Apparently Flack was the only one who was meant to be impressed with her skills, what trip over suspect with a chair and give him the boot, not likely.  Oh and give me Lorelei Martins (from The Mentalist anyday too!!  Emanuelle Chiriqui had spunk!)  But Det Jamie Lovato  (Natalie Martinez) is tooooo Angell, even her red suit!!  Yeah I'm possessive of Flack!! ha.  Anyway she demands a desk and excuse me if the Watch Commander handles that why wasn't she expected to have a desk before she arrived, after working narcotics and having her cover blown! For another storyline.

Mac tells Flack that Rita wasn't her real name which is why Flack wasn't able to find anything on her and he finds it difficult to tell him to put out a bulletin, he has to say he needs to send out her face over the wire.  She was hiding from Leonard.  Who watches a man in a park eat his lunch.  He finds his sandwich distasteful and then takes a sip of water, before he falls to the ground.  The DB, Jimmy was suffering from hypoglycemic shock and he was burnt alive from the inside.  Flack sees Leonard on the surveillance cameras in the park.  Lovato finds their connection, Jimmy and Rita were related.  She was a nurse and would have been appointed to look after Leonard.

Lindsay tells Mac that Jimmy was killed by ingesting caesium which was added to his mayonnaise and when he drank the water, this set off the digestive juices in his stomach and reacted to form hydrochloric acid and he burned on the inside.  The deli is where Jimmy used to buy his lunch everday and is opposite where Leonard lives.  Eeww who'd want to get a sandwich from someone looking like Leonard, I mean personal hygiene, general appearance, yuck!  Jo watches endless tapes of Leonard's sessions with his shrink, trying to determine what set him off in the first place, or rather who.  Danny says Jane Fonda wants her workout tapes back and that he doesn't care what his problems are, no one can do something like this.   Also telling Jo he's worried about Mac.  She thinks he's resilient and has done well to return to work relatively unscathed.  My problem here is that Danny has known Mac longer than Jo and if he's worried about him, then she should have taken this on board.

Flack with a smidgen (ha) of help from Lovato finds Rita's real name was Jennifer Brooks (Victoria Hoffman) and she was his foster mother, along with another boy, Jimmy.  So he killed them both, he must have suffered something horrific after his father's death between the ages of 9-12 to make him the way he is. Danny tells them of Rachel (Cara Pifko) she was another foster child.  Adam (AJ Buckley) traces her to a rehab clinic.  Leonard feigns a fire at the rehab clinic and during the confusion of the smoke, he kidnaps Rachel.  Hawkes finds trace at the scene as well as bottles of ammonia/bleach.  So he made it look like there was a fire.  Hawkes finds the trace was silver nitrate but it came back as being ten years old.  Mac inferring it's used for treating burns.

Jo tells Mac about how Leonard spoke of a deer in the castle and how hunters were after it.  Mac infers St Aiden's was the castle and Leonard was the deer.  Jennifer was a burns unit nurse at St Aiden's.  Leonard was abused by his mother and Rachel used to see him, the furnace being on full blast so that's his attraction to fire.  Jennifer did nothing.  Flack and Mac arrive in time to save Jennifer as we get Flack going for a flying leap to get the lighter away from Leonard.  When Jimmy showed up, he thought he'd help him but he abused him too so he wouldn't suffer the same punishment.

Lovato gets her desk with a plant and Flack tells her there's a pool going betting on who will last the longest, her or the plant.  Oh boring, no really and what's it worse is this was going to be the last series and we got lumbered with Lovato as a love interest for Flack, hoping it doesn't go anywhere!!

Leonard is reading Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and feels the sunlight in his cell, he takes his glasses off and starts to burn the page, then puts the fire out!  Apparently the deli where Jimmy got his sandwich, Birabaum's is meant to be Mac's fave deli as mentioned in 6.17 Pot of Gold.  Where he met Aubrey.  So obviously Mac won't recall the name of it since he's got memory problems, he couldn't recall Christine's fave dish either last ep.

Flack's funny lines: "Turns out Brooks has no known friends or associates, which doesn't shock me having met the man."  Danny surprised Cher had a work out video!  Of course Leonard was going to have some sort of mother complex/issues, it's always related to one parent or another and mother is the obvious choice.

There are a growing number of people on twitter who really think they have a licence to be horrible to people who don't like the same characters as they do on this show.  Which is downright out of order.  Not everyone has the same tastes or has to be a sheep and follow suit.  I don't like Lindsay and I've always admitted as much in my reviews.  Everyone has an opinion which shouldn't be open to abuse by others.  I find this highly troubling, no I'm not going to mention any names but there was one who was abusive towards me and I said let it rip, cos I'm gonna give you hell!!  Stupid woman!!  Apparently she doesn't like it either when someone tweets Carmine or Eddie as if she's got dibs on them both too!!

Once Upon A Time 2.17 "Welcome to Storybrooke" Review

Father and son camp out in the woods when a storm approaches, infact it's a purple storm, i.e the curse and when it's gone they find a new town which isn't even on the map.  Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) welcomes them to Storybrooke.  They need their car fixed.

1983 Regina (Lana Parrilla) wakes looking pleased with herself, she managed to cast the curse as all the inhabitants of Fairytale land are transported here, the nifty thing being they don't recall anything about who they really are, aside from Regina of course.  Regina going for that little black number, which she hasn't seen before in her neck of the woods!

Regina finds Gold (Robert Carlyle) here to pay his respects to Cora but she's hell bent on revenge.  She blames him for everything since he made Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) trick Regina into helping kill her mother.  It was him or her.  He however tells her Cora removed her heart for power and this made her dangerous, which is what Regina has and thus makes her more dangerous.  He warns the others of Regina's intentions and Henry's (Jared S Gilmore) still miffed no one will tell him the truth and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) thinks it's about time he knew.

Regina wakes in 1983 again, see time and fashion stood still in Storybrooke as Regina still wears now what she wore back then.  She walks out to see Ghepetto  (Tony Amendola) fixing the sign above his shop, Gold walking past with his walking stick, Granny (Beverley Elliott) scolding Red (Meghan Ory) "When I put over-easy on the menu I meant the eggs."   As Red dresses in her short shorts!  Archie Hopper  (Raphael Sbarge) saying hello to her and bumping into Snow/Mary Margaret.

Regina ends up at the school and Snow releases a bird which flies into its house outside and tells the children about if you love someone you will find them, of course that was Snow and Charming's  (Josh Dallas) line. Regina asks Snow how long she's been working at the school but she doesn't recall.  Then takes her to the hospital to see Charming, John Doe, no one knows him, as she smirks at Snow not knowing who he is. Snow then begins to volunteer at the hospital just to see Charming.  Regina wakes again with the sheriff beside her and is fed up of this continuous 'groundhog day' she's made for herself.  She goes to Gold' shop and needs something from him but he can't recall anything either, at least he feigns not to recall but we know he does and did remember everything since the curse was his doing.  At least he looked like he remembered.

All those knick knacks in his shop, all relating to the residents in some form or another, that ship, was that a reference to Hook, then the mobile which was hanging over Emma's crib in the Pilot episode.  Didn't get a look at the painting behind Regina though.  Gold with a teapot?

At Granny's Diner Regina sees the same father and son and they need a place to stay.  Kurt (John Pyper-Ferguson) mentions the Boss in New Jersey and his car isn't ready yet.  Regina takes a shine to his son, Owen (Benjamin Stockham). (Knew Owen was Greg Mendel he had to be since they were the only other outsiders who entered Storybrooke!  Besides I'm good with stuff like that.)  Owen gives her a keychain he's made and that seals it really, she has to have him now.  She invites Kurt and Owen to dinner where she serves, you've guessed it, lasagna!  Then tells Owen he can help her with dessert, apple turnovers, all those apples and she only made three!  Ha.  He's just lost his mother, as has Regina and he would like to stay here. She tells him part of his heart is missing.  Kurt refuses to stay since they belong in New Jersey.

Thus she concocts her dastardly plan of making Owen stay by getting the sheriff to arrest his father on a DUI by speaking to his heart which she keeps in a box.  Only Kurt catches her in the act and she tries to explain it's not what he thinks.  Hey Sheriff got there quickly to arrest him.  He manages to run and after a chase through the town, he's stopped at the town line.  Kurt tells Owen to run and the keychain he has means he will always be with him.  Regina tries to stop Owen but he leaves, promising to find his father.  Owen brings back the State troopers but Regina uses magic to hide the sign.

Emma takes Henry to see his father cos she thinks it's better if he goes to New York with him since there's no magic there and Regina can't cast her love potion spell to make him love her, which she found in her mother's dress.  Gold also tells Charming that's what she'll do and fulfils his bargain, so he doesn't need to help them anymore.  Charming telling him he's family now and what about Henry.  Well he sees Henry as a liability, as we recall that's what the Seer said to him, that the boy will be his downfall, so he pretty much doesn't care about Henry.  Who runs away after Bae lets him go to the bathroom with his backpack. Emma reminding him he's his son.

Ruby thinks he may have gone it the mine but they find missing dynamite as Henry thinks the only way to solve this is by getting rid of magic.  On the way he bumps into Mendel (Ethan Embury) which really wasn't a coincidence who's gathering evidence on his camera phone.  He calls Regina and tells her where he is.  At the wising well where she makes the dynamite disappear.  Henry thinks it's magic that's at fault but Emma tells him people are bad too.  He talks Regian round who burns the spell.  Recall that happened in the episode where Emma and Snow where to return through the well and Regina backed down then too after listening to Henry.

Gold tells Snow his job is done and she asks how he lives with all the bad things he's done, replying, if you think it's cos they had to be done for long enough you start believing it!  Snow goes to Regina and she wants her to kill her.  She won't cos Henry won't forgive her and tells her the problem with her is she forgets her mistakes, taking out Snow's heart and showing her the blackness she's put there, which will grow and grow, even blacker and darker.  Owen being there, I mean Mendel taking photos of this too.  As we're shown his keychain when he gets into his car.  Also next episode Tamara arrives so we know they're up to something.

I like how this episode went right back to show us what happened after the curse kicked in as it made it so realistic and put things into perspective, that what was it all for really if there's no one there to share in Regina's victory but also she's really living a meaningless existence, even Gold feigns memory loss which was funny, cos we're meant to believe that too, only we know he had his special word which made Regina do what he wants.  Or was this only after he saw Emma at Granny's for the first time and his memories returned when he heard her name, Emma Swan.  That's a little hard to believe though, that he couldn't recall until Emma came to town.

Oh remember when Regina blamed Gold for not keeping his deal, he tells her he only broke one deal in his life and it wasn't this one, that must have referring to Cora, when he changed the deal in her contract. The Miller's Daughter.  Also he went to Archie for advice on how to deal with August whom he mistook to be Bae and he told home to be 'honest.'  Well, that's what he did he New York.  Isn't it great how all these little snippets from past episodes all add up and are even relevant to current episodes of the show.  As long as we recall them.  In The Stranger.

Also Gold wanted August to make Emma believe she is the Saviour and for this plan to work, August found Bae and made him leave Emma since he wanted no part in being found but his father, Gold.  See Tallahassee. Which kind of made me go off a tangent since this review is about episode 17! Ha.  She said it, Regina's fave word, and mine too, "destroy."  Yes it's been too long! Also telling Snow to "get off my porch!"