Raising the Bar: Signed, sealed, delivered

RAISING THE BAR: 2.06 “Trout Fishing” “I’ll Be Down to Get You in a Taxi, Honey”*

I want to write about the entire episode. But I can’t seem to get past the ending. If you haven’t seen it yet, you better stop reading now.

And I mean now.

But the end. Was anyone else expecting the happy ending? I mean, I could see the flirtations meeting a happy end. Wasn’t completely expecting such a forward “date” (talk about skipping dinner), and to be honest, I did have a little twinge in my stomach when I was thinking about being in Bobbi’s apartment. I mean, Gavin had broken in before. He peed on her clothes and slit her purse. (Or at least, we assumed it was Gavin.)

But to discover that. The message on the mirror. His body hanging from her ceiling with the signed divorce papers below…how do you respond to that? And while I wish we’d had more than just a moment’s glance to see that it really was Gavin hanging there, I appreciated the way the scene was shot. The quick glimpses as the evening progressed: police arriving, Bobbi’s reaction, Bobbi on the floor… It all seemed to show how the night would be remembered–brief glimpses of a horror that don’t seem to make sense.

And to end it with seeing his final signature on those papers. It’s chilling.

Honestly, I had my suspicions last episode about whether it was really Gavin causing the havoc in Bobbi’s life. He seemed more than surprised when she confronted him. And I’m not sure whether I really believe he would kill himself. Does that surprise anyone else? I mean, he was always strong-minded. He seemed to want to make sure he was in charge of his marriage, and I guess in the end, maybe this was his way of being in control of the end of it.

But it still seems out of character for me. And I just wonder…was it a suicide? Will we find out some scary secret after the fact? Especially after Roz shook him up with her blackmail. Would he risk breaking in, calling her, peeing on her clothes? I just hesitate. But who else could it be? And could we really believe that someone else would kill him and put him in Bobbi’s apartment? Maybe I’m overthinking things, but something just seems amiss.

Anyway, I’m still shocked.

Meanwhile, can I just say how much I loved Marcus in this episode? We actually saw a sympathetic crack in his hard exterior. Personally, I love seeing Marcus out of the courtroom because he’s such a regular guy. But he’s so professional in the courtroom; I was surprised he actually gave in to Richard. And actually removing the pee? (Man, there’s been a lot of pee in this post.) That’s just the extra mile that I am surprised he did. I’m surprised he didn’t yank that fiance and charge her before Richard could blink. It’s nice to see the softer side.

And for the main case. Finally, we got to see Trudy as Trudy has been in the past! I was thrilled to see her as we had her last season: not giving anyone an inch in the courtroom. Of course, it bugged me to see that she was so on the side of Michelle, but hey, what can you do?

I’m surprised Jerry pulled it off, actually. I mean, sure, this was a super-sympathetic defendant. But I’m still surprised he pulled it off. I mean, I would have probably said not guilty, had I been in the jury box, but that’s just me. But Michelle did make a compelling case. And she did do everything she could.

But isn’t that funny? A show about lawyers, and they did a case that basically showed how lawyers can easily exploit people. Risky. But effective.

Anyway, needless to say, I definitely look forward to the developments of next week and the upcoming episodes. It was…well, it was a stunning end to an episode I was already pleased with.

*Sorry for any confusion on the episode name. I guess my sources were outdated.

Revenge better served cold

MERLIN: 1.06 “A Remedy to Cure All Ills”

Have you ever seen the Wishmaster movies? I know, I know. I should never mention such terrible movies when I’m discussing quality television (it makes readers close the page in an instant), but just bear with me. If you haven’t, they’re basically movies with a djinn–a wish-granting demon, who turns your wishes into evil. The first thing you learn when you watch this movie is that there’s an easy way to get yourself killed: wish your pain away.

So when I heard Edwin promise the king a remedy to cure all ills, that’s what I thought about. What’s the fastest way to remove all illnesses, all pains, from a body? Kill the body.

Of course, King Uther is of the fantastic position of living in a world without the Wishmaster movies, and he didn’t know this. Nor did he know the Edwin was actually the son of two dark magicians that were killed twenty years ago when Uther first prevented magic in his kingdom.

This was a fact only noticed by Gaius, who remembered the boy from long ago. This quickly turned sour for the old man, as he was blackmailed into remaining silent for Merlin’s sake. And poor Merlin. The one time he kept his magic hands behind him, he accidentally brought one of the slug-like beings to life, showing Edwin his hand.

I was very interested to see how Edwin was able turn the tables on the king. To save Morgana to make himself look good, even though it was he who caused her illness in the first place. Plus, actually making him fire Gaius–nice touch.

And once again, we see how class systems can really prevent the truth from reaching hearing ears. Gwen knew from the start that Edwin was lying–she saw him put the blood in Morgana’s ear–but she couldn’t say anything, since people won’t listen to a servant. This has proven to be the biggest hurtle of the season, as it is the reason Merlin’s been considered a nuisance and was poisoned as well.

In the end, Gaius discovers what Edwin’s done to the king and tries to stop him himself. And though I do still believe we’ll unfortunately see Gaius’ downfall (a heroic, noble downfall, but a downfall nonetheless), I think that will be in honor of Merlin and much later in the series, so it was not tonight. Fortunately, Merlin was able to stop Edwin in time, which ended in a not so pretty scene.

As Buffy would say, “He had to split.”

Anyway, I thought the actual defeat of Edwin could have used a little work. I couldn’t quite tell if Merlin meant to turn the weapon on Edwin to lead to his death or not. It felt accidental to me, but then again, how do you accidentally make that happen? Maybe one of you could jump in there for me and explain. I just can’t see Merlin taking another man’s life, magician or not.

And what of Edwin? Clearly, he felt his parents’ deaths were wrong. He knew they practiced magic, and Gaius said it was the dark arts. But it does make you wonder: Were all those killed twenty years ago ones that practiced dark magic? From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like any magic now would be sent to their death, as we saw with Gwen who was ready to be killed by fire for healing her father with magic. And it’s why Merlin has to keep so silent. So I guess we won’t really know if Edwin’s parents were deserving of their deaths (though I tend to believe Gaius when he speaks), but certainly Edwin was blind to not see that he walked in their doomed footsteps.

The happiest moment was in the end, as we saw Gaius receive his proper title as court physician and his freedom, which might have been something that we didn’t realize he had lost. And it was a nice moment. A happy moment. A moment that I think Camelot might just deserve.

A fond good-bye to Eli Stone

ELI STONE: 2.13 “Flight Path”

I should be grateful. I should be happy that ABC at least had the decency to air the final episodes of Eli Stone, and not leave us always wondering what happened after Eli’s nosebleed. Just the fact that they let us see this fantastic ending to season two should be enough to raise my spirits and say, “Thank you, ABC. At least you know where we’re coming from and have the heart to let us say good-bye the right way.”

But then I realize that I just saw such a fantastic episode–such a well-done episode where it answered all of our questions about the future of Eli’s life and answered none of them at the same time. An episode that presented a case of law that really just made you rethink beliefs (religious and moral) just to decide who really has the right to live or die–or who has the right to make that choice. And one that has so much suspense covering the episode that at the beginning of every commercial break, you feared for every character you’ve grown to know and love.

You killed quality television, ABC. You did it.

I’m going to miss Eli Stone. I’m going to miss every one of the characters. And while I find it rather implausible that Grace, of all people, would be the one that ultimately got that heart, I’m even going to miss the fact that one day, maybe we would see Eli happy and not with the (annoying) Maggie.

But you know what? I would even be happy to see him with her, as long as we’d get to see more.

What I loved most with this episode was that we were really brought into the visions. The plane crash was real. Sure, there wasn’t exactly a sing-and-dance number that brought us to our feet like the first season, but there was enough to keep us guessing. An ethereal woman. Paper falling from the sky yet pounding into the ground to keep you guessing before the metal of the plane really hit the ground, nearly taking Eli down with it. And the fact that we knew someone would be in that plane…

True, again, it was a little strange that someone in Posner’s firm would go traveling for work with a WS & Associates bag, but at least it gave us the twist we needed. And look, it would have put Maggie in Rome with Paul–the vision that Eli saw a few episodes back.

Everything is interconnected. And was it a test? Beyond my guess that the series was a test of ABC’s ultimate cruelty and to see if people will still follow the network after having their trust betrayed and hearts ripped out?

It was all a test.

“And you, my boy, you’re passing with flying colors.”

A perfect line. For someone who laments that his father went through everything that he was going through alone. His father didn’t have the support of his sons. They felt that he was just a drunk and they had no respect for him. But with this conversation, he finally got peace.

And in a way, we got a happy ending. No, we don’t know if he ends up with Grace or Maggie. And we never actually find out how he’s to “Live Brave,” which I will always be dying to know. But we do know that he continues on, and that he has peace of mind when he does so. He continues to help, and the people he loves may still be tested in his visions, but he keeps doing what he can for them and the clients he serves.

And you know? I think he even continues to dance to George Michael.