Once Upon a Time 5.10: "Broken Heart"

“I thought the best way to control the darkness was to isolate myself but when I did that there was no one around to give me hope or tell me when I was being stupid.”
“Fine, you’re being stupid. So stop it!”
- Emma and Regina

So if you follow my posts at all for this show, you know I am not a big Hook fan (and I’m even less of a Captain Swan fan). But I have to admit, I’m rather excited by the prospect of Dark One Hook. It looks like it is going to be one hell of an adventure! In Camelot, we see Hook reborn as a Dark One, reliving all the pain Rumple put him through with Milah. So now he wants revenge and faux Rumple promises that they can get that revenge together. Too bad Emma shows up and manages to banish the ghost for a bit. She thinks they’ve still got a shot at fighting the darkness and winning. But her family isn’t so sure. Merlin is going to make preparations for trying to stop the Dark Duo while Lancelot rides to see his mother, the Lady of the Lake (did we know this before?). Things don’t go quite as Emma planned though when Hook starts hearing the dagger calling to him. He accuses her of lying to him and not trusting him like he trusted her so he disappears on her. Yeah he’s kind of an angry son of a bitch when he wants to be. But Emma uses the dagger to summon him and hands it over (after some yelling), promising she will never control him again (yeah I’d think twice about that comment). Then there is much snogging. But it was all an act on Hook’s part. Emma’s first betrayal meant he can’t trust her and so his plan is to kill Merlin (by way of Nimue) and enact a curse to get back to Storybrooke. We then see Emma take everyone's memories and tie it into the curse (much like Zelena did with her memory potion).

In Storybrooke, Hook puts the magic binding cuff on Emma and erases her memory of what’s going on. He then heads to Gold’s shop to announce he wants a duel on his ship to settle their differences. If Rumple can take Excalibur from him, then he can kill Hook. While this challenge is being thrown down (I have to say I kind of like snarky Dark One Hook), Emma gets a royal dressing down by Regina and her mom. Rightly so, I might add. Emma was being a complete moron by isolating herself. The team assembled at Regina’s where Belle and Rumple fill them in on what they know of Hook’s plan. Emma begs them to take off the cuff so she can try and access memories about Nimue while the rest of them go Scooby gang it in the library but even Henry refuses to unleash his mom. He doesn’t trust her. While everyone heads off to do their thing and Emma is left behind, Rumple makes a very important speech to Belle about wanting to be the man she deserves and the man he vowed to be at Neal’s grave. So if he survives, he’ll be at the well where they got married and if she shows up, he knows how she feels and they’ve got a shot at fixing their marriage.

Emma is being guarded by Merida who quickly gets taken out by Hook. He’s come to kind of gloat and tell Emma he’s doing all of this because he wants his revenge and he doesn’t give a damn about the consequences. He wants to hurt her like she hurt him. Man he really is nasty. Emma manages to escape and pays Rumple a visit at his shop. She wants him to use the leftover squid ink to immobilize Hook so she can find the dreamcatchers. He declines and says she has to do it on her own. So she convinces Henry to help her find the dreamcatchers so she can restore everyone’s memories. She says he won’t even need to let her out of the magic cuff so he’s in. Out on Hook’s ship, Rumple shows up to face his fate. Hook insists on a fair fight so fixes Rumple’s limp and then they get to it.

In other more boring news, Regina and Robin agree to let Zelena visit the baby as long as it is supervised (which is probably smart). At least Zelena seems to soften a little bit when she actually gets to hold her little girl. I’m also wondering what they are going to name this baby? I mean I doubt the three adults in this relationship can agree on much of anything. Anyway, Henry and Emma manage to find the dreamcatchers and Henry trusts her enough to remove the cuff so she can get access to them.

It looks like Rumple has won the fight with Hook (he at least gets hold of Excalibur and then lets Hook live) but his day is not going to get any better. Belle shows up at the well but says she needs time and space to see if she can mend her own heart and her trust in him. Sad Rumbelle makes me sad. And Emma realizes too late (after returning everyone’s memories) what Hook is planning. He needed Rumple’s blood to summon the ferry to Hell to bring the Dark Ones in the flesh to wreak havoc among Storybrooke. I honestly thought he was going to travel to Hell and get Milah back but that’s just me and my dislike of Captain Swan. Alas, by the end of the season I’m sure they’ll be back together again which just makes me gag. But there’s nothing I can to do change what the writers are going to do with their characters. But I can still hold out hope that maybe we will see Neal at some point in the next hell-bent arc. Not that I want him to be in Hell but I’m hoping the Underworld is more just like the afterlife rather than a place to send evil people as punishment.

Fresh off the Boat 2.07: “The Big 1-2”

“I just want to spend my birthday with people I can be myself with.”
-Eddie

“The Big 1-2” was yet another episode of “Fresh off the Boat” that treated an American childhood milestone in a unique way with emotion that didn’t reach the point of being treacly. It’s Eddie’s first birthday, and he has decreed that he does not want a birthday party. This causes Jessica and Louis great consternation, especially when they discover that Eddie does want a party, just not with them. Watching these events unfold make Emery and Evan try to be rebellious in their own goody-two-shoes way. They’re tired of being the good kids who constantly get overlooked while Jessica and Louis are dealing with Eddie’s latest debacle. I love watching Jessica and Louis struggle through adapting the way they were raised to the needs of their very American children. They are strict, but they do truly love their kids, and I think the kids know and appreciate that.

This episode begins with home video of Eddie’s eleventh birthday. I think this segment is a good example of why I like “Fresh off the Boat” and fellow ABC comedy “The Goldbergs.” Both provide a lot of nostalgia for me. I grew up as a late-80’s/early 90’s kid (about a year younger than Eddie) in the northern Philadelphia suburbs, probably about half an hour from where the Goldbergs lived. When I watch “The Goldbergs,” I love seeing places that I enjoyed as a kid, like the Willow Grove Park Mall (that place was Mecca to young me). When I watch “Fresh off the Boat,” I love seeing the mid-90’s pop culture that I loved, like POGs and Super Nintendo (SNES). It’s kind of cool to see how I could have so many cultural touchstones in common with the (fictionalized) Huangs. Anyway, the birthday party video was super nostalgic. There’s a piñata that is duct taped and reused every year, and a banner that is probably reused too. Louis falls in the middle of filming the video, and the whole thing is kind of a mess.

This episode takes place about a year later, when it’s almost time for Eddie’s twelfth birthday. Eddie tells his parents that this year, he doesn’t want a party. He would rather just hang out at the mall with his friends. Louis and Jessica hesitate a bit to change up family traditions, and Eddie growing up makes them a bit sad, but they are ultimately okay with the idea. They’re mostly excited that they will have time to work on a Saturday, which is something they haven’t done in ages. The next morning, Evan and Emery excitedly grab Eddie’s birthday card and present, and they rush downstairs. They are quite sad when their parents inform them that there is going to be no birthday party for Eddie. They are mostly sad that nobody told them about the change in plans until now.

Jessica talks over the Eddie birthday party situation with Honey, who warns Jessica that for her last birthday, Nicole also said she wanted no party, but then she was upset for weeks when their actually was no party. Thinking that Eddie must really want a party, Jessica and Louis start gathering all the party supplies, and they go to the mall to pick up Eddie. They are shocked to see that Eddie has put together his own birthday party with his school friends (and Mitch from the restaurant) at the food court patio, complete with birthday cake and party hats. Meanwhile, Evan and Emery think that their parents don’t notice them because they are always so good and follow the rules. They decide they need to start acting out like Eddie, so they go to the movie theater and see Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which happens to be rated an oh-so-rebellious PG-13.

At dinner that night, Jessica and Louis are visibly upset, and Evan and Emery are shocked when they don’t react to the news that they went to see a PG-13 movie while under the age of 13. Jessica and Louis confront Eddie about the mall birthday party. Eddie basically says that he wanted a birthday party, but he didn’t want his parents to participate because he doesn’t feel like he can be himself around them. There is just too much pressure to be perfect like Evan and Emery. Louis seems especially pissed about Eddie’s friendship with Mitch, which is kind of hilarious. We learn later that Eddie and Mitch bonded during Eddie’s brief stint as a fajita server at Cattleman’s Ranch. Anyway, as a result of this conversation, Jessica and Louis decide they should relax the rules a bit so they don’t lose Eddie.

Because Jessica and Louis didn’t react to the news of the PG-13 movie, Evan and Emery start acting out even more. They eat Nutella straight out of the jar and smear it all over their faces. They throw a crazy amount of Legos (which really hurt if you step on them) all over the floor. They even alter a grade on a recent test to read “A-“ instead of “A.” Meanwhile, Jessica really does do her best to try and losen the rules a bit. She lets Eddie have a Pop Tart for breakfast (poor Eddie is worried it’s a trap), then she and Louis say Eddie can go on a sleep over. Eddie responds that he has a standing invite at his friend Dave’s house, and he would like to sleep over that very night. Jessica really doesn’t like the idea, but Louis convinces her to back down and let Eddie go.

Eddie happily goes over to Dave’s house, where he is given an entire bottle of orange soda right at the door. Dave then burps in front of his mother, and Eddie thinks he is going to be in for a fun night. Jessica goes over to Honey’s house to try and spy on Eddie. Honey’s brother-in-law just died, and she’s trying to make arrangements for family to arrive in town for the funeral, but that doesn’t stop Jessica, and later Louis. The situation gets even more awkward when Honey’s husband gets home, and she has to tell him his brother died in front of the Huangs, who just care about Eddie having a ball playing Light Sabre with Dave and his mom. While their parents are out, Evan and Emery decide to do the ultimate act-out and run away, packing their suitcases meticulously, of course. They get scared as soon as they step outside, though, and they go right back in.

At Dave’s house, Eddie is having a blast playing SNES and eating Cookie Crisp (gotta say, though, that stuff was vile) for dinner. Later, however, when it’s bed time, his stomach doesn’t feel good from the “cereal,” and Dave is dripping ice cream all over his pillow. Eddie reaches his breaking point when Dave and his mother say good night by yelling about how much they hate each other. Jessica and Louis are sitting up in bed when Eddie comes home. Eddie explains that he likes spending time with his friends, but he likes being home, too. Jessica, who has hopefully learned the “if you love something, set it free” lesson, offers to make Eddie birthday noodles. While Eddie, Jessica, and Louis are eating noodles, Evan and Emery roll into the kitchen to find out what’s going on. And they promptly get grounded for being up past their bed time. But they’re allowed to have noodles before the grounding begins.

Doctor Who 9.09: "Sleep No More"

“Sleep is essential to every sentient being in the universe.”
- The Doctor

When I first saw the trailer for “Sleep No More” I have to admit I wasn’t impressed. It looked strange and a bit creepy. Turns out there’s a good reason for that. The framing device of this week’s episode is found footage from a failed rescue mission to a science lab space station. At first it felt a bit like Blink with the tapes of the Doctor explaining about the Weeping Angels. First we meet Gagen, the scientist who warns the viewer not to watch and then explains that what he’s showing is pieced together from personal body cams of the rescue team and the station’s security feed. He introduces us to the rescue team of four. They aren’t really anything special and the way Gagen talks about them makes them almost forgettable and just throw-away characters. I know this show is about the Doctor (and for a little bit longer Clara) but to have supporting cast that you don’t even really need to remember just seems like weak writing to me.

Anyway, the rescue team gets onto the station (which went dark 24-hours ago) and encounter Clara and the Doctor wandering around the station. We don’t know why our heroes are on the station but they use the psychic paper to convince the team that they are supposed to be there. Pretty quickly, though, things start going wrong. The station which is in the 38th century has very little light and something big and green starts chasing them. One of the team gets separated from the group and I’m guessing he’s going to be the first to die (just a whole bunch of Red Shirts here folks). Before we learn that guy’s fate though, we get some info on Morpheus. It is a pod system that compacts all the benefits of sleep into five minutes so you can keep on working. Definitely not a good thing when you really think about it. Not getting the proper sleep does all kinds of awful things to one’s body. We also meet Gagen in the past. He’s the designer of all of this and he is pretty damn proud of his invention.

The Doctor does some analysis on the bit of the monster that got squished by the door and discovers it is sleep dust (aka the nasty crap in the corner of your eyes when you wake up in the morning). Since people aren’t actually sleeping for long periods of time, the stuff is somehow becoming sentient and is able to form itself into humanoid shape and e3at people. And yes, the lone guy who is forced to kind of sing the Mr. Sandman song (have I mentioned I kind of hate that song?) gets eaten by one. While he’s getting eaten, the rest of the group has to deal with the gravity shields failing and pulling the station towards Neptune. The Doctor manages to fix the shields but they get separated from two more of the group and it looks like Gagen got eaten, too. Which makes no sense since he’s the one narrating the found footage stuff. The Doctor is annoyed with humanity for treating sleep like an inconvenience. He also seems rather worried about Clara dying.

The two rescue members that have been separated from the group decide to head for their ship and if all else fails, they are going to blow up the station to keep the sleep dust monsters from getting out. Yeah, they are going to die, too. Well it takes a while but they do both bite it. The grunt soldier (that’s basically just grown in a lab) risks its life to get the other guy through a fire and then eventually, the last guy gets eaten by one of the Sandmen things, too.

But more importantly, the Doctor is being clever and makes some observations that they are being watched. He also (somehow) determines that the Sandmen can’t see and that’s because their visual receptors are being used to monitor the station and since Clara got pulled in to one of the pods, she’s being turned into a receptor, too. The Doctor has an idea of who might be behind all of this and I figured it out given the footage we saw through the sonic glasses. Gagen is the one behind all of this and he says that the dust speaks to him and he wants to spread it. But the Doctor knows something is off and doesn’t make sense. I didn’t really follow how the ending led to what it did but apparently Gagen was filming all of this as an alibi and that there aren’t really sand monsters. Morpheus is still working as it did via electrical signals but it is the video recording he’s made and sent out that will trigger the changes. And that’s it. The end (oh the Doctor, Clara and the sole survivor of the rescue team get out in the TARDIS).

I honestly don’t know what the story was supposed to do or be but I did not like it very much. I did not like the style of shooting with the footage from the character point of view. It was just very difficult to watch and keep track of everything that was happening. In a season of less than stellar episodes, this was probably the bottom of the pile. It did nothing to really advance any character growth or anything like that and this close to the end of the season I feel like it should have. At least from what I’ve seen of next week’s episode, we get some more interesting storylines that tie in to things that have happened before. And it means we are one step closer to the Christmas special and the return of River Song. At this point I’m just holding out for that episode. I know shows can have up and down seasons but the last two have not been stellar which is a shame because Peter is so interesting. I think it is long past time for Moffatt to move on and find something new. The show needs some new blood in its veins or else it is just going to continue to suffer from his over inflated ego.

Doctor Who 9.08: "The Zygon Inversion"

“Why do you have a Union Jack parachute?”
“Camouflage.”
-Osgood and the Doctor.

I especially liked the “Zygon Invasion/Zygon Inversion” two-parter this season, because it felt like a classic, Earth-in-peril “Doctor Who” story. We’ve got a lot of horror and historical episodes, plus bigger sprawling mythology-based episodes during the Moffat era, but so rarely have we gotten these classic, present day Earth-based adventures. Even the music in “The Zygon Inversion” felt Classic Who to me. I felt like I could have been watching the Seventh Doctor and Ace. At the same time, the episode employed some typical Moffat twistiness, with Clara’s situation very much resembling a situation Amy faced in series 6. It led to some interesting exploration of the character of Clara, though, and in light of the overall entertaining tone of the episode, I could forgive the over-twistiness in this case.

We learned at the end of “The Zygon Invasion” that the real Clara had been put in stasis, and the Clara we had been watching for most of the episode was actually a Zygon who had taken Clara’s form. This episode opens with a rather creepy sequence showing the experience of stasis from Clara’s perspective. She’s in her apartment, but lots of stuff isn’t quite right. On her TV screen, she can see her Zygon counterpart trying to shoot down the plane in which the Doctor and Osgood are traveling. As Zygon Clara is shooting, Real Clara tries to mentally throw off her aim. It works a bit at first, but Clara can’t hold it for long, and eventually, one of Zygon Clara’s missiles hits the plane.

After her triumph with the plane, Zygon Clara hunts down a guy who saw her do the shooting and turns him in to a Zygon. She says he’s going to be the first to make the humans see, and she shoots a video on her cell phone as he turns into Zygon form for the first time. Meanwhile, in her head, the real Clara pauses the video of the plane explosion on her “television” and sees two parachutes. The Doctor and Osgood have saved themselves, and they end up landing on a beach. The Doctor’s parachute has a huge Union Jack on it, which I found amusing. I never thought the Doctor was very patriotic! Anyway, while they are gathering themselves up from the landing, the Doctor gets a text from Clara’s phone saying “I’m awake.” Osgood speculates that the text is from the real Clara, not the Zygon.

Zygon Clara, meanwhile, is trying to retrieve the Osgood box, because she wants to defeat the humans once and for all. Instead, however, she sees a video of the Osgoods saying that they lied about the box’s location. She is absolutely furious. She ends up having a phone conversation with the Doctor, where the Doctor tells real Clara (the two Claras are kind of mentally connected) not to tell the Zygon where the box is. This comment is clearly meant as a trap. During the call, Osgood pings Clara’s phone and finds Zygon Clara’s location in London. Prompted by the Doctor’s comment, Zygon Clara goes to visit real Clara, and they have a sort of psychic battle to see who can control whom. Zygon Clara says that because their hearts are linked, they can’t lie to each other. This upsets the real Clara more than a little.

Clara finally tells her Zygon counterpart that the Osgood Box is in the Black Archive. Only the Osgoods and Clara herself have access. Since Zygon Clara is a replica of the real thing, she now knows she has access to the box too. Clara tells her that the box has a button that will unmask every Zygon for half an hour, but Zygon Clara shouldn’t get too excited. The Zygons don’t have the numbers to win the coming war. Clara tells the Zygon that the real question she should be asking is why it is called the Osgood Box, but she’s not telling right now. Before leaving for the Archive, Zygon Clara tells what appears to be Zygon Kate to duplicate and kill the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Osgood arrive at the location where Zygon Clara’s video was shot in London. The Doctor and Osgood find the guy Clara turned, but he zaps the Doctor and runs away. The Doctor and Osgood finally catch up to him and talk to him. He is having a lot of trouble shifting between his human and Zygon forms. He’s very distressed about the whole situation, and he ends up zapping himself. As the Doctor and Osgood deal with the aftermath of that, Kate arrives on the scene. She says she knows where the Zygon command center and the real Clara are.

Zygon Clara goes to the Black Archive while the Doctor, Osgood, and Zygon Kate poke around the Zygon HQ. When Zygon Clara reaches the Osgood Box, she calls the Doctor and says she now knows where the name comes from. There are two of them. One normalizes all the Zygons, and the other destroys them. Zygon Clara threatens to kill the real Clara if the Doctor doesn’t say which box is the one that normalizes the Zygons. The Doctor tells her it’s the blue one. Both boxes, however, have truth or consequences buttons. Zygon Clara wants the Doctor brought to her, and she tells Zygon Kate this. It turns out, though, that Zygon Kate is actually just Kate. She shot the Zygon who tried to turn her. Kate figures out that the Zygon killing gas the Doctor won’t let her have is in the red box.

The rest of the crew arrives at the Black Archive, and the Doctor says he wants to take both boxes away after forcing everyone to forgive and forget. Understandably, Zygon Clara and Kate are not cool with that plan. The Doctor says that for the red box, the alternative button detonates a nuclear warhead under the Black Archive, and for the blue box, the alternative button removes a Zygon’s ability to change form, leaving them human forever. Zygon Clara complains that her people have been treated like cattle and left for themselves, and I’m starting to feel like this episode is starting to go in a bit of a Conservative direction. It didn’t last long, though, so I could forgive it. Peter gets to give a brilliant, scenery-chewing speech about how she’s a tantruming child and she needs to think about what post-war life would be like. He asks her to consider “how are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one.” When Zygon Clara accuses the Doctor of not understanding, the Doctor takes it up another level. He says he has done horrible things and still hears the scremes. He doesn’t want anyone else to have to live with that pain on his watch.

After the Doctor’s speech, Zygon Clara realizes that the boxes don’t actually do anything. They’re just threatening buttons (and we all know one of our current Doctor’s predecessors who liked those!). Kate says they can’t just forget that the boxes are empty, and the Doctor responds “You said that the last fifteen times” before wiping Kate’s memory. He doesn’t wipe Zygon Clara’s memory, though. I think he hopes she’s learned something from this experience. Back outside, the Doctor asks Osgood to join him in the TARDIS, but she says she needs to stay on Earth and keep the Osgood Boxes safe. After Clara goes into the TARDIS, he again asks Osgood whether she’s the human or Zygon Osgood, but Osgood refuses to say. She won’t answer until nobody cares about the answer. And then another Osgood appears. Zygon Clara has decided to change her form and work with the other Osgood to protect the Boxes. The sisters are again reunited.

Blindspot 1.10: "Evil Handmade Instrument"

“I know what it’s like to lose someone and I know what it’s like to need answers. But if at any point this gets too difficult, I need you to be honest with me.”
- Mayfair

This week picks up pretty much right where last week left off. David is dead and Patterson refuses to take time off despite being told to do so by a shrink. She thinks she can throw herself into the case and hide her pain and grief by finding David’s killer. We also briefly see that Zapata hasn’t planted the bug yet and I have a feeling she’s going to say screw you to Carter. At least I hope she does. Mayfair is also not pleased with her CIA counterpart for killing Guerrero (especially with her in the building at the time).

But the case of the week takes a pretty interesting turn very quickly. Weller pulls Jane from reviewing the bag she was found in (and some drawings of her tattoos) to find a partial print on the book David had been watching. It belongs to a man named Roger who is Russian-born and has an American wife. The team heads to the big house him and his wife share and find that she’s tied up and he’s got a weapon. Weller shoots him but the guy kills himself before they can get any information out of him. Luckily, the widow is talkative and reveals that the redhead David saw is named Kate and she is also Russian-born. She’s married to another high-powered American who works at the New York Times (he reported her missing). The FBI doesn’t tell him she’s a suspected spy though. That’s probably a smart move.

Patterson does some more digging and deciphers the code the spies were using. She also finds a third spy who works at a museum. This involves a chase through said museum and then a car/motorcycle chase (which I read about in an interview which is pretty cool). The woman ends up breaking down because she’s got kids and doesn’t want to lose them. Patterson pulls a huge bluff with the evidence they have and gets her to talk a little bit but it’s really Jane (who of course speaks Russian) that gets her to open up about the plan. They each had high value anti-Russian activist targets to kill. Hers was a New York Times reporter that Kate had to take out. Roger’s target was his wife who testified during war crimes tribunals. With a little digging, Patterson figures out the last target is a Senator who is on the Armed Services committees sending aid to the Ukrainian military. While some people may find the Russian spy angle kind of tired and lame, I thought it was rather exciting and it was kind of a fitting way for David to go out. I mean, if he had to get killed, why not by sleeper spies right? The conspiracy geek in him would be proud. Jane and Weller find Kate at a military gala and it takes both of them to take her down. She has a needle which she is supposed to use on the Senator but thanks to our heroic duo, she stabs herself in the neck and gets tossed overboard. I hope they really didn’t need her for more information on the case.

Luckily, the case is done now that Kate is dead. Unfortunately, it’s going to take time and probably some therapy for Patterson to be okay again. She confides in Jane that she feels the same now that Kate is dead. She expected to feel better or at least vindicated. This conversation does spur Jane to take some action in her personal life, though. She slips her detail and is waiting outside Weller’s place when he gets home from shopping. His annoyance that she ditched her detail is short-lived when Jane plants a big old lip lock on our lead agent. He reciprocates the gesture but they are interrupted by his nephew. Of course, as soon as Jane heads off back home, she gets nabbed and thrown into a truck and driven to who knows where. While Jane’s future is being decided, Reade watches as Zapata makes the choice to say screw you to Carter, but in so doing, she resigns her position from the FBI. I guess that’s one way to ensure he can’t ruin her career with blabbing about her gambling habit. And in a touching moment, Mayfair gently ushers Patterson out of her work station. Mayfair can be kind of annoying sometimes but at least in this instance she is showing some motherly care for her agents.

While Weller gives Jane a call to see if she got home safe, our heroine finds herself tied down in a dimly lit, windowless room with Carter hovering over her. He promises to dump her in a deep, dark hole once she gives him answers. But all of his questions (who she is, who sent her and the like) are met with the same answer “I don’t know”. I guess she’s super tough and can withstand water boarding. Of course, the torture is interrupted when gunfire erupts just out of view and then a shadowy figure turns Carter into bullet-filled Swiss cheese. You have no idea how loud I cheered when he finally fell flat on his face, dead. I have been wanting him dead and gone since we learned the truth about Operation Daylight. We did see Jane flash on a memory about Carter talking about Orion (which ties back into an earlier episode). Jane’s savior is none other than tree tattoo man whose name is Oscar. Oscar shows Jane a video that reveals the memory wipe and tattoos are all on her own orders. Now the question we are left with (until February) is why. This show has been one of the best shows of the new season and I can’t wait to see what answers we get once the gang is back from hiatus.

Thanksgiving “Classic” Recap: Heroes: “Thanksgiving”

“What do I have to be grateful for? I’m dead. He knows it, you know it. why don’t you tell us why? Put us all out of our misery.”
- Nathan

Sorry that this is a day late, folks! Yesterday with all the turkey and wine and fun got to me. But this year we are sharing our Thanksgiving time with a group of families I discovered over the summertime (and in preparation for one of our Summer DVR Dump series this coming summer): Heroes. Like many great sci-fi shows of the mid-2000s I missed out when it originally aired. But thanks to Netflix, I was able to watch all 4 seasons over the summer and I really enjoyed it. So I thought I would cover season 4, episode 10 “Thanksgiving” for you.

This episode focuses on three sets of families within the “Heroes” universe; The Bennetts, the Petrellis and Samuel’s camp of misfit Evos. None of them are having a particularly good Thanksgiving but we do get some movement on the bigger plot arcs of the season. Honestly, the first time I watched this episode, I was kind of hoping we would get the Petrellis and the Bennetts together because Claire technically is a Petrelli. Alas, we did not. Claire is having a rough time at school. Her best friend/roommate/possible girlfriend Gretchen has moved across campus after being pulled into the weirdness of Claire’s life. So Noah decides to host Thanksgiving at his apartment and invites his ex, Sandra and her dorky boyfriend Doug (he’s a dog breeder like Sandra) and he even ropes his old flame Lauren (those of you were Angel fans might recognize her as Detective Kate Lindsay from seasons 1 and 2) to help. He was kind of stalking her at the grocery store. They have some chemistry and it’s kind of cute how Noah keeps denying that she is his date. I honestly want Noah to be happy and sadly he never will be. He’s just drawn to sadness and messed up situations. Dinner is kind of a tense affair once Claire brings up the subject of feeling like a loner. She wants to drop out of college and she kind of loses it when Doug tries to offer advice. Claire’s solution: cut her arm open and heal in front of him. Yeah that doesn’t solve anything. But on the plus side, Gretchen comes over and she and Claire abscond with the compass that Noah got from Danko. Claire is so headstrong and she thinks she knows what she’s doing but she never does. Noah may not always do the right thing or say the right thing but his intentions are always to protect his daughter.

Nathan and Peter have just gotten back from a trip to Texas where they found a storage locker in their mother’s name with a dead body that looks a hell of a lot like Nathan in it. So when Angela comes by for Thanksgiving dinner, the boys confront her on what really happened at the end of season 3. Through some exposition that the audience already knows, she reveals that Nathan died at the hands of Sylar and Matt Parkman forced Nathan’s memories into Sylar and made him shift into Nathan. This clearly upsets Nathan who now realizes he is Sylar and it’s enough to cause a shift and allow Sylar’s consciousness to retake his body. He forces Peter and Angela to sit while he eats pretty much everything in sight (I guess being stuck in Matt’s head for the first half of the season made him hungry). But Nathan manages to fight back and saves Angela’s life just as Sylar pulls his signature cutting heads open trick. Peter vows to go after him. He wants Sylar dead but he really wants his big brother alive. Nathan has never been a particularly nice character, even to his brother so I think the hero worship is a bit much. Of all the characters on the show, Nathan was my least favorite. But I adore Peter and I hate to see him so sad and miserable. Especially on a day that is supposed to be about family.

On the Samuel front, Hiro is still his prisoner and Lydia begs him to show what happened eight weeks earlier since if he supposedly fixed the past, why isn’t Joseph back. So Hiro does take her back and we see that Samuel killed Joseph in a fit of anger over the fact that Joseph has kept Samuel’s powers in check all this time. It was not what Samuel meant to do but he’s an impulsive jerk and so it gives him the chance he needs to take over the carnival and use it for his own purpose (hence why he’s been gathering people throughout the season). Ultimately, Hiro and Lydia fill Edgar in on what they saw and Edgar accuses Samuel of the crime he committed I front of everyone. But Samuel has sway over these people and so Edgar is branded a traitor and he takes off (thanks to Hiro saving him). Unfortunately, Hiro gets his memory scrambled for his trouble (which leads to a pretty hilarious episode where he speaks in code). I think of the three storylines this episode, this one was the weakest, although it did the most to move the story forward and get pieces put in place for the last few episodes of the series. I just wish he wasn’t pulling all of our characters to him like a magnet.

Overall, none of these groups had a very successful Thanksgiving and were not particularly thankful for much of anything. They fought and argued and just were all around nasty to one another. But it moved the plot along and served its purpose. Of the Thanksgiving episodes I’ve seen it didn’t promote the feeling of togetherness and grateful emotions like some but it was still enjoyable. We here at More TV Please hope you had a lovely and safe time with your friends and loved ones this Thanksgiving. We will see you all again next year for another Classic Thanksgiving recap.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3.06: "Among Us Hide . . ."

I didn’t find this particular episode of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” all that exciting (probably due to too much Ward), but there was definitely a heck of a twist at the end that could bode interesting things for the future. Daisy also made an important discovery that seems likely to sour her relationship with Coulson going forward. Sure, her coworkers are telling her that Coulson probably has reasons for doing what he’s doing, but what Daisy uncovers is so horrific to her that I don’t think she is going to forgive that easily. Related, we learn a lot more about what the ATCU is up to. Specifically, we learn what exactly they do with the Inhumans that they lock away. It’s not pretty, but Rosalind has an interesting, more humane take on why she is doing what she’s doing.

We learn right from the beginning of the episode that Andrew survived the explosion at the convenience store. He is injured, though, so he is taken back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ for treatment. He is conscious, and he tells May and Coulson how he survived. Basically, Coulson had already put someone on the scene at the convenience store who started shooting at the Hydra agents. There was enough chaos that Andrew was able to do what he had to do to survive. Hunter, however, thanks to his actions that led to the explosion on the first place, is pulled off of Operation: Kill Ward. Instead, May will be heading it up. Because she’s back with S.H.I.E.L.D. (finally!). Elsewhere, Ward is talking with one of his goons. He wants said goon to try and find Werner if he is still alive, because S.H.I.E.L.D. will be after him too, and he knows too much.

Meanwhile, Daisy has been doing research on Lash. She shares with Mack that she thinks he is part of the ATCU because of the knowledge he would have to have to pull off the attack that happened earlier this season. Elsewhere in HQ, May and Bobbi fight it out. May tells Bobbi she is angry that Hunter almost got Andrew killed for the sake of Bobbi. Bobbi eventually fights back. After some hand-to-hand combat, May says that the whole fight was a test. She thinks Bobbi is recovered enough to go back in the field. And she is going to be joining May on Operation: Kill Ward. Needless to say, Hunter is not thrilled about Bobbi going back in the field just yet, especially on this particular mission. May tells Bobbi that one body wasn’t recovered from the convenience store explosion: Werner Von Strucker. If they find him, they can learn more about Hydra. One of Hydra’s Cayman Islands bank accounts has been activated, and May thinks that will lead them to Werner. Werner himself is talking with somebody who seems especially evil. Because he’s played by Powers Boothe, who is never not good at playing evil.

Meanwhile, Rosalind is supposed to be taking Coulson on a tour of the ATCU’s holding facility for Inhumans. While they are in a car on the way there, however, Rosalind gets a call about an emergency at her house. Coulson convinces her to let him tag along. When they arrive at Rosalind’s house, the police are there. Someone has broken in. Coulson notices that the whole thing seems off, though. Nothing valuable, such as computers or rare art, has been stolen. Everything just seems a little discheveled. Coulson is convinced that Rosalind staged the break-in to derail the attempt to see the holding facility. Coulson also notices a baseball bat signed by a bunch of famous MLB players. When Coulson accuses Rosalind of staging the break-in to try and humanize herself, Rosalind finally relents and says they can go to the facility.

Since Hunter was taken off Operation: Kill Ward, he and Fitz are working together to provide support to Bobbi and May. Hunter is worried that Fitz is distracted helping Simmons get the portal back up and running. He warns Fitz that it’s a bad idea to make it easy for Simmons’ ex to return and provide competition, but Fitz says he owes William for keeping Simmons alive through her ordeal. Meanwhile, Daisy asks Andrew for a consult on Lash. She’s just telling him she saw Lash shift back into human form when Mack interrupts. He thinks Banks, Rosalind’s number two, is Lash, because he would have known about the mission that Lash ambushed. Mack, Daisy, and Hunter decide to investigate further.

Bobbi and May go to the Caymans to follow Werner’s money trail. They go to a very fancy bank, and they manage to get into the safe deposit box room. They get into a particular box and activate something in it that opens all the other boxes. They take another box, but there is nothing helpful in it. To make matters worse, an alarm starts going off. When the security guards pile in, Bobbi tries diplomacy first, telling the head security guy that they were testing him because they want to give him a job. One of the other security guys doesn’t believe them, though, so a big fight ensues.

Meanwhile, Mack, Hunter, and Daisy are trailing Banks. Hunter is desperate to reduce risks to Bobbi, so he wants to be aggressive and unorthodox in his approach. Mack, however, want to keep it professional and by the books. When the van is parked, Hunter goes rogue. He jumps out, approaches Banks, and ices him. The group then has to get a sample from Banks to send back to the lab for testing. Daisy gets the sample to Simmons, she runs the test, and she determines that Banks is not Inhuman. So there goes that theory. Finished with her testing, Simmons wants to switch back to working on the portal. Fitz is forced to admit that none of his simulations are working, but he promises Simmons that he’s not giving up. He is also doing secret internet research on Will, which is kind of adorable, only because it’s Fitz.

Still parked in their van outside the ATCU facility, our trio decides to send a little drone (which apparently has a cloaking device) inside to see what is going on. There is a delivery happening. It is quickly apparent that the delivery is of an unconscious person. The place is basically an Inhuman storage facility. Daisy, understandably, is horrified. It gets worse when she sees Rosalind usher Coulson inside and give him a tour. Daisy is shocked that Coulson doesn’t really appear outraged. She says there is no way that they will be working with the ATCU now. Mack tries to assure Daisy that Coulson is just putting up a front for Rosalind. Rosalind, however, does a decent job explaining herself to Coulson. She says she’s trying to keep the Inhumans alive and healthy while they’re working on a cure. She compares it to a medically induced coma, and Coulson realizes that she lost someone close. She says her husband died of cancer, and she wishes she could have put him in stasis until a cure was found.

Meanwhile, in Hydra-land, Ward gets a threatening phone call from Gideon (Powers Boothe). Gideon offers to tell Ward where Werner is. Bobbi and May already have a clue, however. They arrive in Lisbon and storm a Hydra safehouse. A Hydra goon stabs Werner, who is tied up. Bobbi goes outside to battle the head goon, and they end up fighting in the pool. She eventually wins the fight by electrocution, which is pretty badass. Inside the safehouse, as he is dying, Werner tells May that Andrew is actually Lash. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D, Daisy is surreptitiously on the phone with Lincoln. After she hangs up, she runs into Andrew, who immediately asks her if she knows where Lincoln is. Thankfully, he hasn’t told her his location, otherwise things probably wouldn’t have ended well for him.