Guns Are Great, But Fists Are Cooler

Archer, S04E09

Archer and Lana staked out a hotel to observe some North Koreans rumored to want to illegally buy some uranium, and she and Archer posed as a newlywed couple.   Cyril was convinced by Cheryl and Pam that he should go to the hotel too in order to keep tabs on Lana in case that she fall into bed with Archer again.

Although I understood that Lana would have rather pretended to do anything but be Archer's wife, she looked good in the bridal gown and hair accessories she was wearing at their check-in.  Archer was all too happy to play the role of her husband and enjoy the luxuries of their honeymoon suite instead of doing their actual job.  He made it seem like he'd be thrilled if he could call Lana his wife.  I felt bad for Lana who felt like she was getting a preview of her worst-scenario future (although, she could definitely do worse than Archer).  I can't foresee a marriage between them that Lana didn't regret, considering there are too many cons to even dating Archer (or casually sleeping with him).  They definitely have a mutual attraction and care about each others' safeties, but they are so terrible together.

I liked a lot of the action scenes in this story.  One of such was when Archer had to save Lana from falling off the building.  It was his fault, so I hope he would do everything in his power to keep her from being a splatter on the ground.  I just hate that he has to throw saving her life in her face.  It makes her seem like some kind of helpless woman who's prone to making simple mistakes that turn out to be deadly.  It's more like she gets distracted by Archer and unwittingly gets herself into trouble.

My favorite scene was when they saw their targets in the elevator.  Lana got kicked in the chest, but Archer pulled out some cool-looking moves when he like kicked the guy into the wall.  I feel like their haven't been a lot of good fighting scenes lately, and there were quite a few good ones in this story.  I even sort of liked when Cyril had smoked the room with the fire extinguisher and Lana and Archer were kicking butt among the chaos.  I'd rather see that than see Archer bugging Lana about the coat on his fingernails not being dried.

I wonder what Lana had decided when she was climbing the hotel, though.  Did she think that she was just going to settle down with Cyril after all and stop making herself semi-available to Archer?  I mean, she hasn't really been involved with anyone for a while, so perhaps Archer always thinks that one day she'll just come crawling back to him.  Cyril had blown things with her, but at least he's sort of a normal human being.  However, when Lana found out he was just spying on her, she threw out her decision.  I really would like to know what kind of conclusion she had arrived at before.

It's kind of funny that this time instead of Mallory being behind their mission, it was sort of Krieger.  He was the one trying to sell uranium.  I really think ISIS should concentrate on doing more shady things since they're already doing them.  Right now they're simply pretending that they're a do-gooder organization when they do more harm than good most of the time.

I think I liked this episode because it had pretty good fighting scenes.  It feels like they haven't had any hand-to-hand combat in a while.  There have been plenty of shootings and such, but sometimes I like to see close-range fights.  It was also interesting that Lana had so much to think about when she played Archer's wife and came to some unknown decision about her relationships.  However, Cyril's spying prevented us from knowing what that was.  Although I'm not hoping for Lana and Archer to get back together anytime soon, I feel like Lana's inability to escape her bond with Archer is going to make her walk down the aisle for him some day in the future.

The Letter In The Closet

Big Bang Theory, S06E19

Howard and Bernadette threw a dinner party, and they let Sheldon organize their cluttered closet after he insulted Bernadette by bringing his own food.  Howard got upset when Sheldon found a letter from his dad and read it, and he was troubled by what it said, but couldn't bring himself to read it.  All of his friends eventually convinced Sheldon to tell them what was written without Howard's knowledge.

I think considering that Sheldon is a horrible dinner guest (or maybe just any kind of guest), leaving him occupied in their closet for some hours contributed to the best dinner party they could have thrown.  I mean, Bernadette has some kind of willpower not snapping at someone who would dare bring takeout to a party when she was cooking all day for that person's sake.  I would have grabbed his food and thrown it straight into the trash.  Or coughed on it.  Anything to spoil the dinner he thoughtlessly brought into their home.  Since he was doing an indirectly nice thing (he certainly wasn't doing it out the goodness of his heart) by making their closet tidy, I could better forget that Sheldon made an ass out of himself within less than a minute of arriving at Howard and Bernadette's.

I like that they brought up the issue about Howard's father abandoning him.  His mother is so overpowering that I never stop to think about his other absent parent.  I don't consider what kind of impact growing up without a father might have had on Howard.  There wasn't much light shed on this, but we did find out that Howard has been holding onto a letter from his father for years.  Hearing that he never got the courage to open it up after all this time really made me want to find out what his father's last words were to him.

I didn't like that Sheldon had read the letter, but I was surprised that he didn't immediately give away the information when Penny first asked him.  I guess he has some standards, even if he can easily be talked out of them.  I just feel like that was such a huge violation of privacy, and if it were Sheldon, he wouldn't have wanted anyone else to know what he didn't know.  I wish Sheldon could have put himself in Howard's shoes (a huge impossibility).

Although everyone seemed pretty terrible for learning what the letter said behind Howard's back, I loved the way that they made up for it.  It was really touching how they all said some heartfelt scenarios of what the letter could have possibly said.  I mean, except for Sheldon who was dumb enough to think that telling him it was a map from the movie Goonies was going to fool him.  Hopefully he just thinks Howard is that dumb and Sheldon isn't that dumb himself.  Regardless, it was really sweet of them all to give him those possibilities of great things his father could have said in the letter and let him have a bit of peace about it.

I also liked some lines from this story.  This was when Amy was explaining how Sheldon's behavior was normal, and it was what made him likeable:

His quirks just make you love him more.  [Silence]  Someone please agree with me.

The way everyone just exchanged glances silently really made me laugh.  It's a little sad that Amy needs to have validation from her friends about her boyfriend.  She may love him, but she's not blind to his shortcomings.

Speaking of those, he is such an asshole for throwing Amy in front of him when Howard came after him.  I doubt that Howard was going to break a bottle over his head or something, but for Sheldon's first instinct to be throwing his girlfriend in front of himself is such a cowardly move.  I wish if he were going to be the type of person that infuriates people as he does that he would back that up by having the balls to at least defend himself.  I also would have loved to see Amy grab his arm and flip him over her shoulder so Sheldon was in the front again (and possibly a little hurt).  That would have made me laugh.

One last thing, when Penny's closet was getting organized, I knew that Sheldon was going to find a vibrator.  I mean, the dead goldfish he pulled out was a greater surprise to me because I really thought the first thing he'd reveal was a sex aid.  It would have been a much bigger shock if he had found anything else peculiar (like a picture of her winning a science fair).

I liked this episode, mainly because Sheldon was kept busy with his obsession to organize.  I feel like they should always throw a box of unsorted buttons in front of him any time he starts talking or acting like a nuisance.  It would be the perfect way to handle him.  However, I would hate to leave him alone with any of my secrets because it doesn't take much for him to find a logical reason as to why he can share the information with other people.  Although Howard's friend violated his trust by finding out what the letter had said, they redeemed themselves well by giving Howard hope that his father left him a really wonderful message.  This group may be pretty nosy and terrible at keeping secrets, but I give them a lot of credit for supporting their friends when they're have a rough time.

Just Do It Online

Parks and Recreation, S05E16

Leslie wanted to keep a failing video store going by using the government's help, but her good intentions only made others want payouts too and turned the video store into an adult establishment. Ann forced April to hang out with her as friends in exchange for a vetenarian school letter of reccomendation.  Chris gave Tom some advice in order to test how well he'd be a father.

Leslie's attempt to save Videodome was amusing for three main reasons.  One was because the owner of said store was played by Jason Schwartzman. He was really oblivious to how his depressing attitude and niche-audience selection of goods were damaging his business. He didn't have all that much screen time, but he's a funny guy simply to look at.

Leslie also made an enemy out of Ron with her bailout plan, adding another interesting element.  He was so against her plans that he actually came to a town council meeting to speak against what she was doing. You hardly ever see him get so involved on his own, so I liked seeing his rare passion. Ron didn't have many good lines in this story, but Iiked when he spoke about Dennis without sparing his feelings:

This man is a failure. He is not up to snuff.  His business is failing, and you're bailing him out. 

It's funny how Dennis didn't make one sound or expression even that disagreed with Ron.  Maybe this was because he agreed with him wholehearted or that he was just terrified to argue with Ron.  Either way I liked how honest Ron was being at Dennis' expense.

The last part of the story that I loved was the random guy who kept aptly pointing out that video stores and the like were a bit outdated now that there are some many outlets available on the Internet. I liked how  he asked why would he bother to rent anything from Videodome when he was watching a movie for free on his phone.  My favorite line from this guy was when he spoke out against the guy from the hardware store after the random guy had already been kicked out before:  

[Store Owner] And people need places to buy tools. 
[Online Guy] Uh, you can just buy tools online.
[Leslie] Bailiff, why is he back in here?  How did you get back in here?

He cracked me up with his unsolicited comments and how he frustrated Leslie. 

It was weird that Leslie's plan caused Dennis to start renting porn videos.  He refused to sell Pixar films, but he had no problems supplying dirty wares.  Also, strange enough, the renewal of the store contributed to a porno about Leslie bailing out the store. It was funny in the bit we got see that Ron was played a black guy. Wow.

In Ann and April's story the only thing I really liked was when April felt awkward hearing about Ann's worries about Chris agreeing to be her sperm donor.  They started singing together like they were besties, and the icing on the cake was when Donna joined in too. They all were pretty good singers and that scene was adorable.

I didn't like the introduction of Jean-Ralphio's psycho twin sister who eventually became Tom's girlfriend.  She actually made her brother look ten times less annoying.  I was glad Tom chose to be firm with her even if it didn't calm her ass down.  Someone needed to at least try to stand up to her.  I just hope that Tom doesn't find himself in trouble messing with an unstable girl like that.  He could do better.

What I liked best was Chris taking up Tom as his " bag of flour " and how Tom had little clue that Chris was trying to parent him.  I loved when he first spoke to Tom and sat right next to him on the couch at the far end, despite all the other seating available:

[Chris] Tom, I have something to talk to you about.[Tom] Do we need to sit like this?

Chris had another funny moment when he told Ben about his uncertainty to Ann's request:

I am one hundred percent certain that I am zero percent sure what I'm going to do. 

 Finally, I loved when he talked about how he had failed Tom as his father:

If Tom were a bag of flour, that flour would never grow up to be a happy, well-adjusted loaf of bread.  Much less a bran muffin, which is the highest honor that flour can achieve.

Chris' test run of being a father was wonderful.  I wish that he could continue to look after Tom.  With Mona Lisa in his life, he could probably use the help.

This was an unexpectedly good episode.  I didn't think I would have enjoyed a story about Leslie trying to save a little business, but it was as good as Chris' story.  I enjoyed the guest star, Ron opposing her, and of course, the guy who wouldn't be quiet about how some businesses were irrelevant with the internet available.  Ann and April ended up being very cute when they got the chance to bond, especially when singing was involved.  Finally, Chris kept making me laugh with his numerous good lines and moments.  He was surprisingly a decent "flour" dad to Tom.  I sort wish that it were possible for Chris to adopt Tom, so their father-son relationship could go on.

Chagnesia: Real Or Fake?

Community, S04E06

Abed shot a documentary about Chagnesia to submit to the MacGuffin Institute so that the school would get a grant to pay for Chang's, aka Kevin's, recovery.  Jeff pretended to join the cause only so he could expose Kevin the moment that he slipped up and showed his true colors.  Despite geting his friends to unknowingly investigate Chang's activities before his amnesia and his current behavior, Jeff struggled to find any incriminating evidence to support his theory Kevin was faking it.

As much as Jeff has good reason to doubt Kevin, it was hard to take his side when his friends had already been won over by Kevin.   When Jeff is acting by himself, especially if he's trying to hurt someone else, he looks more like a bully than a lone hero.  In fact, I felt a little bad for Jeff because he looked like such an insensitive ass throughout the whole documentary.  The worst was when he was trying to make out with Chang's ex-wife, in the hopes that Kevin's jealousy would reveal his lies.  Instead, Jeff looked like some kind of sex-crazed animal, attacking a woman who had only come to help her former husband.  I liked that Abed didn't show us how bad it had gotten before people were able to stop Jeff from embarrassing himself further.

Some other things that I liked included the comments at the beginning from Dr.  Kedan.  I thought he gave the funniest line when he mentioned that Kevin didn't remember being Chang, yet was still making puns:

Why Changnesia affects the memory, not the ability to make forced puns is all things we can study now that someone finally has it.

I kept thinking about that myself.  If Kevin has such a huge memory loss, why is he making those Chang puns?  Although, I'm glad he is.

My second favorite line was when Abed and Jeff were reviewing the footage that Britta had taken and Jeff was hopeful that they would see Chang slip up now that he was alone:

Doubtful.  When he's alone he mostly practices smiling and frowning.  We've all done it.

I loved the way Jeff looked at Abed when he said that as much as I like picturing Abed staring in a mirror practicing smiling and frowning appropriately.  It's a nice nod to that fact that Abed usually appears very expressionless in almost all situations.  If any emotion ever shows in his face, it's usually surprise/horror.

In the end, it was interesting that Jeff came to understand a little bit of how it felt to be Chang and be isolated when he friends were surrounding their new friend Kevin, while Jeff had to sit by his lonesome.  It was what he deserved, and it taught him an unexpected lesson.  However, I loved the irony that Chang was in fact lying all along.  Jeff hadn't completely been won over, but it looked like he was going to give Kevin a chance.  This all seems to be going according to Chang's plan, which I'm excited to learn about.  Also, who was Chang talking to?  Was it his wife?  Or someone else that has reason to get back at Greendale as much as Chang does?  Super glad that Chang hasn't turned as good as he seems.

This was a good episode.  I wish that it had been a funnier documentary, considering that Abed was the head of it.  However, he does tend to let stories play themselves out and keep himself neutral from the actions going on around him.  He did sort of help Jeff, but Jeff definitely didn't have any true allies with him on the quest to expose Chang.  After learning what seemed to be a valuable lesson about giving people second chances and walking in another person's shoes, Chang revealed that he was doing exactly what Jeff suspected he was.  It's unclear what Chang's evil plot is this time, but hopefully Jeff will catch onto it before Chang puts all their lives into chaos or worse, in danger.

The Price Of Loving Rumpelstiltskin

Once Upon A Time, S02E16

Snow, Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, Emma, and Neal holed up in Gold's pawn shop to protect themselves from the upcoming attack from Cora and Regina.  Rumpelstiltskin told Snow that the only was for them to defeat Cora before she came to steal his powers was to use the black magic candle to kill Cora first.  In the past, Cora and Rumpelstiltskin's first meeting was revealed, as well as Cora's determination to rise to power and get revenge on those who had humiliated her.

It was amazing to me that with so little defense with Rump being indisposed that Cora and Regina weren't able to get Rump much faster.  Of course, that would be no fun for the viewers, so there was enough time for Rump to teach Emma some magical techniques before they were attacked.  I liked seeing Rump have to rely on Emma and him yelling at her when she was using magic in the wrong way (using her head too much).  It would be cool if he continued to teach her some things, even though I don't think her parents would much approve of her learning from the Dark One.

Then again, Snow herself decided to use the candle to save her family, so she shouldn't be able to judge.  I really liked when she told Rump that she should just let him die and then control Cora to make her do the right thing when she got her hidden heart.  That actually would have been the least evil thing for her to do, I guess, but Rump easily played the grandfather card.  How sneaky of him to only care about being Henry's grandfather when it could save his life.  Like he gives a damn about Henry right now.  I love that they have this bond to Rump that prevents them from getting rid of him out of convenience.

Undoubtedly, the best part of Rump edging closing to death while Regina and Cora loomed closer to the shop was when Rump called Belle.  I'm fairly sure it wasn't some kind of act because I doubt he would lie there and talk about his true feelings with an audience if he didn't have a choice about it.  I was starting to get worried that he would end up dying by Cora's hand any moment and got teary-eyed when he was telling Belle all about how wonderful of a person she was but didn't know it yet.  It got even more emotional when Neal was touched by Rump exposing his human side and the two of them embraced each other.  I know that Neal is still far from forgiving him, but I loved seeing the healing process start!  It was then that I felt like I wouldn't be able to keep watching if Rump did indeed meet his end in this episode.

Thankfully, Snow did the "wrong" thing and used the candle over Cora's heart and gave the heart back to Regina.  It did leave a bad taste in my mouth the way Snow had to tell Regina that she could get her mother's love if she put her heart back into her body, knowing that once she did Cora would die.  I never liked Cora, even after hearing her back story, but I felt for Regina when she had about a minute to enjoy her mother's loving gaze before she crumpled down to her death.  It was either her or Rump, and I'll choose her over Rump any day.

I'm worried about Snow, who made it very clear that she was the one who made Cora die by bursting in the room to warn Regina way too late.  I would say that they were sort of even, but it was Cora who killed Snow's mother, not Regina.  So it doesn't feel very much like justice in Regina's position anyway.  I'm just glad that Snow did regret her actions before she had to see Cora dead.  I would have hated her to be happy about Cora's death.  Regina's definitely going to go for her blood, which I'm not looking forward to. Maybe Rump, who's now part of the extended family, might lend a helping hand?  They're always getting flicked away in a second when faced against magic, so it would help to have someone magical on their side (if Emma's not going to be that person).

Cora's back story was certainly intriguing.  I never thought she would be that girl in the Rumpelstiltskin tale that we know.  It all started when Eva, Snow's mother, tripped and embarrassed her in front of several people.  That was a horrible moment for Cora, but to hold onto that grudge for so long that she would hurt every person along the way is insane.  However, you can't ignore that Rumpelstiltskin was mostly to blame for Cora turning into the monster she was.  He was the one that taught her magic and how to remove hearts.  He was a fool, for many reasons, for trusting and falling in love with her.

From that earlier scene when Cora first came to town and Rump and she kissed, it was evident that something had been between them once.  Still, I hoped that Rump was not going to get involved with her when I was watching the story in the past.  Frankly, I thought it was a little gross to see them kissing and such.  Ugh.  It's mainly because you know what kind of person Cora turned out to be.  It doesn't help that if it's not Belle, it seems wrong to me, even though what Cora and Rump had was many, many years before Belle even came into the picture.  I hated the momentary coupling between Cora and Rump even more when Cora easily chose power over her love for him.

Amazingly, Cora seems to be the only one who's ever bested Rump in one of his contracts.  She got him to revise the document to better serve herself and when she told him that she was leaving him, Cora reminded him that she didn't owe him a child or anything else now.  That was impressive.  She had taken out her own heart (instead of that hateful father-in-law of hers) and made sure that she would stick to her decision to keep climbing the ladder without her love for Rump getting in the way.  Wow.  It's amazing that she got away with it, that is until it came full circle when she tried to take Rump's power away.  It seemed kind of appropriate that after double-crossing him in the past and trying to take away his Dark One powers that Cora was the one who ended up dead.  She spent all of her life fighting to be on the top and finally it was her own undoing.  If only she had just lived happily with either Herny, who gave her Regina, or Rump, who would have given her true love.  Her demise would be a sad ending, if I liked Cora better.

It also caught my attention that Cora was once a queen.  I knew that she and Regina were sort of well-to-do in the past, but it never occurred to me that they were former royalty.  I guess eventually all that spinning straw into gold didn't allow the kingdom to thrive forever.  If not, I would wonder why Regina would have to marry that other king to become a queen.  She should have been able to become a queen in her own country.  Now I'm interested to know what went wrong after Cora married Henry.  It's obvious that she kept tabs on Eva so she could find a chance to get back at her, but not so clear what happened in the time between Snow and Regina meeting for the first time.  Her story introduced a lot of new questions for me.

Loved this episode.  There was a lot of suspense around whether we would see Rumpelstiltskin die and whether Snow would cross over to the dark side and kill Cora.  Since the latter happened, I'm concerned about the war between Regina and Snow that's started (or rekindled).  If Regina hated Snow before, she's going to increase that hatred my tenfold now that Snow was the one responsible for Cora's death.  I feel for Regina who never got her mother's love, but I also feel for Snow who won't be able erases that black mark on her conscience.  Hopefully, Snow won't let her guilt and regret make her more susceptible to Regina's attacks.  She can't afford to let her lapse in judgement make her vulnerable.  As for Rumpelstiltskin, it was unnerving to see him with Cora in the past, but I'm glad in the present he showed his love for Belle and it made an impression on Neal.  With Rumpelstiltskin still having a long life ahead of him, I want to see him continue to make progress with his son.  There's nothing more I'd love to see than the two of them repairing their father-son bond.

Exposing Edison's Elephant

Bob's Burgers, S03E16

Louise's new science teacher and head of the science fair refused to let Louise use her recycled volcano as a project and forced her to do a new presentation about Thomas Edison.  Thanks to some hints from the librarian, Louise learned about a controversial experiment that Edison conducted that she could use in her project to crush her teacher's pride in Edison.  Bob and Linda also argued about who made the better spice-related invention.

There's nothing more I like than Louise scheming to get back at someone, eseicially if they are an authority figure.  Once I saw Dinkler crush her volcano, I knew that Louise would stop at nothing to teach him that you just don't do that to her without paying the price.  I liked how hard Louise pushed to expose Edison's cruelty to animals, even while endangering her own sister.

I particularly liked that the librarian first suggested that Louise look up Topsy, but he kept being really secretive about it.  He would whisper things to her that contradicted what he said in his normal voice.  He sounded really crazy and made it seem like the Topsy incident was this big conspiracy that only Louise could expose.  However, when Louise later accused him of being responsible for her trying to speak out about Topsy, the librarian wouldn't help her escape the principal's room and said that he was blameless because he always tells people about Topsy.  I don't know what his real reason was for wanting to lead her to that topic, but I liked that he got her riled up yet kept himself on the sidelines from all the trouble.

I think the best part was when Louise finally escaped and got Teddy to set up the sparks again during the musical performance Gene and Tina were doing.  Although Tina had been freaked out that the yoga mat melted the first time they did this, she still went through it.  She had me fooled too when she was knocked out on the floor after the lights came back on.  I liked that everyone was worried about her, even Louise who had been too blinded by her revenge to notice that she had nearly killed her sister.  Tina turned out to be just be acting very well, and Mr. Dinkler was indeed crushed by performance of Topsy being killed by Edison's experiment.  He spent the rest of the night crying in the bathroom--mission accomplished.  Also, I liked when Bob told Teddy that he nearly killed Tina and Teddy casually apologized for that.  It shows that Louise was just thinking of destroying Dinkler if she thought asking a screw-up like Teddy to handle the electrical aspects of her project was a good idea.  He could have killed all of them.

One other thing I liked was when Bob was watching Gene and Tina sing.  He noticed right away that it was Mr. Fischoeder and Gayle's voice coming out of their mouths.  He was the only one distracted by that.  It did look sort of weird seeing Gene and Tina prancing around with a different voice coming out of their mouths.  I was glad that Bob mentioned that.

As far as the "spiceps" and "spice rack" inventions, I agreed with Gene who said that they both looked ridiculous.  It's weird that Linda thought she could improve on Bob's creation instead of just trying to discourage him from talking about it in the first place.  Making her own version of his thing only made Bob more convincned that he needed to prove that his idea was good.  It was really childish that they both took their inventions to the fair and set them up along with the other kids.  I don't know how that was even allowed, but with Dinkler in charge, he was probably mostly concerned with shutting Louise down.  The craziest thing is that either Bob or Linda's invention won the science fair.  I don't really care which one it was, but that must have been some kind of horribly low-caliber fair if that was the best project.  I mean, second place was Andie and Ollie's counting of hairs on the head--what?  It's not unreasonable that two middle-aged people could have become the winners, I guess.

This was a pretty good episode.  It's always good to see Louise going after someone for revenge.  She's really good about becoming obsessed with making someone pay and making sure that the payback has enough sting to it to make her oppressor regret crossing her.  The funniest thing is that the librarian convinced her to do the Topsy expose, yet he refused to take any blame in all the trouble that Louise had caused.  It was great to see her take down Dinkler, even if Tina was in a little danger.  All of her scheming and Teddy's shoddy electrical work made the story interesting from beginning to end.  The spiceps and spice rack weren't that interesting, though, but it's strange that one of them was able to win the science fair.  It really shows that Louise and the others go to a rather stupid school.

Peter's Cheating Helps Their Marriage

Family Guy, S11E14

Peter got sued for stealing someone's property and the financial loss made it necessary for Lois to take up a job.  She thought she was getting an opportunity to do voice-over work, but it was only a job for phone sex.  Lois eventually got used to it, but she was shocked and hurt when Peter became one of her customers and seemed to get emotionally attached to her persona "Classy."

Somehow Lois getting into the sex industry didn't seem outrageous.  After all, being married to Peter is expensive with all of the random damages and fees that he builds up from his day-to-day mischief.  She basically needs to do whatever she can do to keep the family afloat, even if it's catering to people who need sexual relief over the phone.  Naturally, Lois didn't take too long to get the hang of it, nor even let her family know what she was doing.  I guess that's why she couldn't bust Peter right away because she would have to admit that she was doing phone sex in the first place.

As for Peter's infatuation with her over the phone, I felt like it did dance the line between cheating and being completely linked to Lois for life.  I would probably just call it a technical cheating because Peter was subconsciously falling for his own wife.  I do think it's weird that he would so quickly want to meet the woman and commit adultery, though.  Even if he felt strongly about her, he should have given it some time.  No wonder Lois wanted to fool him when he was being so impulsive about throwing their marriage away (as far as he knew).  Sure Lois was being distant lately, but that was no excuse for him to prepare to leave his family after what seem like a few phone calls.

However, I liked how Lois and Peter came to terms with the odd situation.  Sometimes, because Peter is always making jokes about Lois being old and unattractive, I forget that Peter loves Lois at all.  They have been married for over a decade, so they shouldn't be without their quarrels or complaints about one another.  Still, I liked seeing them reaffirm their feelings for each other in this story, no matter how twisted it was that Peter thought he was actually cheating on her.  For this show, it was sort of sweet that Peter fell in love with her voice and knew deep in his heart that the owner of the voice was the one that he was meant to be with.  It makes me wish that they had more sweet moments like that more often.

As for the jokes in this episode, there weren't many that I liked.  One that did work for me was when there was a cutaway to a man on a plane who decided to go back to coughing in a very annoying way when his magazine had a toenail in it.  It was funny that he grabbed a random baby and coughed in its face too.  I like how this was an exaggerated version of those types of people who seem to have coughing fits just when they happened to be trapped in a plane for a few hours.

Another that I liked was when Lois talked about Peter being in his anime phase.  It's not the first time that I've seen a cartoon poke fun at anime, but I still liked seeing Peter being drawn in a different way.  He had those too-shiny eyes and his body was all shaped like a big block.  He looked ridiculous, and I liked it.  I guess I enjoyed it because it was just so random for what was going on, like most good cutaways.

The last joke that I liked was when Peter was saying goodbye to his kids.  When he got to Chris he was unexpectedly abrupt with him:

Chris, people are gonna tell you you're stupid and that you're no good.

He totally left him hanging just like that.  Wow.  If those were the last words my father said to me, I'd be so struggling with that the rest of my life.   It was even funnier because he wasn't as mean with the other two (I mean, him farting on Meg is basically how he shows his love for her).

This was a pretty good episode.  There wasn't anything too gross and irritating about it, so I liked it a lot better than most stories I've seen.  Also, this was an unusually sweet story between Peter and Lois that involved being unfaithful.  It's strange that their night started off as Peter planning to go to bed with a woman he just met and Lois coming to see if her husband was going to go that far.  Instead of having a horrible and depressing ending, it turned out to make Peter and Lois stronger for the experience.  They may not be the sweetest couple in the cartoon world, but at least they do take the time every once in a while to remind us why the two of them have bothered to get married in the first place.

Ratjo

The Cleveland Show, S04E13

Cleveland was tasked to kill a rat in the house, but he kept it as a pet and lied about it to make his family stay away longer. Cleveland had to make a tough decision about his new pet when it bit Donna and it wasn't clear if the rat had rabies or not.  Rallo also got obsessed with a suitcase Junior was carrying and found his step-brother was involved in real espionage.

Although Cleveland acted like his usual self and lied to get some time away from his family, I liked that he got found out quicker than most cases. Also, his lies were sort of necessary this time because Domna wouldn't have let him keep his new rat friend. It was a little cute that Cleveland befriended the rat, but it was weird how he carried himself with the rat at his side. For example, he was walking his rat in nothing but an open robe with a rope tied to it. Not to mention that he looked like he had just woken up and not showered in days--he looked so ghetto. I don't know why his love for the rat encouraged his slovenly behavior. Like it's bad enough having a rat as a pet without living in your own filth. That was the one aspect of Cleveland's new friendship that I didn't like.

It was messed up that Cleveland's pet bit Donna, possibly giving her rabies, and Cleveland took so long to chose her over the rat. Yeah, it was sad he had to kill the pet he had always wanted as a child, but that was his wife. He is so damn cold sometimes.  Donna was being a bit of a bitch ordering him around while she was hanging with her mother, but that's not a reason to gamble with her life like that.

My favorite part of this story was when they took the rat to the woods and it started attacking them in a rabies-induced frenzy.  It totally reminded me of Stephen King's Cujo.  The two of them were trapped in the car just like that lady and boy in the movie. I loved that because instead of a pretty scary dog, it was a little rat keeping them there. Under normal situations it shouldn't have been able to  harass them so badly. It even crawled into the car via the exhaust pipe--that was crazy!  I almost wished that Donna's mother hadn't shown up and killed the rat. I enjoyed how ridiculous Cleveland and Donna looked while screaming and running from a little animal (not to say I wouldn't freak out being attacked by a rat, rabid or not).

In Rallo and Junior's story, I liked how obsessed Rallo was with spy movies.  That was so typically of a little kid.  He was really annoying the hell our of Junior.  It takes a lot to get Junior pissed, so I liked seeing that for a change.  But once Junior started carrying the suitcase to get back at him or whatever, Rallo stopped being such a nuisance and just worked on cracking Junior's mystery.  I would have liked that better if it wasn't a fake coupon that acted as a pass card to Junior's secret organization.  That was unexpected, but not entirely amusing to me.  I mean, it was a little disturbing, making Junior seem like the kind of dangerous person who abducts people and murders neighbors.  I would have enjoyed it better if the two of them battled in an exaggerated fantasy setting as pretend spies.  In the way it did end, Rallo just got terrified. Wasn't much to laugh about that.

This episode was okay.  I did like that Cleveland's lies this time didn't feel completely selfish.  He was trying to prolong the life of his new pet.  The best part was the rat suddenly attacking him and Donna.  It turned into a good movie spoof.  Rallo and Junior had the potential to turn their spy games into something funny, but it fell flat for me when Junior made the games real and more sinister.  It was a slightly interesting twist, but I'd rather watch the two boys being silly any other day.

Lisa "Cantwell" Them All

The Simpsons, S24E15

Lisa's new substitute was exactly what Lisa had wished for in a teacher, except that she hated Lisa's guts.  Lisa, while racking her brain to find out how she rubbed the woman in the wrong way, continued to be bullied by her new teacher.  Homer went too far with Ned and made him punch him in the eye.  Ned tried to make things right with Homer, but Homer refused to hit him back and make the two of them even while Homer still felt like the better man.

What I liked most overall about Lisa's story was just the idea that even an apple-polisher like Lisa can meet a teacher that doesn't like her.  She might be smart and obedient, but that doesn't mean as a student she's always going to be the star.  I mean, I thik even Mrs. Hoover began to dislike Lisa after a while.  There have been plenty of times that Lisa's made her miserable with her overachieving.  Still, I feel like usually one wouldn't hate Lisa from just a few seconds with her.  I liked that no matter how hard Lisa tried, Ms. Cantwell just couldn't be won over.

Another great point about this story was that Ms. Cantwell was voiced by Tina Fey, giving her an authentically smart-sounding voice.  Hearing her play a teacher reminded me of the movie Mean Girls, where she had to deal with some not entirely likeable girls.  I think this role couldn't have been played better by anyone else.

There few a few specific things that I liked from this story.  The first was when Marge pretended to put a chincilla coat on Lisa to make her fall back to sleep.  It's funny that she doesn't mind making Lisa faint in horror in order to make sure her child is well-rested.  The next is my favorite part where Mrs. Krabapple put Bart into Ms. Cantwell's class.  Bart's entrance was accompanied by demonic-sounding music, and her few minutes of absence gave him enough time to make the room look like a disaster.  I loved how Bart was just circling around in a lawnmover for no reason--what the hell?  That was more than enough to justify her early resignation.  Plus, she still refused to like Lisa, even if she could get Bart's terror to end.  Now that's some deep hatred.

My favorite line also came from this story.  Apparently Ms. Cantwell thought that Skinner and Chalmers were partners:

You two are the worst-dressed gay men I've ever met!

This was just a good story all around.  I even liked that the reason she hated Lisa was because she looked like a pretty, party girl.  It's weird that anyone would mistake Lisa for that type of girl when she's such a bookworm wouldn't even know how to handle a book about partying.

Homer and Ned's story was also good, but not as good as Lisa's.  It was mainly shocking to see Ned punch Homer in the face when he's probably needed to do that on a million other cases where Homer was doing much more terrible things to him.  I suppose Ned was already on edge from his parents being in town, and we all know that his parents are the cause of his anger.  Homer could have just been the icing on the cake.

Speaking of his parents, I swear that we saw them when Ned and Edna got married and they didn't look as old as they did in this episode.  They should look pretty ancient, considering that Ned is even older than Homer, but it's just weird to see their character designs change so recently.  I don't know.  That bothered me at first.

One of the funniest things about this story was just seeing Homer get along so well with Ned's parents.  It was like they were old friends.  Homer's already annoying to Flanders, so to see Ned pissed off even more when Homer was laughing and getting high with his parents was amusing.  All of Ned's sources for rage were right in front of him.  It makes sense that he might throw a fist or two.

My favorite part was when Ned was having trouble sleeping.  He reluctantly took what he referred to as an "sleeping aid," but was just some graham crackers and milk.  I loved that!  Only Ned would be able to make that work for him like that.

One last thing I laughed at was the end where Ned and Homer were praying.  Homer didn't even realize what he was doing on his knees:

This is praying? Let me out of here!

That joke reminds me of some seasons back when Homer was horrified that he was reading a real bible, not the fake one he kept his flask in.

This was one of my favorites episodes so far.  I guess I can always say that it could have been funnier, but that's just a hazard of coveting the earlier seasons that I can still laugh at today.  It was great to see Lisa being tormented by a teacher who refused to like her instead of seeing teachers treat her like a prized jewel.  It is messed up that a teacher would single out a student like that, but since it was Lisa it made the situation funny.  It was even funnier that just a glimpse of what horror Bart could add to the classroom was enough to get Lisa's bully to leave the school.  Ned lost control and finally got a little revenge on Homer, but it worked against him because it made him seem like the aggressor rather than the victim.  I liked, though, that Homer joined forces with Ned's parents and got him to that boiling point.  Since they initiated such an interesting story, it's a shame that they can't visit Ned a little more often.

Tearjerker Returns

American Dad, S08E13

In a sequel to the Tearjecker story, Stan abandoned his life as a spy when his wife, Sexpun, was murdered by a new foe, Black Villain.  Bullock got him to return to his old life and partnered him up with Tearjecker to stop Black Villian's newest evil plan.

I was so excited to see that they did a continuation of this story.  I've been wanting them to do the Tearjerker bit again since I saw the first one a while ago.  It wasn't that I was curious about how Stan and Sexpun's married life went--I really wanted Tearjerker to survive the volcano and come back to be a thorn in Stan's side again.  Roger makes such a good villain since he's usually plotting and screwing people over in his real life.  Like, he's born to be a bad guy, with his loose policy on morals and common decency.

However, Tearjerker didn't end up being the main antagonist, and it was Black Villain who was running the show.  Principal Lewis as a bad guy wasn't a stretch either, but it was his lazy-ass name that I liked the most about him.  It was like someone don't even try to give him a real name.  It made him seem more like a joke rather than a man bent on destroying lives.

Next, I liked how Tearjerker got out of prison.  I was a little annoyed they showed all these underwater levels that separated Tearjerker from the surface until I saw him get pulled through all of them via the magnet inside of him.  It was kind of funny to see him get pulled through acid and cacti and stung by jellyfish.  I shouldn't have doubted that they wouldn't have bothered to slowly show us all of those layers of Earth if it wasn't going to be relevant.  I guess the way I was "fooled" helped make that joke about Tearjerker busting out a lot more funny to me.

My favorite part of the episode was when Sexpun (the clone) regained her memories of her original life and Tearjerker argued that this was impossible:

That's not how cloning works!  You're a completely different person!  You are so dumb!

I feel like he was set up to say that so that the "technical" viewers wouldn't be saying something similar.  Again, I like when they take a second to be the voice of their viewers to sort of combat future complaints (you can't complain about far-fetched concepts if they point them out first).

There were also a few gross moments.  The first, of course, is when Sexpun died.  It was bad enough to see a chunk of herself slide out of her middle without her falling on Stan and the hole around her spreading to Stan-width.  Since it's a cartoon this horrific image was amusing, but I can't imagine if I had to see something that gory in real life.  That would be so nasty.

The other nasty part was when the Tearjerker clones started fighting each other.  True to the DNA they had been created from, all of them were violent, unstable, and horny.  I don't know why Black Villain would have thought it would have been effective to use him as the base for his army.  They took care of themselves in less than two minutes.  And some of them were making out with each other.  Roger making out with anyone is bad enough, but seeing double Roger is double the gross.  But it was ironic that Black Villain unleashed the Tearjerker army only to have them be utterly useless.

Oh, I forgot that I liked how Tearjerker met his end in this story.  Something about him claiming that if a volcano couldn't kill him, nearly nothing would before he got stabbed through by a marlin was funny.  I guess this was because he was done in by something so cartoon-like.  How many people fall to their deaths on a fish?  And just when it looked like he was going to make it, a killer whale dragged him and that marlin into the sea.  So much for a third chapter in the Tearjerker saga.  Unless I'm lucky enough for them to simply make a convenient excuse as to why he survived a second time.

This was one of my favorite episodes.  It's definitely up there with that mock play.  I was extremely pleased to find out that they would do another Tearjerker story, even if it wasn't necessarily about his evil plan.  There was still enough comedy and general suspense with Black Villain added to the mix that I couldn't complain that Tearjerker wasn't in the center of it all.  I just hope that if they decide to make a third story that Tearjerker will be the headlining villain.  Maybe luck will be on my side, and I'll get to see that episode in the next season.

Doing Border Control Or Funding A Remodel?

Archer, S04E08

Archer, Lana, and Cyril were assigned to catch a famous coyote on the Texas border, but things went wrong when Archer decided to help their target escape and left his comrades knocked out on the side of the road.  While traveling with so many Mexicans in the back of his car, Archer easily caught the attention of the border control cops and ended up getting shot in the process.

I enjoyed the development of this story. I mean, it started typical enough for Archer where he's busy acting like an asshole while the others are trying to do their job properly.  However, instead of Archer's overly casual attitude about their mission screwing things up, it was Archer's fondness for the target.  Archer getting distracted by a set of boobs, also isn't something untypical for him, but it's not often that he basically throws his friends and the mission aside just so he can get some.  When you toss in all of the illegal immigrants by his side, it turned out to be a really strange way to hook up.  Obviously, if she was in jail he couldn't get with her, but to run off with her with all of those other people, I don't know how Archer could have thought that would work out.

I thought maybe eventually they'd toss Archer somewhere and continue their escape or Archer would grasp that getting with the woman he just met was more complicated than it was worth.  Nope.  Archer just ended up getting shot in the back when he was kissing (a kiss I found to be a little strange since it was the old woman in the back who shot the cop car) the girl.  It was ridiculous that he let himself get so seriously injured all for the sake of sex.  Like, why is Archer so pressed for sex?  He didn't even stop hitting on her when he was coughing up blood.  I almost wish he had been a bit successful with all that mess he had to go through.  Damn.

One specific thing I liked in the story was all of the jokes about Archer possibly being autistic.  I don't know how serious that Lana was that he could possibly have some form of it, but Archer kept pointing out moments that supported that theory (like counting all of those bullets that where shot in and near him).  Archer definitely has some issues with understanding social cues, but it would be too easy to excuse his behavior as some kind of mental condition.  I'd rather just think that Archer is insane, but I like how he was offended Lana had said those things about him, yet it got him thinking about himself.

I also liked when Mallory asked this one guy to find Archer's station wagon.  Mallory didn't yet see the futility in searching for such a common car in a large area until he kept pulling up results of similar cars on the road.  Mallory got so pissed when he kept asking "Is that it?" over and over again.  I loved it, even if the poor guy got hit so hard by Mallory that he fell over from possibly a heart attack.  Which, ironically, made him pull up the exact image of Archer's car.  But by then, everyone had left the room.

The ending, although good because Archer managed to not die in the back of a car full of people, shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.  I can't believe this was all Mallory's doing again!  When is everyone going to catch on before Mallory gets her way?  Just when I thought that ISIS might be doing something sort of to the betterment of other people or for some cause, it turns out to be the opposite.  Mallory is one sick person to make her employees run around like her lab rats while she collects money to redecorate her room.  I'm sure she didn't expect Archer to run off and get shot like he did, but it had to be part of her plan for him to get seduced and be part of the distraction for border control.  It's a bit frightening how good she is at manipulating people and situations for her own needs.  It's good that Archer, with his personality, didn't quite inherit that knack for using people as his pawns. 

I liked this episode just because of Archer's random involvement with a woman smuggling in people into Texas.  It was strange that he had to get shot and run around with all of those people just so he could get rejected by the woman and find out that it was all part of his mother's plan.  I guess rather than be surprised that their seemingly failed missions are exactly what Mallory intended for them to do, I should now expect that when ISIS looks like they're screwing up, Mallory is behind it all.  Mallory is some kind of mastermind.  It's lucky for mankind that she's not using her skills to plan terrorist attack or steal millions of dollars.  She'd be scarily good at those things.

Girls Want To Be Cinderella, Not Scientists

Big Bang Theory, S06E18

After deciding that if their committee wanted to encourage more women in the sciences, they should start at the middle school level, Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard visited Howard's old school to speak to a group of girls about their jobs and the allure of science.  Penny, Amy, and Bernadette got the idea to play hookie and go to Disneyworld while they were helping Raj decide what he should do for his first date with Lucy.  With little help from his girl friends, Raj planned a text date in the library for himself and Lucy.

From the moment that I heard what their committee was about, I didn't feel like the three of them would do a great job in acheiving their goal.  I'm sure that Leonard felt that it was a worthwhile cause, but Howard and Sheldon could have cared less.  As Leonard had suggested, it looked a whole lot like a typical forced group work: one person does all the work, while the others just slack off.  Also, I don't feel like these guys are the best people to get girls interested in science.  They should have had at least had one woman in their group to give the female perspective on the problem at hand.  It made me wonder why it took until nearly the end of the story before the scientist girlfriend and wife were consulted with their points of view.

It's hard to say which one of them bombed the biggest at the middle school.  I suppose it's a toss up between Leonard and Sheldon.  Leonard tried too hard to be cool, making himself look even lamer, and went off on a tangent about how his parents pushed him into science (and the cello) and how he wanted to be a police-friendly version of Snoop Dog.  Actually, without even bringing up Sheldon, I would say that Leonard was the one who discouraged the girls best from science with all of his whining.  Sheldon was a little graphic and certainly grim about the one female scientist he brought up as an example, but at least his incompetent presentation was short and sweet.  Plus, he redeemed himself when he put an end to Leonard's bitching and acknowledged that the girls present there were being done a disservice by them.  I loved when the girls clapped at him then.  Then Sheldon finally got Amy and Bernadette on the phone, so at least he did a little damage control.  Leonard just looked like science was the reason why he needs a lot of therapy (that and his overbearing parents).

One other part I enjoyed was when Sheldon thought he should Google how to get 12 year-old girls excited and Howard and Leonard ran over to stop him.  Wow, I don't know how that would have ended if they had simply let him do that.  Sheldon might have thrown his computer into a wall after seeing those results.

It was sort of cute that the girls all decided to play hookie together, especially since their destination was Disneyland.  I thought we might see them go on some rides or eat some crazy junk food, but instead it turned into a bit of a battle for the right to be dressed as Cinderella.  Not too surprising that Bernadette, who had suggested the Disney princess makeover in the first place, made it entirely clear that she was going to be Cinderella and the other girls would have to physically fight her if they didn't agree.  I like when Bernadette gets aggressive like that.  She has that look and sound of someone sweet and gentle, but get in her way and she'll come at you like a poisonous snake.

I thought that Amy's Snow White looked the best.  I would have never guessed.  I mean, Bernadette did make a wonderful Cinderella, but it was sort of like a no-brainer choice for her.  I don't think I could have seen her as any other princess.  Penny's Sleeping Beauty (I guess) looked a little rough.  I don't know if it was because Penny was so unhappy she couldn't be the princess she wanted or if they just did her makeover a little less special.  I don't know, but I didn't think she should have went home in that outfit.

I liked Howard's reaction to Bernadette coming home in the Cinderella getup.  It's amazing that he was already fantasizing about her being dolled up so before he even saw her.  He must have really been giving a lot of thought of her day at Disneyland because who would have guessed she'd come home looking like that?  Never underestimate Howard's dirty mind, I guess.  Leonard was about as  excited to see Penny as a princess, but Penny wasn't as into it as he was.  Sadly for Amy, who looked pretty good lying so still on the couch, Sheldon had no intention of fulfilling her fantasy of being awoken by her prince.  I would pay to see Sheldon (especially if he had to dress in a puffy prince costume) bend down and give Amy an overly romantic kiss like in that story.  Maybe if he was drunk that could be possible.

Raj did a great job on his first date with Lucy.  I didn't know how he was going to find something for them to do that wouldn't be too social nor involve too much talking.  A text date in the library was as cute as it was creative.  My favorite part of their texting was the auto-correcting.  Lucy had mistakenly written "porn" instead of "prom," but Raj was smart enough not to confess how often he visits porn sites. He dodged that well.  He was also lucky that when he was gushing about how proms were like fairytales come to life, Lucy let it slide as another auto-correct for him.  Nice save, Raj.

The kiss that almost happened between them was another good moment.  I was hopeful that Lucy would be able to go through with it, but it was more amusing to hear her yell about a panic attack and leave Raj hanging.  And while Raj didn't get a kiss on their first date, he still managed to be upbeat about it all.  I think for him and Lucy that was about as perfect of a first date as they could have.

I liked this episode.  Leonard and his "excited" committee did a poor job of encouraging young girls to pursue the same career, but it was a bit fun to see them interact with kids and do the opposite of what they intended to do.  I think it would have been much more successful if they had incorporated Amy and Bernadette from the beginning.  The girls' transformation into Disney princesses was pretty great, except Penny who looked like she had been kidnapped and forced to participate.  Although Amy's costume looked the best to me, she had the worst ending with her targeted prince.  There was a happy ending for Raj, however, who almost got a kiss after executing an excellent date for himself and Lucy.  Finally it looks like Raj is going to stop being the butt of every joke when it comes to romance.

Thanksgiving Prison

Community, S04E05

Jeff was forced to have Thanksgiving with his estranged father because, despite he couldn't find the courage to knock on the door and bolted, Britta went ahead and entered his father's house without him.  Shirley invited the others to her house for Thanksgiving, but they were all so miserable there that they hid in the basement and plotted to escape without Shirley realizing it.

How I wish that Britta would have just burst into flames and turned into ash.  She was so intrusive in this story.  I guess I could blame the Dean for having such a big mouth and telling the gang about him going to meet his father, but I wish that Britta would stop trying to be a therapist to him.  If her ignorance about psychology was humorous maybe I could let her slide, but her stupidity just makes me so angry.  Leave Jeff alone!  He definitely needed a push, but she just thinks she knows exactly what to do to get Jeff to deal with his issues.  It's her smugness about her that made me not want her to be around for the whole first meeting.

That being said, it was great that Jeff didn't end up being too chicken to meet his father.  I think he might have found another way to get over his fear without Britta, but since she was the reason, I have to give her credit there.  I just wish she had left as soon as Jeff had gotten settled in--he and his father really got along well.  Obviously they were both regarding the other with all of their emotions heavily guarded, but they didn't go at each others' throats (at least at first) or act too stiffly as if each second together was torture.  I liked seeing sort of an older version of Jeff.  If that was what Jeff is going to be like, it doesn't seem too bad by his standards.  Still, William didn't seem like the best dad when Willy Jr. acted like the most insincere guy ever.

I loved Willy Jr.  I thought that Jeff's half brother would be some kind of asshole like him, but he was more like a little boy who couldn't get over that his parents had brought home a new baby.  In just a few seconds of meeting Jeff, he evaluated himself as inferior and felt threatened that Jeff would take his place.  His insecurity due to Jeff's existence was pretty funny.  My favorite emotional explosion was when he was having trouble getting out Jeff's name:

[Jeff] My name is Jeff.

[Willy Jr.] Don't help me! Mr. Helper Guy! First, mom died, and now this!

Willy was a mess, but I enjoyed every time he opened his mouth and got frustrated over every little thing.  I was set to be disappointed that Jeff and this little ball of emotions couldn't bond until Willy appeared in the back of Jeff's car.  I was happy that Jeff's outrage at his father's attempt to justify being absent in Jeff's life came to a boil when he heard how Willy was also a victim of William's bad parenting.  It was sort of a moving moment when Jeff exposed his neediness as child, where he faked an illness just to have someone worry about him.  To hear that he still holds onto the get-well cards from then really makes you see how sad Jeff is deep inside.  It was a very effective and colorful way to show that Jeff wasn't the superior child that William claimed to have contributed to by leaving him.  Although his deadbeat dad tried to fake a heart attack to get out of this emotional moment, Jeff's grandstand got through to Willy and he hugged the hell out of his older brother.  Aww!  I hope that Willy returns for another story--him and Jeff would make a funny pair.

In Shirley's story, I felt bad that her friends were so determined to leave her.  I understood that Shirley's family, though, sounded like such unpleasant people.  Anyone who could sit around and laugh at Pierce's antics (especially when he was trying to fake breaking a hip--they didn't think to worry about him) were probably not the best company.  And, as we later found out, they took joy in making fun of Shirley at these gatherings, making her situation feel all the sadder.  While her friends were trying to break out of the "prison," Shirley was locked in her own.  I don't think my heart has ever gone out to Shirley as much as when she admitted that she wanted her friends to be there as her buffer and yet they had been avoiding her the whole time that their presence didn't even matter.  They made me happy when they decided to grin and bear it for her sake.

I also liked how Abed, seeing that they were trapped in a prison-like state, started narrating their actions as if was Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption.  Although, he didn't get to break out of there through a secret tunnel (which was revealed in the extra that he dug out behind a Shirley's Sandwiches poster), he did enough spoofing of this movie that it was pretty funny. 

Troy, too, had a funny moment the first time he escaped to the basement:

What is going on?  Why is Thanksgiving so terrible?

I feel like that's a great summary statement of that holiday.  If this episode was aired in the right season, I'm pretty sure I'd be thinking that in my head at one point or another.

My favorite part of the story was when Jeff had set up the study room for the Thanksgiving dinner that they had all missed out.  Jeff was on a good-guy roll.  I really appreciate those times when he makes up for being so detached all the time (or at least pretending to be).  It assures me no matter what selfish thing he might do or say, he'll eventually show his true colors and win me over again.

This was a good episode, especially for a Thanksgiving story.  I can't remember if it was as good or bad as the others I saw this past year, but I'm betting it was up there.  The meeting between Jeff and his father went much better than I imagined and wasn't the sappy reunion that it could have been.  I most liked the introduction of Willy Jr.  I don't think they could have made a better brother for Jeff if they tried.  Shirley's Thanksgiving was equally as good because we got to see Annie, Troy, Abed, and Pierce act like inmates and attempt to break out.  Although they saw the merit in staying opposed to fleeing, it was amusing to see them struggle along the way.  And thanks to Jeff's surprise dinner for them all, everyone got to have the Thanksgiving they had really been looking for.  Nothing more I like than a great ending!

Being Jill

Suburgatory, S02E16

Tessa, wanting to have something good on her college application, asked Jill to take her on as her intern.  To Tessa's dismay, her new boss was less impressive and more exhausting than she had imagined.  George tried to follow the therapist's advice to distract Noah from his feelings for Carmen until they died out.  Dalia also gave Mr. Wolfe advice about how to feel better about his breakup with Chef Alan.

Of course, I can give Tessa a lot of credit for being ambitious by jumping at the opportunity she saw in working for Jill.  It's good that she's motivated to get into college and all, but I didn't like the way that she basically pushed Dallas aside, who has been so great to her, the second she thought that Jill might make her look more accomplished.  Maybe so (because let's be real--the crystal store isn't going to wow admissions personnel), but I wish that Tessa had thought to speak to Dallas first before she nearly begged Jill for the job.  I don't like seeing Dallas hurt like that.

Unsurprisingly, Tessa did not like Jill as a boss.  I don't know why she would have thought it would work.  I mean, she babysat for Jill and Noah before.  She couldn't have possibly thought that Jill was less terrible than she seemed.  I would just look at that crib made out of bones (or tusks?) and realize that I was going to work for someone crazy and most likely insensitive.  My favorite crazy thing that Tessa was tasked to do was to interepret Opus' review for Jill's new book.  That was the stupidest and most pointless thing I could imagine Tessa doing for her that involved writing.  It was a good way, however, to teach Tessa that she might have been a bit jumping the gun when asking to work for Jill.  I don't think I've seen Tessa look so mad in a long time.  Seeing her writing up "Opus'" review with so much hatred, I wouldn't have been surprised if she later went to Jill and shoved her own book up her ass.

My favorite part of the story was the very end after Tessa had seen Jill for the self-loathing and pitiful woman that she really was.  By then Tessa wasn't admiring Jill's success or anything and realized that she had been pretty terrible to Dallas.  I'm not mad at Dallas for making Tessa straight out tell her that the person who could teach her how to be a good person was Dallas, not Jill.  I really loved how Dallas pulled that compliment out of Tessa and graciously took Tessa back as an employee.  If she didn't, it would sort of contradict that compliment.  Still, I think that Tessa is lucky that Dallas has a heart of gold.  She could have easily been petty and immature about taking Tessa back, but instead she welcomed her with an open arm.

I didn't think much at first about George doing his best to get Carmen out of Noah's mind.  It just felt like with Noah being married, that was the most sensible thing to do.  However, his persistence and tendency to defend Jill was mostly about his own issues about Alex leaving him long ago.  I wouldn't have ever thought that George and Jill might have something in common, but I liked that this story showed that they do.  It had just looked like George was trying to do right by his friend, but he was really sympathizing with Jill and trying to protect her (and himself).  That's pretty interesting.  Luckily, George isn't as bad as Jill, but we might see more sides of her (like her being her own biggest critic) as Noah continues to pursue Carmen.

I felt a little relived that Carmen didn't have romantic feelings for Noah.  It made his public announcement for divorce and that ridiculous shower scene between him and Carmen seem silly.  I don't get the impression that Carmen is the type to hide her feelings, so I think that she would have made it clearer if she had liked Noah from long ago, even if he were married.  Noah, looking a little swept away by "love," doesn't want to give up.  I feel sort of bad for Carmen, who no doubt, has to endure Noah's courting for a while.  I know he's going to do a lot of outrageous actions to win her over, and I hope he doesn't succeed.  Noah's not such a bad guy, but I still think that he's more trouble than he's worth.  Carmen, being employed to such unstable people, has enough on her plate without having to date Noah.

It was weird to see Dalia helping out Mr. Wolfe, but I get that she sort of identifies with him because Evan broke her heart too.  It was sort of cute to see her taking Wolfe to the salon and giving his hair a new look.  I don't know if Wolfe has any other friends, so Dalia might have been the only one to at least give him the kick in the pants not to mope about his breakup.  The one thing that stands out most in their story, though, is when Dalia was "crying."  The noise she made sounded like a robot was malfunctioning.  It's impressive that she's taught herself how to cry without tears, and yet it's also a little frightening.  I feel like Dalia, who suppresses her emotions so easily, is one day going to explode.  I would not like to see that.  I'd much rather her have like a few seconds to cry for real and get out her pain rather than go psycho one day from never truly expressing her emotions.  Maybe Evan will come to love her after all and Dalia's emotional time bomb will be defused.

I liked this episode all right, but it was far from my favorite.  It's nice to have a break from "What's Ryan and Tessa's problem this week," but I didn't like having to see Tessa try to climb her way to success by stepping on Dallas a little bit.  It's fortunate that Jill was the worst person she could have interned for because it gave Tessa a reality check about how valuable being under Dallas' wing really is.  I don't think it was fortunate that George gave Noah the okay to go pursue Carmen.  If she's smart, she'll stay away from that train wreck.  I think it was cute to see Dalia helping someone with whom she has something in common with, but I'm more worried about her than I am with Mr. Wolfe.  She's obviously still hurting, and I want to see her heart mended as soon as possible.

Is Staying Good Good For Snow?

Once Upon A Time, S02E15

Snow discovered Regina and Kora's plan, and she and David rushed to find Rumpelstiltskin's dagger first.  In the past, Snow tried to find a way to save her ill mother and fought the urge to use dark magic to achieve that.  In New York, Rumpelstiltskin asked Emma to convince Neal to come to Storybrooke with them and tried to endure Henry's anger.  They had to make hurried plans back to Storybrooke when Hook unexpectedly showed up and attacked Rumpelstiltskin.

I thought maybe Regina and Kora so openly talking about their plan to get control of Rumpelstiltskin was incredibly foolish until I realized they must have wanted their plan revealed in order to have Snow and David lead them right to it.  I mean, they shouldn't be doing anything supsicious in town, at least not together if they can help it.  I don't know why else they would risk being overheard when there's no guarantee that no one would see them out in the open like that.  I'd just like to believe that they are sneakier than they look, rather than careless.

I don't know if it was the best idea for Snow to confront Regina about the truth and appeal to her distrust of her mother.  If anything, it seemed to convince Regina to continue with her mother's plan rather than bother to win over the townspeople who would probably take a hundred years to honestly forgive her crimes.  I mean, Regina did seem a little doubtful of her mother's intentions when she heard that there was a beef between Snow's mother and her own, but so far it doesn't look like Snow's words really reached Regina at all.  I'm sure there will come a time where Snow will prove to be right (I totally agree that Kora would kill Henry in a second if he got in her way), but I think Regina will have to see her mother betray her first before she realizes that.

It was horrible that we got to see someone who played a mother-like figure for Snow get killed so easily during that dagger exchange.  I sort of wanted Snow to hold onto the dagger and let Johanna go, even if that would be cruel to an innocent woman.  The things that Regina and Kora could do with Rump in their power would be far worse than one old woman dying.  But Snow being the Snow who wouldn't even execute Regina, handed over the dagger in the end.  And her reward for doing the "right" thing was that Johanna got her heart back only to be pushed out of the window to her death.  Kora is not playing around!  She seems much more frightening now that it's clear that she has an axe to grind with Snow as well.

In the past, I didn't care too much about the Queen's illness as much as I did the meeting between Snow and the "Blue Fairy."  Even though I knew that Snow's mother died, I felt a little afraid she was going to sacrifice someone's life with that candle and it would turn out not to work at all (letting two people die).  Instead, Snow followed her mother's wish to stay good and stayed away from black magic.  It was a surprise to find out the whole thing was just a plot by Kora to get Snow to go to the dark side.  It was a little disturbing to see Kora hovering over the Queen's dead body, gloating about how she was going to corrupt Snow one day.  What in the world did Snow's mom do to Kora?  Did she just hate her because Kora was a miller's daughter and Snow's mother happened to be royalty?  There's got to be more to that story than that.

I feel a bit disappointed that Snow is deciding to stray from the path of good and dip her toe into the dark side.  Sure, I'm all for killing Kora--that bitch needs to die--but I'd hate to see Kora win by tainting Snow and getting revenge on her mother as well.  Charming tried (and I'm sure will keep trying) to tell her about this, but Snow rationalized that all of her seemingly good choices had led to bad endings.  I can't argue with her there, but almost all of that was due to someone else wanting to do her harm.  You can't beat evil with evil--it doesn't work that way.  I really hope once Emma comes back she might be able to convince her mother that being a cold-blooded murderer isn't the best decision.

Speaking of Emma, I hate that she has to put up with Henry's attitude.  I really wanted to punch him in his face when he talked about how the pizza didn't lie to him.  Shut the hell up, Henry!  How is Emma supposed to make up for her lies when Henry keeps throwing it in her face?  I'm starting to wish that Rump would kill Henry for whatever reason he needs to.

I really liked, though, when Henry asked Rump if he should call him "Grandpa" now.  Rump casually told him to call him whatever he liked.  It's funny that Rump doesn't really seem to care all that much that Henry is related to him now.  I mean, he's not thrilled or anything.  I think he likes better that Emma is sort of connected to him and he can get her to help with Bae a little bit by using Henry.  Can't blame him for that.  His son barely wants anything to do with him, so he's got to use whatever method he can.

The biggest surprise in this episode was when Hook attacked Rump seemingly out of nowhere!  One moment he was in Storybrooke reclaiming his hook, and the next he was stabbing Rump through the chest.  That was crazy!  Later, they explained that he used he boat to travel so quickly, but it still feels like he teleported or something.  I was just so shocked that Hook showed up that I couldn't pay attention to the mortal wound that Rump had been given.  I felt like he was going to be okay (even though he was poisoned) because he was well enough to yell at Henry to stay away and blame him for everything.

I can't believe that Neal once lived in Neverland.  That's the only explanation of how he knows Hook and isn't much older than he should be.  If they reveal he's freaking Peter Pan too, I'm going to be pissed.  That's too much for one character to be.  Come on.  But at least it allows Neal to be able to navigate a boat that could get them back to Storybrooke quickly (although how the hell will they find the boat?).  I'm about ready for them to get back and have them deal with this dagger business.

Speaking of that dagger, which Rump had hidden in a pretty clever place, I guess it wasn't the best idea for him to entrust the location to Emma and the others.  Snow and Charming had that thing for like two minutes before it was in the hands of enemies.  But I guess Rump can't really worry about that at the moment.  He could be dead before he even reaches Storybrooke, so having power over him would be moot.

Neal's fiancee...  Well, I saw that coming.  I hate that I sort of feel bad for Emma, despite that she and Neal are through at this point.  But I think that Rump is right in that she sort of hoped that they might work things out.  I don't know if I want them to right now.  I'm still a fan of Emma and Graham.  I know he's dead, but he was still my favorite for her so far.

In the next episode, I'm most looking forward to Emma and company coming back to Storybrooke with a still alive Rumpelstiltskin.  Fans would riot if he died, so I know he'll make it, but brushing that close to death might have a bigger effect on him than expected.  Of course, once they do return, it'll become clearer whether Kora is playing Regina for a fool or really sticking to her word.  Either way, Rump will get controlled and Snow and Charming's family will be in danger.  I doubt that the new Snow "Black" will be able to do any better in protecting her family, but we'll see how her new attitude will play out against Kora and Regina.  I guess after failing to save Johanna, Snow should at least be better motivated not to let one more person die she loves and perhaps release a little more whoop-ass on her enemies.