“I’m not very good at implying. So usually I go straight to accusing.”
- Robert Ironside
If you followed the blog last year, you know we did quite a few pilot previews. Unfortunately, there just haven’t been many that interested us or were actually available. But seeing as I am the crime drama/procedural guru here at More TV, Please! I decided I’d take a stab at one of NBC’s new dramas (it premieres October 2nd at 10pm).
So as far as I can tell, this show is going to be pretty much like any other procedural with one obvious tweak. The lead character, Robert Ironside, is wheelchair-bound. When first we meet Sergeant Ironside, he’s shaking down a guy in the middle of the night with one of his other cops. They’re looking for a kidnapped girl and they find her thanks to Bob’s unconventional methods. I wanted to laugh as Bob’s cohort was Mirandizing the bad guy from outside the car but the lawyer in me just cried because that’s so completely unethical. Anyway, nest morning, Bob gets called to another crime scene of an apparent suicide. We get a very quick insight into how he became wheelchair bound, including a rooftop flashback to him and another cop dangling a suspect off a roof. That just screams dirty cop to me and it doesn’t make me like this character much at all.
He seems very impatient to me in the way he addresses both his team (made up of Ed, Virgil, Teddy and Holly) and witnesses. He figures out after a brief discussion with the victim’s boss (and possible lover) that the case is a homicide. So he sends Virgil and Teddy to toss her place while he goes off to coach hockey. I do kind of like Virgil (he’s played by the same actor who at present is holding Detective Benson hostage on Law & Order: SVU). He’s kind of amusing, albeit a bit destructive in how he handles other people’s property. And apparently Holly has seedy-underbelly connections. She takes one of the pictures the guys found at the dead womans’ apartment to a guy who tells they should be looking into Albanian sex parties.
Bob is rather controlling when it comes to who runs investigations. He doesn’t seem to like it when his team questions him. But it seems at least he knows how to not be so aggressive with grieving family members. The woman’s sister doesn’t think it was suicide. She also shares that her sister didn’t much like her job or her boss. Bob and Holly pay a visit to the dead woman’s trainer and they learn she had a boyfriend that was causing her grief, too. The dynamic duo heads over and finds the guy with a knife in his chest. Guess they won’t be questioning that witness. From just the little bit I’ve seen I think I’d rather watch a show with just Holly, Virgil and Teddy. They aren’t so hard and abrasive. Maybe it’s to due with Bob’s past trauma that led to him being disabled. But really, not all disabled people are angry at the world.
It would appear Sergeant Ironside has the free reign of how to handle investigations because once he learns that the dead was having his girlfriend launder drug money through her investment firm, he heads home and starts to get hot and heavy with a woman (who is not his wife from a flashback we saw which I’m thinking leads to us seeing him get shot). His fun time with the sexy brunette is interrupted when he gets called down to the drunk tank to pick up his former partner who falling apart at the seams after what happened.
The case continues to move along as Ironside and Teddy go off to accuse the dead woman’s boss of being in on the money laundering and sex parties while Virgil and Holly go off to find the dead guy’s cousin. They bring him in for questioning but he lawyer’s up. Meanwhile, the dead woman’s sister denies having heard of the dead guy or his cousin and asks if she’s going to get justice for her sister. I have to give the writers some credit for the case of the week. It’s kind of interesting and some of the secondary characters show promise but I still can’t get behind liking the lead character. It’s something I felt in watching Graceland and I’m just not sure how it’s going to stack up against its competition (namely CSI). I mean, I think it will probably be a decent pair up with SVU given the similar general premise but successful shows, especially ensemble type dramas, need to have characters you can identify with and empathize with. I still just can’t get over how nasty this guy used to be.
Ironside heads home to do a workout and we finally see how he ends up in the chair. His partner is just really twitchy, spooks the guy they’re after and in the ensuing chase, Bob gets shot. But apparently his mini-freak out at the memory gives him a new clarity and he figures some things out and gets the team to work some other stuff out. They figure out that the dead woman’ met the dead guy at one of the sex parties and convinced him ot invest his drug money. When he loses half, he panics. They think she found him dead. They don’t get much further than that because the dead woman’s sister has taken her boss hostage at gunpoint. Something tells me Ironside is going to be the one to talk her down. And it turns out I’m only partially right. He tries to talk her down but she won’t listen. She refuses to believe her sitser willing would have attended the parties and slept with drug dealers. Ironside orders Holly to shoot the boss in the leg. Yeah, really not a legal thing to do but he just doesn’t seem to be all that concerned. I think if the writers make him a little less careless with the law, he might be more likeable. He tries to make a deal with the boss but it doesn’t really go so well. But, as it turns, out, the dead guy’s cousin killed him and then the woman actually did commit suicide. Ironside knew that the whole time, he just wanted to find out why she jumped and to get the people who drove her to it. I will say that the camera work on the show is kind of interesting. They occasionally switch to a point of view more on the level with Ironside. It can be kind of jarring at times but I think it gives a different perspective.
Things wrap up with Ironside stopping by an AA meeting where his former partner finally gets up and speaks. I will give the show major kudos for using a song from Once (and one that was not Falling Slowly). That made me quite happy. And once he’s seen that his former partner is getting the help he needs, he rolls on home to hook up with the sexy brunette.
I think the show has a chance of being a moderate success. I think with a little tweaking of character personalities, it could be a stronger ensemble. If I didn’t already have 5 shows on Wednesdays, I’d consider watching this. But I may catch it on occasion or watch it on Demand when I’ve got a few light weeks.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
50th Anniversary Countdown: Doctor Who 7.05: "The Angels Take Manhattan"
“By the time you read these words, Rory and I will be long gone. So know that we lived well and were very happy. And above all else, know that we will love you always. Sometimes I do worry about you, though. I think once we’re gone you won’t be coming back here for a while and you might be alone. Which you should never be. Don’t be alone, Doctor.”
- Amy
We have come to the Ponds' final adventure with the Doctor. It’s emotional and yet a part of me thinks it was a good way to send them off. Jen would have preferred we have all of season 7 with a new companion and I can see the point of that. I did like how we left Amy and Rory at the end of season 6. But they get one final romp before we say goodbye.
We find ourselves following a private eye named Garner in 1930s New York as he takes a bizarre case about statutes that move when you aren’t looking (sound familiar?). He goes to investigate at an address and finds an old man who claims to be him and warns that he will be sent back in time. So at least it sounds like Moffat is going back to what the angels were supposed to be like in Blink. Garner is chased by angels up to the roof where he’s confronted with the Statue of Liberty. I think it’s kind of ridiculous that the Statue of Liberty could be an angel too but whatever. My guess is Garner is a goner.
We jump to present day New York where the Doctor and the Ponds are having a picnic in a park (Central Park maybe?). The Doctor is reading a detective novel aloud. It’s about a woman named Melody Malone and this is probably the most important book in the whole season. Rory pops off to get some coffees after the Doctor notes that Amy’s got lines around her eyes. Well she has been aging as they’ve travelled together. Rory starts walking back after getting the coffees and he’s going by all kinds of statues. As he walks, the Doctor and Amy read and it becomes clear that something is wonky. Rory ends up in the book and meets River. Well of course she’s Melody you moron. She was born Melody Pond. Anyway, as the Doctor and Amy head to the TARDIS, River explains that she knows Rory couldn’t have come in the TARDIS because there are too many time distortions and it would be like trying to land a plane in a blizzard. The Doctor’s not convinced it can’t be done and sets a course for April 3, 1938. The TARDIS goes all wonky and they end up back in 2012 in a grave yard. Meanwhile, Rory and River end up at the home of the crime boss Garner was working for.
The Doctor thinks he can get to 1938 if he has landing lights, a signal to lock on to. So he goes back to the Chin dynasty and gets a message to River. Of course, this is after Amy reads ahead and the Doctor freaks out because now it is written in stone. Interesting he says that as the camera pans to a grave marker that reads “in loving memory of Rory Arthur Williams”. Rory gets tossed in the cellar with some matches to be terrorized by “the babies”. Yeah I gotta say the little baby angels are far creepier than the bigger ones. These ones giggle and have little pitter patter sounds. The adults don’t. River starts making observations and spots the Doctor’s message, giving him something to lock on to. Unfortunately, the crime boss has an angel and it gets hold of River’s wrist. Something tells me we’re getting closer to the part Amy read. The Doctor has also figured out that Rory got nabbed by the angels. That is also going to come back to bite them.
We’ve come to the point where Amy read from the book. The Doctor comments on how tightly the angel is holding River’s wrist and she asks if whose wrist he’s going to break. Amy goes in search of Rory but can’t find him and then the Doctor has a thought. If River wrote the book, she’d give them hints and Amy suggests chapter titles. The Doctor sends Amy down to the cellar and then sees the final chapter and gets really angry (it says Amelia’s Last Farewell). He orders River to get her wrist out without breaking it so that the future can be changed before going to find Amy. Rory’s gone and it’s become clear the angels are screwing with them. River appears, wrist free, and says he’s been moved in space but not time. He’s at the same place Garner ended up. Which can’t be a good thing. And really, Rory. If doors start opening on their own and a creepy elevator appears. Don’t get on it!
The Doctor quickly realizes River’s wrist is broken and he heals it with some regeneration energy. This only pisses the Mrs. off and she storms out. Amy follows her and asks what is wrong. River tells Amy that the Doctor hates endings and that you can’t ever show the damage because it hurts him too much. It’s also why she lied to him about her wrist. The Doctor interrupts this family moment to alert the ladies that he’s found Rory. They race off in a stolen car and the crime boss wakes up to find his house overrun with angels. They’re going to take their revenge for him torturing the one that broke River’s wrist.
They get to the place where Rory is and find him in a room. They watch as Old Rory dies in a bed with young Amy by his side. And now it’s time for some exposition. Apparently Moffat assumed people forgot the way the angels work from Blink. So the Doctor tells his trio of companions that angels send you back in time and feed off the time energy. But he’s figured out that the angels have taken over Manhattan and can feed off energy repeatedly now with this place. Rory says he’ll just keep running, even though River suggests that if there were a paradox created it might kill all the angels and erase the place from existence. Amy and Rory take off (she’s not leaving her man) and they end up on the roof, cornered by the Statue of Liberty. Rory says he’s going to jump and maybe create the paradox but Amy won’t let him. Not alone anyway. If he’s going out, she’s going with him. The Doctor and River get to the roof but they’re too late to stop Amy and Rory from jumping. It would appear things are back to normal as they all end up in the graveyard again. They’re about to pop off to the pub for a family outing when Rory notices the grave stone. He and Amy check it out only moments before an angel appears and zaps Rory back in time again. Amy says a tearful goodbye to the Doctor and River because she knows she’ll never see them again. She tells River to be a good girl and look after the Doctor and the Doctor stands by, helpless as Amy lets herself get zapped back, too. Her name appears on the headstone. She chose Rory as she always has.
River tries to tell the Doctor not to be alone but that she’ll travel with him whenever he wants, just not full-time. And then she reminds him of the book. He’d ripped out the final page because he doesn’t like endings and he races through the park and finds it in the picnic basket. Amy has written him an Afterword basically telling him the same thing. That he shouldn’t be alone. And she is right. He travels alone too long and his age catches up with him. The enormity of who he is and all he’s done send him to a dark place and he’s really no good to anyone that way. So I guess now we’ll have to see where the Christmas special takes us.
Overall, I thought it was a good way to send off Amy and Rory. It was true to who the Ponds were and that Amy always chose Rory, even in death. And I wish they’d tacked on the “P.S.” video that floated around after this episode aired, to give Brian some finality, too. Farewell Amy and Rory. It’s been a fun ride.
- Amy
We have come to the Ponds' final adventure with the Doctor. It’s emotional and yet a part of me thinks it was a good way to send them off. Jen would have preferred we have all of season 7 with a new companion and I can see the point of that. I did like how we left Amy and Rory at the end of season 6. But they get one final romp before we say goodbye.
We find ourselves following a private eye named Garner in 1930s New York as he takes a bizarre case about statutes that move when you aren’t looking (sound familiar?). He goes to investigate at an address and finds an old man who claims to be him and warns that he will be sent back in time. So at least it sounds like Moffat is going back to what the angels were supposed to be like in Blink. Garner is chased by angels up to the roof where he’s confronted with the Statue of Liberty. I think it’s kind of ridiculous that the Statue of Liberty could be an angel too but whatever. My guess is Garner is a goner.
We jump to present day New York where the Doctor and the Ponds are having a picnic in a park (Central Park maybe?). The Doctor is reading a detective novel aloud. It’s about a woman named Melody Malone and this is probably the most important book in the whole season. Rory pops off to get some coffees after the Doctor notes that Amy’s got lines around her eyes. Well she has been aging as they’ve travelled together. Rory starts walking back after getting the coffees and he’s going by all kinds of statues. As he walks, the Doctor and Amy read and it becomes clear that something is wonky. Rory ends up in the book and meets River. Well of course she’s Melody you moron. She was born Melody Pond. Anyway, as the Doctor and Amy head to the TARDIS, River explains that she knows Rory couldn’t have come in the TARDIS because there are too many time distortions and it would be like trying to land a plane in a blizzard. The Doctor’s not convinced it can’t be done and sets a course for April 3, 1938. The TARDIS goes all wonky and they end up back in 2012 in a grave yard. Meanwhile, Rory and River end up at the home of the crime boss Garner was working for.
The Doctor thinks he can get to 1938 if he has landing lights, a signal to lock on to. So he goes back to the Chin dynasty and gets a message to River. Of course, this is after Amy reads ahead and the Doctor freaks out because now it is written in stone. Interesting he says that as the camera pans to a grave marker that reads “in loving memory of Rory Arthur Williams”. Rory gets tossed in the cellar with some matches to be terrorized by “the babies”. Yeah I gotta say the little baby angels are far creepier than the bigger ones. These ones giggle and have little pitter patter sounds. The adults don’t. River starts making observations and spots the Doctor’s message, giving him something to lock on to. Unfortunately, the crime boss has an angel and it gets hold of River’s wrist. Something tells me we’re getting closer to the part Amy read. The Doctor has also figured out that Rory got nabbed by the angels. That is also going to come back to bite them.
We’ve come to the point where Amy read from the book. The Doctor comments on how tightly the angel is holding River’s wrist and she asks if whose wrist he’s going to break. Amy goes in search of Rory but can’t find him and then the Doctor has a thought. If River wrote the book, she’d give them hints and Amy suggests chapter titles. The Doctor sends Amy down to the cellar and then sees the final chapter and gets really angry (it says Amelia’s Last Farewell). He orders River to get her wrist out without breaking it so that the future can be changed before going to find Amy. Rory’s gone and it’s become clear the angels are screwing with them. River appears, wrist free, and says he’s been moved in space but not time. He’s at the same place Garner ended up. Which can’t be a good thing. And really, Rory. If doors start opening on their own and a creepy elevator appears. Don’t get on it!
The Doctor quickly realizes River’s wrist is broken and he heals it with some regeneration energy. This only pisses the Mrs. off and she storms out. Amy follows her and asks what is wrong. River tells Amy that the Doctor hates endings and that you can’t ever show the damage because it hurts him too much. It’s also why she lied to him about her wrist. The Doctor interrupts this family moment to alert the ladies that he’s found Rory. They race off in a stolen car and the crime boss wakes up to find his house overrun with angels. They’re going to take their revenge for him torturing the one that broke River’s wrist.
They get to the place where Rory is and find him in a room. They watch as Old Rory dies in a bed with young Amy by his side. And now it’s time for some exposition. Apparently Moffat assumed people forgot the way the angels work from Blink. So the Doctor tells his trio of companions that angels send you back in time and feed off the time energy. But he’s figured out that the angels have taken over Manhattan and can feed off energy repeatedly now with this place. Rory says he’ll just keep running, even though River suggests that if there were a paradox created it might kill all the angels and erase the place from existence. Amy and Rory take off (she’s not leaving her man) and they end up on the roof, cornered by the Statue of Liberty. Rory says he’s going to jump and maybe create the paradox but Amy won’t let him. Not alone anyway. If he’s going out, she’s going with him. The Doctor and River get to the roof but they’re too late to stop Amy and Rory from jumping. It would appear things are back to normal as they all end up in the graveyard again. They’re about to pop off to the pub for a family outing when Rory notices the grave stone. He and Amy check it out only moments before an angel appears and zaps Rory back in time again. Amy says a tearful goodbye to the Doctor and River because she knows she’ll never see them again. She tells River to be a good girl and look after the Doctor and the Doctor stands by, helpless as Amy lets herself get zapped back, too. Her name appears on the headstone. She chose Rory as she always has.
River tries to tell the Doctor not to be alone but that she’ll travel with him whenever he wants, just not full-time. And then she reminds him of the book. He’d ripped out the final page because he doesn’t like endings and he races through the park and finds it in the picnic basket. Amy has written him an Afterword basically telling him the same thing. That he shouldn’t be alone. And she is right. He travels alone too long and his age catches up with him. The enormity of who he is and all he’s done send him to a dark place and he’s really no good to anyone that way. So I guess now we’ll have to see where the Christmas special takes us.
Overall, I thought it was a good way to send off Amy and Rory. It was true to who the Ponds were and that Amy always chose Rory, even in death. And I wish they’d tacked on the “P.S.” video that floated around after this episode aired, to give Brian some finality, too. Farewell Amy and Rory. It’s been a fun ride.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Graceland 1.12: "Pawn"
“You know what the worst part is? He knew that living with what I had done was worse than death. And he was right.”
- Briggs
Well we’ve finally made it to the season finale. For those of you wondering, USA Network renewed it for season 2 earlier this week. That said, I’ll be enjoying the show’s next season from a non-blogging standpoint. But, on with the recap!
At last count, things were pretty bad all around. Paige and Mike failed to locate the recording from Juan’s car, Charlie was pounding on Quinn and Briggs was hightailing it out of dodge. In short order, Mike puts a ‘detain on sight’ order out on Briggs. This gets a little complicated when Johnny gets the text and sees Briggs leaving the house. Briggs smooth talks Johnny out of holding him so he can go get a ride from Jakes to the port. He plans to take a boat out of the country. Or so we think. Instead, he meets Quinn in a bar and passes over a new ID to the dealer to escape Jangles. And then, Briggs heads back out to the desert to partially dig up Juan’s body so he can get a key off the dead man’s key ring. Creepy.
Meanwhile, Mike is really not happy with Jakes helping Briggs or Johnny for letting him walk away. An FBI team is about to descend on the house and Mike insists they all be there to answer questions. You know, I kind of want to punch Mike in the face. Briggs it kind of hiding out while also trying to find dirt on Jangles when Jakes gives him the heads up that there was no recording and that Charlie’s been digging into things with the Federale. And then we get one of the most hilarious montages I have seen in a while. It’s been 8 days since Briggs went MIA (kind of) and the whole house is being interviewed by Agent Clark. We mainly get their reactions to Briggs being accused of murder, Mike being a rat and assorted other things. It really made me laugh. And then, as the team is sweeping the house, the gang gets into it, pointing fingers at each other for helping Briggs, or thinking he’s innocent (or the fact that maybe Mike and Paige are knocking boots). I really am not sure how they are all going to make it out of this without punches being thrown.
We learn a little tidbit of backstory on Jakes and Briggs. Johnny asks why Briggs would to go him for help and Jakes explains that he and Briggs go way back and sometimes even when people are messed up and hurt the people around them, they still deserve help. Johnny’s disappointed that Briggs didn’t go to him. Get over it Johnny. Meanwhile, Mike figures out that Briggs is still in LA and going after Jangles. Paige tries to get him to just calm down and stop freaking out when they kiss. I think we’ve been waiting for that for some time now (at least since she learned the truth about his assignment). But she says that right now, Mike is floundering and she’s not the answer to his problems. So maybe someday down the line, they’ll try being a couple. I could get behind them, definitely.
Briggs is hiding out while trying to do his own digging into the Federale Charlie’s been working with. He clearly has a contact south of the border and after getting the names of the lawmen up from Mexico, he figures out that Charlie’s Federale is Jangles. He goes to Jakes (who is watching his son play soccer) and hands over a new number with the instruction to keep an eye on Charlie and call if anything hinky happens. Jakes isn’t too interested because he’s suspended and the rest of the house isn’t interested in Briggs playing hero. And Briggs doesn’t admit that he’s Odin, but he doesn’t directly deny it when Jakes brings it up either. A little later, Mike approaches Jakes on the beach and says he knows that Briggs is still in town. Jakes, playing the pissed off jerk, walks away but leaves the number. I’m guessing he meant to do that. Charlie is out with Jangles at a bar and he tries to entice her back to his rented beach-front house while Briggs watches from a parked car across the street. He’s looking very Unabomber in his hoodie and shades.
Things are kicking into even higher gear. Mike tells Johnny and Paige that he’s tracking Briggs’ phone as we see Briggs heading for Jangles’ house. He adds Juan’s key to the chains in Jangles’ bag but he fails to take out Jangles. Charlie, who went home to get drunk by herself and changed her mind, shows up and orders Briggs to let the fake Federale go. He does and then gets beaned by the champagne bottle. Charlie sees the bandage from where Mike shot him and tries to pull a gun but he flips her onto the ground, grabs her throat and holds a knife to it. This is going to get bloody. Jangles plans to make Briggs watch while he tortures Charlie. It’s kinda gruesome as he’s cutting into her. Mike pulls up and saves the day and Briggs tells him the full story. In withdrawal down in Mexico, Briggs gave up his training officer which led Jangles to the precursor to Graceland.
Briggs gets cleared of all charges since planting the key on Jangles’ chain implicates him as the killer and the ID he set up for Quinn in South America covers his identity as Odin Rossi. Something tells me Briggs may not stop being Odin just yet. And Mike is headed back to DC for his dream job. Charlie falls apart a bit, saying she’s going to turn in her badge but Briggs convinces her that he and the house need her and he forgives her. That night, the gang has a bonfire much like in the pilot. Briggs admits his addiction to the rest of the house and they toast to remembering home and for Mike’s promotion. A few months later, a couple kids find the recording of Briggs killing Juan in a pawn shop. Across the country, Mike’s in a briefing when Briggs calls, saying he needs help on something. So I guess they will have something to do in season two. Overall, I thought some of the plots this season moved a little slow but I think they did well answering enough of the questions and plotlines they started in the beginning while leaving enough to draw people back in next year.
- Briggs
Well we’ve finally made it to the season finale. For those of you wondering, USA Network renewed it for season 2 earlier this week. That said, I’ll be enjoying the show’s next season from a non-blogging standpoint. But, on with the recap!
At last count, things were pretty bad all around. Paige and Mike failed to locate the recording from Juan’s car, Charlie was pounding on Quinn and Briggs was hightailing it out of dodge. In short order, Mike puts a ‘detain on sight’ order out on Briggs. This gets a little complicated when Johnny gets the text and sees Briggs leaving the house. Briggs smooth talks Johnny out of holding him so he can go get a ride from Jakes to the port. He plans to take a boat out of the country. Or so we think. Instead, he meets Quinn in a bar and passes over a new ID to the dealer to escape Jangles. And then, Briggs heads back out to the desert to partially dig up Juan’s body so he can get a key off the dead man’s key ring. Creepy.
Meanwhile, Mike is really not happy with Jakes helping Briggs or Johnny for letting him walk away. An FBI team is about to descend on the house and Mike insists they all be there to answer questions. You know, I kind of want to punch Mike in the face. Briggs it kind of hiding out while also trying to find dirt on Jangles when Jakes gives him the heads up that there was no recording and that Charlie’s been digging into things with the Federale. And then we get one of the most hilarious montages I have seen in a while. It’s been 8 days since Briggs went MIA (kind of) and the whole house is being interviewed by Agent Clark. We mainly get their reactions to Briggs being accused of murder, Mike being a rat and assorted other things. It really made me laugh. And then, as the team is sweeping the house, the gang gets into it, pointing fingers at each other for helping Briggs, or thinking he’s innocent (or the fact that maybe Mike and Paige are knocking boots). I really am not sure how they are all going to make it out of this without punches being thrown.
We learn a little tidbit of backstory on Jakes and Briggs. Johnny asks why Briggs would to go him for help and Jakes explains that he and Briggs go way back and sometimes even when people are messed up and hurt the people around them, they still deserve help. Johnny’s disappointed that Briggs didn’t go to him. Get over it Johnny. Meanwhile, Mike figures out that Briggs is still in LA and going after Jangles. Paige tries to get him to just calm down and stop freaking out when they kiss. I think we’ve been waiting for that for some time now (at least since she learned the truth about his assignment). But she says that right now, Mike is floundering and she’s not the answer to his problems. So maybe someday down the line, they’ll try being a couple. I could get behind them, definitely.
Briggs is hiding out while trying to do his own digging into the Federale Charlie’s been working with. He clearly has a contact south of the border and after getting the names of the lawmen up from Mexico, he figures out that Charlie’s Federale is Jangles. He goes to Jakes (who is watching his son play soccer) and hands over a new number with the instruction to keep an eye on Charlie and call if anything hinky happens. Jakes isn’t too interested because he’s suspended and the rest of the house isn’t interested in Briggs playing hero. And Briggs doesn’t admit that he’s Odin, but he doesn’t directly deny it when Jakes brings it up either. A little later, Mike approaches Jakes on the beach and says he knows that Briggs is still in town. Jakes, playing the pissed off jerk, walks away but leaves the number. I’m guessing he meant to do that. Charlie is out with Jangles at a bar and he tries to entice her back to his rented beach-front house while Briggs watches from a parked car across the street. He’s looking very Unabomber in his hoodie and shades.
Things are kicking into even higher gear. Mike tells Johnny and Paige that he’s tracking Briggs’ phone as we see Briggs heading for Jangles’ house. He adds Juan’s key to the chains in Jangles’ bag but he fails to take out Jangles. Charlie, who went home to get drunk by herself and changed her mind, shows up and orders Briggs to let the fake Federale go. He does and then gets beaned by the champagne bottle. Charlie sees the bandage from where Mike shot him and tries to pull a gun but he flips her onto the ground, grabs her throat and holds a knife to it. This is going to get bloody. Jangles plans to make Briggs watch while he tortures Charlie. It’s kinda gruesome as he’s cutting into her. Mike pulls up and saves the day and Briggs tells him the full story. In withdrawal down in Mexico, Briggs gave up his training officer which led Jangles to the precursor to Graceland.
Briggs gets cleared of all charges since planting the key on Jangles’ chain implicates him as the killer and the ID he set up for Quinn in South America covers his identity as Odin Rossi. Something tells me Briggs may not stop being Odin just yet. And Mike is headed back to DC for his dream job. Charlie falls apart a bit, saying she’s going to turn in her badge but Briggs convinces her that he and the house need her and he forgives her. That night, the gang has a bonfire much like in the pilot. Briggs admits his addiction to the rest of the house and they toast to remembering home and for Mike’s promotion. A few months later, a couple kids find the recording of Briggs killing Juan in a pawn shop. Across the country, Mike’s in a briefing when Briggs calls, saying he needs help on something. So I guess they will have something to do in season two. Overall, I thought some of the plots this season moved a little slow but I think they did well answering enough of the questions and plotlines they started in the beginning while leaving enough to draw people back in next year.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
2013 Pilot Preview: "The Goldbergs"
“I think it’s great. ‘Cause all the cool guys in my grade have mom lockets. All of them.”
-Erica
The Pilot Preview pickings are kind of slim this year (only two I can find so far), so I figured I’d start with a pilot that intrigued me, but isn’t a show I intend to blog regularly. It’s time to take a trip back to the totally tubular 80’s with “The Goldbergs.” Now I was born early enough in the 80’s to remember some of it, but I was a little younger than the characters in this show. When they start having 90’s nostalgia shows like this, that’s when I’ll start feeling even older than I do right now, a month away from age 30. That being said, I do enjoy good 80’s nostalgia now and then, and “The Goldbergs” did not disappoint on that front. The show follows the Goldberg family through the highs and lows of 80’s life in what appears to be suburban Philadelphia (one of the characters wears a Flyers jersey, and the license plate on the family station wagon looks to be an old school, blue on yellow PA tag like my mom’s car had when I was growing up). As a kid who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs in the 80’s and 90’s, I can most definitely approve of that.
The Goldbergs are a rather stereotypical sitcom family, really, probably by design. There’s overly-controlling mom Bev, and clueless, loud dad Murray. There are also three kids. The oldest is Erica, the middle is Barry, and the youngest, who is also the narrator, is Adam. There’s also the family patriarch, Bev’s father Albert, also known as “Pops.” None of these characters are especially deep. Bev’s a control freak, weaving an expert tapestry of guilt to make the rest of the family do exactly what she wants. Like I already said, Murray is mostly loud with a quick temper. He can be wise when he actually decides to put any effort into parenting. I guess that right there makes him the most developed character of the bunch. Erica is pretty much a non-entity other than standing around, looking annoyed, and spouting off vaguely teenage girl-y sentences of derision. Barry is basically a younger, stupider version of his father who really, really wants to learn to drive. Twelve-year-old Adam likes filming his family with an old-school VHS video camera (as I did myself as a kid) and boobs. Lots of boobs. Albert is also somewhat interesting. He’s getting older, but he still wants to drive a hot sports car and be a player.
The pilot pretty much uses Barry’s desire to drive as a framing device to explore how the kids are all growing up and how that affects their parents. Bev absolutely does not thing Barry is ready to drive, and Murray is rather noncommittal about it. Bev is so against Barry driving that she gives him a locket with her picture in it on his sixteenth birthday instead of a car. Murray agrees with Bev early in the episode, mostly just to keep her off his back, but his true opinion manifests itself as the episode progresses. Albert just got himself a new sports car, and he wants Barry to have his old car for Barry’s 16th birthday. Eventually, Murray is allowed to take Barry out for a driving lesson, and it ends in disaster. Barry holds up traffic, and when Murray wants to take over driving, Barry refuses to get out of the car. He still refuses to get out even when a tow truck tows the car away. The rest of the family arrives on the scene of the incident, and of course chaos ensues. Murray, Barry, and Adam all end up in jail for a short while over the whole thing. Eventually, however, Bev relents and starts giving Barry driving lessons herself. By the end of the episode, she’s sniffing the kids’ baby blankets, wondering how time went by so fast.
Albert is also wondering how time went by so fast, but in a different way. He takes young at heart to the extreme, with a packed dating schedule and the aforementioned new sports car. He runs into trouble when, while driving one day, he smashes into a greasy spoon take away place. Bev really wants to take away his keys right then and there. Albert is pretty devastated about it. Throughout the episode, we also see Albert take Adam to a diner. At the diner, Albert is trying to teach Adam how to flirt with the waitress. Albert has basically taken on the duties of teaching Adam about the birds and the bees. Adam, for his part, as I already mentioned, just seems to care about boobs. He really, really wants to try motorboating. Is this seriously what goes on in the mind of twelve-year-old boys? Please don’t spam the comments by all saying “YES!!!” at the same time. Anyway, Adam’s moves on the waitress are kind of all destroyed by Bev showing up at the diner. She didn’t realize Albert was taking Adam on these trips, and while she’s kind of disgusted by the flirting lesson, she’s happy that Albert and Adam have developed such a bond. Albert says that he doesn’t want his car back so he can go on dates. He wants his car back so he can keep taking Adam to the diner.
By the end of the episode, Albert and Adam are still going to the diner but somebody else is driving them, which is probably for the best. Barry is learning to drive, and Bev is wondering when her kids started growing up. This show is really like a cross between “The Wonder Years” and “A Christmas Story,” but with a little less depth. If the creative team can move out of the character stereotypes as the series progresses, I think that “The Goldbergs” shows some real promise. If not, then it might be worth a watch if you’re looking for some 80’s nostalgia. I don’t like to judge shows just on their pilot, since a pilot needs to accomplish so much, and most pilots don’t do that well. So I’ll definitely be giving “The Goldbergs” a several episode trial run once the season gets started.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Summer TV Rewind: Wonderfalls 1.11: "Cocktail Bunny"
“Who does that benefit besides the hussy? Because I’m not in the business of benefitting hussies!”
-Jaye
This episode is kind of the climax of the whole Jaye/Eric/Heidi mess. There are two more episodes of “Wonderfalls,” but the next one is kind of a respite before the finale that doesn’t involve the Triangle of Doom at all. I can especially see how, if the series had continued beyond one season, this episode could have provided a foundation for Jaye eventually being institutionalized and meeting Pyro Boy from “Lovesick Ass” again. Jaye really seems to be cracking up in this episode, and all of her family and friends start becoming concerned about her. Losing Eric, seemingly for good, is the catalyst. The problem is that not everybody knows about the whole Eric situation, mainly most of Jaye’s family, so they’re extra concerned. Jaye goes to see Dr. Ron again, and that just ends up making things worse. By the end of the episode, Dr. Ron is pretty amazed at what Jaye has accomplished, but for most of the episode, he is actually kind of scared of her. This episode really explores the dark side of Jaye’s situation.
One thing that I appreciated about this episode is that it attempts to answer the question posed in the last episode. Why does Jaye follow the Muses if it just brings her extreme emotional pain? Dr. Ron literally asks her this exact question. Her answer is pretty much just that they wore her down. I guess I can see that. She was tired of being constantly hassled and woken up in the middle of the night by the Muses trying to get her attention. At one point in the episode, Jaye asks a closely related question to one of the Muses (Dr. Ron’s brass monkey). She wants to know why the Muses choose to speak to her. The answer to that one is pretty simple. Because she listens. It doesn’t seem like Jaye has much of a choice in the listening, though, considering that when she doesn’t heed the Muses right away, they just get louder and louder.
Being forced to witness Eric’s re-marriage to Heidi is really the breaking point for Jaye. She is sick and tired of her life being ruled by the Muses and the Muses only bringing her pain. We see her trying to melt the original smush faced Wax Lion on the Wonderfalls break room coffee maker. She threatens to melt or burn each animal faced item in the break room until they answer her “why me” question. Alec walks in on this and is quite disappointed, obviously. Jaye has to discontinue her plan at pyromania, and instead she starts putting up 50% off signs by all the animal-faced products in the store. Alec doesn’t like this any better, and he implies that she is going to face some consequences. Jaye and Alec argue as an especially pushy customer keeps asking them questions about the store’s products. Jaye eventually gets fed up and walks out.
Jaye’s parents stage a sort of intervention lunch at the Barrel, but Jaye gets up and runs off when Eric and Heidi walk in. Jaye figured the Barrel would be safe since Eric wasn’t scheduled to work that day, but she forgot the tiny detail that he lives there, too. Jaye, at this point accompanied by Mahandra, has a cry in the back room of the Barrel when she’s interrupted by a livid Heidi. Smugly, Heidi announces that Eric is quitting his job at the Barrel and the two of them are moving back to New Jersey, effective immediately. She’s a little perturbed when Eric later tells her that he actually gave two weeks’ notice instead. He does agree to live in the honeymoon suite with Heidi instead of in the Barrel’s back room, though.
The instructions of the Muses in this episode, as always, have multiple possible meanings that Jaye has to puzzle out throughout the episode. This time, it’s “save him from her.” Which is followed by a more sinister warning that “she” is going to kill “him.” Jaye , of course, immediately assumes this is a warning that Heidi is going to kill Eric. Heidi has shown herself to be hyper-competitive, and Jaye is convinced she’s going to pull a “if I can’t have Eric, nobody can!” Some internet research, which finds Heidi quoted in a couple college newspaper articles about on-campus poisoning incidents, has Jaye even more convinced. She goes from simply being accused of stalking by Heidi to actually doing some stalking. While on a stake-out, she sees Heidi buy a bag of pills from a Barrel busboy, and thus the paranoia escalates.
The pills Heidi procured are small and blue, so it’s pretty obvious what’s actually going on here. Eric isn’t having sex with Heidi, and she thinks modern medicine might be able to help the situation. She mixes one of the pills in with Eric’s vitamins, and Eric takes the vitamins. Jaye bursts into their hotel room and makes a big fuss about how Heidi is trying to kill Eric. She mentions the shady articles she found on the internet, and on that point, Eric defends Heidi. Apparently there really was a lot of hazing going on at their college, just like Heidi says in the articles. It quickly becomes apparent to everyone what Heidi has done in lieu of killing Eric when the effects of the pill start to manifest, and Eric ends up being pissed off at both Heidi and Jaye. He really wants nothing more than for Jaye to just leave him alone.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Jaye starts seeing Dr. Ron again in this episode. She tells him the truth about the Muses, and he’s quite concerned about what he’s hearing. Especially when Jaye tells him that the Muses are currently telling her to “save him from her” and warning about a murder. We learn that Dr. Ron was almost killed by a former patient, and it’s clear that he’s concerned Jaye could be a repeat of that experience. It all comes to a head one night when the Muses tell Jaye to lick the light switch in Dr. Ron’s office. This leads to the power going out in the building. At the same time, Karen and Sharon are also on their way to Dr. Ron’s office, because the police are now also concerned that Jaye might harm Dr. Ron. On the elevator, Karen meets up with none other than the murderous former patient. She’s the lady who was being bothersome at Wonderfalls earlier. She wants to kill Dr. Ron once and for all, and she wants to use Wonderfalls products to do it so she can frame Jaye. Amazingly, just as Jaye is about to be arrested, Karen and the former patient appear, and Karen has managed to talk the former patient into confessing and getting some help. I guess Karen is a better mother than we all thought.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
50th Anniversary Countdown: Doctor Who 7.04: "The Power of Three"
“Actually, it’s you they can’t give up Doctor. And I don’t think they should. Go with him. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here.”
- Brian
Our time with the Ponds is coming to a close. The first half of the series really has been the farewell tour for Amy and Rory. Moffat does like to not have season-long arcs and it is kind of irritating. But it made for a good splitting point in terms of covering the season between Jen and myself.
We start with a monologue from Amy, describing life with the Doctor and then real life at home. Clearly, life at home is boring (punctuated by cleaning out the fridge of nasty milk and yogurt and being in need of more wash tablets). But, Amy says, all that changed the year of the slow invasion when the Doctor came to stay. Brian shows up at some ungodly hour in the morning to tell Amy and Rory about the cubes that have appeared all over the world. The Doctor has appeared as well and he’s a tad annoyed that all the cubes seem to be the same. He tells Brian to watch the cubes, leaving him in the TARDIS as he borrows the Pond’s kitchen to do some experiments.
He doesn’t get far because UNIT smashes in (literally) at gunpoint and Rory ends up in his boxers (poor guy). Enter the new head of UNIT, Kate Stewart. She’s a scientist and she is quite pleased to see the Doctor. They both agree the cubes need to be watched and studied. Unfortunately, given that the Doctor is over 1,000 years old and is really just a big child with a short attention span, he gets bored after four days of nothing changing. So he goes off and mows the lawn, paints a fence, bounces a soccer ball around and then decides to take off since it only took an hour and he’s back to going stir crazy. He offers to take the Ponds with him but Brian points out they just can’t go off. They’ve got lives and jobs. That’s kind of the big point of this episode. To see how the Doctor just interrupts their normalcy whenever he feels like it.
Once the Doctor leaves, things begin to actually pick up in the life of the Ponds. They make commitments months in advance. Rory goes full time at work and Amy agrees to be a bridesmaid. Brian is dutifully watching and recording his observation of the cubes like the Doctor asked. Nearly nine months goes by and Amy leaves the Doctor a message as she and Rory celebrate their anniversary. The only thing of note that’s happened in the last nine months is that during December, a few of the cubes begin to glow and people start acting strange. The Doctor makes a comeback and whisks the Ponds away for one night as an anniversary present. Since it’s the Doctor, things don’t go as planned and they’re gone for seven weeks. The Doctor brings them back and Brian questions how long they were away and what has become of the Doctor’s previous companions. It’s a fair question to be asking. And the Doctor is honest. Some have left him (a la Martha), some have been left behind (Jack) and some have died (I like to think of that as a nod to Sarah Jane). But the Doctor promises that Amy and Rory will never die on his watch. Honestly Doctor, I wouldn’t make that promise. It’s too big to keep. As the party goes on, the Doctor asks Amy if he can stay for a while.
Nearly a year has gone by since the cubes arrived and finally things begin to happen. The cube Brian is observing moved. The one in the kitchen with Rory opens. Amy’s takes her pulse and the Doctor’s starts shooting at him before scanning the internet and the TV. Rory gets called to work and he takes Brian along while Amy and the Doctor are summoned to UNIT headquarters. All of the cubes are doing weird things from causing mood swings to playing the Chicken Dance on a loop. Shortly after the Doctor clues the rest of the audience in that Kate is actually the Brigadier’s daughter, the cubes go dormant. The Doctor needs some air and he and Amy head outside for a heart to heart about travelling. Amy confirms that she and Rory may be thinking of stopping. The Doctor says he understands and he denies that he’s running away after Amy characterizes traveling in the TARDIS as feeling like she’s running away. At the end of the conversation, the Doctor realizes that the cubes got what they wanted. They scanned the entire planet after everyone had taken them into their homes and gotten used to them. And they’ve begun a countdown.
The Doctor orders UNIT to get the message out that the cubes need to be as far from people as possible. At the hospital, Rory is ordering other nurses to dispose of them and we see the young girl who’d been sitting in the waiting area back in December. She’s rather creepy and her cube just keeps glowing. Brian gets sent for tape and he runs into the two orderlies who kind of went crazy also back in December. They’ve got weird looking mouths (almost like the gas mask people in Empty Child/Doctor Dances). And they nab Brian. Rory follows after them and finds a ship with lots of unconscious people. Meanwhile, the cube’s nefarious plan unfolds. It found the human weakness; the heart. Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population dies from cardiac arrest. On rewatch this kind of reminds me a tad of Torchwood; Children of Earth. With the global scale and the dire situation and what not. And all the news programs going on throughout the episode remind me of Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. Not a bad comparison.
One of the Doctor’s hearts gives out and he and Amy head to the hospital because it has a wormhole linked to it. In fact there are seven wormholes all linked to various points over the world. They find the same spaceship Rory did and set him and Brian free. The Doctor spars with a computer program of a race he thought only a myth from his childhood on Galifrey. There is a species that goes through time, cleaning things up and apparently they want to stop humanity from spreading throughout the galaxy. But the Doctor won’t let that happen. He uses the cubes to restart the hearts of everyone who died and the wormholes and ships all go boom. Luckily, Amy, Rory and the Doctor are safely back on Earth before that happens. The Doctor says his goodbyes to Kate and has dinner in with the Ponds before heading off. Brian makes the observation that Amy and Rory should go with him because they can’t give him up and shouldn’t have to. Something tells me Brian is going to regret encouraging them to go.
- Brian
Our time with the Ponds is coming to a close. The first half of the series really has been the farewell tour for Amy and Rory. Moffat does like to not have season-long arcs and it is kind of irritating. But it made for a good splitting point in terms of covering the season between Jen and myself.
We start with a monologue from Amy, describing life with the Doctor and then real life at home. Clearly, life at home is boring (punctuated by cleaning out the fridge of nasty milk and yogurt and being in need of more wash tablets). But, Amy says, all that changed the year of the slow invasion when the Doctor came to stay. Brian shows up at some ungodly hour in the morning to tell Amy and Rory about the cubes that have appeared all over the world. The Doctor has appeared as well and he’s a tad annoyed that all the cubes seem to be the same. He tells Brian to watch the cubes, leaving him in the TARDIS as he borrows the Pond’s kitchen to do some experiments.
He doesn’t get far because UNIT smashes in (literally) at gunpoint and Rory ends up in his boxers (poor guy). Enter the new head of UNIT, Kate Stewart. She’s a scientist and she is quite pleased to see the Doctor. They both agree the cubes need to be watched and studied. Unfortunately, given that the Doctor is over 1,000 years old and is really just a big child with a short attention span, he gets bored after four days of nothing changing. So he goes off and mows the lawn, paints a fence, bounces a soccer ball around and then decides to take off since it only took an hour and he’s back to going stir crazy. He offers to take the Ponds with him but Brian points out they just can’t go off. They’ve got lives and jobs. That’s kind of the big point of this episode. To see how the Doctor just interrupts their normalcy whenever he feels like it.
Once the Doctor leaves, things begin to actually pick up in the life of the Ponds. They make commitments months in advance. Rory goes full time at work and Amy agrees to be a bridesmaid. Brian is dutifully watching and recording his observation of the cubes like the Doctor asked. Nearly nine months goes by and Amy leaves the Doctor a message as she and Rory celebrate their anniversary. The only thing of note that’s happened in the last nine months is that during December, a few of the cubes begin to glow and people start acting strange. The Doctor makes a comeback and whisks the Ponds away for one night as an anniversary present. Since it’s the Doctor, things don’t go as planned and they’re gone for seven weeks. The Doctor brings them back and Brian questions how long they were away and what has become of the Doctor’s previous companions. It’s a fair question to be asking. And the Doctor is honest. Some have left him (a la Martha), some have been left behind (Jack) and some have died (I like to think of that as a nod to Sarah Jane). But the Doctor promises that Amy and Rory will never die on his watch. Honestly Doctor, I wouldn’t make that promise. It’s too big to keep. As the party goes on, the Doctor asks Amy if he can stay for a while.
Nearly a year has gone by since the cubes arrived and finally things begin to happen. The cube Brian is observing moved. The one in the kitchen with Rory opens. Amy’s takes her pulse and the Doctor’s starts shooting at him before scanning the internet and the TV. Rory gets called to work and he takes Brian along while Amy and the Doctor are summoned to UNIT headquarters. All of the cubes are doing weird things from causing mood swings to playing the Chicken Dance on a loop. Shortly after the Doctor clues the rest of the audience in that Kate is actually the Brigadier’s daughter, the cubes go dormant. The Doctor needs some air and he and Amy head outside for a heart to heart about travelling. Amy confirms that she and Rory may be thinking of stopping. The Doctor says he understands and he denies that he’s running away after Amy characterizes traveling in the TARDIS as feeling like she’s running away. At the end of the conversation, the Doctor realizes that the cubes got what they wanted. They scanned the entire planet after everyone had taken them into their homes and gotten used to them. And they’ve begun a countdown.
The Doctor orders UNIT to get the message out that the cubes need to be as far from people as possible. At the hospital, Rory is ordering other nurses to dispose of them and we see the young girl who’d been sitting in the waiting area back in December. She’s rather creepy and her cube just keeps glowing. Brian gets sent for tape and he runs into the two orderlies who kind of went crazy also back in December. They’ve got weird looking mouths (almost like the gas mask people in Empty Child/Doctor Dances). And they nab Brian. Rory follows after them and finds a ship with lots of unconscious people. Meanwhile, the cube’s nefarious plan unfolds. It found the human weakness; the heart. Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population dies from cardiac arrest. On rewatch this kind of reminds me a tad of Torchwood; Children of Earth. With the global scale and the dire situation and what not. And all the news programs going on throughout the episode remind me of Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. Not a bad comparison.
One of the Doctor’s hearts gives out and he and Amy head to the hospital because it has a wormhole linked to it. In fact there are seven wormholes all linked to various points over the world. They find the same spaceship Rory did and set him and Brian free. The Doctor spars with a computer program of a race he thought only a myth from his childhood on Galifrey. There is a species that goes through time, cleaning things up and apparently they want to stop humanity from spreading throughout the galaxy. But the Doctor won’t let that happen. He uses the cubes to restart the hearts of everyone who died and the wormholes and ships all go boom. Luckily, Amy, Rory and the Doctor are safely back on Earth before that happens. The Doctor says his goodbyes to Kate and has dinner in with the Ponds before heading off. Brian makes the observation that Amy and Rory should go with him because they can’t give him up and shouldn’t have to. Something tells me Brian is going to regret encouraging them to go.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Summer TV Rewind: Lost Girl 1.12: "(Dis)members Only"
“And can I just say, ‘wow!’ That is the most amount of words I have ever heard you say!”
-Bo
“(Dis)members Only” was a more straightforward case of the week episode of “Lost Girl,” but it still served to move the character relationships forward. This particular case is prompted by a request for help from an old friend of Kenzi’s from her criminal past. This case leads to the trio of Bo, Kenzi, and Dyson infiltrating a high class country club to figure out who is killing illegal immigrants. Posing as a married couple, the situation also leads Dyson and Bo to have some serious discussions about their relationship. It was, for the most part, a nice respite from the mythology and main character danger-heavy episodes that preceded it. It was, for the most part, a fun mystery story. And there seems to be a human-eating plant! How can that not be at least a little fun?
As I mentioned, the case of the human-eating plant at the country club begins with a request for help from an old friend of Kenzi’s. He was a fellow criminal, and in a funny moment, he reveals that Kenzi’s pseudonym was “Meow Meow.” Kenzi’s friend is named Neville, by the way, and he’s got a cousin called Thumper. Thumper worked as a groundskeeper at an exclusive country club, and all of a sudden, he went missing. There’s an extra wrinkle, too. Thumper was an undocumented immigrant. Because of Thumper’s immigration status, Neville can’t contact the police about the disappearance. That’s why he wants Kenzi and Bo’s help. They do indeed agree to help, and they also enlist the help of Dyson. The trio go undercover, with Dyson and Bo as a married couple seeking to join the club and Kenzi as a waitress.
What’s kind of cool about Dyson and Bo’s cover is that they use Bo’s faux credentials to try to get into the club. She pretends she works for the UN doing humanitarian work. The faux credentials mostly do the job, but Bo also uses some succubus mojo to seal the deal. Kenzi’s experience is much less positive. The head cook is nasty and a perfectionist, and there’s also a “three strike” system for employees. As Kenzi works (and makes mistakes), she learns that three strikes have pretty dire consequences. Every kitchen/wait staff employee with three strikes has completely disappeared. Kenzi also learns that the club has a particular penchant for hiring undocumented immigrants. The obvious reason would be because they can be hired for significantly less than market wages, but in this case, it’s more likely because when they disappear, people are less likely to notice.
Dyson and Bo want to find a woman named Blake, who they have heard acted strangely around the time of Thumper’s disappearance. She’s basically a raging alcoholic who likes tennis. Her purpose, story-wise, is basically to impart information about the workings of the club. She tells Dyson and Bo about how the club is mostly new money, and there’s this group of especially snotty club members who have Scotch tastings together. Bo and Dyson manage to score themselves an invite to the next Scotch tasting, but when they arrive, it’s not quite what they expected. It turns out that there is indeed Scotch, but it’s primarily a swingers group. Bo and Dyson quickly excuse themselves as politely as they can while still getting the heck out of there. An additional problem is that Dyson and Bo won’t have Blake to help them navigate the club anymore. She gets eaten by the killer vine, just like Thumper was.
After the disastrous Scotch tasting/swinger party, the team regroups to share information. Hale has been doing some research, and he found out that all the club members seem to have incredible financial/business luck not long after joining. Kenzi also mentions the files that are kept on all the undocumented immigrant employees, and she says that she knows she has two strikes already. Finally alone, Bo and Dyson have a bit of a relationship talk. Dyson wants Bo to himself, and it worries him that Bo has to fight her nature to be monogamous. They agree to have no more secrets, which leads Dyson to go to the Dal and tell Trick that he’s done with hiding what he knows about Bo’s past. Either Trick is going to spill all to Bo, or he (Dyson) will.
The next day, the stakes are raised. Kenzi gets a third strike (which means she’s going to be plant bait soon). Dyson and Bo also start experiencing some of that unusual club luck. Dyson gets a phone call that his division in the police department is getting a budget increase. Then Bo finds a winning lottery ticket worth $25,000. On the walk where Bo finds the lottery ticket, she and Dyson also make the discovery of what looks like a really gross sewage container. Inside is Blake’s trademark hat and a bunch of gross liquid. An analysis of the container shows both human and Fae DNA, which means that this plant think has killed at least one Fae, too. Bo uses her succubus powers to get more information out of Mitch, the guy who runs the club. He says that there is a secret about the club that brings luck to its members, but others must sacrifice for this to continue. Kenzi and Bo go to Trick for a final opinion. Trick says that the culprit is a particular type of Fae, probably Dark, that is a nature-based shapeshifter. In exchange for food (unfortunate humans), this Fae brings luck.
The most obvious suspect is, of course, the creepy groundskeeper that has been lurking around the club throughout the episode. Bo chases him down, but he’s not actually the Fae. He’s worried about being eaten himself. The true culprit then becomes obvious. The head cook who has been giving Kenzi so much trouble. Bo saves the day just as the cook is about to eat Kenzi. Bo and Kenzi then leave the cook to the rest of the abused workers and a bottle of herbicide. It’s kind of creepy, but that Fae certainly had it coming. Crisis averted and case solved, Bo gives the lottery ticket to Neville to help out Thumper’s family. We end the episode with a little more mythology. Saskia pays a visit to Dyson at the police station, and she starts force feeding on him. Bo stabs Saskia with a stake, and Bo then uses her powers to revive Dyson. It’s not pretty at all.
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