Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 7 Review

                                              
As the Dowager (Maggie Smith) and Rosamund (Samantha Bond) talk of Edith (Laura Carmichael) leaving so abruptly and how they didn't find out until they got back from the races, she was gone, the Dowager thinks they should tell Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) before someone else does and she finds out they kept it a secret from them.  Rosamund asks if they should also tell Robert (Hugh Bonneville) but the Dowager replies that he's a man and he doesn't have rights.  That's what I said last ep, that they should have told Cora before.  The others talk about how Rose (Lily James) invited Atticus (Max Barber) and his family for dinner, with Charles (Julian Ovenden) Mabel (Catherine Steadman) and Gillingham (Tom Cullen) already there too and Charles suggests they should leave the family alone to talk about their 'secret' crisis.  With the Dowager saying she would like to go for a walk too with Cora and she can show her around the flowers.  Alas too late, as Thomas (Robert James-Collier) tells Cora she has a visitor, Mrs Drew.  The look Rosamund and the Dowager give each other is one to remember.  It was bound to happen, no sooner had she said it, that someone else would get in first.

Robert tells the Dowager he'll take her for a walk, but she responds, "why would I want to take a walk?"  Mary (Michelle Dockery) being tactless as usual and so uncaring about her sister again. "Why the song and dance, Edith has gone away, so what?"  Charles tells Gillingham he should just call it quits with Mary, but he feels she doesn't want that and he can't do that to her for obvious reasons.  Charles replying he knows what Gillingham means and he should just marry Mabel cos that's all that she wants.

Cora is angry at Rosamund and the Dowager as they tell her the whole story about Edith and the baby and how she wanted to get rid of it but decided to keep it and that's why the trip to Switzerland.  The Dowager thought she'd give it up but didn't, also that finding out about Michael's death must have triggered her to take Marigold.  Cora doesn't feel she can trust the Dowager again and later tells her this.

Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) overhears Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) ask Mary about the train ticket she gave her which could prove Bates's (Brendan Coyle) innocence.  Showing he didn't go to London and feels bad about having to talk to the police about them.  But Anna (Joanne Froggatt)and Bates didn't like her doing that even after she apologizes for doing it, but she can't bring herself to tell them the real reason, which Thomas tells her she should do and also Molesley (Kevin Doyle) says the same. Yet she feels shame about it and couldn't open up to them too.

At the dinner Isabel (Penelope Wilton) makes her announcement about her engagement to Merton and everyone is pleased except for the Dowager, of course but she tells Mary she's worried about Edith, though Mary can't understand why she would be.  Lord Sinderby (James Faulkner) is very much not happy with Rose and Atticus and asks Cora how she is able to carry on with their own religion and bring up children too.  Cora also says they kept their name unlike him.  But his wife, Lady Sinderby (Pennie Downie) is more open to Rose and Atticus being together.  Which it appears Robert is too as he tells her Shrimpie would be open to the marriage if they got together, but her mother wouldn't.  Atticus also suggests that someone needs to ring the publishing company as that's probably where Edith is, of course no one else thought about that.

Cora is determined to go to London and Rosamund agrees to go with her. The receptionist insists that Edith isn't here and they close at six so Cora says they'll stay here until then.  Edith walks in the door not knowing what's happening but doesn't want to talk about it, thinking that Rosamund broke her confidence, but it was actually Mrs Drew.  She takes them to a teashop and doesn't want to come home.  She's decided on going to America but would rather Marigold be raised here and Cora wants her back at Downton, but she doesn't want to deal with Robert or Mary looking down on her, yeah Mary can talk with everything she's been up to lately, well from the outset.  Cora says Robert should be told and in time he will accept her.  But she doesn't want to, so Cora goes back to Edith's original idea about taking her in as the Drew's can no longer look after her.

Mary heads for London as Charles has an idea on how she can get rid of Gillingham once and for all, at a cinema, which he calls, kinema.  Anna and Bates resolve to see the condition of the house his mother left him and then maybe rent it out again.  He believes her about Mary's stuff and they think the business with Green is over.  Anna adding that maybe some people are meant to wait longer before having children.

Robert is worried about Isis and takes her to the vet on Friday, bringing back news she has cancer. This about the time that they arrive back from London, only Mary and Anna are at the station.  So Drew (Andrew Scarborough) can't take Marigold from them and bring her to the house later.  He helps with the suitcase under the guise of getting onto the train and has to go onto the next station.  Anna of course notices him with the child, cos he couldn't sit on the other side and later she tells Mrs Hughes what she saw and how Drew travelled in a first class carriage.  As if it had anything to do with her or with Mrs Hughes, suppose she'll see Marigold and then make a connection.  Or as I just thought maybe she might want her for herself if she finds out that Marigold is just someone who's been abandoned, well if she couldn't have children.  Then again that'd just be a rehash of the Mrs Drew storyline.

The Dowager is sad as she's losing a companion in Isabel when she marries Merton (Douglas Reith) and Mary tells her that she has them.  But they have their own lives.  Spratt (Jeremy Swift) also declares he's resigning over Denker.  Daisy (Sophie McShera) decides she's disillusioned with the Labour government not making enough inroads for people like her and wants to give up studying, which Molesley says she should carry on with.  That was kind of true to life, you know Labour government disillusionment, well any political party disillusionment more like! Ha.  He thinks Mr Mason (Paul Copley) might have a different response to her decision and writes to him.  He invites them over and Molesley thinks Baxter should go too.

At the dinner with Merton, Larry (Charlie Anson) makes a complete ass of himself again, being very rude and vocal about how Isabel is just a commoner and won't fit in with being a leader of the county. To the point where Branson (Allen Leech) loses his temper and tells the 'bastard' to shut up.  Merton asks him to leave but his other son, Tim (Ed Cooper Clarke) wasn't any better, telling Isabel that's why she won't fit in.  They've been spoilt by their mother.  It's any wonder that Branson wanted to get out of the dinner and look after Isis. Robert agrees with Branson though he wouldn't have used that language.  Downstairs, Molesley has fun spreading the gossip around, until Carson (Jim Carter) breaks it up.

Atticus proposes to Rose, but there'll be trouble ahead with his father.  Isabel has doubts about the marriage and can't talk to Merton about it now.  Robert agrees to Marigold staying, but leaves it to Cora to decide.  Branson also tells Robert he's thinking of leaving for Boston where he may do well and Robert hopes it's not cos of them he's leaving.  When he speaks with Sibbie, it's clear she wouldn't like to leave here either.  It takes Gillingham to see Mary and Charles kissing before he gets the message Mary really doesn't want him.  Though Charles is being packed off to Poland for almost a year, so she won't see him, do we smell shades of World War II soon, perhaps?  You know all this talk of the Labour government being a failure and Daisy thinking they won't last a year.

Just waiting for the reveal on Edith's Marigold for the series finale, but guess they may save it for next series of there is one.  It appears Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) seems to have Carson wrapped round her finger when it came to asking time off for Molesley and Daisy, as does Mrs Hughes, and she tells Anna about their plans to buy a house together for rental purposes.

Doctor Who 8.11 "Dark Water" Review

                                               
Clara (Jenna Coleman) calls, Danny (Sam Anderson) telling him to "shut up, shut up, shut up." As she needs to tell him things about her, her secrets after she' stuck Post Its everywhere, like Miniature Clara, Boneless, etc. deciding she doesn't want to lie anymore.  He walks in the park and she tells him that she loves him.  Not just something you'd say casually but really loves him.  He's it for her, he's the only one she'll say those words to, then she can't hear him on the other end and she tries to speak but he doesn't reply.  Cos obviously we knew he was going to get knocked down by a car.  Did you hear the tapping on the phone. The four knocks, signature of the Master, the four beat sounds of the drums which he called "the drums of war."  Which In the End of Time was described to be the heartbeats of a Time Lord.  Or maybe it was just me who thought that.  A woman then answers the phone and says he's not there, he got run over by a car out of nowhere.  Yeah how realistic a coincidence was that.  He was a soldier, survived the war, came home, got run over after meeting Clara.

Clara runs to the scene with ambulances everywhere, then her clothes change and we see a memorial for Danny.  With the voice of the  headmaster of the school breaking the news to everyone and how it was obvious that he and Clara were an item.  She's at home when the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) calls her, but she lets it ring.  Talking to an old woman about what's happened.  Then she finally answers the phone but doesn't tell him what's happened.  He was busy so couldn't call her back.  She gets onto the TARDIS and takes all of the Doctor's keys, asking him about his sleep patch cos she needs one as she can't sleep.  He asks her where she wants to go, she want to see a volcano, the lava.  After talking all the keys, she knocks him out with one of the patches.

She stands at the edge of the lave flow and drops a key into the lava cos he told her that's how to destroy his keys.  She wants him to bring Danny back, go back in time cos time can be altered.  But he refuses saying it can't, it needs to be precise.  If he goes back in time,then she won't be here telling him to bring Danny back.  She throws another key into the lava and then all of the keys.  All seven. He tells her she hasn't thrown them all and to look at her hand.  She has a patch on the palm of her hand and he says they're not sleeping patches they just induce a dream-like state.

Danny reaches the Promised Land, The Nethersphere.  Where he's asked by Seb (Chris Addison) if he wants a cup of coffee, the good stuff will take a while, as well as needing to fill in some forms and if he wants to be cremated.  He doesn't want that but he's never thought about it.  But Seb opens the door to shout there's a burner for room 12.  Danny doesn't quite realize he's dead, or where he is, so Seb has to explain a few things to him.  Like why he's cold, as his body can still feel things from the other place, about his soul being here.

The Doctor agrees to help her find Danny even though she betrayed him cos he cares about her.  "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference."  Even if there will be all these paradoxes.  As long as she doesn't do that thing with her eyes.  He doesn't know how she can make them so big.  She needs to tune herself into the TARDIS so she can locate Danny.  She was able to do that before when she found him, found Danny as a boy in 8.4 Listen; so the TARDIS will take them to his location.  The TARDIS moves and the Doctor says the thinks TARDIS thinks Danny's somewhere.  They come to a mausoleum, where the Doctor says this is where her and Danny's paths will intersect.

They see skeletons behind glass tanks and he wonders what tanks would be doing in a mausoleum. He takes a virtual cube out of a book which tells them about what they do here, the 3W programme. But he knows there's someone behind the glass and asks if it's easy to read backwards.  Missy (Michelle Gomez) reveals herself but describes herself as being a robot. The Doctor isn't aware of what they offer here so she kisses him to make sure he receives the 3W package news.  Asking Clara if she'd like the same.  She's very intimate and tells the Doctor she has a heart too and it's maintained by the Doctor, him asking "Doctor Who."  Yes that line again! ha.  She puts his hand to her heart. Which is maintained by Dr Chang (Andrew Leung).  Clara having to tell the Doctor to can put his hand down now.   Dr Chang takes them away to show them more and the skeletons turn and watch them.

He talks of  Dr Skarosa who was the mastermind behind the programme.  They don't know what this is but then they shouldn't be here.  The Doctor uses his psychic paper again and it's another government inspection.  Chang asking why all the swearing there.  The Doctor replies he's very angry.  Clara will be allowed to speak with whomever she's lost.  He says that Dr Skarosa found some voices through the white noise and he heard actual people.  One of them saying he doesn't want to get cremated. Showing that the afterlife doesn't mean death, but their conscience still goes on and they feel pain. The Doctor adding that Dr Skarosa was an idiot. Clara gets to speak with Danny as the Doctor wants to find out more since something isn't right and he feels he knows Missy.  Telling her to ask Danny questions only he would know.

Seb tells Danny there's someone here to see him.  Asking him if he ever killed anyone as a soldier. Flashback to Danny as a soldier and he opens the door to a house where he shoots inside.  A boy sits with him and he doesn't let Danny touch him, then leaves.  Danny's sorry.  He obviously had killed someone which is why he evaded the question on his first day at school.  That's why he no longer wanted to be a soldier, but to teach children instead, to change their lives in some way.

Clara questions Danny but he can't tell her anything, except she can't come here cos there's only one way she can be here.  He doesn't know what to say to her questions.  Missy tells the Doctor he knows her.  She kills Chang after she hears something nice from him, which he shouldn't have said and kept himself alive longer, but there you have it.  He gets vapourized and Missy sets the tanks to drain, talking of how she got to make the Cybermen through cyberspace.  The Doctor tries to make a run for it and uses the Sonic to open the door and finds they're in London, St Paul's.

Clara can't get Danny to say anything to her so she disconnects from him.  Seb giving him the iPad back with the delete button on it.  What he was meant to say, other than 'I love you,' was what she said to him, that he's the only one for her, but obviously he didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Missy reveals her two hearts like him, but she's not a Time Lord, a Time Lady and Missy is short for Mistress as opposed to the master.  The Doctor runs around trying to get people to get away as the Cybermen walk down the steps.  Dr in the tank also reveals himself and Clara calls for the Doctor.

Oh darn they gave away the Cybermen with that characteristic music of theirs.  If you've read my past Doctor Who reviews, you'll know what I mean as I describe it as music from Carry On Screaming. Eeww, the Master kissing the Doctor!  Lots of quotes from Missy, such as, "the key strategic weakness of the human race, the dead outnumber the living."  So ample material for creating Cybermen.  Also it was expected she was the Master, speculation and rumours aside.  3W referring to "3 words" as Chang tells them.  Those three words being, "don't cremate me."

Think Steven Moffat has an obsession with swimming pools, another Sherlock reference, me thinks, ha. Especially for the series 1 finale, The Great Game.  The Dark Water being the liquid that was able to have an effect on organic matter.  Which Chang says they should use for swimming pools.  As for Clara's "Danny I love you and you're the last person who's ever gonna hear me say that."  That was a dark foreboding if ever there was one.  If you hadn't already guessed, Clara was in the dream-induced state, not the Doctor as she thought and we were meant to think too.

I wouldn't exactly call Steven Moffat's foray into the question of the afterlife and whether people actually feel pain, as being scary or cold, it's just questions that have been asked for a long while now, yet not really put into such a context in such a show.

Chasing Spirits: The Building of the Ghost Adventures Crew Nick Groff with Jeff Belanger Review

                                                   
Not a conventional book review as I didn't find this book to be conventional in the normal sense of the word.  Above all I found this book to be so very candid and honest.  A true reflection of Nick in many ways and what he's really like as a person.  Reading his personal moments, some of them were exactly that, it was like reading about someone you've not only known from watching the show, but someone you've known as a friend for many years.  It is funny, eye opening, revealing and all the other adjectives that can be associated with this and yes it did feel like having a face to face conversation with him, or a one to one.  In many ways, it was almost autobiographical.

A revealing insight into his own personal experiences with the paranormal, as well as having a family who were also into this too.
Nick and Veronique's 'love story' was moving and emotional, at the same time, it's just how you'd picture Nick proposing, so sweet!  As was how they supported each other through the good times and the tough, how it should be.  Even how she helped to come up with the name of the show, Ghost Adventures (GA).

Above all, I think from reading Chasing Spirits, Nick is an excellent role model for never giving up. Always following your heart and getting around obstacles in one's life. A testament to how he was not only raised and brought up, but how he understands both human beings, what we as a society are like; our shortcomings and the paranormal world too. So tech savvy too, I wouldn't even know where to start!

The GA story and how the show was conceptualized and actually made it to air was exciting to read. As was the fact it was Nick's baby and how committed to getting his vision, his thoughts and his dream onto air!  The sacrifices he made, but never gave up even through all the adversity and how the cards were stacked against him. And then the rest of the GAC when they got on board.  All coming together and getting the best people out there on board with him and Aaron Goodwin was the funny, goofy, fun loving one. Though I would like to watch Nick on screen more!

I loved how Nick wrote about the stuff that didn't make it to air, the unseen footage cos it couldn't be shown, or the bits that shouldn't be shown. Cos you can't get everything into a 42 minute show. Especially cases like the Moon River Brewery investigation.  Where it was apparent, something wasn't quite right with him.  Don't know Nick personally, but have seen him enough to know when something's not right with him and the moment this happened was obviously seen on camera.  He just wasn't himself.  It was the same in the King's Tavern ep and when they returned to Goldfield ep when he was clearly out of it and even Mark Constantino noticed.  These sorts of moments make the show, they're very personal to those involved and can have a devastating effect if they go unchecked.  As well as being seen as a reality check on many levels. It's so easy for people to close themselves off from such experiences and beliefs.

The apparition he came face to face to in Linda Vista was also eye opening, that one moment of destiny in his life that made him aware of how to live more and get the most out of life, was touching and again contributed to the sort of person that he is now.  Generous, gracious, compassionate, modest and accepting of others, as well as other ghost shows.  Each show has their own style, yes but Ghost Adventures hits it home for me, cos of the presentation, the content and the investigation itself, as well as the GAC.  They're not ramming their thoughts down our throats, but there's a great balance of history, some fun and joking around, the equipment used and their findings.  Which really makes you think about that particular episode and what may have happened in the past, with their evidence backing it up.  I know that I like to analyze and discuss and that's what part of the appeal is for watching the show.  It opens up thoughts and discussions, or at least it should for all who watch. (That's my opinion rammed down your throats! ha.)

Sometimes I referred to this as Chasing Shadows, oops, (maybe in my mind I was) but I think Nick should write a follow up to this and that'd be an apt title. There's so much more he has to say, I feel and his terrific, narrative style is so interesting, thought provoking, without being 'in your face.'  He doesn't force you to believe in anything you don't want to, or to take his side, just giving you his views and opinions and leaving us to decide where we lay our convictions.   Nick really has an ear for storytelling and an eye for detail and Chasing Spirits was hilarious and amusing in many ways and just as serious, speaking to issues and concerning the questions affecting the afterlife and the possibilities this could encompass.

As for saying people might think the book is a way of cashing in, let them, this was far from a money-making 'scheme' but was riveting and I have always believed books on certain topics are always written to enlighten, entertain or both.  If Nick writes another then sign me up cos I'll be the first one in the queue!

So inspiring and humble too, words to live by in one of Nick's recent tweets:
"Life is about learning through good & bad experiences...both have made me a better person. We live in a world where negative people try so hard to ruin others lives. Negative people will say they are your friend & congratulate you one day, than the next day do the exact opposite through jealousy & hatred. It's disgusting. Don't ever let someone try & destroy your life. Be real, honest & stay positive. I'm extremely happy today from the choices I've made."
The world's a better place for having someone like Nick!

Questions I'd ask: when Nick recalled the shadowy figure he saw at his childhood home, but had forgotten about, whether he went back overtime to find out who it was.  Whether he thought that his house is or always was haunted, or did this figure he 'chanced' upon was there due to his near death experience?

Would like them to go back to Winchester Mystery House, but maybe that's just me, always wanted to go here since watching it in Monumental Mysteries and not cos it was named 'Winchester' (Supernatural fans will get the connection! ha.) However, I wonder if the spirit calling out Nick's name even before the experiment they started was from the Old Washoe Club, whether there was this 'communication' between the spirits, knowing they would reach out to them in this way.

Of course there are more questions but don't want to get carried away! Ha.  This is a review after all, of sorts!

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!