Saturday, April 4, 2009

A Good Week

I was very happy with my shows this week. They were laying the foundations for May sweeps storylines and that means very exciting things are about to occur.

Chuck is finally moving forward. A couple of weeks ago, Chuck's search for Orion, the man who had built the Intersect, ended. Unfortunately, the dude died. But he did leave behind some information for Chuck and told him to study it so that he would know how to get the Intersect out of his head when the time came (Chuck taped the diagrams to the pages of an issue of Ex Machina. I was very pleased). Then this latest episode focused more on the Sarah-Chuck relationship, which, I admit, has been wearing on me this season. It's the same old tale: Sarah and Chuck have a moment of closeness. Then one of three things happens: Bryce Larkin shows up; Sarah pushes Chuck away; or Chuck decides he needs to break up with Sarah so that he can stop lying to himself and find a real relationship and have a normal life and get the Intersect out of his head and blah blah blah. As much as I love Chuck, he has been kind of annoying me lately. I wish he would stop being such a wuss. I often find myself yelling at my television, "Toughen up. Learn how to withstand some torture. Learn how to use a gun. Or at least be able to defend yourself without Sarah and Casey having to rescue you every time." There's a reason that Sarah was so attracted to MI-6 Agent Cole Barker (played by Jonathan Cake)- he was a real man. Chuck certainly exhibits admirable qualities when his friends or family are in danger, but he is also very whiny sometimes. I think the last couple of episodes have shown that Chuck is starting to take control of his life to some extent. He knows what he wants and he's going after it. And this week, the Sarah-Chuck relationship ventured into some new territory, which was very refreshing. General Beckman sent an agent to determine whether Sarah and Chuck's feelings for each other were hindering her job as his handler. Played by Tricia Helfer, Agent Forrest was very hardened (and very much Casey's type), but in the end, Chuck convinced the General that Sarah was so good at protecting him because they cared about each other. And Casey agreed. When Sarah thought she was never going to see Chuck again, she found his father for him so that he could keep his promise to Ellie and get their dad to come to her wedding. At the end of the episode, Sarah went with Chuck to see his dad, and that's where we pick up on Monday.

Wednesday's episode of LOST, entitled "Whatever Happened, Happened," was very emotional. Through Kate's flashbacks, we learned that Sawyer had asked her to take care of his daughter, Clementine, before he jumped out of the helicopter last season. She followed through on that promise. She found Cassidy, and they became very good friends. Kate told her the truth about everything they had been through. It was clear that she needed someone to talk to besides Jack. Cassidy provided some insight into what Kate had gone through- Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter because he was terrified of what would happen when they got back to the real world; Kate was so determined to raise Aaron because she had a broken heart and she needed that love in her life. Flashbacks also revealed what happened the night that Ben met with everyone on the dock and then Kate showed up at Jack's apartment. She stopped at a supermarket because Aaron was thirsty. Then she got distracted, and when she turned around, Aaron was gone. She frantically searched for him before finding him with a woman who, from behind, looked exactly like Claire. She then took Aaron to the hotel where Ms. Littleton was staying and explained everything to her. Kate then said that she was going back to the island so that she could find Claire. Leaving the little boy with his grandmother, Kate said goodbye to him while he slept. Evangeline Lilly was incredibly moving in this scene, and I hope Kate carries this emotion with her for the rest of the series. Back on the island, our Losties were under house arrest so that Sawyer could make sure nobody suspected them for lighting the Dharma van on fire and letting Sayid out of his cage. Miles and Hurley had a very amusing conversation about the rules of time travel- one of those times where the writers know the audience has questions about something confusing and creates a scene where the characters have the same questions. Little Ben was bleeding out from his gunshot wound, and Juliet needed a surgeon to help her repair the damage. Jack refused. No longer take-action guy, Jack is now let-the-island-do-what-it-wants guy! Kate went to see how she could help. Juliet knew that his only chance for surviving would be to take him to the Hostiles. Kate drove off in a Dharma van to the sonic fence, at which point Sawyer caught up with her, not to stop her but to help her. He called her Freckles for the first time since she got back :) He carried Ben through the jungle, Kate told him about Clementine, and then the Others found them and took them to Richard. He took Ben into Smokey's Temple, saying that he healing him would cause him to lose his innocence and become one of them forever. Kate and Sawyer knew what that would mean- they had seen what the manipulative grown-up Ben had done- but they were going to do everything they could to save Little Ben's life because he was just a boy. Come on and get back together, you too! Juliet needs to leave the picture. I feel bad saying that because I like Elizabeth Mitchell, but she has been cast in a new show. I hope it's as a series regular because Kate and Sawyer are meant to be together.

The series finale of Life on Mars aired after LOST. It tied everything together in a very satisfying way, and the resolution was a big surprise. I'm so glad that Executive Producers Scott Rosenberg and Josh Applebaum were given enough advanced notice from ABC to make Season 1 a complete story (even though I think they should have renewed it for a second season because it's better than most of their programming anyways). After everything he had been through, the mysterious phone calls and the tiny robots and the hallucinations, 1973 Sam decided to stop trying to get back to 2008 and stay right where he was. He realized that he was in love with Annie. Then, all of a sudden, he woke up- not in 2008, but in 2035. He was an astronaut who had just landed on Mars. Annie, Chris, and Ray were all there, too. Everything had been a glitch in the dream sequence that he was programmed to have until their spacecraft landed. And the best moment of all was when Harvey Keitel climbed out of his bed and we found out that he was actually Sam's father. "Whatever strange place you find yourself in, make that your home."

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