Supernatural—All Hell Breaks Loose Part II

Supernatural begins its season finale by revisiting last season's finale, music and all. And poor Sam is still dead. And not looking so good, stretched out on a bed while Dean looks on. Bobby comes in with a tub of chicken. Dean isn't hungry. He seems thirsty, though. At least for the whisky. Bobby suggests they bury Sam. Probably a good idea--he's going to start smelling funny any minute now. (How annoyed am I that the demon stole this joke later? Very. Demons suck.) But Dean's in a mood. Bobby's mention that they needs to go save the world puts Dean into a rage. He's hot when he's pissed. And props to Padalecki for not breathing.

Out in the woods, Jake is hanging out next to a campfire. Dude, we don't like you. You stabbed Sam. That's not good. The YED shows up to chat with him. He calls Jake the American Idol. Does that make the YED Simon or Paula? I can't picture either of them saying "the chewy taste of their own intestines." Okay, yeah, Simon would totally say that.

As Sam lies still dead, Dean chats with him about their childhood, and his responsibility to take care of Sam, and how he's failed to do that because he's a screw-up. Dean is way too hard on himself. Finally he tears off in the car. Looks like he's preparing to make a bargain with the Crossroad Demon. Dean, you moron, why would you do that? (Yes, I yelled at my TV.) After much bargaining, the demon finally offers to bring Sam back, but will only give Dean one year. (There's your Season Three quest!) Dean takes the deal.

Sam wakes up. Dean returns, and there is a heartfelt hug. Fangirls squee everywhere. Sam asks what happened. Dean explains. Sort of. But not really. Sam is all gung-ho to go after Jake and the demon, but Dean discourages him, wanting him to rest up from being dead. He tells Sam about the Roadhouse. Sam refuses to rest, so they head to Bobby's in the Impala. Bobby's a bit surprised to see Sam. His tracking of supernatural developments is giving him results very different from last week--stuff is going down like crazy, everywhere except southern Wyoming.

While Sam looks over the data, Bobby takes Dean out to the junkyard and reams him out for making the deal with the demon. Ellen shows up out of nowhere. Bobby gives her a shotglass of holy water to check her (a very smart move). Ellen escaped the Roadhouse because she had to go out for pretzels. Ash told her to check the safe when he called her, before the Roadhouse was torched. In the safe was a map of Wyoming. Bobby works out a connection to the map and Samuel Colt, who built a series of churches and a rail line that formed a devil's trap. Which is why there aren't any demons in that area. They're trying to get inside the devil's trap, which has a cowboy cemetery in the middle. Dean postulates that maybe the trap was put together to keep something inside.

So we're off to Wyoming. Jake is already headed that way, directed by the demon. Jake is supposed to open a crypt in the cemetery, using the Colt as the key. Jake is supposed to fetch a demon army from the crypt, and if he does he can be all powerful and stuff. The Last Temptation of Jake, let's call this scene. And he fails. Probably because he was worn down by the demon's constant yammering. Dude, that yellow-eyed guy can talk.

Dean and Sam are already in the cemetery waiting for Jake. Sam holds a gun on him. Jake tells Sam he killed him. Sam's a bit perplexed by this news, seeing as how he's alive. Jake has new powers of manipulation, like Andy's, and hey, he didn't even have to eat Andy's brains to get them. He opens the crypt and Sam empties his gun into him. I was thinking Sam was evil here, but it looks like maybe he isn't, but in a way that's even worse. Or not. I'm not sure. Sam just emptied the gun into him, and that was so very not Sam, but then again, Jake killed him and opened the gates of hell, so maybe it was a good call to be really pretty sure the guy was dead. Still... not a Sam-like thing to do, and this worries me.

The devil's gate in the crypt opens and a ton of demons emerge. The iron railroad lines of the devil's trap have been breached, so the demons can get out. YED shows up and flings Dean around. The demons look like the black smoke monster on Lost. Maybe there's a devil's gate on the island, too? I mean, the YED was on the plane, after all.

The demon is happy Sam's back in action, and mocks Dean about his deal. He suggests that Sam may not be all Sam. (See? I was thinking that, too. So yet another demon steals my lines. Demons suck.) We get to hear the, "What's dead should stay dead," line again. The demon prepares to kill Dean, but none other than John Winchester arrives to rescue his son. This gives Dean time to get the Colt back, and he shoots the YED. For good. Mary and Jess have been avenged.

The devil's gate closes. John is briefly reunited with his sons, then disappears again. Let's hope not back to hell. It was nice to see him, but I would have liked to have seen more, and it would have been nice, too, if he'd actually spoken.

In the coda, Sam continues to be not stupid and asks Dean what happened to him. Dean tells him the truth. Sam says he'll do whatever it takes to get Dean out of his bargain. It's his turn now to take care of Dean. And there are zillions of (okay, a couple hundred) demons loose now, swarming all over the place. So the Winchesters have something to do for another year, since they got renewed. In another nod to the pilot episode, Dean and Sam prepare to head out to face the hordes.

There are a lot of callbacks to last season in this episode, particularly to the pilot. It looks to me like Kripke hedged his bets here, because this episode would have played very well as a series finale, if it had come down to it. Thankfully it didn't--the official announcement was made today at the CW upfronts that Supernatural will, indeed, be returning next season. And the episode also played very well as a pilot redux--an introduction to a new direction for the Brothers Winchester to follow next year, and hopefully for more years after that. Some questions were left unanswered--we still don't know why Mary recognized the demon last week--and Dean has gotten himself into a nice mess that they'll have to sort out now. So the stage is set, and while I thought this episode was just a shade melodramatic in places, overall it was nicely done. And Jensen Ackles nailed his intensely emotional scenes once again. He's been submitted by the network to be considered for an Emmy for his performance in this episode. I think he deserves it.

Kansas--Carry On Wayward Son



Boston--Don't Look Back

Bones—Stargazer in a Puddle.

Tonight's season finale of Bones is, coincidentally, airing on David Boreanaz's birthday. Happy birthday, David. Have some cake.

Booth and Brennan's case for the week involves a child's body found in a shopping cart in a drained sewer.

Angela and Hodgins discuss their upcoming nuptials. Max Keenan shows up and Booth arrests him under Brennan's protest. Our favorite lawyer Caroline points out that it'll be hard to charge Max with anything because his concocted identity is practically bulletproof. Booth checks out his prints and attempts to rile him up to justify keeping him in jail, but fails.

Angela's reconstruction of the victim's face is an old woman, rather than the expected ten-year-old girl. It's not entirely clear to me why Angela came to this conclusion, though she said the markers "felt wrong." I think that was just a way to get to the line about art making science her bitch, which was funny, but I could have used a bit more forensics here. Anyway, she asks Brennan to be her Maid of Honor. Brennan agrees. There is hugging.

Max came to bring Brennan a ring that belonged to her grandmother. Brennan invites him to stay at her apartment. Booth is unable to trace Max in any way, not even with his fingerprints. He's apparently been disappeared by the FBI. Caroline says they need DNA to prove his identity.

The victim continues to be mysterious--some markers say she's ten, others say she's 80. Brennan postulates progyria, while Angela has found a 22 year old, Chelsea Cole, on the NCIC database that matches her reconstruction. Hodgins asks Zack to be best man. Booth and Brennan notify Chelsea's mother Cynthia. Chelsea had Werner's disease. She appeared to be elderly, but had the mental capacity of a six-year-old. The mother suspects a man who was Chelsea's caretaker, who had been under investigation when Chelsea disappeared. Booth questions the caretaker, who insists he's innocent. He says things weren't going well for Cynthia at the time of Chelsea's disappearance.

Brennan and her dad have more bonding time. Max says the ring will help Brennan find her mother's three sisters, and that her mother wanted her to have it, but Brennan is still prickly because of that fifteen years of abandonment thing. Booth shows up with an order for a DNA sample.

Hodgins asks Zack to be his best man, but the president has asked Zack to go to Iraq, so Zack declines for various Zack-like reasons related to that. Hodgins asks Booth, instead.

During questioning, Cynthia gets worked up and, while taking her AIDS medication, says stuff she probably shouldn't. This is leading toward the mother as the killer, so I hope it doesn't end up there.

Hodgins suddenly realizes he forgot about Angela's father, and goes to talk to him. I still haven't figured out if he's supposed to really be the guy from ZZ Top, or if it's just a big coincidence. Although they did play a lot of ZZ Top tonight... Either way, he's amusing, and obviously understands his daughter.

Hodgins and Zack use sea chimps and spam to determine the cause of death. Chelsea was killed by an overdose of AIDS medication. Suspicion of course falls on the mother, and she's arrested. If she had AIDS, and the daughter died from a medication overdose, why did she spread her meds all over the table earlier? Not very smart. Booth finds enough evidence to arrest Max, and does so, but not after a bit of fisticuffs. In the end, Max goes willingly, knowing if he leaves Brennan again, she'll never forgive him. As an aside, Boreanaz really knows how to hit people hotly. And the segue from hot to dork who's just been clocked in the nuts can't fail to amuse.

Brennan watches a video from her mom. Good thing she still has a VCR. It's all a bit cheesy, but seems to provide Brennan with some closure regarding her mother. I think it's nice that they closed this season with an episode about Brennan's parents, mirroring last year's finale.

Brennan talks to Cynthia. Cynthia is, indeed, the killer, but her motives weren't quite what we'd assume. The parallel between Brennan's mother's abandonment and Cynthia's decision to kill her daughter rather than leave her a ward of the state after her own impending death is somehow strained and poignant at the same time. While the mother-as-killer is far too obvious, and disappointing in that I once again guessed the killer, this scene made up for it in a lot of ways, because the mother's motive added a twist I wasn't expecting. Also, this episode is really focused more on Brennan's issues with her father and the impending wedding, so a thinner plot for the murder case makes sense.

The wedding commences. Booth shoves his foot down his throat regarding Brennan's dress, but he looks so hot in a tuxedo that nobody cares. Angela's middle name is "Pearly Gates." Zack asks Booth what he should do about going to Iraq, and Booth tells Brennan about Max's decision to allow himself to be arrested.

But at the last minute, the ceremony is interrupted by somebody from the state department. Turns out Angela's first marriage was actually valid. Hey, at least she doesn't have her syphilitic husband hidden in the tower room back at the Grange (literary joke!). Caroline tells them to run away, and they do, after sending everybody off to the reception.

And that's the end of Season Two. Season Three starts... um.... sometime next fall, presumably dependent on the baseball schedule. And hopefully at some point they'll go ahead and air "Player Under Pressure," the episode pulled due to the VA Tech shootings, but the network hasn't released any definite information on that yet.

ZZ Top--Give Me All Your Lovin'



ZZ Top--Blue Jean Blues

Good News and Bad News

This week, the networks are having their upfronts, where the schedules for next season are announced. Some good news on the NBC front--Journeyman and The Bionic Woman have been picked up. I'm not particularly excited about either of these, but it's a major network putting out genre TV, so I'm in favor. Plus Bionic Woman has Battlestar Galactica producers in its favor, and I was totally addicted to it as a kid. And Journeyman has Kevin McKidd (Rome) who's totally hot, so I'll check that out. I doubt they'll let him be Scottish, though. I wish they would, because I loves me a Scottish accent.

At Fox, Sarah Connor Chronicles has apparently also been picked up for next season. And although NBC and the CW haven't made any official announcements yet, it appears that Supernatural will be picked up for a third season (yay!), but that Jericho has been canceled (boo).

Heroes—Landslide

I missed some bits here and there due to a GIGANTIC FREAKING HAILSTORM. Jeez. Why is the weather interfering with my TV viewing?

Hiro deems himself unfit to wield the (now broken) sword, becuse he wasn't able to kill Sylar. Hiro insists they can get the sword fixed. Apparently you can find anything in the yellow pages, including people who repair Samurai swords with funky symbols on them. Seeing the lines at the polls, they stop by to talk to Nathan and tell him he goes bad in the future. Of course they didn't realize it was really Sylar. But Nathan still seems like he's planning to carry out Linderman's plans. This disappoints Hiro.

They head for the swordsmith's, where the symbol is on prominent display. And where Hiro's dad shows up. Mr. Nakamura tells Hiro about the history of the sword, while training him in its use. He's pretty spry for an old guy. After an hour or two of training, Hiro feels he's ready to face Sylar. But Ando, thinking Hiro has weaseled out, buys his own sword and heads out to save the world himself.

Today's election day, and Nathan is down in the polls. Linderman tells Nathan his father also had powers, but he was weak, and didn't live up to his potential. Heidi isn't happy about Linderman being in their house. While she's talking to him, she moves her foot. She gets up out of her wheelchair. Mom Petrelli's handiwork?

Niki (or Jessica) and DL scope out New York, looking for Linderman and Micah. Micah's still with Candice, being bribed with comic books. After Linderman gives Micah a pep talk, Candice takes him to the voting booths and has him make them all vote for Nathan. Um, I think that's cheating.

As Peter seems to lose control of his powers, with his hands going all glowy, he asks Clarie to shoot him, but then gets things under control before she has to. Claire tells her dad about her parentage. Bennet tells her they're here to destroy the tracking system. Something makes me think we met the tracking system last week and she was all cute and Molly-like.

Bennet sends Claire with Ted and Peter to hide out in Nebraska. Sounds like Sylar's going to tag along. Dude, nobody invited you. But Peter has picked up Matt's telepathy, and tunes in on Sylar, so they can avoid him, but then Ted is spotted by the FBI and nabbed. Claire and Peter escape via Peter's invisibility powers, but Ted's kinda SOL, since Sylar tipped off the cops.

Ted is taken away in chains. Sylar interferes with the truck. By "interferes" I mean "telekinetically smashes it all to hell." Head-slicing commences.

Peter and Claire get stuck in the resulting traffic jam. They discover what's happened to Ted. Peter asumes Sylar's going to do the kaboom thing. Probably a reasonable guess. Since Sylar killed Peter last time they fought, Peter is understandably reluctant to fight him again. C'mon, all the cool kids have died twice--Buffy Summers, Dean Winchester... It's a good club to join.

Matt uses his mojo to to get himself and Bennet into Linderman's building. DL and Niki show up, as well. Niki remembers throwing Matt out the window. Awkward much? They team up.

Mohinder is still treating Molly, who's responding well. Her powers are coming back, too. Molly is, indeed, the little girl Matt rescued way back in... whatever that episode was a really long time ago. Episode 2? She's also the tracking system he and Bennet have come to destroy. Thompson arrives to spirit them both away to safety, then he goes out to face Matt and Bennet. Bennet kills Thompson while Mohinder watches on surveillance. Bennet holds a gun on Molly, undeterred by her cute Mollyness. Mohinder interferes--standoff!!

Miki and DL confront Linderman--except that looks more like Jessica, casue she's throwing Linderman around like a rag doll. They're really not very happy with him, are they? Linderman offers Jessica 20 million to kill her husband. But Niki wins out. Linderman shoots DL, and then DL puts his fist through Linderman's head, a la Connor and Jasmine in S4 of Angel. DL collapses and dies in Dean's arms. I mean Niki's. Sorry, still haven't recovered from last week's Supernatural. And why do they keep killing off the hot guys? There should be a law.

Nathan arrives with Heidi back in her wheelchair, in spite of her protests, to make his victory speech. Sounds like he stole one of Dean Winchester's mix tapes. His speech about peace and happiness is intercut with Linderman and DL dying, and Mohinder and Bennet holding guns on each other and on Molly. Yes, it's meant to be ironic. Sylar practices using Ted's powers. And man, that just can't be good.

Next week is our Season One finale. News has come down the pike today from the NBC upfronts that not only has Heroes been renewed (although I think we knew that already), but they're doing a sort of Heroes miniseries over the summer called Heroes: Origins. It'll run six episodes, and supposedly will introduce new characters, at least one of which might join the series permanently for Season Two. Also announced--Heroes will remain in its current timeslot.

Free—All Right Now



Heroes at iTunes:

House—House Training

I dropped my House reviews a while ago, because I was running out of things to say besides, medical mystery part was interesting, character part not so much, House still a jerk, Wilson still adorable, Foreman still totally hot. I also fell behind in my House viewage, but I watched "House Training" over the weekend and wanted to say a bit about it.

I haven't watched every episode of House yet--I've seen all of S1 and I think the first third of S2--and I know they've lost patients, but I think this might be the first time they've lost a patient because the doctors plain screwed up. I was seriously expecting House to pull a sudden, miraculous, life-saving diagnosis out of his um...ear in the last ten minutes, but he didn't, and I think it was a better story for that. The character portions were better in this episode, too--House's interaction with Wilson's ex showed a new, almost even meaner side without going over the top, as I felt a couple of earlier episodes did. And Foreman's bits with his parents were wonderful, especially that last, heart-wrenching scene where he searches for absolution and gets it--almost.

And--House still a jerk, Wilson still adorable, Foreman still hot.

Anyway, I thought this episode was worth at least a quickie review. Also, here's a song.

Follow the Leader--Matthew Ryan



House on iTunes: