Sunday, March 30, 2014

'Grimm' 3x16 'The Show Must Go On' GifTweetCap: Wesen and Squirrel Abuse Alert!

Most of the following gifs are available on this Tumblr post. "The Show Must Go On” is the most Wesen-rich episode of Grimm to date! Did you know that carnivals all the way back to P.T. Barnum used and mistreated Wesen? Neither did I! I guess it makes sense though. But what about the hideous one-horned goat-icorn? Was that Wesen too? Either way, someone needs to call the ASPCA, stat!
The episode opens with Steampunk Löwen Ringleader Hedig (Carlo Rota) at a carnival taking a bow after shooting a Blutbad (Sam Witwer). The audience doesn't know anything about Wesen, of course, and the Blutbad survives his wounds. It's all part of the act.
Two girls find the Blutbad and beg him to make them scream, so he does.
Meanwhile, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) decide to get married in the woods, and they ask Nick (David Giuntoli) and Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) to be their best man and maid of honor. Later, Nick has a nice little dream about the wedding, in which he kills everyone and beheads Monroe's gramma after a couple of kids woge and begin screaming when they see that Nick is a Grimm.
The two girls are found murdered, so Nick and Hank (Russell Hornsby) are brought in on the case. Hedig is busy, so they end up watching part of the show. Nick is surprised to see them going into full woge, seen by all, which he doesn't believe is allowed.
At the Adalind (Claire Coffee) and Meisner (Damien Puckler) show in Austria, the pair find Sebastien (Christian Lagadec) and one of the prince's (Alexis Denisof) goons. Adalind (and/or her baby) makes short work of the goon's face using her newly souped-up Hexen-powers.
Nick and Hank speak with Hedig backstage. Nick can see that Max, the Blutbad, is clearly falling apart. He tries to dig a bit about the "masks" worn by the Wesen, but Hedig simply says that they are Made in China.
After Nick and Hank leave, Max's girlfriend Genevieve (Chryssie Whitehead), a Fuchsbau, realizes that he may be responsible for the deaths. She breaks his bottle of booze, which sends him into a craze. He pushes her down, and she cuts her leg on the broken glass. The other Wesen just happen to enter right then, and everyone is sure that Max is the killer.
Back in Austria, Sebastien stays behind to take responsibility for giving in to torture and leading the prince to Adalind and her baby, while Meisner and Adalind and her baby steal one of the prince's cars. Sebastian gets off three shots when the goons return, killing three of them before running out of bullets. The prince then takes it upon himself to kill Sebastien.
Nick tells Monroe and Rosalee about the carnival, and they suggest that the participants are going through something called Umkippen, caused by repeatedly forcing oneself to go full woge. It basically makes the animal side of a Wesen more pronounced, slowly destroying the human side.
Rosalee decides that they may be able to handle the situation better than Nick, since they are Wesen rather than Grimm. It doesn't really work the way they planned, as Rosalee is immediately pulled in to audition as they are asking questions. The Fuchsbau of the show is injured after all, so Hedig hires her almost immediately after she responds to his creepy orders to woge and turn around.
The show starts soon, so Rosalee begins getting dressed in her costume. Monroe pops his head in to try to talk her out of it when one of her "colleagues," Sid (Dan Considine), opens her curtain to warn her that the show starts in six minutes.
The show begins, but Rosalee gets stage fright, even more so after Hedig cracks his whip in her direction.
Max is furious that Hedig even replaced Genevieve in the show, so he begins his part early, knocking down everyone on his way to take a bite out of Rosalee. Monroe saves her, but gets a little carried away at the thought of Max hurting her. She has to pull him off and remind him that Max is sick and doesn't know what he's doing.
Nick and Hank learn that murder has been following the carnival for longer than Max had been a member, and the only constant was Hedig. Once the other performers learn the truth, they gang up on Hedig in the obligatory "funhouse" of mirrors to kill him. The Dämonfeuer (Jarrod Zinn) gets to do the deed against the powerful Löwen, roasting him up by igniting a little fat-infused spit.
They get their happy ending, with Max spending their trip off into the sunset in a cage. How lovely.

The show isn't quite over until the fat lady sings... or until the carnival-costume-clad Fuchsbau jumps into bed for some foxy-wolf fun.

'Elementary' 2x18 'The Hound of the Cancer Cells' GifTweetCap: Poor Chipmunk!

The following gifs can be found on this Tumblr post. "The Hound of the Cancer Cells” episode of Elementary is not quite what it sounds like. It’s not really a take on "The Hound of the Baskervilles,” but just a clever name based on a cancer research device. Still, it has the sufficient twists and turns we’ve come to expect from the series. Oh, and the show has been renewed!
The episode begins with Det. Bell (Jon Michael Hill) presenting Watson (Lucy Liu) with her own case of finding missing witness Nicole Watkins (Christina Jackson). Then, we cut to a guy named Barry Granger (Jason Danieley) being helium-murdered in a shower at work.
Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) quickly deduces the method of murder.

Granger had been working on a lung-cancer-detecting breathalyzer that he called The Hound, but a journalist known as Adam Peer had claimed that the published results had been faked. His boss, Hank Prince (Mather Zickel), has an alibi placing him with his girlfriend at the time of the murder, and he also claims that the results were not falsified. Plus, why would he want to devalue his own company?
After some searching, Sherlock and Watson find that Adam Peer was actually Granger himself, along with a woman from another company. They had worked together in proving that the results of other, harmful products had been falsified. Their Adam Peer name was hijacked in order to put out a false report about The Hound, destroying the credibility of Granger and his company.
Meanwhile, Watson finds the witness, but she is afraid to testify because she's pregnant. She is staying with an old teacher, Manny Rose (Ron Canada), who had been a legend in Bell's community for chasing off gangbangers with a bat. Bell says that she doesn't have to testify, but Rose is not happy about that. He decides to take matters into his own hands to kill Martens, the murderer Watkins was scheduled to testify against. Rose gets the job done, but Martens' friends shoot Rose in the process, leaving Bell in a funk.
In another side story, Watson keeps trying to ask Sherlock why he doesn't want to go to a recovery party for Bell, but he keeps cutting her off. Eventually, he points out that it's because the party is at a bar, and he's a drug addict. Like, duh! But Watson had no idea it was going to be at a bar.

Back to the main plot... Sherlock wakes Watson early, once again, to work on the case. He then presents her with a run-on sentence of coffee-fueled thoughts.
Prince comes back into focus when his estranged wife is shot with his own gun. Once again, his girlfriend serves as his alibi. Sherlock doesn't fall for it this time, after speaking with competitors who would have the best motive for destroying Prince. No, Prince actually had the best motive for temporarily destroying himself, devaluing his own company so that his wife would not be able to get any of his money when they divorced. He could then build the company back up again later.
His plan fell apart when Sherlock and Watson solved the case too quickly (before the divorce was finalized), so Prince had to kill his wife to make it look as if he was being framed. But when Sherlock checked the girlfriend’s files, they found that she was searching dating sites for men who looked like Prince… and the partition in the cab was set so that the cab driver could only see the girlfriend.
The episode closes at Bell's party. Sherlock has changed his mind about going, but Bell doesn't want to go inside because of his sadness over the death of his favorite legend. Sherlock offers an alternative.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

'Person of Interest' 3x17 '/' ('Root Path'): Root's God

Most of the following gifs are available on this Tumblr post. Person of Interest returns to being epic with the episode “/“ (“Root Path”). For anyone who doesn’t know the reference, “/“ is the root path of many operating systems, such as UNIX and Linux. When you have “root” control of the system, it means you have full control. And there is actually a “root” user. As a software engineer, I am tempted to go into even more detail, but I will refrain from boring my readers to tears.
The episode begins with a bus full of prisoners stopping for a woman lying on the street. Of course, the woman is Root, and she's got an affinity for tasing people under the chin.
She releases Prisoner Billy while tasing a bully. One of the funniest lines of the episode comes from another prisoner, claiming to also be "Billy," in hopes of rescue.
Root gives Billy a few orders via the Machine, including the learning of a new accent, shaving, and learning a signature. Everything they need just happens to be on the street as they walk, including Billy's new wardrobe. Well, God... er... the Machine will provide -- at least for Root.
All of this leads up to a quick interchange between Billy and a man with a letter. He just has to pretend to be a similar-looking man, so he can sign for a letter that will give Root and the Machine the information they need for the next step.
Root then gives Billy a kiss on the cheek after relaying the information he'll need to survive a long stint in prison.
Root's next target for protection coincides with the number given to Finch: Cyrus. Cyrus is just a janitor, but the gang soon finds that he is wanted by both Decima and Vigilance, meaning he has something to do with the Machine or it's cousin Samaritan.
Root takes control, keeping an eye on Cyrus while the rest of the gang runs around trying to protect them from all the dangers lurking about. The first to get injured is Shaw's phone, while Collier shoots at her.
She gets them back, however, kneecapping a sniper who is about to kill Root.
Next, Reese grabs the guy whose coming at Root and Cyrus from the other direction.
There is still too much danger, so Root steals a homeless guy's booze and a few eggs from a grocery bag in order to get Cyrus arrested. Fusco will keep an eye on him!
Then, Root takes him back using her shiny new FBI badge. Fusco gets the funniest line of the episode, when telling Reese why he had to let Cyrus go — ”Sorry Boss, Agent King is actually a superpowered nutball; just ask my buddy the Urban Legend.”
Reese warns Root that she needs his help, but she refuses it. That is, until Decima takes "countermeasures" to turn off all cellular activity, leaving Root in the dark. Reese is able to shoot a couple of them, but they get away with Cyrus.
It turns out that Root killed Cyrus' friends and coworkers for money back when she was one of the bad guys. She wonders whether the Machine chose him on purpose to make amends, and she will do everything she can to save him.
She also refuses to live even one second without the voice of her "God" in her ear, so she asks Finch to install a direct link to the Machine in her Cochlear implant (Control removed her right one, remember?). She then threatens an ear doctor to have him insert the new device.
Meanwhile, Decima uses Cyrus' eye to enter a room containing the chip they need to finish Samaritan. This is all they needed him for, and send him to be killed now that they've got what they want.
Then, Root saves the day, sort of. She saves Cyrus with help from Finch and Reese, but the chip has already been taken. The chip is even more important in the overall scheme of things because, as Root puts it, the Machine could lose the battle of the war between "two Gods," and Finch, Reese, Shaw, and Root will be the first to die in the battle.
Shaw, however, is completely unaware of all the Decima goings-on after being trapped on her own all day in a building with Collier and Vigilance. All she wants is a drink, and something for her gunshot wound.
At the end, Root is off to save the world, and Fusco has agreed to be her chauffeur.