“I’ll find Jim. You save the world.”
-Dr. King
Last week the season (and probably series) finale of “No Ordinary Family” aired on ABC. I feel slightly more sad about the likelihood of this series ending than I did about the demise of “FlashForward” last year, but not by all that much. I think the difference between the two is that “No Ordinary Beginning” set up some very intriguing paradigm shifts for a potential next season, while the finale of “FlashForward” was more frustrating sameness. Of course, because this is “No Ordinary Family,” some things were wrapped up too neatly too quickly for my taste, but overall, there was some good stuff. I like that it looks like on the off chance the show is renewed, we’ll have a formidable new villain for next season, and I like that the Powell’s relationship with the government seems to have fundamentally changed. I think the show would have been stronger if these plot points had been hit sooner, but hindsight is 20/20.
The episode begins with some in media res. I did not realize how much of a crutch that story structure is in TV writing until I started writing this blog. It seems like every show has to do an obligatory in media res episode now and then. We see George on what looks like a military aircraft. It’s very sparse, at least. It also appears to be in serious trouble. There are flames, and the oxygen masks come tumbling down. George grabs one of them and crouches by the wall of the plane. At the time, I couldn’t figure out how the episode could possibly get to this point, but by the end, it made good sense and set up a very interesting plot thread for (the probably nonexistent) next season.
Back in the present, J.J. is skateboarding, which is kind of random. I don’t think we’ve ever seen him do that before. Mr. Lichfield rudely stops him by opening his car door right in front of J.J. He really wants J.J. to solve that equation for power permanence. J.J. refuses and gives Mr. Lichfield a good telling off before continuing along his way. Jim is very upset to hear how Mr. Lichfield has been harassing J.J., so he takes J.J. back to the school to have a talk with Mr. Lichfield. Jim and J.J. are horrified to enter J.J.’s math classroom and find that Mr. Lichfield is dead. This likely has something to do with the fact that Mrs. X has just fired Dr. King, and even after only a few episodes, we already know that Mrs. X is ruthless. We also now know that her actual name is Helen, and she is the CEO of Global Tech.
It looks like Katie has moved, because George appears to be helping her unpack. For some reason I don’t quite understand, it appears the writers are trying to establish some George/Katie chemistry? Perhaps they want to get a love triangle going with George, Katie, and Joshua. Honestly, I’d rather they just bring back Amy Acker’s character for George. I thought she had potential, and I was disappointed that she pretty much just disappeared. Anyway, George gives this big speech about how he’ll help Katie out with whatever she needs during her pregnancy. Katie says George can start by picking up her prenatal vitamins from her OB/GYN. Just as George is about to do this errand, he gets a call from Jim. No sooner does George leave than Joshua shows up after being missing for quite a while. Needless to say, Katie is pretty shocked.
George works his contacts at the coroner’s office and finds out that Mr. Lichfield was electrocuted. George and Jim figure it was probably the work of yet another super. Jim tries to call Stephanie to warn her the family, especially J.J., could be in danger, but the power goes out before Jim can deliver the message. Predictably, J.J. goes outside to try to fix it, and he ends up getting kidnapped by a super named Ben with electric powers (pun not really intended). Having nowhere else to turn, Jim and Stephanie demand answers from Dr. King, who for some reason is still in his office at Global Tech despite being fired. He doesn’t look well, and he begs for some Trilsettum. Apparently he had very advanced cancer when he first developed Trilsettum, and he’s been injecting himself with the serum ever since because it has saved his life. I guess invulnerability is a superpower? Stephanie injects Dr. King with the serum as requested, and Dr. King says he’ll help find J.J.
J.J. is actually at Global Tech, in a room filled with video game arcade machines. When J.J. doesn’t give Helen the answers she wants to hear about power permanence, she gives a big evil speech of evil locks him in a small cell. J.J.’s new roommate in that cell is none other than Joshua, who offers to help J.J. figure out the power permanence equation. This brings up so many questions. I guess he didn’t get far after he took that bus ride out of Pacific Bay. Joshua apparently was in Brazil around the time of the Powell plane crash, and he knows details about what happened. He had loaded a shipment of trilsettum on the Global Tech plane the Powells chartered for their flight. As the plane crashed, they all inhaled a significant amount of trilsettum. J.J. mentions Katie’s pregnancy, and Joshua is extremely surprised to hear the news. I’m surprised that J.J., with his super brain and all, didn’t realize that this would be news to Joshua considering he’s been missing since before Katie discovered the pregnancy.
And the “Joshua” who is with Katie is clearly an imposter. And there’s no better imposter on “No Ordinary Family” than the shapeshifter, Victoria. Luckily, it doesn’t take Katie all that long to figure out that she’s not dealing with the real Joshua. She asks him a question about the proposal that only the real Joshua would know, and he fails miserably. I don’t know why Victoria and her handlers thought this could possibly work. She was going to slip up on some detail sooner or later. George figures it out pretty quickly, too. He starts to suspect something’s up when he goes to Katie’s OB/GYN for the vitamins, and she’s not in their system and the OB/GYN doesn’t remember her. George’s suspicions are confirmed when he watches CCTV from the doctor’s office parking garage and sees Dr. Klein attacked by Victoria. Surprisingly, Katie plays it very cool when George calls with the news.
Dr. King tells Jim, Stephanie, and Daphne that they’re going to need to work together and use all their powers to get J.J. out of the Global Tech holding facility. Jim and Stephanie are a little reluctant to let Daphne join in, but they realize just how useful her Jedi mind trick might be. They do indeed work fairly well together, and they manage to get through two layers of guards (one thanks to a Daphne Jedi mind trick and another thanks to Stephanie’s super speed), but Helen watches all this on CCTV and sends Ben the electro-super after them. Jim manages to reflect Ben’s powers, and Ben ends up electrocuting himself. The Powells happily get in an elevator, hoping to be on their way to J.J., but Helen wasn’t going to let that happen. She turns on some gas in the elevator, and Jim, Stephanie, and Daphne all fall unconscious.
Stephanie and Daphne awake in a holding cell. Helen breezes in to give an evil speech of evil and let them know that Jim is locked up in a separate room. Then, she brings in J.J. She still really wants him to work on that power permanence equation, and she threatens to kill Daphne (who is under a mild sedative) if he doesn’t make it happen. This encourages J.J. to have a breakthrough. He thinks the secret to power permanence is real adrenaline. All their brains were soaked with it when they inhaled the trilsettum during the crash. Helen leaves the room, and during a hallway walk-and-talk with her guards, says that all the Powells are to be shot. Within seconds, shots ring out. It’s not the guards, though. It’s Dr. King, trying to save Stephanie and the kids. Dr. King tells Stephanie, Daphne, and J.J. to stop Helen from getting on a helicopter while he goes and frees Jim. Of course, Dr. King isn’t being entirely truthful. He lets Joshua out of his cell, but he shoots Jim. Mostly because of his creepy crush on Stephanie. Guess he thought Stephanie would think his killing her husband was cool.
Helen manages to escape in her helicopter just as the Powells (minus Jim) arrive. Such a great set-up for another season! Anyway, J.J. tells Stephanie that her antidote worked- Joshua no longer has powers. At that moment, Dr. King appears and tells Stephanie hat Jim is dead. Stephanie breaks down in hysterics, but not for long before Jim reappears. He’s ready to fight Dr. King, who thinks that, considering his special power is immortality, it will be no contest. Just to make things even more in his favor, Dr. King then injects himself with a very large amount of serum. Stephanie zoops off to go get the antidote, hoping it could take away the scary powers Dr. King has developed thanks to the trilsettum overdose. He’s certainly giving Jim a run for his money in the super strength department. Stephanie tries to flirt to get close enough to inject Dr. King with the antidote, but he bats the syringe away. Realizing Stephanie will never love him, Dr. King tries to strangle her. J.J. uses his super brain at that moment to throw the syringe perfectly into Dr. King’s eye, and his body, which should have died a long time ago, starts to decompose.
Meanwhile, Katie confronts “Joshua” about the fact that she knows he’s really Victoria. This starts a fight between Katie and Victoria, and Katie falls. Joshua arrives and saves Katie from any further injury from Victoria, but Katie’s water broke in all the commotion. Quickest TV pregnancy ever? Katie ends up having her extremely premature baby, which survives, thanks to trilsettum, no doubt. George sees Victoria leave Katie’s house, and he follows her to where Helen is putting 80 prisoners on a plane (hoping to recreate the plane crash that gave the Powells permanent super powers). A guard finds George sneaking around the plane, and he puts George on board with the prisoners. This is why we saw him in the middle of a plane crash at the beginning of the episode. After the crash, he gets up, sees newly minted supers around him, and looks at his hands, wondering what sorts of powers he might have developed. One final bit of news, the NSA stops by the Powell house and an agent announces they know what the Powells are. And they need their help to take down Helen.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Friday Night Lights 4.11: "Injury List"
“Dear Lord, please let me get some more drugs before Friday.”
-Luke
“Injury List” wasn’t an especially coherent episode of “Friday Night Lights.” I didn’t really feel a theme tying everything together other than the fact that things go from bad to worse for almost every character. You know how all the things that have been set up earlier in the season have made me say “this can’t end well.” Well, those dominoes are starting to fall with a vengeance. And it’s driving Coach to drink, which is not something I ever thought I’d see. It’s not a big deal that he likes to have a beer, it’s more that he’s using it as a way to avoid his home life. I assume the Taylors will work out their issues sooner rather than later, given that they have a record of being the healthiest portrayal of a marriage on TV, but seeing them even a little out of synch is kind of painful.
The episode opens with Coach giving an interview on Buddy’s new radio show. Everyone, including Buddy and the callers, just wants to talk about the game against the Panthers that is coming up in two weeks. This does not make Coach happy at all. He insists he only wants to talk about this week’s game because he wants his players to be able to focus on one game at a time. There’s a little something personal to his request, too, though. We seem him drive past Hermann Field (where the Panther’s play) after the radio show. He stops on the side of the road and just looks. Clearly playing against his old team is bringing up a lot of feelings for Coach. I miss the Panthers, too, even if they became pretty evil after Coach left.
Luke wants to be able to play in this Friday’s game, but his hip injury from the farming accident isn’t cooperating. He tries to get his prescription filled, but the pharmacist refuses because it hasn’t been very long since the last time he got it filled. I was wondering if the writers had let this plot fall by the wayside, but I really should have had more faith. Later at Lions practice, we see Luke popping the last of his pain pills. That evening, his mom reminds him to say his prayers, and he sarcastically prays for more drugs when she leaves the room. He makes the really stupid decision to go to Carroll Park to score some more oxycontin, but nobody there will sell to him. At practice the next day, Tinker calls Luke on seeing him trying to buy drugs at Carroll Park, but Luke insists there’s nothing wrong.
Everyone finally sees how wrong things really are on Friday night’s game. Luke keeps running out of bounds before he can get tackled, and he begs Vince to run a play to the right instead of the left (so he won’t fall on his bruise). Tinker backs Luke up, because he’s figured out Luke is hurt. Coach won’t stand for his players disobeying him, though, so Luke only gets one play of relief before he has to start going left again. Luke gets tackled, and this time, he has quite a lot of trouble getting up. The trainer looks at his hip and says his season is over. Coach is furious that Luke kept this from him, because now he won’t be able to play against the Panthers next week.
Luke has also been dealing with trouble in his personal life, too. His mom stops by Becky’s house because she wants to meet the girl her son got pregnant and “understand” her choice to have an abortion. Becky tells Luke the conversation went well, but next thing we know, Tami’s getting called into the school district office to explain why she advised a girl to have an abortion. Mrs. Cafferty (Luke’s mom) wants her fired. Tami explains that she just laid out all the options and listened- she didn’t advocate one option over another. It’s too late, though, the matter is going before the whole school board. There’s one woman on the board who is especially upset by this, and she makes quite a fuss at the hearing. It’s ridiculous, really. When Tami tries to explain what really happened, this woman starts going all “are you calling me a liar?” on her. Nevertheless, the school board votes to let Tami keep her job, and Mrs. Cafferty vents her frustration to a very upset Luke (he’s upset that his mom is causing such a fuss). This isn’t over by a long shot, though. Tami gets a troubling late night phone call from the local newspaper asking her to comment on the incident.
Becky has plenty of problems to deal with in this episode besides the abortion. Tim has put a cash deposit down on his land (I have no idea why that raised no red flags), and he takes Becky and her mom out to celebrate. It’s obvious that simply because he’s being nice (and okay, he’s kind of ridiculously hot), Becky’s mom is wanting to start something romantic up with him again. Late that night, she tops by Tim’s trailer, and he turns her down. The next night while Becky’s mom is at work, Becky asks Tim to watch a movie with her because she doesn’t want to be alone. She’s in her nightgown and bathrobe, and I already can tell that this can’t end well. They watch Thelma and Louise in the master bedroom, and Becky falls asleep (still fully clothed). This is how her mom finds them when she gets home. Even though nothing actually happened, Becky’s mom is furious. She’s convinced Tim and Becky must be sleeping together and that’s why Tim rejected her own advances. And so Tim gets himself thrown out of someone’s house for a misunderstanding about a teenage girl for the second time of the series (the first was with Julie in season 2 in case you’ve blocked that whole season from your memory…and I wouldn’t blame you). At the end of the episode, there’s a sweet scene where Becky stops by Riggins Rigs to thank Tim for sticking by her and remind him that he’s a good person.
Vince is the last character in this episode to have really serious issues. He’s back to running with his old crew to pay for his mom’s rehab, and they’re asking him to do some not very nice things, to say the least. He hesitates in beating somebody up, which puts him on a sort of probation with the other thugs. The next time he is called to help the crew collect a debt, they leave him to drive the getaway car because they don’t trust him to follow through with the other part of the job. His friend Calvin, who usually drives the getaway car, ends up going with the group to do the collecting instead, and he is fatally shot. Vince ends up sobbing on Jessica’s shoulder about the whole thing by the end of the episode. Jess visited Vince’s mom at one point in this episode, too, which was some of Jurnee Smolett’s better work in this series. I’m thinking she’s not going to be with Landry much longer. She can’t resist the bad boy with a heart of gold.
Speaking of Jess and Landry, they’re having some trouble fitting into each other’s worlds. Jess has dinner with Landry’s family, and it’s awkward as all get-out. There’s talk of how busy Jess’ mom must have been to give Jess so many siblings and talk about how Jess must like President Obama. Julie is also experiencing relationship issues. Just as she’s trying to sign up to work for Habitat like Ryan, Matt starts trying to pull her back into her old life. He’s in Chicago, and he keeps a picture of Julie in his apartment. I was so glad to see Matt again! Matt calls Julie several times in this episode, wanting to explain himself and let her know he misses her. She doesn’t really talk to him the first time, but the second time, she lets him speak. That doesn’t go over very well either, Julie is very deeply hurt that Matt left her, and I think she’s going to need some time to heal.
-Luke
“Injury List” wasn’t an especially coherent episode of “Friday Night Lights.” I didn’t really feel a theme tying everything together other than the fact that things go from bad to worse for almost every character. You know how all the things that have been set up earlier in the season have made me say “this can’t end well.” Well, those dominoes are starting to fall with a vengeance. And it’s driving Coach to drink, which is not something I ever thought I’d see. It’s not a big deal that he likes to have a beer, it’s more that he’s using it as a way to avoid his home life. I assume the Taylors will work out their issues sooner rather than later, given that they have a record of being the healthiest portrayal of a marriage on TV, but seeing them even a little out of synch is kind of painful.
The episode opens with Coach giving an interview on Buddy’s new radio show. Everyone, including Buddy and the callers, just wants to talk about the game against the Panthers that is coming up in two weeks. This does not make Coach happy at all. He insists he only wants to talk about this week’s game because he wants his players to be able to focus on one game at a time. There’s a little something personal to his request, too, though. We seem him drive past Hermann Field (where the Panther’s play) after the radio show. He stops on the side of the road and just looks. Clearly playing against his old team is bringing up a lot of feelings for Coach. I miss the Panthers, too, even if they became pretty evil after Coach left.
Luke wants to be able to play in this Friday’s game, but his hip injury from the farming accident isn’t cooperating. He tries to get his prescription filled, but the pharmacist refuses because it hasn’t been very long since the last time he got it filled. I was wondering if the writers had let this plot fall by the wayside, but I really should have had more faith. Later at Lions practice, we see Luke popping the last of his pain pills. That evening, his mom reminds him to say his prayers, and he sarcastically prays for more drugs when she leaves the room. He makes the really stupid decision to go to Carroll Park to score some more oxycontin, but nobody there will sell to him. At practice the next day, Tinker calls Luke on seeing him trying to buy drugs at Carroll Park, but Luke insists there’s nothing wrong.
Everyone finally sees how wrong things really are on Friday night’s game. Luke keeps running out of bounds before he can get tackled, and he begs Vince to run a play to the right instead of the left (so he won’t fall on his bruise). Tinker backs Luke up, because he’s figured out Luke is hurt. Coach won’t stand for his players disobeying him, though, so Luke only gets one play of relief before he has to start going left again. Luke gets tackled, and this time, he has quite a lot of trouble getting up. The trainer looks at his hip and says his season is over. Coach is furious that Luke kept this from him, because now he won’t be able to play against the Panthers next week.
Luke has also been dealing with trouble in his personal life, too. His mom stops by Becky’s house because she wants to meet the girl her son got pregnant and “understand” her choice to have an abortion. Becky tells Luke the conversation went well, but next thing we know, Tami’s getting called into the school district office to explain why she advised a girl to have an abortion. Mrs. Cafferty (Luke’s mom) wants her fired. Tami explains that she just laid out all the options and listened- she didn’t advocate one option over another. It’s too late, though, the matter is going before the whole school board. There’s one woman on the board who is especially upset by this, and she makes quite a fuss at the hearing. It’s ridiculous, really. When Tami tries to explain what really happened, this woman starts going all “are you calling me a liar?” on her. Nevertheless, the school board votes to let Tami keep her job, and Mrs. Cafferty vents her frustration to a very upset Luke (he’s upset that his mom is causing such a fuss). This isn’t over by a long shot, though. Tami gets a troubling late night phone call from the local newspaper asking her to comment on the incident.
Becky has plenty of problems to deal with in this episode besides the abortion. Tim has put a cash deposit down on his land (I have no idea why that raised no red flags), and he takes Becky and her mom out to celebrate. It’s obvious that simply because he’s being nice (and okay, he’s kind of ridiculously hot), Becky’s mom is wanting to start something romantic up with him again. Late that night, she tops by Tim’s trailer, and he turns her down. The next night while Becky’s mom is at work, Becky asks Tim to watch a movie with her because she doesn’t want to be alone. She’s in her nightgown and bathrobe, and I already can tell that this can’t end well. They watch Thelma and Louise in the master bedroom, and Becky falls asleep (still fully clothed). This is how her mom finds them when she gets home. Even though nothing actually happened, Becky’s mom is furious. She’s convinced Tim and Becky must be sleeping together and that’s why Tim rejected her own advances. And so Tim gets himself thrown out of someone’s house for a misunderstanding about a teenage girl for the second time of the series (the first was with Julie in season 2 in case you’ve blocked that whole season from your memory…and I wouldn’t blame you). At the end of the episode, there’s a sweet scene where Becky stops by Riggins Rigs to thank Tim for sticking by her and remind him that he’s a good person.
Vince is the last character in this episode to have really serious issues. He’s back to running with his old crew to pay for his mom’s rehab, and they’re asking him to do some not very nice things, to say the least. He hesitates in beating somebody up, which puts him on a sort of probation with the other thugs. The next time he is called to help the crew collect a debt, they leave him to drive the getaway car because they don’t trust him to follow through with the other part of the job. His friend Calvin, who usually drives the getaway car, ends up going with the group to do the collecting instead, and he is fatally shot. Vince ends up sobbing on Jessica’s shoulder about the whole thing by the end of the episode. Jess visited Vince’s mom at one point in this episode, too, which was some of Jurnee Smolett’s better work in this series. I’m thinking she’s not going to be with Landry much longer. She can’t resist the bad boy with a heart of gold.
Speaking of Jess and Landry, they’re having some trouble fitting into each other’s worlds. Jess has dinner with Landry’s family, and it’s awkward as all get-out. There’s talk of how busy Jess’ mom must have been to give Jess so many siblings and talk about how Jess must like President Obama. Julie is also experiencing relationship issues. Just as she’s trying to sign up to work for Habitat like Ryan, Matt starts trying to pull her back into her old life. He’s in Chicago, and he keeps a picture of Julie in his apartment. I was so glad to see Matt again! Matt calls Julie several times in this episode, wanting to explain himself and let her know he misses her. She doesn’t really talk to him the first time, but the second time, she lets him speak. That doesn’t go over very well either, Julie is very deeply hurt that Matt left her, and I think she’s going to need some time to heal.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Body of Proof 1.02: "Letting Go"
ABC appears to be testing out different timeslots for "Body of Proof," so we'll be getting quite a lot of posts from guest blogger Sarah at MTVP this week. Enjoy her write-up of episode 2!
“I care about the dead because they can’t speak for themselves. The living are on their own.”
- Megan
We begin at night, and the camera pans over a car until there is a loud gunshot. Night melds into day and, Megan shows up and is greeted by Peter. She’s surprised to see Detective Morris and Baker again. She wasn’t expecting to work a second case with them so soon. The victims for the episode are an interracial couple; Dave and Linda. It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder –suicide but Megan quickly dispels the theory. She points out that Dave was left handed (based on calluses and bruises on his left hand and the fact that his wallet was in his left back pocket) and since the gun was in his right hand, he couldn’t have done it.
As they leave the scene, Megan calls Lacey to see if she wanted to spend time together and they end up deciding on lunch the next day (Lacey doesn’t sound too thrilled). It doesn’t help that it seems Megan’s hands are acting up again. Megan fills Peter in on the birthday present and cake from the episode before and that she’s trying to get a life (despite Peter telling her to take it slow). Back at the lab, Kate tells Megan to bring Ethan and Curtis on for the case. Peter points out it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Baker and Morris were assigned to them. Kate figured it would be easier to keep Megan contained if she was only knocking heads with two detectives instead of the whole department. I have to say, it was probably a smart move on Kate’s part.
During autopsy, Morris is his usual impatient self. He wants the bullets so he can close the case (he’s still rooting for murder-suicide). Too bad Megan’s in no hurry. It turns out Dave and Linda were an unlikely pair. One came from a rich family and went to a prestigious college while the other came from an immigrant family and joined the navy. Megan and company determine that Linda had a previous spinal injury that .left scarring and had hair extensions that left permanent damage to her scalp. Dave wasn’t without his own story to tell. There was a rough patch on his arm. And then there’s the matter of two bullets in Dave’s head. It’s pretty impossible to shoot yourself in the head twice. They’re definitely dealing with a double homicide.
After a little digging the team finds out that Linda suffered a tragic car accident several years earlier that broke her neck in three places. And Ethan discovered signs of potential alcoholism or bulimia. Dave had been complaining about breathing issues shortly before his death. Megan dispenses Curtis and Ethan to figure out what was causing Dave’s lung issues, and Peter gets Morris and Baker to figure out where the couple’s last meal (burgers and green fries) came from. It seems our charming detectives may be on to something when Morris remembers there’s a place nearby that on weekends is crazy and servers burgers, fries and water ice.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Linda’s parents. Megan joins them, and after hearing that Linda’s parents blame Dave, explains that it was a double homicide. She tries to get as much info out of them as she can, and she gets a name; Brian. He was Linda’s most recent boyfriend (even though she ended it three months earlier). He did own a restaurant that Linda worked at. After Linda’s parents leave, Megan fills Kate in on what the police are doing, and upon Kate’s direction, she and Peter go to check out Brian. He’s a total jerk. He says that he hasn’t seen Linda in months and he never met Dave. Peter tries to keep Brian occupied while Megan talks to the newest hostess, Nina. It’s pretty obvious Nina is scared of Brian. But before Megan can get much information, Brian kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Morris and Baker are following up on a lead of their own. A guy named Eric Singleton was seen arguing with Dave. It turns out Eric didn’t like that Dave was with a black girl (oh white supremacist bullshit). Eric’s mouth gets him in trouble with Sam. She doesn’t take kindly to him trash talking African American women and shoves him up against a wall and searches him (presumably a Terry frisk since it is unlikely at this point they have probable cause). She ends up finding a giant bruise on Eric’s ribs. Looks like they did more than talk. Dave landed a pretty good blow.
Peter and Megan stop off at Lacey’s riding lesson so Megan can say hi. Peter warns her that it’s not a good idea to push Lacey. After all, she’s only just starting to open up after five years of blaming her mom for the divorce. Things go horribly. Lacey is pissed that her mom showed up and rides off before Megan say anything. Family drama will have to take a back seat, unfortunately. Curtis confirms that Linda had bulimia but only for a short time (likely after she started working for Brian). And Megan proves Dave was at the restaurant the night he and Linda died. He had residue from the materials Brian used to clean his bar on his arm.
Megan, Peter, Kate, Morris and Baker have a little pow wow to catch up on the case, and after Megan fills them in on Linda’s condition and the fact that Dave was at Brian’s restaurant the night of the murder, they head over to have another chat. It doesn’t really go well. They leave with a shaky alibi for Brian. He was with Nina (or so she says). Morris is still insisting their skinhead Eric is the perp, but Megan is free to continue pursuing Brian if she wants. And she will. She plans on using Peter to get Nina away from Brian. Meanwhile, Ethan’s figured out that Dave was suffering from asbestos in his lungs. He drags Curtis to Dave’s latest construction job and they scoop up some soil samples to test back at the lab. They barely make it out of there before two burly construction workers come chasing after them.
Megan gets her lunch with Lacey, but it goes about as well as showing up at the riding lesson. Lacey isn’t ready to bond with her mom and leaves. She’s kind of moody for a twelve-year-old. It seems that Peter has a way with things regarding Lacey. He was right about what Megan should get her for her birthday and he was right about not pushing things. He’s a smart guy, that medical legal investigator! As Megan sits there and wipes at her eyes, she smudges her makeup. Breakthrough! She discovers the killer closed Linda’s eyes, leaving behind gunshot residue and DNA.
Megan’s plan to get Nina away from Brian is in motion, and she needs Kate’s help to pull it off. Meanwhile, Morris and Baker have Lonnie (an associate of Eric’s) in for questioning, and they learn that shortly before they arrived the previous day, Eric had ditched his jacket with blood on it. Now that’s what you call probable cause. They find the jacket in a dumpster and match the blood to Linda. Peter calls Brian’s restaurant and tells Nina that Brian’s house is on fire. It works. He convinces Linda to go with him to the morgue. And Megan and Kate introduce Nina to Linda. They convince Nina to leave Brian and go to a shelter to get away from Brian. But the truth is, he was with her at the time of the murders. I have to say I was pleased with the increased amount of Jeri Ryan in this episode. It almost made up for the lack of Sherlock-ness on Megan’s part.
Curtis and Ethan confirm that the asbestos in Dave’s lungs came from the job site. So Megan sends Ethan and Peter to investigate while she sits in with Kate and Linda’s mom. Megan explains that they know Linda was bulimic and had hair extensions. The main thrust of the conversation revealed that Linda’s mom knew they were wrong about Dave. He showed up at their house and asked to marry Linda. They said no. Peter confronts the foreman at the construction site and says the EPA is on their way to handle the violation. Peter discovers that Dave asked his boss for an advance to buy an engagement ring. A ring that the cops find at Eric’s apartment. He admits he followed them to the murder scene but Linda and Dave were already dead. Peter asks how lunch went (and mentioned that her hand problems are probably psychosomatic). Megan isn’t pleased and gets defensive. And then she kind of breaks down when she demands to know when she gave up the right to be involved in her daughter’s life. Curtis interrupts the moment saying that the DNA results from Linda’s eyelids came back. Now they just need someone to compare it to.
While watching Eric’s interrogation, Megan has a revelation. Tears could have made the makeup smudge. Kate tells Linda’s parents they can come pick up their daughter and in short order, Megan explains that it was Linda’s dad who killed her. He didn’t mean to but he got scared and the gun went off. Then he killed Dave and then shot him a second time to make it look like a murder-suicide. I don’t know whether to laugh or not that the show has a formula already (two red herrings followed by the reveal at the end by Megan). That night after the case is closed; Megan calls Lacey and leaves her a message. She got what Lacey was saying and will give her time and space and will wait for Lacey to be ready to spend time together. Lacey hears it and it looks like Megan may have begun to rebuild the bridge with her daughter.
***
“I care about the dead because they can’t speak for themselves. The living are on their own.”
- Megan
We begin at night, and the camera pans over a car until there is a loud gunshot. Night melds into day and, Megan shows up and is greeted by Peter. She’s surprised to see Detective Morris and Baker again. She wasn’t expecting to work a second case with them so soon. The victims for the episode are an interracial couple; Dave and Linda. It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder –suicide but Megan quickly dispels the theory. She points out that Dave was left handed (based on calluses and bruises on his left hand and the fact that his wallet was in his left back pocket) and since the gun was in his right hand, he couldn’t have done it.
As they leave the scene, Megan calls Lacey to see if she wanted to spend time together and they end up deciding on lunch the next day (Lacey doesn’t sound too thrilled). It doesn’t help that it seems Megan’s hands are acting up again. Megan fills Peter in on the birthday present and cake from the episode before and that she’s trying to get a life (despite Peter telling her to take it slow). Back at the lab, Kate tells Megan to bring Ethan and Curtis on for the case. Peter points out it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Baker and Morris were assigned to them. Kate figured it would be easier to keep Megan contained if she was only knocking heads with two detectives instead of the whole department. I have to say, it was probably a smart move on Kate’s part.
During autopsy, Morris is his usual impatient self. He wants the bullets so he can close the case (he’s still rooting for murder-suicide). Too bad Megan’s in no hurry. It turns out Dave and Linda were an unlikely pair. One came from a rich family and went to a prestigious college while the other came from an immigrant family and joined the navy. Megan and company determine that Linda had a previous spinal injury that .left scarring and had hair extensions that left permanent damage to her scalp. Dave wasn’t without his own story to tell. There was a rough patch on his arm. And then there’s the matter of two bullets in Dave’s head. It’s pretty impossible to shoot yourself in the head twice. They’re definitely dealing with a double homicide.
After a little digging the team finds out that Linda suffered a tragic car accident several years earlier that broke her neck in three places. And Ethan discovered signs of potential alcoholism or bulimia. Dave had been complaining about breathing issues shortly before his death. Megan dispenses Curtis and Ethan to figure out what was causing Dave’s lung issues, and Peter gets Morris and Baker to figure out where the couple’s last meal (burgers and green fries) came from. It seems our charming detectives may be on to something when Morris remembers there’s a place nearby that on weekends is crazy and servers burgers, fries and water ice.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Linda’s parents. Megan joins them, and after hearing that Linda’s parents blame Dave, explains that it was a double homicide. She tries to get as much info out of them as she can, and she gets a name; Brian. He was Linda’s most recent boyfriend (even though she ended it three months earlier). He did own a restaurant that Linda worked at. After Linda’s parents leave, Megan fills Kate in on what the police are doing, and upon Kate’s direction, she and Peter go to check out Brian. He’s a total jerk. He says that he hasn’t seen Linda in months and he never met Dave. Peter tries to keep Brian occupied while Megan talks to the newest hostess, Nina. It’s pretty obvious Nina is scared of Brian. But before Megan can get much information, Brian kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Morris and Baker are following up on a lead of their own. A guy named Eric Singleton was seen arguing with Dave. It turns out Eric didn’t like that Dave was with a black girl (oh white supremacist bullshit). Eric’s mouth gets him in trouble with Sam. She doesn’t take kindly to him trash talking African American women and shoves him up against a wall and searches him (presumably a Terry frisk since it is unlikely at this point they have probable cause). She ends up finding a giant bruise on Eric’s ribs. Looks like they did more than talk. Dave landed a pretty good blow.
Peter and Megan stop off at Lacey’s riding lesson so Megan can say hi. Peter warns her that it’s not a good idea to push Lacey. After all, she’s only just starting to open up after five years of blaming her mom for the divorce. Things go horribly. Lacey is pissed that her mom showed up and rides off before Megan say anything. Family drama will have to take a back seat, unfortunately. Curtis confirms that Linda had bulimia but only for a short time (likely after she started working for Brian). And Megan proves Dave was at the restaurant the night he and Linda died. He had residue from the materials Brian used to clean his bar on his arm.
Megan, Peter, Kate, Morris and Baker have a little pow wow to catch up on the case, and after Megan fills them in on Linda’s condition and the fact that Dave was at Brian’s restaurant the night of the murder, they head over to have another chat. It doesn’t really go well. They leave with a shaky alibi for Brian. He was with Nina (or so she says). Morris is still insisting their skinhead Eric is the perp, but Megan is free to continue pursuing Brian if she wants. And she will. She plans on using Peter to get Nina away from Brian. Meanwhile, Ethan’s figured out that Dave was suffering from asbestos in his lungs. He drags Curtis to Dave’s latest construction job and they scoop up some soil samples to test back at the lab. They barely make it out of there before two burly construction workers come chasing after them.
Megan gets her lunch with Lacey, but it goes about as well as showing up at the riding lesson. Lacey isn’t ready to bond with her mom and leaves. She’s kind of moody for a twelve-year-old. It seems that Peter has a way with things regarding Lacey. He was right about what Megan should get her for her birthday and he was right about not pushing things. He’s a smart guy, that medical legal investigator! As Megan sits there and wipes at her eyes, she smudges her makeup. Breakthrough! She discovers the killer closed Linda’s eyes, leaving behind gunshot residue and DNA.
Megan’s plan to get Nina away from Brian is in motion, and she needs Kate’s help to pull it off. Meanwhile, Morris and Baker have Lonnie (an associate of Eric’s) in for questioning, and they learn that shortly before they arrived the previous day, Eric had ditched his jacket with blood on it. Now that’s what you call probable cause. They find the jacket in a dumpster and match the blood to Linda. Peter calls Brian’s restaurant and tells Nina that Brian’s house is on fire. It works. He convinces Linda to go with him to the morgue. And Megan and Kate introduce Nina to Linda. They convince Nina to leave Brian and go to a shelter to get away from Brian. But the truth is, he was with her at the time of the murders. I have to say I was pleased with the increased amount of Jeri Ryan in this episode. It almost made up for the lack of Sherlock-ness on Megan’s part.
Curtis and Ethan confirm that the asbestos in Dave’s lungs came from the job site. So Megan sends Ethan and Peter to investigate while she sits in with Kate and Linda’s mom. Megan explains that they know Linda was bulimic and had hair extensions. The main thrust of the conversation revealed that Linda’s mom knew they were wrong about Dave. He showed up at their house and asked to marry Linda. They said no. Peter confronts the foreman at the construction site and says the EPA is on their way to handle the violation. Peter discovers that Dave asked his boss for an advance to buy an engagement ring. A ring that the cops find at Eric’s apartment. He admits he followed them to the murder scene but Linda and Dave were already dead. Peter asks how lunch went (and mentioned that her hand problems are probably psychosomatic). Megan isn’t pleased and gets defensive. And then she kind of breaks down when she demands to know when she gave up the right to be involved in her daughter’s life. Curtis interrupts the moment saying that the DNA results from Linda’s eyelids came back. Now they just need someone to compare it to.
While watching Eric’s interrogation, Megan has a revelation. Tears could have made the makeup smudge. Kate tells Linda’s parents they can come pick up their daughter and in short order, Megan explains that it was Linda’s dad who killed her. He didn’t mean to but he got scared and the gun went off. Then he killed Dave and then shot him a second time to make it look like a murder-suicide. I don’t know whether to laugh or not that the show has a formula already (two red herrings followed by the reveal at the end by Megan). That night after the case is closed; Megan calls Lacey and leaves her a message. She got what Lacey was saying and will give her time and space and will wait for Lacey to be ready to spend time together. Lacey hears it and it looks like Megan may have begun to rebuild the bridge with her daughter.
The Big Bang Theory 4.19: "The Zarnecki Incursion"
“What kind of world do we live in where a man would take another man’s battle ostrich?”
-Sheldon
“The Zarnecki Incursion” was amusing in a mostly non-offensive way. I laughed a few times, and I thought that once again, Kaley Cuoco stole the show. Her demonstration of how people complete a quest in Nebraska was definitely amusing. I liked that the central plot in this episode was geek culture-driven, but in a way that actually creates stakes, not just opportunities to laugh at the poor, pathetic nerds. Watching the guys come together to figure out who hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account was fun. Yes, online gaming can take time, and losing the results of all that effort, even if it is only pixels, can sting. And I think it was played more in that direction as opposed to “aren’t these guys so pathetic for caring so much about virtual possessions.” I think this episode also succeeded in the most part because it mostly focused on the original characters. Bernadette and Amy did make brief appearances, but they were pretty peripheral, and once again only there to bring out Penny’s feelings for Leonard.
The episode opens with Leonard bringing take-out home for dinner (I still want to know how a bunch of post-docs and a waitress can afford yummy looking take out for every dinner), and from out in the hallway, he can hear Sheldon is upset. There’s a police officer in the apartment talking to Sheldon, and Leonard immediately thinks someone has burglarized the apartment again. It turns out that what happened was that someone hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account and stole all the items he had purchased over the years. The police officer isn’t taking Sheldon seriously, and probably thinks he’s a little crazy, and he hightails it out of the apartment as soon as he realizes Leonard can effectively manage Sheldon’s particular brand of crazy. Leonard has his work cut out for him convincing Sheldon that this is not something the Pasadena Police Department can help him with.
The boys decide to look into the theft on their own, each of them hunched over their laptops working their World of Warcraft contacts. Penny stops by after work to drop off a conciliatory cheesecake for Sheldon (who isn’t especially appreciative, naturally) and runs into Priya on her way out. She quickly explains that she was there to deliver something to Sheldon and rushes over to her own apartment. Later, Penny complains to Bernadette and Amy that she turned Leonard into quality boyfriend material, but now she has to tip toe around thanks to Priya. She thinks Priya should be more grateful. The girls are going out for drinks, and when Priya leaves Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment, annoyed because Leonard is playing games instead of paying attention to her, she runs into them. Penny gamely invites Priya to drinks, too, but Priya declines. And that’s the last we see of Bernadette and Amy in this episode.
The next day, during lunch at the university, Raj mentions that Priya is so unhappy that she was Skyping with her ex-boyfriend Sanjay. Howard arrives in the cafeteria and interrupts this conversation because he has discovered the name and address of the person who hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account. His name is Todd Zarnecki, and he lives in California. Since he’s within driving distance, Sheldon wants to organize a big quest to force Todd to give him his virtual items back. The rest of the guys aren’t very enthusiastic about the idea, but Sheldon gives a big speech about how this could be their revenge for being bullied all their lives. This gets a still unenthusiastic agreement from the other guys. Raj says he’ll go on the quest after his hip hop aerobics class. Howards says he’s in as long as it’s after watching Wheel of Fortune with his mom. Leonard is hesitant because he’s supposed to hang out with Priya, and she’s already upset about him spending so much time with his friends, but eventually he agrees, too.
We next see all the guys at Howard’s house watching Wheel of Fortune. To keep with the gag that we never actually see Howard’s mother, she’s upstairs, and Howard yells puzzles up to her. She has an uncanny ability to solve them with minimal clues. As funny as that was (the first few times, at least), I’m still not a fan of Howard’s mother. The yelling gag got old a while ago. Anyway, while the guys are watching Wheel of Fortune, Priya calls Leonard. Leonard knows Priya won’t be happy if she finds out he’s hanging out with the guys, so he tells her he’s at work. As soon as Leonard hangs up, Raj’s phone rings. It’s Priya again, calling to verify if Leonard is at work, and Raj sort of covers for him. Clearly this relationship isn’t going to last much longer. Leonard is going to start to chafe under what Priya wants him to be sooner rather than later, I think.
After Wheel of Fortune, the guys hop in Leonard’s car and begin their “quest” to Todd Zarnecki’s house. Raj puts on some “questing music,” which was hilarious. It reminded me of Barney’s “Get Psyched” mix in the season 1 episode of HIMYM “The Limo.” The CD says it’s a Beyoncé dance mix, but it’s actually classical music. The gang arrives at Todd Zarnecki’s house, and they gather on the doorstep, ready to have a confrontation and get Sheldon’s items back. Sheldon himself was armed with a Klingon bat’leth, which was quite amusing. Todd Zarnecki is pretty much an ass. He refuses to return any of Sheldon’s items, and to add insult to injury, he takes Sheldon’s bat’leth. Apparently it has value as a collectable. On the way home, Leonard’s car breaks down. He can’t call Priya, because that would mean admitting that he was out with the guys instead of at work, so Penny ends up picking them up, making sure to mention how it’s odd that Priya isn’t the one picking them up. When she finds out they didn’t succeed in their quest, she offers to go back to Todd Zarnecki’s and show the guys how people finish a quest in Nebraska. And then she kicks Todd Zarnecki in the nuts. Which was pretty awesome.
-Sheldon
“The Zarnecki Incursion” was amusing in a mostly non-offensive way. I laughed a few times, and I thought that once again, Kaley Cuoco stole the show. Her demonstration of how people complete a quest in Nebraska was definitely amusing. I liked that the central plot in this episode was geek culture-driven, but in a way that actually creates stakes, not just opportunities to laugh at the poor, pathetic nerds. Watching the guys come together to figure out who hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account was fun. Yes, online gaming can take time, and losing the results of all that effort, even if it is only pixels, can sting. And I think it was played more in that direction as opposed to “aren’t these guys so pathetic for caring so much about virtual possessions.” I think this episode also succeeded in the most part because it mostly focused on the original characters. Bernadette and Amy did make brief appearances, but they were pretty peripheral, and once again only there to bring out Penny’s feelings for Leonard.
The episode opens with Leonard bringing take-out home for dinner (I still want to know how a bunch of post-docs and a waitress can afford yummy looking take out for every dinner), and from out in the hallway, he can hear Sheldon is upset. There’s a police officer in the apartment talking to Sheldon, and Leonard immediately thinks someone has burglarized the apartment again. It turns out that what happened was that someone hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account and stole all the items he had purchased over the years. The police officer isn’t taking Sheldon seriously, and probably thinks he’s a little crazy, and he hightails it out of the apartment as soon as he realizes Leonard can effectively manage Sheldon’s particular brand of crazy. Leonard has his work cut out for him convincing Sheldon that this is not something the Pasadena Police Department can help him with.
The boys decide to look into the theft on their own, each of them hunched over their laptops working their World of Warcraft contacts. Penny stops by after work to drop off a conciliatory cheesecake for Sheldon (who isn’t especially appreciative, naturally) and runs into Priya on her way out. She quickly explains that she was there to deliver something to Sheldon and rushes over to her own apartment. Later, Penny complains to Bernadette and Amy that she turned Leonard into quality boyfriend material, but now she has to tip toe around thanks to Priya. She thinks Priya should be more grateful. The girls are going out for drinks, and when Priya leaves Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment, annoyed because Leonard is playing games instead of paying attention to her, she runs into them. Penny gamely invites Priya to drinks, too, but Priya declines. And that’s the last we see of Bernadette and Amy in this episode.
The next day, during lunch at the university, Raj mentions that Priya is so unhappy that she was Skyping with her ex-boyfriend Sanjay. Howard arrives in the cafeteria and interrupts this conversation because he has discovered the name and address of the person who hacked Sheldon’s World of Warcraft account. His name is Todd Zarnecki, and he lives in California. Since he’s within driving distance, Sheldon wants to organize a big quest to force Todd to give him his virtual items back. The rest of the guys aren’t very enthusiastic about the idea, but Sheldon gives a big speech about how this could be their revenge for being bullied all their lives. This gets a still unenthusiastic agreement from the other guys. Raj says he’ll go on the quest after his hip hop aerobics class. Howards says he’s in as long as it’s after watching Wheel of Fortune with his mom. Leonard is hesitant because he’s supposed to hang out with Priya, and she’s already upset about him spending so much time with his friends, but eventually he agrees, too.
We next see all the guys at Howard’s house watching Wheel of Fortune. To keep with the gag that we never actually see Howard’s mother, she’s upstairs, and Howard yells puzzles up to her. She has an uncanny ability to solve them with minimal clues. As funny as that was (the first few times, at least), I’m still not a fan of Howard’s mother. The yelling gag got old a while ago. Anyway, while the guys are watching Wheel of Fortune, Priya calls Leonard. Leonard knows Priya won’t be happy if she finds out he’s hanging out with the guys, so he tells her he’s at work. As soon as Leonard hangs up, Raj’s phone rings. It’s Priya again, calling to verify if Leonard is at work, and Raj sort of covers for him. Clearly this relationship isn’t going to last much longer. Leonard is going to start to chafe under what Priya wants him to be sooner rather than later, I think.
After Wheel of Fortune, the guys hop in Leonard’s car and begin their “quest” to Todd Zarnecki’s house. Raj puts on some “questing music,” which was hilarious. It reminded me of Barney’s “Get Psyched” mix in the season 1 episode of HIMYM “The Limo.” The CD says it’s a Beyoncé dance mix, but it’s actually classical music. The gang arrives at Todd Zarnecki’s house, and they gather on the doorstep, ready to have a confrontation and get Sheldon’s items back. Sheldon himself was armed with a Klingon bat’leth, which was quite amusing. Todd Zarnecki is pretty much an ass. He refuses to return any of Sheldon’s items, and to add insult to injury, he takes Sheldon’s bat’leth. Apparently it has value as a collectable. On the way home, Leonard’s car breaks down. He can’t call Priya, because that would mean admitting that he was out with the guys instead of at work, so Penny ends up picking them up, making sure to mention how it’s odd that Priya isn’t the one picking them up. When she finds out they didn’t succeed in their quest, she offers to go back to Todd Zarnecki’s and show the guys how people finish a quest in Nebraska. And then she kicks Todd Zarnecki in the nuts. Which was pretty awesome.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Body of Proof 1.01: "Pilot"
After all the help she's given with filling in on "No Ordinary Family" and "Glee" recaps, I just couldn't say no when our guest blogger, Sarah, asked to recap "Body of Proof" for MTVP! Plus there's the fact that she's a massive Jerri Ryan fan and has been talking about this show since, I don't know...August, maybe? Anyway, enjoy Sarah's take on the series pilot!
***
“But maybe that car accident was your own fall down the stairs and you’re just too scared to let the benefits kick in.”
- Peter
So I’ve been waiting for “Body of Proof” to come on since last summer. It was originally supposed to air starting in September, but ABC decided to save it to do more advertising I guess. So, after much waiting, I bring you the first episode! We meet Dr. Megan Hunt getting what apparently is the zillionth brain scan with no conclusive results. She’s fine according to every doctor she talks to. Except according to her own diagnosis. Her hands still go numb as a result of a car accident she suffered a few years earlier. But before she can berate the doctor she’s talking to any more (especially since he’s telling her to be happy she even has a job now), she gets called away.
She is now a medical examiner with probably the best taste in fashion sense I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d want Dana Delaney to be my ME. She’s been called to the scene of Angela Swanson, a female jogger with head trauma. She quickly ascertains that the vic had to have gone in to the river on the west side of the river, since she died two hours earlier and the east side would have been in shadow. I couldn’t tell if she was deducing all of this to show off to the cops or just piss them off. I’m pretty sure she succeeded in the latter. Back at the office, Megan dispenses a few bits of medical advice as if she’s the go to for people’s problems. It’s going to get her in trouble some day, I’m sure. Too bad Megan’s personal life isn’t going as well as her new career. She tries calling her daughter’s cell phone, but her ex-husband picks up. She begs him to let her go to their daughter’s birthday party, but he outright refuses. It seems he’s cutting Megan out of their daughter’s life. I already dislike him.
At autopsy, Megan discovers a few key pieces of evidence that will later be extremely important, a scar on the victim’s scalp and healed bite marks on the victim’s arm. She also had a bit of an ideological argument with the lead detective. He wants fast answers. Megan is more interested in what the body can tell her about the life the person lived. It’s almost cheesy when she says that the body is the proof, but I guess the writers had to work it in somehow. She does give the detective a likely murder weapon and then her coffee order just to piss him off some more.
Megan’s in her office trying to find a good birthday gift for her daughter (which apparently means a super expensive purse), when Peter pops by to give her the latest on Angela. He’s held her stomach contents and sent a tissue sample from the weird lump on her neck and the diaphragm she was wearing to the lab to be tested. We learned some interesting intel about diaphragms which need not be repeated, and then Megan decides it’s a good idea to do a brain dissection while they wait on calls back from Angela’s doctors to determine why she had a scar on her head. On their way, they run into Curtis (Deputy Chief Medical Examiner) who yells at Megan for ordering an A&A panel (autoimmune test) on a suicide victim. I can understand his concern since it is a $1,000 test. She makes the snarky remark that now they both know that the victim didn’t blow his brains out because of his immune system. Frankly, Megan I’d have to side with Curtis on this one.
Megan’s dissection of Angela’s brain (people’s brains really do look grey after death…ew) reveals she’s suffered head trauma in the past. While she mutters to herself about what that area of brain controls, Peter gets a call from one of Angela’s doctors. Apparently two years earlier Angela was pushed down a flight of stairs by her then boyfriend and fell into a coma. Lucky for Megan (or unlucky for the detectives), she and Peter get to tag along for the interrogation. Megan thinks she’s a cop too, apparently, because after explaining that Angela couldn’t have told anyone her boyfriend, Tom, didn’t push her down the stairs because of short term memory loss, she proceeds to question Tom herself. Detective Morris puts a stop to it and drags her outside to ream her out. He tells her that she’s supposed to tell the cops what she knows and then let the real officers of the law do their job. Morris does have a point. Megan kind of thinks she can do whatever she wants. But she does tell him that even if it was an accident, Tom would have wanted Angela to see him if he’d killed her.
Megan and Peter make a stop at Angela’s parents’ house to try and get some information. It turns out that Angela didn’t have many friends. She was a workaholic, and while in school she’d been very driven about her grades. As a teenager she’d been distant from her parent, but after the coma she was more loving and involved. It’s like the coma knocked feelings into her. She was also sick with Strep A. Megan and Peter stop by the store so Megan can pick up the bag she was looking at getting her daughter for her birthday. Until Peter tells her that a bag isn’t going to make Lacey happy. And it costs $1,100. Megan tells Peter rather heatedly that he doesn’t know anything about her daughter. It seems she gets touchy when her personal life is involved. She goes on a rant about how she and her husband divorced and he uses everything she does to try and convince their daughter that she’s the bad guy. Apparently a guy can work crazy hours and be called a good provider but a woman who works the same hours is an absentee mother. I can see Megan’s frustration. It seems very sexist to me. Megan cuts the conversation short by telling Peter they should just pretend like it never happened. That’s one way to deal with your issues, I suppose.
Back at the lab, Megan tells Peter to get a rush on the diaphragm results, and she continues an examination of Angela’s body. She discovers finger impression and torn hair near her neck. It turns out Angela was sleeping with a married man. She’s out to lunch with an old friend who happens to be the most noteworthy “ball cutter” in Philly. After a little arm twisting, Megan get him to reveal a name; Bradford Paige. Who just happens to be Angela’s boss. Megan immediately starts in on the boss and could end up blowing the case for the detectives. Megan leaves upon Detective Morris’s order and as she’s trying to cool off outside, she flashes back to her accident. She was arguing with her ex-husband while driving, and she gets hit by a truck. Morris blows Megan’s theory that Angela was blackmailing Paige to make partner when he tells her that Angela already did. She won a big case a few weeks earlier and the partner committee made their decision. It sounds good, but she was defending a wealthy family whose dog mauled a young boy. Megan goes a little Sherlock (BBC series) on Morris by stating that he was kicked out of his house because he has an impression on his left ring finger, a cut on his chin from a disposable razor and rather unpleasant aftershave. This part of Megan, I like. A lot.
Logically, the next step is to go see the boy and his family to see if there are any clues. They find the dad to be kind of hostile towards Angela and later to the police when they accuse him of killing Angela. Megan gets him to open up though and they discover Angela gave him documents withheld by her firm at trial that shows the dog that attacked his son was a trained attack dog. Guess spontaneous feelings makes you do a lot of things. So the cops have another reason to look into Paige.
Megan heads back to the lab and is accosted by her boss, Chief Kate Murphy (played by ever lovely Jeri Ryan). Ethan told Curtis that he ran an A&A on his heatstroke victim at Megan’s suggestion. Megan doesn’t see the problem but Kate is annoyed at how fast and loose Megan is being with the lab budget. Megan challenges Kate to fire her if she doesn’t like the way she does things. In short order, Megan deduces for them all that the heatstroke victim wasn’t in fact a heatstroke victim. She had lupus.
Megan’s at the lab late looking at the tissue sample from Angela’s neck when Peter walks in. She’s confused about the results she’s found but Peter distracts her from work for a few brief moments when he compares to her Angela. She too is a workaholic with few friends. And he makes a really important statement that I think wakes Megan up a little. She’s still letting the accident control her life instead of moving on and living life, including building the relationship she wants with her daughter. Unfortunately, it is back to work when they get a call that the cops arrested Tom for Angela’s murder. He admits he was in the park the morning she died but that he didn’t kill her. He wanted to talk to her and find out why she accused him of pushing her down the stairs.
Megan’s pissed that Detective Morris arrested the wrong guy, and when he tells her to go back to doing whatever it was she did before she became an ME, she says she can’t because she killed someone. She explains to Peter that before her accident, she never really cared to get to know her patients. And that she learned so much from the body of the woman she killed that she never would have known just by talking to her. There’s some sort of party when they get back to the lab, and in short order Megan realizes they need to test the stomach contents for prescription drugs in case of an allergy (Peter declined cake because a nut allergy).
And since that’s going to take a while, she’s going to go to Lacey’s party, whether her ex likes it or not. Megan gets a few minutes with her daughter. Enough time to give her daughter a key to her apartment and the offer that its open to Lacey whenever she wants it. Guess she did listen to Peter after all and gave her something from the heart. Upon return to the lab, Peter hands her the test results from the stomach. She had amoxicillin in her stomach. But Angela was allergic to it. They (along with the detectives) head back to the Paige house and Megan (in somewhat typical Sherlock style) explains that it was the wife who killed Angela when she discovered she was having an affair with her husband.
Megan is saying her last goodbyes to Angela since the case is finished (minus trial of course) when Kate stops by. She tells that she got lots of phone calls before hiring Megan that she was driven and while abrasive got the job done. And it was all underselling her. But Megan needs to be careful because the moment she slips up, the knives are coming out and even Kate won’t be able to protect her. And Megan should get some friends. Megan gets home to her big empty apartment to find a piece of birthday cake sitting on the counter. Looks like Lacey’s already found some solace in the place after all.
***
“But maybe that car accident was your own fall down the stairs and you’re just too scared to let the benefits kick in.”
- Peter
So I’ve been waiting for “Body of Proof” to come on since last summer. It was originally supposed to air starting in September, but ABC decided to save it to do more advertising I guess. So, after much waiting, I bring you the first episode! We meet Dr. Megan Hunt getting what apparently is the zillionth brain scan with no conclusive results. She’s fine according to every doctor she talks to. Except according to her own diagnosis. Her hands still go numb as a result of a car accident she suffered a few years earlier. But before she can berate the doctor she’s talking to any more (especially since he’s telling her to be happy she even has a job now), she gets called away.
She is now a medical examiner with probably the best taste in fashion sense I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d want Dana Delaney to be my ME. She’s been called to the scene of Angela Swanson, a female jogger with head trauma. She quickly ascertains that the vic had to have gone in to the river on the west side of the river, since she died two hours earlier and the east side would have been in shadow. I couldn’t tell if she was deducing all of this to show off to the cops or just piss them off. I’m pretty sure she succeeded in the latter. Back at the office, Megan dispenses a few bits of medical advice as if she’s the go to for people’s problems. It’s going to get her in trouble some day, I’m sure. Too bad Megan’s personal life isn’t going as well as her new career. She tries calling her daughter’s cell phone, but her ex-husband picks up. She begs him to let her go to their daughter’s birthday party, but he outright refuses. It seems he’s cutting Megan out of their daughter’s life. I already dislike him.
At autopsy, Megan discovers a few key pieces of evidence that will later be extremely important, a scar on the victim’s scalp and healed bite marks on the victim’s arm. She also had a bit of an ideological argument with the lead detective. He wants fast answers. Megan is more interested in what the body can tell her about the life the person lived. It’s almost cheesy when she says that the body is the proof, but I guess the writers had to work it in somehow. She does give the detective a likely murder weapon and then her coffee order just to piss him off some more.
Megan’s in her office trying to find a good birthday gift for her daughter (which apparently means a super expensive purse), when Peter pops by to give her the latest on Angela. He’s held her stomach contents and sent a tissue sample from the weird lump on her neck and the diaphragm she was wearing to the lab to be tested. We learned some interesting intel about diaphragms which need not be repeated, and then Megan decides it’s a good idea to do a brain dissection while they wait on calls back from Angela’s doctors to determine why she had a scar on her head. On their way, they run into Curtis (Deputy Chief Medical Examiner) who yells at Megan for ordering an A&A panel (autoimmune test) on a suicide victim. I can understand his concern since it is a $1,000 test. She makes the snarky remark that now they both know that the victim didn’t blow his brains out because of his immune system. Frankly, Megan I’d have to side with Curtis on this one.
Megan’s dissection of Angela’s brain (people’s brains really do look grey after death…ew) reveals she’s suffered head trauma in the past. While she mutters to herself about what that area of brain controls, Peter gets a call from one of Angela’s doctors. Apparently two years earlier Angela was pushed down a flight of stairs by her then boyfriend and fell into a coma. Lucky for Megan (or unlucky for the detectives), she and Peter get to tag along for the interrogation. Megan thinks she’s a cop too, apparently, because after explaining that Angela couldn’t have told anyone her boyfriend, Tom, didn’t push her down the stairs because of short term memory loss, she proceeds to question Tom herself. Detective Morris puts a stop to it and drags her outside to ream her out. He tells her that she’s supposed to tell the cops what she knows and then let the real officers of the law do their job. Morris does have a point. Megan kind of thinks she can do whatever she wants. But she does tell him that even if it was an accident, Tom would have wanted Angela to see him if he’d killed her.
Megan and Peter make a stop at Angela’s parents’ house to try and get some information. It turns out that Angela didn’t have many friends. She was a workaholic, and while in school she’d been very driven about her grades. As a teenager she’d been distant from her parent, but after the coma she was more loving and involved. It’s like the coma knocked feelings into her. She was also sick with Strep A. Megan and Peter stop by the store so Megan can pick up the bag she was looking at getting her daughter for her birthday. Until Peter tells her that a bag isn’t going to make Lacey happy. And it costs $1,100. Megan tells Peter rather heatedly that he doesn’t know anything about her daughter. It seems she gets touchy when her personal life is involved. She goes on a rant about how she and her husband divorced and he uses everything she does to try and convince their daughter that she’s the bad guy. Apparently a guy can work crazy hours and be called a good provider but a woman who works the same hours is an absentee mother. I can see Megan’s frustration. It seems very sexist to me. Megan cuts the conversation short by telling Peter they should just pretend like it never happened. That’s one way to deal with your issues, I suppose.
Back at the lab, Megan tells Peter to get a rush on the diaphragm results, and she continues an examination of Angela’s body. She discovers finger impression and torn hair near her neck. It turns out Angela was sleeping with a married man. She’s out to lunch with an old friend who happens to be the most noteworthy “ball cutter” in Philly. After a little arm twisting, Megan get him to reveal a name; Bradford Paige. Who just happens to be Angela’s boss. Megan immediately starts in on the boss and could end up blowing the case for the detectives. Megan leaves upon Detective Morris’s order and as she’s trying to cool off outside, she flashes back to her accident. She was arguing with her ex-husband while driving, and she gets hit by a truck. Morris blows Megan’s theory that Angela was blackmailing Paige to make partner when he tells her that Angela already did. She won a big case a few weeks earlier and the partner committee made their decision. It sounds good, but she was defending a wealthy family whose dog mauled a young boy. Megan goes a little Sherlock (BBC series) on Morris by stating that he was kicked out of his house because he has an impression on his left ring finger, a cut on his chin from a disposable razor and rather unpleasant aftershave. This part of Megan, I like. A lot.
Logically, the next step is to go see the boy and his family to see if there are any clues. They find the dad to be kind of hostile towards Angela and later to the police when they accuse him of killing Angela. Megan gets him to open up though and they discover Angela gave him documents withheld by her firm at trial that shows the dog that attacked his son was a trained attack dog. Guess spontaneous feelings makes you do a lot of things. So the cops have another reason to look into Paige.
Megan heads back to the lab and is accosted by her boss, Chief Kate Murphy (played by ever lovely Jeri Ryan). Ethan told Curtis that he ran an A&A on his heatstroke victim at Megan’s suggestion. Megan doesn’t see the problem but Kate is annoyed at how fast and loose Megan is being with the lab budget. Megan challenges Kate to fire her if she doesn’t like the way she does things. In short order, Megan deduces for them all that the heatstroke victim wasn’t in fact a heatstroke victim. She had lupus.
Megan’s at the lab late looking at the tissue sample from Angela’s neck when Peter walks in. She’s confused about the results she’s found but Peter distracts her from work for a few brief moments when he compares to her Angela. She too is a workaholic with few friends. And he makes a really important statement that I think wakes Megan up a little. She’s still letting the accident control her life instead of moving on and living life, including building the relationship she wants with her daughter. Unfortunately, it is back to work when they get a call that the cops arrested Tom for Angela’s murder. He admits he was in the park the morning she died but that he didn’t kill her. He wanted to talk to her and find out why she accused him of pushing her down the stairs.
Megan’s pissed that Detective Morris arrested the wrong guy, and when he tells her to go back to doing whatever it was she did before she became an ME, she says she can’t because she killed someone. She explains to Peter that before her accident, she never really cared to get to know her patients. And that she learned so much from the body of the woman she killed that she never would have known just by talking to her. There’s some sort of party when they get back to the lab, and in short order Megan realizes they need to test the stomach contents for prescription drugs in case of an allergy (Peter declined cake because a nut allergy).
And since that’s going to take a while, she’s going to go to Lacey’s party, whether her ex likes it or not. Megan gets a few minutes with her daughter. Enough time to give her daughter a key to her apartment and the offer that its open to Lacey whenever she wants it. Guess she did listen to Peter after all and gave her something from the heart. Upon return to the lab, Peter hands her the test results from the stomach. She had amoxicillin in her stomach. But Angela was allergic to it. They (along with the detectives) head back to the Paige house and Megan (in somewhat typical Sherlock style) explains that it was the wife who killed Angela when she discovered she was having an affair with her husband.
Megan is saying her last goodbyes to Angela since the case is finished (minus trial of course) when Kate stops by. She tells that she got lots of phone calls before hiring Megan that she was driven and while abrasive got the job done. And it was all underselling her. But Megan needs to be careful because the moment she slips up, the knives are coming out and even Kate won’t be able to protect her. And Megan should get some friends. Megan gets home to her big empty apartment to find a piece of birthday cake sitting on the counter. Looks like Lacey’s already found some solace in the place after all.
Friday Night Lights 4.10: "I Can't"
“I can’t take care of a baby. I can’t.”
-Becky
Continuing my write-ups of “Friday Night Lights” season 4 in anticipation of the NBC premiere of season 5 as promised, today we look at probably the most controversial episode of the season, “I Can’t.” I’m still kind of reeling from watching this one, and really, my first reaction was “wow.” The episode was all about parents and children and how they sometimes disappoint each other, and it was powerful stuff. I was really impressed (although, really, given the show’s track record, I shouldn’t have been surprised) at how the main story line in this episode was handled. It went in a direction few shows dare to use, and it was done in a very thoughtful, non-preachy way. It was made clear that Becky’s choice wasn’t easy, and we saw her struggle. Even after her choice was made, she still wasn’t sure if it was right. And unfortunately, it looks like the fallout from that choice is only just beginning.
The episode opens with Luke in church. The pastor is announcing how proud the congregation is of his football exploits, and Luke is just sitting there looking uncomfortable and guilty. Clearly he hasn’t told his parents yet that Becky is pregnant. Luke isn’t the only one facing a moral dilemma in this episode. We also see Tim at a junk yard, standing by a car crusher. I have kind of a phobia of car crushers since watching a certain episode of “MathNet” as a little kid, but that’s really neither here nor there. Tim has been taking the frames of cars he and Billy have stripped to this junk yard for crushing, but the proprietor tells Tim not to bring anymore. If Tim brings too many, it will call police attention, and the proprietor doesn’t want that trouble. The chop shop overall is getting more and more risky with every day (Tim and Billy had a customer almost look under a tarp where they had a stripped car), and they scramble to figure out to do with the rest of the frames. They come up with the oh so brilliant idea to bury them, and near the end of the episode, as they’re digging in the desert, Tim makes Billy promise that they’re done with the chop shop part of the business. Something tells me Billy won’t be able to keep his side of the bargain.
A lot of the episode that isn’t focused on Becky is focused on Vince. We see Coach and Vince talking plays at Rick’s Bar-B-Q as Virgil looks on skeptically. I was pleased to discover in this episode that Virgil is quite funny. He and Coach have a bit of a rivalry throughout the rest of the episode about the right way to coach Vince. Virgil sees a lot of himself in Vince, which is why he’s being so critical of the job Coach is doing. Virgil felt very constrained and frustrated by the playbook when he played football. He just wanted to get out there and do his thing. They discuss this over drinks one night, and because he’s trying to outdo Virgil, Coach drinks enough that he has to take a cab home. Tami having to drive a very hung over Coach back to the bar to get his car the next morning is pretty priceless. There’s another really funny scene where Virgil joins the rest of the boosters at a Lions practice, and Coach decides to choose that moment to tell Vince to just use his instincts if he gets a better read than the play they had planned. He also signals what’s going on to the defensive coordinator, intending to set up a sacking of Vince to prove a point to Virgil. Unfortunately for Coach, Vince makes a great play anyway.
Football is the least of Vince’s problems in this episode, though. He arrives home from a shift at the Bar-B-Q to find his mother slumped on the couch, non-responsive. Thanks to some quick thinking and a call to 911 by Vince, his mom wakes up in the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery from the drug overdose that left her unconscious. There’s a heartbreaking scene where Vince confronts her mom in the hospital about her addiction. I think it is seriously Michael B. Jordan’s best performance since his days as Wallace on “The Wire.” He wants to know why his mother doesn’t want to be around him, and he begs her to change her ways, because he doesn’t think he can keep going by himself. Beyond the amazing acting in this scene, it is interesting because it shows Vince’s vulnerability. He has had to become the adult of the household way before he should have, taking the job at the Bar-B-Q to keep food on the table, but in the end, he really just wants his mom back.
Vince talks to a hospital social worker about getting his mom into rehab. She informs him that the state rehab facility has a several month long waiting list. Vince insists that his mom needs to get into rehab right away, and the social worker mentions that there are private rehab facilities that usually always have a few openings. The only problem is that they’re very expensive. Vince goes to Virgil to ask for an advance on his paycheck to cover it, but Virgil can’t afford the $4000 Vince needs. Virgil, because he’s suddenly becomes awesome, makes it absolutely clear that he’s saying no to the money, not no to Vince. He’s proud of Vince, and he wants to try to help him in some other way. Jess listens in on this conversation and throws the most ridiculous tantrum (pretty much the only thing I didn’t like about this episode) about how it’s unfair that Virgil can be so supportive of Vince, but not of his own kids. By the end of the episode, Virgil attends his son Caleb’s peewee football game for the first time in a long while. Vince, however, doesn’t fare so well. We see him put his mom in rehab and fork over $4000 in cash. Then we see him leave the rehab and get in a car with his old crew. The leader of the crew gives him a gun. Clearly he’s going back to his old ways to pay for the rehab.
A lot of this episode, however, is rightfully focused on Becky. Not sure how to deal with Becky’s problem, especially because she won’t talk to her mom about it, Tim decides to take Becky to the most responsible female adult he knows- Tami Taylor. At first, Tami automatically assumes Tim is the dad (so does Coach- his “Tim Riggins is going to be a father?” is hilarious), but that impression is quickly corrected. She follows her high school principal protocol, first telling Becky she can put her in touch with an adoption agency. Becky stops her and asks what she can do if she doesn’t want to have the baby. Tami hesitates, but says she can provide Becky some literature on what to do in that case. She also encourages Becky to talk to her mom. Becky continues to be avoidant with Luke, but she does take Tami’s advice and finally tell her mom. That scene was especially painful, as her mom goes from thinking it’s a joke to horror and anger when she realizes it’s true. Becky’s mom, not wanting her daughter to go through what she went through, is really pushy about Becky getting an abortion. When they go to a doctor appointment, Becky’s mom tells the doctor that they don’t even need to hear all the state mandated information about the age of the fetus- the abortion is happening no matter what.
The incident rocks Tami to her core and makes her start wondering what would happen if Julie was pregnant. There’s a wonderful scene where Tami is determinately rocking in her chair with Gracie Belle at 3:00 am, and she wakes Coach up to ask him what he thinks Julie would do. Tami has good reason to worry, I think. Post- Saracen break-up, Julie is not making the best choices. She brings Ryan, the Habitat guy, home for dinner, and the result is hilariously awkward. All Ryan can think to say is how it must be weird to have to play football in the rain. He also mentions he’s leaving for another Habitat project in Arizona in a week, and the snarky way in which Coach voices his “disappointment” had me cracking up. Julie and Ryan climb to the top of the Dillon water tower and have a chat about how Ryan has seen the world and Julie once wanted to do that too, but now she’s conflicted. I’m wondering if they’re setting us up for a plot where Julie debates whether she should go to college or live a nomadic Habitat life with Ryan. I miss Matt Saracen (even though I just watched Zach Gilford on “Off the Map” last night…really can’t compare).
Luke’s dad finds Luke in the kitchen late at night, unable to sleep. When pressed about what’s wrong, Luke finally confesses that he got Becky pregnant. It’s obvious that this can’t possibly end well when Luke gets home from school the next day to find both of his parents seated at the kitchen table. They’re a very religious family, and Luke’s mom starts going on about how Mary and Joseph found themselves in a difficult situation, too. They are not going to be at all happy when they find out what Becky is planning. Becky herself is unsure about what to do, although the bottom line is that she doesn't want to resent her child the way her mom resented her. The night before her appointment, she again shows up at the Taylor’s doorstep. She and Tami have a lovely chat in the kitchen, and Becky asks Tami what Tami would do if it were Julie that was pregnant. Tami says she would remind Julie of the gravity of the situation and to think long and hard about it, and then she would support Julie in whatever she decided to do. She also reassures Becky that she doesn’t think Becky is going to Hell. At the end of the episode, Luke calls and makes an awkward speech about how he wants to let Becky know she’s not alone in this and that he’ll help out however he can. Becky gets a very pained look on her face as she tells him it’s too late- she’s already taken care of it.
-Becky
Continuing my write-ups of “Friday Night Lights” season 4 in anticipation of the NBC premiere of season 5 as promised, today we look at probably the most controversial episode of the season, “I Can’t.” I’m still kind of reeling from watching this one, and really, my first reaction was “wow.” The episode was all about parents and children and how they sometimes disappoint each other, and it was powerful stuff. I was really impressed (although, really, given the show’s track record, I shouldn’t have been surprised) at how the main story line in this episode was handled. It went in a direction few shows dare to use, and it was done in a very thoughtful, non-preachy way. It was made clear that Becky’s choice wasn’t easy, and we saw her struggle. Even after her choice was made, she still wasn’t sure if it was right. And unfortunately, it looks like the fallout from that choice is only just beginning.
The episode opens with Luke in church. The pastor is announcing how proud the congregation is of his football exploits, and Luke is just sitting there looking uncomfortable and guilty. Clearly he hasn’t told his parents yet that Becky is pregnant. Luke isn’t the only one facing a moral dilemma in this episode. We also see Tim at a junk yard, standing by a car crusher. I have kind of a phobia of car crushers since watching a certain episode of “MathNet” as a little kid, but that’s really neither here nor there. Tim has been taking the frames of cars he and Billy have stripped to this junk yard for crushing, but the proprietor tells Tim not to bring anymore. If Tim brings too many, it will call police attention, and the proprietor doesn’t want that trouble. The chop shop overall is getting more and more risky with every day (Tim and Billy had a customer almost look under a tarp where they had a stripped car), and they scramble to figure out to do with the rest of the frames. They come up with the oh so brilliant idea to bury them, and near the end of the episode, as they’re digging in the desert, Tim makes Billy promise that they’re done with the chop shop part of the business. Something tells me Billy won’t be able to keep his side of the bargain.
A lot of the episode that isn’t focused on Becky is focused on Vince. We see Coach and Vince talking plays at Rick’s Bar-B-Q as Virgil looks on skeptically. I was pleased to discover in this episode that Virgil is quite funny. He and Coach have a bit of a rivalry throughout the rest of the episode about the right way to coach Vince. Virgil sees a lot of himself in Vince, which is why he’s being so critical of the job Coach is doing. Virgil felt very constrained and frustrated by the playbook when he played football. He just wanted to get out there and do his thing. They discuss this over drinks one night, and because he’s trying to outdo Virgil, Coach drinks enough that he has to take a cab home. Tami having to drive a very hung over Coach back to the bar to get his car the next morning is pretty priceless. There’s another really funny scene where Virgil joins the rest of the boosters at a Lions practice, and Coach decides to choose that moment to tell Vince to just use his instincts if he gets a better read than the play they had planned. He also signals what’s going on to the defensive coordinator, intending to set up a sacking of Vince to prove a point to Virgil. Unfortunately for Coach, Vince makes a great play anyway.
Football is the least of Vince’s problems in this episode, though. He arrives home from a shift at the Bar-B-Q to find his mother slumped on the couch, non-responsive. Thanks to some quick thinking and a call to 911 by Vince, his mom wakes up in the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery from the drug overdose that left her unconscious. There’s a heartbreaking scene where Vince confronts her mom in the hospital about her addiction. I think it is seriously Michael B. Jordan’s best performance since his days as Wallace on “The Wire.” He wants to know why his mother doesn’t want to be around him, and he begs her to change her ways, because he doesn’t think he can keep going by himself. Beyond the amazing acting in this scene, it is interesting because it shows Vince’s vulnerability. He has had to become the adult of the household way before he should have, taking the job at the Bar-B-Q to keep food on the table, but in the end, he really just wants his mom back.
Vince talks to a hospital social worker about getting his mom into rehab. She informs him that the state rehab facility has a several month long waiting list. Vince insists that his mom needs to get into rehab right away, and the social worker mentions that there are private rehab facilities that usually always have a few openings. The only problem is that they’re very expensive. Vince goes to Virgil to ask for an advance on his paycheck to cover it, but Virgil can’t afford the $4000 Vince needs. Virgil, because he’s suddenly becomes awesome, makes it absolutely clear that he’s saying no to the money, not no to Vince. He’s proud of Vince, and he wants to try to help him in some other way. Jess listens in on this conversation and throws the most ridiculous tantrum (pretty much the only thing I didn’t like about this episode) about how it’s unfair that Virgil can be so supportive of Vince, but not of his own kids. By the end of the episode, Virgil attends his son Caleb’s peewee football game for the first time in a long while. Vince, however, doesn’t fare so well. We see him put his mom in rehab and fork over $4000 in cash. Then we see him leave the rehab and get in a car with his old crew. The leader of the crew gives him a gun. Clearly he’s going back to his old ways to pay for the rehab.
A lot of this episode, however, is rightfully focused on Becky. Not sure how to deal with Becky’s problem, especially because she won’t talk to her mom about it, Tim decides to take Becky to the most responsible female adult he knows- Tami Taylor. At first, Tami automatically assumes Tim is the dad (so does Coach- his “Tim Riggins is going to be a father?” is hilarious), but that impression is quickly corrected. She follows her high school principal protocol, first telling Becky she can put her in touch with an adoption agency. Becky stops her and asks what she can do if she doesn’t want to have the baby. Tami hesitates, but says she can provide Becky some literature on what to do in that case. She also encourages Becky to talk to her mom. Becky continues to be avoidant with Luke, but she does take Tami’s advice and finally tell her mom. That scene was especially painful, as her mom goes from thinking it’s a joke to horror and anger when she realizes it’s true. Becky’s mom, not wanting her daughter to go through what she went through, is really pushy about Becky getting an abortion. When they go to a doctor appointment, Becky’s mom tells the doctor that they don’t even need to hear all the state mandated information about the age of the fetus- the abortion is happening no matter what.
The incident rocks Tami to her core and makes her start wondering what would happen if Julie was pregnant. There’s a wonderful scene where Tami is determinately rocking in her chair with Gracie Belle at 3:00 am, and she wakes Coach up to ask him what he thinks Julie would do. Tami has good reason to worry, I think. Post- Saracen break-up, Julie is not making the best choices. She brings Ryan, the Habitat guy, home for dinner, and the result is hilariously awkward. All Ryan can think to say is how it must be weird to have to play football in the rain. He also mentions he’s leaving for another Habitat project in Arizona in a week, and the snarky way in which Coach voices his “disappointment” had me cracking up. Julie and Ryan climb to the top of the Dillon water tower and have a chat about how Ryan has seen the world and Julie once wanted to do that too, but now she’s conflicted. I’m wondering if they’re setting us up for a plot where Julie debates whether she should go to college or live a nomadic Habitat life with Ryan. I miss Matt Saracen (even though I just watched Zach Gilford on “Off the Map” last night…really can’t compare).
Luke’s dad finds Luke in the kitchen late at night, unable to sleep. When pressed about what’s wrong, Luke finally confesses that he got Becky pregnant. It’s obvious that this can’t possibly end well when Luke gets home from school the next day to find both of his parents seated at the kitchen table. They’re a very religious family, and Luke’s mom starts going on about how Mary and Joseph found themselves in a difficult situation, too. They are not going to be at all happy when they find out what Becky is planning. Becky herself is unsure about what to do, although the bottom line is that she doesn't want to resent her child the way her mom resented her. The night before her appointment, she again shows up at the Taylor’s doorstep. She and Tami have a lovely chat in the kitchen, and Becky asks Tami what Tami would do if it were Julie that was pregnant. Tami says she would remind Julie of the gravity of the situation and to think long and hard about it, and then she would support Julie in whatever she decided to do. She also reassures Becky that she doesn’t think Becky is going to Hell. At the end of the episode, Luke calls and makes an awkward speech about how he wants to let Becky know she’s not alone in this and that he’ll help out however he can. Becky gets a very pained look on her face as she tells him it’s too late- she’s already taken care of it.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
No Ordinary Family 1.19: "No Ordinary Future"
Since there were two episodes of "No Ordinary Family" last week, Sarah generously agreed to blog one of them for MTVP. Here is her take on the season (and probably series) penultimate episode.
“Don’t forget, I gave you life. I can take it away again just as easily.”
- Mrs. X
I was a little sad to blog this episode seeing as it is the penultimate episode of the season (likely series). So we start where “No Ordinary Animal” left off. Steph is out running and she’s sort of dematerializing. She ends up reappearing at the house and there’s all manner of SWAT and military people surrounding the house. Steph tries to talk to the lead guy at the scene once she figures out its her house, but no one sees her. She makes it inside to find Jim and the kids trying to find a way out of the now surrounded house. Again, they can’t see or hear Stephanie. Jim tells J.J. and Daphne to slip out the back while he distracts the guys outside so they can meet Stephanie at Katie’s. Before Stephanie can try and stop Jim, she is yanked back through a big flash of light (à la the crack in the universe from Doctor Who series 5) and ends up back at the house. But the scene is far quieter. Steph is rightly confused but tries to hide it when she walks in to find Jim there. He asks if the run helped, and she mumbles an answer. She puts on a brave face and tells Jim to go to Captain Cordero’s goodbye party.
Jim doesn’t believe her that she’s okay but goes to the party anyway. He tells George obviously there has to be something wrong. Stephanie nearly died the day before, and i trillsettum changes people. Jim and George spend a little time with Cordero, telling him how they’ll miss him and how the precinct won’t be the same without him before a few of the other attendees pull Cordero away for some drinks. And to think he used to not like Jim! Later, Jim, George and Cordero are heading out. After some quick goodbyes, Cordero heads to his car when a car drives by and Cordero ends up looking like bloody Swiss cheese. George hastily calls for an ambulance, but it’s no use. The next morning at the precinct, George and Jim meet the two cops who are supposedly handling Cordero’s case. They’re definitely sketchy in my book. Anyway, Cordero’s wife shows up and thanks Jim for all he did for Frank. She reveals he was really stressed over some trial and couldn’t sleep. Which was unlike Frank. This sets Jim and George on the investigatory path.
Back at the house, Stephanie is still wandering around a little dazed and confused, and she overhears Daphne telling J.J. what she heard when she read Mr. Litchfield’s mind. He’s scared someone will hurt him. This prompts Stephanie to butt in, and after J.J. explains they were biochemical equations, she tells J.J. she doesn’t want him doing any more work for Mr. Litchfield until she can talk to him. At school, Chris catches up with Daphne, and after some arm twisting, gets her to agree to see him at his work after school so she can mind push his boss into giving him a raise. Daphne really doesn’t want to do it but agrees. Chris really has been kind of a jerk since he found about Daphne’s powers. At Global Tech, Stephanie is running some tests on Katie to make sure she’s safe. Katie has a little freak out about having a superbaby. After all, it usually ends in the baby killing its parents. But Stephanie assures Katie that she’s fine and gives her the name of her own OB/GYN so Katie can get an appointment. With that, Stephanie races off to school to try and talk to Mr. Litchfield.
Like before, Stephanie shows up and things are weird. She finds George running down an empty hallway and J.J. and Daphne hiding in a classroom looking rather worse for wear. George hands over some food and water, but there’s agents searching the school again. Stephanie watches helplessly since she can’t seem to communicate with anyone as George almost misdirects the agents who stop by the room. But J.J. accidentally nudges a beaker, and George resorts to blocking the door into the room so the kids can escape. Steph has time to see the date, March 31, before she’s yanked back to the lab. She tells Katie she doesn’t think she just ran to the school, she saw the future.
And now we get what I thought was a pretty shocking reveal. Mrs. X has somehow (my guess is through the trillsettum) brought Victoria back to life. It was apparently rather difficult to bring Victoria back, but Mrs. X did it, with Joshua’s help. He told Mrs. X to take care of Victoria. Victoria is kind of excited and asks if Joshua’s there, but obviously he’s not. Her excitement then turns to confusion because she figures he wouldn’t want anything to do with her after what she did to Katie. And then the boss lady drops the baby bomb. She wants Victoria to find out everything she can without raising suspicion.
Back at the lab, Katie is trying half-heartedly to convince Steph that she didn’t go to the future and that it was just some hallucination. But Stephanie is positive. She just doesn’t understand what she’s seeing or how it could have come to pass. Katie gets super excited about time travel and rattles off other super heroes that had similar powers; The Flash and the Silver Surfer. Steph hasn’t told Jim yet. She doesn’t want to bother him with everything else that’s going on. Just as she gets up to try and zip off to the future again to try and figure out what’s going on, she loses her balance and Katie insists on running some tests of her own.
At the Lair, Jim is searching through Cordero’s cases to try and find the one that was keeping him up at night. He finds a case about a gang member who was facing drug charges, and Jim thinks they’ve got the right case. The ADA prosecuting is a friend of George’s and they go to find out what the ADA knows. Cordero apparently called the ADA the day before and wanted to meet in private so Frank could submit some evidence. Definitely something fishy afoot in Pacific Bay.
We hop over to teen land for a few minutes as Chris waits for Daphne to work her mojo on his boss. She comes over and tells him that it didn’t work. She mumbles something about it maybe being the fumes that are messing with her ability but Chris calls her out on it. He’s none too pleased that she didn’t actually do it. He pretty tells her to stay out of his life and he’ll fix his problems himself. Somehow, I doubt that will really end well.
And we’re back at Global Tech. Katie is making an OB/GYN appointment while going over Stephanie’s test results. Katie shows Steph the results that prove Stephanie’s body is starting to suffer the effects of time travel. Stephanie brushes it off, but Katie tells her that she may feel fine now, but eventually, her body won’t be able to handle the stress. Stephanie isn’t interested in listening. She needs to get to the future at the precinct to make sure Jim’s okay. She arrives to find it occupied by scary looking military types, and the jerk FBI agent that was at the house is pacing in front of Stephanie. Jim and the kids are chained up nearby looking rather groggy. They’ve apparently been sedated. The Agent wants to know what Stephanie is and once they do, they’ll decide whether she and her family are more useful dead or alive. Stephanie begs for a lawyer, but the agent scoffs and tells her those rights are only for human beings.
Katie is at her doctor’s appointment and she’s anxiously waiting in the front office. Dr. Klein is on his way in from the garage when Victoria accosts him with a metal pipe and morphs into him. Faux!Klein is giving Katie an ultrasound and finally finds the fetus. Katie’s pretty excited until the doctor produces a very big needle and claims they need to an amniocentesis. Katie unfortunately doesn’t have much choice in the matter.
Back at the Powell house, Steph is filling everyone in on what she’s seen. She tells them their secret will be exposed in two days and they’ll be taken into military custody. Jim and Steph share a look after she says that maybe someone in the family spilled the beans. J.J. denies that Mr. Litchfield knows anything. All eyes fall on Daphne. She finally admits she told Chris but professes he’s cool enough to not blab it to anyone. Daphne is told to get in touch with Chris to find out if he told anyone. Meanwhile, Jim gets called away by George because someone broke into the Cordero house. Nothing was taken, but Mrs. Cordero says they were probably looking for the hidden safe behind a bookshelf. It was so well hidden that even she didn’t know it was there until cops discovered it. Jim and George convince her to let Jim try opening it and he does with ease. They find police personnel files, and they realize Cordero was delivering intel on a dirty cop to the ADA.
Back at the house, Stephanie is going to race off to Global Tech to see what’s happening there, since Dr. King knows about them and the lab sometimes does military contracting. She finds Agent Annoying Jerk questioning Katie. Katie’s holding her own with snappy comebacks until he shoves her up against a wall and arrests her. She falls to ground in pain and yells at him that she’s pregnant. Apparently that’s the magic word because he orders someone to get a paramedic. The important thing is, Stephanie sees a newscast that clues her in to a rather shocking truth; whatever happens to reveal the Powell secret happens on the 29th at 5:07pm. Stephanie ends up smacking into the car when she’s pulled back to the present, much to J.J.’s surprise.
Stephanie is insistent that she needs to go to the future to see what happens and try to stop it. The kids protest, but she gets J.J. to help determine the exact coordinates she needs to run to. She zooms off to find Daphne and Jim at the scene. Chris is there too, but Daphne’s got him covered. George is giving a eulogy at Cordero’s memorial service, and Jim realizes that someone is about to kill George. He races off to stop them, but gets caught on camera as he flips the car with the gunman in it. And thus begins the potential hell that the Powells find themselves in. At the precinct (in the present) one of the cops investigating Frank’s case corners Jim and says his partner is dirty. He tells Jim to meet him somewhere in private, and just as Jim heads out, he nearly gets gunned down. He knows it was the cops. Another piece of the puzzle falling into place.
Stephanie zooms back and has another crash including smashing up the table in the house. She tells J.J. that it is Jim that exposes them when he tries to save George’s life. Too bad, Jim doesn’t listen. He can’t let George die. And Daphne’s already left to find Chris. Daphne confronts Chris and he says that while he was angry at her, he would have never revealed her secret to anyone. And this time, Jim is more careful about not being caught on camera as he stops the gunman. But it’s only half the equation. His partner is still in the crowd of blue and it’s up the Daphne to stop him. She reads minds until she finds the guy and ends up mind pushing the guy to give her the gun and not shoot George. Jim and Stephanie aren’t happy to hear Daphne has these powers, and they force her to use her powers on Chris again. She’s never mind wiped someone before, but she’s never needed to either. She thinks she’s only going to erase his memories of knowing she has powers but, like when Joshua did it to her, it wipes all the memories surrounding that knowledge. So, Chris is back to being his extra jerk self. Meanwhile, Mrs. X and Victoria are chatting about Katie’s results. The baby’s DNA has full incorporated the trillsettum. Mrs. X is very excited by this news and informs Victoria that she will be raising Katie’s baby once it is born. After all, at that point Mrs. X will have no use for Katie. Things are not going to end well in the finale. I can tell.
***
“Don’t forget, I gave you life. I can take it away again just as easily.”
- Mrs. X
I was a little sad to blog this episode seeing as it is the penultimate episode of the season (likely series). So we start where “No Ordinary Animal” left off. Steph is out running and she’s sort of dematerializing. She ends up reappearing at the house and there’s all manner of SWAT and military people surrounding the house. Steph tries to talk to the lead guy at the scene once she figures out its her house, but no one sees her. She makes it inside to find Jim and the kids trying to find a way out of the now surrounded house. Again, they can’t see or hear Stephanie. Jim tells J.J. and Daphne to slip out the back while he distracts the guys outside so they can meet Stephanie at Katie’s. Before Stephanie can try and stop Jim, she is yanked back through a big flash of light (à la the crack in the universe from Doctor Who series 5) and ends up back at the house. But the scene is far quieter. Steph is rightly confused but tries to hide it when she walks in to find Jim there. He asks if the run helped, and she mumbles an answer. She puts on a brave face and tells Jim to go to Captain Cordero’s goodbye party.
Jim doesn’t believe her that she’s okay but goes to the party anyway. He tells George obviously there has to be something wrong. Stephanie nearly died the day before, and i trillsettum changes people. Jim and George spend a little time with Cordero, telling him how they’ll miss him and how the precinct won’t be the same without him before a few of the other attendees pull Cordero away for some drinks. And to think he used to not like Jim! Later, Jim, George and Cordero are heading out. After some quick goodbyes, Cordero heads to his car when a car drives by and Cordero ends up looking like bloody Swiss cheese. George hastily calls for an ambulance, but it’s no use. The next morning at the precinct, George and Jim meet the two cops who are supposedly handling Cordero’s case. They’re definitely sketchy in my book. Anyway, Cordero’s wife shows up and thanks Jim for all he did for Frank. She reveals he was really stressed over some trial and couldn’t sleep. Which was unlike Frank. This sets Jim and George on the investigatory path.
Back at the house, Stephanie is still wandering around a little dazed and confused, and she overhears Daphne telling J.J. what she heard when she read Mr. Litchfield’s mind. He’s scared someone will hurt him. This prompts Stephanie to butt in, and after J.J. explains they were biochemical equations, she tells J.J. she doesn’t want him doing any more work for Mr. Litchfield until she can talk to him. At school, Chris catches up with Daphne, and after some arm twisting, gets her to agree to see him at his work after school so she can mind push his boss into giving him a raise. Daphne really doesn’t want to do it but agrees. Chris really has been kind of a jerk since he found about Daphne’s powers. At Global Tech, Stephanie is running some tests on Katie to make sure she’s safe. Katie has a little freak out about having a superbaby. After all, it usually ends in the baby killing its parents. But Stephanie assures Katie that she’s fine and gives her the name of her own OB/GYN so Katie can get an appointment. With that, Stephanie races off to school to try and talk to Mr. Litchfield.
Like before, Stephanie shows up and things are weird. She finds George running down an empty hallway and J.J. and Daphne hiding in a classroom looking rather worse for wear. George hands over some food and water, but there’s agents searching the school again. Stephanie watches helplessly since she can’t seem to communicate with anyone as George almost misdirects the agents who stop by the room. But J.J. accidentally nudges a beaker, and George resorts to blocking the door into the room so the kids can escape. Steph has time to see the date, March 31, before she’s yanked back to the lab. She tells Katie she doesn’t think she just ran to the school, she saw the future.
And now we get what I thought was a pretty shocking reveal. Mrs. X has somehow (my guess is through the trillsettum) brought Victoria back to life. It was apparently rather difficult to bring Victoria back, but Mrs. X did it, with Joshua’s help. He told Mrs. X to take care of Victoria. Victoria is kind of excited and asks if Joshua’s there, but obviously he’s not. Her excitement then turns to confusion because she figures he wouldn’t want anything to do with her after what she did to Katie. And then the boss lady drops the baby bomb. She wants Victoria to find out everything she can without raising suspicion.
Back at the lab, Katie is trying half-heartedly to convince Steph that she didn’t go to the future and that it was just some hallucination. But Stephanie is positive. She just doesn’t understand what she’s seeing or how it could have come to pass. Katie gets super excited about time travel and rattles off other super heroes that had similar powers; The Flash and the Silver Surfer. Steph hasn’t told Jim yet. She doesn’t want to bother him with everything else that’s going on. Just as she gets up to try and zip off to the future again to try and figure out what’s going on, she loses her balance and Katie insists on running some tests of her own.
At the Lair, Jim is searching through Cordero’s cases to try and find the one that was keeping him up at night. He finds a case about a gang member who was facing drug charges, and Jim thinks they’ve got the right case. The ADA prosecuting is a friend of George’s and they go to find out what the ADA knows. Cordero apparently called the ADA the day before and wanted to meet in private so Frank could submit some evidence. Definitely something fishy afoot in Pacific Bay.
We hop over to teen land for a few minutes as Chris waits for Daphne to work her mojo on his boss. She comes over and tells him that it didn’t work. She mumbles something about it maybe being the fumes that are messing with her ability but Chris calls her out on it. He’s none too pleased that she didn’t actually do it. He pretty tells her to stay out of his life and he’ll fix his problems himself. Somehow, I doubt that will really end well.
And we’re back at Global Tech. Katie is making an OB/GYN appointment while going over Stephanie’s test results. Katie shows Steph the results that prove Stephanie’s body is starting to suffer the effects of time travel. Stephanie brushes it off, but Katie tells her that she may feel fine now, but eventually, her body won’t be able to handle the stress. Stephanie isn’t interested in listening. She needs to get to the future at the precinct to make sure Jim’s okay. She arrives to find it occupied by scary looking military types, and the jerk FBI agent that was at the house is pacing in front of Stephanie. Jim and the kids are chained up nearby looking rather groggy. They’ve apparently been sedated. The Agent wants to know what Stephanie is and once they do, they’ll decide whether she and her family are more useful dead or alive. Stephanie begs for a lawyer, but the agent scoffs and tells her those rights are only for human beings.
Katie is at her doctor’s appointment and she’s anxiously waiting in the front office. Dr. Klein is on his way in from the garage when Victoria accosts him with a metal pipe and morphs into him. Faux!Klein is giving Katie an ultrasound and finally finds the fetus. Katie’s pretty excited until the doctor produces a very big needle and claims they need to an amniocentesis. Katie unfortunately doesn’t have much choice in the matter.
Back at the Powell house, Steph is filling everyone in on what she’s seen. She tells them their secret will be exposed in two days and they’ll be taken into military custody. Jim and Steph share a look after she says that maybe someone in the family spilled the beans. J.J. denies that Mr. Litchfield knows anything. All eyes fall on Daphne. She finally admits she told Chris but professes he’s cool enough to not blab it to anyone. Daphne is told to get in touch with Chris to find out if he told anyone. Meanwhile, Jim gets called away by George because someone broke into the Cordero house. Nothing was taken, but Mrs. Cordero says they were probably looking for the hidden safe behind a bookshelf. It was so well hidden that even she didn’t know it was there until cops discovered it. Jim and George convince her to let Jim try opening it and he does with ease. They find police personnel files, and they realize Cordero was delivering intel on a dirty cop to the ADA.
Back at the house, Stephanie is going to race off to Global Tech to see what’s happening there, since Dr. King knows about them and the lab sometimes does military contracting. She finds Agent Annoying Jerk questioning Katie. Katie’s holding her own with snappy comebacks until he shoves her up against a wall and arrests her. She falls to ground in pain and yells at him that she’s pregnant. Apparently that’s the magic word because he orders someone to get a paramedic. The important thing is, Stephanie sees a newscast that clues her in to a rather shocking truth; whatever happens to reveal the Powell secret happens on the 29th at 5:07pm. Stephanie ends up smacking into the car when she’s pulled back to the present, much to J.J.’s surprise.
Stephanie is insistent that she needs to go to the future to see what happens and try to stop it. The kids protest, but she gets J.J. to help determine the exact coordinates she needs to run to. She zooms off to find Daphne and Jim at the scene. Chris is there too, but Daphne’s got him covered. George is giving a eulogy at Cordero’s memorial service, and Jim realizes that someone is about to kill George. He races off to stop them, but gets caught on camera as he flips the car with the gunman in it. And thus begins the potential hell that the Powells find themselves in. At the precinct (in the present) one of the cops investigating Frank’s case corners Jim and says his partner is dirty. He tells Jim to meet him somewhere in private, and just as Jim heads out, he nearly gets gunned down. He knows it was the cops. Another piece of the puzzle falling into place.
Stephanie zooms back and has another crash including smashing up the table in the house. She tells J.J. that it is Jim that exposes them when he tries to save George’s life. Too bad, Jim doesn’t listen. He can’t let George die. And Daphne’s already left to find Chris. Daphne confronts Chris and he says that while he was angry at her, he would have never revealed her secret to anyone. And this time, Jim is more careful about not being caught on camera as he stops the gunman. But it’s only half the equation. His partner is still in the crowd of blue and it’s up the Daphne to stop him. She reads minds until she finds the guy and ends up mind pushing the guy to give her the gun and not shoot George. Jim and Stephanie aren’t happy to hear Daphne has these powers, and they force her to use her powers on Chris again. She’s never mind wiped someone before, but she’s never needed to either. She thinks she’s only going to erase his memories of knowing she has powers but, like when Joshua did it to her, it wipes all the memories surrounding that knowledge. So, Chris is back to being his extra jerk self. Meanwhile, Mrs. X and Victoria are chatting about Katie’s results. The baby’s DNA has full incorporated the trillsettum. Mrs. X is very excited by this news and informs Victoria that she will be raising Katie’s baby once it is born. After all, at that point Mrs. X will have no use for Katie. Things are not going to end well in the finale. I can tell.
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