Lost: Season 5, Episode 13: "Some Like it Hoth"

Lost:
Season 5, Episode 13: "Some Like it Hoth"
Grade: 8.0
I have gone from finding Miles pretty freaking annoying to really truly adoring him. Honestly I just think he’s boss. We were supposed to get character back stories to the “freighter people” way long ago but because of the writers’ strike, they are just now getting to them (poor Charlotte misses out and I guess Frank has not really become a significant enough character to garner an episode to himself). This week we get the first of two, this one being Miles. We find out two things that we basically already knew. One was that Miles’ father is Pierre Chang. That rumor had been going around for months now. It was still very satisfying to see their interaction and to see the scene when Miles watches his father read to adorable baby Miles. The second thing we already figured was that Miles was motivated to go to the island purely by money. Wow big shocker that Miles likes his dinero. Let us discover what else was found out for us other than Hurley is attempting to write the screenplay to Empire before it is made. Seriously. Not joking.

Flashbacks:

- We see infant Miles who happens to be the cutest child of all time. His abilities started very early in life.

- Later in life a younger Miles looks basically the way he did in X3. He also tries to unsuccessfully find out information about his father.

- We next see how Miles will lie about talking to dead people if he does not have the access to the body that he needs as long as money is being offered to him. We also see Naomi again which was very cool.

- Naomi tests Miles’ abilities’ out by providing him with a dead body and asking him to figure out stuff. He declines the offer to go to the island but agrees when 1.6 million is offered to him.

- Then Bram, the one who with Ilana had the guns in the previous episode take Miles, who was just about to eat a lovely fish taco, in a van and is asked for the second time on the series (not Miles, just the show’s showing of the question in general) “What lies in the shadow of the statue”? He has no clue. Miles is then offered information about his fatherand his abilities but at this point in his life, Miles just wants money and when they won’t give him twice what Naomi offered, they throw him out of the van. This was the most interesting sequence in terms of a scene that I think is going to be very very important later in terms of the question and Bram’s presence in the episode. Again, “teams” are mentioned. I am very excited to officially find out what these teams are. I guess its Ben vs. Charles but it must be more complex than that right?

- Personally in terms of the character study of Miles, I found the last scene to be the most moving. I still think he should have assured th guy that he did in fact have abilities and was not a sham because well it’s what I would do if I were him but whatever. It’s a very obvious parallel to Miles’ own situation but it really worked and I found myself really fascinated just because we were getting to see Miles finally take center stage for an episode in the story. Ok; 70’s stuff.

The Seventies:
Ugh while I love Miles, he really is the idiot that caused all of this subsequent shit to go down by not erasing that damn tape! Can I just explain how fucking creepy I find Horace and Radzinsky and the whole ultra secretive, cult-y vibe they have going for them? :Shiver:.

Speaking of people causing trouble; seriously Kate? Seriously? You really needed to butt into everyone’s business yet again and try to comfort Roger? I know she felt bad and I would have the same urge to do that as well if I had established the weird slight interaction she had with Roger at that point but honestly putting yourself in the middle of things is the absolute last thing Jack, Kate and Hurley want to be doing right now. Jack gets that at the moment; Kate not so much.

Anyways Miles gets a package (dead body; subtle Dharma). Hurley gets roped into this excursion because he is so blissfully unaware sometimes when something is actually happening. Basically the body was a guy named Alvarez who had his tooth filling ripped out through his head because of the electromagnetic stuff they were working with.

Roger figures out that Ben is missing. Roger’s solution is to understandably freak out but more importantly doe a typical Roger and drinks some more beer. Jack tries to calm Roger down. It’s so cute that he was covering Roger’s work shift. Phil in the meantime finds out about the tape and Sawyer pulls a typical Sawyer and knocks Phil out.

I had never thought about Hurley and Miles each having different abilities involving dead people. I wonder why they each have them and whether we will find this out. Since Lindelof and Cuse have stated they are not going to address the Libby story, I find myself questioning immediately what else are they not going to answer? I get that they really don’t have time to being back a thread that has been totally cut off but does this mean the same thing about Walt? Walt, Hurley and Miles have abilities and I wonder if they will be explained to us? So anyways to see Miles and Hurley compare abilities was funny but also very insightful.

The ride in the van between Hurley and Miles and Chang was classic. While I definitely think it’s a bit over the top for Hurley to be prying into something that truly is none of his business and something that Miles is so adamant about ignoring I see where Hurley is coming from. Who the hell gets that sort of opportunity? Hurley is sort of right to egg on the situation when he sees such a unique chance passing by voluntarily. I also loved the way Hurley brought up his own situation with his father. Cheech and Hurley are adorable.

Then of course we get the poignant Miles watching Baby Miles and Father Chang scene. And then we have the end which last week I was extremely excited about in fact I was flipping my lid. Now looking back I’m just totally depressed as we see the end of the episode which will be the beginning of next week’s episode which will be the start of the devastation, the tragedy, the horrifyingly depressing thing that is “The Variable”

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12: "Dead is Dead"

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12:
“Dead is Dead”
Grade: 8.6
Here is my attempt to catch up on Lost reviews. I had been looking forward to this Ben episode all season because well, its Ben, my favorite character on Lost and since we have gotten so few flashbacks with him and know not nearly as much as I would like to about him, this was highly anticipated by myself and by so many others as well. While not a complete Lost classic in my book (I’m talking like top 10 material here), its easily one of the best of the season and of the series and is an extremely solid episode with so many good moments to be had including the always creepy and awesome Michael Emerson turning in a fantastic performance as always.

Flashbacks:
So many goodies in this episode for long time fans of the show (can there be any other kind). Honestly having events that we have heard about happening on the show actually happen before us is so ridiculously satisfying. We see Widmore talking to young Ben for the first time and seeing that Widmore immediately resented Ben’s presence there. We get a younger Ben although still played by Emerson with a very young Ethan. We see Ben not able to kill Danielle or the baby so he just steals the baby. Ben’s weakness is children. He cannot kill them. Okay so Ben may not be completely evil after all. Why? Because he cannot kill a child. Okay so then we get to see why Charles was exiled from the island; he had a relationship off the island (hence Penny’s existence). I used to be so in the loop with what we knew and did not know but I swear I am starting to get so ridiculously mixed up with things here. It’s not the show’s fault; its mine. I mean I get everything that is happening and why it is. I just get confused sometimes about what we know and don’t know and what questions we should be asking ourselves. Then we get the long awaited scene with Penny and Ben’s visit to her. Ben picked a bad time to go because well, Desmond just happened to be back from grocery shopping! And he brought with him an incredibly bullet proof bag of groceries just for safekeeping (joking obviously as we will see in last night’s episode that Desmond did indeed get hit with the bullet). Basically I had been dreading this scene forever because I was convinced that the “major-ish” character who was supposed to die was going to be Penny. (It turns out the reality was far worse indeed). Either way this was still a great scene and I had so much tension in me leading up to this. But pretty much it just ended with Ben getting his millionth major beat down although this one was special due to the massive amount of blood that poured out his mouth underwater. Lovely.

Real Time:
As I have said before Ben/Locke is my favorite interaction on this show. Ben/Locke scenes are at worst quite intriguing and at best ‘edge of my seat’ captivating. The question everyone seems to have is yet again how much does Ben know? Do we believe that he was really that surprised about Locke being alive? Honestly I do believe him. I especially liked the scene between him and Sun. It showed him trying to get Sun to be cautious of Locke because of his resurrection but he also conveyed what to me was genuine fright to seeing Locke alive. Plus how often do we get Ben/Sun moments? Seriously.

Ben trying to come off as friendly to Caesar was very very very amusing. Total fail. What we suspected was correct; Ben killed Locke in an effort to get everyone back but needed information from him which is why he first talked Locke out of killing himself. And poor Locke just wants an apology. When all is said and done on this show I cannot see myself being more intrigued by anyone more than either Ben or Locke. I hated Locke for a while and I still cannot stand him sometimes but I’ve said it many many times and I will say it again; I do believe Locke to be the most original character on the show and his presence on this is never something I will see again.

Ben shoots someone. Big surprise. Specifically he shoots Caesar a.k.a the Poor Man’s Jack Shepard. I am starting to wonder about Caesar’s significance on the show. Is he still alive? Clearly Ilana has some significance due to her fucking psychotic behavior in this episode. We get the first of two times the extremely important (I am assuming) question of “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Clearly stuff has happened within this new group of survivors and unfortunately it looks like poor Frank has walked right into the middle of it.

So Ben and Sun and Locke go off on their journey to the smoke monster so that he can be judged. Another question; do we believe that Ben really did not know about everyone being back in Dharma times? While Alpert’s line about Ben not remembering things if he is taken in by the Others is definitely evidence to support that he does not in fact remember wouldn’t he at least remember Sawyer or Juliet who he had been living near with for 3 years? Honestly information like this is stuff that I want Ben to find out because I truly believe he has no idea that this happened. In which case I’m starting to get confused about people’s motivations here. Which characters know that the 815 survivors go back to Dharma times and that it is there job for them to be there? I have no idea. Ben clearly does not because I really believe he had no idea that he was in the same vicinity as them. Charles? Hell I have no idea what these people’s motivations are! Charles must know because again he was in the same area and with where we are now wouldn’t he see Daniel and Kate and Jack (while J and K have not yet made their appearance to the Others again yet I assume they will). Eloise sure as hell does…omg such a bitch. Still no idea. None as to what anyone wants at this point.

Ok so Ben goes to see the smoke monster. Throughout the episode we get to see a great and refreshingly new dynamic between Ben and Locke and that is Locke being in the dominant position and vice versa for Ben. Ben hates now being in charge of things and having to follow people and it really shows in the episode to the point where Locke awesomely calls him out on it at some point. Also, I just have to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Locke in this episode. Seriously, he just kills it with the amount of bad ass he displays.

Once again I’ll start this paragraph with Ben goes to see the smoke monster. He wants to be forgiven for Alex’s death although he initially went because of his coming back to the island even though he was not supposed to. Basically he is judged and is forgiven although with a warning from the smoke monster in the form of Alex saying do not try to kill Locke again and to follow what he says to do and that he will be destroyed if he fails to follow Locke’s leadership. So clearly this Ben/Locke dynamic will stay in play for a while. Another question is whether Ben would dare to actually try to come up with an alternative plan. Again I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he won’t. I think he will definitely think about it but Ben knows more than almost anyone what the island is capable of and he is far from being a moron.

I must say I am completely intrigued by everything going on in the 2007 story because as I said before I have no idea where it is going. None. In the 70’s we are leading up to “The Incident”. 2007? I have no idea where this is heading; especially the Ilana stuff. Overall the episode just once again proves Lost’s brilliance.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 9: "Spy in the House of Love"

Season 1, Episode 9: “Spy in the House of Love”
Grade: 8.7

Wow. This is a great episode. Using a plot told from each Actives perspective this could have been really overdone and hacky. However it is glorious. We learn so much here.
Mellie: First revelation: We see Paul find out that Mellie is an Active and not only an Active but a sleeper agent. She goes back to thinking she is Mellie while Ballard now gets the fascinating task of pretending she is not an Active and trying to act normal. The first great scene of the night.

Sierra: While essentially this does not end up really doing much for the episode we got to see Sierra basically be in an episode of “Alias” complete with awesome heels and wig. I would so much rather watch Sierra do this than Echo. Sierra is my third favorite character after Adelle and Saunders. Fourth would be Boyd.

Victor: ADELLE IS MISS LONELYHEARTS!!! How depressing is that? But also how freaking great is it for her character? Seeing her cry at the end of the portion and then seeing the way she reacts to what happens in front of people makes her so fascinating to me. I also just really like how we see the day that Adelle plans for Victor and herself. This whole section just completely knocked me for a loop. Williams does such a great job in this episode.

Echo: We see Echo voluntarily offer to be imprinted as she speaks to Topher which is really quite surprising as well and not something I expected to happen. She interviews everyone about why they are at the Dollhouse and we learn some very interesting slight insights into particularly Saunders who never leaves the place. It turns out Mr. Dominic is the spy although I’m a bit confused as to whether or not there are more than one. Still a little confused about his motivations and such but whatever, a lot of things about this show confuses me. It all leads up to us seeing what The Attic specifically is which is not real surprise outside of the fact that the whole process is much more disturbing than it might have been. Then we get in my opinion the greatest moment of the series so far: Adelle getting nicked by a bullet and literally not reacting at all and staying for the Attic process as she bleeds through her shirt. Adelle in this scene has been my favorite part of the series thus far. Until Friday…

Sorry in particular these review suck. Dollhouse has a lot going on which I do not normally catch and this plus it being a while since I have seen it makes these reviews pretty difficult outside of the basics.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 8: "Needs"

Season 1, Episode 8: “Needs”
Grade: 8.0

Holy hell I did not expect to learn this much about everything so soon. The Actives wake up with their personalities but no memories as in an experiment administered by Dr. Saunders my other favorite character. They each know nothing about themselves but we eventually learn a bit about each of the 4 active Echo, Victor, Sierra and November.
I’m not so sure this episode completely worked. It’s been a long time since I have seen it but I simply remember not being entirely satisfied with it. Still there are so many interesting things going on here.

The most interesting part was seeing everyone with their basic personalities and with no memories. We get to see what they are each like on the most basic level. This was great as a building block to later further establishing their characters.

Ballard had a dumb dream that I did not like as it furthered along this obsession with Echo that he has which is really lame.

It was really interesting to see things from the ex-for-the-moment- Actives point of view and how barbarically they view whatever is going on because it really just is horrible.

We learn that November had a daughter named Katie who died.

The saddest thing here is Sierra’s past in which she refused to sleep with the scuzzbag to end all scuzzbags and he actually put her in the Dollhouse as opposed to her volunteering. Now she is a regular client of his. That is so sick and her visit to him is all the more horrifying. Fuck this guy. I hope she castrates that fuckwad. Ugh. I hate that guy.

Victor is charming but ultimately not that interesting. I have a feeling that I am going to be more interested in Victor in the Dollhouse as opposed to Victor outside of the Dollhouse if that ever happens. That being said I love him and Sierra and their stuff together was some of my favorite of the episode. I adore them.

Caroline of course wants to save everyone and go back in. Yay. Again I’m just not all that intrigued by her. But her conversations with Topher and Adelle were really great.

So all in all it was an experiment and so even though Caroline succeeds in letting them out it does not matter because at a certain time they pass out and are brought back to the Dollhouse to be put back. So yeah it’s obviously been a while. I can barely remember the episode but I know that I really liked it even if it was flawed for whatever reason.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 7: "Echoes"

Dollhouse:
Season 1, Episode 7: “Echoes”
Grade: 7.8

This is the second of a string of great “Dollhouse” episode we are to see. All of this leads up to my personal favorite of the series thus far “Spy in the House of Love”. Here we see a really heavy amount of humor that surprised me with its effectiveness particularly with the interaction between Adelle and Topher and anything involving Dominic. While the plot had a ton of holes to it and altogether basically no effort was put into having any of it make sense as long as the characters were acting zany and wacky apparently that is all anybody cared about.
We get to see Caroline through flashbacks. Eliza Dushku and the problem I have with ever feeling any sort of emotion when she is on screen is starting to take its toll. Caroline did not interest me at all and while the incident involving her boyfriend was very traumatic and awful, I never felt it or anything for that matter at all and thus it did not hold a lot of power for me. Still though, it was nice seeing some stuff with Caroline. We also learn that Adelle had been trying to get Caroline to join the Dollhouse for 2 years which means that something else must have happened to make Caroline actually join. We get mention of the Rossum Corporation.
Blah blah more stuff with Mellie and Ballard the most annoying pairing of all time although not nearly as annoying as the ridiculous idea of Caroline/Paul that they seem to be slowly pushing at. She leaves Thank the Lord.

Ok so again anything involving Adelle and Topher – that’s right- Topher was tolerable- in this episode was gold. Adelle is my favorite character on the series at this point based on the last episode that aired. Boyd playing the piano was great. And of course Dominic who was hilarious.
Sam the person who had been helping Echo out has bad intentions and drugs her.

24: Season 7, Episode 18: "1:00am-2:00am"

24: Season 7, Episode 18: “1:00am-2:00am”
Grade: 9.5

I have been wondering what to give this episode for a while. It’s not what prevented me from writing the review sooner. I’ll be more caught up with things when school ends. Even though the twist at first upset me greatly, I have gotten over it and am simply ready to see where the show takes all of this even though it will probably end with Jack killing Tony. I also would like concise explanation writers. Seriously, make me believe this. I guess the reason I am so ok with this is because of the strong reaction I had to it. 24 made me react like that in the past. It had not for such a long time though; no show has really gotten that reaction out of me for years. So that is ultimately why I loved this episode, for better or for worse, the episode absolutely left me screaming at my television set in ways I could not have imagined. But it is not simply this; the rest of the episode was incredible. Really really great. So off we go.

We had President Taylor trusting Jack in ways that only Jack Bauer can do. I love the relationship he had with Palmer (David not Lame Wayne). We saw her hold her own in a conversation with Jonas Hodges and painfully have to endure going through his list of ridiculous demands. When they started reading those off and we saw what he wanted it became clear to me just how lame Hodges is. What kind of delusional world is he living in that he thinks he can walk away with these privileges’? What a loser.

Then we had Renee tell Jack that Kim was there to see him. They threw in an interesting twist here. While I had originally assumed Renee would butt her way into Jack’s business like she always does, Kim had actually been trying to get a hold of him all day and for a long time now. The scene between Renee and Jack was ridiculously intense and incredible. Kim’s always been the only thing that Jack cannot face. And I love his line to Renee ''I am dying! And I was okay with it. I could handle it. And now you put in front of me the one thing — the one thing that's going to make this unbearable?...I specifically told you: Do not drag my daughter into this!'' It’s just so true and I was already crying by this point.

Then we get the Jack/Kim reunion which was thank God all hugs because I could not handle them getting into a fight. Is it me or did Elisha look not so good? I was surprised by how old she looked and I wonder if that was intentional. Anyways, Jack is crying, Kim is crying and I am sobbing. Then Kim leaves and jack starts sobbing and then I go into emotional breakdown mode. Seriously…I cannot handle it. These scenes were just so satisfying as a fan to see and I love that these last few hours have showed us that Kiefer could do more than yell at people. The guy can seriously act when it comes to Jack Bauer and I do not think there is a TV character I am more attached to. I’ve been watching him for 7 years. That’s insane. We have not seen the last of Kim and I hope they keep this up with keeping her out of the danger. I sincerely do; the one thing they can do to fuck up Kim’s return is to put her in danger.

Onto the Tony extravaganza. Well…I knew something was up. I had an off feeling. The shots to Tony at the elevator, Moss taking off Tony’s handcuffs, the one too many shots of him in the helicopter. I said to myself “This feels weird” but I never even went to the idea of Tony being bad in my head. Never. I truly believed him when he said he was ready to answer for all of the things he had done. I had heard something big was going down in the way of the silent clock although I was so caught up in the happenings of the episode that I do not even know if I heard one. Either way, I figured Moss would die about 20 minutes in; just a hunch. Did I know Tony would kill him? Fuck no. It really sucks for a couple of reasons. One is that I genuinely liked Moss. A lot. I had texted my mom at some point in this exact episode that simply said “I love Moss”. I thought he was great; an idiot sometimes to be sure but ultimately pretty awesome. So his death really blows just as a death on the show. Then we bring Tony into it. Can Jack handle this? I sure can’t. What I am going to hate seeing is us knowing what is going on with Tony and knowing that nobody else knows what is going on. I hate that. I just want everyone to know. He killed Moss with his bare hands!!!!!!!!! What the hell?! The reason that I am more excited about this than I am pissed about what they did with Tony specifically is because between Seasons 5 and 7 I got over Tony. He was my favorite. I liked him more than Jack. When he came back I had simply moved on from the character. I still care and I still really like him and Jack/Tony will never get old. But it’s not the same with Tony. However it is exactly the way with Jack as it has always been and that is why I am pissed; not because of what they specifically did to Tony but because of what that will specifically do to Jack. So here is hoping they can pull this off. The episode proved that the show still has the ability to completely pull the rug out from under us. They will not get an opportunity to do something quite this substantial I suspect for some time if ever so let us hope they make the most of it.

My So-Called Life: Season 1, Episode 5: "The Zit"

Season 1, Episode 5: “The Zit”
Grade: 8.7

This is my favorite episode outside of the pilot so far. See, while I hate Sharon, as I’ve said before I totally understand where she is coming from and am actually on her side in the whole Angela/Sharon breakup. But I still hate Sharon. She grates on me. But the scenes between Sharon and Angela are my favorites on the show. So this was essentially a gold mine for me with two incredible scenes with the two of them. The first is when Angela asks Sharon if she is participating in the mother/daughter fashion show and Sharon is just not ready to pretend she did not basically dump her. So Sharon calls Angela out on the zit in the title which was really very harsh and uncalled for. Then Angela comes back with a doozy by calling her out on being named Best Hooters on a list that had been made in the episode. Ohh snap. Fucking classic. The second is when they do actually bond a bit but then Rayanne comes in and they stop talking. Rayanne tells Angela she can be friends with Sharon if she wants but Angela says she does not want to be. Really harsh.
So yeah, said list. Rayanne is named most Slut Potential which she is really proud of. Angela states that she does not like it because she does not want people saying things about her.

Rayanne calls Angela out on not wanting people talking about her because Angela is associated with her. Wow. Good call. I like that Rayanne is made to be a lot more intuitive about things than you would think.

So Angela is not on the list which makes her think she is ugly and that she does not matter. I related to this so much because about 4 years of my life was basically what Angela went through in this episode.

Patty wants to be in the mother/daughter fashion show and basically pretends that Angela is interested. I enjoyed this storyline as well.

I love love love love love love love the randomness of the interactions between Ricky and Brian. They are not two character you would expect to get time together and the show constantly surprises me with the people they put in scenes together. This was some of the best stuff of the episode.

Sharon deals with her boyfriend who is a nimrod. He’s nice. He’s just a nimrod though.
Something else I’ve really liked about the last 2 episodes though is that Jordan is in little of them. This will all change soon though. : (

Best moments:
- The last scene
- Jordan saying to Angela about the Metamorphoses: “So it’s not a true story right?” Ahahahaha. What a dumbass.
- Rickie: What? Who's in there?Brian: Sharon and that guy.Rickie: Oh, so what? Were they kissing?... More than kissing?Brian: He was, like, making her beg for her shoe.Rickie: Wow! I never heard of that.