...Set: Supernatural 5x20 "The Devil You Know"

Things are getting down to the wire with the apocalypse, and the boys are set on a new mission to find the last two rings of the Four Horsemen - Pestilence and Death - because, in case you don't remember, once they have the four rings, they can put Lucifer back in the cage they sprang him from. Got it? Got it.

This episode really was just like a staging set up for the next two. Not a ton happened when you think about it, really. There was a lot of chatting and such blah blah. At least next week looks pretty awesome. But here's the thing that particularly bugged me about bits of this episode. Sam has been on the road to self-redemption this season, and it's been all about him fighting his supposed destiny and whatnot, and up until this point he'd really been doing that. Sure, he still has anger, but suddenly it seemed to be in full force here. He was Dark Crazed Sammy all the sudden. Buh-huh? Whatever. Jared could stand a little bit of a hair trim, too, if we're getting nit-picky. Because you know, I re-watched "Free to Be You and Me" the other day and ho-damn did he look fine in that episode.

I digress. On to the actual recap. We start out in some sort of lab where a couple of dudes in white lab coats are discussing the apparent new vaccine for the swine flu that they are supposed to start testing on humans, but neither of them think its ready yet. Then a shady janitor is like, "I'M THE ONE DOING THE TEST, FOOLS!" and stabs one of them with a needle full of something shady, which I'm sure we should all know by now would be one Croatoan virus. Shady Demon Janitor locks up the guys, and the stabbed one presumably goes nutso and kills his buddy. "IT HAS WORKED SO WELL!" Shady Demon Janitor mumbles to himself. Perhaps I'm paraphrasing? I would never!

After the splat-card that continues to be awesome, and I will be surely sad to see it go next season, we catch up with Dean and Sam, who are checking out an apparent swine flu infestation in some random town. They are quite certain it's Pestilence, but after they chat up Bobby via cellphone, they realize they have not a clue how to find him, other than to "head east" - toward 3/4 of the continental United States. Well, this shall be easy as pie! But, lucky for them, they get a sudden little visit from the demon Crowley, who we met back in "Abandon All Hope." You know, the one who gave them the Colt and told them to kill old Lucifer.

During a roadside chat, Crowley tells the brothers Winchester that he wants to help them out in this whole plan to get Lucifer back in his cage. Sam is very mistrustful, indeed, of this demon, but Dean's on the fence. He thinks Crowley has a bit of a point. The next part of Crowley's plan involves finding Pestilence's right-hand man, a demon we will come to know as Brady. And guys, do you know who plays Brady? Eric Johnson, who was Whitney on Smallville, back when it didn't suck so bad! And well dayum, Eric, but I never knew you had such awesome acting in you based on that! But, back to this particular show. Brady is pestering his underlings at Niveus Pharmaceuticals to get their vaccine up and running, then goes and has a chat via chalice with Pestilence, who basically tells him he needs to work harder, yada yada. You see? A lot of talking going on so far.

Crowley takes Dean to go after Brady, because he doesn't like Sam, so Sam stays behind and whines to Bobby. But then he submits his idea for how to get Lucifer in the cage. He thinks that since Bobby was able to fight off that demon back in "Lucifer Rising," he, that is to say, Sam, will be able to do the same with Lucifer. So basically, he'd say yes to Lucifer when they're by the cage, then force him inside. Bobby tells him he's an idiot, for certain, because Sam would not be able to fight Lucifer off. He's angry and such.

Meanwhile, Crowley sends Dean up to have a chat with Brady. He wants to sell him the rings for some mysterious payment. Brady says that's ridiculous and starts to beat Dean up. Crowley shows up in the nick of time to toss a bag over Brady's head and then beat his head a lot a lot a lot. They stuff him in the Impala and start to head off for that ramshackle shack Sam's at, but Crowley doesn't want to because Sam apparently has a mystery history with this Brady guy. Dean's like screw to the you and takes Brady back anyway. And that's where we learn that Brady was a guy Sam went to college with, and was also the guy who introduced him to Jess. He had a demon on his shoulder all the way back then. Dun dun dun?

At any rate, Sam wants to gank him, but Dean holds him back. Crowley tries to get Brady to tell them where Pesky Pestilence is, but he's not going to, because he knows he's going to be killed either way. Welp, says Crowley, see ya! Dean and Sam have a minor hissy with each other over trusting a demon, but Crowley turns back up, to say that he just informed a demon that Brady was in cahoots with him in trying to kill Lucifer, so now Brady is equally as screwed. But, what's this? It appears that Crowley was followed by a hellhound! Using a mystical scrying coin that he had also previously placed in the Impala to spy on the boys. Right, I forgot to mention that. That's how he found them before. Anyway, Crowley appears to disappear yet AGAIN, but comes back AGAIN, this time with his own hellhound. The hellhounds fight all invisibly while our intrepids get away.

Crowley bids the brothers adieu after getting the location information on Pesky Pestilence they were looking for from Brady. After he poofs, Sam has his showdown with Brady. Brady taunts and taunts and taunts Dark Crazed Sammy about how he hates the demons because he hates himself and boo hoo, here's a knife in the gut for you! I thought that Sam might try to exorcise the demon, but apparently not. Dean watches, rather disturbed and displeased.

Back at Bobby's place, Crowley pops in to have YET ANOTHER little chat, this time about how to find Death. Bobby shoots him in the arm or leg or something because Crowley is being all round-abouty, as he is wont to do. It turns out that he can get them the location of Death, if Bobby is wiling to give over his soul. Crowley claims it would only be temporary. Is this to be believed, however? Will Bobby do it?

The preview for the next episode showed Dean sitting down with Death, so we know they find him in some fashion. I hope it's a little more action, a little less talky talk talk talk... talk talk talk.... talk! But that's just me.

Quotes:

"Check it out, I look like the King of Pop. ... Too soon?" - Dean

"Did you just say when the statues started crying?" - Doctor
"What? No, no..." - Sam
"Who would say that? Huh? Crazy people." - Dean
"Exactly." - Sam
"Which we're not." - Dean
"Noooo." - Sam

"Fancy a fag and a chat?" - Crowley

"I never!" - Crowley

"Oh, crap. Crap. Crap!" - Dean

"That's what you get, working with a demon." - Crowley

"Where's your moose?" - Crowley

"I told you!" - Sam
"Oh well good for youuuu." - Dean

"I'm invested. Currently." - Crowley

"Well then get the hell off my property before I blast you so full of rock salt you crap margaritas." - Bobby

"You think I'm a natural born idjit?" - Bobby

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Glee 1x16 "Home"

Look, I know Kristin Chenoweth can belt a tune like nobody's business. She did it on Pushing Daisies, she did it on Broadway, and she even did it once already on Glee. But in her return tonight, did we really need three whole songs featuring her? I would argue no. Particularly since they had the entire songs. I was getting bored out by them, maybe because I had never actually heard any of them before. Point of fact, I'd only heard one of the songs featured on the show tonight. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which one.
But anyway, the reason we didn't really need all of those songs was because the story wasn't really about April. She had her own little side story about being a mistress to some old dude, who then ends up croaking in the end so she gets some money to go out to Broadway, but it was nearly exactly the same story as before, though with a little more of her trying to flirt with Will. So that's all the time I'm going to devote to it. Because the real stories of this episode were about Mercedes, Kurt and Finn.

Let's start with Mercedes. Last we saw, she and Kurt joined the Cheerios. Now that they're members, however, Sue has some harsh criticisms. She demands that Mercedes lose 10 pounds before a critic or something shows up for a pep rally. Mercedes struggles to lose the weight and ends up fainting in the cafeteria. Oddly enough, it is Quinn who talks some sense into her. She doesn't need to lose weight, she just needs to be comfortable with herself. This leads her to take a stand during the pep rally and sing Christina Aguilera's Beautiful, which really does rally the school together, since everybody has felt fat, ugly or stupid at some point.

As a side note, this inadvertently gives Sue an edge in her interview with that aforementioned critic, who was prepared to write a scathing review of her, but instead decides he must've been wrong about her all along. Little does he know! Though it does seem like Sue may be wondering if her evil ways are so great after all.

As for Kurt and Finn, their story really hit the theme of home more than any of the others. Apparently, some time ago, Kurt set up his dad and Finn's mom while at a parent-teacher conference. They've been quietly dating since then, but only now does Finn figure out what's going on when his mom starts moving out some of their old stuff, including a lot of the stuff he associates with his dad, who died in Desert Storm, in case you've forgotten. At first, Kurt is very gung-ho about their families meshing together while Finn is very against it, not wanting to let go of his dad. Kurt sings a great version of A House is Not a Home that hits him more emotionally than he thought it would at first, I think. (We'll just forget that one verse that Finn adds into the song, because it's pretty much the worst verse he's ever sung on the show. Sorry, Montieth, but it's true)

Things start to change, however, once the Hummels and the Hudsons get together for dinner and Finn connects with Kurt's dad over sports, something that Kurt has never really connected with him over. Finn and Kurt then decide they're going to break them up. But when Finn tries to do his part, he ends up getting a couple of rather heartfelt talks from not only his mom (definitely the most emotionally poignant moment in the episode) but also Kurt's dad. Finn ends up changing his mind about them dating, leaving Kurt to watch from the outside as Finn and his dad bond some more over their shared hatred of Duke basketball.

And that's pretty much all she wrote. We barely saw any of Rachel and Jesse, and none of Emma. Did you miss them? Did anyone else laugh as much as I did at Brittany's "I'm pretty sure my cat's been reading my diary" line as me? (I doubt it. I downright guffawed.) And.... I've already forgotten what the preview for next week showed, apart from Emma yelling in the teacher's room that Will is a slut. When he's not sporting a manly teary eye, I'm sure.

Quotes:

"How do you two not have a show on Bravo?" - Sue

"You got hips like a pear." - Sue

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put in a call to the Ohio Secretary of State notifying them I will no longer be carrying photo ID. You know why? People should know who I am." - Sue

"I live in a closet. There's cowboy wallpaper on the walls." - Finn

"I'm pretty sure my cat's been reading my diary." - Brittany

"I haven't had a solid meal since 1987." - Sue

"Sometimes I add a teaspoon of sand." - Brittany

"You both have dead spouses! Maybe you should talk." - Kurt

"I'm sure when the Bouviers and the Kennedys first broke bread, there was a similar sense of joy and urgency." - Kurt

"If he still had the power of speech, I'm sure he'd be thankful." - April

"With a name like Tracy, I assumed you were a lady." - Sue

"On assembly days, I arrange for the rest of the school to be fumigated, leaving the gymnasium the only place with breathable air." - Sue

"You're bossy, insulting, and the fact that twice you called me Rerun makes me think you're a little racist." - Tracy

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 3x14 "Chuck versus the Honeymooners"

After taking a break for a few weeks, Chuck came back in full force tonight. Last we saw our Nerd Herder turned spy, he and Sarah were getting their mack on in Paris. Things pick up soon after, with Sarah and Chuck spending some sweet time in a train compartment. They mutually decide they're going to quit the spy life and run away together, though they both appear to be having some doubts about that decision.

Doubts which become all the more reasonable when Chuck flashes on a nefarious dude on the train by the name of Juan Diego Ronaldo (I think that's his name, anyway... feel free to correct me if I am wrong), who is some sort of terrorist. Both Sarah and Chuck feel compelled to check him out without letting the other know, which results in some hijinks and Sarah faking a very heavy Southern accent to get out of a sticky spot. Once our duo finally reveal to each other that they both saw the guy, they decide they'll do one last mission together before running away. Because it's the right thing to do, right?

Meanwhile, back in Burbank, General Beckman tasks the newly reinstated Casey to get Morgan's help in tracking down Chuck. There is also a little bit of business involving Ellie and Devon's going away party, because, in case you forgot, they're about to head off to do Doctors Without Borders in Africa. Which is rather sad, because I don't want them to leave the show, no matter how little they have been on it lately. Things will just be less awesome! But anyway, Morgan turns out to be rather helpful in finding Chuck, despite Casey thinking he would be useless. They head off on a plane to Europe.

Back on the train, Sarah and Chuck work together to drug the bad guys' drinks. Just as the guys are starting to feel the effects, however, Casey interrupts their plan. They end up having to chase the guy and find out that he was actually in the custody of Interpol agents, on their way to take him to give names of some people. Whooooops! Chuck and Sarah messed that one up big time. Beckman tells them they're to keep Ronaldo in their custody until new Interpol agents can show up.

But, since Casey has become savvy to their plan to ditch the spy life, he tells them to take off before the new Interpol dudes show up. And even though they are both still having reservations about leaving the life, they head out. And while they're gone, these supposed new agents show up to meet Casey and Morgan. But again thanks to some cleverness/idiocy on Morgan's part, they figure out that they're not really the Interpol agents, but rather some other people out to get Ronaldo. These new bad guys tie them all up.

And before Sarah and Chuck can escape, they are greeted by the Interpol agents they dosed on the train, who inform them that their other people were killed on their way to meet them. That means - Casey and Morgan are in trouble! It's up to Chuck and Sarah to save the day with some mad fighting-while-handcuffed-together skills! A rather awesome fight scene, yes? Yes. Once the bad guys are dispatched, they again discuss running away together, but finally figure out that neither of them really want to quit being spies after all! What a shock!

So they finally head back to Burbank to face the music with Beckman. She berates them, but only barely. Before they can celebrate fully, however, Chuck remembers that Ellie is leaving and he hasn't seen her! He rushes over to find her, but only finds a DVD of the going away party. But don't despair - Ellie turns up, having forgotten her cell phone (I hope that's a special international phone, El, or it won't really work in Africa anyway). They share a teary goodbye. I hope this is not goodbye forever to Ellie and Awesome!

And that's pretty much all she wrote. Chuck introduces Sarah to what he thinks will be her favorite song at the end of the episode - Feeling Good by Nina Simone - and they get to some more kissy kissy. In case you're wondering about some of the other music featured in the episode, we had: Holiday by Vampire Weekend, Four by Four by Shout Out Louds, Reach for the Sun by The Polyphonic Spree and Leaving on a Jet Plane, as performed by Jeffster. Sorry, no link to that one (yet?)!

Quotes:

"The intersect and Mr. Grimes have an oddly codependent relationship." - General Beckman

"Babe, this didn't happen by accident." - Devon

"Man, pastries for breakfast every morning. Europe is genius!" - Chuck

"He's going to need a walker when Walker's through with him? ... They're having intercourse, idiot." - Casey

"In the olden days, Bat Mitzvah meant party hard, because your daughter's almost ripe for plucking." - Lester
"Oh my." - Devon
"I miss the olden days." - Jeff

"What? You've been faking it the whole time?!" - Chuck

"You know it can take up to seven minutes to strangle someone to death. I've done it in under 30 seconds." - Casey

"You see in my head, the only way the plane stays aloft is because I'm rooting for it." - Morgan

"Attention Mr. and Mrs.... whatever your last name is!" - Lester

"Oh, Canada." - Morgan

"I must caution you, that allowing your private life to interfere with your professional one can be dangerous. But off the record? It's about damn time." - General Beckman

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Supernatural 5x19 "Hammer of the Gods"

Based on the preview from last week, a viewer would have not a clue that this episode was actually going to be relating to our main apocalypse storyline. I'm glad it did, though, because how lame would a stand alone episode have been at this point in the game? But also sort of lame so late in the game? The boys suddenly finding out a super special secret plan that only Gabriel seemed to know. Really. No one else knew about this? I find that hard to believe. But I'm jumping ahead.

The episode started out seeming like a stand alone, even featuring a patented location card of Muncie, Indiana (not that we care). Some police-ish dude walking around a demolished hotel that is slowly putting itself back together, then meeting a creepily upbeat hotel manager who promptly kills him. And with all of the good transitions into the splat title card they've been doing lately, I was a little disappointed with this one. Come on, you could've splatted right with the blood! Psh.

In any event, the boys show up at the Elysian Fields Hotel (oh my, could that be a clue?!) after getting detoured there during a freak rain storm. Everything appears to be bright and perky at this hotel at first, with mountains of pie to please the newly-re-energized Dean, as well as some Casa Erotica. Don't even front, Sam, we know you watch that stuff. However, this motel turns out to be not so great after all! O.M.G. What a surprise. I think I might have a heart attack and die from not surprise! (Name that movie reference!)

Luckily, though, the brothers Winchester cotton on almost immediately to the strangeness of this hotel, and start investigating, leading them to a meat locker full of innocent people. But before they can free those poor schmucks, they're detained by what turn out to be a bunch of Pagan gods. The ones who get the special name treatment are: Kali, Odin, Ganesh, Baron Samedi, and Baldur. Oh, and that hotel manager is Mercury. If you're not entirely sure who these gods are, don't worry, you'll never really find out.

These gods are having a confab about the whole Western religion apocalypse doom and gloom pestering the world of late, and they lured Sam and Dean here for bargaining chips to somehow get Lucifer and Michael out of the way or some such. As they are discussing their plans, though, guess who pops in to say hello! Why, it's Gabriel, formerly known as the Trickster, and to these gods as Loki. Because they're too stupid to realize who he really is. Actually, for being gods, they didn't seem to have any sort of powers except for Kali. A hand through the chest is all it takes to kill these dudes? Well, jeez.

Gabriel has a chat with the Winchesters, wherein Dean basically calls him a wuss and tells him to stand up to his brother, yada yada. The gods try to kill Gabriel because it turns out Kali actually knows who he really is. Oh, and they had some sort of romantic thing in the past. It doesn't really matter all that much. Eventually Dean tells the gods that he and Sam will play ball and work together to kill Lucifer. They just have to call him up.

Turns out, they don't need to, because Mercury already has, to his everlasting regret, I'm sure, because Lucifer rewards him by killing him. And then goes all badass rather than just being a whiny babypants, and kills the rest of the gods. He's about to do in Kali, but then Gabriel shows up just in time and gets Sam and Dean to whisk her away. He and Lucifer then whine a bit to each other about their plight. Gabriel has sided with the humans. Lucifer says sucks to be you and kills him! Yep, another one bites the dust. So long, Richard Speight, Jr., you were usually a fun guest star.

But Gabriel has one last surprise for the Winchesters. He told them to take that Casa Erotic DVD with them, so they fire that baby up. And here's where that aforementioned lame duck excuse of a last minute plan is revealed. Gabe reveals that the boys aren't going to be able to kill Lucifer, but there is a way for them to put him back in his cage in Hell. All they have to do is find the key to the cage. Or rather, keys. And what are these keys? Why, they are the rings of the Four Horsemen. And they already have two of them, from War and Famine. So now they just have to get the last two - Pestilence and Death. While evading Lucifer and the other angels, natch. Is anyone else sort of disappointed in this plan?

And then we get a really gross scene showing Pestilence. And. Blugh. Barf. Nasty. Flies are buzzing as he enters a convenience store. He then proceeds to cough nasty splooge all over everything, including the store worker's face. It looks like the nastiness of this dude will rival that of our ole Famine. YIGH.

Was anyone else a little taken out of the moment when the Ghostfacers thing came on? I didn't know if it was supposed to look like an interruption, or like a commercial. It turns out it was maybe a combination leaning toward the latter, but it confused me because the tone was so different from this episode. Anyway, I've watched the first four of the webisodes so far, and they're good for a laugh.

The preview for next week actually was decent this time around! I have an idea what the episode might actually be about?! What! Why, that's not the point of a preview at all!

Quotes (not many this week... there were a LOT of speeches):

"Heaven, right?" - random dude
"Trust me, pal. Better." - Dean

"Sam. Unpucker man, eat something." - Dean

"What are you, twelve?" - Sam
"I'm young at heart." - Deam

"Creepy." - Sam
"Broke the needle." - Dean

"Don't mock my world turtle!" - ? Iroquois dude? I never saw his name tag.

"Those guys are either gonna dust you, or use you as bait. Either way, you're uber-boned." - Gabriel

"I'll take your voices away." - Gabriel
"We'll write it down." - Dean
"I'll cut off your hands." - Gabriel
"Well then people are gonna be asking, why are you guys running around with no hands?" - Dean

"Now we can take out the devil together, or you lame asses can eat me. Literally." - Dean

"You'd think I'd give Kali my real sword? That thing can kill me." - Gabriel

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Glee 1x15 "The Power of Madonna"

People, let me start by expressing my extreme annoyance with one behemoth show called American Idol. Because it so brashly decided to go over 4 minutes, the end of Glee got cut off on my DVR. This is especially annoying on the West Coast, where American Idol is NOT, in fact, live, so there is no reason for that crap to happen. Anyone want to fill me in? It cut off right after Finn and Jesse shook hands.

It turns out, my favorite music number of the night happened after my DVR cut off! HOW RUDE! Skip ahead to approximately 42:08 to see it.

I also need to mention that I have way, way, way too many quotes listed from this episode, and I think I even missed a couple! Because of that, I'm going to strive to keep the actual recap short. I will say, after the sort of frenetic trainwreck of last week, the pacing seemed to be back on track in this episode. I do hope that they don't start to go overboard with Sue stuff. Sue is great and all, but she's the best in small doses, in my opinion. This is not knocking Jane Lynch in the least, who is fantastic, but you know what I mean. I don't want to get Sue burnout.

This episode was all about Madonna and the many things she has stood for - whether it be female independence or, you know, sexy sexiness. This translated into our various storylines...

Sue:
Sue has apparently always been a big fan of Madonna, so she has decided to have the Cheerios do a bunch of Madonna songs for their numbers. When she sees Will has taken the idea to run with Glee as well, she gets annoyed and tries her usual barbs against him. But when he retaliates back against her, we learn that she has hair image issues. Kurt and Mercedes try to give her some new Madonna-inspired looks, but Principal Figgin tells her she's already a strong, independent, individual woman, and shouldn't lose sight of that. Point taken! She also recruits Kurt and Mercedes to be on the Cheerios.

Will & Emma:
Emma decides, after Sue basically tells her she has no sexiness about her, that she's going to take her virginity into her own hands and do the deed with Will. When it comes down to the moment, though, she decides she's just not ready yet. Will berates himself for even letting her go along with the idea at all, because he realizes he's just been acting like all of the other guys around there. He instates a rule: they can't date until his divorce is final. He's filed the papers, so it's on its way. He also wants Emma to see a counselor about her issues. Way to be up front, gotta say.

Rachel/Jesse and Finn/Santana:
Rachel admits to Jesse that she's a virgin, and at first he pressures her a little to do the deed. Then he apologizes and pulls back, then she decides she does want to do it. But when it comes to the night for them, she decides she's just not ready yet. Big surprise that it's both of the girls that decide they can't do it, whereas Finn...

Santana pursues Finn after she is tasked by Sue to date a younger guy. Finn is reluctant to go out with her at first (and by go out, I mean have sex, because she basically just propositioned him), but after he finds out that Rachel is still seeing Jesse, he goes for it. And, because he's a teenage boy, he does go through with the actual sex. This comes as no shock. But, at least he realized that it meant nothing afterward because she didn't mean anything to him. Because he's still got feelings for Rachel.

The big surprise of the evening came when Jesse showed up at the school, announcing that he had just moved into their district and would be joining New Directions. The whole glee club got up in arms about it, but Finn eventually welcomed him to the group. I didn't see the very end because of the aforementioned DVR mishap, so I can't say whether Jesse had a look on his face that would suggest foul play. Did he?

In other news, Tina and Artie have healed their rift from when she confessed she didn't really have a stutter, and they appear to be dating. Awww!

As for the musical numbers, they were all pretty good. Oh, for the SYTYCD fans out there - did you see Nathan from season six in the Vogue video? I didn't notice the first time around, but I'm pretty sure that was him as one of the background dancers. Otherwise, I liked the guys' version of What it Feels Like For a Girl (maybe because I like that song quite a lot). But I'm not sure any of them had quite the pop of, say Jump from a few episodes back.

In case you missed the preview for next week, like me:



Quotes:

"What you call insanity, I call inspiration. Let me break it down for you. It's been the biggest dream of my career to pay homage to Madonna, the woman most responsible for my take no prisoners demeanor and my subconscious tendency to always desperately be looking for someone named Susan." - Sue

"What Would Madonna Do. Well the answer to that question is usually, date a younger man." - Sue

"Now, it's like Madonna once said. I'm tough, I'm ambitious and I know what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. I'm pretty sure she stole that line from one Sue Sylvester. No really, she stole it from me. I said it first. Palladium. '87." - Sue

"Can you please stop talking? You're grossing my baby out." - Quinn

"Look at their role models. You've got Britney Spears and her shaved head. Lindsay Lohan looks like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Ann Coulter." - Emma

"Sloppy freak show babies! Somewhere in the English countryside in a stately manor home, Madonna is weeping!" - Sue

"Oh, hey William. I thought I smelled cookies wafting from the ovens of the little elves that live in your hair." - Sue

"You think this is hard? I'm passing a gall stone as we speak! That's hard!" - Sue

"When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist." - Brittany

"Guess who I'm dating. Wes Brody. He's super cute. He plays soccer with my sister. He's seven." - Brittany

"Trust me, the way to get a man to follow you forever? Take his virginity. Madonna, like, wrote a song about it." - Brittany

"You're about as sexy as a cabbage patch kid. It's exhausting to look at you." - Santana

"Simply put, you have the sensuality of one of those pandas down at the zoo who refuse to mate." - Sue

"I'm going to Kabbalah. Is that too much?" - Kurt

"It's gonna be Madge-ical." - Kurt

"Oh, by the way, how's the Florence Henderson look working for you?" - Will

"Mercedes is black. I'm gay. We make culture." - Kurt

"I feel bad about what happened at your house. Do you still have my care bear?" - Jesse

"Oh hey there, Whoopi. Don Knotts." - Sue

"He's a spy, Mr. Schue. I should know." - Santana

"Mr. Schue. Is he your son?" - Brittany

"As an honorary girl, I have to agree." - Kurt

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chocolate Chip Cookies (version 3)

As I have documented twice in the past, I'm always looking out for that quintessential chocolate chip cookie recipe. I don't know about everyone else, but it's definitely my go-to cookie whenever I'm craving something desserty. The past two recipes, while not bad, weren't what I was really looking for. So, were these? ALAS. No. Some people may like these ones that spread and get thin but I very much do not. They may taste fine, but I like my cookies to be thicker, while still gooey-chewy. And not so wide! Where is this elusive recipe? I think part of the secret must be to let the dough sit overnight, so maybe I'll try that for the next one.

Until then, though, you can see how these ones are made. Maybe they're the perfect ones for you. A couple notes: I didn't have nuts to put in, so I nixed that part of the recipe. I also didn't have enough plain semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I used a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you want to know my ratio, it was: 1/2 c semi-sweet chips, 1/4 c butterscotch, 1/4 c white, 1/3 c mini. So it's a little bit less than what the recipe calls for, but the mini chips always end up seeming like more, so it works out. I also had some issues with the first step, but I detailed that below.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (via Smitten Kitchen)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt or 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)

Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat to 300F (150C). Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.

Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon (5cm) balls and place 8 balls, spaced 4 inches (10cm) apart, on each of the baking sheets.

Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

 The sugars and butter, ready to be mixed all up together. I apologize for the not wonderful quality of the step by step photos, but I had a craving last night, so there was no natural light to be found. Oh well!

Butters and sugars mixed together. And let me just tell you, with a hand mixer, this was quite difficult to accomplish because of how you're supposed to keep the butter cold. There was flecks of butter flicking everywhere, to the point I had to cover it with a dishcloth so it wouldn't get all over the place. I had to get creative with it just to get the butter properly mixed in. Oy mama sita. 

After the eggs, vanilla and baking soda.

Apparently I forgot to take a photo before I dumped in the chips. Oops! 

I guess I also forgot to take a photo of the dough balls before baking. Jeez, I was out of sorts or something. Here's what they look like after they've come out of the oven.

As you can see, they turned out rather large and flat. Maybe it's because I didn't put in the nuts. But as I didn't have any nuts and don't even really like nuts in my cookies, nut such a loss. (By the way, that u instead of the o was purely accidental, but resulted in a hilarious pun, so it stays.)

But hey, they still taste good. That's all that matters.

...Set: Supernatural 5x18 "Point of No Return"

Supernatural turned 100 tonight with this ultra intense episode that also seemed to feature quite a lot of references to certain homo-erotic tendencies the show has from time to time. A couple lines had me laughing just because I know they’ll cause either fits of glee or mountains of uproar. For the most part, though, this episode, appropriately titled “Point of No Return,” was all about the angsty drama-rama, and featured a surprise appearance I had not a clue about until the “THEN” sequence that altogether gives too much away sometimes. Did everyone else know? I’ve been keeping away from spoilers.

Now let’s get this recapping business going, shall we? We begin with Zachariah, drowning his sorrows and lamenting to what will soon be an angel-fried dude named Stewart about all of his years of hard work, all for naught. But then he gets a call from the boss man, and it appears he’s given another chance to set things straight.

Meanwhile, in a heartbreaking scene, Dean is packing up all of his belongings. His leather jacket! The keys to the Impala! His trusty pearl-handled gun! But before he can send that off and go and say yes, Sam shows up to stop him. And herewith begins many of the reverse similarities to the end of last season. Instead of Dean going after Sam, it’s now Sam going after Dean. Tables, they are turning. Dean is ready to put up a fight, but Sam has brought in backup in the form of Castiel, and with that – WHOOSH!

Bobby’s place. Everyone is giving Dean guff about his giving up, but then Cas gets a weirdo headache and does a SOLO WHOOSH off to forest unknown. There, he meets a couple angels he ka-pows, and then pulls something trying to push its way out of the ground. Now, if we hadn’t seen that “THEN” sequence earlier, it might have actually been a surprise as to who it was. But alas, all of the camera angles back at Bobby’s to keep us in suspense were for naught because, HELLO, we just saw that one Adam Milligan (Jake Abel), the Winchesters’ half-brother who was killed back in season four, was going to be in this episode. Obviously, why else feature him in the “THEN?”

Adam comes to, and it turns out the angels have been talking to him in heaven. They’ve told him he’s the vessel for Michael, and he’s going to save the world. Naturally, Sam and Dean are against him doing that. While Sam tells him that they’re finding another way, Dean mostly just doesn’t want him to be the patsy for what’s supposed to be his job. Anyhow, this Adam, very unlike the ghoul version, is rather snippity and actually quite like Dean in many ways. He doesn’t care about Sam and Dean and what they want, because his family was his mom, who the angels have promised him he will be able to see again if he does this.

Sam locks Dean up in the super special panic room (another callback to “When the Levee Breaks”), and they have a rather dispiriting chat where Dean basically says that he doesn’t have any faith that Sam wouldn’t say yes. He’s convinced that one way or another, they’d get him to do it. Sam is, understandably (mean Dean!), upset by this, and leaves Dean locked up in there before he can let the manly tears flow. Shortly after he’s left, Cas comes down to check on Dean, hears some sort of commotion inside, and stupidly opens the door to go check what the deal is. Right into Dean’s trap, you have walked, Cas. Dean does that get-rid-of-angels-quick symbol and escapes. And here I will point out the further reverse similarities to WTLB. When Sam was down there, Cas was the one who let him out, but on purpose. Now he does it again, but his intentions were the opposite!

While Sam freaks out about Dean escaping and goes to I guess look for him, he leaves Bobby to watch after Adam, who I keep wanting to call Jake, because that’s his real name and he looks more like a Jake than an Adam. Digression, sorry. But Adam has a dream conversation with Zachariah, and when Sam gets back, Adam’s plum disappeared. Whoopsie daisies.

...Set: Glee 1x14 "Hell-o"

After a super-sized hiatus, Glee has finally returned! If I’m being honest, I kind of forgot about it, and then once I remembered how much I loved it, was slightly let down by this episode. Did it feel a little disjointed to anyone else? I’m not saying it was bad, just something felt a little off, like maybe things were going really fast or something? Though I did really love that Brittany and Santana got their own decent side story, and that we got to see the other Asian dance. Always a good thing.

But, on to the main stories of the evening. In our adults division, we’ve got Will and Emma. In the (fake) teens division, we’ve got Rachel and Finn, and with those two stories combined you’ve got… Captain Planet! Oh wait, wrong show. Here on Glee, those two combined equal Sue Sylvester’s machinations with Brittany and Santana.

You see, Rachel thinks she and Finn are now an item, but Finn is still confused about everything with Quinn and not so sure he wants to be dating Rachel. Sue, now reinstated to her Cheerios coach position after she rufied the Principal, tasks Brittany and Santana with turning their charms onto Finn so that Rachel goes nuts and quits Glee. I feel like all of her plans revolve around getting Rachel out of the club, do they not? But it doesn’t even really take the pinky pair to get Finn to break things off with Rachel. Point of fact, them making fun of her makes him want to get back together.

But! It’s too late, because Rachel has rather serendipitously met a new guy almost immediately – one Jesse St. James, of the rival group Vocal Adrenaline. They supposedly fall madly in love instantaneously, even though we have never see this kid before, ever. The Glee Club doesn’t take kindly to Rachel fraternizing with the enemy, and all believe he’s playing her. They tell her to break things off or get tossed out of Glee, and it looks like she might do it, but then Sue scares her with a glimpse into a possible old maid future, so she decides to carry on with Jesse in secret, despite Finn deciding he wants to get back together with her. But I think we can all agree, Jesse definitely has ulterior motives.

In adult land, Will and Emma are trying out the dating thing, but it quickly gets complicated when Emma drops a bombshell on Will. Not only does she have her OCD quirks, she’s also never “been intimate” with a man. People, well, guys, always find this sort of revelation shocking, but honestly I am not shocked. This happens to occur right when everyone first finds out about Rachel and Jesse, so Will goes over to talk to the Vocal Adrenaline coach. And then proceeds to take her home and make out with her!!

But he stops things before they go too far. Vocal Adrenaline coach woman tells him he’s got to spend some time figuring out who he is outside of a relationship, which is the same conclusion that Emma comes to later on after an encounter with Terri makes her rethink the way things are going with Will. Will has some soul searching to do.

Guys, I haven’t even talked about the musical numbers. Maybe because they were all sort of a snooze? They really were. The theme of the week was “hello”, which took on various iterations, from The Doors to Lionel Richie, to that diddy from the Target commercials that I now have stuck in my head. But next week! Next week is the Madonna episode, and if that preview video of Sue’s “Vogue” is any indication, it should be a return to awesome.



Top Sue Quotes:

“Hey buddy, get a haircut? Looks awful.” – Sue

“I would’ve gotten you one, Will, but I don’t like you.” – Sue

“There, you no longer confuse me with your she-male looks. Here, you can donate this to the victims of Katrina. Maybe they can use it to plug the holes in their trailers.” – Sue

“You know what else I’m gonna bring? I’m gonna bring enough Asian cookware to rub your head with, because right now you have enough product in your hair to season a wok.” – Sue

“Ladies, I misjudged you. You may be two of the stupidest teens I’ve ever encountered. And that’s saying something, I once taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin.” – Sue

“I am engorged with venom and triumph.” - Sue


Top Brittany Quotes:

“We were seduced by the glitz and glamour of showbiz.” – Brittany

“There was a mouse in mine.” – Brittany

“Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?” – Brittany

“Sometimes I forget my middle name.” – Brittany


Oh, there are other people? Quotes:

“I’m not breaking up with you, I’m just saying, please stop super sizing, because I don’t dig on fat chicks.” – Puck

“She looked like Pippi Longstocking but, like, Israeli.” – Santana

“Cut the butter, Benedict Arnold.” – Kurt

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x13 "Love Unexpected"

Well, my friends, we have come to the end of the road. Whether it is just the end of the first season, or the end of the series remains to be seen, but it is an end nonetheless. If the series does end here, it will be sort of sad because it really seemed to be getting into a groove after some rather rocky episodes. Remember that one with the hands on the car? Or the Nearlywed Game? Yeah, I’d like to forget those too.

The episode starts with a fakeout. We hear some older guy doing some voiceover yada yada, and we’re made to think that he’s the priest at the wedding of Cate and Ryan, but no – he was the judge reinstating Cate and Baze’s parental rights over Lux. Everyone got rather teary-eyed, and Cate and Baze held hands, and it was rather touching indeed. Lux has what she always wished for – a family.

The little family that could goes back to Cate’s to celebrate, but then gets a dose of reality when Ryan crashes the party, and some wedding stuff starts to go haywire. Cate’s sister Abby got some food poisoning, so she won’t be able to come to the wedding, and their rehearsal space for dinner has suddenly fallen through thanks to a coinkidinky sewer pipe burst or some such. Guess who gets to host the dinner now?! I think you’ve guessed it – Baze! Derrr. It was Lux who suggested it, and who is still suggesting to Baze that he tell Cate how he feels.

But Baze is having issues doing that, in part thanks to his issues with his dad having not actually been resolved after that little bit of turtle racing before. His dad comes by to get the rent check and gets all uppity that Baze didn’t tell him about the adoption. Then he storms off. “You can send the check in the mail!” Mr. Basile, you are a bit ridiculous.

At the rehearsal dinner, things don’t go exactly as Cate would like. People give the couple more of a roast than a toast, and she escapes upstairs to where Baze has been brooding. They have a really nice moment, wherein Baze might have actually told her how he feels, but guess who crashes the party again! RYAN, you doof! You keep ruining all of their moments.

Baze still wants to tell Cate how he feels, but Math gives him a talk about how, if he really wants to prove that he’s grown up, he has to let her go. You know, he makes some sense. But meanwhile, Lux is giving Cate her own talk about how she knows Baze has feelings for her, and that she knows Cate reciprocates said feelings, no matter how much she tries to deny it. Cate tries to brush it off, but ends up going to see Baze in the middle of the night.

Now, if this had been before Math’s talk, Baze would’ve told her the truth, but now he’s trying to be all noble or some such, so even after she tells him she’s had feelings for him ever since Lux came into their lives, he tells her that he doesn’t have any of those same feelings for her. Lies, lies and more lies.

And now it’s time for the big day! Oh, I forgot to mention that Cate and Ryan were having their own little tiff about being ready and commitment thanks to Alice, their producer, wanting them to sign a new contract that would keep them in place for five years. Ryan was wishy washy about it, and Cate thought that meant he was wishy washy about their marriage. You know why I left that out? Kind of boring.

Back to the Big Day. Cate has locked herself away, Lux is trying to reach Baze, and Ryan is wondering why Lux has been giving him the cold shoulder. They have one of their patented heart to hearts, wherein Ryan tells Lux that he understands how she’d want Cate and Baze to be together so they could be a family, but he just wants to be part of that family too. He says that he’ll wait on the wedding if that’s what she wants, and leaves it up to her.

Meanwhile, Baze is in some emotional distress and goes to find his dad to unload. He can’t tell the girl he loves how he feels, and it’s all his dad’s fault. Daddio is like wah wah, go cry to someone who cares, but then Baze hits some strong notes. He was able to give Lux what she always wanted – a dad. He’s still waiting on his. Damn! As Kelso from That ‘70s Show would say – BURN!

Back at the chapel, Lux goes to find Cate. Their requisite chat boils down to – Cate knows that Baze has feelings for her, but he’s too afraid to admit it. Lux thinks she and Cate are the same in wanting a fantasy ending with Baze, but they should go for the good reality with Ryan. So, basically, Lux tells Cate to go for it with Ryan.

BUT! Baze’s dad shows up to make amends with Baze. He doesn’t know why he always berates him rather than just telling him that he misses him and wants to be a part of his life. And that – get ready for it – he lurves him! Awww. Baze, your dad loves you, it’s okay, it’s okay. I don’t mean to make light of the moment, because they both play it rather well, and you know I love a good angsty man tear. Dad tells Baze to go tell Cate how he feels.

So, while Baze runs into a major traffic jam on his way to the chapel, Cate and Ryan go through the process of getting hitched. All to one of my favorite songs, The Weepies’ “Can’t Go Back Now,” incidentally, which automatically makes it better. Baze finally arrives, and I don’t know about you, but I thought they were going to do the fakeout thing again, where he’d get there, run to the doors and open them – only the wedding would already be done and gone. But nope, he got there, just as the dude was telling Ryan he could kiss the bride. Baze swings the doors open! Cate looks over! They lock eyes! THEN – Cate turns back and kisses Ryan!

What has Lux done? Has she ruined what could’ve been her little family’s together-happi-ness? Either we’ll find out if the show gets a second season, or we may never know. Personally, I think that Cate and Baze would end up together by the end of the series, but that obviously can’t happen right away in a television show.

Well guys, this recap has gotten a little out of control in length, so for now, I bid you adieu.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Supernatural 5x17 "99 Problems"

Based solely on the preview for this episode, I really had no clue what it was going to be about, and wasn’t really all that excited for it. But hey! Way to go, show! I was happily surprised. While we’re on the subject, did they get rid of the people who used to make the previews? Because they used to be pretty cool. Or maybe that’s just the general promos… hmm. I have to also say that the “THEN” segment just made me wonder when Lisa was going to show up again, which was sort of distracting.

In any event, this episode started with a bang. Dean and Sam were on the run (in the Impala) from, apparently, a bunch of demons. When they meet a roadblock and the demons catch up, things are looking grim. But then the Sacrament Lutheran Militia show up and hose them down with some holy water before shouting some very short exorcism saying. Poof go the demons. Apparently this town knows all about what’s going on, and has armed itself up, with the church as headquarters.

And the church is headquarters because they have themselves their very own prophet in Leah Gideon, daughter of the Pastor, David. I feel like that name has some sort of reference, but as I’m not religious, it means about bupkiss to me. Oh wait, I got it. “They stamped it, didn’t they? Those damn Gideons.” Quick! Name that movie quote!*

Leah has been receiving instructions from the angels about when and where the demons will be. Sam calls up Castiel for some help, but has to leave a message. Meanwhile, Leah gets another message and the boys help out the townfolk in taking down a house of demons, after which Leah tells the town that they have been chosen by the angels to have sunshine and rainbows after this nasty apocalypse business is over with, but they have to follow some rules. Sam is dubious about the rules, but Dean is pretty shut off about the whole thing in general. Enter – Angst! Our brothers’ bestest of friends! Sam tries to get through to Dean about how he’s really the only one keeping Sam sane throughout this whole thing, but Dean decides to blow him off and take a walk.

Sam doesn’t have long to be exasperated, because Cas shows up. Oh wait, I guess he still can be exasperated, because Castiel is completely toasted. He saw a liquor store, he drank it. And he also reveals that this Leah figure is not a prophet, after all! DUN DUN DUN. Dean, meanwhile, finds the townsfolk are trying to run one of their own out of town because he’s not following their new supposed angel-rules. And they end up killing the guy! Things? They be getting’ out of hand.

Because, as Castiel so politely informs us, Leah is actually the Whore of Babylon, who apparently rises with Lucifer and gives false prophecy to drive a bunch of people to Hell. All of the exorcisms have been fake! No wonder they seemed way too easy. I mean, remember the days when it took them a whole episode to get rid of just one demon? In any case, the only way to kill her is with a special Cyprus branch from Babylon, wielded by a true servant of Heaven. Since none of our intrepid heroes currently fit the bill, they seek out Padre Gideon.

They go into the lion’s den, where that evil whore (ha, it’s fun to call someone that and have it literally be true) is getting one particularly gung-ho townsperson named Jane to lock a bunch of people up so they can burn them alive. The Padre tries to kill the evil whore, but since she’s in the guise of his daughter, he can’t do it. Tussle, tussle, fight fight. Dean has a chance to drive the stake through her heart – and he does it. AND IT WORKS. Is he a true servant of Heaven after all? I had a million ideas running through my head about what was going on, but I’ll spare you.

Sam tries to have another conversation with Dean, asking him if the reason he was able to kill that evil whore (this will never get old) is because he’s going to do something stupid. Like, Michael stupid. Dean does the ole shrugaroo, then claims to go outside to get something from the car. Sam’s spidey sense is tingling, as it should, because Dean has just LIED to him. He takes off in the Metallicar to parts unknown. But not really, because we were told from that “THEN” segment that one Lisa-loo would be making an appearance.

So, as you may have guessed, Dean shows up on Lisa’s doorstep. And therein follows perhaps one of the most heartbreaking exchanges in the show’s history. He tells her that he knows where his life is headed, but whenever he imagines himself happy, he sees himself with her and Ben. She tries to get him to stay, but he refuses, though he does tell her he’s going to make sure that she and Ben are taken care of. DEAN!

I mean, it’s sort of become obvious that it’s only a matter of time before he’s going to say yes, but I guess I didn’t expect it to be so heartbreaking. Stupid of me, I know, because it’s all about the angsty heartbreak on this show. I have my dumb moments too, you know, like today when I took the wrong freeway exchange and proceeded to panic my way around desolate parts of the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles until I finally found a road I knew and made my way back to the correct freeway. There may have been a lot of cursing. But I digress.

The preview for next week was all disjointy again, but it looks like the ish is really about to hit the fan. And, you know, it should. Because this has been a kind of quiet apocalypse, and hey next week is already episode 18 and, OH WAIT, it’s also the 100TH episode! Way to go, little show that could!

*That would be from Mission: Impossible, the movie.

Quotes:

“Hate to tell ya this, but those were demons and this is the Apocalypse.” – Militia dude (apparently his name was Rob)

“Whole town of hunters? I don’t know whether to run screaming or buy a condo.” – Dean

“You’ve reached the voicemail of…” – voicemail lady’s voice
“I don’t understand… why, why do you want me to say my name?” – Castiel

“You know me, downright pious.” – Dean

“I guess that’s what it’s like, huh?” – Sam
“What?” – Dean
“Having backup.” – Sam

“No drinking, no gambling, no premarital sex. Dean, they basically just outlawed 90% of your personality.” – Sam

“I got your message. It was a long message. I find the sound of your voice grating.” – Castiel

“Are you okay?” - Sam
“Don’t ask stupid questions.” - Castiel

“It actually means you, uh, breed with the mouth of a goat. … It’s funnier in Enochian.” – Castiel

“So how do we go Pimp of Babylon all over this bitch?” – Dean

“Sam, of course, is an abomination.” – Castiel

“On a good day you get to kill a whore.” – Dean

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x12 "Father Unfigured"

Just to get this out of the way up front - do we think maybe, just maybe, State Farm was a sponsor of this episode? Seriously, that was over the top promotion. I even have State Farm, people.

Anyway. On to the episode itself, which I think I can say with confidence, finally lived up to the promise of the pilot episode. In past episodes, things have gotten a little too schmaltzy with the ending, but this time I actually felt emotionally invested and it didn't seem as overly cheesy as it has in the past. Probably because of all of the cute family bonding. Love me some Starship.

The basic set up of the episode was this - Cate found these old birthday cards that her dad had sent to her over the years, but her mom had never shown her. Convinced her dad wasn't the deadbeat she had grown up thinking he was, she determined that she would go find him, via a road trip to Lake Tahoe, with Lux along for the ride.

Meanwhile, Bug's old supposed friend Gavin showed up, hustling Bug for money that he apparently owed or some such, in the process totally ruining Baze's bar with graffiti and lots of overturned chairs and general mess. He didn't want Baze to see, because Baze had warned him about leaving the past in the past. Therefore, he makes Lux work her charms to get Baze to go on the road trip with her and Cate, saying she wants to experience the classic family road trip.

And they do! With lots of bathroom breaks, a stop at a Corn Dog stand and lots and lots of Starship, they made their way to Lake Tahoe, to meet Cate's dad, Grant. But not before they had a run in with a chicken truck, and were forced to stay the night at a bed and breakfast, where Baze and Cate ended up sharing a bed, and woke up spooning in the morning, despite a pillow wall being constructed. Yeah, those pillow walls rarely last.

They finally make it to Cate's dad's place, and at first everything seems okay. They chat and he agrees to come up to Portland for her wedding, but Baze has a bad feeling about the guy. He sees in him what he used to be - someone who doesn't want to be a dad. He tries to warn Cate, even after getting a warning from Lux that she'll just be mad at him. Which is exactly what happens. Shoot the messenger, per usual. Baze goes to leave, but Lux tries to stop him, confessing that she really wanted him to come because Bug is trying to fix up the bar before he gets back. Way to ruin his night by making him feel even more unwanted, Lux! He drives off.

But in the morning, when Grant is supposed to pick up Cate and Lux to drive up to Portland, he totally brushes them off. Cate confronts him about it, and he confesses that he never wanted to be a dad, and he still doesn't. She realizes that she's been blaming Baze for a lot of the issues in her life, but really a lot of them come from her dad. It turns out that Baze didn't leave the night before either. He's there, ready and waiting to be her shoulder (or chest, since he is so much taller than her!) to cry on. Awww.

They make the trip back up to Portland, and Cate apologizes to Baze for blaming him for everything, and says she's seen him change. Back at his loft, Lux also tells him that she's seen him change, and that compared to the other dads she's come to know since moving in, he's the best there is. Awwww again. But she also brings up the fact that he's totally in love with Cate. He confesses that he thought it would go away, but now he's not so sure that he wants it to go away. They really felt like a family on that road trip, and it felt good. Indeed, so much better than when Baze is sparring with Ryan over something or other.

In the end, Lux makes the decision to let Baze and Cate become her legal guardians. I didn't really remember that she had those papers for "when she was ready," but it came back to me once she brought them out. And we end with the three of them hugging and being generally adorable.

Next week is the big wedding event, and the season finale! Will Cate and Ryan actually get married? Will Baze confess his feelings? And... will we get a season two?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 3x13 "Chuck versus the Other Guy"

I’m not gonna lie, I may have teared up a little at that ending. Now that was satisfying. I know it was hyped up to be everything we’ve been waiting for, and sometimes that can be a let down, but I can say with confidence that it was definitely not a let down! So much happened. So let’s just get straight into it.

Things opened from the cliffhanger of last week with Shaw taking Sarah to some undisclosed location. Chuck was freaking out because he believed Shaw was going to kill Sarah, so he brought in the big guns to save her. But when Shaw revealed to Sarah that it was his wife she had killed during his red test, instead of taking sweet, sweet revenge on her, he played it cool, saying there was no way she could’ve known. Chuck’s mission to rescue her? Not needed.

But all is not so well and happy, because General Beckman has decided to go through with her original plan of sending Shaw and Sarah to DC to head their Ring operation, leaving Chuck behind in Burbank until she could figure out what to do with him. This sends Chuck into a booze and Guitar Hero-filled tailspin, which only Sarah is able to get him out of. And do you know how?! Because she finally admits that she loves him! Yes!

Alas, their happiness and kisses are short-lived, because she was really just there to tell Chuck that they have another mission. They’re to infiltrate some sort of headquarters to, I think, get the head director guy (Mark A. Sheppard, who we met in hologram form last week). While they are working on that, Shaw gets ambushed by some agents and goes to fight town. Only this fight looks ultra fake. But guess what, it turns out that it’s supposed to be fake! Only we don’t know that right now.

ANYWAY. Back in the elevator, things are going okay for a while, then they have some issues in an elevator, ending up surrounded by Ring agents. But it’s Shaw to save the day. He swoops in just in time and shoots all of the baddies, sending Chuck and Sarah off while he enters the elevator alone with the Ring director. Who he doesn’t actually kill! Because they’re working together! Oh and did I mention the Ring is working on their own Intersect, that has something called a Cypher? Seems every bad guy is working on his own Intersect.

The team thinks everything is going swimmingly, and Beckman sends Sarah and Shaw off to Paris for the next phase of the mission, which I’m not really clear on, because I was paying more attention to the emotional beats of this whole episode. So after they’ve left, Chuck is gushing to Morgan about how everything is great, and shows him this video of Shaw fighting the bad guys, and Morgan notices that he’s totally pulling the punches and the kicks! Well, DUH! Come on, Intersect, you don’t see that? I felt vindicated when that was revealed, because it really did look ultra fake. Chuck tries to tell Beckman about the fakeness of it all, but when she sees Morgan in Castle, she flips and shuts him out.

Which leaves Chuck and Morgan to save the day? No, there is another. Casey! Morgan delivers a rather awesome speech to Casey and gets him re-motivated to go after Sarah. While Chuck and Casey fly across the Atlantic, searching for clues in Shaw’s files for where they might be…

Shaw takes Sarah to the very spot where she killed his wife. Well, this cannot be good, now can it? No, it’s not. Sarah gets tranqed by one of the Ring dudes, and the Ring director shows up. They have a little sit down – the tranq doesn’t knock her out, just makes it so her nervous system doesn’t work – Shaw couldn’t get over what happened, he’s the newest Ring member. He’s going to take down the agency that ordered the wrongful termination of his wife – the CIA. And he’s going to do that by killing Sarah, to send a message.

However, before he can do that! Chuck! Chuck arrives, holding a gun to his head. But he’s still wary about guns, and ends up getting into fisticuffs with Shaw, which doesn’t end well for Chuck because he’s emotionally compromised because Sarah is in such danger. Shaw takes Sarah and tells Chuck not to come after him. But come now, Shaw, you know that Chuck is going to come after Sarah!

And he does. He comes head to head with Shaw again on a bridge. But this time, when push comes to shove, he actually pulls the trigger, shooting Shaw square in the chest a couple of times. He flops over the bridge and tries to take Sarah with him into the water, but Chuck grabs her in time. It’s sayonara to Shaw. (But is it really? People are always coming back from the dead on this show.)

Casey has, meanwhile, caught the Ring director. He makes a deal with Beckman that he will be reinstated to his former glory, and will also get a new Crown Vic. And he has one last request – that Morgan becomes an official member of Team Bartowski. Oh man, where will this lead?

And now, the most awesome scene for any long time fan of the show. Back in Paris, Sarah awakens. Chuck is clearly concerned that she’s not going to still love him because he had to kill Shaw. And honestly, I was a little worried that they were going to have that happen, if only to prolong their separation. But they didn’t! Talk about a satisfying ending. Chuck gets the girl, and he gets her in Paris, where he’s always wanted to go! Awwww! Okay, yes, that’s when my girlyness kicks in and I get a little teary-eyed. Shut up.

Chuck is taking a break for 3 weeks, but the preview looked pretty kick ass for when it returns.

Quotes:
“I could be your second in command/personal assistant. Batman needs Alfred. Bond needs Q. Chuck, hey, you need me.” – Morgan

“You’ll be forwarded to a Colonel Sanders. Don’t make fun of his name.” – Casey

“Thank you for saving me. I appreciated the tank.” – Sarah

“I think Morgan is dying. I call dibs on his locker. Its location is far more prodigious than my own.” – Lester

“Are you mixing gaming with whiskey?” – Morgan

“She said she couldn’t be with someone who didn’t believe in her. Well I believe in her. I just didn’t believe in me.” – Drunk and despondent Chuck
“Dude, you are misquoting the line, and you are ruining Pretty in Pink for me.” – Morgan

“You’re still my Chuck.” - Sarah

“Well, okay. My time as a spy was pretty exciting. Albeit, a bit brief.” – Morgan

“No, there is another.” – Morgan

“The man’s been Buy More’d.” - Morga

“Morgan, go to my closet and get me my suit. The black one.” – Casey (YES!)

“Shut up and kiss me.” - Sarah

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Orange Glazed Monkey Bread

Yesterday I went to a friend's place for an Easter brunch get together.After this particular monkey bread was a hit last year, I decided to make it again. You know, stick to the tried and true. And because I didn't have internet at home to try to look up something else. Yeah, I need to get that no internet at home thing remedied. But, back to the matter at hand! I know you can make this with some Bisquick and it would take less time, but read on to see the homemade version, that results in this:

Oh yeah, just try to resist that.

Orange Glazed Monkey Bread

1 pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (100-110° F)
¼ cup sugar, divided
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup warm milk (100-110° F)
2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
Cooking spray

Brown sugar mixture
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
6 Tbsp butter, melted, cooled and divided

Glaze
1 cup confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
1 Tbsp milk
¼ tsp orange extract

Mix yeast, warm water and 1 Tbsp sugar together in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes until bubbly. Add flour, salt and remaining sugar to the bowl. Either attach a dough hook to a mixer and mix on low, or mix by hand. Mix the milk and 2 Tbsp melted butter together, then add to the bowl. Let dough knead for 5 or 6 minutes (or knead by hand); scrape dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.

Spray a fluted ring pan (bundt) with cooking spray. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and place on a plate. Deflate dough, which will be very sticky, and pinch off tablespoon-sized pieces, roll between palms, dip in melted butter, roll in brown sugar mixture, and place evenly around ring pan. The pan should be 1/3 filled with dough when finished. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise overnight in the refrigerator.

In the morning, remove dough from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350° F. Bake bread for 30 to 35 minutes; if the top gets too dark, cover with foil. Let bread sit for 5 minutes before turning out onto serving plate. Stir together the confectioner’s sugar, milk and orange extract; pour evenly over bread.

This is after the yeast/water/sugar, which I didn't take a photo of because it wasn't really aggressively bubbly. Anyway, here all the flour, remaining sugar, and salt have been added. I believe I said to myself, huh, this doesn't look right. Then I remembered...

Of course it didn't look right yet! Because I still had to add the milk and the butter! Derrrr. I don't have a dough hook thingamajig, so I just used my hands. And BOY was it sticky. Super super sticky. I probably lost a couple tablespoons of dough to my hands.

After you let the dough rise for an hour, it's ready to be dipped in the above - butter first, then the brown sugar/cinnamon mix. As you can see, I didn't put the mix on a plate, just used the bowl. It's fine.

As this step was also super messy, you just get a photo of the finished product in the Bundt pan. Cover this baby up and put it in the fridge overnight. Let the yeast do its thing.

And in the morning, bake it up! Let it sit for a bit to congeal together.

Plop it out onto a plate. Pretend that a little bit didn't fall off and stick it back on.

Now, you can stop here and it would be perfectly fine. But if you want to get fancy and give it that little extra something, and you know you do, then...

Whip up some glaze! The orange extract gives it a little oomph.

Drizzle drizzle drizzle.

Mmmm... 

I would like to stress that you do not want to overbake this. I baked it for the minimum suggested time of 30 minutes, and I don't know if last year I baked it longer or if my oven was the culprit, but last year? It was not so soft and fluffy on the inside. It got a little dry. But this year, it was nice and moist. And now I have some leftovers to nibble on after the aforementioned brunch crowd ate about 2/3 of it. Good on its own, even better when given a little zap in the microwave.

...Set: Supernatural 5x16 "Dark Side of the Moon"

After last week’s sort of snoozefest (not to dis on a Bobby episode, but come on), this week really amped things back up! I’d say it ranks pretty high on my favorites-of-this-season list. Could it be because we got to see a bunch of awesome past guest stars? Some more family memories of the Winchesters growing up? Some answers to the whole search for God thing that has not been mentioned but a peep since around episode two? Why Auntie Em, it’s all three!

(I apologize in advance, because this recap is going to be one of the longest on record here. But hey, a lot happened!!)

The episode opens on the boys getting a rude awakening in this week’s random motel in who-knows-where by a couple of other hunters by the names of Roy and Walt. These two aren’t too happy about this whole Apocalypse-schmocalypse, and are there for a bit of comeuppance. They kill Sam, and after debating on whether to kill Dean, pump his guts full of lead as well. And thus begins the episode of awesome, because if you didn’t like that transition from the gun shooting to the title card, then you do not know good when it splats you in the face.

Dean wakes up in the Impala in some abandoned field, and when a teenage Sam (Colin Ford! Always good to see him!) comes up to him with a box of fireworks, he assumes he must be having a wacky dream that has morphed into this specific, totally sweet 4th of July memory. But the memory soon gets disturbed by Dean remembering he’s been killed. Then he gets a call of sorts from Castiel on the Impala’s radio. Castiel informs Dean that he’s died and gone to Heaven, and that he has to follow his “path” – which happens to be just a regular old road, since the Winchesters tend to be sort of literal.

Dean follows the road and finds Sam reliving a memory of his first real Thanksgiving (with someone else’s family, no less). Dean gives him the lowdown, after which some weird light and shaky-shaky happens. Castiel gets in contact with them again and informs them that the light is Zachariah looking for them. They need to avoid that light and follow their road, to get to the Garden in order to talk to the angel Joshua, who apparently has a direct line of communication with the Great Almighty He Him God. Yes, we shall call this “god” whatsit GAHHG from now on. Well, I suppose that may be offensive to religious types, but hey, what do I care?

Anyhow, they follow the road, which leads them to their old house in Kansas back when Dean was a wee lad, and here we get our second guest star in Mary, this time in the form of Samantha Smith. It’s another sweet scene that turns a little sour when Dean remembers that it wasn’t always sunshine and roses for his parents. As Sam puts it, Dean was cleaning up John’s messes even when he was just barely past his toddler years. Aw, wittle Dean!

They head down some more road into a couple of Sam’s memories – both of which feature him running away from John and, by de facto, Dean. Once when he took off for two weeks to Flagstaff (I don’t really remember this being mentioned before, but it probably was at some point), and the second being the infamous “If you leave don’t you ever come back!” time when he left for Stanford. Dean is disturbed that these are his favorite memories, since they happen to be some of the worst times in Dean’s life. Ah, boys, there’s the brotherly angst we know and love! Dean’s favorite memories all have to do with family! Sam’s all have to do with running away from it! Man, these guys have had truly sad and lonely lives. Well, this isn’t news, but it’s always sad to be reminded.

Before they can get into their issues too much, Zachariah shows up with his spotlight. They try to outrun him, literally, but since it’s Heaven and Zac’s an angel, I think we can surmise how that turns out. He taunts them for a bit until, bum bum bum bum, ASH (Chad Lindberg) saves the day! Ah, Ash. So good to see you, too! He gives them some intel about Heaven – it’s not just one place, it’s a bunch of individual places tailor made for each person. And this isn’t the first time Sam and Dean have been behind the pearly gates, they just don’t remember the previous times. He’s figured out how to tap into the Angels’ network and can travel into other people’s Heavens and such, and he also has a visitor wanting to see them. It’s… Pamela (Traci Dinwiddie)!

Pamela and Dean have a chat, wherein Pamela asks Dean whether saying yes to Michael would really be so bad when the people who might be killed would end up in Heaven anyway. Good point, Pam. It’s getting more and more questionable why Dean doesn’t say yes anymore. Ash has, meanwhile, been cooking up a way for the boys to take a shortcut to the Garden.

Alas, however, the door he sends them through just leads them back to their house in Lawrence, to meet a really super creepy version of Mary who taunts Dean, telling him he was a burden and that everyone always leaves him. Zachariah shows up, as it was all his doing, and they have more of their tête-à-tête until Joshua decides to crash the party. He gives Zac a little talking to and sends him packing, then takes the boys to the oft-mentioned (in this episode, anyway) garden.

There in the garden, Joshua does a whole lot of hope slashing. The boys want to talk to GAHHG and get him to help, but Josh informs them that GAHHG’s done helping, he’s already intervened on their behalf more than he has in a long time. In short, they are on their own. Josh sends them back to Earth, but this time they get to remember what happened upstairs.

Castiel is really upset about this news on GAHHG. He looks quite dejected, and gives Dean back his amulet (calling it “useless”! The gall!) before taking off. Sam tries to muster up some good cheer about continuing the fight and finding a way to stop all this Apocalypse hoopla, but Dean’s response is to throw the amulet away on his way out the door. Awww no!

I do have a question, though. Sam makes it up to Heaven, but they send him back down. It makes sense for Zachariah to do that since he wants the whole fight thing to happen, but why should Joshua do it? I guess maybe Lucifer would try to bring Sam back anyway, so it doesn’t matter? Hmm. Hmmmmmm.

Quotes:

“When I come back, I’m gonna be pissed.” – Dean

“You gotta stop poking around in my dreams. I need some me time.” – Dean

“I’m dead.” – Dean
“Condolences.” – Castiel

“How are we in Heaven?” – Sam

“Last time I checked, it wasn’t the road to Heaven that was paved with good intentions.” – Sam

“Yeah well, if this is the Sky Mall, it sucks. I mean, where’s the triplets and the latex, you know? A guy has needs.” – Dean

“What are you doing?” - Sam
“What’s it look like?” - Dean
“Like you’ve lost your mind.” – Sam

“Apparently, you wuv hugs.” – Sam

“You are my little angel. How ‘bout some pie?” – Mary

“This is your idea of Heaven? Wow, this is like one of the worst nights of my life.” – Dean

“Wow. Running from angels. On foot. In Heaven. With out of the box thinking like that, I’m surprised you boys haven’t stopped the Apocalypse already.” – Zachariah

“Guys, come on. You can run, but you can’t run.” – Zachariah

“Buenos dias, bitches.” – Ash

“Like Disneyland. Except without all the anti-Semitism.” – Ash

“Einstein. That man can mix a White Russian.” – Ash

“If it makes you feel any better, we got Ash killed too.” - Dean
“I’m cool with it.” – Ash
“He’s cool with it.” - Dean

“Not to be a downer or anything, but I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.” - Ash

“You can do it all you want, you dick. You’re still bald.” – Dean

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