The Vampire Diaries 6.6 "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" Review

                                           
Damon (Ian Somerhalder) can't wait to see Elena (Nina Dobrev) and rekindle the passion, but alas he isn't aware she doesn't feel the same way, until Stefan (Paul Wesley) breaks the news to him.  So he didn't have time for the story of how he got back, it was just Elena on the brain, understandable, but he could've mentioned Bonnie, that way Stefan could've warned him about the new hunter in town, or out of town.  Elena hiding behind a closed, locked door, as if that would really keep him out.  She's compelled to forget him but why did she still act and look like she's still in lust with him, er, love with him.  If she was so determined to forget him and her feelings; that the compulsion worked and she wanted to keep her bad feelings about Damon, why the hesitation.  Why isn't it that Alaric's (Matt Davis) compulsion didn't come undone when he was saved at the end and the 'magic' wore off and he became human? Maybe that's not what happens, but it would've made for a better plotline.  Then Elena could've had no choice in whether she wanted to be uncompelled or not and would have to face her feelings, instead of hiding, not to mention, then it wouldn't be all about her again!

Damon telling Jeremy (Steven r McQueen) that Bonnie is at peace was harsh, especially since he really doesn't know where Bonnie is or whether she survived or not.  It's not like she will give up without a fight and it didn't help Jeremy any, as he practically broke the pool table and smashed the phone, so he can't listen to the message Damon left on the phone.  He was trying to be kind to Jeremy and save him the pain of the truth, that she's gone for a second time and worst of all for him, after saving Damon.  But he should've understood that lying is not the way to go.  Especially when he feels similar to what he's going through cos Elena doesn't want him.  Maybe that's the entire reason why he didn't tell him, as he later told Stefan, he didn't want Elena to be happy, but miserable like him, this applied to Jeremy too.

Enzo (Michael Mularkey) wanted Matt (Zach Roerig) to break him out or else he'll tell Tripp (Colin Ferguson) about Stefan, Caroline (Candace Accola) and who else are vampires, but if Tripp is a hunter, how come he can't already tell.  Just cos Ivy (Emily Chang) had Caroline on speed dial, that doesn't mean she's a vampire too.  A bit silly if you ask me, oh okay, you didn't but...  Matt has to tell the others about Enzo and so Caroline wants to kick his butt for getting caught, but Stefan admits he turned him in to Tripp, thinking he'd kill him.  Again why would he just kill him?  Caroline saying the same thing to Stefan when rescuing him, only to discover he's gone.  Yeah Stefan, which brain were you thinking with when you turned him in, 'upstairs or downstairs brain', as Dean would say!! Supernatural Dean that is! Ha.

Alaric tells Elena about Jo (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) not being compelled and tastes her coffee to find it doesn't contain vervain, so how did she resist his compulsion.  She knows about the girl Elena saved last ep and her 'miraculous' recovery and Elena works out she's a witch and she already knows they're both vampires.  So they leave it at that.  Matt finds Caroline's phone in Tripp's locked drawer, after Sarah (Gabrielle Walsh) opens it and he tells her that Damon and Stefan are her relatives, but they're not good and so they're not her family.

Damon hangs out at Elena's dorm, drawing a silly matchstick men on her photo frame and she calls him telling him she wants to talk.  But Tripp gets there first whilst Damon's prettying himself in the mirror and gives away the game plan, or rather his gameface when he tries to attack him.  Thus he ends up with Enzo in that van and Caroline and Elena and Stefan and Alaric set up roadblocks for the van.  Excuse me, but if you're going to set up a roadblock, why so close to Mystic Falls border? Alaric tells Stefan he's not the only one who gave up on finding Damon, cos he was all consumed with himself, well, thoughts of consuming blood, so he wasn't alone in that.  Elena tells Caroline she wants to be uncompelled, which was news to her.  Didn't look like she took it as good news though since she didn't really react to it.

As Damon and Enzo have a reunion, he tells him he killed Ivy and Stefan turned him in.  The roadblock proves useless as Tripp overpowers Alaric and drives the van across the boundary, overturning it in the process and escaping too.  Enzo and Damon have consumption, as Enzo puts it and Alaric is wounded.  Jo happens to arrive cos she's stalking him and saves him as Stefan rescues Damon and Enzo.  Jo saves Alaric's life and in the process he becomes human.  Did she use magic on him to make him human as she saved his life?  I think she did cos I don't think she's a good witch, if she is a witch, she was very schtum about it all.  Elena not pursuing it further.  What's with all the, 'don't ask about me' and vice versa comment anyway.  It appears Jo knows more about Elena and Alaric than she does about Jo!  Which means her witchy magic may have worked there in Mystic Falls.  Is she a Gemini witch?  Oh I give up making any sense of this! Ha.

Caroline tells Stefan she doesn't want to be friends with him, no, she wants more than just friendship, only Stefan can't see it.  Elena agrees to finally talk with Damon and thinks it's better this way, so maybe she can make her own memories of him, as they meet up at the dorm again.  Nice song, Unbreakable by Jamie Scott, shame it had to be used on Elena, ha!  So that's it, we get our Christmas break, which wasn't fair, we only got 6 eps, we usually get 8 at least!!  Stingy much ITV2?!!

Enzo saying Stefan was jealous of his accent when he turned him over to Tripp.  Damon wanting Alaric to uncompel Elena, he knew he wouldn't get anywhere with that.  Did it seem as though he was going for Alaric's neck, but reached for the bottle instead.  Damon telling Jeremy he's not stalking Elena but lying in wait!!  So was the ep title also a reference to Alaric and Jo.  I honestly don't know why the eps have to be Elena-focused so much.  So boring.  How come Damon has gone back to being so cruel again, messing with Jeremy's emotions and everyone else's too.  What, he can't have Elena so he's not going to tell everyone Bonnie is alive and could get back?

The Vampire Diaries 6.5 "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" Review

                                                
Looks like there's nothing much happening on campus, wait it's another homecoming party, this one's about how Lady Whitman haunts the cornfield in her white, blood stained dress, as Alaric (Matt Davis) tells the students of the tale of falling for your brother's girlfriend, getting caught out and then getting murdered for it, like that wasn't a direct reference to Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder).  A party that Caroline (Candace Accola) misses once again, as Stefan wants her to look after Ivy (Emily Chang) for him while he gets her a daylight ring.  But wait, he blames Caroline for turning her along with Enzo, cos if she hadn't turned up, then he wouldn't have turned her.  Also getting a call from Tripp (Colin Ferguson) who tells him how helpful Enzo's been with providing him info.  Well you didn't see that coming did you Stefan, as I said before.  But he's hellbent on sending everyone on a guilt trip for being the ones who interfered in his life, whilst he wanted a new start and get away from everyone cos he still cant get over Damon.

Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Damon try to get back home and Kai (Chris Wood) makes them dig a hole so they can use the spell underground and be magically transported home.  Bonnie asks to see the spell which he doesn't do.  He goes for supplies and comes back with stuff from 1994 so he doesn't feel homesick.  Bonnie tells him to take her magic cos she's not taking him with her.  He tries to but then she realizes he needs her cos she doesn't know what the spell, is, he needs a Bennett.  Thus Bonnie uses her magic to kill him with the pick axe, or so she thinks.  Damon getting a taste for fizzy, fruity water!

Ivy snaps Caroline's neck cos she turns her back on her and the moral of this story, well would a newly turned vampire really want to play a boardgame (yeah, a bored game, as was this ep!)  Really seems like there's not much left to do here, except keep going round in circles.  Caroline still ruing how Stefan left her and then still doesn't answer his phone.  Or listen to his messages either.  As she tries to tell him Ivy's done a runner.  Ivy runs into a boy and drinks his blood but her compelling skills are zero and so she tells him to run.  Which he does, right into Tyler's (Michael Trevino) truck, who just happens to drive into the cornfield where the party is in full swing and drags the boy with him, as well as injuring some of the students there.

Elena (Nina Dobrev) invites Liam (Marco James) there too, as well as Jo (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) to matchmake her with Alaric and she conveniently had to be there cos otherwise if anyone dies then Tyler will become a werewolf again.  Elena feeds the girl dressed as Lady Whitmore her blood and so saves her life when the new guy in her life, Liam, says she's practically dead.  Alaric pretending to be squeamish at the sight of blood has to help and Jo tells Liv (Penelope Mitchell) and Tyler over the phone, that the boy is dead, practically.  So Live kills him to stop Tyler from being the one who killed him.   Moral of that story don't get distracted by your phone on the road!

Liam notices the girl is still alive and Elena tells him she got better and mysterious things happen, before she tells him he's her type cos he was a "jaw dropping hero" tonight, especially when she sees him save another girl's life by using the old pen in throat ploy to help her breathe.  Jo wants Alaric to kiss her cos she's been waiting for him for a long time, so what's her story, as he tries to compel her to forget him and basically saying he's a drunken loser.  However she kisses him anyway.

Caroline tells Stefan to leave cos she's had enough of him and not reaching Ivy in time she sees her being taken by Tripp.  Oh no, does this mean we're going to get some recriminations and bonding time with Enzo and Ivy!  Stefan feeling sorry for himself again heads to the crypt, Bourbon in tow and talks to his family, barring Damon.  Kai shows up to put a spanner in the woks, or rather an arrow into Bonnie, foiling her attempts to get home and also manages to get one into Damon too. They fight, come on Damon, you weren't seriously getting beaten by a powerless witch!! And Bonnie gets to send Damon home, getting stuck with Kai, as the gadget falls down in pieces.  Just as Stefan thought things couldn't get any bleaker for him and how much he misses his brother, Damon catches the Bourbon bottle as he throws it.  He's here and he's alive, as they hug.  Aww, rude awakening for Elena next ep, but hey let's hope they don't get together (unlikely) and she doesn't make Alaric uncompel her.

Tyler is grateful to Ivy for saving him cos the other boy was already dead and so she saved him.  He will do everything he can to make sure he's worthy of his life being saved.  The title being the same from a song by Wheezer.  More likely it should be, Ivy got turned and now she's left to her own devices with Caroline babysitting! Ha.  Or left Bonnie there, where they can send all the big bads, or Stefan really wants to leave this world.  Let's not hope they spend too long trying to get Bonnie back, but it appears after Bonnie said she didn't really mind being stuck with him here, he'll be instrumental in doing just that.  After he gets the news that Elena couldn't live with him being dead, got compelled, then found a new guy, just like nothing's changed.  You know, you can always get compelled and move on as Alaric said, don't fall in love, the moral of that story being, it applies to him too! Ha.  Though it didn't quite work out that way for him with Jo.  SO it's hugs and kisses all round then, well sort of!

The Vampire Diaries 6.4 "Black Hole Sun" Review

                                                    
Not much in terms of moving the plot or story forward in this ep, another chance for Elena (Nina Dobrev) to feature again and Stefan (Paul Wesley) showing her how to reinvent herself every 30 years.  He doesn't want to face up to losing Damon (Ian Somerhalder) so what's new, but he can't go back home to Mystic Falls cos of the spell and doesn't seem like he wants to even if he could.  Thus he takes Elena back to Savannah showing her what he does at the garage, as well as the meagre pittance of a pay cheque he gets.  It's now time for another booze up, as they feign a wedding proposal and Elena being pregnant.  With Stefan being watched by the man at the bar cos he beat up his brother, but he doesn't recall who that is, so he wants him to beat him up anyway, his way of moving on from Damon.  Also reminding Elena that she wanted to forget him too, that he's not a monster but she remembers him like that cos she had Alaric (Matt Davis) compel her to make her forget him.  She loves him and couldn't cope with losing her soul mate.  But it's not the same for him.

Back in 1994, Kai (Chris Wood) wants to hear what Damon did back then cos unless he does, he's not telling them how to get out of here.  Cue Damon arriving back in Mystic Falls in 1994, wanting to see Stefan and to get back his brother.  Zach (Chris William Martin) their nephew/uncle having set up their house as a boarding house and is also with a woman, Gail (Tadasay Young) who's pregnant. Bonnie (Kat Graham) guesses he killed the pregnant woman, she can't believe he did that, but she doesn't seem too shocked.  Kai acting all innocent and keeping the gadget they need to use when the eclipse is going on to get back home.  Stefan reminds Damon of how he changed him in 1912, then again in 1942, how he killed his best friend in 1977, even though she was trying to help him.  But Damon can't quite give up on the blood lust.

Here he also meets the sheriff (Marguerite MacIntyre) who tells him about her husband and how she wasn't the sheriff yet, but she mentions Caroline.  Damon feeds off Gail and Stefan takes his ring for doing that, being unaware that it's the eclipse and Damon makes it to the house, kills all the guest there and that includes the woman.

Everyone is still searching for Sarah (Gabrielle Walsh) and Matt (Zach Roerig) thinks he can befriend Tripp (Colin Ferguson) and get some info out  of him.  He needs to talk to the sheriff about Jay and Matt tells Tripp that Jay said he was looking for a vampire when he last saw him.  Leading Tripp to take him to Enzo (Michael Malarkey) who's going to tell him the names of everyone else.  You see his wife, Chris was killed by a vampire and he came back to town, thought he'd forgotten everything but his compulsion wore off and he recalled everything.

Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) is taken to hospital for his drunkeness and Alaric can't help seeing the doc, Jo (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) as blood fodder.  But he makes Jeremy see sense and a wake up call by telling him how his wife ran off cos he'd rather be a vampire, how Jenna died, then he died and how he can't stop looking at everyone without thinking about feeding.  Jeremy heads home and finds Sarah, who's found a pic of her mother, said pregnant woman, Gail, and her father.  She was six months premature but she survived and Jeremy tells her that father is Zach Salvatore.

Bonnie finds the paper on the ground which Damon was  making paper planes out of, yeah just wishing he could fly out of there, no doubt, so she was thoroughly bored, along with me, ha.  In which she reads Kai killing his family, a coven of witches and the Gemini coven thought of him as an abomination!  Surprise, surprise, here they find exactly who everyone else was looking for to rescue them.  He tells Damon this isn't his hell, it's Kai's.  He can take Bonnie's magic and get home himself, so they have no choice but to take him with them.  Bonnie realizes that Damon making pancakes everyday is his remorse for killing the woman.  Yet Kai is just a cold blooded killer.

Alaric shows Elena her diary in which she writes about Damon and how she loves him but needs to move on.  He can compel her to remember him but right now, she doesn't want that.  Elena making Stefan realize he needs to face up to losing Damon, which makes him get his car out and start fixing it.  When up pops Ivy (Emily C Chang) who's been attacked by a vampire.

Well Enzo's still around, so Stefan didn't think that Tripp would use him to get info on all of them, which was pretty silly, cos if he really wanted to finish him off, he should've done it himself.  Damon saying he wanted to see Stefan after 50 years cos he felt his humanity.  Then wanting to go on a road trip with him and devour some more people was a bit too hilarious!  Seeing as he killed everyone at the house, was that out of spite now?!  Seems Kai of the Gemini coven everyone was looking for was a bit too convenient being 'planted' right where Bonnie and Damon need him to get back home.

Renew Dallas Now

                                                     
How can something as dull as Falling Skies be renewed and Transporter with 0.22% too, it didn't even get half the ratings of Dallas at 0.47% . There's more going on here than just ratings and demographics, seems the sci-fi element is more of a turn on for execs rather than having a channel devoted to a mix of programmes catering for everyone's needs.

The system of determining renewals or cancellations is archaic too, it shouldn't be about demos anymore.  The survival of a show shouldn't just depend on ratings when in the twenty first century, there is much more to how well a show does or doesn't do.  Tired of seeing that 18-49 demo, yes I fall within it, as do the majority of my US friends and family, but how many 18 year olds are in a position to spend so much on buying products advertized.  Not everyone's made of money and not at that age.
The cancellation of Dallas unfortunately was expected and I have to say I did see it coming.  It's not as if they were given full-on 22 eps per season, so it shouldn't even come to spending too much & getting back very little returns.  TV executives don't know a good thing when they see it these days and quite frankly, a small cable channel was not the right home for such a show.  Agree or disagree it's true.  Such channels do not know how to publicize a show, back it completely, promote it and stick with it for as long as it has fans.  That's why they can't justify renewing something as mundane as Falling Skies (been done before - maybe it's cos of Steven Spielberg) or Transporter when that got renewed with so little ratings. Showing a season in two halves doesn't really help either.  It's not very commonly done in the UK, although we have to wait a while for the season, it is always shown in one go, unless it's aired the same time as the US, which rarely happens.

The executives seem to be adept in ignoring an already established audience, thinking that something new with less quality will attract more viewers to the channel, it may work with that endless reality stream of shows, but drama is completely different.  Firstly you need some intelligence to watch and secondly to keep it going, you need to understand the fans and their needs too.   It's the fans who can make or break a TV show and as a result a TV network too.  We live in a time where fans are very vocal and we have all sorts of social media to help us publicize our cause too.

Old or new, this show has a legacy and can't be so easily and readily forgotten by cancellation!  We at least need a conclusion to the S3 finale.  It appears those Arctic leases left the cold hearts of these TV executives on display, being oblivious to the popularity of the show, which only dwindled due to the network's own mishandling of it.

We need to continue on with the fight for the renewal and #SaveDallas wagon until we get what we want.  I took the following from the piece I wrote for Longmire, but it's equally applicable here!

We want our Dallas back: the cast and crew we all love and have gotten to know as family over the three years. We want to be able to say, 'look, we fans changed the face of TV history - again' by wanting this back.   Just as in the past letter writing campaigns worked for shows like Cagney and Lacey, social media has to work for us. It's not just about one generation or two, this show spans decades and transcends age groups.  How many shows can boast this and how many would want to?  We demand to continue seeing the rolling hills and skies, the characters, the backstabbing, twists and turns through the good times and the bad...

We demand our show back!  #SaveDallas

Our cast: Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Josh Henderson, Jesse Metcalfe,  Juan Pablo Di Pace, Jordana Brewster, Julie Gonzalo, Brenda Strong, Mitch Pileggi, Emma Bell and Judith Light.  
Plus I liked how most of the cast had first names beginning with 'J'!  Cool.

The Vampire Diaries 6.3 "Welcome to Paradise" Review

                                               
This ep once again is about recriminations, past events and yet again Elena (Nina Dobrev) moving on from Damon (Ian Sommerhalder) and trying to get on with her life, operative word being: her life and failing miserably yet again, (I'm going to be guilty of using the word 'again' too many times, ha.)   This time round it's her turn to play Caroline (Candace Accola) as she plans a party for the old gang and invites everyone.  Even Stefan (Paul Wesley) turns up but it's not for the party, or even Caroline, just to get his revenge on Enzo (Michael Mularkey).  Not just for telling him he'll inflict a lifetime of misery on him for Damon, but for killing Ivy.  Which Caroline didn't know about.  Though he's right in that Enzo needs to be curbed from the killing, he appears to go about it the wrong way.  However Enzo really doesn't have a clue if he thinks that saving Stefan from the vampire hunter, Jay (Matthew Barnes) will actually call him even in Stefan's books.  Far from it.  Though Enzo's line was funny, "I just thwarted a vampire hunter and Stefan turned into one," or along those lines!  It's not just Damon who gets the rib cracking one liners!

Then there's Matt (Zach Roerig) realizing he knew Jay since he was ten and he had no idea that he was a vampire hunter and he was training him to kill.  This party really was just another chance for Elena to get a new love interest, I mean how many does she want, or need.  Right about now she's meant to be there for her friends, getting over Bonnie (Kat Graham) which she tells Caroline she hasn't done, as she's still got her clothes, but she's more interested in jello shots like the good old days.  With everyone tip toeing around not mentioning Damon and how madly she loved him.  Poor Damon not knowing she's forgotten him, it's for the best me boy, it really is.

Jeremy (Steven r McQueen) discovering that the compelling only works to a certain extent outside of the border since the girl being compelled by Caroline no longer got the ice she demanded when she got to Mystic Falls, she overcame it.  So he was paying attention to something besides 'dog bite' girl, Sarah (Gabrielle Walsh) and just what is she up to, cos she knows Elena attacked her now. Tyler (Michael Trevino) being left to deal with the kegs and with Liv (Penelope Mitchell) as she fights her attraction to him.  Well that's just it, everyone in this show needs some romantic connection otherwise, they just can't breathe! ha.

Elsewhere Bonnie insists that there's someone else with them, since the pork rinds in the market have disappeared.  So there's a third person around.  Damon just bickering with her and still thinking this is his hell, as Bonnie tells him to give her his ring and end it all.  Even if he did leave his car here, but how could he have, when he was driving it and rammed it into the diner last season.  Bonnie saying Grams must've sent her here for a reason.  So Bonnie's point being proven as Damon finds said third annoying person, Kai (Chris Wood) at the market eating pork rinds.  He's been watching them for four months and knows all about them and how bourbon makes Damon calm, then angry, then calm again.  But he said the same thing I did about the bottles, if one has vervain, they'll all have vervain cos he couldn't be sure which one he'd take.  Bonnie comes to save him from the patio furniture stake and uses magic to set fire around him.

He tells them he planned it all cos he knew Bonnie would save Damon and she's their ticket out of here.  But I would have liked to have seen Damon inflict torture onto him with the poker!  Damon and pork rinds, yeah, since when?  Ha.

Enzo turns up at the diner and Tripp (Colin Ferguson) is waiting for him, though vervain doesn't work on him immediately, Stefan stakes him ensuring he'll finish the job and kill him off as he's introduced as another member of the founding families.  Can't tell if Stefan actually wants Enzo dead (okay he does, but I thought he was using him) or if he's just getting on his good side to see what he's up to.  I mean I'm sure Tripp knows the Salvatore's are vampires.  How could he not?

Caroline getting peeved at Stefan cos he doesn't care about anyone and not even her, and just wants to do his own thing as usual, so selfish of him, but that's juts like Elena, so that's why they were meant to be together, though she won't admit she has feelings for him.  Now who didn't predict that ages ago!

The Vampire Diaries 6.1 "I'll Remember" Review

                                            
Once more the season opens with Elena (Nina Dobrev) being the centre of attention as she talks of what's been happening over the Summer and how they're getting on with losing Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder).  However, she's the one who's really suffering and not wanting to accept that Damon is gone, to the point of asking Luke (Chris Brochu) for herbs so she can hallucinate and see Damon there whenever she takes them.  This in turn makes her more thirsty and she's been attacking people, almost killing them in the process when drinking blood.  Caroline (Candace Accola) calling her the 'border lurker.'  Since the Travellers cast their spell, there's no magic in Mystic Falls and anything supernatural can't get into the town, thus Caroline has to meet her mother (Marguerite MacIntyre) at the boarder, who tells her about the two people who were attacked.

Elena calls Caroline and tells her she's coming to the football game at Whitmore, even if she doesn't want to go.  Alaric (Matt Davis) now teaches Occult Studies and is having a hard time dealing with being a vampire, especially since he's got all those "sausage" students in front of him, when she drinks blood during the lecture which he can smell.  See Elena forever the selfish one. Caroline learning she's been crying over Bonnie but not over Damon and knowing it's cos she's been taking the herbs.  Elena deciding she wants to become a doctor, or not, as she works at the medical clinic just so she can get her hands on an endless stream of blood supply.

Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) also broods and gives up on everything as he just plays video games. Matt (Zach Roerig) trying to make him snap out of it cos he's a hunter and though there are no vampires in Mystic Falls doesn't mean he can just be slack.  Elena wanting him to do the same, hypocritical much?  He doesn't have the luxury of resorting to magic and hallucinating Bonnie back cos he can't let go and move on.  So this is his way of dealing with it.

Tyler (Michael Trevino) also has trouble with dealing with having no 'superpowers' which once enabled him to do anything and everything, to the point of thinking he might have some chance with Liv (Penelope Mitchell).  Alaric has to stop him twice from getting drunk and losing his self control and bringing back his werewolf side, but he doesn't seem to take the hint.  Especially when he also finds out that Elena's been getting the herbs from Luke and loses the plot.  Liv telling him he's lucky they brought him back along with others even if they did lose some people in Bonnie and Damon, but they shouldn't be blamed for everything and they do think about what they did when they did the spell.

Stefan (Paul Wesley) is in Savannah and is working at the garage but is being stiffed out of his pay. Well he could have just compelled him into getting it back and put Dean in his place.  Yeah, a Dean in this show, ha, but its not our Dean from Supernatural!! Ha.  Yeah, I'm just talking about the name okay!  Stefan meets ivy and he doesn't want to talk about himself though he knows all about her. telling her he's a vampire, which annoys her.  Caroline reads books Alaric's given her about finding some spell or way to being Damon and Bonnie back, but doesn't have any luck.  She calls Stefan and leaves a voicemail for him telling him she's not coping at all, but he's just given up and isn't even looking, as he tells Elena.

Damon tells Elena he's dead, but she replies he already was, so he says he's 'gone' but she doesn't want him to say that.  She needs to stop hallucinating him back and move on and she realizes she must do that too, cos she's hurting people.  So asks Alaric to compel her into forgetting about him. He was turned by an Original so he can compel other vampires.  Meanwhile Matt's part of the community protection group which has been started by Tripp (Colin Ferguson) and he argues with the sheriff over her not doing her job, after Elena attacks Sarah and she runs to the town without Elena being able to stop her.  However Matt gets Caroline to make her forget what happened.

We see Damon making pancakes for Bonnie and she hates when he makes a smiley face on them, as he reads the paper, yeah don't fool us into thinking they're in some sort of fake wedded bliss, ha! Oh you know hat I mean.

A bit of a slow start to season 6, yes we understand Elena's pain but there's not much difference in how she feels now after losing Damon and how she always feels after she loses someone, it will always be about her and her feelings, as if she's the only one who has to deal with that.  Seems there's more to Tripp than meets the eye and Stefan just gives up on his brother like he's done in the past too, so nothing's changed there either.  Except that Damon never gave up on him when he was the Ripper and anytime he needed him.  Selfish Stefan!  Once more it's left to Caroline to feel nostalgic, do the right thing, want everyone back how they were, when everyone just think it's too difficult and move on, not necessarily in a good way either, they're mainly in denial over everything.  Perhaps the title says it all, will remember how good the show used to be, now it's just repetition.

The Vampire Diaries 6.2 "Yellow Ledbetter" Review

                                                
Another Elena-centric ep again, as she now gets Alaric (Matt Davis) to compel Elena (Nina Dobrev) to make her forget Damon (Ian Somerhalder) catch being, the only way she can do this is if she recalls the exact moment she realized she loved him.  So enabling us to have flashbacks to their 'romance' when Damon was the one who fell for her, love at first sight for him and she fooled herself into thinking that she loved Stefan (Paul Wesley) well she did, but not as much as she thought. Especially since she admits she found Damon dangerous and attractive, as well as 'sexy' particularly after he took her to the school dance.  Recalling those moments but she still answers that Damon is her boyfriend and he died, everytime Alaric asks her.  Until he calls Caroline (Candace Accola) and she tells him how Elena fell in love with Damon when she as still with Stefan.  Thus Elena fooling herself, or rather being in denial that she was faithful to Stefan all this time.  She may have been faithful to him as far as that word entails emotions, but in her heart she knew she wanted Damon, so how faithful was that really?

Alaric makes her recall that, that she's lying to herself and even though Caroline tells Elena that they may still find Damon and things could be different, she doesn't want to believe that.  Is that to save herself the heartache of letting him go again, or just cos she didn't have such strong feelings for him, or the result of losing him.  Anyhoo, Alaric gets her to confront that true moment which was when Damon put the necklace Stefan gave her around her neck and she didn't think he was that bad of a person, or a monster.  Until she finally forgets he's her boyfriend and does recall the monster he is and how he killed Jeremy.

Speaking of Damon, well he' stuck in 1994 with Bonnie (Kat Graham) back in Mystic Falls, 10th May 1994 to be precise and the town's deserted and they're reliving the same day over and over as seen by the solar eclipse.  Damon thinking this is his hell and he's doomed to live it with Bonnie and she thinking it's hers with him.  She can't work out an answer in the crossword puzzle and finds the teddy bear she lost when she was 9 at her house.  As well as a Grimoire, so maybe she can learn magic again.  Damon also finding Elena's necklace and reliving the moment of when he put it round her neck. Guess that was meant to be a destiny, kind of parallel world kind of moment with them both remembering the same thing, but for different reasons, or maybe just deja vu would be easier. Bonnie also confirming they're not alone since someone's finished the crossword puzzle, as the answer is Yellow Ledbetter.  How could Bonnie think Damon would even be remotely interested in finishing her puzzle! Ha.  Or is even interested in crosswords.

Caroline is still searching for Stefan along with Enzo's (Michael Malarkey) help and they find him shacked up with the random, Ivy (Emily Chang) he met last ep.  Only he's a mechanic now and isn't doing his investigating anymore in searching for Damon which Enzo is peeved with and starts a fight over it. Stefan having to break his neck to stop it.  That's the point at which he finds out Elena loved Damon the same time she was still with Stefan and he wasn't meant to hear that but he does when Caroline tells Alaric that.  Caroline is angry and hurt that he didn't listen to his messages when she was breaking down and needed him, so she cries in the car and Enzo sticks up for her in a kind of twisted knight in shining jeans kind of way.  He tells Stefan he's a sorry excuse for a brother and recalls how Damon said he'd hurt him for an eternity, so he's going to do that now, not understanding what a brother could have done to hurt another brother and kills her to make Stefan understand the torment and what Damon would've done to him.  This one's for hurting Caroline.

Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) shacks up with Sarah (Gabrielle Walsh) and she's apparently stole her boss's car and is looking for her father, so is her father Trip (Colin Ferguson) who we find out was an offspring of the Mystic Falls founding fathers, the Fell family.  He's a hunter/killer, I guess, as he makes a bunch of vampires he's caught burn in sunlight.  Jeremy doesn't care what Matt (Zach Roerig) says about her, he's still hooking up with her and has paid Bonnie's phonebill so they can hear hear voice and her mother wanted that too, but he's angry she broke the news to him about her dying over the phone.

Well I'd love to spend the same day over and over with Damon! ha.  Also Damon making pancakes! But I'm glad Elena forgot her feelings for him, now let's hope we can move on from them being together.  Enzo is more like Damon's twin in terms of his evilness, just doing away with Sarah like that, like some sort of collateral damage.  He is right in terms of Stefan giving up on Damon though, just like Elena doing the same.  So in that respects they're both similar and should get back together.  It'll make sure they would get away from Damon pining for her still.   Of course we now have Trip in the picture and he's going to be the new bad guy in town.

Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 8 Review

                                                 
The staff and family make arrangements for Rose's (Lily James) wedding taking place in London, as Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) and Daisy (Sophie McShera) make the three tier wedding cake.  Also Thomas (Robert James-Collier) passes the staff their inventory for the London trip.  Rose shows off her wedding dress, she'll be wed at the Registry Office and then later have a blessing.  Mentioning how her mother, Lady Susan Flintshire (Phoebe Nicholls) doesn't approve of Atticus (Matt Barber) and neither does Lord Sinderby (James Faulkner). The family discuss the wedding and also how they need to sort out the plans for building houses too, so whilst they're in London they can look into the matter of the costs, though Robert (Hugh Bonneville) is unsure as to how he is going to pay for it. Mary (Michelle Dockery) has another jibe at Edith (Laura Carmichael) and how she dotes on Marigold and Robert also notices too, when playing snakes and ladders with Sibbie, Mary referring to him as "Donk."

Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle) will check out the London house when they are there and Carson (Jim Carter) tells Mrs Hughes (Phyliss Logan) they'll need another footman too, so they'll hire one, just for the sake of appearances, since times are changing and yet another comment on this too.  Anna is told Inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) is here again and would like to see her.  He tells them about a witness who has come forward when Green was attacked and Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) says she will swear she saw the entire train ticket if it comes down to it.  They thought the whole business was over.  She will be in London so the Inspector tells Anna to come to Scotland Yard when she's there.

Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) visits the Dowager (Maggie Smith) who's just had breakfast and Denker (Sue Johnston) has laid out the violet dress for her, since it compliments her, talk about sucking up.  He tells her even when the Princess arrives he will leave her since he wants to spend his time with the Dowager, wanting to be her friend and lover, but she doesn't think that will be easy, now what will everyone think?  Spratt (Jeremy Swift) is still unhappy with Denker and with good reason tries to sabotage her job and hides one of the Dowager's cases under the bed, but the Dowager notices a case seems to be missing and asks him to retrieve it from its hiding place.  Yeah, one up for Denker, but not for long.

The War Memorial will be unveiled back at the village and Mrs Patmore decides she won't be there cos it's too painful and besides her nephew's name won't be on it, which Carson relays to Robert. Also wanting Daisy to inform Mr Mason (Paul Copley) to be there by letter when she writes to him for William.  Branson (Allen Leech) is determined to leave for Boston and they need people familiar with farm machinery, so he can make a good living out of it.  Mary doesn't want him to leave and neither does Edith.  But he knows she'll make a good run with the publishing business as she's a good writer.

At dinner with the two families, at the London house, they still talk of their religions.  The Dowager asking if Isabel has changed her mind about Lord Merton and whether he'll be at the wedding.  Rose's mother arrives and refuses to share a room with Shrimpy (Peter Egan) as well as threatening to make their divorce public, which Sinderby doesn't approve of.  But the family tries to steer the conversation towards other lines.  Atticus is staying at the Hornby which Mary adds is her favourite hotel (was that with or without Gillingham, ha.)  His mother, Lady Sinderby (Pennie Downie) says he's having his stag night there.  Shrimpy warns her not to tell anyone about the divorce until after the wedding and they discuss how they don't have any money left for any of the children.  She wants Rose to do better than Atticus.

Molesley (Kevin Doyle) decides he wants to see the galleries and museums and the Wallace Collection, and Baxter decides she wants to go with him, as does Daisy.  She's still working on the wedding cake, a joint effort with Mrs Patmore, but Baxter tells her she's good at creating things too.

At the stag party, Atticus calls it a night, but a woman gets too friendly with him and comes up to his room, even when he turns her down.  She pulls down her dress to her shoulders and then comes out, obviously she was posing with someone taking photos outside, just to disrupt the wedding in the hopes Rose will call it off.  Mary invites the four of them to lunch as a send off for Rose, that's Rose, Branson and also adds Edith can come too and calls it her treat, oh how charitable!  At lunch, Rose is sent the photos and thinks that Atticus has been fooling around, Mary calls it with some, "tart!"  Branson tells her to call Atticus and meet him to talk about it, telling Edith it's obviously some prank being played like they do at stag nights.  He agrees to meet int he park, where Baxter, Molesley and Daisy see them arguing.  Baxter says nothing's final until the ring's one her finger and Molesley asks her if she wants a ring on her finger too one day, which she does.  Daisy decides she doesn't like working in the kitchen anymore and feels like she was in coal mine and has come up for air, she doesn't want to go back now.  Molesley feels guilty that he's made things worse for her.

Denker tries to influence the new footman, Andy (Michael Fox) and wants to take him out on the town, with Mrs Patmore noticing she's trying to be a bad influence him and so does Thomas.  At the police station, Anna is placed in a line up where the witness looks at all the women and Bates tells the Inspector he knows she didn't do it, but he calls it routine after what Bates has been through he should know that.  Obviously it's not routine and especially not the way Anna was acting, she seemed nervous and was bound to look guilty, even if she is innocent.  The Inspector having said that some other women have come forward and accused Green of attacking them too, which means some other woman did it and so Anna is going to be accused now, just to make sure the Down Abbey Christmas Special has some excitement for the viewer!  More like repetition with the Bates killing his wife storyline.

Apparently Denker took Andy to a gambling den where he lost his savings and Thomas tells him next time she goes he's coming too, cos obviously he's going to get his money back.  Atticus confronts his father about the photos and he admits he isn't happy about the wedding cos their children won't be Jewish since Rose isn't and Atticus is vocal that their children will make their on choices.  He tells Atticus he didn't take the photos, well no, it had to be Susan, she comes across as more bitter anyway and we knew she's always been a troublemaker.  The family arrive for dinner at the Sinderby's which is one again fraught with tension.

Mary tells the Dowager about the photos and thinks it could be Sinderby and asks Shrimpy if they should confront him.  But Shrimpy knows better and tells Susan she did that to Rose, he checked the chequebook and saw the money was withdrawn.  He tells her if she mentions the divorce before the wedding then he'll tell Rose what she did and she'll never forgive her.  Which brings to mind the question of why Rose didn't bother to think it could have been her mother, especially since she's also so vehemently opposed to the wedding.

The wedding day arrives and Susan makes a speech saying she's divorcing Shrimpy to which Sinderby isn't pleased, but his wife says the wedding will go ahead, otherwise she'll leave him and that'll make an even bigger scandal.  Shrimpy obviously not being there so she doesn't know she's done this, but he's happy for Rose and that she found Atticus.  The Dowager tells Isabel (Penelope Wilton) she hopes she'll fight his sons and marry him since she's had a change of heart and other circumstances have led her to rethink her opposition tot he marriage. She'll have more of a fight on her hands since Merton doesn't have a wife but Kuragin does.

Daisy yells Mrs Patmore she's decided she wants to study in London and will hand in her notice, which upsets Mrs Patmore since she thinks Daisy a daughter, almost.  Thomas accompanies Denker and Andy to the gambling place and he plays cards and wins back money so he can pay off his debt, they'll talk about his paying him back later but has a score to settle with Denker, so he tells Basil Shute (Darren Machin) that she comes in here telling him she's brought people with him, but he came himself and has free drinks after saying she recommended people there.  He asks her to pay her bill before she leaves.

Edith wonders how they can leave their children alone with the nannies and Mary comments on how she's got the book on being a doting mother, also adding it'll be harder when she has one of her own. Rose wants to leave it all to the nannies too.  Edith wants to get home as soon as possible.  At the blessing, Sinderby invites Robert over to some gathering and he'll be pleased to go.  Also Gillingham (Tom Cullen) turns up with Mabel (Catherine Steadman) and they're engaged.  Mary telling him she needed him at the time and Edith tells Robert that he should give it up since he and Mary won't be together.  Carson telling Mary that Gillinghma wasn't right for her either, but she's upset how the family is breaking up and especially with Rose gone and now Branson will be leaving too, she'll be left alone with Edith, oh how positively ghastly for Mary!! Ha.  Robert notices there's something about Marigold but can't put his finger on it and sees how she dotes on her.

At the War Memorial Robert gives an added mention to Mrs Patmore and her nephew, Archie as he's had a separate memorial made for him which is on the wall which she's grateful for.  With Mason also agreeing.  He's sad but he also is proud of William and how he fought and died for his country. Mrs Patmore tells him Daisy will be leaving, but she's changed her mind.  Robert finally works out that Marigold has a lot of Micheal in her and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) asks him not to tell Edith just yet cos it'll be her secret for a while longer since even Mary and Branson don't know.  Cora also asks if he could love his other grandchild as much as the other two and he believes he can.
Robert finding a way of financing the building of the houses by selling the painting, not cos of Bricker, but cos he gets angry when he thinks of how he didn't trust Cora.

This episode was timed to air on Remembrance Sunday, Lest We Forget, so the War Memorial was a fitting tribute for those who served, especially with it also being the centenary of the First World war.

Mrs Hughes mentioning how Anna is in prison but Carson doesn't think she will be convicted, she hates how they have such sadness and how they feel that way too when something like this happens. Seems they do have all the bad luck, especially with the same old storyline, first Bates was accused of being a killer and now it's Anna, as I said, saw this storyline coming last series.  Robert being happy that he can be at least party to one family secret.  yet there was no mention of the passing of Isis, which means next series and yes there will be a next series, that picture of him in the opening credits with said dog will be old and irrelevant.  You can see there's not much to add in terms of comments for this episode in that it speaks for itself and was just a warp up of the storylines for this series, except for the Anna one, which appears will be dragged to the gallow!

Doctor Who 8.12 "Death In Heaven"

                                                  
As it rains Cybermen, (er, thinking about it, there's no pun here, re the song!) Missy/the Master (Michelle Gomez) is approached by UNIT, as they handcuff her and the flying Cyberman becomes a dark cloud over St Paul's and all over the world.  Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) says she counted 91, which is one for every city in England.  Clara (Jenna Coleman) tries to escape from the Cyberman  by saying she's not really Clara Oswald, she's the Doctor and she's been fooling everyone all this time, she doesn't exist.

Kate (Jemma Redgrave) from UNIT tranquilizes the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Missy.  Later saying it was necessary as all protocols need to be followed when dealing with aliens and they've even managed to retrieve the TARDIS from St Paul's which is under lockdwon.

She wants his help but only his orders will be followed as he later learns why. The protocols have been put in place and all the world leaders have agreed he should be the President, so they must follow his orders. Once again the Doctor having to save the planet.  There are news broadcasts about it raining all over cemeteries but not in the places outside of them.  Seb (Chris Addison) tells Danny (Sam Anderson) what he's really becoming since the Nethersphere and the afterlife are just words they were using and as we go to a morgue, which is now waterlogged, we see that he's become a Cyberman, as he grabs the paper from the pad saying the 'Doctor' and 'Pink'.  Well he would become one wouldn't he, he's dead.

Clara tries to fool the three Cybermen into thinking she's the Doctor telling then who she is, where she's from but they're not convinced and think she's just stalling so she's not killed. Another Cyberman appears and says that she's not the Doctor, but he's not authorized to be here. She's the Doctor she insists and she's a good liar and as soon as she says that the Cyberman agrees, cos we know it's Danny, or at least you should've known and he shoots the other three.

Clara wakes in the cemetery and then finds the rest of the dead are waking up transformed into Cyberman cos of the rain which works on organic matter.  As the Doctor says, the Cyberman are pollinating the dead.  Missy tries to free herself of her cuffs and threatens Osgood, of course she had to go near her and didn't believe her when Missy told her she was going to kill her, really some geniuses don't think do they?  She finds Missy's cuffs in her pocket and Missy does exactly that, vapourizes her.  As Cybermen attack the plane, the Doctor realizes Missy is free.  She tells the Doctor she wants to be his friend and that she knows where Gallifrey is.  The TARDIS phone rings and Missy talks about Clara calling him cos she's got his number. She gave it to her, now donning a cockney accent, she tells him how she's the woman in the shop.  With flashbacks to Clara calling Doctor Eleven all the way back in The Bells of St John ep and Clara talking about the mysterious woman in the shop.  Kate comes down as the plane loses altitude and is sucked out of the plane.  The Doctor also goes next, as Missy vanishes, leaving the plane to explode midair.  He freefalls and finally slows down as his TARDIS reaches him, with Seb and Missy watching.  She's had enough of this AI too and vapourizes him too, or should that be delete.

Clara sees the lone Cyberman and she approaches it as the other ones aren't fully functioning yet.  He reveals himself as Danny but he can't shoot her.  He removes his mask and she sees it's him.  He feels emotion and he wants her to turn them off, but she doesn't know what to do.  The Doctor tells her if she turns off his emotions, he won't feel any pain and he'll become a Cyberman then.  He wants to help him and asks Danny what the cloud means and what will happen with the cloud.  He knows but he can't see it, the only way he can is if he turns off his emotions.  He must become one of them and share their hive brain.  Showing the Doctor and Clara that's what he does, he says one thing but does another.  "Clara, watch this, this is who the Doctor really is."  But the Doctor can't do that to him and walks away.  Clara wants the Sonic and she'll do it herself, as Danny says he can't do the dirty work.  All she has to do is point and think about it.

He tells the Doctor the cloud will turn the living into the dead and Missy arrives with her vapourizing gadget.  She wants to be the Doctor's friend again like they were on Gallifrey but he doesn't want to be.  He tells him she found it and gives him the coordinates.  Clara picks up the gadget as she hugs Danny.  The Cybermen were for the Doctor, his own army.  Now he can do what he always does, save people, those held by the Daleks, as we also had flashes back to the Dalek telling the Doctor that he has no soul.  As well as saying to Robin Hood that he's also not a hero.  Shown here, as it was Danny who saved the day.  But the Doctor doesn't want an army, he doesn't need one.  As he gives the bracelet Missy put on his wrist to Danny.  The Cybermen obey his command.  He knows they can save the planet by burning and that's what he does, taking all the Cyberman with him, as they all explode the world over.  The sky is no longer dark.  Clara has the gadget and wants to kill Missy but is stopped by the Doctor.  Missy telling him he's saving her soul cos he wants to do it himself, which he does. Clara recalls the coordinates to Gallifrey.

Clara is woken by Danny calling out to her, he knows how to get back with the bracelet, but it's only a one way trip.  He figured it out, but he sends back the boy he killed instead.  She needs to find his parents, as he says goodbye.  The Doctor comes back to see Clara two weeks later and sees the bracelet she's wearing, thinking she and Danny are together.  She wants to tell him something, but he doesn't let her.  He knows they have to move on and she has to be with Danny, even though she says she liked their travels.  As we see the Doctor follow the coordinates, but he doesn't see Gallifrey.  He lies once again!  Saying Missy actually told the truth for once, so she thinks he's gone back home. They hug and he doesn't like hugs cos then you hide your face and can't see it.  They say goodbye. Oh they lie so well!

So St Paul's now has a new retractable roof, was gonna say funky, but nah! ha.  Missy going all Marilyn Monroe with singing, 'happy birthday, Mr President, as he got to fly in 'Earth Force One' and the Doctor kissing Missy this time!  As well as Missy making an entrance with her umbrella, Mary Poppins style. Danny once again showing that he's a soldier firstly and foremostly and rallied the Cybertroops to save the world, with his rousing speech of, "...the promise of a soldier."  Also Kate being saved by Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who always wanted the Doctor to salute him, which he gets since he realizes with the Cyber-rain, he became one too and saved Kate when she fell from the plane.

Then Osgood getting killed, maybe it was cos she said, "bowties are cool!" ha.  Well she did get to mention Thunderbirds, but Cloudbase was actually Captain Scarlet as Captain Ahmed (Sanjeev Bhaskar) corrects her in his smallish role, cos he gets sucked out of the plane too! With the Doctor also mentioning Sylvia Anderson.  Then there were the opening credits with the eyes of Jenna Coleman appearing as if she really was he Doctor, trying a tad too much to make this convincing. Let me talk about Clara here, did we really get a satisfactory conclusion to her storyline, especially when she was 'the Impossible Girl' the 'Souffle Girl,' we didn't get any mention of this, not when you think about it, which made her remark of being Doctor even more misleading.  Saying she chose 23 November as her birthday cos she liked the number.  Also in the Victorian episode, The Snowmen, her birthday was 23rd November 1866.   Yet when she died with Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) by her side, her gravestone read, "remember me...for we shall meet again..."  I would like to see her get a proper explanation and want to know who Clara Oswin Oswald is!  Jenna is returning for the Christmas Special, but I doubt we will get anymore about her.  Also, the fact she and Danny had a child somewhere, somehow, still remains.

This show has visited cemeteries many times over, not to mention that Sherlock cemetery connection again from The Reichenbach Fall! ha.  Okay don't make a big deal about it!

Of course finding Gallifrey made the Doctor react to Missy and he does want to find it as his anger and disappointment was shown when he bashed that poor console a number of times!  It just goes to show Missy also lied, like he does and he was on the receiving end this time.  A possible character trait they both share, but it ends there.  The Doctor getting a visit from Santa asking what he wants, so gearing us up for the Special.

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.