Solved the mystery

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Bev Vincent

One advantage of being in a drought: you don’t have to mow the lawn. At all. I mowed it once back in March or April to get rid of the shaggy look it had acquired over the course of the winter. I don’t think the blades of grass have grown more than a fraction of a centimeter since then. Those that haven’t turned brown and withered, that is.

It’s been 10 years since Douglas Adams died. Some people call it towel day. I often wondered how hard he had to be work at being as ridiculously funny as his books are. Here’s my answer: a ninety minute lecture he gave at UC Santa Barbara in conjunction with the release of his excellent non-fiction book Last Chance to See. It’s almost the hitchhikers guide to stand up comedy, with a strong message about preservation and conservation. Wonder what he would have had to say about the world the way it is now. Not much has changed: At the point where we are best able to appreciate the mysteries of the world we live in, we are also destroying at a rate never before seen.

I solved the mystery of my novella this morning. After I finished working on it, that is. I was doing my morning calisthenics before heading for the shower and all of a sudden I came up with a “what if” scenario. The novella is something of an expansion of an older story, which had a full arc and an ending and everything. Not a bad ending, a nice twist, but all of a sudden I see a better one. The funny thing is that I changed the story’s title a few days ago and I realized this morning that the new title is actually a dark bit of foreshadowing about what the story is all about. Except it wasn’t about that at the time I came up with the new ending. Strange that. It all fell into place, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I crossed over the 10,000 word mark this morning. My original target was 15,000 but it might actually go longer now because I have a little more story to tell. We’ll see. Has to be done and postmarked by Monday.

Entering the TV doldrums between normal season and summer season. I know some shows start up in June and July but I haven’t paid much attention to exactly when. The Closer, Rizzoli and Isles, Covert Affairs, presumably Burn Notice. Breaking Bad? I’m going to try to be strong and resist the temptation to watch Big Brother. Unless it’s the only thing on. Might be a sparse summer. A few more weeks of The Killing and LOCI. The rest of Doctor Who. No Dexter or Mad Men or Son of Anarchy.

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Does Red have some company?

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Drought, day 180 (rough estimate). No relief in sight.

Finally got around to watching the Criminal Minds finale. I thought from the opening they were going to riff on Matheson’s Duel, with a killer truck driver. Turns out the truck was a red herring and the real killer was the guy who ended up in the ditch because of him, with a couple of bodies in the trunk. The rest of it was sort of ho-hum, with the obligatory season-ending threat that certain characters might not come back next season, coupled with the obligatory near fatalities of a couple of characters. I liked the fake-out with the woman leader who looked like another victim. Very photogenic, but not exactly logical. However it did open the door for the second fake-out at the end, except Rossi was all over it. The team made an awful lot of deductions in those few minutes of aftermath, though. I miss the days when the show spent more time trying to get inside of the heads of captured villains.

House’s patient of the week “elevated being full of crap to an art form.” A performance artist who wanted to turn her presumably (but ultimately not) fatal disease into another of her works of art. House seems to be trying hard to change, but leopards don’t change their spots and everyone is alluding to the possibility that if he doesn’t talk about it he’ll explode. Thirteen goes along with his current scheme because it’s the least horrible of all the possible schemes he might come up with. She gets him. Taub has the “pina colada” song for his ex-wife and still-lover’s ring tone. How heavy handed and symbolic is that? But he got the surprise of the season when he discovers he’s going to be a daddy times two. Awkward much? Favorite scene: Cuddy is ranting at House at his bedside. Foreman rips aside the curtain. “It’s a privacy curtain,” Cuddy complains. “It wasn’t working,” Forman responds.

Pretty damned dramatic ending, though. Seems they were all right in worrying about the way House was bottling things up. He endangered the lives of several people. Where can the story go from here in the fall? House behind bars instead of in rehab? Performing diagnoses via collect calls from the clink? Or via cell phone while sipping margaritas with Red down in Zihuatanejo?

Finally, in the last minutes of The Event, we get some hint of what the series’ title refers to. Apparently it’s a kind of apocalyptic prophesy (sound familiar?) about what will happen to mankind after the aliens all move into the neighborhood. Death was the better option, it seems. And when the aliens move into the neighborhood, they move into the neighborhood, even bringing along their somewhat crispy planet. I was wondering how they were going to get a couple of billion people into that little plain in Asia.

I very much enjoyed the scene where President Martinez finally got to tell it like it is concerning that slimeball Jarvis. Jarvis sputtered and stammered, but he was cooked like the proverbial goose. However, the most satisfying moment for me was when Martinez’s wife looked up at the new planet on the block and called it “home.” That clever alien. Pulled the wool over all of our eyes. Alas, unless some heroic channel comes along and picks up the series, the mystery of what is written on those old scrolls will die with last night’s closing credits.

I’m afraid that by watching the Danish version of The Killing, I have somewhat ruined my enjoyment of the AMC version. I keep thinking: that’s not how they did it in the original or, worse, they did it better in the original. I’m no longer able to judge it purely on its own merits. Sarah Lund was a more intriguing character than Sarah Linden, and I liked her sorta-partner better, too. Hell, I even liked the mayor’s rival in the election better. But I do have to say that the beating at the end of this week’s episode seemed more brutal. Is the series taking the Memorial Day weekend off? That would be a drag.

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Co-starring a dog

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Got a lot done on the novella in progress this weekend. I have until the end of next weekend to finish it off. Looks like I’ll make it after all. I’ve been away from it for a while, but when I got back to it, everything seemed to fall into place.

I finished The Snowman by Jo Nesbø and read more than half of  Pacific Heights by Paul Harper, which is the pen name of crime writer David L. Lindsey. He’s from Austin and I was introduced to his books shortly after I moved to Texas. His earliest books are set in Houston, so it was fun to see local scenery and points of interest in the novels. His breakout book was Mercy, which garnered a lot of attention because it was billed as a psychosexual thriller. That “genre” is pretty traditional these days, but it was notable at the time. The pseudonym probably represents his decision to relocate his setting from Texas to San Francisco. It’s a good thriller about a guy who preys on women by reading transcripts of their sessions with their therapist and using the information to manipulate them. But there’s more to it than that, of course.

We went to see the Houston Symphony on Saturday evening. The first part featured a cello soloist doing Dvorak, which was quite good. The second half was Rachmaninoff, which went on too long. It kept feeling like they were building up to the grand finale, but it was only the end of a movement, and on it went. I was getting a little drowsy by the end. An enjoyable evening, though.

Watched the new Jesse Stone movie last night. Innocents Lost. It wasn’t the best of the batch but it was pretty good. Introspective. Not much happened during the first half hour other than some soul searching on Stone’s part and the discovery of a dead girl. The Paradise PD seems to be falling apart, with a new chief and Suitcase’s decision to leave. Always good to see William Sadler, who I met on the set of The Mist, and William Devane. Even though Parker didn’t write this story (Tom Selleck co-wrote it), it feels very true to him. Gino’s new assistant is definitely a step up from his previous aide. Stone’s dog deserved co-star billing. He was in almost every scene with Stone and he said a lot without even so much as barking.

Another good episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. As before, the best part was the scene between Goran and his therapist. She’s making progress with him, in spite of Goran’s reticence. Another callout to previous seasons with a clip of Roy Scheider as Goran’s murderous father. The crime of the week was cleverly constructed, too. I suspected the father, to be honest, but I knew that his “murder” was a put-up affair to coerce the daughter’s cooperation.

The most recent SVU (the season finale) had its moments. My favorite part was when the FBI agent was arrested for providing the gun and not only did his boss not protest, he offered to shake the cops’ hands. Too often a stereotype is used for the relationship between cops and federal agents, so it was good to see a case where the Feds didn’t put up a stone wall. The stuff about the cigarette taxes was ripped from the NY headlines, but stretched a little too much. There was the usual preaching message about too many handguns and even the daughter go in her angle on the message as she lay bleeding on the floor. Who didn’t see that shooting coming? All three perps nicely bottled up in the same cage. Easy hunting.

Doctor Who was the first of a two parter. It had some interesting moments. Nice to see DC Chris Skelton from the UK version of Life on Mars. There was one scene where they were looking for gangers like cops searching a crime scene. “Clear,” he said, and it was just like he was with the police all over again. There were some genuinely creepy scenes and the concept of someone who not only was identical but equivalent bore some consideration. Identical twins have some shared experiences but the acid workers and their dopplegangers have exactly the same experiences. They’re uber-clones. The Doctor was very cavalier about how disconcerting this was for the workers. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles what transpires at the very end. Alas, we’ll have to wait two weeks for that answer since BBC America is pushing back the conclusion because of the Memorial Day weekend. Next week: A Who Marathon. (Am I the only one who activates closed captioning for this show? I feel like I miss a lot of dialog when I don’t!)

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Just me and my demons

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Chances of rain this evening and tomorrow. That makes two Fridays in a row, if it comes to pass. Not an end to the drought by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a start.

Had a call from Pete Crowther today, asking me if I would consider editing one of his forthcoming books. Heck, when someone like Pete asks, how can you say no? So I didn’t. Today’s newsletter from PS Publishing has some of the details about the project, but my job probably won’t kick in until sometime later this year or early next. Cool getting the chance to work with PS Publishing, though.

I don’t usually catch bloopers, but I spotted one on The Mentalist last night. A subtle one. When Lisbon brings the pizza to Hightower at the camp hideout, Hightower is reading while her kids are playing. I’m always curious about what characters in shows and movies read, so I kept an eye on the book to see if I could make out the title or the author. As Lisbon approaches, she sets the book down on the picnic table, face up. There’s an immediate cut to the reverse angle shot and the book is now face down. Alas, I couldn’t make out any details about the book, though.

Pretty amazing ending to The Mentalist, though, right? First off, there’s the question of what Laroche has in the Tupperware dish in his safe. His secret that must be maintained at all cost. Whatever could it be? Personal, he said. Very personal. “You’re a fascinating man, Patrick. Who knows what you might have achieved in this world were you not quite so damaged.” What is Laroche’s damage?

The bombing plot was a little overblown, but it had it’s moments. I loved Patrick’s reaction to seeing Lisbon in the bridesmaid’s dress. “Beautiful, a princess. An angry little princess. Someone stole your tiara.” Per usual, Cho doesn’t even blink when he says they have to go to a crime scene. “You might want to change.”

Hightower is ready to come in from the cold, especially after her cousin, who’s been helping her hide, is murdered. “Are you alone?” she asks Patrick. “Just me and my demons,” he answers. Is that the first time anyone has called Cho by his first name? (Kimball)

Okay, I want to go on the record here: I totally called it. I knew who the mole was two or three weeks ago. I found at least one post (May 6) where I said this, and I thought there was another because I’ve had this notion for a while. So I was pretty disappointed when it looked like I was wrong at first. “It’s not you, it’s me,” Craig says at the end, the stereotypical brushoff. I guess that mean’s the wedding’s off. I wonder about the necklace he gave Grace. When he did so, I thought that it might be bugged, but if that was the case he would have heard everything and cottoned onto Patrick’s floor gag. He pulled it off her neck at the end. Given that she just put a bullet in her fiancé, I was a little disappointed when she went to him instead of tending to Lisbon in the aftermath.

The last several minutes, though, were amazing. I noticed the guy sitting in the food court before and wondered if he was someone we should pay attention to. The voice was convincing. I remember thinking when we first heard it (when Red John quoted the poem that Cho knew by heart, of course) that Red John might be a woman. The conversation at the table was so surreal. “I want to release you from this curse you are under,” Red John says. “I look at it more like a hobby,” Patrick returns. Red John then teases Patrick, saying that he’s not the devil or a monster, just an regular human being with flaws and vices and problems, just like everybody else. “I’m not worth ruining your life over.” Then he has to dig a little deeper, telling Patrick to live his precious life, find a woman to love, start a family…the very things Red John took from him. Patrick’s response: when you’re dead.

Finally, Red John provides the proof Patrick needs to believe that this really is his nemesis. Details about wife and daughter that seemed to ring true with him. Patrick seems emotional. Vulnerable. And then he does the unexpected and uses one of those guns he’s always condemning everyone else for. His mission is at an end. He puts the gun conspicuously and gingerly on the table, calls for the check (the woman looks at him like he’s insane: no blame there) and calmly drinks his tea while the police arrive.

Where does the show go from here? If that really was Red John, we still have a lot of unanswered questions. How does he get an FBI agent to do his bidding? What power and influence does he did he possess? It’s possible that Lisbon won’t believe that he really is Red John, which would be a nice reversal next season, provided Patrick doesn’t spend all 23 episodes locked up in jail. Pretty amazing.

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So that’s what Gibbs has been building

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Bev Vincent

I finally got around to starting to read Peter Straub’s novella “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” which will appear in Conjunctions #56: Terra Incognita: The Voyage Issue. As you may recall, Peter gave me the manuscript of this 16,000 word novella at World Horror. It’s been sitting on the pull out drawer of my desk ever since, and I keep meaning to get to it and for one reason or another I didn’t, until now. The novella takes place at various different times on board a boat (or, rather, boats) on the Amazon. Ballard and Sandrine are lovers, though Ballard is a good twenty years older than Sandrine. The setting is mysterious. They never see anyone else on the boat, though their meals are provided for them at specific times. They hear chirping sounds that they believe is the language of their servants. There are strict rules about where they can go on the boat and when. And then there’s this room with a gurney where violence transpires. I’ve read three time periods so far (the story is non-linear) and it seems almost like a type of purgatory. They have vague memories about things they did in the past…but memory can get vague with time, can’t it? The boat seems the same, but it has a different name in each time frame. Fascinating story. One of my favorite lines is a favorite because of the way it is punctuated. Books are shelved in one room, but all the dust jackets have been removed “which he minded, a bit.” For some reason, I love that comma.

Signed the contract for the essay I’ll have in next year’s Stephen King desk calendar. Great gig.

Took part in a Twitter chat with Justin Cronin yesterday. He’s promoting the paperback release of The Passage, which contains a sneak preview of the second book, The Twelve, which won’t be out until summer 2012. The only problem with a Twitter chat is that to anyone who follows your feed it must seem like eavesdropping on one side of a telephone conversation.

Stumbled upon the second period of the playoff game between Boston and Tampa Bay last night. It was 2-1 for Tampa, though apparently Boston dominated 19:30 of the first period and put one of the two goals against them thus far into the net themselves. By the end of the second, it was 6-3 for Boston. Great period. Some of Boston’s goals were beautiful. Excellent passing, perfect execution. They ultimately won the game 6-5, but I didn’t stick with it past the second period.

Some interesting teases in the season finale of How I Met Your Mother. Lily’s pregnant, thereby providing the life to balance off the death of Marshall’s father. Barney will, someday, get married (and apparently that’s also the day that Ted will finally meet the eponymous mother). They faked us out a bit with the woman who received the orchid (instead of Zoe). And Robin is clearly not over Barney and, perhaps, vice versa. Since she’s “Aunt Robin,” should one assume that she might be the unseen bride?

Gibbs’ rule #16: if someone thinks he has the upper hand, break it. For most of this season of NCIS, Gibbs has been building something in his basement. That’s not unusual; he always has a boat in progress. However, this year it was different, though we never got to see what it was until last night. Seems Mike Franks’ death wasn’t totally unexpected (as I suspected after last week) and Gibbs was building his coffin. Friends help friends hide the body, I guess. Lots of action and surprises in the finale. Biggest surprise was the way the P2P killer surrendered himself, though that proved to be a tactic to get inside NCIS. We learned that EJ was the daughter of SECNAV (you think she might have mentioned that, Tony, her lover, mused). She also dug some sort of transponder or microchip out of her dead agent’s body. We can only assume that will come up again. Things usually do. Then there’s Tony’s new assignment at the very end, courtesy of the new SECNAV. Apparently the name in the file is someone we know…but who?

Speaking of NCIS, apparently the real deal is now involved in the case of that child’s body discovered in Berwick, Maine.

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There are no victories. There’s only the battle.

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Bev Vincent

My new essay, Reading Slush, is up at Storytellers Unplugged.

I’m really liking these scenes between Goran and the therapist played by Julia Ormond in the return of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I especially liked the call out to Nicole (Olivia d’Abo) this week and the memorable scene where he went all quid pro quo on her in the interrogation room. And one night Jeri Ryan is the perp and a couple of nights later she’s trying to catch perps on Body of Proof. Busy lady.

I thought this week was going to be the season finale of House, but it appears we have one more episode. Had a hard time watching the bathtub surgery. House became his own patient of the week, with a bonus PotW in Thirteen’s old cell mate. Liked how the two plots sort of dovetailed but didn’t quite. I see today that Lisa Edelstein claims she won’t be back next season. Negotiating technique or is she getting tired of Cuddy? Saw Hugh Laurie on Graham Norton the other night. I have a hard time accepting that his British accent is real. It doesn’t sound natural.

The Event has been canceled, but I guess we’ll get to see the final episodes of the season. President Martinez is bouncing back to his feet faster than expected. That’s one hell of an antidote. Would have liked to have seen him throttle the last breath out of acting President Jarvis, though. Smarmy bastard. Funny scene when Simon and Vicky and Sean and Blake all “met” for the first time in a standoff. Turns out they all sort of knew each other by reputation. Is Leila doomed to stay inside the plastic tent for the rest of her life, or will she turn out to be an antidote on legs? Hard to see how they can unring the bell, with all those teams en route to their respective destinations. Lots of plot to pack into next week, that’s for sure. I can’t figure out how they’re going to get an entire planet’s population into that one little spot, though.

I wonder how the ratings for The Killing are doing? For some reason, the twenty hours of the Danish version flew past when I watched it, but the AMC version, which is doing much the same story in about half the time, seems draggy. Perhaps it was the fact that I was able to watch Forbrydelsen over the course of just a few days. I suspect this is a series that will do better on DVD than live.

Nice product placement for the new Derek Storm graphic novel from Marvel on Castle last night. All series should be so lucky. A lot happened in the season finale, and they left us with a bastard of a cliffhanger to dwell over during the summer. First off, we got to meet Beckett’s father for the first time. Everyone seems to think that Rick has a lot of influence over Beckett, including her Pa and Captain Montgomery. She’s back to obsessing over her mother’s murder, especially when some fake cops break the assassin Lockwood out of prison so he can continue his mission, which is to kill everyone associated with the case.

Castle and Beckett finally have one of those almost conversations. Castle raises the subjects that they haven’t been talking about (the kiss, almost freezing to death together), but once again they don’t talk about them. Beckett calls Rick the “school’s funniest kid” and Rick says that Beckett dates men she doesn’t love as a way of hiding from happiness. His mother (who admits to being more than halfway through the movie) tells him not to waste a minute of it, after taking him to task for having trouble for coming up with the right words, especially for a man who makes his living by them. Captain Montgomery chides Beckett for wanting to get rid of Castle because “you weren’t having any fun before he came along.” His speech about the pointlessness of her quest to solve the big mystery in her life is the source of today’s subject line. “The best you can do is find some place where you can make your stand.”

And Montgomery makes his stand after Ryan and Esposito solve the mystery of the third cop. Questions: what did Montgomery mail just before he loaded his pistol, and who does it implicate, and how long will it be before we find the answer to that question? And who in their right mind takes a revolver with only six or seven bullets to fight off an assassin? Turns out he had the right number of bullets, but he might easily have run out before the end. The whole Montgomery revelation was a surprise. I speculated earlier that he might actually take retirement as he threatened to last week, but I never saw this coming.

Poor Rick sees what’s about to happen, but not in time to make a difference. Of course Kate must have been wearing a vest. But will the impact knock from her mind the words Rick says to her at the end? We have to wait until the fall to find out.

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Rob lied!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Bev Vincent

It was a really nice weekend, and the same weather is continuing through this week. Temperate, low-eighties days and fifties nights. Wish it could stay like that all the time. We were able to eat outside on the back deck twice and, thanks to the paucity of rain, there weren’t many insects to spoil the experience.

I finished my part in judging the short story contest and passed along my top 5 to the selection committee together with my notes on all the stories I read in case there’s some debate that needs my input. I also used the experience for my Storytellers Unplugged essay. Written yesterday, will appear tomorrow.

Made it to the halfway point of The Snowman by Jo Nesbø and enjoying it greatly. Lots of red herrings and I like the main characters a lot, including the detective, who has the unfortunate name Harry Hole, and his ex-wife and his new sort-of partner.

Caught up with the season finale of Blue Bloods, which tidied up the story of the Blue Templar and the death of the Regan brother at their hands. Not a bad show. Wish it wasn’t on Fridays.

This week’s Doctor Who was written by Neil Gaiman. The whole look and feel of the episode was different from the norm. I thought it looked very much like something designed by Tim Burton. The characters of “aunt” and “uncle” were particularly Burtonesque. I think I have to watch it again before I can write more about it, but it was cool to see more of the TARDIS—in so many ways.

This is the first season of Survivor where I rooted for someone from the beginning and, as it happened, that person won. I know it is fashionable in some quarters to dislike Boston Rob, but I think he’s an interesting guy and he played the game like no one has ever done before. If Survivor were a video game, I’d say he beat it. If it were a logic problem, I’d say he solved it. It’s almost like they don’t need to do Survivor any more. Can anyone ever play it better? Here’s an indication of how good Rob is: he lied to his wife, Amber, about how far he got. For nine months, she thought he was voted out at the final four. (He was so scrawny that he couldn’t get away with saying he lost out sooner.) Only a day or two before the finale did he tell her the truth. Never play poker with Boston Rob.

The producers also lied to us, in a way. Rob revealed that he had told the girls that he had the immunity idol after the merge. By keeping that piece of information from us, the tension was heightened toward the end. Will he play it or will he get blindsided? If I’d known what the others knew, I wouldn’t have been so nervous during that final tribal when it looked for a minute like he wasn’t going to play it.

I felt really bad for Philip during the jury grilling session. They were really hard on him, especially Steve. I didn’t see any need to call him names like that. Julie was also pretty tough on Natalie. Was her relationship with Rob really “creepy”? I didn’t get that. Philip was fairly subdued during the finale, though he did get wound up a couple of times. Most awkward moment during the finale: David’s proposal. For a smart guy (his speech at the jury session was spot on), his decision to do this on live TV was ill advised at best.

During the reunion show, Rob revealed that Grant had stopped talking to him after a few episodes aired. Turns out that Grant was really miffed when he found out that Rob had swapped out the clue to the hidden immunity idol with an older, much more vague, clue. It was a pretty clever thing to do (not sure I would have thought of it), but Grant felt betrayed, apparently.

Favorite quote from the reunion came from Matt: “following your heart doesn’t mean ignoring logic and reason.” Amen to that.

One thing I didn’t miss at the end of the season was that lame old Hall of Fame journey the final three usually takes. Apparently they filmed it but decided there was too much else going on to take out the five or ten minutes that normally occupies. I hope they lose it from now on.

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Drum roll, please

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Bev Vincent

The rainstorm yesterday afternoon was productive. About half an inch in some places. Enough to leave the front yard soggy. Not enough to end the drought. It’s supposed to be quite temperate this weekend. Lows in the fifties and highs barely above eighty. No rain. Of course.

The Nate Haskell plot was wrapped up in dramatic fashion on CSI last night. Ray took care of his nemesis before the opening credits rolled. The rest of the episode dealt with the investigation into the officer-involved killing. While the entire team sympathized with Ray, no matter what he did, they were duty-bound to follow the evidence. The one damning piece of evidence was the plastic handcuff that Ray first used and then removed. If it had turned up, that would have changed things. However, Brass had Ray’s back. He was the only one who knew for sure that Ray executed Haskell. What’s that going to mean for him next season? And what if his ex-wife turns up pregnant with Nate’s kid. That was sort of foreshadowed when Brenda’s mother (Rose from Lost) said that the main reason for their breakup was Ray’s utter refusal to entertain the idea of having children. He didn’t want to pass on his defective character gene. But maybe Haskell did. That would be twisted.

The Mentalist was a showcase for Agent Cho, who is often relegated to a pithy comment or two per episode. In this one he was given temporary custody of the young whipper-snapper who picked his pocket and stole his car. (Jane offers him a ride and calls him “Starsky.”) He had to babysit the kind until Child Protective Services turned up the next day. Cho identifies with the kid, who he suspects was trying to “jump in” to a gang by stealing the cop car. That’s the way he was when he was that age. Funny bit when he delivers a burger to the kid. “I can’t eat that. I’m a vegetarian,” the kid says, though he’s probably just yanking Cho’s chain. Solution: Cho opens the burger, rips out the meat and throws it in the trash. “Now it’s vegetarian,” he deadpans.

Patrick had some good moments, too. He did his best Sherlock Holmes when he dismissed the idea that a boyfriend killed the violinist. “If it is the boyfriend, it’s boring. Tragic, but dull, which is to be avoided.” Same philosophy as House. His drum roll as a parting shot was hilarious and childish. He just loved yanking that pompous conductor’s chain. Plenty of red herrings (oafish conductor, overly ambitious third chair violinist) and when they ran out, they trumped one up and painted her red, too (infatuated second violinist).

Cho goes off the reservation to help the boy by tracking down the witness that would exonerate the boy’s father. What will be the repercussions for the CBI? He blundered into the situation against almost-orders and only stopped to consider the implications once he did what he wanted to do. He’s so terse. “Be quiet, or I’ll give you back,” he tells the boy after “rescuing” him from the CPS employee. And we were treated to a rare smile when the boy steals Rigsby’s wallet. I would be very curious to know what that big book was he was reading when they were staked out in front of the witness’s hangout.

Funny bit: Jane giving Lisbon a hydrangea. She looks at it. “Does it squirt water?” Cool jam session at the end. Next week: the obligatory season-ending return of Red John.

Posted in CSI, Mentalist | Comments Off on Drum roll, please

Cue Supertramp music

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Bev Vincent

We’ve had scattered showers twice in the last 18 hours. The forecasters weren’t optimistic, though, that the really big rainstorm would hit us. Then the radar showed this big ugly yellow band with a red front passing across San Antonio this morning and it’s now bearing down on us directly. It’s getting dark outside and hopefully we will receive our first significant rainfall in two months. Yes, that’s how long it’s been since we’ve had measurable rainfall. Whenever I write about this, I always think of Supertramp and their final single in their original lineup: “It’s Raining Again.” (By the way, the band is touring Canada this summer, starting at the end of May. I’d love to see them in concert again, but the US has never taken to them quite as well as other countries.)

Reading short stories for the contest I’m co-judging. Have to have my top five list (out of 39 stories) ready by the end of the weekend. Since I’m not going to be able to attend the meeting where the winner is selected, I’m writing notes to accompany my list when I send it in. I think I could get used to this gig. Anyone want to start a mystery magazine? Just kidding!

Ashley pulled off an immunity win on Survivor at the most opportune time. She changed the way the game will play out by doing so as I strongly suspect she would have gone instead of poor old Grant. However, by sending Grant to RI, Rob stacks the odds a little bit in his favor. The last thing he wants is to see Matt or Mike come back. Grant could conceivably win his way back, which wouldn’t be great news, but it wouldn’t be a catastrophe. I figure the best case scenario for Rob would be for Andrea to win, and she’s capable of it, I think. Depends on the nature of the contest. Poor Ralph. He was doing so well, but he fell apart at the puzzle stage after solving the maze so easily. I enjoyed watching the Ponderosa clips after he arrived. He’s like a big kid. Everything is wonderful. He’s never been on the ocean before and I think even the quarters at Ponderosa are nicer than any hotel he’s stayed in, based on his reaction. It’s nice to see such pure, unadulterated glee. And there has been zero drama at Ponderosa this year, unlike some other seasons. Everyone is getting along and enjoying the experience.

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There’s always another monster

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Last night was my wife’s graduation. She received a Ph. D. from the University of Texas School of Nursing at ceremonies held at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Now she’ll have a picture of her in a floppy beret just like I do! People are a lot rowdier at graduations now than they were when I was marching across the stage. Or maybe it’s a reserved Canadian thing. Everyone seemed to be trying to outdo each other last night, like one of those contests where the faction that makes the loudest noise wins.

We might actually get rain today or tomorrow. Then again we might not. It’s all up in the air, so to speak. We desperately need it.

I’m all caught up with my catching up, I think. Today, it’s NCIS. Last week’s episode was a fun throwback to the era when Tony first met Gibbs. Tony was on the Baltimore PD and Gibbs was working undercover on a case. Tony arrests Gibbs (“you can’t outrun me — I’m wearing tube socks”), punches him and calls him a dirtbag. Not exactly a great first impression except it’s clear that right from the beginning the two guys get each other. Gibbs doesn’t need to finish his sentences or spell out his whole plan to Tony. They’re on the same wavelength, though Tony’s not a big fan of Gibbs’s job. “Who’d want to be a Navy cop? I’d rather have the plague.” At the time of their encounter, Gibbs is still married (“for now” — he’s ducking calls from a divorce lawyer). He tells Tony that he doesn’t have a lot of rules, but he spells out two of them: #5 is “you don’t waste ‘good'” and #35 is “always watch the watchers.” I think the fact that there is a #35 contradicts his claim that he doesn’t have a lot of them. The first slap on the back of the head: there’s a memory to cherish. I thought they did a decent job of making Tony and Gibbs look younger without overdoing it.

This week’s episode was grimmer and also a little bit meta. In the opening moments we see a body bag, and the question posed by that scene is: who is inside? We see Gibbs and Tony and McGee, so one’s mind goes to Ziva or Abby, but Tony and McGee aren’t as distraught as Gibbs is, so it’s probably not one of them. I also thought Vance, but he’s in the back of the limo. So, who, then? EJ? Again, Tony’s reaction doesn’t seem appropriate. And then Mike Franks shows up, but he’s obviously still alive so it can’t be him, right?

Huh, nice trick. Franks haunts the episode like a Greek chorus. He’s clearly there in person for part of it, but for the rest it’s like he and Gibbs are having this little catch-up conversation about the Port-to-Port killer that’s being played out as they watch. There a couple of funny moments, like when Gibbs is recounting a time when his team is reading the report on EJ’s trip to Hawaii to investigate another P2P attack. Gibbs is just sitting there, biding time. “Excruciating,” he admits. Franks tells him to skip this part, so Tony, McGee and Ziva speed-read through the document and then approach Gibbs’s desk and declare what they’re going to do next in a manner that approaches self-parody. “I will pursue this lead using ‘archaic and old school techniques,'” Tony says, with air quotes after McGee heads off to the lab to do high-tech stuff with Abby. Franks also comments on all the new names he has to keep track of in the new case, which is a problem viewers probably experience as well.

Franks was acting weird when he arrived from Mexico. He brought Gibbs a box of documents to help him keep Vance in line. He told a story about an old dog who knew when it was time to die. He’s also still smoking and coughing, so my take home message was that he was dying and knew it, which is why he was so brave when it came to confronting the P2P killer. “I figure I got one more fight left in me. You want it?”

Operation Frankenstein reminded me of an older episode of the show, which was also about trying to create super soldiers, except in this case it was about making assassins. Old “friend,” CIA agent Trent Cort, freshly short an eyeball (so that clears up that question), briefs them on the experiment that created a killer. Gibbs figures out what P2P is all about, but too late to save Franks and not before EJ’s team winds up in a trap. I figure the dialog about the total number of bullets Franks fired at Cobb was important. If you add up those shots with the ones Cobb fired in the warehouse, that probably means the next trigger pull will land the hammer on an empty clip. That’s my guess, anyway. Apparently there is going to be an impressive body count in the finale next week, so I might be wrong there.

Lots of nice moments in the episode, though. Ducky’s story about the mute swan and revisiting that fable after Franks dies, which tied in nicely with the episode title: Swan Song. Franks made no deathbed statement and Ducky admits that the story wasn’t true. The scene with Franks and Gibbs in Gibbs’s basement was nice, too. Franks talks about ghosts and how we create them all the time with our memories, which fill all the empty places where we live. In essence explaining Franks’ appearance throughout most of the episode. And the scene with Tony/Ziva and McGee/Abby mourning another loss.

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