Supernatural Returns and Dean is Back!

For an entire season of Supernatural last year I sat on the edge of my seating wondering how Sam and Dean were going to get Dean out of the deal he made at the end of the second season with the crossroads demon trading his life after a year for Sam’s.  Imagine my surprise last May, when no loop hole was found and Dean was sent to Hell!

Supernatural - Season 4 - "Lazarus Rising" - Jensen Ackles as Dean, Traci Dinwiddle as Pamela Barnes, Jim Beaver as Bobby and Jared Padalecki as Sam. Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/The CW

I have to give Eric Kripke big kudos for not taking the easy road and saving Dean.  The final scene of finale was epic.  But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thrilled when I read that Dean returns from Hell in this week’s Season 4 premiere.

I’ve waited an entire summer to find out what has happened to the Winchester brothers.  How does Dean escape Hell?  Even their father couldn’t do that (until they opened the devil’s gate).  How has Sam managed without Dean?  Have we truly seen the last of Lilith?  If so, who’s the new big bad this season?

Other than the big news that Dean returns, everyone in Camp Supernatural is being pretty tight-lipped on what’s to come in Season 4.  In an interview, writer/producer Sera Gamble’s standard answer was watch and see.

This week’s episode is aptly titled “Lazarus Risings” and the boys along with fellow hunter Bobby will be heading to see a psychic in order to find answers.

You will find me glued to my television on Thursdays from now on.  Is anyone else excited as me that the boys are back?

I was so awed by the Season 3 finale that I’ve left it on my DVR all summer (call it my security blanket for a summer without the Winchesters) until my husband deleted the episode this week.  I was about to take his head off when he gave me the Season 3 DVD.  Instead he got kisses. 

Now I’m off to re-watch the season finale so I’m ready for tomorrow night.

Until then, here’s a promo of what’s to come:

Is Nina Fringe’s Cigarette Smoking Man?

It’s a good thing I’ve already had my children because the opening scene of Fringe’s “The Same Old Story” was freaky enough for me to never want to be pregnant again.

FRINGE airing Tuesdays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) this fall on FOX. Pictured: Blair Brown as Nina Sharp ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Michael Lavine/FOX

But that scene wasn’t nearly as unexpected as seeing the creepy Nina Sharp among the suits Broyles is updating with the latest case and bios of his new team in the second episode of J.J. Abram’s latest thriller.

We are only two weeks into this new series, but it’s already clear that Nina isn’t someone to be trusted.  Last week the Chief Operating Officer of Massive Dynamics was almost threatening towards Olivia.  The two met when Olivia was looking for the man who released the nasty toxin.  That man turned out to be a former MD employee.

Anyone else wonder how Nina defines “former?”

Add the fact that the yet unseen founder of MD, William Bell, is Walter’s former lab partner and you have to admit that Nina is pretty suspicious.  So why on earth is Broyles briefing her?

All I could think of was the X-Files’ Cigarette Smoking Man.  He appeared to work with Mulder and Scully while secretly getting briefs on their work and himself working for the force that is behind much of the phenomenon the agents were investigating.

Sounds like Nina.  But instead of chain smoking, she’s got that creepy robotic arm.  We’ve yet to see who she works for and she’s suddenly very helpful to Olivia.

Interesting that Nina is so helpful when she was so verbal in that briefing that she didn’t think that Olivia, Walter and Peter were the appropriate people for Broyles’ new team.

Also, pretty fascinating that Massive Dynamics just happens to hold the patent on the experimental piece of equipment that Walter and Peter need to identify the killer in this week’s mystery.  Exactly what does Massive Dynamics do?  And what are they using this equipment for?

And when Olivia returns the equipment, Nina tries to insert herself as a confidant, pumping Olivia for information about the case, even offering her a job.  Now that’s one way to get Olivia to stop pursuing the Pattern.

But Olivia saw through the ruse.  And apparently Broyles isn’t all that taken in by Nina either, offering Olivia a warning about the MD executive.

Still I’m left wondering who that committee was that Broyles is briefing and why Nina has a seat on it.

What do you think?

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House finds out “Dying Changes Everything”

It’s been two months since House (Hugh Laurie) was unable to save Amber, Wilson’s girlfriend who was fatally wounded in a bus accident after bailing a drunken House out of a bar in last season’s finale.

HOUSE: The team (L-R: Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson, Omar Epps and Kal Penn) discusses the case of a young woman who has a strange hallucination during a business meeting in the HOUSE season premiere episode

In “Dying Changes Everything,” the fifth season premiere, we find House is still up to his old tricks.  This time he’s playing video games – which he stole from the pediatric ward – in a coma patient’s room and using the coma patient’s hand as a cup holder.

But are things really the same for House?

We quickly find out he hasn’t seen Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) for the last two months and he jumps at a new case just to avoid seeing Wilson now that he’s returned from his sabbatical.

Enter patient of the week – an assistant to a high-powered feminist (Jamie Rose) who hallucinates being covered in bugs and rips off her own clothes in front of a room full of male clients.  I don’t think we ever learn her name which might be symbolic of how she thinks of herself as significant (according to imdb.com, the patient’s name is Lou).

The patient (Christine Woods) thinks she’s just run down.  House blames it on her being a feminist (Jamie Rose).  But additional symptoms appear – rectal bleeding, an atopic pregnancy, eye blinking, fever and bruises.  And the diagnosis game begins. 

In the meantime House spills the beans about 13’s (Olivia Wilde) Huntington’s before he finally goes to see Wilson who has decided to resign.  House reacts as only House can by badgering Wilson to stay.

When that doesn’t work, House tries to recruit help.  First he attempts to sucker in Cameron (Jennifer Morrison).  She tells him to let Wilson grieve.  He responds with “Grief is like Newark.  It’s there you can’t avoid it.”

Then he hits up Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) to talk to Wilson.  She tells House to apologize to Wilson only to wonder if House really feels any guilt over Amber’s death.  We later learn that House is just unwilling to acknowledge his own guilt.

When all else fails, House resorts to blackmail.  He refuses to help the patient until Wilson agrees not to resign.  He leaves Wilson his phone and goes home.

Cuddy orders House back to the hospital.  When he refuses, she hits him where it hurts and turns off his cable.  She tries “couple counseling” with House and Wilson, but House’s team is still left to muddle through a diagnosis sans House.

HOUSE: Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard, R) returns from his leave after Amber

But at the last minute House saves the day with a correct diagnosis.  It turns out the patient had a type of leprosy which makes her look younger (what a side effect!).  And House finally gives Wilson a sincere apology.

But Wilson still resigns and reveals the real reason – House spreads misery and Wilson’s had enough.

Who knew Wilson had a backbone?  And that’s the first time I can remember House apologizing and meaning it.  And it didn’t get him the results he wanted so I guess we’ll never see him do that again.

But the bigger issue is what will House do without his Wilson?

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