“Rush, this is Young. I know exactly what you’re trying to do and there is no way in hell that I’m gonna let you get away with it.” -Colonel Everett Young
I was looking at some comics I read regularly and saw this on Real Life Comics. Having watched both this episode and all of Battlestar Galactica, I have to agree on how the respective characters handle insurrections.
Anyway, here’s the breakdown for this episode of SGU.
Characters
As was hinted at in the last episode, the civilians are not happy. Rush and Chloe are both dealing with having been captured by the aliens and what they did to them there. Lt Scott has to deal with the fact that Chloe is on the opposite side he is and Eli even feels betrayed. Young has the hardest situation, having to deal with an insurrection, the fact that afterwards they still have to live with these people and the aliens tracking and attacking them.
Story
Basically, the civilians, led by Camille and Rush, rise up and take over the ship. They aren’t trying to kill anyone, so when the transferring of systems threatens to kill Young and Scott, Rush has to end the transfer prematurely. This leaves Eli with control of Life support. And in the middle of all that, the aliens that have been harassing Destiny arrive and attack.
The thing that got me on this was that Rush was doing this because he had been implanted with a tracking device and was afraid that Young would pull an Adama and put him out the airlock. Granted, Young did leave him on the planet just a few episodes ago, so his fears aren’t totally unfounded. However, Rush has shown that although he may be the “smartest” one on the ship, he’s also an idiot. Here’s hoping that he has learned a lesson from this.
“Well, if it means anything, I regret leaving you on that planet. Don’t get me wrong: I think you deserved it, but I regret that I lost control, that I became a man that I couldn’t respect any more.” -Colonel Everett Young
Finally, the last remaining Stargate show starts up again. I really hate all these three month breaks in the middle of the season that shows have started doing. Anyway, Now that it’s back we can find out what happens next on the Destiny. Last time we saw them, Colonel Young had just left Dr. Rush on an alien planet with no resources. And everyone else suspects that he killed Rush.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Tensions are mounting between the military and civilian populations. Camille all but openly accuses Young of murdering Rush. Other people are whispering, wondering if they will just get left behind if they are inconvenient to Young.
Story
Young is on his way to report back to Earth with the communication stones. When he connects, he finds himself on an alien ship. Soon after he returns, they discover an alien ship following them. They attack and take Chloe. Young goes back and discovers Rush is being held on the ship.
I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but it’s a decent episode with a bit of an expected twist at the very end. One that gives away what will happen in the next episode.
“You’ve lived here a while, but you’re still living out of boxes. Maybe you moved around a lot as a kid. A tumultuous childhood. A hard time forming relationships. I may not be the gumshoe you are, but I’ve got some skills.” -Sam Weiss
The return of the Yoda-Bowling man! He is the reason for the way the title is worded, sort of, because at one point, he brings Clue over to Olivia’s apartment to play.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Olivia is not sleeping because she is keeping Walter’s secret. She is also acting weird around Peter for the same reason. Peter notices and thinks it’s because she and him almost kissed. Walter keeps worrying that Olivia will tell Peter, thus ruining the good relationship the two of them currently have.
Story
A man is meeting with the people who, like Olivia, were subjects for the Cortexiphan tests that William Bell and Walter did. He touches them, and within minutes, they die of cancerous growths on their skin. Like two previous cases of people with abilities (Nick Lane and Nancy Lewis), this seems to have been a failed “activation” attempt.
There are more hints about Broyles and Nina having some former connection. And I have to say that I’m liking Walter’s decision to tell Peter the truth. It will really hurt the relationship, but I think it will work out better in the end.
“Chief, this is Detective Eames. I won’t be taking that Captain’s Exam.” -Alex Eames
The final episode with Goren and Eames; the team that started Criminal Intent. It starts where the last one left off. Obviously, Goren and Eames had no intention of letting the FBI take their witness, and in trying to arrest him on new charges, Goren gets in his face and gets suspended.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Goren gets suspended right as Nichols’ new partner arrives. Eames greets her with a saracastic “It’s fun here.” Eames spends the episode dealing with the suspicion on Goren and the Chief of Detectives wanting to promote her to Captain of Major Case, at the cost of Goren’s job.
Story
After Goren gets suspended, he starts his own investigation even as the police investigate him for the murder of the guy he hassled earlier. Eames obviously does not like that. Of course, what Goren stumbles onto in his investigation, totally derails the police investigation and ends up setting the killer free, but not without Nichols getting in a few parting shots.
As an episode, it was pretty good. It was a decent way for Goren and Eames to leave, too. I just hate that they are gone from the show. Here’s hoping that Nichols and the new detective can carry the show.
“It was the first hole, the first breach, the first crack in the pattern of cracks in the places between the worlds, and it’s my fault.” -Walter Bishop
Whoa. That intro sequence was trippy. Anyway, Olivia learned in the last episode something that all of us viewers knew from the Season 1 finale: Peter is from the other side. We did not know the exact reasons or circumstances behind it, however, and that’s what this episode is all about.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
This is a flashback episode, as Walter explains to Olivia why Peter is in this universe when he’s from the other side. We also meet Peter’s mom for the first time. Those two make up the main cast for this episode. Others are Walter’s lab assistant, much like the 80′s version of Astrid, and Nina.
Story
So we discover in the beginning of the episode that Peter is dying of a genetic disease for which there is no cure. Walter is using a window to the other side, which is about 30 years ahead of our side in technology (as evidenced by the RAZR phone that Walter shows the Army), to watch the other side in hopes that Walternate (Walter in the other side) will have better luck than he has in finding a cure. Then Peter on this side dies, right in front of Walter. He continues watching, hoping that Walternate will be able to cure alternate Peter so Walter can take comfort that Peter is living on somewhere, if not with himself. Then the Observer causes Walternate to miss the success of his compound, but Walter sees it. By the time Walternate turns back, the compound has failed, causing Walternate to totally disregard the compound that would cure his son. Walter, obsessed with saving Peter, any Peter, figures out the compound and crosses over to the other side – a first and what Walter says weakened the walls between the two worlds. When he crosses over, we find out what happened to Nina’s arm.
This episode answered a lot of questions about Walter and Peter’s past. Seeing how well they are getting along now, it will be sad to see it all destroyed when Peter learns the truth.
“I’m gonna go splash some water on my face and… throw up a little.” -Castle
In this episode, a man has found the Mayan equivalent of king Tut. Maya-Tut comes with a curse, just like the Egyptian king. The curse is applied to anyone who looks at the mummy, which Castle does before hearing about it.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Ryan and Esposito have a hay day knowing that Castle is cursed, even though he doesn’t believe in curses. Castle really starts getting freaked out when weird things start happening to him. After Kate reveals that she’s behind them, he continues having weird thing happen to him.
Story
Basically, after finding the mummy, everyone on the team that found him begins dying mysteriously. First a girl in the jungle, then someone else in a way I cannot remember, then the assistant curator by falling gargoyle (this is the first victim shown). When they discover that the mummy is less than 500 years old, instead of the millennia he was supposed to be, they realize something entirely different than what they thought is going on.
It’s a frakking hilarious episode, especially the part in the elevator. And the Indiana Castle scene at the beginning.
“Most people would be thrilled to be dumped in Miami. Sadly, I am not most people. Spend a few years as a covert operative and a sunny beach just looks like a vulnerable tactical position with no decent cover. I’ve never found a good way to hide a gun in a bathing suit.” -Michael Westen
Having watched all the way through the series from the first to the current season. The only episode I missed, was the pilot. I always wondered how Weston ended up in Miami with a burn notice. I did not realize he was in the middle of a mission when it happened. Of course, he walks out of the room with his usual combination of quick misdirection and expert hand-to-hand combat.
Now the quality of the episode, like many pilots, is a bit less than the rest of the show. He wasn’t quite as witty in his voice-overs, Fiona’s accent was quit a bit thicker and Mike’s mom was a lot more annoying than in later episodes. It was still an enjoyable episode though.
I love watching how Mike deals with issues in different ways. The best part is that most of the time, what he does is something that makes you smack your forehead in a “I should have thought about that” way. For example, when his drug dealer neighbor threatens Fiona, he decides to get him to leave. He does so by getting him to the door, which is obviously bullet-proof. However, the wall around it, is not. So he shoots the drug dealer in the leg through the wall, sneaks in through the back (and by sneak, I mean that he literally goes in through a wall) and takes him from behind. A quick chat and the druggie decides he’d be better off living somewhere else.
That is one of my favorite things about this show: he does everything he can to solve his problem without killing anyone. Well played manipulations are his weapon of choice with the occasional butt-kicking to make his point. Nine times out of ten, though, the bad guy walks away from the situation relatively unscathed, if not scared for their life.
“Turn around and try not to look too guilty.” – Patrick Jane
At the beginning of the episode, I knew that the biker gang didn’t kill him. They weren’t good guys, but they weren’t stupid either. Why kill the lawyer that had gotten them off the hook for over 50 cases?
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
In this episode, we learn that Rigsby hates bikers because his father was a biker. Lisbon seems to have gotten over being framed for murder and nearly losing her job in the previous episode.
Story
The lawyer of a local biker gang is found dead on the side of the road. Suspicions went first to the gang, then to the crazy lady that harasses the gang. Her beef with the gang is real and how Jane deals with that at the end is awesome, but neither are responsible for the lawyer’s death.
It’s a decent episode, but not the greatest by any means.
“Tick tock, Mr. Bauer. You’re running out of time.” -Dana Walsh
This was an unexpected twist in the story. Right after Jack and Renee save Hassan from the black ops team sent by the traitorous General and Chief of Staff, he turns on them and gives himself to the terrorists.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Jack is at the top of his game here, doing everything he does best: interrogation, car chases and gun battles. The Dana/Jenny and Cole story arc starts coming to a head as Jenny is discovered to be the mole. The way Cole confronted her in the parking garage was almost identical to Jack in day 1 with Nina, before finding out that she killed Teri. And Jack’s interrogation of her was good. I wish they would have had more time for him to grill her about the people she works for. I was hoping for a bit more of an explosive confrontation with the General and Chief of Staff, but the way it was handled was good. I did like that the President personally saw to taking care of Hassan’s wife and daughter while CTU tried to recover him.
Story
After Hassan gives himself up, the rest of the time in these two episodes was spent trying to find and recover him before the Terrorists could kill him. Along the way, they discover the mole in CTU, discover the treachery in the White House, and find the apartment that the terrorists take Hassan to. Unfortunately, they find that a few minutes too late.
With 8 hours left, this is very bad for the President. Several of the delegates from other countries have said that without Hassan, the peace process is over. There is no way to know who will succeed Hassan in the IRK government so there’s very little hope for another leader that will push for peace like Hassan. It will be interesting to see how the final 8 hours of 24 will unfold.
Kate Beckett: “Nice shot.”
Richard Castle: “I was aiming for his head.”
Something happens in this episode that has never happened in this show before: Beckett gives Castle a gun to watch her back! This episode is an awesome conclusion to the previous episode’s explosive cliffhanger.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Beckett is a little banged up and homeless after the explosion. Castle, being the nice guy that he is, offers his place. Well, offers might be to nice a word. He tells her that she will stay at his place, and her boss agrees, taking the decision away from her. Right after they ID the killer, he kidnaps Agent Shaw, setting yet another trap for “Nikki.”
Story
The killer is extremely intelligent and this episode they explain why: he’s a serial killer who writes his killings into novels. There are manuscripts from his murders in other cities around his apartment. In the end, he did get his face off with Nikki Heat, who, as Agent Shaw points out, is a combination of Beckett and Castle, who is the pair that actually takes him down.
An excellent conclusion and apparently the highest rated episode for the show. Shortly after this episode played, ABC renewed Castle for a third season. Here’s to more great Castle episodes.
Richard Castle: “I’m here to protect you.”
Kate Beckett: “What, with your vast arsenal of rapier wit?”
It is the series’ first two-part episode and boy is it a good one. A deranged serial killer has targeted Detective Beckett as Nikki Heat. He sets a trap by killing certain people who are all linked, then handing over a dead suspect, letting them all think he’s dead and gone. The final scene makes it very clear that he is far from dead and far from gone.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
In addition to Castle and Beckett, we also have FBI Agent Jordan Shaw, famous for solving high profile cases across the country. Beckett gets jealous because suddenly Castle is starstruck by Shaw and helping her with the investigation instead of Beckett. Castle shows who he really cares for when he shows up at Beckett’s apartment and stays the night to protect her with, as Beckett puts it, his “vast arsenal of rapier wit?”
Story
So this killer is shooting people with special bullets. Each bullet has a letter on the back of it. Each victim has a word in them. When they get the entire message, it said “Nikki will burn.” And based on the title of the episode, I’m sure you can guess how he means for her to burn.
This is easily one of the best episodes of the season and, as I said earlier, it is the first two-part episode of Castle’s short life, so far. Here’s to hoping for many more of them. Especially if they are of this quality.
Alex Eames: “When he clears federal arraignment we can rearrest on a different charge.”
Zach Nichols: “If he’s alive. Broidy’s dead, Loftin’s dead, Van Dekker’s next. Who’s running this show?”
Robert Goren: “Yeah, we’re a long way from knowing that.”
This is an interesting episode for me and Ashley. We keep reading that this and the next episode will be the final two episodes with Eames and Goren, so we keep saying that these will be the last two episodes for us. I want to give the new detective (who appears next episode) a chance, partially because I like Jeff Goldblum.
Characters
Aside from Goren and Eames, Nichols comes in toward the end. Makes sense, since Captain Daniel Ross, who is murdered in this episode while undercover, used to be his partner. Unfortunately for all of them, the case is the FBI’s since he was undercover for them.
Story
The story is that someone is trying to set up a police force near Africa to take on pirates. This same person is using his boat to give rich “pirate-hunter” wannabes the chance to kill some pirates. On the most recent outing, they took out a peaceful, non-pirate ship of a shiek whose son is vengeful and living in New York.
I don’t know the rest of the story, as I haven’t watched the second half yet. I am doing that tonight. Here’s hoping that the new detective is good enough to keep the series going with Goldblum.
Gideon: “Hmm…You look comfortable up there. Why don’t you come back to the BAU for a guest lecture?”
Ryan: “I’m retired, remember?”
Gideon: “Hell of a way to relax, 323 pages on the one that got away.”
Ryan: “He hasn’t gotten away – and you didn’t count that eight page prologue.”
This episode starts with Gideon at a lecture by former agent Max Ryan, who just wrote a book about a killer that was never caught and he has been hunting for years. His loner methods rub the team the wrong way, until Gideon talks him into sharing with them.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
The guest character, Max Ryan, is the one that the episode focuses on. He has made it his mission to find the Keystone killer, who had killed seven women 18 years prior. He is a bit of a loner and has to learn to work with the team.
Story
The weird thing about this killer is that he stopped for 18 years. At first everyone thought prison or death, but Ryan never believed that. In the end, they all realized that the killer hadn’t stopped because he wanted to, but because, on his way to kill his eighth victim, he got in a bad car accident that left one side of him severely weakened.
One comment I read somewhere compared Ryan to Rossi, the guy that replaces Gideon in Season 3. Both are former BAU Agents, both are loners, a bit blunt with the team initially and very stubborn. Both do come around and work with the team in the end. Eerily similar, huh?
Booth: “When cops get stuck we bring in people like you, ya know? Squints, you know, squint at things.”
Brennan: “Oh you mean people with very high IQs and basic reasoning skills?”
I only started watching Bones toward the end of 2009. I cannot say how much I enjoyed this show. It is quite awesome watching a woman whose IQ is higher than twice the number of reviews on my site right now, as she learns to interact with people alongside her FBI counterpart, Seeley Booth, who is almost literally the knight in shining armor.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
As the show opens, we see three of the main characters show who they are. First, Angela: laid back, fiesty and flirty. Next, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan: intelligent and capable. Finally, Special Agent Seeley Booth: chivalrous, determined and in possession of a moral compass that seems to work better than most people’s vision.
Story
A girl’s remains is found in a pond and it turns out to be an intern for a Senator who was rumored to have been sleeping with her. She’s been missing for nearly two years at this point, but by examining her bones, Dr. Brennan and her team is able to figure out exactly how she was killed and that she was pregnant at the time.
It’s quite interesting how much they seem to be able to learn from the bones in this show. At one point Bones was commenting how the victim had broken her wrist when she was seven, and then again a few weeks later, before it was fully healed doing the same activity. All that from the bones. I’m not sure how true it is, getting that much information, but it does make for a good show. And this episode is an awesome opening for it.
Hotchner: “What the hell was that?”
Reid: “He had a bomb.”
Morgan: “You didn’t think we needed to know that?”
Reid: “I told you to go downstairs.”
Morgan: “You didn’t say ‘bomb!’”
Here’s the second half to the first season finale. In this one,they figure out who is behind all the cryptic messages and who the “her” is in “Save Her.”
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
I think they all had some good character growth in this one. Reid reconnected with his mother. Gideon and Hotch deal with their decisions that landed Elle in the hospital. Elle deals with her daddy issues. Though, through it all I would say that Reid was the one that carried the team through this one.
Story
It’s amazing how once they start treating the UNSUB as a normal UNSUB and not letting him lead them around, they are able to find him rather quickly.
It is a great conclusion to the previous episode and a good season opener. It set up a new arc for Elle having to deal with being shot, opens the possibility of Reid’s mother coming back in future episodes and begins an emotional journey for Gideon that comes to a conclusion at the end of the season.
Jamaican Cop: “Where is the victim’s head?”
Elle: “Well, I must have dropped it on my way in here.”
This was an interesting episode. I love it when shows like this have a case like this where the baddie has this elaborate plan all laid out for the heroes. And by the end of the episode, they’ve only just begun to piece it together.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
After a season of tough cases, the BAU team is getting a much needed 2 week vacation. Morgan and Elle are headed (no pun intended) to Jamaica, Gideon out to his house in the woods, Hotchner to his family that he doesn’t see enough and Reid to see his mother in a sanitarium. All are tired and worn out at the beginning of the episode, and it doesn’t change by the end as weird things start happening to each of them while they are on vacation.
Story
Elle gets blamed for the murder of a man in the same hotel as she and Morgan are staying in. It doesn’t hold up, so they let her go when Hotchner arrives and explains how she couldn’t have done it. Gideon receives the head of the man Elle supposedly killed in a box with a baseball card. JJ gets a shadowbox with a rare butterfly in it. Hotch gets a wierd phone call with a cryptic message and Reid gets a key with a note. All of it has the same message attached: “Save Her.” Who the her is, they don’t know.
It was a great season ender and, had I seen it when it aired, I would have been hooked into needing to watch the season 2 premiere. In fact, I was hooked into it: I believe Ashley and I stayed up extra late one night just to see the conclusion.
“I don’t take orders from anyone but the President of the United States.” -Jack Bauer
I have to say that so far, I am really liking Season 8 of 24. They’ve brought a bit more of a personal touch to it with how protective Jack has become of Renee and his goal of surviving the day do he can retire with his daughter and granddaughter. Granted, it’s still unrealistic how much he does. With the time between seasons, the show is about 12 years ahead of us, so Jack is now in his 50s.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
Jack is back to his butt-kicking ways. Him and Renee take on a black ops team sent to covertly abduct Hassan. Guess who wins? Dana/Jenny tries to be like Nina from season 1 and seems to have everyone fooled, except maybe Jack. He’s just too busy to actually think about it, what with the bullets flying at him and Hassan. The President shows again that she is the best President on the show since David Palmer with her little “We’re not turning Hassan over to terrorists” speech.
Story
For the story side of things, it is certainly looking like New York is about to be irradiated. And people like the general and Chief of Staff certainly are not helping things.
I really liked this episode. Not only did it move the story along, it also set up an event seen in the preview for next week’s episode and gave us a chance to see why Jack is still the best at what he does.
“You can look the other way once, and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that’s all you’re doing; compromising, because that’s the way you think things are done. You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren’t, they weren’t bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised… Once.” – Jack Bauer
Having watched every episode of 24 currently available, I can honestly say that the first season is by far my favorite. This episode is a good indicator of why. It introduces a plot that is personal for Jack, personal for David and brings them together later and the national implications are really secondary to their struggles.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
At the outset, you can see that there are backstories for everyone that are affecting their judgement. Jack and Teri are coming back together from a separation. Their daughter, Kim, is bitter against Teri for the separation. At CTU, Tony and Nina are together, although Tony is openly wondering whether Nina is still sleeping with Jack (which is the reason for Jack and Teri’s separation). Jack is handed information that there is a mole in CTU, but he doesn’t think he could get close to it because of him turning in three agents for taking bribes recently. On the other side, David Palmer is gearing up for the Presidential primary in California when he gets a call from a reporter that upsets him, though he doesn’t say what it is. And then there’s the couple on the plane and said plane exploding over the desert.
Story
This was mostly covered above along with the characters. This season being very character driven means that the stories will be very intertwined with the characters.
Being a pilot, there are some differences between it and the rest of the show. One being the clock sound. Another is the locations. This episode was filmed at real locations. The rest of the season was filmed on sets, so any differences of locations is due to that.
Overall it is a good episode to start the season and the show on.
This episode was not quite as exciting as the last four. It was more of a plot development episode than a “Jack’s kicking butt” episode.
Jack and Tony succeed in capturing Motobo and Agent Walker as she arrives on the scene. The FBI office is seeing the first repercussions of Walker’s torture of the witness and the President’s husband finds out that his Secret Service Agent isn’t such a good guy.
Not much really happened in this episode other than that. Oh, and Walker was being buried alive by Tony and Jack. Sucks to be her right now.
Part two of the Season premiere brings with it some major twists. The first happens right after Tony tells Jack the phrase “Deep Sky.” My guess is that’s a phone number, since Jack makes a call to… Bill Buchanon?
So Tony’s not a terrorist, now. Makes more sense, I think. Anyway, Jack and Tony then break out of FBI headquarters as only they could. This includes Jack driving a car through a cement railing on the second floor of a parking garage, while he’s laying down in the car. Ouch.
When they all get back together at “CTU”, Bill’s moniker for where they are working from, they explain to Jack what’s really going on. Someone in the government is supplying Dubuku and they don’t know how high up the corruption is. So they are doing what they do best – going undercover and bringing down the bad guys.
Certainly was a good twist, albeit somewhat expected. While it might be fun to see an all-out Jack vs. Tony fight, it makes more sense for Tony to not be a bad guy… at least completely.
So at the end of the episode, Tony and Jack are part of a team trying to abduct the Prime Minister of Sengala, the country where Redemption happened. Agent Walker, the FBI agent who brought Jack in on the Tony Hunt, had just tortured a witness in true Bauer style and was on the way to stop the abduction. The President was deciding whether or not to proceed with the invasion or give in to Dubuku’s demands and her husband was just handed evidence that their son had uncovered a massive conspiracy within her administration.
