After my post last week about Dexter’s new path without his Dark Passenger, I went about reading comments here and on reddit about others’ thoughts on the subject. One thing that came up that makes a whole lot of sense: Matthews is fully aware of Dexter’s secret, and he’s going to use it to guarantee LaGuerta honors her side of the bargain … or, at least, that she’s out of the equation altogether.

Right now all Matthews wants is a bit of time to get the full pension he’d have gotten before LaGuerta took over his post. Now that he’s “helped” her out with her witch hunt on Dexter Morgan, he’s settled on assuming LaGuerta will honor their initial agreement, and he’ll be reinstated for a spell. Meanwhile, he’ll just go about letting everyone assume he’s completely in the dark about anything Dexter may or may not have done. However, should LaGuerta reneg on their agreement — and it certainly feels like that’s possible — I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Matthews pay Dexter a visit and give him the same “do what you do” speech that Deb did earlier this season.

The fact that Matthews was brought into the storyline at all is a very telling thing. It would have been just as fitting if LaGuerta stumbled upon all of this “evidence” against Doakes on her own. So why bother bringing Matthews into the story at all? Clearly it’s because his part of the story isn’t finished, and he’s got more to say to — and about — Dexter than he’s let on about so far.

With Deb and Matthews in on Dexter’s secret for the remainder of the series, it would make for one hell of a final season. Their involvement in steering the rest of the law away from finding him out could be what realistically leads to him getting away in the end.

Then again, Matthews could have just been brought into the fold for his awesome one-liners. Let’s talk about some of his from this episode:

“Personally I think she’s had one too many mosquitos, or whatever you call that goddamn drink.”

“We don’t know Doakes used this place. You’re jumping to conclusions.” – LaGuerta
“This address came from the tackle box. Which came from the cabin. Where Doakes died. This isn’t jumping to a conclusion — this conclusion is hanging from your ass.” – Matthews

“Maria, it’s over. The fat lady isn’t singing. Her song is done. She’s getting dry humped in her dressing room.”

As for the rest of the finale. it appears from the promo below (and from the episode’s title, “Surprise, Motherfucker!”) that Doakes is going to make an appearance in the episode, likely in the form of a flashback or dream sequence. First of all, I hope none of what we saw is something as cheap as a dream sequence. Also, I’m now kinda-sorta wondering if Doakes somehow survived that blast, and the body found on the scene was someone else. Naaaah, it couldn’t be. Could it?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3WR_3izzMA

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Arrow continues to develop and deliver as a TV show. Each week, the writers introduce flaws in Ollie’s plans and present him with characters that mirror him in a bizarro way. This week, throwing Huntress into the fray continued Ollie’s development. Out of the bat-family, I always liked bathing-suit-cut-out Huntress the least. But, as a character, she contained an irrational rage. However, because Huntress was essentially bat-candy and Katie Cassidy played Laurel as the sassy girl next door, I had pretty low expectations for the character. Luckily, Jessica De Gouw hit it out of the ballpark, without ever playing the character as the sad little pretty girl. De Gouw’s portrayal hit every single angle that ever existed in the character from rage to sadness to an incredible loss without playing to a pre-established template. Seriously, when she cried in the end over her fiancee while whispering no one could know her secret, I saw the true Huntress that lurked in the comics, but most artists buried by focusing more on her body over her character.

All I have to say to the Arrow writers, producers and directors is … damn! You guys are good!

I have to hand it to the writers for not closing their eyes to Ollie’s weakness (or the weaknesses in the Bat-canon). They hit on my main issue with Huntress in the Batman comics world. Despite his cruelty, Batman viewed Huntress as a wild card. While she didn’t adhere to his law, I always saw their tactics as similar. Likewise, I view Arrow’s Ollie as a cold-blooded killer. Sure, he gives his main targets a chance, but he kills their henchmen without batting an eye.  At the end of the day, he only cares about his father’s vendetta and the 1% of Gotham. I never understood why he seemed so anti-Deadpool and now so anti-Huntress, when he does the same thing. Sure, he might’ve created a “code” for himself, but until he acknowledges that he kills people and realizes that a true hero tries to save everyone, not just the people related to him, he’s stuck in a tunneled mindset. So, bringing Helena on as an exact mirror of his life with Jessica De Gouw basically paralleling Stephen Amell’s deliberately empty portrayal rocks.

I love Helena’s introduction because the character’s honesty and Digg’s truth-talking all force Ollie to continue moving forward. While he feels his vendetta sets him apart from his family, in some ways, he’s still just a spoiled rich kid acting out. While Diggs points that out verbally, Helena, as Ollie’s mirror, points it out physically. (On a side note, I’m going to start calling Digg Alfred. At first I thought they planned on using him as Green Lantern, Green Arrow’s moral action buddy, but, considering Digg hangs out in the mansion wearing a suit, I think we know who he resembles most).

I don’t quite understand why Thea and Ollie’s mother seem determined to have the old Ollie back. Old Ollie sounds like a prick. He cheated on his girlfriend WITH her SISTER!!! He hung out with the smarmiest looking dude in town and was an entitled douche to everyone. Now, he no longer hangs around the house without anything to do. Plus, he wants to get a job and run his own business. Um, he sounds like an ADULT. And, his family doesn’t want their late-twenties son to grow up?! WHAT?! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! If I lived at home at my age, hung around the house all day, used my family’s money, showed no desire to have a job, and hung out with bad influences, my family wouldn’t exactly smile at that.

Considering Thea is Speedy and Tommy is probably Merlyn, whenever Ollie does the opposite of what they want, it’s probably a good thing. On a side note, I have to congratulate the writers with the name-dropping. Last week, everyone inexplicably started using the Speedy nickname with Thea so we knew who she related to in the comic canon. Now, they’re doing the same with Tommy (where Laurel started calling him by a last name she previously never used). If a teenager’s angry that she has to stay home rather than clubbing in the middle of the week by herself, that’s a good thing. (Am I the only one who forgot she’s still in high school and isn’t of the voting age?) While I like Tommy’s softer side, a dude who’s angry that he has to get a job and can’t live off his parents is still a Scrub in my book. So, good on you, Arrow for the continuing development.

I’m glad Huntress will return next week and I’m glad they didn’t pencil her into a one-episode deal with an actress like De Gouw. The character and the writing accompanying her entrance get mega-props. The costume department equally deserves accolades. The simple silver cross and quiet black dress hit on Helena’s personality and core costume without any bells and whistles. Do I need to say anything about the awesome fight scenes that seamlessly intersected with the dialogue and character development? Nope. Because it’s perfect. Oh, and, casting Tahmoh “Helo” Penikett (Battlestar Galactica) as the boss’ right hand? Sheer awesomeness.

Good job, Arrow. Keep it up.

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I don’t normally bother with spoiler warnings, because I’m one of those people who thinks that you should be visiting a television and pop culture commentary site if you’re avoiding spoilers for a particular show. But in this case, I’m going to make an exception. If you’ve not watched this weeks Fringe, you should move on now.

No, seriously … don’t keep reading; you’re not going to be happy with me.

Now that you’ve made it this far, I have a question for you: did anyone see that happening? Despite wondering all summer why Georgina Haig wasn’t made a series regular, I know I sure didn’t. Even as word started to circulate on my Twitter feed that there was big happenings in this episode – including potentially a major character death – I didn’t think Etta would be in any type of danger. Frankly, I thought that Broyles was the character in the most danger.

Think about it: Broyles hasn’t been connected to the core Fringe team since the time jump. He’s been working behind the scenes on their behalf, and the reunion that we saw tonight was a foregone conclusion. What kind of emotional rollercoaster would result from Broyles reconnecting with the team only for him to die in some heroic way the character deserved? As a fan of the show, it feels weird to say that I would have preferred the death of a character that has been around since the first episode, but I’m still pretty shell-shocked from Etta’s death – and I watched the episode on two days ago.

In many ways, Etta represented the union between Peter and Olivia that the audience was never really privy to. Fringe has done a wonderful job reinventing itself several times during its run, but a complaint that many fans had was that these changes interrupted getting to see their favorite couple together and happy for any extended period of time. Even in the timeline that we’re now watching, Peter and Olivia were separated by time, space and amber for many years. Their happy time raising young Etta was cut short – and we didn’t even get to see that.

But Etta was the living symbol of a time that Peter and Olivia were together as well as an emotional anchor that both characters shared in this tumultuous future. She a wonderful dynamic with both of her parents – though her relationship with her mother, with its interesting give and take, was on display much more often. I can only imagine the lasting effects her loss will have on both Olivia and Peter. One thing forgotten in this time jump is how many of their friends and family the might have lost as well. Unless I’ve missed it, we’ve not heard anything about Rachel and Ella. Etta’s death might be in the forefront, but its far from the only loss they’ve had to endure.

From a more practical perspective, their mission of saving the world just got much more difficult. Etta was their guide in the future, doing everything from translating to teaching. Broyles is the obvious candidate to step into that role where he can, but Peter, Olivia and Walter are going to need to be a great deal more self-sufficient moving forward.

Considering the many characters that have come and gone as Fringe transitioned through multiple worlds, universes, realities and timelines, I was surprised at how much of an impact Etta’s death had on me as a viewer. While I think that she obviously important to the story – and to her parents – I think it’s more than that. Georgina Haig did a wonderful job in a tough role, and will be missed as Fringe comes to an end this season.

Did you get attached to Etta as I did?

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After the success of the first season of American Horror Story — and the then announcement of FX’s pickup of the show for a second season — we learned that not only was the new season going to be an entirely new locale, time period and story altogether, but a good number of the cast would transition over as well. If that wasn’t confusing enough, the cast would be playing entirely different roles than they had in the first season. In a previous post, I brought up the possibility that this unusual change would confuse and anger fans, since a good many of those viewers aren’t keeping up with fine blogs such as this one, to learn of these complete story changes; that theory remains to be seen, now that the season’s kicked off. It could just be that everyone who cares about this show is keeping up with TV websites, guides and watching promos — who knows?

I compared this series to The Twilight Zone, but instead of each episode being self-contained, it’s each season. And like Twilight Zone, there were some actors who’d played different roles in subsequent episodes. This season takes things another step in that direction by not merely continuing the theme of hauntings and ghosts, and instead brings a bit of sci-fi into the mix. There’s blood, gore, murders and mayhem and all-around creepiness, but now there’s a new twist: aliens.

Let’s assume that the visions Kit Walker witnessed were real and not vivid hallucinations. Anyone who’s somewhat familiar with alien abduction stories and movies knows the telltale signs seen there; that spells out UFOs and aliens. Generally one might not necessarily consider an alien-themed show or movie to be of the horror genre; I’d be more apt to consider it science fiction first and foremost, in fact. Come to think of it, though, there aren’t very many alien movies that aren’t “horror” at their foundations, unless they’re right-out comedies or children’s flicks. I applaud the writers of this series for not merely continuing on with the same flavor of what some consider horror, and bringing us something that is going to be something much, much different. Again, this all assumes Kit wasn’t going simply going nuts. It’s possible the answer could be that Kit dreamed up the bright lights, noise, floating and probing from reading old sci-fi rags of the day, but I don’t want to believe that.

So far it appears Briarcliff may be somehow behind the things Kit witnessed, and might be keeping these aliens at bay with regular body part feedings in the woods. Now the promo posters of all-in-white nuns with big, all-black eyes makes sense: they look like freakin’ aliens! Will we find out that a majority of the Briarcliff residents are there because they, too, saw bright lights and floated to the ceiling?

Regardless of whether or not this new season will confuse or upset fans of last season, it’s off to an interesting start. It’ll actually be interesting to see if people who didn’t watch last season decide to hop into this one, since there’s nothing at all to catch up on. Which group do you fall into?

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You might recall that last season I published some thoughts on who the thorn in Dexter’s side — and intern for Vince Masuka — Louis Greene might be. He appeared out of nowhere and seemed to have Dexter in his crosshairs, first having asked him for help with his serial killer video game, then messing around with Ice Truck Killer evidence. It wasn’t clear if Louis was out to get Dexter or just attract his attention, but there sure seemed to be something more to his actions than simply being a weirdo.

Last season, a commenter noted that Louis might be Dexter’s nephew — Brian Moser’s son — and I felt that was a pretty decent theory. It would’ve made for some interesting stuff for the series, going forward. Now, after this latest episode, we find that Louis’s purpose on the show was … well, pretty much nothing.

I won’t deny that I thought the thugs mistaking Louis for Dexter was pretty funny, but it ended with a bullet to the intern’s head — one he’s not going to recover from. But as I watched that scene unfold, I let out an audible “AW!” at Louis’s death, because it meant everything he’d been doing was really for nothing at all. Louis was just a creepy game programmer with a grudge, who was systematically pwned by Dexter’s retaliation. That’s it. Nothing more to see here.

What a disappointment. I would really love to know if there was initially more to Louis in the Dexter writer’s room at one point, and they decided to trash it all when they realized they couldn’t work it in with all the heavy stuff going on this season, and that they’d only have two seasons in which to use him. The whole thing really feels like an opportunity that was left on the cutting room floor, and Louis was instead killed off so we wouldn’t be distracted by him any more.

The only thing at this point that would be more disappointing than Louis being a nobody would be if Quinn never got closer to finding out the truth about Dexter. Though Quinn and Dexter have some sort of relationship now where perhaps Quinn sort-of owes one to Dexter, I’m not at all convinced he wouldn’t take him down the minute he found something more out about Dexter’s activities. And when he finds out that Deb knows about her brother? Hoo boy. There’s a very good chance Quinn will hear the name “Dexter Morgan” from his new Russian girlfriend; when that happens, watch out.

So, Dexter writers, please let this be the last time we see a good opportunity get wasted; it’ll make our theory making feel a lot less in vain.

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OK. Maybe it wasn’t the WORST Person of Interest. It was entertaining and utterly watchable, especially the fanfic-worthy scenario in the beginning. But, it was still boring in parts because it lacked its usual intelligence. This week basically re-hashed last week. Without a person of interest, the action had no impetus, the storyline lagged and the characters became repetitive. Maybe the episode wasn’t “Bad Code,” but it did offer a simple plot, simplistic dialogue, repetitive questions, and a lower level of quality than I’ve come to expect.

Bad Plot

Without multiple overlapping storylines introducing new twists, the episode lagged. Last week, we had the mysterious new government agents, Root’s vendetta, Reese’s search for Finch, the person of the week, and the Reese-Carter/Reese-Fusco/Reese-Finch friendships. We had the same things this week, but nothing new was added. So, it was essentially a show about Root’s past. Without the person of interest or the Machine to add spice, the storyline sagged, became repetitive and felt simple.

Bad Dialogue

Without the complicated tech dialogue or the dialogue where the characters question themselves, I found myself bored. Normally, the text flies fast and furious, but this week, despite watching Carter solve the hell out of the missing girl case, the dialogue just repeated itself. Root gave the same monologue ad nauseum throughout the night that she gave last week. After the librarian confessed her husband’s proclivities, Carter asking the woman her thoughts on letting her husband get away with murder was unnecessary. The woman already admitted the truth and described her respect/love for the man. Did we really need a character to ask it all over again, especially since that didn’t contribute to the overarching plot of the Machine?  The episode itself really didn’t show insight into Root. Normally, the show features parallels within parallels with Reese/Carter, Fusco/Reese, and Fusco/Cater. I expected an all-Root episode to at least show her similarity to the other characters, like Finch, through her backstory. It didn’t happen. So why the episode?

Short Term Writer Memory

Although Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman and Patrick Harbinson all wrote this episode, they seemingly came down with a case of short term memory, which equally contributed to my frustration with this episode. Last season, Reese feared being seen with Carter. This episode, they fly down and walk around bloody Texas together. What?!

The show felt equally lost regarding police procedure. Reese still uses Stills’ badge. Isn’t Stills dead? Wouldn’t the NYPD question some guy calling from an unfamiliar cell phone and using a dead, corrupt cop’s badge for information as a flag? Carter acting uber-cocky to the librarian when she had no jurisdiction and deciding to tear up the woman’s house without a search warrant made no sense; then turning around and deciding she needed to do it “right” immediately afterwards also made no sense.

Another dialogue discrepancy which contributed to the episode’s lag included Finch telling Root that Reese’s rescue exemplified his good guy nature while complaining to Reese that he shouldn’t have come but then telling Reese he owed him a debt. Um, really? ‘Cus Reese already owes you a debt for essentially rescuing him. …

Lack of Tech Talk

The utter absence of tech talk further simplified the episode. Last week I liked it, but this week I just rolled my eyes. I’m tired of writers unfamiliar with computer science describing code like a fingerprint. It isn’t. Good programmers are taught to code the same way – comment your code, and try to avoid over-using resources (although memory and database drains aren’t that much of an issue). There are good programmers and lazy programmers, but I couldn’t tell the code of developer A from developer B. Also, how would Root know the Machine has Finch’s fingerprints, if she never saw the original code, especially considering Finch hasn’t exactly formally programmed in recent years. They could’ve done so much with “Bad Code” outside of calling humans bad. *Sigh.*  The discrepancies in this episode made my head explode.

Bad Violence

Person of Interest typically works because it never devolved into Van Damme-esque fight porn. If John kicked ass, the writers always provided a justifiable reason, which kept the writing smart. This week, we get one-two confrontations that really didn’t need to happen.

Stupid Characters

Finch and Reese are two of the smartest characters on the show. So, why did Finch devolve into a wuss who couldn’t use his brain to defeat Root, outside of leaving cufflinks for Reese? Come on, Root clearly left the knife on the table and took five hours to retrieve the car to give the guys time to talk. Also, the government guy just asked Finch if Root could access the Machine, but Finch unnecessarily tells him how Root can access the Machine. What?! The most tight-lipped dude in America who underwent YEARS of hermetic existence, suddenly spills it when NOT asked? He could’ve just said “NO!” and been done with it. *Sigh.* Why did the smartest man suddenly become the LEAST smartest?! The same goes for Reese. This week he seemed more like window-dressing. I loved watching him work the crime with Carter, but I wanted to see them solve it together. Instead Carter solved it while Reese walked around town starting inane fights.

 Final Thoughts

Was this episode terrible? By no means. It was still fun. The things I loved surrounded the breakfast of champions with Carter, Fusco and Reese; Carter showing her intelligence; the squee-worthy John and Carter in the same room (seriously, Jonah Nolan, admit it, you read fanfic.net); and the humorous bits with Reese and the crossbow.

But, I’ve grown to expect a high level of complexity and originality in the dialogue, action and plot. This week just wasn’t smart. The lack of complexity in writing, plot, dialogue, technical dialogue and character development just bored me. It would’ve been fun watching Fusco try to solve the weekly POI without Carter/Reese while Finch used his mind to go into a war of words with Root, while the show incorporated more coding references. This could’ve been a better episode. Was it better than most drama out there? Hell, yes. But, was it as good as Person of Interest’s usual level? No. And, that’s why I’d call this the most boring Person of Interest ever. Not because it was, but because it didn’t offer the usual gold seal standard I’ve come to expect. Next time, Nolan, next time. …

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