...Set: Supernatural 5x12 "Swap Meat"

SPN fans, are you satisfied? After much clamoring for a body swap episode throughout Supernatural's run, tonight's episode finally went there. Although, probably not the way people had wanted. No, Sam and Dean did not swap bodies with each other! Blast! I know, I would've liked to see it too, even just briefly. Oh well, it was a quality episode nonetheless, and personally, I think, one of the better ones of this season. I have a theory about why - most of this season has been kind of a back and forth between stand alone and mytharc episodes, whereas back in season 2 (arguably the best one), things from the mytharc were mixed in to each episode more often. This one did the whole stand alone thing, but then went straight back to the themes of the season by the end, to which I say: bravo! Yay!

So how did this whole body swap thing go down, exactly? While Sam and Dean are working a run of the mill ghost case for a former babysitter of theirs, one Gary Frankel spots them in the diner/eatery place he works and does some intense staring at Sam. Later, Sam gets a tranquilizer dart to the neck and afterward, wakes up in the middle of the woods, eventually figuring out, after being picked up by the cops and taken back to Gary's house that he's, yep, in Gary's body! He tries to get a hold of Dean, but Gary has conveniently gotten rid of all of their cell phones. Which Dean doesn't notice? I guess when "Sam" is there, he doesn't need to check his phone? Moving on!

While Gary has a grand old time playing around as Sam, including asking to drive the Impala, then promptly backing it up into some garbage cans, Sam is trying to figure out who Gary is and how this all happened, while dodging parents and sisters and friends. I really enjoyed the way he was like "leave me alone" and "ugh, I'm coming!" when the parents were calling for him. Ha, sounded just like those troublesome teens do. Actually, Jared Padalecki did a great job throughout the episode. And he thinks he's not good at being funny! Silly. Anyway, it turns out Gary's been working some very dark magics. But before Sam can go find him and Dean, he gets sidelined by Gary's friends, Nora (guest star Sarah Drew! Everwood shout out!) and Trevor. And gets tranqed again!

Gary has, meanwhile, tried to kill Dean while they were getting rid of the ghost, but couldn't go through with it. They go out to a bar to drink and celebrate the vanquishing of the ghost, and this is when Dean finally starts to figure out that he's not really Sam, thanks to his positive attitude, and him going off with the cougar. Took you long enough, Dean! At least he did figure it out, though. It would have been kind of ridiculous if he never did.

But! Nora and the Trev-meister have Sam tied up, and we find out what the dealio is. Turns out, the demons have put a bounty on Dean's head and are sending the word out to all of the witches and Satan worshippers of the world. They plan to kill Dean and get rewarded in return. But, because Gary is having second thoughts about going through with actually killing Dean, Trevor decides they've got to call in some big guns - a demon - despite Sam trying to warn them how stupid they are. And stupid he is, because once the demon takes over Nora, she kills Trevor, of course. Duh! Stupid Trevor.

Things could get very bad, however, because she also figures out that Sam isn't in his body. Which means his meat suit is up for grabs! Uh oh. She goes to find them, right when Dean is confronting Gary about who in the hell he is and what he's done with Sam. After Nora-demon beats on Dean for a while, Gary comes through with some Latinating, with help from Dean, to exorcise her. Is it just me, or has exorcising demons gotten a lot easier than it used to be? In any case, the demon smokes out of there.

Afterward, Gary switches with Sam back to their proper bodies, then whines a bit about his life. Sam tells him to grow a pair before he and Dean take off. And here I will note how much Sam and Dean have changed perspectives over the course of the show. In season 1, Sam was pissed about the way they were raised; that they didn't get to have a normal life. Here, he seemed to be at peace with it and actually kind of happy they didn't have the normal suburban lifestyle. Dean, on the other hand, used to think the way they grew up was awesome and cool, but now realizes they were really missing something. Granted, that's been going on for a while with him, but it's interesting anyway how they've kind of turned 180s on the matter. Something they have not turned 180s on? Their taste in music and food, which was nicely featured in this episode as well.

And now, for a smattering of some of my favorite lines of the night, though there were quite a few...

"I would love to have the sex with you." - Gary, in Sam's body, to the cougar woman, after she has had to be pretty explicit about her sexual intentions

"Oh, you shake it up baby." - Dean, about Sam and his shakeable salad

Sam is looking through Gary's stuff... "Smart kid." Sees a bunch of Star Wars t-shirts. "Virgin." Sees a copy of Busty Asian Beauties. "Frustrated virgin."

"You satanic little bastard." - Sam re: Gary and his witchy ways

"Why shouldn't I be happy? I've got a gun, I'm getting drunk. I look like this." - Gary, in Sam's body of course

"That was a nice thing to say." - Dean, after Sam has told Gary he wishes he had his life

"Totally lied. His life sucked ass." - Sam

Next week looks exciting! The boys travel back in time to stop Anna from killing their parents before they were born!

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x02 "Home Inspected"

In this second episode of Life Unexpected, we find Cate and Baze struggling to get their places ready for a home inspection by Lux's social worker to determine whether they are fit to be her guardians. We also get to meet some of Lux's foster kid friends, who sport interesting names like Bug and Tash (pronounced like "tosh"... short for Natasha, we later hear).

Lux's friends are not so keen about her ditching them for her parents. They had a whole plan about getting emancipated and moving in together. They encourage Lux to ditch them since they had no problem ditching her before and probably will again. Lux defends them at first, then unfortunately hears Cate say on the radio that she doesn't have a kid. Cate was, of course, forced to say that thanks to the producers of her show not wanting to ruin her image or something. I'm not sure people care so much about radio personalities, but maybe I'm wrong.

On top of that, Cate is majorly stressing about the home inspections. She won't be able to live with herself if she doesn't get custody of Lux. Putting a damper on the situation is Baze's inability to act like a grown up. Instead of replacing the batteries in a smoke detector, he hits it with a baseball bat. That sort of thing. He gets a wake up call thanks to both Cate calling him out on subconsciously sabotaging the whole thing and his friend, Math is what imdb is telling me his name is, telling him he's an idiot if he doesn't see he has an amazing daughter.

Cate and Baze finally band together to show the social worker that they've got things together, or at least they're on their way to getting things together. But the social worker informs them that it's out of her hands - Lux requested to go back to the foster home!

This time, it's Ryan to save the day. He encounters Lux packing up to leave and tells her how much Cate is trying, and also shows her the new bedroom they've prepared for her in the attic. How sweet was that bedroom, btw? Any teenager would love to have that kind of private attic space. We also found out how Lux got her name, in our touch of cheese for the evening. A nurse named her Lux because she was blonde but came from two brunette parents, and Lux means light. Oh, double meaning!

While there were certainly many poignant moments in the episode, I think my favorite was when the social worker was telling Cate and Baze they were granted custody, but that Cate was given primary custody, meaning Lux is not allowed to live at Baze's. The look on his face when she said that was so sad. I think I said "awww" out loud.

We also see that Cate decides to go on air and tell the truth - she has a daughter, and she's ready to grow up alongside her. Which we all saw in the preview, so it wasn't exactly a surprise that she'd do that by the end of the episode either.

I skipped over a whole bit of business involving Lux's friends stealing Cate's engagement ring... mostly because it was really obvious who did it, and Tash being so blatantly rude about Lux getting everything they've all most wanted is a little ridiculous. I know it's jealousy and whatnot, but whatever. She was annoying.

Overall this episode wasn't quite as strong as the pilot, but the show is just getting its legs. Next week appears to be a focus on Lux's relationship with her boyfriend, Bug. Bug, huh? Well, I have to say that is a slightly less distracting name than "Jeep", which was the name of a character in that movie Legion I saw a couple days ago. Really. Jeep.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 3x05 "Chuck versus First Class"

This week Chuck goes on his first solo mission, thanks to the new man in charge, Special Agent Shaw (guest star Brandon Routh, who got to wear some glasses and look rather Clark Kent-ish... Was this on purpose?). Sarah and Casey don't think Chuck is up to the challenge, but both Shaw and Chuck assert that he is. The mission, should he choose to accept it, is in Paris. Conveniently, we learn nothing about what it was supposed to be exactly. Because, as it turns out, the mission isn't in Paris, but rather on the plane to Paris! Dun dun dun.

Chuck finds out that this is his true mission once he flashes on a Ring operative on the plane, played by Stone Cold Steve Austin. And, as I don't remember if they gave him a name, I'll just call him SC. Chuck must drug him, get his cargo ticket, and head down to the hold to find a special key hidden in his luggage. He manages to do so, but once he gets down there discovers that the luggage is... a coffin! With a creepy dead old man inside. Chuck's drugging of SC doesn't last long, and he's forced to hide in the coffin with the dead man, which turns out to be the worst place to hide. Thanks to the Intersect and a nicely placed Yale Fencing Team bag, Chuck is able to en guarde SC and take him down.

He heads back up to First Class to flirt some more with Hannah (guest star Kristin Kreuk, who I liked much better here than I ever liked her as Lana in Smallville), the cute girl he just so happened to be seated next to. The flirting does not last long, however, because after taking a sip of a mysterious drink, Chuck realizes he's been poisoned! And though he tied up SC down in the hold, he's free! And on top of all of that, the flight attendant, Serena, turns out to also be a Ring operative! Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Serena and SC take Chuck down to the cargo hold to get back the key while Sarah and Shaw work to take over the plane remotely from Castle. While Sarah does some fancy remote flying of the plane (she's a pilot? Who knew!), Chuck gets the antidote to his poison and is ready to take action with some nunchucks, only to find his would be captors have been taken out by tumbling luggage. Mission: accomplished.

Chuck bids farewell to Hannah after he's told he can't go out and enjoy a Paris day, but gives her his card for if she's ever in Burbank. And guess what? She shows up in Burbank at the end of the episode! Do we think she has a hidden agenda? It always seems to be the case. Is she secretly a Ring operative? Someone else entirely? Hmm.

And on to our subplots. We find out a bit more about Shaw. He had a spy within the Ring who was killed five years ago. Any guesses who that spy was? I think you can guess. Yep, his wife, Eve. But she was able to send him a bunch of information, which is what they needed this key for. Sarah and Shaw also bonded some over their shared experiences of falling in love on the job.

Meanwhile, at the Buy More, Morgan was having his authority tested by Lester and the gang. He recruits Casey to help him get order, and Casey being Casey, he kidnaps Lester and does some kind of Clockwork Orange-y brainwashing on him. Ah, Casey. Gotta love him.

Some noteworthy lines of the night:

"If you gave me five minutes running this popsicle stand, we'd be ready." - Casey
"Ready for what?" - Morgan
"The Russians." - Chuck

"Insurgents. I hate insurgents." - Casey

"Mama?" - Lester, as Casey is about to drug him

The Buy More story this week felt rather superfluous. I think the show works better when they are at least vaguely connected. But it did produce some of my favorite lines of the night, so oh well.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are a go to cookie for virtually any occasion, and I have been trying to hunt down a recipe that knocks my socks off for a while. I'll probably post each time I try a new recipe, because while these ones were good, they weren't great. At least, in my opinion. And what makes a chocolate chip cookie great? I guess it all depends. But personally I prefer them to be moist, soft and chewy. Kind of like when you slightly under bake Otis Spunkmeyer frozen dough. We had those at my high school cafeteria for 4/$1 and I was seriously addicted.

 

Anyway, these particular cookies come from The Best Recipe. They have chewy right in the name of the cookie, so they must be great, right? The only problem I had with these was that they were too big and too flat. Even when I made them smaller than the recipe says to, they still spread a lot. It's because of the melted butter, but I wanted to go by the book on this one. Without further ado...

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (12 tbsp), melted and cooled until just warm
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, followed by chocolate chips.

Drop by (scant) 1/4 cups onto the baking sheet and pat lightly so the cookie is an even thickness, not a ball shape. Cookies will spread as they bake and this ensures a more even spread.

Bake at 325F for 15-17 minutes, until just turning light brown all over. The edges should only be very slightly more brown, if at all, from the rest of the cookie. Allow cookies to cool before removing them from the baking sheet.

Makes 18-24 large cookies.

Here's the butter and sugars. As you can see, the larger amount of brown sugar combined with the melted butter makes it much darker than if you used the Nestle recipe.

After adding in the eggs and vanilla. Very sticky!

Now we've got the flour mixture all mixed in.

And finally, the chocolate chips.

Voila! No photos of the cookie sheets this time. 

I will give these credit in the fact that they stayed chewy for days afterward. In fact, I started to like them more as I had them a couple days after I had baked them. Usually chocolate chip cookies get kind of hard and dry by then, but these stayed nice and chewy. But, I'm still on the lookout for the perfect chocolate chip cookies! If you have a recipe you swear by, let me know!

...Set: Supernatural 5x11 "Sam, Interrupted"

Well, it has certainly been a while since last we saw the Winchesters, hasn't it? And it's nice to have their lovely handsome faces back on our screens! Tonight's episode featured the boys going undercover in a mental hospital to track down a monster of some sort killing the patients. And along with the usual guts and action (and there was certainly some nasty stuff involving a q-tip that made me go "blugh" out loud), we also got some insight into these poor schmucks' psyches.

Dean and Sam were tipped off by an old hunting buddy, Martin (Jon Gries), in the (mental) joint himself after something mysterious happened in Albuquerque to send him over the edge. Which we, incidentally, never find out the whole story about. He didn't really seem all that crazy, more like tired. Which is rather poignant for the boys, particularly once we start delving into some of their issues. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, there have been a bunch of deaths in the hospital made to look like crazy people suicides, but since this is Supernatural, that is clearly not the case. Dean and Sam infiltrate the hospital by basically giving them their true stories: hunt monsters, started the apocalypse, you know, that. Works like a charm. After some rather violating physical entrance exams by one Plucky Nurse (henceforth shall she be named, since I don't remember her given name), they're in.

Their first night in, another patient gets attacked. They head to the morgue to check out his body and discover he's had his brains sucked dry, in a rather gruesome sequence featuring the aforementioned q-tip in the brain and then Sam cutting the top off the guy's head. Luckily we were not subjected to the cutting because, whoa, squick. Dean was squicked too, and waited outside to keep watch. They are, of course, caught at the end of the act, and Dean just pretends to be extra crazy to get out of trouble, yelling "pudding!", pulling down his pants and then, uh, twisting about. Eat your heart out, Plucky Nurse.

At this point they figure out they're hunting down a Wraith, which can be killed by silver, but looks human. Luckily, however, mirrors prove magic once again, because you can see its true form in them. We should keep a tally of how often mirrors show something's true form. 90% of the time, I'd wager. At least things are consistent! Anyway. Dean spots the main Doctor in the mirror looking rather wraith-like, so they hunt him down that night with some silver-plated knives Sam managed to Houdini from who knows where. Sam goes into full attack mode and almost kills the guy before realizing the silver isn't burning him like it would burn a wraith. Some orderlies get him sedated, and he and Dean have a rather hilarious conversation while he's all drugged up. Quotes from that convo at the end of this recap.

Dean heads off to figure out what's going on and that's when he starts to lose his marbles, seeing everyone's faces as the wraiths and starting to talk to himself. Sam, meanwhile, asks the main doctor for forgiveness for trying to kill him, and the doctor basically tells him they'll give him another shot, but he's got some serious rage issues. He was like a man possessed, the doctor says! Home, hit close. Sam heads to find Dean and starts having a hallucination of his own about everyone calling him a freak and it all being his fault the world is ending. The orderlies take him away while Dean watches from a chair, muttering to himself.

Dean is able to pull himself together enough to go talk to Martin again. They figure that crazy is the key. Whatever the wraith is doing, it's making people more crazy, and he and Sam have been infected. He thinks it must have been Kissing Wendy, who, oh right, I forgot to mention her. She randomly kissed both of them earlier on. Details, details. They go to find her but of course, she's now being brain eaten by our Plucky Nurse-Wraith! Yep, it was her all along.

Dean and Martin (ha, Dean Martin), attempt to stick her with one of the silver knives, but she gets away and heads for Sam. She and Sam have a chat about yummy crazy brains and touch more on Sam's inner rage before she goes to eat Sam's lovely brains. Dean enters just in the nick of time to stop her. After some more battling, he kills her dead, and the boys hightail it out of there.

As they're leaving, however, Sam has one of Supernatural's favorite "end of the episode special moments." He confesses that he's angry all the time. He was angry at John and Dean, then Lilith & Ruby and now Lucifer. He has so much rage and he doesn't know what to do with it. Dean, ever helpful with anything remotely involving Sam's feelings, tells him to bottle it back down so they can keep on going. As he puts it, what else can they do? Which is sad, but sort of true. They don't have time for pity parties when the world is ending.

And, I sort of skipped over the stuff with Dean and the fake doctor lady, but I'm going to touch on it here, because it's all very sad. Dean thinks he's talking to a nice young lady doctor assigned to his case, during which he admits to only sleeping 3-4 hours a night, every other night, and estimates that he drinks 50 drinks a week, as he's "gotta sleep sometime." He's never had a long term relationship, and the weight of the world on his shoulders makes it hard to get up in the morning. Even more unsettling is the fact that she turns out to be a figment of his imagination, or probably more like the side of himself he doesn't let surface. Because bottling is what the Winchesters do best, the poor souls.

And now, I shall end this with my favorite lines of the night. Feel free to add yours, along with any other comments, in the... well, the comments. Der.

"No, his name is Castiel. He wears a trench coat." - Sam, correcting the doctor when he thinks the angel is a metaphorical angel on his shoulder

"Dude, you cannot hit that." - Sam, to Dean, after Kissing Wendy does her thing
"So torn." - Dean

"I want him now. He's larger." - Kissing Wendy, about Sam (obviously)

"Oh yeah, they gave me everything. It's spectaculacular." - Drugged up Sam

"You always were a happy drunk." - Dean, about Drugged Sam

"Well come on, you've been at least half crazy for a long time." - Drugged Sam, about how Dean is probably going actual crazy

"It's okay, 'cause you're my brother and I still love you..." Sam then proceeds to "boop" Dean on the... nose? I think it was his nose.

Clearly I liked Drugged Sam. What a hoot.

Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x01 "Pilot"

I had a feeling going into this show that I would like it, and like it I did. Everywhere you look it's been heralded as "Juno meets Gilmore Girls" and while I see the GG comparisons, I'd say it's closer to another much beloved and missed WB show, Everwood, than Juno. It's got that old school WB feel that has been very sadly missing from much of The CW's lineup of late. That earnest family-teen-drama-comedy of yore is back, thank god. I cannot take any more of the stuck up rich kids.

Anyhow, on to the actual plot. Things were pretty basic here, as it generally needs to be in a pilot to get the story going. We get glimpses into the lives of our main characters before things get uprooted. Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby) is a radio personality for station K100 in Portland, Oregon. And, as a side note, I'm from Portland, and I really loved seeing all of the shots of the city, though I know the show itself is shot in Vancouver, BC. I'm not sure if the pilot was actually shot in Portland or not, but in any case, it looks good. Incidentally, there is no K100 in real life, as is to be expected. There is a Z100 and a K103 and 105.1 The Buzz. Okay, I'll spare you from more Portland talk. Anyway, Cate cohosts her talk show with her paramour Ryan Thomas (Kerr Smith), though it seems they keep their relationship strictly off air, though Ryan does want to make Cate his wife.

Nate "Baze" Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha) lives above the bar that he owns, and is a general man-child, as we would expect. He has a couple guy friends who seem to hang around or work at the bar as well, and as I'm not sure what their names are, that will have to wait until some other episode.

Finally, there is Lux (Britt Robertson), the 15, almost 16-year-old, foster child who has had enough of the foster system, and decides to track down her birth parents: Cate and Baze. They are both baffled to see Lux. Baze because he had assumed that Cate had "taken care of it" back in the day, Cate because she thought Lux would've been adopted right away. But, it turns out, little Lux never was adopted because the poor thing was born with a hole in her heart (how metaphorical!) and had to have multiple operations to fix it, thereby passing her easily-adopted window.

Although Lux manages to get Cate and Baze to sign the paper for her emancipation, things don't go as planned at the hearing, with the judge deciding to give custody of Lux over to Cate and Baze, who both showed up for the hearing. Outside the court, though, things turn sour when Cate and Baze start arguing, resulting in Lux deciding she's better off in the foster system than with them, particularly after Cate confesses she never even thought of keeping her when she was born.

That night Cate and Baze catch up on old times, and I have to say I think this was my favorite scene of the episode, particularly when they mention "Two Princes" by the Spin Doctors, then when they engage in that hot, torrid kiss that leads to more sexy times, the song blasted onto the soundtrack. Love it! Especially since that was probably my favorite song back in 1994. It's a fun development that they started early on - the sex, I mean. Particularly since Cate goes back to Ryan and tells him she wants to marry him. Ryan, incidentally, seems very cool with the whole Lux situation at the moment. Will that last? And will he find out about Cate and Baze's night of passion? We have to assume it will come out at some point.

Anyway, the episode ends with Lux getting kicked out of her foster home, and Cate deciding she's going to take her in. The show looks to be a coming-of-age story for both Lux as well as her parents. I don't know about you, but I'm along for the ride.

Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 3x04 "Chuck versus Operation Awesome"

After last week's cliffhanger ending with Sarah whispering in Chuck's ear something about Devon, this week's episode picks right up with the Awesome one tied to a chair on the roof of a building, thanks to Sydney (guest star Angie Harmon), an agent from the already notorious Ring. She thinks that Devon is a CIA spy and wants to recruit him to join the Ring.

Meanwhile, Chuck, Sarah and Casey are all in Castle, where Chuck is predictably freaking out about the whole situation, which turns out to be a theme of the episode - staying calm in the face of danger, and taking charge. Chuck heads off to work to distract himself, and we get a little comedy from the Buy More crew after Chuck yells at a woman in Chinese (I guess it was Chinese??) and then kicks Lester in the face after some inadvertent flashes. Because he was not calm, remember? He can't control it when he's freaking out, people! He can't, and we need to be told that a lot.

Anyway, Devon shows up right after this. Sydney has left him with a communication device that she will be contacting him on soon. Chuck is opposed to the whole idea of using Devon to get to Sydney, but Sarah, Casey and General Beckman basically lay down the law and say the only way to save him is to use him. And what does Sydney want him to do? Go to the Crystal Towers in Downtown LA after putting on a bomberific earpiece and communication wristwatch. Chuck becomes his handler as they go on this mission, which turns out to be something of a set up when they find a CIA base of some kind in the building, where they meet the mysterious (not really, it was kind of obvious it was going to be him) Shaw, by way of guest star Brandon Routh. Who was looking rather nice, wouldn't you say?

Shaw does a little death fake out via a pill and a strategically placed shot to his chest, which convinces Sydney that he's dead. She welcomes Devon to the ring, takes off his earpiece and wristwatch, and leaves. Devon is able to bring Shaw back to life. So who is this Shaw? He's CIA Special Agent Daniel Shaw, and he's been tracking down the Ring for some time. He will now be in charge of any missions having to do with the Ring. And his plan to get Devon out of this spy game is to use him one more time, which Chuck is again opposed to.

Chuck decides to take things into his own hands, using the communication device left behind by Sydney and rewiring it so he can call her directly. He tells her he was the one who killed Shaw and gets her to come to the Buy More, counting on Sarah and Casey to back him up. But Shaw puts the kibosh on Sarah and Casey helping Chuck, leaving him on his own. He attempts to stand up to Sydney's goons, but since he's freaking out, his flashes don't work. Sarah and Casey disobey Shaw and go in to help Chuck, and we get a nice little fight scene with Sarah and Sydney. Sydney manages to escape, but Chuck goes after her.

Chuck tries to reason with Sydney to get her to come quietly, but she tells him he's got to kill her, she won't go with him. Just when she's about to throw a knife at Chuck, Shaw shoots Sydney from behind. He doesn't like guns, but he knows how to use them (don't blame me for that cheesy line, that was almost a direct quote). Devon's identity is contained.

Shaw gives Chuck the what for after Chuck tells him that the most important thing to him is his family and friends, but by the end we see that Shaw has his own secret life when he puts on a wedding ring. What's his story? I'm sure we'll find out.

In other news, Morgan becomes the assistant manager of the Buy More. Lester and Jeff immediately start undermining him, starting up a Fight Club among the Buy More crew, going so far as to electrify the cage fence in the back room (which, incidentally, came in handy for Chuck when he was trying to escape Sydney's goons). Morgan eventually had to lay down the law on Lester, firing him, then re-hiring him after much groveling on Lester's part.

And, in side news, I really loved the song they played during the whole Buy More showdown. Upon a lookup, it appears to be Spoon's "Got Nuffin'."

Up next week is Chuck's first solo mission, featuring more guest stars - Kristin Kreuk and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Molasses Cookies

Oh, molasses cookies. I had my first taste of these over the holidays and got completely addicted. But when I made them today? The horror! They did not turn out the same at all. I think I know why - I used white sugar instead of brown sugar. So what exactly does it mean for the cookies that I used white sugar instead of brown sugar? Basically, they're not nearly so soft and chewy as they should be. Instead, they are crisp. Still taste fine, sure, but they are crisp (and lighter in color). And I don't like my cookies crisp. However, I didn't want to make a whole 'nother batch because these produce quite a few cookies. Oh well, I will pawn them off on people.

Well, at least they look good.

Rather than give you the recipe that I used, I'm going to give you the recipe that I think you should use, should you decide to make these. The recipe also calls for ginger, which I did not have, but I don't think it's strictly necessary. Is it strange that I had cloves, but not ginger? I must've needed cloves for some other recipe, that's the only explanation I have for that.

Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening

1 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Mix together the vegetable shortening, sugar, molasses and egg. Once those are thoroughly mixed, blend in the rest of the dry ingredients.

Roll into small balls, then roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. DO NOT flatten. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Keep in mind, yours should look darker than this since you will be using brown sugar.

After it's all mixed together.

All rolled in sugar and ready to go. You can see these fit a lot to a sheet.

Fresh out of the oven.

So I got a little artsy with the photos this time. So what.

Anyway, these are really yummy and, just as a warning, kind of addictive. Sort of like Pringles, once you pop (one in your mouth), you can't stop. They are especially good with a pumpkin dip. I didn't have the supplies to make any, but here is the recipe if you want to try it out.

Pumpkin Dip

2 cups confectioner's sugar (aka powdered sugar)
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
(or you can substitute 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon & ginger)

Blend together until smooth.

Trust me, it's delicious. And also good with things other than these cookies, like apple slices.

...Set: Chuck 3x03 "Chuck versus the Angel of Death"

Well, I don't know about all of you, but I enjoyed tonight's episode about 10 times more than either of yesterday's episodes. I'm thinking most of this was due to the involvement of both Captain Awesome and Ellie, who really brighten up any episode they are a part of. I also only just realized that there was absolutely no Buy More story this episode, even though I wrote in my notes it felt more like a typical episode. Whoops, joke's on me.

Anyway, this episode was all about the gang having to protect the Premier (is that how I'd spell it) of the made up nation of Costa Gravas, played by one Armand Assante. The nation was basically supposed to be Cuba, with the Premier now deciding to change to a democracy instead of a dictatorship, but this put him in danger of assassination. Ellie and Devon accidentally get involved when Devon gets called in to the hospital to save the Premier's life after he has been poisoned. Devon's rather psyched about this, though, because throughout the episode he's all about helping out with the spy stuff. The Premier is so grateful that he invites Devon and Ellie to his gala event that night, which of course, Sarah and Chuck are already planning on attending in order to protect the Premier from any attempts on his life. Casey, on the other hand, is forced to be the guy in the van because he tried thrice to kill the Premier in the past, gaining him the moniker El Angel de Muerte (Angel of Death, hence the title).

Long story short - Casey ends up getting nabbed at the gala after some other dancing shenanigans, including Chuck having to flash so he could do some complicated spy dancing with Sarah, which really reminded me of her previous dance with Bryce. Ah, Bryce. Mmm, Bryce. Oh, sorry. I'm recapping. But another aside - I was still distracted by Chuck's poofy hair! I think he used to have some gel in it. I don't know. It's stupid that it distracts me, but it does.

Anyhow, Sarah and Chuck are forbidden to go after Casey because he's in the consulate and therefore out of their jurisdiction (or whatever the right word is since they're not cops). But, Devon gets called in again because the real bad guy at the gala has made it into the consulate and re-poisoned the Premier. Chuck and Sarah pose as Devon's assistants to get inside. Casey manages to knock out the bad guy, who turns out to be a member of this mysterious Ring, but gets shot in the process. The Premier's guards make Chuck get the bullet out to prove he's not an assassin there to kill the Premier, which is kind of wonky logic really, but whatever. And Casey is then forced to give his blood to the Premier in order to save his life. Phew, it's all rather complicated, isn't it?

What you really need to know are two things - Chuck and Sarah decide to be just friends moving forward. Devon decides he's not cut out for the double life of a spy after all, and Casey gets a case of Costa Gravan cigars as thanks for giving his blood. And a new moniker - Angel of Life. Well, barf at that cheese, but oh well.

And, finally, just when Ellie and Devon are going to rekindle their romantic flames, Devon gets a visit from the Ring bad guy, holding another vial of his mysterious poison stuff. We don't know what happens to him, only that Sarah comes to find Chuck and whispers in his ear. And it does not look so good.

But the preview for next week? Looks... wait for it... Awesome! Because it's full of Captain Awesome? Yeah, yeah, okay. But seriously, I think the show is back on track after tonight's episode. I wonder if this is a hint that we won't be seeing as much of the Buy More as we have in the past. I did miss Jeff and Lester a little bit, but I didn't even realize they weren't around until there was only five minutes left. But if that means more Ellie and Awesome? Yes, please.

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...Set: Chuck 3x02 "Chuck versus the Three Words"

Whoa? What's this? Two episodes of Chuck in one night? Yes, that's right. For the big season three premiere, we got double the Chuck, and tomorrow (back at its regularly scheduled Mondays at 8/7c time) we get a third episode. Starting things off with a bang. And a lot of advertising, which is great since the show was kind of struggling last season. Hopefully it will all pay off.

This episode was all about emotions and whether Chuck could keep his under wraps in order to work well as a spy. Seriously, it was kind of pounded into our heads over and over that this was real issue that needed lots of attention. The mission that was the background for all of this had to do with Sarah's old friend Karina (who we've apparently met before but I honestly do not remember), who has pretended to fall in love with some spy dude who I'm going to call Smooch thanks to their rather annoying pet names for each other. Apparently his real name was Carl, but I only heard that near the end.

ANYway. So Karina has gotten close to Smooch in order to get this special gold briefcase that has some kind of magic weapon in it. She gets Chuck, Sarah and Casey in on the mission at her supposed engagement party. Casey has to pretend to be her Uncle Johnny (sporting a rather hilarious mustache and glasses get up) while Chuck and Sarah have to pretend to be a happy couple, which of course does not work so well when Chuck tries to talk to her about what happened while she is just trying to do her job. They manage to get the briefcase after Chuck whips out some awesome acrobatic dodging laser beams intersect magic, but he of course screws up at the very end, getting himself locked inside the vault. He starts confessing his soul to Sarah on the other side of the door (those darn emotions again!), but she's gone up into the vents to get him out. She misses all of his confession apart from an "I love you" at the very end.

Though they think they're in the clear having got the briefcase, Smooch has of course figured out that Karina was playing him, and comes after her. She manages to get the briefcase to Morgan to give to Chuck before Smooch nabs her.

That night, Morgan is having a housewarming party, where Jeff makes up some "jail juice" while wearing a sleeveless shirt with the winning slogan, "I like big butts and I cannot lie." Ah, Jeff. Always a winner. After some not very important shenanigans, things boil down to a showdown in the courtyard between our spies and Smooch and his guys. Chuck manages to get Smooch off his guard by speechifying about how Karina wasn't supposed to fall in love because she's a spy and they aren't supposed to have emotions and... well let's face it, it was all a speech for Sarah's benefit. But it works out, because Smooch is put off his guard, giving Karina the upper hand to take him out and get the briefcase back.

In the end, Karina gives Sarah a recording of Chuck's speech while in the vault, and it looks like she's starting to soften up a bit, since the reason Chuck didn't go with her was because he wanted to do something important with his life. You know, be all noble and such. Morgan also manages to somehow bag Karina because he had previously said no to her. You know we'll never be hearing the end of this.

Lastly, General Beckman has some kind of secret meeting with someone named "Shaw" who we do not see. She wants to warn them to be prepared, but is shot down. Hmm, who is Shaw? What should they be prepared for? I kind of have a feeling about who Shaw is, but I won't say for those spoilerphobes out there, since a quick imdb search has informed me I am correct.

So, are you liking the new season so far? Are you excited for all of those guest stars the upcoming clips showed? Don't forget, there's another episode on Monday at 8/7c!

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...Set: Chuck 3x01 "Chuck versus the Pink Slip"

Yep, that's right, Chuck is back! After a very long hiatus that was supposed to be even longer, our erstwhile Nerd Herder sprung back into action with his new and improved intersect 2.0. This first episode back was all about whether Chuck could hack it as a real spy.

A couple of random asides before I get into things - Chuck's hair seemed particularly poofy in these episodes. I don't really remember that being the case in the past but who knows. And what was with those weird Ellie-Awesome-Morgan commercials? That totally weirded me out. I mean, an interesting idea, but kind of off putting. And, lastly, I love the music on this show! I guess maybe this is something typical of Josh Schwartz - is this the same music supervisor as on The OC? In any case, good job. 

Anyway, at the beginning of this episode, Chuck is in training at some kind of spy school in Prague, though they tried to fake us out into thinking it was an actual mission (sorry but I figured that out right away). General Beckman tells him he's just not cut out to be a spy and fires him. Depressed, he heads back home and proceeds to be a layabout for some amount of time, growing a beard, eating cheese puffs, and wearing the same bathrobe every day. Oh yeah, and we also find out that before Chuck went off to his training six months ago, Sarah proposed that they instead run away together. We know that something went wrong with that whole thing because they are clearly not off together somewhere now.

Chuck eventually gets himself together and tries to convince Casey to let him be a part of their next mission, but Casey tells him no. Chuck, of course, doesn't listen, and follows them to the place, whereby ensues a rather hilarious bit where Chuck has to perform as a Mariachi. His facial expressions were pretty hilarious when he was playing the guitar. Chuck tries to warn Casey and Sarah that there is an assassin in their midst, but ends up blowing the mission.

The assassin finds Chuck's Nerd Herd badge and, GASP, kills Emmett when Emmett doesn't tell him where Chuck is! Whoa! I did not see that one coming. He eventually gets Chuck and Sarah in his custody, wanting to get information out of them. Sarah helps Chuck face his fear of not being a good spy, and he is able to use the intersect to get them out of there. We also find out around this time that the reason Chuck didn't run away with Sarah was because he felt he needed to do the spy thing, to actually do something with his life.

In the end, things are basically put back to normal. Operation Bartowski is back up and running. Casey, Chuck and Morgan (who flunked out of Benihana school and lost Anna to a sous chef) are all back at the Buy More, and it looks like Sarah may still be working at the yogurt shop? Ellie and Awesome, however, move into their own apartment across the courtyard, thereby allowing Morgan to move in with Chuck.

The last scene is maybe my favorite, though. With "Eye of the Tiger" rocking in the background, Casey and Chuck get ready to spar with boxing gloves. Training has begun. 

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