Suits
Holy @#$%^&&()_!@# Suits! What did you just do? That was intense. Harvey displayed real emotions (almost) and Mike Ross’ transforamtion into smug ass-hat is almost complete (sponsored by the Freaky Friday Association?).
Pearson Hardman has lawyered up (heh). After the car manufacturer accepted (unwillingly) that their car was faulty, the widow is suing the company and PH for evidence tampering. Hardman hires a lawyer to protect Harvey (the firm), but since Harvey still doesn’t know about the memo, the petulant child he manages to barely hide under his expensive suits is acting out. He’s exasperatingly uncooperative, aggravates his suer (this is a real word!) and walks around all smug like its Wednesday.
Because Harvey’s a defendant in the lawsuit and not the defending lawyer, he has time to close the deal on a young, budding tennis champ who wants to be emancipated from his father. Which is why he lets Mike Ross take over the case (-__-). Mike Ross’ bleeding heart tries to save the father-son relationship, then tries to save the son from his father and eventually (and rightfully) saves the tennis prodigy from the evil sport’s agent. But he’s learnt to be all smug and smarmy about it, so really it’s just awful and not even the slightest bit endearing.
Like this
Between committing fraud (and maybe even a felony) Mike manages to figure out Donna’s secret and respectfully asks Donna to let Harvey know. But when Donna doesn’t do it and Mike is forced to make the oldest play in the book to prevent Harvey from purging himself, he is finally forced to tell him the truth. What follows is one of the most intense scenes in Suits’ short episodic history, but man it was well worth it.
Donna made two huge errors, but the second one was more damaging than the first. Having panicked at the discovery of the memo and despite warnings from Mike; Donna shreds the memo and has to be fired for indescretion. A cowardly Harvey stands at the elevator not saying a word, and although there is a deep sadness in letting Donna go, part of it is still indignation (actually no, it’s anger) at being betrayed by her.
As damage control, the lawyer lady has been fired and Jessica has taken over the case now. Is there a law that prevent’s lawyers from handling cases in which they are emotionally involved? There should be.
- Donna cannot be rehired ever, so maybe she’s potential love interest now?
- All displays of emotion by Harvey lead to disaster.
- If only Mike Ross had been happier when he figured out Donna’s secret, she wouldn’t have panicked.
- Lewis’ cat died. Dude gets a tennis ball as a condolence gift.
- Will Norma be seen now? Please no!
In case you didn’t notice, she took the can opener
Bunheads
While last week’s episode hinted at the financial disarray Fanny was in, this week the issue is brought to the forefront. Like much else Fanny’s life moves at a different rhythm to everyone elses. And since they live in a sleepy town where almost everyone knows everyone, Fanny’s season of payment is plausible, though not entirely. Part small-town cookiness, part Fanny’s people skills, part trust the older generation seems to have (that the younger generation is too jaded to have) and I’m ready to believe this.
Michelle tries to make sense of it, but her big-city brains fail to comprehend small-town workings. She would’ve probably let go of it had local too, had local dance accessory shop owner not come over to collect his dues. Michelle discovers Fanny operates the dance school mostly on scholarships, making the dance school not a profitable venture for her. Michelle suggests making the students pay for their classes (does NOT work out), then suggests adding more classes to compensate for the scholarships; Fanny rightly says she needs more help and asks Michelle to teach, but she is adamantly against the idea. It’s not just the fear of commitment holding her back, the larger reason is that becoming a teacher means hanging up your professional dancing career shoes. Michelle’s just not ready to do that as yet. Maybe it’s a fear of commitment to that aspect of her career too; to stay in limbo, that’s where shes’s most comfortable at. Slightly nested, but not completely settled in. If she begins teaching here, she’s made the conscious decision that this is her life now.
Boo begins work at the Oyster Bar this week, where the owner’s son has returned from a spiritual trip. In true teenage fashion, all the girls fawn all over him, use their best tactics to get his attention (be older and bolder). They show up everyday, wear their fanciest clothes, and act as worldly as they can. Boo who’s too busy working (and crushing on Melanie’s brother) to pay attention to him, is the one who ends up being the one he shows interest in (please don’t be a pedo) and becomes friends with him (behind the dumpster). Another reason for Sasha to be antagonised by Boo.
Who could ignore these beauties?
At the town fair, when Fanny’s class performs; Michelle realises that as crazy as Fanny’s system is, it’s a system that has rewards worth teaching for. Fanny also comes to accept that Hubbel is no longer there to pick up her financial slack and that she needs to start taking care of herself now.
Which reminds me: what happened to Hubbel’s shoe shop? Can’t it be rented or something?
White Collar
So Neal’s landed himself in trouble, getting duped by the rich, white dude he paid to protect himself (this is some kind of metaphor is it not?)
Once again Peter and Mozzie (Neal’s surrogate parents) must plan Neal’s escape. His own attempt at escape doesn’t fare so well and he gets shot in the leg by Agent Collins. The first part half of the escape goes mostly as planned, and Peter is almost ready to let Neal disappear again. Neal doesn’t want to admit it (mostly because of Mozzie), but he desparately wants to quit running and return to New York, to his old life (if such a possibility existed).
The universe hands them the opportunity to get Neal that third chance he so desires by allowing him to stick it to the white man who betrayed him. In a plan Neal’s new girlfriend refers to as “intricate”, the success of which depends largely on how well the word-of-mouth travels on the island. Peter’s learning a new life skill (which will probably come in handy soon); and both he and Mozzie work overtime to get the grapevine buzzing. While Neal rests and paints an optical illusion.
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t (most of it doesn’t matter, because you know how it will end). They manage to trick the white guy to get on a plane to escape, they convince Agent Collins to take the glory for capturing the fourth most wanted person in America in lieu of allowing Peter the courtesy of bringing Neal in. And though Neal gets exactly what he wanted, his mistakes (and some of Peter’s own) mean Peter will be bearing the brunt of the consequences, since Neal was his responsibility.
How will the team survive without Peter? Who will be the new head of the team? How will the team get Peter back? What resentment will linger between everyone now and how will it affect them all? These questions will shape season 4.
Sorry there’s very little in-depth analysis of the characters so far, mostly because the first two episodes have been nothing more than plot devices warming up for the real developments.
- Mozzie’s going to become the new “White Protector Man” on the island, isn’t he?
- The more they build up the intrigue to Neal’s backstory, the more I’m sure I’m going to be disappointed when it’s finally revealed.
- Who will be Neal’s love interest this season? Can it be Alcide?
 Alphas
With Dr. Rosen’s public broadcast outing the alphas going live, it wasn’t difficult to forsee the kind of repurcussions it would have. The government is already known to not be too welcoming of them and with no reason to hide themselves any longer, the alphas with volatile personalities have taken to bolder attempts at crime. What I didn’t expect was the falling out within the group. Though Dr. Rosen is the glue that holds them together, they had bonded well enough over the past year to have been able to stick together. But somehow in the course of eight months, everything’s fallen apart, and only Hicks and Bill are together fighting crime; but barely at that. Gary gets loaned to the NSA and because they don’t understand his special needs perfectly (or at all), he has an episode and gets sent to Building 7 in Binghamton. Rachel has recede all the way back into her room above her parent’s laundry, no longer able to control her ability. Nina seems to be just as lost and more insecure than ever; pushing guys to spend time with her and call her “beautiful”.
A planned mutiny inside Building 7 forces Nathan Clay to bring Dr. Rosen out of the mental institute where he’s being treated for his “delusions”. Dr. Rosen is able to bring together the team to help him avert a larger crisis; he’s the only one who is able to both help them and utilize their abilities without hurting them. However Stanton Parish is the mastermind behind the plot and has got a few years on the doctor; and the detainees who’ve managed to escape are his followers. Now that they’re out, petty crimes have been moved up to full scale terrorism acts (with bad CGI). Staton’s army of alphas is out to rule over the humans, but Rosen’s rag-tag team of vagabonds must calmly explain to them that they need to live together in harmony. It’s probably going to be pretty violent.
- All the Gary love; so much good will winnning. Wanted them all to group hug.
- As long as there is never a Peter Petrelli-esque leeche alpha, I’m cool with whatever other ability they let those guys have.
Pretty Little Liars
The liars have been having a rough couple of weeks, no Mona, no Wren, No Caleb, Spencer’s mom is Garret’s lawyer and Officer Creepy is back. You know its going to get worst when one of the Dad’s makes an appearence. Unless it’s Em’s dad, then it’s all flowers and rainbows and hugs. Sadly though it’s Spencer’s Dad first the bearer of bad news (the evidence against Garret may be thrown out), then stalks on brother and sister bonding time (while they solve crimes together) and then threatens his own son to stay away from his sister. He’s currently ahead of Aria’s father in the “Father of the Year” standing.
Hanna’s always been the second most badass liar (behind Spencer obviously), so she not only smuggles in a note to “A” through Garret’s comatose mother (and causes her to nearly die), but also sets up the meeting place AND shows up to the meeting alone. In between though, she has to deal with her mother crushing on the church’s pastor and thinking she’s making a fool of herself (she’s not, but it’s cute to see her flustered) and Toby’s boredom (and increasing suspicions). The church party puts Hanna’s plan in jeopardy, enough people for “A” to hide and watch from a safe distance. As she hides behind a pulpit (?) waiting for “A” to show up (and giving us, the audience, the opportunity to scream “No Hanna! don’t go alone, haven’t you learnt anything?”) we know “A” will probably not make an appearance, but send in some sort of a fake out. However, we’re not treated to anothe roof collapsing on Hanna, though being alone with Officer Creep while he harrasses her is probaby worse. He confronts her about her visit to Garret’s mom (meddling idiot stole the note meant for “A”, so quite the waste of time the church party turned out to be). Hanna mostly evades his questions, but he’s convinced the liars are in cahoots with Garret and his accomplices (circumstantial claimes these).
Hanna also tracks down where Emily’s jacket was donated from. Emily makes the trip back into time, at a diner she has flashbacks of sharing a meal with someone who wrote, “I’m sorry I left you” (that can only be Allison right?). She also manages to remember seeing a tattoo of some sort on that person’s wrists. At the church party she runs into Holden (who’s still alive!) who’s got the same tattoo on. It’s an underground party stamp, so I guess the Liars are going to an underground party soon.
Brother and Sister team up to figure out who April Rose is. From a victim of NAT, to a member, there seem to be a few possibilities. Nothing is what it seems in Rosewood (or it’s surrounding areas) and turns out April Rose isn’t really a person at all, but an antiques shop. Have those Antiques Roadshow guys ever been to Rosewood, because there really are way too many creepy places selling creepy things for this to NOT have registered on some scale in the reality world. There they find (besides the creepy lady with the earbuds) Allison’s charm bracelet. Ian drops off the bracelet at the police station and turns out the blood on the bracelet wasn’t Garret’s. They exonerated him! (ummmm, that really wasn’t the plan).
Aria spends most of the episode off screen disturbed by her boyfriend’s rolls of cash (which he hides in his sock drawer like an amatuer). His explanatio shouldn’t satisfy Aria, but hey! it gives Ezra the edge his pale existence had been lacking so far (he gave the Liars up for the money to Ian, I know it).
- Officer Creepy isn’t satisfied just ruining Hanna’s life, he goes all volatile subtext on her mother too.
- Holden’s alive! (and probably part of the “A”-team).
- “A” loves Emily the mostest.
- Ezra’s real secret, he’s become a stripper now.
Boy’s got some (lame) moves
Shazia is part bionic, part crazy (parts not mutually exclusive), and would be happy conversing solely in TV quotes, forever hopeful she’ll be one-upped in her obscure TV references. She blogs here and microblogs here.
