From TVGuide: October 19, 2006: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things

“Dead should stay dead.” How many times did Dean say those words or variations of this? I kept wondering why he kept saying that, I mean, aside from the necromancy theme of the episode. I watched the zombie chick kill all the people who had wronged her. I watched Sam and Dean deal with this supernatural element, and every time he said those four words I wondered again. And then it all made sense at the very end. Maybe idiot me should have come to the realization before I had to actually hear it from Dean, but I actually dig the fact that I was none the wiser until the end, because wow. Dean’s breakthrough and the revelation that he blames himself for his father’s death was just really powerful and well acted. Jensen did such a good job with this particular scene, although that should not shock anyone. Sam had been needling his big brother a little bit (or a lot) in every episode after “In My Time of Dying.” He was trying to help Dean reach that point where he could show his grief. His persistence paid off in a nice, quiet scene with the Winchester boys leaning against the Impala and Dean putting into words how two and two added up to him somehow being responsible for his dad’s death.

Blink and you may have missed the part where Sam broke his hand to explain the cast we’ll be seeing on Jared’s arm for upcoming episodes. He broke his arm in real life so the show had to find a way to write it in; so when creepy zombie chick chased after his cute bait butt, that’s when he fell and got the ouchie. It was pretty much a simple, understated: “I think she broke my hand.” I don’t know why, but I think I had in my mind something completely over-the-top to explain the injury. I do so love how this show sometimes goes the exact opposite way of what I’m thinking will happen.

As far as the zombie girl, I really only creeped out when she broke the neck of that stupid Neil kid — you know the one who actually brought his crush back to “life.” They never come back the same way — I learned that from Buffy. Also, for some reason, it was kind of creepy when she was chasing after Sam. He’s like this big guy and he’s lumbering through the cemetery and zombina is right on his heels, then tackles him to the ground.

So many scenes were a little painful to watch: Dean confronting Angela’s dad; I think I cringed there a couple of times. Sam not believing there was a case, while Dean made sure a case found them. It was like he needed something to help him avoid standing in one place; ’cause when that happened, it forced him to think about the guilt weighing him down. Plus, Sam buried his dad’s dog tags at Mary’s grave site. Poor Sammy. Now I’m hoping that even though we’ve seen Sam shed some tears over Dad (and Mom), we need to see more of what he’s going through grief-wise. Looks like we may be getting that next week.

Topics to discuss:

— Was Sam serious about Dean letting him go to their mom’s grave site alone, or was he just trying to trick Dean into going with him?
— Dean mentioned that Sam and Dean have an uncle that they’ve never met. Do you think we’re going to get to meet this uncle some time this season?
— How hilarious was it that Sam was watching the “Skin” channel when Dean got back to the motel room? I loved that.

Favorite lines from “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things”:
— “I love you, Mom.”
— “Well, don’t get too excited, you might pull something.
— “Awkward.”
— “You got your journal, I got mine.”
— “It’s got unrequited ‘Duckie’ love written all over it.”
— “Neil, it’s your grief counselors! We’ve come to hug.”

From TV Guide: October 19, 2006: Oh, the Guilt As the episode’s title hinted, overcoming guilt was certainly the ongoing theme tonight. The person most affected by her surrounding friends and fellow doctors was Izzie. My favorite two “Izzie influencers” were Burke and Webber. They both FTF’d her (Friends Tell Friends) — first Burke told her: “You quit. You quit being a surgeon. You have two good hands and you aren’t using them. Feel guilty about that.” And then I thought it was quite effective when Webber, trying to make Izzie feel better about the Denny incident, told her that way back when he was an intern, he too made a fatal mistake. But he stayed and he worked and he never made that mistake again: “Every day I get to save lives.” Excitingly watching Cristina do the running whip stitch on a heart was the other turning point for Izzie. If only she’d frickin’ deposit that $8,700,000 check! Cute and quick George-Meredith moment by the refrigerator at the end, by the way. (If you blinked, you might’ve missed Meredith go to grab the check and George swiftly block her hand and push it away, followed by a devilish George grin.)

But let’s talk about our gallant Cristina. What an awesome moment where she saved Burke’s ass — so naturally covering for his quivering hand during surgery by carefully asking permission to do the running whip stitch herself since she is an intern who needs to learn. Amazing. I can only imagine the sex Burke and Cristina had that night. Alex: “I guess sleeping with your boss has its perks.” Best George line: “This sucks. Cristina gets sex and perks.” And while we’re on the subject of being gallant, T.R. Knight, I applaud your bravery this week.

So Addison finally told Derek the truth that she and Mark Sloan were more than a one-night stand, that she had been in love with Mark and lived with him for two months. Of course she wants Derek to have the brownstone! He better get more than just that damn trailer with the divorce settlement.

Derek: “All I want is Seattle. I want Seattle and I never want to see you again.”

Derek took it even further with McSteamy after Mark tried to apologize “as a friend.”

Angry Spice Derek: “You’re not a friend,” as he walked out.

Derek was so devastated and pissed that he couldn’t fathom telling Meredith he was happy she broke it off with Finn. I was halfway expecting him to grab her and make out with her on that elevator, but his mind was still concentrating on the Addison-Mark devastation.

Meanwhile, back at the (overpopulated hotel) ranch, Addison and McSteamy had some great postsex conversation.

McSteamy: “At least now you won’t have to feel guilty anymore.”
Addison: “Shut up.” (She beat me to it.)

Speaking of McSteamy, Callie’s best line was to McSteamy himself: “You were sexier when you weren’t talking.” Oh no she di-int. I felt bad for George not getting the hint that Callie did indeed break up with him. Not even a bucket of fried chicken and sci-fi DVDs would change her mind.

Loved how Alex and Bailey bonded at the end with Alex telling her he knew what Izzie was doing (that led to Denny’s death): “I knew, but I didn’t do anything to stop her. You weren’t the only one.” Bailey: “Alex, thank you.” Never thought I’d see Bailey thank Karev for anything. It was nice to see all the interns try to defend their Bailey during the M&M (morbidity and mortality) conference, although Cristina was most concerned about getting “seats and snacks.” I enjoyed Bailey retaliating towards Dr. Savoy (Todd Babcock) when she mocked his reference to her hormone levels.

After all the promos, I was looking forward to discovering just how the former husband and wife were attached and couldn’t quite break apart after they were having sex. Oh my. Her IUD had dislodged from her uterus and it got hooked onto her husband’s pierced penis (ouch) and it was embedded in her vaginal wall. Never thought I’d ever type that sentence. That was Tony winner Faith Prince (most recently on Huff) as the wife Sonya and Arye Gross (from the first few seasons of Ellen) as the husband Adam. Very funny having the daughter (Margo Harshman) walk in and see her formerly married parents in that… position. Once again, a patient had a good effect on one of the doctors — Sonya saying she was going to confess to her husband that she slept with her ex-hubby convinced Addison to fess up about the McSteamy truth to Derek.

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, it was very fitting to have the Diana (Justina Machado from Six Feet Under) story line. Bailey was back in true Bailey form, giving Diana inspiration and convincing her to have the mastectomy. Just in case you fast-forwarded and missed Kate Walsh‘s PSA, here’s what it said:

Breast cancer affects everyone — the 211,000 women who will be diagnosed with it this year and those who love them. If you, a friend or a family member want to learn more about breast cancer and the fight against it, contact the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at www.komen.org or call 1-800-I’M AWARE (1-800-462-9273).

You can also go to www.fordcares.com to purchase Warrior Wear and Warrior Gear. 100% of the net proceeds are donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Go here to enter to win a visit to the set of Grey’s Anatomy and a Ford Fusion.

New spoilers for the Ausiello Report: I strung you along for months. I teased you with impossible-to-solve asterisk quizzes. I accidentally ruined the surprise during a video interview with Lauren Graham and then attempted an elaborate cover-up that historians would later dub “Whispergate” (more on that in this week’s Ask Ausiello).

But that’s all behind us now. It’s time to come clean. No more secrets. For all you spoilerphobes, that’s your cue to head to the nearest exit, because things are about to get extra-scoopy. As you may’ve pieced together from last week’s Ask Ausiello, Lorelai and Christopher will — pause for dramatic effect — spontaneously tie the knot (read: elope) during a romantic trip to Paris on Gilmore Girls next month. Nov. 14 to be exact.

OK, breathe. Splash some cold water on your face. Grab the back of someone’s hand and slap yourself with it. But by all means, pull yourself together long enough to read my exclusive interview with Gilmore show-runner David Rosenthal. Not only does he confirm the elopement, but DR explains why he decided to go there and what this means for Lorelai and Luke. And while I had him on the horn, I tossed in a few questions about Marty’s return, Richard’s “death” and what role AS-P might play in the series finale.

Ausiello: Now that the secret is out, are you worried about a backlash from Luke and Lorelai fans?
David Rosenthal: No, I’m not worried about any backlash. I’m really excited about the story lines this year. I think it’s gonna make for a really interesting season and I hope the fans will stay with us and follow Lorelai through this journey she’s on.

Ausiello: Luke and Lorelai fans are not going to be thrilled with this development.
Rosenthal: I am a Luke and Lorelai fan as well. This is not an anti-Luke and Lorelai development. Luke and Lorelai are right now on separate journeys, but they are by no means forever separated. They’re still very much a part of each other’s lives and will be in the future in significant and profound ways.

Ausiello: How does this elopement figure into Lorelai’s journey?
Rosenthal: I think it’s just a natural outgrowth of what’s been going on with Lorelai this season and her reaction to last year and everything that happened with Luke. Obviously, [all the] episodes [leading up to the elopement] haven’t aired yet, but I think you’ll see their relationship building over the next [several] episodes. Christopher and Lorelai have a very deep, long history. This isn’t just some guy in her life. This is the father of her only child and a man who she’s known for virtually her entire life; they’re very connected. I think people will see sides of Christopher that they’ve never seen before. It’s a more complex relationship than people are used to seeing between Lorelai and Chris. The times before when Christopher and Lorelai have gotten together, something has always gotten in the way — whether Chris wasn’t ready, or Lorelai wasn’t ready, or Chris was having a child or whatever it was. Things have really kept them from exploring their relationship and their connection and what they have together. I felt like this year was really an opportunity to give them a chance to do that. And, I gotta say, they’re great together. It’s been really fun working with them.

Ausiello: This isn’t really a traditional, “Let’s run off to Paris and elope” kind of thing, is it?
Rosenthal: It is not. But I don’t want to spoil anything more than that. But no, they do not run off to Paris [intending] to elope. That is not why they go to Paris.

Ausiello: Can you talk a little about the aftermath of this event?
Rosenthal: It’s a very small town, so obviously Lorelai coming back with a husband — and not the husband they were expecting her to have — will have a profound impact on everybody.

Ausiello: How does Luke find out?
Rosenthal: I don’t want to spoil that. But that will not happen off camera; I can promise you that.

Ausiello: There are only so many times the Christopher card can be played. Is it fair to say that if it doesn’t work out this time, it’s not going to work out?
Rosenthal: Absolutely. It’s all or nothing.

Ausiello: Are you writing the show as if this is the last season?
Rosenthal: No. We have an arc for the season. We have a plan for 22 episodes. If it ends up being the last season, I’m very comfortable with where we end up and I think it will be a really satisfying end to the series. But it’s also a start of a new beginning for next season. I’d be excited to do another season, but I think that what we have planned for the end of the season could certainly wrap up the series if that’s what’s called for.

Ausiello: If this is the last season, would you be open to the idea of Amy coming back and being involved in that last episode?
Rosenthal: Uh… yeah, of course.

Ausiello: But it’s nothing that has been talked about.
Rosenthal: No. That’s not something that we’ve gotten into or even discussed at this point. The last time Amy and I talked, she wished me luck and I thanked her and told her I hoped she would continue to be proud of the show.

Ausiello: You haven’t heard anything from her in terms of feedback?
Rosenthal: I have not.

Ausiello: There’s a rumor going around that Richard’s going to die.
Rosenthal: No! Absolutely not! I promise you! No one’s going to die in Stars Hollow. Nobody.

Ausiello: What’s next for Rory and Logan?
Rosenthal: Deepening and intensifying. They’re going to be dealing with more adult issues and more adult problems. And while that will create some conflict, it will also give them an opportunity to grow closer as a couple. But there’s a question of, “Is this the kind of relationship that Rory sees going the distance, or is this just the college boyfriend?” Those are the questions that are going to come up for Rory this year. But there’s a lot in store for those two.

Ausiello: Marty’s coming back next month. Can you say anything about how he’s going to be reintroduced?
Rosenthal: We have a cool way of bringing him back into the show. Kind of a surprising way, which I don’t want to spoil. It brings up interesting issues for Rory and Logan, and I think it’s a nice story arc for Rory. We’re happy to have Mr. Wilcox back on the show; he’s really terrific.

Ausiello: How long will he be around?
Rosenthal: He’ll be in and out throughout the season.

Ausiello: Might there be another marriage this season?
Rosenthal: God, I can’t make any promises. I don’t know at this point.

Ausiello: So it’s possible?
Rosenthal: Yeah, it’s possible there could be another wedding this season.

Supernatural‘s

Creator Shares More Season 2 Secrets

by Angel Cohn

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, Supernatural

And you thought last Thursday’s “Burning Questions” feature had satisfied your thirst for Superscoop….When last we tuned in to CW’s Supernatural (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET), Sam and Dean were still reeling from the death of their father and trying to figure out what to do about the demon that killed him. But along the way they’ll be fighting some other otherworldly evildoers. TVGuide.com caught up with Eric Kripke, aka one of the coolest show creators around, who was more than excited to preview what to expect this season.

TVGuide.com: Loving the show this season. It seems like you are keeping with more of a steady story line, rather than with standalone episodes.
Eric Kripke: We’re actually going to be doing a little bit of everything. We’re still planning on doing more of what we did the second half of last season, where we sort of caught our stride and figured out what the hell we were doing. It’s a mix of standalones with ongoing mythology. Right now, coming off of the dad’s death, there are such major emotional story lines to play that it will be emotionally continuous. In terms of the mythology and hunting down the demon and what the demon’s plans are as far as Sam [goes], those are things we’ll be touching on every three or four episodes. But there is a lot to play with the boys and how they are so wildly dysfunctional and dealing with their dad’s death in the most unhealthy way possible.

TVGuide.com: They were more physical about their emotions in last Thursday’s episode.
Kripke: I am so proud of that episode. When we first started working on this story line, the first image that popped in my head was, “I can’t wait to see angry Dean.” In “Bloodlust” we really see him unleash his fury. From the pilot, what was always so great about Dean was that he shows up and he’s a little dangerous and a little unpredictable and you don’t quite know what he’s capable of. We always liked that, but we got away from it a little bit, because the more you learn about the guy, the more you understand him. [We're] trying to return a little danger to the character. You still love him, but every so often he just does something that you are like, “Whoa, that guys hard-core.” We’re not interested in him hand-wringing or dressing in black and listening to Morrissey. If the character acts hard-core now and then… I mean, hell, they do it with Jack Bauer. Why can’t we do it with Dean?

TVGuide.com: I’m so glad to see the car back.
Kripke: No one needed to worry about the car. Coming off the season finale, hilariously, some people were concerned about whether the Winchesters survived and everybody was concerned about whether the car survived. I’m a bigger fan of that car than anybody. I’d never let anything happen to it, not really, not forever.

TVGuide.com: The people may not be safe….
Kripke: But if anything, that car is going to outlive us all. I just love that car. It was always the plan that after an acceptable amount of time for Dean to rebuild it that it would come back bigger, stronger, faster, and it did.

TVGuide.com: A lot of fans are upset that John is dead. But since this is Supernatural, we see him again in some form?
Kripke: In some form or another. No one stays dead on Supernatural. For now he’s dead — we couldn’t have made it more clear with them burning his body — and for a lot of reasons he needs to stay dead because the boys need to deal with the issues that come out of it. For the show it is good drama because they are alone and scared and outgunned, and the odds are stacked against them. This is not the last we’ve heard from John Winchester, but for now he’s gone.

TVGuide.com: Am I right in guessing that the whispered words between Dean and John were about Sam and the others like him?
Kripke: Yes.

TVGuide.com: Will we ever find out what those words are?
Kripke: Yes! I’m rewriting that script [now]. It comes out mid-season. We don’t even leave that hanging until the end of the year.

TVGuide.com: Are you happy with how your show is doing, considering that you are up against a lot of big shows?
Kripke: Um… I’m happy, but I wish I was happier. We’re hanging in there, and that’s a testament to the fans. Under extreme competition from the No. 1 [Grey's Anatomy] and 2 [CSI] shows on television, we’re sticking in there with comparative numbers to what we had last year. And that’s in a much more brutal time slot and on a new network with not nearly the level of marketing that we had last year. All things considered, we’re doing well. For the show to be the six-/seven-year player that I want it to be, we need to do better. We need to say to the fans and to the converted, “Spread the word.” People catch on by word-of-mouth, so the best thing I could ask from the fans, as a personal favor to me, is to tell people about it.

TVGuide.com:  Besides, they can TiVo those other shows.
Kripke: They can always TiVo Grey’s Anatomy. All they are going to do on that show is have sex in a hospital.

TVGuide.com: And CSI is just about another dead person.
Kripke: Right. What do you want? Forensic fingernails, sex in a hospital, or good ol’ red-blooded, classic-rock demon fighting?

TVGuide.com: Are Ellen, Jo and Ash recurring characters?
Kripke: Yeah. We’re excited about fleshing out the world of the show. We’ve always thought this was such an interesting universe of hunters who live just beneath the surface of America. We started expanding that world and bringing characters in, which we started to do last season with Bobby.

TVGuide.com: What good, creepy creatures do you have up your sleeve this season? The clown was terrifying.
Kripke: [This week] we’re doing Pet Sematary-style zombies, and in Episode 9 we’re doing a big 28 Days Later sort of town overrun by zombies, which is really, really fun because we’ve got our own unique twist on it. We’ve got more demons of course, and we’re bringing back the shape-shifter from “Skin.” Every so often we figure out a way to do a philosophical episode. We had “Faith” last year, about who deserves to live and who deserves to die. We have an episode coming up where the boys are hunting something of supernatural origin, but then come to believe that it may or may not be an angel. They have to decide whether they are supposed to hunt it or let it be. Sam thinks it might be an angel and Dean, who doesn’t believe in those sorts of things, says “absolutely not.” I’m excited about that one. I like to do a classy episode about Dean — he believes in evil, but does he believe in good?

TVGuide.com: Do you have a stockpile of urban legends?
Kripke: If you came to the writers’ room, we’ve got a whole board. “Unnecessary surgery,” different monsters and spirits, the urban legend called “The Licked Hand,” and all sorts of creepy words that signify a potential episode that one of these days we’ll get around to. This year we get into the Robert Johnson legend, selling your soul to the devil at the crossroads, into the lost colony of Roanoke, into H.H. Homes, the serial killer from Devil in the White City, America’s first serial killer and his spirit…. Not only do we get to delve into urban legends, but we’re starting to get into American history and classic folklore. At the end of the day, damn it, I want this show taught in schools.

TVGuide.com: With a warning for the faint of heart.
Kripke: Right. Watch out for the hand getting ground up in the disposal, but otherwise it is very educational.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of the scenes that make me cover my eyes, how do you know when to pull away from the action?
Kripke: When the lawyers make us. [Chuckles] We have no interest in making a splatter film, we’re always trying to search for a way to do it elegantly, but the fact is that what you don’t see is worse than what you do. It is just scarier. What we care about is being as scary as possible, that having been said, when it is time to see something, we try not to shy away from it. I can only think of one occasion when the lawyers said absolutely not. I’m kind of amazed at what we do get away with. Last year in “Home,” when they put the hand in the disposal, we had this shot where it was the bottom pipe of the disposal where you saw all the blood and goo coming out. We were like, “Never in a million years are they going to let us use this shot,” and we put it in as a joke, and no one ever said anything.

TVGuide.com: How are you coping with Jared Padalecki’s injury and working that into the story?
Kripke: Ah, Jared. We’re making it work. Luckily, he gets in fights every episode so it is easy for him to break his hand. It turns out the zombie breaks his hand. I’m glad he’s OK, and I’m glad it all worked out, but I do have to say there is a part of me that wished he broke his hand a little earlier because it would have made so much more sense to come out of the car crash with the broken arm. He survived getting T-boned by a semi going full speed, but a zombie broke his hand? We do what we always do — we made a joke out of it and we had Dean give a funny reaction. Not once does it get in the way of the story.

From TV Guide:  October 17, 2006: Slugs Have Four Noses

I’m with Piz, “Guitar Hero” really is the best video game. It’s like karaoke for those with good hand-eye coordination and no lives.

Tonight’s episode was awesome as usual, though I have to admit that I was squirming when Veronica went to put a tracking device in Logan’s car. I know she thinks that most women would if they knew how, but I sort of saw that as the beginning of the end. Sure, they are all lovey-dovey and he’s going to go sit through “incomprehensible foreign movies of three-plus hours” for her, but I just feel that something has changed with them. I still do think that they make a great couple, but perhaps they need some time apart during college to realize that they are right for each other. The jealousy, or rather annoyance – “Jealous would involve piano wire” – wasn’t very becoming of her. I just felt like her heart wasn’t in her snappy comments tonight. (“Can I borrow your copy of 101 brooding comments?”) She knows what kind of guy Logan is, that his trips to Mexico probably involve less surfing and more donkeys, so his presence at an on-campus illegal gambling ring shouldn’t have exactly been shocking. Glad that she recognized her own behavior in Trish’s actions before things got much worse.

But while her Logan situation was lacking its usual spark, she was her snarky self around everyone else. My favorite example had to be her conversation with Dick.
- “Veronica Mars, modern college girl on the go.”
- “Dick Casablancas, Neolithic college boy on the sauce.”
- “OK, I’m not sure what Neolithic is, but hey, I’m in college, maybe someone will teach me.”

Oh, the lovely Mr. Casablancas is just charming. And there was a line from Logan about his buddy and leading girls astray that my dirty mind totally took the wrong way.

Actually, some of the best comments came from Weevil, who was gratefully back and just looked all cuddly after his stint in the big house. “Now I’m working at the car wash, which, as it turns out, isn’t nearly as much fun as the song sounds.” Or his constant teasing of V: “You actually made friends with somebody?” I was glad to see that Veronica was trying hard to help him get a job. Sure, things didn’t exactly work out with Keith, who was skeptical from the get-go:

“All those times I arrested him, he never struck me as great secretary material. Didn’t he get arrested for murder?”
“Assault.”
“See, he’s not even a very good murderer.”

But he finally ended up fixing the dean’s car and his air-conditioning. What a handy guy. Hopefully we’ll see more of him as the school’s maintenance man. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Dean O’Dell, especially considering that Veronica already has “the most colorful disciplinary record in the freshman class,” and it is only a few weeks into school.

I’m guessing if she can somehow keep the peace between the Lampoon boys and the Lilith House, she’d probably get extra credit in his book.

I’m also guessing that since the angry “safe car” gal was on Piz’s radio show at the time of the latest rape incident, then my theory about her being guilty was probably a little off. Unless she hired someone, or it happened to Claire before the show and it was just getting reported. Unless she did it on the way in, as a tactic to make the Lampoon boys look bad. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

From EW:  Athletic Supporter

On ”Veronica Mars,” our heroine helps a football player find a stolen playbook; meanwhile, Logan starts making himself scarce, and Weevil goes to college by Michelle Kung

Hello, fellow VM fans; I’ll be your substitute TV Watcher for the week, and I have two words for you: Weevil’s back! Last we saw of Francis Capra’s ex-PCHer, a particularly vicious Lamb was denying him a graduation walk in front of his poor grandmother. Turns out he was escorted right into the big house for assault (RIP, Thumper), and judging from his strangely bloated appearance, he obviously got in good with the prison cook. Taking pity on the new parolee after he’s tossed from Jumbo’s Clown Wash (”It’s not as fun as the song makes it sound”), Veronica persuades her dad to hire Weevil as his assistant, which he does reluctantly and only after hilariously snarking on Weevil’s inability to even be a good murderer. It’s a surprisingly fluid odd-couple arrangement that ends all too soon after Keith’s angry protégé unthinkingly decks a child abuser. Veronica next sets Weevil up with a maintenance job at Hearst, undoubtedly to serve as her new Wallace. She even finds herself a new Van Clemmons in Dean O’Dell (guest star Ed Begley Jr.). Let the master-key stealing and permanent-record pilfering begin!

Speaking of Wallace, he’s MIA this week as Veronica is hired to track down a rather tall and rather cute football player’s stolen playbook. It’s fairly mundane as mysteries of the week go (although she does get to snap back ”So was Hitler” to a smug artist), and its resolution ties in nicely with our perky sleuth’s own romantic dilemmas. Put off by Logan’s refusal to hang out with her, save for some late-night booty calls, Veronica tracks her slippery significant other to an illegal college gambling den and rightfully calls him out on his deceit — although she’s surprisingly quiet about his gambling. (Hello? Has everyone forgotten a little incident involving bum fights?) Satiating the raging LoVe ‘shipper in me, the two eventually make up sweetly in the library, with indications of hot stacks sex soon to follow. While I’m appreciative of Veronica’s finally fessing up to her multifarious trust issues, Logan’s sudden distancing of himself from her and all-around jerky behavior felt like too abrupt a shift. And don’t get me started on the overcaffeinated chipmunk that is Piz.

On the rape plot front, another girl is victimized, and Rob Thomas continues setting up his girls vs. boys structuring, à la last year’s rich vs. poor theme. He’s already introduced a fair share of suspects and potential red herrings: How did Dick screw up? What’s up with Wallace’s RA? Are the Hearst ‘poonsters being framed? But frankly, I don’t yet feel invested in the overall mystery. Unlike, say, last year’s bus crash, which wiped out Meg, few revelations have emotionally socked us in the gut. Absent from this week, Parker, while she has my sympathy, has yet to impress me as a fully fleshed-out character, and Veronica seems strangely stoic, given her personal history. Hearst is also weirdly unresponsive to the series of crimes. Additionally, while rape is a serious topic, the season thus far feels unusually fluffy to me. The B mysteries have been trivial, and has been pointed out before in the pages of EW, the attempts to make the show more appealing aren’t working. Give me noir over a lighthearted romp any day.

From TV Guide: 
October 17, 2006: Mustang Love?

Even if you loathe Chris, if you think he’s a former dead-beat dad for neglecting Rory all those years, and a total snake for sleeping with a heartbroken Lorelai, you gotta admit the guy gives great romance. Driving Lorelai in a cherry-red classic Mustang convertible to a deserted barn where he played Funny Face from an old-school film projector. Did you catch the big moment, when Lorelai tried not to cry just as Chris pulled a bag of popcorn out of the glove compartment? He couldn’t have picked a better musical; one of her favorite movies with great lyrics. “’S wonderful/’S marvelous/That you should care for me.” Notice the usage of the word care, not love. Chris is finally smart enough not to push this relationship too hard. And when Lorelai says she doesn’t trust him, or herself, he doesn’t argue. He lets it be. Wise move. Almost zen, actually. And it works. She invites him upstairs after the date.

Meanwhile, back in what is best described as “bizarro world,” Luke is taking care of his new woman, April. No muss, no fuss for his daughter: there’s your bed, there’s your desk, there’s your dresser. He actually explains to the 13-year-old how to use the phone and asks if she needs a nightlight. When she suggests Tarjay to spruce up the place (Luke: Tarjay? That sounds so fancy!), he admits he’s never been to Target. (They finally opened up one near my apartment. Dude’s totally missing out.) When he comes home with a package of 26 socks for six bucks, you’d think he won the freaking lottery. But at least she got him to update the apartment. That’s more than Lorelai could ever do.

OK, so we get it: Chris and Luke are different. One gets excited over a bargain, the other gets excited over a sports car. I feel like we’re watching an ep of Sesame Street: “One of these things is not like the others!” How long is this going to continue?

At least we had the hilarity of Emily’s arrest. When she’s pulled over for talking on her cell phone, the outrage begins: “What’s next? Drinking coffee while you’re driving? Listening to the radio? Opening the glove compartment? Scratching your nose?” Cop was right on when he asked if she’d been drinking. After all, if you don’t know Emily Gilmore, you’d think she was perpetually on something. When she is asked to take a Breathalyzer, Em delivers the funniest line of the night: “I’m not putting that thing in my mouth! Who knows where it’s been.”

Finally, props to the two smartest women in the ep: Sookie and Rory. Both were very concerned about Lorelai and her relationship with Chris. Sookie went for the imagery, describing Chris as the rebounder, the rubber ball. “That guy should be the 28-year-old surfer dude, not the father of your child.” Rory went straightforward: “I just want you to be careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Yes, two voices of reason! It’s about time.

PS.: Apparently, Doyle is working at the Hartford Courant. Good for him! But Paris brings it up one too many times during a meeting, causing a staffer to sneer, “What, as a fact checker?” I laughed out loud at the inside joke, for a few reasons. First, newspapers don’t get fact-checked. Zing! And two, my title here at TV Guide is associate director of editorial research. Which means, we, uh, fact-check. Ouch! Not “‘S Wonderful.” But that’s OK. For all his twitchy brilliance (and arrogance), Doyle wouldn’t last very long here.

From EW: Baby Daddy Dearest

On ”Gilmore Girls,” Christopher steps up his game in his pursuit of Lorelai; plus, Emily is arrested, and Rory makes some hipster friends at Yale by Karen Valby

I imagine the message boards will be roiling the next few days with calls for Christopher’s head, but let’s first agree Lauren Graham and David Sutcliffe have killer chemistry. Hit me with your best arguments that that is a poor substitute for loyalty or trust or dependability, and then I’ll hit you with a replay of that opening kiss between Lorelai and Christopher. Now that’s what I call a proper good night!

While her parents are making nice out on the front porch, Rory is inside packing her bags to head back to Yale (where — hooray! — she might find a plotline on her fall schedule). When Lorelai floats in gasping about her date, she checks herself and asks Rory if it was weird that Christopher didn’t come in to say hello. (It was!) Rory, who’s changed her bratty tune, says he could have come in and she would have given them some privacy. (Getting weirder!) Then Lorelai starts gushing about Christopher and pumping Rory for some inside scoop. Rory wisely tells her mom she’s not going to start passing notes between her two parents, and then gently warns her about swerving down this road she’s been down so many times before.

Later, Sookie gives Lorelai a firm smack-down for her swan dive back into Christopher’s arms. In a scene most of you women have probably been on the giving or receiving end of, Sookie invites Lorelai to dinner and then guesses, correctly, that Lorelai is waiting to see if Christopher comes through with plans for another date. Sookie, in her bighearted way, thoroughly disapproves. She reminds her friend that she hasn’t been broken up with Luke for all that long (finally, a voice of reason!) and that Christopher, the wayward father of her child, is probably not the healthiest of rebounds. Lorelai again insists that her eyes are wide open and makes a crack that for all the people worried about her safety, she needs traffic cones set up around her heart. Message boarders, take note.

In Luke land, where Lorelai has completely forgotten that she ever planted a flag, we finally get another look at April. I know a lot of you don’t like the character, but I think she’s pretty sweet, and I’m all for more teenage girls on TV who talk about books and wear glasses and shirts that reach the waistlines of their pants. April is staying with Luke for two weeks while her mother (the preternaturally hot Sherilyn Fenn, who in just a few scenes is proving to have some nice chemistry herself with Scott Patterson) is away. Luke has set up a little bed and desk for April and needlessly teaches her how to use call waiting and offers to set up a nightlight so she can safely make her way to the bathroom at night. Again, for all those who complain that April was an unnecessary source of plot tension, she also fleshes out Luke’s otherwise gruff character in interesting, sympathetic ways. Finding Luke’s apartment depressing, she takes him on his first trip to Target (who must be paying GG beaucoup ad money for all the love it got), where they buy candles and placemats. Over dinner, worried about her dad’s breakup with Lorelai, April talks up her newly single biology teacher, who has lots of piercings, ”but only in one ear.” Luke, that doll, tells her he’s just fine. ”You don’t have to take care of me. I’m here to take care of you.” Do you hear that, Lorelai? That’s the sound of good parent-child boundaries. Take a page.

At Yale, Rory mopes her way through another awkward call with Logan but rebounds at the paper and later at an art exhibit. She meets two girls, both of whom are silly and pretentious, just like all hipsters. But hey, the girl needs friends. The three end up back at Logan’s apartment, and just as they’re about to binge on popcorn and tunes, Logan calls. And that schmo, an advertisement against college binge drinking if ever there was one, has the nerve to act vaguely annoyed that Rory can’t talk and why is the music so loud and what do you mean you have to go? Good for Rory, who hangs up to hang out with her two new annoying friends. One small step for Gilmore kind.

And finally, the big date with Christopher. Now I know that it’s much easier for rich guys to put on a good show to impress a lady, but he seriously brought it. A shiny red convertible (poor Lorelai’s hair!), a drive through the country, an abandoned barn for a movie screen, and the night lights up with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire swanning their way through Funny Face. Snacks in the glove compartment, too! For all of our worries that this merry-go-round is going to abruptly grind to a halt, pitching Lorelai into the dust, has she ever looked happier? Just once, actually, when she later got a call from the police station saying that Emily had been arrested (for talking on a cell phone while driving and refusing to submit to a germy Breathalyzer) and needed to be picked up. At the end of her golden evening, Lorelai, despite her protestations that they should take it slow, invites Christopher to spend the night, and Gershwin’s ” ‘S Wonderful” starts playing as they kiss. Heavy-handed, yes. But still marvelous.

And then the spell was ruined by a late appearance of the Aerie Girls. Perhaps because the advertiser sensed that a pack of them on chintz sofas was too much to bear, the girls have been reduced to four and upgraded to a coffee klatch around a card table. They started yammering on about love, and I shut the TV off and went to add Funny Face to the top of my Netflix queue.

According to Ask Ausiello, Lorelai and Christopher Elope during the November sweeps. Although Lorelai has been bouncing in and out or bed with Christopher between relationships through the years, this is a much bigger step, especially for runaway bride Lorelai. This is going to make Emily both happy, and upset especially since she couldn’t plan the most exceptional wedding.

But what will this mean for Lorelai’s and Luke’s fate or was it just not meant to be…
“You’re right. And to make it up to you, I’m going to fill in a few more letters in my GG asterisk quiz. (Major-ass spoiler alert.) “But I suppose I could reveal it in the form of an asterisk quiz. I have it on good authority that Lorelai and Christopher — I cannot believe I am telling you this — e***e during November sweeps. If anyone asks, you did not hear it from me.”

Next week: Gilmore show-runner David Rosenthal will be here to explain why he decided to have Lorelai and Christopher e***e. And I’ll finally reveal what transpired between Lauren Graham and myself at the CW launch party that almost landed me on the unemployment line (not really), nearly ruined my relationship with the CW (as if) and taught me a valuable lesson about why it’s never a good idea to whisper a secret into someone’s ear without covering your mouth. In the meantime, head on over to the Ask Ausiello discussion thread to chat about this week’s column and to see who can come up with the most five-letter words that begin and end with “E.” Here’s one to get you started: Ernie!”

There is so much conflicting reviews and comments this year about Desperate Housewives and Gilmore Girls, they either love or hate them or both. This week’s ep. of Housewives was no different.

Lynette’s story was an improvement especially because there was no Nora, but also she reminiscent of her self from season 1, Super Mom. Her bribery got out of line, but it was humorous. Poor Parker does he really believe his sprain was that bad that he could continue  to play Baseball?

On thing there is a consensus on, viewers like Orson, he is criminal with a heart, and really seems to love Bree, it is amazing how he had managed to tone down the Bree/Andrew war, where they actually seemed to come to terms at the end. Though some thought this was unrealistic, I think Andrew is actually grateful to be living in home, plus Bree is angrier at Danielle, so the heat is off him.  Danielle was really “Hot for Teacher” and her recent 80s look matches the song.  Will Bree’s children ever get back on track, or will they have to wait till their near forty like Lorelai, to realize their mother wasn’t that horrible?

I love Gaby and Carlos scenes, they have such a chemistry together, plus Marc Cherry loves Gaby too, he gives her the best and funniest lines of every episode.

Poor Susan, although there is very little sympathy out there for her character, she shouldn’t be so unlucky in love. Personally, she have loved Mike, but it was always so complicated, Ian makes things so easy, plus spoiler he is so rich, and a gentlemen. Susan will be heading towardsIan more in coming episodes, even after a coma Mike is behaving like a Jerk.

From TV Guide:  October 15, 2006: Like It Was

Well, the battle between Susan and Edie for Mike’s attention was certainly resurrected tonight. In true soap opera form, Mike finally came out of his coma and the only one not around or even in town was Susan. Susan was gallivanting with Ian in the country again, in a place where there was, of course, poor cell reception. When Susan’s daughter Julie finally got through to Susan’s cell, I was so hoping Julie would’ve said: “Umm… Mike came out of his coma. Can you hear me now?” I didn’t think Susan was being fair to Ian. She didn’t have to reciprocate his flirtations in the first place, but she did. But then I felt bad for Susan when Mike told her he didn’t remember her and asked her not to come back for a while since he had to go to physical therapy. Retrograde memory loss will do that to you. You just knew Edie was going to be leering around the corner and then tell naïve Mike that he wasn’t in love with Susan. Payback’s a bitch and her name is Edie.

Orson is one of my favorite characters on the show now and I think it’s due to a combination of the character being written so well and because Kyle MacLachlan is just so dang good. Yes, Orson is a “bad guy” and you can tell he’s got a sordid past that includes killing his wife. But unlike Bree’s former psychopath other half George, I don’t find Orson creepy. Am I alone here? I like that he’s so mysterious, but likably mysterious. Why is he being so nice and supportive to Bree’s kids and to Bree herself even as he tried to kill Mike and then freaked out when he heard Mike came out of his coma? I kind of like not knowing why. Speaking of Bree’s scandalous kids, it did not surprise me that Andrew turned tricks with older men while he was homeless and that Danielle had a bad perm, I mean, that Danielle was sleeping with her history teacher, Mr. Falati (Anthony Azizi from Commander in Chief). One of the best scenes tonight was when Bree confronted her neighbor Vera Keck and told her that her husband, Howard, (Terry Rhoads) was one of Andrew’s clients. Best way to shut Bree up? Tell her about Danielle and the teacher. Poor Bree — her two kids are the town sluts. Vera was played by the fabulous Lisa Banes, who has portrayed a plethora of various roles in her career, but the one I want to point out? How about the mother in Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? Oh yes. Not everyone can say they’ve played the title character in a Tori Spelling TV movie.

While we’re on the subject of Tori Spelling, I enjoyed the battle between Gabrielle and Carlos. She went too far in selling his belongings in a yard sale, but he went too far when he even suggested peeing in her mouthwash, soup and coffee. Then Carlos pulled a Bree and asked Gaby to get out of the car and he left her there on the street after she told him she slept with John Rowland again. Oh, what’s the Tori connection, you ask? That was Michael Durrell as Gaby’s lawyer briefly at the very end. 90210 fans will remember Michael as Donna Martin’s doctor father. Uh-huh.

What a treat it was to have a Nora-free episode! At last — Lynette and Tom got to spend time with one of their sons. Since Parker was so bad at playing baseball, I totally related to him since I was always picked last while choosing teams in gym class (cue Debbie Downer noise). I didn’t mind Lynette paying that pitcher kid Nicky $50 to help Parker and I laughed out loud when Parker’s ball hit Nicky in the head. Am I bad? Glad Lynette seems to want to support Tom as he chases his dreams. As long as he chases them away from Nora.

From EW:  The Harder They Coma

On ”Desperate Housewives,” Mike wakes up with no memory of his relationship with Susan, but Edie is there to help; plus, Bree’s other shoe drops by Lindsay Soll

Three cheers to Marc Cherry! I think this was the best episode yet of the season; it had all the ingredients that made the Desperate Housewives cake so delicious in the first place: comedy, drama, trauma, mystery, scandalous affairs, and someone in the slammer.

And the icing on the cake: There was no Nora!

We first learn Mike has retrograde memory loss, meaning he’s missing two years of his life and thinks it’s 2004. Good thing for Orson, bad, bad thing for Susan, who has now unknowingly fallen victim to Edie’s vindictive brainwashing techniques. It was harsh of Edie to make Susan out to be such a bad person. Setting aside the fact Susan has been annoying and dull lately, I did feel for her when she got treated so coldly by Mike when she finally arrived at the hospital. I really hope romance doesn’t blossom again between Mike and Edie. Lest we forget, last time it ended in a fire burning down Edie’s house.

I’m glad Susan ended her cheesy romance with Ian. What did he expect to happen when Mike woke up? His English accent and visions of trips to France were never going to be enough for her. Come on, Susan only loves men who have criminal pasts.

Speaking of which, we were finally reacquainted with the Orson-Mike story line, but I really wish it had been more advanced than it was. True, we did see Mr. Hodge nearly turn pale when he heard Mike had awoken from his coma, but we never got any clue as to what he planned to say (or do) to Mike when he visited him at the hospital.

Lynette was back to her regular power-mom techniques, paying off the 8-year-old star pitcher of the opposing Little League team with a $50 bill so Parker would actually have a shot at hitting the ball. After the scam is uncovered, Tom says he thinks Lynette is so worried about Parker being a quitter because she’s angry about Tom’s leaving advertising. Lynette eventually admits she’s jealous he’s chasing his dreams and she’s stuck behind a desk. It was nice to see this realistic parenting duo back together again, especially sans Nora.

Gabby and Carlos are living under one roof again, which provided many laugh-out-loud moments. Case in point: When Lynette and Bree are over, she accuses him of peeing in her shampoo. (Have they really stooped that low?) He tells her that if he’d done that, he wouldn’t have done it to her shampoo, but rather her mouthwash, soup, and decaffeinated coffee. Then she goes back to the ladies, none of whom want to drink their coffee. Hilarious!

Turns out Gabby is serious about not getting back together with Carlos. After he picks her up from jail — she was arrested for assaulting the police officers whom she called after Carlos ”broke into” their house — Gabby tells him she doesn’t love him and hasn’t for a very long time, then hits him with the ultimate weapon: telling him that she slept with landscaper John again.

At Danielle’s history fair, Andrew runs into one of his ”customers” from when he was homeless, Dr. Howard Keck, a very respected citizen of the town of Fairview. Orson tries to tell Bree how Andrew got by while on the street, and she thinks he means Andrew did yard work. Is that what the kids are calling it these days? When she finally realizes what Andrew had really been doing, Orson says, ”I think someone could use a cocoa.” How very 1950s of him.

Later, when biscuit-toting Bree tells the doctor’s wife what (or should I say who) her naughty husband had been doing on the side, Mrs. Keck claims she was well aware of it, but didn’t care to know any details. She then tells Bree a little secret of her own: Danielle is sleeping with her 35-year-old history teacher. Now it makes sense that at the history fair, the cradle robber said to Bree, ”Don’t tell anyone, but Danielle is my favorite student.”

After bad-hair Danielle (admit it, you’ve noticed how terrible her locks have been looking lately, too) storms out of the house saying Mr. History Teacher loves her, Bree tells Andrew she’s so tired of feeling like the worst mother who ever lived. The two have a heart-to-heart; something I don’t think we’ve ever seen them actually do before. Did Orson drug Andrew or something? He’s been acting a lot more likable these days. Hopefully it will stay that way.

From TV Guide:

New Spoilers:

Episode 3.06: Let the Angels Commit
Airdate: November 2, 2006

10/13 – Cristina scrubs in on the rare ‘humpty dumpty’ procedure, much to the envy of her fellow doctors, Alex questions his future medical specialty, George and Addison work with a pregnant woman with an unusual dilemma, and Derek receives a surprise visit from his sister. Source: Spoilerfix & ABC From TV Guide: October 12, 2006: What I Am

The very best episodes of Grey’s Anatomy make you laugh and cry all at once, and this was one of those. Seconds after I was crying while watching Izzie listen to Denny’s phone message to his parents, I laughed out loud at Callie propositioning McSteamy. All together now: Shut up! Mark Sloan aka McSteamy to Callie: “Can I buy you a drink?” Callie: “Only if you have it delivered to my hotel room,” as she walks out of the bar, then turns around all sexy: “You comin’?” You go, girl! She breaks it off with George and then seduces… McSteamy. Can we say “upgrade” much? Only on television, but I’ll allow it.

Nice way to have McSteamy enter the hospital — having everyone gaze over and give off all sorts of different vibes ranging from shock to anger to excitement. Oh yes — be sure to pick up the latest copy of TV Guide magazine since new series regular Eric Dane is gracing the cover. Fall TV Hot List issue, people — run, don’t walk! Speaking of hot, can we talk about the perfect pairing of doctor and intern: Sloan and Karev? Alex finally escaped the tough-as-nails Addison and got transferred to… someone even tougher. How about Alex’s face when McSteamy asked him to fetch him a cappuccino? I loved that Addison’s parting statement to Alex was “You’ll miss me.” I think he will. And let’s see how long Addison remains “just coworkers” with McSteamy.

My favorite parts of tonight’s episode? Watching the not-pregnant pre-appendectomy morphine-induced Meredith turn into Corky from Life Goes On. Yes, I said it. I kept waiting for her to sing “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Who knew that pain medication would act as a truth serum? Meredith got to get just about everything off her chest to just about everyone. Funniest Meredith-on-drugs moment was when she said to Bailey: “You’re pretty.” No — I take that back. Even better was when she said to McSteamy (after he asked her “How’s my favorite dirty mistress?”): “Haven’t you heard? Now I’m an adulterous whore.” Didn’t think I’d ever hear Meredith call George an excellent kisser in mixed company (but she should’ve stopped there, thank you). The Meredith/Addison conversation was the highlight since you know it never could’ve happened without the drugs. Although a bit hard to believe, it was a touching moment for Addison to say: “I don’t hate you” to Meredith. But since Addison wasn’t on morphine like Meredith was, I was surprised Addison said: “Don’t hurt her again” to Derek. Then I remembered that Bailey told Addison: “No man defines who you are.” That whole Bailey/Addison scene was great, especially when Bailey referred to Addison as “the woman who gets the hots for man candy and cheats on her husband.” Addison: “That is rude and unkind and completely true. Oh my God, what am I gonna do?”

While we’re on the subject of doctors influencing other doctors, I loved when Derek asked Dr. Webber: “Why did you leave Meredith’s mother?” Webber (after mentioning there was too much baggage and guilt): “I was a better man to walk away.” That, of course, led to Derek using the “I’m walking away” line on Meredith later. As for that scene, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best test of an actor’s ability is how well he reacts. Ellen Pompeo was phenomenal when Derek told Meredith that Finn was a “better guy” and that she deserves “to be with somebody who won’t hurt you. I’m walking away.” Her face said it all. Patrick Dempsey also reacted quite effectively in the scene when Finn convincingly shared why he was the one Meredith should choose over Derek. And Katherine Heigl was at her reacting best in her conversations with Denny’s father and while listening to Denny’s message. Hello — Izzie is a multimillionaire! How shocking for Mr. Duquette, played by the awesome Fred Ward, to present Izzie a check for $8,700,000! I did not see that coming, especially after Denny, Sr. accused Izzie of basically pulling an Anna Nicole and marrying Denny only because he was on his deathbed. Luckily, she told him she was debt free and wasn’t after anyone’s money.

Sandra Oh had me laughing throughout the hour. Some Cristina zingers included:

- To Burke: “I am not dating a chicken surgeon.”
- Asking Meredith if she was pregnant “with McBaby.” (It was kind of surprising Meredith never had sex with McVet.)
- To Meredith while she was heavily medicated: “This is why I hate being around stoned people.”

But I also enjoyed seeing Cristina so supportive and encouraging of Burke — she just wouldn’t let him give up. Burke: “My hands are who I am.” Cristina: “What if I hold the vessel? Nobody has to know.”

I was sure glad the pregnant woman (Tina Holmes from Six Feet Under) survived after she gave birth to her baby via C-section against her will. And it was good that Bailey stepped in and made it easier for the burn victim (Alan Blumenfeld) and his wife (the wonderful Stephanie Faracy) to deal with the fact that he wasn’t going to get his former face back. Plastic surgeon McSteamy has to work on his postsurgery counseling skills. Perhaps he needs help from McNamara/Troy?

So two relationships ended tonight: Callie and George (didn’t think that would happen so soon), and Meredith and Finn (that one didn’t take a rocket scientist — you knew she’d realize Derek was “the one” even though she wishes he wasn’t). Chris O’Donnell was totally wearing a wig, by the way (he shaved his head for a film role). I briefly thought my favorite actor on the show, T.R. Knight, was wigged out as well, but as my roommate pointed out, he just has an unfortunate haircut. Derek might say a third relationship ended but not according to Meredith. That girl is determined.

From EW: Will Power

On ”Grey’s Anatomy,” Izzie gets a message from Denny, along with $8.7 million; plus, Meredith chooses Derek by Gregory Kirschling

Man, is this show firing on all cylinders lately or what?

Last week I talked about how Grey’s Anatomy knows how to seal the deal in the last 10 minutes of every episode. This episode, true to form, sealed the deal in the last 10 minutes! Not that the rest of the show wasn’t shipshape, but just when you were thinking that maybe this whole installment was a little all-around lackluster compared with the last two weeks’ worth of sterling episodes, those last 10 minutes rolled around and knocked everything up a notch. Right now I feel that, pound for pound, the show as a whole might be as good as it’s ever been. Let’s start at the end and look at the last 10 minutes.

Meredith’s not pregnant. What a tease last week’s teaser was! In fact, this week, the opening credits — the opening credits! — were still rolling when Bailey announced that the lab work indicated Meredith wasn’t preggers. That was fast. We were had. Meredith, instead of an obstetrician, needed…whatever an appendix doctor is called. She needed an appendectomy. And she got one. In the last ten minutes, as she was healing from the surgery and from the morphine that made her so loopy for most of the show, Derek came to visit. He’d noticed Finn keeping vigil at her bed, and he’d talked to the Chief, who admitted — in a sensitive moment — that he loved Meredith’s mom enough to walk away. So Derek stepped up to Meredith and said, ”I’m walking away….Finn’s a better guy.” And he walked away. Did we buy it? We bought it. He looked like he really meant it. Derek’s back to being a top 3 character again. Somehow, despite the jerk he’s been so far this season, this move was moving, and made sense. Dempsey acted it like an ace. He really made us remember why we like the guy, and best of all was that slow, crushing fade that broke out on Ellen Pompeo’s face as Meredith realized what Derek was doing. Thumbs up.

And the last 10 minutes were just getting going. Back at the ranch, Izzie was sitting with George and bucking up to listen to the message that her dead beloved, Denny, left to his folks from his hospital bed. Katherine Heigl, in her quiet way, owned this episode: She didn’t have so many lines, but has she ever been better? Something interesting and gloomy was washing over her face throughout the show. This was Heigl’s best, most convincing grieving of the series. Izzie spent most of the show talking to Denny’s dad, who was played by another great, well-cast guest star, Fred Ward, the guy who played Remo Williams back in 1985. In the final minutes, as she listened to the message, and Denny provided the thematic voice-over wrap-up that’s usually Meredith’s bag, we found out that Izzie seems to have inherited $8.7 million. Does this mean she ain’t coming back to work? ”From here on out,” Denny’s voice-over from the beyond promised, ”nothing’s ever going to be the same.”

It was George who opened up the envelope with the check. He’d bailed on Callie to be there, and she called it quits with him for it. ”It’s always Izzie or Meredith, it’s never me,” she said. Good deal. This couple needed to break up. Callie’s my least favorite character, but every week I can’t quite muster up the energy to compile an argument against her. But these last 10 minutes were good to her. Callie, sitting at the bar, flashed her eyebrows — those suckers were especially hooked and Jack Nicholson-y this episode, weren’t they? — at Mark the new guy. (Sorry, still not gonna use his nickname.) She invited him back to her place — it fits like clockwork that her place is a hotel. That’s a nice Grey’s touch. Meanwhile, in another closing scene, Addison finally released her bicker buddy Karev from OB-GYN duty, and I feel it’s almost obvious that these two kids are gonna get together at some point.

But the biggest news of all is that after Derek took himself out of the running and left Meredith to Finn, Meredith very delicately, very neatly, very sweetly (how can you not like her?) sent Finn packing in the final minutes. I’m a little surprised the show didn’t end with just Derek’s bowing out — that plus this is almost too much drama for one show to handle. And I’m a little worried, because like a lot of you on the message boards, I don’t really know where a happy-Meredith, happy-Derek Grey’s Anatomy goes from there. But since the show’s clicking big-time lately, you get the sense that we’re in good hands and it’ll probably work, whatever happens.

As we’ve seen, you try to guess where this show is going at your own peril. In the opening moments, we met a big burly guy named Sean who sells cars. He’s jovial, he has a vivacious wife, and naturally all of us figured that this dude would be dead meat in a very emotional last quarter of the show. Seen it all before. Then he lit a cigarette and blew up his oxygen supply, all before the opening titles. It was a great little shock, good evidence that Grey’s knows what you’re thinking and is trying to keep ahead of you. (How about those bad fireball special effects, though? Reminded me, for some reason, of the inside of Sigourney Weaver’s refrigerator in Ghostbusters.)

Lastly, what do you think of Cristina? She was kind of a drag, right? She had the funniest lines last week, but this week — not showing much milk of human kindness when it came to helping Burke rehabilitate, or calling out ”Meredith, are you pregnant?” to the whole hospital — she came off like a scold. How can you possibly like her more than Meredith?

Supernatural:

Your Burning Questions Answered! (TV Guide)

Jared Padlecki and Jensen Ackles, Supernatural

While another Thursday at 9 pm show is notorious for keeping secrets, Supernatural is not. We invited TVGuide.com readers to send in their questions about the chiller-thriller, and creator Eric Kripke happily answered. While he doesn’t spoil everything — you’ll just have to keep watching to find out about Sam’s powers or Dean’s amulet — he does offer juicy tidbits about why John was killed off, when that notorious demon will be rearing its ugly head, and what to expect during November sweeps.Question: Any hints as to what’s to come during November sweeps? And also, many thanks for not killing off the Metallicar! — agtspooky
Kripke: You’re welcome. I’d never let anything happen to that car! In November, the boys face the homicidal spirit of H.H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer — I think it’s a pretty scary friggin’ episode. In another, the law finally catches up to the boys for all the felonies they’ve been committing over the past few years. (The lead detective is played by Linda Blair). And in the final sweeps episode, Dean confronts a female demon, and he learns for sure that John made a demonic deal to save Dean’s life, which of course further screws up an already screwed-up Dean.

Question: Will we ever find out why Dean’s eyes bled in “Bloody Mary”? — mariec
Kripke: Yes, but not any time soon. One day…

Question: Was it always your plan to have John Winchester die in order to advance the plotline? — escapism101
Kripke: Yes, it was always in the cards. It was never a question of “if,” it was a question of “when.” We knew it would make the stories more intense and vital if the boys were chasing and fighting the Demon themselves, instead of simply chasing Dad. It makes the boys alone, scared, outgunned, overwhelmed, with the odds stacked against them — which will be good drama. And the overall emotional story for the series, after all, is how these boys become men, and for that to happen, their mentor has to die and they have to step up and take his place.

Question: In the season premiere, when John is bargaining for Dean’s life, the Demon says Dean is not much of a threat, and that neither is Sam. To me, that means they are both definitely a threat. Are we going to find out how much and why sometime this season? Also, are the Winchesters the only family that the Demon has attacked where there has been more than one child? Max was an only child, and so was the baby in Salvation, but this is obviously not the case with the Winchesters.  — notenufTV
Kripke: I can’t really answer that first question, but I can say this: We will definitely learn this season why the Demon has chosen Sam and the other children, and we get a better sense of what the Demon’s plan is. For the second question, I can say that yes, there are definitely other families with more than one child. It’s not just the Winchesters. You’re going to meet one of those families soon.

Question: I’ve heard rumors of plans for a tie-in comic book telling tales from the days when John was learning to be a hunter and traveling with his little boys. Any more information on when that might happen, who would be working on it, and whether there are any plans for other show-related merchandise (hint-hint, like a soundtrack)? The classic rock is great, but I can get that already; I’d love Chris Lennertz’s and Jay Gruska’s underscores!  — Bardicvoice
Kripke: Unfortunately, there currently aren’t any plans for a musical-score soundtrack, but I’ll pass on your compliments to Chris and Jay. They’ll be happy to hear it. As for a comic book, we’re hoping to get one out by summer [2007], if all goes well. Peter Johnson, our co-executive producer, is planning on writing it, and not only is he a member of the gang who knows all the ins and outs of the mythology, but he also wrote a series for Marvel called Powerless, so he’s the perfect person for the job. And yes, the concept is to tell the John Winchester story, to show how he became a hunter, how he met Bobby, Ellen, etc., to answer questions that seem to nag everybody. For instance, where the hell did John keep the boys when he went off on hunts? Who took care of them? We have answers, and the comic will be another way to present them.

Question: Why Lawrence? I live in Lawrence, Kansas, and have to admit, the boys being from there was what initially drew me to the show last year. I expected Kripke to be from our little college town, but, alas, Ohio. So… why Lawrence? — gaelicspirit8
Kripke: I chose Lawrence because of its proximity to Stull Cemetery, and the urban legends that come out of there. You’re a local, so you probably know what I’m talking about!

Question: Is it easier or more difficult to show and develop Sam and Dean’s relationship, as well as tell the overall story, with only two regulars on the show? In terms of finding reasons for them to interact and talk, potential audience fatigue, etc…. — JenJenJen
Kripke: It is challenging. Almost every episode, we need to tell an emotional or relationship story about the boys, or else some other kind of deeper thematic, so that it’s not just about monster hunting or shallow horror-movie stuff. We always say it’s not a show about monsters, it’s a show about family, so yes, in the writers’ room, we work very hard to find those emotional stories, and ones that we haven’t told yet. Luckily for us (and unlucky for Sam and Dean), they’ve suffered so much tragedy and loss, and they’re so wildly dysfunctional, that we haven’t run out of emotional stories yet — and it doesn’t look like we’re going to anytime soon.

Question: Are you expecting the death of John to have a “significant” change on the personality of both boys — making Dean more capable of a relationship with Jo, for example — or does it go back to being Dean and Sam from Season 1 after a little while? — ugahill
Kripke: On the surface, Sam and Dean will seem very much like themselves — Dean will be a smart-ass, Sam will be empathetic. However, on a deeper level, John’s death had a major impact on them and in many ways caused them to shift roles. Sam, once reluctant to become a hunter, begins to accept his role in the family business, because he wants to respect his father’s memory. Dean, on the other hand, begins to buckle under the pressure — from the pain of John’s death, from the secret that John burdened him with before he died. Dean begins to act in more violent, more reckless, more hard-core ways. Don’t worry, Dean will still be the charming, devil-may-care guy you know and love, but every so often you see a crack in the facade, and when you do, it’s scary.

Question: Is the Colt the only way to kill the Demon? — sfoster1
Kripke: No. There will be other ways. But the boys have to find them first.

Question: Is “the truth” that John was looking for in “Home” the information that he knows about the special children? — sfoster1
Kripke: You’re correct. “The truth” John was looking for was the truth about Sam and the other children like him. In my mind, when John shows up in “Dead Man’s Blood,” he knows all the secrets. He was just keeping them to himself.

Question: Since it’s driving me nuts (eight-plus hours of book/computer-research nuts so far), could you please tell us: A) what Dean’s necklace represents, and B) if it will ever come into play? — greeneyedgal
Kripke: Sorry. Don’t go nuts. Yes, it will definitely come into play, but no, I’m not ready to tell anyone what it represents. But it represents something, for sure.

Question: Any more appearances for Bobby or Missouri? Jim Beaver is endearing. Bobby would make an excellent surrogate father and best friend to the brothers, while Loretta Devine kicks all sorts of butt in the charm department. — galveston
Kripke: We’d like to bring Missouri back, we just need to figure out the right story in which to do it. As for Bobby, he’s definitely coming back soon. We’re working on a story right now in which Bobby plays a part.

Question: I’m wondering if we’re going to learn more about Sam’s abilities in the near future? Related to that, when Mary apologized to Sam in “Home,” what was she sorry for? If she had been apologizing for not being there for him while he was growing up, she’d have apologized to Dean, as well. Will this ever be addressed? — Jonisa
Kripke: Yes, we’re going to learn more about these abilities. As for Mary, well done — you’re paying attention. I can’t tell you yet what Mary is apologizing for, but it’s definitely tied into Sam’s abilities and what Mary knows about them.

Question: Why on earth is Dean lying to Sam about John’s final words? — Jonisa
Kripke: John made Dean promise not to tell Sam. Once you hear what the final words are, you’ll understand. And yes, you will hear what they are. We reveal the secret mid-season. Dean can’t handle the burden any longer, and tells Sam the truth.

Question: Will the brothers meet back up with the Demon this season? — November’sGuest
Kripke: Definitely.

TV Guide Review:  Another week, another seriously good hour of TV.

Loved the use of Journey’s “Wheel in the Sky” for the recap. Probably my favorite classic-rock recap since “Salvation.” Loved the way they incorporated “Everybody Loves a Clown” and ended on the sound of the crowbar Dean dropped to the ground after he went to town on the trunk of the Impala. Speaking of the Impala… how freakin’ awesome was it to see that baby running again? The Impala’s back; so’s AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” It just does a Supernatural fan’s heart good to see Dean at the wheel, Sammy in the passenger seat, the two of them bantering back-and-forth. Things were finally lighthearted for a little bit — a refreshing change after getting so much heavy angst in this season’s first two episodes (not to mention the darkness and angst of Season 1′s last three episodes). The show paid the car a nice tribute. After all, the Impala is pretty much another character on the show.

The case that Dean was so giddy to take on was really interesting; it ultimately made him rethink his entire existence and question the way he was raised. How cool was it that Amber Benson — Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer — played a vampire? She looked great, by the way. I liked that the show put another new twist on the classic vamp tale, with this group of “fangs” making the conscious (or is that unconscious?) choice not to kill humans and just live their lives drinking cow’s blood in peace. Dean learned that not everything was black and white. In fact, he learned not all hunters are good and not all vampires are bad; he came to this realization with the grounded and supportive Sammy by his side.

In Eric Kripke’s recent Q&A, he told us that we were going to start to see a shifting of roles. Well, this is already happening. Sam is suddenly the solid one. He’s grieving, but he knows that he really needs to help his brother through this time. He’ll even take a punch from an out-of-control Dean without retaliating. I feel like he’s all about trying to get Dean to let his feelings out and it doesn’t matter in which form this manifests. He also seems to realize that hunting is his destiny — he’s here to stay. Meanwhile, Dean’s just having a hard time of it. It was really good to see him open up to Gordon about his late dad, but I kept thinking: “Why can’t you just open up to Sam for a change?” Dean says he feels like he needs to be a rock for his little brother. But I gotta say, this rock is crumbling. I mean, the boy was just scary when he decapitated that vamp.

It was nice to see Sam and Dean con their way into the police station and the morgue. It was even nicer to see them in those suits and then those lab coats. Just saying…

The actor who played Gordon was another great guest star. Gordon had Dean buying his black-and-white outlook; he was so convincing. Dean choosing to let Amber and her posse go was the right thing to do, although it was pretty predictable to find out that Gordon was the one who actually killed his vampire sister. I watched Angel; Gunn had the same story.

More goodness: Dean telling Gordon the very moment he embraced “the life” was welcome, but very sad. A 16-year-old realizing this is what he was meant to do is not a decision a teenager should be making. But there’s that whole “Dad making Dean grow up too fast” stuff again. The very end of the episode was great as Sam and Dean had a real conversation about how they were raised. Then Dean thanked Sam, looked back and reflected for a moment, got in the car and the Winchester brothers drove off, with no music, just the sound of the Impala. Awesome.

Favorite lines from “Bloodlust” (there were so many, I’m just going to name a few):

- “Wooo! Listen to her purr. You’ve ever heard of anything so sweet?” “You know, if you two want to get a room, just let me know, Dean.” “Aww, don’t listen to him, baby. He doesn’t understand us!”
- “Whoa, easy there Chachi!” (I’m thinking Scott Baio needs to get paid, because there was a Chachi reference on Lost recently, too.)
- “Lighten up there, Sammy.” “He’s the only one that gets to call me that.”
- “And Hannibal Lecter is a good psychiatrist.”
- “Seems like the take-a-walk type.”
- “You’re good. A monster pain-in-the-ass, but you’re good.”
- “I miss anything?” “Nah, not much.”
- “OK. I’m good now. We can go.”

From TV Guide: October 10, 2006: “You Had Me at Secret Room” “You wanna know the definition of ironic? You got voted in, Veronica, we wanted you to be one of us.”
Who would have guessed that Veronica would have been welcomed with open arms by a group of sorority sisters whom she mocked mercilessly in her mind? “What’s really worse,” she asked, “getting girls to undress in front of a two-way mirror or getting them to dress like a ’50s vacuum ad first?” Honestly, by the end of the episode I was a little bummed that she wouldn’t be rushing. I found it really enjoyable to watch her blending attempts, even if it was just to crack a case. It just made way for such snarky comments like, “I guess ‘dress to impress’ meant dress like your favorite Pussycat Doll,” or, “The ’70s had the hustle, the ’80s the moonwalk. We’ve got the faux lesbian dance.”

Especially since she barely had any chance for trading barbs with Logan since he was in confinement for his sociology project. Just their cute little conversation about how he had her picture up on the wall and let Horshack borrow it. That sociology experiment was so intense; we never had anything like that when I was in college. It was mostly just endless hours in the library or the computer lab. And I definitely never had Homer Simpson teaching one of my classes. I couldn’t get over Rider Strong playing such a badass, but he really got into it. “We were counting on you to act like a jerk. Way to sell it.” Completely different from his sweet Pepper Dennis character as the nice but troubled next-door neighbor on Boy Meets World. I think Corey would have cracked in about two minutes. Maybe less. And so cute to see Samm Levine too. I’m always so happy that the deserving Freaks and Geeks cast finds work. But the best part of the whole guard/prisoner test was that Wallace was the one to figure out how to get the prisoners to give up their information, and it wasn’t by being brutish or through depravation, it was through some clever thinking and trickery. Guess he’s learned a trick or two from his best pal Veronica over the years. I’ve got to say I was glad that he won his side bet with Logan. Seeing Mr. Echolls run bare through school was an unexpected treat.

Back to the main mystery, Veronica’s got a list of suspects, and for some reason I am thinking that the girl who drove the safe car should be on that list. She seemed really vindictive towards sorority girls in general, and what better way to get back at them than to frame them for crimes? I did feel bad that the really sick den mother lost her marijuana stash and presumably her job. Usually on teen shows the newbie writer learns her lesson at college by writing a harsh review of something and then having someone get upset (see Gilmore Girls or Degrassi to name a few). When Veronica’s involved, the stakes are a little higher. I don’t think it could be Mr. Casablancas; after everything that went down at the end of last season it seems too obvious. Plus, Dick can be a… um, let’s just say he’s appropriately named, but he seems like he’s more of a lover of pretty girls than the type who would shave their heads afterwards.

The most upsetting part of this episode for me was Sheriff Lamb. Usually he makes a condescending remark and Veronica bites back with an insult, but his comments about her crying wolf about being raped and not remembering anything were really hitting below the belt. Maybe since Veronica knows a thing or two about Parker’s situation, the two will bond later this season.

Then there’s sort of a resolution to the whole Keith story line. I know that one of the reasons that Veronica lives off campus is so that she can spend more time with dear old dad, but so far he’s been really disjointed. I’m hoping now that he’s taken care of Kendall’s sizeable assets (so glad that she didn’t just bribe Keith with cash) and Liam’s taken care of Cormac that they’ll find a way to have Keith and Veronica spend more time together and maybe even work together on a case.

From EW: Rush Limbo

On ”Veronica Mars,” our heroine goes undercover as a wannabe sorority girl in order to crack the case of the campus rapist; plus, Wallace and Logan play prison camp by Tanner Stransky

 Veronica goes to sorority rush. I repeat: Veronica goes to sorority rush.

That’s something I never thought I’d write. Bad-ass Veronica rushing? Wowza, but it’s true. At least — and here’s the kicker — it was all in the name of finding the campus rapist. This episode was so, so good.

Showing off her sleuthing chops to write an undercover story about the Theta Beta house for the school newspaper, our leading lady was at the top of her game this week. Even though she described herself as coming straight out of a ” ’50s vacuum ad” when she was dressed up for rush week — flower-print dress, heels, cinch belt and all — you have to admit she looked good (as always, right?) and the picture of a freshman sorority pledge. Personally, I like the adorable T-shirt-and-jeans Veronica better, but she pulled this off with panache. And her acting drunk at the Theta Beta house party? Classic! Veronica is a master manipulator — right down to faking her shots. There’s something about her — spunky and standing on a chair, feigning a drunken stupor in the name of solving crimes — that’s just endearing.

And her eventual discovery — the sorority house’s pot-loaded secret room — was a decent payoff. But it also raises some questions. I was shocked that Veronica accepted the sorority’s lame-o explanation that the weed was intended to help the den mother cope with chemotherapy. How much ganja can one sick person smoke? Don’t you think something bigger has to be going on with the plants? Is the sorority house selling pot for money? For their brother frat house? For kicks? Please take a closer look at this, Veronica!

What this story line mostly did for Veronica — just like back at Neptune High — was add some big-time members to the we-hate-Veronica camp. She probably won’t have any friends at Theta Beta, and I’d wager that once other students on campus read that front-page story with her name on it, she’ll gain both fans and enemies. I think it’s a shame that she swore journalism off so soon. While her first try had its ugly downside, she’s obviously got the talent to be an investigative journalist. I also liked the editor who assigned Veronica the story. I think Veronica should keep her nearby for help with future mysteries.

As for figuring out who the rapist is, I’m at the point where I want to accuse everyone. The sketchy RA seems like a good candidate, as does Dick, even though he’s totally stupid and probably couldn’t pull it off (but is his stupidity just a ruse?). And although he wasn’t in this episode, what about that freaky criminology teacher’s assistant with the bad hair? But I had another thought, too: Could it be the sisters at Theta Beta themselves who are orchestrating the assaults? Maybe it’s some sort of twisted initiation process. As Veronica pointed out, the Theta Beta girls had access to dorm keys when they took the purses at the door.

On the Keith front, the poor guy returned to Neptune after running for his life in the desert. I was surprised that he and the rural cops didn’t find Kendall’s dead body when they went back to the crime scene. What happened to her? Granted, we never actually saw her get shot, but it was implied. There’s more here than meets the eye. I bet Kendall’s skanky ass will come popping back up — along with the sketchy Fitzpatricks — a few episodes down the line.

And that little bit of blood the cops found at the scene? It could yield some clues, but who cares? I’m just glad Keith got out of that death trap alive. What good could have come from him being mixed up in that anyway? I’m all for characters evolving and growing — branching out to try new things and embracing new people — but it was a relief to see him back in the fold at the end of the hour. It warmed my heart to hear his usual banter with Veronica.

Wallace and Logan’s story line was engaging, although I prefer it when the gang’s subplots intertwine. Will this little tangent factor into the mysteries of the future? I heart double heart the fact that it was about a contemporary issue: the treatment of prisoners. That’s just so Veronica. And it was great to see Wallace step up on his own, tricking the ”prisoners” into revealing the location of the bomb by setting the clock back. So smart, so Veronica, again. Watson has clearly learned some lessons from Sherlock Holmes.

I have admit this week’s episode was actually one of the best GG episode’s in my opinion. It had that perfect mix of humor, spunky dialogue, and a great balance in the story lines. Rina Mimoun of Everwood wrote the episode, and definitely should write more of them.

one of the best things about this season is the way they are using the characters they are seen more often especially the Stars hollow crowd like Babette, and there are more interactions between are favorite characters.  Lorelai and Rory have the same girl talk that hasn’t really been seen since the end of season 3. Lane and Rory girl talk in the book store was like old times.  Paris was being Paris and her line at the SAT ”You know why? You don’t fall in love with people who make you want to crap your pants, ” was both classic and hysterical, by far the best line of the night.

Part of the sucess of this week’s episode was the fact that incorporated so many of the fans favorite elements and actually lines from past shows. Lorelai was overacting to her parents underreaction to the fact that she had broke up with Luke. Actually it wa the same practically to the very words as Emily’s reaction to Lorelai breaking her engagement with Max.

But it was worth it because Lorelai’s enlightment about her likes/dislikes being linked to her parents, led to soul searching, and the realization that she could A. enjoy the cotillion, and B. maybe Christopher is good for her like her parents always told her, which leads to her giving him an actual chance. A really good and interesting element was the little rebel that kept on smiling at Lorelai and vice versa, she represented Lorelai’s rebellious nature, and the child she was. The cotillion also let Emily show herself at her best, and was reminicent of Rory’s debutant ball.

TV Guide: October 10, 2006: There’s a Million Ways to Cotillion

Alright, is everyone calm? If not, take a deep breath. Another. One more. Are you all OK after that final scene? Good. So let’s be rational for a few minutes. We knew it was coming. We knew Chris would tell Lorelai he loved her, that she was the one, that their night together felt right, that he’d wait forever until she realized they were meant to be. (Yes, she was wearing a white gown and holding flowers. And he was dressed in what looked like a tie-less tux. But let’s not digress.) It happened. Said. Done. Wait, you’re probably saying. Why are we breezing right past this? Because it wasn’t the most important part of the ep. Not by a long shot. We’ll get back to that later.

It happened at the kitchen table, as things usually do in the Gilmore home. The identity crisis. It was pretty close to the whole “who-am-I-where-am-I-going” Tony Soprano moment, but over boxes of Pop-Tarts, not a crazy uncle and a really gross gunshot wound. How long have we wanted Lorelai to take a long, hard look at herself, her life and who she really is? Did she love Pop-Tarts because they were forbidden in her home? Would she have hated them if they were served on a silver platter? Finally, she’s asking the right questions. Are her parents some kind of bizarre compass? Hate it if they love it, love it if they hate it? Is that how she’s lived her entire life?

My answer is no. How can I be so sure? Did you happen to catch Caroline, the little girl with the brown hair who looked suspiciously like Lorelai’s mini-me? She was the one who did the chicken dance when she was supposed to be gliding into the dining room. She also shoved an entire cucumber sandwich in her mouth during high tea, and wore hot pink-and-black striped Chuck Taylors with her yellow crinoline dress at the Cotillion. And she made damned sure Lorelai saw each and every rebellious moment. Sure, that’s defiant, but it’s also pretty witty and wily for a 10-year-old. Caroline is proof that perfect manners, expensive dresses and formal dances don’t make you who you really are. How you feel inside does. Now we will have to wait for Lorelai to figure that part out. Does she love Luke because her parents hate him? And yes, we have to watch Chris romance her to find out the answer. (Keeping mum on the coming-attraction spoilers, but you know he’s gonna go all out to win her back.)

Why so serious when there were so many hilarious moments during this ep? Maybe because I was a little sad at the end, knowing Lorelai is just wasting more time. But I’d be remiss if I left out some of the best scenes. Paris kills me! She’d rather have SAT tutors who don’t coddle their students but “make them want to crap in their pants.” And Zack’s reaction to Lane’s pregnancy news? None. Not until she forces him to look at a photo of afterbirth and admits she’s not psyched to be having a baby. “Having a baby sucks!” she declares, much to his shock. “A baby totally sucks!” he agrees and then finally freaks. “There’s no way I’m cutting the hose!” “There’s no way I’m letting you in the room when it happens!” “I love you!” “I love you so much!” Genius bantering. And Emily is at her usual brilliance: “Chins up, tummies in, gliiiide…” she demands of 12 stiff-looking little girls. So wrong, it was good.

But back to Chris and Lorelai. They’re giving it a chance. We’re along for the ride, in a drop-top with a wicked sports engine and Italian leather seats. Like it or not.

Sunday’s episode was a little slow, the only real highlights was Gaby and John’s reuniun romp and the comedy that ensued, especially Gaby unzipping herself from the baggage in the elevator.

The Orson mystery was stalled a bit with Andrew’s return, though it was touching that he could actuslly get Andrew to return home. Andrew is really going overboard for his revenge the only one he is hurting is himself.

Lynette/Nora story line seems to be going nowhere, except we learn that Tom is more confortable talking about what’s bothering him (getting an advertising job) than he is with Lynette.

The Susan/Ian line is cute, but overplayed in the episode, to the extent that it loss any humour to it. Too much time was wasted on how many men Susan slept with, and Ian inexperience with numerous women.

It should get very interesting now that Mike finally woke up, and with Edie in the room, how coincidental!

TV Guide: October 8, 2006: A Weekend in the Country My favorite part about watching this show is the way they end it each week. Sometimes they wrap it up sweetly in a way that makes you smile. While other times, like last week and tonight, we get a shocker that leaves us hanging until the next episode. Sure, we knew Mike would come out of his coma eventually, but I didn’t think it would be tonight. How wonderful that they didn’t do it the clichéd soap opera way where his eyes suddenly opened up while the camera was on him. Instead, we got a great Edie reaction shot of shock, followed by scenes with other characters (interspersed with the usual Brenda Strong closing narration) and then back to Edie’s face looking over at Mike with his eyes wide open. Loved that! It was already hilarious for Edie to stop by the hospital to retrieve her CD player, grab a chocolate and take a peek under Mike’s blanket to see if he still measured up: “Damn! That’s with the coma!” While we’re on the subject of my goddess Nicollette Sheridan, she had some of tonight’s best lines. Once again proving she was robbed of an Emmy nomination two years in a row for best supporting actress in a comedy, she delivered the following as Edie to Julie, after Julie told her Susan brought Edie’s CD player to the hospital for Mike: “This Florence Nightingale act is really chapping my ass!” This was followed immediately by this line to her nephew Austin: “Hey, science guy, I have an experiment for you. Go home, mix two ounces of gin, a splash of vermouth and see if it improves my mood when I drink it.” The first line gave me déjà vu to my childhood when my mother (Joan Anderson) screamed from the front seat of the car to me and my two brothers as we were loudly arguing in the backseat: “You three better be quiet! You’re aggravating my ass!!” Swear to God.

Tonight, we finally got to see Bree interact with both of her kids. First, Danielle with that bad perm (nice that she made that indirect reference to Matthew Applewhite). Then, at last, Andrew. How “perfectly Bree” of her to finally see her son, but to see him while on her honeymoon on the news being interviewed as a homeless teen. The honeymoon was over, for sure. Luckily, Orson didn’t go ballistic and showed love and support by locating Andrew in his state of homelessness, giving him cash and taking him to lunch. Good to see Andrew come home at the end — the dysfunctional family is back together. But you know Orson’s innocent act won’t last long. Orson to Bree: “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us,” and to Andrew: “I know about rage. But when it goes away, you just live with the mess you make.” I was very impressed that they addressed Bree’s alcoholism and her ongoing frustration when Orson asked her why she was gardening. Better to tend to her azaleas than drink that entire bottle of Chardonnay in her fridge.

When John (Jesse Metcalfe) just so happened to be at the resort that Gabrielle was at for her and Lynette’s spa vacation weekend (that Lynette bailed on), I rolled my eyes. But I soon got over it (remember, Dave, this is just a TV show) because I had forgotten how much I liked seeing the two of them together. Hot. You knew Gaby was going to dig the new and improved version of John since he now owns his own gardening company: “Oooh… I like rich John!” (after he offered to buy a bottle of Dom). When John’s fiancée, Tammy (Michelle Pierce), showed up at the hotel her daddy owned, how on earth could they hide Gaby? Having her hide inside the suitcase was ingenious and hearing Gaby scream “That bitch!” from inside the suitcase after Tammy accepted John’s sudden gift of Gaby’s watch (followed by John kicking the suitcase) had me rewinding my TiVo. How to top that? Having Gaby come out of the suitcase in front of the couple on the elevator: “Don’t laugh! I saved a bundle on airfare.” This should be interesting since John claims he won’t cheat once he gets married. Gaby: “Marriage is hard.”

I enjoyed the Susan/Ian “weekend in the country” plot since they were taking “it” so slowly. It’s fun to see a couple in the early stages go back and forth with the “how many people have you been with?” conversation. I’m usually the one who pulls a Susan and tries to make it look like I haven’t been too much of a slut. Loved that she whittled 11 intimate lovers down to nine and said: “Nine lovers does not make me a slut!” Of course, just as Susan and Ian were getting comfortable, Mike came out of his coma. One ridiculous thing: Susan and Ian had the exact same suitcase. Yeah, right.

I was so glad that the weakest link story line of the show showed some promise, especially after Lynette suggested she might play a game called “Finding Fault with Nora” (a game lots of us play each week). Having Nora be the one to tell Lynette that Tom wanted to branch out of advertising proved she wasn’t a complete irritant. When the characters compare their lives to each other’s with sympathy, it’s worthwhile, like Lynette saying to Gabrielle: “I hate my life” and Gaby replying with: “I know. I wouldn’t trade with you for anything.” She may take that statement back next week.

In conclusion, I leave you with these two random funny lines:

- Gaby (seeing the two rabbits closely together at the resort): “What is this, freakin’ Noah’s Ark?”
- The drag queen Pearly Gates explaining her name to Bree: “Because you can’t get to heaven without going through me.” Bree: “How very saucy.”

EW: Journey Women

On ”Desperate Housewives,” an encounter with an old flame makes Gaby face the possibility of being alone; meanwhile, Susan and Ian deal with their pasts, and Orson helps Bree with the Andrew situation by Lindsay Soll

Things we learned tonight: The teens of Wisteria Lane can bring a lot of color to otherwise terribly drab episodes.Things we learned but didn’t really care to know: Susan has slept with 11 men in her lifetime. Wait, make that 12, now that Ian has won her over.

The ladies each went on a journey tonight: Susan to the mountains with Ian; Bree to find homeless Andrew, after she saw him on the news; Gabrielle to a spa, where she bedded landscaper John one last time; and Lynette (with loony Nora) to save a helpless Tom on a camping trip with the kids.

Speaking of journeys, Nora needs to take one to a psych ward — or even to an island, because I think all of us are ready to vote her off the show. Just when you think you have her pegged as a total lunatic (directing Lynette’s car into oncoming traffic), she switches personalities (her heart-to-heart in the car with Lynette about Tom’s career gave us a glimpse into what she would act like on Prozac).

Overall, the Lynette-Nora-Tom plot was pointless tonight. Just like Susan and Ian’s magical mountain getaway. It was painful watching them subtly flirt with each other. Why was Susan so awkward when she found the condoms in Ian’s suitcase? She didn’t think he only brought her to his cabin so they could go bird watching, did she? After a long, drawn-out tiff between the budding couple over how many people they each had had sex with, they finally slept together. Hallelujah.

Raise your hands if you were excited to see Jesse Metcalfe! I know I certainly was, but I was a little confused as to how John got so ”mature” so fast. Wasn’t he just 18 or 19 the last time we saw him? Don’t people go to college anymore? I am glad, though, that Gabrielle ran into him after being depressed that her spa vacation was starting to look like ”Noah’s Ark” due to the abundance of twosomes around her. Much to Gaby’s dismay, turns out the new and improved John is engaged (a piece of info he didn’t tell her until after they’d shagged). Their liaison led to the episode’s funniest moment: When John’s fiancé decided to make a surprise visit to see him, Gabrielle hid in a suitcase, unzipping it later in an elevator and telling the horrified couple watching her, ”Don’t laugh — I saved a bundle on airfare.” A classic Gaby one-liner!

Meanwhile on Wisteria Lane, Julie was busy igniting sparks (pun intended) with Edie’s hot nephew Austin, who came over to help her fix a circuit breaker. Edie tried to warn her that bad boys are poison for good girls like her, but you could tell by the way that Julie blushed that something’s gonna happen there. Is it sad that I find Julie’s scenes with Austin to be more exiting than any having to do with her mother’s love life?

Bree’s kids are back in the picture — finally. I think it’s a shame we only saw Danielle at the beginning of the episode because she had one of the funniest lines: ”This really blows — I am thisclose to becoming homecoming queen, and now I’m going to be known as that creepy girl whose brother is a pathetic street junkie.”

I’m not surprised that Andrew didn’t want to have anything to do with Bree when she found him at a homeless shelter. I am surprised, though, at how human and concerned Orson got over seeing his wife so distraught over the ordeal. For a second there, I almost forgot he was a murderer. Then he quickly reminded us again of his sketchy past when he took Andrew to lunch and told him that he ”knows about rage and how it eats you up.” Somehow, Orson convinced Andrew to come back, and I can’t wait to see how that household is going to pan out.

Looks like we’re going to be seeing some more of Edie now, since she was the only one present when Mike came out of his coma (okay, it was a little contrived when he opened his eyes, but I still gasped aloud). Wonder if she’ll ever tell him she checked out his privates before he came to? I’m guessing Susan will not be a happy camper when she finds out that Edie, of all people, was there when he awoke.

Although last night’s episode was good, the scary scenes have been less than scary, nothing to rival some of the earlier episodes from last season.

Also the clown mystery took up a bit less time than the mystery of the week usually does, although the Dean and Sam mourning, missing their father or trying to avoid those feeling would take presidence, and rightfully did.

F rom TV Guide:

October 5, 2006: Everybody Loves a Clown

I’ve been trying to psych myself up for “Everybody Loves a Clown” since last week. I. Hate. Clowns. Maybe this clown phobia started when I saw Poltergeist back in the day and that toy clown attacked the kid. Or, it may have even been Tim Curry in the Stephen King miniseries It. Well, everything scared me in that one except for that silly, cartoon ending. So, you have to know that this episode creeped me out big time. The killer clown makes nicey-nice with the kids at the carnival, then later shows up at their house, where it offs their parents. That’s scary. It kept on waving to the kids and then holding their hands. Even though there really was no gore, the creep factor was on high. To me, it’s often scarier when you don’t see the blood and the guts. What I really loved was that Sammy had a bit of a clown phobia, too, and Dean took advantage of that. So cute. So funny.

Are you surprised that I actually talked about the scares before all the angst of the episode? Because, usually, it’s the other way around. It was kind of painful to watch some of the interactions between Sam and Dean. They were both dealing with Dad’s death (or not dealing, whichever way you choose to see it) in their own way. Rebellious Sam, strangely enough, actually started basing his decisions on what “Dad wanted him to do.” He even started having second thoughts about going back to school. Meanwhile, Dean, predictably, tried to stay stoic with massive walls built up and a steady chorus of “I’m OK, Sam” as his mantra. Neither Winchester son was fine, however. Did you hear Dean lie to his bro about John not saying anything before he died? That’s going to come back and bite Dean in the butt. And I know John died last week, but I still held out hope that he would be resurrected or something, but they basically cremated his body, guys! I do think that it’ll be interesting to see how Sam and Dean handle life without Dad.

Life without Dad started at Bobby’s, where Dean spent his time rebuilding the Impala. Seeing him work on his baby was awesome. Sammy had to find something to do, so he ended up accessing Dad’s old voicemails in which a woman friend of John’s left a message for him four months earlier. This led the boys to a hunters’ oasis that John’s woman friend and her daughter own; now the two brothers are able to start interacting with people just like them. Veronica Mars‘ Alona Tal plays Jo — a tough, young blonde girl who will probably hook up with Dean, eventually. I really loved how in the wake of his dad’s death, Dean was sorta off his game. He just didn’t feel the need to pull out all the stops to get the girl; he just didn’t have it in him. That didn’t stop Jo from hitting on Dean, though she’s not stupid. Jo and her mom Ellen are recurring characters this season, so I’m definitely interested in where their association with the boys will lead. What exactly was Ellen’s relationship with John? And what did you think of Ash, the genius with the mullet? I think he’s amusing, can’t wait to see him more.

Other observations:

1) Kudos to Jared — he did a great job with showing Dean how guilty he was feeling about picking a fight with Dad just before he died. And Jensen, too. The way he whaled on the Impala, that rocked. Did he shed a single tear while Dean was watching his father’s body burn? Such broody, damaged young men, aren’t Sam and Dean?

2) Have to talk a little about the recap: The classic-rock fest continued with the recap being set to what I think is Steve Earle’s “Time Has Come Today.” If someone knows what’s up with this song, let me know.

3) Dean was driving a (horror!) minivan and listening to “Do That to Me One More Time.” Dean + minivan + classic Captain & Tennille = hilarious.

Favorite lines from “Everybody Loves a Clown”:

- “This is humiliating. I feel like a friggin’ soccer mom.”
- “Oh god, please let that be a rifle.”
- “You’re not going to hit me again, are you?”
- “You still bust out crying whenever you see Ronald McDonald on the television.”
- “At least I’m not afraid of flying.” “Planes crash!” “And, apparently, clowns kill!”
- “Did you get her number?”
- “Sir, we don’t want to go to school. And we don’t want regular. We want this.”
- “I can’t believe we keep talking about clowns.”
- “Did you ever notice Dad had a falling-out with just about everybody?”
- “I hate funhouses.”
- “I thought that once the Demon is dead and the fat lady sings, that you were going to take off and head back to Wussy State.”

OK, one more piece of business to take care of, and you’ll definitely like this: Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural, will be answering TVGuide.com readers’ questions. So, if there’s anything you’ve been dying to ask Mr. Kripke, just leave your questions in this blog for “Everybody Loves a Clown.” Awesome, right? Here’s my question: What did John whisper to Dean before he went off to sacrifice himself?

Sandy returns to the Public Defender’s office, and he and Kirsten find themselves the happiest they have ever been with each other while rising to the challenge of keeping their family together. Summer has left Orange County and is attending Brown University in Rhode Island, where she has reinvented herself as a left-leaning, tree-hugging activist under the sway of Che (guest-star Chris Pratt); out are Summer’s celebrity gossip magazines and in are her “Chicken-lovers of the world unite!” flyers. Meanwhile, Seth, lonely in the O.C. and working at a local comic book store, turns to watching golf with Dr. Roberts and hanging out with the Newpsies for social stimulation. Kaitlin (new series regular Willa Holland) returns to the O.C. as the No. 1 troublemaker at The Harbor School. Over the summer she has befriended Luke’s younger twin brothers, Eric (Corey Price) and Brad Ward (Wayne Dalglish), who worship her. Meanwhile, Julie will do anything – even yard work – to avoid dealing with the loss of Marissa. And Taylor (new series regular Autumn Reeser) is hiding out and speaking French in the O.C. after her mysterious romance in Paris. Chris Pratt will appear in a multi-episode arc starting on the season premiere, playing Summer’s environmentalist activist Svengali, Che. Pop/R&B teen sensation Chris Brown, 17, begins production on THE O.C. in late October; episodes featuring Brown will air on FOX later in the season. Brown will play Will Tutt, a lonely band geek at The Harbor School who befriends Kaitlin Cooper. As their friendship grows, a possible romance blossoms in the O.C. Source: FOX

The best part of the episode was the Meredith’s opening dream sequence, and its true nothing ever appears in reality as good as it is in a dream. Somethong she realizes after her dates fight over her like Frat boys without even paying attention to her. Ut bacame all about the chase and winning and nothing to do with Meredith.

Overall the theme was pain and feeling pain, which was seen a lot last night:

Izzie keeping on standing in front of the hospital all day, it’s not just Denny’s dying that prevents her from actually going back in, it was everything in the future that was lost as a result, the wedding she wanted and will never have with him.

Addision crying in the storage closet after she saw Meredith with Derek, despite the fact that she can so easily have Mark, Dr. McSteamy who literally begs her to be with him.

Callie realizing that George wasn’t ready to move in with her.

Cristina, ranting on about taking care of a patient recovering from surgery, meaning Burke. Though it was great to see her finally realize that both; she has to stop complaining and needs to help Burke recover, and Burke needs to stop moping and help himself.

Next week it should be very interesting when Dr. McSteamy shocks everyone at Seattle Grace that he will actually be around full time!

From TV Guide:

October 5, 2006: Sometimes a Fantasy As the title of the episode indicates, “Sometimes a Fantasy” is an effective way to open an episode of this show. So funny to see the three of them (supposedly) naked in bed together — smiling Meredith in the middle of Finn and Derek. This dating thing was a nice way for Ellen Pompeo to finally get a chance to show off that smile of hers, after several seasons of sorrow. I liked seeing Meredith as a giddy girl declaring that “Dating is fun!” and telling Derek and then Finn: “I had a dream about you last night.” Sandra Oh did a hilarious job playing the Ethel Mertz role reacting in the background to Meredith’s conversations with her men and her “She’s dating everyone with a pulse” reference was great.

Guest star Abigail Breslin (awesome in Little Miss Sunshine) was perfectly cast as the little girl who thought she was a superhero, but actually had a chromosomal condition where she couldn’t feel pain. I loved that what Bailey said to Alex during the girl’s surgery — “Pain’s there for a reason” — reflected on Alex, as it inspired him to perk up Izzie. After Izzie spent the entire day standing outside staring at the hospital, Alex asked her: “Where does it hurt?” Izzie: “Everywhere.” Alex: “Maybe it hurts for a reason.” Since he can sometimes be a coldhearted snake, it’s good to see his softer side. Speaking of which, Alex also took a cue from George, usually his nemesis, and borrowed George’s Green Hornet reference to cheer up the little girl.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as well for the man (Gabriel Casseus) who had to get half his brain removed to stop his multiple seizures. Such a sad scene when he couldn’t remember his wife (Lanai Chapman) or his baby’s name. As for the smart-aleck decathlon-runner patient (Jack Conley) whom Callie encouraged to have ankle-replacement surgery, what a rude awakening when George showed the guy the dead body of the old man whose ankle he was scheduled to get: That “old man” was actually two years younger than him!

I cracked up at the scene when Alex, Cristina and George watched from a distance the Meredith-Finn lunch and Alex and Cristina placed bets to see if Derek interrupted it. Cristina’s narration was the best: “Oh, you funny vet!” Of course, you knew Derek was going to put a stop to it in his own “sneaky snake” way.

Other highlights:

- George asking Meredith to kick Callie out.
- Callie dropping the towel after George said it was his, followed by the facial expressions of George and Meredith.
- Eric Dane being made a series regular. Seeing his name along with the others in the opening credits made me smile. Cheating in a marriage is bad. Bad! But come on. Can you blame Addison for choosing to cheat with McSteamy? Yes, I know she’s not “cheating” now, but we can all see now why she cheated then.
- Dr. Webber being against Izzie returning, adding more realism to the situation. I agree with all of you who said, “That would never happen — she could never get her old job back in real life.” But since I like Izzie, I’ll allow it. (Yes, it’s only a TV show.)
- Cristina telling Meredith that Burke spends too much time “playing with himself… and not in a good way.”
- Burke bonding with Izzie outside: “Coming or going?” Izzie: “I don’t know.” Burke: “Me neither.”
- Cristina reluctantly deciding to support Burke’s decision to take a leave of absence. You can tell she was inspired when the wife of the brain-surgery guy was told: “He can’t do this without your support.”
- George finally telling Callie he’s not ready to live with her (but Callie calling George a “toddler” was not cool).
- Meredith walking into the room and finding Addison in tears and Addison telling her to please pick a different floor and that she needs “a moment or two” away from her.
- The ending where Addison, Callie, Webber and McSteamy simultaneously checked in (or checked their messages at or checked back in) to the same hotel.

The one scene I didn’t care for was the one towards the end when Derek was walking Meredith to her doorstep and Finn showed up with ice cream as if he was waiting and lurking. I don’t like him being that desperate for Meredith and giving off a stalker vibe. But what redeemed it a bit was Meredith’s frustrated reaction that included: “Damn it! I want to feel like a freakin’ lady!”

From EW:
Fantasize Matters

On ”Grey’s Anatomy,” Meredith’s love triangle gets wobbly, George needs space, and a little girl learns she’s not a superhero by Gregory Kirschling

October’s here. This is the best month there is. Last night was a good night to go home, cook a chicken, open the windows to let the early autumn in, and watch a very fine episode of Grey’s Anatomy with you, the rest of America. And this was the finest episode of three in this young season! I don’t see how any of you could argue with that. So let’s all like each other, and be happy together, and get down to it.

The evening began dubiously. To the tune of the first Andre 3000 Idlewild single (which is not as good as the first Big Boi single), we zero in on Meredith in bed and in the middle of a randy dream sequence co-starring Finn and Derek. Right away, two things. 1. Isn’t this the first post-Super Bowl episode from season 2 all over again? Remember how that one opened with George dreaming of a shower scene starring Meredith, Cristina, and Izzie? And remember how disappointing that was, how it felt like Grey’s was trying to be more provocative than true fans knew it to be, and how it seemed like a gross ploy to capture new horndog viewers left over from the football game? This felt like that, at first. 2. On the other hand, you gotta admire this show for tricks like this, because it seems to delight in, to derive such glee out of, making Meredith look unlikable. ”Meredith is a whore!” I practically heard half of America shouting at the TV through my open windows. Yes, we raised the question last week, and the hot debate is under way: Do we like Meredith? I’m all for her, and as far as I’m concerned, the fact that she’s so brazenly unlikable on this show makes her all the more lovable.

Take Callie, in comparison. In the very next scene, we discover that Callie has moved out of the hospital basement and in with George (already). And she uses up all the hot water, she hogs George’s towel and his computer, and she walks around his coed domicile naked. Why aren’t you mad at her, rest of America? Meredith is burned like a Salem witch on these message boards for dithering and for being stuck on the wrong guy, and Callie gets a pass for being a total psycho? Doesn’t seem right to me.

Anyway, let’s roll back and find a point of commonality. Little Miss Sunshine deserves at least a nomination for the guest-spot Emmy this year. Abigail Breslin popped up to play a kid who thinks she’s a superhero, who’s seemingly impervious to pain, who rips out a staple jabbed into her flesh with her teeth and spits it across the room. She was a guest star for the Grey’s hall of fame — unforgettable. And Breslin totally raised Justin Chambers’ game too, because this was one of Karev’s best episodes ever. It was a little disappointing that the show did such a bad job of explaining what ailed the kid, but it didn’t really matter, because Karev’s scenes with her were so heartfelt. (Although, really — why couldn’t she just be nerveless, like Darkman? Surely that’s a medical condition.) Best part was when Karev reassured her that her foster parents weren’t gonna trade her in. ”Nobody sends home a superhero,” he said. Karev’s the man.

And — for the first time ever — I’m worried that Derek’s the Man — you know, like Big Brother, keeping the little guy down. Last week I named him a top 3 character on the show. But I’ll admit that he’s been disappointing so far this season. Why’s he so cocky? I miss Derek’s droopy, lovelorn, cuckolded looks from last season. He worked better as a man existentially trapped. This was officially the first episode where it was okay not to like Derek. He asked Meredith out; Finn asked Meredith out. And Derek pulled the BMOC card at every step: interrupting Finn and Meredith’s modest lunch date with an irresistible ”corpus callosotomy” (anybody know how to spell that?), smirking like a frat president, pouring out ooze instead of charm as he tried to woo Meredith. I still like him: I only assume this is all for the good of the season, which could benefit big time from a strong push by — as Cristina amusingly dubbed him — ”you funny vet!”

What else happened? In what felt like the longest, most obvious close-up of the show’s history, Cristina learned — in her last moments in this ep — that ”recovery’s hard work” and ”you need to be patient” from Derek, who was talking to the wife of the corpus-callosotomy guy. So, we might reasonably conclude, maybe in future episodes she’ll go easier on Burke, who is — refreshingly — kind of still a moody basket case after his hand injury. I expected him and Izzie both to be healed by now, after the heavy-duty trauma they sustained last May, which is so last season — but I like it that they’re still in critical condition, so to speak. This show has a deep enough bench to keep the central action interesting while these two slowly rehabilitate off to the side. (Izzie, if you didn’t watch, spent the whole episode loitering outside the hospital, mustering the courage to try and step back inside.) And George — after whining like a weasel to his friends about how awful it was living with Callie, rather than telling it to her face (which is, to be fair, usually how it works in real life, is it not?) — finally told Callie that he wasn’t ready for them to live together. And she retorted angrily that he might’ve mentioned that the first four times she asked. She has a point, and so does he. You couldn’t argue with either of them, and it was kind of poignant. Let’s rule it this problematic couple’s finest moment together so far.

And let’s all agree that this show has proven it knows how to seal the deal in the last 10 minutes of every recent episode. That scene when Meredith stumbles upon the crying Addison, who tried to boot Mark out of the state and maybe still hopes to win back Derek, and who just begs for a moment’s reprieve from having to look at Meredith at all? It was terrific. Addison wiped the floor with my dear Meredith, who — I agree with you! — was kind of cold, and didn’t show proper deference or respect. But then, in the last moments — give it up for a great close — Derek walked Meredith back to her door, and then Finn crashed the party with a pint of strawberry ice cream, and suddenly it was a showdown, and Meredith delivered as good a speech as Ellen Pompeo has ever pulled off on this show. ”Nobody’s even looking at me!” she yelled at her two suitors. ”My fantasy is not two men looking at each other!” And people will call her full of herself, but I think she was right on. Those guys were looking at each other a whole lot. This is great groundwork for episode 4 and the rest of the season.

Right? What do you think? Do you like Meredith more or less right now? Did you also think George looked like Brando in Streetcar at the end of the episode when he hung apishly onto the door frame in his undershirt and said, ”Callie moved out, which is a relief”? What do you make of the fact that the episode began and ended with three people in bed (just as the Super Bowl episodes began and ended with three women in a shower)? Did anybody else notice that Addison looked a lot more lasciviously at Alex when she sent him off to work at the beginning of the ep than she did at Mark when she sent him back to New York later on? And when Derek asked, during the brain surgery in the OR, ”What do we want to avoid…Grey?” and she said, ”We want to avoid retractors on the sagittal sinus,” is that what she really meant, or is that lovers’ code for something else?

I am actually new to Veronica Mars, one of the perks of the CW merger has been the chance to watch VM. Here are some reviews of the season premiere.

TV Guide:

October 3, 2006: Perky Parker Can Lose

I’ve missed this show so, so very much. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long for some snarky comments and for Ms. Mars to show off her crime-solving skills. Loved how she knocked Tim Foyle (James Jordan) — aka Lucky the Janitor from last season — down a notch or two. I was even OK with the slow version of the theme song; it is somehow more mature and befitting of her new college stature. I only had to wait a few minutes to see Veronica and Logan together, so really, I can’t complain much.

Logan and Veronica’s first conversation had some snappy dialogue, so even though they are dating and lovey-dovey with the smooching, they haven’t lost their quick wit. Her estimation of who he saw on campus, “Some girl going wild? As I understand it happens all the time in college…. I’m on the verge of it right now.” His summation of his encounter with Dick Casablancas, “It was brief. Shouted his name. Flipped me off. The bonds of friendship.” And I might have swooned just a smidge when he gave her his hotel-room key (“Stop it, you know there is no one else. I only want you”), and gleefully gazed at their postcoital glow. I know that there is little chance for them to be happy together long-term. The foreshadowing of high-school-to-college romance statistics wasn’t exactly subtle.

Meanwhile, Mac was trying hard to forget her high-school romance. Dick of course couldn’t help but get a dig in: “My little brother never cared about you. You were his beard.” Lovely. I know he’s grieving and all, but this is Mac. Sweet Mac, who is all emotionally disheveled because her first real boyfriend turned out to be a homicidal lunatic. She doesn’t need drunken Dick’s attitude or to be annoyed with his dirty blow-up-doll dance at a rally to support the rape/head-shaving victims. She also probably doesn’t need her Colin Farrell-obsessed roommate Parker parading men about. “If college is a buffet, she’s got two full plates and a purse filled with boys wrapped in napkins.” I guess it isn’t surprising that Parker was the next victim of the frat boy/head-shaver. Not that Parker deserved to be raped or anything like that, of course that isn’t what I mean to imply, I’m just saying that in terms of television, her slightly promiscuous behavior made her a prime candidate to be the next victim. Plus, Veronica needs a closer link to help spur her to solve this heinous crime.

Cash will also secure Veronica’s criminal-busting services, as Piz learned his first day of school. The newbie from Beaverton unwittingly left all of his belongings with a total stranger. Good thing he had Wallace as a roommate. For a second I was worried about whether I’d like Piz when he told Wallace he didn’t want a roommate “who was… uh, you know… better-looking than me.” Then he told Wallace he rarely wore clothes indoors, and that made me laugh, so I decided Piz was gonna be cool with me. I even liked his skepticism about Veronica’s abilities, “This girl, she’s our age and she’s a detective…. Is she also a cartoon?” Now he’s a full-fledged believer and she thinks that he and Wallace are slightly pervy because they like to stare at scantily clad coeds on the south quad.

Off campus, Papa Mars warned Veronica of her curfew before heading off to help Cormac reunite with Kendall. That didn’t work out so well, so I just hope that Keith can sneak back to his car in the dead of night before the coyotes get to him. This case has turned out to be nothing but trouble for him, starting with Kendall’s arrival in last season’s finale. Her large sum of cash made him three days late for his vacation with Veronica, but at least he was able to buy back her love with a new vehicle. Not that I can imagine that Veronica would still be holding a grudge against her dad, anyway. Even though she’s a college gal now, he’s still so sweetly protective of her: “I put Backup in charge while I’m away, and he’s been instructed to maul your boyfriend if he’s here after midnight.” So cute, but for some reason I thought Backup was a girl dog, I don’t know why.

Of course, I have to take a moment to say how much I loved the random pop-culture reference to Battlestar Galactica, “Frak is the profanity of the future.” Oh, and the “Wonder Twin Powers Activate” line. I could just go on and on about all the small things that made me happy or excited about this episode, but basically I’m just thrilled the show is back and can’t wait until next week, when Veronica really gets down to business on the big campus mystery.

This week’s episode of Gilmore Girls was much better than last week’s even, starting with the blowout punch Luke gave Christopher. It was fast paced and the dialogue was full of pop culture references. This episode really showcased Scott Patterson’s acting abilities, the best of which was his scene with Kirk, and the whole Kirk’s restaurant venture, totally loved how Kirk copied Luke down to even the plaid shirt and backwards baseball cap.

Lane and Zach’s return was one of the best comedic parts of the episode, Lane was hysterical with her sex is bad speech. It was nice to see her finally see the world through her mother’s eyes, and coincidently Mrs. Kim’s pre-wedding speech came through Lane only had to do it once to get pregnant. There have been losts of comments that it was strange to see Rory discuss sex, not so, this was hardly as graphic as when she told Lane that she had done it with Dean on Miss Patty’s record player.

Lorelai bringing Asia to Rory was a highlight, and it tried to evoke their old time movie nights, that just haven’t really worked in the past couple of seasons, it was fun, festive and kooky.

There was one very uncharacterictic element to the dialogue, when Rory found out Lorelai slept with Christopher referring to Christopher as Dad for Lorelai especially was out of character, he was always referred to as Christopher. Although the writer was trying to really rub in the fact that Lorelai did that, so it was a dramic affect.
The most heartbreaking scenes were Luke and Lorelai’s two confrontations the first nasty one on the street, and the second, which was more resigned and final, which finally put Lorelai over the edge, and to the whallow phase. It was the emotion and pain viewers were looking for.
TV Guide: October 3, 2006: The Theories of Devolution

Welcome to Gilmore Girls 702. Class has begun! Please take your seats. Your computers are fired up and ready to go. We¹ve been given four different L&L breakup theories. Let’s break ‘em down and discuss!

THE THEORIES
Lorelai: It was him not fighting for me. I gave him the ultimatum and he let me walk away. I didn¹t want a life separate from Luke, and that’s all he could give me. It’s like Luke is driving a car and I just want to be in the passenger seat. He’s locked the door and I have to hold onto the bumper. I am not even asking him to open the door for me, just leave it unlocked and say come in, but he didn¹t do that. So I am hanging on to the bumper and life goes on and the car goes on, and I get really badly bruised and I’m hitting potholes. And it hurts. It really hurts. So yesterday I had to let go of the bumper. Because it hurts too much.

Luke: It’s not your fault, it’s not my fault. It’s just that we’re not right together. I¹m just not right for you. You’re you. I¹m me. We need to stop pretending we¹re something else. You don¹t belong with me. You belong with someone like Christopher. Let¹s just stop fighting it, OK? You can go back to being Lorelai Gilmore and I’ll go back to being the guy in the diner who pours your coffee.

Liz: It’s not surprising. You never moved in together. You were in two different places. The two of you were never in sync. It’s like that space-time continuum. You’re on this plane over here and she¹s on this plane over here, and you¹re both never here nor there at the same time. You found out you had a daughter and never told her. That’s not normal. That’s not how normal people act. You were years apart in the space/time continuum. It could have worked out if there were a wormhole from your plane to her plane.

T.J.: It;s like String Theory! [Gilmore Speak 702: String Theory is a model of fundamental physics.] Don’t underestimate me, Luke, I read. And I watch Battlestar Galatica.

THE ANALYSIS
Okay, T.J.¹s theory gets tossed out first. We¹re very advanced here in
Gilmore 702, but quantum physics from a guy who gets excited over Jell-O cups? I think not. Grade: F-

How about Liz¹s hypothesis? When Rory explained last week¹s “The Long Morrow,” I thought the same exact thing. Those two were never in sync. He wanted her for years, she had no clue. They finally dated and things seemed OK, for a while. But when Lorelai became estranged from Rory, she postponed the wedding. Then she postponed it again so Luke could spend time with April. (Finally, someone mentions the kid!) Forget about time and space. Were these two ever on the same planet? I say this one¹s got a lot of merit. Grade: A-

Luke¹s explanation? At first glance, it seems somewhat accurate. What do these two have in common? She grew up in a wealthy family and runs a fancy inn. He grew up with a working-class dad and runs a no-frills/no-cell-phones diner. He can cook. She can¹t make ice. She¹s chic. He¹s grunge. But you know what? Opposites attract all the time. And are Luke¹s obsessions with flannel and backwards baseball caps really the reason Lorelai slept with Christopher? Grade: C

Finally, Lorelai. I agree, girl had some serious road burn on her butt and tire marks on her face. Yes, Luke neglected her. Yes, she should have come first. Before April. Yes, she was patient and kind and understanding.(Remember April¹s fab birthday party?) But she never talked to Luke about feeling shut out! Not once. And ultimatums? Never, ever a good idea. Oh, and sleeping with your ex that same night? That tops the list of bad ideas. Or maybe that would be telling your fiancé the day afterwards? Grade: B-

Extra credit goes to:
Lane and Zack: For getting pregnant on their honeymoon while re-creating the beach scene in From Here to Eternity.

T.J.: For hugging a don¹t-ever-touch-me Luke when he found out that Luke and Lorelai had broken up.

Lorelai: For bringing Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong to Rory, who should have been there for real with Logan.

Rory: For telling it like it is: “When you’re hurting, when you’re really heartbroken, you drown your sorrows in a pint of ice cream, you get a bad haircut, you rent An Affair to Remember. But you don’t sleep with Dad!”

So, what can we conclude from all of these analyses? That there¹s an element of truth in what everyone believes (except for T.J., who ought to be careful playing with those tools). Put the pieces together and maybe we’ll have the answer.

From EW:

The Mourning After

On ”Gilmore Girls,” Lorelai and Luke deal with her confession about Christopher; plus, Lane has news from her honeymoon by Karen Valby

I could belabor the fact that the tone under the new regime is still off, or nitpick that the pop-culture jokes (and boy, we were drowning in them this week) are falling flat, or waste time reminiscing about the good old days. (Remember that time at the pub when Jess told Logan that he seemed obsessed with length? Oh man, that was awesome.) But I’ve got 19 more TV watches ahead of me, and they can’t all kick off with me moaning about seasons past. So, faithful GG fans, I hereby make a vow to try and get with the new program. Who’s with me? (Or have you all abandoned the cause and flipped over to watch the terrific-sounding Friday Night Lights?)

Now that we’ve got that settled, I’m going to call last night’s show the ”oh, snap!” episode. Because, dang, the surprises kept coming and the plot seriously thickened.

Snap: Luke clocks Christopher in the face. Again, I always was more of a Christopher girl, but there was something supremely satisfying about Luke’s diner fist connecting with Christopher’s clean-shaven jaw.

Snap: With Luke’s diner in disarray, Kirk swoops in to take advantage. He’s got a little hot plate and coffee stand set up on the town square, a backwards ball cap and a flannel shirt, a ”no cell phones” warning and a ”Kirk’s” sign. When Luke busts his chops for copying him, down to naming the restaurant after himself, Kirk wisely tells him to take up the fight with ”Denny, Arby, and Tony Roma.” (Quick aside: A couple years ago, I interviewed the delightful and woefully underused character actor Judy Greer, who told me that her first roommate in Los Angeles was one Sean Gunn and that they remain the dearest of pals. Love it!)

Snap: Lane had sex on her honeymoon with Zack, and now she hates sex. Admittedly, they only did it once in a misguided attempt to re-create the famous scene from From Here to Eternity (for the last time, virgins, water and sex must never be combined! FHTE was just a movie, and that goes double for Wild at Heart.) So while Lane goes on and on about how sucky sex is, Rory keeps trying to convince her that sex is actually a many-splendored thing. I don’t know, something about Rory and sex doesn’t really combine well for me either. Later in the episode, Lane finds out that, Mexican condom be damned, she’s pregnant. Barfy with child after one lousy lay.

Snap: Luke and Lorelai cross paths on the street, and he plays dirty. He claims that he’s not mad about her one-night stand and he’s totally over it and she doesn’t need to say she’s sorry. When she insists that he’s hurt, he goes for a gut punch: ”You’re the one who proposed to me in the first place.” Triple snap. And she totally had it coming. (And Scott Patterson, who’s quickly becoming a show highlight, continues to surprise me with his chops.)

Snap: Lorelai, in a ridiculous effort to cheer Rory up for missing her trip to Asia with Logan, decorates the house in Chinese silk and Hello Kitty and a Sandra Oh poster. Their evening is interrupted by an indiscreet answering-machine message from Christopher, who’s wringing his hands about the other night. Rory explodes, and rips into Lorelai, who explains nobody’s perfect, look at how bad Gwyneth Paltrow looked in brown hair (not that bad, actually). Rory, just to the left of bratty, says Lorelai should have rented An Affair to Remember and stuffed her face into a pint of ice cream. ”But you don’t sleep with Dad!” She kind of has a point.

Snap: Luke and Lorelai bump into each other at, of course, the frozen-foods section of the grocery store, and there is a calm finality to Luke’s words. He’s accepted, or at least appears to have accepted, that they don’t belong together. So she needs to go back to being Lorelai Gilmore, and he’s going to go back to being — sob! — ”the guy in the diner who pours your coffee.” And Lorelai (and here the awesomeness of Lauren Graham was on full display) looked like she had suddenly started to thaw and was about to lose it. The last scene of the show was her crying with Rory on the sofa. And so, proving that GG still packs a punch, I cried too.

To answer a recent comment, Vanished is not yet cancelled nor is talk of any cancellation, but either has a full season been ordered. I believe from the last count Fox ordered 17 episodes so far, this past week ratings held steady at 6.5 million, which is OK, Prison Break had two million more. The only reason there is a hiatus is because every fall Fox interrupts their schedule for the Baseball Playoffs.

the Ausiello Report just posted an interview with show runner Josh Berman which should answer a lot of questions:

Find Out Why Gale Harold Vanished!

It’s not every day that a TV show kills off its leading man seven episodes into the first season. But that’s exactly what happened on Monday’s Vanished, when Gale Harold‘s Det. Kelton got caught in a hail of gunfire — punishment for learning too much, too soon. Now, for the first time, exec producer Josh Berman explains why he made his star, um, vanish. (Note: Shortly after this interview was conducted, a tip came in that Fox was relocating Vanished to Friday nights. No confirmation yet from the network. I’ll keep you posted.)

Ausiello: So, why’d you kill him off?
Josh Berman: The premise of Vanished is that no one is safe. When we were thinking about going into baseball [hiatus] and leaving the viewers wanting more, what better way [to do that] than to have our lead character get too close to the truth? On this show, anything can happen at any time.

Ausiello: The buzz going around is that Gale didn’t exactly endear himself to the cast and crew. Is there any truth to that?
Berman: I think a lot of that is gossip. Gale was a consummate professional. I really enjoyed working with him. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment at all. I have heard that, but I didn’t experience that.

Ausiello: How did he react to the news?
Berman: Really well. We had always talked about something like this happening to his character; we just didn’t know when it would happen. But when we were writing the episodes, we realized that his character was getting close to the truth quicker than we had originally anticipated. So [fellow exec producer] Mimi Leder and I had a big discussion with him about how he would feel about doing this in Episode 7, leading into baseball. And he was really gung-ho about it. In fact, in the episode where he’s shot, there’s a scene where his [estranged] wife gives him his wedding ring back; that was his idea. He thought that if he was going to die, it would be nice to have closure with Ava. I thought that was a great, human instinct to have as an actor. He was on board. He loves the show, and he loves his character. Like his character, Gale had a lot of questions, and I think that it was very satisfying for him to get some answers before he left.

Ausiello: So, just to be clear, this was solely a story-line-dictated decision, and had nothing to do with Gale or his performance?
Berman: No. Fox told us to think outside the box from the beginning. We’re not constrained by, “Oh, we have a [contract] with him for this season.” We want this to be an edge-of-your-seat kind of show. And I think now, with killing off our main character, no one can guess what’s going to happen next.

Ausiello: In casting Eddie Cibrian to replace him, were you specifically looking for someone completely different?
Berman: Absolutely. Gale’s character was very tortured by the loss of a young boy six months before the investigation began. And even though he followed protocol, he still blamed himself for a botched ransom drop. He was a damaged soul, and he was seeking salvation through his work, whereas Eddie’s character, Det. Danny Lucas, is much more relaxed, much more comfortable in his own skin. He rose through the ranks of the FBI extremely quickly, only to find out that he enjoyed fieldwork more than being stuck in an office in D.C. And the fact that he had a personal connection to Agent Kelton — they were roommates in Quantico – was a good excuse for him to get down and dirty and help solve the disappearance of Sara Collins. And that’s what brings him to Atlanta.

Ausiello: Let’s talk about the ratings. They’re not great. What are you hearing from the network?
Berman: All that I hear from the network is that creatively they couldn’t be happier. I wish our ratings were higher, but at the same time, I think we have found a very passionate, loyal following, and I think Fox is happy with that. We just wish it were a little bigger.

Ausiello: Are you confident that one way or another, fans will see this story to its conclusion?
Berman: This isn’t a show where one episode provides closure. We’ll be providing closure in bits and pieces. As we turn over new cards, new questions will be asked. But we started this show with, “Who is Sara Collins? Where is Sara Collins?” And by the end of Episode 13, we answer both those questions. And then, of course, there are new mysteries to solve. As a viewer, I get frustrated when it takes forever to get to the answer, so that’s not what Vanished is.

Ausiello: Will you be presenting a new mystery in Episode 14?
Berman: Not necessarily a new mystery, just new facets of Sara Collins’ story.

Plus I have not posted any of the reviews, so here is a run down from TV Guide to get any later comers up to date.

October 2, 2006: “Resurrection”
I have to assume that the title of this week’s episode refers to the “is she or isn’t she dead” status of Sara Collins, and does not portend the fate of Gale Harold’s Agent Graham Kelton. No, he looked shot up good in the pre-baseball finale of Fox’s Vanished. I would love to hear from viewers who didn’t have Kelton’s status spoiled for them weeks prior, as it had been for many of us (including those of us who trade in scoops for a living in our jobs at a national publication covering television).

At least Kelton went down swinging, first getting word to Mei (Ming-Na) that Sara’s abduction was tied to the plane-crash deaths of several other politicians, and then, with what would be his final breaths, alerting Jeffrey to the fact that Sara was, in fact, alive, her “bloody death” seemingly staged by those who want the senator not to confirm Reiner. Hmmm….

First impressions of Cibrian’s dimpled fed? Gotta give him props for being Judy Nash’s D.C. booty call. (To steal from How I Met Your Mother’s Barney: “High-five!”) Oh, um, professionally, yeah, it’s too soon to tell, but I suppose I can see him picking up where Kelton left off. I will miss, though, that slightly acrimonious tension between the lead investigator and Jeffrey. Judging by the previews, Lucas and Collins seem cordial. Sigh.

As for the show’s overall mythology and new reveals therein… it’s basically the kidnappers versus the Nathan people, each of whom have a vested interest in Rainer making it onto the Supreme Court (or not). As of last night, I’m giving the edge to the Nathans, if only because as we saw when the camera cut to imprisoned Sara watching the hearings, her captors have a Nintendo Game Cube hooked up to the same TV. Seriously. Game Cube users can’t get the job done, folks. Too family friendly.

PS. Thank the heavens for another Marcy/Ben- and Max-lite week! Now if we could just do something about the low-rent Sherry Palmer…

Some reviews of Sundays episode of Desperate Housewives, and to correct everyone’s French when Orson said “Tu me manques, Monique” he said “You miss me Monique” in like I knowyou miss me, not the I miss you that everyone is interpretating it as.

And for the Spoilers according to Ask Ausiello, Mike will awaken from his coma with no recollection of his love for Susan. Enter revisionist historian Edie, who will make Mike think that she was the love of his life pre-coma. Making matters worse, Susan will be on a romantic getaway with Dougray Scott when Mike finally comes to.

From TV Guide: October 1, 2006: It Takes Two

The title of this episode could’ve been “Wrong Baby, Wrong Body.” The first thing I thought when the black baby came out of Xaio-Mei was: “Did she have sex with one of the Applewhites?” You never know with this show. But then it was revealed that the clinic artificially inseminated Xaio-Mei with the wrong “stuff.” Loved when Carlos said (while looking through the video camera): “I’ve got to get the color fixed on this thing,” followed by Gabrielle lowering the camera so Carlos could realize his camera was not faulty. I also enjoyed the scene that followed — having Carolyn Bigsby (Laurie Metcalf) walk into the morgue right after Orson said the dead body was not his wife, Alma’s. I thought for sure she was going to identify it as Alma, but she also said it wasn’t her. Nice way to add to the mystery by having Orson whisper “Tu me manques, Monique” to the body, indicating it was yet another person he probably killed. “Tu me manques” means “I miss you” in French, so this should be an interesting plot.

Speaking of that plot, ABC continues to cast former Oz cast members in their shows and I have no problem with that. That was Ernie Hudson as the detective who assumed the body was Alma’s. Here’s hoping Alma doesn’t come back as a ghost since we know Ernie has had his share of ghostbusting.

Even though I dislike the Scavo story line, I liked that Lynette referred to Nora as “Squeaky Fromme” and that she sat Nora with a bunch of single men at Bree and Orson’s reception. Too bad it ended up being Carlos who Nora was into. Having Tom be the emcee at the reception gave Doug Savant a chance to be quite funny, especially when Susan and Ian (Dougray Scott) kept going back and forth with their toasts. I laughed at Susan pretending to be a brain surgeon with Ian’s parents and Susan covering Mike’s ears at the hospital when Ian referred to their “date.”

Giving Jesse Metcalfe (no relation to Laurie — she spells her name without an “e”) a run for his money in the hunk department was Josh Henderson (from Over There) as Austin, Edie’s nephew. How perfect for Susan’s daughter Julie to be the first character to see Austin shirtless and to pretend not to be attracted to him (“You’re not that hot”). With Jesse returning to the show next week, it will be a hunk-a-thon. But I want more Nicollette Sheridan!

Once again, most of the funniest lines went to Eva Longoria. My favorite was Gaby after Xaio-Mei told her she was bored: “Why don’t you try putting on a pair of pants? That should kill a couple of hours.” Second favorite was Gaby trying to make Carlos jealous by flirting with the attractive but gay cater waiter and saying to him, after he asked her, “Should I cup your boob?”: “No, I’ll drive.”

Your comments about last week’s episode ranged from “Loved it… it’s back on track” to “Ugh… same ole same ole” so I can only assume we’ll get various opinions again. But that’s what makes this intriguing, so chime in, peeps.

From EW:

The Wedding Crushers

On ”Desperate Housewives,” fights, labor, a corpse, and inappropriate toasts combine to make Bree’s day special by Lindsay Soll

The episode opens with Bree obsessing over all of the meticulous details of her wedding day. (Go figure.) But why the rush to get married? I mean it’s only been one episode since they got engaged. Helping to plan the perfect wedding so quickly does not give a whole lot of time for the other ladies to snoop around about Orson. I’m glad Susan decided to get off her ”key lime ass” and investigate.
Turns out there are others in the world who are just as OCD as Bree. According to Laurie Metcalf’s Carolyn, when the police checked Orson’s house after Alma ”disappeared,” the entire place had been scrubbed with bleach. (Translation: He’s hiding something.) Hey, if you’re going to be a killer, you might as well be a clean one!

Susan delivers her findings to the ladies at the church, but Bree is still not convinced. She tells her bridesmaids she has no doubts about Orson, yet she decides to pull him aside during the ceremony and casually ask him if he murdered his wife. He swears he didn’t, and they can now live happily ever after. Right, Bree, because if he was ever planning to admit his dark secret to you, it was going to be right before you’re pronounced man and wife.

Speaking of creepy newcomers to the show, what is up with Nora and her taste in men? And why the heck does Tom care so much? It’s not like he has to sleep with her. (Dear ABC, please don’t ever make Tom cheat on Lynette with Nora — he’s too clean-cut and she’s too frizzy.)

I was thinking the Tom-Lynette-Nora story line was getting incredibly boring until Carlos and Nora started swapping spit at the wedding, leading to a public Gabrielle vs. Carlos spat, which was then cut off far too soon by the breaking of Xiao Mei’s water all over the dance floor. This is the stuff good TV is made of!

The reception continues, once ”they mopped up all the amniotic fluid” (props to Tom for delivering that funny line). Ian gives a touching toast to the newlyweds, even though he has no business being at the wedding except to stalk Susan. What is it about her that makes men fall so fast? Come on — they’re even crashing weddings in her honor. It’s a tad unrealistic.

Again there was no sign of Bree’s kids in this episode, although I noticed Shawn Pyfrom’s and Joy Lauren’s names during the opening credits. One new teen I’m liking a whole lot: Austin, Edie’s adorable nephew, who is not at all coy about his physique. I’m sensing a little fling between Julie and him. As he told Edie after Julie saw him shirtless, ”She couldn’t take her eyes off my abs. I felt violated.”

I was very disappointed that the corpse (who, I should mention, had had all of her teeth pulled out!) was not Alma’s, but then again, what did we really expect? To actually find out some kind of truth about Orson? Yeah right. The real mystery I’d like to uncover: What the heck did he whisper to the dead body before he left the morgue? I rewound my DVR about five times, and all I could make out of it was the word ”Monique.” [Editor's note: I'm pretty sure he said, ''Tu me manques, Monique,'' French for ''I miss you, Monique.'']

Hands down, the best scene of the entire episode was when a black baby popped out of Xiao Mei. The looks on Carlos’ and Gaby’s faces were priceless! Something as ridiculous as embryos being accidentally switched could only happen on this show.

So I leave you guys with a few questions: Do you think Carlos and Gaby will get back together? Will Susan and Ian’s love affair last? Will Lynette ever stand up to Nora and kick her out of their lives for good? And finally, what is the connection between the dead body and Orson?