Not Your Average Janitor & Gym Teacher

Did your high school have men like this working there?

This week on Supernatural we’re going back to high school!!!  Can you feel the joy?  Actually, you should because Sam and Dean became the hottest janitor and gym teacher ever in the history of the world.  Why in the hell did my high school not have handymen and teachers like that?  I loved my gym teacher, Coach P, but he was approaching retirement age; I wasn’t actually pondering jumping his bones like I would have been had Dean been my instructor.  I did have a hot substitute in biology once, he was the older brother of one of the guys in my class.  I miss that hot guy.   Oops, tangent!  Sorry!  Not going to do my usual list of things I liked and things I hated because I really didn’t hate a heck of a lot this week.  It was fun to get a glimpse of younger Dean and Sam and meet the teacher that set Sam on his own path until 4 years ago when Dean showed up on his doorstep worried about their dad.

Drop and give me...I'll leave that to your imagination.

The mystery this week involves these bullied kids in the high school fighting back against their tormentors.  The first girl gets called a fat, ugly pig by a bitchy cheerleader who she had tried to be nice to after her friends attacked her with the slut cough.  The girl found the cheerleader in the bathroom and proceeded to bash her head into a mirror, drag her to a toilet, drown and kill her.  Then some blood-like substance leaked out her eye, thus showing us that this was not her doing the action.  Dean & Sam hit the town and reminisce about how they went to that school for a brief few weeks when Dean was a senior and Sam was an 8th grader?  Not sure exactly how old Sam was but he was a tiny little guy.  Extremely cute though…I liked both actors playing the younger brothers.  After interviewing the girl, they determine they need to go in undercover, she’s not crazy and something was controlling her.

Aww brotherly love, even then.

We get to see a glimpse of the Impala pulling up to school and high school Dean and Sam stepping out.  Dean quizzes Sam on having everything he needs to get through the day, including his butterfly knife.  Protective big brother as always.  Sam’s not happy about going to his 3rd new school that year by November; Dean shrugs it off and says they’ll be out of there in a few weeks anyway.  Our boys get introduced in their new classes; Dean immediately catching the eye of a blond chick and Sam befriend a nerd named Barry.  Dean calls the teacher sweetheart and rocks his leather jacket, like one would expect.  Dean plays the rebel, not in need of books since he won’t be there long anyway.  Sam’s teacher assigns a story on their memorable family experience that will be half their grade.  Sam notices Dirk flicking Barry’s ear and tells him to leave him alone.  Dirk asks if Sam wants to take his place and Sam says sure.

Dean revels in the power of the whistle.

Cut to Sam in a janitor’s outfit pushing a trash can and looking around and Dean in his coaches gear instructing kids in the art of dodge ball and sounding very much like an Army drill sergeant. He hurls a ball into an unsuspecting lad and when some dork tries to tell Dean that they’re not allowed to play dodge ball because people get hurt Dean blows his whistle and orders the kid to take a lap.  Hilarious.  Sam comes to visit and Dean tells them to go nuts.  Sam, “Having fun?” Dean, “The whistle makes me their god!”  Sam, “Nice shorts.”  Yes, these are the Winchester brothers I know and love, nice to see them again!  Of course the child that tried to warn Dean about the perils of dodge ball takes one in the face and runs past clutching his mouth.  Dean tells him nice hustle and to walk it off.  Awesome.  I grinned through that entire scene; might have been because of the headband and gym shorts though!

The power of the PE teacher.

Elsewhere in the school, another lad was getting bullied.  Some jock demanded to copy a kids algebra homework.  After some mouthing off and threats, the kid takes jock boy’s hand and shoves it into a blender.  Sam runs in and sees the attacker collapse and the bloody good leak out of his ears.  Aha, we have proof of possession!  Sam and Dean chat up the possibilities of ghost possession but can’t find any EMF in the building.  After letting Sam know that three of the cheerleaders are of legal age, a fact which Sam is unimpressed with, Dean gives Sam a piece of paper with a kid who died on campus, a suicide, none other than Sam’s friend, Barry.  He cut his wrists open in the girl’s bathroom.  Sam remembers Barry having a hard time with bullies in school.

Cute little Sam.

And we’re back in time with Barry getting shoved to the floor by some jock and Sam helping him pick up his books.  Barry tells him he’ll be out of school in 3 years and on  his way to Michigan State to be a vet.  Dean, meanwhile, is making out with blondie in a dark classroom.  He wants her to sneak out and see a horror movie with him at midnight and she is floored by his lack of parental supervision when he says he can do whatever he wants.  She’s not impressed with his hotel lifestyle.  Dean doesn’t really respond when she asks if he misses his dad.  Barry and Sam walk by as Dean and Blondie (Amanda) are kissing goodbye; Barry asks if that’s Sam’s brother and Sam says yeah and Barry says he’s cool.  In true brother fashion Sam says “HE thinks so.” Dirk comes up to see if Sam really wants to take Barry’s place and Sam says sure but he won’t fight him.  Dirk punches him but is interrupted by Sam’s teacher.

Sam & Dean in present time are salting and lighting Barry’s bones, assuming that will stop the possession at the school.  Sam, of course, takes the blame, wishing he’d been at the school longer for Barry.  Dean tries to talk sense into him and tells him he was glad they got out of there.  Back in time, Dean wants to kick Dirk’s ass for hitting Sam.  Sam won’t let him and Dean wants to know why he didn’t kick his ass himself.  Sam tells him he wants to be a normal kid and not be a freak.  Dean can’t comprehend how taking a beating is normal but that’s that.  Dean’s antsy about Amanda wanting him to meet her parents and wants out of town but Dad’s going to be at least another week.  Ahh Papa Winchester, ever absent.

Rebel with a cause?

Sam’s teacher calls him after class and Sam thinks it’s about the fight.  But the teacher reminds him that his assignment was nonfiction and he wants to know why Sam would write about him and his family killing a werewolf last summer.  Hehe  He tells Sam he’s going to give him an A despite him not doing the assignment properly.  He tells Sam that his brother is quite a character.  I cannot help but agree.  He talks to Sam about his future and Sam says he’s got to go into the family business.  The teacher asks if he wants to and Sam tells him he doesn’t want to.  Teacher gives him the old you can break the mold speech, do what makes you happy.  This inspires Sammy down the line to take his own path and head to Stanford for law school.  Essentially that’s what this whole episode boiled down to, how Sam tried to stray from the path before him but ended up back on it anyway.  And now he’s unhappy and wants to get back to living his own life.

Sam wants to go visit the teacher that changed his life and on his way in he runs into some girl who asks him for directions.  He talks to her and all of a sudden she says “thanks Sam” and stabs himwith something, then starts kicking his ass down the hall way.  The goo leaks out of her mouth and Sam holds salt there, sending some black specter flying out of her.  Allow me a moment to laugh over Dean referring to the possessed kids as Martha Dumptruck (Heathers!!!), Revenge of the Nerds & Hello Kitty.  Dean is truly awesome.  Anyway, he figures out all the kids ride the same bus, so the ghost must have it’s base there.  They finally get their EMF reading on the bus, so they’re on the right track.  The bus driver is one Dirk McGregor, Sr., father of none other than the bully that was after Barry.

And we’re back to high school.  Dirk is again picking on Barry and this time Sam is not going to let him get away with it.  Dirk pushes him down and Sam responds by punching him over and over again, showing badass fighting skills.  The kid is about twice his size but Sammy kicks his ass and dubs him “Dirk the Jerk.”  Apparently this name stuck with old Dirk up until he died.  Our boys visit Dirk Sr. and find out that Dirk died from drug overdose.  He tells them about how poor they were and Dirk had to care for his mother as she died from cancer.  Sam, of course, takes this to heart and feels guilty for having kicked his ass and dubbing him Dirk the Jerk.  Sorry, Sam, that one wasn’t that creative, nothing to hang your head over!

Dad kept a lock of his hair on the bus in his bible, so the boys head there to exorcise our ghost Dirk.  Eddie the bus driver that evening is actually possessed by him and has hidden the lock of hair so that he cannot be easily dispatched by our boys.  Sam confronts Dirk while Dean ties him up in a salt water soaked rope so he can’t leave the body he’s inhabiting.  Dean goes into the bus and tells everybody to sit tight and the teacher asks him if he’s the PE Teacher.  Dean says he’s more like 21 Jump Street (Johnny Depp!!!) and the bus driver sells pot.  Yay for the pop culture references tonight!   He tells Sam he’s evil and Sam tells him he isn’t and neither is he.  Dirk breaks out of his ropes and starts kicking Sam’s ass.  Sam firest his gun at him and Dirk hops into some other kid.  Dean finally finds and burns the hair after Sam gets the crap beat out of him for awhile and off goes Dirk’s ghost.  The kid collapses on Sam and Dean comments on him giving him the cowgirl.  HA!

I ran out of pics, this is for next week, SO HOT.

Back in high school, Dean is making out with some brown haired girl when Amanda walks in on him.  He tries to pretend nothing was up but he’s caught of course.  Amanda tells him she thought maybe there was something more to him than the bad boy but she was wrong.  He spends so much time putting on a cool act but he’s just a sad, lonely kid and she feels sorry for him.  Dean doesn’t want to hear that of course.  He yells about being a hero but just looks pathetic.  Meanwhile Sam is getting congratulations for kicking Dirk’s ass.  Dean’s alone and Sam’s admired.  How things have changed.  Dean gets the call that they’re leaving and he’s thrilled.  The Impala drives up and Sam gives Barry a last goodbye look and a wave.  Awww.

Current day Sam goes in and is recognized by Mr. White, the teacher who inspired him.  He remembers Sam’s horror story after he tells him his name.  Sam thanks him for telling him he could make his own choices.  Sam tells him he did for awhile and then he grew up and responsibilities took over.  Sam thanks him for his interest and that it mattered to him.  Mr. White asks Sam if he’s happy, cause that’s what truly matters and of course we cut away.  We all know Sam isn’t happy.  And that’s our lesson from this little flash back in time.  Sam tried to be someone else but his obligations took over.  Now he wants to get those obligations out of the way and return back to a different life.  Can he?  Time will tell.  It was nice to get a more Samcentric episode again, we needed one of those after all the Dean time (not that I mind Dean time!)  Next week Dean will at least be in heaven instead of hell, because it’s Strippers!  Yeah, he’s gonna enjoy that one!

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Lost All Over Again With Desmond & Daniel

Daniel & his mother? Inquiring minds want to know! From ABC.com

Oh, the hubris!  Last week in my first Lost blog I dared write that I understood what was going on.  I fooled myself into believing that I’d be able to follow this whole time travel thing; that I got it!  Ha!  Brag and you shall be smacked down.  Damon and Carlton probably did it on purpose.  Give them a little understanding in the first two episodes of the year and then hit them with the hard stuff.  Alright, fine, I will attempt to rise to the challenge then!

Since this is my first year blogging Lost, none of you have experienced the Desmond effect with me.  I love Des, I really do, but every time he is featured in an episode they are by far the most confusing and confounding for me.  I usually exit them with a headache and a WTF? face.   I’m like Sawyer, scowling at everything in sight because I just don’t understand.  So I don’t know why I was surprised knowing that this was a Des episode that I got Lost almost immediately.  Lost, such an apt name!   Throw Daniel into the mix and you’re just asking for a migraine to form.  I like him as well but he’s the other time travel dude and I had a hard time with his flashback episode as well.  I guess I better get used to it since this season is all about time travel, huh?

Anyway, we started off with Desmond frantically looking for a doctor.  He found one and we came upon pregnant Penny in labor.  She gave birth to a baby boy, Charlie.  Say it with me now, Awwww!!!  He named him after our dearly departed Lostie.  I get the feeling we’ll be seeing him again this year, probably trying to convince Hurley to return to the island, or not to return.  We shall see!  Anyway, flash ahead to real time Des who is determined to go to Oxford to find Daniel’s mom and help the islanders.  Penny is most displeased but resigned to it.  Des goes to Oxford and there’s no record of Daniel or his mother having taught there.  He investigates and finds Daniel’s rat maze and chalk board all covered up and sees a picture of Daniel and some blond woman looking like a happy couple.  A janitor comes in and gives Desmond some info about them covering up Daniel’s involvement at the school based upon what he’d done to the blond woman.

Desmond goes to see about her and finds her in some kind of vegetative state.  Her sister tells Des that Daniel caused it and that he’d just run off to America instead of staying to deal with it.  Apparently sis does wake up now and then and claims that she’s been somewhere else in time.  AHA!  She must have traveled with Daniel through time and gotten the headache/bloody nose that we see in Charlotte now and it eventually fried her brain.  Lovely.  Poor Daniel, doomed to love women who can’t handle time travel.  Oops, I wandered.  Desmond learns that Charles Widmore is fitting the bill for the woman, because Daniel was researching for him when it happened.  This sets Des off and he goes to confront Charles and demands to know where Faraday’s mom is.  Charles gets snippy with him but does give him the address.  He implores that Desmond NOT take Penny to the island, to leave it all alone.  Des returns to Penny and tells her Daniel’s mom is in LA but claims he’s not going to go after her.  Penny knows her man and tells him they’ll all go, he won’t be able to put it aside for long.  Off they head to LA and the Oceanic 6!!!  Reunions, you gotta love em!

As for our boy Daniel, he’s busy in the year 1954, saving Charlotte from stepping on a landmine and then checking out a hydrogen bomb.  Confusing at all?   Well in their latest flash, they went to 1954 and were captured by Richard’s men.  Daniel ascertained that there was a bomb on the island; ostensibly because of some radiation burns on one of the soldiers but more likely because he was on the island and part of the people who put the bomb there.  Or he saw them do it.  (A moment to pause and enjoy that I used the words ascertained and ostensibly in the same sentence, Lost makes me so cerebral, HAHA).  Anyway, he convinces Richard to let him take a look at the bomb because he’ll know how to help them.  Richard agrees but only after Daniel reveals that he loves Charlotte; he just blurts it out in front of her and Miles and random British chick, who I am thinking might actually be his mother.  I think her name is Ellie.  Charlotte’s eyes pop wide at the revelation but she doesn’t say anything.

Ellie takes Daniel to the bomb and he tries to get her talking but she’s not so big on the communication.  We come upon some tower holding a bomb.  Daniel climbs up and sees a leak; he gets down and tells her that they need concrete to bury the bomb.  She wants him to disarm it like he said he would and he tells her burying it will work.  She wonders how he could know that and he tells her he just came from 50 years later and the island is still there so obviously the bomb won’t blow.  She is rather disbelieving of this claim; I wonder why?  She’s pretty much ready to shoot Daniel despite the fact that shooting him around a leaky H-bomb would not be the wisest course of action; but Sawyer shows up and tells her to drop the gun.  Juliet recommends everybody drop their guns.   That’s as far as we get there before a flash takes the Losties away, no more British peeps with guns.

I did love when Daniel had a moment alone (tho Miles the annoyance was there!) with Charlotte and she told him he didn’t have to lie about loving her to convince Richard to let him deal with the bomb.  It was the perfect out for Daniel right there but instead of taking it, he said that he does indeed love her.  Before she could really absorb that one he was off to look at the bomb.   When they reunited they didn’t have the chance to talk about it at all before Charlotte got another bloody nose and collapsed.

Prior to that, Locke has wandered in to chat with Richard and show him the compass he gave him.  He tells Richard that Jacob sent him, which I believe is a lie; but whatever.   The mention of Jacob gives Richard pause and Locke informs him that he, Locke, is his leader.  Richard laughs about that one and says that leaders are chosen at a very young age.  Locke tells him to come visit him in 2 years when he’s born.  HA!  And of course we know he does visit when Locke’s about 10 or so thanks to a flashback from a year or two ago.  Locke demands that Richard tell him how he gets off the island because he has to save it.  Richard is not big on giving out this info and before Locke can convince him he must; zap!  Locke’s with the rest of the Losties in some unknown time.

Ooops, I forgot to highlight one very important thing in that Locke visit with Richard.  The army guy that got away from Sawyer and Juliet and Locke; the one Locke could have shot but refused to because he was one of “his people” was a guy bearing the name tag Jones.  But when he was threatening to kill Locke, Richard called him Widmore!  And Locke looked at him and said, “Charles Widmore” and Widmore said something along the lines of “What’s it to you?” and Locke smiled.  So, we have Charles on the island probably 20 some years before Ben shows up.  Interesting to see what kind of interaction those two are going to have to make them sworn enemies, isn’t it?  My friend, Tripp, thinks maybe Ben’s girlfriend Annie will be Widmore’s daughter, which is a possibility; tho I think maybe she’s Widmore’s wife or mother of a certain blond chick.  The timing may be wrong there, but with all this time jumping who can say?

So that was the episode, and I guess maybe it wasn’t as confusing as I thought it was but still it messed with my head.  We had more questions arise than answers this week I think.   I look forward to next week, seeing my Ben and Sayid and co again.  I want to know how they’re going to get back and how they’re going to convince Hurley to go.  I want to know if Charlotte is going to go insane like the blond girl or if Daniel can find a way to save her.  I want to know how Ben and Charles become enemies.  I want to know what Richard’s deal is, why he never ages.  I want to know a lot more things than that but this blog is long enough as it is.  I love this show, but it sure drives me nuts.  No more Des heavy eps for a few weeks I hope, I can’t handle too many in a row!

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Super Bowl Prediction

Which receiver will decide the game? Photo from Getty Images/US Presswire.

Well I’ve had a week and a half to try to decide which way I was going to go for my Super Bowl winner and I still don’t feel good about it.  But it’s time to get it out there anyway, so I’ll talk it through with you and see if I stick to my guns with the winner.

My head says, “Steelers, you dummy, pick the Steelers.  Defense wins championships.”  And that old adage is definitely true, we’ve seen it with the Ravens and the Bucs and the Giants and the Patriots in recent years.  The Steelers have one of the best defenses in the league, there’s no argument about that.  The Cardinals defense has been porous at times during the season but they’ve really picked it up in the playoffs.  They’ve picked everything up in the playoffs though.  Still, defensive edge goes to Pittsburgh.

Since we talked defense, I guess we should talk offense now.  Who has the advantage here?  Both QB’s have been to the Super Bowl and both have won one.  I’d give Arizona a slight edge in wide receivers, well actually it might be a really big edge if Hines Ward doesn’t go or isn’t 100%.  Larry Fitzgerald has been a beast and there’s no reason to think that Pitt is going to shut him down.  They might limit him compared to some other teams, but he will make some plays.  Pittsburgh gets the edge in the running game, though AZ has been pretty good there in recent weeks as well.  As for QB?  I like Warner better than Big Ben but the fact is they’re both just as capable of throwing crippling interceptions as they are throwing game winning TD’s.  They’re both scary to bet on.  Offensive edge to the Cardinals.

Another way is to go with the hot team.  Who’s hotter?  Both of them have rolled through the playoffs, so I really can’t distinguish there.  Pitt has the overall better record against better competition.  Arizona’s best wins have been in the playoffs, while Pitt has faced off with Baltimore three times and come out the winner, not to mention taking out the Chargers, another really hot team.

Coaching?  Both coaches have all of 2 years head coaching experience, though Whisenhunt was a coordinator at least with the Super Bowl winning Steelers.  Tomlin has a ring as the Bucs defensive backs coach.  Whisenhunt has the advantage of knowing the Pitt system rather well, seeing as he was there, but I’m sure Tomlin’s people have changed things up some.  I’d call coaching even.

X factors:

The Steelers have been here before.  They know what this game is like, they know the hoopla heading in and they know how to deal with it.  The Cardinals are almost entirely new to games of this magnitude.  Warner has been there before, Edge has dealt with the playoffs year in and year out, but that’s about it.  Can Warner get the rest of the team as focused as they need to be going in?  I’m sure that he’ll try and distractions will be kept to a minimum, but there will be some.

Big Ben.  Ben has lived for a couple of years now knowing that his team won the Super Bowl despite him, not because of him.  He turned in one of the worst QB performances in a big game that I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to see.  I honestly hated the Steelers for at least a year after that Super Bowl, because it was such a terrible game that it offended my senses.  So, this time out, Ben has to prove himself.  These Cardinals are not nearly as inept as those Seahawks were and he’s going to have to actually make some plays to win.  Will he step it up and get it done?

The “nobody believed in us” team.  The Cardinals have had the fun of playing the whole postseason as the team that everybody was picking to be one and done.  You may recall reading those very words from me a few weeks ago in my first playoff prediction.  Everybody sneered about how terribly they were playing down the stretch and what a crappy division they played in.  They used that each and every week to help motivate them, as these things seem to, and each week they’ve come out on top.  They’ll be singing that tune leading up to this game and if they win, we’ll be hearing it as they dump champagne and beer all over one another.  It’s a powerful motivator, silly though it might be.

So…with all that to consider, which way do I go?  Go with the gut and say the Steelers or go with the heart and pick the Cards?  Going into this week I fully intended on putting it on the line and picking the Cardinals.  There’s something that feels good about them, something that feels right.  The Warner story, Larry Fitzgerald showing his awesomeness both on and off the field (if you have not heard that young man give an interview, I beg you to listen to one, what a humble, good man he seems to be), Edge earning his ring, the team that nobody believed in achieving the pinnacle of their sport…that’s the thing I would love to see happen.  But do I think it will?  Every day that gets closer to the game I find myself leaning toward Pittsburgh, the team I know, the defense I trust.  When in doubt you go with the defense.  Sigh.

Alright, it’s time to man up (or woman up in my case) and make my pick.  So I’ll commit…Steelers by 3.  Special teams, which I did not discuss, makes a difference and Santonio Holmes sets up a couple short fields for Pitt.  So the head is winning out over the heart, but this is one pick I hope I actually get wrong.  Happy Super Bowling to you all, have some wings and beer and nachos and whatever else for me!  And go Cards!  (I can’t help it, I gotta root for the underdog this time!)

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Days of Our Disgust

One last Jarlena kiss for old time's sake.

Friday was supposed to be a glorious Days day for me; John & Marlena, my long despised Days pairing, was finally leaving the canvas.  When that initial news broke, I was filled with unparalleled TV joy.  Free of the gasping, free of the face eating, free of the eyebrow…free at last!  But a funny thing happened on the way to Friday, spoilers as to John & Marlena’s exit began to leak and they were so disappointing and unsatisfactory that my joy in the moment waned and eventually disappeared.  Watching it play out just as the spoilers indicated didn’t please me in any way, instead I felt bad that a once major pairing was exiting the show in such a ridiculous and awful way.  One thing happened to make me remember why I was glad they were leaving, however, but we’ll discuss that along the way.

So many things were wrong with this exit that I probably can’t begin to cover them all, but we’ll start with the method used to usher them off.  Marlena was having a confrontation with Dr. Taylor over her viewing John’s hypnotherapy session and knowing that his memories were resurfacing.  Dr. Taylor was unhappy with this and decided to attack Marlena with her trusty hypodermic.  Do all doctors on staff carry these around for any confrontation they may come across?  Does Dan have one handy for if Kate stumbles upon him and Chloe screwing on the couch?  Does Lexie have one just in case someone shoves her into another tunnel?  These are the things I’d like to know.  Anyway, struggle ensues and John comes in so Dr. Taylor sticks him instead.  John collapses, Marlena gasps, Bo and Hope arrest Dr. Taylor.

Kayla runs some tests on John (too bad Dan wasn’t around, I’m sure he would have cured him) and Marlena takes some time alone with him.  She gives him a magic kiss and suddenly his memories are all back.  We’re treated to some classic John & Marlena flashbacks, which I had hoped for as part of their exit.  Something they got right, just a small something though.  Kayla comes in and Marlena tells her that John has his memory back.  Kayla says she thought he might based upon the tests she ran…um…okay.  That made zero sense to me but this is Days, medical knowledge is not their forte.  She then tells them that John is paralyzed from the neck down.  John responds to this news by telling Marlena to leave him and go on with her life.  Um, when has she ever done that John?  She refuses and we get some cheesy dialogue about standing by her man.  He says she’d have to give up her whole life to go to Switzerland with him to which she responds that there is no life without him.  How romantic!  Except, to me it’s not cause she does have a daughter who is currently being hunted by a killer with a tendency to talk to himself.  Terrifying.  When John brings up Sami she says, “She’ll survive.”  Oh really?  You’re 100% sure of that?  It’s not as if Sami is gallivanting around town with nary a care in the world.  In case you’re wondering, this is the moment that reminded me why I was glad they were leaving.  That Marlena, the one who ONLY cares about John and herself, is the reason I despised the character for years.  She may not know Sami is pregnant but she damn well knows that she is in danger.  Ugh.

Dee Hall cries tears of joy over getting away from this crapfest.

Sorry about that, mini-rant over.  Anyway, John then asks Marlena to marry him again.  She gasps and agrees and then runs out to tell Kayla and Brady the news.  Roman shows up to see the nuptuals as well.  Why he was there is beyond me, smiling in the background.  I realize the 3 were all tied to each other but I think going to his 7th Jarlena wedding would be a little bit much.  I don’t think he had any lines, he was just there smirking in the background.  Pointless.  Also on hand was Stefano, who was apparently so upset over John’s paralysis and possible death that he had to send EJ to Italy in his place and run over to the hospital to give him a salute through the window.  Why Stefano would even care is beyond me, short of the fact that HE wasn’t the one behind this illness.  I know, it gave Marlena an opportunity to tell him off, which, been there done that.  But it also did give us a John eyebrow raise, which was appropriate under the circumstances.  I get that they were trying to show that Stefano thought John a worthy opponent and thus respected him, I just don’t think they did it right.  Making him appear upset was all wrong.  Having him say something to John like, “Get well soon and we’ll go another round” would have been more satisfactory to me.

For once, Josh Taylor's expression mirrors my own.

Anyway, John and Marlena pledged their eternal love and that was pretty much that.  Their total scene time on Friday added up to about 14:30.  14:30 to say goodbye to a couple that had been on the show for over 20 years and many fans were heavily invested in.  They don’t get waltz off to a happy future together, they get to wheel John off to a helicopter to fly to Switzerland for treatment.  Frustration, diaper changes, anger…that’s what we get to imagine for them.  Oh I know, we can imagine her love giving him the will to fight and all that, but the reality is that he leaves with his mind intact and his body helpless.  I can’t imagine that fans of this couple felt that was the happy ending they deserved.  I didn’t feel it was the happy ending they deserved and I don’t even like them.

Only Dena Higley and Corday and co can manage to take the exit of a one time supercouple and manage to make it epically unsastisfactory for fans and haters alike.  Fans got to see their hero exit on his back while haters had to feel bad about that exit instead of enjoying it.  I didn’t even get a “That’s a fact” to seal my joy.  So, I really just wanted to say, in my usual long winded way, that I am truly sorry for fans of John & Marlena that they got a send off like that.  I wouldn’t wish that upon any coupling, particularly one that I liked.  I guess now you can make your own happy ending for them, though you shouldn’t have to.  The writers did you wrong, which is not remotely surprising.  They can’t get anything right.

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Shining The Lights On Relationships

Can Tammy Taylor really take on the boosters?

This weeks Friday Night Lights really focused on relationships.  I suppose all the episodes do but this one seemed particularly to work on testing old relationships and sampling a new/old one.

We started out with rising tensions between Tammy Taylor and the school board regarding the whole Jumbotron issue.  She got interviewed by a reporter who asked her if her stance against the Jumbotron was causing any tension in her marriage.  Tammy truthfully told her that in the end they work through these kinds of things and of course the reporter ran a story claiming that Tammy was a rebel and that it was causing stress in her relationship.  Of course the real thing causing stress is that Coach really won’t talk to her about the issue and I think she’s pretty irritated that he won’t stand up for her with the boosters and the mayor.  Of course, Coach knows that’s a losing battle; he’s got his own pressure from the boosters to start playing JD McCoy and you pick your battles.  Plus he knows it won’t exactly harm his team to have that Jumbotron.  Luckily the Taylor marriage is quite strong and you know they’ll work through it in the end.  Looks like Tammy’s going to be hauled before the school board next week thanks to Buddy and the mayor ganging up on her, so she’ll need Coach’s support.

Matt & Julie begin to bond again!

Poor Matt Seracen has no end to the angst in his life.  His grandmother is getting worse and being stubborn about taking her medication and there’s not a lot Matt can do about it.  He consults with a lawyer who suggests getting himself emancipated so he can have say over what his grandmother does.  Matt doesn’t like this idea overly much but a talk with his grandma convinces him that he needs to do it so he heads off to find his mother.  She’s been gone from his life for a long time, not sure how long but he feels the need to introduce himself when he sees her so you know it’s been awhile.  She has no clue about his life; that his father is out of the country and his grandmother is suffering from dementia and that he’s a QB, etc.  The nice thing that happened for Matt in this episode is that he and Julie took some baby steps to getting back together.  She saw him taking out his frustrations over Grandma on some empty boxes and listened to him tell her about his issues.  After he got the paper signed he picked her up from work and told her he was emancipated and she teased him about how hot that was, til she found out that he couldn’t drink or vote or anything else.  It was nice to see them banter and tease one another again and see Julie NOT being the royal bitch she was last season.  I have high hopes for these two in the end.

Last week it was no shirt, this week it's no pants. Go Riggins!

Riggins & Lyla took some steps forward with their relationship as well.  Lyla heard about Tim’s letter of interest from Oklahoma and took it upon herself to try to secure his future.  She dragged him along to a fancy dinner with her father and Mr. McCoy (the phenoms father) before which Buddy more or less threatened him to get away from his daughter.  That put Tim’s back up and he was stammering and barely talking all through dinner.  Hilariously he ordered squab trying to impress everyone and not realizing what it was.  He ordered it rare too.  hehe After he and Lyla got into a fight about her pushing him to be someone that he’s not and it appeared that they broke up.  She showed up at his house, where he was sitting around pantsless with Tyra and instead of having a fit like I expected, she took that with good grace and gave him the cheeseburger she’d picked up for him to make up for the gross squab.  I’m glad they didn’t go the trite route and break them up this early in the game.  I like Tim & Lyla, yeah they’re different but they have a good vibe together.

Ladies & gentleman, your class president!

Riggins wasn’t the only one thinking about college and the future.  Tyra’s campaign for the class presidency wasn’t going well; she got in late in the game and her posters were being vandalized.  Nobody was taking her seriously and since that wasn’t working for her, she went old school Tyra and got her sister’s stripper friends to dance for her campaign.  This displeased the jerky guidance counselor who was set to suspend her until Tammy Taylor stood up for her and let her go to the pep rally to give her speech.  Of course Tammy regretted that when Tyra’s speech consisted of pointing out that the other girl would throw them a boring prom in the gym and if they wanted to get laid they should vote for her.  Not surprisingly, Tyra won.  Tammy laid into her about the way she ran her campaign and how she’d made her look bad.

Smash back where he belongs!

The storyline that most interests me and tugs at my heartstrings remains that of Smashes rehab attempts.  This week Coach Taylor had him working with Riggins and when Riggins hit Smash, he freaked out about it.  He realized that he was running scared and afraid to take a hit now.  Coach confronted him on that and Smash admitted that part of the problem is he doesn’t know who he is anymore, he was a Dillon Panther but now he’s not.  Coach comes up with the idea of having Smash meet him on the field and then has the entire team come out to play a game.  Smash broke a long run and was hit just as he crossed the goal line.  There was that typical brief moment of silence where you wondered if he had been reinjured and then Smash jumps up and announces “That’s 6! I’m back baby!”  It should have been cheesy but it really was great.  I want Smash to achieve his dream just as much as Coach Taylor does.  Then Coach got a call and took off late in the evening and showed up at the Williams house to tell Smash that he had a tryout with Texas A&M in 2 weeks.  The shouts of joy inside the house as Coach walked away was intoxicating.  I teared up, I’m not afraid to admit it. I love that Coach went to deliver the info in person, that’s so like him.  I love Smash’s mother, she works hard for her family and really fights for what’s best for them.  Looks like next week financial issues with them attempting to send Smash to college will rear their head, but I have faith that Momma will make it work out.

So that pretty much hit the highlights of this episode for me.  I really loved it from start to finish.  I’m gonna get tired of Tammy vs. Buddy before the season ends but hopefully she’ll lose her temper and haul off and punch him and that’ll make me happy.  I know Smash will be off the show as soon as he does achieve the dream and get to college but I still have my hopes that it will happen soon.  I don’t know if Tyra and Landry will get back together but I like that he’s still a huge part of her life.  Matt & Julie look on the path to reuniting and that thrills me, he’s gonna need someone on his side when the freshman usurps him as QB1.  I really like how things are setting up and I already can’t wait for next week!

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Criss Angel IS A Douchebag

Getting old is a bitch!

I wasn’t remotely going to change the name of this Supernatural episode because it might be the most perfect episode name they’ve ever come up with.  Plus anybody who’s read my NFL reports knows that I love the word douche.  My douche of choice is the douchetard but that’s neither here or there.  This week’s episode was all about magicians vs. real magic and gave us a small step for Sammy back toward the dark side.  I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, so my list will be heavily weighted towards the “things I liked” side of matters.

Sam, Dean & Vernon watching the magic.

Things I hated:

• Lack of Winchester.  I get that they wanted to highlight the old man magicians this episode but there wasn’t enough Dean & Sammy to satisfy my inner fangirl.
• The Return of Ruby.  Even without guessing it from the opening flashback to Sammy/Ruby sex, I knew damn well who was at the door.  I guess we haven’t seen her for awhile but I could use longer without her.  Preferably forever.
• Sam & Dean tying up Jay and turning their back on him.  Come on, a guy who breaks out of bindings for a living and you guys think rope is gonna hold him?  That was an insult to our boy’s intelligence.  I do not approve.
• Not getting to see our beloved boys behind bars.  For some reason I find them extremely hot when they’re all locked up like that, fodder for scads of fantasies that are best not explored for the world to see here.  At least show us them handcuffed!  Is that too much to ask?  (I promise Jensen & Jared are perfectly safe when it comes to me, not a stalker, just have a good imagination!)
• I didn’t really understand how Charlie came back as a young man though.  We saw old Charlie die so where was young Charlie?  This is probably just me having a brain fart but I watched it twice and wasn’t enlightened.  Any help would be appreciated.  I thought he was the Trixter guy for some reason and this is probably what confused me.  I guess they never explained the spell for immortality so I’ll accept it but I was confused.
• Though I liked Jay stabbing himself to save Sam & Dean, I did not like that Sam didn’t just whip his power out and save them both.  I was sure he was going to and that would be how he justified his return to using his powers, that he was using them for good.  It would have been cool to see Sam develop that telekinetic power the kids were using a couple seasons ago.
• Sam driving off with Ruby.  I’m fine with him exploring his dark side but I just dislike Ruby that much that I don’t appreciate it being with her.

He does look like a crazy, old magician.

Things I liked:

• The liberal use of the words douchebag and crap.  These words should be used more in everyday life.  I’m going to make an effort to do so.
• The fact that Sam used to practice magic tricks when he was 13 (13!!!) and Dean giving him shit about it.  Frankly I loved Dean this whole episode.  It was nice to see him less angsty and back to teasing his brother.  He wasn’t light hearted by any means but it was a nice break from the tortured soul thing.
• Barry Bostwick!!!  I have always enjoyed him in every role I happen across him doing.  And how much did I love that he stabbed himself in the end to save Dean & Sam from dying at the hand of Charlie?  I really liked how conflicted they made him about it even after; he wasn’t sure he did the right thing in the end.
• The death of Vance & the Criss Angel wannabe.  Any time Criss Angel wannabe’s die an angel gets their wings.  Or something like that.  Enjoy Anna!  Seriously, douchebag was the word for that guy and I loved when Vernon called him that as well.  His stupid poses in the mirror shortly before the noose descended upon him were reason enough to cheer that murder.
• CHIEF!!!  The two magicians sending Dean to see “Chief” who then appears in leather with his cat o’ nine tails whip and his “you ain’t been had til you’ve been had by the chief” and “before we get started, what’s your safe word?” were so priceless.  It was great because I could totally see Dean doing that to someone else.  Of course we didn’t see quite how Dean got out of that predicament…I would have liked to have seen him talk his way out of there.
• Sam getting called out by Ruby on the fact that he actually likes his power.  He does have to admit this at some point to either move past it or embrace it fully.
• The magicians seeing through Sam & Dean’s fake badges.  It actually makes sense that people who pull slight of hands and read people all the time would see through their pretenses.
• Dean showing a sense of humor about death and getting old.  When Sam asks him if they thinks he’ll die before they get old and he smirks and says “Haven’t we both already?” and that they’ll definitely be dead before 60.  It ends bloody or sad, that’s just the life.  There was acceptance there in Dean, and at the same denial in Sam about wanting to win and end it all.  He of course is going to think that killing Lillith will be the win that sets them free but as Dean pointed out, the snake they’re fighting has 1000 heads, not just one.
• Tarot cards making people for death, I dunno, I really just liked that idea.
• I guess in a twisted way it’s kinda sweet that Charlie wanted to give his friends immortality and give the their youth and talent back.  It wasn’t all about him having power, though he enjoyed that aspect as well.
• Dean referring to magic as crack and explaining the addiction to Jay.  Of course the quick cut to Sam’s face was none too subtle, but we haven’t seen the Sam/magic aspect in awhile so it didn’t feel that heavyhanded or out of place to me.  It was an anvil but one that made sense.
• Sam deciding to go explore his dark side.  As I said above, I’m all for any step that takes us to that ultimate brother vs. brother showdown, I just hope that Ruby dies along the way!

All in all I really enjoyed this episode.  We took a big step toward Sam moving away from Dean, right now for the right reasons.  He doesn’t want to fight all his life and he doesn’t want to grow old alone.  I think anybody could understand that and it’s important that we understand that as the boys no doubt grow apart for awhile.  It was nice to see an episode that advanced Sam’s storyline as well.  Next week, our boys return to high school.  I’ve seen pics of Dean in his gym uniform and it should be a riot.  Talk to you then!

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Getting Lost All Over Again

Any episodes with shirtless Sawyer are awesome!

It’s baaaaaaack!  That’s right, friends, Lost has returned to our screens to both delight and confuse us all.  Or maybe that’s just me, I’m not sure.  Anybody get the feeling this season is gonna mess with the mind more than any other season thus far?  Time travel’s gonna be a bitch to deal with but it’s also gonna be a lot of fun I think.  As we saw last night, the most random of people can show up when we least expect it!  I’m going to write this after only one viewing; I thought about attempting a re watch but I woke up with the beginning of a headache and I feel a re watch would push me right over the edge into full blown pain.  So, let’s discuss before I give myself one anyway.

Let’s talk about the time travel element because some interesting things were revealed last night.  It seems that now that Ben moved the island, the Losties are traveling in time within the island at random intervals.  The island itself is presumably not moving, but the people on it are.  Not all the people, however, for it seems Richard and the Others are unaffected by this particular phenomenon.  Why is that?  No clue but it seems pretty clear since Richard informed Locke that the next time he saw him he wouldn’t know him.  If Richard was moving on the same plane, he would.

Our Losties are fortunate to have Daniel along for the ride because he gets the whole time/space continuum concept (which our beloved Sawyer is having quite the struggle with of course!) and he understands what is happening to them.  Interestingly, it was also revealed that Daniel himself is a time traveler, he showed up in the beginning of the show back in the 70’s when Dr. Marvin Candle was getting ready to film the Orchid Station video and when it was discovered that the station had some kind of tie to time travel.  We saw the return of the famous nose bleeds for one of the guys within the station and for Charlotte.  I’m quite concerned that this does not bode well for the British girl, but maybe Daniel will be able to save her.  Daniel was also able to mess with the time/space continuum in a way because he was able to get a message to Desmond to go see his mother at Oxford.  Des woke up in current time and told Penny he had a memory and he had to hightail it to Oxford.  I’m guessing Daniel’s mother is the white haired lady we saw Ben talking to at the end of the episode who also showed up in a Desmond time travel episode explaining to him why he shouldn’t propose to Penny at that time.  Maybe Daniel comes by his time traveling naturally?

Off island, we began our quest to reunite the Oceanic 6 and dead Locke (we’ll discuss him later).  Jack’s fallen in rather quickly with Ben, not a surprise since Jack wants to return to the island so badly.  My Ben is up to his usual mysterious ways and not telling us a lot, but he’s determined to get back to the island and he needs the 6 to do it quite clearly.  In other pairs news, Sayid broke Hurley out of the nut house and they went to Sayid’s place wherein Sayid had to awesomely kill a few guys.  Of course poor Hurley is accused of it but it ties in well later so no complaints here.  Loved when Sayid killed that guy via the knives in the dishwasher!

Kate, meanwhile, is on the run with Aaron after some lawyers showed up at her door demanding a blood test for her and Aaron.  Who’s behind this move?  It’s gotta be Ben or Widmore right?  I can see Ben doing it to drive her to come with him back to the island…he’s where my money lies for now.  She is gonna be the toughest sell of all of them.  She got a call from Sun just as she was thinking about calling Jack and those two met up.  Sun may have changed the most of everybody now.  She’s some emotionless hardass who wants nothing more than to kill Ben at this time, to the point that she’s willing to team up with Widmore to do it.  I actually got nervous when she reminded Kate how it was her who didn’t go and get Jin on the freighter, but she told her she understood that she’d done what she needed to do.  I don’t know if I believe that, it feels like Sun might hold on to that one for awhile.

Hurley just had me laughing this whole episode.  From his I love Shi Tsu tshirt (I’m sorry but a guy Hurley’s size cannot just find a shirt that fits him at the local gas station) to his throwing the hot pocket at Ben when he showed up in his kitchen, he just made me grin.  It was cool to see Ana Lucia show up as the cop that pulled him over (had me fooled til I could see it was a girl walking up the window) and to have her throw that “Libby says hi” line at him.  Poor Hurley.  He seems to think that the reason all this is happening is because they lied about the island.  I don’t think it’s anything as simplistic as that but I can understand a believer like Hurley buying into that theory.  I was glad to see both his parents actually help him (thought for sure Dad would dick him over again) and that his mom believed him even though she didn’t understand his story.  The thing that most interested me was that Ben was telling Hurley exactly what he wanted to hear, that lying is what was causing all the trouble and he wouldn’t have to lie any more and they could return to the island and all would be well again.  You could see in Hurley’s face that he wanted to believe him but he remembered Sayid’s warning not to trust Ben and instead ran out of the house to turn himself in for killing those 4 people, or 3 people, or however many they said he killed.  That was cute, he can’t remotely lie well can he?

Ben then informed white haired lady that there was an issue with getting Hurley and she told him they only have 70 hours to get together and get to the island.  Anybody else excited to see how Ben goes about getting Hurley out of prison?  I feel it will be a lot of fun!  He’s got dead Locke stashed in some meat locker cause they have to take him back to do, he of course being the integral part of this whole thing.  Richard told Locke he would have to die to save the island, which apparently has happened.  I figure the island will save him even though I’m quite content with dead Locke.  I did like Locke showing up to save Sawyer and Juliet from those British? guys that had grabbed them.  It’ll be interesting to see what goes on between then and Locke’s dying for the island.

Little things I enjoyed, the return of Ethan who shot Locke.  Richard’s commentary that what goes around comes around was hilarious.  Seeing Eko’s drug plane crash!  It brought me memories of my favorite tailie who I so miss, couldn’t they have given me a flashback?  The death of FROGURT!!! Seriously, who was that guy?  Neil?  I hate when they suddenly bring forth random survivors that none of us like, but this guy?  He would not have lived for over 100 days on the island with Sawyer, I’m sorry.  Sawyer would have killed him long before a flaming arrow did.  Still, it was great because I was begging for his death and then a flaming arrow shot out of the sky.  Thanks Others or Hostiles or whomever was behind that one.

Things I really enjoyed:  Shirtless Sawyer…more please.  Another reason to hate Frogurt was that he had the shirt that Sawyer put on.  Die Frogurt, Die!

So, I’m hoping with the whole time travel thing that we’ll see Rousseau again, she was killed before I was ready to be done with her.  Surely they can pop across her somewhere in the past right?

Well I think I hit all the highlights I wanted to discuss, I’m sure I forgot some stuff, it was a packed couple of hours.  And even though it was kinda weird, I sort of came out of it feeling like I understood what was happening.  That’s not my usual reaction to Lost and certainly not to time travel but I did feel like this show answered more questions than it brought forth.  Time will tell of course.  I already can’t wait to see what next week has in store.  I’ll be back with you then!

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The Lights Are Back On

Life is better with Coach Taylor in there.

How nice was it to escape my football drama, a fired head coach and GM three weeks after the season ends, and enter the fictional football drama of the Dillon Panthers last night?  Friday Night Lights is back and it’s as engaging as it was from the first episode two seasons ago.  I’m thrilled to have Coach & Tammy Taylor back in my life!  Matt Saracen and Tim Riggins and Smash Williams are lighting up my screen again.  You just can’t lose with that combination of people.

I’ll admit there was some confusion for me, it’s been too long since season 2 ended and I forgot a few things.  For instance, what’s with the tension between Saracen and Riggins?  The only thing I can think of is that time that Riggins brought Julie home drunk and coach mistakenly thought they were hooking up.  Did Matt hear about that and get jealous?  Not that he really had any right while he was banging granny’s nurse, but I guess that’s possible.  Anybody who reads this and knows, let me know what brought that one on.

The battle of Coach vs. Wife is sure to kick off this season with Tammy as the principal now.  She’s already mad about them getting new computers while she’s had to fire 4 teachers so it will bubble up rather quickly I think.  I did enjoy, though I fully expected, her telling Buddy Garrity that she was going to use his scoreboard money for actual school needs like supplies and teachers.

Coach helps Smash see that his knee is fixed.

I absolutely loved Coach still working out with Smash trying to get his knee rehabbed so he can pick up another scholarship down the road.  How many coaches actually dedicate their free time to helping former players rehab when they’ve got to get their new team ready for the season?  It’s scenes like those that make you want Coach Taylor to be your father or your coach or just your friend.  Kyle Chandler is fabulous.  Smash’s decision to quit followed by Coach getting him to play racquet ball at the end and showing him just how strong his knee truly is was great.  I was watching him fly around the court saying, look at you, Smash, you’re moving side to side without a problem, making cuts, just like you would on a football field!  I can’t wait to see Smash end up on some college team.  I know that’ll be the end of him on this show more or less, but still, it’s what I want for him.  Him and his mother, who is by far and away the coolest sports parent on this show.  I love Momma Williams!

When will Matt go from QB1 to QB2?

Of course this year we have the freshman phenom, JD McCoy I believe, just waiting to take over Matty’s position as QB 1 on the team.  From the looks of his arm, it won’t be long before he has usurped Matt, no doubt causing friction in Matt’s relationship with his coach and possibly with Matt’s ex, Julie Taylor, Coach’s daughter.  I absolutely loathed the stage father trying to bribe Coach Taylor and kiss ass all over the field, with his smoothies and his scotch and cigars.  This is a natural portrayal of a sports parent though, so I guess I welcome it.  The only real sports parent we have right now is Buddy Garrity and he doesn’t have a son on the team (thank god).  It’ll be fun to watch it play out and experience the angst though.  Nobody brings the angst like Matty.  The Panthers are 1-0 under his watch for now but JD got to come into the game late and threw a very pretty TD that wowed coach and made Matt quite nervous.  Bring on the QB competition!

Tammy & Tyra confront each other over her future.

It was good to see Tyra revving up to kick some ass this season as well.  That guidance counselor basically telling her not to bother to apply to college and just to get prepared for tech school deserved to be fired.  I was glad when she went in and told him off.  I had expected Tammy Taylor to do it after Tyra let her have it for making her care about school, but it was better that Tyra did.  Even though they’re the odd couple, I love Tyra/Landry and am hoping they reunite sometime this season.

Shirtless Riggins is always a wonderful thing.

Speaking of odd couples, Riggins and Lyla are together yet again.  She was all about Jesus and being pure last season, so embracing the naughtiest boy on the team yet again is quite the turnaround.  Not that I can blame her.  Any time they want to show Riggins shirtless is fine by me.  They managed it several times in the first 10 minutes of the show.  Way to know your audience FNL!  I enjoyed watching Lyla stew in her jealous juices over all the girls salivating over Tim and then her finally deciding to brand him as hers at the party after the game.  That’s right, chick, stand up for your man.  We’ll see if she actually gets Tim to straighten up a bit. I absolutely loved Tim’s brother telling him that he was a rebound from Jesus for Lyla though.  That was hilarious!

That pretty much hit the highlights of the show for me.  It’s good to have the Panthers back on my TV screen.  I’ve managed to stay relatively unspoiled on the show so though I can guess where things are going, I don’t officially know.  It’ll be fun to watch it play out with you here.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!  Go Panthers!

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Ghosts Or Inbreds?

Keeping it all in the family.

So, Supernatural is back and I couldn’t be happier.  Well, I could be, had this episode kicked more ass than it did, but still, Dean & Sam back on my screen is always a good thing.   I had some big issues with a couple of things in this episode, which I will outline for you list style.  This time around I’ll start with things I liked because I think the things I didn’t like, for the first time, outweighed that which I did.

Dean looks for some new ass to kick.

Things I Liked:

• Dean’s determination to find a new job and the revelation that he’s barely sleeping at all; he’s so focused on finding the next job and saving more people.  This is very Dean-like behavior, trying to make up for his time torturing souls in hell.
• Sam’s attempts to reach out to Dean, telling him that he was running from what he told him about his time in hell.  I love the way the brother’s understand each other and will call each other out but not press on the issues either.
• The “super disturbing” doll head in the middle of the floor and the boys reaction to it.  Doll heads are always scary, make no mistake about that.
• The casting of the father and the daughter and even Uncle Ted.  Loved the sarcastic nature of the teenage girl (but she looked too much like Ruby for my taste, I really thought it was her for a minute or so).
• The return of Supergirl!  Helen Slater in the house!  I didn’t know it was her until I rewatched and saw her name in the credits.  I actually wasn’t overly impressed with her or Danny, acting-wise, but it’s fun to see Billie Jean back on my screen.  We will be invincible!!!
• The fact that our intrepid heroes weren’t actually hunting a ghost or demon for once, although they didn’t know that for quite a while.  They were fighting honest to goodness humans, albeit inbred scary ones who like to eat animals and kill people.  Fun!
• Dean’s dark determination to bring Danny back to his family, it was a need to make up for his time in hell and that really came across even before his conversation with Sam at the end of the episode.  His internal anger is coming through in everything he does at this point and it’s interesting to watch.
• Dean’s actual willingness to tell the family who they were and what they did.  Sam was being sarcastic but you could see that Dean was actually fine with revealing their true purposes.  Maybe he’s getting tired of the game?
• You hunt ghosts?  Dean: That’s right!  Like Scooby Doo?  Dean: Better.  True and hee!
• The revelation that the girl was not a ghost, when she stepped over the salt circle.  That was a pretty fun way to go about it I thought, rather than them reading the diary first.  Plus Dean called her “Psycho Nell”.  Awesome.
• Dog, it’s what’s for dinner.  I may not appreciate the killing of the dog (AT ALL) but that line did make me laugh.  Sarcasm always pleases me, as you may have figured out.
• Dean’s revelation that Ted was dead.  I both liked and hated this…he was so emotionless about it.  He said he was sorry but it didn’t feel like he was and it didn’t feel like Dean.  The guilt was there, you could hear it, but there wasn’t any gentleness that I would have expected.  As I said, I don’t know if I liked this or not but I at least found it interesting.
• Dean’s talk with the father about Andy the dead son and his promise to bring Danny back if it was the last godforsakened thing he did.  The dad started to question him and it would have been great to hear Dean’s answer to that question, it felt like he might have let it all loose in that moment.  Sam interrupted but it was a very intriguing moment.
• The revelation when Dean rescued Danny that there was a second kid floating around, a brother or a twin.  I liked that this was kept quiet for the whole episode, good twist.
• The fact that the dad killed the girl, it was nice to see (or more accurately hear) one of the recuees become a rescuer and take matters into their own hands.  I really was quite fond of the father in this episode.

Dean & Sam explain things to Brian.

Things I hated:

• Dead dogs.  I can handle people getting hacked up all day and night but when you murder the animals, I get mad.
• The damn dark.  Look, I get that by it’s very nature Supernatural is a dark show but this episode?  It felt like I couldn’t see half of it.  I watched twice and still could barely make out the living quarters of the kids.  I imagine they spend quite a bit of money setting these scenes up and it would be nice to actually take in some of the effects instead of just black the whole time.
• Danny’s interaction with the “girl in the walls”.  He was just rather calm and boring about the whole thing, even when telling his parents what was happening.  Really it was just a set up to reveal the dead kid in their past.
• Hand licking.  So the girl things the dog is slobbering all over hand but really it’s one of the wall twins.  Um, ick.  Clearly they weren’t out to kill the kids but to lick them?  Gross.
• Defacing of the Metallicar.  Just because it should never be done!
• The inbred aspect.  That’s always gross.  I remember, and I was not a big X-Files watcher, but they did an inbred episode with that dude that played Malachi from Children Of The Corn (is their a scarier looking guy than him? I think not!) and it just grosses me out.  As I said above, I can handle murder and mayhem all day but that’s just an ick factor that I’m really not wanting to watch.
• Dean getting to have Uncle Ted get hacked up on his watch.  We really ramped up the angst for old Dean this episode and it was a bit much.  This was only the start of crap Dean had to endure today.  Are they trying to drive him insane?  Is that our story for the last half of the season?  I can do without it, really.
• Dean having to kill the boy down in the basement.  I know he had to do it, it was him or the inbred boy, but you can’t tell me that having to kill a living, breathing person is not gonna mess with his head even further.
• Rat killing.  Also not a fan.  I don’t love rats like I do dogs but I could have dealt without seeing the girl snap the rats neck and begin eating it.  By this point we already knew they were barely human, it seemed, HAHA, overkill to show that.
• And finally, the big one.  Dean’s revelation to Sam that he LIKED torturing people down in hell.  This flies in the face of everything we know about Dean and it really changes the way I see this season coming up.  I mean, is Sam going to go dark side or is Dean?  Apparently all the pain he felt went away when he was torturing people.  I do like the aspect that he can’t save enough people to make up for that, but I’d rather he felt that way because he hated what he did in hell rather than liked it.  I dunno, maybe people will see that one differently than I did but I was really bugged by it, and frankly that’s what made me dislike the episode.

Where exactly is this season heading?

So, there you have my reaction.  I’m glad it’s back and I was actually glad to not have a big mytharc episode as well.  Straight up scary stuff instead of heavy exposition, although we got that at the end anyway.  So what did ya’ll think about this revelation of Dean’s?  I don’t think it’ll totally change my view of him but I really don’t care for them going in this direction either.  I guess we’ll see how it all plays out down the road to have to accurately judge that one.  Next week, Barry Bostwick as a freaky magician!

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NFL Championship Game Predictions

In keeping with my stellar .500 record in the playoffs, I fully expect to go 1-1 in this weekends games.  Which team will be my win and which will be my loss?  I have no idea, but I’m hoping I can get at least one of em right for you this week!  Maybe both, maybe neither, that’s the fun of this prediction game.

So who had Philly vs. Arizona in the NFC Championship game?  Anyone? Whomever did probably made a bundle in Vegas, so kudos.  I honestly have no idea how that game is gonna turn out, it’s the one I predict I will miss no matter which way I go!  Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh looks to be a heck of a battle and I’m really looking forward to that.  Without further ado, on to my picks!

Arizona over Philly: That’s right, after weeks of doubting them I’m finally going with the Cardinals.  I fear they will repay me for this by laying an egg, but I do have my reasons here.  Firstly, Westbrook continues to be rather beat up; I don’t doubt that he’ll play but I do doubt his effectiveness against that suddenly attacking Zona defense.  Kurt Warner scares me a bit, he’s due for a crappy game but with Boldin back and Fitzgerald being his awesome self, I imagine they can bail him out of a bad throw or two.  Edge seems to have found his legs and the awesomely named Hightower gives them youth and fresh legs at the running back position as well.  I have always loved McNabb and it wouldn’t surprise me if he pulled out another game but I’m going with my gut and taking the Cards.  Don’t disappoint me boys!

Pittsburgh over Baltimore: This is the game I’m most confident about though I question myself as to why exactly that is.  Yeah, Pitt has beaten Baltimore twice this year, but both were by 3 points and one was controversial with that TD that may or may not have been.  I have no doubt that this game will again probably come down to a field goal.  The reason I lean toward Pitt is because Baltimore is severely beaten up coming into this game.  How many of their players got knocked out of the game last week?  4? 5?  Some will play, some won’t but you gotta expect this game will be as hard hitting as their Titans game was again.  Ben is the wild card here, I don’t trust him not to make some stupid Favrian throws but I also don’t think Flacco can go through yet another game without an error.  He has to be a rookie sometime doesn’t he?  Of course every time I watch him I curse the Ravens for taking him a couple picks before the Bucs turn, I totally wanted us to get him and I feel justified in my liking of him now.  Surely his performance shows just how awesome my opinion is, right?  Hehe Thought so!  I like Pitts defense to pressure young Joe and make him make just one or two mistakes too many.  Should be an awesome game though.

So that’s how I see the playoffs finishing up.  Arizona vs. Pittsburgh.  Fascinating match up.  We’ll discuss that in a week or two if it comes to pass.  I hope you all have enjoyed this wacky NFL season as much as I have.  At least it’s always remained interesting.  I’ll be back soon to discuss the Super Bowl.

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