On any thrill ride, there’s always a moment where the ride pauses, allowing the passengers to experience the moment. To take in the surroundings, appreciate what came before, and anticipate what’s yet to come. As of this writing, that’s how I’m treating the last few episodes of The Knick – the moment of appreciation before the storm to come.

Out of the gate, The Knick roared through its proceedings with an extremely modern take on a period drama, balancing unexpected suicides and gruesome surgeries with character introductions and period flavor. Yet, as I have recently lamented, the series has slowed somewhat in its progression. It dawdled a tad too much on its fascination with advancements in medicine and wasted important characters on seemingly fruitless ventures.

Now, halfway through its freshman season, the show feels sure-footed again as we freefall toward its conclusion.

The proceedings immediately felt different from the start of this new episode, “Start Calling Me Dad.” Thackery (Clive Owen, giving a continually inspired mad man performance) reaches out to “Bertie” Chickering (the previously underused Michael Angarano) in the middle of the night, causing Bertie’s father to rage against the maverick Thackery. But Thackery was calling for a good reason – he needed assistance in perfecting a new technique that would end the parade of botched placenta praevia surgeries.

Naturally, this being Dr. Thackery, they were assisted by two Asian prostitutes, but who’s counting?

Flash-forward to the live surgery, the procedure, which uses a small balloon inserted into the kidney and filled with water to put pressure on the placenta and slow internal bleeding, was an unqualified success as Thackery and Chickering saved both mother and child. It’s an extremely rewarding moment not just for Thackery but for Bertie too. The episode gave Angarano several moments to shine, particularly in a childlike giddiness in his early research with Thackery and on a park stroll with nurse Lucy Elkins (not matter how badly overdubbed the scene was).

Other victories gave the episode an unusually uplifting air. Cornelia Robertson (the steadfastly reliable Juliet Rylance) continued on her quest with the NYC Health Department to find the root cause of the recent typhoid breakdown, tracking the outbreak to a single carrier – the infamous Typhoid Mary. The episode provides a rare moment of levity as Cornelia tackles Mary who is attempting to escape detainment and testing after she denies carrying the disease. It’s a small but great moment for Cornelia who finally experiences a win after her struggles with the hospital.

Also ultimately gaining ground in the episode was Dr. Algernon “Algie” Edwards (Andre Holland, seething beneath the surface with rage) whose hospital basement practice for the poor and ignored minorities is discovered by Thackery. Enraged, Thackery shuts down the proceedings and fires Edwards only to rehire him after seeing some of the recent medical advancements Edwards has perfected – namely the vacuum suction for blood and the silver-threaded hernia operation. The discovery of new techniques proves too intoxicating for Thackery to ignore, and he officially welcomes Edwards to The Knick and to the upstairs “theater” where he will participate in surgeries as an equal.

On a more muted note, Dr. Barrow finally purchases a second-hand X-ray machine for the hospital after comically trying it out on himself and two giddy nurses. I laughed out loud when the salesman, proven later to be a straight up snake oil guy, comments that the X-ray machine provided hours of fun for his daughters. This is the same man who, in the next scene, attempts to sell Thackery on a questionable elixir that purportedly cures everything from kidney pain to toothaches. Naturally, it doesn’t go well for the fellow.

But, this being The Knick, all was not perfection. Having recently contracted meningitis through a rat-bitten patient, Dr. Gallinger unwittingly infected his daughter who ultimately succumbs to the terrible disease. His wife, Eleanor, is emotionally destroyed, convinced that their dead daughter will return. As was the practice at the time, the Gallingers sit for a photograph holding their daughter’s lifeless body. The moment is played strictly for authenticity with little emotion, and it’s all the more chilling for it.

Finally, Cornelia’s recent success is dampened by a bedroom encounter with her creepy father-in-law to be. He approaches her in a state of undress (undergarments exposed which, given the time, was kin to being completely nude) and all but ensures her that he will be having sex with her as much as his son would. “Start calling me dad,” he says as is referenced in the episode’s title. Played beautifully by its actors, that unexpected scene is as gruesome and uncomfortable as anything we’ve seen thus far. I cannot imagine why Cornelia, given this and her fiancée’s determination for her to leave the hospital, would continue with the engagement. This being the early 1900s, I’m sure she will push forward to spare her family embarrassment.

And as we push forward to the end of the series, it’s reassuring to see stories move forward with old problems solved and new ones raising their head. It gives me hope that the rest of the series continues to deliver on the thrills we know Soderbergh has delivered thus far.

People at NBC must really love Debra Messing. For eight seasons she played interior designer Grace Adler, and the role won her an Emmy and a legion of fans.  After playing Grace, however, she never found the same devoted audience again. Messing earned good reviews for USA’s The Starter Wife, but she returned to NBC for the musical drama Smash. It only lasted 2 seasons, and every move that show made was deemed a bad one. Why bring up Messing’s television credits? She’s a dependable, warm presence, and people are going after The Mysteries of Laura with sharpened knives.

Messing plays Detective Laura Diamond, a woman on juggling her chaotic home life (separation from her husband, hellion twin boys) with her professional one. The show isn’t very subtle in showing you how messy her life is: Laura’s car is in complete disarray and she isn’t afraid to tell her fellow female co-workers that only douchebags abide by staunch police procedures (well, that makes me feel safe). Her obnoxious singing in said messy car definitely produces smiles, though.

In the pilot, Laura and her Captain (Enrico Colantoni) go to an opulent mansion to investigate a death threat.  Something was very distracting, and then it became obvious: Messing is Grace with a gun. Remember how Grace was obsessed with food?  When Messing and Colantoni arrive at the opulent house to question the family, they are offered wine and chocolate cheesecake (“Yes and yes!” is Laura’s response). When she sits down to shovel cheesecake into her mouth, all I could think about was Grace anxious to get her onion blossom. Actors can sometimes unknowingly channel their former famous characters, but this was almost blatant.

The pilot episode focuses on a murdered philandering husband who was ready to launch a cell phone with state-of-the-art reception. Who’s to blame? The wife? The sketchy brother? As if finding a killer isn’t enough, her raucous twins have been kicked out of almost every school in the area, and her husband, a fellow cop played by Josh Lucas, isn’t of any help. “I don’t need them to be tolerated.  I just need to drop them off at 8 and pick them up at 5,” she tells the elementary principal before they are expelled.

It’s a bit disappointing that NBC ran a 3 minute trailer for Mysteries that reveals the entire plot and ending of the pilot episode. Do they have zero confidence in their own project that they would seriously reveal the killer? It’s not perfect, and it may not be the best new show of the fall—it’s hardly deserving of all the venom thrown its way. Laura spends a little too much time using her cop lingo with her kids and it’s a bit surprising to see her blowing baddies away, but she’s good at her job. There are worse things in the world.

The Mysteries of Laura succeeds because of one thing: Debra Messing. In the hands of a less likable star, the show would probably be unbearable. Watching her stuff her face and sing obnoxiously loud in her messy car is charming. Give it a break, people.  Let’s not condemn the show (and it’s vivacious star) from just the first 44 minutes.

Fox’s Red Band Society could easily be mistaken for a Ryan Murphy show.  It looks like a teen comedy-drama, but instead of being set in a divisive choir room, it takes place in the pediatric wing of a hospital. Comedy and chemo? Life lessons and eating disorders? While some may roll their eyes at the archetypes and glossiness of Red Band Society, this show has a lot of potential, and it could gain a big audience with its likable characters.

Since this is the beginning of an ensemble driven show, the pilot spends a lot of time establishing the characters and learning about the various illnesses these kids are going through. We are also introduced to some of the staff and see how they interact with the patients in this ward.  Our narrator in the first episode is Charlie (Griffin Gluck), a young kid who is in a coma.  Yes, Red Band is narrated by a kid who isn’t even conscious, but the show fully embraces this aspect.  “This is me…talking to you…from a coma.  Deal with it.”

Charlie explains that living in the hospital is not unlike a boarding school, and he introduces a kind of hospital that some people may never have seen before.  Personally, I didn’t know that hospitals had schools in them or the kids were allowed to decorate their own rooms to fulfill their own artistic needs. Charlie introduces us to the other veteran patients in the ward.  Leo is a cancer patient who lost his leg, and has been in the hospital for 2 years.  He’s the closest thing Red Band has to a Fault in Our Stars-esque heartthrob. Leo used to have a thing with Emma, the hospital’s school overachiever who happens to be in for an eating disorder. We also meet Dash, the hospital’s horniest patient who is trying to lose his virginity to one of the doe-eyed nurses by pretending to like Twilight.

The two newest patients at Ocean Park Hospital couldn’t be any different. Jordi (Nolan Sotillo) walks right into the hospital and forces himself into becoming hunky Dr. McAndrew’s latest patient. He has osteosarcoma and needs his leg amputated.  McAndrews (Dave Annable, a clear descendant of the McDreamy line) pretty much takes Jordi on as a patient, because Jordi “doesn’t have no in his vocabulary.”  You know, because healthcare works that way.  The other is Cara, the epitome of a spoiled bitch in a cheerleader skirt.  She collapses in an after school cheering practice, but she doesn’t get any sympathy from her teammates. Cara has an acid tongue that would make Sue Sylvester raise her eyebrows in shock. Within 2 minutes, I was hoping the other characters would throw her out a window.  Turns out Cara needs a heart transplant, but her extracurricular drug habits are going to make it difficult to find a donor.

Octavia Spencer is probably the character everyone will love the most. She doesn’t take kindly to the bubbly other nurses, and she can dish out insults even better than Cara (“You want to know what happens to patients who cry wolf?  We sell their organs for cash on the black market”). Spencer is perfect, and her relationship with Wilson Cruz (who plays a fellow nurse) is one that I’m looking forward to be developed.

It’s interesting to see a medical drama that primarily deals with the patients and the faculty is more in the background. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy and ER dealt with the private lives of physicians with a rotating clan of guest star patients, but Red Band focuses mostly on the kids. Is it glossy and do the hospital room colors pop like an IKEA store display? Yes. Are cancer dramas that make you feel all the feels the new thing (like Fault in Our Stars)? Here’s hoping it’s just a coincidence. The young newcomers are engaging and the veteran adult actors ground it for those who might be skeptical. Charlie’s narration can be a bit heavy-handed and obvious (just let the characters interact!), but I won’t begrudge a boy in a coma.  Charlie needs something to do for the first episode. It’s definitely a show to watch, and it’s easily better than anything Ryan Murphy shoved into Glee in the past 3 years.

In big budget Hollywood space station dramas, there is usually a scene where our hero (be it Bruce Willis or Ben Affleck) walks in slow motion as triumphant music plays.  A voiceover detailing valor and bravery can sometimes be overheard as these people walk, and Halle Berry gets to do a little bit of it in the first few moments of the finale of Extant.  To be honest, I would watch Berry strut her stuff over those guys any day.  Her Molly Woods has not only seen dead boyfriends and chased after her own strange alien baby, but she has had to grapple with connecting with her android son and trying to make romance with Goran Visjnic believable.  Does Molly Woods’ life make a safe journey back to normalcy?

Clad in a sleek, white jumpsuit that would make everyone in Prometheus jealous, Molly is sent back into space to redirect the Seraphim away from Earth’s orbit (she’s got some other plans in her back pocket as well).  We can’t have those spores coming back to Earth now, can we?  It might make for an interesting crossover episode with The Strain. Perhaps creator Mickey Fisher could talk to someone at FX?

Molly’s new threads allow her to see the spores through her helmet, so she can basically tell when something is fake in front of her.  She has a confrontation with “Katie Sparks” while walking through the Seraphim’s dark corridors, and Molly sees the spores spreading throughout the ship on her hands. Back at John’s lab, Ethan freaks out when John tells him that they need to scan him to check out what Odin did to him. John reassures Ethan that, as his father, he will be beside him every step of the way. Ethan is reluctant (what kid wouldn’t be), and he doesn’t call Odin on the handheld Simon phone he was given.  It turns out Odin is smarter than he looks, because he planted an explosive device on Ethan, and it can’t be removed.

Not only is the shit hitting the fan at home, but hell breaks loose on the Seraphim. Molly begins hallucinating again. Sean keeps seeing manipulations of Molly in trouble, and Molly sees Marcus when it’s really Sean. The offspring has managed to get into the ISEA, and the entire building is on lockdown.  When John tries to explain to Ethan how the offspring uses people’s minds, Ethan thinks he is the one person who can get by him.  Some parents won’t let their kids run into the grocery store by themselves, and John is sending his kid to do battle with an alien offspring and help his mother come home.  No biggie.

When Molly is about to disembark from the Seraphim (and blow the mother up), she can’t blast off. Her system, BEN, tells her, “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that” and she’s screwed. She gets in contact with Ethan, and he comes up with an idea for him to control BEN from Earth. Would they have blown up Halle Berry in the finale? Extant doesn’t have a season 2 yet, so it would be more than plausible—even if it would basically feel like a waste of television. Molly’s rescue comes at a price, though. Ethan has to heat up his body and it triggers the explosive that Odin planted. Ethan’s body is gone, but five days later, it appears that he can control all the computers in John’s lab and all the devices in the Woods’ home. “I’m everywhere!” he exclaims.  How Luc Besson of you, Ethan.

So what happened to Molly’s offspring? He’s quite seriously wandering the streets, and he gets picked up by a concerned couple driving by him on a bridge. Ethan told him to run before he detonated, a fact that Molly finds comfort in. I want to know how an offspring can keep his blazing red hoodie so bright. That’s a legitimate question I have.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of wish Extant was a miniseries and not a traditional drama. I’ve harped on this before. The grand scale and Spielbergian-ness is very much appreciated, but it feels too specific for a continuing drama. It was left a lot more open-ended than I thought it would be.  Odin isn’t included in this episode at all.  There is obviously more than can do with the offspring now that he is not just running around with Molly, but I kind of wanted to see Molly’s story come to a close.

A lot of the show’s stronger aspects are on display in this episode, and it is a reminder as to what is really great about the show. While the production design on this show is sleek and stylish and white white white, the relationships ground (no pun intended) the otherworldly elements. Ethan’s continuing curiosity was a recurring theme throughout the entire season, and Peter Gagnon made Ethan my favorite character.

The Humanichs storyline could have been its own show. Maybe if Extant is given a second season, it will focus more on the uprising against the machines? I expected closure on some things, and I don’t think I got it. Normally when this happens on a show, you feel like you can just hold off until the second season, but I just want that door closed.  It would have felt like a stronger ending.

The one reasons viewers may have tuned in at the beginning was to watch Halle Berry. Television is the place to be, and Berry is a big star. Seeing her gorgeous, expressive face every week was a bit daunting. When Berry is emotionally engaged, her emotions brim and bubble on that beautiful face. Sometimes they boil over, and we are treated to some raw payoff. Berry’s Molly did this almost every week, and it was honestly a treat to watch.  In the beginning of the final episode, the ISEA director tells the staff that this is the time to pray.  He then says, “If you don’t believe in anything, believe in her.” Well said, sir.

In Halle Berry we trust.

[Ed:  Please welcome new ADTV contributor Jonathan Holmes. Kicking off what will be regular episode recaps, Jonathan takes a look back at the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]

Awards Daily, the television section. Wow. Never in my dreams would I have thought I’d be here. I’ve been an avid reader of this site back when it was dubbed Oscar Watch back in 2005 as a sophomore in high school, and my interest in film was rapidly growing, so to be here and contribute for the small screen is a daunting challenge, but one I’m fairly up for! I’ll be your watcher for two series that are on my watch list: the hotly anticipated origin story, Gotham for Fox, and the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, the latter of which I’ll be talking about right now, as it pertains to last season.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing this show isn’t so much that it could be seen by cynics as Marvel Studios trying to cash in on the wild success that was 2012’s The Avengers, but that the absence of leads like Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, or Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow respectively would mean that only hardcore fans of the shared universe would tune in and give a damn.

The fact there’s no big superhero sighting (there’s mostly only mention of their names) in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually works to its advantage by not overshadowing the colorful, interesting characters that have joined agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg reprising his role from the films) to form a team tasked with investigating strange cases in a world changed after the events of New York as they played out in The Avengers.

There’s agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), one half of the muscle (or the muscle if you ask fans of her character) of the team, a former weapons and pilot expert who reluctantly comes back into the field out of loyalty to Coulson. She also flies the Bus, which is the nickname of the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane that acts as their base of operations. Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) meanwhile is the other half of the muscle on the team. He’s a black ops expert who has a rep for being an enigma and not being very sociable with coworkers. Scientists Leo Fitz (Ian De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstrige) are the team nerds. Leo handles the cool gadgets and weapons the team uses while Jemma studies both the human and extraterrestrial beings the team encounters. Finally, there is Skye (Chloe Bennet), a skilled computer hacker who initially distrusts S.H.I.E.L.D. but ends up working for them in order to find out her mysterious past.

I’ll be honest in saying, while I was hooked into the series from its pilot episode, the show seemed to get stuck in a rut. Coulson and his team investigate some strange paranormal activity somewhere in the world, Skye spouts off some technobabble exposition, Fitz and Simmons play comic relief, Ward and May act moody and kick ass, the team saves the day. Lather, rinse, repeat from Episode 2 ”0-8-4” to Episode 10 “The Bridge” where co-series creators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (who also helped write several of the show’s teleplays for season one) finally begin to shed light on how exactly Phil came back from the dead after being fatally stabbed by Loki in The Avengers.

Episodes like “0-8-4”, “The Asset” and “Eye Spy” act more as individual cases rather than fitting into an overarching narrative. The show began to remind me of the Anime series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, except when that show went into individual, stand-alone cases, we were able to dive into each character – we explored their back stories, how they tick, and their overall skill set that makes that person valuable to the team, making the individual episodes thoroughly entertaining to watch. The furthest S.H.I.E.L.D. goes to achieving this is with Skye, but even there it’s kept largely a mystery. At least we are given a solid and compelling reason for why she’s sticking with the covert intelligence agency.

Now, in talking about the second half of AoS, I’ll have to talk briefly about the latest installment to the MCU that was nearing its spring release date: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, because as it turns out, both the film and the aftermath go hand in hand (Be warned – the rest of the way will contain major spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the sequel yet, you’re better off watching the film, then returning later). The filmmakers had teased how this film would set the stage for 2015 when Cap, Iron Man and friends would reteam for the Avengers sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. They weren’t lying: the Nazi subgroup Hydra had been hiding in plain sight within S.H.I.E.L.D. and were planning to use drone-like Helicarriers and an algorithm called “Project Insight” to kill off people who posed a threat to Hydra or anyone else in the future who would stop them from world domination. Captain America, with the assistance of Black Widow, director Nick Fury, and a new ally Sam Wilson (aka: the Falcon) stopped Hydra from carrying out their goals, but dissolved S.H.I.E.L.D. as a result, completely laying waste to their intelligence apparatus and leaving the agency in total ruin.

The shockwaves of S.H.I.E.L.D. being destroyed and Hydra’s resurgence is the focal point for the last 7 episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson and his team must deal with a stronger Hydra network, but also a world where the government has listed S.H.I.E.L.D. as persona non grata. The bonds that held them together through most of the series become threads that are barely keeping them from dissolving. May has been keeping tabs on Coulson to make sure he doesn’t ask too many questions about his resurrection. Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), who was supplied the Extremis serum (think the plot to Iron Man 3) by the mysterious Project Centipede, taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. to act as backup for the team and presumed killed has now been transformed by Hydra as Deathlok. Most dramatically, however, one of Coulson’s team, Grant Ward, ends up revealing himself as a double agent.

Watching the team struggle to stay one step ahead of their enemies and figure out where they belong with the agency they once worked for now being defunct is compelling because they’re put into a position of vulnerability and, up until this point, we’ve never seen these characters really challenged as fiercely as they have been.

Another good addition to the second half of the first season is the appearance of Bill Paxton as John Garrett, another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who partners up with Coulson’s group. In a major twist occurring during the episode that takes place after the events of The Winter Soldier, Garrett is revealed to be the “The Clairvoyant”, a Hydra agent who had been plaguing S.H.I.E.L.D. all season long. Paxton’s having a great time playing this shifty, cocky middle-aged snake in the grass (who can kick ass as well as take names), and his character’s personality blends in so well with the other cast members, that it’s actually a shame he isn’t a main character on the show.

Season One of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a series made for fanboys of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it isn’t exclusively for them to the extent that no one else need apply. The show has enough exciting action, interesting characters and a near-excellent second half to keep audiences watching what happens to the team next. If you stopped watching because of the slow, repetitive nature of the first half of the first season, definitely check out the second half, starting with “T.A.H.I.T.I” all the way to “Beginning of the End”, then watch The Winter Soldier, and finish off the series from there. It’s well worth the time and the patience.

Is it just me, or does the voice-over from Mike Vogel (Barbie) introducing the show each week sound more and more irritated? “A couple of weeks ago. . .yep, I’m still doing this shit.”

The 12^th episode of the season titled “Turn” opened with Rebecca Pine and the teenagers, watching the dome threaten to crush Chester’s Mill like Luke, Leia, and Han in the garbage compactor.

“I will figure it out,” said the schoolteacher, whose education apparently included “contracting domes.”

Back at the high school, Lyle was still spouting crazy biblical shit, while Melanie continued to knock on Heaven’s door. AGAIN. Luckily, this time she had a young hottie at her side in the form of Junior. Unlike Sam, this guy didn’t have a murderous record. However, he did have a pension for kidnapping. (Still an upgrade if you ask me.)

With last week’s cold spell and Julia on the verge of going the way of Angie and Linda, Barbie and Julia have barely had time for make-up/reunion sex, and this week was no different, with the contracting dome threatening their love nest. While the two heroes packed up shit and heading for the middle, Julia contemplated taking a photo of her dead husband with her, something Barbie urged her to keep as a memento. (After all, he did introduce them.)

So Julia and Barbie headed to the high school, where they got into philosophical debates about the intentions of the dome.  Julia didn’t believe the dome was for evil—but for good. Just like it was good to hook up with your husband’s killer—not evil.

“I hear that the dome’s contracting?” said Big Jim to Rebecca Pine. Congratulations to Dean Norris for saying this line with a straight face.

Egg-pocalypse Now

Tattle-tail Joe threw Hunter under the bus, forcing his new nerdy friend to admit he was working for Barbie’s father. Barbie immediately roughed him up, inadvertently pulling up Hunter’s shirt to reveal some nerdy abs from old Hunt-Man. Someone’s been doing crunches in between Reddit updates. Eventually, Barbie grabbed Hunter and headed for the dome.

“Don’t you want to see what he’s up to?” said Joe to Norrie, the former of which may have a homoerotic obsession with Barbie. Of course, the Bobbsey Twins followed.

At the dome, where the black army man usually stood guard, Barbie put a gun to Hunter’s head in front of the man, hoping to get answers. Appearing from a black car, Barbie’s father came to the dome to speak with his son.

Hunter changed his signage to “Need Egg Now,” which made me wonder whether Hunter and Barbie were just looking for a surrogate for a baby they secretly wanted to have. Boy was Joe gonna be jealous.

Speaking of Joe, he and Norrie need better hiding skills, as they were about as obvious as the Little Rascals standing on top of each other and posing as adults. Barbie spotted them immediately when a bush started to shake and he knew it wasn’t because Joe had closed the deal with Norrie, if you know what I mean.

In the end, Don Barbara and Barbie worked out a deal. If Barbie directed him to the egg, they wouldn’t mess with it, since it messed with Melanie—Barbara’s daughter.

Melanie? Egg? Her?

Speaking of the devil. Melanie Cross. Remember her? Also known as “Dead Girl” for a few episodes. Melanie has been a character pretty much the entire second season of this show. Yet, Big Jim had no idea who she was. When Junior mentioned his new girlfriend, Big Jim had to get clarification. Who?

“Melanie Cross? Wasn’t she a friend of yours 25 years ago?” said Big Jim to Pauline.

“She died,” said Junior.

Because his father had no idea who she was—and it was basically Big Jim’s fault she was dying—Junior tried to land some punches on his father.

Dr. Rebecca Pine revealed a new Melanie development: Her body was quite literally falling apart. Dr. Julia Shumway offered this diagnosis: “All I know is when the egg disappeared, her health went downhill.”

Rebecca Pine: Schoolteacher, Scientist, Doctor

“Lima beans.” This was the only way Melanie Cross was going to pull through, according to Rebecca Pine, who in the same breath uttered how to use them to do a blood transfusion on Dead Girl. (Still not clear on how this worked.) But soon, Rebecca and Sam were stealing lima beans from neighbors in an effort to help give Melanie the blood transfusion she so desperately needed.

Sidebar: Should we really be mixing blood in the dome? Given there are probably a lot of germs and diseases already filling the air like a fart in a blanket, is mixing blood another thing we should be doing? Notice I say “we” like I am actually in the damn dome.

As Rebecca transferred her blood to Melanie’s, they had a heart to heart—although you can’t really have such a thing with someone whose pulse stopped beating 25 years ago. Rebecca revealed her mother had died when she was young, and overall, it was a feeble attempt at character development.

Happily Never After

Not sure whether this is foreshadowing for the big finale next week, but Joe found a gun in a desk at the police station and questioned whether he should carry it—empty of course.

“The one and only time you ever held a gun, you almost shot Melanie in the face.” – Norrie

Good point.

Back at Big Jim’s garage, Pauline admitted she felt alone and ashamed for letting Melanie die all those years ago. Then, her husband helped her regain her visions and ability to make shitty artwork by simply holding her hand through the strokes (probably in an effort for some stroking later—it had been a while, after all). Eventually, Pauline created something that could help Melanie. A vision that could save her life.

“If you painted it, it must be true,” said Big Jim, as blood dripped from the canvas of Pauline’s artwork.

As Pauline regained her talent(?), Lyle flipped through her old drawings with Junior back at the high school.

“That’s your mother and me. Entering Heaven together.” Why are the civilians of Chester’s Mill even humoring this crackpot?

Drag Mel to Hell

Under Barbie’s direction, Mr. Barbara picked up the egg at the playground where it had presumably crash-landed after Big Jim threw it off the cliff. As soon as Mr. Barbara got his hands on it, it turned to black. The army men threatened to shoot him unless he put it down. Naturally, because Mr. Barbara touched the egg, it severely affected Melanie.

Somewhere else in the dome, Julia gave the following speech, which many Juilliard applicants will surely steal as a monologue for their college audition process this fall.

“I know. We screwed up. Over and over again. But even with everything that’s happened, I still choose to believe you’re trying to protect us. I think when you stopped moving that was a way to give us all another chance. Please help Melanie. She deserves to live.”

Then, the dome started contracting again.

Guarded with her artistic vision, Pauline rallied the gang together to try to help Melanie, even giving a speech to Junior as if she may not survive the episode. Lyle, dressed in a black suit while leaning against a locker like some sort of pedophile creeper, watched as the entire cast of the show headed to the crater with Melanie on a gurney.

At the area in the woods where Melanie had died decades prior, Melanie soon became the dome, with everyone pawing at her like they were at a goddamn orgy. The plan was to put their hands on her to bring her back to life. But unfortunately, they were missing Angie’s magic hands.

“Melanie counts as two hands.” Rebecca pulled this explanation so far into her ass you could find the lima beans she’d stolen earlier in the day. Yes, apparently Melanie counted as two people since she died and came back. It’s “quantum physics.”

It worked for a little bit, until a dustbowl surrounded Melanie like Pig-Pen and she got pulled into the ground.

After Melanie disappeared, everyone looked to Pauline with scorn.

“Was that in the picture?” said Joe.

This hate was preposterous considering they’re all just guessing what’s going on at this point. This whole show is a bunch of characters throwing darts at a dartboard.

As Pauline tried to figure out how the vision had gone wrong, with Big Jim comforting her, Lyle sneaked up behind them and stabbed Pauline because he’d been so jealous of Big Jim all these years. With blood in her mouth, Pauline gurgled that she was supposed to be a sacrifice (that’s what the blood on the canvas symbolized). In retaliation, Big Jim stabbed Lyle—fulfilling Lyle’s prophesy that he and Pauline would go to Heaven together.

The episode ended with the characters staring at the hole Melanie had disappeared into, while an update of the 1960s song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” played.

Didn’t this feel like the finale to you? What do you think will happen next week?

I’m not a religious person by nurture or by nature, but for a Masters of Sex episode to reference “the greatest sin…” Well… That must be quite the sin.

Clear your dirty minds, though. In this case, “the greatest sin” is the sin of despair. Of giving up. Of abandoning hope. Of ignoring that problem that encompasses your life and compromises your happiness.

Much has been made of that throwaway line initially uttered by vaginismus-sufferer Barbara during a lunch counter talk with the impotent cameraman Lester (made for each other if ever two people were). It is echoed in the end of the episode by Bill Masters, himself, but more on that later.

But I, personally, would not dwell too much on this theme of despair as I’m not convinced it stretches across all of characters. To me, the center of the episode is, yet again, the continued exploration of the Bill Masters psyche, and actor Michael Sheen continues to deliver undeniably brilliant work in this latest episode, “Below the Belt.”

Masters is threatened from all corners of his life. He can barely keep the lights on at work. His brother keeps bugging him with pesky absolutions and forgiveness chatter. Libby 2.0 now volunteers at night and doesn’t have dinner on the table when he gets home. And, perhaps worse, he can’t achieve a satisfactory erection – even for his obsession, Virginia Johnson.

Sheen’s performance as Masters has always been about repression, quite the contradiction for a man who openly studies sexuality in the 1950s – the era of repression. This season, however, the repression has started to wear thin, and the years of emotional and physical abuse have started to surface. It’s the contradictions of Bill Masters that make him a vital character and, we are lead to believe, an object of obsession for Virginia.

Bill seems to have patched things up with his mother, an interesting fact given his long hatred for her perceived casual ignorance of the regular beatings Bill endured at the hands of his father. Yet, later in the episode, Bill’s brother Frank confronts him with his version of their family history – that Frank endured the same torture Bill did – and reacts to it in a fashion similar to his mother. He scoffs at Frank, claiming Frank has rewritten their family history.

Probably similar to his mother, Bill doesn’t want to admit that he left his brother behind to endure said tortures. Yet, Bill puts a fascinating spin on the behavior: rather than allow Frank to call their father an alcoholic, an easy way to explain away his violent behavior, Bill forces Frank through acts of violence to understand that perhaps their father was not an alcoholic after all. There was little evidence to that fact, so perhaps their father was simply a sadistic monster.

These scenes are difficult to watch as the ultimate pain conveyed is that of two brothers struggling to understand the tragedy of their childhood. Each brother brings his own spin to the story, and neither agreeing. These scenes are especially powerful as Christian Borle is allowed to play Frank as a real person, a damaged person looking to cover over his pain with theatrical showmanship. After this episode, I look at his previous, extremely theatrical work in earlier episodes in a different light.

At the end of the episode after struggling for years to overcome his impotence, Bill confesses to Virginia “I give up,” again echoing Barbara’s greatest sin – that of despair. Yet, Bill’s despair or “giving up” leads to a reversal of his impotence. He engages, bloody and beaten, in vaginal intercourse with Virginia for the first time since their breakup two years earlier.

But what exactly does Bill give up on? Figuring out his father? His marriage? His obsession with getting all details of the sex study just right? His practice? Only time will tell the answer, and, I suspect, the answer is more of a combination than any straight line.

In other news, Virginia ended the charade with the psychotherapist who nonetheless challenged her to look inside herself and figure out why she consistently deceives others, including herself. This scene, while a solid showcase for Lizzy Chaplan, was a tad heavy-handed and on the nose for me. It was brief enough, but it will be interesting to see if Virginia continues with her therapy sessions.

Libby 2.0 continues to ingrain herself in the CORE movement, stepping up from sandwich girl to full-on canvassing. She earns her wings and the respect of Coral’s brother Robert – after he makes a well-deserved jab at her about lice. Libby 2.0 seems to be patterning herself after Virginia in putting aside social boundaries and pursuing what she wants out of life. The parallel is echoed when Virginia glances in on Libby 2.0 engaging in friendly banter with Robert. That begs the question: will Libby 2.0 truly follow in Virginia’s footsteps? Her sexual footsteps?

I’m still waiting for the Barbara/Lester spin-off sitcom (He’s an impotent atheist! She thinks God closed up her vajayjay because she had sex with her brother! It’s Square Peg/Round Hole Tuesday nights on CBS!), but until then, the seduction of Dr. Austin Langham by Cal-O-Metric pioneer Flo will have to do. Initially, I’d feared he (and the show) would seek redemption by bedding a larger, older woman – the antithesis of everything he’d wanted before.

Instead, Flo sexually harasses him in the workplace, telling him he will lose his job if he doesn’t sleep with her (her actual words were something along the lines of “Does the carpet match the drapes?”). Given where Dr. Langham has been, or at least where his penis has been, over the duration of the series, this sexual turntable is an especially satisfying direction to take.

Maybe once I’d despaired about the direction of the show, but Masters of Sex has brought this viewer back into the pro camp by finally achieving, for now, the right balance between the characters. Masters and Johnson have always been the strong core, but it is only recently where the periphery has fully delivered on their promise.

Ah, the penultimate episode. It’s the entry near the end of an ambitious science fiction show that can make or break a fledgling series. Will Extant be able to pack in enough secrets to broaden their audience for the finale next week?

Things seem to be lining up for a big bang within the first ten minutes of this week’s episode. Odin seemingly gains Ethan’s full trust by watering the notion in his head that Molly and John will shut down his systems. He gives him a phone (that looks like a cellular version of Simon) so Ethan can contact him if ends up in the lab. Remember a few weeks back when Molly was in her offspring-induced dream? Turns out she sent the Seraphim off its current course.

Oh, did I mention that Katie Sparks is alive? She’s just been in a hyper sleep for almost 2 years after escaping the Aruna in an escape pod. I’m feeling a bit wary about this…am I the only one? Back in John’s lab, Charlie discovers that Ethan went offline for almost 90 minutes while he was in Odin’s care. Charlie brings this to Julie’s attention and again tells her that he thinks Odin is shady. Hey, Julie! That’s longer than the missing Nixon tapes!  Open your eyes!

Camryn Manheim returns (FINALLY!) to administer a shot to jog Molly’s memory. She grabs the coordinates she entered to send the Seraphim off course, and she is determined to figure out where and why she sent it out of orbit. It’s basically a scene with Halle Berry talking with her computer. In a sequence that would normally stump mathematicians for days, Berry figures out that she sent the Seraphim a sudden distress call that would send it shooting off in a different direction. It’s similar to if astronauts saw an asteroid and had to make an emergency swerve. When Molly shows the video of Katie to Sparks, he admits that the Seraphim is falling out of orbit, and he begs for Molly to save his daughter.

When John takes Ethan in for a “deep scan” (wouldn’t that sound worse than a dentist visit to an 8 year old?), Ethan freaks out, and tells Julie that Odin said his parents want to shut him down.  You were blinded by the hot Aussie, Julie. It’s all right—it happens to the best of us.  She weasels her way into Odin’s apartment and finds a video of Odin and Ethan playing with a lighter.  The second video, however, is much creepier.  Odin explains that the “explosion at Yasumoto Tower” was caused by Ethan. Yeah, he’s going to frame a little Humanichs boy to start a war on machines.

The current ISEA director, Ryan Jackson, tells Molly that he wants her to go back up into space (Nope. Nope. Nope.), but she tells him no. When Molly and John get into an argument about it later, it’s very strange. He tells her that he never wanted Molly to forget Marcus and their child, but he never expected her to physically see them again.  It’s an odd fight that has a weight to it that I didn’t expect.  I’m glad they allowed Molly and John to communicate again in this episode instead of keeping them apart.  John was becoming an ugly shirt model in Molly’s absence.  When Ethan walks into the bedroom, however, it appears that John is talking to himself—just as Molly imagined Marcus on the Seraphim—and that damn circular pattern appears on John’s neck.

Molly is actually downstairs in the kitchen, and then she sees what she’s been wanting.  A little boy, no more than ten years old, is standing in Molly’s yard.  He has curly, dark hair, but his eyes glow a sinister yellow.  Ethan runs into the kitchen and scares him away, but Molly chases after him. When Molly catches up with him, he reveals that he’s been instructed to do everything that he’s done. “They need blood,” he tells Molly, and he assures her that he is the only one who can stop them from reaching Earth. Molly has to go back into space.

Up on the Seraphim, Sean Glass is looking for supplied when he opens up a cabinet to find a dead Katie.  Her rotting corpse is strapped in, and there is a gaping hole in her stomach.  When he tries to escape, the doors close on him, and another Katie Sparks (the one he’s been talking to all this time) smiles on the opposite side of the glass. Glass didn’t know that he’s been communicating with Katie’s baby—and it’s just been using her face.

At the beginning of this episode, I was worried it would drag. One of my biggest complaints about the show is that it features such huuuuuge, ambitious plots, and I don’t think the pace of the show really supports it.  For instance, Molly finds out that the Seraphim might be hurtling towards Earth (BUM BUM BUUUUMMM!!!), but then the next scene she’s calmly making food with her husband.  Sometimes I want to slap the characters, because it feels like they lose focus.  The second half of the episode really amps up the tension, though.  It cuts back and forth between Julie’s discovery and Molly chasing after her son, and I found myself not even taking notes because I was so into it.

Bring on the finale!