Supernatural finale: No Rest for the Wicked

3.16 No Rest for the Wicked

Dean: "You're not going to bust out the misty goodbye speech. If this is my last day on earth, I do not want it to be socially awkward."

Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Come on. Did they have to leave us for the summer with that image of Dean in a devil's cobweb screaming for Sam?

Part of me knew they were going to do it. And I must admit I'm partially relieved that they didn't cop out and give us an easy resolution to an insoluable problem. But the other part of me is completely, totally bummed that my supersweetie Dean just went to Hell. Jeez. Did they have to? Really?

Except for the ending, this was an excellent episode. Dean and Sam singing Bon Jovi together at the top of their lungs alone was worth the price of admission. The Siege of the Suburbs was particularly cool, especially the holy water in the sprinklers. The thing with Lilith and the family was right out of the famous Jerome Bixby story, "It's a *Good* Life," and it never hurts to go back to the classics.

But ... Dean went to Hell. I didn't want Dean to go to Hell, dammit. How can they possibly bring him back? It's not exactly easy to get out of Hell, and Dean's cute little bod is, well, dead. (Dean's death scene was way too graphic, a real shocker.) I was thinking that maybe Bela going to Hell too might be relevant. And hard to tell what happened to Ruby -- Lilith sent her "far far away" -- but Ruby could be back in Hell, too. Lest we forget, Daddy Winchester is also in Hell. I'm sort of picturing the four of them in a Dante-esque trip through the circles of Hell to freedom, although the special effects might strain the CW's budget.

Personally, I think that Sam's untapped "dormant power", strong enough to defeat Lilith, is the key. Dean essentially sacrificed himself for Sam *again* by not letting Sam tap into that power. But now that Dean is no longer around to yell at him about it, Sam is free to try pretty much anything he wants to retrieve Dean. Even going Dark Side. And he'd do it for Dean, we all know he would.

The abbreviated season three was pretty good, although they sort of dropped the ball with the escaped demons thing. And next season should be pretty interesting. I'm betting that, if Sam does tap into his demonic power, he'll become a different person. Losing Dean will certainly change him. And Dean probably won't be the same when he comes back. If he comes back. But hey, he pretty much has to, doesn't he? Sam can't carry the show alone.

Bits and pieces:

-- We got our usual finale previously on to "Carry on, Wayward Son". Love it.

-- This week, we went to New Harmony, Indiana. Dean was "Mr. Hagar."

-- The cop car they covered up was number 54. I seem to remember a very old show called Car 54, Where are You?

-- The little girl who played the new incarnation of Lilith was very good. That's not an easy role for a young child to play convincingly, as Kirsten Dunst can attest. Good thing Sam didn't accidentally kill her when she wasn't possessed, huh?

-- I liked the idea of Dean being able to see beneath the surface as he grew closer to the veil between life and death. That would be a handy talent to hang on to when they bring him back. Speaking of which, why did Dean see Sam as demonic in the teaser? Was that just an hallucination? Or was that (again) Sam's "dormant" whatever?

Quotes:

Dean: "Let's just make a TJ run, you know? Some senoritas, cervezas, we could... what's Spanish for donkey show?"
Sam: "So if we do save you, let's never do that."

Sam: "And you decided to tell me this just now."
Ruby: "Uh, Demon? Manipulative is kind of in the job description."

Dean: "So that's you, huh? Our slutty little Yoda."

Dean: "She wants you to give in to this whole demonic psychic whatever, okay? Hell, she probably wants you to become her antichrist superstar."

Dean: "We got the knife."
Bobby: "And you intend to use it without me. Do I look like a ditchable prom date to you?"

Bobby: "You're piercing the veil, Dean. Glimpsing the B side."
Dean: "A little less new agey, please."
Bobby: "You're almost Hell's bitch. So you can see Hell's other bitches."

Another strong, emotional, personal season finale. Four out of four stars,

Billie

For all of my Supernatural and other show reviews, go here.

Smallville finale: Arctic

Lex: "I must admit, Clark, this is a big step up from the barn."

Smallville is famous for its season finale cliffhangers. Dan and I had a bet on it. I thought there would be the traditional four cliffhangers. Dan went for five or more. In truth, we only got three. And they weren't what I expected. Kara in the Phantom Zone. Chloe arrested by Homeland Security. And Fortress go boom.

Like the Fortress, this episode sort of fell flat as it meandered to an all too brief conclusion. I had thought (silly me) that this episode would be about Lex and Clark and the Fortress. But the story didn't get there until the last five minutes, when we got a very Zod-looking Lex finally, FINALLY learning Clark's secret. That was a moment they'd been working up to for seven years. And as cool as it was, it wasn't quite enough. I wanted a lot more, and I don't feel all that happy about waiting until fall. Plus we never saw Lex controlling Clark, something they'd been working up to for awhile. I assume there will be Michael Rosenbaum guest appearances in season eight to finish up that story.

The Kara-was-really-Brainiac plot was completely predictable; she practically screamed "I'm possessed." Clark killing Brainiac was satisfying, even though we all know it won't be permanent; and I even got the impression that Brainiac was goading Clark into killing him. Maybe he soaked up all the electricity somehow and will reintegrate in a transformer somewhere.

At least Lana is gone, leaving Clark a Dear John recorded message much like the one she left Whitney. (I thought at first she'd left Clark a mix tape.) I won't hope that she's gone forever; that's been like Charlie Brown and the football way too many times. But Lois did show up right after the final goodbye, which felt like a passing of the torch. And did I sense a tiny bit of sexual tension between Clark and Lois, as well as some affection?

Come on, Clark. Take the job on the Daily Planet. We all know you're gonna at some point.

Bits and pieces:

-- Chloe apparently hit Brainiac with a white light and weakened him before she collapsed. Is Chloe more than just a meteor freak with healing power? Is she a superhero in the making? And wouldn't that be cool?

-- Clark and Kara/Brainiac destroyed the barn. The Kent farm and/or the Fortress gets blitzed on pretty much every season finale, so that was to be expected.

-- Edward Teague bit the dust on his way to Argentina.

-- Back to the Smallville Medical Center. As I've said before, every character on the show should have a permanent locker there.

-- I liked the vending machine ring Jimmy got Chloe. Very cute.

-- During Lana's goodbye to Clark, the background music practically drowned them out. Very distracting. Not that it was an emotional moment for me, anyway.

Quotes:

Jimmy: "Lying is just, it's not my thing. It's eating me up, it's making my stomach hurt."
Lex: "It's never too late to learn a new skill."

Lex: "You see, you live among us as a mild-mannered farm boy. But secretly, you're a strange visitor from another planet plotting our demise."

Lex: "I love you like a brother, Clark. But it has to end this way." I did think it was touching that what bothered Lex the most was that Clark had rejected him.

This finale was much like this season -- a bit fragmented, with too much emphasis on plotlines that didn't interest me. I'm giving it three out of four stars,

Billie Doux

Iron Man delivers

(Spoiler-free review by guest blogger Daniel Halloran)

There have been a lot of reviews of this movie. And most of them have been positive. General fan and viewer reaction has been overwhelming positive as well. So what is so great about this movie?

First and probably the most important reason, Robert Downey Jr. He gives a stellar performance as a hard drinking womanizer who is literally shown what it means to be human. In true superhero fashion, he constructs the ultimate human weapon: a perfect blend of man and machine.

The premise of Iron Man is similar to that of Batman, but with a significant difference. Downey's character Tony Stark is not a tortured soul seeking to define his life after unspeakable tragedy. He is someone who suffers tragedy because of who he is and what he does. Although the journey is familiar, the beats are different. This is a more personal journey than even Spider-man's. Sure, there's a lot of spectacle, but there is also a tremendous amount of heart.

Although Downey is the major attraction, the entire cast is excellent. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, Stark’s faithful and dutiful assistant who has devoted her entire life to Tony. What makes her character work is that the relationship between the two feels very genuine. There is a lot of chemistry between the actors, which makes up for the fact that Pepper doesn’t do a lot in the story itself. Also Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes delivers a good performance as the straight man to Downey’s more flamboyant Stark. Howard makes Rhodes likable and memorable despite a lack of real character development. Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), Tony Stark’s mentor and business associate, could have been a very two-dimensional character, but Bridges manages to bring believability and a sense of history with Stark that makes the character work.

A great majority of this film was improved, or written, on the set. How did they make this work so well? The answer is Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man works. This is a good movie. Perhaps even a great movie. Yeah, it's not in the same league as, say, Atonement or Schindler’s List, but they can't really be compared; they're different genres with very different rules. With Iron Man, they pulled off an effective origin story that felt new and not like a retread of old story elements and ideas. The cast, writing, and direction were all top notch. They even pulled off that moment where the hero is presented for the first time that had me on the edge of my seat. The last time I remember feeling like that in a movie was when Yoda became a ping-pong ball in Episode II.

I highly recommend this movie. It's suitable for pretty much all ages, although there are a few references to sex and more than a few instances of alcohol consumption. If I had to rate it on a scale, I think I would break it down like this: it's better than the first Spider-man but not as good as the original Superman, Batman Begins, or Spider-man 2. Which I believe makes it number four on my all time favorite comic book movies list.

Review of Smallville episode, "Descent"

Below is my review of this week's Smallville episode. Spoilers ho!

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Lex: "I was raised in your shadow. Now you're going to die in mine."

I'm really bummed.

Yes, I am well aware that total evil was always Lex's ultimate destination. We're even near the end of the series, so it's the right time for it to happen. And granted, it was quite poetic and appropriate that killing Lionel was Lex's final, fatal trigger.

But Lex and Lionel are two of my three favorite Smallville characters (with Chloe the third), and I've always loved Lex's internal struggle with good and evil. And now, Lionel is dead and Lex has gone completely to the Dark Side, literally tossing his small, red-haired conscience into the flames. I feel like the Lex I loved just died, too, just like Lionel. I've never been one of those fans who says, "if they kill off so and so, I'm not going to watch any more." But frankly, if they kill off Chloe in the season finale, I could very well be out of here.

I think I'm upset because, after seven seasons, I feel like I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Lionel. He died in the *teaser,* and that really lessened the impact for me, pun intended. The concentration was entirely on Lex and Clark. And okay, maybe that was appropriate. I did like that Clark acknowledged Lionel as one of his three fathers, that Lionel died protecting Clark, the way Jor-El and Jonathan did. The cemetery scene was interesting and moving. Lionel deserved a huge, Hollywood crypt and a big funeral with a Dixieland band. That flat, uniform stone in that flat, uniform cemetery reflected my mood. I think it also represented the way Lex felt. In other words, nothing.

Poor Gina, the deluded minion. She was in love with Lex and literally flirting with death. I knew Lex would have her killed when she told him she knew he'd killed Lionel. There was a lot of eye imagery in this episode: a close-up of Lex's eye as Lionel fell to his death. Lionel's eye when the detective lifted the sheet. The assassin replacing Gina's glasses over her dead eyes. All three were finally seeing the real truth about what was inside of Lex.

I did cry the second time I watched this episode. I'm really going to miss Lionel. It won't be the same without him.

Bits and pieces:

-- Why did Lionel try to make Lex believe that Lex himself was the Traveler, and that that was the reason why Lex had survived death so many times? It was so out of left field. Was Lionel punting, or is there something we don't know?

-- Another installment of the Lois and Jimmy show. Clark saving Lois and Jimmy from the freezer without them seeing him was very Superman. That whole scene probably would have been more effective if you could have seen their breath, though. Did Jimmy see something when Clark zoomed off? I thought he did.

-- Lex has both keys now. Zurich, here we come. It seems odd to me that after years of obsession with Clark, Lex still hasn't put two and two together.

-- A CD of Gotterdammerung was on Lionel's desk. And the metal message thingy Lionel left Clark was behind Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzche. Because you can never have enough symbolism.

-- Lex fired Chloe. What will they do with her now? Need I repeat that killing off Chloe would really tick me off?

-- Gold acting stars for Michael Rosenbaum. He was fabulous, especially that scene with Clark at the mansion. Tom Welling was also very good. The little boy who played Alexander did well, too, considering his age and the heaviness of his scenes with Lex.

Quotes:

Lex: "He wanted to show me the Air and Space Museum. He knew I loved things that could fly." Irony.

Lois: "What is it with the Luthors? I swear death follows that family around like a stray puppy."

Clark: "How can Lex have done it? How does a son murder his own father?"
Chloe: "Total absence of love. Some say that's the definition of evil."

This was an excellent episode and probably deserved four stars. What did you think? Vote on my website: http://www.billiedoux.com/smallville7x16.html

Billie Doux

Battlestar Galactica premiere -- He That Believeth in Me

Below is my review of the Battlestar Galactica premiere. Spoilers ho!

Adama: "What should I believe? Should I believe my heart or my eyes?"

Don't you love it when something is over and you spend half an hour discussing it afterward? I have really missed this show.

Changes and identity crises. The Four were having a real problem accepting their Cylon-ness. Especially Tigh, who spent forty years in the fleet and killed his own wife because she was a collaborator. These aren't run-of-the-mill humans, after all: the three guys were the resistance leaders on New Caprica, and Tory is the president's aide. How can they change the habits and loyalties of a lifetime at the flip of a biological switch?

What are the odds that the Final Five would survive the destruction of the Colonies and end up on the same battlestar by chance? Zillions to one. It had to be intentional. If the Seven can sense the other Five, even if they're programmed not to think about them as Caprica Six said, that would explain why the Galactica survived. Because Galactica was supposed to survive. Galactica is supposed to find Earth for the Cylons. So why were the Cylons attacking in the first place? I'm so confused.

I've been theorizing that the maelstrom Eye of Jupiter thingy that Starbuck fell into was a wormhole to Earth. That would explain her disappearance and the time discrepancy. But what about the bizarre condition of Starbuck's viper? Could a wormhole explain that? Maybe the Eye of Jupiter is the red Cylon eye. Anders made "eye contact" with the Cylon Raider; his blue eye turning red could have been the Eye of Jupiter, too. Did Anders, without realizing it, instruct the Cylons to break off the battle? It sure looked like he did.

It would make sense for Starbuck to be the fifth Cylon, since she was away when the Four were "activated." But I just have a really hard time with the idea of Starbuck as a Cylon. Dan thinks that the final Cylon might be an older woman, mostly because of balance, since there are seven males and only four females, all of whom are young. Roslin is older. The opera house stuff suggested that Roslin, Athena, Six and Hera (and somehow Gaius, too) were "projecting" together, too. Yes, Roslin has cancer, but didn't Anders have pneumonia?

Tonight, the role of Jesus Christ was played by Gaius Baltar, who even looked the part. (Except I thought for a moment that he had acquired a harem, not disciples.) Did Gaius heal the child? Actually, it appeared that Harvey Six healed the child because of Gaius' bout of unselfishness. Maybe the Harveys are manifestations of the final Cylon. Maybe the final Cylon is the Cylon God. We create our own gods, after all. What with the miracle healing and all, it certainly looked as if Gaius had a conversion and will try to bring the Colonials to the One True Cylon God. If Gaius is Jesus, that would probably make Starbuck Moses, leading the Colonials to the promised land.

The episode began with Tigh imagining himself shooting Adama (a deliberate echo of what Boomer did in season one) and ended with Starbuck pulling a gun on Laura Roslin. Although I don't think Starbuck plans to shoot her. I think Starbuck just wants to get the Fleet to Earth. Each jump is taking Starbuck further away from her certainty that she can find Earth again. But if Starbuck is supposedly going to lead them to their end, not listening to Starbuck is a good thing. I think.

Ah, well. I have no idea what's going on. But I'm looking forward to *finally* finding out at the end of this season. And it had better make sense, Ron Moore. Do you hear me?

Bits and pieces:

-- This week's survivor number: 39,698. Under 40,000 now. The last number, given in "The Son Also Rises," was 41,399. Which means 1,701 died in the opening battle. Or 1,702, if you count Starbuck's return.

-- The credits and the cast were the same, with Michael Trucco moving from guest star to post-credit cast. The saga sell was totally different, though. "Twelve Cylons. Seven are known. Four live in secret. One will be revealed."

-- Terrific opening battle scene that certainly started the season off with a bang. I actually got upset about that fleet ship blowing up.

-- Lee got a job offer but we don't know what yet. It'll be strange to see him permanently out of uniform.

-- Roslin was staying in Adama's quarters. Because of her treatments. A likely story. Surely they could find the president of the colonies her own guest quarters.

-- Starbuck said that she'd kill Anders if she found out he was a Cylon. Well, that marriage was over, anyway.

-- One scene showed Adama, Roslin and Lee in an inner circle, talking about Starbuck being a Cylon, with Tory, Tigh and Tyrol in an outer circle around them watching them. I thought this was interesting symbolism.

-- Starbuck's viper was shiny and new, even white, and its nav was blanked out. Did the viper go back in time to when it was created? Maybe that's how they could revitalize the fleet: pop the old ships into the maelstrom, and two months later, voila. I'm kidding.

-- Gaius was again led by his libido into a new phase of his very strange life. The delightfully tacky Baltar altar looked a bit like a Christmas tree. The storage area they took him to was "3-30-3A Dry Storage." Maybe the threes were a little reference to the trinity.

-- In this season's hair report, Starbuck's was longer, which jived with her "two month" absence... except it was only six hours for her. And Gaius finally got rid of all of his excess fur, and looked a lot better. He probably acquired a serious scar, too, from his latest assassination attempt.

-- No bonus scene. Let's hope that ship has finally sailed.

-- " He That Believeth in Me." He who? Me who?

Quotes:

Tigh: "They had us. Game over. Why the hell did they let us go?"
Tory: "Maybe something's changed."
You think?

Starbuck: "I remember a giant gas planet with rings. I remember a flashing triple star and a comet. And then I was back with the Fleet." Gas planet with rings? Saturn? Haley's comet? I don't have anything for the flashing triple star, though.

Redhead: "Gaius! Are you all right?"
Gaius: "I cut myself shaving."

Anders: "If you're a Cylon, then you've been one from the beginning." This was said several times. Meaning it's not recent brainwashing, and they're not replacements. The Four have always been Cylons.

I'm going to let you guys rate this episode. Vote on the box at the bottom of the episode review on my site:

http://www.billiedoux.com/bsg4x1.html

Until next week,
Billie

Lost Missing Pieces - #1

Hi Folks, this is being posted a little later than I planned, but I'll have the others coming up very soon. The following is a recap of the first installment of the Lost Missing Pieces that have been running through Verizon and abc.com.

Enjoy! - Shannon

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"The Watch"

Piece missing from: "Do No Harm" Season 1, Episode 20
Goes Between: (Jack's Flashbacks) Christian's late night, poolside arrival, and the wedding

The scene opens with a deliberately misleading shot of Jack standing on a beach, tossing rocks into the ocean. It's only when the camera pans around that we see he's outside of an expensive beach resort and not on the Island.

Christian joins Jack on the beach, and after some light-hearted small talk about avoiding the wedding planner, Christian reveals that he actually came out to give Jack a family heirloom before the ceremony. He presents Jack with a silver watch that was given to him, by his father, the day he married Jack's mother.

Jack points out that he's never seen Christian wear the watch, and Christian concedes that he never has. The reason, he explains, is that when his father gave him the watch, on his wedding day, he told Christian that he didn't like Jack's mother, and thought she was the wrong choice for a wife.

Jack hesitates, and then asks if Christian is trying to tell him something. Christian replies that, unlike himself, Jack has made the absolute perfect choice. He turns to leave, but decides to say one last thing. He asks Jack to promise that if he and Sarah ever have children, that Jack will treat his children better than Christian treated Jack.

Rather than making the promise, Jack responds, "No pressure, right?" Christian pats him on the shoulder, and returns to the resort.

Knight Rider returns. I'm not sure why

I almost didn't write this review, because I could feel an inordinate amount of sarcasm welling up inside me. Yes, we're desperate right now; there's so little new stuff to watch that anything that isn't a rerun looks pretty good. But the new and improved Knight Rider doesn't feel all that new, and I'm not sure they improved anything. It feels like a re-do of a show that wasn't all that good in the first place.

Deanna Russo was okay in the usual "I'm brunette so I must have a brain" lead female role; in particular, I thought she did pretty well expressing the appropriate level of panic as KITT rescued her and sped very fast through mountainous and scary roads as the bad guys were shooting at her. But when Justin Bruening (Mike) was introduced doing something idiotic, I thought, please don't let him be the male lead. And he was. Fortunately, I started liking him a bit more as the pilot progressed. At the very least, I like him much better than David Hasselhoff. But then again, I like nearly every actor better than David Hasselhoff.

Of course, it made zero sense that a brilliant scientist and an FBI agent (a black, lesbian FBI agent -- yes, let's kill two demographics with one stone) would let a former Army ranger turned party animal have that car. But then they explained it by making it a family affair. Our hero, Mike Traceur (okay, I'm going to spoil you) turned out to be the son of the original Michael Knight. Of course that made sense, in a way that's... no, it doesn't. Because I never understood why anyone would give the original Michael Knight control of KITT, either.

Yes, the car itself is definitely cool. It doesn't turn into a Transformer robot or anything, which was good because I was having a hard enough time suspending belief, but it's a supercomputer that can tap into pretty much anything, it's bullet-proof and nearly indestructible, and it can camouflage itself as a Honda Civic. Unfortunately, the constant Ford tie-in ads made me feel like I was trapped in a two-hour Mustang commercial. And I missed the acerbic voice of William Daniels, who was the voice of the original KITT. He was practically the best part of the original series.

Yes, I'm probably being way too tough, and I don't usually do that. Knight Rider was kinda fun in an action eye-candy sorta way. And pilots aren't always the best indicator of how a series will develop. (Hey, look at Buffy.) If Knight Rider finds an audience, and it very well could, this show could be a runaway hit, pun intended.

But I suspect it won't hold my attention for long.

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles

Cameron: "Come with me if you want to live."

Like pretty much every sci-fi fan waiting out the writers' strike, I was glued to my set Sunday and Monday nights watching the two-part premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I'm not going to make an overarching prediction at this early date, but it definitely held my interest, and I'm really looking forward to next week's. I like the cast -- Lena Headey's Sarah and Thomas Dekker's John are both believable and charismatic, and those are two very difficult, iconic sci-fi roles. Summer Glau (Cameron the cyborg) was in Firefly and did an amazing job in the movie Serenity, so you can guess how I feel about her.

If I do have a complaint, it's that there was way too much action and not enough story in the first two hours. Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day have always been favorite movies of mine, but not so much because of their outstanding action sequences. What I always found intriguing were the time travel elements and the efforts to avert the coming apocalypse while still preserving the future savior of the human race, just in case. So I did like the clever way they moved the story from 1999 to 2007. They also added many homages and references to the original movies: Sarah's incarceration in a mental institution, her friend Enrique, the previous cyborgs, and so on.

I liked whatever Summer Glau is, too, and I like that we don't know exactly what she is. Yet. Each incarnation of the Terminator story has involved a new type of cyborg. Summer Glau's "Cameron Phillips" (is that her permanent name? and is it an homage to James Cameron?) is very smart, she heals, and interestingly enough, she even eats. How was she made? What can she do? Is she capable of emotion? Will young John fall in love with her?

Most importantly, can The Sarah Connor Chronicles keep from turning into a one-hour chase show every week? We have several strong characters in an unusual situation; I want drama and character development, not just cyborgs crashing through walls. Well, okay, maybe there can be some cyborg-crashing. But come on. Story, people! I want it. And I want it now.

Because, let's face it. There's practically nothing else to watch right now.