ALIAS - There's Only One Sydney Bristow

Sydney: You want me to be your best man?
Will: Well I did, now I'm not so sure.
Sydney: How would that work exactly? Would I have to wear a tux?
Will: You don't have to worry about it...cause you're not invited.


Those silly Alias geniuses and their double talk...only one Sydney Bristow. hehe So, as a 100th...up to par? I think so. It had the drama, the comedy, the best friend, and the arch-nemesis. Not to mention the fact that we meet "the twelve" (speaking of the twelve, did anyone notice that the one that talked a lot is the dirty doc from the OC?) and the arch-nemesis ultimately turns into Sydney. I'd say altogether pretty nice. I liked that we got to see the doubling process that has been such a big part of the show and how painful it actually is, and I think I'm on the same page with basically everyone else in thinking that P5's reason for doubling Anna as Sydney is to have her fulfill Rambaldi's page 47 prophecy. Sloane's comment, "That's right Sydney, you have a point; without you that page is worthless," seems very signficant, as in, sure, but not if we make another her. Its like taking what The Covenant was trying to do in season three to a whole new level. Why kidnap the real Sydney when you can just make your own? I'm not ignorant enough to not realize I could very well be way off base, but it just seems to be the consensus for now. I don't, however, think that's why they wanted the page, they already know what it says and what the prophecy is, otherwise they wouldn't have come up with this scenario in the first place...I think they needed the page for the medical anomalies that match Sydney's on that page...heart size, platelet levels, and DNA sequencing...specifically DNA sequencing. It just makes sense that they would need that info for the doubling process when they didn't have a willing participant or one in captivity. Its unfortunate for Sydney that that info is written down somewhere like that. I have a feeling seeing the page burning in the previews might have something to do with that line of thought.

As far as the comedy goes...this one was full of it, just like the old days. This season has seemed especially lacking in comedic value, something Alias has always been good at balancing, and this episode brought that back in full. I think Will added to that significantly, but the CIA-trained baby-sitters didn't hurt...they were hilarious. The whole episode seemed like a flashback to old-school Alias...shining moment? Anna kissing the glass of course. Having Anna and Will there coupled with our knowledged that Vaughn is alive and Sydney does know about it sort of makes everything seem back to normal. When there's a scene with Jack, Sloane, Sydney, Dixon, Marshall, and Will...it almost makes you forget about the weird newbies.

Negatives: not about just this episode but about the season in general that my sister brought up so she gets the credit for...but I'll use this episode as an example. This season there have been a couple times where it was just a couple people on missions, but for the most part its the entire team, and its completely unnecessary and just seems like they're trying to use the actors. Rachel has become completely pointless. I guess that might change, but I don't see how. Take the mission to rescue Will in Moscow for example...having Tom and Rachel there, what was the point? They walked around looking for the same thing Sydney was looking for, something she would have done solo in the past, and as soon as she went after Will we never saw them again. At the most she needed Dixon...having 112 people on every mission is just overcrowded and stupid, especially when its with characters that its impossible to care anything about. But I've already made my position on that clear. For four years it was Syd and Dixon, Syd and Vaughn, Syd and Nadia, Syd and Weiss, and maybe some kind of extra support team that faded into the background...these five and six people missions are messing with the structure and dynamic of the show. Again, props to my sis for bringing up an excellent point.

This is what I don't get...I understand the need for timing the seasonal arc and what not and the reality when Sydney just had a baby, but I'm assuming that Sydney's ultimate motivation right now is bringing P5 down so Vaughn can come out of hiding...and while I know her dad is all over that as much as he can be, its very un-Sydney to just sit at home for 5 weeks doing nothing to bring her fiance home. I wish they would have explained that away a little more...like had Jack and Sydney have a conversation about Jack continuing the work or something.

Overall, great episode...love it, love Alias. Counting down till the next episode is like a double edged sword...on one hand, I can't wait, but on the other, it means it will all be over soon...so sad!

ASTROS - My precious little (NL) Champs:)

I'm surprised its taken me this long into the season to post about my favorite team in my favorite sport aside from my first bitter comment about the lack of televised play on opening day. My friends, that has not changed. Tell me how the team with the best record in the majors right now (yeah, its true) is getting dropped by FSN for a team thats barely staying at .500? And if you knew how I felt about the Rangers, simply stating there winning percentage is playing nice. If I'm lucky, I'll get maybe one game a week, and I've come to expect it to be on Tuesday at 7 when my TiVo is double-booked with GG, IDOL, then VM. Anyway...this really wasn't supposed to be a ranting post, but what can you do. Is it too much for a girl to ask to want to be able to watch her team play baseball? Since the Stars are down 3-0 in the first round against the nasty Avalanche, they're about to be all I have left. Come on FSN...get it together. The Baseball Tonight replays aren't enough, not to mention the fact that my TV's going to start fighting back if I keep throwing things at it every time Karl Ravech mocks my 'stros for their noticable lack of jewelry.

IDOL - Sorry Kellie...I didn't actually mean GIVE an Acceptance Speech...

...and yet that's exactly what she did as she thanked everyone she's met in her entire life, including every single person on the IDOL cast and crew, effectively making her the first person to leave sans the exit performance. Was anyone upset about that? I didn't think so. It was like a whole night with good news. Kat got top votes, Kellie got voted off and we didn't have to hear her sing again. I was, however, completely uninterested in Simon and Randy's apology. Regardless of the outcome, the damage was done. How much would the apologies have meant if voters had listened and she'd gone home? Absolutely nothing. Anyway, water under the bridge, the top two were exactly who they should have been, and if I had to venture a guess, I'd say Taylor got more votes than Elliot in the middle. Good results night, but question: how on earth did Simon get the immature tag last night when Paula was the one crying and jumping up and down and interrupting people the entire time? That woman is out of control.

IDOL - Time's Up...Wrap Up Your Acceptance Speech...

I'm gonna start this post as if I'm not pissed as hell by pointing out that I think its funny that Simon always gets cut off by the music like he's running long on the stage at the Oscars...anyway, back to my raging anger. I should probably point out that this will most likely be my last post should Randy, Paula AND Simon's utterly ridiculous remarks send Katharine home tomorrow night.

At this point I'm switching to the point/ranking system now because predicting safety won't cut it. And the rank isn't based solely on vocals, but on the performance as a whole.

Katharine: Okay, just so I'm clear, she copied a song that was too big for her, she's not supposed to push her limits, and she's not Whitney. Here's an idea...maybe instead of comparing the songs they choose to the people who sang them before, why not focus on how they actually sang it? Simon, I bet if you wanted to know if Katharine was as good as Whitney, you could have just asked her. She would have told you that of course, she is not. No one in this competition is...its not about being better than the greatest singers of all time, its about being the best in this competition right now and having what it takes to make it, and SHE DOES. However, Paula Abdul, I guarantee she can sing circles around you. How dare you tell Kat to stay in her element when she just sang a perfect duet with one of the greatest opera singers ever. I'm sorry if you two don't vibe because she didn't respond to your "stunning" compliment and she doesn't agree that all you need is good shoes. And if Randy says "greatest singers in the known world" one more time I might actually throw up on my television. Katharine was exceptional tonight. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I actually teared up. I mean I was on the brink, and then when they showed her dad, I went over the edge. She was fabulous. She wasn't pitchy, the song wasn't too big for her, and she didn't copy it. She made it her own, which is key when you do a song from someone like Whitney Houston. What really stood out for me this week for Kat is that for the first time I really felt like she brought it all...she had some spunk and personality and she rocked the hell out of that song.
10/10
Rank: 1

Elliot: Okay, Paula was ridiculous tonight...the tears? Seriously? What the HELL was that??? Here's the deal...Elliot has a great voice, but that's it. This was so incredibly dull to me and I couldn't wait until it was over. And that vibrato is really getting on my nerves. I'm sure he's a perfectly lovely guy, but he wouldn't last one minute in the business because he doesn't have anything to sell the voice, bottom line.
7/10
Rank: 5

Kellie: How ironic that David Foster predicted exactly how Kellie would sing the song...boring as hell. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with the falsetto advice. Just because Ace is gone doesn't mean we need someone else to pick up the slack. This was a horrifying butcher of one of my favorite songs...that falsetto just doesn't go with her voice. "Its about greatness and I don't get that from you"...Paula hit the nail on the head, but man, I didn't think she had it in her.
5/10
Rank: 6

Paris: Now this was pitchy. I sort of feel like Paris is only great when she's belting. She's good all the time, but she's not always great. And she did over sing it. Also boring. I guess its tough to go first, but none of these have held a candle to Kat's. Best female vocal tonight? Give. me. a. break.
8/10
Rank: 3

Taylor: This vocal was just bad for me, but I hate that the dumbass judges constantly hold him to this standard where if he's not jumping around he's not good. Guess what, the man can sing and he does just fine standing there. Tonight is obviously not an example of that, but its not just, he jumps around=good, he stands still=bad. I liked his rendition, I wasn't bored, I just really thought the vocal was weak, which is a first for me for Taylor.
7/10
Rank: 4

Chris: When Chris just sings and doesn't shout in his rocker voice, I actually love it. I didn't like that he improved a lot with the floor exercise and then went back to the throat. But it was good. Really good. If my reasoning for why he was in the bottom three last week is accurate though, he stands a good chance of being back there this week. How many rocker people do you think want to tune in when they see its opera week? That being said, he looked great, he had a great presence, and he sounded excellent. I am taking away half a point because he went back to singing from the throat.
9.5/10
Rank: 2

After regressing completely back to Kat getting no respect and judges with their heads up their asses this week, I am terrified about tomorrow night. Chris and Katharine should be safe, but the two worst vocals (Kellie and Taylor) are the only two left that haven't yet been in the bottom three. And lets face it, with Kellie, its not for a lack of trying. I don't know what to think. I think I'm going to put her in the bottom three...hey, two bad weeks did it for Mandisa.
I didn't vote, the line was busy, but I'm not putting any faith in that at this point.
My bottom 3: Elliot, Paris, Kellie
Should go home: Kellie
Will go home: no clue...Elliot?

VERONICA MARS - Look Who's Stalking

Veronica: So my Grandma Reynolds was always saying, 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade'. I wish she was still alive, because I'd really like to ask what she suggests for when life gives you Chlamydia.

Hold on, hold on...Jason Dohring topless.

Okay, so here's the 411 on Lucky.
-He took shrapnel in the ass in Iraq
-He's a janitor now at Neptune High
-He's tight with the Manning family who its really hard to get tight with
-He hung out with Dick and Logan last summer when Logan and Veronica were dating, which means he was part of the whole "haves vs. have nots" crap
-Meg's point on the bus was to talk about Lucky and she said, "I have important information", a statement that we never got around to hearing about.
-Woody did something to super piss him off and now he's stalking Gia. Either that or he just found out about something bad he did in general and I'm gonna go with that one.

He's looking really suspicious, probably too much so to have crashed the bus, but again, no one has accused him of it. Keith seemed pretty interested in him though...was it just because he's connected to Woody or something else? And Lamb seemed pretty interested in keeping Keith away from him...at first I thought it was just because he doesn't like Keith, but if he didn't like Keith, wouldn't he have enjoyed letting him sit in jail for a night? He went through a lot of trouble to get that key and get him out of those cuffs...at the mayor's request perhaps? I have so many bus crash theories its ridiculous. I mean, what if Mr. Manning crashed the bus to kill Meg, the abomination baby, and the guy that knocked her up? That guy is nuts. What if Jackie crashed the bus to protect her dad from Ms. Dumas? Right now my left field guess is Dick...he's connected to Kendall and Lucky and someone on the bus. At this point I just think there is so much crap getting thrown at us that these last two episodes are just gonna be completely nuts. Like, why the hell would Aaron's cell mate steal the briefcase with Logan's murder case files in it??? Now its looking like Bus Crash, Felix Murder, and Aarons Trial are all interconnected and the finale is just going to explode on my television and I can hardly stand the wait.

Woody better be grabbing his ankles by the end of this season because I seriously hate that guy. Like, more than I hate Aaron Echolls...I don't even really hate Aaron Echolls for killing Lily, just for beating Logan, he just creeps me out, but man, I hate Woody Goodman. I want him to suffer. You don't mess with Keith. The thing I don't understand is, why don't we know more about what Keith suspects Woody of? He obviously suspects him of something, but he's keeping it close to the vest.

Jackie and her dad are cute, but there has to be some significance of him being here in this specific episode...and who released the article about the championship game? My guess would be Woody, but that's always my guess.

It is so completely obvious that Logan is in love with Veronica, and I don't even think he's lying to himself about it, and I just...don't know what to say about the last excruciating minutes of this episode. Everything was so great...the banter in the hall, the banter in study hall, the intimate conversation at the party, the cheap rebound after the rejection...oh wait, scratch that last part. Come on Logan, do you really have to call Kend- Priscilla everytime Veronica dumps you? The good part...we know Veronica feels the same way now, regardless of if she'll ever give him a chance again thanks to this last stunt. Bad news...my paranoid side thinks maybe he might have been trying to protect her from something when he just let her leave. He was with shady Kend- Priscilla after all.

And I don't know if this is important, but both episode 1.20 (M.A.D.), and 2.20 (Look Who's Stalking) end with Logan horribly disappointing Veronica in some relationshippy way. In M.A.D., V found out he was on the one with the GHB the night she was raped and he was left on the yacht at the Albacore Club. Also deja vu from M.A.D. to Look Who's Stalking is Veronica getting scolded in Mr. Wu's study hall. Strange coincidences? Could be, more the second than the first, but that rarely happens with Rob Thomas.

GILMORE GIRLS - Super Cool Party People

Colin: Honor is on her honeymoon in Mykonos trying to get a flight back and Logan's mom checked herself into some sort of spa in Arizona the moment she heard.
Finn: When the going gets tough, the tough get hot rock massages.
Rory: What about Mitchum?
Finn: The Dark Lord? We left word but haven't heard anything back.


I'll start this post with something completely non-related to this episode...a moment of silence for Team Palladino, who are officially not returning for the 7th and probably last season of Gilmore Girls. At first I didn't know how I felt about the whole Warner Bros. negotiation rumors, but after Michael Ausiello's super interview I'm totally siding with them...I would have left too. That doesn't change the fact that it might as well be the series finale in two weeks because next year will probably suck...not to mention that I think I want ASP to be my best friend. Bye bye TP...we love you.

More Finny moments...YAY!! And nothing makes me crack up more than everytime we see Honor she's got a cigarette in her hand. Not a whole lot of story happened here, but it had the best moments...Finn & Colin, Honor, Paris calling the doctor, and then Rory calling Mitchum...classic. I like that Rory was worried about Logan and they both apologized to each other. I like it when they're happy. In the interview ASP talked about keeping it interesting and mixing it up, and I think she's right with Luke and Lorelai and the show in general, but I have to respectfully disagree with her when it comes to Rory and Logan. Both Matt Czuchry and the way Logan's character is written are so dynamic that their relationship supports itself. They don't need a whole lot of drama and back and forth relationship issues because their daily relationship makes good TV.

So...I'm really hating Luke more and more every week, but who knew that I would start hating Anna Nardini so much. Not trusting someone that has a daughter and raised her in basically the exact same situation is completely and utterly ludicris. I'm pretty sure she's weirdly jealous in some way and she just doesn't want Lorelai in her life and its looking like its moving towards a scenario where he's going to have to choose between his daughter and his future wife and that's just great. Let's think back to when Anna never told Luke he had a kid and as soon as he found out he's been nothing but great (at least with April)...what right does Anna have to made these unilateral decisions, just because she decided not to include Luke in his daughters life??? And Luke, you can't keep someone away from someone else just because you're afraid they'll like them better...that's the epitomy of destructive low self esteem...don't project your issues onto Lorelai.

ALIAS - Maternal Instinct

Dixon: But you're not just fending for yourself...you're fending for two. And let's be honest, Syd...right now, you waddle.


So I want to tell you two stories. The first one is about the moment I saw Irina behind that glass on the ship. No matter what has happened over the past four years, they've always found a way to make Irina good. So when my sister and I were watching that and she was there, she was convinced that somehow, it was all a part of a plan to help Sydney, not hurt her. I thought no such thing. My position on the matter was that no matter how you spin that, you can't make it okay that she kidnapped her daughter and tortured her for information. You just can't. But even though that was my position, I spent so much time trying to figure out a way that she could possibly still be good...because I love Lena Olin and really like Irina...or I used to.

Tell me, Irina. How did it feel, giving the order? Was it difficult or were you able to remain cold and indifferent? Were you amused?

This is a quote by Jack at the beginning of 4.21, Search and Rescue, when Jack is talking to who turns out to be the Irina double when he thought that Irina hired someone to kill Sydney. Ironically when Sydney is sitting at the bank with Irina after she finds out she's a part of Prophet Five and that she gave the order to have Vaughn killed, this exchange is way more appropriate. I am so pissed that I wasted all that thinking just for them to make it real clear real fast that she's the evil of all evils. Not only did she give the order to have the love of her daughter's life brutally murdered in front of her eyes, but she told her own child to her face that she was a mistake that she never wanted. Yeah there's no redemption from that. I feel bad for Nadia...she got all crazy right after she met her nice mom and now when she wakes up, her mean mom's gonna be back.

So there's a mini-story that I wasn't talking about above about how it was supposedly supposed to hail and flood and whatnot when Alias was on, so there were several parts of my broadcast that got interrupted, so this might not be completely accurate. But yeah, so Jack and Sydney figure out that there's another mole inside the CIA...is it Sloane or is there another one? I'm confused...am I supposed to be confused or did I miss it? Either way, Devlin's investigating APO which makes absolutely no sense at all since they're the ones that found out about it why would he start there? But Sloane gets Rachel to clear them of suspicious activity, and that gets him out of actual dirty activity.

Renee and Dixon, that's a new pair, go to France and we get to see them in action for a bit...I love Renee! And that's JG's favorite wig she's wearing...I know because in all freaking five seasons its had that little strand of hair on the left side that's too long in every way its cut and it annoys me every time!

So Sydney has her baby with her mom and dad helps which just taints it for me because of all the ridiculously horrible things she says and what an evil bitch she is. But Jack's there and he's great so I guess its okay. And the moment we've all been waiting for...

He's alive!!! Which confirms, for real this time, that this is, in fact, "I Almost Died: Part Seven". Hopefully this is the final installment, its definitely the longest, but you never know. So now its time for my second story. I came home from something, I don't remember what it was, but my sister had just moved in and it was after the season premiere and she was just sitting on the couch in sort of a trance and she just kept saying "closed casket" over and over and over. For the next like three weeks and every week after an episode, she kept saying it...closed casket, closed casket, closed casket. It got super old. But when that Asian guy rode that horse up to that hut, I was on top of my couch yelling...CLOSED CASKET!!! So we also known now that both Sydney and Jack know that he's alive, so that probable means that they're the ones that hid him, since Jack said he'd take care of it. It doesn't look like he's going to be in next week's episode...but I hope he's not just going to be in a couple more...I want him to be in almost all of them.

ALIAS - SOS

IT'S BACK! IT'S BACK! And so worth the wait, right?!!! I was on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. And hold up...Dixon's got dreads. Cornrolls? Dreads? Whatever. Its weird.

So this one was obviously filmed before JG's maternity leave, aka before Alias knew they were getting cancelled. And as much as they say they're okay with it, and its time to leave blah, blah, blah...yeah I don't buy it. I'm pretty sure their altering stories all over the place to get this to finish decently. Not that I don't love it, I'm just saying...this one was filmed before they knew, so it was probably part of the original storyline.

So we find out that Sydney's nice and innocent civilian doctor is not so innocent and not so civilian. "You bitch" is my favorite line of the episode. The biggest question right now is why the hell do they want her baby? With all of my Alias love and knowledge spinning in my head, I can't shake the idea that there is/was this whole prophecy about a Rambaldi baby tied to Sydney and now she has a baby that Prophet Five wants. Not only do they want it, but they performed a surgery that risked compromising their operation by getting caught by Dixon's team. They really want this baby. When the APO team got Sydney off that ship and all we saw was the surgical left-overs, I was sure they took the baby.

Okay, so how cool was the CIA operation inside the CIA? You would think that would be a fear of Langley's all the time. I mean if anyone could break into the CIA it would be the CIA right? And I knew Tom Grace was shady the whole time. I don't really care if he's shady unless its super tied to Prophet Five, which I guess this Cardinal guy could be...but its not like I'll be all holy crap Tom's bad! Who cares.

So Jack finally realizes that Prophet Five has infiltrated their own government, a fact that we and Sloane have long since known, and something that Jack would have too if he'd have taken one minute to think. I will say that when Jack went into headquarters to draw out the mole, I was so afraid it'd be Devlin...I was on the edge of my seat for that one. It's just weird to think about the fact that they're playing like that Davenport guy was dirty all the way back to when he was Vaughn's superior in season one. We thought it was such a big deal that Helatki was on the inside working for Khasinau and that's nothing compared to this.

And last but not least...how great was it to see Greg Grunberg back??? Such a cutie! I was sort of pissed that it was only for a sec, but still so fun!

IDOL - Chris in the bottom 3!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit happy that Chris was in the bottom three, but this week it isn't because he wasn't good...its because he is starting to mix it up and I feel like he is Katharine's biggest competition. He was excellent last night and absolutely did not deserve to be in the bottom three tonight. Plenty of other nights, sure, but not tonight. But I feel like something he said might have rang true...either last week or a couple of weeks ago, after Simon repremanded him for an indulgent choice, he said that was the kind of songs that his fans expected from him, and if thats true, than this week clearly wasn't. So maybe his fanbase didn't care for what he did last night. Then again, maybe its as simple as Chris fans had to work late and Kellie fans were in front of the TV ready to dial. Who knows. I don't get America. Either way...the right person went home...finally.

On a different note...love songs? Is it just me or is that really general? Is there a certain list they have to pick from or just any love song ever?

ALIAS Love Story: Section Five

Curtis: Just tell us what we want to know. I'm tired of playing these games!
Michael: Quitter.


This one will be a work in progress since its still going on...obviously!

Prophet Five (5.01) - Seriously? Seriously? My name isn't Michael Vaughn? Seriously? I'll have to recap, not review...if I don't it'll go on for a year. Vaughn and Sydney survive the car crash and Vaughn is kidnapped by Prophet Five...which we don't really know anything about yet, other than its super bad. And he's suspected of working for them, but he's actually been investigating them with an assassin named Renee Riene, who's a huge badass by the way. Oh yeah, and his real name used to be Andre Michaux. Major problem with the fact that he looks like Shady McShadester now, but he didn't back when he was investigated by counterintelligence in season two. Then they kill him. Or we're supposed to think. I highly doubt it. Why? That's right, the now notorious "I Almost Died" series. I'm convinced this is not the first part in the new series sans the "almost", just the latest installment in the old one. What makes me thing that? Well, a number of things. First, I couldn't go on watching Alias under any other assumption, second, no one ever really dies on Alias, three, CLOSED CASKET (plus no tears ever from Sydney), and finally, he's back filming until the finale. Yeah, even all my reasons didn't have me totally convinced until that last one was confirmed, but who cares, he's alive....I think.

Important developments include Sydney's pregnancy, Nadia is still in a coma while Sloane is still in jail, and our first important info about Prophet Five...that they have an asset that was able to pose as a US government official. Not good.

Four months after Vaughn's funeral, Sydney tracks down Renee.

Renee: How did you find me?
Sydney: I know everything.
Renee: Then you should have walked away.

...1... (5.02) - Weiss leaves APO for a position in Washington, and Jack hires Thomas Grace to replace him. I'm not trying to get invested in a character who all of a sudden shows up out of nowhere and has no ties to anyone, same with Rachel. I just can't get into either one of those characters. They way they introduced Renee is different...she's obviously had history with Vaughn for years so I care about her. Sydney works with her for the first time, and the man who killed Vaughn dies.

Sydney: I mean, you're #8 on the CIA's Most Wanted List, I get it.
Renee: #8?
Sydney: Yes.
Renee: I'm slipping...I used to be #6.

The Shed (5.03) - Rachel Gibson, former employee of Prophet Five, joins APO because she was in the same situation as Sydney at SD-6. And we meet Kelly Peyton, superbitch.

Mockingbird (5.04) - Sloane is approached by a Prophet Five operative on the CIA inside with an offer to help Nadia and release from him prison in exchange for advancing Prophet Five agenda inside APO. He accepts. At this point the viewers, as well as Sloane are quite aware that Prophet Five has infiltrated government intelligence...APO does not know.

Solo (5.06) - I've already said this to some degree when I talked about The Two being difficult to watch, but Prophet Five wasn't especially painful for me...it was almost surreal to the point where I wouldn't accept Vaughn's death so, like Sydney, I was emotionless. The last scene of Solo, however, gutwrenching. When Sydney holds that mission tape to her belly and we hear Vaughn's voice from beyond the "grave"...I lost it.

Fait Accompli (5.07) - Sloane confesses his double agency to Jack and Sydney and they set a trap to catch Gordon Dean. Prophet Five awakens Nadia for a brief moment in order to draw Sloane in again, so Sloane kills Dean before APO can get any critical information out of him...even though I'm sure Sloane's not thrilled about the idea of working for someone else...you know he got a wee bit of pleasure out of killing the man who'd been barking orders at him for the past few months.

APO finally learns that Prophet Five is embedded in global government and intelligence networks...but they still don't know about the CIA infiltration. At this point, I'd like to say two things...1) that it's completely out of Jack's character not to put 2 and 2 together and realize that if their in other governments, they're probably in theirs, and that would be a logical explanation for while Sloane was suddenly pardoned. And 2) that this Prophet Five thing is way more interesting a set up than The Alliance ever was and I'm extremely disappointed that we only get a year to explore it.

Bob (5.08) - Mr. Julian Sark returns with his authentic, not nearly as sexy, American accent. He's a freelancer now, and he ends up doing APO a favor, so he's kind of good now.

The Horizon (5.09) - Michael! Michael! Michael! He's in a dream, but so damn sexy... I don't quite understand this episode yet...because now we know for sure he's really alive, thanks to the promos. Its really all dependent on if Sydney knows he's alive or not. I'm inclined to think she does, because she didn't cry in the hospital or at the funeral, but if she really does know, then she did a hell of a job pretending that he was dead. How did she have the wherewithall in that hypnotic state to pretend like she was suffering so much? And my whole theories since December about his pulse have hinged on this:
Sydney: I gave you this and then you crashed...Vaughn, I can't.
Michael: You said it yourself, their using me against you. The only way to defeat them, I need to go away.
Sydney: I don't care. I don't want to say goodbye to you again.
Michael: I know, I know, its okay. I need to go away. We'll find each other.
So that exchange is what convinced he was alive...mainly the 'I need to go away' part, but also Sydney said 'say goodbye', not lose or anything else...and that's sort of weird terminology.


Tom: My mother always said, 'if a man's worth shootin' once, he's worth shootin' twice.
Jack: I'm sorry I never met her...she sounds like my kinda woman.

VERONICA MARS - Nevermind the Buttocks

Logan: Anything else? Oh, I got to second base with Tammy Forester in 8th grade in Duncan’s closet, and last summer I made this townie girl moan without even using my hands. Is any of this relevant? Should I make a list?


For one hour on Tuesday nights my mind is starting to spin. I have no idea what's going on anymore. Kendall?? Man I didn't see that coming...and I'm not sure I buy it. I feel like Veronica would have picked up something on this whole shadiness when she was investigating who she was sleeping with for Beaver. My sister's in love with Duncan and she's pissed because she thinks he might only come back in flashbacks...I hope she's right. I hope Duncan crashed the bus. Harsh right? I know.

So I guess we're done with completely separate MotW's...this weeks was completely tied up in the bus crash, and next week's preview involves Gia, so enough said. But how much did you freak out when you realized Keith was in the house with an armed Liam Fitzpatrick. Man, I hate those guys. I love it when the daddy/daughter duo comes through for each other. This week's MotW reminded me of Weapons of Class Destruction from last season with the creepy guy who's actually not that bad.

So the evidence on Kendall is mounting:
-she's not really Kendall, she's Priscilla
-she was at the wheel when the real Kendall died
-she's hooked up with Liam who we've now placed at the scene of the crash
-she has a secret house
-she's the beneficiary of Dick and Beaver's life insurance policies
-she doesn't mind doing dirty deeds for Aaron Echols
I'm sure theirs more but this is just off the top of my head, but the one thing about Kendall...this is the way Rob Thomas sets up the mystery...just like the Kanes last year, it was so totally obvious that they were guilty so they couldn't be, same with Kendall. Every time V and Keith suspect someone, you can pretty much knock them off your list. Here's my new thought. Now we know, as viewers, that the Goodman has looked shady as hell for quite some time...I'm thinking all the way back to the point where Gia told Veronica that her dad told her not to take the bus home, so for a while, I looked at Woody like the Jake Kane of last year...looked so guilty that he was probably guilty of something, just not the whole enchilada. BUT, while its looking like Keith is getting suspicious of Woody little by little, neither he or Veronica have ever come right out and suspected him of blowing up the bus, a key factor in innocence in a Neptune mystery. So far between Keith and V, they've suspected Weevil, the Fitzpatricks, Terrance Cook, the artist of the coffins, Kendall, and I'm sure there's more that I' m not thinking of...but you can pretty much cross that list over to people who didn't blow up the bus, at least not directly. Have they accused Logan? I forget but I sure hope so. So I'm thinking that maybe the Goodman was looking a little too suspicious, so to take our minds off that for a bit, we're supposed to focus on the Kendall smokescreen for a while now, then bam, its Woody. There are only 3 more episodes left people!

Can I just say that I'm in love with Weevil and my favorite thing about him is that he has never stopped calling Keith Sheriff? He really is such a good guy...love it!!

Veronica: Are you here to confess? Is that your tail I see between your legs?
Weevil: No, but I can see how you might get confused.

IDOL - The Songbook...Seven

How refreshing to see something great for a change!! First of all, can I just point out how much respect I have for Simon? If I had to sit through Randy encourage the ridiculous boos or the constant insults, I would not be able to keep my mouth shut. And you couldn't pay me enough to work with Seacrest. I'm not kidding.

Chris: Okay...somebody get a tape recorder...Chris was excellent tonight. That's right, I said it. He looked classy, and sounded even classier. It was a great song choice for him, and he never missed a note. There was just enough of himself in it, but it was also a perfect rendition of a classic. I'm still not totally convinced that he'll keep diversifying up to the finale, but tonight, he was inspiring. Safe.

Paris: For the 112th time, pick a style Paris. She sounded very good, but I can't get past the fact that I don't know who Paris is because she's someone different every week. Vocally, it was very good, but like I've said, I always feel like there's something missing. Everyone was so great this week that I think its tough, I don't think she's necessarily safe.

Taylor: I thought this was great. Great song choice, great vocal. I thought he took who he was a calmed it down a bit and was very charming. Then closing the song out in typical Taylor style sealed the deal. He and Chris set the bar tonight. Safe.

Elliot: I actually picked this song for Elliot and it was a great choice for him. His voice is perfect for it, and thankfully we didn't have to sit through any rap moves. However, it was so frustrating to hear Randy and Paula repremand Simon for expressing concern (in what was actually a pretty considerate way) about Elliot's lack of personality, because its true, and he was just trying to be honest. Like I said, the bar is really high tonight and everyone was good, but someone has to be in the bottom three, and Elliot's lack of personality might put him there. That's all Simon was saying and to come back with an "I'm rubber you're glue" comment like "well you don't have any personality," was ridiculous. He might not be safe.

Kellie: Yeah, when I said everyone was good before, I meant everyone but Kellie. She was my concern tonight, and apparently for good reason. She butchered the hell out of this. I know it wasn't her genre, but neither was Queen and she managed to get through that, so I don't see any reason to go easy on her. At this point, these are supposed to be the seven best singers in the competition, and there's no reason for someone in the top seven to have pitch problems. I will give her credit for taking responsibility for her performance though. I mean, at least she didn't finish and say, "I thought I rocked." Based on this performance, she shouldn't just be in the bottom three, she should go home, but her fanbase is solid, so I don't know.

Ace: Okay, first of all, maybe his fanbase won't vote for him because he looked like absolute crap tonight. What the hell was up with that hair? I guess he pulled off the song but I can't get over last week. I know that falsetto's supposed to be his magic trick, but I'm really starting to hate it. He's still obviously below the rest and should definitely be in the bottom three. At least I think so.

Katharine: All I can say is FINALLY!!! I think Paula and Randy read my post last week because Kat finally got (some of) the respect she deserved. And her performance was completely and utterly superior tonight. I could watch it over and over. The thing is, even though this is her element and she should have done well, she has done well at everything every week. With one exception, everyone did well tonight; the bar was high and even so, she blew everyone away. She's a star.

Picking the bottom three is definitely getting tougher as the field gets smaller, but Katharine, Chris, and Taylor were above the rest tonight. They are the only ones that should definitely be safe. Paris was next with Elliot close behind. Kellie was clearly the worst, but since I can't get last week out of my head, Ace belongs there too, in my opinion. Kellie's fanbase and the fact that she admitted that she sucked might save her.

I voted for: 07!! (busy, busy, busy!!)
my bottom 3: Ace, Elliot, and (I'm cheating) Paris/Kellie
going home: Ace

ALIAS Love Story: Section Four

Bishop: What's your real name?
Sydney: Ima
Bishop: Ima what?
Sydney: Ima gonna kick your ass.

Authorized Personnel Only (4.01/02) - Again, we have a new season that goes in a completely different direction, and the introduction of APO, the new black ops division run by Arvin Sloane. I like it! Its been a few months, but to us, they didn't waste any time hookin' Vaughn and Syd back up and we get to enjoy some nice spysex right off the bat. We do see that he resolved his issues with Lauren, or his "vicious homicidal double agent" wife, as he put it, by burning his house down. Nice.

We also have the most disappointing cliffhanger answer in the history of television. There were so many places they could have gone with what Lauren said to Sydney during their final fight, and for all to be on those papers was that Jack killed Irina was just utterly anti-climatic. Parts of the papers that we saw said things like "project manager: Jack Bristow", "project subject: Sydney Bristow", and "project initiated: april 1975" which we know is around Sydney's birthday. Both Jack and Senator Reed work in intellegence and she talked about them both being pawns in the same game and people controlling them. Come on guys...its got Project Christmas written all over it. And Lauren finding out and getting pissed off would have been a great explaination for why she went to work for the enemy.

Ice (4.04) - This isn't a pivotal moment, just a point I want to make. In Ice, Vaughn has issues with the fact that he killed Lauren. First of all, Vaughn was a psycho at the end of season three and I didn't much care for him, but he's acting like he went out and shot her in the head. He ended up killing her in self defense, and yet that's not the way they told the story at all. He's has all these supposed feelings of guilt, but really, if he hadn't killed her, she would have killed Sydney and probably him. He kills people in self defense almost everyday, and the fact that one of them got to be the woman that betrayed him and tried to kill him numerous times should just be an added bonus, not something to lose sleep over.

Welcome to Liberty Village (4.05) - Although Jack and Sloane's close relationship has been disturbing all season, we find out that they have an alternate agenda when Sloane talks about moving up their time table and they learn the Russians are searching for Elena Derevko.

Echoes (4.08) - Anna Espinoza returns and the prophecy concerning Sydney and Nadia, or the Passenger and the Chosen One, resurfaces, but its been tweaked. Sydney describes it to Nadia and we find out what the Rambaldi symbol, <0>, means. The outer markings are Sydney and Nadia and the circle is the object over which they will do great battle only this time, only one will survive instead of neither.

The Index (4.10) - We find out that Jack and Sloane do, in fact, have some kind of pact, and that they are pursuing something covertly that requires doing non-sanctioned things like stealing blackmail files. At this point, I'm figuring it has to do with Sydney because, as Jack himself pointed out, every compromising thing he does is to protect her.

The Orphan (4.12) - We see Elena, the third and nastiest of the Derevko women (or so we thought), for the first time. We don't know its actually her though yet, but we do know she's connected to Vaughn's father who's supposedly alive. We also learn that Nadia, just like Sydney, worked for a renegade organization fronting as a legitimate government black ops unit. At this point, the Project Christmas angle, however underplayed, is almost more interesting than the Rambaldi puzzle. I won't criticize too much just yet, but after the finale, if its not tied up...well, just wait.

Marshall: Syd, this guy buried you alive.
Sydney: Yeah but he cheated. He hit me with a car first.

Another Mister Sloane (4.16) - The assumption I'd been operating under just got wiped, because we see the red ball for the third and fourth time here and it gets smaller then bigger at the end, or the same size it was in Almost Thirty Years...we see the mid-sized ball as we see the same exchange that took place between the real Sloane and Neal Caplan years ago when Sloane was searching for Rambaldi and kidnapped him to build the neutron bomb. I think it would have been hilarious to bring back Christian Slater back and have Arvin Clone kidnap him instead of the woman scientist. His reaction would have been priceless.

Roberts: The price just went up.
Carter: Name it.
Roberts: $750, plus a neutral place to meet, plus no more grammar lessons.
Carter: a neutral location?
Roberts: Yeah that's right. Or I disappear again, and I take your slinky with me.

A Clean Conscience (4.17) - We learn that Sophia Vargas is really Elena Derevko, who I think looks the scariest when her hair is all the way down, and we find out that Jack and Sloane's mysterious pact is about tracking her down because there is evidence that she's after the Rambaldi sisters. Again, its not clear why at this juncture. I see big...red...balls...

Cloane: Jack are you really wasting are time with this? After all, it was you who taught me to endure torture...
Jack: Listen to me you pathetic freak; even if what you were saying was true, you can be sure I've kept a few things to myself.

In Dreams (4.19) - Crap! I was wrong again...we see the red ball again...and its smaller again...this is the fifth time. My original count of four was way off.

Marshall: Congratulations, man. I'm sure Mr. Bristow's gonna be thrilled.
Michael: Really? I'm just hoping he doesn't shoot me on the spot.

The Descent (4.20) - We get the first glimpse of the ring and learn that Vaughn plans to propose to Sydney, and he and Jack have a lovely exchange.

Katya: Is that look on your face supposed to be intimidating? You forget Jack...I've seen your tender side. ...Do you plan on torturing me?
Jack: If I have to.
Katya: While I know that would be enjoyable for both of us, I should warn you I have quite a bit of stamina, but you already know that about me.

The obvious is stated here...that the Vaughn's father charade, Sloane Clone, etc, etc, etc, is all part of Elena's game, or endgame, and APO figures out that Sophia is Elena. We also find out that Irina's endgame was stopping Elena.

Search and Rescue (4.21) - We find out for sure that Irina Derevko is, in fact still alive and being held by her crazy ass sister Elena Derevko.

Irina: I'm not going to torture you...I'm gonna let him do it, and he really doesn't care for you.
Jack: I'm actually hoping you don't tell us. There's a 50/50 chance Sydney'll cut the right wire.
Elena: You're not a gambling man Jack.
Jack: I didn't used to be, but it's been a rather interesting year for me. It's made me re-evaluate certain parts of my life. I'm trying to have more fun...

Before the Flood (4.22) - Up to this point, this is without a doubt, the best season finale of Alias...so much to talk about. I say up to this point, because I have great expectations for the series finale. They actually could have tweaked this a little...have Nadia live or die, have Syd and Vaughn actually make it to Santa Barbara for once (for the LOVE), etc...and it could have been the series finale. Anyway. First and foremost, Sydney and Vaughn get engaged. I have to applaud the writers for this, because the build up to this moment was 4, and if you really think about it 6, years in the making...the bar was high, but it turned out alright. Then again, we find out that Michael isn't Michael...greaaaat. Speaking of which...you thought we were gonna have a whole season sans our favorite series didn't you? Close, but not quite. "I Almost Died: Part Six" comes at the very end of the season as a jeep broadsides Vaughn and Sydney...although I guess we don't really know yet if its an installment in this series, or a more final, one parter, just called, "yeah I died and that's it."

Then we have the Rambaldi Prophecy coming to a head with the big red ball of all big red balls...I thought this was Rambaldi's endgame...but their hyping that up for the series finale like its tied to Prophet Five, so I guess not. Anyway, we go on a mission with the Bristows to save the world and ultimately succeed, although not without Nadia as a semi-casualty, as the prophecy regarding Sydney and Nadia partly comes true. I think at this point its worth mentioning that the big red ball that I'm so fond of was first designed by Oscar Mueller who is or was involved with Prophet Five.

Also, Irina knows what Vaughn is up to...and although we don't know what Vaughn is up to at this point, it made it a hell of a lot easier to guess who was behind that glass.

Sydney: You wanna be rough or you want me to be rough?
Michael: You're always rough.
Sydney: No I'm not.
Michael: Yes you are.
Sydney: That's not true.
Michael: Yes it is.
Sydney: Are you talking about at home or on ops?
Michael: Both...hey I'm not complaining.
Sydney: Well if I'm rough its because you like it when I'm- Are we on comms?
Jack: Yes...you are BOTH on comms.

IDOL - A little more...Who's left?

In my last blog I commented that after last week, the top four are clear to me and I wanted to elaborate. At this point I think there are three clear tiers.

1) Katharine, Taylor, Chris, Kellie
2) Elliot, Paris
3) Ace

I'm not saying that the top four have the best voices. But we all know this competition isn't just about singing. If it was solely based on singing, there are several good ones left to chose from. But there are outside factors to consider...the "whole" package, and sometimes people have fanbases that I don't understand. For example, why the hell did Bucky go home after Mandisa?? Anyway, the top tier has consistently gotten better and risen to the challenge, while Ace has gotten consistently worse during the finals. Elliot and Paris are just somewhere in the middle; both are great singers, but there is just something missing. I think Elliot has the best raw talent of the bunch, but that's it. He hasn't gone anywhere with it and there isn't any spark. Paris does so many different things every week that to me it isn't clear what her "package" is. Ace, to me, no matter how hot he is, is clearly a step or twelve below everyone else, and should go home this week whether he pulls off the songbook or not.

ALIAS Love Story: Section Three

Concierge: Checking in?
Will: Yeah, course. I'm here, she's here, we made it.
Concierge: And you are?
Sydney: We're the next big thing.

SO BAD ITS GOOD. This season is like a train wreck that I couldn't stop watching. A lot of people gave up this season, it turned out to be one of my favorites. I think it's the Jack and Sydney dynamic and how it grows. I hate that blonde bitch though. And its funny as hell, so I'll probably end up putting quotes throughout.

The Two (3.01) - This is by far the most painful episode of Alias to watch...Prophet Five included. There's a DVD extra where JG talks about how hard it was to film and the director says cut and she starts crying between takes. So Sydney wakes up two years after the fight with Allison and everything is different. Vaughn is married, Dixon is director of the LA office, Marshall and Carrie are pregnant, Sloane is a humanitarian, the Covenant is the new threat, and Jack has been in jail for a year, although she gets him out.

Sydney: Well all I said was I couldn't talk about it.
Jack: Which of course has only peaked his interest.
Sydney: What peaked his interest was hearing Simon Walker call me Julia and then kiss me like his prom date.

A somewhat surprising and important development is that Jack allied with Irina to help him figure out what happened to Sydney...so apparently their relationship is peachy again. He contacts her and at the end of their conversation she says miss you and he definitely says it back. Remember when you called her disarming? Yeah...

Sydney: The last thing I want is to be responsible for driving a wedge between Vaughn and Lauren.
Jack: That is a concern I do not share.

A Missing Link/Repercussions (3.04/05) - Ahh, here we are. "I Almost Died: Part Three". Sydney stabs Vaughn because the dumbass gets caught by Walker's team and it makes him realize how much misses Sydney and he has that dream in the hospital...like he didn't already know.

Simon: Were you like lovers or something?
Jack: Not exactly.
Simon: The reason I ask is...if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it.
Jack: Do you?
Simon: Oh yeah...on a scale of one to ten, ten being most degenerate displays of sexual theater known to man, well Julia's like a seventeen.

Breaking Point (3.08) - Jack and Vaughn go to meet Thomas Brille. I don't think Brille is necessarily that important of a character, but I'm bringing up anytime Bill Vaughn is brought up and Brille worked with him. Irina killed Bill Vaughn, and we know now that both Bill and Irina are/were involved in Prophet Five. Either this is not a coincidence, or JJ Abrams wasted an incredible opportunity. I mean come on, Syd's SpyMommy killed Vaughn's SpyDaddy on a supposed CIA mission gone bad, and then we find out they're both involved in P5, which to our knowledge is this monster of a conspiracy going back 50 years or something. The whole Irina/Bill/Sydney/Michael/Prophet Five pentagon mess is fascinating and too good not to mess with or at least theorize about. I know I said I wasn't going to...I lied.

Conscious (3.09) - Lindsay needs to cover himself after he nearly killed Sydney so he blackmails Sloane into hiring a hitman to kill her. This is when we find out for sure that Sloane does in fact have an endgame...and also that Robert Lindsay is the dumbest fictional character on the planet. Come on Lindsay...did you really expect to tie up your loose ends by informing Arvin Sloane that you were one of his? I guess that's the question you were asking yourself just as you realized you paid for your own hitman.

Will: I tell you what. We're gonna get four bottles of champagne and I'm going to tip you like I ordered five. You know what I mean? You do don't you? You cheeky little bastard. Cheers.

Full Disclosure (3.11) - We finally find out what happened in those missing two years, but yeah right Dixon wouldn't tell her what happened. That whole twist that was thrown in there made no sense at all and sort of ruined it for me. Anyway, she was being held by the Covenant, being brainwashed to be Julia Thorne, and ended up working for the CIA as Julia Thorne and a double again, but this time inside the Covenant. Only she didn't want to remember it or what she did with the DNA that was supposed to make her love child with Rambaldi, so she erased her own memory. I think this last part about the DNA is especially crucial because it brings back the prophecy from season one, "...signs that she will be the one to bring forth my work...this woman will render the greatest power...". Also, I'm not entirely sure that this won't come into play later, because now Sydney actually has a kid. I know its Michael's, but is it really...and even if it is, can we be sure that there isn't some other Rambaldi prophecy that he's involved in?? And Lazery also mentions the Passenger for the first time right before Lauren kills him.

Oleg: Your name is Julia Thorne.
Sydney: My name is Sydney Bristow you ugly bastard.

Ding Dong, the bitch is bad. You knew it all along right? Me too. But I was, like, scared that she wasn't. I just figured it was too obvious. Part of me wanted her to not be bad and Michael to just leave Lauren for Syd all on his own. But whatever, I hate her.

Crossings (3.12) - This is the first time since Sydney's been back that Vaughn verbally expresses his feelings that Sydney is the only one for him. Um...YAY! It's also probably my favorite Alias episode...ever. It may be the Vaughn thing, it may be the Damien Rice song at the end...don't really know, don't really care.

While Sydney's in North Korea, its the first time we see one of Irina's sisters, Katya, and we first hear of her other sister, Elena Derevko, who gets important later. Also, Katya's real name is Ekaterina, which is just too close to Irina for my taste...mix it up!

Cole: But in the mean time may I suggest, and this is just a suggestion, that you put the kabash on your husband's extra curricular sextivites.

Blowback (3.14) - We find out that Sloane had an affair with Irina, and even though he's a disgusting pig, I have to applaud his ability to manipulate people. He knows full well he's not Sydney's father and that he has another daughter, but damn it's working well to make the shrink think its possible.

Taken (3.16) - At the end of Taken, Jack figures out that Lauren is the mole, although he can't prove it for a while, when he hears both Sark and Lauren use the phrase, "not if I see you first, love."

The Frame (3.17) - The Passenger resurfaces in what turns out to be faulty intel indicating that the Passenger is a bio-weapon. We know its actually Nadia Santos, Sydney's sister as she becomes so fond of telling us. It gets just about as annoying as the tagline from season one.

Michael: Whether or not you or Sydney believe me, I know the life that I'm living and I know the woman I am married to. Lauren is not Irina and I am definitely not you.

Unveiled (3.18) - Michael finds out about Lauren after he makes an ass of himself to Sydney and Jack...good job buddy.

Vaughn: I should have known.
Sydney: We should talk to Dixon and figure out a way to handle this.
Vaughn: Oh I know how to handle this.
Jack: You will act like nothing's changed.
Vaughn: Okay what's Plan B cause that's not gonna happen.

Jack finds out that Sloane had an affair with Irina and decides not to help him get out of what's coming to him. Although I'm confused as to why he's helping him to begin with. Come on, Jack...if anyone's above being manipulated by Sloane, its gotta be you.

Hourglass (3.19) - We find out, what I think is the entire point of season three, and JAbrams just decided to dance around the issue, that Sydney has a sister who has the genes of none other than Arvin Sloane, and she is The Passenger. Sydney also finds out what Jack already knows, that Sloane had an affair with Irina. We also see just how much of a psycho Sloane is, in that he's willing to risk is life in his quest for all things Rambaldi. You just put a whole lotta faith in a man who despises you dude.

Sydney: It's also possible that my sister is an innocent victim.
Jack: With Arvin Sloane and Irina Derevko as parents? I don't think so.

Blood Ties (3.20) - Although we don't get it in quite as cool a way, we learn that Rambaldi prophesied that Nadia, aka Sloane's spawn, would serve as a direct conduit to him. So now we know why the Passenger and the Chosen One are important. Sydney meets her sister for the first time, and at the end, the connection between the Chosen One and the Passenger is revealed. "The Passenger and the Chosen One will battle, neither will survive." That is so not what happens, nor is it what the prophecy says when they bring it up in season four, but whatever, you get the idea.

Its also time for our next installment in Vaughn's "I Almost Died" series. This one is a little minor, sort of like 3 1/2, but we'll round up and call it part four. Lauren and Sark kidnap, torture, and nearly kill him with the Inferno Protocol...whatever the hell that is.

Resurrection (3.22) - Vaughn kills that ugly blonde bitch, but not before the part five of...you guessed it, "I Almost Died". Just when he's about to get sweet revenge another Derevko reaks havoc on another Vaughn when Katya stabs Vaughn and leaves him for dead. Seriously...this poor guy! I guess that's what happens when you marry a "vicious homicidal double agent".

I loved this season finale, but I've gotta put some stipulations on that statement. First, it was a tad anti-climatic again, although not to the extent of season two, but it felt the same in the aspect that the seasons don't transition smoothly. They resolve whatever they need to resolve and then the cliffhanger goes in a completely different direction. But the shit got me. When Lauren was saying all that stuff about people controlling her and Sydney my mind was racing about all the possibilities that could come from that dealing with project Christmas and whatnot. Her mentioning Irina was just a sidenote I thought. Imagine how pissed I was when the actually sidenote was revealed. Damn it.

Michael: (referring to Sark's nose) I think I broke it.
Sark: Clearly.

VERONICA MARS - I Am God

Dick: Veronica, sometimes you don't need the prettiest horse, just the one that let's you ride bareback.

Oh My. This was like a mini scary movie...what the heck? But what I keep coming back to is...is this a way to get more information across, because at the end of the day, it was just a dream. Whatever that means, this was a truely creepy way to further the plot...even for Rob Thomas. What I did think was very cool was the role reversal in Veronica taking the lead on the bus crash and Keith handling the MotW...although it was a little underplayed. I had to watch it twice to get what was going on with that anxiety crap.

V got into Stanford so yay for her, but we all know she's going to Hearst, so whatever, but I love love love that Wallace and Logan had a bonding moment, so maybe a Logan and V reunion isn't far away. I swear if Logan had anything to do with the crash I'll personally find Rob Thomas and kill him.

Okay, so the information we got outside of the dreams was this. Dick and Beaver are worth more dead than alive, although I don't know what to think about that because I'm convinced someone put the rat on the bus to drive the rich kids off, so unless someone messed up like whoa, Dick wasn't supposed to die. We also know that white trash Ronda's fam got a huge settlement from none other than Woody Goodman...that is so not a coincidence. When Keith said guess...I didn't need three. This Lucky guy is really shady, especially since there's an episode coming up named "Happy Go Lucky". I doubt there's no relation. Is Beaver's flashback supposed to tell us that Cervando was one of the PCHers working with the Fitzpatricks? Dick also messed around with some chick named Batina who was set on getting pregnant with his kid, and gay Peter had the hots and maybe more for Mr. Wu.


On to info we got in the dreams...The Cervando thing is messed up, and somehow is probably connected to Beaver, at least we're supposed to think that. Why Weevil was at the gas station is a disturbing question, as is why was a gay kid on a field trip to a baseball stadium. And why the hell did the name on Curly Moran's hand appear on Veronica's in the dream? What I don't necessarily buy is the last scene with the pirate radio guy saying that it was Veronica's fault or the creepy C-4 sitting beside her while the phone rings. Not that I don't think someone was after Veronica, but that seems more like her feelings weighing in on her dreams than anything else.

So here's my slowly forming theory, based on Keith's good advice to follow the money. I heard a rumor that Veronica's trouble making mama might be making an appearance and I can't help but wonder if someone else's parent took out insurance on their child. Veronica perhaps? When was the last time they checked her financials? Its just that last season there were absolutely no clues leading up to Aaron so maybe all the people we think are responsible aren't. Sure he was a pyscho, but nothing connecting him to Lily. I don't think its as simple as someone crashed the bus, I think several people are involved on some level, but I'm starting to think Lianne is a major player.

GILMORE GIRLS - The Real Paul Anka

Colin: ...we are planning the ultimate Life & Death Brigade event.
Finn: Not only the ultimate, but the penultimate!
Colin: Penultimate means next to last, Finn; this is the last one.
Finn: I thought it meant super ultimate.
Robert: How did you get into Yale?
Finn: Slept with the recruiter.


Great Episode...you know why? FINNY!!!! He is my TV boyfriend and I love him!!!! I'm fairly certain I must marry either an Australian or a Brit. He was on for like two seconds, sure, but its so worth it every time. Best Finn moment? His John Travolta/Pulp Fiction impersonation in "Pulp Friction". We are still desperately awaiting the news about whether or not ASP is returning at the helm of GG next season, and I'm panicking because moments like those in "Pulp Friction" won't come from anyone but ASP.

Now that I have sufficiently expressed my love for both Amy Sherman-Palladino and Tanc Sade, I can focus on the fact that Lorelai is officially sharing (with Addison Shepherd) the title of Queen in the land called Passive Agressiva, and even more disturbing is the fact that the only one who's noticing is Emily. The scene where she takes out her issues on Lane's wedding dress and that poor "one-of-a-kind" bag were awesomely over the top and the latter had me wondering when Luke lost the few brain cells he has left. Ah, well, it is the Lorelai way. She couldn't even confront her parents about moving to Stars Hollow, but instead decided to take the not at all believable "trash the town I'm choosing to live in" route.

Sadly, the person who's still as smart as he used to be, and therefore is noticing the giant relationship rift, is precious Logan. Do you think it says something about me that Logan is the one I'm siding with here? I think what Logan did was awful, don't get me wrong, but she forgave him, and now she's going out of her way to treat him like crap. Best case scenario, she's lowering herself to his level, worst case, which is the view I'm taking, is she treating him even worse than he treated her. Unfortunately, as smart as he is, he's never been one for the common sense, and with all that noticing he's doing, I don't see this Life & Death Brigade stunt going well. Message to Rory: you knew what you were getting into. He's not a commitment guy, and you're a smart girl, you knew this was a possibility. Either take him back or don't, and get on with it. Did you really need to kiss Jess to realize there's a reason you keep forgiving this guy?

Part of me wants to see the bonding moments between Luke and April as something sweet, but how dense and neglectful he's being with Lorelai just muddles the whole thing for me to where I don't even care. I realize the tar and feathers are coming any day for what I'm about to say, but...when is that Christopher thing happening again?

IDOL - Elimination 5

Man I've got mixed emotions about this. When I saw that Taylor, Kat, Chris, and Kellie were separated on top from Elliot, Ace, Bucky, and Paris, I was pretty sure the top row was safe because that's about how I split it, and I was so relieved when I didn't have to hold my breath too long for Katharine tonight.

I was up in the air between Elliot and Paris because they are the most middle of the pack equals. Paris has a lot of talent and a big voice, but there's something missing. And Elliot has an amazing voice and probably the best raw talent left in the competition, but the entire rest of the package is just not there. None of it.

Bucky and Ace however, equally deserved their bottom three spots tonight and I wouldn't be surprised if Bucky just edged Ace out for the lowest number. I am not at all sad about Bucky because he has never been strong, and to me has consistently performed below par since being selected as a top 24 contestant. Ace on the other hand, had some bright moments in the semi finals but has consistently gone downhill in the finals, capped off last night by what I would call the worst performance this entire Idol season. I wouldn't do that alone in my bedroom, much less in front of 30 million people. I was horrified when Ryan made Elliot sing, because I realized that I was probably going to have to sit through Ace's again. Thank goodness for TiVo. The pathetic thing is, I really don't think Ace thought he deserved to be there. You could just see the wheels turning..."but I'm so pretty!". I'm about as sick of his sex appeal routine as I am of Chris' rocker routine. At least Chris can sing.

The ones who have it and the ones who don't are very quickly separating in my mind, and tonight they were separated on the couches. The top row should be the final four.

IDOL - Elite Eight

At least I was expecting Queen to be bad. My problem this week was with the judges...Simon specifically. Obviously the whole "Queen" week is supposed to really test the finalists because its so hard to do, kind of like a really rough class in college or law school or med school. But let's face it, aren't we the ones that are suffering here? Simon was right, the audience deserves better, but the show is the one that made them do something so off the map in the first place. Plus, its not really weeding them out because in the end only one person is going home, just like every other week...and America tends to forget bad performances by the next show. So the show forces the contestants to perform in an area is that is so far out of most of their comfort zones that its almost impossible to be entertaining and then tells them that they can do better. Ryan was almost tolerable tonight, thats something.

Bucky: What the hell is this guy still doing in this competition? Seriously. This isn't a rhetorical question anymore guys. I'd like some feedback. Every little bit helps. In singing lessons, we used to have to do an exercise saying "mommy makes my mash my m&ms". All I want is for someone to teach it to Bucky. Dude...I cannot understand what you're saying. DICTION. And I've never seen so many karaoke performances on national television. I have a local bar, thanks. I seriously have no clue who's voting for this guy every week, so safe? Not safe? I think he should have gone home weeks ago.

Ace: Well Ryan gets the Captain Obvious award for the week...yes Ryan, the competition is getting more and more intense every week. And Ace, its a bad sign when Queen tells you no, not to their own song. I mean, what can I say? It was just...embarrassing. You did not rock. It was the first awful man-eyeliner moment of the night. I felt like it was something that one of my friends would have done as a joke in my living room on a drunken night while we were all sitting around laughing. Just awful. Not safe. Going home if America grows a brain cell this week.

Kellie: A for effort...I guess. Simon said it perfectly...its a mess on paper, and its hard to get past that. I think ultimately, it was good. The whole look was a little weird, and I thought she was a little awkward around the stage, but I can't find a lot of fault in it. Ambitious, but good. Safe.

Chris: He is the one that I'm going to hold to a higher standard this week...and its his own fault. He has made it clear, against my strong wishes, that he is a rocker. This week should have been a breeze for him, and I have to agree 100% with Simon here. He could have picked a much stronger choice and really shined and he just didn't...bottom line. And he becomes the second male eyeliner tragedy of the night. I feel like Simon was initially super-impressed with him but is finally just getting sick of it, and not that it makes a difference, but it still makes me happy. But he is, of course, safe.

Katharine: I definitely don't think this was Katharine's best night, but compared to the rest of the train wrecks tonight, she did well. The change was definitely a good move for her, but I did think it was a little "indulgent" as Simon likes to call it. And I absolutely hated that shirt. Of the three girls left in the competition though, there is simply no comparison. No prediction.

Elliot: He has got to let this rapper thing go. No matter what he does, you know somewhere in there he's going to throw in those oh-so-dependable, yet no less embarrassing 8 Mile moves. Stop it! He can still sing though. I would love to think on it for a while and hand pick a song for Elliot and arrange it so he can't mess it up. Because man...he. can. sing. I think he should be safe, but America's weird.

Taylor: I loved this. I know he looks like a dork jumpin' around like that, but it was entertaining, and the vocal was very good. Lance physically spit his drink out when he missed kicking the stand over. That was great. It was just fun which, to me, was something missing from this whole show. I liked it. He's safe.

Paris: Another week, another trip to the dress-up trunk, but I actually thought it was good. It was a little big, but what are we really choosing from tonight? I really should have just stuck with Veronica Mars. I wouldn't put her in the bottom three, but I'm not America.

I have a small rant (who are we kidding...its a big rant) before predictions that just came to a boiling point tonight when it became clear how obvious the judges favorites are. And by judges I mean Randy and Paula. Simon, for the most part, is pretty consistent and fair. But tonight was crap. This entire time, basically every single week without fail, Randy has gone on about song choice song choice song choice and this week when Simon throws out there that Chris could have picked a song that did more for him, Randy says no way...its not about the song choice?? You've got to be kidding me. And he and Paula are horrible with this...Katharine is clearly not who they want to win. Ace's performance tonight was pitiful, and yet Paula and Randy are upbeat and try to be a positive as possible, but then when they're judging Katharine, someone who was actually good, they both say as many negative things as they can think of, in as negative a voice as they can muster before half-heartedly admitting that it was a solid performance. When everyone else gets up there, they are so excited and happy for them and jazzed to give a good review if the show warrants it, and many times if it doesn't, but Katharine doesn't ever get that. The most she gets is a solemn, "it was good."

I voted for: no one (line was busy for 05!!)
My bottom 3: Ace, Bucky, Paris (stressing this is prediction, not who I'd put there)
Going home: Please, God, ACE

ALIAS - Love Story: Section Two

Kendall: I just got off the phone with the Director again, and he asked me again if I knew we were in the intelligence business.


I didn't initially plan to break these sections into seasons specifically, but I guess its working out that way. What can you do? I'm guessing I'll end up putting my favorite quote from the season at the top. What can I say...I love the quotes.

The Enemy Walks In (2.01) - This is basically a continuance of Almost Thirty Years, and we tie up a bunch of lose ends, including how Vaughn survives "I Almost Died: Part One". He swam out of room 47 only to get caught by Derevko's men and taken to France. Of course, all of that could have been avoided if he would have just run when he saw the massive wall of water coming at him instead of standing there like an idiot. I don't think any other Alias moment bothers me more than that one. Its just as well, the hot component is alive and well. We also find that Sloane really did kill his own wife, curiousity didn't kill Will but did turn him into an unemployed drug addict, and we, the viewers, see Irina Derevko for the first time and how Sydney escaped from the room in Taipai only after the mother/daughter reunion included Syd getting shot by Irina. Ultimately, Irina turns herself in.

Cipher (2.03) - In this episode, two things happen that I feel are relatively important, although this is the season where Irina is the major player, so most things are important. Jack confronts Irina for the first time and Sydney allows her mother in on a personal level. Both stupid moves, I think. Jack is way too controlled by this woman, the only person who's ever been able to have any kind of a hold on him, and Sydney is way too guliable in many respects and just should have stayed away, no matter what Irina's ultimate agenda is.

Counteragent (2.07) - Vaughn has his second near death experience, but who's really cares because we will eventually lose count. Via Michael's unfornunate "I Almost Died: Part Two" that was actually a result of Part One, Sark and Sloane form their infamous partnership. Sydney also finds out that Michael has been seeing Alice again. That went over real well.

The Passage (2.08/09) - This is Irina's first real chance to prove her loyalty and disprove those who doubt her, and she comes through. After the family outing Sydney fully trusts Irina, and Jack begins to trust her. She proves her loyalty again in A Higher Echelon, only she's really not, we just don't know it yet.

Phase One (2.13) - Bye Bye Alliance. Right before this, Sloane makes his getaway, but there's no reason to not include everything here. So Sloane is gone, Sydney and the CIA bring down the Alliance, and Michael and Sydney can finally be together. And holy crap, Francie dies. Well, the real one. By the way, Sydney not noticing that her best friend was someone else for half a season is the stupidest plot ever. So basically, this marks not a, but the pivotal moment of all pivotal moments in the world of Alias. Sydney Bristow's life takes on a new dynamic.

A Free Agent (2.15) - Sydney and Sloane have not only their first conversation, but also see each other face to face for the first time since the truth about SD-6 is out in the open.

This has pretty much nothing to do with Alias as it is, but it might have to do with what it will be, once its said and done, and this does change the dynamic slightly. Sydney graduates from school. So what this really means is no more pretending and throwing in a scene ever now and then that reminds us that Sydney is, in fact, pulling triple duty. Thank God.

A Dark Turn (2.17) - Irina goes bad again, or still, or whatever, but she betrays Sydney and Jack and the CIA and everyone else. No matter how you try and justify that, Derevko, its not good. But at least she and Jack get some hot love in before she bolts. Down the road I have issues with this episode too, because Vaughn is investigated by counterintelligence. Wouldn't they have picked something up about Prophet Five since he's been supposedly working on that since the beginning? Yeah.

Truth Takes Time (2.18) - Nothing huge happens here, except that Emily dies for real this time, and I just wanted to point out the irony in that.

Countdown (2.20) - Sloane goes to see the Rambaldi prophet and finds out about, I assume, the passenger, a.k.a, his daughter, a.k.a, Sydney's sister. But, we don't technically know this yet. Sorry if I ruined it for you.

The Telling (2.22) - This is in my opinion, the most anti-climatic season finale ever. If you leave out the part about Sydney going missing for two years, la la la, then you really don't have much, but I figure every season finale's supossed to be important so I'll do what I can. Will is 'officially' cleared, although that whole thing bugged me because they could have tested his blood for that gene therapy medicine in the first place but whatever. We find out that Irina is really good, but really? Is she? She pieces together for Sydney (and us) how she worked it out while in CIA custody. The CIA gets Sark...but he takes off three episodes later, and I guess the most important part is Sloane puts together Il Dire, but we don't know what that does for like a year, so you kind of forget about it, at least I did. But my point is, they go to all the trouble of raiding that building and everyone just gets away. There is that kickass scene with with Syd and EvilFrancie and there's a cool DVD extra that you should check out about that, but the next scene is really part of season three, so thats it.

Sark: Good luck Sydney.
Sydney: I don't need you to wish me luck you son of a bitch.
Sark: That's a wonderful attitude.

ALIAS - Love Story: Section One

Glasses: Who do you work for? I'll not ask you again.
Sydney: Ok, get a pen, write this down. E-M-E-T-I-B. Got that? Okay, now reverse it...I've got bad news for you man. I am your worst enemy. I've got nothing to lose.
Glasses: That's not exactly true. You have teeth.


Okay, this post isn't exactly like it sounds. I thought about what to call it for a bit and finally decided that "Love Story" was as appropriate as anything because my love for Alias is why I'm writing this post in the first place, and I'm doing it because Alias is ending and well that's just sad. So, what this post is actually about is this. Since I'm watching the first 4+ seasons right now to celebrate Alias' April 19th return (mark your calendars!), I'm going through and instead of doing a synopsis of season 5 episodes liked I'd originally thought about doing, I'm going to mark turning points and pivotal moments throughout Alias history. For example, the first one will obviously be Sydney finding out about SD-6 as a result of her first fiance's death. So its an Alias timeline, if you will, complete with a touch of review and some snark here and there, I'm sure. And since there will probably be at least 4-5 a season, it'll be pretty long, so I'll most likely break it up into sections. This will be section one. Because sections sounds cooler than parts and definitely cooler than chapters, and lets face it, its loosely based on SD cells of seasons 1 & 2. Here we go.

Season One:
Truth Be Told (1.01) - Sydney discovers the true nature of her employer, SD-6, as a mercenary group, rather than a black ops division of the CIA and also learns that her absentee father has also been working for the same mercenary group, but also for the CIA. Read: Syd isn't the only one pulling double duty. Unfortunately SpyDaddy (aka Victor Garber, aka the Sexiest man over 50) , in the same episode, coins the phrase, "you've been working for the very enemy you thought you were fighting," which becomes a part of the Sydney voice over as well as a staple for anytime the true nature of SD-6 is discussed, and which I am convinced was thought up for the express purpose of annoying me.

In the pilot we also see the small red ball that slowly turns into a big red ball. Its also the first time we hear the name Oscar Mueller, who is apparently the one who designed the device. He gets real important later...Prophet Five anyone?

Parity (1.03) - Milo Rambaldi is introduced. We find out that the red ball thing was actually his design and Oscar Mueller was just "an academic". He just found the design and made it or improved it I guess. Anyway, we all know how important Rambaldi is...no need to elaborate here.

The Confession (1.11) - After Sydney and Michael do some sleuthing, they ultimately decide that SpyDaddy's been a bad boy for the KGB including killing Michael's dad (aka SpyDaddy2). The interesting thing is, Vaughn was pretty against turning Jack in for the good of bringing down SD-6 until he found out it was about his daddy. Way to separate the personal and professional there, Mike. Sydney whines a bit, but they finally go to Devlin about it, only to find out that it was actually SpyMommy. That family's more dysfunctional than mine. Sydney, as expected, has some trouble processing.

The Coup (1.14) - I had a hard time deciding whether or not to include this as a pivotal event or not, but I figured what the hell. Its the first time we see the man known as Julian Sark. Actually at this point he's only known as Sark...he doesn't have a first name yet, but who cares because he's still absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, he becomes a major player later on, so I think this is important. I'll talk about him more later when I talk about SpyMommy.

Page 47 (1.15) - This is when Alias gets creepy and completely moves away from anything realistic. Some guy named Rambaldi drew a picture of Sydney, or someone who looks a whole lot like her, over 500 years ago. Sure, he drew plans for a cell phone and created a synthetic polymer around the same time, but none of that is as freakish as looking at a picture of yourself drawn in the 1500's. But so yeah, this is the first time Sydney is tied to Rambaldi, but it won't be the last.

The Prophecy (1.16) - "This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks, signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works, bind them with fury, a burning anger. Unless prevented, at vulgar costs, this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation." And we thought just the picture was bad news. Now she's seriously tied to Rambaldi. Not only did he draw her, but he knew her platelet levels and heart size. This guy's good. And the prophecy doesn't seem so important in the span of the first season, but proves how talent JJ is, damn him, as it comes back and becomes oh so important all the way to the third and fourth season, and I'm not convinced it won't come back in the end of the fifth.

Q&A/Masquerade (1.17/18) - We "find out"/assume that Laura Bristow is alive. It's unclear when exactly we find out that her real name is Irina Derevko...its somewhere around here though. We hear it on the video that Jack listens to, but Sydney also types it in the search on her mission with Agent Overbite Hicks.

Rendezvouz (1.21) - Although we know that Vaughn's got Sydney on the brain long before this episode, this is the first one where it becomes an issue/is verbalized. At least by Weiss, who is clearly counting on that vesting. Come on Weiss...you're a government employee, you better be saving your pennies now. At this point, I think she likes him too, but she's still recovering from dead fiance #1, so its still in the back of her head. Ahh, she'll change her tune during his first near death experience.

Also, Will finds out about SpySyd. He finds out about SpyWorld in the episode before this, but what the hell...I threw it all together here. This is actually where he puts it all together and finds out about Sydney, Jack, and the whole deal.

Almost Thirty Years (1.22) - We actually see, or Sydney actually sees (because Lena Olin hadn't been cast yet), that Irina is, in fact, alive. Oh, so pivotal. Unlike a lot of Alias viewers, I haven't even bothered to come up with conspiracy theories about the end of Alias, it makes my head hurt. But whatever lies in store for those last six episodes, Irina is a major player. Its fabulous how Irina Derevko has been such a crucial part of Alias from beginning to end, and Lena Olin was only a regular in season 2, and didn't even appear in seasons one or three. More on Irina later.

We see the red ball for the second time and it has grown significantly. As Sydney put it, "Vaughn, its bigger than I thought."

Sloane: I can't really be the first person to have difficulty taking you seriously can I?
Cole: Well, while that was a moderately clever retort, I'm the man holding the box.

VERONICA MARS - Plan B

Weevil: Bless me father, for I have sinned.


I know my intro quotes are usually more for the comedic value, but man, this just seemed appropriate. I'm still a little...I mean I had to wait two days to even figure out where to start talking about the PCHer with the cute nickname taking the long dirt nap. First, I love Weevil, and there's no way anything he did could ever make me not like him, but I liked how his desperation was personified all through the episode almost enough to justify what he did for viewers. We've seen throughout what he'll do for his 'boys', especially Felix, but I felt like in this episode it really became clear that it was Weevil's love for Felix, not ego or pride or any other stupid-ass male emotion that drove him to get justice. The scene between he and Molly was awesome. I loved seeing Felix again in the flashback too. He is so cute. Why couldn't it have been Hector? Seeing Felix, Thumper getting whacked, and then the previews for next week just made me think...holy crap do we have a body count for season two? Most of the bus crash victims they just made up to kill them, but Meg and Felix were regulars, and Thumper was this year. It's beginning to be like Lost where you never know if your job is safe. (For the record, I don't watch Lost and never will, its a principle thing) Okay, so if my math is right, we have Felix, 6 students and 1 teacher on the bus, Curly Moran, Meg, and now Thumper. Did I miss anyone? I'd be scared to live in Neptune right now.

Alright, Eduardo Orozco is our most recently deceased. Weevil set him up, Liam F. and Danny B. secured his fate, and Logan actually pushed the plunger, but only because Goodman was negligent in checking the stadium. I would say that Logan is the only one guilt free here (there's a first time for everything) but I'm inclined to think it wasn't just a coincidence that he was the one that pushed that plunger. Now whether he had knowledge, or its just going to come back to bite him in a "wrong place wrong time" way, no idea. Liam/Danny are the actual murderers here, but thats no surprise, we know they're dirty. What I need to still decide is if they are just dirty, or if they are the actual dirt. The duct tape comment, however, is just the sort of sort of subtle clue that Rob would throw in there about the MotYear...come on...the rat was duct taped to the seat! I have a feeling they were doing it for someone else though. Which brings me to the Goodman. He is SO dirty. And I definitely think he might be the dirt, but again, I need a minute. This guy was eight kinds of shady this ep. The whole DVD thing, the way he interacted with Logan, and then not checking the stadium? That's either intentional or just the most bone-headed move in the history of...something, I'm sure. And the latter qualifies as negligence at the very least, if anyone ever figures out what happened to Thumper. And we all know that's not happening as long as Lamb is sheriff. And speaking of which, do we think Lamb is dirty? Is he minimally dirty, like, just getting paid off? Or something more? I just can't fathom a cop being this lazy. And when Veronica gave him that tape, he was disinclined to go after the Fitzpatricks, but when the witness came forward and isolated Thumper, he was willing to do that. Curious.

Back to Weevil. I'm gonna make an executive decision and say that yes, Weevil knew the absolute full extent of what his actions would cause, so in effect, he basically killed Thumper. But no one forced Thumper to get involved with the Fitzpatricks, and not only are they technically who killed him, but by association, who got him killed. If he didn't work for the Fitzpatricks, he wouldn't have been made to kill Felix, then he wouldn't have been set up by Weevil. Thumper was scum, and he made his own bed. If you don't want to die, then don't get mixed up with people who will kill you over drugs. Or a niece/daughter. Speaking of Molly Fitzpatrick, I found her "same scum different wardrobe" comment interesting, as one of the scum she was referring to was PCHers. Wasn't she "in love" with a PCHer? I wonder if the first dead "half breed cholo" would have died for Molly if he'd had a choice in the matter.

So what the hell is going on with Beaver? Is his Mac freak out an isolated "neglected child" thing, or somehow connected to his real estate scam? Is his real estate scam setting up Kendall for the big fall or does he have another agenda or both? Did he factor in the incorporation or is that going to screw up his plans? Is his working with the Goodman somehow? Small, probably premature theory: he really likes Mac, but he's in deep with something dirty and doesn't want to get to close to her so she doesn't get hurt...or figure it out.

And Jackie...touched that she's changing, or too little too late? But I don't like who Wallace is when he's around her regardless. Speaking of Wallace...I don't like the lack of interaction between him and Veronica.

And last but not least, Logan and Veronica's big dance. This alone made the whole episode...at least for me. They're chemistry, just when they're looking at each other, is unreal. I was immediately transported back to the balcony of The Camelot in Weapons of Class Destruction. Ahhh... I'm sorry, she just never had that chemistry with Duncan. Never. Logan and Veronica are equals. What they've been through causes them to be able to relate to each other in a way that no one else can.


Logan: When I dreamed of this moment, 'I've Had the Time of My Life' was always playing. Hmm, what can you do?

IDOL - Finals Elimination 4

Oh no...Queen?????

Haha. Well, on the downside, she wasn't the worst. On the upside, I guess we'll finally find out if she's a "homophobe". Anybody else heard those rumors? Yeah...from the last two weeks alone, I would say Bucky should have gone home first, but I guess Mandisa would have been a close second. Can someone please fill me in on where this guy's fanbase is coming from? It was so interesting to see 3 completely new people in the bottom three tonight. I was SO SURE it was Ace/Bucky/Katharine. Like, I would have actually put real money on it. It was a little refreshing to be honest. I don't think Paris should have been there. But Elliot, look what happens when you overuse that vibrato. Not cool dude. Do you think they were grouped in order of votes? Were Taylor, Kellie, and Chris the highest, then Katharine, Ace, Bucky, or was that just random? Notice how the first three were the ones that Simon picked to go all the way. These bottom three's week to week are just so surprising. I don't know what to think anymore. I honestly have no clue why Bucky is still in this competition. But if you don't count him, the right person went home this week. And when I realized it was her, my first thought was, oh crap, I have to hear that awful rendition of that Shania Twain song again.

GILMORE GIRLS - I'm OK, You're OK

Logan: We were apart!
Paris: Oh please!
Logan: We weren't together. Wait...Why the hell am I arguing with you, I don't want you back.

I really liked this episode. I feel like I can finally see where ASP is going and I love it. Okay, maybe I'm not crazy about the actual storyline, but her writing vision is fantastic. First, the parallel between Rory and Lorelai's denial is, in a word, brilliant. I do feel like it's more acceptable for Rory to be in denial about her relationship than it is for Lorelai. There are a lot of reasons for that opinion, but I could start with the 16 years that Lorelai Sr. has on Lorelai Jr.

My two favorite scenes from the episode were number 1) the Logan/Paris confrontation. I love it when these two have scenes together. And 2) when Lorelai walked to the door and whispered to Luke that Emily and Richard were there and he bolted. hehe. And I'm still lovin' Lane and Zach. They could NOT be cuter. Mrs. Kim and Zach are so great...who remembers when she showed him pictures of Lane when she was little? Amazing. I didn't like that "hit song" though.

I like that Rory being editor wasn't completely dropped, and that Paris and Rory made up. In the last ASP interview I read, she went on and on about Liza Weil, and I couldn't agree more. She is perfect and I'd be heartbroken if she was out of Rory's life. And I totally agree about the treadmill. Rapists and murderers are scary! Its why I have one anyway.

I had a debate during the episode about why Rory took Logan back if she hadn't really forgiven him and the fact that it's not like Rory to roll over for someone like that if she takes issue with something they did. Here's my thoughts on the subject. I agree with Logan that he actually did not cheat on her. When they had that fight in the weird karaoke bar, I questioned myself whether or not it was a breakup or not. When Rory said break, I assumed that was the direction we were going, but apparently Logan agreed with me. (another case of superb writing, by the way) But, just because I don't think Logan was cheating on her doesn't mean I think he's any less of a manwhore for sleeping with 50 girls in 2 weeks. And I assume that's right about where Rory is right now. So she can't break up with him for cheating on her, because he didn't. So if she were going to break up with him, it would have to be in a more or less judgmental capacity, and no one wants to be that guy (or girl). To sum up, I kind of think she's caught between a rock and a hard place.
Lorelai on the other hand, just in denial.

Overall, great episode, can't wait for next week. New through the finale. 2 weeks till Alias!!