Supernatural Mass Exodus

In the last few days, there has been several important members of the SPN Family that have left The Show to move on to other projects.

Most recently, Jenny Klein tweeted about leaving The Show to work as a writer for Jessica Jones.  Jenny worked on 105 episodes as an assistant, assistant to the writers, and story editor.  She was the story editor on some of my favorite episodes like Fan Fiction and About a Boy.

We’ve also lost Robbie Thompson.  This loss actually made me cry.  Robbie wore many hats in the SPN Family; he was not only a producer and co-executive producer, but also a writer.  In fact, Robbie was one of my favorite writers on The Show… of my Top Ten favorite shows, he wrote FOUR on the list.  FOUR.  That’s almost half of the list!  He was the genius behind Baby and Fan Fiction… and The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo.  He was the one that introduced us to Charlie (Felicia Day)!  He will be sorely missed and he leaves very BIG shoes to fill.

Also leaving the show is show runner Jeremy Carver.  He joined the show back in Season 3 as a writer (he was the genius who wrote the classic Mystery Spot episode).  Chuck Shurley’s  (God, and the writer of the Supernatural books in the show… who represents The Show creator Eric Kripke) pen name was Carver Edlund.  Named after Jeremy and another writer on the show Ben Edlund.  Jeremy took over as Show Runner in Season 8.  He brought us out of Purgatory and helped us get over the loss of Bobby.  He gave us the Mark of Cain and Deanmon…. and The Darkness.  He will be moving on to head up his new project, a show called Frequency (a reboot of the movie starring Dennis Quaid) on The CW.

Stepping up to fill Carver’s shoes will be Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb.  Neither are new to The Show.  Singer has worked with The Show since Season 1 as a writer, director and producer.  The beloved character Bobby Singer was named after him.  Dabb joined the family in Season 4 as a writer and has moved up through the ranks to executive producer and now co-Show Runner.

I hate change, but I’m hoping for the best here.  I’m sure that Singer and Dabb will take us on new and just as exciting adventures with The Boys as Kripke, Gamble and Carver did before them.

Once Upon a Time SN5 E22 & E23 – The 2-Part Finale

SN5E22: Only You      

Written By:  Andrew Chambliss & David H. Goodman

Directed By:  Romeo Tirone

SN5E23: An Untold Story

Written By:  Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis

Directed By:  Dean Wright

I’m combining the two episodes into one review.  It seems only fair since ABC combined both episodes into one finale.

I was really relieved to be able to watch this finale.  You see, when it looked like they were going to kill off Hook, I said I’d never watch the show again if they didn’t figure out a way to get him out of the Underworld.  I’m so glad they did, otherwise I’m just stubborn enough to quit watching.

After the miraculous appearance of Hook in the cemetery, I must admit that I spent this whole two hours waiting for Robin to appear out of nowhere.  Sadly, I was disappointed.  Hook was no sooner back and in Emma’s arms though, before (thanks to Gold) he was jerked from her arms and sent to the Land of Untold Stories… along with The Charmings and Zelena.

The build up was slow going.  In fact, it took them two hours to kick us in the head with an enormous OMG moment… even if I saw it coming.  When they decided to give Regina the Dr. Jekyll antidote, I knew things were gonna go South.  It’s Psych 101 that you need all three (the Id, the Ego, and the Superego) to be in balance so that you stay… well … balanced.  Now, obviously I’m a writer not Sigmund Freud so I don’t know which one the Evil Queen is, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d go with the Superego.  But, all psycho-babble aside, I knew this was gonna go bad for Charmings & Company.  I mean, didn’t you all see it going bad when Regina and Emma had to work with Gold?

Henry was such a big part of the show in earlier seasons, but he’s been on the shelf (so to speak) for a while now.  So, it was nice to see a Henry-centric episode for the first half of the finale.  After all, he’s the “reason” we have the show to begin with, right?  He’s our starry eyed dreamer that keeps us all believing in fairy tales.  And, in this episode he got a few jaded New Yorkers to believe too.

In these episodes, we were introduced to some new characters that will obviously play a big part in Season 6… or at least the first part of it.  The whole Untold Stories arc should be interesting.  Maybe we’ll see a lot of those stories that aren’t quite fairy tales, but still legend – wait for it – dary.  Oh, and it looks like next season we’re going to get a DRAGON!  *fingers crossed*.

Call me a dreamer, but I’m still holding out hope we’ll see Robin again.

Shut up, it can happen!

The Originals SN3 EP21 – ‘Give ‘Em Hell Kid’

SN3 EP21: Give ‘Em Hell Kid

Written By:  Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson

Directed By: Jeffery G. Hunt

OK.  The Vampire Diaries let me down.  So, I was hoping for a big Originals episode to make up for it.

They did NOT let me down.

I got home late on Friday night and had to watch this episode on the trusty DVR.  So, when I hit the play button, I said “Bring it, Mikaelsons.”  And, they did.

They soooooo did.

I knew there was going to be another Civil War in New Orleans after Davina died, and the first shots were fired in this episode.  If you want to avoid spoilers, don’t read any farther!

The whole “one by friend, one by family, and one by foe” prophecy finally makes sense.  It’s all one person… or vampire.  Marcel is the friend, the foe, and the family.  At least, that’s what Freya and Elijah saw when they watched the whole prophecy trailer play out.  And after seeing that, did anyone expect Elijah to react in any way other than he did?  I didn’t…. and yet, when he pulled out Marcel’s heart, I’m sure I had the same look on my face that Marcel did.  And, so did Lucy.  I was so stunned that I didn’t even remember to hit the fast forward button to rush through the commercials.  I just kept muttering “what did I just see?”  When I finally did hit a button, it wasn’t the fast forward one… I hit rewind.  I had to watch it again to fully let it sink in.

The goodbye scene with Davina and Kol was very sweet and sad all at the same time.  Wait, I’m a writer; I can do better than that.  It was bittersweet.  Yeah, that’s the word I was looking for.

We even got a Haylijah kiss in this episode.

But the thing that got me?  The very end when we learn that Marcel drank the win10 hybrid juice!  I kept saying, “Oh this is bad… this is very, very bad”.  Just how bad is it?  On a scale of 1 to Meghan Trainor …. this is Carly Rae Jepsen.  Yeah, that’s like a Spinal Tap 11, Readers.

This episode would’ve made one hell of a season finale…but we get that next week!  And, according to the scenes…. Rebekah’s back next week!!

Hey, TVD writers…THAT’S how you do a season finale!

Vampire Diaries SN7 EP21 – ‘Gods & Monsters’

SN7 EP21:  Gods & Monsters

Written By:  Brian Young

Directed By:  Michael A. Allowitz

I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed with this episode.  As far as season finales go, this one really sucked (no pun intended).  Hold off on the public stoning though, because I have a few things to say.

After the big build up last episode, I was disappointed by this one.  This episode seemed rushed, in a hurry to tie up all the loose ends and give us a nice little bow of a finale.  The only time I was even sort of on the edge of my seat was the scene with Bonzo when the stake was just about to pierce his heart.  At that point (pun intended), I was saying “Hurry up, Damon!”

I know that I’ve made my feelings about Matt perfectly clear.  But, I think the writers have too.  Seriously, Sheriff $h!thead is just an after thought to them.  No one even wondered where he was or if he made it?  I totally get it that Damon didn’t wonder about him, but come on… Hero Stefan didn’t even ask about him.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!  If the writers don’t want him to be a part of the group, why  not just vote him off the island… why have him be rescued at all?  Why not just let him go with Penny?

And now to the last point… I was all psyched up for a big cliffhanger.  I seriously hope that wasn’t the writers’ idea of a cliffhanger.  They’ve left us with this ending before… just some minor differences.  But Damon and Enzo on a killing spree?  Really? That’s their idea of a cliffhanger?

It needed work.

Let the stoning commence…. if you can find me, I can take it.

Supernatural SN11 EP 21 – ‘All In The Family’

SN11 EP21:  All In The Family

Written By:  Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming

Directed By:  Thomas J. Wright

I’ve done a little reading on social media, and I’m fully aware that there are some fans that didn’t like this episode.  Now, I can’t help but wonder what in the hell is wrong with all of you?  I mean, I understand that it’s impossible to please all the people all the time… but if anyone or thing could, it would’ve been this episode.

It had it all…. even a guest appearance by fan favorite Osric Chau (aka the Advanced Placement Prophet Kevin) and the (sort of) Redemption of Metatron.  Seriously, I would’ve never thought that I would like him (he DID kill Dean at the end of SN9).  Several of my fellow fan friends, Lucy and I have called him Metadouche since his stunning betrayal (the murder of Dean) and attempt at God -dom.  Now?  Well, he did come through for the good guys this time…and I won’t give you the details and ruin it for you.  If you’re not up to this episode yet in your watching, just know that he eventually becomes a (sort of) decent .. uh… what was he exactly at the end? …. let’s just say soul.  He was a decent soul, even if he did murder Dean… and he DID… murder Dean that is.

The moments in the first half of the episode where Chuck is trying to convince The Boys that he is, in fact, God is classic stuff.  Sam is “fanboying” and Dean is skeptical.  Sam babbling and Dean’s Single Man Tear (which actually turned out to be two tears this time… I mean, I didn’t think Jensen was capable of two tears at once).  There were moments where I said “ouch” because Chuck is good with the zingers…. “Don’t confuse me with your father” and “I never lost faith in you, even if you didn’t return the favor”… those are some hard core zingers right there.  But, I’m going to be completely honest here, Readers.  I’m a Christian, and The Boys were asking the same sort of questions that I would want to be asking God… when I meet him.

I have to admit a moment of “What the Hell?” when Dean went to meet Amara in the woods (which looked a lot like Purgatory bt-dubbs, but in color) and then we saw Sam and the Posse in Baby going on the rescue mission to beat all rescue missions.  I was lost for a second, wondering why Dean hadn’t driven Baby to the meeting.  But, then I realized… if you’re going to go all Mission Impossible then you need the best vehicle for the job.  And no doubt, Baby is the best vehicle for ANY job.

The best line of the whole thing was hard to choose.  It was a total toss up between the whole “most porn I’ve ever seen in one sitting” convo between Chuck and Dean (talking about Dean’s computer) and the first meeting between The Boys and the new prophet, Donatello.  He says his name and says “I’m named after him.”  And, of course Dean said “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?”…. that was funny even though I saw it coming.

This is one of those episodes that had so much happening that I just know it’s gonna take watching it at least half a dozen times to catch it all.  You know what I mean, right?  Because, Jensen is so very great with the facial expressions that you can read every single one of Dean’s emotions if you watch close enough.  Sometimes, there’s even … let’s call them ‘tells’ … that will hit ya hard in the feels, ya know, if you aren’t distracted by a big rescue plan.

I have to go now… I need to watch it a few more times.  Just to make sure I caught everything.  Ya know, for science and all.

The Originals SN3 EP20 – ‘ Where Nothing Stays Buried ‘

SN 3EP20: Where Nothing Stays Buried

Written By: Christopher Hollier & Carina Adly MacKenzie

Directed By: John Hyams

I need to preface this whole review with this …. SPOILERS AHEAD!

This is your last chance…. get out while you can.

Ok.  First, I never really liked Davina.  She just seemed sort of self absorbed to me.  But, the way they took her out?  Oh hell no!  That was way f***ed up!

Now, that I have that out of the way, let’s continue.

The fight scene between Klaus, Hayley and Lucien was so great.  And, Lucien finally got exactly what he deserved and the win10 hybrid is no more.  And the only thing that sucks about that is that it was one of my better snarky jokes, and I can’t use it any more.

The writers finally gave us Haylijah… which means one of them is probably gonna die now.

I can’t help it, and I don’t know why…maybe I just have a thing for bad boys… but I really like Kol.  And, when he got his “revenge”, I cheered.  And, when Vincent called out Freya for the way she took out Davina… yeah, I fist pumped over that one too.

I really liked the cover of Mike and The Mechanics song Silent Running that they used in the goodbye scene between Davina and Marcel.

The loss of Davina is going to bring about a Civil War in New Orleans, and it shouldn’t have to survive two of them.  All I could say when Vincent brought the win10 hybrid juice (oh look, I did get to use it again!) to Marcel to take was … Oh this is bad… this is very, very bad. (And Lucy, was saying it with me…at the exact same time.  It was like synchronized prophecy.  You should’ve been there.)

And with two episodes left in the season, we’re about to see just how bad it can be.

The Vampire Diaries SN7 EP21 – ‘ Requiem For A Dream ‘

SN7 EP21: Requiem for a Dream

Written By:  Brett Matthews & Neil Reynolds

Directed By: Paul Wesley

Just in case you skip all that stuff directly above this sentence and jump right into the article…. this episode was directed by Paul Wesley.  Paul Freakin’ Wesley, b!tches!  So, let me start there.  His directing of the action scenes was amazing…. that was by far my favorite part of the episode as far as the directing goes.  A close second, would be the great shots of Damon and Stefan’s phone call conversations, which by the way give us the best line of the episode.  The award goes to Damon (as usual) for the line “I’m sorry, I must have the wrong number, because I dialed ‘H’ for Hero.”

I have to admit that I’ve never been a real big fan of Matt.  And, to be honest, I really kinda hate him now.  For a while, I’ve called him “Deputy Dumbass” while watching the show with Lucy (my bff that watches with me every week).  Lucy laughed and agreed with my pronouncement the first time I called him that, so the nickname has continued.  This week Deputy Dumbass announced to Damon that he’d been promoted to Sheriff… so, of course, that prompted me to announce, “Oh? So now, Deputy Dumbass is Sheriff $h!thead.”

As far as Damon goes in this episode … it was pretty much his usual M.O. … doing the wrong things for the right reasons.  With everyone tag-teaming to try and wake Bonnie up, Damon was the one with the right idea.  Well, except he broke the first rule of this show. (Remember the Rule Book that I said I needed to write?)  Don’t piss off Bonnie Badass!  Damon pissed her off so that she’d wake up and come after him.  The only problem with that was… well…. she came after him.  And, when Bonnie Badass almost killed Damon, we got to hear him tell her what she means to him…and how much he admires her.  It all made my Bamon-shipping heart skip a few beats.  I don’t really have a problem with the whole Bonzo (that’s what I’m choosing to call Bonnie/Enzo and I don’t care what the rest of the fandom calls them) relationship; I’d just rather see her with Damon.  Anyway, back to the Bonnie Badass killing Damon thing… guess who saved him.  Go ahead guess.

Sheriff $h!thead.

That only earned him a couple of redemption points with me.  Don’t get me wrong… I still hate him.  But, you know what I think?  I think that’s what the writers are going for… I think they want us to hate Deputy Dumbass… uh sorry… Sheriff $h!thead.

The whole Stefoline scenario this episode really made me giggle a lot.  It’s nice to see Stefan finally following his big brother’s example.  For once, he handled things the Damon way instead of the Hero way…. and now Caroline is safe … well… safer.

All in all, I really enjoyed this episode, and it sets us up nicely for the finale next week.  Wow…is it really been a whole season already?  Where does the time go?

 

Supernatural SN11 EP20 – ‘ Don’t Call Me Shurley ‘

SN11 EP 20: Don’t Call Me Shurley

Written By:  Robbie Thompson

Directed By:  Robert Singer

OH.  MY. CHUCK!

Speechless.  Try to manage…. I just don’t have an even to can’t.

Cheers!

Chuck’s “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug!

Metatron?  Good?  Chuckdamn!

The Fog …. ooooh scary.

SA-UM!!

*SQUEEEE* The Samulet

Rob…uh God….singing!

Chuck saves everybody!

“We should talk”

You can always tell when we get a greater than great… totally awesome… episode of The Show.  It’s still trending on twitter more than two hours after the East Coast airing.

I’m not going to apologize for the review I gave last week’s episode.  But, I will say that this week they totally knocked my socks off and made up for it.  I’m still squee’ing.  And, holy crap monkeys, Batman, how are we going to wait until next week?!

 

The Originals SN3 EP19 – ‘ No More Heartbreaks ‘

SN3 EP19: No More Heartbreaks

Written By: Celeste Vasquez & Michael Narducci

Directed By: Millicent Shelton

Let me explain.  I have three favorite television shows (there’s several more that I watch, but just 3 favorites) on The CW.  And, the biggest thing I want from all of them is to be emotionally compromised.  This week, the first two let me down in that area.

But, the third one did NOT.

I cried, I said words I should never say in public (but do quite often), and, for about the millionth time I swore I’d never watch this show again.

But, like all those celebrities that are claiming that if Trump gets elected, they’ll move out of the country…. we all know I was lying to myself.

And being overly dramatic.

I’ll be perched on my couch next week, dying to let them emotionally cripple me again.  Even though…. well….. wait just a minute….

I don’t want to give too much away here, and by that I mean spoilers.  Because, this was a big… HUGE .. episode.  And, if you haven’t watched it yet, I don’t want to give you any warning… fair or otherwise.  I want you to be hit as hard as I was.

So, what can I tell you?  Well.  We learn in this episode that despite much evidence to the contrary, Klaus is a romantic.  Oh, and we learn that Lucien is the Biggest Douche in New Orleans.  Well, to be fair, we learned that several episodes ago… but in this one it was confirmed.  In fact, the point was driven home like a nail in the proverbial coffin.

Oh.  I also learned to hate The Ancestors.  I mean, at first it was just a strong dislike.  A “wow, they’re total asshats” kind of thing.  Now?  I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire!

On the Terri’s Tissue Box Scale this episode got the max … 3 tissue boxes.

That’s how many it’s probably gonna take you to make it through the episode.

And, oh yeah…. you’re gonna need that therapist on speed dial that I’m always telling you to get too.

Let’s all hope they do it to us again next week!

The Vampire Diaries SN7 EP20 – ‘ Kill ‘Em All ‘

SN7 EP20:  Kill ‘Em All

Written By:  Chad Fiveash & James Patrick Stoteraux

Directed By:  Kellie Cyrus

I really think that I need to make a Book of Rules for this show.  If I did, on the very first page, in all caps, in bold and very big font it would say …. DO NOT F**K WITH BONNIE.  And it would be followed by several exclamation points.  I would probably have to put it on the second page… hell, maybe the next 10 pages just to make the point.

In this episode, we learned that it’s not nice to fool with Witchy Bonnie.  She promised she wouldn’t open that vault and damn it, she meant it.  She made sure nobody made it out of The Armory alive.

I have to admit that for the first half of the show, I was doing a bit of bitching and complaining.  It mostly consisted of the phrase:  First Supernatural screwed me with a lame episode and now TVD is doing the same damn thing.  But, I was only half right, they were screwing me all right, but they were just giving me a lot of foreplay.

The whole episode was leading up to a big climatic ending.  Damon pulled a … well…. a Damon.  He did what he thought was best without consulting anyone else about his plan.  And, as usual, it blew up in his face…. right at the end.  The twist to beat all twists.

Normally, I would tell you all about it.  But, this time, I think I’m going to leave it up to you to watch the episode.  So, no major spoilers.  I don’t want to ruin it for you.  Just go watch the episode.

You won’t be disappointed.

You will, however, need a cigarette afterwards.

Even if you don’t smoke.