The Mentalist 5.17 "Red White and Blue" Review

                                           
Step away from the gardenias!
Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Patrick (Simon Baker) are called in to investigate the murder of a medic whose DB has been found and before long the Army CID turn up to take over the case.  Lisbon insists it's their case but Lt Lewis (Matt McTighe) thinks the policeman should decide.  Patrick asks what he can see on the DB's hand and points out the discolouration, she had a stamp on it in the shape of a cat.  There's a jazz bar nearby.  Before that Patrick asks Lisbon to identify the music she has tattooed on her leg as Lisbon played clarinet.  It's 'Kansas City' and he asks her how that goes, so she hums and then sings it and he joins in.  Thought he didn't know.  The policeman gives the case to Lisbon.  Also Patrick isn't introduced to Lewis,  he just says he's with her and she just smiles.  No partner or associate this time round.  Hey they could have crossed over eps and had Col Mann from Army CID and NCIS on the case here!

At the army base they question doctor Bowman (Jim Holmes) (he was a dead giveaway, sorry but I got Dr Shifty straightaway as the killer talk about acting suspiciously and was in a rush to leave.)  Especially when Patrick works out he's divorced and it's been a year.  Patrick says he's overdoing it on the cologne.  A fire alarm goes off as Code Red is announced on the base and all medics are required to leave.  Also a patient asks the doctor for directions to his group therapy meeting, he's forgotten where it is.  Prompting Lisbon to think whoever made the 911 call could have forgotten since Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) sent her the call tape and after reporting the crime, the man walks off.  Loved the way Patty wafted the air when the doctor walked away, ha.

At the meeting Lisbon plays the recording and asks whose voice it is.  Pete (Jesse Lukin) identifies the voice as his own but he can't recall anything, only up to the attack in Afghanistan.  He led his buddies into a road where an IAD exploded and killed them all.  His PDA beeps and he has to take his meds.  He was close to the Vic Lucy (April Billingsley) and a man comes into interrogation and Pete forgets his chain of thought.  Lisbon has to tell Pete all over again that Lucy was murdered.

Rose (Lily Nicksay) at the hospital shows them Lucy's locker and how she was a stickler for regulations.   Pete recalls the taco stand and Patrick says he needs one.  He gets to the church since Pete loved walking when he can't sleep and Lisbon adds the church is two miles away.  Patrick arrives at the church but he's too early for the taco van.  Instead he smells the gardenias and has a kip on the bench!  Surprised he wasn't moved on, ha.  Notice he didn't go inside the church not that there was any need to but he seems to be over the traumatic events of last episode There Will Be Blood and there was in last ep and this one too.

Lisbon sends Rigsby to talk check out Pete's room and tells him he may have to remind him of what's happened and to be gentle.  Cho (Tim Kang) talks with Lettner (Stephen Martines) who Lucy helped talk down and now he's free to live by himself.  He reluctantly tells Cho about sexual harassment trouble she told him about but didn't go into details.  This explains why her own unit treated her badly as the waitress at the club told Cho.  Sgt Hawkins (Eddie McLintock) investigated but didn't find any case.  The complaint was made anonymously and adds he won't betray an officer by giving his name without any evidence.  Well he already gave it away since he called him an officer.  Rose is questioned but she doesn't say who it is either, it's regulations.  Even when Lisbon tells her she knows an anonymous complaint wouldn't amount to much.  She asks if Lucy died cos of her accusation.  Since Lisbon knows Lucy made the complaint on her behalf since she could handle what was dished out.  Likes the way Lisbon worked out it was out of character for Lucy to stay quiet when she was a sticker for rules, thus she must have been covering for someone else.

The search of Pete's room leads Rigsby to his laundry and a bloodied jacket of his.  Lisbon is about to bring Pete in when Patrick calls and asks her to bring him to the church.  Patrick gets his taco and gives it to Pete and tells him senses can help with memory.  He eats the taco but nothing happens and then Patty picks a gardenia and makes him smell it.  Still nothing.  Hey leave that gardenia alone!  Finally he hears the church bell ring and recalls he saw Lucy at the garage and a flashlight was shined in his face so he couldn't see.  She held his hand.

Liked the way Cho made Hawkins investigate the complaint further even if he could get his ass kicked by a  lieutenant.  Telling him he should watch their back just liked he'd want his own watched and should talk to Rose.  Cho was really disgusted with the handling of the sexual harassment case since he's been in Special Forces and knows what army life is like.  "Be someone your unit can respect, be someone I can respect." Lettner is questioned when they find out he wasn't taking all of his meds.  Turning the investigation towards Dr Shifty.  Patrick needs a padlock which Lisbon doesn't have (hey could have used the one on his attic door, ha).

Visiting Pete he tells him he can help him to sleep using hypnosis and makes him recall all his memories and then turn them black.  He falls asleep and Patrick takes his PDA and adds a note for him since he's meant to write down everything he remembers.  The rest of the suspects are summoned at the hospital and Lisbon shows them a locker key, number 107.  Rose says it's the key to a locker and on cue Rigsby pulls the fire alarm.  Code Red is sounded and everyone leaves.  Thus Dr Shifty returns to the locker and tries to pry the lock open with a fire extinguisher, all very symbolic.  Where Patrick does a great job of imitating him when he tries to speak.

Dr Shifty tells Rigsby he needed to sell off the prescription drugs for his alimony and child support and his wife was asking so much.  Blaming her for his killing Lucy and that it costs to date.  Rigsby is clearly disgusted too and comes up with the line "in prison a date won't cost."  Cho waits for Lewis to be questioned for the harassment of Rose and salutes Hawkins for doing his job.  Patrick apologizes to Pete for using him like that but he's happy they caught Lucy's killer.  Patrick helps him with his memories and asks him to picture a place which he picks as his tent with his fallen comrades.  One of them was lazy so he asks him to remember what he used to do everytime he wakes up as the voices fade out.

An episode which gets us away from the action and seriousness of last episode to a certain extent but there's the reminder there, an allusion if you like, to how Lorelei was killed and how Lucy was killed too, lots of blood shed by a cold blooded killer just like Red John.  A few red props dotted here and there too, such as red cars, fire alarms, red fire engine which is what I meant when the fire extinguisher was symbolic, symbolic of the colour red.  Thought Rigsby was going to make a comment about Van Pelt again when Cho sat down opposite him but that didn't happen.  No comments on Rigsby having being attacked by Lorelei last ep either.

In fact we didn't even get a mention of the events of last ep which I suppose was fine considering the context of this case and it would have only distracted from the investigation.  Lisbon also showed her caring side towards Pete as she's done in past eps, but here she had to change her mind calling Pete a suspect and all it took was a look from Patrick to do this.  They know each other so well, to a degree.  Also another one where Patrick had the opportunity to show how good he is at what he does and showing his own empathy towards Pete and how he helped him in the end.  NO arrogance, no showing off, just Patrick being normal and moral and not a hint of deception, showing him the "memory palace" technique.  How cool was Simon in that scene!

Strange Patrick telling Lisbon to read the music since in the reunion episode Rose Colored Glasses, he guessed she played an instrument but couldn't decide which one.  Here he says she played clarinet.  SO why couldn't Patrick read the music himself since he played the double bass.  In 3.22 Rhapsody in Red, Patrick also gives Lisbon a flower, a hydrangea and she asks if it squirts water.  He tells her it's a little trick to "maybe catch the killer."  Lisbon listening to Patrick and singing the song here was so sweet.  Kansas being mentioned here as The Wizard of Oz has too when Minnelli tells Patrick he's not in Kansas anymore in 1.11 Red John's Friends.  Loved the way Lisbon told him to stop when he was kind of mimicking with his singing.  SO sweet and cute.

The Vampire Diaries 4.17 "Because the Night" Review

Damon (Ian Somerhalder) arrives in New York with Elena (Nina Dobrev) and we get a flashback of him being here in the 1970's.  A place where he tells Elena "a little death can go unnoticed."  She disappears to get her hair done which didn't suit her at all.  Anyway Damon's flashback involves killing two people and then walking away as if nothing happened.  Where the man calls him "Son of Sam" before he's killed.  Damon replies, "Son of Giuseppe."    Thus he garnered a name for himself as a notorious serial killer leaving Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Lexi (Arielle Kebbel) hearing about him all the way in Mystic Falls.  Stefan sends Lexi to keep an eye on him which was pointless really since Damon uses her, feigning being in love with her for six months just to get her off his back.

Damon's humanity is switched off and he and Lexi party hard in order for Damon to switch his humanity back on.  This is also Damon's plan but cue Rebekah (Claire Holt) into the picture when she tells Elena he's here for the cure and Damon tires to convince her otherwise.  Elena later tells Rebekah she's no fool as she knows exactly what Damon is doing here only she wants to find the cure before him.  Rebekah using that same old story of wanting the cure cos she wants her own family, so they team up here in order to dupe Damon out of finding where Katherine is.  Damon finds Katherine's file in the hoard of stuff in Will's office and has to ask Stefan what her date of birth is, which makes him the "better boyfriend," as Damon calls him. That being 5th June 1473.

Damon tells Elena he and Lexi did it on the bar, causing Elena to move her arm off it, as well as the stage and the roof, she heads for the roof bottle in hand and then tries to seduce Damon to reach into his pocket for the paper he found in the file with Katherine's whereabouts.  Oh Damon why were you so silly enough not to have read the paper.  Also how did Elena know he had found what he did and it was written on paper. All he had to do was make a note on his phone and burn it.  Ugh, no they make Elena out to be more intelligent than a centuries old vampire, especially considering she's so ruthless now.  It's true she doesn't care about him after all.  Damon tells her he was the one who invented seduction for ulterior purposes to begin with.

Flash to Lexi and Damon on the roof and how he took her ring and left her on the roof before telling her his humanity was never switched off to begin with.  He also tells Elena in the present how he regrets everything he did, the guilt caught up with him of killing Lexi and perhaps hate was the first emotion he got back.

In Mystic Falls, Stefan calls in Klaus (Joseph Morgan) to help them with Silas and to find the expression triangle location.  Where Caroline (Candace Accola) tries to resist her attraction to Klaus.  She finds a book in Shane's (David Alpay) office and draws where the triangle could be and Klaus draws another one.

Bonnie (Kat Graham) knows that she's with Silas and he tells her he didn't lie.  She's invited him in and she must carry out the third sacrifice of killing twelve people and she can bring them back.  Those twelve being witches and they try to convince her father (Rick Worthy) she still needs his help even when he wants Shane out.  He calls her mother but Aja (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) turns up instead since she helped with expressionism before and has been through it herself.  She's brought eleven witch helpers with her.  Bonnie tries to go through the process, but says it's too painful.  Stefan finds Bonnie and tries to get her to stop but he's thrown back.  Caroline takes the dagger and kills Aja thus saving Bonnie but unleashing Silas in the process and all the supernatural creatures from the other side, including those Klaus has killed.

Stefan tales Bonnie home who can't recall anything and he has to tell her about Jeremy and that they didn't get the cure.  Caroline realizes she's killed twelve people since Klaus would have let Bonnie die.  He says she's in need of comfort but she should find it with someone who is less terrible than him.

Shane turns up and wants Klaus to help him find the cure, he has the white ash dagger which he easily obtained by reading Rebekah's mind and leaves half of it in Klaus's back as a reminder.
Elena and Rebekah drive off in Damon's car in search of Katherine and he calls Stefan telling him he failed and Stefan couldn't stop the massacre.

The scenes with Damon and Lexi in 1977 new York were great to watch and Damon didn't have that much of a change of outfit.  He was trying to teach Lexi not to mess with him back then and doing practically the same to Elena, in that she shouldn't mess around when she has no humanity cos it'll come back to bite her, but she wasn't in any mood to listen, having the cure on the brain.  She played Damon liked he played Lexi, so who was the better teacher, ha.  Though that conversation Damon and Elena ha don the roof about whether his emotions were really off was a it off-putting (ha) since he was acting out revenge on Lexi, this being an emotion and thus was his humanity really off.
Stefan asking where Elena is, Damon replies, "exploring, maybe she's eating a hotdog...vendor." Oh he gets the best lines.

The title is a song written by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen from 1977 which isn't used here and the lines of the chorus include: "because the night..belongs to lovers."

CSI 13.7 "Fallen Angels" Review

                                               
A Reverend gives a sermon and later his DB is found on Warrick's grave.  DB (Ted Danson) and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) show up and talk about Warrick.  DB notices a plant by his grave and Nick (George Eads) says he left that there for him, showing how much they still miss and think about Warrick.  David (David Berman) finds Reverend Rick Renken (Harrison Page) was shot through the head.  DB thinks Warrick may be able to provide them with answers but Brass adds they don't need to bother him as they'll have other answers in this neighbourhood.  Nick leaves to find evidence and Brass follows him, talking about how Warrick would be there on Fight Nights at the Strip.  He hasn't been here since the funeral, but he thinks about him.

They question gang leader Aaron Voss (Malcolm Goodwin) who knew Warrick as well and he tells Nick seeing blood on Warrick's grave has them 'riled up.'  He knows what this is about and he's the one who's keeping things intact for everyone who lives there.  Warrick didn't like Voss and wasn't secretive about it.  He tells Nick to say a prayer on his behalf to "St Warrick."  Nick heads out to talk to Tina (Meta Golding) and sees a drawing on the ground make with chalk, being careful not to step on it.  He sees Eli (Terrell ransom Jr) Warrick's son and Tina won't talk to them, telling all the CSIs to stay away or she'll call the police.  Most likely would ave been an idle threat seeing the state of her house and how Eli was living in that squalor.

Evidence found on the Reverend's DB and clothing revels he had been to see Tina as there's blue chalk under his shoes, which Nick overhears and also powdered Oxycodon on the bottom of his pants.  Sara (Jorga Fox) returns there with Finn (Elisabeth Shue) and have to force their way in.  Sara finds Oxycodon on the arm of a chair and Finn overturns the plate revealing cockroaches, as well as the jeans of a man on the chair.  The drugs belong to Cliff Paul, someone Tina has been seeing.  Brass finds him dead outside his apartment.  DB and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) search his apartment and find a torch belonging to a CSI with blood and gravitational blood drops which are old.  As well as a broken beer bottle.  They theorize someone opened the door and Cliff stepped back and out the window.  Also finding a .45 in the sofa.  Reverend was shot with one.

Morgan thinks the case is spooky since he was found on Warrick's grave and now no one stepped into the beer, as she follows one set of footprints back to the window.  DB doesn't think there's anything supernatural involved in not stepping into beer.  Finn finds he had an alibi at the time of the murder, he was watching Internet porn.  Morgan finds the blood on the torch belongs to Cliff and the blood from the ground belongs to an unknown suspect.  Morgan takes the batteries out and finds a print belonging to Warrick so it was his torch, Tina being a suspect now.  Greg (Eric Szmanda) thinks that's good of her to analyze the battery.  Greg didn't have much to say about Warrick this episode considering he knew him too.

Whilst at Tina's Nick saw a man in a hoodie and they later find him at the cemetery.  He was a friend of Warrick's who used to look after him and Tina gave his CSI kit away to James (Kofi Siriboe).  He was looking out for Eli and Tina but the police wouldn't answer his calls since Cliff was abusing her.  He saw him and hit him with the torch in self defence. The Reverend had also paid a cheque to Cliff for $1,000 showing he was engaged in illegal activities.   He made Tina sign her house over to the Reverend.  James mentions having strange things happen to him, as if someone was looking out for him as he recalls a bully, Ben stealing his shoes which were later returned to him and no one saw Ben again.  James's aunt, Jolene (Michael Hyatt) tells of his mother having mental problems but James is a good boy.

They find the shoes at James's house and Finn shows DB signs of blood spatter.  Also there's dirt on the shows which came from a scrapyard near to the restaurant where Ben worked.  Finn and Nick search and Finn brings a key fob which will help them find Ben's keys since she saw he had one on his key chain, it will beep if they find him.  It's a long shot but it pays off and they find Ben's DB buried underground.  The bullet is still inside his head which David will tell Doc (Robert David Hall) about and there's a hair from the liner from the boot of a car.  Henry (Jon Wellner) analyzes the hair and finds it belongs to James's father, i.e Voss, well that was obvious since there was no one else there who would have done any killing.  Inside Voss's car they find the Reverand's monogrammed handkerchief.  He must have left it there when he got into the car knowing he wouldn't return.  He was driven to Warrick's grave and shot.

Voss was attempting to protect his son by taking care of anyone who messed with him.  But that wasn't being a father.  James tells Nick he doesn't know how to deal with him and Nick tells him he wasn't his father since he didn't act like one so he doesn't have to deal with him.  Warrick was more of a father to James and he misses him.  Nick tells him how Warrick never leaves his side and helps him everyday, James shouldn't let go of him either.
Nick: "Warrick walks beside me everyday.  He's the source of a lot of my strength.  He's a good friend to have man.  Don't ever let him go."

Tina tells Sara she's sorry about not contacting them four years ago but she couldn't have lived if she had seen them.  The only one who stopped her from ending it all was Eli cos he needed her.  Sara tells her he will always need her but she has to make things right with herself first.  Eli will be in foster care until they ascertain her situation in a few days but he's here to see her now.  They hug and Nick sees the reunion too and smiles at Sara.  Tina will stay in touch with Sara.  Sara telling Finn how she came to see her before she went away but Tina wouldn't open the door and Eli would be crying.

Seems Voss killing those people also helped out Tina otherwise she'd still be in the same predicament now.  It was touching to see how Nick, Sara and Brass all remembered Warrick and still think about him and how he's still beside Nick everyday.  That was poignant since it shows how much he misses him and how they were such good friends.  They didn't have Greg saying anything like this which was a bit of a shame.  We recall how Warrick left Tina his grandmother's house after their divorce and how he was trying to get custody of Eli.  Sara also recalls how he bought a new stereo for so much of his salary and this makes her smile, except when she sees cigarette butts on top.  Also how Nick tells Eli he looks like his father and Eli remarks he must have been handsome.

Warrick opened a bank account for James and when he died Voss kept making deposits into it.  Another thing which showed he acknowledged his son but not in the way he should have done and killing to keep him safe was going to extremes.  Fallen Angels sums up all Warrick was and how he still lives on the minds and hearts of his friends and was a nice way to see everyone reminisce about him, though they would have liked for him to still be here.

The angel Brass pointed to in the beginning, wanted to shout out, "don't blink."  Doctor Who fans will know why.

666 Park Avenue 1.8 "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" Review

                                             
Olivia (Vanessa Williams) Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) and Henry (Dave Annable) are confused, and worried about Jane's (Rachael Taylor) disappearance and good ol' Det Hayden Cooper (Teddy Sears) is on the case.  Nona (Samantha Logan) said she was last seen in the basement when they were searching for her grandmother.  Henry passes out flyers with Jane's pic on them with Gavin offering to call the mayor and the commissioner.  Henry also takes out the engagement ring he bought last ep but by eps end looks like he's not going to propose for various reasons.  Jane finds herself in Times Square but the crowd don't see or hear her, except one woman tells her she shouldn't have come.  Finally the crowd comes alive and Jane is taken to the hospital.  Here she's kept for observation for 48 hours but she doesn't remember what happened to her.

Henry thinks she's lost the plot and is well, far from the concerned boyfriend as he reminds her that her grandmother had mental problems, yeah subtle Henry!  Nurse Potter (Kerry O'Malley) is about to take her blood pressure  and Jane resists.  She has a vision of someone talking to her and her arm being tied.  She's sedated but lucid enough to hear the nurse talk of another patient here Julian Waters found in the same circumstances as Jane.  He's in D wing, maximum security.  Jane takes the pills the nurse gives her, wonder why she didn't spit those out before and gets into D wing.  Was that a 'D Gavin' name written on one of the doors, or did I imagine it?

Anyway she opens the hatch to speak to Julian but he thinks she was sent here.  Jane tells Hayden about the other man and he says he'll try to get her out sooner than later, as well as giving her an envelope that Nona left for her; saying she'll understand what it means.  It's her necklace and photo as a child.  Jane tells him it's of sentimental value and she thanks him for believing her.  Yes Henry that should be you.  Anyway Henry sees her hugging Hayden, wonder what he thought then.

When Jane goes to see Julian again she finds him hanging and mysterious symbols drawn on the wall which she later copies using crayons.  Yeah that's how you make someone loony give them crayons and let them draw in a hospital.  She's given more pills and this time Doctor Anton (Rocco Sisto) comes in just as she's hiding them.  He drags her out and Hayden is there to take her home.  The doctor needed help with a DUI.  Jane finds the ring in the drawer but as said Henry's probably having second thoughts about her now especially since he doesn't want to be lumbered with her if she's got 'mental problems.'   She doesn't tell him Hayden got her out.  Nona comes to see her reminding her she went down the spiral staircase and never came out.  There's someone who can help her remember and outside the door, Jane finds a similar symbol that she saw in Julian's room.

Louise (Mercedes Masohn) gets home and admits to Brian (Robert Buckley) she was in rehab, thanking Gavin for sending her there.  Alexis (Helena Mattsson) later tells her a sob story about being involved with a married man and how his wife's a bitch. Brian and Louise think this will be a fresh start for both of them and Dr Scott is mentioned and that's about it, we don't know what happened him after he brought Shaw home and whether he's still alive or not.  Great, what was the point of that character then since everyone else got an ending.

Brain tells Alexis it's over between them and she tells him he's writing now but it won't last long.  When he returns he find she can no longer write, his computer won't work, neither will any pens or pencils.  Confronting Alexis she tells him he writes cos of her, what is she his muse? and suffers writer's block cos of Louise before they're in the throes of passion once again.  Alexis tells Gavin she can't do this anymore and he adds she should have questioned her conscience before she agreed to this.  Whatever this is.

On the other continuing storyline Kandinsky (Misha Kuznetsov) tortures Shaw (Nick Chinlund) for the whereabouts of the box but he's not talking.  Gavin knows his real name after his father who left him and his mother in the east and defected, he knew his father.  Also Shaw tells him Sasha didn't die in an accident but committed suicide.  Olivia knows all about it.  He confronts Olivia who tells him she had a note from her which she burnt.  She didn't want to hurt him cos of what it contained and she loved him.  She suggests he should us the same kind of treatment on Shaw.

Gavin makes Shaw think he's seeing his father and he gives away the whereabouts of the box, where his mother's buried at a church.  Thus we get o see Gavin enter a church and talk with the priest, Father Douglas (Remy Auberjonois) who was told he wouldn't be able to enter hallowed ground.  But he can and he just loves churches.  Thus making us believe Gavin really is the devil, incase anyone had doubts about that.  The song would have been a giveaway too, Sympathy for the Devil.

Olivia slaps Shaw around for mocking her when he tells her Sasha is alive since no one else knew about the note.  He'll take her to Sasha.  Gavin finds him gone when he returns.  The action is meant to be hotting up but we don't get any answers instead we just go round in circles and are left with more questions.  Such as not finding out what really happened to baby Jane.  Though Julian reveals he came up the stairs and didn't go down.  Did he come out cos Jane opened the mosaic and she was taken instead of him, replacing him?

Aggh had my share of Henry, how much more can Jane take of his lack of supportive anyway, he just doesn't know what to do or say.  He's so annoying, as is that Alexis and her storyline.  So Sasha is meant to be alive but how could Gavin not know about this since he seems to know plenty of what's going on with other people.  Not even when he sat there a few weeks ago on that same bench where Olivia burned the letter.

Obviously the title is from a Bette Davis movie but they probably used it here for Jane.  Rachel Taylor gave a convincing performance of 'playing crazy' though and showing her desperation in not being able to recall what happened to her having to resort to looking for answers on her own.

Once Upon A Time 2.1 "Broken" Review

A man walks in NY and returns to his apartment where it's raining and there's a postcard from Storybrooke which reads, 'broken.'  Back in Storybrooke everyone recalls who they are and there's a big show of hugs and kisses but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is far from pleased.  Snow/Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin)  finally sees her daughter, as does Charming/David (Josh Dallas) and want to spend time with her but she doesn't want to.  She seems uncomfortable with the reality of them actually being her parents but it's actually for different reasons as she later reveals.  That they could let her go and separate her from them, even though it was to give her a better start.  She didn't mention there'd be no Henry (Jared S Gilmore) if they hadn't done that!  The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) can't use magic since she doesn't have a wand or fairy dust, some fairy she turns out to be, ha.

Archie (Raphael Sbarge) warns them of the others stampeding to Regina's (Lana Parrilla) seeking revenge and if she has her power she could slaughter them.  The witch hunt, okay wicked stepmother/evil queen hunt being led by Dr Whale (David Anders).  Seems there is more to him after all than we know.  Regina opens the front door and thinks she can use magic now the curse is broken, but she's got nothing.  Seems the townsfolk aren't the only ones in search of revenge Gold (Robert Carlyle) is out to exact the same too, after he realizes that she left Belle (Emilie de Ravin) in a living hell until she could kill her too.

The others save Regina since Henry made Emma promise nothing would happen to his "mother."  Whale says Charming isn't his king, thus they know nothing about him.  Snow suggests they lock her in a cell for her own protection.  Belle makes Gold promise he won't kill Regina and he promises HE won't.  Later he takes a medallion and uses his dagger saying "the dark one calls" and stabs the medallion releasing a wraith, aka soul sucker/Qui shen (more like the ghost of Christmas Future, depending on which A Christmas Carol version you watch!)  Like Regina has a soul to suck! since Gold marks her hand with an imprint of the medallion.

The others want to know what the purple haze is but he's not talking, instead he reminds Emma of saving Henry.  There's crashing and car alarms sounding off as the wraith hits town.  Belle confronts Gold about his promise and he says he's not going to kill her.  She can't believe he lied to her and hasn't changed at all, thus walking out on him.  They have the wraith cornered in the police station as it tries to suck Regina's soul and Charming uses fire to keep it back.  Regina has the Hatter's hat but can't get it to work.  That is until Emma touches her arm, she has magic now.  The hat swirls and opens up a portal dragging the wraith through, along with Emma and Snow follows since she won't lose her.  Unfortunately Charming is slow off the mark and lands on the hat and the floor instead!

Regina and her "destroy," favourite word since she used it often enough in season 1 and now she starts the trend again!  As she tries to strange him with a vine.  Henry interrupts as Ruby (Meghan Ory) brings him back and Charming says he will look after his grandson and takes him home.  Telling Henry he has faith.  Belle returns to Gold since he's still a monster and that's why she must stay, finding her chipped cup.

The curse destroyed their land but there's a small part of it which survived which is overrun with creatures like the wraith. As Mulan (Jamie Chung) explains.  Prince Phillip (Julian Morris) awaken Aurora (Sarah Bolger) with a kiss and he is marked by the wraith.  Thus his soul is sucked and Aurora knows Mulan loved him too as they travelled in search of her together.  There's a hole in the ground wherein lie Snow and Emma (just thought it's easier calling her that instead of Mary Margaret, too much to type, ha."

I think I liked it better when there was no other land to turn to as that now gives them an endless supply of characters to introduce.  Didn't much like Aurora or Phillip I have to say.  They really were no match for Charming and Snow!  Suppose they had to have a part of fairytale land intact otherwise with the curse being broken they wouldn't have much to use for stories as they take place in both worlds.

Who sent the postcard, was it Jefferson and more importantly who is the mysterious man, Henry's father, Gold's son?  An infinite number of possibilities, okay we get the show late so a lot would have read spoilers, or have already seen it, so we can only speculate.  They called August a "mysterious stranger" last season and now we get the "mysterious man."

Then there was Emma seemingly in awe of her parents being "heroes, leaders, princes and princesses," but doesn't think much of herself.  She does have magic now.  Also she doesn't berate herself for adopting out Henry since she too wanted to give him a better life, wonder if they'll touch upon that?  Now Emma is back in the world she always wanted to remain in, it'll be interesting to see how that develops and what she thinks of it.  Not to mention the fact it's Snow that gets to go after her rather than Charming, especially since she bonded with her mother last season and had very little to do with her father.  Think it might have been more interesting the other way round this time with father/daughter.

Charming's surprise at Emma and Snow having talked about one night stands.  Snow: "and we talked about things we shouldn't have talked about, one night stands and the like."
Charming: "one night stands?"
Snow: "Whale...we were cursed, that's neither here nor there."  Well Charming was married to someone else!

Revenge 2.14 "Sacrifice" Review

                                              
Emily: "Sacrifice by its strictest definition demands takes something precious for the appeasement of a higher power, an abiding devotion to a cause that cannot be satisfied with a simple promise, because an oath, no matter how solemn asks nothing in return.  While true sacrifice demands unspeakable loss"

That was so true in the light of Emily losing Amanda and for Amanda to have made that sacrifice of herself to begin with.

As Jack (Nick Wechsler) and Amanda (Margarita Levieva) get close on their honeymoon, Nate (Michael Trucco) hides out biding his, time ready to pounce.  We're led back to where we came into the season opener as the Amanda lies in ruins and a diver finds a pocketwatch.  Also we're shown the hand again in the water.  Has to be Nate as I've been saying all along!  Conrad (Henry Czerny) laments what Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) has done and how she's "sacrificed" them all, as they try to dispose of Helen's DB.
Conrad: "Congratulations Victoria, with one bullet you've slaughtered us all."

Helen's chauffeur calls her and Victoria gets the idea to ride away disguised as Helen. They know who they will use as a scapegoat for Helen's disappearance, Amanda Clarke, er, a little premature on their part since other events supersede their planning, but they will get the target off their backs as the Grayson's so highly excel in it.

Victoria later shows up at Daniel's (Josh Bowman) office and they feign some acting about Helen being invited to their Labour Day party, back to Labour Day again as in season 1, seems events of a dramatic nature always take place in the Hampton's at this time of year, well more dramatic than the rest of the year.  Thus the person listening and watching on the other end of the camera was bound to show up.  Victoria also invites Charlotte (Christa B Allen) to stay at the house, for Carl's sake and for the sake of appearances, reminding her that she stood by her at the press conference and accepted her as a Clarke.  Victoria is proud of her, she so knows how to manipulate!  She'll come if Declan (Connor Paolo) can be there too.  Funny Victoria did not invite Emily this time round, neither did Daniel, now that Helen's out of the picture, more readily since Emily was otherwise occupied.  Think if Daniel had invited Emily after their break-up it owuld have given the game away about Helen.

Emily (Emily VanCamp) Nolan (Gabriel Mann) and Aiden (Barry Sloane) have a threeway (ha if only as some people would imagine) conversation, this time round Nolan calls him Mr Bean, er rather unlikely, ha.  Mr Bean is the bungling buffoon, ha.  Now maybe if it was Johnny English from the movie of the same name, ha.  Emily is weary of trusting Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) and Aiden thinks she's the only way in to Helen.  Of course they don't know of said woman's demise and so forge ahead.

Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) is called in early for work and Conrad is announcing his running for governor sooner.  She runs off to Emily to warn her about Amanda and using the leverage she has on the computer against the Grayson's since they'll always win.  Emily thanks her, but really Ashley was looking to get into her good books again.  Emily visits with Charlotte wanting her earrings back that Amanda borrowed for the wedding and looks at the photos Charlotte is making into an album.  Noticing Nate in the window of the Stowaway.  Oh how amateurish, if you're meant to be hiding, stay like that!  She tells Nolan and finds they are unreachable.  Though Nolan lies and tells Declan they arrived safely at their hotel.  They leave Aiden with Padma and Nolan calls telling her to trust Aiden since the Initiative kidnapped his sister, whilst they search for Jack.

Nate makes his move and wants the computer.  Amanda lies and tells him she wanted to get the Grayson's back and that's why she used Jack, buying time.  She tries to talk him round saying he can get money from Conrad and she's got the means to do so.  Jack finds Declan's laptop and Nolan hacks in to see Jack on the webcam.  Amanda and Jack argue whilst Jack prepares the life raft and Nate searches for the computer below.  Amanda finally tells him where it is and locks him in, yeah that'll hold him in.  He fires and Jack is shot.  Amanda struggles with him and loses her necklace in the process.  Amanda puts Jack into the raft and let's him go.  He's found by Nolan and Emily and is taken to hospital by Nolan.  Emily helps Amanda but Nate manages to fire into the propane.  He wonders who Emily is and she replies he'll never know, and he didn't either, ha.  As they leave Amanda forgets heh necklace and is caught int the explosion as Nate ignites the gas.

There goes the Amanda or should I have said, there she blows!  Amanda is injured but she makes Emily promise to take care of Jack and Carl and thanks her for giving her a family.  Flashback to Emily giving Amanda the necklace when she leaves juvvie and telling Emily she loves her and they're sisters.  Emily can now only say the words back to her, "I love you too."

Padma calls Helen's phone and Trask (Burn Gorman) answers, he being the new thorn in the Grayson's side and looks even more shiftier than Helen.  You see Victoria spills the beans about Amanda being after Helen as she's now disappeared and had the opportunity to plant the gun and her scarf at the Stowaway when inviting Charlotte, which he finds.  Anyway Padma demands proof of life for her father and tells him she has Carrion but the rest of it is with Nolan.

The Grayson's stand at their balcony with Victoria commenting on the heat dying down and Daniel can't believe they're going to set up Amanda to take the fall but he does nothing.  After trying to get out from under his parents' shadow, he still comes round full circle and goes along with everything they say.  I mean hadn't Amanda suffered enough with the imprisonment and murder of her father.  No Daniel goes back to playing the Grayson spineless lackey, more so than son.

Emily lets Amanda go into the sea and Nolan comes back for her...so now hopefully Emily will focus her full attention back on bringing down the Grayson's instead of getting involved with that ridiculous Initiative nonsense.  Losing Amanda like that should give her revenge purpose once more as it seems they have found a convenient scapegoat in Amanda.  Conrad might be thinking his troubles are over, but he doesn't know the real Amanda is alive and well and gearing up for bigger punishments, hopefully.  SO with the sinking of the Amanda and the death of Amanda, or so everyone believes, we move past an era since there can be no option left bit for Emily to come clean with Jack about who she really is.

Emily: "Sacrifice demands the surrender of things we cherish above all else.  Only out of the agony of those losses can a new resolution be born.  An undying devotion to a cause greater than one's self and a moral duty to to see a journey through to its absolute completion."

Oh Emily this quote was so heartwrenching and one of the best so far!!

Padma and that finger being her father's proof of life was a bit silly, yes a  fingerprint will match but it doesn't prove anything.  Nolan saying he'll do anything for Jack, so touching, well he was one of his first friends he ever had who he could trust.  Think Amanda redeemed herself for the person that she used to be.  She saves Jack and even goes back for the necklace that shows her entire devotion and love for Emily and that all important word, family.  No Ashley you could never do that!!  Amanda meant more to Emily than I think even she realized until now.  Last ep she was crying over what could have been with her and Jack and this episode she cried for Amanda, will guilt get the better of her?

In the Labour Day episode of season 1, Daniel was meant to have been shot and Jack and Amanda were in the fore of the action.  This time round it's Jack and Amanda again with Jack being shot and Amanda being killed, Daniel just looks out over the ocean with his 'family' and they think how all is well.  Whereas they were the ones panicking in season 1.  It was great they had Emily show her human side and really feel pain and hurt over losing Amanda.  Since at times she took her for granted.

Victoria and Charlotte dressed in those Special K red dresses again which look pink in photos!  Hey my mum looked like Madeleine Stowe when she was younger!

Enrique Murciano - Always Disappearing...

We don't get to see Enrique Murciano very often and these days we've been lucky in that we got to see him revive his role as Det Carlos Moreno in CSI but that didn't last long since he was no longer seen after that great scene he had with Nick (George Eads) too in 13.3 Wild Flowers.  The one where they talk about Finn (Elisabeth Shue).  What was the point of bringing him back only for him to vanish "without a trace!"  Seems like we need him to revive his character as FBI Agent Danny Taylor on Without  A Trace to solve the mystery for us, considering this has happened on many occasions.  That'd be funny, get Danny to investigate why we don't get to see Enrique ever finish a role.  Oh let's blame pesky writers/producers! ha

Let's not forget CI-Ray in NCIS.  He was mentioned so many times when he was a faceless character by Ziva (Cote de Pablo) and Tony (Michael Weatherly).  Finally he arrived on the scene in season 8.20 Two Faced and 8.24 Pyramid, wooed her, made some promises he didn't keep and finally in season 9.13 A Desperate Man he returned, only to kill a woman in the process which made him a fugitive, but hey this wasn't new to him, he was CI-Ray after all.  Next thing we see him getting on a plane fleeing and begging Ziva to come with him.  So there's another character he played who disappeared, perhaps into the Bermuda Triangle!

 Then there was 666 Park Avenue, we saw him as Dr Scott, a bit of a womanizer and gambler with debts reaching sky high, thus he had to sell his soul to Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) and what happened with that?  Not much since last we saw he was riding in an ambulance with Kandinsky and returning to the Drake with Shaw, take it he didn't save Shaw's life and then they disposed of Scott in the process too, ha.  Especially since there were many photos circulated on various websites (see above and below) which had Enrique as Dr Scott in scenes which weren't even shown in any episodes but looked interesting none the less.  Hark another mystery for Danny to get his teeth into beckons.

So there's The Saint pilot airing soon and this only makes me wonder what will happen to his character of Inspector Henry Fernack in that?  Oh you know if the Pilot gets picked up.  By the way the trailer for that looks excellent, all very intense.

Doctor Who 7.8 "The Rings of Akhaten" Review

This time the Doctor (Matt Smith) is on the hunt for Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) and who she really is.  He 'stalks' a man, Dave (Michael Dixon) who walks on the road and is accosted, well he was, by a leaf falling and sticking onto his face, the same leaf Clara had in her book last ep.  He walks onto the road and a woman, Ellie (Nicola Sian) saves him.  Thus love at first sight.  He saved the leaf cos they were destined to meet and before you know it they have a baby girl, Clara.  The Doctor reading a Beano Summer Special comic this time round, from 1981.  The book has Clara's ages in it as we saw last episode and then finally he follows them to the cemetery where they have buried her mother.

Clara waits for him as he promised to return the next day and didn't she remind you of Amy sitting there all packed and ready.  She doesn't know where to go and he takes her to somewhere 'awesome.'  The Rings of Akhaten.  It's a magnificent solar system where a ritual of sacrifice is about to take place, a "Festival of Offerings".  Interacting with the aliens she comes across many species.  Doesn't like the blue fruit and to hire a moped,  (last time it was a quad bike, anti-grav,) you have to give them something of sentimental value.  The only thing he has is his trusty screwdriver.  He also tells her he came here with his granddaughter, who was Susan, as we remember from William Hartwell's time.

He disappears leaving her alone and she sees some men in red robes searching for a girl.  The girl then appears, she's Merry, Queen of Years (Emilia Jones) and they run to the TARDIS but Clara can't get in as he hasn't given her a key.  Merry hides behind the TARDIS she's afraid she'll get the song wrong.  She is a vessel of her peoples' history.  No wonder she was the sacrifice since she was to feed the god with souls, as the Doctor explains, souls contain thoughts/memories not actions.  The men appear to get her and are known as The Vigil.  Clara reassures her she won't get the song wrong and recalls her mother.  First telling her she'll always be there for her and she says was afraid at first when she got lost once, but was found by her mother.

Merry is taken by the men into the 'arena' and the Doctor arrives, blue fruit in hand, whisking Clara off to the very same singing.  After a few lines, the god, also known as 'grandfather' is shown to awaken.  When the singing is done Merry is carried away to the distant pyramid.  Thus Clara wants the Doctor to help and thinks he's running away.  He tells her, "we never run away."  The only way to get to Merry is by the moped and Clara needs to pay Dor'een (Karl Greenwood) with something of sentimental value.  She gives her mother's ring to her.  He hasn't got anything even though he's been around for a thousand years, barring his screwdriver, as said.

There's no way in to the pyramid but hearing Merry scream makes them more desperate.  Doctor: "..a frequency modulated acoustic lock.  the key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second."
Clara: "Can you open it?"
Doctor; "Technically no, in reality no, but let's give it a stab." He finally uses the Sonic, as "it comes in handy" to hold the door open but it's a heavy door.  Clara enters to get Merry cos she won't leave, thinking she sang wrong.  Then holds Clara in a purple mist whilst the 'god' awakens.  The Doctor lets the door close and as the so called god wakens, Merry won't let Clara go since she is afraid and the Doctor convinces her he'll tell her a story and they will leave here, he promises to help her.  Letting Clara down, the Vigil appear and the Doctor manages to hold them off with his Sonic long enough for Clara to ask Merry if there's another way out and for the Doctor to get out too.

Returning to the planet they find that the so-called monster in the glass cage wasn't the 'god' or grandfather, but rather the god's clock (grandfather clock?) signalling the awakening, the god is a parasite in the form of a huge sun, thriving on memories.  The Doctor stays and tells the god to take his memories, he has plenty, such as the being Last Time Lord, the Time War, being at humanities end, the future etc.  The silhouette of he Doctor against the orange backdrop of the parasite god looked amazing, like it was him alone with this gigantic enemy.  Finally it's Clara who saves the day with her book of 101 Places to See and her leaf.  She sacrifices her leaf and all the memories it has until the parasite is finally consumed by the memories and disintegrates.  The Doctor saying there's more memories in the future.

Clara returns home, gets her ring back as a thank you from all the people she saved.  Then recalls she saw him at the cemetery.  Lots of Star Wars references or similarities with the aliens, which I won't mention, it'll get too long, but as I said in last week's review, this was more The Beast Below since Clara encounters aliens for her first trip out in the TARDIS, just as Amy did. But why did she say the TARDIS doesn't like her?

This was Doctor Who's musical episode.  There was the 2010 Christmas Special one a few years back with Katherine Jenkins, A Christmas Carol.  You could say aside from this being an episode where we learn more about Clara's background, the memorable performance of the Doctor as he once again mentions everything he's been through and survived, he also talks about secrets, that can never be shared and all the rest, that there wasn't much going on in terms of anything we hadn't seen before.  Aside from Clara being the companion the Doctor needs and that she really excels as one.

Another episode where the Doctor meets Clara as a little girl, just as he did Amy but doesn't talk to her this time, only secretly watches her.

http://mila255h.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/matt-smith.html

5.16 The Mentalist "There Will be Blood" Review

                                             
Lorelei (Emmanuelle Chriqui) breaks into Julia's (Elise Robertson) house and tortures her before killing her.  She needs info about her sister Miranda.  Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Patrick (Simon Baker) are shown the footage on the nanny cam installed in the house.  That expression on Patrick's face when he sees Lorelei shoot Julia so cold bloodily was priceless.  He seemed to be a little shocked but did he really think anyone who got caught up with Red John would be so innocent.  Lisbon is called to Bertam's (Michael Gaston) office and is told Kirkland (Kevin Corrigan) will be investigating the case as well so she must share all results with him.  She asks why Homeland Security is interested and is told they investigate many cases.

Lisbon lays down the law to Patrick by telling him she knows he kidnapped Lorelei in Red Sails In the Sunset and she knows he knows.  Patrick trying to be funny there says " you know I know you know."  She wants him to be honest with her and tell her when Lorelei makes contact.  Lisbon is his partner, not Lorelei.  Well depends in what context that's used.  Lisbon has gone from calling him a consultant to associate and now partner. Since they will now investigate her escape and if they find out he was involved he'll be charged as an accomplice to murder and so will she.

Patrick thinks Lorelei has her reasons for killing Julia, that she was probably behind her sister Miranda's murder, but that still doesn't justify her actions. Considering she also didn't know about her sister's death and RJ being behind it until Patrick showed her the CS photo.  SO she could have gone on colluding as his mistress or whatever it is she does with Red John without even knowing this.  Seems Patrick wants to let her go so she will tell him who Red John is.  Forgetting to never trust a player, or play one, or is it don't con a conman.

They follow a lead to where Julia used to work at the woman's Shelter and Patrick goes walkabout whilst Lisbon talks with three of the trustees, Kevin Rome (Tom Wright) Melissa Enfield (Emmanuelle Vaugier) and Jason Lenin (Christopher Cousins).  Patrick finds a  letter addressed to Julia with an address in Davis.  He asks the trustees a question, if Julia has always lived in Sacramento with Lisbon telling him she's talking here.  He then disappears to follow this lead without telling Lisbon.  So much for being honest, keeping quiet is not the same thing.  

Not another reference to orchid as in The Devil's Cherry episode where The Blue Orchid was named for a diamond and that whole hallucination Patrick had involved a butterfly on an orchid.   The butterfly being seen as a symbol of hope.  Notice the woman's shelter was in Hope or called Hope.  Here Patrick finds  a piece of fish wire and Lorelei sitting on the chair, just waiting for him to arrive dressed in a crisp white shirt, as if she's that pure and innocent, usually it's something Lisbon wears.  She wore a white T-shirt today.  She tells him Julia deserved to die and she tortured and killed her sister but she didn't know anything about Red John.  Rigsby's (Owain Yeoman) check leads them to the other address and Lisbon follows up on it finding Patrick there, but not Lorelei, she's gone.  Of course Patrick wouldn't stop her, he's still hoping she'll lead him to RJ, they have a promise.

Patrick tells her he doesn't have any feelings for Lorelei after telling Lisbon he didn't lie to her, she's adamant he didn't tell her where he was going.   Then he relents and tells her that he does have feelings for her, thus she knows they were intimate together and feels a bit cut up about it to the point of jealousy.  This scene was misleading in showing us that Lisbon does have feelings for Patrick, real feelings but either she won't admit to them for various reasons, or the writers won't, which may turn out to be a good thing.  It can't do for Lisbon to get involved emotionally in that way.  Shippers may want a relationship between the two, I'm not one of them.  Not only will it alter the dynamic of the characters and the show's main premise but really work is all they have.  Patrick is unpredictable and she can't afford to take a risk like that on him.  Also shown by her being in tears almost; a first for Lisbon too as she's never been that emotional and when she tells him his emotions for Lorelei are "clouding his judgement," she could almost be referring to herself and her own feelings for him.

If Patrick wants to be a part of the team then neither one of them will be a part of this anymore.  That's her ultimatum to him, which is made easy by episode's end.  Saved by the bell as Bertram calls asking her to see him tomorrow.  Patrick asks if she's going to tell him but she doesn't know.  At that meeting she covers for him saying Patrick's come up with some theories but they're not good otherwise she'd share them with him.  Patrick was out of character here, firstly when they go to the shelter, Lisbon asks him his thoughts and he replies he has none.  Now Lisbon is using that same line of his to cover for him, but Bertram sees through her, it's that poker playing and even Patty makes a comment about it later.  Kirkland who is hiding in the next room also knows she's keeping something back.  Bertram knows she's hiding something but a good detective always does that.  Besides he adds who can you trust?  Loaded comment since each one is suspected of being in league with RJ.

Patrick gets defensive in playing down his feelings since he's 'using' her to get RJ's name.  Which he claims Lisbon knew from the outset.  Repeated by Bertram too when he implies there's something between Patrick and Lorelei, since he admitted a sexual relationship and they were on the run together and no one knows what they got up to during that time and Lisbon hasn't asked him either.  Don't blame her.

Lorelei turns up at the hotel where the trustees have gathered with the fourth one and opens fire after a woman sees her with a gun.  It was apparent who she was after since he was the one who had the most reaction and ran faster than the others, i.e. Lenin.  She shoots a guard, is held down by another in a shootout and is shot herself until she manages to escape.  Each of the trustees are questioned but no one knows any Miranda ever staying at the shelter and none of them have heard of Lorelei.

Rigsby finds some discrepancies between the records kept at the shelter between the names of women who stayed there and finds someone has tried to cover up other women who have stayed there as if to hide them.  Each of the team split up and keep tabs on the four trustees.  Rigsby is assigned to Lenin, Lisbon to Melissa.  She implores Patrick to stay here and not get involved, naturally his inquiring mind and Lorelei get the better of him and he looks through the four files.  He finds a fishing photo in Lenin's file and puts the clues together.  Calling Rigsby along the way to warn him of Lorelei's presence.  Rigsby having a minute to ask Cho (Tim Kang) about Van Pelt and what she'd be doing at 5am.  He should have gone to the computer training with her.  Lorelei drives into the back of Rigsby's SUV knocking him out.  Also Patrick calls Lisbon.

She tortures Lenin who claims he knows nothing.  Patrick arrives and gets Lenin to talk.  He admits he and Julia found women for Red John and that he works for him but doesn't reveal his name.  Lorelei has to go after RJ and Patrick implores her to tell him Red John's name.  She replies he should ask Lenin he's weaker.  Patrick reminds her she promised but as said, what's a promise worth to someone like her.  Yeah Patrick too busy snogging her when she takes the gun and shoots Lenin, well anyone could see that coming.  Patrick desperately tires to save him and Kirkland arrives telling them he's taking over the case so Patrick is practically pulled out of the ambulance.

Two Weeks Later

Lenin is being kept in a coma but Lisbon takes him to a CS where Lorelei's naked DB has been found.  She's dead and a smiley face hangs over her, sort of.  That smiley face looked different to the usual one.  Patrick walks away despondent and no words are said by Lisbon!  There was nowhere else they could take the story with Lorelei seeing as she served her purpose and even if Patrick had a semblance of  a feeling towards her, she would have been killed off eventually, as are all RJ acolytes.  They couldn't very well have him pursuing her like he's pursuing RJ.

Patrick could have gone after Lorelei and would have found RJ but he chose to stay, save Lenin and wait for Lisbon.  This goes a long way in showing where his loyalties lie.  Also Lorelei is found with a carousel in pieces nearby, alluding to Patrick's past. Yet she wasn't able to kill Red John and he got the better of her as well as posing her DB in that way as a serious smack to Patrick: that he was the one in charge all along including when he sent Lorelei after him in the season 4 episodes.  Patrick first says he's sorry and then adds "she had it coming."  Just as Lorelei said the same about Julia.  Not sure he really believes that but was something he probably needed to say at the time.

Patrick was too trusting of Lorelei and Lisbon was right about this, in fact he didn't even listen to her.  He just charged on in the hopes that Lorelei would come through, why would she?  She had gotten her revenge on the two who helped Red John kill her sister but who knows if she would even do anything about Red John or not.  Seems he pipped her to the post exacting his own revenge.  Even when Patrick tells her RJ would know what she's up to she still left.  Lorelei was so ruthless when it came to torture and murder, think she learned from the master, RJ.

Great acting from Robin and Simon to keep the emotional turmoil boiling and how well they hide their feelings too.  Patrick reinforcing he will do anything to get to Red John and was reaffirming what he's always said to Lisbon from the outset, that he will kill him when he finds him and take pleasure in it. Maybe a little more so now Lorelei's dead.  Patrick was being hypocritical though when he said she deserved it.  He did the same thing with Panzer in 4.7 Blinking Red Light, when he made him a target for RJ so he'd being a murderer to book and here he did the same thing.  Lorelei couldn't get away with the killing of two people so he took care of her for them.  Though he would have had his own reasons for taking pleasure in killing Lorelei, though she didn't betray him and reveal his name, makes me wonder why she didn't, she obviously knew she'd be going to her death, which explains her kissing Patty.  Her kiss of betrayal as she shoots the one lead he has on RJ.

Enjoyed the light hearted comments from Rigsby and Cho when he thinks of Van Pelt and his own unrequited love in continuation from last episode.  Also Emmanuelle Vaugier had so very little to do here, I thought she'd be involved somehow, yet I was proved wrong, well maybe it's best not to be right all the time. Also she needs to grow her eyebrows back, those pencil thin ones don't suit her.

The Vampire Diaries 4.16 "Bring It On" Review

To control Elena (Nina Dobrev) or in an attempt to stop her losing the plot, Damon (Ian Somerhalder)  and Stefan (Paul Wesley) think it's better she return to school.  Elena comes out of the shower and is naked cos it's not like anything thy haven't seen before, even Caroline (Candace Accola) is shocked, cos she hasn't.  Before that she lies down in the middle of the road in the night and waits for a car, where she attacks the woman driver cos she's the only one who isn't full of vervain.  Damon stops her but she wants to feed and kill her.  Before leaving for school he compels her to behave and not feed on anyone.

At school she wants to become a cheerleader again cos she really loved it the first time round.  She attacks one of the rival leaders and steals her ribbon and then deliberately lets Caroline fall when she fails to catch her.  Elena was whiny before and now she's annoying and obnoxious with her still selfish attitude.  So much for turning off her humanity so she doesn't care, she just doesn't care and thinks this gives her a right to behave how she wants.  So the Elena rulebook has gone straight out the window!  She's not the first person/vampire to lose loved ones but she behaves like a spoilt brat.

Klaus (Joseph Morgan) saves Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) from being attacked by one of Katherine's vampires and then takes her home to wine and dine her in order to find Katherine's whereabouts and info on her.  She met her in New Orleans but she doesn't know where she is.  Katherine offered to help her find out about Hayley's parents.  Hayley looks through Klaus's paintings and finds one where he's standing facing the sunset which she likes.  He tells her it's cos it shows his passion.  Hayley also wants him to not kill Tyler so that she can have him.  Anything he does will make Caroline hate him more.  Klaus only wants to torment Tyler and make him paranoid over the centuries that's his revenge.

Sheriff (Marguerite MacIntyre) tells Stefan someone is stealing blood supplies from the hospital but it's not them, thus endangering Caroline and the others.  Damon looks for the vampire that attacked Hayley cos Klaus sets him on that lead and bumps into Rebekah (Claire Holt) looking for Katherine.  They find no leads at the hospital so Damon bites a nurse to lure the vampire out and finds it's Will (Aaron Jay Rome) someone he knew but he can't help re his wolf bite.  SO he kills him thus ensuring Rebekah can't get her hands on him and get info about the cure.  Damon doesn't want her to have it and tells her as much, she doesn't want to be ordinary.

Elena is bought back home by Stefan and she throws a party, again stripping in front of him.  She recalls their sex together but she doesn't feel that way.  She attacks Caroline's mother and then runs off.  Stefan and Caroline see her dance and that she's having fun.  Caroline thinks Stefan should do the same cos he spent a lifetime and more trying to keep his humanity.  He understands how Elena feels cos he didn't start ripping heads off until 1912, but he's been where Elena will end up and she won't find it easy to get back up.  Elena was there for him when he had his feelings turned off so he wants to help her now.  It's his fault Elena is like this and she won't be able to live with herself after killing people.

Damon's sire bond hasn't worked on Elena and Rebekah tells him if he uses the cure for her, she'll go back to loving Damon.  Elena tells Damon he loved her for so long and now he has her, she can't go back to being that scared little girl anymore.  SO he takes her to New York "the city that never sleeps" cos we'll get some lowdown on him during the 1970's with his friend he'd just killed.

Klaus and Hayley together was erm, awkward, especially when they each harbour feelings for others.  Elena has turned off her feelings for Damon so the sire bond doesn't work on her.  Caroline pining for Tyler and leaving in message results in Matt (Zach Roerig) being sent a package and Caroline finding she can't get into the Lockwood house.  Matt has to invite her in as he is given the deed by Tyler and he has a letter for Caroline saying how he can't return since Klaus will kill him and so it's goodbye really.  Caroline and Elena didn't have much of a fight in the woods, it was kind of wimpy for vampires and then having to be saved by
Stefan and Damon.  Caroline is angry cos she attacked her mother and Elena says she just has dirty thoughts about Klaus.  Yeah Elena like you being stuck between Damon and Stefan for so long but that was fine.

Klaus notices the birthmark on Hayley's back and knows it's from a werewolf clan in Louisiana so he may know something about her family.  Stefan thinks Silas followed them back from the island which Damon so quaintly referred to as "numskull island" and that he needs the blood to feed.  Damon's not interested though, he's more into running off with Elena.  Oh boring!  This ep was just leading us merrily along in the hopes of finding Katherine and the cure and prolonging the agony.  Elena taking down the photo with Jeremy's memorial from the board cos she just doesn't care.

Double meaning to the title re the cheerleading film, Bring It On and  bringing on the trouble with Elena, she wants to stop being that little girl, but really she's still acting like one.  Pulling stunts like lying in the middle of the road and waiting for Vics to drive by, then just walking around naked and letting her best friend fall.  It's not adult behaviour, even for a vampire.

CSI 13.6 "Pick and Roll" Review

A basketball practice match turns ugly when the coach wants the President of the University (Michael Gross) to leave along with the biggest 'booster.' This includes DB's (Ted Danson) son, Charlie (Brandon W Jones) (could we have an ep where his family isn't mentioned) who has a bust up with the coach Tom Burns (Robert Mamanna).  Later Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) and DB are called to the showers where the coach's DB was discovered.  David (David Berman) finds he was hit.  Finn (Elisabeth Shue) and Sara (Jorga Fox) find prints leading away from the showers when sprayed with luminol since the killer didn't do much of a job of cleaning up.  One set of prints look like shoes or cleats and the other print is unclear.

Doc (Robert David Hall) finds he was repeatedly hit and also a white substance on his forehead which Nick (George Eads) says is usually a substance from sexual contact.  Burns had been seen arguing with Jack Oxford Bryan Callan) who was WLVU's largest benefactor and has no qualms of showing this off when he shows Brass his expensive watch which would take him a year's salary to buy.  Killing Burns wouldn't be productive.  DB heads to Charlie's dorm to tell him of coach's death and finds him with his girlfriend, Vanessa (Italia Ricci).  Earlier he and Barbara (Peri Gilpin) were talking about Charlie and she thinks he has a girlfriend. Charlie explains he heard Burns and Oxford arguing together when he went back to the locker room.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) checks out what could have made the various patterns using shoes and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) catches him walking funnily.  He's been printing shoes and finds one of the marks was made by a pair of heels.  He asks her if she wants to go shopping and Morgan reminds him he'll need to collect Charlie's shoes too and ask DB for permission. Charlie was a suspect but gets favourable treatment, them's the perks being the boss's son.

Henry (Jon Wellner) checks out the DNA and Greg (Eric Szmanda) inundates him from smelly sportsclothes from the locker room.  One of the tops has the name 'Fair' on the back and is stained with blood spatter.  TJ Fair (Theodore Borders) says he stopped a fight between the coach and someone else and reluctantly lets on it was Charlie.  Charlie neglected to mention this and DB is angry since he clearly doesn't know the difference between honesty and being independent.  He thought they taught him right.  Apparently coach called Vanessa a tramp and he was wasting his time on her, well he'd know.  Charlie was running at the time of the murder and Vanessa says she was in his room too and went for breakfast.

At breakfast when Barbara found out DB had been eating bacon and also Charlie had a girlfriend since he bought new clothes to impress, DB said she's a better detective than he is.  He also refers to her as "Madame Poirot" at one point.  He and Vanessa have dinner with them and Vanessa asks questions about the case which he can' discuss.  She's a psychology grad.  They've decided to move in together.

Henry has sex toys to process all from the coach's house. Which leads to some DNA belonging to an unknown woman.  Brass interviews Burns's wife, Linda (Alexie Gilmore) who claims she was at their cabin and have been having marriage counselling.  This leads to a club called 'The Iris' which Nick doesn't know anything about and to a 'Madame Z.'  Obvious this was going to be Vanessa.  Who says she's a registered sex therapist as are all the women here.  That scene with Nick and DB when they arrive there was like one out of CSI:NY when Flack used to have the dubious pleasure of questioning suspects at such places.  DB adding his friend is in need of discipline.  Even name dropping Burns gets them nowhere so out came the IDs.  Even if Vanessa is licensed her 'relationship' with Burns was still of a sexual nature which is not something that's meant to happen between client and therapist.

DB takes the glass which Vanessa drank from since the dishes haven't been done yet and takes it to check on her DNA.  Which Finn tells him he's crossed the line since she got fired when she did the same thing.  However he tells her the glass was his and Charlie's a suspect who would have been in jail if he wasn't his son.  She's known Charlie since he was ten and doesn't believe he could kill anyone.  So they go over the evidence again.   Hodges has now narrowed down his possible items to a basketball and with Morgan's help they print various balls and bounce them on the floor but none of the patterns match, until Hodges thinks one of the patterns looks like a lace and recalls old fashioned basketballs used to have laces.

Linda tells Brass she lied since she found him in the showers and should have been honest.  Brass: "To put  a bullet in a guy's manhood good luck with that.  You sure you don't want to call a lawyer now."  Brass gets some of the best lines.  Hodges finds the white substance on his forehead were teardrops and the tear analysis shows the tears were genuinely emotional since they had more traces of enzymes, proteins, lipids, electrolytes and lysozomes.  Showing she had been there and cried over him.  The only possible suspect left was the President and that was apparent.  He killed Oxford to to make it look like Linda may have done it since she and Oxford were having an affair and the gun was hers.  He wanted Burns to take on Oxford's son on the team even if he couldn't play but Burns refused so he killed him.

Charlie tells DB the programme is in trouble and people are going to various other schools, but he's staying put in Vegas.  Also Vanessa dumped him.  Barbara and DB have a quarrel over what he should be telling her since this is about their family but he says he can't share everything with her.  She would like to know things that concern them.  Don't know about you but I was actually bored with this episode. Sports again and more family issues.  Would like to see some of the other cast getting personal storylines for a change.  We've seen Barbara and DB and their two children thus far and know how their family functions and works so why keep dragging them back.  Once again as in the case of his granddaughter being kidnapped DB works the case when his son is a suspect in a murder and yet back in It Was A Very Good year he had the same problem with Greg.  Maybe he should have stepped back here too and let Finn et al handle it.

As for Vanessa once again we were heading into Lady Heather territory and it's not the first time we've come across hookers/therapists/girlfriends in such a role.  Could we get something different and what did Vanessa see in Burns anyway?  Hodges trying to get in good with DB by saying he doesn't believe Charlie did it.

There's no mention of Morgan and Hodges and their awkwardness last ep re the kiss and that hasn't been resolved either since Finn interrupted them last time so we don't know what's going on there.  I've noticed since Jon Wellner was made a regular in the credits we haven't seen much of him.

Also Sara and teardrops analysis was done before in 3.11 Recipe for Murder where she found there are five different types of tears which include those of joy, sorrow, regret, allergies and fear.  yet it took a while to find out what the substance was and for Hodges to give us another scientific lowdown on what this particular teardrop contained and meant.

666 Park Avenue 1.7 "Downward Spiral" Review

                                          
Thought this was a reference to stairs since we haven't seen those stairs shown in the credits, but we got them now.  Henry (Dave Annable) is being honoured by the mayor for his bravery (ugh sickening still going on about that, Henry brave, pull the other one!)  Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) teases by referring to Henry as "Mayor Martin" well with Gavin pulling strings and souls that will happen eventually.  Jane's (Rachael Taylor) still adamant she wants to leave and hands in her letter of resignation to pass onto Gavin, would have thought she'd have done that herself.  She still doesn't feel safe here and he tells her Tony (Eril Palladino) will be pleased to hear she's leaving.

Henry has to deal with being a rising star (used loosely) and Jane's determination to go back.  Though there are greater forces at work and what Henry wants, Henry gets, thus Jane will have to stay.  Shown by Nona (Samantha Logan)and her grandmother Lottie (Elain R Graham) telling her she must convince Jane to stay.  Lottie can't move or speak and the doctor can't help her but as soon as Nona introduces her, Jane wants to call in social services, never mind the fact that Nona was doing okay before she arrived.  Nona tells Jane she's a "child of the Drake" and takes her to a floor of the Drake, the lobby where a young blonde girl is playing hopscotch on the tiles.  Then tells her if she's not real then how can she get into Jane's dreams.  Jane awakes again and Henry is oblivious to all this, as per usual.

Olivia (Vanessa Williams) tries to convince Jane to stay also by mentioning Ohio, it's Indiana and Jane should stay where she's got opportunities.  So she's recommended her as an architect for a friend's brownstone.  Henry whilst out jogging with Brian (Robert Buckley) is told he shouldn't marry which is funny since he was going to propose to Jane tonight.  After he's convinced by Gavin to do so.  Gavin believes in marriage and Olivia helps him pick out a ring for $3,000, convincing him Jane will change her mind when she sees one of those rings she tells him.  Whilst in the jewellers Olivia is confronted by Victor Shaw (Nick Chinlund) again and he wants to buy the necklace for her.  Wanting he to betray Gavin.  She tells him about this encounter as she's shaving Gavin and cuts him.  He suggests she go along with this betrayal and that's something she can't do.

Kandinsky (Misha Kuznetzov) meanwhile is checked on by Dr Scott (Enrique Murciano) and when he leaves, Kandinsky removes the scalpel he placed inside him during surgery and kills a policeman.  Scott is angry his agreement didn't include killing and Gavin tells him he must go along with it, with that debt is a burden on the soul line.  Brain is visited by Alexis (Helena Mattsson) who tells him Louise is in Miami.  Then she wants to say goodbye to him.  They kiss and take it further.   He's still angry at Louise's betrayal and sleeping with Scott.  He confronts Scott who tells him he lost his phone and Alexis returned it after they
were together.  He didn't sleep with Louise.  Alexis has now moved int the Drake after fulfilling one of Brian's fantasies.  More like one of Gavin's, the dirty old man.

Nona shows Jane photos and newspaper clippings her grandmother has collected when she was investigating what happened to her parents.  There's a flashback to her mother pregnant with her in the lift and Lottie sending her away.  But she gets stuck in the lift and Nona is born.  Seems Nona was already named before the birth and Gavin even tells her mother she's having a girl.  Thus she too is a "child of the Drake."  Nona shows her the photo of the girl she saw in the lobby and the back of it reads 'Jane 1992.'  When she was 8 but was in Indiana.  How come Jane didn't mention that was her in the photo until a while later.

Scott rushes to his room and finds the tattoo now reads $60,000.  Later when dressing for the recital party, Scott takes a gun with him.  Henry and Jane also arrive and she tells Henry she loves him and can't leave him to go back.  Actually she wants to stay and help Nona and solve the Drake mysteries.  Olivia puts a substance on her lips and she greets Shaw with a glass of champagne, which her husband doesn't drink.  He wants her to convince him and she does this by kissing him.  Scott arrives and holds Gavin at gunpoint.  Shaw has a fit and Gavin tells him he saves lives and doesn't take them.  He tries to help Shaw.  Later we see him in the ambulance with Kandinsky driving.  They're going to the Drake and Scott must keep Shaw alive.

Nona looks for her grandmother and ropes Jane in, leaving Henry alone with the scattered rose petals in the apartment courtesy of Olivia.  Nona's grandmother takes the necklace from Jane's neck and looks through it.  The alligator mosaic on the floor is missing an eye where her necklace fits and the tiles fall away, revealing that spiral staircase.  Ironically the title suggest the downward spiral the residents, Jane, Henry, Scott, Brian, et al have all got themselves into and seems there's no way out until Gavin is dealt with.  As Jane climbs down the stairs the floor closes back in on her, like lots of clocks, leaving her trapped.  The wind blows and the candles go out, leaving Henry alone in the dark.
Well that's the lasetwe see of Scott.  Sorry Enrique fans!  This just sets up mystery upon mystery which was pretty pointless when nothing is resolved, or will be since the show's no longer around.

Revenge 2.13 "Union" Review

Emily: "In its purest form a union becomes part of our very essence, but when that bond is broken our essence is forever changed."

This time we get Amanda/Emily getting ready for her wedding to Jack when they were little and how this leads into the present day and Amanda's (Margarita Levieva) wedding.  She makes rings from pipecleaners and even her father helps out when he finds out what she's doing.  Nolan (Gabriel Mann) here is the one who's making preparations and is complaining about it, "who knew officiant was French for wedding bitch."  Emily's (Emily VanCamp) worried about Aiden (Barry Sloane) and he hasn't heard from him either.  Nolan tells her about Conrad (Henry Czerny) owning half the Stowaway and she's angry no one came to her for help.  Been there, said that weeks ago.  Emily gives a cheque to Amanda to cash and make it out to Conrad and pay back his money.  Reminding her that she's not a part of their family, Charlotte (Christa B Allen) isn't her sister and the Grayson's will always be their enemy.  Thought she was having a rant at Amanda here for marrying Jack (Nick Wechsler) and getting her life, what she wanted from it all along and how things should have been for her.  But hey she's 'colluding' with Daniel (Josh Bowman) once again and she appears to have real feelings for him.

Nolan finds Aiden at NolCorp and he wants him to pull the video he intercepted of his sister and to analyze it, telling him about dates and where it was filmed.  Nolan tries to say sorry about Colleen but Aiden's not really interested.  Nolan finds the video was shot 6 years ago and using the electric meter serial number traces the location to New Jersey.  Of course that video would have been old, it's not like the Initiative are sticklers to their word and it should have been obvious to Aiden that they wouldn't keep Colleen alive.  Nolan tells Emily and she informs him of Aiden's father being a baggage handler at Heathrow and was made to put the bomb on the plane.  He wasn't seen after that.

Thus giving Nolan the idea that Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) may be in the same position so when she walks in he asks her exactly that and lets slip on purpose he knows what she's been up to.  "I know the what, I don't know the why."  Then he tells her about being careful of who she's calling "black, little kettle."  After he tells her she's no longer in contact with her father.  He confronts her since "my feelings for you defy logic."  AGH Nolan why tell her everything already about only giving her half the info on carrion.  She could be lying still and I didn't like Nolan parting with this piece of info he has which could become a matter of life and death.

Emily finds Aiden at the building and Nolan calls her about the coroner's report from 2007 which Emily told him to look for.  He IDs Coleen from the photos at the coroner's office and claims he's failed her. Emily's encouraging him "that's why people like you and me fight, fell on deaf ears."  Their fight against the Initiative isn't over and he insists she still see Daniel as he's their only link to the Initiative.  He doesn't want to fight and walks away, leaving Emily on her own and in tears.  She still has Daniel, though she's losing Jack to Amanda (not for long.)  God she's got three men at her beck 'n' call where most of us can't even find one!!

Jack takes the money after some convincing from Amanda understanding he's proud but he doesn't want to get involved with the Grayson's after everything they've done to Amanda.  He gives him the cheque but Connor won't accept it, showing him the plans for the casino.  Jack will fight him every step of the way but Conrad says he'll show him what a man of means can achieve.  Er, that didn't come in handy with the Initiative.  Cue skank Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) listening in on the conversation when he later calls Nate (Michael Trucco) to tell him the deal's off.

Funny scene earlier on when Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) walks into his office to tell him about overhearing the conversation Daniel had with Helen (Wendy Crewson) and she's making her move, when she tells Ashley she's surprised to find her fully clothed.  Victoria wants all the info they have on the Initiative and the plans for the flight so she can show Daniel.  Her mistake talking to Daniel about all this at the office where Helen watches every word.  I thought Conrad would have given Victoria a heads up about bugging especially since Amanda uses the video with the two of them and the white haired man as leverage to blackmail Conrad into accepting Jack's offer.

Conrad meets Nate to tell him the commission got wind of their deal and scuppered their plans.  He then tells  about the leverage being used on him and he connects this to the Porter's.  SO he'll take matters into his own hands.  Drawing us closer to the sinking of The Amanda.

Jack marries Amanda and Emily's placed the black bow tie he wore and the pipe cleaner ring into the ring box enabling Jack to remember their beach wedding as children.  Emily is in tears and regrets what her life is now, probably for that instance.  Aiden turns up and she sees him.  Jack and Amanda set sail for their honeymoon with Nate in tow, as he cuts the radio link whilst Declan (Connor Paolo) calls Jack to ask about spare pacifiers, wouldn't a shop be more convenient!  Daniel calls Emily to break up with her cos he's thinking of her safety and really doesn't want to.  Reminding her of last Summer.  Would have thought she would have got the hint that something wasn't right, but alas she doesn't.  Well look back to season 1 and you'll recall everything that could go wrong last Summer, did!

Victoria is paid a visit by Helen who tells her she heard everything, and threatens Daniel when he gets into the service car unless she gives them the info she has on the initiative.  Victoria cunningly leads her to the pool house and the safe which is empty, but she has a gun (convenient that or did she just have that ready for such an occasion.)  Helen calls her bluff, she wouldn't shoot in cold blood, but she does.  Of course she would, this is Victoria.  Even though she hasn't got her hands dirty in the past, she has been behind many a killing, as has Conrad.  Though she did shoot one of her mother's beaus on her say so, thus she's had practice aiming the gun and firing, ha!  That Thanksgiving ep scene was probably a bit of foreshadowing for now, so we wouldn't be surprised when she called Helen's bluff.  She then calls Daniel and makes him pretend he's talking to Helen and when he arrives at the pool house she shows him Helen's DB. Conrad complains about no one answering phones and then is shown her DB too!  Funny scene that, even though it inadvertently turned out to be so.

Aiden turns up and apologizes for walking out on Emily.  She tells him about Daniel but she doesn't know what's happened yet, wonder if she'll find out herself or whether Daniel will tell her.  Doubt that since Victoria is now a killer.  A lot of action on the part of the Revenge heroines this ep which came out of the blue, Victoria using her own initiative (!) and shooting Helen which will probably spark the beginnings of yet more problems for them and Amanda taking Emily's computer with all that evidence on there pertaining to the Grayson's.  Which boils down to something Emily would do, but not so brashly.  Conrad finding out she's the one behind all the trouble.

Emily: "From the moment we are born, we are drawn to form a union with others.  An abiding drive to connect, to love, to belong.  In a perfect union we find the strength that we cannot find in ourselves.  But the strength of the union cannot be known until it is tested."

Hoping it's Nate they find at the bottom of The Stowaway, but we know Amanda won't come out of this either, so...that'll leave the way open for Jack and Emily, but will she want him then, you know, when he becomes available?