My Review of The Originals 3.09- Savior

The Mikaelsons are celebrating Christmas, but everything is not merry and bright and Tristan and Aurora strike back.  Jackson and Hayley come to an understanding about their place in the Mikaelson family and a new regent is chosen by the Ancestors.

It was nice to have Rebekah back, even if only for an episode.  Unfortunately, the stake that the Strix used on her was cursed and would slowly drive her insane.  So insane that she struck out against everyone around her.  The fact that it took both Elijah and Klaus to hold her down so Freya could remove the mark that was spreading showed how far gone she was.  The worst part is that the removal didn’t work because the Strix somehow made it so that the mark would come back.  So, she got Elijah to dagger her so that she wouldn’t go off on everyone again. Klaus is not going to be happy about this.

Just like I can’t imagine what he’ll do if Cami is actually dead.  That move by Aurora was both brilliant and stupid.  Brilliant because it will cripple Klaus temporarily.  Stupid because he will get vengeance and won’t stop no matter what.  He has quite the nasty imagination and I don’t think that anything will be able to stop him from going after Aurora.  I have to say that I hope Cami isn’t actually dead because I do like her.  It’s possible that Aurora gave her blood in order to turn her into a vampire.  If she does that, she may try and do something relating to the sire link to use Cami to get at Klaus.

It was nice to see Jackson finally get why Hayley keeps helping the Mikaelsons.  He kept trying to make it him or them, but he seems to get now that they can have each other and still be involved with the Mikaelsons.  They do need to be careful because of Hope, but it’s nice that they are finally on the same page.

Vincent is the new regent but, unless I misread the ending, Vincent is now Finn again and is under the control of Tristan.  That is definitely not a good thing.  Finn hates his siblings and having the Regent be someone who hates the Mikaelsons under the control of someone who also hates the Mikaelsons is not going to be a good thing.  On his own, Finn caused enough trouble, so I can’t imagine the type of havoc he can wreak as the regent and in conjunction with the Strix.

It was really nice to see Klaus help Detective Kinney when Klaus really had no reason to.  Granted, it was something Cami wanted, but Klaus doesn’t always let something like that inform his actions, so seeing him allow it to this time was good.  I assume that he was able to undo (or at the very least undermine) what Lucien compelled Kinney to do, so that is good.  And it led to that really sweet scene of Cami and Klaus together, so that was cool.

Marcel needs to be a little more careful about undermining the Strix’s plans.  Tristan seemed to suspect what was going on and I can’t imagine that he’ll take betrayal well.

Until January 29th!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.09- Cold As Ice

Damon and Stefan have to live with the consequences of Lily’s death, Caroline starts to experience hormones, Nora bonds with an unexpected person, and Mary Louise continues to support Julian.

So, in the future, Stefan is with Valerie?  That was a little weird.  I’m still trying to sort out how all of these people end up with each other.  It occurred to me tonight that I have to wonder if these flash forwards are really flash forwards or if they are someone’s version of hell.  I know, it’s seriously far-fetched and highly doubtful, but just one weird idea.  Heck, this show has done weirder things, so it’s not exactly unprecedented.

Anyway, this week was Stefan’s week to be the impulsive and not exactly bright brother.  Normally, Damon does the stupid and impulsive things, but not this week.  Watching Damon play the sensible brother was definitely a little weird.  I’m not entirely sure if Damon is really hiding from his true feelings or if he is so full of rage at Lily for everything that he just can’t manage to be sad about her death.  And Stefan should know that Damon is not one to pretend emotions merely to mollify anyone.  He’s much too direct for that.  He may fake them to get revenge or something like that, but not for another reason.

Watching Bonnie and Nora bond was really fun.  They definitely seemed to hit it off as friends until Stefan kidnapped Mary Louise.  While I get that he did it to get to Julian, he should know that you never really get over someone you’ve loved intensely.  Nora’s reaction was pretty much the same reaction she had when Damon and Bonnie ripped out the heart of the other male Heretic earlier this season.  And did she get her revenge of Stefan.  Stabbing him in the heart and sending him to his own version of hell in the Phoenix stone?  Not fun.

Damon’s stabbing by Julian was equally not fun.  His version of hell has got to be pretty bad.  He has done all sorts of nasty things, so I don’t see him getting off lightly.  Anyone want to bet that Julian is right and Lily will make an appearance in Damon’s hell?

Watching a pregnant Caroline was amusing.  Her control freak tendencies kicked into seriously high gear and her hormones caused her to come really close to killing Alaric and other people.  I don’t see how blood can be bad for the babies.  Assuming her body acts the same as a human’s body, the babies should be shielded from any potential negative effects of the blood.  I also can’t imagine the Gemini coven putting the babies into her without taking some sort of precaution to shield them from potential side effects of being in a vampire.

The show will be back on Friday, January 29, so I’ll see y’all then!

Vampire Diaries and Original Mid-Season Finale Reviews

I wasn't home in time to watch The Vampire Diaries or The Originals mid-season finales tonight, so I'll post reviews about them Friday night after I watch them.  It'll be good practice for when the shows are switching to Fridays when the return.  Thanks for understanding!

My Review of The Originals 3.08- The Other Girl in New Orleans

Klaus hunts for Cami who is being held by Aurora; Elijah, Hayley, and Freya torture Tristan; the Strix call on Marcel to prove himself; and Hayley has words for Jackson.

Aurora is a complete nutjob.  Well, maybe not a complete nutjob, but she’s convinced herself that she is Klaus’ true love and that no one else can compare to her.  That might have been true at one point, but sweetie, he hasn’t seen you in a millennium, so I don’t think he cares about you all that much.  Watching him break the news to her in the harshest way he would was absolutely brutal.  I’d feel sorry for her, except for the fact that she is completely delusional and had to be talked to in that direct manner in order for her to really understand what he was saying.  Sometimes reality sucks.

I had to laugh when Elijah was going through torture etiquette with Freya.  The fact that they discussed it as if they were choosing what set of plates to use for a dinner just made it even funnier.  Then there was his comment to Hayley about the house not being a good place for Hope to be unless she was “teething violently”.  He got the greatest lines tonight.  On that subject, Klaus’ offer to Cami to kill that guy who beat her friend form college was almost funny too.  I suspect that he was only half kidding.  If she had said yes, I have very little doubt that he would have sent someone out to kill the guy.

When Marcel betrayed Elijah, I honestly thought that maybe it was a plan between Elijah and Marcel to trick the Strix.  The fact that Marcel did it all on his own while saving Freya and Hayley was impressive.  That man can come up with some really good spur of the moment plans.  He knew that he needed to get close to the Strix and this was his best way to do so.  By making it look like he had thoroughly turned on the Mikaelsons, he is now closer to the Strix and has a good chance of figuring out what to do to stop them.

Cami continues to impress.  She stood toe to toe with Aurora and never backed down until it became physical.  When that happened, she didn’t stand a chance and she was smart enough to not resist and piss Aurora off any more than she already was.  The fact that she didn’t immediately recognize Aurora seemed to irritate Aurora.  If Aurora was at all rational, she might have realized what that meant: she didn’t mean that much to Klaus.

Klaus now has the latitude when Rebekah is located and he and Elijah have the route of a ship that she was probably on, which (given the preview) means Rebekah will be reunited with her siblings soon.  And Klaus made Elijah promise to leave Aurora to him, while apparently leaving Tristan and possibly Lucien to Elijah.  Spot more of torture anyone?

I was glad to see Hayley stand up for her support for the Mikaelsons.  Twisted or not, they are her family too and she needs to protect them.  I really hope Jackson gets that.

I’m really curious what Freya and Finn are going to talk about.  This could be interesting.

Next week, the mid-season finale.  See y’all then!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.08- Hold Me Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

We get a quick glimpse of who is threatening the Salvatores in the future, Lily and the Heretics makes a choice, Caroline makes a confession, and it’s the end of the line for one character…

Goodbye Lily.  Not sure whether or not I’ll miss her yet.  You have to admit that she did her damnedest to make sure that her sons and the Heretics were safe.  Unfortunately for her, Mary Louise had already delinked her and Julian when she staked herself, which meant that her sacrifice was all for naught.  I am glad that she stood up for herself and her children at last.  Sadly, that didn’t seem to make an immediate difference to Damon, who was just to hurt and angry to acknowledge what Lily had done.  Not that I can really blame him, after all she did separate him from Elena, which is going to make him seriously cranky.

I’d feel sorry for Mary Louise, except for the fact that Nora returned her ring because she sided with Julian over the other Heretics.  I’ll grant that Valerie is not the most reliable person, but when she saw Nora and Beau go with her, you’d think she might have considered that Valerie was telling the truth.  I don’t know if this means that Nora and Mary Louise are over, but they are going to have a rough time.  Now that Lily is gone, I am not sure if the truce she negotiated with her sons is going to hold.  Unless Julian will keep it in her honor, I don’t see it lasting and that is bad news for everyone.  The Heretics are tremendously powerful and I don’t think the brothers can stand up to them.  This is not going to be good.

It was nice that Stefan and Caroline seemingly managed to patch things up relatively quickly.  Caroline dropped a rather massive bomb on him and his reaction, while not awful, wasn’t exactly encouraging either.  In all fairness to Stefan, he really needed time to process everything.  It’s not every day you find out your girlfriend is magically pregnant with another couple’s twins.  So can anyone really blame him for not being sure what to say.  It was nice to see him and Lily have a good conversation where she helped him work his way through what was going on.

Actually, now that I think about it, I have to wonder if Caroline’s being pregnant with the last of the Gemini Coven will help keep the peace.  Granted, the Coven didn’t treat the Heretics well, but this could be their chance to set that straight and start over with the new Coven.  Admittedly, it is equally likely that the news that the last of the Coven is in her could set them off given the way they were treated.  Talk about a complicated situation.

So Matt has started (or found?) a new group to help him protect humans in Mystic Falls.  Given the trouble that secret groups have given everyone in the past, I have to wonder why he is willing to work with a new one now.

And who is the mystery woman who has Damon?  She has a nasty kick and shoulder length (at least) hair which looked pretty dark.  I didn’t recognize the voice right off hand, so she is still a mystery to me.

Next week is the mid-season finale.  See y’all then!

My Review of The Originals 3.07- Out of the Easy

Klaus and Elijah throw a dinner party, Aurora reveals what happened to Rebekah, Marcel and Vincent make a startling move to protect Davina, Hayley and Jackson have a fight, and Cami is placed in danger.

Well, if you are the Mikaelsons and are going to have a party to celebrate Thanksgiving, would it be complete without a spot of torture?  Of course not!  Turns out Aurora took Rebekah and dumped her into the ocean.  The problem is that she doesn’t know the exact location.  She knows the latitude and Tristan knows the longitude of Rebekah’s watery location.  This, of course, does not sit well with Klaus, so (in typical Klaus fashion) he takes Tristan hostage so Aurora will give him Rebekah’s location.  Unfortunately for him, he didn’t count on the fact that Aurora knows that Cami means something to him and she will use Cami as a way to bend Klaus to her will.

Freya is obviously upset about everything that is going on.  She can’t locate Rebekah and can’t take her frustrations out on Aurora because she needs her to get Rebekah back.  The one thing that is confusing me is that Freya is supposed to be one of the most powerful witches alive, but she seems to be consistently frustrated by whoever the Triumvirate is using to do magic.  So either they have one super powerful witch (or maybe a coven?) or Freya is not as powerful as advertised.

I get why Jackson is upset with Hayley, but he doesn’t seem to get that her loyalties will always be divided between the pack and the Mikaelsons.  She is a hybrid and her life is bound to Klaus’ (presumably since he is Hope’s father), so she will never escape their orbit.  Then there is also the fact that Klaus is Hope’s father and her feelings for Elijah, which binds her to the Mikaelsons.

Getting the New Orleans witches to shun Davina was a sure fire way to make sure that she wouldn’t be able to help the Triumvirate, but it was also quite cruel.  I have to wonder what effect this will have on Davina.  Since the New Orleans witches seem to get their power from their links to each other and the Ancestors, will Davina be disempowered?  I would assume so, but inquiring minds still want to know.

So now Klaus has Tristan and Aurora has both Rebekah and Cami.  This is a classic standoff.  Klaus is not going to bend and release Tristan and I don’t see Aurora releasing either Cami or Rebekah anytime soon.  The good news is that Lucien (apparently) gave Klaus and Elijah the medallion, so they have part of what is needed.  I also don’t see them giving that up either.  More torture anyone?

Next episode in two weeks.  See y’all then!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.07- Mommie Dearest

Stefan has a plan to get rid of Julian, Caroline and Valerie bond, Enzo and Bonnie look for a car, and Lily reveals some information that leaves her sons reeling….

I will want to know who this person is who is obsessively hunting the Salvatores.  Whoever she is, she carved the symbol into Stefan’s chest and is currently holding Caroline somewhere other than the TV station, which Damon found out when he went to save her and got shot in the back for his trouble.

The brothers certainly got thrown for a major loop by Lily tonight.  First off, she bound herself to Julian in order to protect him from her sons.  Second, she had planned on leaving their father with the brothers in order to protect them from him.  Unfortunately, the plan ended up getting nixed because Giuseppe figure it out.  And can I say that I am glad that man is dead?  I knew that he was a bastard to the brothers, but putting out a cigar on your son’s arm?  That is a whole new level.  If they hadn’t killed him, I’d be tempted to do so myself.

Assuming that everything Lily said is true, it actually makes a sort of sense why she stayed.  While she knew how abusive Giuseppe was, she wanted to make sure that she would be able to escape with her sons in order to keep them safe.  Given her attitude towards her new family, that actually makes sense.  While she can be fairly reserved, she also has a streak of momma bear in her, she just shows it in a different manner than most.

Given the parallels between Giuseppe and Julian, I hope that her decision to turn against Julian at the end was genuine.  She seems to have finally realized how awful he is, so here’s hoping she actually carries through with everything and this is not just a ploy of some sort.

Watching Caroline and Valerie bond over babies was interesting.  These two seem to have come to a bit of a détente.  Caroline knows what Julian did to Valerie and obviously has a lot of compassion for the situation.  I am going to be interested to see her reaction when she realizes that Stefan knew about this and didn’t tell her.  I’ll be honest and say that this is a time when she probably deserved to know.  I know I am normally about it’s none of your business, but this situation is different because of the romantic angle as opposed to merely friends angle.

So the sword that Enzo and Bonnie found can kill a vampire when it is paired with the Phoenix stone?  Oops.  And the fact that Damon stabbed Julian, knowing that he was bound to Lily and thinking that the sword would kill him is just cold.  Granted, he has ample justification for what he did, but it was still cold.

As far as Matt goes, I’m not holding out much hope for this story.  He is one of the characters who has consistently gotten short shrift, so I am suspecting that will happen again.  I hope I’m wrong though.

Next episode in two weeks.  See you then!

My Review of The Originals 3.06- Beautiful Mistake

We find out what Tristan and Lucian have been working together, Rebekah returns, and Cami reveals the supernatural world to Detective Kinney.

The current situation is brought to you courtesy of a decision the Mikaelson siblings made and Elijah carried out.  In the 1100s, in order to get a respite from Mikael, Elijah compelled Tristan, Lucien, and Aurora to think that they were Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah.  The compulsion lasted for 100 years until Elijah was daggered, which broke the compulsion.  As a result of this betrayal, the three first sired swore vengeance against the Mikaelson’s.  I now have to wonder if the sire war is an actual thing or if it was made up as an excuse for Lucien and Tristan to come to New Orleans in order to get their revenge.

And the revenge is going to be a doozy.  Using a dark magical artifact, Tristan and Lucien are planning on trapping Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah behind an unbreakable magical barrier, thereby getting their revenge and making sure that none of the remaining lines can be extinguished in one blow.  The thing is, I am not entirely sure that the Mikaelson’s can be killed at this point short of having an uberpowerful witch cast some sort of spell to kill them.  The problem with that is that, if I am remembering properly, any such spell will kill the witch who casts it and I am not sure that any witches would get a second chance to strike at the Mikaelson’s.  You also have the fact that the Mikaelson’s now have Freya in their corner and she is a powerful witch in her own right, unless (like tonight) she gets stuck in an area where her magic is nullified.

Her rescues of Rebekah was quite cool.  Rebekah was handling herself nicely, but I think that eventually the Strix would have overpowered her through sheer numbers.  Freya’s nifty neck snapping spell was cool.  I'm not entirely sure how she could use magic when she was astral projecting (if that is what it was), but it was fun to see.

I love Elijah and Klaus’ method of calmly sorting out their issues.  They managed to almost completely destroy the furniture in the courtyard, but they definitely got things worked out, so that is good.  And Freya took the whole thing in like the older sister she is, resigned to her younger siblings quirks.  Hey, if it works…..

Marcel and Hayley are so lucky to be alive.  Elijah warned Marcel to get rid of the Strix member as soon as he could, but instead Marcel and Hayley tortured him and ended up with his fist in their chests for their troubles.  If it hadn’t been for Elijah showing up when he did, they’d be dead.  So say thank you and listen to teacher when he tells you to do something.

Cami’s plan to try and escape from Lucien was not a bad one.  I don’t remember seeing that particular artifact before, so I am not sure what exactly it did, but (unfortunately for her) Lucien listened to her heart and realized that she was trying to trick him.  At least Detective Kinney now knows that the supernatural exists and that things are a whole lot more complicated than he thought before.  Rough way to learn though.  Problem is that I don’t think he’ll remember anymore since Lucien compelled him.

Aurora having Rebekah’s body could be a very bad thing.  She now has something that Tristan and Lucien desperately want, but it is possible that they could decide to just trap Elijah and Klaus.  But now that the siblings know what the plan is, I don’t know if they’ll be so easily caught.

Until next week, when the Mikaelson’s host a Thanksgiving feast!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.06- Best Served Cold

We find out the identity of Caroline’s fiancée (and it’s a doozy!), the mother of Alaric’s twins (doozy number 2!), and Lily lays down the law with her sons and Julian.

Shocker number 1: Alaric is Caroline’s fiancée!  Throw in shocker #2: Caroline is pregnant with the twins that Jo was carrying when Kai came back and destroyed the Gemini coven, and you get Exorcist level head spinning going on.  Turns out that when Kai attacked at the end of last season, the Gemini coven decided to make sure that the next generation of twins would survive, so they magically moved the twins from Jo to Caroline in order to protect them from Kai.  So now, Caroline is carrying Alaric and Jo’s twins.  As far as an explanation to explain Caroline’s body changing due to Candice’s actual pregnancy, it is very creative and quite a good idea.  It would be virtually impossible to write her off the series for any length of time and it would be hard to hide the fact that she is pregnant, so they needed to do something.  As a retcon, it works, so kudos!

Stefan has seriously lost his mind where Julian is concerned.  I totally get his desire to kill Julian given what Julian did to Valerie, but he does need to calm down and take a breath.  Attacking Julian at the party was a very Damon-like move and not at all smart.  It was weird watching Damon be the sensible brother, even if Damon’s sensibleness was only because he wanted to make Lily suffer as much as he could, which meant waiting for a while before killing Julian.

I was impressed that Lily stood up to Julian and really laid down the law where her sons are concerned.  She was not going to let him kill her sons regardless of the provocation.  She also doesn’t get that Stefan wasn’t aiming his wrath at her via Julian, which may have helped.  I have to wonder how she’ll react when she finds out that Julian killed her grandchildren in Valerie’s womb.  It may not be enough to turn her against Julian, but it will cause a rift, that I am sure of.

Jo’s body is gone.  Turns out that a human body can’t host a vampire’s soul for very long before dying.  At least Alaric got the chance to say good bye this time, which was one of the more heart-breaking scenes in Vampire Diaries history.  He needed to be able to say goodbye, and he got his chance.  It was funny watching “Jo” trying to read a computer like a book in the background as Bonnie was talking to Alaric on the phone.  RIP sweetie.

They really need to just write Matt out of the series at this point because it is really obvious that he is never really going to get a decent storyline.  I don’t see them turning him into a vampire and he doesn’t do anything, so please just put him out of his misery at this point.  Either that or give him some nice, juicy storyline that will allow him to do something meaningful.  I love the character and Zach, but he is being given such a short shrift that it would be better to just have him disappear.

Tonight Bonnie and Enzo took their first steps towards getting together.  Attending the party together was smart and Bonnie twigged into the real reason Enzo wanted her with him and took advantage of the situation to try and make Lily jealous.  That was interesting.  I do want to know what is up with the classroom of compelled zombie-like people.  The explanation is not going to be good methinks.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 3.05- The Axeman's Letter

One thousand years ago the first compulsion occurs, Rebekah gets her first progeny, and secrets are revealed.  In the present, those secrets threaten to rip the Mikaelsons apart, Cami runs into some legal trouble, and Davina has a talk with Hayley and Jackson.

So the first three progenies were: Lucien for Klaus, Tristan for Elijah, and Aurora for Rebekah.  We know that both Lucien and Aurora were turned without the sire intending to do so and I have to wonder if Tristan was the same way.  Give the history between those three, I am now more sure than ever that they war between the sire lines has a lot to do with their hatred for each other and that other issues are serving more as proxies than being the true cause behind everything.  And now the Klaus knows that Elijah compelled Aurora to leave him things are only going to get messier.

In Elijah’s defense, he didn’t seem to realize what he was doing at first when he compelled Aurora to tell him that Klaus had killed both Mikael and Esther.  When he had her break up with Klaus, I think that Elijah had more of an inkling as to what was going on but was pissed off enough that he didn’t care about the consequences at that time.  I don’t buy Klaus’ line that this rejection is what set him onto his current path.  While I have no doubt that it helped, Klaus has said the same thing before to both Esther and Mikael, so at this point it just seems like a line he uses to excuse himself from the consequences of his actions.

I am definitely glad that Davina freed Hayley and Jackson from her service.  She is trying to turn over a new leaf and become a new type of Regent, so this was a good start.  So was her decision to allow the guy who tried to curse her to go.  She is seeing if she can get people to want to work with her rather than fear her, so that is a good thing.  I have no doubt that she can get people to fear her if she needs to, but what she is doing now is a good path.

Poor Cami is in serious trouble.  She got caught at the scene of a body after Lucien stranded her there.  Did he kill the guy or did he just smell him and leave her there in order to get her out of his hair?  Detective Kinney has no clue what he is getting involved in and I have the feeling that he is going to find himself so out of his depth unless he is covertly a witch or something.

I was surprised to discover that the story of the Axeman Vincent told Cami is a true story from New Orleans’ history.  I love the way that they work something like that into the story.  Very cool.

I know I keep saying that Lucien and Tristan are fighting each other, but there is one thing that happened tonight to make me question that.  Why is Tristan sneaking off to a building owned byt Lucien?  That really doesn’t make much sense unless they are either working together or Tristan is trying to spy on Lucien.  But I don’t see Tristan spying himself.  He seems like the sort who would have a lackey do something like that.

Until next week!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.05- Live Through This

Damon decides to be a better person in Elena’s and has the decision tested almost immediately, we find out about the Phoenix Stone, Bonnie has a new suitor in the future, and Julian’s imminent arrival causes some wacky hijinks to ensue…

Poor Damon.  He decides to be a better person for Elena and then discovers the Elena is gone because of Lily.  Turns out that she’s the one who suggested that Kai put the spell on her which is keeping her in the coffin as revenge on Damon for refusing to help her get her family back.  Damon is incensed and decides that he is going to let Lily have Julian back just so he can kill him in front of her.  So much for the new Damon.  He was behaving himself and then gets his fresh wounds ripped open again by his mom.  Sigh….

Speaking of wounds being ripped open, Stefan found out that he could have been a father if Julian hadn’t beat Valerie and caused her miscarriage.  He is almost as pissed as Damon, but (being Stefan) he decides that revenge is a dish best served cold.  Between the two Salvatore brothers, I would hate to be Lily or Julian.  I do not see either of them resting until they get their revenge and it is not going to be pretty, particularly if Valerie joins them.  She hate Julian more than either of them do and is convinced that getting rid of Julian will bring Lily back to the person she loves.

I do have to wonder if the other Heretics will do anything if the brothers and Valerie make a move against Julian.  Given the way they helped Lily tonight, I think that they love her more than anything else and will want her to be happy unless Julian does something seriously despicable that turns them against him.

I am seriously confused about Bonnie and Enzo.  What on earth happens to get the two of them together?  While Enzo doesn’t seem to despise Bonnie, she definitely hates him.  He seems to just view her as an annoying thing to be brushed out of the way.  So yeah, I am really curious as to how this whole thing occurs.  And why is Bonnie in a mental institution?  What is this one mistake she is talking about?  Is it something to do with the Phoenix Stone or does something else happen?

Speaking of the Phoenix Stone, it turns out that the Stone is a prison of sorts for the souls of vampires.  So when Julian and Jo were brought back, it really wasn’t the two of them.  Rather, each body was actually possessed by the soul of a vampire from the stone.  This doesn’t seem to matter to Alaric who seems intent on loving whoever is in Jo’s body.  That almost has me suspecting that he is more looking for a companion in the midst of everything and will settle for anyone, especially if that someone is in Jo’s body.

I think Caroline did the right thing when she told Stefan to go be with Valerie.  She knows about the baby, but doesn’t know that Stefan knows.  This whole situation could get very messy if she and Stefan don’t come clean with each other.  I am glad to see that she realized Stefan needed to get some closure with Valerie.  I’m not sure if she realizes what could easily happen now that Stefan’s ire has been raised and his protective instincts have come into play.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 3.04- A Walk on the Wild Side

Marcel is recruited by Strix at a party which has several party crashers and he makes a surprising and gutsy move.

Marcel’s decision to have Hayley bite him, knowing that the vampire he was fighting liked to feed on his foes, was really smart and seriously gutsy.  If Klaus had refused to heal him or if the venom progressed further and faster than he expected, he could have died.  Serious props to him.  He was also very smart to have figured out what happened to his ring.  I do have to say that I assumed that the ring was taken after Marcel offered his hand given the fact that they lingered on his hand in that one shot, but I didn’t notice the ring at first, so I knew I could have been wrong.

I have to wonder why Tristan and a group of Elijah’s line are accepting someone so close to Klaus.  I worry that they are planning to use him to get to Klaus somehow.  Given what Aurora did to Lucien’s seer this week, you know the conflict between he and Tristan is going to escalate.  Like I said last week, I suspect that this whole war between the sire lines has more to do with Lucien and Tristan than anything else.  The worst part is that I honestly don’t think that either of them wants war.  The problem is that the two of them hate each other so much that it is easy for an outside force to manipulate them into going to war with each other.  They both think the worst of the other, so it is not a stretch to think that they can be manipulated easily, particularly by someone who knows and possibly hates them both.

Watching Klaus and Lucien pretend to be completely hammered in order to get Freya into the party to find the seer was completely hilarious.  Klaus virtually guaranteed that they wouldn’t be taken very seriously with the gambit and it gave him the chance to tweak their collective noses.  It also distracted everyone long enough for Hayley to bite Marcel so that he could win the fight.

Elijah is really disappointed in his “children”.  He was looking to elevate vampires to a more cultured level, but instead he managed to create “a gang of psychopathic egomaniacs” (or words to that effect).  He is always looking for ways to make vampires better, but he was thwarted by (presumably) Tristan.  Given the stares he was getting from the attendees, he is obviously quite well known by the people there.  I loved the look on his face when he figured out that Klaus was faking the whole thing.  He seemed a little surprised, but also seemed to be enjoying the whole thing.

What did the seer see that could kill Klaus?  It would have to be something *VERY* powerful given the fact that, at this point, nothing should be able to kill him.  And what was in that vision she showed Freya?  It went so fast, but I think I caught an image of Freya being buried alive in a casket.  Not fun at all.

Until next week!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.04- I Carry Your Heart With Me

Damon frantically tries to fix the problem caused by Veronica last week, Bonnie works with Alaric to bring Jo back, Nora and Mary Louise have a fight, and Enzo finds out about Julian.

I was very surprised that Damon allowed Tyler to take Elena away tonight just after he got her back.  I approve and think it is a big step for him, but I was still surprised.  After all the time and effort he went through to get her back after ripping out Malcolm’s heart a few weeks ago.  What I was not surprised about was the how focused he was tonight trying to bring Oscar back after Veronica killed him.  When he really wants something, he can be very focused.  I was a little annoyed at Stefan when he blamed Damon for what happened.  While kidnapping Oscar was probably not the best idea, Damon would never have actually harmed him because that would have caused Lily to use Elena as retribution and Damon would never knowingly put Elena in harm’s way.

I was definitely surprised that Bonnie was going along with what Alaric wanted.  Then again, I suspect that part of the reason she took it as far as she did is that she needed to bring back Oscar in order to get Elena back.  It’s hard to believe the number of spells she had to try before that shamanic ritual worked.  I am just worried about what the repercussions will be to bringing Jo and Oscar back.  I thought that Oscar’s bloodlust was a consequence of his being brought back, but given that he is a Ripper like Stefan and Lily, I am not sure if that is the case.

Stefan and Caroline’s plan could have backfired in some spectacular ways.  Fortunately for them, it didn’t.  Kidnapping Mary Louise to force Nora to siphon off the spell Veronica put on Caroline?  Severely risky.  And given the fact that the Heretics seem to hold grudges, that could seriously come back to bite them on the ass at some point.  I really hope that Caroline got what was bothering her about Veronica out of her system now.  I do worry that Stefan may be in denial about Veronica, but at least the two of them can touch now.

Enzo knows about Julian now and doesn’t seem pleased about Lily wanting to bring him back.  Given what we saw last week, I don’t think having him back is a good thing either.  I hope that the Heretics now having use of their magic will help them to keep him in his place.  Unfortunately, Lily seems so be blind to all of his faults, which complicates matters.  If they make a move against him, she may take it personally, which is not a good thing.

I do hope Mary Louise manages to adapt to the modern world the way Nora has.  Otherwise, I suspect that they will continue to experience issues in their relationship.  The two of them obviously care deeply about each other, which is nice to see.

I found it hard to have much sympathy for the tour director or the people on the tour.  While no one deserves to be slaughtered the way they were, if a place is quarantined, it is definitely prudent to avoid the area as much as possible.  Speaking of humans, the show needs to either start giving Matt something serious to do or just drop him.  It’s really annoying to have him show up for a few minutes in an episode before disappearing again.  I feel bad for poor Zach because it seems like what he does could be done by almost anyone.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 3.03- I’ll See You in Hell or New Orleans

We see the creation of the first vampire progeny, we see a possible cause underlying the sire war, Jackson helps Hayley readjust to existence as a person, and we meet a vampire secret society….

Lucien was the first vampire progeny?  Interesting, particularly because it was a complete accident.  I also suspect that this sire war is largely a war between Lucien and Tristan, who seem to really hate each other.  This makes me wonder if Lucien’s explanation of the sire war to Klaus was entirely accurate.  Both he and Tristan seem to be doing everything they can to muddy the waters and get their respective sires to line up with them.  Lucien insists that Klaus has to trust him in order to protect the people closest to him and Tristan tells Elijah that Lucien has w weapon that can kill an Original.  I almost wonder if both are telling the truth and this war is some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.  Each of them suspects that the other is getting ready to attack, so they both take steps to eliminate the competition, thereby leading to the war that might not have existed otherwise.

I am also noticing that each of the Originals seems to pick a particular type of person to turn.  Elijah’s progeny seem to be a lot like him, smooth and sophisticated.  Klaus’ progeny, on the other hand, seem to be a little more of the ordinary man who raises himself to a higher level, much like Klaus himself.  It could be that they are trying to create progeny in their own image as a method of self-perpetuation or it is also possible that their progeny choose to take on certain traits of their sires in order to please them.  This obviously wouldn’t hold true for their entire line because the different members of the line who are more distant are less likely to pick people like the Original they are “descended” from, but it would hold true for the progeny they create themselves.

Cami needs to be really careful.  Her proximity to Klaus is both protection and a target on her back.  Anyone who harms her will have to answer to Klaus, but she could also be used as a bargaining tool to get Klaus to do something that his enemies want him to do.  She’s not a witch and can only rely on her wits and the moves she’s picked up to help her survive.  Vincent may be able to help her, but he has limits to what he can do.  I think it was wise of her to talk with Lucien, particularly since it was in such a public place and she needed to talk with him to get a better sense of what type of person he is.

Given the obvious tension between Tristan and Lucien, I wonder if there is a third party stoking the tension between them.  Lucien thinks Tristan is killing people to separate him from Klaus and Tristan thinks that Lucien is out to kill Klaus and Elijah.  What if there is a third party hoping to take advantage of the tension between them and their sires to provoke a war of attrition in order to get rid of the Mikaelsons once and for all?  That would be someone to reckon with.

Until next with!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.03- Age of Innocence

Damon, Bonnie, and Alaric take a trip to find the sixth Heretic; we find out about Stefan and Valerie’s past; and a new villain is introduced….

So Stefan meeting Valerie was sort of planned by Lily.  She met a male friend and wanted to leave, but not before ensuring that her sons would be ok.  So she sent her friend (Julian) and Valerie to suss out Stefan’s state and sent Oscar (the sixth Heretic) to get a read on Damon.  Unfortunately for all involved Stefan and Valerie fell in lust for each other and he got her pregnant.  I won’t say it’s love yet given the frequency with which Stefan seems to fall for the ladies.  I have no doubt feelings were involved, but he was a 16 year old boy who was still blaming himself for the loss of his mother, so I’m not sure if it was actually love or looking for a replacement for his lost mother.  Regardless, she seems to have had quite real feelings and still seems to be harboring them to this day.  Not good at all.

I loved Oscar.  He was so much fun up until the point when he realized that Bamonic (gotta love these name combinations!) have the Phoenix Stone and he turns from fun loving stoner party boy to Heretic in a split second.  That was just fun to watch.  And Bonnie was severely pissed at Damon and Alaric for hiding the fact that Alaric hadn’t destroyed the Phoenix Stone from her.  Can’t say I blame her, but someone needs to knock some serious sense into Alaric.  Necromancy is not something to be trifled with and he is not thinking straight at all.  He is so blinded by his desire to get Jo back that he is not thinking about the consequences of his actions.  I know that he’ll hate anyone who stops him, but someone needs to.  Seriously.

We’ve only seen Julian for a brief period and I already hate him.  Lily wants to bring him back, but the Heretics don’t seem to be onboard with the plan.  The problem is that they won’t stand up to her and try and stop her, probably because she may very well go all psycho ripper on them.  The thing is that they could probably overwhelm her if they really wanted to, but they won’t.  Anyone who will deliberately attack a pregnant woman and kill her unborn child is not someone you want living with you.  I wonder how they got separated from Julian in the first place.  Did he run away when the Gemini coven tracked them down to trap them in the prison dimension or was it something else?

You have to feel sorry for poor Caroline.  Being forced to sit there and listen to Valerie go on and on about her and Stefan while Caroline is currently dating him had to suck.  Between that and the spell which is keeping Stefan from touching her, she is not having a good time right now.

It was almost sweet watching Stefan teach Lily how to drive.  She can be so normal sometimes that you can almost forget she is a complete psychopath.  That said, she is also a woman of her word and released Caroline after Stefan was honest with her.  So she has that going for her.

How exactly does Tyler end up back in the picture?  Is he Caroline’s fiancée or not?  I suspect not given what he said to Stefan, but I could be wrong.  And where is Bonnie in the future?  I am worried….

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 3.02- You Hung the Moon

Cami comes to Klaus with a theory, Davina takes steps to keep her position as Regent using Hayley, Elijah visits Lucien, Freya confirms the vision Klaus saw last week, and the looming war between the sire lines heats up.

As revealed last week Klaus turned Lucien and this week we find out that Elijah turned Tristan de Martel and someone turned Aurora (the girls from the end of last week’s episode).  Tristan apparently wants to wipe out Klaus and his line.  I am curious if Tristan wants to kill Klaus himself or if he is really after Lucien or other members of Klaus’ line and sees killing Klaus as his best shot.  I can only assume he is after Klaus because killing Klaus never has been (and never will be) easy.  While the enchanted dagger would stop him, only the white oak stake can kill him, unless some immensely powerful witch emerges and then they would probably have to contend with Freya.

Which leads us to the vision from last week.  What on earth could be powerful enough to destroy the Mikaelsons?  Freya said that one would be taken down by a friend, one by a foe, and one by family.  Since the white oak stake (the last one known to exist) was destroyed last season, I don’t see there being another weapon that could kill them.  As I said above, a powerful witch could conceivably kill them but I can’t imagine Freya just sitting by while that happens.  She is incredibly powerful on her own, although we did see that the power of the Ancestors could thwart her when she was searching for Hayley.

Speaking of Hayley, she is definitely not someone to trifle with and is a force to be reckoned with.  She was able to fight through the magic of the witches and kill the entire gang attacking her, which cannot be an easy feat.  I do wonder if the spell Davina placed on her provided with any semblance of magical protection, which would explain why she was able to fight them off.

Cami knows that Lucien is killing the people who have been found around town and that detective knows Cami knows something.  He had better be wary because humans who become enmeshed in the supernatural world in New Orleans tend to have very bad endings.  If he keeps poking away at everything, he is not going to like what he discovers.

I want to know what that liquid was that Lucien injected himself with.  So far, Klaus’ blood has been the only antidote to a werewolf’s bite, but Lucien has another.  Is it some sort of potion made using Klaus’ blood or is it something else entirely?  Inquiring minds want to know.

How long is Klaus going to put up with Hayley having Hope just across the street from him?  He loves that little girl and I am not sure how much longer he will put up with her being that close to him. 

Davina is walking on a tightrope here.  She got Hayley to kill the witch who attacked her, and the Ancestors were obviously unhappy about it.  Between them and the son who swore vengeance on her, she is not going to have an easy time.

Until next week!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.02- Never Let Me Go

Lily shows why you should never cross her or the Heretics, Alaric makes a dangerous choice, Matt is tired of everything that happens in Mystic Falls, and Caroline finds out something new about Stefan.

I am beginning to wonder if there is a female on the show Stefan hasn’t been romantically involved with in some way.  He was into Valerie back in 1863, which puts his romantic interests on this show at some high number (honestly, I’ve lost track!).  I wonder if this was before or after she became a vampire.  I don’t recall that it was ever explained who turned them.  I assume it was Lily, which would explain why they are so loyal to her, but that may be wrong.  One thing we know for sure is that they are a tight knit group with remarkably complex relationships, mirroring a real family in many ways.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Damon.  Granted, he brought Lily’s wrath on himself without much help, but her reaction was cruel.  Forcing him into exile and separating him from Elena is quite possibly the cruelest thing Lily could have done.  Say what you will about Damon, but he does love Elena deeply and she is (well, was) his progeny.  And in this escalating game of tit-for-tat that he and Lily are engaged in, bringing in the missing 6^th member of the Heretics could be a very bad idea.  I guess that it all depends on what the reason was for the separation.  If the terms were less than amicable then we could have quite the nasty war on our hands.  If the split was amicable, then Damon is going to be in serious trouble.

I am really curious what that vision Bonnie saw was when she was attempting to bring Matt back.  Since it was at the same time Alaric was working with the Phoenix Stone and because the visions looked very similar to the ones she had when she was working her magic on the Stone, I assume that they were linked.  If they were, then things do not look good.

I wonder how long the Salvatore’s plan to play Lily will work.  She is their mother and may see right through them.  Then again, she hasn’t been around them for decades, so she may take their “split” at face value.  She certainly knows which buttons to press to get them to react the way she wants, which makes her very dangerous.

Alaric using the Phoenix Stone is a very, very bad idea.  I get that he wants Jo back, but given what Bonnie saw when she was testing the Stone, that thing cannot be a good magical object.  I would be willing to wager that because the person being brought back is probably being done for selfish reasons, the stone will inevitably twist the person in some way, shape, or form.  After all, as we’ve seen before, breaking the Laws of Nature never ends well and always comes with a price proportionate to the violation.

Who is Caroline’s fiancée?  I had assumed it was Stefan, but given her reaction to his name, that is not the case.  And why can she not go back to Mystic Falls?  That does not bode well for the future, nor does the fact that she was shot with a crossbow.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 3.01- For the Next Millennium

Welcome back to New Orleans and the fallout from Klaus’ actions when he was working to defeat Dahlia.  The siblings remain fractured, the witches are suspicious of Davina, an old friend returns to Klaus with disturbing news, and Elijah takes steps to protect Hayley and the wolves.

I believe that this is the eternal story of the Originals.  Klaus does something monumentally stupid or selfish, his siblings protest, they fight, and then Elijah and Rebekah return to the fold.  The only problem is that I am wondering if Klaus finally took things too far for Elijah.  While Klaus’ actions could be defended as fooling Dahlia, they were also deliberately targeted in order to punish people who hurt him.  Targeting Hayley and making it so that she could only see Hope when she becomes human on the full moon was cruel and hurt Elijah tremendously.  Klaus isn’t helping matters at all with the way he is acting, and if that vision he saw is correct, he will need his siblings to fight the new threat.

Elijah continues to be Elijah.  As I have said many, many times before, while he may be the most cultured and human of the Originals, he can be surprisingly vicious at times.  Tonight was the perfect example.  The hunters were out killing wolves, so Elijah hunted them down and killed them all.  Given that they couldn’t hurt him, it was (of course) remarkably effective and totally in keeping with his general attitude of using violence in the appropriate manner and time.  I did find it twistedly amusing that he turned Hope’s baby carriage around right before he killed the first three hunters.

Cami is in an interesting position.  Klaus likes her and seems to trust her above all others, so he opens up to her.  This does put her in a position of tremendous power over him, which we saw tonight when she spoke sharply to him.  He really needed to talk with her and she was fairly rude, which led to him having a classic Klaus temper tantrum and ripping the art critic apart.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Davina is also in a precarious position.  While she may be the nominal leader of the witches, she definitely does not have their respect.  It appears that she is going to use Hayley as her enforcer/attack dog (sorry for the pun there) in order to keep the witches in line if needed.  While I don’t doubt that Davina could take on any witch she really wanted to, it would probably be quite exhausting and the infighting would leave the witches open to attacks by the vampires.

The only witch who is apparently more powerful than Davina is Freya.  Either that or Freya is just so old that she knows much more powerful and different magic than Davina does.  I’ve never seen Davina teleport herself or anything else the way Freya did, or at least not that I can remember off hand.  I am curious as to what Freya will do in the incipient war between the sire lines.  She could potentially be a boon to whichever side can get their hands on her.

I am not sure if Lucien can be trusted.  He is undoubtedly acting in his own self-interestm given that the death of any of the Originals would result in the death of their sire line.  Given the last scene, I think it is safe to assume that he is the killer Cami and the police are looking for and he appears to be more than a little crazy.  Color me concerned.

Until Thursday!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 7.01- Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take

  

Welcome back to Mystic Falls everyone!  In the season 7 premiere, the gang deals with a post-Elena world, Lily and the Heretics make an immediate mark on Mystic Falls, a deal is struck and then shattered, and in the future, the Salvatore brothers are running from someone….

The premiere was a definite improvement over last season.  It seems that the loss of Elena has given the show a shot of adrenaline and new life.  It helps that Lily and the Heretics are a very fun and interesting type of villain, much like Kai was.  While Lily is trying to get the Heretics to fit in, they are having none of it.  It didn’t help that Damon violated the deal that Stefan and Caroline brokered within a few days of returning to Mystic Falls.  This war between the Salvatores and Lily and the Heretics is not going to be pretty.

I also love the flash forwards.  According to Julie Plec, the flash-forwards will be caught up with about ¾ of the way through the season, so by that point we will have found out why Damon chose to be put in a coffin until Elena returned and who the mystery woman was hunting him and Stefan.  A well done flash forward is a nice storytelling tool through which you know where something will end, but the mystery is how the heck you got there in the first place.

Damon is, predictably, not handling the post-Elena world well.  I admire that he made the choice to focus on helping Alaric to wallowing, which shows growth.  I am also impressed that he and Bonnie are still working so well together.  Given that Bonnie’s continued living is the thing separating him from Elena, I am happy that he has not completely returned to the old Damon and tried to off her.  Definite growth there.  Unfortunately, the old Damon definitely reared his head when he ripped the heart out of the one Heretic.  Stupid, stupid move there.  Classic Damon, but still stupid.

Stefan and Caroline also made definite progress in their relationship.  Stefan is being very patient with Caroline while she works everything out and she has admitted to having strong feelings for him.  Unfortunately, her kidnapping by Enzo is probably going to put a damper on their incipient relationship.  Their plan to evacuate the town in exchange for allowing the Heretics free reign on anyone who returned was probably the best choice of many bad ones.  As was demonstrated at the police graduation, the war would be very messy for all involved, so getting the humans out of the town was smart.  I just wonder how the Heretics will handle Matt, since I assume he stayed.

Alaric is definitely not handling the post-Jo world well.  He has fallen back into the bottle and is apparently planning on somehow resurrecting Jo.  I am not sure how he intends to do that though.  It has been months since she died, so I don’t think the whole person swap that Kai did will work.  Besides, Kai was very powerful when he did that.  The only witch close enough to that is Bonnie, and I doubt she would willingly perform that spell.  Unless Alaric can somehow persuade one of the Heretics to perform the spell, which would be interesting to see, I don’t see how Jo will come back.

Until Thursday!

My Review of Teen Wolf 5.10- Status Asthmaticus

In the summer finale of Teen Wolf, we learn why Theo is in Beacon Hills and what Parrish is, Scott and Liam face off, and we prepare for what promises to be an epic clash.

Well, Theo being a chimera was unexpected.  Looking back at the season, it does make sense.  His being a chimera explains his link to the Dread Doctors and why he can fully transform into a wolf.  My only question is why the Dread Doctors can't replicate the success they had with him.  He has been able to pass as a normal werewolf for so long and managed to completely undermine Scott and his pack.  And given the fact that he has revived all of the chimeras at the Nemeton, he is obviously preparing for something.  My only question is if this new pack of his was planned by the Dread Doctors or if this is something that Theo came up with himself.  If this was the Dread Doctors plan all along, then they would have to have known what Parrish is and that he would gather the bodies in one place for Theo to revive.  And if Theo manages to wipe out Scott and his pack, then the Dread Doctors would have access to all the power present in Beacon Hills without interference from any protectors.  If this is Theo's own plan (which is my suspicion), then he is either trying to protect himself from the Dread Doctors or he harbors a serious grudge against Scott.

Theo's plan all season has been to weaken Scott's pack in order to gain them as his own.  The only thing is that he wants the twisted versions of each of them.  He wants the coyote who will kill, Void Stiles, the dark kitsune, the banshee, and the werewolf with anger issues to be his own pack.  Scott was simply in the way because, as a True Alpha, he could not be controlled or subverted.  I can only assume that Theo or the Dread Doctors have been poisoning Scott with wolfsbane for a good portion of the season, which could explain why he has needed the inhaler so much and so suddenly.  What Theo and the Dread Doctors don't seem to have entirely counted on is the presence of the more peripheral humans: the Sheriff, Melissa, and Mason.  Scott is still around and he is bound to be seriously pissed at what Theo has done.

Hopefully Scott can learn from his failures this season.  He lost control of so much that he tried to grip onto things even harder in order to control them and so lost everything.  Kira is gone away, Malia is hunting the Desert Wolf, Liam has suffered the loss of his first love, Stiles is estranged from him, and Lydia is apparently in a coma.  Scott need to pull everything together and gather his strength so that he can fight the pack of chimeras that Theo has assembled.  I have the feeling that Parrish will be a key in the fight against the chimeras.

The reason for this is that Parrish is a hellhound, which was completely off my radar.  In Teen Wolf, the hellhound appears to be sort of a supernatural scavenger, cleaning up after the supernatural.  Hellhounds have generally been closely connected with death and the afterlife, which would explain the connection between Parrish and Lydia.  If she can sense impending death, Parrish can take care of what's leftover.  I suspect that his appearance in Season 3B was connected to the "deaths" of Allison, Scott, and Stiles, which Deaton warned would attract all sorts of supernatural creatures.  I have to say that I am glad that the police were smart enough to listen to Stiles when he warned them to let Parrish go as he was leaving the station.  Given how easily he was able to subdue the police in the hospital, I don't think they would have stood a chance.  If Parrish can learn to control his supernatural powers, I think he would be quite the force to reckon with.  I am going to go out on a bit of a limb and suggest that Parrish is meant to act as a balance in the supernatural world.  He cleaned up after the chimeras but not after other supernatural deaths, which suggests that there is something about the chimeras that attracts his attention.  It may be that the Doctors messing with the supernatural is throwing the supernatural world out of balance and he is a part of restoring that balance.

Theo's "pack" is going to cause Scott some serious trouble in the future.  What is going to be very interesting is the fact that it includes Hayden.  She shares a serious emotional bond with Liam, but was revived by Theo, which could cause quite the case of divided loyalties.  I think the weakness of this "pack" is that they are not really a pack the way Scott's is.  Theo may be the alpha, but he is not an Alpha.  And the chimeras may be powerful, but they can be fought by the wolves.  Throw in Lydia's new abilities and Parrish and this could prove very interesting.

I really hope that Liam doesn't suffer too much from what he did to Scott.  He has so many anger issues as it is and it was the night of the Super Moon, so his werewolf side was heightened.  Add to that the fact that his first love was dying and it is enough to drive almost anyone off the rails.  Fortunately, he was stopped by Mason.

Malia has teamed with Braeden in order to find the Desert Wolf and presumably kill her.  This could be very bad.  She has already proven herself capable of killing Malia in cold blood, so this can really only end with one of them dying.  Given how Scott reacted when he found out that Stiles killed Donovan, I can't imagine him reacting well to Malia purposely hunting the Desert Wolf.

I think we can safely assume that whatever it was that Theo did to Lydia is why she was in Eichen House in the season premiere.  He appears to have somehow triggered a vision and overloaded her system.  I sense a rescue attempt in order to get her out of Eichen House in the second half of the season.

What exactly was the thing the Dread Doctors were looking at in the end?  I didn't get a great look because my DVR paused because it stopped taping.  I am still trying to figure out exactly what they want.

The show is coming back in January, so I will too.  And I will continue to review The Vampire Diaries and The Originals when they come back in October.  Until then!

My Review of Teen Wolf 5.09- Lies of Omission

Sciles implodes spectacularly thanks to Theo who is also busy insinuating himself into the Sheriff's trust and making demands of the Dread Doctors, Malia and Liam are losing their faith in Scott and his leadership, and Lydia brings Parrish into the investigation of his supernatural identity.

I have to start with Theo because his motives are becoming simultaneously clearer and more murky.  He is clearly trying to undermine Scott and Stiles but he also seems to be looking for his own pack and wants Hayden in it.  I think this makes him really interesting.  The Dread Doctors are over the top, unstoppable villains, but Theo is much greyer.  From what I can see, he is not evil, he is just desperate to have his own pack and has aligned himself with the Dread Doctors in order to get it.  He is also clearly secondary to their plans, much to his chagrin.  If anything he seems to be like a younger version of Peter only not quite as psychotic.  He is out for himself above all else, but he also seems to have something of a conscience.

He also has managed to masterfully insinuate himself into Scott's head.  Telling Scott that twisted version of how Donovan died just to split up Scott and Stiles was brilliant, albeit in a twisted way.  Scott's head is so screwed up at this point that he has managed to psychosomatically give himself asthma again and drive most of his pack away.  His relationship with Stiles, which has always been central to his life, is shattered at this point.  I am sure they can put it back together, but it is going to require both work and Scott regaining his confidence.  Scott's insistence that they not kill anyone was understandable given what Theo told him, but I was really upset that he never let Stiles really explain what happened.  Instead, he passed everything Stiles told him through the mental filter of the story that Theo told him.  This is not good.

Refusing to bite Hayden is another symptom of Scott's lack of confidence.  I also suspect that his clinging to what he views as moral imperatives is his attempt to maintain control in the face of everything that has been happening to him.  Scott has lost Kira and Stiles, had protectees, and is facing an enemy the likes of which he has never contemplated before.  His strength and abilities aren't doing him any good and he can't come up with any ideas that will work against them.  Aside from Theo being in his head, Scott's other big problem is that he can't give himself the emotional distance he needs to come up with any sort of halfway decent plan.

Unfortunately for Scott, I suspect that he is going to lose both Malia and Liam soon.  Malia is tired of having people die and Liam is undoubtedly going to be furious that Scott won't bite Hayden.  Between this, Scott's confidence being shattered, and the loss of Stiles and Kira and you have a recipe for the complete implosion of Scott's pack and the subsequent weakening of the defenses to Beacon Hills.  All in all, not a good thing at all.

As for Parrish, I was hoping we would find out what he is tonight.  We didn't, but we did get some fairly big clues.  He seems to be a creature that ensures that the supernatural world is hidden from the natural world.  That would seem to indicate that he is acting as a balance of some sort.  He is clearly a guardian of the whole supernatural world, which would seem to indicate that he is more of a neutral creature rather than good or evil.  The problem is that he locked himself up with two new bodies that he will probably be compelled to cover up.  Given what he did in the hospital, I have little doubt that he could force his way out of the jail cell if needed.  And that would be problematic, to put it mildly.

Until next week!

Falling Skies Reviews

I have decided that I will write no reviews for the last couple of episodes of Falling Skies.  I'm going to finish watching the show, but I am getting seriously fed up with the way this season has been wasted introducing all sorts of new elements rather than a tight story to finish the series.  I may do a series wrap up after the series finale in a couple of weeks, although I haven't decided yet.  I really hope that the rest of the season gets a hell of a lot better and stops wasting time and story recycling old stories or introducing new elements at the last minute.

Until Teen Wolf tomorrow!

My Review of Teen Wolf 5.08- Ouroboros

Scott and the gang go to rescue Liam and Hayden, the Sheriff and Melissa have a falling out, Kira makes a discovery, and Deaton has a horrifying confrontation with someone from one of our character's past...

Ouroboros.  A symbol of cyclicality and eternity shown by a snake eating its own tail.  Given the fact that the Dread Doctors have been in Beacon Hills before, we have an obvious reference for the title.  However, if you think about it, there are a couple of other references in the episode.  In his haste to rescue Liam, Scott is coming perilously close to making some of the same mistakes that Derek made which made him such an awful Alpha.  Then there is the repeated cycle of a dead body disappearing and being taken to the Nemeton by Parrish.  We also have the very strong possibility that Parrish is a phoenix, which is a symbol of cyclicality on its own.  Then there is the underlying theme that Liam is much like Scott when he was first turned, which implies a cycle all of its own.  Am I reading too much into this? Possibly, only time will tell.

As I sad above, Scott is coming perilously close to repeating the leadership mistakes that Derek made.  Much like Derek with Erica and Boyd when the Alpha pack was holding them in the bank vault, Scott rushed into a situation without taking the time to think it through, despite what Stiles and Lydia were saying.  While I do understand where Scott is coming from, he needs to start keeping his head about him.  The repeated losses to the Dread Doctors is starting to take a serious toll on him, as is his uncertainty about what is happening to Kira.  His talk with his mom at the end of the episode and his near breakdown in the tunnels with Mason and Malia are not good signs.

Speaking of Kira, she had her own disturbing revelation this week.  First, she blacked out and apparently killed a chimera (the one from last week) and then she reads the Dread Doctor book backwards and remembers the Dread Doctors pulling her out of her parents car and jamming a device in her eye, which caused lightning to come into it.  I can only assume that is what caused her powers to start going haywire.  It is almost as if the Doctors jumpstarted the fox within her so that they could use her for their plans.  Interesting note: we know that the Doctors play with electromagnetism and elements.  What if her powers as a kitsune could somehow be important to defeating them?  Jumpstarting the fox made it harder for her to control her powers, which would lessen her threat to them.

Well, we found out why Melissa slapped the Sheriff.  She called him to her house to deal with the chimera body and he called it in after promising her that he would not deal with this as a sheriff.  In retaliation, she put all of the supernatural details she knows into her statement, presumably to remind him that there are some things he can't deal with.  I'm not sure if he doesn't have as much faith in Scott and the gang as she does, or if he feels that (as sheriff) he has to do certain things to protect everyone.  Given how much he has helped Scott and the gang out, I suspect that his breaking his word has less to do with a lack of faith and more to do with his needing to walk the line between being sheriff and helping Scott out.

We have seen most of Lydia's vision from the first episode so far.  Last week we saw Stiles in the ruined jeep, this week we saw the slap.  We have also seen Parrish in a fire and Kira leaving Scott in a car.  The only scenes we haven't seen yet are the fight between Scott and Liam or Theo and Malia huddling as she meets the Desert Wolf.  Given the look Scott was shooting at Theo at the end of the episode, I would wager that we see the two of them fight.  And we also know that the Desert Wolf said that she'll have to kill Malia if she finds her, so that should be next week.

Speaking of the Desert Wolf, why does she want to kill Malia?  Could that be the reason that Talia had Peter's memory erased so that he would forget Malia, as protection for her?  Whatever he reasons, this not going to be a pleasant experience for Malia.  Given the damage that the memories have done to her, I can't imagine how meeting her mother face-to-face will affect her.

Given the way Parrish was acting, I don't think he is in control when he steals the bodies.  He had a very blank look on his face, which leads me to suspect that either his supernatural side takes over or he is under the control of another force which is using him.  Could the Nemeton itself somehow be controlling him to get him to feed it power?  Remember that Paige dying is what reactivated it in the first place.  It is entirely possible that having the bodies burn there are continuing to feed it power.  What if Parrish is connected to the Nemeton somehow and feeding it empowers him as well?  Too many questions until we learn more about him.

What was that thing the Doctors placed in Liam's arm?  I wonder if it somehow interfered with his ability to take away Hayden's pain or if he simply needed to not be trying in order to do it.  How did Theo manage to open the electrified gates without being thrown backwards a second time?  And was I the only one creeped out by the look on his face as he look at Liam and Hayden kissing in the mirror?

Until next week!

My Review of Falling Skies 5.07- Everybody Has Their Reasons

After two lackluster episodes, we finally get to a good episode, but it still feels like a retread of older stories.  The Masons, Weaver, and other members of the 2nd Mass find a military base under the command of an old flame of Weaver's and discovers things are not as they appear.  Meanwhile, Cochise and Dingaan try and move the Espheni communications device.

I have to say that this week's episode was a vast improvement (and sadly that's not saying much) over the past two weeks' episodes.  This is the sort of feeling the whole last season should have.  Things moved along at a brisk pace and built up to a good ending.  My only real issue is that this feels like what we've seen before in terms of the Masons not being trusted by other humans, albeit this time there is the twist that the leader is being controlled by the Espheni.  I am just wondering how they'll wrap everything up in the 3 episodes remaining without relying on some sort of deus ex machina.

I knew something was going to happen as soon as the soldiers started calling Ben a freak.  I honestly thought it was going to be a case of the soldiers going after him on their own rather than doing so on orders.  When Weaver's old flame (sorry forgot her name) had that bandage on her neck, I knew that the Espheni had done something to her, a feeling that was reinforced when people kept noting how she had changed in the last few weeks.

The sad part is that I can barely think of much else to write because this is all stuff that we've seen before.  Somehow Matt will bring people in to save his family (or most of them) and the 2nd Mass will continue on to DC.  I know that I've been really hard on this show recently, but that is mainly because the writers have been introducing new characters rather than having the final battles to kick the Espheni off of Earth.  Since they knew this was the last season, it should be balls to the wall action the entire season.  Instead, we've met and lost several characters and are no closer to figuring out how the Espheni will lose.

I'm not saying that every episode has to be chock full of massive battles, but the story should be always moved forward and (sadly) that hasn't been the case.  At this point, I don't see how the Espheni can lost sort of some sort of deus ex machina plot device at the last second.  I am wondering if they plan on having the last bit be a glimpse of the future after the Espheni lose or if the show will go seriously ballsy and have the humans lose.  Guess we have a couple more weeks to wait and find out.

Until next week.

My Review of Teen Wolf 5.07- Strange Frequencies

Scott and the gang try to save the next victim from the Dread Doctors, Theo and Stiles spend quality time together, the Sheriff and Melissa investigate, Mason does a little investigation on his own, Kira struggles to contain the fox within, and a beloved character dies....

Let us all bow our heads in a moment of silence for the departure of Roscoe, the beloved Jeep which was trashed by Parrish (or Theo) shortly before Parrish took another body.

Scott's plan was good as far as it went, but his lack of knowledge about the Dread Doctors and how they operate means that almost any plan he comes up with is almost guaranteed to fail.  He was trying to use frequency jammers to weaken the Doctors and that failed miserably.  Not only were the Doctors not affected by the jammers, they still managed to disable Scott, Lydia, and Malia by playing on their fears.  Not only that, but Scott lost both Hayden and Liam to the Doctors.  Right now, Scott's plans against the Doctor's have the same success rate as one of Derek's plans, and everyone knows how well Derek's plans always went.

I am still trying to figure out Theo's place in the Doctors' schemes.  He seems to think of himself as an equal partner, but they are withholding information from him about what is happening to the failed chimeras, which would indicate that they see him as less than them.  That can't sit too well with him.  Yet, he still continues on his quest to split Scott and Stiles up, which means that he is either seriously dedicated to the task at hand or he has reasons of his own for getting between them.  He also seems to genuinely want to figure out what is happening to the bodies, so there is that.  His reasons are beyond murky, so I guess we'll just have to wait to see what he is doing and why.

Speaking of Theo, it was interesting to see him in the car with Stiles.  What I found especially interesting is that his eyes are still yellow despite the fact that he has killed, which could indicate that he is not a true werewolf.  Couple that with the fact that he can transform into a full wolf, and I feel fairly certain that he is a successful chimera.  If he is, why was he successful and later ones not successful?  But, if he is truly a werewolf, why aren't his eyes blue?  He claimed that because the life he took was not innocent in his eyes, the color didn't change.  That's possible, which would indicate that killing itself doesn't affect a wolf, but rather it is the remorse of taking a life acts in a psychosomatic manner to punish the wolf such as when Derek killed Paige, which stripped him of his potential True Alpha status.

The Sheriff and Melissa discovered that all of the chimeras so far have received a graft of some sort and that seems to be what allows the Doctors to do what they want.  The question is whether the the Doctors did the grafts themselves (or through a lackey) or if they simply used the graft as a portal which allowed them to create the chimeras.

Mason found a chimera on his own.  The good news is that he brought the information to Scott and managed to pull Scott out of his Doctor induced hallucination.  The bad news is that he arrived too late for Scott to prevent Liam and Hayden from being kidnapped.  And this after Scott used Hayden as bait and promised Liam that he would do everything he could to protect Hayden.  That does not bode well for their future relationship.

Kira is in trouble.  She is most definitively having trouble controlling the fox, to the point that she almost killed her mom during a faux fight.  I think she made the right decision to try and make sure that she gets everything under control before trying to help other people.And who was that pinned with a sword in the McCalls' kitchen?  Couldn't tell.

Until next week!

My Review of Falling Skies 5.06- Respite

It might not be saying much, but this week's episode was better than last week's disastrous waste of time episode.  It was nice to see that the writers managed to (sort of) rescue last week's episode with what happened this week.  Then, of course, there was the whole Maggie storyline, but more on that in a bit.

About the only important thing that happened last week was the Tom going after Hal and the resulting storyline. That continued this week with Tom being cared for by a family that has been fortunate enough to sit out the war and with Hal and Isabelle looking for him.  I think Tom did need the reminder of what the war has been about and what he is looking to do.  I also think he made the right decision by encouraging the son to stay behind.  Was the mom right to hide everything from her kids?  Honestly, I get it.  She lost her husband and her mom in a short period of time and didn't want to lose her kids too.  I think there was also a certain amount of denial going on about what was truly happening.  I am sincerely curious about how that area has been completely overlooked by the Espheni.  Just luck is seriously pushing credibility.  I'm glad they didn't repeat the Season 1 storyline about the group working with the Espheni, but that explanation was completely unsatisfactory.

My biggest problem with last week's episode was the fact that so much time was spent on the  guy who lost his family.  Had that been a side story or if it had some big payoff this week, it might have been marginally acceptable.  Yes, the guy did discover the Espheni communications device, but literally anyone else could have been substituted in there with no interruption to the logic of the storyline, so it doesn't count as a big payoff.  Honestly, most of this weeks storyline with the 2nd Mass could have happened last week and nothing would have been lost.  That is a surefire way to know that time was just wasted.

Now, about Maggie.  Did she make the right decision?  While I can see perfectly legitimate arguments for both positions, I have to say that she didn't.  While I understand her point about wanting to control herself, there is a larger point to consider.  By removing the spikes, she not only took away one of the more powerful weapons (albeit with some massive flaws) in the humans arsenal, but she also risked killing herself, therefore depriving the 2nd Mass of her skills as a soldier.  I know that her and Ben's susceptibility to Espheni control due to the spikes is potentially a big issue, it is more than made up for in their usefulness as scouts and warriors.

Anne was very clear that she would remove the spikes, she just wanted to delay the procedure.  That was not an unreasonable request.  Ben's response, on the other hand, was somewhat childish.  Like Hal, Ben is upset that Maggie isn't falling in line with his wishes and desires.  Like Maggie, he was being more emotional than rational.  That being said, there is the issue that Maggie was raped by Pope and his men and that she is obviously reacting (in part) because of that.  It really does make sense and it does make the whole issue rather thorny.  Do you force her to keep the spikes in the name of the greater good or do you remove them (as she wants) and harm that good but allow her personal freedoms?  Normally, I would come down squarely on the side of letting her control herself, but in wartime, rules sometimes need to be bent in the name of the greater good and I think this is one of those cases.

Until next week!

My Review of Teen Wolf 5.06- Required Reading

A seriously psychological episode that messed with everyone's heads.  Scott has an asthma attack, Stiles sees his mom thinking the he's going to attack her, and Lydia has more visions.  We learn what happened between Liam and Hayden and we learn something interesting about Kira.

I have to say that I was wondering what was going on this season because it seems to be much slower than previous seasons.  Normally by this point, we have a pretty good idea of where things are headed, whereas right now things are still getting started.  Then I read an interview with Jeff Davis where he said that the entire 20 episode season is one story arc, so now things make sense.  Since an arc normally has 12 episodes, they can actually stretch out the story through a bunch more to give a slower build.  So we're actually closer to where we would normally be in episode 3 or 4 of a regular arc.  So things make a bit more sense.

Kira is the only one of the main group not affected by the book because kitsune have trouble with language.  And we got an approximate translation of the Japanese phrase she has been mumbling.  It means something like "I am the messenger of death."  I didn't write down the exact translation, but that is close.  It reminds me of the quote which most people know from Robert Oppenheimer, but actually comes from the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."  Coupled with Scott's worries about her, this could suggest that if she does not learn to control the fox spirit within her, it will subsume her personality beneath it's own and become deadly.  That also fits in with the increasing lack of control that we've seen from her and her increased aggressiveness when she is fighting.

Lydia's banshee powers are somehow allowing her to view what the chimeras have seen of the Dread Doctors, which means that she hasn't personally dealt with them.  This makes sense because the banshee's powers are tied to death and the Dread Doctors are killing the original person and creating their own creature in the process.  This would mean that Lydia can sense that death and channel it to see what happened.  And the less said about the whole creep Eichen House scene, the better.  Shudder....

Watching Scott go through a severe asthma attack sucked.  I am not entirely sure how the Dread Doctors triggered his asthma, unless it was more along the lines of a panic attack than an actually asthma attack.  Remember that he has had panic attacks in the past after he became a wolf, but he has never had an asthma attack.  It is possible that he is correct and it is entirely a psychosomatic thing, but that still points more to a panic reaction than an asthma attack.

Stiles also had a rough night of it.  He remembered his mother attacking him because she thought he was out to get her.  Or was it really a memory?  He was actually attacked by a chimera at the same time, so I have to wonder if the attack itself was a part of the memory or not.  It is possible that the rest was a memory and that the attack was only a part of it because the chimera did actually attack him.  And you know that Stiles is going to love that Theo knows about Donovan and is using that to blackmail him into being quiet.

Speaking of Theo, he is very slick, creepy, and hot.  All at the same time.  He went into the room where Kira was sleeping and recorded her Japanese speech, insinuated himself by Scott's side, saved and blackmailed Stiles, and tried to seduce Malia, all in one episode.  He was quite the busy beaver.  I am not sure if the whole Malia thing worked because she was mostly focused on why he hadn't told anyone about her memories of the Desert Wolf shooting at her mom's car last week.  Not that she didn't engage in a little staring at Theo while shirtless though.

Watching Liam and Hayden do the whole frenemy flirting thing is fun.  Their little impromptu competition on the athletic field was pretty funny, particularly when Liam accidentally hit the guy in the stomach/chest with the lacrosse ball.  And we finally found out why she hates him.  Turns out that in 6th grade, she got in the middle of a scuffle between Liam and another guy and got herself punched in the face.  She returned the favor to Liam, so now they are not fond of each other.  Oh, and that money she needed?  It's to pay for medicine so she won't reject a kidney transplant, which is when (I am guessing) the Dread Doctors turned her into a chimera.  Fun, wot?

And the episode would not be complete without talking a little about the whole Lydia/Parrish workout/flirting session.  Anyone else expect him to burst into flames then and there?

Until next week!

My Review of Falling Skies 5.05- Non-Essential Personnel

Tom goes to rescue Hal from Pope who has gotten a small following and even more insane and the 2nd Mass runs into a spot of trouble on their way north.

Honestly, tonight felt mainly like filler.  Nothing much happened on any front, which makes me wonder why the writers used (or wasted) an entire episode of the final season on what felt like something utterly non-essential.  There were also some extremely questionable decisions made by people, even for this show (which has a history of questionable decisions).

Aside from the fact that the episode felt like it was (almost) completely filler, my main beef was the Weaver didn't think to use Ben and Maggie to scout out what was going on before going in himself.  Actually, that is a problem I have with the show in general.  Here you have 2 super powered soldiers, but they are rarely utilized except as a last resort.  Sending them in to figure out what was going on would have made a whole lot more sense than sending in Weaver, who is the leader of the group.  Both of them could have snuck in relatively easily and immobilized the guy.  Granted, Weaver didn't know that there was just one guy, but he knew there were not very many people.  And not knowing is even more reason to send the two of them in.  They are both fairly level headed and know how to handle themselves in a fight.  The decision made absolutely no sense whatsoever.  As I said, this goes for the whole show in general.  They have woefully underused the abilities of the enhanced kids in general.  It's not like they're little kids, they're both relatively mature young adults who can make informed decisions.

At this point, Pope is just annoying.  I get that the people he rescued are grateful to him, but when he started just sending people off because they were "useless" that should have been a big honking clue that he is not all there.  And Anthony following him around like a little lost puppy is just sad and pathetic.  I was also hoping for more of a showdown between Pope and Tom.  Maybe they have that saved for later, so I'll not be too annoyed right now.

I am going to be honest and say that if this was not the last season of the show, I would have stopped watching by now.  You'd think that knowing this was the last season would mean that the writers would make sure that every episode is packed with only necessary material.  I know that the whole Tom/Pope fight has been bubbling beneath the surface since they first met, so I guess that storyline could be considered essential.  We're about midway through the season and I have no clue where they are going.  The stories seem to be aimless, as if the writers aren't sure where they are going.  I really hope the last several episodes tighten things up considerably and get a whole lot better.  I've been with this show from the beginning and normally I am almost fixated on the screen when it is on, but this season (and especially tonight), I have barely been able to focus on what is going on.  I know this show has been uneven, but they have had a while to get their stuff together to make a compelling final season and they have been failing miserably at it so far.

Until next week.