Next Tuesday is launch day for The Dark Tower Companion (although you can preorder it in trade paperback, Kindle and Nook formats now, not to mention the Cemetery Dance limited edition). Last weekend I was interviewed by Blu Gilliand for October Country and that piece appeared today. He also reviewed that book—that will run tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I’m getting ready for a business trip to Tokyo that has me leaving on Easter Sunday morning. The flight is nonstop, but I don’t arrive until Monday afternoon, thanks to the time shift. I come back on Friday, leaving Tokyo at 4 p.m. and arriving home at 2 p.m. on the same day. Weird stuff. I’m trying to get a couple of things finished up before I leave. I started a book review for CD this morning and should have it done by Friday. I have two other essays that I need to write, but I might leave those for the flights, as I’ll have plenty of time to kill. Unless I spend the whole time watching in-flight movies.
I’m sure the introduction of Norman’s half brother provides any number of opportunities for the writers on Bates Motel, but by the end of the episode I was hoping Norman had managed to make that hammer connect. He upsets the status quo for the Bates family, but also for the viewer, I think. I’m sticking with the show for now—it has its moments—but I’m less sold on it than I was after the first episode. I already dropped Red Widow from my DVR. I just didn’t care.
Does everyone on NCIS have father issues? I noted that fact the other night when I saw the rerun episode starring Lily Tomlin as McGee’s grandmother. It was revealed that McGee hadn’t spoken to his father in seven years. Last night’s episode brought them face to face and it was ugly and uncomfortable for a while. Gibbs has managed to mend fences with his father, but they had a long hiatus. Tony’s father is a grifter and a con and a mooch. Ziva’s father was angry with her for leaving Israel to work with the Americans, and now he’s dead. All we know about Abby’s father is that he’s dead. Has Ducky ever talked about his father?
I’m not sure there’s ever been a more sympathetic hang-dog character than Ellen May on Justified. She’s such a sad sack. Her scene in the motel room with Limehouse showed just how much she has given up her fate to others. No wonder she is so fond of Shelby—he came back for her and did her a kindness. In this penultimate episode of the season, Theo’s crew is still trying to find a way to leverage Shelby out of testifying against him, but their options are getting limited. However, he has ears everywhere, including presumably inside law enforcement because he already knows that Shelby wants to make sure Ellen May is safe before talking.
Boyd has a whole list of problems: Theo Tonin, Ellen May and Johnny are at the top (or, as Art described the reasons why Raylan was suspended, the good stuff he underlined). Boyd, being a gentleman, puts Ellen May at the top of the list because it affects Ava and if she’s not happy, he’s not happy. He hooks back up with Nicky Augustine, who needs some inside help because Johnny can’t get through to Limehouse. Other than his bad moment in the bar last week with Ava, he’s a pretty cool guy. The only one who didn’t think he needed a gun when the two gangs met up. Sarcastic and cold, offering up Johnny with him standing right there in front of him. “It’s ‘everybody wins’ day here at Johnny’s bar—everybody except Johnny.” When Boyd went at him with his $64 vocabulary he says, “I’m going to need Google Translate on my phone if I’m going to keep talking to you.”
Limehouse is a character, too. He tries to get Rachel all riled up but he hears Ellen May and takes her situation to heart. At first I thought he was lying that he’d let her go, but no, he did. And then he got in Ava’s face, digging at her conscience. So long as he’s minded his own business in the holler, everything has been happy for the people of Noble’s. Once he got involved in everyone else’s messes, things have gone sour for him. “Are you going to have peace of mind when this is all over?” Fortunately Ava took that message to heart, too, when she finally caught up with Ellen May. Even after hearing her disclose some of the information about the guy Ava shot to Cassie, Ava couldn’t pull the trigger. “I understand,” Boyd says and without a blink calls up Colt, who’s standing right there.
We always knew there’d be a showdown between Colt and Tim, and that it would end the way it did. Colt decided to quit smoking today and he tried his shot and failed. Interesting that Tim took a souvenir. The scene with Kush was funny, too. Boyd warned Augustine that he was “touched.” Augustine asks if he should be scared. “Not if you’re secure in your political views,” Boyd says. Augustine quickly sizes up the situation, but Kush gets the drop on them until Boyd shoots him in the foot.
So, Winona shows back up again in time to…what? What exactly did Picker do beyond assembling a chair? Is the chair a threat or is it just the fact that Augustine is targeting Raylan’s wife? Only one episode to go, but I won’t get to see it until the weekend after I get back from Japan.
