Smallville Episode Review: "Persona"

As mentioned in the "Recap" post, I'm trying something different. This, instead of a play-by-play, will sum up this week's episode without too many spoilers.

The episode tonight was incredibly intense. As you may or may not be able to recall, the last episode ended with Kara missing, a problem in Lex's lab, Lex revealing that his dead baby brother, Julien, was alive, and Jar-El, Clark's birth father, telling Clark that he's messed things up for the last time.

Turns out, Jar-El, instead of killing someone close to Clark has simply been holding him for the time being. Meanwhile, a Phantom Clark-look-alike has taken Clark's place and moved into his life. The problem? Other than the fact that our hero is in deep trouble: no one's realized.

For the Clark phantom, there's another problem: the yellow sun of our world turns his skin to stone. He needs to try to figure out a way to make that stop, realizing that sooner or later, someone's going to catch on. And it's just a matter of time before someone does.

This episode was intriguing, and it raises lots of questions:
How much longer before something happens to make Lana and Clark break it off for good? Their relationship isn't the best at the end of this episode: to put it lightly. Which would you choose, though: a man who says he loves you but is never there, or someone impersonating him who would turn over the world for you?
When will they find Kara? Is her memory going to return?
How will Professor Fine's finding information about himself affect Clark (read the recap) and the others?
How will Lex handle the situation with his brother? Does it help shape who he becomes?

Smallville: Episode Recap "Persona"

Trying something new. This recap contains an in-depth depiction of what happened in Smalllville tonight. Unfortunately, something I thought unimportant in a last episode was important. Figures.

Well, the new Smallville began with a much-needed bang. Lana and Clark in bed, and then the editor of the Daily Planet (who is dating Lois on the DL) goes to Lionel Luthor and basically says, "You're my father, pay up." He adds that he was made from the original Julien's DNA because Lex missed his brother - and that Lex had told him not to go to Lionel because Lionel might decide to turn on him.

Lana and Clark wake up together in bed, and Clark is very affectionate, telling her how beautiful she is, and being all-around very open with her.

Meanwhile, there is somebody knocking off homeless guys, and Lana has him traced to Suicide Slums (if you follow Smallville like I do, you know that's where Lionel Luthor's parents lived before he killed them - or had them killed) and Clark goes. Clark confronts his former history teacher who was created by Kryptonians - and he calls "Clark" out as not being Kal-el. The new Clark (whom we'll call NEW) explains that he can't go out into the sun without being turned to stone - he thinks that the professor can help. The professor ignores him. But then agrees to help, once NEW reminds him that Kal-el tried to kill him.

There is a shield from a Kryptonian that will lead to a Kryptonian who can help him. NEW takes the bait and goes to visit Chloe, who, in confusion, reminds him that he already has the shield. Chloe realizes that somethings wrong with Clark - and that it's not actually him. She goes to
Lana to warn her, and learns that NEW and Lana are leaving Smallvillle.

Then, Lana suggests that NEW go to the fortress for the shield he can't find, after he mentions he thinks Kara might have taken it.

When he gets there, Jar-El calls him the phantom, tells him to leave, and then releases the real Kal-El, who goes to Lana, saves her, then tries to find out what to do to destroy NEW (should I call him the Phantom now, I wonder?? Nah. Too confusing). Clark goes Lionel Luthor, who at some point became an emissary of Jar-El and asks him for help. After Lionel suggests what he can do - using the shield, of course, he goes into an elevator and Clark leaves. Lionel then becomes the professor (who has the ability to become others - he once impersonated Jonathon Kent -- after Mr. Kent died).

Clark goes to Chloe, and tells her he can't find the shield. He proves that he's not NEW by stepping into the light, and she gives him the shield. He does what the Lionel Professor told him, and says the name of the Kryptonian who supposedly owns it. He approaches the Kryptonian, and tells him who he is (Kal-El). "Ahh, the House of El." Dear old Clarky falls for the whole thing hook, line and sinker, as they say.

Clark obtains the blue Kryptonite from him, which is what the professor said would help NEW not be affected by the sun.

Here's the thing with Krytonian minerals: they affect Clark and NEW oppositely. Blue Krytonite turns Clark into a human.

Then, there's this big old scene with Lana, Clark and NEW, where Lana goes to take the blue stone to NEW and then realizes that she's more in love than she ever has been... and then she gives him the stone. NEW breaks into a million pieces - stone, and then a break.

The kicker: the Professor wants help from the Krytonian who created him... he's damaged. He's used both Clark and the Phantom for that (finding him). He kills the Kryptonian - or at least it looks that way. He gets the information out of him to survive.

Lex fires Julien from the Daily Planet. Julien's not upset. Instead, he's looking forward to being part of his newfound family. Huh. He goes out to dinner with Lionel, and after, just as he tells Julien he's a Luthor, they're mugged and Julien's killed.

Was it planned? Lex hears the news and is devastated by it - Lionel looked pretty upset, too.

Curious episode: Clark and Lana are together, but not. Julien, a newly found son and brother, is killed. The Professor is back and powerful.

I really hope that Clark can fly by the end of this season. And a part of me wonders if this is the final straw for Lex - if his brother's second death is what pushes him over the edge and turns him into the Lex we all know and hate.

What do you think?

Me, I'm off for coffee.... yum.

House, "It's A Wonderful Lie" review

This episode was particularly odd because it was about a mother and her daughter who supposedly never lied to one another. Mom told daughter about all of her sexual escapades. They think that her sexual escapades are part of the mom's problem - temporary paralysis due to use of ecstasy. But then, she goes blind, too - and that's clearly not a result of x, so they're back to the drawing board.
(Spoiler alert)
Eventually, they learn that she has cancer, and that her daughter, who offered to complete the bone marrow transplant for her is not, in reality, her daughter at all, but a kid mom took off of another woman who didn't want a child. The woman asked that the mom not ever let her daughter know who her real mom was.

For some reason, House took great joy in the fact that the daughter had told her mother that she would die - without question - if she wouldn't allow the bone marrow test.

I like House... I like that he genuinely cares about doing his job well - whether or not his means of doing so are questionable.

I like the team that House has assembled. They work well together, and I think Thirteen is great (does she have a real name now???). I also like they play with House, particularly in this episode. House needs people who can hold their own around him... and they can.

Why would House feel the need for gifts to such an extent that he would only put his own name in the hat? Doesn't he realize they're not dumb enough to fall for that? HE hired them for goodness sake.

American Idol Day 2

Day 2 of American Idol. I love Auditions... I really do.

I do have two things to point out before I go on: don't sing a song by an American Idol and please dress professionally. By the way, they don't usually give you advice unless you're going through.

Good:
Jessica Brown (first to go) - going to Hollywood
Alaina - (compared to Carrie Underwood) - going to Hollywood
Bruce Dickson - I think my sister should marry him, he's never kissed a girl, and wants to wait 'til his wedding day; that's my sister's thought - they didn't like him
Pia Easley - liked her, and so did they - Hollywood
Bradon Green - Simon says forgettable, Paula likes 'im, and Randy says yes, too - Hollywood
Kady Malloy - she did Britney Spears well, I didn't like her Carrie Underwood, but she did herself well. Randy agrees, Paula liked her, Simon thinks she's the best so far - Hello, Hollywood
Kyle Ensley - good, but not quit Idol material (much better than I thought he was) - Simon says yes, though; Randy said no, and Paula said yes, too; so their we go - Hollywood
Colton Swann - He's good - Paula said yes, so did Randy, Simon says yes - Hollywood (good sense of humor, too)
Andrew Poppelreiter - real cute, adorable accent, good but country - Simon says no, Randy yes, Paula said yes, too - I'm sooo excited - going to Hollywood
Nina Shaw - old-fashioned cabaret singer - but she went through to Hollywood anyway


Bad:
Esteban Deanda - scariness all around, people
Victoria Metz - even worse
Gregory and Mia Tobias - I thought she was okay, but she sounded bad next to him
Kayla Hatfield - yelling or singing? Randy and Simon said yes, so she's going to Hollywood
Says my roommate "It's kinda funny who Simon likes and who he doesn't. I wonder what's going on in his British head."
Douglas - went on and on about how good he is, but really, not
Angela Riley - her hubby's hot, but her voice was soooo not
Tammy Tuzinski - R&B/Pop, and her Idol is Celine Dion. Hmmm. I had a bad feeling about her from the beginning - no's across the board
Kyle Reinnek - the verse was fine, the chorus was bad - the judges said no, too


Only 24 people from Dallas. Ouch.

Thoughts About American Idol Season 7

All I've heard about in the last few months is "how much better" this season of American Idol is supposed to be. Tonight started out pretty well. There were some great voices, there were some terrible voices. There were some good attitudes, and there were some people who needed to have their mouths washed out with soap.

My favorites were: Junot - amazing voice, great smile, Christina (in red - was that her name?)
- beautiful and great voice; Chris (I think - black guy with dreds) aMAZing voice... and he's very pretty. I agree with Simon, that he's in it to win. Dawn (last girl to go - in the blue - was that her name?) - soooo sweet, good voice, and really beautiful.

Some highlights: Miss Alexis in her sparkly "I'm so 13" makeup and earrings making a huge deal out of her rejection. I don't know what they said to her when she wasn't shown on the show, but my word... wow, it wasn't that bad. Honey, you need to take some chill pills. Trust me, you can't sing. You can't. I covered my ears, and then laughed my butt off at your overreaction.
Miss Christina in her Princess Leia outfit. Here's the thing sweetie, it's an addition. The idea is not to dress up like you're going to a gaming convention, because you're not. You're going to an audition, a job interview, if you will. Dress like it. The people who got in who were "all dressed alike" yes, many of them were dressed with a similar theme in mind: professionalism.

Anyway, Phili sent 39 people to Hollywood. Can't wait to see tomorrow's show.

Recap ofTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles "Gnothi Seauton"

In 2007, Sarah and John are "time lagged" because of the jump. Cameron walks in, and explains that future John has sent back "Resistance Fighters" to protect himself. (Anyone who has seen the Terminator movies knows that.)

While Sarah and Cameron go looking for someone to help them get fake IDs, they stumble across a Terminator. Cameron gets hit by a car and goes through the windshield (kinda like a deer) and then told the occupants of the car to stay calm, and goes running off. That has to be terrifying.

I keep wondering why Sarah doesn't dye her hair or something - cut it, get hair extensions, that kind of thing. But no. John is given strict instructions to stay put (which he violates by going to the mall and hacking into a computer, what a surprise) and they girls go to get fake IDs from an ex-boyfriend, Enrique. Unfortunately, they run into a problem because he's quit. But his nephew has taken over the "family business" as it were.

Meanwhile, someone sets a mechanic head on a table. When a cat licks it, the eyes light up. Moments later, a man and his dog are walking by a construction site when a long, mechanic hand reaches out of the debris and snatches both dog and man. Blood scatters across the walls... ahh yes, the beginnings of the new Skynet.

Enrique's nephew, Carlos, charges them $20,000 for the IDs, while Cameron's waiting outside. She gets picked up by a cop and is going in for the kill, when Sarah stop her and pretends to be her stepmother.

John gets it into his head to break into his mother's ex-fiance (Charley Dixon)'s house and traipses around there stupidly. when her ex catches him and tries to welcome/hug him, John warns him not to, and punches him out and runs out when he does anyway. I don't get it.

At the very end, Sarah and Cameron confront Enrique, having learned that he was a snitch through Carlos - who didn't know they were listening, or that they understood - and kill Enrique.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Pilot Episode)

The first episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was easily fabulous. If you saw it, you know that. For the rest of you, here's what happened (spoiler alert):

The story picks up about two or three years after Terminator 2 ends, with John Connor (Thomas Dekker) at age 15. Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) wakes up from a nightmare about her son, John, getting killed by a terminator, as she's begging that he kill her, too. She jolts awake, and then her fiance wakes up and teases her, and tells her that her engagement is especially special because her son picked it out.

Next thing you see is Sarah staring at John, watching him sleep, until he wakes up. Then she tells him they have to leave. He protests, arguing that after two years, no one knows them, and that they're safe here. "You're never safe." Then, she tells him he has half an hour, one bag and the guns, then leaves.

After they leave, Sarah's fiance goes to the police. The FBI is involved when they hear about Sarah's involvement (presumably with the pic) and learn that her name is now "Reese" and not Connor, and explains to her fiance, who had no idea, about her stay in the mental institution, their twist on what went down at SkyNet and what not. Obviously, the information goes down for the record and the Terminator picks up on the info.

Next time you see John, he's at his new school and a girl, Cameron (Summer Glau), asks him his name. He tells her, and she follows him around, telling him about herself. He lies and says his dad is in insurance, and ends the conversation when she asks about his mom.

Back at home, Sarah asks John how school was, and asks him if there had been any pretty girls - after yelling at him for getting on a computer (y'all know about his little problem with hacking into computers. For some reason, mom thinks that could cause more problems...).

Next day at school, there's a sub. As the sub's calling role, he (the terminator - Mike (my boyfriend) called it, of course) pulled out a letter opener and sticks it into his leg for no particular reason except to let us know he's the terminator. Cameron doesn't answer at first when he calls her name, but then she answers. John Reese is next, and he pulls out a gun when John raises his hand. He shoots at him and the kids go crazy. John meanwhile, I'm sure hearing his mother's voice in his ears, runs, diving through a window. Cameron takes a bullet to the chest. The rest of the kids are crouched under desks, hiding. "Class dismissed," says the Terminator.

John runs out of the school, ducking behind cars and buses which are being exploded behind him. Cameron pulls up it to him in a truck and says, "Get in if you want to live." John hesitates too long to satisfy me and then jumps in. As they pull away, he notes the metal robot bits under her skin. (Later, he verbally realizes that no pretty, popular girl would say hello to the weird new guy, and he should have known something was up.)

Meanwhile, Sarah has seen the news report about what happened at school and left work, now spying on the school, clearly hoping to see her son. The Terminator jumped her and began strangling her. It's as he's discussing not strangling her to death, but using her against John, that John calls, and the Terminator imitates Sarah's voice and tells John to come home - or maybe that's where John says he'll meet her... in any case, he knows it's not his mom - his mom would tell him to run. That's always what she tells him.

Cameron enters the house disguised as John and the Terminator shoots at her. They all get away and they're planning on crossing the border, but then Sarah promises to John that they'll destroy Skynet again. The problem is Cameron only knows when it was created - not where or by whom.

So they go back to Miles what's-his-name's house and talk to his widow, who is under the impression that Sarah killed Miles until Cameron announces, "We're back," but his widow doesn't know anything. The Terminator catches up with them, Miles' widow helps by giving them her car to run away with. As they're taking off, the Terminator goes to hop in their truck, and Cameron blows it up. A piece of the shrapnel or a bullet or something hits Sarah in the shoulder.

The trio head to the bank where Cameron says she has an account - a lockbox - since 1963. They go in and Cameron pulls a gun and tells everyone to get down. They do, and someone takes them downstairs. Cameron tells her to lock them in and back away from the door - and that she'll know if she doesn't. Then Cameron opens a box and pulls out a set of keys and tells Sarah and John to open the boxes and put the contents on the table, "Gently."

As they pull them out, it's clear they're parts for some type of gun. Then Cameron opens a wall with a computer outside and explains that they can destroy Skynet by going to the time in which it's created. Meanwhile, Sarah is holding the gun, waiting for a little yellow piece inside of it to turn red while the Terminator is outside the door, trying to get in, and the police are outside the bank, waiting to enter.

"Mom! We have to go now!" Yells John, seconds after the Terminator shoots in through the hole he's made, seconds before the bubble time-travel thing is about to finish up, and as the yellow thing turns red. Sarah shoots, Terminator goes down, and the three of them are jolted into 2007, and end up the street, naked, with cars swerving around them. Someone takes a video with a cell phone, and it ends up on the news (The FBI guy who is in charge of finding Sarah sees it, and so does her ex-fiance).

In the meantime, they have found clothes, and are off to find SkyNet.

Can't wait to see tomorrow's episode. I hope it's as amazing as today's. It has to be interesting for both the FBI agent (sorry, he has a name, I know he does, but I don't remember it) and Sarah's ex-fiance, I'm sure they assumed she was dead after the whole bank incident. I mean, they've dropped off the planet for years, and are now in 2007... it was what? 1999? That's a long time to not be heard from.

Oh, another point of interest, is while the FBI agent was mocking her to her ex, 19 of the 22 witnesses to the school shooting saw a "robot-like leg."

Family Guy: McStroke

This evening's episode of Family Guy was excellent and hilarious.
At the very beginning of the episode, Peter decides to grow a mustache because he thinks it's distinguished. Meanwhile, Brian and Stewie make a bet that Stewie can't be popular in high school (Stewie says that high school kids are easily manipulated and that he can become the most popular person in high school easily.)

So Stewie slips into Meg's backpack with a blond wig and introduces himself as "Zach" something or other. "Zach" says all the "cool" things and is almost immediately accepted by the popular kids.

Meanwhile, Peter rescues a man from a burning building, McBurger Restaurant, burning his mustache off in the process. The man, who is the owner, gives Peter free burgers for life. On the day of the building's re-opening Peter eats thirty (yes, thirty - according to Brian) and suffers a stroke, which leaves the left half of his body paralyzed. I hate to say it, but it was hilarious the way they portrayed him.

In any case, Peter swears revenge on McBurger for what it did to him, and then he goes into a Stem Cell Research foundation and his healed after five minutes (after being paralyzed for three months).

Stewie ends up going on a date with a girl and ends up on "Anal Point" (I think), and when he pulls down his pants, she obviously dumps him. The next day at school, everyone is calling him "baby penis," and he's obviously out of the popular crowd. He asks the chick for one last kiss, then strips and announces, "Oh, look at this girl. She's kissing a baby, a naked baby!" She gets arrested and taken away, and he walks out of the school.

Meanwhile, Peter files a lawsuit against the restaurant and loses, obviously. Frustrated, Peter decides to go on a tour of the restaurant to find out what they're hiding. He and Brian end up discovering a talking cow who explains the horrible things the restaurant is doing to cows and ends up testifying against McBurger and making a public service announcement, thanking those who eat only salads.

Then, there's an awkward scene at the end where Lois tells the cow it can't stay, although Peter evidently said he could. I really wanted to see piles of cow poop or something, but no. I was denied.

Charlie Wilson's War

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts amazed me in this film; both their performances were more than stellar. Amy Adams (Enchanted) was also in this film as the assistant to Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, a Texas congressman. Tom and Julia did an amazing job.

This is based on a true story, based on Charlie Wilson, a congressman who adored women (sexist) and did other questionable things in his private life. His office looked a little bit like playboy mansion, with hot women, and I quote, "You can teach them to type, but you can't teach them to grow tits."

He also helped rebel Afghans in their attempt to overthrow the Soviet Union during the cold war, "singlehandedly winning the cold war." Obviously, since it was a cold war (covert war), it was on the DL... technically... that Charlie was using American money and supplies to aid Afghanistan shoot down the helicopters that were killing the people and destroying the towns.

Then, just as the war was over, we pulled out. We didn't help the people who were injured with health care. We didn't provide education to the remaining population, the majority of which was under 14. Should we have?

How did our pulling out when we did affect the future? Is that part of the reason for what's going on now?

Alvin and The Chipmunks

I wasn't sure about seeing this film. I thought Alvin and The Chipmunks would be stupid... I mean, singing chipmunks? I never really saw the cartoon at all, and the movie... I felt it could go either way. But when the boy and I were late for the film we wanted to see (which we saw later), Charlie Wilson's War, and this was playing and it made sense to go see it.

The film was hilarious. And it was really, really cute. David Seville, the Chipmunks "caretaker"/reluctant father was played by Jason Lee from My Name is Earl, the voice of Alvin was done by Justin Long, Simon's voice was done by Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney played Theodore's voice.

David is a songwriter and an advertising agent who's not doing so great. He hates his job, and his music career is nowhere near taking off. In fact, his "friend", Ian tells him he should give it all up. The first scene with the chipmunks they're singing "Bad Day," and we already know that they're David's ticket... I mean, obviously.

The chipmunks are adorable. Theodore is lovable and cute, with big eyes and an amazing personality. Simon is dorky and intelligent and childish. Alvin is spunky and funny and a little psycho.