"A wise man once said that war is coming to this island. I think it just got here." - The Man in Black

One of the central relationships on Lost since the very beginning of the series has been the often turbulent (and sometimes tender) marriage between Sun and Jin.

It's no surprise then that the duo--linked by bonds of affection and fate--would be the focus of this week's episode, one that offers another facet of their relationship to explore. A what-if, in the Lost-X world, that dives into an examination of what might have been had Sun and Jin made different choices.

This week's episode of Lost ("The Package"), written by Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland and directed by Paul Edwards, offered one of the strongest "sideways" installments to date, focusing on the very different circumstances in which Sun and Jin find themselves in the Lost-X timeline... while, back on the island, the duo attempts to reunite themselves but are once again thwarted by circumstances beyond their control.

So what did I think about this week's episode of Lost? Grab yourself a fancy watch, don't stand too close to the pylons, take a sip of cocoa, and let's discuss "The Package."

I've been connected to Sun and Jin for quite some time, which might be why this week's episode resonated with me. The ups and downs of the marriage, both before they crashed on the island and afterwards, have offered the series a tenderness and emotional complexity by having a marriage to explore (and one that's not as seemingly idyllic as Bernard and Rose's). I thought perhaps the star-crossed spouses would be reunited in this week's episode but it clearly was not meant to be as third parties continue to intervene to keep these two apart. (In fact, the on-island versions of Sun and Jin haven't been together in nearly two seasons and have spent years apart in the timeline of the series.)

The Man in Black this week admitted that, just like Ilana, he too is unaware of whether the Kwon on the cave wall and the lighthouse refers to Jin or Sun and therefore which one of them is actually the candidate. I've maintained for quite some time that it isn't either of them specifically, but rather both: that these two comprise a single unit of being. It's vital that these two are reunited but also extremely dangerous as well. It's why forces beyond their control continue to separate them by barriers made from time and space. And it's why Sun wasn't send back in time to the 1970s with the other members of the Oceanic Six.

So who would keep them apart? Jacob. Given that the Man in Black knows where Sun is and wants to bring her back with him to unite his matching set of Kwons, he's clearly not the influence that's working hard to keep them apart from one another. Which would leave the obvious answer then as Jacob. If we believe the Man in Black's working theory: that he needs as many of the candidates as possible to travel with him in order to tip the scale to black and escape, then he needs both Jin AND Sun. Which means that there's a good reason Jacob has for keeping them separated; his efforts have been to keep the cork firmly in the mouth of the bottle and the Man in Black imprisoned on the island. Bringing Jin and Sun together means that another candidate would be up for grabs. Hmmm... (And the Man in Black also states what I wrote last week: he can't just glide across the ocean, otherwise he would have done so ages ago.)

Sun, meanwhile, flees The Man in Black when he appears in her garden (nice callback to the early days of Lost, by the way) and is struck on the head in the process. Her injury causes aphasia where she cannot speak English but is able to both understand and (later) write it. It's an interesting reversal of the first season of Lost where Sun could understand English but refused to speak it for fear that someone would learn that she was fluent in English, a secret she kept from her husband. (And, interestingly, neither Jin nor Sun can speak English in the Lost-X timeline. Which makes sense as the reason Sun learned the language was so that she could run away from her husband.) Her explanation for why she ran: she didn't trust him. (Smart Sun.)

Good to see that Richard has returned to the path of the righteous and, as Jacob had told Ilana, knows what to do next. He wants them to make their way to the Hydra Island, the site of the Ajira plane crash because he knows just what is coming next. But Sun doesn't want to go. She's the stubborn tomato in the garden, the one who escapes death and destruction and clings to life. She's not budging: she didn't come back to the island to save the world, she came to find her husband. But maybe those two things can never be. Maybe in saving the world, she'll have to sacrifice her marriage...

Amid all of the warring entities and metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, some of the most beautiful moments on the series have been the small ones: those tiny character interactions that don't necessarily advance the plot but speak volumes about the journey that these characters are on. This week's episode featured one of the best ones so far this season as Jack offered Sun a notebook and pen so she would be able to communicate with him. It was a thoughtful and tender moment that spoke of the bond between them and the level of trust that they've each earned with one another, a small moment that touched me for numerous reasons.

It was fantastic to see Jack in the role of caretaker once more: no longer a suicidal addict terrified that he had lost control of his life, but rather a leader, a healer, and... a believer. In fact, Jack's words to Sun and his Zen-like calm reminded me of the early John Locke. Could it be that this man of science has now finally become a man of faith? The way in which he offered himself and his friendship to Sun wasn't the typical Jack we've seen in recent seasons. And I'll admit that I got a little teary when he extended his hand to Sun (as he promised to find Jin and get them both on the plane) and she took it. Might Jack be stepping into the role he was destined for before our very eyes?

Kate. Unfortunately, Kate doesn't quite realize the full extent of the danger she is currently in. She might be living in the camp of the Man in Black but she's not loyal to him and he knows this all too well and likely that she and Sawyer are plotting against him. But the Man in Black needs Kate, even though she isn't a candidate. While her name was crossed off the wall, she's a means to an end: a way to lure the other candidates to the plane so that the Man in Black can use them to escape. Once he's able to get them, Kate loses all value to him... and he's quite willing to allow Claire to kill her at that point. (Uh-oh.) I'm glad that Claire wasn't genuine in her sudden reconciliation with Kate; she still seethes with anger toward the woman who raised Aaron and, while she's all smiles and hugs for now, she's got a knife with Kate's name on it.

Meanwhile, I'm still puzzling just why Kate lost her candidacy while the others did not. Was it because she raised Aaron? Or is it because she can't fundamentally change? Can't put her past damage behind her? Can't stop running? There's got to be an explanation of just what "crime" she committed that invalidated her place at the metaphorical round table but I'm intrigued by the fact that Team Darlton are withholding this from us for the time being. I think it could hold the answer to the entire candidacy process, in fact.

Sayid. Speaking of which, I'd be extremely surprised if Sayid's name hadn't been crossed off that list yet. After all, he died and was infected with the darkness. Now he's become a shell of a man, an emotionless husk whose sole purpose seems to be death and destruction. While many doubted Dogen's need to murder Sayid, I would say that it appears pretty clear now: he's definitely infected and once the darkness reaches his heart, he'll remain that way forever. The Man in Black claims that it's better for Sayid this way, however. But why? Because he has no connection to the other castaways? Because with no joy, pain, or happiness, he's more willing to follow the Man in Black into utter darkness?

Sayid might have physically died from a result of the gunshot wound and the drowning and come back to life but his soul died in the process. Yet his situation seems to be different from Claire's, despite Dogen claiming that she too was infected. Claire seems consumed by emotion: rage, anger, a thirst for vengeance. Sayid doesn't feel anything. Is it just a stop on the way to that place of darkness? Or are there levels of infection? Curious.

Lost-X Sun and Jin. In the alternate timeline, we saw a Sun and Jin who were together and yet weren't quite in the same situation they were in when we met them at the start of Season One. First, the two aren't married here, which is a significant change (and one mentioned by me back when "LA X" aired) of status quo for the Korean couple. Yet they would appear to be happy here; there's a playfulness to Sun that we haven't seen in the mainstream reality as well as a calmness to Jin as well. It was nice to see the two engage in some sensual behavior and not be at each other's throats. While the other Sun was seeking to run away from Jin, she has engineered a scenario in which they can run away together.

But it's not to be: her father has learned of her affair with Jin and wants to put a stop to it. This trip isn't a business trip: Mr. Paik has sent Jin to what he believes will be his death at the hands of Keamy, entrusting a brick of cash to Jin as payment for his own murder. (Which, I thought, was a very nice twist indeed.) What he didn't foresee was customs agents seizing the cash and therefore keeping Jin alive along enough to escape. (Another ironic complication: that Sun's secret bank account was closed, leaving her unable to pay Keamy's fee.) As Keamy puts it succinctly: "Some people are not meant to be together."

The Sun and Jin plot collides with that of Lost-X Sayid, who shoots Keamy and his men and gives Jin the means to free himself from the freezer. Keamy has survived Sayid's gunshot but Jin attacks Mikhail (more on him in a bit) in an effort to take him and Sun out of danger. A brutal fight follows in which multiple shots are fired and Mikhail is seemingly killed. But Sun appears to have been shot in the abdomen and she tearfully tells Jin that she is pregnant. Hmmm, might we see Sun and Jin meet up with Jack at the hospital very soon?

Lost-X Mikhail. Then there's the matter of the two-eyed Mikhail. I thought it interesting when we meet polygot Mikhail, here an associate of Keamy's who is able to talk to Sun in Korean, that he had both of his eyes, an important distinction from the mainstream Mikhail back on the island. But during the fight with Jin, Mikhail is shot right in the eye, bringing the two Mikhails more into line. While it's a small detail, it's a pretty momentous moment for the Lost-X timeline: we're seeing evidence of course-correction here as the universe attempts to push itself back into line. Just as the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 continue to cross paths with increasingly frequency, this too is a manifestation of that occurrence as the timeline attempts to reshape itself into the proper position.

I still maintain that this timeline isn't the epilogue of the series but something different altogether, a parallel world that affects the mainstream one and vice-versa. As I stated a few week back, I think that these castaways will have to "go back" to the island and raise it from the ocean floor. There needs to be a cork, after all, and the island has to exist not just in the mainstream reality but all of them, a space-time anchor that's consistent across the multiverse.

The Looking-Glass. Interesting too that Sun would notice something in her reflection in the mirror. It's the third time--after Jack and Sawyer--that one of the Lost-X castaways experienced a moment of frisson upon gazing at themselves in the mirror: a sense that something was wrong or troubling. Are we seeing more indications that these characters are becoming increasingly aware that their world is not right, that their surroundings feel off? If we think of Juliet's seeming awareness of multiple realities and Desmond as well, can it be that each of the castaways--or the candidates at least--will become aware of the other streams of time? Very intriguing. (And I still maintain that each of the mirrors here is connected to the looking-glass in the lighthouse which Jack smashed.)

Charles Widmore. While some viewers have wondered whether Charles Widmore was on the side of the Man in Black (despite his efforts to convince Sawyer that he wanted to kill him), this week's episode would appear to eradicate all possibility of that being true. Widmore is definitely on the side of the island. He wants to destroy the Man in Black or at least keep him contained and his plan involves locating the electromagnetic pockets on the island. (Wouldn't you know it? I brought that up in my write-up of last week's episode!) Which is why he needs Jin. Widmore is acutely aware of the fact that Jin traveled back in time and spend time with the Dharma Initiative and he wants geophysicist Zoe to have Jin show her where these pockets of electromagnetic energy are. Loved that Zoe and Widmore were keeping Jin locked up in Room 23, where the Dharma Initiative was studying subliminal messaging. (I'm loving the little details and callbacks that this season is offering, but I can assume that the Others changed over the message itself, given that it spoke of Jacob.)

Meanwhile, Widmore squares off with the Man in Black along the sonar fence line. He doesn't know the entity's name but is aware of his existence from myth, ghost stories, and noises in the jungle. (In other words: he knows he's the smoke monster.) Widmore has taken precautions against the Man in Black being able to come onto the Hydra Island and interfere with his own plan. But the Man in Black isn't there to kill anyone (at least not yet.) He wants Jin and demands that Widmore return Jin to him. But Widmore's no fool and he's not giving up his best chance and locating the electromagnetic pockets on the island. He lies and says that he has no idea what the Man in Black is talking about. And right there is the start of the war between Widmore and the Man in Black.

Just how did Jacob's Nemesis know that Widmore told Locke that a war was coming to the island? Does he have access to Locke's memories as well as his physicality? Widmore had prophesied that war was about to come to the island but there's no other way that the Man in Black could have known about that... unless he was able to watch that scene play out somehow. Hmmm...

The Package. Besides for his sonar fence and his island maps, Widmore has brought something else to the island as well. I always feel vindicated when I'm exactly right about something on the series, particularly when the naysayers tell me that I'm wrong. Yes, it was Desmond inside the sub's locked compartment, as I had predicted a few weeks back. He's the package that Widmore orders Zoey to have brought to the infirmary.

They're keeping him heavily sedated and I can't help but wonder just what Widmore wants from poor old Des, last seen recovering in the hospital after Ben shot him at the start of Season Five. Desmond, after all, has seen multiple timelines himself and has been the focus of course-correction at the hands of Eloise Hawking. Is his gift of multiple levels of awareness the reason why Widmore needs him on the island? Or is it the fact that he had once activated the fail-safe within the Swan Station and therefore was irradiated with massive levels of electromagnetism? Is Widmore looking to repeat the process again?

Or is he looking to use this energy to bridge the gap between the two realities and bring them back into a single file? After all, Eloise Hawking was or is a compere of Charles Widmore and she--as seen in "Flashes Before Your Eyes"--was aware of multiple timelines before. Could it be these two are working together to fix the divide between the mainstream reality and the Lost-X one? To bridge the gap and strengthen the island once more? Hmmm...

What did you think of this week's episode? Love Miles' bacon comment about Hurley? Agree with the above theories? Disagree? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Lost ("Happily Ever After"), Desmond wakes up to discover he's back on the island.

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Looking to discuss last night's episode of ABC's V?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site, where you can read my take on last night's episode ("Welcome to the War"), entitled "V: Deliver a Villain and a Hero Will Present Itself."

I'm curious to know: Did you tune in? Were you turned off by ABC's on-screen bug during Lost? What did you think of the episode? And will you be back next week? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on V ("Pound of Flesh"), Anna introduces her pilot program to invite select groups of humans to stay on each of the 29 space ships; Ryan must deal with the fact that Valerie's pregnancy is wildly accelerated; Tyler learns a secret about his mom; and one of the resistance members makes a sacrifice to save Ryan.

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Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Nathan Fillion fans, rejoice! ABC yesterday announced that it had ordered a full third season for procedural drama Castle, picking up the Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic-led series for a full season of 22 episodes. The pickup came a day after Castle hit a ratings high (14.5 million total viewers and 3.7/10 in the key demo) and as well as broke a record for scripted series at ABC on Mondays at 10 pm ET/PT and its best key demo ratings in the timeslot since 2001. (via press release)

Meanwhile, The Wrap's Josef Adalian has a quick Q&A with ABC chief Steve McPherson about Castle's renewal. "We all believed, on both the production side and the network side, we believed in the creative on this show from the get-go," McPherson told Adalian. "We loved the casting, we loved Andrew (Marlowe, executive producer) and the work he was doing on the story-telling. It's a great story of patience. It's good to see the ability of broadcast networks to be patient when they can." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Entertainment Weekly talks to Fringe producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman about what's coming up on the FOX sci-fi drama, which returns with new episodes on Thursday. [Editor: you can read my advance review here.] "We want them to come away compelled and absolutely ready to see where we’re going next year," said Wyman when asked about what fans will take away from the end of the season. "We will open up a new chapter at the end of this season like we did last year. That will be entirely satisfying, I hope, for those who stuck with it and could be entirely engaging for a whole new crop of viewers." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Matt Damon is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of NBC's 30 Rock. Series creator/star/executive producer Tina Fey had previously indicated her desire to snag the Green Zone star for a guest appearance on 30 Rock . "Although the specifics of his appearance are being kept hush-hush, I hear the Oscar winner’s episode will be one of the season’s last," writes Ausiello. "If I were a betting man, I’d wager that Ben Affleck’s other half would follow in James Franco’s footsteps as another fleeting love interest for Jenna (Jane Krakowski)." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Good news for NBC, bad news for Party Down. Former Veronica Mars star Ryan Hansen--currently part of the ensemble cast of Starz's Party Down--has landed one of the leads in NBC comedy comedy pilot Friends With Benefits. Hansen will play Ben, described as "an Everyman who, while waiting for Ms. Perfect, enjoys a relationship with Sara (Danneel Harris), a doctor trying to find Mr. Right." He replaces Patrick J. Adams, who was originally cast in the role, which is said to be in second position to Party Down, which has yet to be renewed for a third season. (Hollywood Reporter)

One thing stands in the way of NBC's Law & Order coming back for a record-breaking 21st season: TNT. The cable network, the home of the off-net syndicated run of the procedural drama, isn't under obligation to pick up any additional seasons past the 20th season... and NBC can't take Law & Order anywhere else, under the terms of their deal. But NBC needs the syndicated coin in order to defray production costs and make up the deficit. Which leaves TNT with all of the leverage, it would appear. Neither side would comment on the negotiations. (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has details about a major upcoming plot on the CW's Smallville, which I won't reveal here. But if you're into that sort of thing, head on over and see what Ausiello has to say about the May 14th season finale. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting roundup: Orlando Jones (Rules of Engagement) has been cast as one of the leads opposite David Krumholtz and Martin Short in FOX IRS comedy pilot Tax Man; Mircea Monroe (Drive) has joined the cast of Showtime's upcoming comedy series Episodes, where she will play "42-year-old actress who looks 24 after having a lot of work done," in the project, which stars Matt LeBlanc, Claire Forlani, and Stephen Mangan; and Ritchie Coster (Virtuality) has scored one of the leads in David Milch and Michael Mann's HBO horse-racing drama pilot Luck. (Hollywood Reporter)

Irritated by last night's on-screen bug during Lost trumpeting the return of sci-fi series V? You're not alone. The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at the fallout from running on-screen clutter during one of the final episodes of Lost and offers reactions from critics, viewers, and pundits alike. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Universal Media Studios has signed an overall deal with Desperate Housewives writer/producer Alexandra Cunningham, under which she will develop projects for the studio. As a result, she will depart Wisteria Lane to focus on her new development deal. "I've been wanting to work with Alex since the first play I read by her," said Laura Lancaster, EVP of drama at NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios. "She's an incredibly gifted and versatile writer (who is) able to draw complicated, complex characters and situations within both drama and comedy genres." (Variety)

UK's ITV is looking at several series to replace the long-running but now axed cop drama The Bill, including a UK remake of FOX supernatural series The Oaks, a series which never actually made it to the air in the US. (Broadcast)

WeTV unveiled its new slate of reality programming yesterday at its network upfront in New York, including Downsized, Sunset Daze, Mother Knows Best?, Girl Meets Gown, and You're Wearing That? (Variety)

Stay tuned.

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Excited for the return of ABC's V tonight?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site, where you can read my latest piece, where I offer a preview for tonight's episode of V ("Welcome to the War") and offer five reasons why you should tune in, even if you haven't ever watched the series before.

While you're there, you can check out my one-on-one interviews with V showrunner/executive producer Scott Rosenbaum and star Morena Baccarin, where they tease just what's coming up on the sci-fi drama for the remainder of the season.

Who is excited for the Visitors to return? Discuss.

V returns tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC.

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"You are a Bartowski, Chuck. Start acting like one." - Ellie

After the darkness of last week's episode of Chuck, last night's installment ("Chuck Versus The American Hero"), written by Matt Miller and Phil Klemmer and directed by Jeremiah Chechik, brought back a lot of the humor and lightness that had been missing, with the action spinning out to include Casey, Morgan, and Devon's task force, the Picasso-like stalking skills of Jeff and Lester, and a nice callback to Ellie's belief that Casey is a degenerate lowlife.

But it also offered a major revelation in the second half of the episode, one that will likely shape next week's installment, originally designed to be the season finale. Yes, NBC has initially ordered thirteen episodes for Chuck's third season and "Chuck Versus The American Hero" was designed to be the penultimate episode of the season. That's abundantly clear from the aura of change drifting over the characters, with several about to depart for different climes and major shake-up in the dynamics between Casey, Chuck, and Sarah.

So it will be very interesting to see just how Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak, and the writing team manage to connect the six episodes that follow... and whether Monday's episode will contain the same level of game-changing dynamics that marked last season's finale. As it stands now, we might just get a conclusion to the Daniel Shaw arc that has threaded its way through the season, given what we learned last night, and might see a new twist in Chuck and Sarah's very complicated relationship.

So what did I think of this week's episode of Chuck? Let's discuss.

I loved the beginning with Chuck arriving in Washington D.C. to meet with General Beckman and receive his assignment, all of which seemed to show us the same-old Chuck in some very new surroundings. His handling of the gun, confusion about which floor he was meant to be on, and his general nervousness haven't pointed to the fact that three years of spy training have dramatically altered his sense of self. Yes, he can handle himself with a tranquilizer gun (interesting, that) but he hasn't lost that inherent Chuck-ness that makes him who he is.

I'm glad too that Chuck isn't immediately thrilled about his new assignment, despite the fact that it comes up with a deluxe Italian villa, perks beyond description, and the ability to select his own team. The truth is that there's only one spy on his mind and it's Sarah. Sarah is hung up on the fact that Chuck has changed--believing that he was the one who killed Perry during his "red test"--though it's clear to everyone else that Chuck hasn't really changed all that much. He's still the same fish out of water that he has been since the beginning, albeit with a better wardrobe at times and Intersect-derived fighting skills.

But it's that act of murder that Sarah can't shake from her head, just as she can't escape her own "red test," an act of violence that not only shaped Sarah as a spy but also has major consequences here vis-a-vis her relationship with Daniel Shaw. (It's a reveal that I was skeptical of when a friend mentioned the possibility to me but I shrugged it off. I wholly apologize now for not listening to her.)

Shaw's entire motivation has been to dismantle The Ring and pay them back for the murder of his wife, Agent Evelyn Shaw. Everything he's done has been in pursuit of that goal, from faking his own death to hiding out in Castle to sacrificing everything to retrieve intelligence about the Ring or create a scenario in which the government has the possibility of wiping out the higher echelons of The Ring's power structure.

But in coming face to face with The Ring's Director (Mark Sheppard, always in fine form)--or at least, a hologram of him--Shaw learns something so awful, so destructive, and painful that he can't help but feel as though everything has been a lie from the start. Shaw's quest for vengeance for his wife's murder places Sarah right in the crosshairs.

It would appear now that The Ring didn't kill Eve, at least, not directly. No, his wife's murderer has been far closer than he realized: Sarah Walker herself. It's a very interesting twist that these two lovers would now be on opposite sides. Sarah described her "red test" as "the worst day of her life" last week and she certainly isn't aware of the identity of her victim. So why was Sarah given the order to kill Eve? Was she a mole for The Ring? Has Daniel Shaw been fighting the wrong people all along?

Two possibilities exist. One, that Sarah's handlers were themselves Ring operatives secreted within the CIA and they ordered her to kill Eve in order to get at Daniel Shaw. Or two, that Eve was herself a Ring operative and Sarah's red test was designed to eliminate the leak. Which would mean that Eve was lying to Daniel all along. I'm leaning more towards the latter as I'd hate to see Sarah misled and fooled by her employers.

And then there's the matter of what The Ring wants with Daniel Shaw himself. This week, he seemed to be summoned to a tete-a-tete with The Ring's Director himself, who clearly wanted Shaw kept alive. But then why was Sydney tasked with murdering him a few weeks back? Why bring Captain Awesome in to kill Shaw if they wanted him alive? Color me seriously confused. I've been a little uncertain about what The Ring has wanted since most of it seems to circle back around to Shaw himself time and time again. What are they after? Why is Shaw so important?

As an aside, I was also really confused this week by Ellie's decision to take a sabbatical and head to Africa with Devon, after they had agreed to stay in Los Angeles so Ellie could do her neurology fellowship at USC. Just where did the fellowship evaporate to? And if she did take the fellowship, how is she taking a year-long sabbatical? If she didn't take it, why didn't we see that? I'm still scratching my head over this one.

I did, however, appreciate that Chuck squared off against Shaw in his own way. Not in a battle of fists or high-flying action, but that he fought for Sarah in the only way he knew how: with words. He kept his word to Casey not to tell anyone about what actually happened in the railway station (though if anyone would keep mum about it, it would be Sarah) and offered her an ultimatum, one that recalled their scene in the season premiere where Sarah offered Chuck the very same offer.

I'm of the mind that Sarah was going to go with Chuck even before she learned the truth about Perry's death but that Casey's confession sealed the deal. Sarah is finally standing on the brink of having a happy, normal life. One that doesn't involve cons, guns, or aliases but a true and honest love. Her decision to toss her gun on the bed underscored that, even as it left her alone with Shaw and unarmed...

But it's the first time in the history of the series that both Chuck and Sarah are willing to be swept up in each other's journey, with each of them choosing the path of love rather than the professional obligation. (I'm sure quite a few fans cheered aloud when Chuck and Sarah finally kissed last night.) Both these characters know that they are meant to be together and there are no more obstacles standing in their way, except maybe Shaw himself.

It was nice to see Chuck save the day for a change, risking his life to save Shaw's and bringing him back to Sarah because he knows how much she cares for him. If that isn't the definition of altruism, I don't know what is because Chuck could have rather selfishly stood by and let Shaw die when Beckman sent in the bomber. But that's not Chuck, after all.

Of course, he would have maybe been doing Sarah a favor now that Shaw seems to want to punish Sarah for Eve's death, but Chuck didn't exactly know that at the time. He's just as taken aback that it was Sarah who slew Shaw's wife and he knows just what Shaw will want to do to Sarah in return. But I can't shake the feeling that there's still more going on here than meets the eye.

What else did I love about this week's episode? Chuck's super-improved gun-skills and his lack of flashing (could it be that the Intersect is being absorbed into his general consciousness?); the troika of Casey, Morgan, and Devon as Chuck's new spy team whose mission was to win back Sarah; Jeff's "blue period" of stalking; Ellie's disgust at bailing the guys out of prison; Devon tackling Shaw through a glass window; the Dr. Jibb soda machine concealing access to the Ring base; Fro Yo Ho; Chuck's inability to carry his gun around properly (get the man a holster!); Ellie's speech to Chuck; Casey rescuing Sarah in Castle; and much more.

Best line of the evening: "We are perfect for each other and I want to spend the rest of my life with you away from everyone else and away from this spy life." - Chuck

What did you think of this week's episode? Glad that Chuck finally made his play for Sarah and she accepted? Worried just what Shaw will do to her now that he knows she killed his wife? Wondering how this will all wrap up next week? (Or will it?) Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus The Other Guy"), Chuck, Sarah and Shaw reunite to find the Ring operative behind the death of Shaw's wife; Sarah has faith that Shaw is ready for the mission but Chuck is worried about his emotional stability; Morgan considers leaving the Buy More.

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"Ellen, my husband is gone and my unemployed teenage son is about to be a father. I think you might want to ask someone else for family advice." - Patty

I don't know about you but I screamed aloud at my television when the screen faded to black at the end of this week's cliffhanger-laden episodes of Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), written by Todd A. Kessler and directed by David Tuttman.

It was a scream derived not from frustration but from an excruciating anticipation for the next installment of this quicksand-like legal thriller. Over three seasons, we've come to know these characters intimately, but this week's episode seemingly pulled the rug out from right underneath us, revealing that we'd been standing over a bottomless pit all along.

In an episode that was seemingly devoid of the future timeframe or flashbacks (or was it?), this week's installment marked a major turning point for Damages as a series, as we may have learned a vital clue about Ellen Parsons, something that has lurked at the very center of the series since the pilot episode and a major reveal that many people have wondered about ever since.

Is it a red herring? A coincidence? A long-buried family mystery? Or will Ellen's attempt to rattle the skeletons in the Parsons' closets result in Patty's protege discovering something about herself?

So what did I think of this week's brilliant episode? Let's discuss.

I've been raving about the third season of Damages since it launched earlier this year. It's been a supremely strong season, filled with the sort of whiplash-inducing plot twists that made the original season such an original and compelling drama series. In that initial season, Damages stood out as a first-rate thriller whose roots in legal drama were marked less by courtroom outings and more by the deadly and ruthless battle between two adversaries, each willing to do whatever it took to win.

This season has fulfilled the promise of the first season, offering us not only a intricate jigsaw puzzle of an overarching case but also deeply personal storylines involving the home lives of our three lead characters--Patty Hewes, Ellen Parsons, and Tom Shayes--and a riveting nonlinear storyline that directly places the characters in jeopardy in a way that recalls that amazing opening sequence from the pilot where a blood-covered Ellen flees Patty's apartment dressed in a nightgown and a coat.

The death of Tom Shayes has raised the stakes in more ways than one and, should this be the end of the line for Damages, the third season has offered a pitch-perfect swan song for the series, combining a ripped-from-the-headlines case, swirling eddies of doom, and revelations about characters that we've thought we'd come to know inside and out.

Not so.

This week, we learned that Ellen Parsons might not be who she thinks she is. Long-buried memories of her childhood have come back to the fore, thanks to a series of Lynchian dreams that have unlocked something inside her. Dreams have been a vital part of Damages since the very beginning of the series, with many of the characters--from Patty and Ellen to Frobisher and Ray Fiske--revealing essential truths about themselves via their subconscious.

That thread has carried over into this season with both Patty and Ellen experiencing the unconscious lure of an invisible thread, yanking them back to uncomfortable truths from their earlier years. The mysterious horse which Patty keeps dreaming of, now that the walls she's built up are crumbling around her, continues to crop up while Ellen herself experiences an uncomfortable and jarring deja vu.

Ellen. Is Ellen Parsons adopted? She's never quite fit in with the rest of her blue collar family and the chasm between them has only widened since her sister Carrie was arrested for intention to sell narcotics. But failing to fit into a family doesn't necessarily equal a lack of blood; it's not the first time we've seen first-hand how lucky Ellen has been to escape her ignoble roots. But there are several intriguing developments in this episode: Ellen dreams/recalls an incident from her childhood, in which she was at someone else's house and then helped an unknown woman stir some tomato sauce on "her stool." (It's significant that Ellen first believes she's visiting Patty and the dream house at first recalls Patty's palatial apartment and there's some correlation between the fact that she has confused these two locales and these two women.)

Next, Ellen uncovers a photograph of the woman from her dream, a picture in which this unknown individual holds the very same flowers Ellen had been carrying in her dream. Why does this image strike a chord with her? And why is it mixed in with other childhood photographs? Photographs which, very interestingly, depict Ellen as a young girl many times over... but never as a baby.

Confronting her mother gets her nowhere. Ellen's mother is startled by the photograph--visibly in fact--but tells Ellen that the woman was her babysitter when she was younger and was named Annie or something. It should be infinitely clear to anyone who has ever watched even a single episode of Damages that Ellen's mother was lying to her face.

Carrie, meanwhile, doesn't provide any further information. Despite Ellen recalling that Carrie used to claim that she had been adopted as a child, Carrie denies it, saying that she was only teasing her... but her reaction to the photograph says anything but that as she expresses concern that Ellen showed their mother this picture. Just what are they all hiding? Could Ellen be adopted? Could her mother have met some untimely fate?

Malcolm meanwhile uncovers Annie's identity and an address, which is itself significant. My first instinct upon watching the episode was that (A) Annie was Ellen's mother, (B) Annie was dead, and (C) Annie had been killed in the car accident in Arlington, Vermont that involved one Arthur Frobisher and which killed a young woman in the early 1980s. The dates certainly match up. If Annie had been killed and Ellen given up--or taken--by another family, she would be young enough not to remember much about her biological mother.

It's also significant because we still haven't learned the truth about that car accident... and Arthur Frobisher has only just come back into the picture now. Coincidence? Perhaps but I can't shake the fact that Frobisher and this woman are connected and that the fateful car accident might also involve Patty Hewes herself. Longtime viewers might recall the scene at the end of Season One where Frobisher asks Patty just what he did that has made her hate him so much. She never answered it aloud but it points to their paths crossing at some point. Did Patty know Annie? If she is/was Ellen's mother, has Patty known this all along? Could it explain just why Patty kept tabs on Ellen and offered her that job? Why she wanted her to break things off with the Parsons? Hmmm...

But there's the matter of the address that Malcolm has tracked down for Ellen, one that is 100 miles outside of Manhattan. If Annie was dead, Malcolm would have told Ellen that upfront. (There's no reason for him to conceal it from her.) And he hardly would have given her an address for a cemetery. So is Annie alive then? And if so, why is she so significant to Ellen that she would feel drawn to this woman and begin an investigation into her identity? Curious...

Tom. Tom, meanwhile, completely sold Ellen out this week and surely ended her career at the district attorney's office... which could be why, in the future, he and Ellen were launching plans to start their own firm. (She's all but finished at the D.A.'s office now that Gates knows that she has been dealing with Patty behind their back and likely stalled their case against the Tobins.)

But Tom's rationale is entirely personal: he's on the hook for supporting his family, his parents, and his in-laws and Deb isn't exactly realizing what sort of dire straits they're really in. Tom's attempt to broach the subject of selling the lake house falls on deaf ears; Deb just doesn't really get how much financial trouble they're truly in. Which will make Tom's inevitable death all the more painful.

I'm a bit thrown by the fact that (A) Tom is so willing to let Ellen take the fall against Patty should word get back to her that Tessa was approached by an attorney, and (B) that he's so entirely focused on getting his money back that he nearly blows their entire case by alerting Tessa to the fact that Danielle was likely murdered by one of the Tobins. It's way too soon to be showing their hand to Tessa, considering they've already caught her in one lie (about spending Thanksgiving with her mother) and Tom is lucky that Ellen was able to save his hide again by prompting Tessa to call Patty for protection against the Tobins... pushing her right into their hands.

Not that it quite worked out that way. Despite Ellen engineering the perfect scenario to get Tessa on their side, Tom's little confrontation scene led Tessa to the D.A.'s office, outed Ellen, and led the Gates to swoop in and arrest Tessa at the end of the episode, leading our lawyers without their star witness. A major problem, considering that they now suspect that Tessa's trip to Antigua on Thanksgiving wasn't an attempt to move money down there but to begin to bring it back. Not good.

Patty. I loved the scene with Patty and Ellen on the couch, which served as a sharp callback to the first season of Damages. Here, Ellen asks Patty for advice about what she should do about her family and what Malcolm has turned up about Carrie, leading Patty to jokingly say that she's the last person who should be giving Ellen advice about her family, given how hers turned out.

Still, the implication is clear: despite what has passed between them--betrayal, murder attempts, mind games--these two women respect each other and have forged something akin to a real friendship between them. I think it even takes Patty by surprise, the companionship, the bond she feels with Ellen, the sort of relaxed easiness of their drinks on the sofa and discussions of renovations. Over three seasons, the mentor and the protege have become almost equals now. So much so that Ellen knows to keep her secrets close to the vest; she doesn't tell her about what's really going on with Tom, despite his fury at Patty's decision not to pursue Tessa earlier.

But Patty isn't one to go out without a fight, even if the plaintiffs are looking to have her replaced. So much so that she tells the judge that she's willing to circumvent his authority and the courts to pursue her own leads in the Tobin case and recover the victims' money. She's right: if she locates that fortune and is able to provide the Louis Tobin's victims with restitution, no one will care how she did it or with whose authority. The ends justify the means with Patty; we've seen over three seasons just how much that's true and what lengths she is willing to pursue to achieve her goals.

It's a lesson she's taught to Ellen as well; her protege nearly tampered with a witness (or worse) in order to get her sister Carrie off, but Ellen changed her mind in the end, allowing Carrie to sit in jail and receive the proper punishment for her crimes. One can't help but see that Ellen has taken on board Patty's ruthlessness but with a distinct perspective of her own that colors her decisions. While the courts will punish Carrie, she too exacts her own punishment on her sister, withholding her help after she lied to her.

Leonard. But it's not just Patty and Ellen who deal with their own familial issues. Leonard Winstone's own issues come home to roost at precisely the wrong time. Leonard's con man father Albert Wiggins isn't pleased that his son has stopped sending him checks, wondering pointedly if the mailman is stealing from him or if he's just racist. But the threats don't stop when Leonard--with his favorite prostitute--tells him that he won't ever start paying him; instead, they escalate as Albert shows up at Leonard's office while he's with Marilyn Tobin.

It's not good for a number of reasons. Leonard's belief that he's a member of the Tobin family is being sorely tested once again and it's safe to say that if he's exposed as a fraud, as a small-time grifter and reformed low-life, the Tobins won't stand by him. He claims that the Tobins are clients, family, and not marks but Albert won't listen: he wants a piece of the Tobin fortune himself.

Is it a good enough reason as to why Leonard, in the future-set timeframe, is seen assisting Tom and giving him money? Does he figure that he can weather the imminent destruction of the Tobins if the money is found but not if he's exposed? And, as I surmised last week, is it Leonard who jumps off the bridge? Curious.

I'm also still puzzling out how the Tobin's money, Stuart Zedeck, and the African charity are connected. We learned that Zedeck is on the board of Marilyn's cause celebre and he votes to not allow her to take a trip to Tanzania in order to keep some major distance between the Tobins and the charity. But is that how Zedeck and Louis Tobin kept the fortune hidden? By moving it through the charity and into the Bank of Antigua? Hmmm...

What did you think of this week's spectacular episode? Agree with the above theories? Think Annie could be Ellen's birth mother? Still wondering about the connection between Frobisher and Patty? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Damages ("All That Crap About Your Family"), Patty strikes an unusual deal after her star witness is arrested; Arthur Frobisher reveals too much of his past.

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Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

AMC has ordered six episodes of zombie drama series The Walking Dead, based on the Robert Kirkman comic book series of the same name. Production on the six-episode first season of The Walking Dead is set to begin in June in Atlanta, with Kirkman serving as executive producer alongside writer/director Frank Darabont, Gale Ann Hurd, David Alpert, and Charles "Chic" Eglee. News comes as cabler AMC begins to cast the production, with Jon Bernthal (The Pacific) attached to star as Shane; the cabler has targeted an October 2010 launch date for The Walking Dead. "AMC strives to make original shows that play like movies and The Walking Dead is a perfect complement to the network's celebrated movie franchise, Fearfest, which has always been an important destination for our audience," said Charlie Collier, AMC President, in a statement. "With its depth of story and the remarkable talent attached, The Walking Dead gives us an opportunity to raise the bar significantly within this popular genre, and continue our commitment to being the home of premium programming on basic cable." (via press release)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has an insightful interview with V star Elizabeth Mitchell, who talks about the return of the ABC sci-fi series and her role as Juliet Burke on Lost (as well as whether she will be returning to the series before it wraps up). "In a way, it was such a crazy thing to come into doing [V] after working on Lost," Mitchell told Ryan. "I think it was wonderful for me to be able to take a step back and figure out what I really wanted to do and how I would create this person. I don't feel like we lost momentum -- it was more like, we built excitement to go back to work and we were rested and ready and really charged up." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

That's a lot of Dharma-brand mac and cheese: A single 30-second spot during ABC's series finale of Lost will cost roughly $900,000 when the serialized drama wraps its run on Sunday, May 23rd, according to a report in Advertising Age, a huge leap in price from the $213,000 offered at May's upfront presentation. "There are many advertisers willing to pay a reasonable premium for inventory in programs that generate such a highly passionate and rabid fan base," Kris Magel, exec VP-director, national broadcast at Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Initiative, told Advertising Age. "There is definitely value in that." (via Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

NBC has announced that Season Four of Friday Night Lights will launch on Friday, May 7th at 8 pm ET/PT, a week later than originally indicated. No reason was given for the change in scheduling on the series, which has already aired on DirecTV's Channel 101. (via press release)

Tyler Labine (Sons of Tucson) has been cast in CBS multi-camera comedy pilot True Love opposite Jason Biggs and Minka Kelly. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and CBS Television Studios, revolves around Henry (Biggs), a lawyer in a relationship, who falls for a stranger (Kelly). Labine will play Henry's best friend, replacing Dan Fogler. Casting is in second position to Sons of Tucson for Labine. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) has dropped out of the untitled Will Ferrell-executive produced Comedy Central series that he was attached to, in which he was originally going to play a man who moves back in with his parents (Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz). No replacement was named and the search is underway to recast the role for the series, which had received a ten-episode order from the network. "Comedy Central, Gary Sanchez Productions and Jon Heder have mutually decided to part ways over creative differences with the character," said Heder's rep in a statement. "Jon wishes the show nothing but success, and is very grateful for the opportunity." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Variety)

Pilot casting roundup: Nick D'Agosto (Heroes) has joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot This Little Piggy opposite Brooke Bloom and Ben Koldyke; Jessica Lucas (Melrose Place) has been added to ensemble comedy pilot Friends With Benefits; and Ashley Madekwe (Secret Diary of a Call Girl) has been cast opposite Katharine McPhee and Michael Cassidy in Josh Schwartz's NBC comedy pilot The Pink House, where she will play Jamie, a husband-hunting neighbor. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC Family has announced launch dates for its new original series Pretty Little Liars, Huge, and Melissa and Joey. Pretty Little Liars--a mystery series revolving around a missing teenage girl and a group of former friends who come together when they begin to receive eerie messages--will launch on June 8th at 8 pm ET/PT. Nikki Blonsky-led drama Huge, from creators Winnie Holtzman and Samantha Dooley, will launch on June 28th at 9 pm ET/PT. Comedy Melissa and Joey, starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence, will launch in August. (Variety)

BBC Two has commissioned another season of political comedy The Thick of It. [Editor: my heartfelt pleas go out to BBC America to air the batch of episodes that we have still not had a chance to see Statside.] (Broadcast)

FOX is said to be close to issuing a pilot order for comedy prank series My Parents Are Gonna Love You, in which everyday people bring home a celebrity to introduce to their parents as their significant other... but the celeb is utterly obnoxious. The longer they can string the parents along, the more money the marks will win. Project, based on a Banijay Entertainment format, is executive produced by Jean Michel Michenaud and Chris Cowan. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Demi Lovato (Sonny With a Chance) will guest star in an upcoming episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Lovato will play "a patient at Seattle Grace/Mercy West who will be treated by Alex (Justin Chambers) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) for possible schizophrenia" in an episode slated to air in May. (TV Guide Magazine)

Season Seven of FOX's reality competition series So You Think You Can Dance will undergo some format changes, with Mia Michaels set to return as a judge and a choreographer, and 10 dancers would be picked from the contestant pool... who will then be paired with past all-star participants, with one dancer getting eliminated each week. So You Think You Can Dance is set to launch on May 27th. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has cancelled sports talk show Joe Buck Live after three episodes. (Broadcasting & Cable)

ABC Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with David Zabel (ER), under which he has come aboard drama pilot 187 Detroit as executive producer/showrunner. Should the project be picked up to series, he'll remain in that role while also developing new projects for the studio. (Hollywood Reporter)

Susan Rovner has been handed oversight of both comedy and drama development at Warner Bros. Television, following the departure of Len Goldstein, who is now heading up television at Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage's shingle Fake Empire. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Disney Channel has renewed preschool comedy Imagination Movers for a third season. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

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There are some lines, which once crossed, cannot be uncrossed.

FOX's sci-fi series Fringe returns later this week with a phenomenal episode ("Peter") that offers a look into the secret history of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson). Airing Thursday evening, this episode might just be the very best of the season, if not the entire series, and should--if there was any justice in the world--net John Noble a well-deserved Emmy nomination.

After the winter finale found Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) learning of Peter's true identity, this week's episode of Fringe ("Peter"), written by Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, and Josh Singer and directed by David Straiton, offers viewers a look back into the distant past as Walter (Noble) confesses to Olivia the reasons behind his actions.

While Walter's words to Olivia comprise a narrative framework for the episode, the majority of the action takes place in the 1980s as Walter spins a tale of a father's loss and a fateful act of hubris that could destroy two worlds in the balance.

In the past, I've contended that Noble should get an Emmy nomination for his work on Fringe as Walter Bishop but he's never been in finer form than he is in this installment as Noble plays not one but three different incarnations of Walter, peeling away the layers of his character: his scientific drive, his noble quest to save a child's life, his fatal flaws that render all of his actions irrevocably damaged.

In this single episode, Noble manages to embody all of the disparate elements of Walter's personality, from his determination and altruism to his myopia and selfishness. In the process, we learn more about Walter than we have in nearly two seasons, as well as some of the other characters who populate the off-kilter world of Fringe. There's a great and well-earned reveal in this episode that I won't spoil here but which suddenly makes the dynamics between three characters all the more clear.

Kudos go out to Irish actress Orla Brady (Mistresses), who here plays Walter's long-suffering wife and Peter's mother. Her fate is still a mystery but in the 1985-set storyline here, Brady embodies Walter's better half with a nice combination of grit and sadness.

I don't want to say too much about "Peter" because I don't want to spoil what is a truly remarkable installment of this series. It's one that manages to inform without exposition and mines the past without hitting us over the head with an anvil. It's a gripping exploration of what makes Walter tick and the actions that define us as parents and human beings.

It's also a somber manifesto that pays homage to that old adage: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For all of Walter's curiosity and benevolence, his quest to save his dying son rips open a tear in the fabric of reality that cannot so easily be mended, a window between two worlds that enables everything that has come after this pivotal moment on the series.

Ultimately, "Peter" is first-rate television: thought-provoking, challenging, and illuminating. It's an installment that will remain with you long after the credits have rolled and one that points to the underlying possibilities and potential of this series. Just be sure not to miss the tongue-in-cheek opening credit sequence, one that owes a little debt of gratitude for 1980s-set series Ashes to Ashes but which nicely acts as a window to another time in its own right.

Fringe returns Thursday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

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Not that you would, but if you were even thinking of waiting to watch this week's episode of Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist") later this week, think again.

Seriously.

This is one episode that you will definitely want to watch as live as possible, as there will be any number of outlandish, bizarre, and possibly correct theories swirling around the internet by the time the credits roll at the end of tonight's gripping and suspenseful episode. As they should be, really.

Secrets are revealed, alliances sorely tested, and some rather tantalizing new subplots introduced, as tonight's episode of Damages offers some enticing callbacks to previous seasons and potentially sheds some light on a dangling story thread that many viewers have wondered about for quite some time.

In other words: do not, under any circumstances, miss tonight's episode. You've been warned.

On tonight's episode ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), Patty's clients want her removed from the Tobin case; Tom Shayes makes a risky move that jeopardizes Ellen's job with the district attorney.

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I'm curious to know what people thought of Friday evening's spring finale of Syfy's Caprica, the last episode that will air until the series returns this fall.

While the episode ("End of the Line"), written by Michael Taylor, offered some closure to several storylines (at least for now, anyway) and contained the series' most exciting sequence to date (as armed forces attempted to stop a runaway Cylon prototype), it also was structured around a number of cliffhangers, each designed to hold our interest--or at least our curiosity--until the series returns.

But the problem was that I didn't really care which of the characters lived or died. And that's a major problem for a series that itself lives or dies based on the strength of its characters and the audience's innate connection with them.

Caprica has been a mixed bag so far this season: a heady brew of ideas and themes that are, at times, executed with the awkwardness of a robot taking its first steps. It's exciting at times, yes, but you also don't want to be standing near it when it inevitably falls down.

Part of the problem for me is that the numerous storylines and characters are so completely separate, creating the sense of narrative fragmentation. Thematically, they might be linked but each of the characters--Amanda, Clarice, Lacey, Daniel, Joseph, and Zoe--seems to be in their own series most of the time, with very little crossover or connection between them. That disconnect might be intentional and might have been implemented to reflect the disconnect in their own hedonistic and tech-savvy society but it doesn't necessarily make for compelling television.

This was especially true in the spring finale, where our main characters spent precious little time in scenes together, instead embarking on individual storylines that didn't really come together in any meaningful way. Joseph's quest to find his missing daughter Tamara in the V-world lead to a reveal of just who his guide Emmanuelle was in the real world: and--not surprisingly--it was his lovestruck assistant whose name I can't even remember. Joseph's addiction to amp and his obsessive quest to find the Tamara avatar could have been a thrilling story arc for his character but I found that I cared less and less about Adama as the season wore on as he descended into a husk of a man who spent more time in the virtual world than living in the real one.

Likewise, Amanda has retreated into her memories and (possible) madness, seeing the ghost of her dead brother and reflecting on a suicide attempt made before she met her future husband Daniel. While Daniel has all but forgotten about Amanda (just where is he while she wastes days away in their bedroom), except for chopping some vegetables for a dinner that never happens, Amanda slips further and further away from reality, finding herself atop a bridge as she decides whether or not to leap to her death. This should have been a pivotal moment for the series but I found that I didn't care whether she lived or died, whether she jumped or caught herself in time.

Given that she is a major character, I'd be surprised if the writers kill her off. Far more likely is that her instincts as a doctor kick in when she sees the nearby explosion--a car bomb unknowingly planted by Lacey at the behest of Barnabas--that doesn't kill its intended target, Sister Clarice Willow, but will likely instead claim the life of Clarice's husband Nestor, the brutally underused Scott Porter.

The other extinguished life is that of research scientist Philomon, accidentally murdered by Zoe in the body of the Cylon prototype, seconds after revealing her true self to her would-be boyfriend. While the death is not intentional, it's the most shocking element of the finale... and speaks volumes about the audience's investment in the series when a tertiary character has more an impact than the leads.

I didn't quite get Zoe's master plan to use Philomon to escape Greystone Industries and then meet up with Lacey to be shipped to Gemenon or why she needed him to help her do something that she could have done several times over at this point. Considering that the Cylon unit spent the majority of the season downstairs in Daniel's lab at the Greystone house, I don't know why Zoe didn't just walk out at any point during the season. Or call Lacey to come get her since the house seemed deserted most of the time. Color me confused.

Likewise, I don't know that Daniel would be so quick to order the MCP scrubbed either, considering that he knows that it's the only working one (Vergis was never able to make it work, after all) and that it might still contain Zoe's avatar on it, even after his numerous tests failed to force the avatar to show itself.

Ideally, I'd love to see the individual storylines begin to come together more closely, to overlap less in terms of theme and more in terms of plot. The series, to me, feels more like a grouping of semi-related characters than a true ensemble. I'm hoping that the writing staff can find a way of making these characters pop more and keeping the audience invested in these storylines. There's still a certain iciness to Caprica that desperately needs to thaw out and we need to feel the heat of empathy and connection with these characters if we decide to return to this world.

Otherwise it might just be the end of the line for me with this series.

But I am curious to know: what did you think of the season finale and of Caprica's season itself so far? Will you tune in again this fall when Caprica returns? Discuss.

Caprica will return will return with the second half of its freshman season this fall on Syfy.

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Looking to discuss the latest episode of CBS' fantastic reality series The Amazing Race?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker to read my latest piece, entitled "The Amazing Race: Leave No Coconut Behind," where you can read my take on the latest episode, errant coconuts, the difference between "anonymous" and "unanimous," why Caite acts like a bratty six-year-old, the correct way to pronounce Seychelles, and much more.

Sound off in the comments section and be sure to come back next week as I'll be discussing each episode of The Amazing Race all season long.

Next week on The Amazing Race ("You're Like Jason Bourne, Right?"), the six remaining teams depart the Pit Stop on the Seychellian island of Praslin and head to Malaysia, where the cowboys must overcome a speed bump and the lack of available taxis if they hope to remain in the race.

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Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

It's official: the clock has run out on FOX's serialized drama series 24. On Friday, FOX announced that Day Eight of 24 would be the series' last, with a two-hour series finale planned for Monday, May 24th. "This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible," said Kiefer Sutherland in a statement. "While the end of the series is bittersweet, we always wanted 24 to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon. This feels like the culmination of all our efforts from the writers to the actors to our fantastic crew and everyone at Fox. Looking ahead to the future, Howard Gordon and I are excited about the opportunity to create the feature film version of 24. But when all is said and done, it is the loyal worldwide fan base that made it possible for me to have the experience of playing the role of Jack Bauer, and for that I am eternally grateful." By the time that 24 ends its run in May, the 20th Century Fox Television-produced series will have aired 194 episodes, earning it a spot among the longest running action series on television. (via press release)

Los Angeles Times' Denise Martin and Maria Elena Fernandez, meanwhile, had interviews with Kiefer Sutherland and executive producer Howard Gordon about the 24 cancellation. "Everyone concurs that we want the show to end as close to peak form as possible," Gordon told the LA Times."If they said tomorrow that you have a ninth season, it's not something we'd be up for because we realize Jack's story in the real-time format has been told. Jack is a wonderful character who can live past the 24 real-time franchise. As far as doing this high wire act...this is far as we can take it." Fans can take comfort in that the final episodes are leading up to a heart-stopping finale. "What I do like about the ending and what I can say about it is that it's very definitive about where Jack is going to end up," said Sutherland. "It can be perceived as a cliffhanger on some level, but there's no questioning his options. That's something we've never been able to do in the context of this series." (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

Elsewhere, Variety's Michael Schneider has a Q&A with Sutherland. "Billy Ray is in the process of writing it right now," said Sutherland about the 24 feature film. "I'm very excited about the idea. He's a fantastic writer. I know he's been working with Howard recently. I'm very excited about the opportunity, and singularly because it's a two-hour representation of a 24-hour day. So for the first time, it will be very feasible in this 24 hours to go from England to Russia, or from China to Japan, depending on where they choose to set it. Before on the TV show, the crisis had to come to us, because the best we could do was get across town. And the two times we ever put Jack Bauer in a plane, it just didn't work." While, across town, the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd offered a Q&A with executive producer Goward Gordon, who said the film could be released "as early as next year depending on how things come together." (Variety, Hollywood Reporter)

And The New York Times' Mike Hale takes a look at whether 24 was a victim of its own success... and its reliable formatting: "It’s essentially a superhero cartoon with a topical overlay, a cartoon that was well done from the start but was so rigidly formatted that it had no way to grow... It was the demands of the format that doomed the show (though eight seasons is nothing to cry about). Repetition set in early, there was a limited stock of villains and it was impossible to up the ante on destructive threats, or absurdly byzantine conspiracies, year after year." (New York Times)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello had an interview with Big Love's Chloe Sevigny, in which the Golden Globe winner expressed regret for her comments about the HBO drama series' fourth season, which she had called "awful" in a recent interview. "I feel pretty terrible," Sevigny told Ausiello. "I feel like what I said was taken out of context, and the [reporter] I was speaking to was provoking me. I was in Austin [at the SXSW festival] and really exhausted and doing a press junket and I think I just… I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. You know, after a day of junkets sometimes things slip out that you don’t mean, and I obviously didn’t mean what I said in any way, shape, or form. I love being on the show. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our writers and everybody involved with the show. It’s been the greatest opportunity of my lifetime so far — the best role I’ve ever played, the best part I’ve ever had the opportunity to portray. So I love the show. I think it’s the greatest show on television. I think it’s the weirdest show. I think it is very complex and the content is amazing and it’s just very ironic that this statement would come out and blow so out of control. Because I feel absolutely the opposite. It is difficult being on a show for several seasons and having no control and having things go in different directions where you didn’t think they would go. But that’s also the most exciting part [because] they keep the character really fresh and there’s new scenarios that they come up with." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

[Editor: The Onion's A.V. Club writer Sean O'Neil, meanwhile, hit back at Sevigny, issuing audio from the interview itself, which can be heard here.]

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams has an interview with V's Elizabeth Mitchell about what's coming up on the ABC sci-fi series when it returns tomorrow and hints that Erica will have a lot of violence in her future. "I think as long as her son is safe, she's kind of cool as far as all the stuff with Tyler goes," said Mitchell. "She really didn't seem to mind too much that he had a girl in [his room]. She just wants him to be physically safe and he's not obviously. He's in great jeopardy; she just doesn't know it yet. Hopefully, she will be finding out more and more. Obviously, that will lead to a great deal of violence." (TVGuide.com)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Mayim Bialik (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) will guest star--and possibly recur--on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, where she will play a love interest for Jim Parson's Sheldon, whom he meets on an online matchmaking site and is described as "the female version of Jim Parson's theoretical physicist." She's set to appear in the season finale, which airs May 24th, and could return next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting updates: Christine Woods (FlashForward) has landed the female lead in NBC comedy pilot Perfect Couples; Teri Polo (The Wedding Bells) has joined the cast of TBS' hour-long period comedy pilot Glory Daze; Jason Wiles (Persons Unknown) has been cast in ABC drama pilot Boston's Finest; Jayne Houdyshell (Conviction) and Joe Nunez (Prison Break) will star opposite Will Arnett and Keri Russell in Mitch Hurwitz and Arnett's FOX comedy pilot Wilde Kingdom; Vinnie Jones (Chuck) has been cast in a potential recurring role in NBC vigilante drama pilot The Cape (also cast: Ryan Wynott and Martin Klebba); Gabriel Morales (The Perfect Game) has come on board ABC comedy pilot It Takes a Village; Tessa Thompson (Veronica Mars) has joined the cast of supernatural drama Betwixt; Amber Seyer has been cast in Amy Sherman-Palladino's untitled Wyoming drama project; Gabriella Wright (The Tudors) has landed a role in espionage drama Nomads; and Matt Barr (Harper's Island) has been cast in drama pilot Hellcats. (Hollywood Reporter)

David James Elliot (JAG) has replaced Desperate Housewives' Neal McDonough in ABC drama series Scoundrels, which launches in June. No immediate reason was given for McDonough's departure from the series, which is based on Kiwi drama series Outrageous Fortune. (Futon Critic)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former ER star Eriq La Salle has been cast in the final two episodes of FOX's 24, where he will play "the charming and regal UN Secretary General." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Fresh off his season-long arc on FX's Damages, Martin Short has signed on to star opposite David Krumholtz's on FOX comedy pilot Tax Man, in which he'll play Mike Babbit, the IRS Fresno office's obnoxiously loud boss. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has finally announced a launch date for the Alyssa Milano-led romantic comedy Romantically Challenged, which will launch April 12th at 9:30 pm ET/PT, right after a 90-minute installment of Dancing with the Stars. Six episodes have been completed of the series, which was created by Ricky Blitt. Elsewhere, FOX announced that Glee will return on April 13th at 9:28 pm ET/PT, following an episode of American Idol. (Variety)

FOX has ordered a pilot for an untitled Jamie Foxx-created sketch comedy show that will be executive produced by MadTV's Fax Bahr and Adam Small and will star Affion Crockett. Project hails from Fox Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television-based Tantamount. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

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They return.

ABC's sci-fi drama series V returns on Tuesday but if you're looking to get a little more dirt on what happens when the series comes back for its back eight episodes, head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker, where you can read my interview with Morena Baccarin.

In a one-on-one interview, Baccarin and I discuss her take on Anna, the Visitors' plan, lizard anatomy, why she doesn't want to get her shoes dirty, and much more.

V returns Tuesday at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC.

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Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Huzzah! Just a few days after returning Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara to the lineup, pay cabler Showtime has handed out series renewals to both comedies, ordering twelve-episode third seasons for both, which will begin production later this year. "Showtime is enormously proud of these two series starring two of the best actresses working today," said Showtime President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt. "Both are iconic shows for our brand and our thanks to the dedicated producers, cast, and crews who work so hard to make them so great. Edie Falco's portrayal of the fierce Jackie is another extraordinary example of her range and brilliance, and recent Emmy and Golden Globe wins for Toni Collette in her tour de force role as a woman with multiple personalities put her in a class by herself. Strong women will continue to rule on this network for a long time to come." (via press release)

Sayonara Heidi and Spencer! MTV has opted to cancel its reality series The Hills after six seasons. The series, which originally starred Lauren Conrad, fell sharply in the ratings after Conrad left. The final twelve episodes of The Hills begin April 27th. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin is reporting that Larry David has approached Ricky Gervais about appearing on a potential eighth season of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. David indicated that he should know about the fate of Curb within the next month or so but that he's already working on some ideas and has approached Gervais about a guest appearance on the improvised comedy series. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica) is set to return to TNT's The Closer during the series' sixth season, where she will reprise her role as Captain Sharon Raydor. McDonnell is set to appear in at least five episodes and will, according an unnamed insider, "create situations that come between Brenda and Pope." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

SPOILERS! Grey's Anatomy creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes has written a teaser for the "game changing" season finale of Grey's Anatomy while guest blogging at Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files and offers several spoilers that are leading up to a major "game changer." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Syfy has given a pilot order to live-action comedy Saved by Zeroes, from creator/star Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville), Sony Pictures Television, and Happy Madison. Rosenbaum will star alongside Jonathan Silverman; they will play "two friends, former actors on a science fiction show that has since developed a cult following, who have hit rock bottom and must work together to get their lives back on track." Project is loosely based on Rosenbaum's real-life experiences. "Through drugs and drinking, (the characters played by Rosenbaum and Silverman) didn't save money and, years later, the only thing they have left are the conventions, all they've got are their loyal, devoted fans," Rosenbaum told Nellie Andreeva. "Our show is not about being in the business, it's about being out of the business; it's the 'Non-tourage.' We're the losers you want to see back on top." (Hollywood Reporter)

Don Johnson is in talks to star in ABC comedy pilot Southern Discomfort, where he will play "a tough, hard-core conservative Texan whose life is turned upside down when his grown kids move back in." Project has also cast Steve Talley (American Pie Presents Beta House), who will play Johnson's oldest son, described as "a slacker who kissed off a baseball scholarship to pursue writing." (Hollywood Reporter)

Executive news we can all be happy about: Nikki Finke reported that FOX Entertainment will keep Kevin Reilly at the helm for another three years, following the successful closing of a new deal. (His current deal wasn't set to expire until July but the network wanted to lock him in now.) (Deadline)

FOX will pair Hell's Kitchen with new culinary competition series MasterChef beginning July 29th. The latter, executive produced by Gordon Ramsay, will feature Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliot Bowles. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Pilot casting updates: Terry Kinney (The Unusuals) has been cast in CBS cop drama pilot The Line (also known as ATF), where he will play "a bank robber who is a poet, philosopher and sociopath." Elsewhere, Thomas Middleditch (Splinterheads) has been cast in Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller's CBS comedy pilot Hitched, where he will play the best friend of a newlywed couple (Kristin Kreuk and Jack Carpenter). (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere, Jon Bernthal (The Ghost Writer) has been cast in AMC zombie drama pilot Walking Dead, where he will play Shane, the outgoing partner to cop Rick Grimes (as yet uncast); Brandon Routh (Chuck), Hal Linden (A Kiss at Midnight), Amir Arison (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Tina Majorino (Big Love), and Kevin Michael Richardson (The Cleveland Show) have all been cast in TBS' hour-long comedy In Security; Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon (Eyes), Reed Diamond (Dollhouse), and Dana Davis (The Nine) have landed roles on TBS comedy pilot Franklin and Bash; and Tim Jo and Josh Brener have joined the cast of period fraternity comedy pilot Glory Daze. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at whether NBC is going to be able to turn itself around, pointing to some stability in the schedule, improving ratings, and some new series--like Parenthood and The Marriage Ref--that are plugging some holes. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

After 27 years, UK's ITV has opted to cancel long-running cop drama The Bill, citing plummeting ratings despite a revamp last year and a change to a new timeslot. At least 90 jobs will be lost from the cancellation while ITV plans to use the savings--worth several million pounds sterling--to invest in shorter-form drama in the 9 pm hour, including a medical series from writer Peter Bowker (Occupation) and a drama from Anthony Horowitz (Collision). "The Bill has been a fixture on our screens for more than 25 years and has been the home of some of the UK's best serial drama storylines, and a great showcase for terrific scriptwriting and fine acting talent," said Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, channels and online. "But times change, and so do the tastes of our audience. Whilst The Bill will come to an end in 2010, we will continue to invest more in drama programming than any other commercial broadcaster in the UK and viewers can look forward to a wide range of high quality drama on ITV1." (Guardian)

In other UK television news, Suranne Jones (Five Days) will star opposite David Tennant in BBC One's four-part drama series Single Father. She'll play Sarah, the best friend of the deceased wife of Dave (Tennant), whom he falls for while attempting to raise his four children after the death of his wife. (BBC)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Michael Vartan's Dr. Tom Wakefield will become romantically entangled with Jada Pinkett Smith's Dr. Christina Hawthorne this season on TNT's HawthoRNe. "We get it on very early," Vartan told Keck. "I think it’s a good time for this to happen because you never know how long a show’s going to run, so go full steam while you can." (TV Guide Magazine)

Michael Tolkin (Nine) is developing two drama projects with Marti Noxon and Dawn Parouse's Grady Twins production company, including a NBC drama he's writing with Noxon about a musician with a jealous manager, and an untitled FX drama about a family in the midst of a world apocalypse. (Variety)

TV Guide Network has acquired rerun rights to Showtime's dark comedy series Weeds, which is produced by Lionsgate Television--which just happens to be a co-owner of the cable network. Weeds is likely to launch on TV Guide Network this fall, where it will be join such off-network acquisitions as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ugly Betty. (via press release)

Bunim-Murray Prods. has been acquired by French company Banijay Entertainment in a deal said to be in the eight-figure range. Jonathan Murray will remain in place as chairman under the terms of the deal, along with president Gil Goldschein. (Variety)

Wipeout executive producer Matt Kunitz has signed a two-year deal that will keep him based at Endemol, overseeing ABC's reality series Wipeout, and developing new broadcast and cable programming for the reality giant. He's hired Rebecca Shumsky as creative executive as part of his new deal. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

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