BFFL Best Friends For Life

Holy Classic Episode Batman!!! This was a smoker. Probably the best episode for the season and possibly for the series. I watched this one on the edge of my seat!

For the first time that I can recall for this series, they presented the action for the episode out of sequence and did so to great effect. I have to admit, however, that it took me a large part of the show to figure out that they were doing that.

This episode did a lot... Among other things, it moved Lex a bit closer to just being a bad guy. He killed a man with his bare hands and then tried to hide the body. I am also intrigued about what exactly it is that Lex did to Lana. We know that there is something odd about the pregnancy. Given his obsession with the meteor rocks, I'm guessing that somehow the kid is a meteor rock experiment.

The episode also put Lionel Luther squarely back in bad guy territory. He has appeared to be on the side of the Kents for so long, that I was even starting to believe it. He has even kept Kal-El's secret from Lex which is part of why I was getting convinced. But when he threatened Lana this episode with killing Clark, there was no hint of good guy left, just sheer malevolence.

One of the great things about this episode is that we finally get to an event that has been six seasons in the making... Lana discovers the truth about Clark! Best of all, it seems that knowing the secret just brings her closer to Clark than ever before. Too bad she can't tell Clark that she knows, or that she only married Lex because of Lionel's threat.

This series has gotten really strong. I love the writing and the pacing. I am really enjoying the transformation of Lex into uber bad guy and Clark coming into his own as a hero.

Labels: Smallville, tv

Lost may actually be found again. For the first time in awhile, last night's episode went "old school". By that I mean that we went into someone's past for some meaningful connection to their life on the Island. In this case I was shocked to see that the focus was Clare. If you remember back to the very beginning, we know somehow that Clare's baby is "special". What that means is anybody's guess, but I always thought that the next revelation we saw about Clare was going to delve into the baby. I was shocked to discover that Clare is actually Jack's step sister and that neither she nor Jack know that. There is always the possibility for them to discover this fact at some point if either one is carrying a photo of the old man, but it will be interesting to see how this piece of information fits into the larger picture.

Charlie is still slated to die. Desmond's new ability to "see" the future notwithstanding, it seems that Charlie has a personal guardian Angel. It's interesting to see that the future is not written in stone, and is at least easy to change in the short term. What will the writers do to stop the cycle? Will they actually let Charlie die, or will they figure out how to get death to give you a pass? Does dying for a short time count (as in dying and being resuscitated)?

Our fearless foursome (Kate, Locke, Sayid and the French woman) have found the "Others'" home. Jack seems to have settled in like one of the gang, but we have to remember, his tattoo marks him as not "really" belonging. How will the foursome get out? What is the plan now that they are in the camp and clearly outnumbered? The original plan was to rescue Jack. Will Jack want to go? Will the French woman's daughter know who she is? What is it that Ben and the others know about Locke? Why is Locke acting all spooky all of a sudden?

With lingering questions like these, I may stick around after all...

Labels: Lost, tv

I don't know if they changed writers on this show recently or if the existing writers just drank a Red Bull, but the last few episodes seemed to be re-energized in many ways. Granted, some of the characters have gone from great to lame, but overall, the ensemble is working well at the moment.

This week, there were a few moves that I particularly enjoyed starting with the revelation that George's wife Calli is rich. I didn't see that one coming. George's response was priceless. On the one hand, you can see why Cali would keep this a secret from a boyfriend, but from a husband? Izzie keeps predicting the end of their relationship. Is this the straw that breaks the camel's back?

The funny thing about Alex moving into the house is the simple fact that his previous digs have never even been contemplated by his "friends". At least we now know that they all have places to live, even if they are high end hotels.

And finally, I had read about the possibility that they were bringing in an old flame of Christina's this season, but the gossip was about an old female lover. Bringing in her old Medical school professor is great. Especially since he turns out to be a legend in the medical field, a particular hero to Preston Burke and a candidate to succeed the Chief as Chief.

It seems that the drama is back folks....

Labels: Grey's Anatomy, tv

In a world where shows like "Lost" Overpromise and under deliver, it is refreshing to have a show that overdelivers. Heroes is on a roll. The last 3 episodes before the hiatus have all been incredible. This episode was no different. It seems that the hits just keep on coming.

First the good news... Mohinder figured out that Syler was Syler. On my prediction scorecard, I made quite a few points tonight. As predicted, Zane's death was reported in the paper and Mohinder saw it, while Syler did not. Of course the bad news is that like HRG before him, Mohinder failed to take terminal action when he had the chance. All of this leads to the final scene we have all been waiting for, the rematch of Syler and Peter Petrelli. I hope that Peter has enough control over his powers to make this a worthwhile fight. Everything we have seen so far leads us to believe this will be a great fight.

On another side of the country, HRG is ready to betray his organization. The love of his daughter is now his driving force. It seems that he finally trusted his wife to keep a secret. But the organization is onto HRG and now they have him in custody. I wonder what they will do to him next.

There's a new bad girl in town, and she seems to be able to project illusions. Not a shapeshifter, but able to use illusions to appear as anyone she wants. She works for the bad guys, and is the one that found out that HRG had gone rogue. Too bad. We know that he will survive, but the question is how?

Hiro has the sword now, and with it, his powers. He is back in the time travel and teleport business. He can even teleport passengers. Alas, the last we see of him is when he teleports himself and Ando into Post Apocalyptic NYC. Between that and the painting that Issac does of what looks like his own beheading, the bomb is getting closer.

Another hit on the prediction scorecard is Mrs. Petrelli. given the genetic link between all of our heroes, I guessed a long time ago that at least one of the Petrelli parents had some sort of ability. I don't think Mrs. Petrelli is just aware of what is going on, I believe tahat she has a power of her own. Looking forward to that one. At least Clare has been reunited with her other family for now and could be safe from the organization.

Finally, how could I forget the Linderman reveal? And what a great casting choice. Does Linderman have powers also? How does he seem to know what will happen in two years? Just talking about what he plans to happen, or does he really know?

Many of the Heroes are coming together finally, although I have no idea what happened to Ms. Hana Gittlelman, the email reader. Here today, gone to cyberspace?

I hate that they will leave us hanging for so long with so many questions, but at least they gave me something good to watch while Lost was busy being "Lost".

Labels: heroes, tv

Before I get started, I want to acknowledge my BFFL for finding this pic I stole from his post. I know it's not kosher, but Big T saved me lot's of time, so thanks Big guy! Most appreciated. Ok, now that I have that off my chest, even though the show basically took place in HRG home, man ole man what an episode. I don't think I am going out on a limb here, but that had to be one of the best Heroes episode. We learned so much, and yet we were tantalized by what we didn't know. It's nice to see Sulu play the heavy.

I guess why the show resonated so deeply with me is because I have daughters. In the end, HRG's love for Claire surpassed his loyalties to the company. A very telling scene for me was the dialog exchange between Claire and HRG. She basically said, you are not my dad and he said, I am not your biological dad, but I am your father and I love you. When Claire was on the bridge with Mr. memory wipe, she realizes what her "father" is going to do to protect her. Claire does come to the realization that her dad is good dude and he was only trying to protect her even though he didn't have any issues in operating in the grey zones.

These last two shows have been very strong for me, it's nice to finally have some compelling TV to watch, however, I am starting to get disappointed in my other super favorite show, 24, but more on that in a different post.

Labels: heroes, tv

I love the complexity of the characters on this show. They each have some conflicting force in their psyche that makes it hard to predict which way they'll land in a given situation.

Let's start with Kellerman... He seems to have a serious love/hate relationship going with the President. At one point, he was totally dedicated to her. Since then, he has realized that she considers him expendable. His obsession with her could still sway him to turn back into her lapdog, but at the moment, he is feeling so betrayed that his love has turned to pure hatred. He never had any real emotion about Burrows and Scofield, so it is hard to say who his enemies are at any given point. At the moment, it is clearly the president.

Next we have Bellick... He has been hired as the "hound" for Mahone. He is angry that Scofield cost him his job. He is angry that he lost the money. He is angry that he got picked up for murdering his partner. He is angry that he got beat up in jail. He is angry that Mahone seems to be controlling him. He is angry that he hasn't gotten paid. He is angry that Mahone doesn't treat him with respect. He isn't really conflicted, he's just pissed off... at everything and everybody. He just wants one good thing to happen to him. Whoever can make that good thing happens will earn his efforts for the moment.

Finally we have Mahone... He has always been between a rock and a hard place. A basically dedicated Fed at one time, he did something that put him at the mercy of the people running this conspiracy. He has worked for them because of the leverage they have and the fact that they seemed to have a righteous goal: the capture of a convicted killer. Since then, he has decided that being blackmailed was not a good enough reason to do what he was doing and the Puppeteers threatened his family. Then he has been pushed into killing the felons. He was marginally OK with that because they were felons. Now he suspects that Burrows is innocent and that this whole thing may be a big conspiracy. His actions are not in question just because he may be after an innocent man, but because if Burrows is innocent, then it would not be difficult for him to realize that he will be expendable when all of the convicts are dead...

These last few episodes will be hard to predict but worth tuning in for!

Labels: Prison Break, tv

Finally a decent show to watch after suffering through 24 and Heroes. I knew this was going to be a good episode when my wife turned to me and said, this is some sort of guy show right?

Ha! Of course it is - all the elements us manly men like - violence, blowing stuff up, shooting people, tactical formations, hot cars, hot babes and did I mention hot babes?

Sorry for the tangent - What made this episode good was the relevancy to today's issues. The team needed to sneak in to Iran and plant sensors to see whether or not any nuclear weapons development was happening on the down low. Things quickly became a Charlie Foxtrot (CF) and Mack has a very tough decision to make: either execute their translator, or leave her behind to be tortured by the Iranians.

On the home front - two storyline threads - Tiffy is working with a peace activist lawyer and Molly feels guilty for what happened to Jeremy. Jeremy's girlfriend, Crystal, who by the way is from the Firefly and Serenity fame (River Tam- one girl you do not want to mess with, just ask the Reavers) plays MIA when her fiance is back home in the hospital.

All in all, a strong show for me, I cared about all of the characters, the storyline was clean and relevant, and things look to heat up on the home front.

Labels: The Unit, tv

Oh Jack, what a shitty family life you've had. Your brother tried to kill you off last year and nearly succeeded, and now it looks like the plot line is a continuation of last years story line - the ultra far right forcing a "terrorist action" to suspend the Constitution, and hence declaring martial law. I have am having problems with the shallowness of character these far right neocons are portrayed in the white house. I am also have issues with all of the political correctness. Damn people, a nuclear bomb was detonated in the US,(a bit of historical reference here, the first two were dropped in Japan compliments of the USA back in 1945) and the government is worried we might offend some people?

I just have keep telling myself, we have people with spines in government don't we? Hmmm, maybe or maybe not.

In typical 24 fashion, we now have another character being set up via a family member. Remember Edgar last year with him mommy? But we all know what happened to his mom and eventually Edgar. I predict the same fate for Chloe's ex. Pretty bold of me eh?

Now let me tell you what I enjoyed about this episode. The Vice President. Powers Booth from Deadwood fame is the VP, and if I needed a good VP, I would definitely select the head of the Bella Union as my VP. A sort of no nonsense get your ass back to work type of an individual.

Now Jack's dad (again from HBO fame of 6 feet under) is the true villain - he didn't bat an eye when he gave his other son and injection to stop his heart. What a messed up family - they played Jack - good cop bad cop routine, and now Jack not only has to worry about the suitcase nukes, he has to keep an eye over his shoulder and on his dad. Again, let me go out on a limb here, but this might be the last season for this particular story line, so, Jack will probably end up killing his dad to save the world (or save the cheerleader - sorry couldn't resist.)

Labels: 24, tv

This show is starting to piss me off. Yep, I said it, it's starting to piss me off. I would have been fine with the show, but listening to the promos on the radio for this particular episode, you'd think it was the second coming. "If you haven't seen one episode of Heroes make sure you watch this one..blah blah blah, whatever.

OK, here are my problems with it - Sylar - why didn't he just kill HRG dude when he had the chance? WTF? He had no problem killing the good doctor, but when he could have exacted his revenge, why didn't he? I know he's a main character of the show and you really can't kill him off just yet, but come on writers, at least throw in some drama with the breakout.

Hiro - again way too much time spent on his family life and how his daddy has issues with his weird son. So his sister definitely wears the sibling pants, and coming from the Japanese culture they are a bit cold to women in key business positions, but strictly no bearing on the story line.

Niki - more wasted film time, though we did get to see her rear end when they injected her - so, that wasn't too bad.

Ah yes, the surprise, Natan Petrelli is Claire's dad - even though I was positive it was Linderman. Damn, I hate being wrong. Seems that Petrelli likes to get around. Now that begs another question, how did they meet? Were they being tested? What's the connection? We now have our second family of genetic anomalies.

This is slowly turning into a bad soap opera - maybe the writers didn't expect to get picked up for the entire season? Who knows, but if they don't start getting back to the story line, this will be one slow I will no longer waste my time watching.

Labels: heroes, tv

From time to time, shows seem to take a break from the fast action, whoa nelly story line and create dialogue or sub plots that are simply time fillers.

This episode was just that - I sat there and watched it and kept waiting for something to happen. The best part of the whole show for me was next week's previews.

Claire finds her 'real' mom and we get a glimpse of Claire's 'real' dad in the previews for next week. Let the speculation begin! Like I said, I enjoyed the previews a lot more that the actual episode.

In talking with several fans of the show, I am going to predict Claire's real Dad is Linderman. Also, HRG dude works for Linderman, and the whole save the cheerleader, save the world thing is because of Linderman. Linderman is connected to several key characters of the show. The money that was stolen belonged to Linderman. Petrelli went to Linderman for a campaign loan, Linderman is purchasing all the paintings from Issac, Linderman has the sword, Linderman had Nicki strip and dance and set up Petrelli so it all points back to him.

Linderman is a powerful Mafia boss, or organized crime leader (I'd hate to slander my Italian friends not all Italians are in the Mafia) so he moved up the crime ladder - does he have any powers? If Claire is really his daughter and his wife has the light me up power, seems to me Linderman may have a power too.

HRG dude must also have a power - we just don't know what it is...maybe it's an ability to be immune to people with the genetic alteration? Maybe in his science experiments, they discovered a serum to counteract these abilities. I am thinking of the plot line in the other science fiction show -the 4400.

So, next week should be a really good episode - can't wait!

Labels: heroes, tv

The title of this episode kinds sums it all up - it took a break from the fast action, hard paced plot line and decided to take a break and explore the human condition.

Gaius is definitely delusional - he thinks he's a Cylon -

We have 4 characters in a marriage that shouldn't really be married to one another

We have a makeshift bar created in a battlestar

LSD or some type of hallucinogen is used to interrogate Gaius

Revenge rears it's head with Gaeta looking to take out Baltar

Madam President plays the nice heavy for once

It almost felt like I was watching a prime time soap opera and not my favorite Sci Fi show. Some people may like the exploration of the human condition and after several weeks high impact tension, it's nice to take a little break. But I need tension in my drama. I really don't give a rat's ass about Lee vs Starbuck Lee vs Dualla Starbuck vs Lee Starbuck vs Anders. One too many loopbacks for me.

So, I guess, I wasn't too hot on this episode, I'd rather see more drama.

Labels: Battlestar Gallactica, tv

I have to admit that when I first heard about the concept for this show, I was excited about the program, but I was worried about whether or not you could really get more than one season out of breaking out of prison. Then when they ended the first season with the actual prison break, I thought "I'm not sure how much more you can get out of this. The road has got to be running out soon." Well let me say that happily I was wrong. Even after the winter break, this show has kept going and going and without getting to the point where it seemed contrived.

The season opener was as strong as ever. Last season ended with Agent Kellerman shooting Mahone to rescue Scofield and his brother. Kellerman shot Mahone. Mahone survived. Mr. Kim threatened Mahone's family and now Mahone is on the warpath as well. It seems that all the forces in the world are lining up against the President and her grand conspiracy. It will be fun to see how the writers keep this going. Even with all they have done so far, I'm still trying to figure out how you get a third season oput of this...

Labels: 24, tv

Holy Evil Twin Brothers Batman! Talk about piling on the drama. First they have Jack kill Curtis.. then they have a nuke go off in Valencia California... then as it that were not enough, they bring back the mastermind from last season to add a dash of salt only to stun us with the revelation that the guy who wanted Jack dead last season was in fact, JACK'S BROTHER!!!!!! (DUHN DUHN DUHNNNNNN -dramatic music).

Where did all these new relatives come from? So far, we've added a sister to the Presidential Palmer family and a father and a brother to the Bauer family. We have added a long lost love of Jack's and possibly, one of Jack illegitimate sons. It seems that Evil Bauer is every bit as smart as Good Bauer. We don't know if daddy dearest is good or evil. With sons on both ends of the spectrum, who knows. In the nurture versus nature debate, this certainly makes us lean towards nature.

We haven't even hit lunchtime yet and I'm breaking into a sweat...

Labels: 24, tv

It may be wrong to love corny, but if loving corny is wrong, I don't want to be right. I was expecting a little mre, but I have to say that I loved the whole premise of the superdudes getting together to foreshadow the creation of the justice league. It would be tough for them to continue Smallville forever since Clark is quickly becoming a man, so this creates a nice out for them. It is also a nice way for them to segueway Clark from local do gooder to world saver.

The writers have also set themselves up nicely for a new series based on the Justice League if they ever got the notion. The series would automatically inherit a large portion of the Smallville audience, especially if Smallville went away and Tom Welling moved over to the new show as Superboy.

It's interesting to me that they also gave a rationale for the power monger that Lex Luthor eventually becomes. We know that he will end up being a super baddie, and now we see that his initial interest in collecting what become super villains started out as an effort to protect humanity from unregulated super humans. You know what they say about power...

I expected that this episode was going to pit the new Justice League against some of Lex's other super humans. I guess that will have to wait. For now, we'll have to settle for watching Clark take out the remaining Zoners....

Labels: Smallville, tv

When will they finally start listening to Jack? For crying out loud, every season we have Jack desperately asking for the guys in charge to just listen to him. Each season they don't. And of course, each season, they utter the phrase "Jack was right".

Should we keep a scorecard this season? So far, Jack has asked that they listen to him that Fayed is the guy in charge. They didn't listen. He tried to get Curtis to treat Assad like part of the operation. He isn't listening. He tried to tell them to follow the courier back to Fayed instead of trying to take him at the self storage place. They didn't listen.

And since we are talking about bad calls, can I say that the husband who brought the "component" to the terrorists is still the winner of the "bad call" award through the first 4 hours. If he had not done that, his son "might" have died, but Valencia would still be a good place to get oranges...

Do the writers of this show really expect us to believe that a president could get advice from long time trusted advisors and then decide he was just going to stay the course?? But I digress.

It looks like Joe was right about nuclear...

Also, it looks like we found the first guy working undercover. If he was working at the detention center, does that mean that we have our first traitor working for homeland security? Wasn't Karen's group homeland security and didn't they get infiltrated last season?

And with Curtis dead in the first week (is he dead?), we can only impagine who else will die. Makes you wonder if these guys are nervous when they are given each new week's script. One down, my guess is at least one more to go.

The stakes this season are incredibly high. This one will be a nail biter.

Labels: 24, tv

Welcome back Jack Bauer! (spoilers below)

The season started off with a bang to say the very least. America is under attack - suicide bombings happening all over the country - this has to be one of the most realistic, plausible settings for our CTU show.

The show acts as a prism of what we are facing as a nation. We have Islamic fundamentalists attacking our country, the political correctness of racial profiling, civil liberties coming under attack, mention of the ACLU, simple minded chief of staff at the White House (Dr. Harry Fleinhardt from Numb3rs), and a very large debate happening in the White House between Homeland Security and civil liberties.

We find out the Jack is coming back via a negotiated release from the new President Palmer (the kid brother Wayne) but only to sacrifice his life for the location of the suspected ring leader of these terrorist attacks.

I am not going to recap the entire episode, there are plenty of good sources out there but I am going to note the predictable plot themes.

Sympathy for our English speaking next door neighbors. I knew immediately the kid was dirty once I saw him make is appearance. Interesting how the FBI did have the right family, just the wrong member.

Chief of Staff - the villain of the show - there needs to be a major character in the plot line to create the drama and he so far is the guy to create the tension between Grandma Hays and himself.

Jack will always be Jack - In spite of his 20 month ordeal (being tortured by the Chinese) Jack always finds away to bounce back and do what he does best - KILL people. Got to love him, did ya get a good laugh on how he escaped? That had to be one of the best scenes in 24 so far!

The hanging chard theme. The way Jack looked back to his Chinese tormentor, you know this isn't the end between them. Let's just say, I am sure payback will be a bitch.

Heroes will be villains and vis versa. How long before one of our good guys ends up being really a bad guy?

As I mentioned earlier, the sympathy theme. The President's sister is an attorney, representing an Islamic - American alliance will not turn over personnel records to the FBI - plus she has a relationship with Commander Lock from the Matrix movies. This may be the major plot theme of the story as it progresses throughout the day. Is Lock dirty? Is Ms. Congeniality 2 being duped? Ahh, only time will tell.

My plot predictions

1. A nuclear dirty bomb will go off somewhere in the US and Jack will not be able stop it.
2. There is a spy working as a staff member in the White House
3. CTU still doesn't know how to screen employees as I am sure one of them will end up being a double agent.
4. Chloe will break some rules (she has already) but Henderson will protect her.
5. Many of these new characters will die! - that's a really bold prediction by me eh?
6. Jack will get his mojo back.
7. Jack will not go to the bathroom this entire day.
8. Jack will not eat anything for the rest of the day

I think that's it for now.

Labels: 24, tv

I am going to miss Billie Piper. She played the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler in this second series of the recently relaunched Doctor Who.

This show is unique in a very interesting way. There are only2 main characters at any given time, and they seem to change just when you start to really like them.

As noted in an earlier post, this series has run for a very long time. During that time, there have been 10 Doctors and an assortment of companions. In fact, I believe that there was only one episode in over 20 years where the Doctor traveled alone. Since the relaunch of the series that companion has been Rose Tyler. I thought they made a great combination. She brought just the right amount of energy, wild eyed enthusiasm, fear and and absolute sense of confidence in the Doctor to the role. Now, after just 2 quick seasons, she's gone. Not dead, just moved to a parallel dimension that is impossible to travel to again (sigh).

It was a good way to end the season, however. This episode brought together some of the peripheral characters from the Rose arc (her mother and Micky). More than anything, this episode showed how attached The Doctor had become to Rose. Despite his glib nature, he actually cried at the thought of never seeing Rose again. I guess that I'm not the only one that will miss her.

Labels: tv

There is one major problem with mini series that are developed to test the waters for a series... that is that the miniseries can never bring the story to resolution. The Lost Room is no exception. The good news is that sometimes the result is a very good series, like The 4400 or Battlestar Gallactica. I'm not sure what sort of series will come from this, it's too early to tell. But I will say that the mini series could have had a more satisfying conclusion if it didn't need to keep the storyline open.

The premise is interesting. The Lost Room from the title, is apparently motel room #10 from a motel in New Mexico where something profound happened a long time ago. One of the many weird things, is that this motel apparently only had 9 rooms at the time. Somehow, this mysterious event, in this non existent room caused everything in the room, including the occupant, to take on mystical and sometimes bizarre abilities. For example, the comb that was in the room at the time of the event, can stop time for 10 seconds at a time. It seems that everything in the room, no matter how seemingly innocuous, has become an "object" with an ability. Objects include the room key, a deck of cards, a pen, etc. In addition to their normal abilities, "objects" may display new abilities when used in combination. Finally, all "objects" are indestructible when not in the "room". The ability of the room key, is that it can open any door, and take the user to this lost room, which exists outside of our normal time/space.

The story focuses on detective Joe Miller, who gets the key through a series of events, and has to piece together what the key is and what it does. The other main characters are collectors of "objects" who operate on both sides of the law. For some, the event and the objects form the core of a religion.

The show's viewers tag along with Joe as he unravels the history and mystery of the room. Along the way, we meet all of the various groups who are also aware of and interested in the Room. We get a glimpse of perhaps 10 of the 100 objects. At the end, something happens to Joe that seems to bind his future to the room. At that point, the show comes to a very sudden end.

I see the possibilities for a series, I just don't know if it really has legs. I'm not sure what process is involved in helping the TV deities decide whether a show goes on to the next phase of having a show, but I would at least be interested in seeing what they can do with it.

If you have not seen the miniseries, it's probably a pass unless they commit to the series. Otherwise, the miniseries will leave you wanting more, with no way to get it.

Labels: Mini Series and Movies, tv

It's been a long time since I've actually spoke to my television screen, but Friday night, right after this episode, I said NO! My wife and daughter both turned and looked at me wanting to know what was wrong, I told them that I just saw the last episode of BattleStar until next January, and there's one hell of a cliff hanger! They both laughed at me.

Brief synopsis: The crew is on algae planet harvesting as much food supplies as possible, when the chief senses something in the mountain. He just walks away to go check it out. When he gets to the top of the mountain, he stumbles across a temple with 5 rather large stone edifices pointing upwards. Now this number 5 seems to be very significant not only to the humans but also to the Cylons. There are 5 models we do not know about and the Lucy Lawless character keeps killing herself just to download and "see the faces" of the 5.

Inside this temple, there's an artifact, the eye of Jupiter, which points the way to Earth. Now, it gets really interesting as 4 Cylon base ships show up in search of the eye. Both Baltar and Lucy Lawless have guided the Clylons to this planet as some sort of divine or spiritual quest. As the Cylon's show up, the rest of the fleet jumps out of space, but the Galactica remains. The Cylons do not launch their fighters but rather want to meet with Admiral and President. In one of those moments you knew it was going to happen, bad Sharon tells good Sharon her kid is alive on the base ship, showing that the President lied to her.

The Admiral cuts the negotiation's short by threating to unleash the nuclear weapons destroying the planet. Now a real nice point was made by Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap fame, wanting to call the humans on their bluff. He basically said, so what, let them blow up the planet, we are machines, we can look forever.

There are so many cliffhangers left open in this episode

• Is Starbuck ok?
  
• Will Lee and Starbuck finally leave their spouses for each other?
• What is the eye of Jupiter?
• Is it that round object on one of the stone edifices?
• Is Baltar a Cylon?
• Will Athena go balastic and revert to her Cylon ways now that she knows her baby is alive?
• Will Baltar and D'Anna make it to the planet?
• Is the Chief a priest?
  
• What about the nuclear weapons?
• Will the sun go supernova and vaporize the entire solar system?

I am sure there are more, but as far as mid season cliff hangers, this one was pretty gosh darn good.

Now my only complaint deals with the return of the show - Sunday evenings starting at 10:00pm. Don't these people know I need my sleep?

Labels: Battlestar Gallactica, tv

I haven't posted about this show in awhile, but since we are in winter haitus with all of our other normal shows, I was actually looking forward in watching this one.

This particular episode peaked inside the human mind and how people choose to react. We had examples of racism, courage under fire, self preservation, honor, spousal abuse, and above all integrity.

The show starts off with Jonas celebrating with his father receiving the Silver Star some 50 years after the fact - at the time, you just don't award enlisted men the Silver Star, especially if they were black. The family is all together - celebrating this momentous occasion, Jonas is taken back by his nephew who is a recent Iraq war veteran, abusing his pregnant wife.

OK, mistake number one, you do not want to get an army ranger pissed off at you - the nephew is a bloody mess and that's just in the first 5 minutes. The nephew feeling sorry for himself, is convinced his behavior is justified because of post traumatic shock syndrome. Jonas will have none of that as we all know he was tortured during last weeks episode and he came home fine :)

One of the better lines of script for me was the deflection of the chicken hawk argument, well what do you know, you've never been to war - you have no idea what I am talking about - whereas Jonas responded with a reference to the Grand Canyon, I've never been there either, so that means I can't talk about that either?

Jonas and his nephew are having a man to man conversation in the bathroom, and during this conversation, Jonas is talking about his father - fighting in Korea - in an all white army, later on, moving forward in a bus with a young Jonas in Alabama facing a couple of KKK members brandishing a gun and chain. In all of these little stories, Jonas talks about the character of his father, and how he measures himself to the high standard his father set. Am I worthy enough is the question Jonas asks.

Jonas is very proud of his father, and he wants his father to be proud of him, so when his dad asked him are you still shuffling papers at Camp Lejune, I thought maybe Jonas would whisper in his ear what he really did. But no, even with his own flesh and blood, duty and honor takes precedent over family.

The last scene with Jonas talking to his niece was a wow - didn't see that one coming. The niece ran up to Jonas as he was getting into the car, and asked him, did grandpa kill those men (the KKK dudes), without hesitation, Jonas responded, he sure did. The show then flashed back to that moment when Jonas went into military survival mode and took them both down.

Labels: The Unit, tv