Jericho—A.K.A

On this week's episode, we finally get some answers about what caused the nuclear holocaust. Big answers. This is a good thing, I think, because the mystery of where the bombs came from hasn't really driven the plots. The show's more focused on how the people are dealing with their current situation--how they got there has become almost incidental. So doling out answers doesn't derail anything, and it makes for a satisfying episode.

After his clue-in on Hawkins' FBI ID from last week's episode, Jimmy voices his suspicions to Jake. They break into Hawkins' house. Hawkins has a whole drawer full of IDs. Okay, that looks a little suspicious, gotta admit. Hawkins returns, and Jake holds him at gunpoint through the first commercial break, during which time Hawkins apparently holds really still.

Jake demands information, and he gets it. Hawkins and Sarah were CIA, assigned to deep undercover assignments to track black market nuclear warheads that were stolen and converted into small, high yield devices and then given to anarchists, domestic militia, etc., by an unidentified leader who's acting as a single source point for these disparate cells. This leads to a lot of subterfuge--the FBI busting the CIA, the CIA turning in the FBI... It all gets very messy, with Hawkins finally having to kill the undercover FBI agent in his cell to keep from blowing his own cover. In the end, though, the plan failed, and someone tipped off the terrorists. Hawkins was sent out with orders to detonate the bomb from his cell. He tried to warn everyone, but it was too late. After relating this story, he shows Jake the bomb buried in his basement. It was intended for Columbus, OH. Jake backs up Hawkins' FBI story with Jimmy, thus cementing an uneasy truce between them. In the end, Hawkins finally makes some connections and works out who the coordinator of the terrorist cells was--it was his boss, the head of Homeland Security. I made this connection when I saw the cane in the flashback sections--what took Hawkins so long? I guess he's under a lot of stress, so maybe we should cut him some slack.

In Subplot land, Emily sets up a school. Unfortunately, learning US history takes a back seat to growing beets in the bathtub. Only Allison stays, saying she doesn't think she should be hanging around at home, certain her mom doesn't want her around. But Darcy comes to meet Allison at school and there is hugging.

Mimi discusses issues with the chickens. She's working up to killing one of them for dinner, with no success. Bonnie's boyfriend spends the night. Mimi, trying to mother Bonnie in Stanley's absence, bans the boyfriend from the house. Yeah, that always goes well. She finally manages to kill the chicken and have a heart-to-heart with Bonnie. There would be hugging except Mimi is covered in chicken blood. Eww.

Elsewhere, Gail and Johnston deal with their grief in their own ways.

Jericho on iTunes:

Lost—One of Us

Jungle Story: Juliet, Kate, Jack and Sayid head back to Camp Lostie from Other Town. Sayid confronts Juliet, demanding information about the Others. She says if she told him everything, he would kill her. Of course Sayid is all badass and implies he'd kill her anyway. (Please refer to the latest episodes of The Dresden Files and Bones for explanations of the difference between "infer" and "imply.")

Back Story: Juliet is with her sister Rachel, heading to her new job (see "Not in Portland"). There she's reunited with Ethan and Batmanuel Mr. Alpert. Rachel is cancer-free and pregnant. Juliet's taken into the company building, where Alpert gives her orange juice liberally dosed with tranquilizers, supposedly for the "trip," which he says will be intense. Alpert won't tell Juliet where she's going, but talks it up good. She drinks the orange juice and passes out. She wakes up strapped into a bunk on board the submarine, and is introduced to Ben as she disembarks onto the island. I don't think I've ever had a job where they made me take tranquilizers. I'm having a hard time understanding why Juliet would swallow all this. The company's story, not the tranquilizers. Well, okay, also the tranquilizers.

On the island, Juliet appears to be more of a hostage than an employee. Since she was able to help her sister get pregnant--Rachel was sterile from chemotherapy, as I suspected when she was introduced--they think she can help on the island. Apparently every woman on the island who's gotten pregnant has died, and Juliet was brought into the mix to try to fix this problem. But once she's there, she's not allowed to leave. After six months on the island, when she asks, Ben tells her Rachel's cancer has returned, and that she's dying, and hands over papers to prove it. But if Juliet stays on the island, he'll cure Rachel's cancer. Honestly, this job sucks.

After three years on the island, Juliet discovers Ben's tumor. No one on the island has ever had cancer. Juliet accuses him of lying to her about her sister, no longer believing that Ben cured her. Ben says he did, but again, Juliet isn't allowed to go home. We see the plane crash from the perspective of the Others--Ben sends Goodwin and Ethan to inflitrate the surivors even as the plane is going down. He tells them to go find out what they can, and to make lists. We still don't know what these lists are about. Maybe lists of people with super powers? Or of kids whose moms burned to death on their nursery ceilings? Have I made both those jokes before? I think I have. I apologize. Ben takes Juliet to see Mikhail. They show her a video feed of Rachel with her child, alive and well, cancer in remission. Juliet is deeply relieved, but she still can't go home.

Beach Story: Charlie hears Aaron crying. Claire is sleeping through it, so he goes to help out. Claire's not feeling well. Jack arrives as they're all hanging out having a meal, followed by Kate, Sayid and Juliet. There's a happy reunion with lots of hugging. Then they see Juliet and everybody gets a little tense. They leave Juliet sitting all by herself on the beach. Except Hurley, who comes to talk to her because he's been sent to keep an eye on her. He tells her about Charlie killing Ethan. Dude, Hurley's all scary here. In a really quiet, Hurley-like way.

Jack talks to the others about Juliet. Nobody wants to trust her. Jack thinks because he trusts her, everybody else should. Everybody else doesn't like this idea. I don't think Jack has half the power on this island that he thinks he has.

Claire starts bleeding from her mouth. Jack goes to try to tend to her. Juliet says she thinks she knows what's wrong with Claire, because she did it to her. It's a reaction to a medication given her to keep her alive through the end of her pregnancy. Juliet gave it to her to keep her alive. Previously, every pregnant woman on the island has died. The episode refers back to Season Two, where Ethan kidnapped Claire and gave her an injection at hte Others' camp. This impresses me, not only because they made an explicit reference to Weird Stuff that Happened a Long Time Ago, but because I actually remembered it.

Claire needs more of the serum to keep her immune system from killing her. Juliet wants to go to fetch more of the serum. Jack tells her to go. She goes, but is waylaid by Sayid and Sawyer. Juliet gets in their faces about their less-than-stellar pasts, since they're doing that to her. Same for Sawyer. Good on her. She heads back with the meds, and after receiving treatment, Claire recovers. The castaways begin to accept Juliet.

But then in a capper to our flashbacks, we find out Ben has coached Juliet on everything she's done. The Others didn't abandon her--they planted her. Claire's "sickness" was caused by an implant the Others put in her and activated deliberately so Juliet would have a ready-made way to get the castaways to trust her.

I like Juliet. I have a feeling, based on how Ben has played her, that she's got her own agenda, and she's not going to be nearly as reliable as Ben expects. But I suppose we'll see.


Downtown--Petula Clark


Lost on iTunes:

Jensen Ackles Wears Eyeliner

A poster for Ten Inch Hero, starring Jensen Ackles, has finally hit the Internet. This movie may or may not end up reviewed here, depending on whether it gets a theatrical release or goes straight to DVD, but in the meantime, the poster is highly gaze-worthy. Jensen is the pretty one with the green eyes and eyeliner. No, the other one. The one with sideburns.

Heads up from many LJ friends/communities, including supernatural_tv and dean_sam.

Blood Ties—Love Hurts

A man, Gary, comes to Vicki asking for help finding out if his wife, Marcie, is cheating on him. Elsewhere, we discover the wife is indeed cheating. With something that makes her scream, and not in the good way. Vicki arrives on the murder scene. The cuckolded husband is, of course, Suspect One, especially since he made a crack to Vicki about hiring a hit man. Bad move.

Vicki meets with Henry at a bar and they chat about the case. Henry does some kind of vampire mojo on her martini. I didn't know vamps could do martini mojo. Henry goes off in a snit when conversation turns to Mike. Men. They're all alike. In this case, jealous. Remember that because it's important.

Marcie's friends share a hottie-pants gardener, Emmanuel, who may have talents other than gardening. Vicki's conversation with him includes a lot of double entendre involving flowers. Cheryl's husband has a collection of old artwork, much of which is fairly explicit. Sort of anthropological statue-porn. Remember that because it's important.

Vicki has a very naughty dream, which she thinks might not have been a dream. Is anybody else thinking Incubus here? While Mike likes Gary for the murder, Vicki is more suspicious of Emmanuel, the gardener. She enlists Henry to question Marcie's friends, thinking they'll respond to his vampire charms. But they all ditch him. Corrine lands on the Incubus idea (she heard me typing). They hear screaming and interrupt a hooded figure attacking Isabel, one of Marcie's friends, in bed. It's in robes and sucks the life force out of her. It looks like the Striga from "Something Wicked" (Supernatural). Later they find Henry golfing and mock him. Then they mock him some more about the women ditching him. I like Henry, but I still find the mockage funny.

As it turns out, Emmanuel is indeed an Incubus, accidentally summoned via one of the idols. But the Incubus isn't the killer--it's a Fury that responds to jealousy, summoned by Cheryl's husband with another of the idols. The last-minute twist isn't badly executed, although the overall jealousy theme is hammered home rather non-subtly. I found it interesting that the Fury gravitated to Henry rather than Mike--they seemed to be equally jealous of the other. One might think that Henry would be less jealous because he's had a longer lifespan to learn to deal with it, but maybe instead he's just gotten better at it over the centuries.

Mike finally seems to be starting to accept the paranormal part of Vicki's new life, but he's using it mostly to snark at Henry. At least he's starting to accept the truth of what she's telling him instead of summarily dismissing her, which makes him less annoying. I'm glad they didn't drag that out any longer than they did, and I hope he doesn't revert. I also really enjoyed the bit at the end between Henry and Emmanuel, as they traded seduction tips.

Blood Ties on iTunes:

The Dresden Files—Things That Go Bump

Tonight we launch into the second-to-last episode of the debut season. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but yep, we're on episode 11 of 12. I hope this show gets picked up--they've done a great job of building on the premise, and it's really starting to gel.

As we open, Harry does yoga. Sun salutes. His form's quite nice. Murphy shows up complaining about a green explosion and dissing Harry's wardrobe. Morgan bursts in with Ancient Mai, who's been injured. We launch into a bunch of exposition for some reason. We know these people by now--why are they telling us who they are? I blame Episode-Out-Of-Order-Itis. After the entry of the High Council folks, a large, black cloud of magical death energy surrounds the building. A figure appears in the blackness and eats one of the High Council dudes. In Harry's words--"That's not good."

With Murphy smack in the middle of all the mystical goings-on, Harry finally gives her a basic primer on his magical abilities. Something is linking Harry's apartment to the Other Side, and they need to break that link to escape. Morgan says they'll deal with Murphy after, as in erasing her memory of the events, and Harry goes postal on him in an entirely hot manner. The spell was apparently cast from inside the building, so they're trapped in Harry's apartment with the bad guy. And the dark cloud is coming inside.

Except it's not just coming inside--the entire building has been shifted into Hell. Where they're trapped. With whoever put them there.

Again--not good.

This was a really good episode. I found myself holding my breath more than once, most notably when Bob went out into the Field o' Death. The twist at the end was great, I thought, and I didn't see it coming at all. (Now lots of people will say, dude, I saw it coming a mile away, and I'll say yeah, right, sure you did, and then there will be hair-pulling and biting and wedgies.) Anyway, it was also a bit disappointing because I really liked Murphy in this episode. Well, until she started barfing green flame. But until then, she was bossy and cool and badass. There were some nicely touching moments between Harry and Bob, and some nice character bits between Harry and Morgan. (Did I mention the Hotness of Harry when he went off on Morgan? Oh, wait, yeah, I did. Sorry.) Even the bits between Harry and Murphy were very well-done--too bad it wasn't really Murphy.

In any case, while I thought the first few episodes were a bit shaky, the last few make me cross my fingers that we'll be seeing more of Harry and Co. after next week's season finale.

Dresden Files on iTunes:

News: Dresden Files/Robin Hood

The Dresden Files moves to a new timeslot tonight, an hour later than previously. That's 10 pm Eastern Time, and you can do the math from there. Also, the April 15th episode, Second City, is the season finale.




Also on April 15th, BBC America will be showing a Robin Hood marathon, starting at 8 am Eastern and running through 7 pm, showing every episode they've aired straight through in order.