Grimm Episode 217
“One Angry Fuchsbau”
Written By: Richard Hatem
Directed By: Terrence O’Hara
Original Airdate: 5 April 2013

In This Episode...

Several months ago, a man terrorizes his wife. He chases her throughout their mansion, furious because she is not wearing the dress he picked for her. He reveals himself to be Wesen (blutbad, I think) and she is a mousey Wesen. The fight escalates, and he throws her off the balcony. Now, Donald Nadaria is standing trial for murdering his wife, Katherine. His defense attorney, Barry Kellogg, has something up his sleeve: a toad. When Kellogg speaks to the jury, he lets off some kind of invisible pixie dust that is inhaled by the jurors. Rosalee is on the jury and she comes home sick. Monroe takes her to the courthouse the next day, and sits in the gallery. The eye witness, the maid, is on the stand and Monroe notices that when the prosecutor questions her, she is firm in her description of what happened. But when Kellogg does his cross, she starts to question her own testimony - then eventually concedes that Katherine threw herself over the balcony. Monroe is perturbed by this and follows Kellogg into the bathroom, where he sees a toad hopping about - and Kellogg’s hand extend from one of the stalls to catch said toad - and eat it.

Monroe brings Hank and Nick back to the courthouse to watch the trial. Wu takes the stand (he was the first on scene) and he has the same about-face with his testimony. That night, the boys, along with Rosalee, start doing some research, and figure out that Kellogg is a ziegevolt who can give off pheromones that influence a person to believe whatever the ziegevolt has to say. Rosalee finds a potion that can neutralize the effects of the pheromone, but it requires some of Kellogg’s sweat. The gang sets up a sting in order to get what they need. Kellogg comes out of a bar with a young lady when Monroe - in full Wesen form - attacks. Kellogg runs; Monroe chases. A few blocks away, Kellogg bumps into Bud. Recognizing him as Wesen, Bud offers to help him escape. In the truck as they drive away, Bud hands Kellogg a handkerchief to dab his sweaty face with. Bud delivers the hanky to Rosalee, who steeps it and combines the sweat with the rest of the ingredients to make an antidote. She can only produce one dose, and Kellogg’s toad must be dosed to ensure he experiences the full effects. Hank and Nick keep Kellogg busy with questions about the previous night’s attack, while Monroe sneaks in and doses the toad. Naturally, Kellogg has two toads tucked into his briefcase; Monroe picks one blindly. It was the right one - the jury didn’t buy Kellogg’s closing arguments (although Rosalee said that if the potion works, it will negate all the other things Kellogg influenced the jury with. I’m not really sure how that works...) and Nadaria is convicted (but of first-degree murder, which is weird, because it was clearly a second-degree murder). Kellogg is shocked. That night, Kellogg drunkenly stumbles into the spice shop, desperate for help. Monroe tries to move him out of the store, but Rosalee comes out. Kellogg recognizes her, Wesens-out, at attacks. Monroe responds by fighting back. Nick prevents him from killing Kellogg, then arrests Kellogg for assault. And wouldn’t you know it, but Kellogg is put in the cell next to Nadaria.

Meanwhile, Nick talks Monroe into taking Juliette back to Marie’s trailer. She is not scared by Marie’s strange books and medieval weapon collection - she is more bemused than anything. Her memories of Nick in the trailer start flooding back, just little pieces, but dozens of them, all at once. She is overwhelmed and leaves. Later she calls that Hispanic woman from a bunch of episodes ago, who offers nothing but to say that Juliette is walking the line between lightness and dark. That night, more memories flood back to her: innocuous little scenes, like Nick asking where his favorite sweater is, heading out to a crime scene, singing her a song... saying “I love you.” This scares her more.

Renard clues Nick and Hank in on the bomber. Over in Vienna, Adalind is reunited with Eric, who is not happy to hear that she did not get the key. Eric decides it is time he pay his brother a visit. He also seems to suspect that Adalind is pregnant.

Dig It or Bury It?

For the love of all that is good and kind, would someone please let/force Juliette to remember. I am so sick of this nonsense. Why is she afraid of a ghost of Nick saying he loves her? I am so frustrated with this - and so over it.

I really enjoyed the caper-like elements in the procedural story. They really got everyone in on the sweat-heist. I loved it. And when Kellogg was put in jail, right next to Nadaria, the first thing I thought was, “This guy is going to get the prison-raping of a lifetime.”

Big Bad...

...Ziegevolt. This goat-like Wesen has a unique gland in its brain that gives off pheromones that can influence people into your way of thinking.

Prophecies?

A flaming hell demon shows up to destroy Portland! Neat.

Cult Episode 107
“Suffer the Children”
Written By: Megan Martin
Directed By: Nathan Hope
Original Airdate: 5 April 2013

In This Episode...

EJ gives Jeff detective Sakelik’s police jacket, which she hacked after she found out who Jeff and Burt were looking into. Her record is spotless, but her youth is a different subject: she has a juvenile recored that she has petitioned to have expunged three times in the last year. Each request has been denied. Jeff blackmails an attorney into getting him Sakelik’s juvenile record. There isn’t anything criminal; she was an abandoned child. In her file there are lots of photos of Sakelik as a child, as well as dozens of other kids. Jeff and Skye have an address for Sakelik during that time, a place up at Lake Arrowhead.

The house belongs to a woman named Annabelle. She has only owned the property for 10 years and knows nothing about any of the previous occupants. The large, stately home needed a name, so she called it Moon Hill. She is polite and helpful, which means she has something to hide. Jeff and Skye don’t hit upon it until they are home, poring over blown-up photos from the files. Skye sees the words “Moon Hill” etched into one of the doors, a good 15 years before Annabelle took credit for this.

During this time, Sakelik meets with Louis, a childhood friend who is wheelchair-bound and works at a video store. She admits to Louis that she killed an innocent man - but she did it for them, and what they are working to achieve. Later, Annabelle visits Louis. She is terrified to hear that Sakelik was there - and admitting to murder.

Jeff and Skye head back up to Lake Arrowhead. Jeff will not leave without answers. Annabelle is hiding in the brush with a shotgun when they arrive - her standard position when she sees headlights. She is terrified, but she finally reveals the truth. In the 1980s, Moon Hill housed a “cult” - Annabelle insists on calling it a family, and insists there was “so much love there.” But one morning, the kids - about 20 of them - woke up and all the adults were just gone. Vanished. At first it was great - a house full of kids with no parents around - but then the food ran out. The kids had never been allowed to interact with the outside world, so they were ill-equipped to deal with real life. Rosalyn Sakelik stood up and took control of the group. She could be cruel, and there were no adults to stop her. Rosalyn made the kids break into homes. At first it was just for food and necessities, but then it was for anything they wanted. One day they broke into the home of actress Olivia Leland. They thought she wasn’t home, but she was, and things got out of hand. Rosalyn killed Olivia. Annabelle has hidden, in a box buried in her garden, the map to the homes of the stars that they used to target particular houses, and it is covered with Olivia’s blood. Sakelik shows up and shoots Annabelle dead. Skye and Jeff run.

Back home, Jeff and Skye are puzzling over the evidence they do have. Hidden beneath the lining of the box, Skye finds another photograph. Taken in front of the Moon Hill house, the photo contains nearly a dozen kids, and all are posed in front of the same classic red Valiant from the show “Cult” - with the same license plate.

Also: Stuart is the fourth of the little “Quad Squad” Sakelik has going. Stuart visits Roger at the studio to brag about his family’s insane wealth, and how he bought himself a producing gig. He tries to lure Roger into starring in one of his pictures - and gives him a car to entice him. And Peter, the “Cult” producer, has been snooping around Skye’s desk after-hours. He is Steven Rae’s spy. 

Dig It or Bury It?

Oh holy crap, finally we are getting somewhere!! The show is still rife with problems, but the plot is finally moving forward. So it seems fairly obvious: Steven Rae, like Jeff suggested, was part of this Moon Hill cult. And now I assume he is using his TV show as a platform to lure in new cult members, to revive the cult. I also assume it will take the rest of the season before Jeff and Skye put the pieces together, or before any confirmation on this is made. Which will drive me crazy. But at least now I know this is going somewhere. I also like the real-life cult touches that are added. The murder that the kids pulled reeks of the Manson Family. And all the adults disappearing is straight out of Village of the Damned.

Life Imitates Art

Kelly’s nephew, Andy, draws a picture of his mother with a bloody head. “She cut it out,” is all he would say. Kelly serves a search warrant on Billy’s car and finds a lock of bloody blonde hair. Lab results confirm this hair belongs to Meadow. Yet she doesn’t arrest Billy, merely brings him in for questioning. His lawyer retrieves him shortly thereafter.

Prophecies?

Jeff seeks evidence to connect Sakelik to Nate’s disappearance.

FEARnet adds a cult favorite to its Tuesday night Twisted Comedy Block with the wildly popular ABC Studios comedy series REAPER, licensing both seasons of the hour-long series for a complete 31 episode order. REAPER will be the lead-in program at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT to FEARnet’s original half-hour comedy series HOLLISTON, which premieres its second season that same night at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. The announcement was made today by Sarah Shannon, Vice President of Programming and Network Operations, FEARnet.

In addition to airing the series, FEARnet is producing a half-hour special reuniting some of the original cast and crew in which they will discuss the series’ popularity, its finale and their rabid community of fans in a round-table format. Set to appear in the special are series stars Bret Harrison (Sam Oliver), Tyler Labine (Sock) and Ray Wise (The Devil), among others.

“REAPER is the first off-network series that we have licensed for FEARnet.  We are constantly looking for TV and cable properties that are still relevant, and that will resonate with our large base of fans, and REAPER fits that criteria perfectly,” said Shannon. “Many REAPER viewers feel the show left too early, so we hope that they will enjoy our plans for the series and our REAPER Reunion special.”

The quirky series focuses on the life of Sam Oliver (Harrison), a college drop-out who, on his 21st birthday, learns that he now must work as a bounty hunter for the Devil (Wise), as part of a deal made many years ago when Sam’s parents offered up their firstborn son in exchange for good health for the ailing father. Tyler Labine (TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL) and Rick Gonzalez (COACH CARTER) play Sam’s slacker friends who help him in his new secret double-life of ‘reaping’ souls, using a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner as well as other modern household items.

Often noted by TV fan websites as a series that was cancelled too soon, REAPER continues to enjoy a thriving community of devoted viewers who have rallied for the series to come back in syndication since its last network broadcast.

REAPER is a production of ABC Studios and the Mark Gordon Company. The series was executive produced by Michelle Fazekas (ED, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT), Tara Butters (ED, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT), Mark Gordon (GREY’s ANATOMY, CRIMINAL MINDS), Deb Spera (CRIMINAL MINDS,) Tom Spezialy (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) and iconic filmmaker Kevin Smith (CLERKS, JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK), who also directed the pilot.

Bates Motel Episode 104
“Trust Me”
Written By: Kerry Ehrin
Directed By: Johan Renck
Original Airdate: 8 April 2013

In This Episode...

Let’s back up a little bit. Last week, we saw Norman snooping around Shelby’s house when the deputy comes home. This week, we see Norman leaving his home - and Dylan follows. Norman is so lost in his fugue state that he has no idea. When he sees Shelby come home, he knocks at the door, claiming is bike is out of gas and is looking for the nearest station. Shelby looks annoyed. Dylan can’t distract him long, but it is enough for Norman to get out of the house. Dylan is waiting for Norman when he gets home. Norman says he was out for a run; Dylan confronts him. He promises he won’t tell mom.

The next day, Norma and Shelby meet for a clandestine romp. They end up back at the motel and go at it like crazy. When Norma leaves she finds Dylan sitting right outside, having a smoke. He taunts her lightly about her afternoon delight - until Shelby comes out and Dylan recognizes him. Dylan is instantly wary.

Bradley’s dad died, so Norman picks up some movies from the video store (how quaint) to take her mind off things. On the way, he sees Shelby pulling someone over. Norman picks up the pace, but Shelby sees him and despite Norman’s best efforts, he catches up. There is something both sincere and sinister in the way that Shelby tells Norman that he wants to be part of his life; that he wants to take care of him and his mother. He wants to take Norman fishing. Norman is spooked by this encounter and rushes home to tell Mother everything: the journal he found, breaking into Shelby’s house to get Keith’s belt back on her command, and the woman he found in the basement. Norma hugs him and explains that this was all in his head - and it wasn’t the first time. Norman gets frustrated and storms out. That night, Norma stays at Shelby’s house. Unable to sleep, she steals away into the basement - and finds nothing out of the ordinary. Damp boxes, old sporting equipment, a washer and dryer set - no evidence that anything untoward went on down there.

Norma makes Norman go on the fishing trip with Shelby. The trip is cut short when he gets called in to work. Shelby arrives on the docks and Romero shows him what turned up in a fisherman’s net: Keith’s severed hand, his signature “ugly” watch still attached. With the rest of the morning ahead of him, Norman meets Bradley for ice cream. She tells him about “some hand” that they found, which sends Norman scurrying home to Mother in a complete panic. She does her best to calm him down, but is interrupted by Shelby at the door. Romero wants her to go to the station to answer some questions. Norma maintains her innocence, even after Romero tells her they found carpet fibers in Keith’s watch that they can match to the motel’s carpet. Can match - they do not have a sample. Norma plays dumb and says she doesn’t remember where she dumped it.

Naturally, the moment she gets home she grabs Norman and takes him dumpster diving. The dumpster has been emptied, so they head directly to the dump. It is locked up tight, and Norma loses her mind. She tries to climb the chain link fence but is thwarted by barbed wire. She screams and shakes the gate like King Kong throwing a tantrum. Norman talks her down and tries once again to get Mother to turn herself in. She tells him she “killed the crap” out of Keith, that it went past self defense and was flat-out rage. (It would still fall under self-defense, but whatever; this isn’t a procedural.)

Mother and son go home. Norma goes to her room and cries herself to sleep. Norman is pained listening to her, and goes for a walk. He tries to ignore Dylan, again sitting outside the motel, smoking and drinking, but Dylan is hurt, so Norman sits with him. Dylan wants to forge a relationship with his brother, and apologizes for leaving Norman alone with “the crazy woman.” In a rush of anxiety and emotions, Norman tells Dylan everything. Norma’s attack, Keith’s murder, the guilt he feels over not being there to help, Keith’s belt that he believes Shelby is using to control Mother, even the woman in the basement. Dylan promises to protect Norman. When he sees a text from Bradley, he encourages Norman to respond, to go over there, to “be a teenager,” and to get laid. Norman is both embarrassed and emboldened and heads out. He arrives at Bradley’s house, shy and nervous. They end up having sex in her bed.

Norma wakes up and immediately goes looking for Norman. He isn’t there, but Dylan is. “I hope to god he is getting laid. He deserves it for putting up with you.” He then tells her that Norman told him everything - enough for the authorities to take Norman away from her. Norma flips out and slaps Dylan. The two fight, with Dylan pinning his mother against the wall until she calms down. Another doorbell, another interruption between mother and son. Romero is there to arrest Norma for Keith’s murder.

Dig It or Bury It?

Tonight’s episode really focused on the familial tensions in the Bates clan. It is nice to see Dylan and Norman starting to interact like brothers. It really highlights the psychological hold that Norma has over Norman. I am interested in finding out more of what happened between Norma and Dylan. I have to imagine that she didn’t try to pull the same crap on Dylan when he was a teenager; I think she was just neglectful. But there has to be something else. There also has to be a reason that Dylan doesn’t have a relationship with his father at all.

So they are establishing Norman as seeing things. I am leaning towards the girl in the basement being real, but it is certainly clear that he enters into regular fugue states. Something doesn’t sit right with me about his relationship with Bradley. I’ve always maintained that there was something wrong there because she should be the mean girl, yet she is the nicest “mean girl” ever. But the sex scene between Norman and Bradley was weird. It was under covers, but looked like it was underwater, and in general had a weird, overly-earnest tone that just didn’t sit right with me. Is Bradley - or his relationship with Bradley - all in his mind.

Prophecies?

Even though she is charged with murder, Norma maintains her innocence. She blames Dylan for turning Norman against her.

The Following Episode 112
“The Curse”
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Directed By: David Von Ancken
Original Airdate: 8 April 2013

In This Episode...

Agents from every law enforcement agency in the country have descended on the armory to dig through every bit of evidence. There are all sorts of files and training videos, and while everyone is identified by an alias, the FBI is able to link several people on the tapes to a militia group known as Freedom 13, led by a violent separatist named Daniel Monroe who is on the FBI’s most wanted list for dealing arms on the black market. The parents of one of the identified militia men, Bryan Fowler, have a property nearby - Ryan, Debra, Mike (who is back on duty but still has major bruising) and some backup go to check it out.

The Fowler house is rundown, practically a crash pad, and loaded with security cameras, alarms, and laser tripwires. Ryan is attacked by Bryan, who is then taken down by Mike and chained to a radiator. A noise from deeper in the house sends Ryan into the basement, where he comes barrel-to-barrel with Daniel Monroe. Monroe has no choice but to drop his weapon when Mike comes up from behind. Monroe is surprisingly helpful for a militant. He promises he has no connection to Joe, other than supplying him with the armory and some of his militia. Monroe wants “nothing to do with Joe and his house of psychos.” This piques Ryan’s interest, but an alarm goes off so he goes to see who else has joined the party while Mike babysits Monroe.

Joe is frustrated. He has writer’s block and Claire tried to escape with Joey (she was caught and put into an ankle bracelet with a 50 yard radius.) He called Ryan earlier in the day in the hopes of alleviating his writer’s block but Ryan wasn’t interested in playing along. On top of that, Vince has to tell Joe that the authorities discovered the armory. While he is adamant that the armory can’t be connected to the house, he is worried that the armory can - and will - be connected to Monroe, who knows about the compound. Joe sends his flying monkeys to deal with the potential fallout.

Cell jammers prevent Debra from making a phone call inside the Fowler house. She leaves Bryan for a few minutes but doesn’t even leave the house when she hears something. Turning back, Bryan’s throat is slit and Jacob knocks her unconscious. Ryan responds to the alarm and finds Vince sneaking about with a gun drawn. Ryan gives him one warning then shoots him dead. He goes back to where he left Mike and Monroe, only to find Monroe dead and Mike missing. In fact Mike is in another room, behind glass and a bolted door. He is tied to a chair and Joe has a knife to his throat. What follows is supposed to be a tense psychological stand-off, but it falls flat. Joe laments his writer’s block and tells Ryan that he needs to know about his father’s murder. Ryan gives in and tells Joe about his father’s death. They both realize that they are fueled by the same thing - death - but in very different ways. Jacob interrupts, holding Debra like a human shield. He makes Ryan kick his gun to him. Joe thanks Ryan for his help with his novel, and the two men leave. Ryan tries to follow, but they are gone before he can leave the house.

As the authorities descend on the Fowler home, and Mike is taken back to the hospital for a quick checkup, Debra introduces Ryan to the local sheriff who has volunteered his men. The sheriff is, of course, Roderick.

While Joe is busy toying with Ryan, Claire and Joey are playing in Joe’s study. Claire sends Joey to be the lookout while she checks out Joe’s computer. The internet is on strict lockdown, but she does open up Joe’s book. Emma interrupts. She is there to make nice with Claire; Claire wants nothing to do with her and is offended that she considers herself to be part of Claire’s family. Claire slaps Emma; Emma returns the favor. The two start fighting in the hallway. It is far more brutal than a catfight (and without any of the trademark hair-pulling) and Roderick has to break it up.

When Joe returns home, he brings a couple glasses of wine to Claire in her room. All the while he is talking cheerily about his day, as if they were still married and he wasn’t a sociopath. Claire has had enough of this. She insults his book, saying it is worst than his first and, apparently it lays out his entire plan, because Claire tells him that his plan will never work. Joe is infuriated and stops just short of smacking Claire. Instead, he pulls himself together, goes downstairs, apologizes to Emma for ignoring her, and fucks her on the kitchen counter.

Dig It or Bury It?

There seems to be a lack of forward motion here. FBI finds a clue. Ryan and company investigates said clue. They find some people who might know something - and then die. They are cornered by followers, taunted, beaten up a bit, and then the followers escape with nary a trace. And yet, I am still hooked on this show. 

Flashback to the Future

Ryan recounts the murder of his father. It was 1983.  Ryan was 17 years old. His dad, recently retired, runs into the store, leaving Ryan in the car. He is listening to the radio when gunfire makes him sit up straight. He runs from the car and is confronted by the junkie thief, who puts a gun to his head. Ryan is certain he will die, but instead the junkie runs. Ryan sees his dad on the shop floor, in a pool of blood but still breathing. While others called 911, Ryan held his dad’s hand and watched him die. The junkie was found three days later, dead from an overdose of the drugs that he bought with his stolen cash.

Except that isn’t the whole story; that is what Ryan related to Joe. The true epilogue to the story is that Ryan found that junkie and cooked his heroin for him. With a gun to the junkie’s head, Ryan made him overdose.

Prophecies?

The perimeter closes in on Joe, and the house full of psychopaths starts to unravel. Roderick kidnaps Joey to use him as a bargaining chip.

Being Human Episode 313
“Ruh Roh”
Written By: Anna Fricke
Directed By: Stefan Pleszczynski
Original Airdate: 8 April 2013

In This Episode...

Liam faces off with Josh and Nora. He is not there to kill them; he has made peace with their choice of lifestyle. In fact, Liam sees them as his children, something that offends both of them and causes Nora to admit to killing Brynn. Liam takes them to a warehouse where deformed vampires are piled up. He locks Nora and Josh in the room with them, a single stake to defend themselves with. Josh wants to kill them; Nora wants to find a way out, and is worried about Josh’s new bloodlust. But when one of the new monster vamps attacks Nora, she changes her tune and supports Josh’s decision to set the pile alight.

Back at home, Aidan and Kat are getting frisky. With Kenny still chained up in his bedroom, they have sex on the living room floor. Sally wakes him in the morning - Kenny is awake and in pain. Aidan rushes to him with blood bags and promises that he will figure out how to help cure his hideous deformity. Kenny’s freakout is interrupted by Kat’s freakout. Aidan finds her in Sally’s room, having found her rotting corpse. Aidan desperately tries to explain but Kat won’t hear and she bolts from the house with promises to call the police. After feeding Kenny (and admonishing him against drinking too much) Aidan admits to Sally that he has wanted a family. After surviving the virus, he started to “live” again, indulging on blood and blacking out. He admits to turning people, and that even though he wants peace and humanity, he is still a monster. A bullet strikes him in the head and he keels over, Sally freaks, and Liam reveals himself. Josh and Nora let slip that Aidan had turned Kenny and he is there to kill Aidan’s mutant spawn. He shoots Aidan a few more times (“I know it won’t kill you, but it is just so rewarding!”) then takes him down to the basement. All hell breaks out at this point. Aidan is badly battered; Liam beats everyone he can with a shovel. Sally uses her ghost power to set the wooden handle on fire so Liam can’t stake Kenny. Aidan gets back into the fight, but it just ends up with him being impaled against the wall on a metal rod. Josh and Nora come home and jump into the fight. Nora gets tossed across the room and knocked out; Kenny pounces and feeds; Josh tries to battle Liam; Sally scares Liam backwards enough that Aidan can grab him by the shoulders and impale him on his metal rod. Josh and Aidan pull Kenny off Nora. Aidan knows he has to deal with the Kenny situation - he would have drained Nora if he hadn’t been stopped.

Aidan has a lot of loose ends to tie up. First he goes to Blake and convinces her to compel Kat into forgetting Sally’s corpse. He’s no good at compulsion. It works, and when Kat wakes up, Blake is gone and she only remembers having a great night with Aidan and him going out for coffee to aid her hangover. Next he takes Kenny out into the woods. Kenny knows his death is imminent, but Aidan can’t quite do it. Mirroring what he did with his son 100+ years ago, Aidan tells Kenny - with fury and rage - to run. Kenny does. He later tells Josh that Kenny “never had a chance.” 

The roommates bury Sally’s corpse back in her grave. Nora feels bad that Josh didn’t get the chance to kill Liam, but she also notices a certain acceptance in him. The next night is the full moon. The morning after, Nora wakes in the forest and calls for Josh. She finally finds him - still a werewolf. Aidan goes for a walk - and narrowly misses running into his wife Susanna, getting out of a cab. Sally sits, the whole house to herself, when Donna appears. She is far more powerful a ghost than Sally and can control her. She throws Sally down the stairs, then opens up an enormous sinkhole where she died. Sally claws her way out - then Donna grabs her and drags her in. The hole repairs itself, like it never happened.

Dig It or Bury It?

I was a little concerned with how Being Human would end the season - after all, last week’s episode felt like a pretty solid ending. But this was good, too. Not insane, but solid. I am very, very tired of Sally’s constant tumble between different planes. The zombie story was fun, but she has been to limbo, she has been to whatever was through Donna’s door. Now she is, what, in hell? That could be fun... but something tells me it won’t be that cool. 

Josh still a werewolf come morning is no surprise. They established it pretty well that, since he was scratched by a pureblood, he would have pureblood power. So that means that he can change back and forth at will. Clearly, he just hasn’t learned how to control it yet. 

What intrigues me far more is the fact that Susanna is back in town. Is she really a witch? Did Aidan actually vampirize her? Secrets, evening beatings, corpses in the bedroom... Kat can deal with all of that. But a former wife? Something tells me that will be her limit.

Flashback to the Future

Back in ye olde puritanical times, Isaac accidentally lets it slip that his father is back from the dead. The townsfolk accuse Susanna of witchcraft and kill her in the drowning trial. Aidan sees this. He tells his son to run, and once he is gone, he slaughters the church elders - including the preacher.

Lost Girl Episode 312
“Hail Hale”
Written By: Steve Cochrane
Directed By: Steve Dimarco
Original Airdate: 8 April 2013

In This Episode...

It is time for Hale’s inauguration. The shit hits the fan and everything is a blur. Ready?

A bartender doses Dyson’s drink. Paramedics come for him, but it turns out they are humans and abscond with Dyson before Bo can stop them. The bartender chooses a dose of poison for himself rather than spilling his secrets. The vials of poison came from Lauren, so Bo starts her search at Lauren’s house. She finds Tamsin crashing there, and fall-down drunk. She agrees to pull herself together to help Bo. While Tamsin is picking the lock on a car boot, Bo finds photos of herself and a vial in Tamsin’s truck. She sends a picture to Kenzi. A douchey fae named Massimo tells Kenzi he can tell her what that stuff is, but the cost is a kiss. Kenzi agrees, and Massimo tells her someone is trying to capture Bo in that bottle to make her into a slave. 

Bo and Tamsin easily find a massive compound where Dyson has been taken. The girls don’t make it inside. A guard shoots; Tamsin takes the bullet for Bo. While Bo tries to patch up Tamsin, her phone rings. It is Massimo telling “blondie” that he obtained the best friend’s kiss and the potion is ready to go. Inside the compound, Dyson is put in a cage and a big, beefy man is brought to the cage. The two men fight to the death. Dyson wins.

Lauren is finding success at Isaac’s lab, but she starts to get suspicious when Isaac hints at wanting to find a way to turn bad people good. She sneaks into a secure room using a stolen key card and is shocked to find a bloody Dyson in one of the glass cages. Isaac appears and admits that he is trying to figure out a way to harness the fae lifestyle for his own gain. He then locks Lauren into a glass cage next to Dyson.

Hale has invited the Morrigan to his inauguration in the hopes that they can forge an alliance. The Morrigan blames Hale for letting his humans run amok and calls in the dark to vote against Hale’s leadership. The vote passes, and somehow this means the Morrigan can declare all humans enemies of the state. Kenzi is still at the Dahl, so Hale has no choice but to arrest Kenzi. In doing so, he kisses her and slips a trinket into her pocket.

Also: Hale admits he has feelings for Kenzi, and Trick is kidnapped.

Dig It or Bury It?

Um, what the fuck happened here? I get it; it’s a two-parter. But there was so much going on and everyone was so angry it made my head spin a bit. Hale is going Ash-zilla; he finally admits his love for Kenzi; Morrigan is suddenly able to lead a takeover of the light; Lauren got herself mixed up in some sort of nasty anti-fae nonsense; and I don’t know what is going on with Tamsin. It was like so much happened tonight, yet nothing happened. Is it just because there was so much crap jammed in here?

Prophecies?

Things come to a head when the Morrigan ignites the flames of war between the light and the dark.

What’s going on with Summit’s Exorcism Diaries? The script for the film, which was originally penned by Jay Baruchel and Jesse Chabot, has a new writer attached: Barbara Marshall. Marshall got her first break after writing 2012’s Black List script Peste.

While the plot of The Exorcism Diaries is being kept under wraps, we do know that the film is inspired by the book The Real Story Behind The Exorcist by Mark Opsasnick.

The original pitch, via HeatVision, goes a little something like this:

“[The story] centers on a reporter searching for the truth behind the most famous exorcism in history, but soon discovers that the real-life story is not quite finished. As a result, she finds herself in harm’s way of the same supernatural entity that she is chasing.”

Exorcism Diaries is being produced by Roy Lee, Sonny Mallhi and Doug Davison.

via Deadline

As far as I can tell Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown has something to do with a breakdancing skeleton, creeper-sporting burlesque dancer Sheri Moon, a sword-wielding gypsie, and a Chihuahua wrapped in an American flag. In short, it’s very Rob Zombie.

Watch the video for the first single off Zombie’s new album:
 

Universal’s Dracula Year Zero, now entitled plain old Dracula, has found its Prince of Darkness. Luke Evans of The Raven, Immortals, the next installment of The Hobbit, and yes, Fast & Furious 6 fame has been tapped for the lead role in this origin story.

Gary Shore, who replaced Alex Proyas as director, will make his debut on the film, which is set to shoot later this year.

According to THR, “The script tells of a young prince who, when the lives of his wife and child are put in danger by a bloodthirsty sultan, risks his soul to save them, and in the process becomes the first vampire.”

via THR

Stephen King’s introduction to Robin Furth’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance, says it all:

…her concordance was never meant to be published … but … I was aware of how good it was, how interesting and readable it was … [and] how valuable it might be to the Constant Reader.”  

When the original volumes of the Concordance were released, in conjunction with the final three books of the Dark Tower sequence, they indeed proved interesting and readable and perhaps necessary.  Initially intended for Stephen King’s private use, the Concordance provided a guide for those working to untangle the sometimes intricate web of Roland Deschain’s journey and history, something that laid out in plain terms what happened, who it happened to, and when.  

King’s somewhat surprising publication of an eighth book in the Dark Tower series – 2012’s The Wind Through the Keyhole– necessitated changes – and here we arrive at Furth’s enhanced Concordance: Revised and Updated.  Furth wisely retains the texts of her original books, including her original forewords and Stephen King’s illuminating introduction.  Those who missed out on the original Concordance volumes are in for a treat here; the sheer breadth and depth of information is staggering.  Furth takes an encyclopedic view of Roland’s (and our) universe, referencing and cross-referencing the people, places, and things in Mid-World without ever bogging herself down in dry description or blandness.  With a researcher’s eye, she catalogues everything from dialects and diseases to Mid-World moons and Gilead Fair-Days.  A fascinating map at the back of the book describes Roland’s weird, backtracking journey through The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three, and a terrific old-school illustration of the Beams, the Turtle, and the Rose is so forcibly Tolkienian that one can almost hear classic Led Zeppelin pouring from the page.

The advent of the new Dark Tower midquel meant a number of exciting changes.  An all-new essay on Keyhole proves that Furth is as good a writer as she is a cataloguer.  She not only reveals Keyhole’s original title, but also an early subtitle and a sweet epigraph King intended for inclusion.  Perhaps more importantly, references from the new novel are woven throughout the Concordance text, fitting neatly into older sections like jigsaw pieces you didn’t know were missing.  Some new readers’ group questions spotlight Keyhole, and a new illustration – Sherriff Peavy’s hand-sketched map of Debaria – rounds out the Mid-World cartography nicely.

Now is a good time to be a Dark Tower fan.  Almost since Stephen King has been publishing novels, there have been books written about those novels, and the Dark Tower books are no exception.  Hot on the heels of Bev Vincent’s fantastic Dark Tower Companion, Furth’s Concordance finds new ways of looking at and thinking about Roland’s world; it has the feel of a living text, one that can be constantly updated and molded whenever King releases a new Dark Tower book.  And its beginnings cannot be overlooked.  This was a book intended for Stephen King himself, and became a book for his readers.  In short, the Concordance started life as a guide, and somewhere along the line, it became a vision.  

A limited edition of Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance (Revised & Updated) will be released by Cemetery Dance in 2013, signed by Robin Furth and featuring new cover artwork by Michael Whelan.  This edition is limited to only 1,000 copies.

Kevin Quigley is an author whose website, CharnelHouseSK.com, is one of the leading online sources for Stephen King news, reviews, and information.  He has written several books on Stephen King for Cemetery Dance Publications, including Chart of Darkness, Blood In Your Ears, and Stephen King Limited, and co-wrote the upcoming Stephen King Illustrated Movie Trivia Book. His first novel, I’m On Fire, is forthcoming.

Show your love for all-things undead with this George Romero tribute t-shirt.

Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead are all represented in condensed form. Available in men's, women's and pin form that's perfect for your sleeveless black jean vest.
 

$20.00 on etsy.com

On March 29th, the city of Da Nang in Vietnam brought a fire-breathing dragon into their country. No, really. It is a 1,864-foot-long steel bridge that looks like a dragon. The bridge commemorates the 38th anniversary of the capture of Da Nang by the North Vietnamese in the final days of the Vietnam War. I'm not really sure how that relates to a dragon. The bridge lights up at night with 2,500 LED lights and on "special occasions" can breathe plumes of fire or jets of water from its mouth. I don't know what counts as a "special occasion" but if I were in charge, it would be any day that I wake up and can get out of bed. Construction on the bridge began in July 2009, cost the equivallent of about $89 million, and, ironically, was designed by American architectural firm Louis Berger Group.

District 9’s Neill Blomkamp is mixing social commentary and futuristic action once again in his upcoming sci-fi film Elysium. Starring Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon, and Jodie Foster, it's “a tale about a future world where two classes of people exist: ones who live on a luxurious space station and ones who live on a ruined, overcrowded Earth. One man (Damon) takes on a mission to bring equality to the worlds.”

For all you nerds out there, Elysium is the Greek interpretation of heaven, or a state of perfect bliss, and that’s where Damon wants to go. Watch the trailer below.

Before there was The Evil Dead, there was Sam Raimi’s short film Within the Woods.

Made on a shoestring budget and filmed on Super 8, 1979’s Within the Woods stars a very young Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Raimi's story revolves around a group of friends who head to a cabin in the woods to enjoy some sun and fun, only to be tormented by demonic forces. Sound familiar?

According to Geeks of Doom, the film was screened before midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Detroit and only made $11.40, but received some positive reviews prompting the trio of Raimi, Campbell, and producer Robert Tapert to use the short to shop around the idea for their full-length film. They eventually drummed up enough support to finance a production that would unleash the Deadites on an unsuspecting and eternally grateful audience. Watch the 30 minute short here, it’s not the best quality but provides a fun look at Raimi’s early inspiration for The Evil Dead.
 

Charles Band, horror filmmaker and original head of Wizard Video back in its heyday, has been re-releasing some pretty cool big box titles and cashing in on horror fans’ nostalgia for the chunky and clunky VHS tapes of the '80s.

Band claims to have found a stash of unused big boxes, and is now offering the original big boxes with new copies of remastered movies on VHS. Or so he says. Collectors are not convinced and one is calling Band a fraud. Find out what he has to say:
 

Now that you’ve watched VHScollector.com’s argument against the authenticity of these collectible boxes, hear Band’s response via a phone call to Fangoria.
 

Guess who is up to his old, wicked, cannibalistic ways? Dr. Hannibal Lecter, that’s who. The renowned  psychiatrist and connoisseur of flesh is back in Hannibal, a TV series that serves as an introduction to the character before he is exposed as a cold-blooded killer. Casino Royale’s Mads Mikkelsen stars as the charmingly lethal Lecter while King Arthur’s Hugh Dancy plays Will Graham, a troubled FBI profiler who has a working relationship with him. Executive producers Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls), Martha De Laurentiis (Hannibal, Red Dragon) and David Slade (Hard Candy), who also directed the pilot, were on hand at a recent Toronto press screening to discuss the Hannibal legacy and getting the project off the ground.   

There seems to be a trend in the movie business of tackling material that has a built-in audience. Was that something that was taken into consideration when creating Hannibal?

Bryan Fuller: I think the idea of empathy with the serial killer…what we are seeing with Hannibal Lecter as a serial killer is that he’s a total work of fiction. Serial killers don’t function and have the kind of appreciation for life that Hannibal Lecter does. He’s uncategorizable as a crazy person, which makes him the perfect foil for Will Graham. Hannibal is so unique in his crazy, and Will Graham is so unique in his crazy, that both of these guys need each other to understand themselves. The empathy of their relationship really goes beyond what they do as people, one of them being a serial killer and one of them hunting serial killers. You take all of that away and you see them as human beings who just want to connect, which is really what the second episode is about. Each of our episodes has a metaphor that is about the Hannibal/Will Graham relationship.

Can you talk about developing this project initially?

Martha De Laurentiis: Obviously, with it being an established film franchise, that I was very fortunate to have been a partner with my husband Dino in doing, the character Hannibal Lecter is synonymous as being the #1 villain of all time. And to do a television series could be very tricky. Obviously, it didn’t need to be done, unless it was done well. That’s when I made the partnership with Gaumont Television and the fateful plane ride with Bryan. Him coming together with the idea, exactly as I could see it, right before the book Red Dragon took off in the film world… But a lot of what Bryan and his great writing team have taken is a lot of inspiration from the book Red Dragon and the other books. There are so many homages to Thomas Harris’ writing, which is just so cool.

For many people around the world, Anthony Hopkins is the face of Hannibal Lecter. What do you feel Mads Mikkelsen is going to add to this saga?

David Slade: A terrifying subtlety. As episodes go on, you’re going to start seeing the way a person can command other people, by doing practically nothing, and still terrifying the shit out of you. He is the most astonishingly subtle performer, with the most incredibly keen sense of what his face can do, and how his words can form. Mads has a mission and nothing is by chance. He prepares everything. There’s a moment in the third episode where the scene suddenly becomes terrifying, for reasons that wouldn’t be normally terrifying. It’s Mads who is doing that. I truly believe as long as we have success in the seasons, that Mads will become the defining face of Hannibal Lecter.

Will the series appeal to viewers who aren’t familiar with Hannibal Lecter?

Fuller: I hope so. I want people who are hardcore Thomas Harris fans, who have read the books, to love the series. I want people who have seen the movies, and loved the character from the movie, to love the series. And I want people who have never even heard of it, and don’t understand the concept of cannibalism, to love the series. I want it to be an introduction to the character in a way that is our view of telling this story. Regardless if you’ve heard any of the stories, we’re telling a new chapter that hasn’t been told.

What can those tuning in expect on a weekly basis and what kind of mythology are you building?

Fuller: The arc for the season is taking those few pages from Red Dragon, where there is a couple of scenes in the book, and Will is describing the incidents that happen. What he tells us is there was a serial killer in Minnesota, called the Minnesota Shrike. He was killing a series of young women and in Will’s pursuit and capture of that serial killer, he was so damaged psychologically from going into that dark space, that he began to unravel and see doctors and was institutionalized. For me, that was enough to arc out 13 episodes of a story for the first season. Then, what would happen after that if all these relationships were skewed towards this new version where Hannibal actually knew Will Graham and they do have a relationship? It was really about staying true to the canon of Thomas Harris and what he told us happened, but then taking those three pages and turning them into 13 episodes.

Does every episode feature a serial killer?

Fuller: Most episodes have serial killers. There are a couple that don’t, but there’s always an investigation. One of the reasons I love episode three so much is that the traditional serial killer of the week is dispensed in favor of the overarching story of the season and the soap opera of, “What is Hannibal doing? What is Will Graham doing?” Abigail Hobbs [Kacey Rohl] becomes such a presence in this show and you only get to see her in a coma in episode two after getting her throat cut by her father in the first episode.

What are your thoughts on showing violence on the screen?

Fuller: The rule is to push the envelope until it pushes back. We’ve gotten pushed back on things, that [the network] was like, “Okay, you can’t do that. That’s too far.” Generally, if it’s a tableau, we get away with a lot. But if it’s the action of something, that’s where the network kind of pulls us back. I’m hoping, and Gaumont would be foolish not to do this, but there should be a not-suitable-for-broadcast version. You will wet yourself. There’s stuff we can’t show on network television, but we filmed it all. That’s for the Blu-ray.

Can you give an example?

Fuller: There’s one episode we go into Will’s headspace. To address the violence issue of the show, one of the things we all talked about in terms of crime procedurals and the desensitization of murders, was on this show, we were going to see the repercussions on Will Graham being exposed to this and how it breaks him down steadily. In one of the episodes, he [presumably Hannibal] kills somebody pretty violently. He grabs the woman he is killing, gouges out her eyeballs and we see a big spray of blood. We see it, but you won’t see it on television, unless you get the non-suitable-for-broadcast DVD.

Why do you want to, or need to, push the envelope so far?

Fuller: For me, it is about honoring the genre, first and foremost. This is elegant horror. As horror is my first love, we have to acknowledge what genre we are in, so we have to give that portion of the audience what they want. I consider myself that portion of the audience. I like when the zombies’ heads explode on The Walking Dead. I’ll be sitting with my partner, who cringes and wants to not see that, but I’m like, “Wow! They just blew that zombie’s head off.” It is love.

Australian artist DrFaustusAU has taken the classic Dr. Seuss style and mixed in some classic horror, resulting in a frightfully faithful way to introduce your kids to scary stuff.

What started as imaginary covers soon turned into full-blown retellings of classic H.P. Lovecraft tales "for beginning readers," including The Call of Cthulhu, The Tomb, and Dagon (this one is done in the style of Tin Tin). These are fully illustrated, full-length retellings of the classic tales.

Besides stories, DrFaustusAU also blends decidedly more adult pop culture references into a Seussical soup. My favorites include his versions of Evil Dead and Silent Hill.

In news that will surprise no one, Yvonne Strahovski has officially signed on to return to Dexter for its eighth and final season.

Strahovski will reprise her role of Hannah McKay, the serial poisoner who Dexter fell in love with. Can a relationship between two serial killers stand the test of time? Not when one of them tries to poison the other's sister. When we last saw Hannah, she was in prison for murdering her would-be biographer, a kill that Dexter had initially helped cover up when the relationship was still new; after Hannah tried to kill Dexter's sister Debra, all bets were off. Dexter always "knew it would end this way: one of us in prison or dead." Hannah just thought it would be Dexter. I have to imagine that she intends to fulfil her vision of that prophecy, for Hannah faked a seizure and broke out of custody to leave a warning orchid on Dexter's door.

The eighth season of Dexter begins June 30th on Showtime.

Source: EW

Holliston star Dee Snider's son, Cody Blue Snider, has a darkly comedic short that is debuting in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. Titled "Fool's Day," a group of fourth graders plan a prank on their teacher that causes her sudden, accidental, and very bloody death. Fearing jail time, the kids race against the clock to hide the body and cover up the crime before their D.A.R.E officer arrives.

"Fool's Day" will screen multiple times during the Tribeca Film Festival - check out the details here.

Dee Snider returns - and Cody has a guest appearance - in the second season of Holliston, which premieres June 4th, only on FEARnet.