“You’re a good man, Peter. She knows that.”
-Walter
As I expected, “Marionette” was an extremely painful episode of “Fringe.” It had to happen, though, after everything else that has gone down this half-season. It was painful in the sense that it left Olivia utterly devastated, and it was also kind of painful in the sense that we’re back to the classic really gross and disturbing Fringe Division investigations. There was a real sense of the show settling back in now that everybody is back where they were belong, and that brought a feeling of comfort to this episode, despite the especially disturbing case and Olivia’s pain. It feels like the show has somewhat returned to its old formula, but with more depth thanks to what these characters have just been through.
The episode opens with two men bumping into each other as they get off a train. One is touched by the umbrella of the other. The man with the umbrella follows the first man home. In his front yard, the first man suddenly experiences shortness of breath and collapses. Next thing we know, the first man is strapped down in a plastic enshrouded torture chamber all “Dexter”-style, and the man with the umbrella is sticking a nasty looking needle in his neck. My reaction? Ewww! I absolutely hate needles. EMTs arrive at the house, at first not able to figure out why they were called. Then they see the plastic drape set-up. And they find the first guy has had his heart cut out. If that wasn’t strange enough, he manages to open his eyes and beg for help despite having no working cardiovascular system.
In Boston, Olivia is in a meeting with Broyles. She wants to be allowed to go back to work. Broyles is a bit skeptical, considering what Olivia has just been through. And he’s probably right. Olivia mentions something about a friend on the Other Side, and Broyles correctly infers she’s talking about his own doppelganger. He gets Olivia to tell him a bit about the Colonel, and he’s very surprised to learn that the Colonel was still married. Olivia assures Broyles that his doppelganger was a good man. Similarly, Walter is assuring Peter that he’s a good man. They’ve been told they have a case, and as they are heading from their house to the crime scene, Walter starts nagging Peter that he needs to tell Olivia the truth about what happened with Alt-livia. Peter assures Walter that he intends to do just that, even though it will probably fundamentally alter their relationship.
When they get to the crime scene, Walter is overly enthusiastic about the case, as he generally is. Actually, he hasn’t really gone to that place this season, and I didn’t realize I missed it until now. I wonder if on a subconscious level, he knew Olivia was still missing and therefore couldn’t take joy in the usual things…like an especially gross case. Now that she’s back, Walter is back to his usual goofy self. While looking at the victim’s body, which amazingly still has not succumbed to rigor mortis, Walter notices scar tissue where the victim’s heart had been. The victim has had heart surgery before. A little research turns up the fact that the victim also had a ton of medicines usually prescribed to transplant patients, and those medicines were prescribed by a Dr. Ross.
Olivia and Peter pay a visit to Dr. Ross, and while they’re waiting in the hospital cafeteria for her to be available, Peter decides to unload the truth on Olivia. They had just been eating and chatting, and Olivia was grinning ear to ear, going on about how she’s happy to be back and with Peter again. She also says that being back is a little disconcerting because of how Alt-livia has been through all her stuff. Before Olivia can go on too long about how happy she is, Peter gets the truth out. It’s heart breaking to watch Anna Torv play that moment. Olivia’s expression just falls instantly. It doesn’t help that Peter doesn’t get the confession out all that well. He starts talking about differences between Olivia and Alt-livia, stupidly mentioning that Alt-livia was “much quicker with a smile.” Olivia tries to brush it off, telling Peter it’s okay, and she understands how he could have been fooled by someone trained to impersonate her, but below the surface, it’s obvious Olivia is struggling with this news. They do eventually speak to Dr. Ross, who tells them that the victim had a heart transplant.
Back at the lab, Walter finds a serum in the victim’s blood. It’s some sort of preservative, and it reminds him on an experiment he and William Bell did long ago. They were trying to figure out how to talk to people after they were dead, naturally. While they’re working, Peter brings up how well Olivia seemed to take the news about Alt-livia. Walter rather astutely (and hilariously- oh how I missed Walter in the Other Side episodes) wonders if Walternate replaced Olivia with a robot before sending her back over. Olivia is not at all a robot, though. As she’s in her apartment looking through her closet, it all starts to hit her. She has a complete breakdown, pulling all the clothes out of the closet and all the sheets off the bed. Things go from bad to worse when she opens the washer to throw the sheets in and finds Peter’s clothes.
Meanwhile, Broyles has discovered more organ theft victims. All of the victims received organs from the same donor. The body was also sent to an eye bank, and the Fringe team thinks that whoever received her corneas could be the next target. And boy howdy are they right. We see the man with the umbrella start the surgery that will remove the new victim’s eyes. Not long after the sadistic surgery, the Fringe team pulls up to the restaurant where the donor used to work. Clearly, they’re way too late. The plastic sheets have already been set up and used. While they’re investigating, the Fringe folks hear a noise. They split up to try and find the source of the noise, and Olivia runs into the poor guy who was just operated on and is now eyeless. For the second time in this episode, my reaction could be summed up as “Ewww!” There really isn’t a more eloquent way to put it.
Walter thinks he’s on a verge of a breakthrough in the investigation, especially when Astird finally brings him the files on that project he and Bell had been working on. Walter wants the organ donor’s body to confirm his theory. Olivia and Peter in just the right place to make this happen. They are talking to the donor’s mom, who says that all her daughter, Amanda, cared about was ballet, and that she didn’t have any friends. Amanda was also very depressed, and her death was due to suicide. While the mom is revealing this very painful information, Olivia gets a phone call from Astrid to ask for the body of the donor. There’s just one small hitch. Peter brings back Amanda’s ashes to the lab- not an intact body. Walter tastes the ashes to confirm they aren’t human remains. The tasting kind of grossed me out. Who does Walter think he is? The Tenth Doctor?
Anyway, in what is probably the most disturbing scene of this episode (yes, even more disturbing than the surgeries), we see just what exactly has been done with the Amanda’s body. The thief has just finished reattaching her eyes, and we can see that she’s hooked up to an elaborate system of pulleys and ropes. She’s also dressed in a ballet costume. He turns on some music and begins to move the ropes. Amanda begins a halting dance, guided by the ropes. She has truly become a human puppet, and it’s rather horrifying to watch.
Amanda had been in a variety of support groups for her depression, and Peter and Olivia decide to look among the group members for possible suspects. This really just results in a whole lot of awkwardness, mostly due to Olivia now knowing Peter’s secret. They argue about instinct and their different approaches to solving cases. Peter eventually makes a breakthrough. He finds a guy whose background leads Peter to believe that he could potentially reanimate the dead. It turns out Peter is right. The thief reanimates Amanda just as the FBI arrives. He is troubled by something, and he tries to leave just as agents are swarming the house.
Olivia finds the thief and immediately tackles him. He tells her that although he brought Amanda’s body back to life, it’s not really her. He looked into her eyes, and he just didn’t see the person he loved anymore. This hits more than a little close to home for Olivia, and she has yet another breakdown. She finally ends up telling Peter that she doesn’t want to be with him anymore. It’s not okay that, even though he’s supposed to love her, he didn’t recognize Alt-livia was an imposter when he looked in her eyes. I say good for Olivia. I hope they’ll eventually be able to heal from this and find their way back to each other, but for now, Peter needs to understand his mistake.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Big Bang Theory 4.10: "The Alien Parasite Hypothesis"
“Couldn’t you just fool around with him and then listen to NPR?”
-Bernadette
“The Alien Parasite Hypothesis” was an absolutely horrible episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” I really can’t think of an episode of this show that I dislike more. The problem I have with it is that this is one of the rare occasions when the show laughs at geek culture instead of with it. It was uncomfortable and unfortunate, not funny. I think part of the problem is the character of Amy. I’m sure the idea of “Sheldon’s match being a woman just like him” seemed like a brilliant idea at first, but it’s really just way too much of a good thing. When it’s just Sheldon engaging in odd antics, it can be presented in an endearing way, but when you throw in a second character acting exactly the same way, it feels more like a gimmick than an honest look at an interesting character.
As they often do, the episode opens with the boys eating dinner in Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment. The girls are conspicuously absent. It’s so strange to even include a sentence about “the girls” with this show. For so long, it was just about the guys and Penny. I’m not sure how I feel about the expansion in scope yet. Anyway, Sheldon is trying to force a conversation about what the best number is, and of course he already has only one correct answer in mind. Meanwhile, the girls are out together at a bar. Penny’s ex Zach (the menu printer) walks in. Bernadette is naturally very interested in their history and wants to know why they aren’t still together. Penny mentions that she didn’t find Zach intellectually challenging enough. Amy is strangely silent. Even when Zach introduces himself, all Amy can say is “whoo.”
The next day, the boys (minus Sheldon) are having a lunch conversation about co-workers who were in danger of being bitten by a radioactive rat. They talk about how although superheroes are often created (like Spiderman) when people are bitten by a radioactive animal, being “Rat Man” would be really lame. This leads Raj and Howard to get into a disagreement over who, between the two of them, would be more likely to be a superhero and who would be more likely to be a sidekick. Naturally, each thinks that he himself would be the superhero. There’s a competition between the two that lasts for the rest of the episode. It begins with Howard goading Raj into a “bravery test” involving a jar with a big spider in it. That first attempt backfires on Howard, when he ends up with the spider on his back. Next is wrestling, although Howard and Raj just keep circling each other and hurling insults instead of doing any actual fighting. Poor Leonard just looks on exasperated, wondering why he has no life.
I mentioned earlier that Sheldon wasn’t with the guys when they were first discussing the radioactive rat. That’s because he was spending his lunch break with Amy in her lab. Amy brings up the “symptoms” she experienced when meeting Zach, and Sheldon offers to do a bit of differential diagnosis. Sheldon and Amy play a bit of “Who’s on First” with Amy’s description of her symptoms because of how she said “whoo” when she saw Zach. I found that to be more annoying than funny. Leave that particular bit to Abbot and Costello, thanks. It was just too glaringly obviously a bit, as opposed to organic humor. Anyway, Sheldon can think of only a few possible causes for Amy’s symptoms, including an alien parasite, and most disturbing to Sheldon and Amy, sexual arousal.
Sheldon keeps doing intellectual gymnastics to rule out the arousal theory, and Amy wonders if the reason might be jealousy. Sheldon assures her that it is not, and because it’s Sheldon, I think he’s probably telling the truth. Sheldon’s upset that Amy suggested such a thing, though, and he leaves the lab in a huff. Later, Sheldon discusses the situation in the laundry room with Penny. Sheldon is rather upset that Amy is suddenly horny. Because a geek actually being horny is such a strange, funny thing. Obviously. Anyway, Penny tries to subtly suggest that if Amy is suddenly horny, maybe Sheldon should be the person to satisfy those feelings. Sheldon doesn’t quite get the message, though. Sheldon says he will “do something” about the situation, which Penny takes to mean that he’s actually planning to have sex with Amy. Sheldon being Shledon, though, isn’t thinking of any such thing. Instead he calls Zach to see if he’s interested in having sex with Amy.
Sheldon then takes Amy back to the bar to see Zach again. Amy gives this really long, rambling speech about how he has affected her bodily functions. It’s really, really awkward. Zach doesn’t understand a word of what she’s saying, though. He really is dumb as rocks. Like most of Penny’s boyfriends (other than Leonard, of course). Amy is sufficiently turned off by Zach’s display of stupid, and she decides she can no longer go through with hitting on him. She’s going to take Sheldon’s advice and try Vulcan meditation to get over her horniness instead. She shakes Zach’s hand and leaves him standing in the bar, kind of confused. Sheldon and Amy walk home together, chattering about what just happened. Amy grabs Sheldon’s hand as an “experiment.” I did have a bit of worry right there that they would enter a physical relationship after all. Then Amy, in her monotone way, informs Sheldon that holding his hand has no effect.
-Bernadette
“The Alien Parasite Hypothesis” was an absolutely horrible episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” I really can’t think of an episode of this show that I dislike more. The problem I have with it is that this is one of the rare occasions when the show laughs at geek culture instead of with it. It was uncomfortable and unfortunate, not funny. I think part of the problem is the character of Amy. I’m sure the idea of “Sheldon’s match being a woman just like him” seemed like a brilliant idea at first, but it’s really just way too much of a good thing. When it’s just Sheldon engaging in odd antics, it can be presented in an endearing way, but when you throw in a second character acting exactly the same way, it feels more like a gimmick than an honest look at an interesting character.
As they often do, the episode opens with the boys eating dinner in Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment. The girls are conspicuously absent. It’s so strange to even include a sentence about “the girls” with this show. For so long, it was just about the guys and Penny. I’m not sure how I feel about the expansion in scope yet. Anyway, Sheldon is trying to force a conversation about what the best number is, and of course he already has only one correct answer in mind. Meanwhile, the girls are out together at a bar. Penny’s ex Zach (the menu printer) walks in. Bernadette is naturally very interested in their history and wants to know why they aren’t still together. Penny mentions that she didn’t find Zach intellectually challenging enough. Amy is strangely silent. Even when Zach introduces himself, all Amy can say is “whoo.”
The next day, the boys (minus Sheldon) are having a lunch conversation about co-workers who were in danger of being bitten by a radioactive rat. They talk about how although superheroes are often created (like Spiderman) when people are bitten by a radioactive animal, being “Rat Man” would be really lame. This leads Raj and Howard to get into a disagreement over who, between the two of them, would be more likely to be a superhero and who would be more likely to be a sidekick. Naturally, each thinks that he himself would be the superhero. There’s a competition between the two that lasts for the rest of the episode. It begins with Howard goading Raj into a “bravery test” involving a jar with a big spider in it. That first attempt backfires on Howard, when he ends up with the spider on his back. Next is wrestling, although Howard and Raj just keep circling each other and hurling insults instead of doing any actual fighting. Poor Leonard just looks on exasperated, wondering why he has no life.
I mentioned earlier that Sheldon wasn’t with the guys when they were first discussing the radioactive rat. That’s because he was spending his lunch break with Amy in her lab. Amy brings up the “symptoms” she experienced when meeting Zach, and Sheldon offers to do a bit of differential diagnosis. Sheldon and Amy play a bit of “Who’s on First” with Amy’s description of her symptoms because of how she said “whoo” when she saw Zach. I found that to be more annoying than funny. Leave that particular bit to Abbot and Costello, thanks. It was just too glaringly obviously a bit, as opposed to organic humor. Anyway, Sheldon can think of only a few possible causes for Amy’s symptoms, including an alien parasite, and most disturbing to Sheldon and Amy, sexual arousal.
Sheldon keeps doing intellectual gymnastics to rule out the arousal theory, and Amy wonders if the reason might be jealousy. Sheldon assures her that it is not, and because it’s Sheldon, I think he’s probably telling the truth. Sheldon’s upset that Amy suggested such a thing, though, and he leaves the lab in a huff. Later, Sheldon discusses the situation in the laundry room with Penny. Sheldon is rather upset that Amy is suddenly horny. Because a geek actually being horny is such a strange, funny thing. Obviously. Anyway, Penny tries to subtly suggest that if Amy is suddenly horny, maybe Sheldon should be the person to satisfy those feelings. Sheldon doesn’t quite get the message, though. Sheldon says he will “do something” about the situation, which Penny takes to mean that he’s actually planning to have sex with Amy. Sheldon being Shledon, though, isn’t thinking of any such thing. Instead he calls Zach to see if he’s interested in having sex with Amy.
Sheldon then takes Amy back to the bar to see Zach again. Amy gives this really long, rambling speech about how he has affected her bodily functions. It’s really, really awkward. Zach doesn’t understand a word of what she’s saying, though. He really is dumb as rocks. Like most of Penny’s boyfriends (other than Leonard, of course). Amy is sufficiently turned off by Zach’s display of stupid, and she decides she can no longer go through with hitting on him. She’s going to take Sheldon’s advice and try Vulcan meditation to get over her horniness instead. She shakes Zach’s hand and leaves him standing in the bar, kind of confused. Sheldon and Amy walk home together, chattering about what just happened. Amy grabs Sheldon’s hand as an “experiment.” I did have a bit of worry right there that they would enter a physical relationship after all. Then Amy, in her monotone way, informs Sheldon that holding his hand has no effect.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
No Ordinary Family 1.10: "No Ordinary Sidekick"
Sarah is taking over "No Ordinary Family" duties until I can get a little more caught up on the rest of the shows I cover here at MTVP, so here's her take on the show's fall finale, "No Ordinary Sidekick."
“I just wish for once you would consider-”
“Where you’d be without me.”
- Katie and George
So I was also pretty pleased with most of “No Ordinary Sidekick”. The JJ storyline was kind of stupid, but Daphne actually had a reason to exist this week! And as usual, I liked that we saw the powers conspiracy get pushed further. The episode begins with the Powells plus Katie and George out for a night of bowling. Jim uses his super strength to knock a whole mass of pins, including some in another person’s lane. JJ, using his super brain, lands yet another strike, and Stephanie only gets 8 pins down but uses her speed to make it look like a strike. Everyone is in relatively high spirits, though George is a little grumpy when “Will” arrives. Katie introduces him to Jim and reintroduces him to Stephanie and the kids. Once again, Daphne tries to read “Will’s” mind and gets static.
While the rest of the group is schmoozing, George is listening to his police scanner. He ends up convincing Jim to go check out a dry cleaner robbery two blocks away. Jim handily takes out the three bad guys. The shop owner is down for the count and doesn’t see Jim’s face. Jim is about to take a swing at what he thinks is another bad guy, only to narrowly avoid hitting George upside the head. Jim takes off just as the cops arrive, and they find George holding a piece of metal bar. At first, George is worried that he’s about to be arrested, but instead, he becomes a hero.
Jim and Stephanie are watching George give an interview and talking about how at least someone got the credit, even though it would be nice for Jim to be recognized for his efforts. Cordero still treats Jim like crap even though Jim saved his life. Over in teen land, JJ is complaining that he’s basically too smart for all his friends now. They have nothing to talk about. And, Daphne is still concerned that she can’t read “Will’s” mind. It’s the usual Powell family angst all around.
On the conspiracy front, we find “Will” talking to Dr. King. Dr. King is not pleased with “Will’s” progress, or lack thereof. As Dr. King reaches his car, he finds Dr. Chiles, the scientist whose purpose seemed only to be scoffing at Stephanie’s work in the early episodes, waiting for him. Dr. Chiles found a vial of the stuff Dr. King has been injecting into “Will” and threatens to expose it. Unfortunately for him, Dr. King is ready and makes the point that Dr. Chiles was on the team that was doing all the plant research. Things are really not looking good for Dr. Chiles, whose first name is Francis.
The next day at the police station, George shows up and gets lots of applause. Jim warns that George to lay off the publicity because the case got a lot more complicated. The robbers are all career bank robbers. Meanwhile, Cordero is trying to ID the man who saved him and it doesn’t take long to ID Jim. Later, Jim shows up at the dry cleaner to follow up with some questions of his own. He learns from the owner that in addition to some cash being taken, a man’s dry cleaning was also stolen. Jim finds that odd, and when he heads back to the police station, he finds George getting ready to do yet another interview. It’s quite obvious the fame is going to George’s head.
JJ ends up checking out a smart people’s club and feels horribly out of place. For one thing, everyone is older than him. He ends up seeing a cute girl, Natalie, playing chess, and when he sits down to play, his powers fail him. Talk about impotence issues. Later on, JJ offers to help Natalie with homework and fails again. It finally takes a talk with Jim to figure out that JJ needs to think about something other than how cute Natalie is when he’s around her. By the end of the episode, he’s thinking about baseball stats and he can play chess and flirt with the best of the geeky teenage boys. You may have noticed I wrapped JJ’s plot up quickly. It’s pretty stupid and we could have done without the storyline completely in this episode and would have been far better off.
Stephanie walks into the lab to find Katie smiling happily while doing her work, and they end up talking about how much Katie likes “Will”. Dr. King shows up before the conversation can go any further (though Stephanie did explain that Katie mentioning she hadn’t felt so strongly about a guy since she fell for a metrosexual Wookie was too much information) sporting a nasty black eye. He says that it was courtesy of Dr. Chiles and that since his discharge, Frances has been unstable. He informs Stephanie that if she sees Chiles at the office, she should call security. Later, while Stephanie isn’t around, Daphne stops by the lab to chat with Katie. Daphne ends up reading Katie’s mind to find out where she met Will. Obviously, it was the dating site where JJ set up the fake profile. Which becomes the subject of discussion between the mini Powells. They’ll find out more of the pieces of the puzzle by the end of the episode.
Dr. Chiles shows up all crazy and jabbering about the vial. He hands it over to Stephanie and tells her to test it. And boy is she surprised by what she finds. She injects it into a rat and waits. It ends up developing super speed. Just as she’s about to head over to talk with Dr. Chiles at his house, he gets a surprise visitor. “Will” shows up and kills him (makes it look like a suicide, complete with note). It’s rather violent and it makes me sad that “Will” seems to be taking such joy in making Chiles do things against his will. Stephanie shows up not long after and is horrified to find Chiles dead.
With George so preoccupied with his new-found status as “hero”, Jim has to hop rooftops on his own with only the aid of the GPS which lands him in the pool. He finds out that the man whose dry cleaning was stolen works for the transit authority. Meanwhile, Daphne spills the beans about “Will” to Stephanie, who brings it to Katie. Katie can’t believe Stephanie is saying these things and basically quits being her sidekick. At the same time, George ditches Jim, too. Stephanie and Jim briefly commiserate about their being dumped by their respective sidekicks, and Jim makes the comment that sidekicks don’t have to last forever. The next day, Jim goes to work and buddies up to Cordero (which isn’t hard since Cordero is treating Jim like a king for saving his life) and finds out that a few years back there was a train robbery with the same elements as what Jim has found in his snooping around the dry cleaner robbery.
Katie and “Will” are out to lunch, and Katie tells him about her fight with Stephanie. It looks like she’s figured out his lie when he admits he was just sitting at the bar and watched her look up as every guy walked by. So he figured he’d sit down. He says his name is Joshua (which is obviously a lie because you see him look at the nearest waiter’s nametag). So now we have yet another name for our mysterious Watcher. Have to say, Joshua isn’t as amusing as Will. See, Josh Stewart played a character named Will on Criminal Minds so it just makes me giggle whenever I hear someone call him that on this show.
Jim has gone to the train station to try and avert a robbery and is leaving a rather obnoxious message for George (who is off being given a key to the city or something). Jim ends up actually tackling real train conductors with lunches (not automatic weapons concealed in conductor duffels). It’s kind of a funny scene really. It ends up that George gets over himself and decides to help Jim after all. It turned out that Cordero’s intelligence was off and now Jim’s got to stop a train from leaving the station. Too bad it’s already left. This part is really amusing because you’ve got Jim standing on a bridge above the train tracks and George telling him to stop the train. Great dialogue. So Jim ends up jumping onto the tracks and miraculously stops the train and takes out the bad guys.
At Dr. Chiles’ apartment, Dr. King shows up and lies outright to Stephanie about Dr. Chiles. He says Chiles was working on Volson’s research and that he was using human test subjects. He produces what appear to be Dr. Chiles’ notes. And that’s all not entirely false. We know that Dr. King has been injecting people (i.e. Pyro and “Will/Joshua”) with the stuff to give them abilities.
Meanwhile, Daphne’s big moment finally happens. “Joshua” has shown up at the Powell house looking for Stephanie, but he says Daphne will do fine. She tries to read his mind again, and when she touches his hand, she sees him killing Dr. Chiles. She tries to say she won’t tell anyone and he gives her this creepy smile and says he knows she won’t and grabs her. The next thing we know, Jim and Stephanie are sitting on the couch, and Daphne comes down complaining about not wanting to be dragged to Brazil. Everything that she’s experienced over the last three months is completely gone. What a way to end the first half of the season.
***
“I just wish for once you would consider-”
“Where you’d be without me.”
- Katie and George
So I was also pretty pleased with most of “No Ordinary Sidekick”. The JJ storyline was kind of stupid, but Daphne actually had a reason to exist this week! And as usual, I liked that we saw the powers conspiracy get pushed further. The episode begins with the Powells plus Katie and George out for a night of bowling. Jim uses his super strength to knock a whole mass of pins, including some in another person’s lane. JJ, using his super brain, lands yet another strike, and Stephanie only gets 8 pins down but uses her speed to make it look like a strike. Everyone is in relatively high spirits, though George is a little grumpy when “Will” arrives. Katie introduces him to Jim and reintroduces him to Stephanie and the kids. Once again, Daphne tries to read “Will’s” mind and gets static.
While the rest of the group is schmoozing, George is listening to his police scanner. He ends up convincing Jim to go check out a dry cleaner robbery two blocks away. Jim handily takes out the three bad guys. The shop owner is down for the count and doesn’t see Jim’s face. Jim is about to take a swing at what he thinks is another bad guy, only to narrowly avoid hitting George upside the head. Jim takes off just as the cops arrive, and they find George holding a piece of metal bar. At first, George is worried that he’s about to be arrested, but instead, he becomes a hero.
Jim and Stephanie are watching George give an interview and talking about how at least someone got the credit, even though it would be nice for Jim to be recognized for his efforts. Cordero still treats Jim like crap even though Jim saved his life. Over in teen land, JJ is complaining that he’s basically too smart for all his friends now. They have nothing to talk about. And, Daphne is still concerned that she can’t read “Will’s” mind. It’s the usual Powell family angst all around.
On the conspiracy front, we find “Will” talking to Dr. King. Dr. King is not pleased with “Will’s” progress, or lack thereof. As Dr. King reaches his car, he finds Dr. Chiles, the scientist whose purpose seemed only to be scoffing at Stephanie’s work in the early episodes, waiting for him. Dr. Chiles found a vial of the stuff Dr. King has been injecting into “Will” and threatens to expose it. Unfortunately for him, Dr. King is ready and makes the point that Dr. Chiles was on the team that was doing all the plant research. Things are really not looking good for Dr. Chiles, whose first name is Francis.
The next day at the police station, George shows up and gets lots of applause. Jim warns that George to lay off the publicity because the case got a lot more complicated. The robbers are all career bank robbers. Meanwhile, Cordero is trying to ID the man who saved him and it doesn’t take long to ID Jim. Later, Jim shows up at the dry cleaner to follow up with some questions of his own. He learns from the owner that in addition to some cash being taken, a man’s dry cleaning was also stolen. Jim finds that odd, and when he heads back to the police station, he finds George getting ready to do yet another interview. It’s quite obvious the fame is going to George’s head.
JJ ends up checking out a smart people’s club and feels horribly out of place. For one thing, everyone is older than him. He ends up seeing a cute girl, Natalie, playing chess, and when he sits down to play, his powers fail him. Talk about impotence issues. Later on, JJ offers to help Natalie with homework and fails again. It finally takes a talk with Jim to figure out that JJ needs to think about something other than how cute Natalie is when he’s around her. By the end of the episode, he’s thinking about baseball stats and he can play chess and flirt with the best of the geeky teenage boys. You may have noticed I wrapped JJ’s plot up quickly. It’s pretty stupid and we could have done without the storyline completely in this episode and would have been far better off.
Stephanie walks into the lab to find Katie smiling happily while doing her work, and they end up talking about how much Katie likes “Will”. Dr. King shows up before the conversation can go any further (though Stephanie did explain that Katie mentioning she hadn’t felt so strongly about a guy since she fell for a metrosexual Wookie was too much information) sporting a nasty black eye. He says that it was courtesy of Dr. Chiles and that since his discharge, Frances has been unstable. He informs Stephanie that if she sees Chiles at the office, she should call security. Later, while Stephanie isn’t around, Daphne stops by the lab to chat with Katie. Daphne ends up reading Katie’s mind to find out where she met Will. Obviously, it was the dating site where JJ set up the fake profile. Which becomes the subject of discussion between the mini Powells. They’ll find out more of the pieces of the puzzle by the end of the episode.
Dr. Chiles shows up all crazy and jabbering about the vial. He hands it over to Stephanie and tells her to test it. And boy is she surprised by what she finds. She injects it into a rat and waits. It ends up developing super speed. Just as she’s about to head over to talk with Dr. Chiles at his house, he gets a surprise visitor. “Will” shows up and kills him (makes it look like a suicide, complete with note). It’s rather violent and it makes me sad that “Will” seems to be taking such joy in making Chiles do things against his will. Stephanie shows up not long after and is horrified to find Chiles dead.
With George so preoccupied with his new-found status as “hero”, Jim has to hop rooftops on his own with only the aid of the GPS which lands him in the pool. He finds out that the man whose dry cleaning was stolen works for the transit authority. Meanwhile, Daphne spills the beans about “Will” to Stephanie, who brings it to Katie. Katie can’t believe Stephanie is saying these things and basically quits being her sidekick. At the same time, George ditches Jim, too. Stephanie and Jim briefly commiserate about their being dumped by their respective sidekicks, and Jim makes the comment that sidekicks don’t have to last forever. The next day, Jim goes to work and buddies up to Cordero (which isn’t hard since Cordero is treating Jim like a king for saving his life) and finds out that a few years back there was a train robbery with the same elements as what Jim has found in his snooping around the dry cleaner robbery.
Katie and “Will” are out to lunch, and Katie tells him about her fight with Stephanie. It looks like she’s figured out his lie when he admits he was just sitting at the bar and watched her look up as every guy walked by. So he figured he’d sit down. He says his name is Joshua (which is obviously a lie because you see him look at the nearest waiter’s nametag). So now we have yet another name for our mysterious Watcher. Have to say, Joshua isn’t as amusing as Will. See, Josh Stewart played a character named Will on Criminal Minds so it just makes me giggle whenever I hear someone call him that on this show.
Jim has gone to the train station to try and avert a robbery and is leaving a rather obnoxious message for George (who is off being given a key to the city or something). Jim ends up actually tackling real train conductors with lunches (not automatic weapons concealed in conductor duffels). It’s kind of a funny scene really. It ends up that George gets over himself and decides to help Jim after all. It turned out that Cordero’s intelligence was off and now Jim’s got to stop a train from leaving the station. Too bad it’s already left. This part is really amusing because you’ve got Jim standing on a bridge above the train tracks and George telling him to stop the train. Great dialogue. So Jim ends up jumping onto the tracks and miraculously stops the train and takes out the bad guys.
At Dr. Chiles’ apartment, Dr. King shows up and lies outright to Stephanie about Dr. Chiles. He says Chiles was working on Volson’s research and that he was using human test subjects. He produces what appear to be Dr. Chiles’ notes. And that’s all not entirely false. We know that Dr. King has been injecting people (i.e. Pyro and “Will/Joshua”) with the stuff to give them abilities.
Meanwhile, Daphne’s big moment finally happens. “Joshua” has shown up at the Powell house looking for Stephanie, but he says Daphne will do fine. She tries to read his mind again, and when she touches his hand, she sees him killing Dr. Chiles. She tries to say she won’t tell anyone and he gives her this creepy smile and says he knows she won’t and grabs her. The next thing we know, Jim and Stephanie are sitting on the couch, and Daphne comes down complaining about not wanting to be dragged to Brazil. Everything that she’s experienced over the last three months is completely gone. What a way to end the first half of the season.
Glee 2.10: "A Very Glee Christmas"
“I’m pretty sure they just added food coloring to real slush from the parking lot.”
-Mike
“A Very Glee Christmas” was a cute episode overall, although I thought it was a bit disjointed and trying to do too much. I think it would have been better had the “Glee” producers saved one of the two major plots in this episode for a future Christmas special. I would have liked to have seen an episode that was either just a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” parody or just dealing with Artie trying to preserve Brittany’s belief in Santa Claus. The silly Rachel/Finn drama could have worked in either setting, I guess, although it works better with the latter. The result was some good, if a bit saccharine, ideas that just didn’t really have enough time to breathe and develop into something truly great.
The episode opens in the faculty lunch room. Emma invites Will to a Christmas party she and Carl are hosting, and Will (rightfully) declines. Things are still rather awkward between them. The rather easy friendship they had before Emma started seeing Carl just isn’t there anymore. Coach Bieste interrupts the awkwardness with an announcement that it’s time to choose names for the annual faculty Secret Santa. Will is disappointed to see that he chose Sue, and given the sour look on Emma’s face, she’s not happy with her choice either. It will soon become blatantly obvious why.
Meanwhile, Artie is very surprised to discover that Brittany still believes in Santa Claus. He really shouldn’t be all that surprised. Brittany can dance like nobody’s business, but she’s also kind of dumb as rocks. And that might be putting it nicely. We cut to the glee club kids all happily singing Christmas songs as they decorate the choir room. Thankfully, the saccharine is soon cut by some dark humor- the kind of humor that made me like “Glee” in the first place. Will makes a surprised entrance into the choir room and asks the kids where they got all the decorations. All were either found or stolen. For instance, Finn picked up the Christmas tree after it fell off a truck. I thought the misfit-ness of their decorations was finally getting back to the core of the show. In fact, the kids kind of agree. They’re upset that they’re still treated as losers by their classmates, even though they’ve now won Sectionals (sort of) twice.
Will wants to get the kids’ minds off of Christmas colored Slushies in their faces and on to the true meaning of the holiday season. He announces that they’re going to go caroling around the school to raise money for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Children’s Shelter. And I started laughing like a fiend, because clearly one of the “Glee” writers is a lawyer. You see, the McKinney-Vento Act is a law that addresses where homeless children have the right to go to school (and here comes the obligatory disclaimer about how nothing in this blog should be construed as legal advice…and moving on). Suffice it to say, I had a bit of an education law geek out.
To say New Directions’ first attempt at caroling doesn’t go well would be an understatement for sure. The kids in the class they’re singing for are horribly rude. The kids yell at and mock the glee club as they sing. To make matters worse, the teacher doesn’t do a thing about it. In fact, she throws her shoe at the glee club. Back in the choir room, the kids finish decorating a new, not stolen, tree Will bought for them. Brittany mentions that she asked Santa to make it so the glee club isn’t picked on anymore. The rest of the club is shocked that Brittany still believes in Santa, and they gather around Artie for an explanation. Artie begs the kids not to let on that Santa isn’t real. He’s got an idea to make Brittany’s Christmas special, and he doesn’t want them to ruin it. Before the kids go back to work, Rachel asks Finn to meet her in the auditorium the next day.
Artie drags the whole glee club out to see Santa. He thinks that if Brittany sees all of her friends happy and believing in Santa, it will build up her strength enough to withstand any naysayers. There’s a montage of everyone’s time with Santa that is actually pretty funny. The fun stops when Brittany actually gets her time with Santa, though. Brittany asks Santa to make Artie able to walk again. Artie frantically motions to Santa that he should say “no,” but he says “sure.” This causes Artie to go into quite the panic. He and the other boys ask Coach Beiste to dress up as Santa (Brittany only pays attention to the suit- she doesn’t notice who is actually wearing it) and tell Brittany that Artie can’t be “fixed.” Coach Beiste is a little offended and reluctant at first, but the boys are eventually able to convince her. In other relationship news, Rachel has created an elaborate holiday set-up in the auditorium for Finn. She wants to sing him an apology song. Finn refuses, saying he’s not ready to forgive Rachel for fooling around with Puck. After Finn storms off, Rachel sings “Merry Christmas, Darling.”
In what I think is going to become a trend for as long as Kurt is away from McKinley, we next visit Dalton Academy for one rather short scene that seems to exist just for the purpose of making sure Kurt is in the episode. Kurt and Blaine are in a student lounge, and Blaine asks Kurt to help him rehearse for his performance at the upcoming King’s Island holiday show. They sing a rather adorable duet of “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” and just as they wrap up the song, Will shows up. Since Will can’t do anything, even visit a former student, for altruistic reasons, he tells Kurt he needs his help. He wants Kurt to go shopping with him to get something for Sue. As the Secret Santa is about to start, Will and Emma both realize that they’ve shopped for Sue. Sue walks by and says that she’s everyone’s Secret Santa. Will and Emma are, obviously, not happy about that.
Will enacts a plan to try and take all the presents back from Sue. Lauren distracts Sue by wearing a Santa hat (Sue doesn’t approve of such things) while Will organizes the rest of the glee kids to take the presents out of Sue’s office. Sue discovers the plot, though, and she’s not happy. She says she’s going to make a phone call to Gloria Alred. Hate to tell Sue, but I don’t think Gloria Alred would want to get involved in this case. There would be no press conferences in this situation, for starters. I don’t think Sue would be sympathetic enough. Will puts a stop to Sue’s rant by telling her she’s a Grinch.
Sue is outraged that people would take away the presents she scammed from them, which really makes her even a more disgusting human being than she was before. There really isn’t anything redeeming about Sue, and her act got old a long time ago. She dresses up as the Grinch and dresses up Becky as the Grinch’s dog, complete with single antler. They break into the choir room, and not only do they steal all the presents (which the kids were going to give to McKinney-Vento), but they completely trash the place, too. Ruining all those Christmases is really inexcusable. Brittany plays the role of Cindy Lou Who, walking in on this mess while Sue and Becky are about to leave. Sue gives her the classic line about how she’s taking some things back to the North Pole for repairs, and of course Brittany buys it hook, line, and sinker.
Meanwhile, Rachel still hasn’t given up on winning Finn back. After the glee club sees the destruction, she asks Finn to go with her to get (yet another) new Christmas tree. There’s tons of awkwardness and angst as Finn and Rachel sing “Last Christmas” while breezing through the Christmas trees. They come close to kissing, and that’s when Finn has had enough. He’s fed up with Rachel trying to manipulate him, and he’s still deeply hurt that she would even consider hooking up with Puck after what happened with Quinn last year. He breaks up with Rachel officially.
Later, Artie’s plan to maintain Brittany’s belief in Santa goes into effect. Brittany is shocked to see “Santa” in her living room, and she’s devastated when she’s told that she isn’t going to get what she asked for Christmas. The conversation between Brittany and Coach Beiste is very sweet, but it leaves Brittany broken. She takes all of the Christmas decorations down from her locker at school, saying she lost her Christmas spirit. The rest of New Directions are in a similar state. Will walks into the choir room and sees they’re ready to go all “Gift of the Magi,” with the boys putting their watches into a hat and the girls getting ready to cut their hair. Will puts a stop to the silliness and says they should sing their Christmas carols to people who really need Christmas spirit.
That group of people who really need the Christmas spirit turns out to be the McKinley High faculty. The kids (minus Artie, who is busy consoling Brittany) set up a concert in the faculty lounge, and Sue is nearby giving an “Evil Speech of Evil” to Becky when the music starts. The kids sing the song that the Who sing in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” of course, and of course, Sue’s expression softens as she hears it. When the kids get back to the choir room, they see Artie walking around using this robotic-type device. Apparently it was invented in Israel. Nobody knows where the device came from, but Brittany is convinced that Santa actually came through. Coach Beiste looks on happily, and we’re left to assume that the gift was from her.
Will gets home from a long day at work and hears noises around his apartment (which has been suspiciously decorated for Christmas). It turns out Sue is responsible for all of it. She apologizes (sort of) to Will for Grinching everything up. Not only has Sue tried to make amends, she brought the rest of New Directions with her to help. They’re all determined to try to have a happy holiday season, losers or not. Despite the candy coating, however, all is still not right with New Directions. Finn and Rachel are still broken up, and Kurt is still at another school.
-Mike
“A Very Glee Christmas” was a cute episode overall, although I thought it was a bit disjointed and trying to do too much. I think it would have been better had the “Glee” producers saved one of the two major plots in this episode for a future Christmas special. I would have liked to have seen an episode that was either just a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” parody or just dealing with Artie trying to preserve Brittany’s belief in Santa Claus. The silly Rachel/Finn drama could have worked in either setting, I guess, although it works better with the latter. The result was some good, if a bit saccharine, ideas that just didn’t really have enough time to breathe and develop into something truly great.
The episode opens in the faculty lunch room. Emma invites Will to a Christmas party she and Carl are hosting, and Will (rightfully) declines. Things are still rather awkward between them. The rather easy friendship they had before Emma started seeing Carl just isn’t there anymore. Coach Bieste interrupts the awkwardness with an announcement that it’s time to choose names for the annual faculty Secret Santa. Will is disappointed to see that he chose Sue, and given the sour look on Emma’s face, she’s not happy with her choice either. It will soon become blatantly obvious why.
Meanwhile, Artie is very surprised to discover that Brittany still believes in Santa Claus. He really shouldn’t be all that surprised. Brittany can dance like nobody’s business, but she’s also kind of dumb as rocks. And that might be putting it nicely. We cut to the glee club kids all happily singing Christmas songs as they decorate the choir room. Thankfully, the saccharine is soon cut by some dark humor- the kind of humor that made me like “Glee” in the first place. Will makes a surprised entrance into the choir room and asks the kids where they got all the decorations. All were either found or stolen. For instance, Finn picked up the Christmas tree after it fell off a truck. I thought the misfit-ness of their decorations was finally getting back to the core of the show. In fact, the kids kind of agree. They’re upset that they’re still treated as losers by their classmates, even though they’ve now won Sectionals (sort of) twice.
Will wants to get the kids’ minds off of Christmas colored Slushies in their faces and on to the true meaning of the holiday season. He announces that they’re going to go caroling around the school to raise money for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Children’s Shelter. And I started laughing like a fiend, because clearly one of the “Glee” writers is a lawyer. You see, the McKinney-Vento Act is a law that addresses where homeless children have the right to go to school (and here comes the obligatory disclaimer about how nothing in this blog should be construed as legal advice…and moving on). Suffice it to say, I had a bit of an education law geek out.
To say New Directions’ first attempt at caroling doesn’t go well would be an understatement for sure. The kids in the class they’re singing for are horribly rude. The kids yell at and mock the glee club as they sing. To make matters worse, the teacher doesn’t do a thing about it. In fact, she throws her shoe at the glee club. Back in the choir room, the kids finish decorating a new, not stolen, tree Will bought for them. Brittany mentions that she asked Santa to make it so the glee club isn’t picked on anymore. The rest of the club is shocked that Brittany still believes in Santa, and they gather around Artie for an explanation. Artie begs the kids not to let on that Santa isn’t real. He’s got an idea to make Brittany’s Christmas special, and he doesn’t want them to ruin it. Before the kids go back to work, Rachel asks Finn to meet her in the auditorium the next day.
Artie drags the whole glee club out to see Santa. He thinks that if Brittany sees all of her friends happy and believing in Santa, it will build up her strength enough to withstand any naysayers. There’s a montage of everyone’s time with Santa that is actually pretty funny. The fun stops when Brittany actually gets her time with Santa, though. Brittany asks Santa to make Artie able to walk again. Artie frantically motions to Santa that he should say “no,” but he says “sure.” This causes Artie to go into quite the panic. He and the other boys ask Coach Beiste to dress up as Santa (Brittany only pays attention to the suit- she doesn’t notice who is actually wearing it) and tell Brittany that Artie can’t be “fixed.” Coach Beiste is a little offended and reluctant at first, but the boys are eventually able to convince her. In other relationship news, Rachel has created an elaborate holiday set-up in the auditorium for Finn. She wants to sing him an apology song. Finn refuses, saying he’s not ready to forgive Rachel for fooling around with Puck. After Finn storms off, Rachel sings “Merry Christmas, Darling.”
In what I think is going to become a trend for as long as Kurt is away from McKinley, we next visit Dalton Academy for one rather short scene that seems to exist just for the purpose of making sure Kurt is in the episode. Kurt and Blaine are in a student lounge, and Blaine asks Kurt to help him rehearse for his performance at the upcoming King’s Island holiday show. They sing a rather adorable duet of “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” and just as they wrap up the song, Will shows up. Since Will can’t do anything, even visit a former student, for altruistic reasons, he tells Kurt he needs his help. He wants Kurt to go shopping with him to get something for Sue. As the Secret Santa is about to start, Will and Emma both realize that they’ve shopped for Sue. Sue walks by and says that she’s everyone’s Secret Santa. Will and Emma are, obviously, not happy about that.
Will enacts a plan to try and take all the presents back from Sue. Lauren distracts Sue by wearing a Santa hat (Sue doesn’t approve of such things) while Will organizes the rest of the glee kids to take the presents out of Sue’s office. Sue discovers the plot, though, and she’s not happy. She says she’s going to make a phone call to Gloria Alred. Hate to tell Sue, but I don’t think Gloria Alred would want to get involved in this case. There would be no press conferences in this situation, for starters. I don’t think Sue would be sympathetic enough. Will puts a stop to Sue’s rant by telling her she’s a Grinch.
Sue is outraged that people would take away the presents she scammed from them, which really makes her even a more disgusting human being than she was before. There really isn’t anything redeeming about Sue, and her act got old a long time ago. She dresses up as the Grinch and dresses up Becky as the Grinch’s dog, complete with single antler. They break into the choir room, and not only do they steal all the presents (which the kids were going to give to McKinney-Vento), but they completely trash the place, too. Ruining all those Christmases is really inexcusable. Brittany plays the role of Cindy Lou Who, walking in on this mess while Sue and Becky are about to leave. Sue gives her the classic line about how she’s taking some things back to the North Pole for repairs, and of course Brittany buys it hook, line, and sinker.
Meanwhile, Rachel still hasn’t given up on winning Finn back. After the glee club sees the destruction, she asks Finn to go with her to get (yet another) new Christmas tree. There’s tons of awkwardness and angst as Finn and Rachel sing “Last Christmas” while breezing through the Christmas trees. They come close to kissing, and that’s when Finn has had enough. He’s fed up with Rachel trying to manipulate him, and he’s still deeply hurt that she would even consider hooking up with Puck after what happened with Quinn last year. He breaks up with Rachel officially.
Later, Artie’s plan to maintain Brittany’s belief in Santa goes into effect. Brittany is shocked to see “Santa” in her living room, and she’s devastated when she’s told that she isn’t going to get what she asked for Christmas. The conversation between Brittany and Coach Beiste is very sweet, but it leaves Brittany broken. She takes all of the Christmas decorations down from her locker at school, saying she lost her Christmas spirit. The rest of New Directions are in a similar state. Will walks into the choir room and sees they’re ready to go all “Gift of the Magi,” with the boys putting their watches into a hat and the girls getting ready to cut their hair. Will puts a stop to the silliness and says they should sing their Christmas carols to people who really need Christmas spirit.
That group of people who really need the Christmas spirit turns out to be the McKinley High faculty. The kids (minus Artie, who is busy consoling Brittany) set up a concert in the faculty lounge, and Sue is nearby giving an “Evil Speech of Evil” to Becky when the music starts. The kids sing the song that the Who sing in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” of course, and of course, Sue’s expression softens as she hears it. When the kids get back to the choir room, they see Artie walking around using this robotic-type device. Apparently it was invented in Israel. Nobody knows where the device came from, but Brittany is convinced that Santa actually came through. Coach Beiste looks on happily, and we’re left to assume that the gift was from her.
Will gets home from a long day at work and hears noises around his apartment (which has been suspiciously decorated for Christmas). It turns out Sue is responsible for all of it. She apologizes (sort of) to Will for Grinching everything up. Not only has Sue tried to make amends, she brought the rest of New Directions with her to help. They’re all determined to try to have a happy holiday season, losers or not. Despite the candy coating, however, all is still not right with New Directions. Finn and Rachel are still broken up, and Kurt is still at another school.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
HIMYM 6.11: "The Mermaid Theory"
“Well if I can’t share her lipstick, there’s really no point in even going.”
-Ted
At first, I was mildly entertained by “The Mermaid Theory.” It definitely had its funny moments. Then I noticed a rather unfortunate similarity to “Rabbit or Duck,” arguably one of HIMYM’s worst episodes. This time around, instead of Rabbit or Duck, we had Manatee or Mermaid, complete with stupid visual gags. It was another one of those recent episodes of HIMYM that tries really hard and, unlike “Blitzgiving,” for instance, fails utterly. There was a “Barney has a wacky theory about women” bit, and there was another bit that was more dependent on the fallibility of memory than anything I can recall on the show previously. Like I’ve noticed at least one other time this season, it felt like an attempt to just throw in all the elements that are “supposed” to be in a good episode of HIMYM.
The episode opens with Saget!Ted telling his kids how the gang liked Zoey but found her husband, the Captain, to be more than a little creepy. In a lovely bit of continuity, Marshall has a big poster made to illustrate why. I believe it was the season 3 episode “Intervention” where we first saw Marshall’s love of using big posters to illustrate his point. The Captain can be smiley and have murderous looking eyes all at the same time. While the gang is rather gleefully discussing this phenomenon, Ted gets a phone call from Zoey. She’s going to a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, and she wants to know if any of the group wants to join her. Ted, always the architecture nerd, is the only one interested. He agrees to go, but Lily cautions him that there are rules to be followed when a single guy is alone with a married woman. This conversation leads Marshall and Robin to realize they don’t hang out much (apparently we’re supposed to forget season 4’s “Little Minnesota”), so they decide they’re going to have dinner.
There’s also a C plot running through the story that I’ll just quickly recap here so we can move on. This would be the plot that is pretty much only about the fallibility of memory. First Saget!Ted says Lily made Barney upset by refusing to hang out. He then realizes this doesn’t make much sense. It makes even less sense when Lily accuses Barney of being over-sensitive, then saves his life by pushing him out of the way of a car. They briefly make up, then resume figting. Saget!Ted really realizes his memory is faulty when he has Barney telling Lily that you don’t call a woman fat. He remembers that it’s Barney who hurt Lily, but the whole picture still doesn’t make sense. After pondering this from time-to-time for the rest of the episode, it turns out that Barney hurt Lily by explaining that she turned into a manatee (an explanation for what that means will come later in this recap) by becoming pregnant. Lily was pregnant when this part of the story went down, but Saget!Ted tells us that was in “a different year.” We also get Ted in a dress- something for which Saget!Ted promises we’ll get an explanation some day. What I didn’t like about this was that it felt so generic. As if the writer said, “Okay, it’s HIMYM, I’ve got to have some faulty memory and a gag we can come back to eventually. Check!”
Back to the more prominent plots of this episode, Zoey and Ted are enjoying the museum exhibit when Zoey gets a phone call from the Captain. The Captain asks what Zoey is up to, and she says she’s out “with friends.” The fact that Zoey felt she had to lie makes Ted realize there could be a problem. He consults with Lily, who says that the problem will be solved if Ted hangs out with both Zoey and the Captain in the future. Ted decides to accept the Captain’s recent invitation to go out on his boat. When Ted arrives at the boat, he’s disturbed to see that Zoey isn’t there. It’s just going to be Ted and the Captain. At sea. Where, apparently, like in outer space, no one can hear you scream. Understandably, Ted thinks he’s gonna die.
Meanwhile, further throwing away “Little Minnesota,” Robin and Marshall’s dinner is seriously awkward. Apparently they are only capable of discussing three topics. Wonder what they discussed all those times at the Hoser Hut and Marshall’s Minnesotan bar, then. Anyway, Marshall says he hasn’t hung out with Robin much because of what Barney taught him was called the “Mermaid Theory.” Basically, the theory is that whenever a guy spends time one-on-one with a woman, a clock starts ticking. Even if the guy finds her completely unattractive (a “Manatee”) at first, she’ll eventually turn into a “Mermaid,” and he won’t be able to stop thinking about her. This is what happens when guys get desperate, apparently. I found this theory to be very immature and paranoid, although I guess it makes sense in that case that it would originally come from Barney!
On the boat, the Captain is being extra creepy, talking about death and isolation at sea. Ted is more convinced than ever that he’s going to die, especially when the Captain mentions Zoey. The Captain goes into the cabin to fetch something, and Ted climbs up on the side of the boat, seriously considering jumping to get away from him. Ted loosens up when the Captain returns simply with some Scotch, but unfortunately, he loosens up a bit too much and accidentally falls into the very cold water anyway when the boat hits a bump. After the Captain gets Ted back on the boat and wrapped up in a blanket, they have a little heart-to-heart. At the end of the episode, Zoey tells Ted that she specifically arranged the boat trip so Ted could spend time with the Captain, and her guilt could be eased. The mermaid clock starts ticking, which definitely earned an eye roll from me.
At the restaurant, Robin asks if there’s any way to stop the clock or “unmermaid.” In a flashback, we see Barney tell Marshall that the way a woman stops being a mermaid is pregnancy. Back at Robin and Ted’s apartment, Marshall’s beer goggles kick in, and in his eyes, Robin begins the transformation to mermaid. It turns out Robin drank quite a lot to get through the super awkward evening, though, and she throws up on the floor. Apparently that’s another way to unmermaid. Luckily for Marshall. I still think the whole thing seemed like way too much of a Rabbit/Duck rehash. I wasn’t impressed.
-Ted
At first, I was mildly entertained by “The Mermaid Theory.” It definitely had its funny moments. Then I noticed a rather unfortunate similarity to “Rabbit or Duck,” arguably one of HIMYM’s worst episodes. This time around, instead of Rabbit or Duck, we had Manatee or Mermaid, complete with stupid visual gags. It was another one of those recent episodes of HIMYM that tries really hard and, unlike “Blitzgiving,” for instance, fails utterly. There was a “Barney has a wacky theory about women” bit, and there was another bit that was more dependent on the fallibility of memory than anything I can recall on the show previously. Like I’ve noticed at least one other time this season, it felt like an attempt to just throw in all the elements that are “supposed” to be in a good episode of HIMYM.
The episode opens with Saget!Ted telling his kids how the gang liked Zoey but found her husband, the Captain, to be more than a little creepy. In a lovely bit of continuity, Marshall has a big poster made to illustrate why. I believe it was the season 3 episode “Intervention” where we first saw Marshall’s love of using big posters to illustrate his point. The Captain can be smiley and have murderous looking eyes all at the same time. While the gang is rather gleefully discussing this phenomenon, Ted gets a phone call from Zoey. She’s going to a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, and she wants to know if any of the group wants to join her. Ted, always the architecture nerd, is the only one interested. He agrees to go, but Lily cautions him that there are rules to be followed when a single guy is alone with a married woman. This conversation leads Marshall and Robin to realize they don’t hang out much (apparently we’re supposed to forget season 4’s “Little Minnesota”), so they decide they’re going to have dinner.
There’s also a C plot running through the story that I’ll just quickly recap here so we can move on. This would be the plot that is pretty much only about the fallibility of memory. First Saget!Ted says Lily made Barney upset by refusing to hang out. He then realizes this doesn’t make much sense. It makes even less sense when Lily accuses Barney of being over-sensitive, then saves his life by pushing him out of the way of a car. They briefly make up, then resume figting. Saget!Ted really realizes his memory is faulty when he has Barney telling Lily that you don’t call a woman fat. He remembers that it’s Barney who hurt Lily, but the whole picture still doesn’t make sense. After pondering this from time-to-time for the rest of the episode, it turns out that Barney hurt Lily by explaining that she turned into a manatee (an explanation for what that means will come later in this recap) by becoming pregnant. Lily was pregnant when this part of the story went down, but Saget!Ted tells us that was in “a different year.” We also get Ted in a dress- something for which Saget!Ted promises we’ll get an explanation some day. What I didn’t like about this was that it felt so generic. As if the writer said, “Okay, it’s HIMYM, I’ve got to have some faulty memory and a gag we can come back to eventually. Check!”
Back to the more prominent plots of this episode, Zoey and Ted are enjoying the museum exhibit when Zoey gets a phone call from the Captain. The Captain asks what Zoey is up to, and she says she’s out “with friends.” The fact that Zoey felt she had to lie makes Ted realize there could be a problem. He consults with Lily, who says that the problem will be solved if Ted hangs out with both Zoey and the Captain in the future. Ted decides to accept the Captain’s recent invitation to go out on his boat. When Ted arrives at the boat, he’s disturbed to see that Zoey isn’t there. It’s just going to be Ted and the Captain. At sea. Where, apparently, like in outer space, no one can hear you scream. Understandably, Ted thinks he’s gonna die.
Meanwhile, further throwing away “Little Minnesota,” Robin and Marshall’s dinner is seriously awkward. Apparently they are only capable of discussing three topics. Wonder what they discussed all those times at the Hoser Hut and Marshall’s Minnesotan bar, then. Anyway, Marshall says he hasn’t hung out with Robin much because of what Barney taught him was called the “Mermaid Theory.” Basically, the theory is that whenever a guy spends time one-on-one with a woman, a clock starts ticking. Even if the guy finds her completely unattractive (a “Manatee”) at first, she’ll eventually turn into a “Mermaid,” and he won’t be able to stop thinking about her. This is what happens when guys get desperate, apparently. I found this theory to be very immature and paranoid, although I guess it makes sense in that case that it would originally come from Barney!
On the boat, the Captain is being extra creepy, talking about death and isolation at sea. Ted is more convinced than ever that he’s going to die, especially when the Captain mentions Zoey. The Captain goes into the cabin to fetch something, and Ted climbs up on the side of the boat, seriously considering jumping to get away from him. Ted loosens up when the Captain returns simply with some Scotch, but unfortunately, he loosens up a bit too much and accidentally falls into the very cold water anyway when the boat hits a bump. After the Captain gets Ted back on the boat and wrapped up in a blanket, they have a little heart-to-heart. At the end of the episode, Zoey tells Ted that she specifically arranged the boat trip so Ted could spend time with the Captain, and her guilt could be eased. The mermaid clock starts ticking, which definitely earned an eye roll from me.
At the restaurant, Robin asks if there’s any way to stop the clock or “unmermaid.” In a flashback, we see Barney tell Marshall that the way a woman stops being a mermaid is pregnancy. Back at Robin and Ted’s apartment, Marshall’s beer goggles kick in, and in his eyes, Robin begins the transformation to mermaid. It turns out Robin drank quite a lot to get through the super awkward evening, though, and she throws up on the floor. Apparently that’s another way to unmermaid. Luckily for Marshall. I still think the whole thing seemed like way too much of a Rabbit/Duck rehash. I wasn’t impressed.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Fringe 3.08: "Entrada"
“It’s all because of that temptress. She tricked my son with her carnal manipulations, and he fell right into her vagenda.”
-Walter
“Entrada” finally brought us the long-awaited return of Olivia to our universe. It’s clear that nothing is ever going to be quite the same, but it’s good to have some of the pieces back in place where they belong. I’m curious how much the Other Side will figure into the rest of this season, since some big changes have taken place there. This two universe experiment was intriguing, and it gave many of the actors, especially Anna Torv, great material with which to showcase their talent, but it was time to put the band back together and move forward. And I’ve got a feeling that moving forward is going to be quite painful. It has to be, after what Peter has done. The final scene of this episode is just gut wrenching in that sense. And on that happy note, on with the more recap-y part of this blog post.
This episode picks up right where the last one left off- in fact, there’s some overlap. We once again see Peter answer the phone call from the Statue of Liberty gift shop janitor. But now we get to see what he does about it. First he’s in a bit of shock. Then, when Alt-livia asks him about the phone call, he lies, saying it was a telemarketer. He feigns going back to sleep, deliberately turning away from Alt-livia. Later, when Alt-livia is asleep, Peter starts snooping. First, he fires up Alt-livia’s work computer. My reaction: “Yeah, right…like the DoJ would ever really issue a Mac.” Alt-livia catches him, but Peter pretends that he’s reading e-mail on his own computer, which is a conveniently identical Mac. He then tests Alt-livia, concocting a story about how he first heard the Greek phrase that Olivia uttered when she regained consciousness after her first trip to the Other Side. Not surprisingly, Alt-livia fails the test miserably. She doesn’t recognize the phrase, and she doesn’t know Peter is telling the wrong story.
Alt-livia figures out pretty quickly that Peter is on to her, and she points a gun at him. She makes him inject a paralytic into himself, and then she makes her escape. Alt-livia’s first stop, naturally, is the old typewriter shop. She forcibly makes the shopkeeper give her the key to the typewriter that connects to the Other Side, and she uses the typewriter to request an extraction due to her blown cover. Meanwhile, a whole FBI team, led by Broyles, responds to a finally-regaining-feeling Peter. I guess Walter must have alerted them or something, even though Peter was at Olivia’s apartment. I know it’s Olivia’s apartment, because Broyles questions what Peter was doing there. Walter tries to cover Peter, telling Broyles that Olivia had called them about possible intruders. I thought that was kind of cute. Walter is such a Peter/Olivia shipper. Peter decides to come clean, though, and he admits to Broyles that he and Alt-livia were more than friends. More importantly, when Alt-livia escaped, she mistakenly took Peter’s computer instead of her own, so the FBI now potentially has a lot of data about the Other Side. It doesn’t take Alt-livia very long to realize her mistake.
Over on the Other Side, Brandon takes a meeting with Walternate, and they discuss the immanent extraction of Alt-livia. Specifically, Brandon wants to know what to do with Olivia once they have Alt-livia back. In order to extract Alt-livia, they have to send something of equal mass across the universes. Brandon wants to know if Walternate wants Olivia to be alive or dead when she’s sent over in exchange for Alt-livia. He’d prefer dead because she has “valuable parts to study.” Alt-Brandon is one sick, sick puppy. Alt-Broyles gets the next meeting with Walternate, and on his way out of DoD headquarters, he sees what has become of Olivia. She’s back in the white gown, screaming as she’s being manhandled by soldiers. He looks horrified for a second, but he plays it off and leaves.
Back in our universe, Astrid has been able to break into Alt-livia’s computer enough that she can see video of Alt-livia’s regular debriefings. Walter is still really frustrated, though, because he can’t find a way to cross to the Other Side safely without Olivia. Broyles arrives with an update. Not only has Alt-livia escaped, but she’s stolen a piece of the doomsday device, too. There’s a breakthrough, though, when Walter starts to eat a pastry. The pastry is from a bakery in the Bronx, and Alt-livia, impersonating an FBI agent in Boston, had no reason to be in the Bronx. The team heads to New York immediately, and it doesn’t take Peter long to find the infamous typewriter shop. He has no doubt that the shop is connected to Alt-livia and the Other Side when he sees his own computer there.
On the Other Side, we see Alt-Broyles in a bar. On the TV, there’s a news story about how it’s the anniversary of a deadly vortex that cropped up in the East River. Alt-Broyles was clearly personally affected by this event, because the news story makes him even more surly than he already was. He is moved to go visit Olivia, and she unsuccessfully begs him to help her escape. He has creepy marks drawn all over her, because before she’s sent back to our universe, Brandon is going to do surgery on her to remove her brain and most of her organs. It’s really rather horrific. It’s even more horrific when we get to the scene where the surgery is about to start. Olivia is immobilized in clear plastic, and she’s not fully anesthetized, because apparently that would ruin her organs. She’s going to be taken apart while only somewhat sedated. Like I said, Brandon is one sick puppy. Luckily, just as Brandon is firing up some sort of nasty looking saw, Alt-Broyles has a change of heart, arrives in the OR, and shoots Alt-Brandon dead.
Alt-Broyles has to give Olivia adrenaline to counteract the sedative, then they begin their frantic run down to the laboratory. Olivia is hoping to jump in the tank one last time and travel home. She sees that they’re already reproducing Cortexaphan in higher quantities- there are bags of it in the lab. Then Olivia discovers something much worse. The tank is empty, so she can’t use it. As she makes this discovery, alarms start going off. She and Alt-Broyles have to come up with another plan quickly. They’re going to go to Boston. Olivia hypothesizes that since Walternate once had a lab there just like our Walter, there might be an abandoned sensory deprivation tank just like the one Walter had Olivia use way back in Season 1.
In our universe, Alt-livia meets up with a shapeshifter at a train station in Newark. They go into a bathroom, and the shapeshifter gives her some painful looking injections, presumably to prepare her for the extraction. An unfortunate woman happens to walk into the rest room. Peter and the FBI team soon arrive at the train station too, thanks to a clue from the typewriter, and Peter spots Alt-livia as she leaves the rest room. Alt-livia sees Peter, too, but she has a plan. She has the unfortunate woman as a hostage. It doesn’t take Peter long to figure out what’s really going on, though, and over her daughter’s screams, Peter shoots the hostage. It turns out that it was the shapeshifter. Peter has no kind words for Alt-livia as she’s led away in handcuffs, although he softens a bit when he sees opens Alt-livia’s bag and sees she kept a strip of photos they took together at one of those cheesy machines.
On the Other Side, Olivia fills and gets in the tank while Alt-Broyles stands guard. They hear soldiers approaching. The soldiers were drawn to their location because Alt-Broyles has a subcutaneous tracking device. Alt-Broyles is able to hold them off long enough for Olivia to finally go home. She winds up in Walter’s lab, where Astrid is just working and minding her own business. To say Astrid is shocked to see Olivia is an understatement. She drops the glass she was holding on the floor. Olivia then passes out.
In New York, Alt-livia is being transported to some sort of holding facility when the extraction kicks in. The Fringe team checks out the now destroyed van, and Peter warns Broyles that he may not want to look inside the van. Inside is the dead body of Alt-Broyles. Remember, in order to extract someone, equal mass had to be sent in the other direction. I guess that was Alt-Broyles. Over on the Other Side, his loss is already being felt. Alt-livia strides into Fringe headquarters feeling mighty pleased with herself. After some banter with Lincoln, she sees Astrid is frantically perseverating on the fact that she can’t contact Colonel Broyles. His wife doesn’t know where he is, either.
All of the intrigue between the two universes is nowhere near over. A shapeshifter visits the typewriter shopkeeper, The shopkeeper has the piece of the doomsday device that Alt-livia stole, and in exchange for that piece of the device, the shapeshifter gives the shopkeeper injections that allow the shopkeeper to walk again. Meanwhile, Peter visits Olivia in the hospital. He’s the first person she sees when she regains consciousness. Right off the bat, he tells her that he’s sorry, but since she has no clue (yet) how stupid and hurtful he’s been, she thanks him for saving her life. She tells him that the thought of him was what kept her going on the Other Side. Olivia is going to be so destroyed when she learns the truth.
-Walter
“Entrada” finally brought us the long-awaited return of Olivia to our universe. It’s clear that nothing is ever going to be quite the same, but it’s good to have some of the pieces back in place where they belong. I’m curious how much the Other Side will figure into the rest of this season, since some big changes have taken place there. This two universe experiment was intriguing, and it gave many of the actors, especially Anna Torv, great material with which to showcase their talent, but it was time to put the band back together and move forward. And I’ve got a feeling that moving forward is going to be quite painful. It has to be, after what Peter has done. The final scene of this episode is just gut wrenching in that sense. And on that happy note, on with the more recap-y part of this blog post.
This episode picks up right where the last one left off- in fact, there’s some overlap. We once again see Peter answer the phone call from the Statue of Liberty gift shop janitor. But now we get to see what he does about it. First he’s in a bit of shock. Then, when Alt-livia asks him about the phone call, he lies, saying it was a telemarketer. He feigns going back to sleep, deliberately turning away from Alt-livia. Later, when Alt-livia is asleep, Peter starts snooping. First, he fires up Alt-livia’s work computer. My reaction: “Yeah, right…like the DoJ would ever really issue a Mac.” Alt-livia catches him, but Peter pretends that he’s reading e-mail on his own computer, which is a conveniently identical Mac. He then tests Alt-livia, concocting a story about how he first heard the Greek phrase that Olivia uttered when she regained consciousness after her first trip to the Other Side. Not surprisingly, Alt-livia fails the test miserably. She doesn’t recognize the phrase, and she doesn’t know Peter is telling the wrong story.
Alt-livia figures out pretty quickly that Peter is on to her, and she points a gun at him. She makes him inject a paralytic into himself, and then she makes her escape. Alt-livia’s first stop, naturally, is the old typewriter shop. She forcibly makes the shopkeeper give her the key to the typewriter that connects to the Other Side, and she uses the typewriter to request an extraction due to her blown cover. Meanwhile, a whole FBI team, led by Broyles, responds to a finally-regaining-feeling Peter. I guess Walter must have alerted them or something, even though Peter was at Olivia’s apartment. I know it’s Olivia’s apartment, because Broyles questions what Peter was doing there. Walter tries to cover Peter, telling Broyles that Olivia had called them about possible intruders. I thought that was kind of cute. Walter is such a Peter/Olivia shipper. Peter decides to come clean, though, and he admits to Broyles that he and Alt-livia were more than friends. More importantly, when Alt-livia escaped, she mistakenly took Peter’s computer instead of her own, so the FBI now potentially has a lot of data about the Other Side. It doesn’t take Alt-livia very long to realize her mistake.
Over on the Other Side, Brandon takes a meeting with Walternate, and they discuss the immanent extraction of Alt-livia. Specifically, Brandon wants to know what to do with Olivia once they have Alt-livia back. In order to extract Alt-livia, they have to send something of equal mass across the universes. Brandon wants to know if Walternate wants Olivia to be alive or dead when she’s sent over in exchange for Alt-livia. He’d prefer dead because she has “valuable parts to study.” Alt-Brandon is one sick, sick puppy. Alt-Broyles gets the next meeting with Walternate, and on his way out of DoD headquarters, he sees what has become of Olivia. She’s back in the white gown, screaming as she’s being manhandled by soldiers. He looks horrified for a second, but he plays it off and leaves.
Back in our universe, Astrid has been able to break into Alt-livia’s computer enough that she can see video of Alt-livia’s regular debriefings. Walter is still really frustrated, though, because he can’t find a way to cross to the Other Side safely without Olivia. Broyles arrives with an update. Not only has Alt-livia escaped, but she’s stolen a piece of the doomsday device, too. There’s a breakthrough, though, when Walter starts to eat a pastry. The pastry is from a bakery in the Bronx, and Alt-livia, impersonating an FBI agent in Boston, had no reason to be in the Bronx. The team heads to New York immediately, and it doesn’t take Peter long to find the infamous typewriter shop. He has no doubt that the shop is connected to Alt-livia and the Other Side when he sees his own computer there.
On the Other Side, we see Alt-Broyles in a bar. On the TV, there’s a news story about how it’s the anniversary of a deadly vortex that cropped up in the East River. Alt-Broyles was clearly personally affected by this event, because the news story makes him even more surly than he already was. He is moved to go visit Olivia, and she unsuccessfully begs him to help her escape. He has creepy marks drawn all over her, because before she’s sent back to our universe, Brandon is going to do surgery on her to remove her brain and most of her organs. It’s really rather horrific. It’s even more horrific when we get to the scene where the surgery is about to start. Olivia is immobilized in clear plastic, and she’s not fully anesthetized, because apparently that would ruin her organs. She’s going to be taken apart while only somewhat sedated. Like I said, Brandon is one sick puppy. Luckily, just as Brandon is firing up some sort of nasty looking saw, Alt-Broyles has a change of heart, arrives in the OR, and shoots Alt-Brandon dead.
Alt-Broyles has to give Olivia adrenaline to counteract the sedative, then they begin their frantic run down to the laboratory. Olivia is hoping to jump in the tank one last time and travel home. She sees that they’re already reproducing Cortexaphan in higher quantities- there are bags of it in the lab. Then Olivia discovers something much worse. The tank is empty, so she can’t use it. As she makes this discovery, alarms start going off. She and Alt-Broyles have to come up with another plan quickly. They’re going to go to Boston. Olivia hypothesizes that since Walternate once had a lab there just like our Walter, there might be an abandoned sensory deprivation tank just like the one Walter had Olivia use way back in Season 1.
In our universe, Alt-livia meets up with a shapeshifter at a train station in Newark. They go into a bathroom, and the shapeshifter gives her some painful looking injections, presumably to prepare her for the extraction. An unfortunate woman happens to walk into the rest room. Peter and the FBI team soon arrive at the train station too, thanks to a clue from the typewriter, and Peter spots Alt-livia as she leaves the rest room. Alt-livia sees Peter, too, but she has a plan. She has the unfortunate woman as a hostage. It doesn’t take Peter long to figure out what’s really going on, though, and over her daughter’s screams, Peter shoots the hostage. It turns out that it was the shapeshifter. Peter has no kind words for Alt-livia as she’s led away in handcuffs, although he softens a bit when he sees opens Alt-livia’s bag and sees she kept a strip of photos they took together at one of those cheesy machines.
On the Other Side, Olivia fills and gets in the tank while Alt-Broyles stands guard. They hear soldiers approaching. The soldiers were drawn to their location because Alt-Broyles has a subcutaneous tracking device. Alt-Broyles is able to hold them off long enough for Olivia to finally go home. She winds up in Walter’s lab, where Astrid is just working and minding her own business. To say Astrid is shocked to see Olivia is an understatement. She drops the glass she was holding on the floor. Olivia then passes out.
In New York, Alt-livia is being transported to some sort of holding facility when the extraction kicks in. The Fringe team checks out the now destroyed van, and Peter warns Broyles that he may not want to look inside the van. Inside is the dead body of Alt-Broyles. Remember, in order to extract someone, equal mass had to be sent in the other direction. I guess that was Alt-Broyles. Over on the Other Side, his loss is already being felt. Alt-livia strides into Fringe headquarters feeling mighty pleased with herself. After some banter with Lincoln, she sees Astrid is frantically perseverating on the fact that she can’t contact Colonel Broyles. His wife doesn’t know where he is, either.
All of the intrigue between the two universes is nowhere near over. A shapeshifter visits the typewriter shopkeeper, The shopkeeper has the piece of the doomsday device that Alt-livia stole, and in exchange for that piece of the device, the shapeshifter gives the shopkeeper injections that allow the shopkeeper to walk again. Meanwhile, Peter visits Olivia in the hospital. He’s the first person she sees when she regains consciousness. Right off the bat, he tells her that he’s sorry, but since she has no clue (yet) how stupid and hurtful he’s been, she thanks him for saving her life. She tells him that the thought of him was what kept her going on the Other Side. Olivia is going to be so destroyed when she learns the truth.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
No Ordinary Family 1.09: "No Ordinary Anniversary"
Sarah's helping me out a bit with some "No Ordinary Family" as well, since this is another show we both watch. Enjoy her take on "No Ordinary Anniversary."
***
“This is what I’ve been missing with my crime fighting. You.”
- Jim
Overall, I found “No Ordinary Anniversary” to be rather entertaining. I especially enjoyed the continuation of the powers conspiracy. Mostly because we get more of Josh Stewart (The Watcher/ “Will”). So, the episode opens with Jim buying roses for Stephanie for their anniversary. Jim says he just wants a night of no kids and no crime fighting. George is with him and as they are leaving the florist, fire engines whiz by. With only minimal prodding by George, Jim goes off to try and see what he can do to help with the fire. Of course, he doesn’t know if he can even survive fire but I guess that’s not all that important when you’re generally invincible. He ends up rescuing a trapped kid and skipping out on getting examined by paramedics. As Jim is leaving the scene, he sees a sufficiently creepy guy watching the fire behind the barricade [ed. note: most obvious TV arsonist EVER!].
Jim gets home to find Stephanie and Daphne arguing about whether Daphne is old enough to supervise when Stephanie and Jim go out overnight for their anniversary. Daphne really doesn’t want the usual babysitter, who is over eighty-years-old. Plus, J.J. wants a new super-fast computer but Stephanie says no. He’ll have to save up the money from his allowance (which leads to the rather annoying Powell junior plot of the episode). They end up deciding that Daphne can be in charge. Jim quickly spills to Stephanie about his flame-retardant abilities and she happily notes it in her little black book of powers, careful to refer to Jim only as “Subject Y.”
The next day at the lab, Stephanie and Katie are examining Jim’s tissue sample when Katie asks Stephanie how she knew Jim was “the one”. Katie really likes “Will” but she thinks he is hard to read sometimes. If only she knew he was working for the bad guy! Anyway, their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Chiles. He’s not happy that Stephanie is once again shutting him out of her research. The poor guy just doesn’t know what’s coming. Meanwhile, we find J.J. at school formulating a plan about how he’s going to get the money for his computer. He overhears some older guys talking about a poker game. He ends up convincing them to have it at the Powell house that night since his parents will be out for their anniversary.
That night, Jim gives Stephanie her anniversary present, a sculpture of their hands he made out of marble. She loves it and it’s a cute scene that shows just how good they are together. In short order, they leave the kids by themselves for the night. Jim gets a call from George as he and Stephanie are heading to the car and Jim is rather insistent that he doesn’t want to know that the fire he helped out with was the fourth major arson in the city that month. Intercut we see the creepy guy from the fire at the beginning of the episode setting a new one in what appears to be an abandoned building using a superpower. It reminded me a little of Pyro (from X-Men).
Jim and Stephanie arrive at the restaurant to find they have a 45-minute wait. Neither is happy about it and, Stephanie calls Katie to go check on the kids. And of course, Katie gets to bring “Will” along because they’ll be stopping before their own dinner date. About the time Stephanie and Jim arrived at the restaurant, J.J.’s poker buddies (well okay so not really buddies but you get the point) show up. After arguing with Daphne, J.J. agrees to cut her in, 50/50 if she allows the game to happen and helps clean up.
Back at the restaurant, Stephanie ends up using her power to switch their name on the list and get a table. It doesn’t last long though, because the name she switched with theirs shows up and the guy is going to propose to his girlfriend. So, Stephanie and Jim give up the table and opt for hot dogs instead. Not quite as romantic as an expensive dinner but whatever floats your boat. As Jim and Stephanie are walking along the street after eating, they come across the latest fire (all put out), and Jim goes to confront the arsonist. Jim tries to beat up the arsonist but ends up getting blasted by lots of fire. Stephanie shows up just in time and uses her speed to knock the guy out. Looks like they could make a pretty good team.
Meanwhile, the nefarious Dr. King calls Dr. Chiles into his office and fires him when Chiles refuses to spy on Stephanie. And thus because the slow demise of one Dr. Frances Chiles. But more on that in the next post. Jim and Stephanie end up at George’s house in the “lair.” They want to get the arsonist out of the hospital so he doesn’t hurt anyone. Stephanie also believes she can find a way to neutralize his powers. They pop by the lab so Stephanie can make a compound to neutralize the bad guy when Chiles comes to the lab to collect his stuff and gives a vague warning that they’re all expendable.
Back at the Powell Estate (sorry, couldn’t resist the Doctor Who play on words), JJ is wiping the floor with the other guys. They end up switching the game to 5 card draw where J.J. can’t see the cards. Things aren’t going well until J.J. enlists Daphne to read the guys’ minds. The lucky streak doesn’t last for long, though. Katie and “Will” have show up and things go downhill fast. They end up finding the poker game and Katie throws the guys out, or so she thinks. It’s really “Will” using his telepathy on one of the guys. Katie does, however, promise not to say anything about it to Stephanie in exchange for Daphne reading “Will’s” mind. Perhaps the most important thing is that Daphne can’t read “Will’s” mind- she just hears static. “Will” does some snooping and finds Stephanie’s journal, shoes and food. As they are cleaning up the mess, Daphne and J.J. discover Jim’s sculpture has been broken. Between now and the end of the episode they make a daring trip to the school art department (which involves bribing a night guard) and fixing it.
At the hospital, George is trying to convince Det. Cordero to let the arsonist go but fails. He’s released into police custody which eventually does allow Jim and Stephanie to save the day. “Will” ends up getting the guy out of the van, but not before flipping it and leaving Cordero and the driver for dead. Jim ends up saving Cordero before one final showdown where Stephanie ends up engulfing pyro-guy in what looks like some kind of flame retardant substance. In any case, he’s not alive anymore. Jim and Stephanie get home to find J.J. and Daphne (and the sculpture) in one piece. If only they knew what kind of trouble lay lurking ahead of them.
“This is what I’ve been missing with my crime fighting. You.”
- Jim
Overall, I found “No Ordinary Anniversary” to be rather entertaining. I especially enjoyed the continuation of the powers conspiracy. Mostly because we get more of Josh Stewart (The Watcher/ “Will”). So, the episode opens with Jim buying roses for Stephanie for their anniversary. Jim says he just wants a night of no kids and no crime fighting. George is with him and as they are leaving the florist, fire engines whiz by. With only minimal prodding by George, Jim goes off to try and see what he can do to help with the fire. Of course, he doesn’t know if he can even survive fire but I guess that’s not all that important when you’re generally invincible. He ends up rescuing a trapped kid and skipping out on getting examined by paramedics. As Jim is leaving the scene, he sees a sufficiently creepy guy watching the fire behind the barricade [ed. note: most obvious TV arsonist EVER!].
Jim gets home to find Stephanie and Daphne arguing about whether Daphne is old enough to supervise when Stephanie and Jim go out overnight for their anniversary. Daphne really doesn’t want the usual babysitter, who is over eighty-years-old. Plus, J.J. wants a new super-fast computer but Stephanie says no. He’ll have to save up the money from his allowance (which leads to the rather annoying Powell junior plot of the episode). They end up deciding that Daphne can be in charge. Jim quickly spills to Stephanie about his flame-retardant abilities and she happily notes it in her little black book of powers, careful to refer to Jim only as “Subject Y.”
The next day at the lab, Stephanie and Katie are examining Jim’s tissue sample when Katie asks Stephanie how she knew Jim was “the one”. Katie really likes “Will” but she thinks he is hard to read sometimes. If only she knew he was working for the bad guy! Anyway, their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Chiles. He’s not happy that Stephanie is once again shutting him out of her research. The poor guy just doesn’t know what’s coming. Meanwhile, we find J.J. at school formulating a plan about how he’s going to get the money for his computer. He overhears some older guys talking about a poker game. He ends up convincing them to have it at the Powell house that night since his parents will be out for their anniversary.
That night, Jim gives Stephanie her anniversary present, a sculpture of their hands he made out of marble. She loves it and it’s a cute scene that shows just how good they are together. In short order, they leave the kids by themselves for the night. Jim gets a call from George as he and Stephanie are heading to the car and Jim is rather insistent that he doesn’t want to know that the fire he helped out with was the fourth major arson in the city that month. Intercut we see the creepy guy from the fire at the beginning of the episode setting a new one in what appears to be an abandoned building using a superpower. It reminded me a little of Pyro (from X-Men).
Jim and Stephanie arrive at the restaurant to find they have a 45-minute wait. Neither is happy about it and, Stephanie calls Katie to go check on the kids. And of course, Katie gets to bring “Will” along because they’ll be stopping before their own dinner date. About the time Stephanie and Jim arrived at the restaurant, J.J.’s poker buddies (well okay so not really buddies but you get the point) show up. After arguing with Daphne, J.J. agrees to cut her in, 50/50 if she allows the game to happen and helps clean up.
Back at the restaurant, Stephanie ends up using her power to switch their name on the list and get a table. It doesn’t last long though, because the name she switched with theirs shows up and the guy is going to propose to his girlfriend. So, Stephanie and Jim give up the table and opt for hot dogs instead. Not quite as romantic as an expensive dinner but whatever floats your boat. As Jim and Stephanie are walking along the street after eating, they come across the latest fire (all put out), and Jim goes to confront the arsonist. Jim tries to beat up the arsonist but ends up getting blasted by lots of fire. Stephanie shows up just in time and uses her speed to knock the guy out. Looks like they could make a pretty good team.
Meanwhile, the nefarious Dr. King calls Dr. Chiles into his office and fires him when Chiles refuses to spy on Stephanie. And thus because the slow demise of one Dr. Frances Chiles. But more on that in the next post. Jim and Stephanie end up at George’s house in the “lair.” They want to get the arsonist out of the hospital so he doesn’t hurt anyone. Stephanie also believes she can find a way to neutralize his powers. They pop by the lab so Stephanie can make a compound to neutralize the bad guy when Chiles comes to the lab to collect his stuff and gives a vague warning that they’re all expendable.
Back at the Powell Estate (sorry, couldn’t resist the Doctor Who play on words), JJ is wiping the floor with the other guys. They end up switching the game to 5 card draw where J.J. can’t see the cards. Things aren’t going well until J.J. enlists Daphne to read the guys’ minds. The lucky streak doesn’t last for long, though. Katie and “Will” have show up and things go downhill fast. They end up finding the poker game and Katie throws the guys out, or so she thinks. It’s really “Will” using his telepathy on one of the guys. Katie does, however, promise not to say anything about it to Stephanie in exchange for Daphne reading “Will’s” mind. Perhaps the most important thing is that Daphne can’t read “Will’s” mind- she just hears static. “Will” does some snooping and finds Stephanie’s journal, shoes and food. As they are cleaning up the mess, Daphne and J.J. discover Jim’s sculpture has been broken. Between now and the end of the episode they make a daring trip to the school art department (which involves bribing a night guard) and fixing it.
At the hospital, George is trying to convince Det. Cordero to let the arsonist go but fails. He’s released into police custody which eventually does allow Jim and Stephanie to save the day. “Will” ends up getting the guy out of the van, but not before flipping it and leaving Cordero and the driver for dead. Jim ends up saving Cordero before one final showdown where Stephanie ends up engulfing pyro-guy in what looks like some kind of flame retardant substance. In any case, he’s not alive anymore. Jim and Stephanie get home to find J.J. and Daphne (and the sculpture) in one piece. If only they knew what kind of trouble lay lurking ahead of them.
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