Caprica (s1ep09): End of Line – ****
SPOILERS BELOW
Previously: Daniel Graystone is getting increasingly frustrated as he keeps failing to recreate the robot that’s made the government excited. Zoe is still in that robot body and is trying to get Lacy to help her transport it to Geminon to serve some higher purpose. Lacy as a result is problematically getting in deeper with the STO in order to help Zoe. Meanwhile, Amanda has been getting more and more suspicious of her husband, which doesn’t help her already crumbling sanity. And Joseph Adama is neglecting everything in order to search for his daughter in New Cap City.
Daniel: Daniel’s stress tolerance is finally put to the limit as the government gives him til next week to reproduce the Zoe-bot. He decides the best way to proceed is for Philomon to wipe the chip clean tomorrow so they can start over. This leads to disastrous consequences as Zoe goes into self preservation mode.
Zoe: Zoe has some sweet moments with Philomon early in the episode and I really wanted those crazy kids to work it out later in the season. But the writers had other plans. Lacy has already told Zoe she needs more time, and thus essentially failed her, when Philomon goes to wipe the chip clean. Zoe speaks for the first time to him in an effort to save herself. She tries to explain, but Philomon just sees crazy robot. Zoe flings into a steel pillar to stop him and kills him. Sadness. They were cute. This leads to Zoe in a car chase as she heads out for parts unknown with the police in pursuit.
Lacy: Meanwhile Lacy is following Barbanus’ orders so he’ll help her with Zoe and unknowingly puts a bomb in Clarice’s car. She’s later forced to push the button on the explosive or die and not be able to help Zoe. She pushes the button. Poor Lacy has gone in over her head.
Amanda: Amanda is going further and further into depression. And as she says to Daniel, he was the one to help keep her sanity last time. Unfortunately this time he’s too preoccupied with all his problems to notice her downward spiral. She makes one last call for help when she calls on Clarice. But Clarice is also busy with her own problems, mainly getting to Geminon, to be of any help. So, Amanda goes to the top of a bridge and the last we see she’s apparently jumped off.
Clarice: Clarice and one of her husbands are on their way to leave for Geminon when she sees Amanda at the top of a bridge. She gets out of the car and then it explodes. My first thought is that just as she believes God is speaking to her through Amanda, it seems God has a plan for her and saved her from death.
Joseph: Joseph continues to search New Cap City for Tamara. When he finally finds her she tells him he’s too invested in finding her and she shoots him so he’ll never be able to come back.
The end: Zoe-bot drives through a barricade of police and her van explodes. Daniel gets a call after we see Amanda jump off the bridge.
Addendum: Is Amanda dead? Unlikely. Could Zoe’s robot body be gone? Possible. Will we miss Zoe and Philomon? Most likely. This episode has a lot of storyline resolutions, but not any new answers. I think the show is spreading itself too thin and needs to come back as a more cohesive and focused whole.
Fringe (s2ep16): Peter – *****
This week on Fringe, viagra here Walter recalls his experiments in the 1980s as he tries to map out Peter’s improbable biography for Olivia.
It all comes down to this episode. In the series premiere of Fringe we learned Peter was Walter’s son. In the season one finale we see Walter grieving at a tombstone and learn that Peter actually died a long time ago as a boy. So wait, who is this Peter we’ve been following all along? Throughout the series we’ve had hints that Peter comes from the alternate universe they’ve been investigating, but now we learn the how and why.
Previously: Walter tells Peter he nearly died when he was a boy, but Peter doesn’t remember any of it. It’s because the real Peter did die, and this Peter is from an alternate universe. There’s more than one of everything, y’all. Also, Walter and his partner William Bell experimented on children including one Olivia Dunham. These children have the ability to see things from the other side. Peter and Olivia are just getting closer when she sees him glimmer, a sign he’s from the other side. Walter asks her not to tell anyone, but what will she do?
U.S. Army Research Headquarters, 1985: We see some portraits of old presidents on the walls and a youthful looking Walter Bishop showing off a sleek cell phone that looks suspiciously like a RAZR. Pretty sure we didn’t have those in 1985. This Walter is well spoken and decidedly more cocky than his modern counterpart. This comes to be a problem later in the episode.
He explains to the military folk how he modeled the phone after one he saw in the other side, an alternate universe more technologically advanced than us. Using an awesome machine that provides a visual gateway or window, he’s been spying on them. And we get an even better taste of the time period when the faux!credits roll and have been spruced up (or down?) for 1985. Awesome.
Back in the present, Walter tells Olivia how his Peter and the Peter from the other side were both sick with some ‘genetic’ disease. He explains how he realized he could use the window to watch and copy the other Walter (‘Walternate’) as he tried to create compounds to cure the other Peter. But with no luck. Sadly, our Walter’s Peter dies after giving his father his favorite coin and before either Walter can find a cure.
First mistake, crime of ignorance: The problem begins though when Walter shows his wife the other Peter in an effort give her peace of mind that at least one Peter out there will live on. Obviously though, seeing this Peter has the opposite effect. One can’t find closure from death as long as they think their loved one is out there somewhere. (We’ve seen this on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And we’ve been seeing this on Caprica lately, too.)
This same reluctance to let go of Peter happens for Walter, as he continues using his window to watch the other Walter try to find a cure. But my favorite scene may have to be when an Observer, knowing that Walternate is on the brink of finding the cure and comes to witness the event, visits Walternate and accidentally distracts him from seeing his discovery. The expressions on Walter’s face, and the feeling of dread in my stomach, as we both realize what has just happened is very moving. Walter then realizes how Walternate will think the compound failed, move on, and the other Peter will die just like his son.
September: I have made a mistake.
So, I’ve heard. What were you doing in the lab?
September: Dr. Bishop was on the verge of developing a cure for the boy. It was an important moment. He discovered me. There was no other way to witness the moment.
You have changed the future. You have created a new set of probabilities.
September: But you must agree the moment was significant.
The boy is significant.
You need to take action to restore balance.
September: How?
You will have an opportunity to fix this.
Second mistake, crime of ego: Walter plans to travel to the other side with the cure for the other Peter. But in another good scene, mirroring the creation of the atom bomb and quoting Oppenheimer, his assistant Carla argues that traveling over there would be a mistake.
Carla: Walter, I’m sorry, but you can’t.
Walter: Yes. Yes, I think I can.
Carla: No, Walter, I mean you can’t. Shattering the wall between universes would rupture the fundamental constants of nature.
Walter: That’s a theory. We don’t know that to be true.
Carla: It’s a good theory. It’s why we have been lying to the military, telling them that it’s impossible. Walter, there has to be a line somewhere. There has to be a line we can’t cross.
…
‘I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Knowledge cannot be pursued without morality.
Walter: You sound like a proud, southern, sanctimonious preacher!
Carla: I might go to church on Sunday, Walter, but I also have three degrees in theoretical physics, and I am telling you, you cannot do this. We both know the amount of energy required to create a portal will forever ruin both universes. For the sake of one life, you will destroy the world. Some things are not ours to tamper with. Some things are God’s.
Walter: My son is dying, Dr. Warren. I will not allow that to happen again. There’s only room for one God in this lab, and it’s not yours.
Carla is desperate and calls on Nina Sharpe to stop Walter, and we learn how Nina lost her arm in the process. Walter does make it through to the other side, but the vial of medicine breaks en-route. Basically, he’s screwed. He goes to visit Peter anyway, but is forced to bring him back to our world in order to cure him. And so he basically tricks his other wife into thinking he’s her husband, and takes the other Peter out of his home in the middle of the night. This makes me feel all kinds of sick. Walter basically kidnapped him from his parents.
Back in our world Walter and Peter arrive back on ice that cracks and breaks through. September gets his moment to ‘fix things’ and saves them both.
Third mistake, crime of passion: Walter says he fully intended to take Peter back to the other world, that is until his wife sees this Peter and they both realize they can’t part with the boy. Two families lost their son because of what Walter did. (And both worlds have lost people because of the breach he created.) And one could say the other Peter is better off as he would have died anyway without Walter’s help. But I say for the other Peter’s parents, they suffered a fate worse than him dieing: the not knowing.
Also: William Bell is clearly portrayed as a brilliant but dangerous ego-maniac who let Walter do the work while he went off and promoted and sold their research and ‘espionage program’ to the military.
Questions remain: Why is Peter so important? To the Observers, to Nina? What is Nina’s relationship with William Bell, really? Is Walter’s wife really Peter’s mother?
Life Unexpected (s1ep11): Storm Weathered – ***
This week on Life Unexpected, click Lux opens up to Ryan about her childhood in foster care when severe weather strands them together at the radio station. Meanwhile, treatment the storm causes Cate and her sister to be trapped with Baze at his bar, ampoule along with Math and Jamie.
Gossip Girl (s3ep16): The Empire Strikes Jack – **
This week on the Gossip Girl, Blair must make sure Eleanor’s latest fashion show is a hit with a particular client and Rufus volunteers Jenny to help. Meanwhile, conflict arises between Chuck and Uncle Jack once again.
Life Unexpected (s1ep11): Storm Weathered
Previously: Cate and Baze had a kid named Lux while in high school who Cate gave up for adoption. Lux has been in and out of foster homes all her life and tried to get emancipated, but her plan backfired with Cate and Baze being granted joint temporary custody. Cate is also engaged to Ryan, but she slept with Baze again and so Ryan broke up with her. Lux’s boyfriend Bug who left town has come back, so her flirtatious relationship with Jones from school has come to an impasse. Baze is also stupidly hooking up with Cate’s sister Abby. But at least Ryan and Cate have worked things out and are finally back together.
Cate vs. Baze vs. Abby: Cate finally learns about Baze’s fling with Abby by amusingly finding him at her sister’s yoga class. She also finds out she’s been of the loop and Lux already knows about the two of them.
Cate: Is this some kind of sick joke? How could she take you seriously as a father? You were having some gross pseudo-incestuous fling with her aunt.
Despite a huge storm brewing outside, she convinces Ryan to change their wedding plans and go out of town to elope. I’m sure part of her decision really does have to do with avoiding her frustrating family as she says, but I’m sure a lot of it also has to do with her feelings for Baze. She’s plunging head first, rather than heart first, in the other direction in reaction to the news about Baze and her sister.
Cate: I booked a room for us. And a separate room for Lux.
Ryan: Lux’ll appreciate that.
But Cate’s not the only one perturbed by Abby being in Baze’s life. Baze’s friends, one of the best things about the show in my opinion, are also upset about Abby’s intrusion into their man-pad.
Baze: Come on, guys. She’s not moving in, she’s staying over. I’ve had girlfriends stay over before. You remember, Tracy?
Jamie: Tracy was cool. Tracy brought bagels. Took her toothbrush with her when she left in the morning. Tracy didn’t diagnose me with ADD and set up a meditation corner in the game room.
Baze: Abby’s not that bad.
Math: A root canal is not that bad. A Matthew McConaughey movie is not that bad. World hunger is not that bad. You’re dating Cate’s sister, that’s bad.
So, with his friends and Cate pushing him, Baze finally breaks up with Abby. But in a classic guy move, he tries to make things easier by telling her it’s only because he still has feelings for Cate. It’s supposed to be just a lie to get out of the relationship, somehow easier than telling her the truth, but of course Cate overhears and blows the whole thing up. To her it’s just another another complication in her already fragile life. Thankfully, Abby quickly shuts her up.
Abby: This isn’t Burger King. You don’t get everything your way.
Baze quickly admits to Cate, and later alone to Abby, that what he said was a lie. But Abby doesn’t completely agree and thinks the idea had to come from somewhere:
Abby: The fact that that was your go-to-lie. There’s probably more truth to it than you think.”
Lux: Meanwhile, Lux is invited to a party by Jones who actually invites Bug, too. IMHO, it takes a real man to invite a girl you like and her bf to your party. But Lux ends up going alone. (Where was Bug anyway?) The party gets heated up though when Jones lays one on her during a game and Lux gets upset. Jones admits he has feelings for her, but apologizes and says it won’t happen again.
Later in the night, Lux catches Jones kissing another girl and gets upset again. As Jones tells her, she can’t have things both ways. She clearly has feelings for both guys. Like mother, like daughter. My theory on Bug is that perhaps her life has changed so much they’re no longer compatible?
Lux gets Ryan to pick her up and they hide out at the radio station from the storm. Thank god for Ryan, because he’s a much better parental figure than Cate and Baze put together. Ryan realizes something is wrong and asks her about it. Lux explains through a series of flashbacks, where we see little Lux meeting Tasha and an older Lux being let down by a family saying they’ll adopt her and then backing out, that she’s been continuously let down by people. Until a flashback where Lux refuses to be adopted cause she thinks her mother will come back for her:
Lux: No, what if she comes back for me? My mom? What if she comes back?
We also learn that Lux had just given up on ever seeing her mother again when her parents came back into her life:
Lux: It’s ironic, huh? I waited sixteen years not to want them. And that’s when I got them.
Coda: With the storm weathered and everyone joined together peacefully and as family, Ryan and Cate tell everyone about their upcoming wedding. They all give their congratulations, but Baze’s could stand to be a bit more heartfelt as Cate and Baze give each other a knowing look.
Gossip Girl (s3ep16): The Empire Strikes Jack
Previously: Jenny and the Damien drug fiend (who thank goodness didn’t take her virginity), Jenny and Agnes and the fashion disaster, Dan and the Vanessa were friends and now dating fiasco, Chuck and the mother trickery plus uncle Jack.
Blair: Blair’s mother is organizing a fashion show for her new line and asks Blair to bring 30 of her friends. But oops, she doesn’t realize Blair hasn’t made any friends since starting at NYU. Finally that storyline from the beginning of the season comes back. And the writers had thought we’d forgotten.
Blair: In the mean time I have to get ready for a fashion show in two hours. And I have 30 friends coming.
Nate: What? What friends?
So, instead of telling her mother the truth, Blair enlists Dorota’s help in hiring some prostitutes to fill the ranks.
Blair: What? My mother said she wanted me to pack the crowd with wholesome American girls.
Serena: So you hired escorts? B, you couldn’t just tell your mom you don’t have friends at NYU?
Blair: Prostitutes are people, too. And they have a lot of disposable income.
Dan and Vanessa: Dan and Vanessa continue to be boring. First, they don’t know how to tell their families they’ve changed from friends to a couple. Which was resolved quickly. Now, they don’t know how to transition from friends to a couple. Also resolved quickly. Really, now?
Vanessa: What do we do now that we didn’t when we were friends?
Dan: Are you serious?
Vanessa: Besides that.
Chuck: Sadly, the Chuck storyline is also pretty fail. Elizabeth’s reasons for doing everything: She’s in love with Jack who later turns his back on her when forced to choose between her and the hotel. It’s also so contrived. But in an interesting twist she tells Chuck she’s not really his mother. Then in the last scene we learn from her telling Jack as she leaves town that she actually really is his mother. Interesting.
Jenny: Jenny’s dad enlists her in helping out Blair’s mother at the fashion show. Which is nice of him to do after all the recent trouble Jenny has gotten into, I guess. More trouble happens though when Jenny sees Agnes again, let’s her guard down when she shouldn’t, and tells her about her recent Damien and drug dealing problems. Agnes uses it against her by taking the pills she still has and giving them to the models, but also giving Jenny three pills in a glass of champagne. She then sends Jenny to some skeezy guys at a bachelor party. Nate has to swoop into the rescue again.
The whole thing is so contrived, but Nate/Jenny scenes are always a plus in contrast to Nate/Serena. This has to be going somewhere with them. And not simply as a part of the Nate/Serena storyline. I just hope Jenny doesn’t have be manipulative just to get Nate on her side. Judging by that last scene, it seems she has a plan and is poised to strike back.
Life Unexpected (s1ep12): Father Unfigured – ****
This week on Life Unexpected, visit this Cate, viagra Lux and Baze go on a road trip to track down Cate’s long-absent father.
You go, noun show. Watching this episode, you just validated my vote I made earlier today for Save One Show at EOnline. This and Vampire Diaries are my favorite shows of the ’09-’10 season. I highly recommend both.
Gossip Girl (s3ep17): Inglourious Bassterds – ****
This week on Gossip Girl, Chuck and Blair face a challenging decision and Dan and Vanessa’s relationship hits a snag. Meanwhile, Serena arranges a surprise party for Nate, but Jenny attempts to wreck those plans.
Wow, we’re 2 for 2 tonight in episodes. This is how Gossip Girl should be every week.
Life Unexpected (s1ep12): Father Unfigured
Previously: Ryan and Cate are engaged to be married in two weeks. But Baze has just rediscovered his feelings for Cate.
Cate and Lux are looking through Cate’s mother’s attic when Lux finds some old birthday cards Cate’s dad sent her and Abby when they were growing up. Only problem is Cate never received them. She’d always thought her dad had left them and never looked back, because that’s what her mom had always told them. She then decides to take a road trip with Lux to meet her father, while Ryan stays behind to do last minute wedding stuff, and ask him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.
Cate: My own father doesn’t even know that I’m getting married. If Lux was getting married, and I didn’t know, I’d kill myself.
Lux: I will be sure to send you an invitation.
Cate: Every girl pictures her father walking her down the isle. I can barely even picture my father.
Meanwhile, Bug gets in trouble with some guys from his past and in retaliation they trash Baze’s bar. Bug is worried about getting fired, so he asks Lux to get Baze to close down the bar for a couple days until he can get it all cleaned up. You can see where this is going right?
Lux amusingly convinces both her mom and Baze, who after talking with Bug has decided to avoid Cate at all costs because of his newfound feelings, to take a family road trip. Road trip! The three of them are too cute. Baze and Lux are the cutest father-daughter duo. And I can’t decide between Cate/Ryan or Cate/Baze in the ‘ship department. I love both of them, you guys. Can’t we just squish them together and call it a day? Decisions, decisions.
Unfortunately, it turns out Cate’s dad is a dud and never wanted to be a husband or a father. He married her mother when she got pregnant, but refused to be trapped into a life he didn’t want, and so he left. Baze tries to tell Cate his suspicions about her father, but of course she doesn’t want to hear it. They get into an argument and Baze leaves to go back home. Plus, another stab in the heart for him when Lux admits she only asked him along to cover for Bug. Ouch.
Cate later learns the truth for herself just as Baze comes back. Turns out he never left his girls and simply slept in his truck overnight. Could Baze finally be growing as a person? And I totally cried guys when Cate cried in Baze’s arms and the camera panned to Lux. You see Lux realize her mother is just as broken and fragile as she when it comes to feeling unwanted. That’s the third time this show has made me cry.
Cate: Thank you for being there.
Baze: Always.
We’ve seen so many episodes showing us how bad Cate and Baze are at being parents, or even adults, that this episode puts things back into perspective. We realize even worse than having a father who doesn’t know how to be one, is to have a father who doesn’t want to be one.
Cate: All this time I’ve been blaming Baze, like he’s the only one who has left me. I thought he was the one that wrecked me – you were.
But on a good note, Cate has finally gotten over and forgiven Baze for being ‘that guy’ and blaming him for the mistakes of her father. And Lux has allowed Cate and Baze to fully adopt her.
Gossip Girl (s3ep17): Inglourious Bassterds
Previously: Dan and Vanessa are dating. Jenny is drugged and Nate to the rescue. Chuck is tricked by his mom.
Jenny vs. Nate vs. Serena: It’s Nate’s birthday and Serena is planning him a surprise party. Only catch, Nate can’t know about the party and so Serena pretends she doesn’t have anything planned at all. Jenny finds out about the whole thing through Gossip Girl, finally to Gossip Girl being included again in a matter relevant to the story, and thinks, “Bohoo, poor Nate.” Really, she’s thinking, “Yipee, this is my chance.”
She invites Nate to lunch, which he quickly takes once Jenny plays the sympathy card with him about almost getting date raped. Now, I actually like Nate and Jenny together, but scheming her way into his heart isn’t the way to do it. But on the other hand, if Nate didn’t actually return her feelings, it wouldn’t have been so easy to do, right?
Later, they actually make it to Nate’s surprise party, and an upset Serena who wonders what he’s been doing with Jenny all day and why he’s late. They play an intriguing game of Assassins, you steal a person’s photo from them and they die, and Jenny wins in both love and war as she steals a kiss in a battle between the last two, her and Nate.
Dan vs. Vanessa: We also get a somewhat interesting story between Dan and Vanessa as they finally get past their simple problem of friends vs. relationship. They exchange writings for each other to critique, which sets off a chain reaction of lies and deceit. Dan doesn’t want to tell Vanessa he didn’t like her piece, but when she says she liked his story, he agrees he liked hers as well.
Then, Dan finds his story all marked up in her bag while getting a camera and Vanessa finally admits it wasn’t his best work. We later learn Dan’s story is for his application to Tisch, and Vanessa is also secretly applying to Tisch. So is she getting Dan’s help? Is she setting Dan up to fail? It’s a bit more interesting than their usual, but it does feel like it came out of nowhere.
Etc. Etc. Eric is finally back and looks like he’s getting a love interest. Oh, and Dorota gets engaged.
Chuck vs. Blair: But the best part of the episode, as usual, has to go to Chuck and Blair. Chuck’s storylines and character arcs are usually a force unto themselves.
Chuck is attempting to make a deal with Jack for his hotel back, but his uncle will only sign it back over under one condition, an unspoken proposal which Chuck later tells Blair he refused. Meanwhile, Blair receives a proposal of her own from Jack while dress shopping, sleep with him or watch Chuck go under. Oh, and by the way, wear this lovely dress when you come by later.
Blair: Serena, you’ve done some unforgivable things, like sleeping with Nate when we were saving ourselves for each other or killing Pete Fairman. How far is too far?
Blair feels helpless as she watches Chuck get more and more frustrated with losing his hotel, until a final breakdown when he kind of yells at her, and she decides to help out her man by finally giving into Jack’s indecent proposal.
Gossip Girl: When all other weapons fail, there’s always human sacrifice.
She shows up at Jack’s place, and just when they’re about to do the deed, they don’t. Jack tells her it was all a lie, and the plan was not for Blair to give it up to him, but for Chuck to give her up to him. Turns out Chuck planned the whole thing as a way of getting back his hotel. He told Jack where she’d be. He bought the dress. He gave up his own girlfriend like a lamb to the slaughter. When Blair sobbed at the realization, I teared up too:
Blair: I never thought the worst thing you’d ever do would be to me.
And then, he has the audacity to tell Blair that she said she’d stand by him and do “anything” for him. But really, was the unspoken agreement for her to do anything for him, or him to do anything to her? So, instead of asking her upfront, which he says Jack would have realized what was going on, he used the trust and knowledge she gave him in their relationship to trick her into it. She was just a pawn in the game. She slaps him, good riddance, and leaves.
Later Chuck has a talk with his uncle right before he boots him out, and sadly, Chuck thinks Blair and him will be able to work this out. I’m not so optimistic.
Jack: Blair has seen the real you now. It’s over. She could never love that. No one could.
Last questions: But what I want to know most of all is, what is up with the CW and Bing? First Vampire Diaries and now Gossip Girl are using that site.
V (s1ep5): Welcome to the War – ***
This week on the return of V, patient Erica finds her life in danger; a dangerous new member is recruited for the Resistance as the Visitors shore up their own defenses; Anna wonders why Chad hasn’t scheduled a followed up for diagnosis; and Ryan’s concern grows over Val’s “abnormal” pregnancy.
Flash Forward (s1ep14): Better Angels – ****
This week on FlashForward, Demetri, Janis, Simon and Vogel investigate the mysterious tower in Somalia and meet someone who witnessed the blackout in 1991; Olivia tries to get Charlie to open up about her flashforward.
V (s1ep5): Welcome to the War
Oh, V. You’re writing is not the best. Your show is not great. But somehow I still remain interested. I want to know what those pesky Vs are planning. And even more so, I want to know about the Fifth Column.
Previously: V or the Visitors come to our planet in peace, but we realize they’ve been here for years disguised as humans. They’re reptiles underneath their human exterior and a small group of humans, one of which is Erica, learn they’re really here to take over. But thank goodness there’s a resistance of good Vs called the Fifth Column. Erica’s son Tyler joins the peace ambassadors as part of the Vs. The Vs want to provide health services and vitamins to the humans. But they’re fake vitamins, with some ulterior purpose we don’t know yet, so the human resistance destroys the warehouse where they’re housed.
Tyler: Erica again deals with her errant son. Tyler still bores me. He’s decidedly stupid. Not because he’s the only one who thinks the Vs are good, but because the writers don’t show him being smartly duped and instead ridiculously manipulated. Why should we root or care for him when he’s all doe-eyed and following the Vs every whim? Oh, and you’ll barely notice X-Files‘ Nicholas Lea as his father in one of the memories the Vs sift through for Tyler to use on his mother. Tyler tells her he won’t leave her like his father left, that he’ll always be there for her. Do the Vs think this will actually make Erica more sympathetic to Tyler being involved with them?
Erica: Meanwhile, Erica thinks she’s going to be outed by the Vs for contributing in the warehouse explosion, but instead the Vs decide to pin it all on some terrorist, Kyle Hobbes. Erica then decides to save this terrorist and inherently go against everything she believes in. She does it because she realizes they must want him for a reason. And that is how V sucks you in, with empty mysteries. Why do the Vs want this guy gone?
Chad: Chad is finally convinced by Anna to undergo a medical procedure to cure his maybe-maybe not future aneurysm. And I can’t help but wonder why you would get a procedure done, by the Vs nonetheless, for something you can’t even detect you have. But I guess when you there’s a possibility you could, that’s the problem you have in making your decision.
Father Jack: Last we saw him he had a stab wound from a V. In this episode, he’s taken to the V healing center and helped out by a V friend. After he’s released Jack says he feels weird and thinks the Vs have done something to him. There’s a pretty cool sequence where he has a nightmare and watches himself be converted into a V. It must be pretty terrifying to know you’ve been in the hands of the enemy and don’t know what they’ve done to you. Good work, writing team. We learn at the end, the Vs really have gotten their scaly claws into him and he’s been injected with R6, a still mysterious compound.
Valerie: Valerie’s half-V and half-human pregnancy continues to grow as she devours everything in sight. Why is it always eggs that people with freak-pregnancies love eating? Then, there’s one gross/creepy moment at the end, I covered the screen with my hand for this one, where you really think she’s going to eat a rat. Uh, ew.
Vs: And best for last, and the reason the Vs may win the war after all, is that the Vs are just plain more interesting than their human counterparts. Anna, queen of the Vs, decides they’re outnumbered by the humans and it will take too long for their other ships to get to Earth. So, she pulls a black widow move and we get an alien sex scene where she consumes the V victim afterward. Num, num.
Flash Forward (s1ep14): Better Angels
Now, this is what I want a FlashForward episode to be like, with less Aaron and Tracy and more mythos and reveals.
Somalia: Demetri, Janice, Simon, and Vogel head out to Somalia to investigate the four towers that Simon invented, but were seen in satelite imagery from 1991 before he even invented them.
Simon: Going to Somalia without a gun. Is like going scuba diving without an oxygen tank.
They get there and meet Abdi, the town warlord-psycho-killer, who was out of his village tending the goats and came back to witness the first blackout in Somalia when he was just a boy. His whole town, including his mother, then disappeared and were never seen again. We come to learn there’s now only one tower left and D. Gibbons/Dyson Frost, who was there in Somalia conducting experiments back in 1991, hid the entire town’s bodies in that tower.
Janis: You look like you’ve seen a ghost.
Simon: It’s entirely the opposite. What I designed was theoretical. It could only be done in the future, and yet it’s been standing here for 18 years.
Janis: Welcome to the future.
In Abdi’s flashforward he had visions of himself in great power, but these won’t come to pass as Vogel shoots him dead in an effort to save Simon. Dyson Frost has also left a video message, but we don’t get to hear it quite yet. In the video, Frost calls Demetri by name:
Dyson Frost: Hello, Demetri. My name is Dyson Frost, and I’m recording this message in 1991. Got your attention, didn’t I?
Janice and Demetri: They have a cute scene as the writers continue to lead us on the ‘who will Janice’s baby-daddy be?’ train. Demetri offers himself up, but we’ll see if that goes any further.
Bryce: Bryce makes cutesie with Nicole, who is now studying to be a doctor, and finally tells her about his cancer.
Mark and Olivia: Olivia and Mark have some cute moments, but I feel like I’m the only one who actually wants them to work things out and stay together. They finally get Charlie to admit to what she saw in her flashforward, and Olivia wants to move to Denver and get as far away from L.A. as they can. Mark argues that he has to stay until the mosaic project is solved. And it appears the breakup begins as Olivia and Mark realize they both want different things.
We learn their daughter Charlie saw in her flashforward two men talking outside her house in the yard. And one of them saying, “Mark Benford is dead.”
Vogel: And that one man who said it is the suspicious Agent Vogel. Just last episode he was saying he wanted to keep Mark alive. What is his true purpose?
“I designed the show to create that strong reaction. I designed it to be an icon, grip to be an emotional experience, read to be loved in a way that other shows can’t be loved. … I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, web “Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers, let’s have dinner.” I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show. And we’ve done exactly that.”
~ Joss Whedon
Welcome to my Tops of 2009: Fandom Edition II. Here are the things that bring out my inner fangirl.
+Scenes
+Characters
+Couples
+Fanfiction
+Fanvids
Scenes:
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2×22 ‘Born to Run’
[video]
John: Derek.
Derek: Yeah?
John: John. J-John Connor.
Derek: I know a lot of people, kid. Don’t know you. Anybody heard the name John Connor? Well… You know what? I think you’re gonna be famous. My brother’s back, and you’re wearing his coat.
The Vampire Diaries, 1×10 ‘The Turning Point’
[video]Stefan: I know that it’s hard to understand, but I’m doing this for you.
Elena: No! You don’t get to make that decision for me. If you walk away, it’s for you. Because I know what I want. Stefan, I love you.
…
Elena: Don’t.
Stefan: Elena, I can’t.
Elena: Yes, you can. Don’t hide from me.
New Moon, Hearing Damage
[video]Bella: Alice, I’m all right. Until I’m alone. And lately that’s all the time. Jacob’s gone, he’s hunting Victoria. And Charlie’s hunting Jacob. And you’re gone. And so is…Edward. There’s just nothing now. But I realize where I have to go. What I have to do to see him again.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 2×11 ‘Cramped’
[video-30:00]Ricky: It’s not okay! It’s not! I’m tired of people judging me. “Poor Amy, she’s a teenage mother. Poor Amy, she’s got a baby.” Poor Amy nothing! I’m a teenage father. I’ve got a baby and Amy! And no matter what I do, no matter how much I take care of her and my kid, she still hates me! And she doesn’t give me any credit for anything, just like you! You don’t give me credit for being honest with you. I’m just being honest with you, Adrian. If I told you I would marry you when we’re older I’d be lying.
Adrian: I’d be lying to myself if I had sex with you right and told myself it’s ok. I’d be lying to myself if I said I was comfortable having sex with you just because I’m feeling sorry for you.Characters:
Cameron Phillips (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)Cameron: Goodbye bird. There’s a 51% chance I wouldn’t have killed you.
Edward Cullen (Twilight)Edward: With a heedless smile on her lips, her sky-colored eyes full of mischief, the angel formed Bella in such a fashion that there was no way that I could possibly overlook her. A ridiculously potent scent to demand my attention, a silent mind to enflame my curiosity, a quiet beauty to hold my eyes, a selfless soul to earn my awe. Leave out the natural sense of self-preservation—so that Bella could bear to be near me—and, finally, add a wide streak of appallingly bad luck. With a careless laugh, the irresponsible angel propelled her fragile creation directly into my path, trusting blithely in my flawed morality to keep Bella alive. In this vision, I was not Bella’s sentence; she was my reward. – Midnight Sun
Ships:
Edward&Bella (Twilight)Edward: I just have one condition if you want me to do it myself.
Bella: What’s the condition?
Edward: And then forever.
Bella: That’s what I’m asking.
Edward: Marry me, Bella.
Stefan&Elena (The Vampire Diaries)Elena: Part of me wishes that I could forget, too. Forget meeting you, finding out what you are and everything that’s happened since.
Stefan: That’s what you want?
Elena: Yes, it is. Because I don’t want it to be like this. I don’t want to feel like this. But I can’t. With everything that’s happened, I can’t lose the way I feel about you.
Victor&Sierra (Dollhouse)Priya: That’s him. What’s his name?
Topher: Victor.
Priya: I love him. Is that real?
Topher: Yes. Yes, it’s real. He loves you back.
John&Cameron (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles)Cameron: I love you! I love you, please. I love you, John and you love me!
Spock&Uhura (Star Trek)Spock: I will be back.
Lt. Nyota Uhura: You better be. I’ll be monitoring your frequency.
Spock: Thank you, Nyota.
Henry&Clare (The Time Traveler’s Wife)Henry: Clare, I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.
Fanfiction:
Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5180793/Edward grew up in a life of money, power, & respect. Isabella was born into slavery-has never known another way. Their worlds collide & neither will ever be the same again. Will he give her freedom? Can he bear to ever let her go?
I started counting and her eyes widened as she clutched onto me tightly when I hit two. “Wait!”
“Christ, we don’t have time to fuck around here,” I said in frustration.
“I love you,” she choked out, the words catching in her throat and escaping as a sob. The sound of it stung, my heart aching.
“Don’t you fucking act like we won’t see each other again in thirty seconds,” I said firmly, grabbing my gun from my waistband and flicking the safety off. “Get in the goddamn car, baby. Three.”
Art After 5
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1801946/Bella Swan had life figured out until she met sixteen-year-old Edward Cullen. A few months and an intense emotional connection later, she finds herself on a journey toward self acceptance while questioning everything she’d previously accepted as true.
The Ex Factor
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4765157/Edward & Bella are exes. 4 years later, fate gives them a new hand by reuniting them together in their father’s joint cabin, with the assistance of their clashing friends.
“Jasper has been that one man in my life for three years now! He’s been incredible, and honest, and sweet, and tender, and loving! He’s been my rock, Edward! One of my best friends! He’s my boyfriend! I can’t just hurt him! I can’t just throw it all away!”
“You already did, Bella! Why don’t you get that?! You already hurt him, the moment you begged me to be inside of you!”
She was in tears as she looked away, crossing her arms over her chest.
But I was beyond hurt at this moment and I couldn’t stop. “But oh wait, what am I thinking? That didn’t happen, right?! You didn’t make love to me, you didn’t fall asleep in my arms, and sure as shit didn’t fucking tell me that you were going to go tell your boyfriend every fucking thing so we could try to work this out! And you also didn’t fucking lead me on, right? Because I have to pretend it didn’t fucking happen. That’s what you want, right?”
She nodded slowly. “…I shouldn’t have done it, Edward.”
“Besides Jasper’s feelings, give me one good fucking reason why not, Bella,” I sneered at her.
“Because we didn’t work out the last time. Because we don’t know each other anymore. Because there was too much drama, and too much pain in the four years that we were apart, and we may not work out even if we tried to this again, and I’m not willing to…” her voice trailed off, but I got it.
“You’re not willing to risk your happy little set-up you have so you could run back to your asshole ex-boyfriend, right? Just in case I fuck up your life again, right?”
Now she was back to not looking me in the eye. “I really wish I would have done this differently, Edward… I wouldn’t have done it, actually. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Yeah, well it’s too fucking late now, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry,” she replied as she wiped away her tears. “I think it’s for the best… for all of us.”
Behind Enemy Lines
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1762153/International aid worker Bella Swan enters a war zone to find the man she’s loved for the last 10 years. It’s a race against time to save Edward Cullen from the depths of an appalling humanitarian crisis and get him out from behind enemy lines.
Resident Geek
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4509651/Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers?
I pulled back a little as his face swung around to mine so our heads wouldn’t knock together, and his beautiful green eyes widened behind those cute, nerdy glasses he wore as he looked at me.
God, he was gorgeous. If he would let me, I would seriously just stare at him all day.
What was it about glasses that intensified the hotness a guy already possessed?
This seemed to be a very strange occurrence in nature because glasses were supposed to dull down the effect a person’s eyes had on you. And to ‘geek’ them out, if you will. But it actually was like adding fuel to a fire. At least it was like that for me.
Runners Up:
Holding Out for You by ObsessingOverEdward and Coming to Terms by GinnyW_ 31
Fanvids:
embedding disabled, click link
The X Files – Disarm by Sp00kyOne
(spoilers for entire series)The X-Files – Demons (requiem for a dream) by nikika8
XF3 Army • Believe Again [SD] by erockfurnia
(spoilers for entire series)The X-Files: Weak and Powerless [HD] by vicariously23
(spoilers for entire series)
Twilight – Cosmic Love by Cr8veLcnse
Twilight: Say When by analeian
Twilight: darling i’m lost by soupshop
“I designed the show to create that strong reaction. I designed it to be an icon, grip to be an emotional experience, read to be loved in a way that other shows can’t be loved. … I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, web “Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers, let’s have dinner.” I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show. And we’ve done exactly that.”
~ Joss Whedon
Welcome to my Tops of 2009: Fandom Edition II. Here are the things that bring out my inner fangirl.
+Scenes
+Characters
+Couples
+Fanfiction
+Fanvids
Scenes:
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2×22 ‘Born to Run’
[video]
John: Derek.
Derek: Yeah?
John: John. J-John Connor.
Derek: I know a lot of people, kid. Don’t know you. Anybody heard the name John Connor? Well… You know what? I think you’re gonna be famous. My brother’s back, and you’re wearing his coat.
The Vampire Diaries, 1×10 ‘The Turning Point’
[video]Stefan: I know that it’s hard to understand, but I’m doing this for you.
Elena: No! You don’t get to make that decision for me. If you walk away, it’s for you. Because I know what I want. Stefan, I love you.
…
Elena: Don’t.
Stefan: Elena, I can’t.
Elena: Yes, you can. Don’t hide from me.
New Moon, Hearing Damage
[video]Bella: Alice, I’m all right. Until I’m alone. And lately that’s all the time. Jacob’s gone, he’s hunting Victoria. And Charlie’s hunting Jacob. And you’re gone. And so is…Edward. There’s just nothing now. But I realize where I have to go. What I have to do to see him again.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 2×11 ‘Cramped’
[video-30:00]Ricky: It’s not okay! It’s not! I’m tired of people judging me. “Poor Amy, she’s a teenage mother. Poor Amy, she’s got a baby.” Poor Amy nothing! I’m a teenage father. I’ve got a baby and Amy! And no matter what I do, no matter how much I take care of her and my kid, she still hates me! And she doesn’t give me any credit for anything, just like you! You don’t give me credit for being honest with you. I’m just being honest with you, Adrian. If I told you I would marry you when we’re older I’d be lying.
Adrian: I’d be lying to myself if I had sex with you right and told myself it’s ok. I’d be lying to myself if I said I was comfortable having sex with you just because I’m feeling sorry for you.Characters:
Cameron Phillips (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)Cameron: Goodbye bird. There’s a 51% chance I wouldn’t have killed you.
Edward Cullen (Twilight)Edward: With a heedless smile on her lips, her sky-colored eyes full of mischief, the angel formed Bella in such a fashion that there was no way that I could possibly overlook her. A ridiculously potent scent to demand my attention, a silent mind to enflame my curiosity, a quiet beauty to hold my eyes, a selfless soul to earn my awe. Leave out the natural sense of self-preservation—so that Bella could bear to be near me—and, finally, add a wide streak of appallingly bad luck. With a careless laugh, the irresponsible angel propelled her fragile creation directly into my path, trusting blithely in my flawed morality to keep Bella alive. In this vision, I was not Bella’s sentence; she was my reward. – Midnight Sun
Ships:
Edward&Bella (Twilight)Edward: I just have one condition if you want me to do it myself.
Bella: What’s the condition?
Edward: And then forever.
Bella: That’s what I’m asking.
Edward: Marry me, Bella.
Stefan&Elena (The Vampire Diaries)Elena: Part of me wishes that I could forget, too. Forget meeting you, finding out what you are and everything that’s happened since.
Stefan: That’s what you want?
Elena: Yes, it is. Because I don’t want it to be like this. I don’t want to feel like this. But I can’t. With everything that’s happened, I can’t lose the way I feel about you.
Victor&Sierra (Dollhouse)Priya: That’s him. What’s his name?
Topher: Victor.
Priya: I love him. Is that real?
Topher: Yes. Yes, it’s real. He loves you back.
John&Cameron (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles)Cameron: I love you! I love you, please. I love you, John and you love me!
Spock&Uhura (Star Trek)Spock: I will be back.
Lt. Nyota Uhura: You better be. I’ll be monitoring your frequency.
Spock: Thank you, Nyota.
Henry&Clare (The Time Traveler’s Wife)Henry: Clare, I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.
Fanfiction:
Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5180793/Edward grew up in a life of money, power, & respect. Isabella was born into slavery-has never known another way. Their worlds collide & neither will ever be the same again. Will he give her freedom? Can he bear to ever let her go?
I started counting and her eyes widened as she clutched onto me tightly when I hit two. “Wait!”
“Christ, we don’t have time to fuck around here,” I said in frustration.
“I love you,” she choked out, the words catching in her throat and escaping as a sob. The sound of it stung, my heart aching.
“Don’t you fucking act like we won’t see each other again in thirty seconds,” I said firmly, grabbing my gun from my waistband and flicking the safety off. “Get in the goddamn car, baby. Three.”
Art After 5
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1801946/Bella Swan had life figured out until she met sixteen-year-old Edward Cullen. A few months and an intense emotional connection later, she finds herself on a journey toward self acceptance while questioning everything she’d previously accepted as true.
The Ex Factor
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4765157/Edward & Bella are exes. 4 years later, fate gives them a new hand by reuniting them together in their father’s joint cabin, with the assistance of their clashing friends.
“Jasper has been that one man in my life for three years now! He’s been incredible, and honest, and sweet, and tender, and loving! He’s been my rock, Edward! One of my best friends! He’s my boyfriend! I can’t just hurt him! I can’t just throw it all away!”
“You already did, Bella! Why don’t you get that?! You already hurt him, the moment you begged me to be inside of you!”
She was in tears as she looked away, crossing her arms over her chest.
But I was beyond hurt at this moment and I couldn’t stop. “But oh wait, what am I thinking? That didn’t happen, right?! You didn’t make love to me, you didn’t fall asleep in my arms, and sure as shit didn’t fucking tell me that you were going to go tell your boyfriend every fucking thing so we could try to work this out! And you also didn’t fucking lead me on, right? Because I have to pretend it didn’t fucking happen. That’s what you want, right?”
She nodded slowly. “…I shouldn’t have done it, Edward.”
“Besides Jasper’s feelings, give me one good fucking reason why not, Bella,” I sneered at her.
“Because we didn’t work out the last time. Because we don’t know each other anymore. Because there was too much drama, and too much pain in the four years that we were apart, and we may not work out even if we tried to this again, and I’m not willing to…” her voice trailed off, but I got it.
“You’re not willing to risk your happy little set-up you have so you could run back to your asshole ex-boyfriend, right? Just in case I fuck up your life again, right?”
Now she was back to not looking me in the eye. “I really wish I would have done this differently, Edward… I wouldn’t have done it, actually. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Yeah, well it’s too fucking late now, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry,” she replied as she wiped away her tears. “I think it’s for the best… for all of us.”
Behind Enemy Lines
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1762153/International aid worker Bella Swan enters a war zone to find the man she’s loved for the last 10 years. It’s a race against time to save Edward Cullen from the depths of an appalling humanitarian crisis and get him out from behind enemy lines.
Resident Geek
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4509651/Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers?
I pulled back a little as his face swung around to mine so our heads wouldn’t knock together, and his beautiful green eyes widened behind those cute, nerdy glasses he wore as he looked at me.
God, he was gorgeous. If he would let me, I would seriously just stare at him all day.
What was it about glasses that intensified the hotness a guy already possessed?
This seemed to be a very strange occurrence in nature because glasses were supposed to dull down the effect a person’s eyes had on you. And to ‘geek’ them out, if you will. But it actually was like adding fuel to a fire. At least it was like that for me.
Runners Up:
Holding Out for You by ObsessingOverEdward and Coming to Terms by GinnyW_ 31
Fanvids:
embedding disabled, click link
The X Files – Disarm by Sp00kyOne
(spoilers for entire series)The X-Files – Demons (requiem for a dream) by nikika8
XF3 Army • Believe Again [SD] by erockfurnia
(spoilers for entire series)The X-Files: Weak and Powerless [HD] by vicariously23
(spoilers for entire series)
Twilight – Cosmic Love by Cr8veLcnse
Twilight: Say When by analeian
Twilight: darling i’m lost by soupshop
Just because you have the rights to turn a popular, rx mega-selling video game into a feature film that doesn’t mean production will be smooth sailing. Take Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series, order
for instance. Since the first game’s release in 2007, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and its numerous sequels have sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. And yet a movie based on the action-adventure series has been in the works for almost as long.
In 2008, Sony first started development on a film adaptation following Nate Drake, a descendant of the pirate Sir Francis Drake, as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado. With the help of his friends, while overcoming numerous adversaries including rival pirates and various creatures, Drake also tries to learn the treasure’s secrets. (Think Indiana Jones or …
Click to continue reading ‘Uncharted’ Adds ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Writer; Chris Pratt Passes