CSI 14.22 "Dead in his Tracks" aka "Last Days of Jim Brass" Review

                                                 
1989 Three boys come to their hideout and discover a wounded man inside who's been shot and some loot from a robbery.  The man points his gun at them, but dies before he can shoot.  The boys find money in the bags as well as a lion statue.  The CSIs are called to a nearby CS present day and Nick (George Eads) tells David (David Berman) how the DB won't be making the 3:10 to Yuma.  The man was shot and is IDed as Ben O'Malley.  Sheriff Combs (Grainger Hines) tells them that he used to know the boy when he was little and he had two other friends.  Nick and Sara (Jorga Fox) also find a torn piece of a map which she thinks could be a treasure map.  As well as finding a partial print on the map which Sara finds had a tented arch.  Nick commenting on how when he was young it was all about oil in Texas, not solar power.

Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) gets a call informing him Ellie (Teal Redmann) has tried to kill herself and he heads to the hospital to see her.  He's left waiting outside and thinks it may have been an attempt for her to get a reduced sentence claiming insanity.  As he later tells Sara, maybe it would have been better if she just passed.  Sara saying he's not responsible for anything that she did and he shouldn't blame himself.

The robbery took place at a house of a mob boss and Greg (Eric Szmanda) recalls mob boss Michael Scarno when he was writing his book on Vegas mobsters, there's Greg's book mentioned again, they like to bring it up now and then, after they left us hanging for a long while as to whether he had actually published it or not.  Ben and his brother, Paul carried out the heist and Paul died in his cell after he was arrested. Scotty's (Justin Ellings) glasses are found and they match the partial print that Sara also found. Leading to Sam Bishop (Treat Williams).  He was a deputy who worked with the sheriff and he was fired from his job.  Nick and Greg go to his house to arrest him and find all sorts of files and forensics items in his basement.  The photo was taken by Sam with a weather balloon, even before the use of drones as DB  (Ted Danson) tells him.  He wishes he could have fund Scotty and DB knows he was paid by Scarno to find his money.  But Sam claims he was always looking for Scotty and he needed the money to support Karen (Gina Holden).

Morgan (Elizabeth Harnois) and Hodges (Wallace Langham)  use the photo which Sam had a negative of and she uses GPS satellite map to find the exact location on the map now.  Greg and Sara find the imprint of the statue in the funny shaped crater and also a bone in a tennis shoe, which Sara posits could be Scotty.  The sheriff arrives and is perturbed that they're stealing his thunder and it's still his case.  Sara tells him that it's their case and they'll keep him informed, taking the evidence with them.  Sam says Scotty's mother knew he was dead already but she couldn't grieve without knowing the truth as DB tells Sam.  Doc (Robert David Hall) finds dental records confirms the remains are Scotty's.  He saw fractures and indents and impact compressions, Scotty was struck or fell.   Sam says the imprint matches the base of the statue.  DB inferring they were hiding their murder weapon.

Brass wonders how he and Ellie "got here, to this place" and ponders whether it was cos he wasn't her real father and she resented him for that, since they didn't share that natural bond.  Maybe cos they didn't love each other, but he loved her and helped her out everytime she was in trouble.

Hodges has discovered a secret between the most beautiful woman in history, Cleopatra, not Kate Upton as Henry thinks.  13 minerals from the Dead Sea not found anywhere in the world, the sample for Dead Sea minerals and that's why Henry's DNA extraction failed.  That's the lotion that Karen wears.  Nick thinks she dug up Scotty's grave for that treasure and she tells Nick she was only looking for the statue with Roger (Alex Mendoza).  They would share it and he was looking for her father's aerial photo.  It was worth something.  She thought she was owed after everything her father went through with this case.  She claims that the statue was already gone, inferring someone else killed Scotty, but obviously you can tell she was lying.  She claims she left Roger there with the shovel too.

Sam makes a replica of a statue and wants to test his theory that the sheriff killed Scotty, so using his weight and build he can see if he struck the fatal blow.  DB thinks they can do better in the lab.  So Greg and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) use some sort of covering on the skull so that they can use the same one over and over and the trauma would be simulated by the computer. The height is more than 5' and doesn't match the sheriff at all and the killer was left handed.  Well obviously he didn't do it.  Sam recalls there was a pitcher he used to coach, Tyson (Kiko Ellsworth). Lo and behold, he crushes a can with his left hand and throws it in the trash when Nick arrives.  

Ben was dead and Tyson decided they wanted the money, and Roger went along with it, but Scotty wanted to do the right thing.  Tyson pushes him and outside they have another altercation and Tyson hits him with the statue, but tells Nick he wasn't dead.  Karen turned up and told them a car was coming, it was Paul.  He lost his temper, he was only a child but the money was so much.  Karen put her hand over his mouth to muffle his sounds and he couldn't breathe, so she smothered him.  Nick tells Karen she killed Scotty and she doesn't have an ounce of remorse, it was them or him and it was better that Scotty died.  They hid the money under Roger's grandmother's porch but the house burnt down.  That's what's known as karma.  So it was for nothing.  Nick tells her she lied about this and about before.  She's not a child anymore, but a liar.  She wanted a 50/50 cut of the statue but Roger didn't want to give her an even share.  She shot Roger and wanted it all.

Finn says she was 11 but they can't get her for Scotty's murder.  DB says they have to get her for Roger's murder.  Sam brings them the gun she used on Roger.  She hid it in her secret hiding place which she didn't think he knew about.  Sam talks about Karen in the same way Brass would about Ellie.  The statue is also there.  He thought he knew her and they didn't have any secrets but she was hiding the truth from him for 25 years.  "You do everything you can for your kid,...including the part where they break your heart."

The swelling in Ellie's brain is reduced and she's not alright cos it's "not possible" as she shows him the handcuffs.  He's not prepared to give up on her.  There's always been something wrong with her she tells him.  He's tried to let her go, but can't.  She's all he has.  Brass and DB share a drink in his office, he spoke to Ellie for four hours, the first time in 15 years.  They need each other.  He must trust her cos she's got no one else.  He wants to be there for her.  Brass wants to figure some things out, in other words his resignation!  Not that we're told this in so many words.
                                              
So this marked the exit of Brass and actually, he deserved a much better send off than this, I mean he didn't even feature in the episode.  'Oh let's leave him hanging out at the hospital' for an entire episode and not let him go out in a blaze of glory after 14 years on the show, or give him his key note character one liners!  Which were excellent. It would seem that even if he really loves Ellie deep down, she did kill his wife, her mother and she still has no remorse or regrets for what she did.  She was family, but would he really forgive her so easily.

As for this ep, once again it felt like it was all done before.  Childhood friends turning on one another all for money and greed.  When at the end of the day they didn't even get to spend the money, let alone keep it.  Where did Karen come from, out of nowhere when she was warning them about the car.  Finn's blooper, she calls the boy Scotty Gates but in the newspaper article she shows DB, he's actually named Scotty Pope.

It appears Sam was just written in to show his dedication to the job, just as Brass was, then how his daughter betrayed him too and didn't live up to his expectations for her.  He really was a mirror image of Brass, as were Karen and Ellie of each other. Two sides of the same coin.  Only difference being Karen was Sam's flesh and blood and Ellie was adopted, so it really doesn't matter when it comes down to it, if someone is bad, they will be bad, irrespective of nature or nurture. Gonna miss Brass and Paul!

Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 6 Review

Once more at the breakfast table, Edith (Laura Carmichael) receives a telegram which as we know has news about Michael.  His editor will be coming over in person and everyone knows it's just confirming the inevitable, that Michael is dead.  Infact he has been dead for over a year now; as Robert (Hugh Bonneville) tells Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) who's having breakfast in bed and really Robert is like he can't even bear to look at his wife.  He's still reeling over her so called non existent assignation over Bricker.  As she later reminds him, he can come back to their bed otherwise she asks him if he's ever really felt anything or flirted with anyone else.  Yes, very hypocritical of Robert, has he forgotten the incident with the maid, who was in awe over him.

It's as everyone confirmed and Michael was dead, killed at the time of the Beer hall Putsch in Munich in 1923.  Hitler has been arrested but won't serve any time for it.  Edith goes for a walk and Cora asks Robert if she should see her.  As if she needs his permission, she's her mother isn't she.  Mary (Michelle Dockery) is 'up herself' as usual, if I can use that phrase!  She knows what the news will be and yet she just can't force herself to be civil to her sister, cos once again, it's all about her and her own life.  Making comments and putting Edith down again.  How long did it take for her to get over Matthew.

Apparently the staff all hear about the editor coming down and Carson (Jim Carter) says it's bad news otherwise he wouldn't come down in person and would just telephone.  Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) is taking a final look at the cottage and taking Mrs Hughes (Phyliss Logan) with her.  Mrs Hughes asks Carson to come and she realizes it's kind of an olive branch and will put behind the business of the war memorial.  Mrs Patmore doesn't mind if he wants to go.  Having seen the cottage, she finally decides she wants to take it, spruce it up and then live in it herself when she retires.  Giving Carson an idea of his own to buy a property with Mrs Hughes as a business venture and they can rent it out and share the rental.  Mrs Hughes smiles at it, oh just get the two of them together already!

Rose (Lily James) is having Atticus (down for the races and Mary gets a new haircut, is that all. Edith loses it when everyone talks about the race and how Charles (Julian Ovenden) and Gillingham (Tom Cullen) will also be there and Cora suggests how they should come down to stay at Downton. Charles putting his plan into action to get Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman) back together with Gillingham, as she woos him all over again. It's apparent he didn't really want Mary after all and it was just Mary trying to get her own way with another man and 'steal' him away cos she could.  She even says this to Lane Fox on the actual day of the race.  That she can't let him get away too easily!
Isabel (Penelope Wilton) also has an answer for Merton and again she is going to accept him, but she doesn't want to tell the Dowager (Maggie Smith) yet until she can break the news to everyone together.

The Dowager seems to be having problems with her new maid, Denker (Sue Johnston) and Spratt (Jeremy Swift) is completely resentful of her, she wants the laundry done at the main house since it's not the duties of a lady's maid to wash up.  Police inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) returns with the sergeant and this time they have questions for Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) though she doesn't know why.  They ask her whether she knows of Bates (Brendan Coyle) travelling to London and if he went or not.  Threatening her that if she refuses to cooperate she will serve out the remainder of her sentence for theft.  Which Mrs Hughes is shocked to hear about.  She had heard something about it, but she couldn't say for sure who went to London or not.  She asks how they know and reply they were sent a letter.  We all know who sent that letter, Thomas (Rob James-Collier)!  Mrs Hughes asks Baxter one question, if Cora knows of the theft and she replies she does.  of course if she was a thief, she could have just lied about it.

Then Thomas has the audacity to ask Baxter for help.  After having another dig at Bates when Anna (Joanne Froggatt) tells him he doesn't look well, telling Bates he's indifferent to him cos he's the same way about him too.  He shows Baxter the abscess on his back and she wants him to see Doctor Clarkson (David Robb).  He tells him to stop injecting himself with saline solution and it's not the 'fix' he's been lead to think will cure his homosexuality.  So in effect he was taken for a fool and Baxter says she won't hold that against him, cos if he put his mind to it, he could achieve anything he wants.  Which is what Daisy (Sophie McShera) is doing.  Though she can't stop doting on Bunting! Molesley (Kevin Doyle) offers to help her with history cos he could have become a teacher but his father couldn't afford to keep up his education, but if he can help her get through, then that'll be good enough.

The Dowager sees Prince Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) to tell him about the princess and she finds his quarters rather dingy of course.  He recalls their assignations and she wishes to leave all that in the past.  Not even taking a sip of the tea he made for her.  Her lady's maid is very forward, wonder how she puts up with her.  Edith decides she wants to leave and take Marigold with her, especially since Mrs Drew (Emma Lowndes) refuses to let her see Marigold after the news she received.  Edith also losing it when Atticus (Matt Barber) is at Downton when Mary shows off her new hairstyle, which she got from a hairdresser who isn't even French, oh if only she knew, that'd take her down a peg or two! Ha.  Edith tells Atticus he may as well find out what they're really like now.  Mary not having an ounce of sympathy, but she's not berated for it.  Infact Cora doesn't even see if Edith is okay this time either.

Edith tries to write a letter but she can't put any words to paper.  Though she wants to tell Branson (Allen Leech) she can't do that either even if he would understand her.  Just asking him to say goodbye for her and for them not to change him.  Bates finds Mary's book at the house after Anna's forgotten her button box there and as said by me, he gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks she doesn't want his children cos she believes him to be a murderer.  She thinks she means his wife, but he means Green.  He knew it was him who attacked her, especially when Green mentioned going down to the kitchen.  He bought a ticket to London from York, but didn't go.  He knew he'd kill Green and he didn't want to be hanged and to let Anna go through that.  Anna recalls the coat she gave away for the Russians and the ticket inside the pocket, cos as I said last time, you really give things away without checking the pockets (well on TV you do).  She reminds Mrs  Hughes of this and she threw the ticket away when she found it.  It would have proven he didn't go to London since it was whole and not in two halves, as it would've been if he had travelled there.  Anna regretting the only thing that could prove Bates innocent and she gave it away.

The family return to find Edith is gone and the Dowager has an idea where she could be.  Edith shows Mrs Drew the birth certificate withe her name on it even if its' in French, which she rips up. but she has other copies.  Taking Marigold to London, she's going to celebrate with champagne and ice cream.  The Dowager arrives too late and Drew (Andrew Scarborough) doesn't know where she's gone.  Well, someone's going to catch up to her. She can afford to got it alone as she's been left the publishing business.

Oh just when it was looking like Anna could have killed Green, it's not turning out that way.  That would've been a good story.  Also looks like it was probably an accident in the end, or not, as I keep mentioning.  This series has been a bit of a let down in terms of reception and already turning to plots covered in the previous series. Like Robert and his affections for the hired help and berating Cora now for being completely innocent of Bricker's affections towards her.

Doctor Who 8.10 "In the Forest of the Night" Review

                                      
A girl walks though a forest and finally comes to the TARDIS, as she knocks on the door, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) opens it and she tells him she needs help, she needs a Doctor.  He brings her in and finds that they are in London and the forest has grown overnight.  Elsewhere the school party begins to get ready to leave and neither Clara (Jenna Coleman) nor Danny (Sam Anderson) have realized that the girl is missing. They open the door of the museum but it's surrounded by trees. Planet earth no longer is a mass of countries and sea but is all green.  One ep for the environmentalists this one.

The Doctor finds he's at Trafalgar Square and the lion is wooden so there's no way the Sonic will work.  Clara is called by the Doctor and tells her about the girl and she's with him.  Her name is Maebh (Abigal Eames) and she tells him to look after her.  His response, "I'm a Doctor not a childminder."  Though it's a bit funny he doesn't ask her who told her to find the Doctor, when he first tells him she needs the Doctor.  The school party finally comes across the TARDIS and enter it. Being children, their hands would go everywhere and it's the Doctor who has to control them, not Clara or Danny, so much for being teachers.  Surprising a PE, I mean, Maths teacher would accompany them to the museum, wouldn't it have been a history teacher.  Well that's what happened when we were at school.  Anyway, that aside and the fact that Clara was meant to call their parents but didn't cos she was side tracked by the Doctor, she thought she was getting one up on him by telling him how London is covered in trees.  He already knew.  Danny finds the exercise books in the TARDIS so knows that Clara has been seeing him and keeping it from Danny.  Maebh's book had a drawing of the sun and trees.

They search for Maebh and the Doctor thinks she's probably leaving breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel, seems he's been reading again.  Clara adding they'll find her in a house made of gingerbread with a cannibal witch.  Then makes a comment about how these are the stories that would give them nightmares in the night. Er, I didn't get any such nightmares from reading fairytales and the like, did anyone?  Meanwhile there's news reports of how the tress have affected other countries and the government Cobra committee has been set up to 'fight' the trees.  Their solution is to burn a path through them.  Has the government ever come up with realistic solutions that actually work. Rhetorical question! ha.

They comes across these men who set fire to the tress but ii doesn't burn.  The fire is extinguished.  Maebh comes across animals escaped from the zoo and walks through the gate to save herself when Clara wants to reach out and get her.  She's chased by wolves who are chased away by a tiger and Danny catches up to them and flashes torch light in the tiger's eye.  Maebh disappears again and they run after her, she's waving her arms in front of her and they think she should have her medication. She's got issues as her sister, Annabelle going missing and their solution was to medicate her.

They find Maebh and she tries to send the trees back but she can't stop it.  The Doctor realizes earth will be affected by the solar flare, just as the Bank of Karabraxos was in Time Heist.  There's nothing they can do to save them.  He uses his sonic to dissipate the lights and they speak trough Maebh, telling him they've been here for an eternity really and through all their human wars, after which they will still be here.  They're not here to harm them.  Maebh tells them Clara's thoughts led her to the Doctor, couldn't she say thought properly, sounded like 'fought.'  Clara convinces the Doctor he can use the TARDIS as a lifeboat and can save some of the people.  It was a way for her to lure the Doctor there and she tells him he should go and the human race can save itself now.  That he should go somewhere else and save them.  He adds he also walks here and breathes their air.  She convinced him to come here to save people otherwise he wouldn't have come.  These children need to be with their parents she tells him and they will always want them.

The Doctor realizes there's a way to save the planet and that the trees build up oxygen and will release it when the solar flare passes, thus saving the planet.  The Tunguska incident in 1908 which didn't blow the whole planet off its axis, so it's happened before and so they can still be saved.  The impact will burn off the excess oxygen in the atmosphere.  However Danny tells them the government is planning on spraying defoliating agent on the leaves.  This is another useless attempt by the government to rid the trees.  The Doctor must warn them but Maebh says she started it, so she wants to do it.  Reading out a message to the world to leave the trees alone.

There's lots of references to Danny being a soldier again, okay only one, but he says it again this time, as if we didn't know already by now.  He doesn't want to see what he's lost but the things that are in front of him.  He doesn't want to see the solar flare but his life is here.  The children want their mums too.  "Fear a little bit less, trust a little bit more," as he quotes Maebe to Clara.   He wants to know the truth even if he doesn't like it.

Then the Doctor mentions lying again as a direct reference to what Clara has been doing and even Danny now knows she's been spending time with the Doctor but keeping it from him.  A bit of a comedic romp through London covered in trees and also poor Nelson losing his other arm too when his Column collapsed!  Clara introduces the class to the Doctor, but do they mean to say that they didn't already know about him with his stint as the caretaker.

As they watch the solar flares being soaked up by the oxygen like an airbag, Missy (Michelle Gomez) also watches again, who else.  Clara wonders how they'll explain an overnight forest disappearing the next day and he says they'll forget.  They forget their fears and turn them into fairy stories, if they remembered then superpowers would stop having wars, having babies.  As Maebe returns home with her mother, the hydrangeas disappear to reveal Annabel (Eloise Barnes).

The TARDIS telling the Doctor "you have reached your destination" over and over when he thinks he had to be somewhere else.  This ep was a reversal of the last one where the Boneless were harming everyone here and had evil intentions.  Here the trees are the opposite and are here protecting the earth as they have done so over the years.  Though it takes a while for this to click for the Doctor that Earth has been through this and survived.  Forgot to add the Doctor referring to Clara's face as being too round again! Ha.

The next episode looks good especially as we need to know the truth about Clara and seems Missy is behind all this.  Has she been manipulating everyone form the outset and as soon as we met Clara? Okay I'm just observing, ha.

Doctor Who 8.9 "Flatline" Review

                                              
A man on a phone calls the police for help as he tells them to listen.  The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) brings Clara (Jenna Coleman) home at the exact moment she left, well, exact moment-ish and realizes he can't do that.  He also works out that Danny (Sam Anderson) doesn't know she's been with him, cos really she gives herself away.  Clara points out the TARDIS door to him and notices it's smaller in size.  Climbing out of the door, or just about managing to, the TARDIS is now the size of a Wendy house (I want one of those - a TARDIS that size not a Wendy house! ha!)  Clara realizing they're in Bristol and not even close to home, but he's more interested in the size. She heads out to investigate anything from the area and comes across a mural painted on some tunnels, also a memorial where flowers have been laid and photos.

A boy who is Rigsy (Jovian wade) asks her who she's lost, as he's lost his aunt, showing her the back of her on the mural.  Returning to the TARDIS she now finds it's shrunk even further and he pokes his head through the door.  The Doctor gives her the Sonic and his psychic paper as she may need it and she remarks how she's the Doctor now.  Well she could be and would've made a good Doctor I think. She has to also carry the TARDIS in her bag (think most people have one of those miniature sized ones around!)

She meets Rigsy again who asks where she is from and who she is, saying she's a Doctor, well not really but it sounds important enough.   He takes her to the missing man's flat which has been sealed off by the police and she doesn't notice the pattern on the wall, I used pattern, but it's' not that.  Clara speaks to the Doctor and he thinks Rigsy will be good to have around for local knowledge.  Telling her not to scare him off.  She puts the TARDIS on the mantle, so that he can hear along with her and she shows him the Doctor inside, Rigsy saying it's bigger on the inside, which even the Doctor thinks about again.  Also asking if they're aliens, Clara responding the Doctor is.  Clara thinks the man may have shrunk, with the Doctor commenting he may have been squished by the police already.

Rigsy mentions something which gets the Doctor thinking and realizes they may be in the walls. Clara talks with PC Forrest (Jessica Hayles) (appropriate name, or not) about being from MI5 and that they could be in the walls, as she brings along a sledge hammer.   Erm, guessing that didn't come out of her bag! ha.  Forrest speaks on the phone in the other room and says there's something happening here, but she doesn't hear her.  Forrest is sucked through the floor.  Clara hears her scream, took her a bit long and she finds her gone.  The Doctor notices the mural on the wall is a pattern of her nervous system, as it resembles a forest, so she's in the wall.  Then the door closes and the handle vanishes, or rather becomes flat.  As things from the room start disappearing, Rigsy gets onto the chair suspended from the ceiling.  The window being an option out of the room, which the Doctor tells her to use.

Just then Danny had to call of course and she's late for their 'boring' meeting on the park bench.  She denies that she's with the Doctor and here she definitely becomes like the Doctor and lies.  Again the Doctor finding out firsthand how he sounds like all those times he has lied in his attempts to help people or to put their minds at ease.  She manages to get the chair to swing and crash through the window and will call him later.

Rigsy returns late from his lunch and one of the men is sucked into the wall, whilst their boss doesn't want to listen to her when she tells them to leave here.  Heading to an abandoned railway siding, the Doctor thinks they should try and communicate with them, cos maybe they are trying to do the same and don't realize they're hurting the humans.  Which was futile, all they get are two numbers, 55 which was the man who was sucked in, with Rigsy noticing it's the numbers on their jackets.  The next number they speak is 22.  Which is George's (Raj Bajraj) number.  Rigsy knows his way around here and tells them the only way out is in the tunnels below.  Number 22 then also is sucked through the ground.  "His number's up."

The Doctor tries to work out what's happening and we see the formulas on the board again, haven't seen that board in a while.  Funny line the Doctor calling the community service workers "pudding brains;" well they kind of were, especially their boss, who had to do everything by the book, remember the old phrase, "it was more than his job's worth."  Well he proved that over and over.  As they follow them, they have to get to the tunnels and boss manages to throw the TARDIS out of Clara's hands down onto the track below.  The Doctor tries to find a solution and comes up with a device that will make the 2D objects become 3D.

Aka Doctor Who's foray into zombies, well the way they walked and crept around was strikingly similar.  Also thought of A-Ha's Take On Me Video for the zombie like appearances and movement of the 'things.'  I liked the reversal of everything being bigger on the inside than the outside, cos it was a visual point more easily shown when he handed Clara the Sonic and other things, which popped out actual size, showing that the TARDIS was still bigger on the inside even minuscule sized. The Doctor realizing there's a train fast approaching and he's stuck on the track.  Clara tells him to do "The Addams Family;" so he knew what that was.  When he pokes his hand out of the TARDIS and walks the TARDIS to safety, but finally falling back onto the track when he thinks he's made it.   Knew that was coming and er, the Doctor knowing what she meant when she said that,       don't know if that came as a shock or not.

Anyway the device works and the door handle becomes 3D so they can open it and get through, and can reverse it back to 2D, but not for long, as the creatures have also now evolved into 3D themselves.  Clara gets a brainwave of what they need to do, as the TARDIS needs power and life support is running out inside.

She gets Rigsy to paint a mural and it's of a non existent door, she's getting energy through the wall from the creatures and is sending it to the TARDIS, which gets replenished.  The TARDIS returns to 'normal' size and enters the tunnel, he gives them a speech about them not knowing who the humans are, about harming the people but he's protecting the plane and he's sending them back to their own dimension, whatever that may be.  He's the Doctor and he uses his Sonic to send them away, calling them the "Boneless."  Well could have said spineless but they didn't have any bones, spineless would've been suited to their cowardice.

So Clara says she heard him say she did a good job as the Doctor but he won't say that now.  Even if she wants him to say it again.  She now knows what he has to do as the Doctor.  He wants Rigsy to keep painting and will be interested in knowing what he does next.  She hangs up on Danny clicking on 'I'm in a meeting' on her phone and the Doctor tells her to talk to "soldier boy."

We see Missy (Michelle Gomez) watching Clara and how she's made a good choice in her Clara.  She has "chosen well."  Yet more in of what's in store for Clara, as long as we get some ending to her backstory and who she really is.  It's been said the miniature TARDIS resembles the Pandorica, will have to compare them now.  

CSI 14.21 "Kitty" Review

                                              
At the CS, the investigation is already underway as Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) takes charge and wants the press to stop broadcasting and wants the dog removed.  Inside a woman has been shot and killed, she's Lee Berman's (Gil Bellows) wife, bigwig owner of a casino who has connections to Ecklie (Marc Vann) and threatens to call him too, when Nick (George Eads) catches up to him.  He finds a gun in his car and an empty bag in the car boot.  Inside the house Doc (Robert David Hall) comes out in person cos he knew her and she was a good woman.  As DB (Ted Danson) later tells him, the good always pay for the bad.

Inside, Finn (Elizabeth Shue) takes photos of the CS and Greg (Eric Szmanda) works out how the elaborate security works at the house and how the intruder managed to evade it to shoot her.  DB finds a laptop on the bedroom floor and a woman appears inside of it, then everything disappears.  If Berman had moved out of the house and taken his clothes with him, what was the laptop doing there.
Cue Washington DC and a woman, Ryan Avery (Patricia Arquette) who's interested in Berman and wants to go to Vegas to pursue this case.  She's finally given clearance and has a spat with the pilot of the airplane, thinking she's getting special treatment by her having them fly her there.  She retorts with a witty comeback and he doesn't want to get embarrassed any further and so agrees to take her. Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) finds the bullets from Berman's gun don't match to the 9mm casings left at the CS, even if he did have GSR on his hand when Nick tested him at the CS.  Thus he may have been at the firing range since he's a member.  Berman is shocked that his wife has been killed and when questioned by Brass, his lawyers prevent him from talking.

Avery listens in and wants to ask her own questions, she's from FBI Cybercrimes and is a behavioural scientist.  She watches Berman's pupils enlarge when she shows him a photo of Kitty and she's not here to ask him about his wife.  He makes the lawyers leave and she knows that he was having an online affair with her.  She talks to the rest of the team and calls her own computer analyst, Clikk (Kick Gurry) asking who is into online dating sites.  Nick gives Hodges's (Wallace Langham) name since it's a good name and she finds out he's been on sites but not this particular one.  He explains it's cos of his fiancee, but she doesn't need to know.

Pulling up Kitty on the website, she works out Kitty isn't real but is an avatar.  That's what I said, she didn't look real from her movements.  Also she sees her touch the left side of her face and knows that the person is real, but the person controlling her is behind the scam.  She's used men agents and others to chat with Kitty but she only responds to those who have money.  Avery wants to work with Finn and will be able to use the hard drive to find info.  She finds that Berman was online and was being watched whilst she talked about sex, from which she earlier discovered is all Kitty talked about.  She also finds footage of Berman telling her he's not going to pay anymore and that he wants to meet by the Blue Diamond with the money, but to leave his family alone, when Kitty threatens them.

Nick checks out Berman's car and finds that the empty bag could have been used to make a payoff to the real killer even if he didn't actually kill her.  Also that he manually programmed the address of the Blue Diamond into the car.  Berman admits he was having an affair and was ashamed to mention it before cos he was doing this and his wife got killed cos of it.  They find that he was paying off the cyber criminal to stop him from hurting his wife, but there wasn't any money there and cos he was defiant, he made the man angry and he went after his wife.

Berman is released and is able to pick up his dog, but he says he doesn't own a dog.  The dog is from a shelter and Nick also finds CCTV footage of the man who rescued the dog from the shelter. Hodges and Greg both saying it's Nick with a pooch.  Hodges says that Greg will be looking after her. Hodges manages to find she was a shelter dog from her chip and Nick thinks since the gated community was able to have people walking their dogs, that's how the killer got in.  Security would have thought he was just another man.  They finds the killer's abandoned car at the airport and he's in the wind.  Nick also shows Avery the 'proof of kill' video on the burn phone which she didn't particularly want to watch.

As Berman is released, he sees a woman who is Kitty and calls out to her.  Kitty is actually Susan (Torrey DeVitto) just a wife and mother of two girls who says her face has been plastered all over the news. He took her face and her body to make an avatar and take money from people by running this sex site.  Avery asks her if she's on any social sites and she's on one, 'Friendagenda' but she only knows two people on there.  There's once called Nebula 1, who has been on the site  a number of times.   Avery also tells Susan that she grinds her teeth at night, which is why she touches her face, that's how she knew she was real.  Avery manages to find out what his avatar pic was before Nebula 1 and she asks Nick how often he's changed his avatar, he says once after he shaved his beard off.  Yes noticed there was something different about Nicky! ha.  She comments how Nebula means dark mist.

She looks at his room and Nick notices all the take out boxes in his trash, as well as saying the photo was taken in the dark.  Avery posits he's an agoraphobe who has his food delivered so he can't go out. She asks Nick why he thought the photo was taken in the night and he says cos of the stars outside. Obviously I said they weren't stars but lights and this leads her to the archway.  When officers arrive, he's gone but there's plenty of screens open with men on the sites.  She asks to see the four corners of the room and tells them to run when she sees the camera.  Also knew that explosion was coming, it was that obvious.

Avery is angry she didn't realize before that he wasn't in Vegas and she says DB's killer and her man are in the wind now, she made him go outside.  She finds the only way she can lure him out now is if she uses Susan as bait, but she promised she'd protect her and her daughters.  She makes her give a press conference to lure him out and says that she was used by him and was cyber raped, which is still rape, she wants him to come out and she's not afraid of him.  Avery arrives at her house pretending to be her and he comes up behind her with a gun.  Avery tells him he wants to hurt her but he hasn't used that gun before.  He got the killer to kill Berman's wife, but he threatens to use it now. She makes him use the knife saying he wants to cut her, which he does when he slashes her arm.  She won't use her code word yet, cos she's adding more time to his sentence for assaulting an agent.  She finally says her code word, 'mushroom' and he's arrested.

Avery brings out Susan's husband to visit them from Afghanistan and says she'll be seeing DB again. This was the Pilot ep to new show CSI:Cyber, which Channel 5 will be showing here next year.  Adding a third show to the CSI line of spin offs with CSI:Miami which ran for ten years and CSI:NY which ran for nine and were no longer seen as viable options.  Funny when she was walking to the plane, that music/song being played had a beat of  CSI:Miami "Won't Get Fooled Again" to it. So she's off to investigate a bank robbery where 3C was stolen out of many accounts, adding up to $80 million, will that be the first ep of the new series.

Right will have to remember Nick's line of 'back the bus up!" for future reference when some shocking comment is required! ha.  Seemed like a bit of a routine ep but showing how easy it is to get hacked and info used from social networks and sites.  Sara wasn't in this ep and neither was Henry again.

Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 5 Review

                                                   
Robert (Hugh Bonneville) talks about being away for a Lord Lieutenant's dinner in Sheffield and will have to stay the night, as they also mention a cocktail party being planned at Downton, which Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) prefers as you don't have to sit through several courses of dinner.  Rosamund (Samantha Bond) is staying with them for a while and is here cos of Mary's (Michelle Dockery) faux pas, well putting her foot in it, which she didn't realize she'd done after telling her how Edith (Laura Carmichael) is doting on a child.  Rosamund wants to see Marigold.

Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) has been left money by an aunt and she wants to invest it, even if it's only a £100, so she asks for Carson's (Jim carter) advice.  As she later tells Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) it's cos he's a man and as she replies, they like to make them feel they're useful.  Since she rejects his advice and doesn't want to invest in the building trade, i.e. building houses, which Robert has decided they will do and has probably found a firm to do this, which is the same one Carson recommends to Mrs Patmore.  She decides she'd rather buy a cottage and rent it out, then later take in lodgers.

Thomas (Rob James-Collier) looks the worse for wear, as we still don't know what ails him and he still tells Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) to stay out of his way and is curious about Bates (Brendan Coyle) and Green, as the sergeant returns to question Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Mary with an Inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) from London, you could say, 'an Inspector calls' or not!  He questions Mary about whether Anna could have been in London, as she doesn't know where she was all the time and she mentions how they had to rush to catch the train for a fete here the next day.  That's when Gillingham broke the news and Anna was shocked.   As well as asking if Bates was in York or not.

Anna tells him she liked Green and she wouldn't know about Bates liking him, but everyone has their own tastes.   The Inspector telling her not to leave, but she can go to London, was basically telling her you're under suspicion.  Why didn't he just question Bates himself anyway?  Bates later tells Anna he won't let anyone hurt her again and they'll think of this when they're sitting round the fire with their children around them.  She asking how many children he wants.  Seems that even if the finger of suspicion is pointing at either Anna or Bates right now, it'll turn out to be someone completely different from Green's past or maybe an accident after all.  As I don't really see Downton going down prison territory again as they already covered that with Bates and his ex wife, though he was innocent of killing her.  As I wrote this I just thought of Thomas, could it have been Thomas, putting aside his nosiness, especially as he seems particularly interested in whether the sergeant will be coming back again and if he'll be questioning Anna once more?  Hmm, will have to ponder this further!

Mary has a meeting with Charles (Julien Ovenden) in London and he has invited Miss Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman) (or Slain Fox as I call her) so they can settle this thing with Gillingham once and for all. She loves him and was only jilted cos Mary came along and on both occasions Mary says this isn't her idea.  Firstly, to be here and secondly using her to get Gillingham off Mary's back. Though they do enjoy their lunch together.  It's obvious Mary is more interested in Charles since last series.

Edith take Rosamund to see Marigold and this only gets Mrs Drew's (Emma Lowndes) back up as she's busy and she complains to her husband they're only using her as a toy, now Edith's brought her posh relatives to see her.  Drew (Andrew Scarborough) also tells Edith that if she continues to come around his wife will want to leave the farm and move on, taking Marigold with her.  So effectively his hands are tied.  Yet Edith still wants to do the right thing, she's past that now anyway when she had the baby.  Even if Rosamund and the Dowager (Maggie Smith) find out she's got her here and wants to keep her.  Rosamund suggests school in France and she can visit her, but Edith thinks London.  Cora comes in but doesn't hear their conversation.  It seems Edith should trust her mother on this as Cora's not as stuffy and tied up with tradition as Edith seems to think.  She has progressed more with the times and with society.  It will come out eventually, but for now it's still being dragged out for plot purposes.

Rose (Lily James) buys more cake for the Russians who love their cake and bumps into a banker, Atticus Aldridge (Matt Barber) who tells her his family is also Russian, but they moved here many years ago.  She takes him to the tearoom with her and the second time there, he meets Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) and another man who raves on about him being from Odessa, the time when the Jews were forced to leave there.  He's leaving for London and Rose would like to see him again.  As she tells everyone over dinner.  Shrimpie has found out the Princess may be working as a nurse near Hong Kong, which the Dowager still sees as beneath her.  As well as getting Dr Clarkson (David Robb) to come to lunch and see if Merton (Douglas Reith) is really interested in Isabel (Penelope Wilton) and medicine, or if he is just using her to ease his loneliness.

Also telling Isabel that Spratt (Jeremy swift) is upset cos Collins will be leaving and he'll not have anyone to boss about when she does go.  The luncheon seems to be a success, as Merton talks of iodine and how goitres can be easily cured by its use.  He's just read of it, though he wishes he studied it.  Dr Clarkson and the Dowager both agree he likes Isabel and also is really interested in medicine as he said.

Bunting (Daisy Lewis) is leaving since she's got a job offer at a grammar school and still manages to rile everyone up, Carson this time, when she turns up to tell them.  Funny no one gave Robert the memo, ha.  She tells Daisy (Sophie McShera) to continue studying and also Daisy can't keep her mouth shut and says it's cos Branson (Allen Leech) won't stick up for her.  daisy getting out of her station, ha, when she tells Brason she's leaving and how, "we're the future, they are the past." Being caught by Carson.  So Branson says goodbye to Bunting (could I add good riddance?) and he tells her she reminded him he's not the only socialist still left, as well as saying that his wife was one of them and so's his daughter.  Bunting replies how she loves him, but there's no hope for them.

Baxter tells Molesley (Kevin Doyle) about her story, only since he asks and he tells her she's a victim and shouldn't be so hard on herself, but it appears she still feels guilty and wants to punish herself. Thomas still noses around about the police sergeant and whether he will be back again.  Anna doesn't know, but she hopes he doesn't and Bates asks why he keeps tormenting her, well cos he can.

Bricker (Richard E Grant) is also coming to take photos of the painting for his book and is only using it as an excuse to see Cora again.  Which was a rather funny scene in terms of Robert returning early and having a bawl with him after he finds him in their bedroom.  Well he was just waiting for the moment to lash out at Bricker as soon as he met him.  A little like he'd do the same if Bunting was a man! ha. But anyone would lash out at her, she was so irritating.   Bricker telling him it's his own fault for the way he treats his wife.   So that gave him carte blanche to enter her room uninvited! Next day he was practically thrown out as his suitcase is already in the car and he looks up at Cora watching him through the window.  His own fault, she did tell him to behave! ha.  Robert is then annoyed with Cora as if she was the cause of the kerfuffle so he sleeps in his dressing room.  Then at the cocktail party, he refuses to talk with her.  

Suppose the best bit had to be rose talking about a nudist spa opening in Essex, with the Dowager adding that it's damp there, so it'll be cold for them.  Isobel remarking how they didn't have the Dowager in mind when they opened it.  Oh, they should get their own show!

Supernatural Turns Ten - In Seasons At Least

                                             
Bet you thought I'd let the ten season anniversary of one of my fave shows slip by without the slightest hint of a mention, well you thought wrong.  Supernatural turned 10 on September 13 2014, happy birthday.  Having premiered on 13th September 2005.  Okay I know, at least ten in terms of ten seasons, but hey it's not that far to go before it officially will have been on air for 10 years.  Not so in the UK though, we can't keep anything, if we do, we don't get it for long.  Aired on ITV2, then was bought by SkyLiving which was shortlived.  Cos it then when to some place up in the clouds or rather left die hard British fans in purgatory.

One of the best, enduring show around which had a lot to say to the creator, Eric Kripke and his mind! As well as the superb cast of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.  They were little known when they started out, though to be fair, we did know them in the various shows they appeared in and loved them even back then.  We all recall Jared from Gilmore Girls and Jensen from Dark Angel, Dawson's Creek, Smallville.

He was also in the short lived show Still Life which went disappearing into that black hole somewhere.  Come to think of it, if that had been successful, Jensen wouldn't really have been available for Supernatural, then where would we have been?  Dean...  A bit of a ghostly show in its own right, or could be seen as the forerunner to Desperate Housewives which began 2004, when Mary Alice committed suicide and then came back as narrator.  Well, here Jake, Max's brother (Max played by Jensen) a cop who was murdered on his first day, returns to his family as a narrator.

Supernatural had it all (still does) starting out as two brothers on a quest to find their Dad, John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and what killed their Mom (Samantha Smith).  Which resonated more onto big brother Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) than it did on baby sibling Sam/Sammy (Jared Padalecki) "helping people, hunting things, the family business" has been oft echoed far and wide, from Dean's lips to our own, ah.  Hey steady on there, it doesn't sound like something people may be thinking!

Lots of supernatural cases to solve, based on lore, myths and legends to an extent, was the backbone of this show in the first two seasons at least.  Though demons were on the horizon already with Yellow Eyes/Azazel.   Season 2 when Dad was killed and died.  A massive effect on those of us who were going through much the same thing in their own lives, including me.  It was cathartic to a certain degree.  Everything Sam and Dean were feeling, we felt the same.  All that emotion being played out on screen seemed surreal, almost, but it was real and it was identifying with everything they said.  More than they did.

Season 3 had much the same formula, before we got to Bela working to save her soul having made a deal with the devil.  As well as Ruby, the so-called witch who aimed to help them, though she turned out to be a demon too.  Having a negative impact on Sam and serving to drive a wedge between the two brothers.  Leading Sam astray and into his demon blood drinking antics in season 4: the season which set the brothers apart form each other and driving Dean to despair in not being able to save his brother, trying to hide his disgust at this   Season 4 also heralded (no pun) the angels and their introduction into the show.  Much to many a chagrin from those who protested against the show delving into such areas.  It was inevitable, if it contained demons, angels would never be far behind. An extension of Sam believing, praying and how he followed Mom's own beliefs.

We had vampires, quite a number of them, Dean becoming a vampire, Bobby (Jim Beaver) Ellen (Samantha Ferris) Jo (Alona Tal) Ash (Chad Lindberg) meeting their maternal grandfather Sam (Mitch Pileggi) with secrets of his own, finding out Mom was a hunter too, Castiel (Misha Collins) Crowley (Mark Sheppard) Lucifer (Mark Pelligrino) Ghostfacers, the Leviathan...Let's not forget Baby: the Impala!  Even now coming round full circle with Dean becoming a demon, the very evil he detested from early on in season 1.

Deans's line from the Pilot, "So what are you gonna do?  You gonna live some normal apple pie life, is that it?"
One line, or rather the pie angle which not only became an in joke, but echoed throughout many seasons of the show.  A bit ironic in terms of how something that started off by probably just being  a throwaway line, could garner so much meaning in becoming a character staple for Dean.

We watched the guys grow up in front of us and become part of our family.  The sweetest, most down to earth boys you will ever meet.

Supernatural contains pop culture refs and is as embedded and steeped in pop culture itself as it ever will be.  We've been raving on about this show for a decade and there's no signs of this letting up!
Join in the Supernatural mantra the world over: "carry on my wayward son..."

CSI 14.20 "Consumed" Review

                                                
This ep of CSI begins differently to most eps in that Nick (George Eads) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) are already interviewing a Vic, Owen (Brandon Keener) who claims he had a chunk of his leg removed to be eaten.  He was blindfolded and led to where this happened.  He says that Nick took a bite out of him and we see Nick with blood on his hands and around his mouth as if he really did eat part of his body.  He then changes his mind and says he sounded more like Greg.  He could smell brimstone, but he didn't see his attacker.  Doc (Robert David Hall) calls Nick and shows him the severed arm they found, which had a chunk removed from it like a steak and a serrated steak knife was used to make the cut.  As well as the arm having traces of salt and sage, which Doc adds didn't come from his tasting but Hodge's (Wallace Langham) analysis.  Nick hopes they find the rest of the body and that he will still be alive, which seems pretty unlikely.  Maybe I should substitute pretty for highly unlikely.

Doc then examines the arm and DB (Ted Danson) takes a maggot from the arm, and they determine whoever made the cuts didn't have any medical training.  Nick IDs the arm as belonging to a Dennis Hagel (Sheldon Coolman) and he hopes he turns out to be alive.  Greg checks out Owen and tells DB he spent time on a cannibalistic website.  He has a 'vore' fetish which stands for vorarephilia, a fantasy which involves another person eating them.  Owen tells Greg it was just roleplay but he took it too far.  After contacting him, he picked him up at his home and blindfolded him,  He went along willingly.  When Owen finds out what Dennis did for a living, filming, he directs (no pun) Greg to a website, which has a snuff video showing everywhere.

Sara (Jorga Fox) and Morgan (Elizabeth Harnois) watch this video as a Miss Feed apparently strips to her undies and then a man places an endoscopic camera in her mouth, leading to her stomach.  Sara then notices the edge of the knife as she's stabbed on camera.  Morgan prints frame by frame footage of the video and Sara finds from the stomach contents that she had eaten a doughnut covered hotdog, identifying she got her meal at Hangover Grill and she is IDed from the receipts as Brenda (Heather Ann Davis) with Morgan commenting she's not going there again.  Morgan also tells Sara about a logo on the knife which is Russian.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) talks to DB about his job and how he misses being in the lab, it's a clean job and DB comments his is too, as long as he hasn't been burying bodies in the desert yet.  He can understand why that happened.  He's thinking of giving up being sheriff at the next election, but we somehow know that won't happen.  There's not much evidence for them to go on at the moment.  Morgan and Sara find Brenda's house and her DB, along with Dennis's.  Both of them had chunks removed from their DBs, Dennis specifically had his whole arm removed and it appears that Dennis was stabbed first and is inconsequential.  Her bag is also missing, so Sara thinks the killer is a cannibal, and a thief too.

Hodges tells Greg about reading up on cannibals since he took a cruise in the Caribbean when he was 11 and that the killer saw Brenda as eating all those bodies and thus she contained all their spirits. Her credit card was used by her sister, Colleen (Nicole LaLiberte) but she was in jail when Brenda was killed.  She uses Meth and needed money from her which she wouldn't give her.  Brenda told her she was helping people who couldn't help themselves much like Colleen.

Finn (Elisabeth Shue) has an invite to a party where Brenda was invited and Morgan rushed in asking if she's going on a date with Nick.  Finn assures her it's only a 'work date.'  Why did Morgan look so concerned, well she did.  Nick and Finn enter the property where everyone watches them and appear to be feeding on bloody body parts.  One of the guests who appears to be the host brings out the main course, an apparent DB on a table.  Finn calls for back up and Nick finds it's jello.  The DB wakes up and was paid $100 to be the main course, which Nick tells him will pay for his trespassing of the property.

Finn takes Gary Karlov (Steve Valentine) prints and notices the cufflinks, which have the same logo from the knife.  It's a family crest from his village.  Finn shows him the CS photos and he admits he's got a fetish of being fed on. He shows her his chest where he gave the killer pieces of his own flesh to eat and watched him dine, as well as giving him the knife.  Brenda was helping him get over this fetish and the man, named Eater, didn't like losing his 'food' supply so he killed her.

Gary gives them a sketch of the man which is broadcast on the news, describing him as the devil. Greg works on where the man could be and where Owen was held, as he recalls train sounds, the smell of brimstone which Owen mentioned and could be sulphur from a pesticide factory.  When Sara and Greg arrive there, the place is deserted but they find his table prepared for another meal.

A security man runs inside LVPD saying he has the man handcuffed in his car, but when they arrive, it's empty except for a severed hand in the handcuffs, which is supposed to show he ate his own hand and escaped.  The security man, Todd (Eric Petersen) admits the killer chose him as he threatened his niece and nephew and had their photos.  Also that when you looked at him, he talked you into doing whatever he wanted.  Moments later he has a ceasure and dies of cyanide poisoning, leading Ecklie to say that he was the man as he wanted to be remembered for his crimes.  Finn asks Gary to ID Todd, but he says it's not him, Finn thinking he's lying.  David (David Berman) finds the hand didn't even belong to the killer but to someone else and it was cut, not bitten off from the arm.

DB is angry that Ecklie broadcast the news since they're not even sure he's the killer, but he's made his decision which is also to run for sheriff again.  He thinks Todd and Gary were working as one to spread the myth.  As DB gets a cup of coffee, he spots the killer in the crowd, but bumps into a woman and the killer vanishes.

Yeah, to return another episode, well he had better.  CSI once again delving into the spooky and supernatural with this dark tale of fetish and a man being able to supernaturally control others.  Suppose there could be some truth in the rumours that he could be supernatural and powerful as Hodges says, getting his powers from the spirits of the bodies he consumes, but he's really only going to turn out to be a killer with a fetish gone too far.  Steven Valentine always appears in such macabre eps of shows, he was also into this stuff when he was in Crossing Jordan, as Dr Nigel Townsend. Also Brass and Henry were both missing this ep.  Can't believe that Paul Guilfoyle didn't even get to film a whole season of 22 eps before they 'disposed' of him from the show!