Jeff Finds Himself Back on the Market in the "Flipping Out" Season Finale

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

It's yet another good day at Jeff Lewis' office, as seen in last night's season finale of Flipping Out ("Back in the Market"). Sure, there's the remains of, er, human feces to be dealt with at yet another job site, a surly moving contractor to be yelled at, and delays with completing the Encino property before Jeff's clients can move in, but that's just par for the course as far as I am concerned.

I thought it was about time that Jeff started to interview for someone to come in as a new house assistant (especially after the incident at Valley Oak) to replace Chris Keslar, but I never imagined that it would be someone quite so terrifying as ClownHead... I mean, Jett. Everyone is oohing and ahhing over how "attractive" Jett is but his hair was actually quite scary to me; the mane equivalent of a trainwreck you can't quite look away from. (Shudder.)

Jett seems nice enough, if already in way over his head, and despite saying that he's laid-back and will do anything, didn't REALLY seem to want the job, if you know what I mean. The look of abject terror on his face said more than his noncommittal attitude towards accepting the position. Something tells me that Jett won't be sticking around for very long, though I did love Jenni and Ryan's interview questions (do you mind being made fun of? if you are right, can you still admit that you are wrong? do you mind being verbally abused?), which cut right to the heart of the matter.

On a different subject, what was up with mover Mario? Jeff has used him for years and has recommended him to many a contact, so why was he being so uppity and rude to Jeff while moving the furniture to the Encino property? I just didn't get it at all or where the attitude was coming from, especially as the Lazners had paid Jeff to arrange the furniture and he was instructing the crew where to place the individual pieces. Strange.

The game of quarters was absolutely hysterical and it was lovely to see Jenni seem relaxed and confident again, especially after all of the stress of her marital situation with Chris Elwood, her job site injury, and friction with Mr. Lewis. And it wouldn't be Flipping Out without one final argument between her and Jeff about a mistake made. Yes, Jeff has come a long way in his battle with his anger management issues but would it kill him to at least praise Jenni when she does do a good job every now and then?

I knew that this season would end with Jeff once again homeless, following the sale of Commonwealth, and would have to relocate somewhere while he figured out where his next semi-permanent base of operations would be... but I never thought he would ask ex-boyfriend Ryan to allow him, his housekeeper, and his five animals to move in with him and Dale. And sure enough, Ryan wasn't having any of it (I don't blame him), but instead convinced Jeff to spend some time in Malibu for the summer.

I actually do hope that Jeff does find some semblance of balance whilst living on the water in Malibu and that the series does return to focus on Jeff, Ryan, Zoila, and Jenni working the lucrative Malibu real estate market. (Just as long as there are no crossovers with those creepy kids from Million Dollar Listing.)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Bravo opts to renew this hilarious and gripping series for a third year, as there are few docusoaps that manage to suck me in quite like Flipping Out does week after week. And if last night's season finale wasn't enough Flipping Out for you, come back next Tuesday night at a slightly earlier time for the Flipping Out reunion special...

Next week on Flipping Out, it's the Flipping Out Reunion as Jeff, Jenni, Zoila, Chris Keslar and others gather to take a look back at the sophomore season's good times and bad times and those truly awful times, like the firing of Chris Elwood. What really happened there? Find out next week.

Reality Bombshell: The DoctorDonna and Children of Time on the "Doctor Who" Season Finale

I'm getting all teary again just thinking about the season finale of Doctor Who ("Journey's End"), which saw the resolution to about four seasons' worth of storylines, the "death" of one of the Doctor's companions, a meta-crisis resulting in the creation of a "second" Doctor, six pilots in the TARDIS, and a slew of familiar faces (even Jackie Tyler!) turn up for the ultimate battle against the Daleks, with the fate of all creation at stake.

This could have felt rushed but fortunately both the BBC and US broadcaster Sci Fi opted to let the final chapter of Season Four of Doctor Who run its full length (here in the US with ad breaks, it filled out a 90-minute timeslot), as "Journey's End" dealt with some rather profound themes: the natures of sacrifice, vengeance, and friendship and the price one ultimately pays for victory.

It's also about the pragmatism of the human race, with Martha willing to destroy the Earth using the Osterhagen Key in order to prevent the wholesale slaughter of the humans and ease their "suffering," just as Sarah Jane, Jack Harkness, Jackie, and Mickey are willing to use Sarah Jane's warp star to destroy the Dalek Crucible. I did believe that Sarah Jane and the others were willing to detonate the star in order to save all of creation and foil Davros' plan... or at least use it as a gambit to try and get Davros to return the Earth and not use the reality bomb.

Make no mistake about it: the battle against the Daleks is won by the Doctor and his so-called Children of Time, but it is the very definition of phyrric victory. Yes, the Earth is saved (not to mention all of creation) and the twenty-seven planets returned to their rightful positions in space but it is the Doctor and his most faithful companion Donna who pay the ultimate price.

First, I want to say just how amazing Catherine Tate's performance was in this episode. She perfectly nailed the Doctor's cadence in her role as the DoctorDonna (following the meta-crisis in which she absorbed the Doctor's Time Lord essence and then created a human-Time Lord hybrid being), delivering a portrayal of Donna as confident, intelligent, and possessing a whimsical humor, all of which gleefully showcased Tate's talents as a mercurial sketch artist (if you've never seen her delightfully wicked sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, you are missing out). But beyond that, she also delivered a performance that left me heartbroken, as she pleads with the Doctor not to send her back, not to take away everything--her experiences, memories, sense of self--that made her "special."

For Donna, her fate is truly worse than death. (And I do believe that Donna herself would have chosen death over the alternative.) The Doctor erases her memories of him, their time together, and the fact that she was the single most important woman in the universe and deposits her back with her family on Earth. For Donna, it's as though the past few months have never existed and she quickly reverts back to type: a chavvy, self-absorbed, and shallow temp from Chiswick.

When it was announced that Catherine Tate would be the Doctor's companion for Season Four, I was a little skeptical. After all, Donna had been highly abrasive during her turn during "The Runaway Bride," and I wasn't sure that I could stomach the sort of bickering that Donna and the Doctor experienced on a weekly basis. Tate and the series' writers proved me dead wrong; instead, Donna developed into a headstrong but thoughtful character who wasn't afraid to speak her mind but who truly came to life (and an awareness of others) vis-a-vis her travels with the Doctor. And I am not ashamed at all to say that Donna has possibly become my favorite companion on the series to date.

Donna's sacrifice (and the Doctor's sad sacrifice of her) lend her character an air of tragedy that I never thought possible. It has also increased the Doctor's suffering tenfold (the reveal that the TARDIS was meant to be piloted by six people was an illuminating one). He lost Rose when the dimensions closed upon themselves but was able to make up for this by giving her the human-Time Lord Doctor as a lover, a shade of himself that is angry and raw, embodying the vengeance he felt when he destroyed the Daleks for the first time (and then had to watch "himself" commit genocide all over again). Martha Jones left him at the end of Season Three, finding a place not in the stars but with UNIT and Torchwood, to a lesser extent. But poor Donna was lost to him in an entirely different way and the Doctor is forced to know that she is out there, on Earth, but is completely closed off to him, not aware of his existence or the time they shared together, wholly alien and foreign to him.

I found that to be so upsetting and disquieting... and yet such a good way to for the Doctor to start all over again, having drawn those closest to him back to him one last time. Seeing all of the series' previous characters--from Rose, Jackie, and Mickie, to Martha, Jack, Gwen (who, finally! is revealed to be a descendant or reincarnation of Season One's Gwyneth), and Ianto--come together in one glorious story was thrilling and gave the season ender the feeling of an epic battle of the gods.

But once again, the Doctor finds himself alone and it's only a matter of time before he finds another Companion to keep him company in the TARDIS. Here's to hoping that whoever it is ends up being as memorable, gripping, and hysterical as Catherine Tate's Donna Noble. For a woman who thought she was a nobody, she ended up being very special indeed and I'll miss her presence on Doctor Who more than I ever thought possible.

Doctor Who returns to the small screen in the UK at Christmas time, though I imagine we'll have to wait quite a while to catch it here in the US. But, in the meantime, if you'd like to take a look at a sneak peek at the Doctor Who Christmas Special, featuring the return of the Cybermen, click here.

Revelations (and Some Answers!) on the Season Finale of "Battlestar Galactica"

For the naysayers out there who said that the Colonials wouldn't reach the promised land until the very end of the series, there's a bit of egg on your face now that the pseudo-season finale ("Revelations") showed them doing just that, way ahead of schedule.

Of course, this being Battlestar Galactica, the revelation that a joint human-Cylon task force would be able to crack the code and find the way to Earth (using a series of clues left by whom exactly?) had its own unique twist: once they reached the blue planet, they discovered that it was nothing but a smoldering nuclear wasteland, possibly destroyed decades earlier. The sight of human standing next to Cylon as they wandered aimlessly through the charred (and radiation rich) ruins of an Earth building was haunting and mysterious; never did I think that we'd see Six and Tigh standing side by side (as she lovingly touches him on the shoulder, no less) or D'Anna sharing the same space with Roslin and Adama. And poor Kara looked heartbroken as she surveyed the surface of the planet she had fought so hard (risking even her sanity) to find.

This to me is not only very interesting but significant. Someone went through all of the effort to pull Starbuck out of the timeline, faked her death (or let the Colonials think she was dead), brought her to Earth (which wasn't destroyed), and then placed her back in the timeline just as the fleet arrived at the nebula, outfitting her with a near perfect copy of the Viper she was flying when it exploded, seemingly killing her. Hmmm. This Viper doesn't have a scratch on it yet has the identical Colonial registry as Starbuck's Viper; it seems to be the very same vehicle and everyone from Chief on down the line has checked it out thoroughly... yet suddenly the Four sleeper agent Cylons aboard Galactica get a weird sonic message and they find themselves drawn as by an invisible thread to the Viper. And somehow Starbuck manages to find something unusual... a hidden signal received only by this particular Viper that displays a Colonial transmission from Earth. Just why did someone go through all of this trouble just to get the humans to arrive on Earth (too late, perhaps?) if there was nothing there but charred rock?

As always in Battlestar Galactica, it's a matter of being careful what you wish for. I'm very excited and intrigued to see what happens next as the primary dual missions of the series (fight the Cylons to keep the human race alive and find Earth) have been rendered pretty darn useless by the events of the last few episodes. The destruction of the Cylon Resurrection Hub (in last week's brilliant and gripping episode scripted by Jane Espenson) puts the Cylons and humans on almost equal ground: they're now both mortal. Each life counts for something and each death is a reminder that the darkness is just around the corner for each of them. As for them reaching Earth, I wonder what Pythia said they'd find there once they arrived. The dying leader did lead them to the blue planet but the prophecies don't say anything about what to do next.

So where will the final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica take us? My guess is that the fragile human/Cylon alliance will be tested by this shocking turn of events. Both races have been on a quest to find Earth, aided by the Final Five, and will have to deal with the fallout that help hasn't arrived in the form of the thirteenth colony. I think they'll try to work together to solve the mystery of just what happened to the planet: was it destroyed in the same Cylon attack that destroyed the Colonies or did Brother Cavill's forces get there before them and wipe it from the stellar maps? And they'll have to deal with Cavill's forces eventually. No way will he take the destruction of the Resurrection Hub lightly and, while many thousands of his models (along with the others) were destroyed during the attack, there have got to be other copies out there waiting to pay the rebels and the humans back for their assault.

As for the Final Five, I think it incredibly fascinating that the four known models came from Earth. Were they born there in conventional means? I've long thought that these Cylons were unique in that their experiences were unique: birthed as a single model and not a production line, they experienced life in a linear fashion, aging as the humans do with no ability to download to a new host body. I'm curious to know what their buried memories of Earth are and how they'll be significant in determining the next move for both peoples. Do they stay and try to build a new civilization together, aware of the risks and sacrifices necessary to do so after their botched attempt at occupation on New Caprica? Can the humans really ever forgive the Cylons for the destruction of the Twelve Colonies? Is anyone ever able to forgive a nation for genocide?

Speaking of forgiveness, I can't help but wonder whether Roslin will keep Baltar's crime to herself now that she saved his life. She was tempted to let him die after his injury (silly him for unburdening himself and telling her that he gave the Cylons the access codes that led to the destruction of their home worlds) but in the end "forgave" him for his sins and proved that all life, no matter how reckless and foolhardy, is worth saving.

As for the fleet, they'll also have to forgive and adapt to the realization that four of them (not to mention four people closest to the human leadership) were actually Cylons from the start. The depth of Adama's feelings of betrayal when he learned that Tigh was "one of them" was an astonishing and heartrending sight as he drunkenly smashed the mirror in his cabin and was reduced to a keening, sobbing wreck on the floor as Lee had to cradle him and comfort him. It was an interesting subversion of their normal relationship, with Lee the one to provide clarity and strength to his father. I thought it was a telling display of how far his character had come since the start of the series that Lee remained so poised and in control in the face of such chaos, able to make the difficult decision (remember his guilt over shooting down the Olympic Carrier?) and roll that hard six. It's a feeling that erased my distaste for Lee during his, um, fat days as the flabby and unsympathetic Commander of the Pegasus.

I was happy to see that Tigh remained ever the pragmatic soldier, even in the face of possible airlocking; willing to sacrifice himself to save the fleet from nuclear attack by D'Anna's rebel forces, he proved in no uncertain terms that actions do make the man more than anything else. Tigh might not be human (or is he something more than both human and Cylon?) but he proved without a doubt where his loyalties lie. Michael Hogan has transformed the curmudgeonly Tigh into something approaching a true hero, albeit a tragic one at best, and his performance in the finale as he comes to terms with his need to reveal his true self to Adama, his friend of thirty years, was absolutely riveting to watch.

Ultimately, a fantastic halfway point for the final season of Battlestar Galactica and a cliffhanger ending that will have me guessing about what happens next for the long months ahead until Sci Fi brings the series back for its final ten episodes early next year. I'm already deliriously anxious to see what happens next so the wait is likely to be as excruciating for me as it is depressing knowing that the series' ending is so very, very near.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC); Gossip Girl (CW); The Bachelorette: DeAnna Tells All (ABC); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement (CBS); Nashville Star (NBC; 9-10:30 pm); One Tree Hill (CW); The Bachelorette (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: CSI Miami (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 10:30-11 pm); The Mole (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gossip Girl.

Looking to relive the freshman season of the teen soap? On tonight's repeat episode ("Victor/Victrola"), Nate worries that his dad has some kind of drug problem, Nate considers investing in a burlesque club, and Jenny uncovers a secret her parents were working hard to protect her from and tells Blair that Nate isn't over Serena, a revelation that leads her into the arms of Chuck Bass.

10 pm: Weeds on Showtime.

In the fourth season premiere of Weeds ("Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her"), Nancy, Andy and the kids, still on the lam after she burned down their house, head to the beach, where they are reunited with their grandfather (guest star Albert Brooks) and Nancy learns that some problems are inescapable.

10:30 pm: Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Showtime.

On the first episode of this effervescent British import, we're introduced to twenty-something Londoner Hannah (Billie Piper) who goes by the nom de plume Belle in her career as a high-priced call girl; watch what happens when she inexplicably falls for a client.

The Art of Choke: The “Top Chef: Chicago” Season Finale

I’ve gotten quite a few worried emails from readers wondering why there hasn’t been a post about the Top Chef finale, which aired the other night on Bravo. Why aren’t I crowing about the defeat of sourpuss Lisa, the unexpected choking of Richard, and the crowning victory of Stephanie, the first woman to be named Top Chef?

Simple answer: I’m on my honeymoon after a magical wedding at Napa’s Auberge du Soleil. If you ever have the chance to stay there (or have the financial means to make it happen), it will surpass your every expectation; it is so sublimely relaxing and luxurious that you will gladly melt away at the mere sight of the view of the Valley. One caveat, however: though the enormous flatscreen televisions (in the bedroom and bathroom, no less) are gorgeous, they don’t receive Bravo.

And for some reason, neither Hulu or BravoTV.com had the finale episode (“Finale, Part Two”) online for streaming. I’ve finally now watched the episode and I was completely riveted by the action that unfolded. Given a choice of celebrity sous chefs—including the incredible Eric Ripert—the three remaining chefs (that would be Richard, Stephanie, and—ick—Lisa) were able to select from pre-arranged proteins in order to construct a four-course meal that would include a dessert course (shock horror!); they’d have help from their sous chef during prep but—surprise!—they’d have to do the actual cooking on their own and then present their dishes to the judges.

Having Lisa there certainly set a certain mood in the kitchen. I really wanted Antonia in the Final Three and I do think that, had she been there, we would have seen a certain camaraderie that was distinctly missing from the kitchen with Lisa there. As for the sourpuss herself, she seemed oddly overconfident and strangely calm, as though she had somehow swallowed some magical Zen potion that sublimated her caustic nature. Or somewhat, anyway; there were still little digs here and there at Stephanie during prep.

But whatever. Stephanie proved once again that she has not only great vision but awesome organizational skills, quickly devising a menu that was daring, different, and difficult, that challenged the palates of the judges with unexpected and unusual flavor combinations (seriously, who ever thought you could braise a pistachio?), and cemented her skills as a talented and creative chef. Seriously, she had this thing in the bag unless she majorly screwed up somehow. (And something told me that wasn’t going to happen.)

So onto the food then. Just what did each of the three remaining contestants devise? Let’s discuss.

For her first course, Lisa offered a dish of prawns with a chili-basil sauce, crab, square-cut potato chips, and pea tendrils. The judges seemed thrilled by this dish but it didn’t really wow me (maybe because I don’t care at all for prawns); I also agree with Tom that it was way too overtly spicy and aggressive (huh, just like its maker) for a first course. Still, it seemed to be a definite hit among the judges. Grr. Up next was Lisa’s Tom Ka Soup Dumplings with chicken, golden threads, toasted chili, and cilantro. I adore Tom Ka; this traditional Thai soup is perhaps one of my favorite soups, perfectly balancing sweet, spicy, and sour, and when done correctly can be utterly transcendent. Still, Lisa described it as her version of “chicken soup”: delicious, filling, and simple. While it may have been delicious, it really didn’t wow me at all, not in the way that other contestants’ dishes have in the past. Tom had it right when he described her food as “pedestrian.” Still, in order to hype up the dramatic stakes, I am sure the producers played up the success of her soup course. If she won this thing, I’d eat one of Spike’s hats.

Up next was a disaster of a dish: Wagyu beef with cucumber-chayote salad and garlic chips; while the salad seemed to work, Lisa had not correctly used the Wagyu to its full advantage, rendering it chewy and tough rather than making the fat melt into the meat. For the dessert course, Lisa created a black Thai rice pudding with caramelized coconut, mango cream, and crispy taro that may have tasted delicious but looked absolutely revolting. I also criticize her for the use of “chips” on nearly (or, hell, even all) of her dishes on the menu. Enough is enough.

Poor Richard really did seem to choke under the pressure, rather than use the challenge to devise some incredible dishes and push himself into new and unexpected territory. Instead, he seemed to deflate entirely. Sure, having Eric Ripert hang on your every word as he explained the use of liquid nitrogen in making Tabasco “ice cream” was as terrifying as it was invigorating but he seemed to lose all of his energy and drive as soon as the “sous chefs” left the kitchen. I was pretty depressed to see him fall so far; this should have been the cook-off to end all cook-offs between him and Stephanie, a culinary battle to the death. Instead, our man Blais went out with more of a whimper than a bang.

As for his dishes, they showed signs of Richard’s genius but fell way short in the execution. His first dish—scallop with radish, mango, and pineapple vinegar—sounded absolutely amazing but the judges didn’t seem all that taken with it, especially in comparison to Stephanie’s dishes. His second dish, the playfully entitled “Which Came First?” consisted of Guinea hen, duck, foie gras, a chicken Egg, and spring vegetables. It could have been a daring, sophisticated, and whimsical dish but fell under the weight of its own ambitions, a muddled dish that didn’t properly distinguish between its ultra-rich ingredients. Up next was pork belly with pickled radish and a mirin broth; the pickled radish rosette was a thing of beauty and a genius stroke but the entire dish seemed under-seasoned (a culinary faux pas if there ever was one) and the pork belly didn’t have its fat rendered at all; rather than be crispy (a delicious feat) it was far too chewy and thick. I thought his efforts with the bacon ice cream portion of his dessert was phenomenal but he’s attempted the banana “scallop” far too many times in the past and I was really surprised that he opted to do it again with so much on the line. Sigh.

And then there was Stephanie. While she seemed to lack confidence in her own skills (except at judges’ table), she absolutely proved that the cream does rise to the top. Her menu was thoughtful, elegant, and sophisticated (with the exception of that awful dessert) and it was one that I would order over and over again if I was paying. For her first course, she created a dish infused with the essence of springtime, a sautéed red snapper filet with truffled white asparagus and clam broth. A beautiful and delicate dish that reminds us that, while her specialty is simple, homey fare, Stephanie also can deliver high-end, conceptual dishes that use seasonal and local ingredients. Up next was a seared quail breast with butter-poached lobster ravioli, quail egg, and mango with a sauce made from lobster shells and quail bones. If you haven’t shorted your computer keyboard with saliva by now, you are far stronger than I.

For her meat course, Stephanie offered up roasted lamb medallions with braised pistachios, blackberry, and green olive; I too was terrified by the flavor combinations but at the same time I could see the brininess of the olives counterbalancing the sweet nuttiness of the pistachios and the luscious sweetness of those blackberries. And sure enough the judges felt the same way, raving about the braised pistachios, a totally novel way of using the nuts in a dish that was utterly inventive and inspired. (I knew she had it in the bag right there.) Her only failure (besides, yes, crispy leeks) was her dessert, a ricotta pound cake with lime glaze, pineapple and salted banana cream, a low point in an otherwise perfect meal.

It was obvious who was winning this final challenge and that Lisa actually stood in front of the judges and said that she had all of the qualities of a Top Chef was laughable. If anyone there deserved to be there it was Stephanie and Richard and Richard had sadly fallen short of this intense challenge. Rightfully so, Stephanie became the first female contestant to win the title of Top Chef and I think that the judges chose perfectly. I cannot wait to see what this talented chef does next and I definitely think that this isn’t the last we hear of Stephanie.

And, if karma has anything to do with it, that we haven’t heard the last of Richard Blais either.

Fingers crossed.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC;); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); Hollywood Homicide (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be TiVo'ing

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "The Unicorn and the Wasp," as Donna and the Doctor travel to 1926 where they meet Agatha Christie (guest star Fenella Woolgar) and stumble into a murder mystery.

10 pm: Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode ("Revelations"), which marks the midseason break for the final season of BSG, a hostage standoff unfolds as the rebel Cylons hold Laura Roslin captive in order to bring the Final Five out of hiding aboard Galactica. This is it, true believers: everything changes.

Return to Oz: Home is Where the Heart Is on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Wow. I don't even know where to begin.

I'm talking of course about last night's amazing season finale to Lost ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts Two & Three"), which fulfilled the promise of last season's ender by showing just how the Oceanic Six managed to escape the island (along with Desmond and Frank Lapidus) and gave us an oh-no-he-didn't moment when Ben manages to move the island in time and space... before being exiled from the place he's sworn to protect for the rest of his life.

Sawyer. Before we get into the crux of the episode, I do feel extremely vindicated that my theory about what would happen to Sawyer played out EXACTLY as I had predicted two weeks ago. When faced with the helicopter losing fuel and none of them making it off the island, Sawyer whispers in Kate's ear (a promise about, oh, tracking down his daughter on the mainland), kisses her passionately, and then sacrifices his freedom for his fellow castaways by jumping out of the helicopter into the ocean below, ensuring (hopefully) that the others will make it to the freighter and escape. It was a beautiful manifestation of just how far Sawyer has grown as a character and his selflessness contrasts sharply with the man we met four seasons ago: a feral, selfish loner who thought only of himself. Can this really be the same guy who lied about hoarding Shannon's asthma medication all those years ago? Yep.

The Coffin. Because it's on everyone's minds, we'll talk about the coffin first. I wasn't quite right about my predictions about who was inside and was utterly stunned to see John Locke lying in the coffin as the mysterious Jeremy Bentham, but it's only fitting as English philosopher Bentham was a follower of John Locke's namesake and a proponent for natural rights (he also had his body preserved after his death in a glass case, so there you go) that Locke would choose this name as his alter ego. It also makes sense as Bentham reached out to each of the Oceanic Six (plus Walt, who most of them had completely forgotten about), urging them to return to the island and saying that "bad things" happened after they left. After all, it was Locke who told Jack that he had to stay on the island and not leave in the first place. (Love that Locke is now the de facto leader of the Others.) As for those bad things, I think they are definitely connected to the island being moved in time and space and I believe we'll soon discover that those who stayed behind on the island have gotten themselves stuck in a rather painful time loop from which they cannot escape.

As for why the castaways referred to Locke by his alias, they constructed a massive cover story about the crash, so it makes sense why they wouldn't use his real name when it's clear they must stick to their story. It's also clear that Locke--like Ben before him--clearly has the ability to leave the island at will, possibly through the same as-yet unseen method that Ben used (remember those passports and foreign currencies?) and he too had an alias that he used on the mainland. There was definite bad blood between Locke and the other castaways, so it makes sense why they wouldn't attend the funeral (and Hurley, who might have gone, was in Santa Rosa at the time); plus after his murder of Naomi, he severed any emotional bonds that may have existed between him and the Oceanic Six.

Finally, while the newspaper article claimed that Bentham killed himself in New York, none of the Oceanic Six believe this story for a second. Sayid knows that it was no suicide but a calculated murder, orchestrated by Widmore's men as part of the ongoing war between him and Ben. But lest you think that Terry O'Quinn will be off of the series, fret not: he'll obviously appear in flashbacks as we learn about all of the "bad things" that went down on the island after Jack and the others escaped... and it's not the first time that a corpse has been taken to the island, only to mysteriously get up and take a walkabout. (Ahem, Christian.)

Ben. I was utterly stunned by the revelation that whoever moves the island cannot ever return there again. It does explain Ben's ongoing crusade against Widmore and his efforts to safeguard the island, even though he's in exile. Fantastic payoffs with the Halliwax parka, the Orchid Station orientation film (though why was it rewinding? a clue perhaps to the island's location in the timestream?), and that Frozen Donkey Wheel. Plus, we learned why Ben's arm was injured in "The Shape of Things to Come" and why he was dressed for cold weather, but turned up in the desert, propelled forward in time to the year 2005. I loved that he blew a hole in the Vault by filling it with metallic items in order to gain access to the ancient island-shifting apparatus below. That wheel has obviously been there for thousands of years and the runes seem clearly connected to the four-toed statue that was glimpsed forever ago. Still, the biggest theme of the episode is about the nature of sacrifice: of what we give up for the greater good. Ben, Michael, Sawyer, and Locke all seem to realize this; Jack does not and that is his downfall.

The Orchid. This Dharma station was clearly set up to investigate space-time issues and the Vault was located next to a pocket of exotic matter (obviously the source used to shift the island through time and space). The bunny experiment proves that the Vault actually does work: it can shift organic objects through space-time, resulting in a second Bunny #15 appearing a few minutes in the future (as seen in the outtakes of the Orchid Station orientation film). Loved that Locke asked Ben if this was the "magic box" and how Ben sneered at Locke's gullibility on the subject. Far be it for Ben to tell Locke that there is no such "magic box" on the island. Ben's shift of the island's location in space-time produces a similar noise and electromagnetic discharge as the Swan's failsafe mechanism, turning the sky white and filling the air with an eerie hum; the result is clearly related to the Casimir effect and creates something akin to a wormhole through which the island and its surroundings (including the people aboard the Zodiac raft, the water, and the Hydra island) is shifted. Awesome!

Michael. I definitely think Michael is sadly deader than a doorknob, especially since Christian appeared right before the C4 detonated and told him that he "can go now." To me, Christian's message was a distinct indication that the island has released Michael from his servitude; it had saved him from death dozens of time to ensure that he would be standing right there, keeping the freighter from exploding. Without him, everyone would have been killed aboard the Kahana; his presence and forethought with the liquid nitrogen ensured that the Oceanic Six managed to escape, along with Desmond and Lapidus. The island has a purpose for everyone and once you've outlived your usefulness, it's time to go. Charlie had to die in order for Penny to find them and so did Michael, who redeemed himself for the murder of Libby and Ana-Lucia by saving Jack and the others.

Jin and Sun. As for Jin, I don't think he's dead. I don't know why other than a voice in the back of my head saying that he's still alive, somehow and managed to survive the blast. He hasn't fulfilled his purpose in the grand scheme of things yet, though that doesn't stop Sun from thinking that he's dead and mourning his passing (hence the breakdown at his grave). It was absolutely heartbreaking to see Sun screaming for Jin and Lapidus unable to turn the helicopter around to save him. Michael was meant to send Jin upstairs but Jin stayed behind in order to help by trying to defuse the bomb... and never even got to say goodbye to his wife.

However, like Penny and Desmond before them, I definitely think that Sun will attempt to find the island. While Penny never gave up hope that Desmond was alive, Sun's purpose in finding the island (and how amazing was her scene in London with Widmore?) is far more nefarious. She blames Jack for Jin's death and has clearly chosen her side in the war between Widmore and Ben. We know that Sun is a consummate and skilled liar but I believed her when she confronted Widmore and told him that they shared mutual interests. (I loved her line about how "they are not the only ones who left the island," a clear allusion to both Ben and perhaps Desmond.) I think she's out for vengeance and will stop at nothing to find the island once more. Sun as a villainess intrigues me and I don't see how the other members of the Oceanic Six will be able to persuade her to join their cause. It's going to be quite a journey for her character and one that I am very eager to see.

The Intruder. I got goosebumps when Kate is awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of an intruder and a seriously creepy phone call. Grabbing a gun (I'm surprised she doesn't sleep with one in the nightstand drawer), she heads into Aaron's room where she sees... Claire watching over Aaron. Claire warns her not to take Aaron back to the island and Kate wakes up in bed. I'm a little confused by whether it was in fact Claire (or a manifestation/ghost) or something else entirely. The voice on the phone tells Kate, "The island needs you. You have to go back before it's too late," but Claire's message seems to invalidate this, stating that Kate can't bring Aaron back with her... though Ben tells Jack that they all need to return to the island (even the dead Locke). I'm not sure what to believe, but ghosts seems to be popping up left and right on the mainland, from Claire (if she is in fact dead) and Christian to Charlie and Mr. Eko. What do the ghosts want (seemingly for them to go back) and why does their meaning seem garbled?

Penny. Loved that it was Penelope Widmore who saves them when it was her father who put them in their current predicament in the first place and it was only fitting that her vessel was called the Searcher. How absolutely heartwarming was her reunion with Desmond? It was a scene that I wondered would ever play out on the series (least of all with two seasons to go!) and erased by worry about Frank and Desmond being found with the Oceanic Six. Good to see the listening station's Henrik aboard the Seacher as well. Will Pen and Des have to remain in the shadows, hiding from both Widmore and Ben? And how will they be drawn back into the story again, especially with Ben on a mission to kill Penelope as payback for Widmore's mercenary Keamy slaughtering Alex?

Walt. Man, that kid has gotten old. Four seasons may have gone by on the series but Malcolm David Kelley looks like he got about ten years older and grew about three feet taller. I loved the heartbreaking way that he asked Hurley why none of them ever tracked him down once they returned to the mainland and the sad way that Hurley just shrugged. I've always had a bit of a problem that Walt was just sort of out there, given the survivor's cover story, as he clearly was aboard Oceanic Flight 815 and would have appeared on the passenger manifest. Sure, his grandmother knew to keep silent about what he had told her about the island, but Walt seems like a weak link in the cover story and one that could easily be exploited by Matthew Abbadon, Widmore, and the conspiracy. If it's necessary for all of them return to the island, won't the same hold true for Walt as well? And if that's really Walt, then who appeared to Locke on the island in "Through the Looking Glass"? Curious.

Charlotte. I was blown away when Miles revealed that he knew that Charlotte had been been to the island before and still hadn't found where she had been born. It's a stunning revelation that will obviously play a huge role in Season Five as we learn more about the explorers' backstories. If Charlotte was actually born on the island, how did she manage to end up on the mainland? We are told who her parents are and that she has two sisters, so is she adopted? Did her entire family leave the island? And if so, have we seen her in the past? My money is that she's actually little Annie, Ben's ginger-haired friend from the Dharma days. We never saw Annie die and haven't ever seen her again (plus time moves differently on the island than on the mainland), so it's entirely possible that she could be little Annie all grown up. Hmmm. There's definitely more to our cultural anthropologist than meets the eye...

Juliet. Was it just me or did Juliet seem not too surprised that she wasn't getting off the island in the end? Maybe it's the fact that she's gotten thisclose to escaping several times in the past and yet something has managed, each time, to derail her plans at the eleventh hour. Still, the sad look in her eyes spoke voulmes, as she swigged from a Dharma bottle of rum as she watched the smoky wreckage of the Kahana sink into the ocean and offers a wry smile as Sawyer walks up out of the ocean. Hmmm. Am I seeing some potential sparks here between them? Wouldn't that be just fitting if the two people jilted by Jack and Kate end up together in the end?

Best line of the evening: "So?" - Ben to Locke, after being told that he's just ensured the deaths of every man and woman aboard the Kahana by brutally stabbing Keamy.

Ultimately, I thought this was an astonishingly powerful way to end the season and will make the wait until the series returns next winter unbearable. Sure, there's the Octagon Global Recruiting experience to look forward to this summer (and likely something major will be going down at this year's Comic-Con as a result), but I want to get Lost now and find out just what happened to the survivors who didn't get off the island. I'm already anxious with anticipation for Season Five.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC;); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); National Spelling Bee (ABC; 8-10 pm); Little Black Book (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci Fi.

On tonight's repeat episode of the Doctor Who spin-off ("The Lost Boy"), a missing boy turns out to be a genetic match for Luke, whom Sarah Jane sends to live with the boy's family while she probes his disappearance. Afterwards, it's the first season finale of Sarah Jane Adventures ("The Lost Boy, Part Two"), in which a Slitheen threat is uncovered as Sarah and Maria investigate Luke's new parents, who have a use for the archetype himself in their quest to destroy the Earth.

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "The Poison Sky," as the Doctor's old enemies the Sontarans attempt to transform Earth's atmosphere in order to suit their needs by unleashing a flood of poisonous gas ingenuously concealed inside ATMOS car emissions regulators/GPS devices.

10 pm: Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode ("Sine Qua Non"), a Cylon base star with President Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar aboard disappears, leaving the Colonial fleet in chaos, as a power struggle for control of the leadership manifests itself.

Bored to Tears By the "Ugly Betty" Season Finale? You're Not Alone.

You know when the highlight of an episode is a super-saturated flashback to Betty getting selected as a "human shield" in a high school game of dodgeball that you're in for a snoozer of an episode.

Such was the case last night with the season finale of Ugly Betty ("Jump"), which didn't so much as advance the plots as it did end the series' sophomore season with some rather unbelievable "twists" and forced Betty to once again choose between former true love Henry--who, as we all know impregnated his ex-girlfriend and moved to Tucson--or new love interest/sandwich maker Gio, who apparently can afford to pay his rent on his apartment and his prime midtown location-based sandwich shop AND jet off to Rome for a month. (Apparently he keeps down his costs by being the sole employee.)

Personally, I wish she'd ditch both Gio and Henry and move in with Christina (Ashley Jensen), who sadly didn't even appear in the season finale. I understand the executive producers' desire to shift the focus back to Betty but rather than just downplaying Marc, Amanda, and Christina (all of whom I find infinitely more interesting and compelling than Betty's family), we get a subplot about Hilda finally making a move on Coach Diaz (Eddie Cibrian), only to find out he's still married... and then snogging him on the basketball court anyway. Yawn.

I find Gio's interest in Betty hard to believe. Not that Betty isn't cute and spunky, but because a guy like Gio would never, ever pay any attention to someone who looks like Betty. I'm sorry but it's true. Nor would he invite her to go to Rome for a month with him when they haven't so much even been out on a date. That's to say nothing about the fact that I find it hard to believe that self-absorbed Daniel would suddenly surprise Betty with a first-class deus ex machina--sorry--I mean first-class tickets and accommodations to Rome for her and Gio. It just completely took me off page there and was so over-scripted as to better even the playing fields between Gio and Henry's proposals. (Don't even get me started on Henry turning up to propose to Betty and then wanting to force her on a plane back to Tucson.)

Was le petit Daniel absolute adorable? Oui, but haven't we had enough drama in the last few weeks with unexpected Meade spawn, what with Wilhelmina's announcement about Bradford's baby? I actually liked that the writers were daring to make Daniel unsympathetic with his reaction to the discovery that he had a son, but they quickly reversed this by having Daniel bond with the boy over shared passions for baseball and supermodels.

Meanwhile, Alexis--who has nothing to do nowadays on the series--suddenly turned on Daniel for no reason and awarded former best friend-turned-nemesis Wilhelmina control of Mode while ousting Daniel altogether. Was this really all the writers could come up with for the once-fantastic Alexis Meade to do?

I understand that the overall creative word du jour for Betty is "heart," but does it mean that it has to be at the expense of "fun" as well? I miss this being a series that could balance soap opera dramatics, hysterical comedy, and touching pathos in the little moments that define our search for identity in the city. Instead, we're tiptoeing back into cloying territory here, but at least no one was shot this season finale during a song and dance number. (Ahem.)

All in all, a pretty unremarkable season finale before the series decamps Los Angeles for new digs in New York City. Will the move spark some creative uptick with Manhattan providing a nice new inspiration for a series that's in desperate need of reinvention? Who can say. But regardless, I hope that next season is better equipped to juggle the funny, the fierce, and the feelings: the real reasons we started to watch Ugly Betty in the first place, because this Betty definitely needs a (creative) makeover.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); Grey's Anatomy (ABC; 8-10 pm); Cheaper By the Dozen (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Moonlight (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Eddie Izzard on BBC America.

Why not kick off your Memorial Day weekend in style with three back-to-back comedy specials starring The Riches' Eddie Izzard in all his cross-dressing glory?

The Oceanic Six Find There's No Place Like Home on "Lost"

If last night's opening minutes of Lost--in which the fabled Oceanic Six arrive back in the United States (accompanied by Battlestar Galactica's Michelle Forbes as Oceanic staffer Karen Decker)--didn't have you teary, you have a harder heart than mine.

Last night's episode of Lost ("There's No Place Like Home) fulfilled the promise made in last year's season finale: that Jack and Kate (and, yes, a few others) would make it off the island and return home. But just as Dorothy discovered in The Wizard of Oz, there might not be anyplace quite like home but, once you're there, you may just find that both you and the world around you have changed in some rather unexpected ways.

Michael Giacchino deserves every single Emmy award known to man for the elegance and grace of the musical score in that opening sequence as the plane's cargo door opened up and the crowd of family members rushed the plane. How touching was it to see Jack's mother tearfully wrap her son up in her arms? Or how vulnerable Sun looked in the arms of her overbearing parents? And how heartbreaking when both Kate and Sayid noticed that no one had come for them? There was no dialogue necessary in this scene: the music, actors' movements and facial expressions said it all: There is no place like home.

Oceanic Six. Besides for the beautifully wrought sequence of reunion, this opening sequence had some distinct messages for us. I absolutely loved that the co-pilot rubbed a rabbit's foot for good luck, a rabbit's foot that echoed both the one that Hurley's dad (Cheech Marin) would give him (along with the keys to the Camaro he had fixed up) as well as the rabbits so clearly associated with The Orchid Station, much of the focus for this week's episode. And the press conference was perhaps the most literal minefield to date, with the reporters pressing the survivors about details about the crash in the ocean, their time on the small island Membata (which is Indonesian for "doubt"), the age of Kate's "baby," whether Jin survived the plane's impact in the water. While we still don't know who the other two "survivors" were of the initial plane crash, we know that Jin isn't part of their cover story. So just who are the other two passengers who allegedly died on the island? Curious.

Jack. Oh, irony, you heartless bitch. Just when Jack is finally able to "bury" his father and gives the simple eulogy he had carried in his heart for the past year or so, he comes face to face with his father's mistress Carole Littleton, who tells Jack how sorry she is for his loss, especially since it was her fault that Christian was even in Australia. Just as Jack is forced to come to terms with his father's infidelity, he is even more shocked to learn that Christian had a daughter aboard Oceanic Flight 815: Claire. Which means that Jack, when he proposes to Kate and walks out on her, knows full well that Aaron is his blood nephew. Their lies have begun to affect people's lives and the fact that Claire's mom Carole tells Kate how beautiful her baby is, unaware that it's in fact her own grandson, was yet another cruel twist of fate.

Sayid. I loved that Sayid and Nadia were finally reunited after all of these years and the simplicity with which they embraced one another; there are moments in television series where it's more affective to downplay things, to not have the characters spew unnecessary dialogue and this was once again one of the moments: simple, touching, and effective. Sayid and Nadia later show up at Hurley's surprise party (with all of the Oceanic Six in attendance save Sun) and Sayid is clearly shown wearing a wedding band, which means that they have wed at this point. That we know Nadia's ultimate fate only made this entire episode all the more haunting and fragile for it.

Hurley. I liked that Hurley is trying to distance himself from his lottery winnings to little success. I literally jumped out of my seat upon hearing the whispers in Hurley's house but was glad that they didn't hearken back to the island but to a surprise party (complete with a Geronimo Jackson album!). Still, I didn't anticipate the sudden reappearance of the numbers, appearing on the Camaro's dashboard and startling the hell out of Hurley. Methinks that this is the beginning of his descent into madness... or at least into a fragility that requires him to hide away at the mental hospital. Poor Hurley. Maybe he shouldn't have eaten those fifteen-year-old crackers after all.

Sun. The biggest surprise that has got to be the stunning revelation that Sun has used her sizable settlement from Oceanic Airlines to purchase a controlling interest in her father's company. I've always hated Mr. Paik and, after telling Sun that his business matters do not concern her, was thrilled to see the look of shock and horror upon his face when his daughter tells him it's now her company. (Go Sun!) I'm glad that she told him that she blames him for Jin's death (or he's one of the two people anyway... I assume the other is Charles Widmore?) and that he will pay for what he did to both her and Jin. Awesome to see a confident, vengeful Sun for a change and I cannot wait to see where this is going but Sun clearly now has the capabilities to perhaps finance a return expedition to the island. Hmmm...

Locke and Ben. This dynamic duo is unstoppable. I love that Ben "always has a plan," especially one that involves secret elevators, moving the island, and hand mirror signals. Interesting that moving the island is fraught with complication and danger and that it's not an easy task (I didn't think it would be). The Orchid is also obviously Ben's magic ticket off the island, given his appearance in Tunisia with Halliwax's jacket. So not only can the station move the island in space-time but can you use it (and the Casimir effect) to transport yourself as well? Very exciting possibilities here.

Keamy. As I predicted last week, Keamy did wire the freighter with explosives and is connected to a remote detonation device. Which means that either Keamy never meant for anyone to survive this encounter (neither the survivors of the Oceanic flight or the crew of the freighter), or it's part of the second protocol as Keamy ensures that no one can get off of the island once it's been moved. I do believe that Keamy was instructed to head to the Orchid in order to do just what Ben and Locke attempt to do: move the island. With the island shifted, he has no need for the freighter or anyone else on that cursed rock. Which leads me to wonder if Jin and Michael and the others aboard the freighter will make it out of this season alive. As for what is causing interference on the reef monitor, I think Keamy rigged it so that the freighter can't get close to the island... and can't make contact with the castaways.

Daniel Faraday. Daniel clearly knew about The Orchid and even had a sketch of the station's Dharma logo in his journal; it's the very same logo that Ben had on the parka he "borrowed" from Halliwax. As for how Daniel knew about it, the answer is easy: we already know that he's been time-traveling, using Desmond as his constant. Daniel's future self has left him clues and answers in the journal, knowing that he would need these facts in order to survive the coming storm. Hence the mention of both The Orchid and a picture of the station's logo. I had believes that Daniel was traveling to this point in time from the past but it's possible that he's been traveling to various points in his life from his vantage point in the future. Which leads me to believe that Daniel will make it out alive to play a vital role in what's coming next. And did anyone else get a little choked up at the way that Charlotte and Daniel looked at one another as he left the beach with six survivors, bound for the freighter? Aw.

Frank Lapidus. Frank is clearly a good guy and a pawn in all of this. He's trying to help the castaways and, well, help himself too. We now know that Frank threw down the satellite phone so that the castaways could come and rescue him. A good thing too as Keamy handcuffed him to the helicopter so that he couldn't fly off and leave them there.

Kate. I thought Evangeline Lilly was absolutely pitch-perfect this week, showing both grit and determination as well as wounded vulnerability and a real sense of loss as she stepped off of that plane and found herself absolutely alone in the world. For her, it's the reverse course of everyone else, even Dorothy Gale. She's returned home to find it is just the same place she left behind and there's nothing and no one waiting for her. I'm not sure whether Kate was able to hear the exchange between Jack and Carole Littleton, so I don't know for certain whether Kate ever realized just what the relationship between Aaron and Jack really is. If she hasn't heard, what is reaction when Jack finally does tell her? And does it inform their breakup scene when he tells her that she's not even related to Aaron? Curious.

I'm also very intrigued to see where the plotline goes with her and Sayid surrounded by Richard Alpert and his men. While I knew that Richard was slated to appear in this week's episode (darn on-screen credits), I was still surprised that he made a point to surround the two of them and take them... prisoner? I'm not sure what his plan is or whether he's still working with or against Ben at this point. And how do Kate and Sayid manage to be aboard that plane (not to mention Jack) when they're walking around the jungle with the Others at this point?

Sawyer. Poor Sawyer. His haunted expression when he's forced to tell Jack that they "lost" Claire was heartbreaking. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: Even more so is the preview for the season finale in which Sawyer kisses Kate good-bye as the helicopter begins to run out of fuel. Sadly, I have a sinking suspicion that, in order to decrease the weight load, Sawyer sacrifices himself and jumps out of the helicopter. Will the island let him die? Will he make Kate promise to do something back home? We'll have to wait two weeks to find out.

In two weeks on the two-hour season finale of Lost ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3"), the Oceanic Six find themselves closer than ever to rescue, Ben launches his masterplan to save the island, Keamy's men face off with the survivors, and Sawyer and Kate share possibly their last kiss.

Goodbye, Toby and Hello, Holly in the Season Finale of "The Office"

I'm feeling a little happier today after watching last night's season finale of The Office ("Goodbye, Toby"), though anything would have cheered me up after watching the dismal pilot episode of HBO's upcoming vampire series True Blood. (Yeesh.)

Even so, I was completely captivated by this installment of The Office, penned by Jen Celotta and Paul Lieberstein, even though it was one of the one-hour variety. With this single one-hour installment, Celotta and Lieberstein may have undone my complete disenchantment with this series, crafting an episode that felt in tune with the good old days on this once-brilliant but waning series: it was touching, hysterical, and found comedy in the everyday, mundane office existences of these remarkable characters.

This is the foundation around which the series was built and what the writers need to remind themselves of. It's not wacky subplots (Michael kidnaps a pizza delivery boy!) or zany adventures (Michael drives into a lake!) that will get us to come back week after week. No, it's the characters' innate humanity and their very believability. When the characters don't behave in ways that we expect them to (Stanley's whole "did I stutter?" routine), it's off-putting and jarring to say the least. Last night's episode returned the characters that I had known and loved to me; each one behaved in pitch-perfect harmony and I absolutely accepted this version of the world that was being presented to me. (Bravo, Jen and Paul! Gold stars for you guys.)

Holly. Never before on this series has a guest star been so integral to the plot and fit in so completely well to the surroundings and integrated themselves to the rest of the sprawling cast than Amy Ryan (The Wire) did last night. (Sidebar: Ryan co-starred with Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life.) Ryan's Holly and Carell's Michael had instant chemistry together. Upon dismissing once he realized that outbound Toby had hired her as his replacement, Michael quickly changes his tune once he begins to know Holly and I absolutely loved the scene on the floor of Holly's cubicle in which she reconstructs Toby's chair and the two speak to each other in Yoda voices. Charming, funny, and grounded in reality. It's moments like these at which the series has always excelled and the charm which which Michael tried to win over Holly (and surprisingly her tender reaction to him) was the real surprise of the evening.

I had thought that Michael would have gone way overboard, pronounced his undying love for Holly, and scared her away (or, well, had her run screaming from the building), so it was nice to see just the opposite as Michael--working on Jim's advise--toned down his advances, exchanged "pleasantries" with her and actually won her over. That he then declined her subtle offer to join her for coffee spoke volumes. He clearly does like Holly and wants to be with her but his character has actually grown and changed: he accepts responsibility and (misguided) duty towards Jan and her unborn child (the result of a sperm bank fertilization rather than his own offspring) rather than try to make something work with Holly. It was a poignant scene that highlighted just how far Michael has come as a character; hell, he even gave up a "that's what she said" punchline with Holly on the Ferris wheel. If that's not maturity, I don't know what is.

As for Ryan, she was completely natural as Holly and I loved seeing her in this role. I'm hoping that she'll be back next season as she adds a new dimension to the series and her interplay with Michael (and thwarted love) will clearly inform the series' fifth season, should she stick around. I'm glad that the producers didn't opt to replicate the tortured enmity between Michael and Toby with a virtual Toby clone and instead went in a vastly different direction. (Hmmm, that too might just show maturity.)

Kevin. I was rolling on the floor with laughter at the subplot that had Holly thinking that Kevin was mentally challenged. The pride with which she looked on anytime Kevin did anything ("I do the numbers.") was absolutely hysterical and each of the characters just kept making the situation far, far worse. Hell, even Kevin didn't do himself any favors, handing over his change to Holly to count whilst standing in front of the vending machine, undecided about what to eat, or his inability to choose between pretzels or chips. But how proud was she when she learned that Kevin drove his own car and was going to go to the supermarket? "It's been a big day for him," she tells an oblivious Michael. Words cannot articulate just how awe-inspiring this storyline was, especially as Holly never learned the truth about Kevin in the end.

Best line of the evening: "That's a button."

Jan. Fantastic reveal having Jan be pregnant and then twist the knife even further to admit that she got pregnant while she was dating Michael but (A) he's not the father, (B) she didn't cheat on him (he made her promise not to), and (C) she was impregnated rather than risk having a child with Michael, despite having him have and reverse a vasectomy several times. While this would have been a great plot at any time, juxtaposing this with Michael's flirtation with Holly was a stroke of genius, as it forced Michael to make a decision: return to Jan and the possibility of a child (one of Michael's main goals in life) or put her in the past and try to move on with Holly. Still, I was surprised that Michael called Jan to tell her he would accompany her to Lamaze class and that he's going to try to salvage their relationship... or at least try to be a father to this unborn baby. Me, I'm just happy that it means that Melora Hardin will be sticking around... and that the baby's dad wasn't Hunter as I suspected for a few minutes. I'm almost hoping that Dunder-Mifflin will offer Jan her old job back now that Ryan has been arrested.

Jim & Pam. I groaned with annoyance when Jim mentioned that he was going to propose to Pam in this week's episode, given that it was the season finale and I had suspected that, if a proposal were going to occur, it would be during sweeps. Still, I was pleasantly surprised--and outright pleased--that he didn't actually propose during the sweeping fireworks display (did they get permits for that?) at Phyllis' fantastic going away party for Toby... if only because Andy stole his thunder by proposing to Angela. A proposal is an important thing and creating the right mood and atmosphere absolutely key, so I am glad that Jim knew better than to try to propose to Pam, even though she sadly admitted that she thought that he was going to. As for Pam's acceptance to the Pratt School of Design, what sort of program is only three months? I was hoping it would mean a longer separation between the two of them but will at least mean that when we return to The Office next season, it's possible that they've spent the entire summer apart.

Andy/Angela/Dwight. Loved that Andy carried around an engagement ring in his wallet for the last six years (you never know when you're going to meet the woman of your dreams) and that he invited his parents along to Toby's going away party. Better still: that Angela reacted to Andy's proposal with a softly spoken "okay" and little enthusiasm for the entire endeavor. (How fitting was that?) I wondered if Angela would go all the way with this entire scheme designed to make Dwight suffer for Sprinkles' death but I didn't think she'd actually accept a marriage proposal to do so. Still, I was shocked when Phyllis caught Angela and Dwight in flagrante delicto in the office. Could there be hope for an outward reconciliation between this former couple?

All in all, an absolutely flawless installment that made me remember why I once loved The Office. If the writers can sit down over the summer hiatus and really commit to rein in the zaniness and lack of realism that defined this sub-par season, I might just have to reconsider my current stance on the series. In the end, this season finale did slightly make up for the creative shakiness that permeated the last year of The Office and provided a brilliant ending to a less than brilliant season. Toby might be gone but here's to hoping the grounded humor and believable characterization is here to stay again.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC; 8-10 pm); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC; 8-10 pm); Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Moonlight (CBS)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode of the Doctor Who spin-off ("Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?"), Maria meets a young Sarah Jane in 1964 just before a pivotal moment in her life but it's up to Maria's dad Alan, back in the present, to set things right with the world. Afterwards, it's Part One of "The Lost Boy," in which a missing boy turns out to be a genetic match for Luke, whom Sarah Jane sends to live with the boy's family while she probes his disappearance.

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "The Sontaran Stategem," as Martha Jones returns to the series; Martha contacts the Doctors as his old enemies the Sontarans begin causing some trouble, establishing a covert base at the mysterious ATMOS Factory and working to launch a terror that would bring the Earth to its knees. Hmmm, this this connected to the disappearances of the world's bees? (Get it, bee's knees?)

10 pm: Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode ("Guess What's Coming to Dinner"), Laura Roslin faces some new challenges as the Colonials form an alliance with rebel Cylon forces to unleash a devastating attack upon the Cylon Resurrection Hub. Is this the end of the Cylons' ability to download into new bodies? Find out tonight.

Whitney and Anya Size Up the Competition on the Season Finale of "Top Model"

I am very happy about the outcome of last night's season finale of America's Next Top Model ("And the Winner is..."), especially going into the final round with three really strong competitors in Whitney, Fatima, and Anya. These girls were strong models, took consistently great photographs, and each represented a different facet of beauty in a compelling, different way.

I thought they all did much better with the English-language Cover Girl commercial than most of the other girls from previous cycles of the series, who always had problems memorizing the copy, looking pretty and happy, and just being generally convincing in front of the camera. I thought Whitney looked great and totally did the signature Cover Girl smile with poise and perfection. Anya actually did a better job than I thought she would, given her strange pidgin accent (which always sounds more Eastern European to me than Hawaiian) and the copy was a series of hard-to-say tongue-twisters. (I still can't name the actual product after watching them perform several takes of the commercial.)

I thought Whitney's Cover Girl photograph was easily the best of the bunch. She looked so 1960s vintage (and oddly, somewhat like former Top Model judge Twiggy) that it was spooky. Her positioning and body language were spot on and she looked flawlessly gorgeous and, well, vulnerable in the photo. It was not just a glamour shot but hinted at something deeper and fragile about her in a compelling and intriguing way.

I was a little shocked that Fatima was sent home. I do agree with Tyra (there's a sentence that I never thought I'd write) that she needs to do some soul-searching and figure out who she is TODAY and try to find strength in what happened to her and put it in her past. She does seem like she is searching for some semblance of identity throughout this competition and, while she is hands-down probably the most gorgeous-looking girl on this series, I don't think she brought enough to the table to award her the top prize.

Very impressed that the producers were able to wrangle a Versace fashion show for finalists Whitney and Anya though I was secretly hoping that Donatella would show up along the way. I did think that Whitney looked much more natural on the runway. She looked like a MODEL and, while I felt that her hip and arm-swinging in the first outfit was a little much (bordering on over the top, in fact), she pulled it back on her second time down the runway, creating a luminous, memorable walk that made her shine out from among the other models. Anya was a little lost on the runway and not at her strongest at all; she seemed to deflate on the catwalk and the tightness of her second dress did nothing to help her faltering walk.

I felt like the judges' decision really was down to the wire and they had a really hard time deciding between Whitney and Anya. Both really do represent two totally different ideals of beauty and I know that Tyra and Co. do like to make an impact with their decision. While it would be easy to just crown Whitney the winner for being the very first plus-size winner of Top Model, I was thrilled that she actually DID end up winning this season and she earned her prize 100 percent. Her Cover Girl shot has got to be one of the most amazing and inspiring photographs on the series (just compare it to Saleisha or Jaslene's pics) and I am glad that the All-American beauty managed to walk away with the top spot despite several competitors thinking she would be the one to get cut week after week. (Take that, Dominique!)

What did you think? Were you happy that Whitney won this cycle or would you have rather had the prize go to Anya, "busted nose" and all? Talk back here.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); My Name is Earl (NBC); Smallville (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (FOX)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); The Office (NBC); Supernatural (CW); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); Don't Forget the Lyrics (FOX)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); ER (NBC); Lost (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Ugly Betty.

On tonight's episode ("The Kids Are Alright"), Betty tries to avoid her growing attraction to Gio and volunteers to chaperone Justin's school dance only to discover that Gio (???) has made the same commitment (um, why?); Hilda tries to get Coach Diaz to notice her; Amanda signs on to do a reality television show with her dad, Gene Simmons; Wilhelmina makes her return to Mode.

9 pm: The Office.

On tonight's season finale ("Goodbye, Toby"), Toby makes preparations to leave Dunder-Mifflin, which makes Michael positively gleeful, leading to a celebratory party sort of in Toby's honor; Angela refuses to plan said fete, leading Michael to turn to Phyllis to take over the party planning committee.

10 pm: Lost.

The highlight of my television-viewing week is here. On tonight's episode ("There's No Place Like Home"), it's Part One of the three-hour season finale as the war between the castaways and Widmore's mercenary team escalates and the Oceanic Six fly back to the "real" world.

One Couple Gets the Restaurant of Their Dreams on the Season Finale of "Last Restaurant Standing"

What a wild ride it's been this season on BBC America's hit culinary series Last Restaurant Standing. I was literally on the edge of my seat (and nearly fell right off my perch) waiting for Raymond to announce the winner of this deliciously addictive competition series.

Who would be opening a restaurant with famed restaurateur Raymond Blanc? Would it be twins Jess and Laura whose whole-foods concept was a hit with locals and regular customers? Or Jeremy and Jane who often seemed outdone by their luxurious and ambitious eight-course menu?

A tough decision, even for Raymond Blanc. But before he would decide which couple to award the restaurant of their dreams to, he would put these two teams through their toughest Challenge to date: opening a version of their branded eateries in his French hometown, Besancon, where they would have two days to freshen up their spaces, design a menu, market their eateries, prep ingredients, and serve their food to the locals, including Raymond's family and his petite mere, Maman Blanc.

I thought this was a fantastic and fitting challenge, a chance for Raymond to return to the scene of the crime as it were: the location of his very first culinary job and, in an amusing anecdote about a teenage Raymond cooking crepe Suzette for his mother, the source of his humility as well. It was an opportunity for the teams to prove to Raymond that their concepts worked, even removed from the safety of the British countryside towns.

I was a little worried watching Jane this week. Once again, she seemed to be cracking under the immense pressure that Raymond had placed upon them and I was slightly terrified that they wouldn't be able to pull everything together in time. Jeremy has got to learn to be able to plan a menu in advance or at least have specific ideas in his mind when they go to source ingredients. It's too time consuming to make two trips to the market and, while one needs to be open to inspiration, organization and vision need to go hand in hand in a successful restaurant.

As always, timing wreaked havoc with the kitchen. With many orders of eight courses to produce, the kitchen quickly fell behind and diners were left waiting for hours to complete their lengthy, drawn-out meals. (Cut from the US version: inspector Sarah Willingham's interminable wait for her eight courses.) Still, it didn't look good that Jeremy told Raymond that he would return to England with his tail between his legs as his eight-course menu didn't work. Don't ever show weakness in front of the chef and don't apologize for your ambition. Sure, they could have done four courses and had it been a success, but they shouldn't also feel entrapped by their restaurant name. As Raymond admitted, Eight in the Country is JUST a name. It doesn't need to refer to anything concrete or specific. I do think they would have been better off sticking to four (or maybe five) courses, as it would have given the kitchen a little more breathing room throughout the competition. But live and learn.

Brown & Green's Jess and Laura were diligent and organized, but they did underestimate the appeal of their famous lamb burgers with mint and feta and didn't purchase quite enough food. (What you didn't see in the US edition was Jess summoning Laura from the front of the house to make their gargantuan burgers smaller in order to stretch them out, rather than asking one of her sous chefs.) Still, they created an enchanting atmosphere for their guests, aided and abetted by the delightful musical stylings of the French pianist they hired for the evening. While the classic music (Chopin no less!) didn't quite summon to mind a English garden, it created a relaxing environment and live music definitely added to the ambiance. Laura is also the consummate hostess though I do wish she hadn't worn that medieval serving gown, a costume choice which seemed unnecessarily complicated and unnecessary. (Don't gild the lily, ladies!)

I was really pulling for the twins to win this competition but I was concerned that their restaurant--a casual, laid back whole-foods concept--didn't exactly jibe with Raymond's own portfolio. At the end of the day, I had a hard time envisioning Raymond (who, yes, does have a less opulent line of French brasseries under the Brasserie Blanc banner--along with the delicious Le Petit Blanc restaurant in Oxford which I used to frequent as a student--as well as his high-end eateries) opening a cafe-style venue with the twins. Jeremy and Jane's vision and passion seemed much more suited for fine dining and in line with Raymond's strict, quality-obsessed management of his restaurant empire.

Was it a little staged that John Lederer chose the twins for his pick, Sarah picked Jane and Jeremy, and Lee Cash was "undecided still"? Sure. But it did heighten the tension and make it a little less obvious who Raymond would pick. I do think that both couples showed enormous potential, resilience, and strength of character throughout the competition and could see both teams running their respective restaurants, but I really did want Raymond to give this opportunity to the twins.

In the end, however, I do think Raymond was thinking the same thing that I was: that his culinary aesthetic meshed a little more easily with Jeremy's, hands-down the best chef in the competition from the very first day (despite his ability to get flustered and rely a little too heavily on cookbooks) and so he awarded the prize to Jane and Jeremy.

I was shocked that after congratulations and much hugging from the twins, the episode just... ended. No final interview with Jess and Laura about what's next for them (even though even other ousted couple had the opportunity) or, hell, even with Jane and Jeremy about what this means for them personally. For such a beautifully produced series, this was a little disappointing of an oversight and it just felt extremely anti-climactic to cut away with no real feeling of resolution. Sure, Laura and Jess may have appeared afterwards on spin-off series You're Fried in the UK, but here we got no opportunity to, well, say goodbye.

As for Last Restaurant Standing, I'll miss having this addictive pleasure to look forward to week after week. But rest assure that I will be bugging BBC America to bring the second season of this brilliant series--which begins production in the UK this summer--back to the airwaves quickly. Hopefully, they'll take a page from their own playbook with Torchwood and air Season Two as close to UK broadcast as possible. After all, I'm hungry for more.

Rainbow Chicken, Gay Bombs, and Cooter on the Season Finale of "30 Rock"

I can't believe that the second season of 30 Rock is already over, just when we finally got the series back on the air after the end of the writers strike.

While I found last night's episode ("Cooter") to be pretty damn funny, it didn't quite coalesce at the end in the streamlined fashioned I had hoped for. After all, this was a hugely ambitious episode, cramming in no less than four separate storylines that didn't intersect at all. Would it be possible to juggle the demands of so many competing stories in the space of approximately 21 minutes? Sadly, not quite though it gave it the old college try.

Liz. I really enjoyed the A-storyline in which Liz thinks she's pregnant due to a false-positive on a series of home pregnancy tests (including one swiped from Jenna's dressing room drawer) due to the "evaporated bull semen" that gives Liz's favorite off-brand Mexican snack, Sabor de Soledad, its distinctive flavor. While everyone (including possibly Liz) wishes that the child was Floyd's, Liz reveals that she did sleep with Dennis Duffy one last time, though BEFORE he tried to push her under a subway train. (That has to count for something, at least.) I loved how Dennis has forced his way back into Liz's life again by using her apartment as shelter since he lied to his mother about getting a job. Loved that Dennis wanted to name the baby either Morpheus (from The Matrix) or Judy to "honor" a girl that he had boffed.

The entire pregnancy scare gave a little bit of pathos to Liz's life as she first fears getting pregnant, especially with Dennis' child, but then slowly comes to terms with this life-changing news (she'll be a "kick-ass single mom... like Erin Brockovich or Sarah Connor") and embraces looking at cribs online, only to learn, soul-crushingly that she's not pregnant after all.

That this entire cycle of denial, despair, hopeful acceptance, happiness, and loss are all recounted via voicemail messages on Jack's Blackberry is a thing of beauty. Never have I wanted to hug a fictional character as much I did upon seeing Liz's sad face when she opens the door for Jack. The true testament of a comedy is being able to get your audience to laugh at, embrace, and feel for your character in equal measures and 30 Rock pulled this off magnificently. The look on Jack's face when he realized that Liz needed him has paid off two seasons' worth of haughty remarks on his behalf to reveal that he really does care about Lemon. And he did mean every word about helping her arrange an adoption. I'm curious to see if 30 Rock will actually pay off this storyline by having Liz adopt a kid (or try to adopt one anyway) or if this will fall by the wayside. (I'm nervous to have the dynamics of the series change with the introduction of a precocious kid to the mix.) It was a little strange that the "three months later" epilogues didn't actually include Liz's adoption quest... or indeed Liz at all.

Jack. I also really liked the B-storyline that had Jack working in a rundown Homeland Security branch in Washington D.C. responsible for weather preparedness and the War on the Poor. I also loved seeing Matthew Broderick as a sad-sack Cooter Burger (a.k.a. James Reilly), allegedly nicknamed by W. because he resembles a turtle and was eating a hamburger once (it was actually a sandwich). Realizing that he may have made a huge mistake (upon seeing the leaky roof, the candle under the lampshade, and the woeful lack of pens), Jack tries to resign but the Bush Administration isn't letting anyone leave, so he and Cooter embark on a quest--with the help of Jack's former flame C.C. (Edie Falco)--to get themselves fired by relaunching a study commissioning a "gay bomb." Bizarre, and that's saying a lot considering it's 30 Rock; Jack and Cooter present the results three months later and Cooter accidentally knocks over the vial containing the sexual identity-reversing weapon as the gas fills the room. So is Jack temporarily gay? Is he, um, involved with Cooter? And what were the writers smoking when they came up with this plot?

Kenneth. I thought there was a lot of screen time given to Kenneth's storyline in which his dreams of becoming a NBC page at the Summer Olympics in Beijing were nearly foiled by his archrival, Head Page Donny. (In case you haven't guessed, I am not really a fan of Donny.) I loved Jenna's videotape endorsement of Kenneth and her advice about backdoor self-compliments ("I can't watch American Idol because I have perfect pitch") and Kenneth's Olympic-inspired dash to turn in the application to NBC Sports before the deadline. But it seemed to overtake a lot of the episode without much payoff. Sure, there was the scene of Kenneth in bed with a beautiful woman in China before an armed man bursts into the room, but I wish the writers had instead not shown Kenneth until the very last moment. Instead, they buried the joke a little too much there. While I love Kenneth, I do think a little Kenneth goes a long way and I wish that they would have downplayed his storyline just a touch in order to link up the disparate plot threads in a more meaningful way. It just felt, while funny, a little jumbled and disorganized, instead of the smooth, effortless way these stories usually unfold.

Tracy. Tracy's dream of leaving a lasting legacy to his children finally came to fruition with the completion of his porn video game "Goregasm: The Legend of the Dong Slave," for which Grizz and Jenna lent their voices in a hilarious recording session. ("Again, and this time we'll record.") It was funny but a little too unbelievable to me that Frank had been playing the game for three months in his office... a reveal that took me out of the absurd, heightened reality of 30 Rock a little too much. Still, who will ever forget Tracy's advice to Jenna, overacting during the recording session, about how to approach the experience: "Don't overthink it; I don't want another Judi Dench situation." That made me laugh.

Best line of the evening: a tie between Kenneth's Mandarin delivery of "I will not fail you, rainbow chicken!" and Jack's sage wisdom of "It's a guaranteed disaster. Like eating a burrito before sex." But both of those paled to the sight of Kathy Geiss silently pulling the the miniature car out of her mouth and then placing it back once Liz ran out of her office.

What did you think? Did you think that this was yet another hysterical installment of 30 Rock and the perfect way to end the sophomore season? Or were you slightly disappointed that things were as disjointed and unfocused as they were? Discuss.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); TV's All-Time Funniest (ABC; 8-10 pm); Man of the House (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Moonlight (CBS); Dateline NBC (NBC; 9-11 pm)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode of the Doctor Who spin-off ("Warriors of Kulak, Part Two"), Luke and Clyde find themselves enlisted in an intergalactic war via a laser-tag game as Sarah Jane and Maria race to save them. Afterwards, it's Part One of "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?," in which Maria sets out on a time-traveling quest to find her missing friends Sarah Jane and Luke as a meteor threatens Earth.

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "Planet of the Ood," as the Doctor and Donna encounter the Ood on the Ood Sphere, where they discover some terrible things about the human race.

10 pm: Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode ("Faith"), the search for Earth takes a rather unexpected turn, forcing some unexpected alliances to be forged.

An Embarrassment of Riches: Season Finale of "The Riches"

While the expression "an embarrassment of riches" might refer to having more of something good or pleasant than you need, that was just the opposite this year with the severely truncated season of The Riches, which wrapped its second season last night on FX.

Originally ordered for thirteen episodes this season, The Riches found itself downscaled to just seven when production was shut down during the writers strike. Personally, I am a huge fan of this series and hope that the shortened season doesn't bode against renewing this compelling, subtle drama for a third season. (Not helping matters is that creator Dmitry Lipkin has sold a pilot script for Hung to HBO.) Especially since last night's unintentional season finale ("The Lying King") left nearly every characters' plotlines hopelessly dangling in the wind.

While some viewers have found this season to be creatively uneven, I've been really intrigued by the second season of The Riches, which placed the characters in far more dire straits than in the freshman season and put them in morally compromising, soul-killing situations that pushed them to their breaking points.

It's never been in question that the name of their little adopted community, Eden Falls, was anything other than intentional. Here, it signifies the ultimate purgatory as each of the characters--from Wayne and Dahlia to poor Nina--are forced to relive their sins in a neverending and perpetual cycle of self-destruction. Try as they might to become buffers, to give themselves new names and iPhones, they can't escape their pasts. Wayne claims that everyone creates their own luck but they same holds true with bad luck and the Molloys seem to have found themselves surrounded by a big old mess of bad karma.

I was really on the edge of my seat as Dahlia contemplated returning to drug abuse and obliterating herself; when she wrapped that belt around her arm, I worried that she was totally and completely relapse. After all, she's been stripped of her armor completely now: her parole officer turned his back on her (more on that in a bit), Wayne was revealed as a liar and accomplice to murder, Cael ran away, and Nina abandoned her. Dahlia is a consummate liar but she's finally realized that she's been lying to herself... even if her confession to Nina resulted in a complete lack of belief on her friend's part.

I literally gasped when Nina asked her about what happened to Pete. I get that Dahlia wouldn't want to involve Nina in the entire Pete murder/cover-up but she did to Nina just what she's angry at Wayne for doing to her. For proving once again that the best thing a Traveler is good at is lying. Still, I couldn't believe that her married parole officer kissed her after he discovered Dahlia skulking outside his house... with his wife and kid just a few feet away. I could tell from the way he looked at her and fingered his wedding ring that he was attracted to Dahlia but I had no idea that he would actually act on this and cross that boundary. For Dahlia's part, at least she put a stop to it. In a lot of ways, this was Minnie Driver's episode and I was completely transfixed by her vulnerability and raw emotion as she portrayed Dahlia as a woman beset by demons, both internal and external.

As for Wayne, he's finding himself playing both sides against each other. He's made a deal with the devil by turning to Minkov to defend the Bayou Hills construction site from Quinn's men. He's obviously conflicted about this decision--with it comes the promise that he'll throw Hugh under the bus--but it seemed the most expedient way to ensure that he can collect his $13 million from the land deal. Likely he thinks the Molloys can just disappear into the night after that, but Minkov is far too cunning to let that happen. Wayne is playing with fire; he has Dale, Quinn, Minkov, and Hugh looking over his shoulder and none of them are going to let him off the hook for what's liable to happen next.

I loved the scene between Wayne and Nina in the kitchen as Nina lights up (much to Dr. Morgenstern's delight) and asks him, as he tries calling Dahlia for the nth time, if he's looking for Dahlia Molloy or Sherien Rich. Have they started living the lie? To me, this episode included some of the very best Nina-driven scenes of the series and actress Margo Martindale deserves an Emmy for her performance. Her distraught tantrum at Jim's funeral, her disbelief at Dahlia stringing her yet another lie, her confrontation with Wayne at the house; these all add up to a nuanced performance of a woman fed up with being lied to her whole life.

I was intrigued about where the writers were going with Sam and his new friend from school; she clearly accepts him for who he is and is going to great lengths to get him to express his true identity as a cross-dresser. I loved the scene in his bedroom where she dresses him up in girl's clothing and tells him how beautiful he looks. I am not sure where this will go but it was a fantastic coda to Sam's entire relationship with his conflicted nature.

Cael has begun to fit in among the Travelers again, helped along by his newfound relationship with Rosaleen. I loved the scene in which Quinn asked him to come with him to break up that fight and then stood beside Cael and offered a toast to the reunion of the clan, to a Quinn standing next to a Molloy... and then later called Wayne to say that they'd now be business partners and, if Wayne didn't like it, well, Quinn has his son.

As for Didi, it's only fitting that she'd suddenly be interested in how the other half was living, in skulking around the huge buffer mansions that pepper Eden Falls with her new security guard friend Ike (Joan of Arcadia's Michael Welch). Her affair with Ike and her breaking and entering routine are a surefire act of rebellion against everything Wayne has come to stand for. Of all of the Molloys, she did seem the most at home as a buffer, attending school and wanting more from life than just con and con. Lying in the palatial, imperial bed of her latest B&E victim's house, she can pretend for just a few minutes that this is her life and not the screwed up mess it's become now that she's seen her father for what he really is: the king of liars.

I really hope that FX does decide to renew The Riches for a third season. I for one am not done with the Molloys and hope that fans of the series have the opportunity to see these storylines pay off in a meaningful fashion rather than just have the series end on a slew of mini-cliffhangers that never get resolved. Fingers crossed that the cabler sees it the same way and rewards the cast and crew of The Riches with a reprieve.

Talk Back: Season Finale of "Torchwood"

Okay, now that the second season finale of Torchwood has aired on BBC America, we can finally get down to what I've been wanting to talk about for the last week or so: that ending!

If you read my original review of the sophomore season ender of Torchwood ("Exit Wounds") the other day, you know that I was kind enough to dance around a few issues rather than spoil the entire episode, but the spoiler warnings are off now, so beware!

Sniffle.

I was completely heartbroken by Toshiko's death. We all knew that not everyone from Torchwood 3 would make it out of this episode alive but I didn't really expect them to kill off both Tosh and Owen in the same episode.

I understand that Owen's story has really come full-circle at this point--dying, being brought back and discovering he can't truly die, and then, well, disintegrating--and there really wasn't anywhere else for the series' writers to take his character. His "King of the Weevils" status played off quite nicely in the season finale and his undead status allowed him to get into the heart of the nuclear power plant without feeling any effects of radiation poisoning, etc. He died as he lived, saving the world, but did so with a dignity that I didn't think we'd really ever get to see in the callous team medic. I'll miss him.

While Owen's death was sad, Toshiko's was absolutely painful. Shot from behind by Jack's psychopathic brother Gray, Tosh managed to keep herself alive long enough to stop the nuclear plant from obliterating the city of Cardiff and finally got to have a heart-to-heart with Owen. They never did get their date and I'm actually glad that the writers didn't cop to an episode where Owen and Tosh try their hand at love and discover that they have absolutely nothing in common. No, keeping these star-crossed lovers apart lends their demise an aura of resolute sadness, of felicity thwarted, and of an requited love that went to the grave.

There's also a sense of permanence to these deaths. Jack has now tried twice to revive fallen members of his team. The first time, he brought Suzie back to life with horrific consequences and then resurrected Owen... out of guilt? duty? Jack has a problem saying goodbye, especially to people under his command who die on his watch. Still, there's no going back from these deaths, which are as final as possible. There will be no glove-induced resurrection for Tosh or Owen.

Which is a good thing. MI-5 (aka Spooks) succeeded at raising its stakes because the audience never knew which characters were "safe" from being killed off at any time. They were all expendable and, in such a dangerous line of work, at high risk for death, dismemberment, or all of the above. In killing Tosh and Owen, Torchwood has succeeded in making the danger very real for Gwen and Ianto... while making the immortal Jack Harkness again feel the curse of his longevity in every iota of his very being.

And perhaps that's what Gray wanted all along.

What did you think of the Torchwood season finale? Talk back here.

Gray's Anatomy: Advance Look at "Torchwood" Season Two Finale

In this day and age, we've all gotten used to hyperbole in our television promos: this is the episode where everything changes; nothing will ever be the same after this episode; etc. However, in the case of the second season finale of Torchwood ("Exit Wounds"), airing this Saturday on BBC America, the hyperbole is--for a refreshing change of pace--completely apt.

It's funny because while I was reviewing fellow Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures yesterday, I made an offhanded remark about the poor staff of Torchwood 3 never getting a happy ending. Never has that been more true than in this brilliant, heartbreaking episode, written by the talented Chris Chibnall and directed by Ashley Way.

While this series has always been a far darker, more grim reality than that presented in Doctor Who (or the bubblegum and sunshine of Sarah Jane Adventures), I didn't quite expect to get as emotional as I did watching this installment. For two seasons, we've seen the innately flawed individuals that comprise Captain Jack Harkness' alien-fighting response team battle against threats both external and internal and do so with their wobbly moral compasses wavering the entire way. So I was happy to see that "Exit Wounds" wraps up Torchwood's second season quite satisfyingly and ties up several ongoing plot strands. In fact, the damn thing had me clutching the arms of my sofa in despair, fixated as I was on the massive city-wide situation that Torchwood finds themselves in, one that threatens not only the people of Cardiff but the survival of the team itself.

While I don't want to give away too many spoilers, I will say that the episode features the return of fan-favorite Captain John Hart (James Marsters), the psychotic Time Agent who happened to be one of Jack's many paramours. As we saw last episode, he is in contact with Jack's long-lost brother Gray (Lachlan Nieboer), taken from him during an alien invasion of his home world when he was just a child. For such a pragmatist, Jack takes his failures to heart and no experience has shaped him as much as Gray's disappearance all those years ago. So how will Gray react when he comes face to face with the brother who was separated from him all those years before? Let's just say this: be careful what you wish for because it might just come true.

As for the rest of Torchwood, they are most definitely put through their paces. Still walking wounded from the trap they walked into in last week's episode (a series of bombs inside a building that John detonated when they walked in), they're beaten, battered, and split up as they deal with a number of life-threatening tasks from mass Weevil attacks, city-wide server crashes, and a possible nuclear meltdown scenario... along with a villain who seems to know them and their defenses inside-out and has a very personal reason for enacting revenge. As much as Torchwood has faced in the past, this is their greatest challenge and their adversary knows that by separating them, the center cannot hold. Look for each of them--from Jack and Gwen to Tosh, Ianto, and Owen--to rise to the occasion as they face overwhelming obstacles.

Those promos promised that nothing would be the same for the team after this crucible of fire and they're right: the team at the end of this installment isn't the same. They're changed and not necessarily for the better. None of them emerge from this battle unscathed and, as promised, not all of them come out of this alive. The final ten minutes or so of "Exit Wounds" are perhaps some of the most heartbreaking and poignant scenes on television in recent memory and there's an underlying sense of finality, dread, and emotional catharsis that permeates this season closer.

Torchwood has always offered a grim view of life: we fight, we love, we die and we rarely look back. And yet, last week's episode ("Fragments") showed us how Jack assembled this incarnation of Torchwood, giving the audience a glimpse into the lives of Jack, Owen, Tosh, and Ianto before they joined up. It's only fitting then that this week, with the second season coming to a close, we get to say good-bye. After all, no one promised a happy ending.

Torchwood airs Saturday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Designers Offer Posh Collections, Spice Up "Project Runway" Season Finale

Say what you want about Christian's haughty attitude (though it was tempered remarkably with serious nerves this week), but that boy's collection was, to borrow a well-turned phrase, fierce.

I knew that Christian would take home the top prize on this season's Project Runway because how could the judges, including guest Victoria "Posh" Beckham, not reward the elaborate stylings of a 21-year-old wunderkind whose young age belies a true visionary? Out of all of the contestants at the beginning of the season, Christian was the one to beat this season and it's only fitting that the fierce designer--a former student of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen--wowed the 2000 assembled guests at the Project Runway show.

I was very happy that the final three designers were Jillian, Rami, and Christian, each of whom brought a different aesthetic and ideal to their collections. While all talented, these three couldn't be more different from one another and it was that very difference that made the final runway show just a sight to behold.

On the runway, Jillian presented first. Jillian's collection was innovative and feminine, a fantastic assortments of looks, fabrics, and techniques. I agree with the judges that her knitwear--a departure for Jillian--was utterly amazing. Her jackets and skirts were breathtakingly gorgeous: beautifully constructed, passionate, fashion-forward and yet utterly feminine. Yet the overall collection lacked cohesion, a fact that Tim Gunn pointed out to Jillian ahead of time. While the separate pieces dazzled and were perhaps the most wearable out of the three collections (for the average woman), they didn't seem to have much relevance or relation to one another. There was no connective tissue here or any sense of an overall story and very little "wow" factor. Still, I would imagine that Jillian will get snapped up by some design firm; she's proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that she can design clothing that women will rush out to buy.

Up next was Rami. I was very curious to see what Rami had pulled together for his collection and whether he had eschewed the gorgeous draping that made him a season-long target for the judges. Happily, while there was some evidence of draping going on, Rami moved away from focusing on those efforts to embark on a voyage of technique: there was draping but also weaving and tight construction. It was a brilliant effort and the collection was utterly cohesive, each piece leading to the next and the next, taking a visual cue from the preceding piece to create a fluid effect. There were astounding and astonishing pieces within Rami's collection, Oscar-worthy gowns that will likely find many clients in his Los Angeles studio looking for their next red carpet garment. However, I did disagree with some of Rami's color choices, notably his preference for turquoise and magenta, which did him no favors on the runway. While the collection was fantastic, with some standout pieces (a silky grey dress with woven bodice, a gold fishtail dress, a floor-length black stunner), I wanted to really see Rami go for broke, to turn in some final pieces that left the judges open-mouthed with amazement.

That was just the reaction that the judges gave final presenter Christian's collections, an avant garde collection inspired by paintings of 15th century armor that translated here as ruffles, redefining clothing's relationship of hard/soft, textural elements, and literal armor. Unlike the other two collections, Christian did stick to a limited palette, here presenting mainly black, cream, and beige. His craftsmanship was pure perfection, each piece topping the one that came before and literally squeezing in the wow factor missing from the other designers' collections. How on earth did this kid manage to create these astonishing designs? I will agree with the judges that the one minor flaw of the collection was its insistence on black, an effect that rendered the first few garments almost indistinguishable on the runway.

Still, the pieces were extremely high fashion, exceptionally daring, and utterly visionary. A pair of slinky pants, paired with a binding jacket, cream ruffled neckpiece and oversized floppy hat instantly summoned Dior and Goya in equal measure. A two-toned belted cocktail dress in coordinated full-body ruffles of tan and chocolate was gorgeous, but the real showstopper was Christian's final piece: a sumptuous two-toned feathered gown, complete with trailing train, impressionistic in its look, fluid, soft, and elegant. It signaled the arrival of a major new force to the fashion world and will likely be Christian's signature calling card.

It was no surprise then that a nervous Christian (who looked like he was either going to vomit or fall off the runway in fear) was the winner of Project Runway 4. Hell, even icy Victoria Beckham was gushing over his designs and told Christian that she wanted to wear one of his pieces, a major kudo in the age of well photographed celebrities. Me, I am happy that he managed to pull off a sophisticated, edgy, and ultimately runway-appropriate show that proved just how talented he is. I know that this isn't the last we'll be hearing of Christian Siriano and I wouldn't have it any other way.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Survivor: Micronesia--Fans Vs. Favorites (CBS); The Office (NBC); Smallville (CW); Lost (ABC); American Idol (FOX)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Celebrity Apprentice (NBC); Reaper (CW); Lost (ABC); New Amsterdam (FOX)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Lipstick Jungle (NBC); Eli Stone (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Lost.

Missed last week's episode of Lost ("The Constant")? Here's your chance to catch it again before this season's fourth episode at 9 pm!

8 pm: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America.

On this week's installment ("La Parra de Burriana Revisited"), Gordon Ramsay returns to Spain's Costa del Sol to check in on La Parra de Burriana one year after receiving his help but discovers that the owner is still in dire need of a reality check. (A hint to those with some major DVR conflicts: the episode also airs at 5 pm and 10 pm PT AND at 11 pm ET.)

9 pm: Lost.

On tonight's episode ("The Other Woman"), it's a Juliet-centric episode (yay!).Juliet gets a visit from someone from her past and gets orders to prevent Charlotte and Faraday from completing their mission, while Ben offers Locke an enticing deal.

Rami and Chris Face Off for Finale Spot on "Project Runway"

I had more than an inkling as to how last night's penultimate episode of Project Runway would play out.

You couldn't have picked two more drastically different designers than Rami Kashou and Chris March and seeing them go head to head was a virtual lesson in aesthetics, unfettered creativity, and determination. After all, only one of them would get the opportunity to advance to the final round and show at New York Fashion Week. Or would do so AND remain in the competition. After all, both of them (along with Sweet P) put on shows. Reward or red herring? You decide.

In any event, Tim Gunn flew around the country to check in with the four remaining designers in the weeks leading up to Fashion Week, visiting the Manhattan-based teeny-tiny closet/sewing room/studio/bedroom Christian calls home (though why exactly didn't he meet any of Christian's friends or family?), checking in with Rami and his fantastic studio in Los Angeles, having dinner with Jillian's family on Long Island (after checking out her fabulous Manhattan flat's view), and critiquing Chris' designs before entering the surreal baroque funhouse belonging to one of Chris' friends.

I always find these episodes to be pretty interesting; it gives Tim (and us) an opportunity to see the designers outside of Parsons and in their regular lives and allows the audience a preview of their collections to come. I thought that, as always, Tim's advice was spot on: edit, edit, edit. All of them were guilty of having a little too much "look" and each seemed open to taking on board Tim's advice as long as it gelled with their own unique vision.

I am in utter awe of Christian's stuff. It's very avant garde, very runway-appropriate, and very Dior. How this 21-year-old kid can construct these garments and have his singular of a vision at such a young age is astounding to me. Jillian also had some really strong pieces. That jacket, inspired by paintings of 15th century armor, was absolutely breathtaking in its detailing and construction; it was strong but feminine, hard-edged and yet soft at the same time.

But while it was nice to catch up with our four remaining designers, what this episode was really about was the final showdown between Rami and Chris for that spot in the final three. So what did they end up showing? Let's discuss.

Chris: I was really shocked and more than a little horrified by his inclusion of human hair on the trim of many of his garments. Was it unexpected and completely original? Absolutely. It also showcased the fact that he was willing to take risks and step outside his comfort zone in order to provoke a reaction. (But was activating Tim's gag reflex too much of a reaction?) The three pieces he selected to show the judges were all a little somber, in my opinion. I understand that he wanted to keep the pieces in the same color palette but I wanted to see something a little brighter as well. Still, I thought the dress with the safety-pins was brilliant, as was the floor-length gown; there was a dark energy to his work and I definitely saw the dark, gothic influence Chris was speaking of but didn't really feel that there was a story or cohesion to his work.

Rami: I was blown away by Rami's selections, which showed a complete departure from his obsession with draping. Rami specifically selected three pieces to showcase different techniques and feels and together they all complemented one another beautifully. The black and white pointillistic dress was gorgeous, a fantastic reveal after the model removed her beautifully tailored jacket. The blue coat was a little too much look for me but displayed amazing construction and wasn't at all that loose, draped effect Rami loves so much. And his final piece, a floor-length tiered black gown, was simply stunning.

Ultimately, I do understand why the judges had a hard time narrowing down the competition in this round. Both of them definitely challenged themselves to do something different than we've seen thus far in the season but ultimately I do have to agree with the judges' decision to keep Rami in the competition, as much as I adore Chris and his out-there designs.

So there you have it, the final three: Christian, Jillian, and Chris. Who do you think will win the season's top prize? Whose collection are you dying to see on the runway? And who will throw a tantrum moments before the show begins? Find out next week.

Next week on the season finale of Project Runway, the final three designers show off their brand new collections, encounter some well-edited and demanding pitfalls before the big shows, and face the judges--along with guest adjudicator Victoria Beckham--one last time before one is crowned the winner of Project Runway 4.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Survivor: Micronesia--Fans Vs. Favorites (CBS); My Name is Earl (NBC); Smallville (CW); Lost (ABC); American Idol (FOX)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Celebrity Apprentice (NBC); Reaper (CW); Lost (ABC); Don't Forget the Lyrics (FOX)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Lipstick Jungle (NBC); Eli Stone (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Lost.

Missed last week's episode of Lost ("Eggtown")? Here's your chance to catch it again before this season's fourth episode at 9 pm!

8 pm: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America.

Season Four of the original UK Kitchen Nightmares begins tonight. On this week's installment ("The Granary"), Gordon Ramsay heads to rural Hampshire, where an upscale restaurant--which intimidates locals with its exclusive reputation--is losing $8000 a week and is danger of closing. Can Gordon save the restaurant? Find out tonight. (A hint to those with some major DVR conflicts: the episode also airs at 5 pm and 10 pm PT AND at 11 pm ET.)

9 pm: Lost.

On tonight's episode ("The Constant"), Desmond and Sayid experience some severe turbulence during a stormy flight to the freighter, but that pales in comparison with Desmond's strange side-effects. Lost time, anyone?

Sneak Peek: Season Finale of "Project Runway"

I don't know about you but I am hooked on Bravo's reality series Project Runway and cannot wait for tonight's season finale. While I'm rooting for wunderkind Christian to win this competition, I know that there are quite a few Jillian fans out there as well; we're all winners at the end of the day with talent like these two in the finals.

With only a few more hours to go before the season finale, I thought we could take a sneak peek at what's in store for our finalists on tonight's penultimate episode and that eleventh hour showdown between Rami and Chris. Which one will go on to New York Fashion Week (well, both, but you know what I mean) and which will fall by the wayside? Find out tonight.



Project Runway's season finale kicks off tonight with Part One at 10 pm ET/PT on Bravo.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother 9 (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); American Idol (FOX; 8-9:30 pm)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Pussycat Dolls Present Girlicious (CW); Supernanny (ABC); Back to You (FOX; 9:30-10 pm)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Men in Trees (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: America's Next Top Model.

Cycle 1o officially begins tonight, following last week's casting episode, with a brand-new episode ("New York City, Here We Come"), as the 14 finalists move into their new digs in Manhattan and get critiqued by new judge Paulina Porizkova. (You can read my advance review of the first two episodes here.)

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

On Part One of the two-part season finale, the finalists return to New York to finish their collections and then head to the runways, where their solo collections will determine who will be crowned the winner of Project Runway 4. Come on, Christian!

Nice Guys Can Finish First: Winners Crowned on "Amazing Race" Season Finale

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Amazing Race and the final episode ("The Final Push") was no exception as we saw the final three teams make their way to the final leg of the race in Anchorage, Alaska, where they were pushed physically and intellectually on the way to the finish line.

I do have to say that this final leg was perhaps one of the most complex and interesting ones in a long, long time, especially the Final Road Block, a play on that old Memory game in which a player had to correctly organize a list of vague items--each with restrictions to each particular leg of the race--on a platform in order to receive their next clue. It was a fantastic challenge, one that played up their experiences on the race as well as their intuition and puzzle-solving abilities. (To say the very least, it was a million times better than that final task in Chicago a few seasons back where teams had to eat a pizza.)

How funny was it to see Phil climbing that glacier whilst explaining the teams' next move? Classic.

I was really hoping that Ron and Christina would be able to hold onto their lead and walk away with a million dollars, but Christina quickly fell behind at the Final Road Block, allowing Rachel and TK to sneak into first place. (Damn that donkey!) But, to be honest, I really would have been happy if any of the three of these teams emerged the victor and, at the end of the day, Ron and Christina can walk away from this experience having forged a powerful relationship. These two started off the Race as a team that nobody thought would make it very far, given Ron's near-humiliation of Christina at every turn and his constant bickering, whining, and nitpicking. Christina proved that her saintlike patience paid off and her father was able to change his ways. It's a testament to the powers of The Amazing Race and to the human spirit. Well done, guys.

I couldn't believe that Nick left their supplies at the 6th Avenue Outfitters... and was kind of hoping they'd try to do the crab Detour without rubber gloves (though I guess they did need the knife in order to fillet that HUGE cod). It pays to, well, pay attention to what the clues are actually saying, rather than just your next destination and this mistake put Don and Nicolas squarely at the back of the pack. Still, it was amazing to me to see how Don managed to keep up with contestants who were in some cases half his age, with grit and determination. It's a feat that a 68-year-old man made it into the final leg.

As for TK and Rachel, it was nice seeing them stress for a change. I do agree that they managed to stay in the game through some rough times and never lost their cool... or their heads towards each other, remaining calm and supportive throughout this entire competition. If the Race does test your mettle as a couple, these two have come through with flying colors. And it was a nice change of pace to see a couple that wasn't as cruel and disagreeable as Nate and Jen... and still have them walk away a million dollars richer. As TK said, nice guys can finish first.

And there you have it, another season of The Amazing Race done and dusted. Were you happy with the outcome? Or were you rooting for another team to waltz off with the top prize?

What's On Tonight

8 pm: How I Met Your Mother/The Big Bang Theory (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC); Everybody Hates Chris/Aliens in America (CW); Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (ABC; 8-9:30 pm); Prison Break (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Girlfriends/The Game (CW); Notes from the Underbelly (ABC; 9:30-10 pm); Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)

10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC); October Road (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

You all know my feelings about this new series (and John Connor's greasy, greasy hair) but I'll tune in tonight to give it another chance. On tonight's installment ("The Turk"), Sarah gets in touch with Terissa Dyson in an attempt to locate Skynet's creators, which leads her to Andy Goode, a cell phone salesman-slash-computer programmer who has created a program called "The Turk," while John and Cameron try to assimilate at a new school.

10 pm: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain on Travel Channel.

It's a brand new season of No Reservations on the Travel Channel; follow enfant terrible chef Anthony Bourdain as he travels the world in search of good food. In tonight's installment, Tony heads to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he takes a look at its film industry, scenery, and burgeoning food scene.

America's Next Top... Cover Girl?

I swear, if Chantal won this season on America's Next Top Model, I was going to stop watching this series because I just could not take it seriously anymore.

Whew. Fortunately, Chantal didn't walk away with the top prize--the cover of Seventeen magazine and a $100K contract with Cover Girl Cosmetics (as Tyra reminds us each and every week)--but I was blown away by the fact that she was chosen first at the judging panel and guaranteed a place in the final two, a move which eliminated far stronger competitor Jenah, whom I believe could actually have a future in high-fashion modeling.

Rather than go into details about Top Model's season finale, which as usual featured yet another Cover Girl photo shoot and commercial, I wanted to talk about something else: the complete and utter disconnect between what the judges claim they are looking for and what they actually end up awarding the top prize based upon. Throughout this entire competition, the judges continually harraung the girls for not being high-fashion enough... or, in the case of eventual winner Saleisha, that she was too "commercial."

Which would be fine if the top prize was a photo spread in Vogue or Harper's Bazaar instead of Seventeen, which to me screams "commercial" at the top of its lungs. Its models may as well be modeling the latest J. Crew collection in the pages of its own catalogue rather than, say, Alexander McQueen or Vivienne Westwood.

Color me confused. I get that Seventeen and Cover Girl are corporate sponsors of Top Model and considerations need to be taken in hand in order to sate their own desires, along with the producers and the judging panel, that the winning model needs to be Seventeen-appropriate but having Chantal stand there next to the far superior Saleisha (who worked that runway like a professional with several seasons under her belt) was a slap in the face to the ideals that this competition claims to enforce.

Will Saleisha do a great job? Definitely. She's polished, poised on the runway, has an absolutely engaging and winning personality and definitely has that Cover Girl look (though I was glad to see that they fixed her hair for the post-cycle photo shoot), but I do wish that she would have faced off in the final challenge against Jenah, whose pictures, walk, and overall package clearly outshine that of Chantal, who--let's face it--is "cute" but amateurish and nothing special. To see Saleisha and Jenah go head to head for the top prize would have injected some much needed drama into the proceedings; Jenah takes some of the most amazing photographs ever seen on this series to date and has a confidence and edge that screams high-fashion.

To me, it was a foregone conclusion that Saleisha would win from the very moment Tyra called Chantal's name. Coincidence? Or did they want a more dynamic, confident, and editorial girl to win this thing?

In the end, I am happy that Saleisha won the top prize; she definitely deserves it and I do think she could have a future as a model as long as she tones down some of the shoulder movement on the catwalk and continues to use her sensational face. I do feel bad that the judges pushed Jenah to the point of tears (and, thanks Chantal, for saying that she couldn't be a role model for your little sisters) and then cut her from the competition even though her pictures are so sensational.

As for Chantal, I laughed my butt off when she tripped that guy on the stilts during the runway show. So at least she added that bit of amusement to the proceedings...

Model Mayhem: The Final Three Girls Face Off on Season Finale of "Top Model"

With Heather out of the running, I'm really not too sure who to root for on America's Next Top Model, which wraps its ninth season (ahem, cycle) tonight after a runway showdown between the final two girls in Beijing.

While the final three girls are certainly beautiful in their own rights, I have to say that I am amazed (shocked, even) that Chantal is still there. Yes, she's cute and bubbly and screams Seventeen magazine, but I don't really think of her as top model material, even if that's print modeling. Chantal's pictures, to me, just come across as pretty flat (or even flatly pretty) but there's nothing original or striking about her. She's the equivalent of a blonde paper doll: pretty but ultimately blandly one-dimensional.

Saleisha seems to be the one with the most raw talent but, while she's the most confident on the runway, her pictures don't seem to capture the intensity and skill that she possesses. Also, I don't care what you call the Clara Bow wannabe hair they gave her, it makes her look more like Tootie from The Facts of Life than any silent film star. Still, Saleisha gave a stunning photograph last week on the Great Wall that made me think that she could pull the assignment of a lifetime off, if she manages to work on her photos and tone down her severity on the runway.

I really did like Jenah for the first few episodes but her attitude of late has been terrible and she's been plagued by waves of self-doubt, homesickness, and, well, bitchiness. (Was anyone else reminded of Caridee's bullfighting arena gaffe when Jenah started "joking" with Nigel?) Still, she has this ethereal, otherworldly quality that photographs amazingly well and she pulled off the runway walk last week with amazing, dramatic effect. Jenah needs to rein in the sarcasm, calm down, and live more in the moment... and she might just walk away with the top prize if she can convince Tyra and the other judges that she really does want to win this and does want to eat, dream, breathe this lifestyle.

Who are you rooting for? And who do you think will ultimately be crowned the winner this season on Top Model?