Kerri Russell as Elizabeth in The Americans finale “The Colonel.”

After the season finale of The Americans aired, celebrated critic Alan Sepinwall posted his review where his praises were high but his response to the episode’s casual nature was lukewarm at best. He’s not the only one who may have been letdown from the show’s quiet take at a season finale; several people in that comments section felt the same, and others reviewing and recapping it around the Internet may have as well.

It’s May: several tens of series are going to be and have been bowing out for the season during this month, and all of them are going to be trying their hardest to hit their viewers in the gut with cliffhangers, twists, and plot turns. But you already knew that. As viewers, we expect these momentous occasions during finales and May Sweeps — so much so that TVLine does a scorecard every spring. And whenever a finale even so much as stops short of being absolutely explosive, we tend to vocalize how we were let down. And when series decide to write in filler episodes so that their bigger stories can be put off until the finale, we tend to vocalize how we were let down. It’s just a lose/lose situation. The artificial format that tradition has settled on for a season has forced writers to craft stories into 22-episode installments and the cost is viewers’ expectations being misaligned with series writers’ storytelling.

The 22 vs. 13 episodes conundrum

Revenge distracted: Dilshad Vadsaria as Padma in the countdown to her demise

Take, for example, Revenge creator Mike Kelley, who recently left the series and cited a “mutual decision.” The word was that Kelley wanted ABC to order shorter, 13-episode seasons as opposed to the 22-episode seasons that most series receive (Deadline). Whether shorter seasons are better for the overall narrative is a subject for a different article. But in short: networks are always going to want a higher number of episodes per season because it means more ad revenue without having to launch an entirely new show during the same season. Kelley felt that Revenge, which is highly serialized, was better suited for a shorter episode order. More episodes meant that he’d have to write more “filler” with extraneous storylines and characters. The general consensus seems to be, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to season two of Revenge.

Who knows why the industry has settled into the 22-episode model, beyond business reasons. Deconstructing that and questioning its validity would be like deconstructing the amount of minutes in an individual episode. It is what it is, and that’s how series are made. But we can’t deny that its constraints have impeded on writers’ abilities to fill up the amount of episodes that are ordered. What viewers are oftentimes left with are seasons that drive full force in the beginning, peter out during the middle, and then pick up momentum during the last few episodes.

Of course, you could argue that this is the structure of classic storytelling. But the problem with the television medium is that it’s not classic. Television isn’t even a century old, and has only been widely adopted for an even shorter period of time. Stories are traditionally told in one sitting; even, relatively new medium, film asks for only two hours of your time. Every time an episode of any series ends, it’s hoping that you will come back the following week to watch more. And when we’re offered episodes that are obviously produced just to make quota (repeatedly), audiences become disillusioned.

The filler episode solution

Don’t make them. Ha-ha-ha, I know, that sounds hilarious in its simplicity, but clearly the easiest way to not have filler episodes is to not make them. We could sit around complaining about how longer seasons makes stories seem drawn out and wasteful at times. Or… stories could just be told in the amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B. Not every, single novel is the same amount of pages long. Oracle stories don’t all tend to fall in the same amount of minutes. That’s because storytelling doesn’t have a timestamp guideline.

ABC’s other sophomore drama Scandal realized it this season, and quite successfully I might add. Creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes noted that she believed Scandal was better suited for shorter episode orders as well, but stated that if the series got a back nine order (which it did) it would tell two story arcs as opposed to one (Indiewire). What followed was not only critical success, but ratings success as well. The series spiked in Nielsen numbers after going full force in its second season: from a gunshot to the president’s head, surprising murders, and then completely changing tunes and flash-forwarding by 10 months and introducing a completely new story arc (“Who is the U.S. government’s mole?”).

If we stop thinking of seasons as these arbitrary spaces where only one story can be told, we can begin using them towards storytelling advantage. There’s no hard rule that says characters have to go from Point A to Point B from premiere to finale, respectively. So let’s stop thinking of it that way. Obviously, audiences aren’t opposed to going along with two different stories, as has been proven by Scandal, or even previous seasons of Nikita, and so on. So what’s stopping television writers and producers from implementing as such?

The less we think of the timeline between premiere and finale as a linear model of development and story arc, the less it’ll seem like story needs to be “stretched” out.

Parks and Recreation decided as such this year, having their main couple get married halfway into the season. There was uncertainty that they would get a backorder this season. The same happened during Chuck seasons three and four; when they received an order for more episodes, instead of prolonging the season’s arc, they just decided to tell more story.

Of course, it’s understandable that showrunners would want to play their hands carefully. No one wants to be the person who, for lack of better terms, just runs out of ideas. But alternatively, who wants to create the show where everything remains stagnant for way too long? Everyone knows that with today’s audiences, no one is patient for as long as storytellers would like them to be.

As a viewer, we’d rather have fewer seasons that were made well then way too many that got lost along the way.

Explosive finales, only because they’re finales

Which gets back to the The Americans‘ quieter finale. Audiences have been conditioned to expect gripping cliffhangers. Should they expect all that you can throw at them during every, single season finale?

Yes.

It’s unfortunate, but true. Structure has caused audiences to expect jaw-dropping twists and turns during the final episode of every season, for sure. And we’ve established that perhaps seasons don’t have to be seen as a unit for a linear story, but that doesn’t do away with the obvious: finales are the final episodes audiences see for four months. Just because more than one story can be told per season, that doesn’t mean seasons should end on an episode that would be better suited for three-quarters in.

Every episode of every show is set up to ensure that audiences will return the next week. But finales have more responsibility; they have the task of making audiences come back after four months. So perhaps not every finale needs to be Big and Twisty or whatnot. I certainly loved The Americans season one finale. But they do carry the burden of leaving whatever taste in the audiences’ mouths.

Then again, perhaps seasons as a whole could be that tease. And if we can re-wire how we think of The Season as a unit, then we can create more compelling story, without the need of feeling like everything has to be “saved” for the finale, otherwise diminishing the value of prior episodes.

I’ve just finished watching Nikita‘s third season finale. Whoa. About a month ago, I wrote a piece on what I thought of this third season — and what I thought was that the third season had lulled at points, but continued to push forward in a way that only Nikita can. It did that again during this finale, unafraid to blaze through storyline for maximum impact.

The episode opens up with a dead POTUS lying on her Oval Office desk, a trick television audiences know all too well. It’s a clue. A sign that the fact that the President is dead is not the biggest twist here. No, Nikita audience, it’s not. Turns out that the President decided to off herself once Nikita tried to warn her. (And later, it turns out that Amanda had kidnapped the actual president.) And that’s where things get particularly dicey. One of the bigger concerns I’ve personally had with Nikita throughout its run is the all-too-fancy technology: limbs that can be reattached, masks that can impeccably make you look like another person, and so on. In some ways, I kind of hoped that the President was in with The Shop this entire time, or that perhaps Amanda got inside her head as well. But in the end, it’s not a deal-breaker for this episode.

Because after all is said and done, Nikita pulls the trigger on closing down Division — for good — just like she’s been yearning for since season one, episode one. The producers have been saying that they knew they were most likely coming back for a shortened final season; they could have made the choice to prolong Division’s inevitable downfall until then. But they didn’t. That’s what makes this series so great. They trudged forward and decided that there is actually more story here to tell. It’s not just about Division.

It’s about the titular character. As the season comes to a close, we have Nikita coming a bit full circle: she’s out on her own, trying to make sure that her newfound family is safe (seeing as she’s the most wanted woman in the world at the moment).

All in all, a breathtaking finale every step of the way, with fantastic performances to boot. And in some ways, the Nikita writers could have bookended the series during this episode, but they didn’t. Regardless, I’m very glad that they can at least return next season and provide closure on their own terms. Six episodes isn’t ideal, but it’s better than no fourth season.

R.I.P. Division. (Well maybe not peace, but.)

MTV has put a few teases up, but late last night/really early this morning, they finally put a 30 second spot on their YouTube channel for Teen Wolf‘s third season. The spot has an unidentified voice saying it’s coming “for all of them.” Apparently, an alpha werewolf pack is coming to town and our heroes need to murder them all before they get the first kill. The spot ends with a “This Might Hurt” tagline.

Do you mean the two weeks until the season premieres!? Yes, it’s gonna hurt. Teen Wolf season three premieres Monday June 3 at 10pm on MTV!

Let’s be honest, we love Scandal because it’s a rapid-moving, rapid-talking, completely heightened soap opera. And that’s what yesterday’s finale delivered. We can groan over the fact that Fitz and Olivia are back on back off back on for the millionth time, but the scene where Cyrus tells Olivia that Fitz is a murderer was beyond fantastic. As we’ve seen throughout these two seasons, Olivia and Fitz’s relationship is somewhat toxic. I certainly think so. Everyone who watches certainly thinks so. But the series hasn’t been playing it as such. During that scene, which was acted and produced so well, you could just feel the bomb being dropped. It certainly put their story into perspective.

Elsewhere, I know that people were hoping David would get his revenge on all the gladiators (ugh, please let’s never use this word again), but I’m kind of glad that they kept David a bit pure. Sure, he kind of blackmailed the president, but don’t you think he should be afforded at least that?

Which ties into the story being put in perspective. Olivia may be wearing the white hat this episode, but Billy Chambers’ monologue to David about how she and her associates ruing his life is no less true. All of these people are inextricably flawed people, and they probably don’t deserve a happy ending. As Cyrus said, it’s not a romance novel. I, for one, am glad that the series understands that and they seem to be stating it to us quite plainly. Though, I won’t understand how Olivia was just like, “Meh. You killed someone. Clean slate!” But good enough.

Quinn seems to be taking the Huck approach. As soon as Quinn began taking after Huck, I think we perhaps saw this coming, but to see it finally realize itself was kind of bittersweet. Obviously, I’m not okay with people becoming crazed murderers. However, I think that this development has given Quinn a good story moving forward. It’s weird, because when I first began to watch Scandal (having known nothing about it), I felt as though Quinn was kind of a much bigger character (hell, the season one finale ended on a cliffhanger about her character). And even though the season began about her, her presence hasn’t been as front and center as it used to be or how I perceived it to be in the beginning episodes. So, I like that we’ll get more Quinn because of this and that she’s yet again fallen into the abyss of characters who have become, basically, dark. At the same time, Quinn’s innocence is what I admired about the character in the first place. It’ll be an interesting balance come season 3. Though I think it’s safe to say that Quinn tipped that balance — she freakin’ tortured somebody!

On to Olivia and Fitz: okay, we’re not all happy that they have broken up yet again. But at least it’s on more amicable terms this time around. When Fitz delivered that speech to Mellie about how he was going to be able to transition from divorcing her to being with Olivia, I thought, “Dang! Olivia Pope is good.” Great strategy. And Scandal has been such a whirlwind as of late that who knows, perhaps the writers really would have gone there with them. But if there is one thing that’s stagnant in the Scandal universe it’s the seesaw that is the Olivia/Fitz relationship. And to see Fitz waddle back to Mellie was almost nostalgic; it completely defines their relationship. Whenever he feels like he can’t control a situation, he goes to Mellie for a pat on the head. It was devastating. (But I’m okay as long as we get the same amont of Mellie we’ve been getting. I know some of you can’t stand her, but she’s the best!)

And last but definitely not least: Um… is Olivia’s dad trying to kill her!? We find out that Scott Foley’s character is part of the super-secret CIA division that Huck was a part of. And then it turns out that agents from that same division are trying to kill Olivia, case in point: that lady who worked at the bakery. (Or at least I think that was her.) Here’s how the episode ends: Scott Foley gets thrown into a ditch, just like Huck. But for everyone else, life is going pretty smoothly. Olivia has her workout gear on – all white, of course. Butterflies all having fun, you know what I mean, don’t you know? She opens the front door — bam. Everyone knows she’s POTUS’ mistress.

WHAT!? First, who leaked the information? Unless I blinked and missed something, I don’t remember anyone actually doing so. Of course, the first culprit is Mellie who probably pulled the trigger early on that information. The likelier answer is her father because Rowan apparently is Olivia’s patriarchal unit. On any regular soap opera, this would have been something you saw coming. But knowing you are watching a Shonda Rhimes series, with her forward-thinking casting, your mind just doesn’t go there. Nice, little twist. And it just goes to prove that EVERYONE IS BALLS S— CRAZY.

What an episode. It might have felt a bit slower, only because EVERYTHING that could have happened this season, did. Fitz was almost assassinated, for goodness sakes! Even Cyrus was like, “A heart attack? Ain’t nobody got time for that” this episode.

See you in the fall, Scandal!

That was… interesting. I especially appreciate that this finale wasn’t annoyingly tame as the season two and three finales were. Let’s talk about it because it’s the last moment of the episode: Stefan is Silas’ doppelgänger. Okay. It certainly would have been more surprising had Silas never shown up as Stefan, as I think he has stated that he hasn’t let anyone see his real face. Even when Silas showed up as Elena, which I believe he hasn’t before, I was sort of okay with Silas being the original doppelgänger (even though we know that Tatia is) because perhaps it made sense with the entire “balance” monologue. But I don’t know what to think about Stefan being Silas’ doppelgänger. I mean, I certainly did not anticipate it. And I know that it gives Paul Wesley a ton of fun stuff to do next season and I’m sure he’s happy about that, since it seems he’s been clamoring for it for a while now. But that’s about it.

Katherine getting the Cure: I believe that was called, not by me however. I had always thought that they would give it to Damon only because of how much outcry the character had against taking the Cure. So I suppose I laud the fact that it wasn’t predictable. In fact, in the moment, I thought that Katherine was going to kill Elena and then pose as her next season. I seriously thought they’d kill Elena off (haha, not so). Instead, that’s kind-of what happened with Silas and Stefan. So let’s just inflate my ego and say that I semi-called that one. When Elena handed it to Stefan and told him that he should be the one to take it, I was actually quite surprised. For some reason, I hadn’t thought about Stefan taking the cure at all, and yet it makes a ton of sense. Let’s be honest, none of these people are particularly good at being vampires, except maybe Caroline (only with respect of not killing people, and even then…). But Stefan is probably the worst at it. When the guy goes off, he beheads entire cities. Nowhere in my mind did I think of that and how perfect it fit. I suppose Katherine taking it is a fun parallel from last season’s finale, but I fail to see the sudden hatred for Elena, just like Elena’s for Katherine.

Bonnie’s death: Well, according to Julie Plec, Katerina Graham (who plays Bonnie) is sticking around as a series regular next season. This could mean that it’s only because Jeremy can see her since, in case you forgot, he possesses that ability. Or perhaps the show is going to try to bring her back from the other side. Who knows? However, I appreciate what the story brought for the character’s emotional story during this episode. And it’s nice to see everyone looking ahead into the future and never turning back to see what a wreck Mystic Falls is.

Caroline and Klaus: It’s no surprise that Caroline was reduced to the whole “no! memories! we shall be teenagers!” thing she gets a lot. The most I get from her call to Klaus and his declaring that he be her final love is that the writers are setting up Caroline to move to New Orleans whenever it’s convenient for them to do so, which maybe means whenever The Vampire Diaries expiration date is — perhaps just a couple more seasons — and definitely not before they explore Caroline and Stefan/Silas.

Matt and Rebekah: I don’t care what you say, I like this. I guess they’ll have to explain Rebekah leaving next season?

Jeremy’s alive: I forgot that Bonnie technically died in the middle of the spell she was doing to bring him back, so I was furious for 0.02 seconds that instead of bringing herself back to life, Bonnie decided to bring Jeremy back. And then I remembered and I was like “oh right.”

Elena’s romantic choice: I would be completely okay with this if I were sure that this was the last we’d hear about this, but I’m mostly sure and afraid that it’s not. Just keep her with Damon, show, please.

I have to be honest, I kind of really want to see how the Silas/Stefan stuff will go. A part of me knows that Silas played the Who Am I? game a lot this season and I shouldn’t be that intrigued, but I also just want to see Paul Wesley be bad again. But regardless, I think I’ve gotten to a point with this series where how I’m thinking about it has gotten personally unhealthy. All I ever do is question all of the choices. This episode, all I kept asking the television screen is why Bonnie cares about these people now that she’s dead, and laughing that Silas still isn’t dead, and what do you mean Stefan is a doppelgänger how in the world did that happen, and why is Katherine so pissed off at Elena I don’t even know, and you love Damon until the next finale, and so on. With that respect, I think that it honestly may be time to part ways. Critiques of the series deserve better than my bitter responses to every plot point. I wonder if I can ever go back to just being enthralled by the breakneck pace of this series and forget the rest. Even if sometimes I didn’t agree with the decisions made, I want to thank the cast and crew for working week after week to produce this fun and thrilling series.

And of course, I want to thank you guys for reading week after week what some stranger on the Internet thought about it. I can’t say for sure that I’m out, because just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in, but I certainly don’t enjoy being the curmudgeon TVD blogger (ha!). Regardless, thank you. I love y’all! And if I’m completely done, I’m sure someone around here would be willing to cover TVD, so you can still discuss it.

Mondays
8pm | Hart of Dixie
9pm | Beauty and the Beast

Tuesdays
8pm | The Originals
9pm | Supernatural

Wednesdays
8pm | Arrow
9pm | The Tomorrow People

Thursdays
8pm | The Vampire Diaries
9pm | Reign

Fridays
8pm | The Carrie Diaries
9pm | America’s Next Top Model

On tap for midseason: the six-episode final season of Nikita and new series The 100 and Star-Crossed. Obviously, there was going to be upset; there are changes on every single night of the network. But peering closer, we can actually begin to make sense of the scheduling.

Let’s begin on Mondays, where Hart of Dixie and Beauty and the Beast have been paired off. Frankly, this may be the most weirdly combined night. But to begin, both shows have central romance themes — but that’s not uncommon for a CW series. Otherwise, both series are high in the women demographic — which, again, is not unusual for The CW. In that respect, it perhaps doesn’t even matter much whether or not both series’ genres align, as long as their audience crossover, right?

On Tuesdays, The Originals has been used to anchor the night with Supernatural leading into local programming at 9pm. At first glance, this may be alarming. How do they expect a new series to self-start!? Shouldn’t The Originals have been paired with The Vampire Diaries?! No. The simple answer is no it should not have. The CW has reaped the benefits of having a new series self-start this season: Arrow began on its own in the Wednesdays at 8pm slot and premiered to good ratings for the network, remaining steady throughout the season. But The Originals has the upper-hand here, anyway: people know about The Originals. The Originals is coming into the season with lots of pre-knowledge from the audience, since its a spin-off centered on prominent fan-favorite characters of The CW’s biggest series The Vampire Diaries. In short, it should be able to self-start and not need the cushion of TVD. In some respects, The Originals may even skew more male than Vampire Diaries, which you could argue could have been great counter-programming against Grey’s Anatomy Thursdays at 9pm. But The CW isn’t looking to pack all it has into one night.

No, it’s smartly trying to show growth on several nights of the week. It worked for Wednesdays this season, and now the network is trying to target all of midweek: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Pairing The Originals with proven hole-plugger Supernatural is reassurance that they could fix the problem that Tuesdays has been for them. And if The Originals can’t self-start, it probably wasn’t going to help much on Thursdays anyway.

Speaking of, which is probably why the network decided to pair Reign and The Vampire Diaries together. I’ll admit that Reign is up against some tough female-skewed competition there, and I’m not sure it has any real buzz. But the truth of the matter is that trying to schedule programming that should crossover, is not going to work. Why should it? It hasn’t worked since The Vampire Diaries‘ inception. It didn’t work with Nikita. It didn’t work with The Secret Circle. It didn’t work with Beauty and the Beast. And it’s not going to work now. Many have claimed viewer fatigue after Vampire Diaries, anyway, so perhaps a lighter drama can fare better in the time slot.

Wednesdays just make sense, obviously. Ordinary people, extraordinary abilities. Two action-adventure somewhat-superhero series. And Fridays, more so. The Carrie Diaries has shown to have decent ratings on Fridays in repeats, so originals should only do better, and frankly I don’t know why it wasn’t paired with America’s Next Top Model (which will probably air on Fridays until beyond all of our deaths) before.

The only baffling tidbit is holding out on six Nikita episodes until midseason. It’s been reported that The CW is thinking more about later in the fall than typical midseason, so perhaps the network will use it to fill in time when a new show fails and the take it off the air (which it will) until one of the other midseason replacements come in to salvage that time slot. They need time to promote those others shows while still having something air in that time slot.

All in all, The CW seems to be thinking strategically about expanding the amount of nights where it doesn’t have problems, by including Tuesday into that mix. And I hope it works out for them.

Here are clips/trailers from The CW’s new shows:

And what a retooling. Somehow, Mindy and Co. had done it. And little by little, I found myself looking forward to Mindy episodes a lot more than New Girl episodes. Even during tonight’s finale episodes, I sort-of watched New Girl with my laptop open, surfing and editing recaps to publish. When Mindy came on, I closed my laptop and seated myself up to give it my full attention. I can’t be the only one who has had this happen. And I’m not saying this in a way to suggest how could this happen? Mindy!? I like Mindy MORE? I never loved New Girl immensely anyway, but also: Mindy Project is hella funny, y’all. That’s really all there is to it. It’s fantastically hilarious. And it’s sense of humor is a great blend of the post-30 Rock generation of sitcoms coalesced with its natural voice.

Recently, there’s been a discussion about sitcoms and whether or not they’re just joke-machines or if they could work as actual storytelling tools. In my view, sense of humor changes and adapts as newer generations are born. It happens with taste in music. I don’t see why no one has really thought about it that way for humor, as well. And we are living in a 30 Rock world. The just-canceled Happy Endings can attest to it. New Girl sometimes borrows that same humor. Go On was just as zany. It’s now acceptable to write comedy this way. And I may be in the minority, but I’m all for it. When it works like it does on Mindy, I even cheer it on.

But it’s not just its humor; it’s also made me care about its characters too, and their relationships with each other (in such a short period of time, to boot). Mindy, specifically, has fantastic chemistry with all of her suitors. When it comes to guest-star Anders Holm, the situation is no different. Tonight, I was even a bit saddened that their relationship ended. Thank goodness, it didn’t. Holm is absolutely a fantastic fit on the show.

I still think the series is a bit crowded in terms of cast, and it can certainly cut some people out, but it utilizes the right people perfectly. And I’m glad I have another, of extremely few, comedy that consistently makes me laugh. Thanks, The Mindy Project. See you in the fall!

The episode opens with everyone preparing for the future: Ted finishing the house he bought for his future family, Lily and Marshall packing for Italy — until his mother calls — and Barney and Robin practicing their pretty extravagant first dance for their wedding. With Marshall off to Minnesota for the week to see his mother, Lily is left with Ted and when she finds out that he finished his house they go to see it. Once they arrive Lily goes on and on about how his future family until she finds out he’s selling it and moving to Chicago because everyone is leaving and moving on with his lives, and “the one” isn’t in New York. Although, I was shocked by this decision, it’s understandable for Ted to have a “leave before everyone leaves me” mentality.

However, it doesn’t take Lily long to realize the reason he is leaving is because he still believes that Robin is “the one,” but is marrying his best friend. She then asks if anything happened between them recently, but he says nothing happened. But Lily asks “Where’s the poop?” and he ends up telling her about the locket and their moment in the rain (from the previous episode). He goes on to say that all he wants is to see Robin smile and to be there for her, which is why – even though he wants Barney and Robin to be happy – he thinks it would be better if he weren’t around. After hearing his story, Lily confesses that she knows where the locket is and through a flashback to Ted and Stella’s wedding, it is revealed that it is in a pencil box Ted has at his apartment. Ted becomes excited when he finds out and decides to give it to Robin as the perfect wedding present. Lily then warns him to “be careful” something that I completely agree with. Even though, I wish the writers would end the Ted-Robin relationship, I think it is necessary for them to be at this crossroads before they move on with their lives, but hopefully it won’t last more then 2 or 3 episodes next season.

While Ted and Lily are off having their heart to heart about Robin, Marshall is in Minnesota, where his mom is not so subtly trying to force herself into their new life in Rome. This leads Marshall to have to constantly reassure Lily that nothing is going to get in the way of them moving to Rome, until he gets a call that he has been appointed a judgeship. When he gets the call he tries a number of ways to take the job but still move to Rome, but unfortunately he can’t. At the end of the episode we learn that he has taken the job when his brother calls him “your honor,” but has yet to tell Lily, which can only end badly. This was the only cliffhanger type moment in the episode, because his character is the only one dealing with this uncertainty of what’s to come. He made this big decision but as yet to tell his wife, who plans to move to Rome, so this should be an interesting arc next season.

Elsewhere, Robin and Barney are having dinner a week before their wedding, where they meet a very annoying and pretentious couple (played by Happy Endings‘ Casey Wilson and Mad TV‘s Keegan-Michael Key). They end up becoming Barney and Robin’s archenemies and end up splitting the couple up but then get engaged. Showing how twisted Robin and Barney are, making them perfect for each other because they complement each other and understand each other in a way no one else does. This was a nice contrast from the previous episode, where Robin was having all these doubts, but at the same time I would have liked to see her deal with her hesitation to get married. This story also gave the episode a nice balance, because it served very comedic purposes, whereas Ted and Lily’s story was very emotionally driven.

The very end of the episode is a compilation of moments from all five of the characters leading up to the wedding and similarly to the beginning preparing for their future lives. Ted leaves an empty apartment with the locket all wrapped up, Barney and Robin leave for the wedding, Lily is excited for Rome and Marshall is left with this big secret he must tell Lily. But the final moments of the show is the moment we’ve all been waiting 8 year for, the reveal of The Mother. In the last 30 seconds of the episode we see a woman holding a yellow umbrella and guitar. At first I thought we weren’t going to see her face, but we get that and more, we get to hear her speak. She says one line: “one ticket to Farhampton.” After the 8 year build up to this reveal, I wasn’t sure what to expect the Mother to look like, but I was pleasantly happy with who they chose. The actress playing the mother is Cristin Milioti and I like the casting choice and the fact that she isn’t a known actress. It makes reveal of the mother more special to the show and the role. Nevertheless, at this point, only we have gotten to meet her, Ted still has no idea who she is, which will be interesting to see how the writers work her in next season. Now we know where Ted meets the mother (at the train station) and who she is, all we have to wait for is the actually meting of these two characters.

Overall I thought it was a very fitting season finale and created a great foundation for next season. Next season is also rumoured to take place in real time, meaning 24 episodes at the wedding. My only hope is that we will get to have episode with Ted and the Mother, meting the gang, dating, etc., rather than the final shot be of Ted meting her.

What are your thoughts on the mother? Do you think she was a good choice? Are you excited for next season?

When Erika Albrook, alias Krystal Sky, is found dead in a seedy hotel, the team quickly goes from thinking she was a prostitute to discovering that she was actually an honors student at Harvard. When it turns out that she was at the hotel so she could use an IP address that wouldn’t be easily distinguished, Beckett figures out that she was a hacker. Cue to the team finding out that Albrook was hacking into Banks & Bauer, a law firm where Pamela Bonner, a close friend of hers, had interned prior to dying in (apparently) a car accident a year before.

Albrook wasn’t working alone. Ian Blaylock, a lawyer who had been a star employee in the same company before he was fired for drug use shortly after Pamela’s death. He’s found hanging in his apartment; murdered, it turns out, by somebody who used his email address to lure Albrook out. It’s not a very long shot to assume that Blaylock had been covering something up – and they’re right. Colin Rigsdale, III, a rising politician, had been the one driving the car the night Pamela died. Unwilling to risk his career, Rigsdale and Blaylock covered the whole thing up. When Erika started looking into it, Rigsdale had his step brother kill both her and Blaylock.

Despite presenting noticeable parallels to Beckett’s current situation, the real focus of the episode was placed on the characters and their relationship. Beckett’s first scene opens with her standing in an office in D.C., staring out the window at the city. She has a job interview, one that she (unsurprisingly) knocks clear out of the park. Throughout the episode, she struggles with conflicted emotions: she wants to take the job but she’s afraid of what it might mean for her relationship with Castle. Meanwhile, Castle is facing struggles of his own: Alexis is planning a trip to Costa Rica, something that makes fears born of their shared experience when she was kidnapped in Paris resurface.

We get important close-ups into the mind and heart of both Castle and Beckett. She only tells Lanie about the job offer, something that doesn’t sit at all well with Castle once he finds out about it – accidentally, one might add, which adds to his feelings of betrayal. The argument that follows is painstakingly realistic: it’s not a matter of who’s wrong or who’s the bad guy, but about voicing questions about their relationship that neither had truly asked before. The theme here is, are Castle and Beckett on the same wavelength? Do they want the same things from their relationship or are they on opposing paths? The answer, however symbolic, was clear, I think, in the final scene, with the two of them sitting on the same swings they began season 4 on. They were facing different sides this time; talking to each other, yes, but facing opposite directions.

Both Martha and Jim help us shed some light on Castle and Beckett’s motivations, in two beautiful parent/child conversations. Martha asks Castle whether he truly sees this relationship work out – he’s not usually one to hold out, she says, and yet he waited four years to tell Kate how he felt and another year to do something about it. The question is, why? She also tells him that it is “absurd” to want Beckett to put him first when neither have mentioned where their relationship is going. Jim, on his side, tells Beckett to do what she genuinely wants to do – which she admits is taking the job. However, she says that Castle was right: if she takes this job, there won’t be time for anybody else. But if she doesn’t, she will end up resenting him for it. Her doubts extend to the entirety of their relationship: she says she doesn’t know what they have. Is it real? Will they still love each other once the excitement and romance fade?

Later on, while interrogating Albrook and Blaylock’s murderer, Beckett tells him that the interrogation room has been her life, her home; and she won’t let him lie to her in her own home. There’s a subtle but definitely present change in her expression in this moment. Has she changed her mind? Will she turn the job down and stay at the 12th? We don’t know. What we do know is what Castle would do about it. When they meet again, he tells her that whatever she decides, he wants more. They begin the conversation that was long overdue – it is conflicted and a little bitter and more than a little sad. Finally, Castle kneels down in front of her and asks her to marry him.

I turned this episode in my head over and over again before typing out this review. I wasn’t sure whether I was pleased with the way the events unfolded – I still don’t know. On one hand, I think it explained several things about Castle and Beckett’s characters and the way they react to different issues. I always found Castle harder to understand than Beckett, perhaps because the playboy façade – or his playboy side, if you will – does a great job at disguising just what a fiercely private man he is. He isn’t secretive, exactly, but he rarely displays his feelings in front of other people. I’m afraid his abandonment issues almost completely passed me by until quite recently. Beckett’s protectiveness of her privacy and her carefully constructed walls are far easier to spot and understand, at least for me. So, in short, I was pleased with the character insight that “Watershed” offered.

But then enters the elephant in the room: are they really ready for marriage? Considering past episodes, I’d say they’re not. I believe that they’re completely in love with each other, yes, and that they are perfect for one another, but they have a serious lack of communication they need to work out before making such a commitment.  Will they? We’ll have to tune in on September to find out.

What did you think of the season finale? Do you think Kate should say yes?

After watching the initial Lost Girl pilot, the eighth of the series titled “Vexed,” I questioned why the showrunners didn’t put that one up first and begin the story from there. Maybe they didn’t think audiences would have enough information? Perhaps they wanted to explain a bit more? But, unfortunately, I had already seen the seven episodes prior to “Vexed,” and I couldn’t ask myself if I thought the pilot was good enough, in practical terms.

Sure, I thought it was a better pilot than the actual pilot. But I would never be able to determine if there was enough information to keep me interested. So, I decided to sit my sister down and tell her that she was watching the pilot episode to a series titled Lost Girl. Other information she had? I described the series as “a supernatural dramedy,” which may or may not do it justice. She knows it’s a few years old, produced in Canada, but airs in the U.S. on Syfy. And after those initial questions, we pressed play on “Vexed.”

After the episode, she mentioned that it was good and wanted to watch more. And when asked, she stated that her favorite character was “the blonde one.” To be fair, I don’t think they state Kenzi’s name at all in “Vexed.” She also liked Bo a lot.

Full disclosure: My sister, Kassie, isn’t an avid television fan. Sure, she’s watched a handful of TV. I once gifted her the entire Sex and the City series on DVD (because she was watching them in syndication and liked it) for her birthday. She’s watched a lot of Chuck with me. She’s big on Veronica Mars. In reruns, she’s become a huge Friends fan. Sometimes she’s watched Cougar Town with me. But truly, the only show she has actually sat down week after week to watch is The Vampire Diaries and The Carrie Diaries. That’s it. Those are, seriously, the only two series where she’s watched every episode. She’s inquired about Orphan Black and stated she “needs” to watch it. But TVD seems to be a show she actually makes appointment television.

She’s as casual a television watcher I know who would do me this favor on short notice at 11:30 at night. After “Vexed” ended, we had ourselves a little chat. Below is the transcription of that conversation. I apologize; it’s candid and breezy and probably tangental, but maybe this could give a bit of insight into what someone would have thought of the original first episode.

Michael | So, first of all Kassie, I want to thank you for being here today. [Laughs.]

Kassie | [Laughs.]

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule and doing this.

Thank you for having me. I feel honored. I’m so humbled right now.

[Laughs.] But seriously, let’s just do this because I’m tired. My first question: what did you think — generally, of the show — what did you think about it?

I think it was good. I actually want to watch the second episode.

[Laughs.]

What?

No, I feel like this is so fake and stupid. But no, I want to get your thoughts because it’s important. Well, I guess it’s not important…

Well, no, I actually really liked it. It’s different. It kind of reminded me of Buffy.

But you haven’t even seen all of Buffy.

But I’ve seen a couple of — a handful of episodes to kind of feel it’s the same thing. Not really, but it has that feel to it. But I liked it. I would want to watch the second episode.

What feel do you mean when you say that — that it “has that feel”?

Like that darkness that Buffy has, but at the same time — not corny, but… I don’t know how to explain… what it is exactly, but it has that same feel to it.

Yeah.

The coloring and the way it’s shot.

The filmmaking, is that what you mean?

The filmmaking. Mmhmm.

But not only the filmmaking. Do you mean, like, I was thinking — when I watch the show, it’s sort of like a Chuck feel to it. But Chuck to me is a lot more cheesy than this episode was.

Yeah, this is—

But in a good way. I love Chuck.

It has cheesy moments. Not, like, too cheesy. But it was good. I liked it.

It’s cheesy. But it’s cheesy in a “fried bitch” way.

Yes.

Which was hilarious. Okay, so you liked the episode and you’d want to watch the second one.

Yes.

So based off the first episode, where did you think the show was going?

I think the series is going to be based on Bo trying to figure out more information on her mother, and where she came from, and trying to find herself since she’s the lost girl.

[Laughs.] Quotes.

[Laughs.]

So then, is that how you’d characterize Bo? If you had to use adjectives to describe Bo, what would they be? Like “strong,” “weak,” “funny,” “not funny…”

I think she’s strong, stubborn, weak — at the same time, because, you know, she’s not that strong. When she gets hurt, she gets hurt badly. I think she’s determined. And she’s a good person slash… well I really don’t know yet what she is.

So you don’t feel like you got enough information.

On what she is.

But they said it like a million times.

Fae.

No, but they said specifically — I mean, you even asked me about the succubus thing.

Oh, succubus! There you go, yeah. Sorry. She needs sex.

[Laughs.] She needs sex. So, you think there wasn’t enough information in the first episode? Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah, about who she is. But I guess as we see the next episodes, we’ll get more information. It’s always like that in every show.

You don’t think it was missing any information? There wasn’t anything you needed to watch before this episode?

No, I think I’m good.

You’re good?

Mmhmm.

And you’d categorize this episode as not missing any details that any other, normal pilot wouldn’t have?

No. I mean, yeah, I think it was perfect. It’s kind of… it gives you enough to make you want to watch it to find out more about the show. So… enough details to get you hooked, you know? Like, it’s not going to give you everything.

Do you think, like, prior to this episode, you would have benefitted from a few episodes before this to really understand this episode?

Well… you know, maybe? Maybe like an episode only. Just one episode. Kind of, because I feel like it started out of nowhere, the way it began and stuff. Maybe if there was another episode before this, then I think the viewers would understand a little bit more of what’s going on exactly. But I still think it was a good episode, nonetheless.

It wasn’t a deal breaker.

Yeah, exactly.

You watch the show and you’re like: Oh, I get enough to have fun with this one episode.

Yeah, even though I wish there was an episode before this, to give us more information. But it’s still good.

Well, I know you don’t watch a lot of TV but do you ever feel like that when you watch a first episode. Like, oh, there’s not a lot of information and there probably should have been something before this?

Yeah…

So you just generally feel like that, then.

Yeah, I just feel that way.

Because being someone who is related to you, I know you’re always like, “Where’s this going? What’s happening here?”

Shut up. [Laughs.]

[Laughs.] You’re not a big TV watcher. It is what it is. So cool! Anything else you’d like to say about the first episode?

I think… Bo is a badass bitch. I want to continue watching that.

Oh! HBIC. All right. I don’t have any other questions. I guess this is when I tell you that this is actually the eighth episode of the series.

Really?

Yeah.

Ohhhhhhhhh. Okay.

And that’s why I was doing this whole thing, is to get your reaction on the eighth episode of it because — this is actually the first episode they shot. But then when it got greenlit, they went back and shot the seven episodes before this to lead up to this episode.

Cool. Thanks for tricking me.

[Laughs.]

But it could have fit as a first episode.

Right?

Yeah.

But you said you thought it needed one more episode. Do you think it needs, like, seven?

No.

No.

I mean… seven episodes before this one, I feel is a little too much. I feel, like, now is when it’s going to kick off.

Right.

Mmhmm. Like, for Vampire Diaries, it took six or seven episodes for you to really get hooked on it.

Right. But I mean, with Vampire Diaries, like, it wasn’t — the story didn’t start there, that’s when it started getting good. Like, it wasn’t bad after that episode.

Right, right. I get what you’re saying. Cool. And why are you doing this?

Well… because, I feel like this episode is a much better first episode than what they did. This episode is actually filmed differently, acted differently, directed differently than all of the other episodes. And I think this is a better version of the show.

Does it get better after this?

I don’t think you would like the show how it’s actually done. I think it would be too low-budget for you or something.

So it’s not good after this. This is the only good episode?

No. I wouldn’t say that. I’m just saying that this is the best version of the show. Like, me knowing you, I think that you — the way they start off the series is they start off trying to explain the mythology of it, trying to explain the fae and all that. And I don’t think a viewer like you would be interested in that. I think it starts off here and it’s very clear what her motivations are and it’s a very universal thing to start off with. The first episode starts off with—

Where am I from and yadda, yadda, yadda…

Not that, but it’s also, “Oh you’re this species. And here are all of these different types of species.” I don’t think a normal viewer gets captivated by that kind of thing.

I get you. But it’s very good. I liked it. I would want to continue watching it.

[Note: After finishing, I went back and asked a couple of more questions. My first included a comment on the sexual qualities of the show.]

As long as it’s not frickin’ violent, then it’s okay. But I like sexual shows. And, yeah, I like it. Pretty cool.

‘Cause, you know, in the States, I don’t think we’ve ever had a main character on a show that was bisexual.

Yeah! Yeah. That’s why I think it’s cool. I have nothing against gays whatsoever and I’m not like, “oh, my god, I want to see two girls kissing!” either, but it’s interesting to see how she’s bisexual.

Yeah.

And they were so natural because you can feel that they had this attraction to one another without them even saying anything to each other yet. So I thought that was pretty cool, how the two actors really gave that vibe without really even being close to each other or anything. I don’t know. I thought that was pretty cool.

Before the sex scene?

Yeah, when they’re in the lab. In the doctor’s office. You can just feel it, without them even saying anything to each other. I was like, “Okay wait. Something’s weird here.” I noticed it right away.

So, Team Dyson or Team Lauren?

I feel like she has more of a connection with the girl… than with the guy, obviously. ‘Cause with the guy, she’s like — you didn’t really feel, you know, the sensuality that she had more with the girl. I mean, I don’t know the girl too much and I don’t know the guy too much to say which side I’m on. It looks like the guy cares more for her, from what I see.

But since you now know there are seven episodes before, do you think you might — if I’m going to tell you, the guy and the girl have a friends with benefits relationship. And, so far, it’s just flirting back and forth between [Bo and Lauren]. So, I don’t know if your mind would change…

Yeah, I mean, I’ve never really been a fan of the whole friends with benefits thing. So, if I watched it from the beginning I might prefer her to be with the girl—

We literally just watched Friends With Benefits yesterday.

I mean, I like the movie but I don’t like the concept of it. It’s fun at first but…

[Note: And back to the natural end…] Well thank you for doing this short, little…

Oh, you’re welcome. I would like to give a shout out to Michael and NoWhiteNoise for having me. It’s been an honor.

[Laughs.]

Peace. I’m out!

Well, thank you.

And that’s that. I think my sister confirmed what I thought about the pilot. As you know, I wasn’t the biggest fan of how the real pilot “It’s a Fae, Fae, Fae World” was setup. I thought it needed to have been a bit further in the timeline (and that’s before knowing that there was another, original pilot). My sister thought that “Vexed” did enough to bring you into the story and get you hooked from the beginning, without revealing too much so that you can later find out more when the time presented itself. I agree. And frankly, I don’t understand the execution of the episodes leading up to “Vexed,” either. At least some sort of catalyst to explain Bo’s edge throughout would have helped. But regardless, the writers and showrunners must have had their reasons. Perhaps Kassie, who was quite interested in watching the next episode, will watch the actual pilot (which I think is quite tonally different) some day and tell me if she’s still going to continue watching.