Whoa! This was one action-packed episode. It's hard to remember who's on first or what's on second. It's a good thing I take notes, huh?
Here's the basic skinny on tonight's episode, although I tend to go by character storyline rather than the chronological order of appearance in the show at times. Tonight, some of the storylines really intermingled.- In the Matt Parkman (cop who can read thoughts) storyline: Matt, suspended from the police department, took on a private security guard job. He took his gun along as he had to escort and protect a man who was going
to the diamond district to buy diamonds. The man, Malsky, was carrying a large amount of cash. Little did Matt know... - In the Jessica/Nikki storyline: Nikki is still trapped in the mirror. Jessica, working for Mr. Linderman, received a photo of the man Matt is escorting and is set to be a hitman... er, hitwoman. She's going to kill the guy.
- In the Claire/Real Mom/Nathan storyline: The FireMom told Nathan that she saw their daughter, Claire. He automatically thought, since the election is coming soon, that she wanted money. He offered $100,000. Trailer FireMom took the offer.
- Regarding Mohinder: He was trying to contact folks with powers and only
one called him back - a panicky man named Zane Taylor. He agreed to go meet him. Little did Mohinder know... - In the Sylar storyline: Sylar visited Zane Taylor first, impersonating Mohinder. He took the brain as he tends to do. The power is the ability to melt metal objects.
- When Mohinder arrived, Sylar pretended to be Zane even to the point of using the dead man for a DNA swab so Mohinder can "help" him. Sylar (as Zane) then suggested to Mohinder that he accompany him to find (and help) others with powers. Stupid, naive, stupid Mohinder.
- In the Hiro/Ando storyline: They're back in Las Vegas looking for Linderman when Ando (stupid, naive Ando) comes across a crying blonde Amazon showgirl named Hope.
She gave them a sob story about her boyfriend beating her up and how she left her bag in his room, thus stranding her without money and such. The guys use the old room service trick to retrieve the bag. Hiro didn't want to do it all along, but Ando was smitten. It was a set up. They got separated; Hope punched Hiro and locked him in a closet, then tried to run off with Ando at last sight. It turns out that the "boyfriend" was an agent of the State Gaming Commission and that was evidence. He's the one who released Hiro from the closet. (Did I say stupid, naive Ando?) - Back to the Matt/Nikki storyline: Matt read the thoughts of the dealer at the diamond place and knew it was a set up. Malsky grabbed the diamonds and threw the cash. Jessica chased after them. Matt heard Nikki talk to Jessica a few times, so decided there were two of them. He heard the thoughts of Malsky as he hid the diamonds. Malsky admitted to Matt that he stole the money from... who else... Linderman. Jessica tossed Matt out a window, but he lived. She shot Malsky and he died. After reading the investigating cop mind, Matt pocketed the diamonds himself rather than turn them in.
- Back to the Nathan/Claire/FireMom storyline: FireMom got her money, but didn't know that Claire was waiting outside in hopes of meeting her real father. FireMom showed Nathan the cellphone photo she took of Claire. He seemed to recognize her, but said nothing. Claire threw a rock at his car as he left.
- Back at Claire's house: Mr. Bennet called Claire out for the skipping school and fake tickets printed up on her computer. He grounded her. Later, after she returned to home from her trip to her FireMom, her mother (Mrs. Bennet) was abusing Mr. Muggles. Mrs. Bennet doesn't remember Mr. Muggles, nor Claire. It looks like the Haitian made her forget too much.
- Jessica received another photo for someone she's to kill (presumably for Linderman)... it's Nathan.
Those are the basics. No Peter, no Isaac, no Simone this time 'round. My absolute favorite bit was when Hiro greeted the Gaming Commission guy with the traditional Vulcan hand greeting as the man greeted him at gunpoint. All in all, this was a fast-paced, sit on the edge of the seat episode. Next week, they claim "someone dies." And, they forewarn - "no one is safe." They better not off Mr. Muggles!
I've received more information on files from Primatech Paper. I'll write about them soon.
Live long and prosper.
There have been a few interesting developments since I posted about the "Not in Portland" episode. So, I thought I'd share them with you. (So you can be further Lost as am I!)Some folks with better technological skills than I possess ran a segment of the episode backwards. The scene in question is the one in which Karl was restrained in the room bombarded by brainwashing sounds, messages, and LSD-like images. Like the infamous Beatles album, when played backwards, there was indeed a message - "Only fools are enslaved by time and space." (I have to think of Hiro from Heroes... he ain't no fool; he can bend time and space!) The Lost Easter Eggs site has the YouTube backwards tape and discussion. It's a woman's voice. The plot thickens.The official ABC Lost website has the latest podcast with the producers available. Some commenters here may be spot on in their guess that Ben isn't Alex's biological father. (You guys rock!) There are other tidbits in the podcast including a segment with Josh Holloway talking about Sawyer's nicknames for folks. It also goes a bit into what we can expect this week (a mainly Desmond episode) and how many episodes remain on the island where Jack is held captive.
After disappearing last week for some football game... okay, the Superbowl, The Apprentice returned tonight. I've noticed that this season is a week shorter than previous ones as Trump calls it the fourteen-week interview instead of fifteen. That's fine by me. While I'm watching, I'm still not thrilled this season with the location and the have/have not theme.
This week Donald Trump had to give one of his overly-expensive motivational speeches in Minnesota. So he left Sean Yazbeck, last season's winner, in charge. There were no signs of Trumpette Ivanka or Trumpling, her adoring brother Donald, Jr. I prefer it that way. I'd rather look at Sean all season than see them. If I can't have Carolyn and George, let it ride with Sean.
I'm a bit ambivalent about the task this week although at least it wasn't surfing or climbing palm trees to prove they're in Los Angeles. The teams had to work with Sue Bee Honey to create and sell honey. They had to harvest the honey, bottle it, then sell their product at two separate Ralph's locations.
I have to give credit to both Kinetic and Arrow for being good sports in the harvesting aspect. Although they wore the big beekeeper white space suits, it still had to be a bit intimidating. I'm allergic to bees and probably would have stood there frozen in place. Stefani was quite outspoken about it and Derek was stung through the suit.
Sean sat in during Arrow's marketing meeting which was dominated by Surya. While his fellow workers rolled their eyes and such, no one really stopped him and tried to take things in a different direction. I agree with them that the time needn't be wasted -- get the product done and sell it. It wasn't a huge corporate decision.
At Kinetic, there were issues in the same vein. Aimee had stepped up as Project Manager and decided that she and Jenn would create the marketing campaign while the rest of the team did the bee harvesting. What did they accomplish? Absolutely nothing in four hours time! By this time I usually have a handle on which team will win the task despite not having the Business Tips as we did in past seasons. But, both teams seemed to do fine with the harvesting, then fall apart from that point forward.
Aimee was useless as PM, at least from the editing we saw. There were lots of shots of her looking lost, getting coffee and other oh-so-important endeavors. But then, Aaron wasn't leading his team much better. At least Arrow had lots of fun on the assembly line. How long will the good times last? Well, at least until the boardroom.
Both teams had a decent price for the product. I actually think that Arrow had an edge on promotions until Derek took matters into his own hands and donned a beekeeper's suit going around the store. That seems to be where the tides turned in the favor of Kinetic.
The initial boardroom was led by Sean with Trump via a conference call from his Minnesota Trump Groupies Cult Meeting. Um. His motivational speech. Yeah, that's it.
I don't know. The crowd looked brainwashed to me. After all, if they think he should be President, something must be in the water.
Both teams had weak leaders, so either could have lost. In the end, Arrow sold 217 jars for a total of $775 while Kinetic sold 345 jars for a total of $836. Kinetic trumped Arrow. For their reward, Kinetic attended a training camp given by the Los Angeles Lakers. Until I saw them there, I wasn't thinking it much of a reward. But the focus was on teamwork and I think it would have been better than a Trump Motivational Brainwashing.
Back at Arrow, two things were obvious. One was that Aaron didn't do well as the Project Manager of the task. He offered little to no direction at all. The second obvious thing was that Surya would be a target as he had just joined the team recently from Kinetic. They liked him when they were winning, but losing is something entirely different. Surya realized immediately that he was in danger and talked over the hedge to Derek from Kinetic. Yep, Aimee (who sits in on the firing as PM of the winning team) would make sure Surya wasn't thrown under the proverbial bus.
Sure enough, in the boardroom, Aaron went for the Surya kill blaming all the marketing ills on him. He chose Surya and Nicole to go with him, but said that Nicole shouldn't be fired. I think he probably thought that the firing field would be down to him and Surya, with the latter the obvious choice to fire.
But his plan backfired. Even Nicole admitted that Aaron hadn't performed well as PM. Trump was still a bit ticked at Aaron for not speaking up when he sat in on the Kinetic firing during the last boardroom. While being overbearing (unless your name is Trump) is a bad thing, sitting meekly is just as bad.
"Aaron, you're fired."
I think both Project Managers should have been fired. I know that would have been impossible, but Aimee's team only won due to last minute luck and Derek's beekeeper suit. At least she went to bat for her previous team member Surya, although I think his days may be numbered. He's got to lighten up and listen now and then. There are hints of a heavy romance next week continuing the Tim/Nicole flirtation. Arrow is back in Tent City and hopefully now that they've tasted the "good life" inside the mansion, they'll work together to get back there.
I'm still not thrilled with this season. Have I mentioned that lately?
Oh? My own caption for the Trump shot? I think he's saying, "Drrrrrr..." Have you anything better?
Dollar bills, y'all...
Arrow lost the task and project manager Aaron was fired. A full report will be posted later tonight.
Oh... on an unrelated note, Carrie Underwood (American Idol) just won the Grammy for Best New Artist. At least she beat out that overdone "You're Beautiful" song.
It seems like we just can't get enough of American Idol, doesn't it? From the eager and sometimes talentless contestants to the "is Paula on something" controversy to Simonisms to Grammy and Oscar buzz, American Idol is taking the country by storm once again.Peeking around the Internet, I saw so much Idol news out there that I decided to write up a show-specific Newsy Bits just to catch up on it all. I believe this is the first time I've ever done that, but I like to live dangerously... or something like that.Here are some of the more interesting American Idol Newsy Bits out there:- The New York Post has an article about the latest guessing game - who are the finalists? I've seen more than a few websites out there with predictions of the Top Twelve. I've noticed most have the same names in common and I think they could very well be right.
- Reality TV World is reporting that the show's producers would like to try for an All Stars version of American Idol. I personally think that if they have one, the bigger stars created by the show probably will back out. It's an interesting concept, though.
- The Fans of Reality TV website has a two-part interview with executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. You can check it out here ("Are People Going to Think She's Drunk?") and here ("He Called Me a Monkey"). Both are interesting reads.
- Stretching out his fifteen minutes of fame for as long as he can, Idol reject Ian Bernardo was interviewed by New York Magazine. He claims The Bronx made him talk back to Simon. He also thinks he's an "international, intergalactic Idol." Oh, my.
- Much ado is being made of the Justin Timberlake/newcomer bit expected on tonight's 49th Annual Grammy Awards just reeking of American Idol. Of course, previous AI winner Carrie Underwood is up for four awards this year. Perhaps they should mimic American Idol to put some zest back into a stuttering music industry - create a buzz and excitement, let the people take a hand in things!
- AOL Television has a nifty "Before They Were Stars" photo essay highlighting the history of some of the American Idols we know and love... or don't love dependent on the person involved.
