WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE SHOW, DO NOT READ THAT SECTION!
Dexter - "Do the Wrong Thing" (aired 11/4/12)
With mobster Isaak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) behind bars, Dexter focuses his homicidal tendencies on Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski), the pretty gardener Dexter suspects has killed at least three people. While the two of them flirt, we the viewers are left wondering what Dexter's true intentions are here. By the way, did anyone else laugh at Dexter's awkward pick-up skills? Like the way he grunted, "Go out with meee!!" at Hannah?
Meanwhile, a crime writer (Santiago Cabrera) shows up hunting dirt on Hannah, and makes moves on Deb instead. Quinn, being his usual dumb self, removes the blood evidence against Sirko to help his stripper girlfriend. In other news, Batista makes plans to retire and LaGuerta gets closer to identifying the real Bay Harbor Butcher.
But the only scene anyone will remember from this episode is the final one. Dexter takes Hannah on a "date" to a closed amusement park to fulfill her wish of seeing "snow." Inside the empty carnival, he gives Hannah one final glimpse at winter wonderland before she gets the needle in her neck. When she wakes up to a knife at her throat, Hannah simply responds, "Do what you gotta do." He raises the knife, but instead of plunging it into her chest, he slashes her plastic restraints. Then, naturally, the two serial killers get hot and heavy on the kill table.
The last scene is sure to draw criticism for "jumping the shark." Frankly, Dexter and sex have always been an odd mixture for me. He always claimed to feel inhuman and asexual but Lila threw that out the window in season 2. So I guess if he's gonna bone somebody, why not a fellow serial killer? It sure makes more sense than Rita or Lumen. Corny as the scene may seem, it's actually quite befitting of this show. It was only a matter of time before Dexter's intimate kill room became the scene of some naughty coupling. He feels way more at home here than any bed. And let's face it, the scene is hot. Did you really think they'd hire Yvonne Strahovski and NOT have a sex scene somewhere?
I'm really curious to see where they take this. Will he kill her anyway? Or protect her from the police and the crime writer? Will she try to kill him? Are they destined to be nemeses? Or partners? I was very against the idea of another love interest at first, but I am coming around to the idea now. We've seen Dexter fall for a sociopath, a housewife, a victim, and now a fellow killer. The show-runners sure are keeping things interesting.
The Walking Dead - "The Killer Within" (aired 11/4/12)
The fourth episode of the third season splits screen-time between Rick's group and Woodbury. While Merle gathers information about the whereabouts of his brother, Michonne glares at everyone with mistrust, and Andrea flirts her ass off with the Governor, the survivors in the prison are in DEEP shit. Andrew, the dude Rick left in the prison courtyard to be eaten, seeks his revenge by opening the gates and turning on the prison alarms, effectively ringing the dinner bell for every walker in the area. In the chaos, the survivors are split up and Lori's baby decides it is time to come out.
Sarah Wayne Callies said Lori always considered her pregnancy a death sentence. Well, she was right, much to the simultaneous joy and sadness of viewers everywhere. Most people wanted to see Lori die, but nobody really wanted THIS. When the baby is stuck, Lori says her child MUST live and instructs Maggie to cut it out of her. Lori's tearful goodbye to Carl is brutally sad, as is her final "Goodnight, love", presumably said for Rick. Watching the life go out of Lori as Maggie guts her, and watching Carl's screams - it's pretty fucking horrific, I gotta say. Finally, the baby lives, but there is the issue of Mom, who will eventually turn walker. Carl volunteers, and puts a bullet in her head. I was a little disappointed Lori didn't go out the way of the book, and what the hell are they gonna do with a baby now?!
I do love where they have taken Carl this season. In the comic books, he became a badass much faster, and so I always felt defensive when viewers would hate on him just for being a stupid little kid. But now there is no denying he is grown up and ready to do what must be done. He is his father, and perhaps destined to be even greater.
What follows is even more heart-ripping, when Rick, looking for his wife, hears the sound of a baby crying. The look on his face when he turns made my heart/stomach SINK. He completely breaks down at the realization that she is gone. Andrew Lincoln is perfection in this scene. My favorite part of the moment is when Rick turns to Carl with a look of complete vulnerability, as if seeking an answer, but Carl just looks on coldly. Never before have we seen Rick SO helpless and childlike, while his son is now the strong one. This very much echoes later events in the comic books when Rick loses his shit and Carl must care for him.
So then there is the other big death this episode. T-Dog gets bitten in the chaos, and ultimately sacrifices himself to a hoard of walkers in order to save Carol. How awesome was that throat ripping he got? God I love KNB FX! Anyway, I always found T-Dog kind of worthless, but I am glad they gave him such a heroic send-off. He deserved as much.Of course, in practically the next scene he gets replaced with another token black guy when Oscar kills Andrew and gets to join the survivors!
This episode has been hyped as "the most heart-wrenching, talked-about episode yet." While it certainly packs a wallop, I think it lacks the gut-ripping intensity of "Pretty Much Dead Already" (Sophia in the barn) or "Judge, Jury, Executioner" (Dale's death). Still, this latest episode kills off TWO major characters from the original group of survivors. Granted, they are the two characters most widely hated/mocked by the Internet, but their goodbyes are nevertheless devastating. I suspect the writers were deliberately trying to make all the haters feel guilty for ever speaking an ill word of these two.
The title of course has double (possibly triple) meaning, referring to both the baby that kills Lori, and to Andrew, the disgruntled prisoner who sabotages the survivors from the inside. I say triple because the Governor could be thrown in there. I am so eager to watch this character unfold into madness like the comic books! Can you believe this is only episode FOUR?! Robert Kirkman and the producers promise it will only get more intense from here. Yikes.
American Horror Story: Asylum - "I Am Anne Frank Pt. 1" (aired 11/7/12)
While this episode and the one preceding it ("Nor'easter") were not nearly as strong as the first two episodes, Asylum is still very much an improvement upon the haunted-house-based first season of American Horror Story. My biggest complaint with the last two episode is the terribly obnoxious directing. The show occasionally reverts back to that camera-jumping and light-flashing that marred the first season. This season is nailing the disturbing part - keep that up! You don't need distorted camerawork and screaming piano chords to be scary, you're already doing it!
So the writers finally put an end to Adam Levine (who is apparently as difficult to kill as Jason Voorhees) and his screaming girlfriend. The asylum gets a new inmate who claims to be Anne Frank (played by Franka Potente! Lola!!). Meanwhile Shelly continues to be tortured by the fucked up Dr. Arden, who might be a Nazi scientist. How fucking freaky was that actor they got to play young James Cromwell? In the first shot or two of him, I would have sworn that WAS James! Eerie!
UPDATE: Just found out the actor below was actually John Cromwell - James' son! Well, that makes sense. Still, the resemblance is uncanny!
My other small complaint about the last two episodes - where's all the Joseph Fiennes? Fortunately, this episode rectified that a bit by revealing Monsignor Howard is not such a pious priest after all. Yummy. Can't wait to see where they go with that!
In other news, Kit and Grace bang on a kitchen counter; detectives investigate Dr. Arden; we learn that Grace killed her own family; and Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto) attempts to medicate the gay out of Lana so she can be released. The aversion therapy scenes are pretty fucked up.
And finally the episode wraps with "Anne Frank" shooting the Nazi doctor and finding a seriously deformed Shelly. Creeeepy.
What was your favorite of these shows this week? What are you most looking forward to next?
