The Halliwell sisters bicker lightly as they leave the Manor. Prue doesn't want to go to some housewarming party, Phoebe definitely does, and Piper tries to distract her sisters with tales of bad hair day.
A dog with weird, glowy eyes watches the sisters as they cross the street to the party. The girls find their new neighbors, siblings Marshall, Fritz and Cynda. Once small talk is done, Prue wants to leave, but Phoebe directs her attention to where Andy is standing nearby. They've set her up. Phoebe and Piper shuffle off as Andy comes over to ask Prue out again. He's rejected. Again.
We begin with Deputy Mumbler's tongue in Veronica's mouth. He basically asks if he can come inside the Mars apartment and have sexytimes with her, but she's like, nuh-uh. She also mentions that their age difference is 29 months, which is a few years less than I had been estimating. Are there really nineteen-year-old cops? I mean, I guess if you can be a soldier at 18, you can be a cop at 19, but I can't pretend I'm comfortable with the idea of teens in the police force.
Lorraine: Girl, sometimes I see teens serving me fries at McDonalds and I hit them with a, "are you qualified for this?" eyebrow. It's part of being an adult, right?
Lorraine: Girl, sometimes I see teens serving me fries at McDonalds and I hit them with a, "are you qualified for this?" eyebrow. It's part of being an adult, right?
Manning, Colorado. A man sits at a bar, flipping through a book that looks very similar to Papa Winchester's Filofax of Shadows. The bartender addresses him as Mr. Elkins and asks if he'll be having anything else to drink. He says yes, and as she fixes him a drink, another patron makes a comment about how creepy the guy sitting alone is. Which is funny coming from a guy who is also sitting alone at a bar and flirting with a waitress who is way out of his league. She shares that Mr. Elkins is a nice old man who lives up in the canyon by himself and flips through that old book on a regular basis. And also, he's kind of a nut.
Three people dressed in leather come in, and Mr. Elkins immediately freezes in his seat while discreetly checking them out.
Three people dressed in leather come in, and Mr. Elkins immediately freezes in his seat while discreetly checking them out.
Alison returns to her garage telling Donnie that she cleaned the car. Donnie's having a much more appropriate, "What have I done?" reaction over the corpse. Alison's all business and while that's probably more productive for them not getting caught it's also an entirely terrifying quality to witness. Donnie's, "I'm going to throw up," as they wrap the body up and toss it in their extra freezer is how I assume a person who is not insane should handle hiding a corpse they murdered.
Lorraine: TRUE. We've seen how jittery and nervous Alison can be, but I'd venture to say it's generally a before/after the fact reaction. In the moment, she's going to do what needs to be done.
Sweeney: It's a fine line. I get that she's doing "what needs to be done" to protect their family now, but her callousness about it still makes me uneasy.
Lorraine: TRUE. We've seen how jittery and nervous Alison can be, but I'd venture to say it's generally a before/after the fact reaction. In the moment, she's going to do what needs to be done.
Sweeney: It's a fine line. I get that she's doing "what needs to be done" to protect their family now, but her callousness about it still makes me uneasy.
Veronica has just returned from the end of the events of the last episode, and realizes that the only way Clarence Wiedman found her mom the same day she did - after nearly a year of searching - is if he had been spying on her. She tears her room apart and realizes that she kept a little panda pencil sharpener from The Wildlife Alliance in exchange for a donation she never made. I'd keep it too, Veronica, because pandas are adorable. (L: And if it's free, it's me.) (D: +1) Sure enough, she opens it up (by which I mean SHE BEHEADS IT! THE HORROR) and finds a bug. (D: Not an insect, because ew. Like a recording-device bug.) Thanks to this not-an-insect bug, Wiedman heard her book a flight to Barstow.
Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Exterior: A big beautiful house, with a voiceover of a small child saying Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which is super creepy. I will be sure to discourage my child from saying that prayer and also singing creepy children's songs. Sorry, kid. Mama doesn't want to accidentally punt you across the room in a moment of fear.
Kirsti: Valid life choice. Especially as the version that I've always heard here is the "if I die before I wake/I pray the Lord my soul to take" one. Which, YES, let's teach small children that they might die in their sleep. That's a GENIUS plan!! O.o (Vaguely related - I'm going to spend the rest of this episode singing Enter Sandman, because reasons.)
Kirsti: Valid life choice. Especially as the version that I've always heard here is the "if I die before I wake/I pray the Lord my soul to take" one. Which, YES, let's teach small children that they might die in their sleep. That's a GENIUS plan!! O.o (Vaguely related - I'm going to spend the rest of this episode singing Enter Sandman, because reasons.)
Chicago, Illinois. A girl walks home late at night, listening to her iPod. She starts seeing a ghostly wind that has a big shadow and whispers really annoyingly, so she takes off running for her apartment. Smart move. She immediately arms her security system and breathes a sigh of relief. Then for some reason, she doesn't turn one damn light on in the whole place as she drinks a beer and listens to her messages on her answering machine. Right, because every 20 something owns an answering machine these days? And even if they did, they sure as shit wouldn't have three messages just from one night away at work.
Anyways, the camera pans back and we watch the shadows on the wall as something creeps up behind Beer Girl and stabs her in the back, blood squirting everywhere.
Anyways, the camera pans back and we watch the shadows on the wall as something creeps up behind Beer Girl and stabs her in the back, blood squirting everywhere.
The morning after the clone-twin murderunion, Rachel's apartment is now a crime scene, albeit an internal Dyad-run-crime-scene. Rachel arrives, not having anyone suggesting Daniel's body is too gruesome for her to see. She closes his dead eyes and the tender moment is cut short when she corrects Aldous's suggestion of Daniel's loyalty: "to you." Everyone's instantly aware that this is Helena's work, not Sarah's. There is security footage of the twins leaving together. There's a cryptic reference to whatever happened in Taiwan, but we only learn that Paul did his job well. Rachel finds the home movie of hers that Sarah watched. Aldous suggests that all of this has only happened because of her heavy-handed tactics, but Rachel says she's "only just begun."
DNA and SCIENCE and a NEAT-O SCREENSAVER.
DNA and SCIENCE and a NEAT-O SCREENSAVER.
The previouslies, the last five seconds of the last episode and the beginning of this episode bleed together, so that Veronica opens the door to find Logan, he asks her to find his mother, and then Veronica, with some genuine concern in her voice invites him into the Plush Poor People Apartment.
Democracy Diva: I like this show's habit of picking up from where we left off when the episodes end on particularly cliffhanger-y notes.
Lor: Inside, Logan insists that his mother isn't dead, and can't understand why everyone is assuming she is, since there is no body. Veronica asks about the lady who's all over the news, claiming to have seen Lisa Rinna jump.
Democracy Diva: I like this show's habit of picking up from where we left off when the episodes end on particularly cliffhanger-y notes.
Lor: Inside, Logan insists that his mother isn't dead, and can't understand why everyone is assuming she is, since there is no body. Veronica asks about the lady who's all over the news, claiming to have seen Lisa Rinna jump.
A man pulls into his garage and cuts the car off. He starts to gather his stuff to get out, but looks confused when the garage door starts closing behind him. As he's turned around, staring at the garage door, the keys crank the car again and the automatic doors lock. (My dad brags about his manual locks all the time. Guess he wouldn't be in this situation, now would he?) (K: My dad's the same but with his refusal to get automatic garage doors. "If the power goes out, *I* can still leave!" Okay, Dad. Whatever.) Doomed To Die tries to turn the ignition off, but the keys are stuck and he starts to panic as the car and garage start to fill up with smoke.
Kirsti: Like, INSTANTLY.
Kirsti: Like, INSTANTLY.
The episode begins with a wealthy black man (*gasp*!) yelling at someone on the phone as he lounges by the pool. His wife comes over and he grumbles how it's always nice there. She has stuff for him to sign, like permission slips for their kids who live a wonderful cushy life which is far removed from the life that he had growing up on the streets. (L: First generation rich, natch.) His wife teases him about his discomfort with this: "And the street was tough and you lost a lot of homies. But this is Neptune." As he's wondering how he ended up with "National Black Velvet and Urkel" for children, Urkel walks up. (Probably wondering how such a smart kid ended up with a dad who didn't see how awesome that is.) Unfortunately, Urkel's got bad news: National Black Velvet is missing.
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry Release Date: 1 August 2012 Source: Purchased Order: Amazon || Powell’s In a nutshell: Two messed up teenagers – one a foster kid trying to...
Zoomy cameraman winds us through a warehouse as a disembodied voice monologues about the importance of trust in shady demonic business dealings. Our cameraman friend finds his way to the voice and the Shady Demonic Businessman is giving this monologue to Wesley who snarks about how he ain't got time for this shit and would like to get to the shady demonic business dealings. He waves a hand to bring in Fred who Wesley refers to as his muscle. He mostly means the gun she developed and is carrying in a case, but I appreciate it all the same. They made this gun to order, but Wesley isn't giving it to them because Shady Demonic Businessman is just a Shady Demonic Middleman.
I first suggested that we cover the original Buffy movie way back in August 2012, not long after we started covering Buffy. Somehow, it ended up as a "this would be a good way to finish things" idea, and then with the birth of #snarkathon in December it became a "watch it alone-together with the Traumateers" thing. Aww.
Anyway, let's get to the movie, shall we?
We open in Dark Ages Europe, where we're given approximately two seconds of Slayer backstory - one girl in all the world, yada yada yada, she has a creepy birthmark on her chest known as "The Mark of the Coven".
Anyway, let's get to the movie, shall we?
We open in Dark Ages Europe, where we're given approximately two seconds of Slayer backstory - one girl in all the world, yada yada yada, she has a creepy birthmark on her chest known as "The Mark of the Coven".
Lawrence, Kansas. A young woman (who we last saw reporting on how awesome Jasmine is!) sits in her darkened kitchen, surrounded by moving boxes. She pulls out her wedding photo and tears up. She stops herself when her daughter walks in and says that she can't sleep because there's something in her closet. Upstairs, Widow!Mom checks the closet and declares it free from monsters, though the cameraman lurking in the depths would indicate otherwise. She tucks her daughter, Sari, into bed. Sari says that she doesn't like this house, but Widow!Mom says it's just because she's not used to it, and that they'll be very happy there. She turns the light out and goes to leave, but Sari demands that she first barricade the closet shut with a chair.