rating7

(S06E18) It's been a long time since something on the shocking tip happened and at the same time, I wasn't surprised at all. Tonight, something I certainly thought would go down this season did, but certainly not how I'd have thought. I have a feeling that some of the "old" Tony Soprano might have returned, unfortunately for only three more weeks before this show finishes up.

Was this week perfect? By all means not, but taking out a character that has meant something to all the show's fans forever, and showing what looks like an inkling of an ugly finale when it comes to Tony and the New York crew could provide for one of the more fantastic endings, perhaps the one we all deserve after surviving through so many production delays and season holdups.

(S02E23) Next season on My Name is Earl: a very special crossover episode starring Prison Break's Wentworth Miller. When Hickey and Scofield find themselves sharing a bunk in a Panamanian prison, Scofield tries to break Earl out, but failing that promises to take over Earl's list.

But seriously, everything that happened in this episode was entirely predictable -- about 10 seconds in advance. Earl hooks up with the deaf lawyer. Saw that coming, a few seconds before it happened. Deaf lawyer dumps Earl after taking a closer look at his list. I needed about 15 seconds for that one. Earl makes a sacrifice to help Joy. Not too surprising.

(S03E20) Ben celebrates his birthday in odd ways, doesn't he? We finally got a glimpse of Ben's personal history with the island and with his father. Yet another Lost character with Daddy issues! I think I would have issues, too, if my Dad was Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.

The Beach
I'm going to get this story line out of the way first since the real action this week was in the jungle. Thanks to Sawyer, the rest of the 815ers were alerted to Naomi's presence and to Juliet's plans. We also got to hear Ben's response to Juliet's latest report. When Juliet told Sawyer to play the rest of the tape, I was expecting its contents to make her appear more sympathetic, not less. I suppose honesty was her only option at that point.

(S06E06) This was the last episode sent out as a screener to us months ago. I've said before that having episodes of these shows ahead of time is a double-edged sword. It's great to have them so early, but it sucks to have to wait so long for the next episode. I know, your heart bleeds for me.

The last few episodes were clearly leading up to the final scene in this episode and, no surprise, it was a doozy.

(S11E09)

Peggy: I'll bet Minh likes foreign movies, she's a foreigner. To her, it's just a movie.

I've watched enough episodes of King of the Hill over the years to know that Dale Gribble sometimes uses the alias "Rusty Shackleford' to fly under the radar of all those conspiratorial entities that only exist in his head, but this is the first time I've heard the story behind it: "Rusty Shackleford" was the name of a kid from Dale's third grade class who passed away. At least, that's what Dale thought. It turns out that Rusty just moved away.

(S02E20) It's been a strange week of coincidences on television. Bones and CSI both did alien episodes while Heroes and Supernatural both featured what if stories. Having now watched all four of those, "What Is And What Should Never Be" was my favorite of the bunch. Credit the lions share of that accomplishment to the ever improving Jensen Ackles.

(S03E19) The twists just keep on coming, don't they? A major mystery from Season One was solved, and even more mysteries were introduced. We got a closer look at the many layers of John Locke, who is smarter than his recent behavior might have indicated.

(S08E19) This was the best episode this season, hands down. Det. Olivia Benson's entire world came crashing down around her. Her entire motivation for being an SVU detective was brought into question. There was an awful lot revealed in this episode about Benson's past.

The writers and Mariska Hargitay did a spectacular job convincing me that she had completely lost her mind. Det. Benson appeared to be blindly helping her brother evade the law because she couldn't believe that he was a rapist, just like their father. After the last episode with Simon, I fully believed that he was guilty and I thought she did too.

(S06E05) "You ever think about just coming clean? About everything?" -Shane

I suppose I should be used to it by now, but with the ups and downs that most great shows go through, it's weird to watch something and never be disappointed at the end of it. The Shield is just always good and I think it's remarkable.

So if that didn't spell it out, I liked this episode - a lot. Just solid from all points. Plenty of vintage Dutch, a blast from the past with the return of Vic's old partner, and a gut-wrenching confession from Shane made for one hell of an hour.

(S01E08) I remember thinking after episode two that it was good, but mostly setup for the good stuff that would eventually come along as we follow the Malloy's story. With the return to traveler camp last week, and the big scam this week, that setup has really started to pay off.

This episode is very much what I envisioned when we first met the family. It's a classic con, with all manner of stumbling blocks along the way. And each of those is handled creatively by the ever inventive team Malloy. If that wasn't good enough, how about a little Clancy Brown to go with it?

(S01E20) This episode is listed as "String Theory" on my PVR and some places online, but on NBC's site and the screen itself it says "Five Years Gone" so that's what I went with.

"What if?" stories are fun. They allow the creators to play around with characters and show them in unexpected new lights. This isn't a purely "what if?" story, however. What happens here determines "our" Hiro's (younger Hiro's) ability to return to the present and change history in the coming episodes -- or fail to.

(S04E12) Laila Ali is the only woman left in the competition, but I have a feeling that she'll make us proud. Samantha was under the impression that tonight's show "defines the season." I'm assuming that she was referring to the contestants having to learn two dances, but who knows? Len warned the contestants that the expectations were higher for the Ballroom and Latin rounds, and hoped that they would rise to the occasion. Did they? Let's find out!

(S01E20) Ow. Watching this episode of Brothers and Sisters hurt. It hurt in that really good way that results from really good writing. The writing was so good tonight that I really believed every character. And that is the really interesting thing about this show so far: the writing is the changing nominator. The actors stay the same, but sometimes the writing is really uneven, and other times, like tonight, it just crackles.

(S03E18) I don't know about you, but the last scene in that episode kind of freaked me out. Naomi the parachutist had better do some talking next week. Creepy revelations aside, how incredible was Yunjin Kim's performance? Between Sun's overall awesomeness and Jin's fighting skills, those two deserve their own spin-off. I haven't loved the Sun-Jin episodes in the past, but this one was amazing!

The Flashback

A long time ago, Sun and Jin were the cutest newlyweds ever. I couldn't stop grinning as they flirted and declared that they loved each other "madly." Their early happiness only makes their later troubles more depressing. The couple barely had time to enjoy moving into their first apartment before dealing with their first crisis.

(S03E20) It's funny this episode came along when it did, because in just the last week or so, I've said to a few of my House-watching friends that it had been a bit since we had a big tragedy on the show, and sure enough, here we are. The title of this week's episode, "House Training," is a curious one, as what went down wasn't as much about the value that House adds to his friends' and colleagues' lives, but how they're trained "with him" or "by" him, even indirectly. Additionally, Cuddy gives House the business with a laugh-out-loud quote about how now that Wilson is playing with a toy in the sandbox (her), now he wants it too. Ouch.

We also got to see Foreman's mom and dad make an appearance, and at a very critical time in his medical career. Between the effective killing of a patient and needing to learn how to give grim news, along with the sadness of his mother not regularly knowing who he is, Foreman has a lot to think about right now. Interestingly to me was that his father didn't bring up God, his mother did - followed by Chase - which kind of flipped the script on how his dad was portrayed the last time he was featured. Whether or not any of that will have an effect on the young doc is another story, though.