Los Angeles Times: "V: Choose Your Masters"

Looking to discuss last night's season finale of ABC's V?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site, where you can read my take on last night's episode ("Red Sky"), entitled "V: Choose Your Masters."

I'm curious to know what you thought. What did you think of this episode and of the season in general? Should we trust Marcus? Sad to see Val go? Will Ryan come back around? Will Lisa become queen? Will you come back next season to watch Season 2 of V? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Two of V will launch in midseason on ABC.

Los Angeles Times: "The Amazing Race: I Left My Integrity in San Francisco"

Looking to discuss the frustrating season finale of CBS' fantastic reality series The Amazing Race?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker to read my latest Amazing Race piece, entitled "The Amazing Race: I Left My Integrity in San Francisco," where you can read my take on the season finale, airport ticket counter shenanigans, first class seating snafus, and why I'm frustrated by the fact that the final leg of many seasons is usually the most boring.

Sound off in the comments section about whether you think the right team won, whether Caite reached her goal of proving the world that she's an intelligent person, and whether you're happy or disappointed with the ultimate winners of this season.

The Daily Beast: "Damages' Bloody Finale"

Have some answers about last night's season finale of Damages? Wondering just how likely it is that it will serve as the series finale?

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my exclusive day-after interview with Damages creators Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman, and Todd A. Kessler, entitled "Damages' Bloody Finale."

In an exclusive Q&A, we discuss the season finale and the series' potential future, as well as get to the bottom of some of this week's extraordinary plot twists (which I won't spoil here).

Head to the comments section to share your thoughts about the finale, whether you think Damages should return, and reactions to the third season as a whole.

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth: The Season Finale of FX's Damages

"I want my ashes scattered here." - Patty Hewes

In the end, it always circles back around to that dock, the scene for so many significant--and often fatal--encounters within the labyrinthine world of Damages. As it should be really, considering that their relationship is the central dynamic within the series, we're left once more with a conversation between Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) that signals the closing of one chapter in their lives as they square off on the dock of Patty's beach house.

But a house, after all, is not a home. Patty must contemplate the fact that she might truly be alone in this world after the events of the third season and particularly its finale ("The Next One Goes in Your Throat"), written by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman (whom I speak to exclusively here) and directed by Todd A. Kessler. Her conversation with Ellen is an intriguing one, revealing a rare vulnerability in Patty Hewes as well as the forging of a true connection between the two women.

It's uncertain whether Damages will continue past this season--studio Sony Pictures Television is said to be in talks with DirecTV about coming on to co-finance the series--though I am hoping that a deal can be reached and Ellen and Patty's story can continue. But if for some reason "The Next One Goes in Your Throat" does end up being a series ender for Damages, I'd be satisfied by the fact that we've seen their complex relationship evolve into some very unexpected territory over the last three seasons... and the tantalizing ambiguity with which we leave these ambitious and flawed women might just be the perfect cap to a such compelling and intelligent run.

So what did I think of this week's season finale? Let's discuss.

I thought that the third season of Damages offered a heady mix of a ripped-from-the-headlines case (with the Tobin family's Ponzi scheme) and deeply personal narratives that peeled away the layers of its central characters, revealing the rich, interior lives of Patty Hewes and Ellen Parsons, delving deep into their pasts to explain just who they are today.

It's not an easy feat to pull off. Damages is already a complicated narrative, due to its nonlinear format, offering two timeframes--the "future" and the "present day"--to bounce between and typically slotting in some flashbacks as well. This season saw a returned focus to the dream sequences and visions that have populated the drama from the beginning, providing a gateway into the innermost psyches of our characters on both sides of the case.

It's all the more shocking when it occurs within the context of a legal thriller, but let's be honest, Damages has always been more than that, offering one of a nuanced character study of ambition, success, greed, and what it means to need to win at all costs.

Tom. It's the latter element that Patty has fostered within her two former proteges Tom Shayes and Ellen Parsons and which leads directly to Tom's very undignified death in the season finale. Throughout the third season, we've seen a Tom Shayes that's slowly becoming unhinged as he deals with the loss of his financial status, his reputation, and finally his marriage. That Patty's eagle-eyed frequent co-conspirator would be duped by a feeder fund and have his entire extended family's fortune stolen by Louis Tobin sets off a chain reaction that leads Tom to lie to Patty and Ellen and to engage in a deadly alliance that ends with him stabbed, beaten, and drowned.

The circumstances surrounding Tom's death have been vague all season long. The cause of death was drowning but he hadn't been submerged in water long enough to affect his body. And we knew that he didn't die from the stab wounds to his stomach (and one, we learn, to his leg) and learn that it was Zedeck's enforcer Ben who was wielding the knife in this case. It was only a matter of time before Zedeck tweaked to the fact that Leonard and Albert had carried off the theft of a portion of the hidden Tobin money as Leonard was the only other person, besides for Joe and Zedeck himself, who knew of the connection between the funds and the charity. (I still maintain that it would have been a slightly better twist to have those water bottles explained, not by Tom's messiness, but by a waterboarding attempt.)

Ben attacks Tom at the loft, desperate to find Leonard after he and Zedeck became aware of the deal that Tom made with the former Tobin family counsel, stabbing Tom repeatedly in an effort to get him to talk... before Ben is felled by a bullet from Leonard's gun... and then springs back to life to strangle Lenny before getting bludgeoned by Tom with a wrench. Ouch.

That Tom would manage to escape this ordeal, stagger to a pay phone, and call Deb (telling her to take the kids and go anywhere but home) but not go to a hospital or call 911 required a little suspension of disbelief, as he goes home and is then attacked by Joe Tobin, who drowns him in the toilet.

I thought that the scene between them displayed a nice symmetry between the two men: both struggling to uphold their ideals of family, to regain what they lost and what each of them blames the other for. I found it terribly sad that Tom's nobility and his dreams should end up at the receiving end of a fatal swirlie carried out by a mentally deranged Joe Tobin. For all of his plans and his schemes, it all came down to being felled by an intruder in his house, one who saw Tom as the ultimate symbol of everything that had been taken away from him.

As for why Tom ended up in the dumpster behind Lenny's building, that's an easy answer: knowing that Tom and Lenny had a deal, Joe wanted to cast suspicion on Lenny for Tom's murder as he (A) knew the truth about Lenny's identity and (B) knew that Lenny owned the building and that the police would go looking for him.

Louis. That Joe would blame Tom for what had befallen him is the true travesty, as we learn that everything that has happened this season, all of the lies, the murder, the bloodshed has all been, not because of Louis Tobin's greed, but because of a father's love for a son who drunkenly destroyed the family fortune and had no memory of it. The entire Ponzi scheme, as Marilyn tells Joe, was set up because he had messed up and promised investors returns that weren't there, a situation that quickly escalated into outright fraud as Louis and Leonard sought to cover up Joe's mistake by paying off the investors with other clients' money, which in turn lead to the entire Ponzi scheme scenario.

While Joe believes that Louis didn't love him, the reverse is wholly true. Louis' entire life was based around making Joe happy and making decisions that he thought would better his son's life. While Marilyn wants Danielle to terminate her pregnancy, Louis lies to her and allows Danielle to give birth to Tessa and supports them financially for the rest of his life. When he discovers that Joe has destroyed his business, he takes steps to ensure that Joe will never be held responsible for any wrongdoing and goes so far as to kill himself, not to avoid trial, but to avoid any inkling of Joe's malfeasance from ever coming to life.

It's another sacrifice made for an ungrateful child, one unaware of the decisions being made without his knowledge, and it completely reverses the image we've had this entire season of who Louis Tobin was and why he killed himself, willingly giving up his life in order to save his son's time and time again.

Marilyn. Louis always put his family above all else, managing to find a way to secret a fortune for them and still find a way to take the fall for Joe's mistakes, even in death. Yet it's Marilyn who makes the wrong decision, who is unwilling to bend for her child, who becomes far too enamored of her lifestyle and the lure of the money that her husband has hidden away. She argued that Danielle should abort Joe's child and never told him that Danielle had gotten pregnant. Learning about Tessa's existence on Thanksgiving, she was furious that Louis had gone behind her back and had allowed Danielle to give birth to Tessa and supported them. And when the time came when Tessa became a threat to their financial status, Marilyn stood by and let Joe slaughter his own daughter.

Joe doesn't see Marilyn's decisions as being in his own best interests, at concealing his own wrongdoing for so long. He tells her that she is dead to him and will never see her grandson again. And she doesn't: after watching old home movies of her, Louis, and Joe during simpler, happier times, she throws herself into the East River. (Mystery solved!)

The Bag. Likewise, we learned that Leonard stole Ellen's Chanel handbag from her car in order to place the agreement and evidence in her bag (placing it in the beater car), rather than leave it with Tom and Patty, whom he did not trust entirely. But while Leonard looks to double-cross Tom, fate intervenes when homeless man Barry steals the bag (and it's contents) from the car. Tom, after being stabbed, later sees that Barry has the handbag and touches it with his bloody hand (leaving behind Ben's blood), making him promise that he'll get it back to Ellen.

Circling back around once Ellen learns that the handbag was found in Barry's possession, she's able to get that envelope that Louis had initially intended Patty Hewes to have (it now has Patty's name crossed out and Ellen's written in). Which is rather ironic, as all of this could have been avoided had (A) Joe gone to see Louis when he asked him to and (B) not taken the envelope from beside Louis' body in the first place.

The Car Accident. As I predicted last week, you can never get away with pulling one over on Patty Hewes. Jill's naivete was staggering; she rooked Patty out of half a million dollars, which she then spent on Michael with no intention of leaving him. If she thought that she could get away with it or that Patty would just let it slide, she was out of her mind. I knew that the writers would do something with the chromosome test that Michael gave Patty last week but didn't think that it would have the date of conception on it... a fact that Patty was able to use to her advantage, having Jill arrested for statutory rape right out of the very car that she had given Michael.

Patty, like Louis Tobin, made a decision that she believed was for the best interests of her child. She saw Jill as a failed mother, a criminal, and a lowlife who would drag Michael down with her, who had derailed his eduction and stolen his future. And, sitting across from her in the police station, she tells Jill that she will give birth in prison, that Michael will get full custody, and that she will make sure that he has help raising his child.

And, in an act of hubris, Patty seizes ownership of their apartment and the cherry red Jaguar that Jill bought for Michael. It is, after all, the very car that Patty is driving when she's struck by the hit-and-run driver.

As soon as Ellen encountered Michael at Patty's apartment (after driving there in the beater car that Tom purchased), I knew that the driver had to be Michael. Leaving the keys in the car, Ellen takes a phone call after discovering that the money that Leonard gave them as proof of the Tobin's fraud was in fact, well, fraudulent, and the car is driven off by someone unseen, someone who floors it and crashes it right into Patty Hewes.

But it's not a mystery to Patty who is driving the car, despite her testimony to the police. She sees Michael fleeing the scene and she knows just how much he sought to do her grievous harm, perhaps even kill her. Her decisions may have been with Michael's best interests at heart but they were just that: her decisions. She has, in a single day, destroyed his happiness and thrown his life once more into chaos.

And he is his mother's son, after all. He knows a thing or two about payback. Their collision is the ultimate dust-up, the row to end all rows, a permanent fracture in their already tenuous relationship.

The Horse. Patty is the first to admit that she hasn't been the perfect wife or the perfect mother. But she has been defined not by her maternal instincts but by her drive and ambition, her need to win, to knock down the bullies, and achieve victory and justice, using whatever means necessary. But her defining moment came in 1972 as a pregnant woman about to become a mother. Told by her doctor that her pregnancy was at risk and would have to remain in bed, Patty deliberately sought to terminate her own pregnancy so she could get out of her small town and claim her fortune in New York as a lawyer.

Julia's stillbirth wasn't an accident or a cruel twist of fate at all, but a deliberate escape plan for Patty Hewes. Walking far into the country, she happens upon a horse farm, where she encounters not only the horse (the one seen in her visions) but Julian Decker himself, here not a musician or an architect but a handyman who asks her if she is ready for motherhood, saying it's a huge responsibility. That Julian isn't her true love but rather someone she encounters at a formative moment is critical: her visions in the present day of him are echoes of a heinous act that she would rather forget. His constant reappearances, the ghostly visitations, and his promises to tear down the walls are manifestations of her guilt, her horror, the (literal) blood on her hands.

It's the thing she can't escape: she murdered her own daughter, just as Joe did his. And then she nearly repeated history by having Ellen killed. While Ellen isn't a replacement for Julia, her hysteria over arranging the hit on Ellen lead to Julia's grave at the end of Season One, a place that she hadn't returned since she left her stillborn baby behind. It's a return to the metaphoric crossroads, a reminder of the price she paid for her success, the bodies that lay in her wake.

Arthur Frobisher. Frobisher is one again undone by his vanity. After spilling his secrets to Terry (who went and told Patty), Frobisher is "visited" by Ray Fiske in the nightclub. It's his last chance to confess but he fails to take it. Ellen finally gets to see Wes, who fills her in on everything: that Rick Messer murdered David under orders from Frobisher and that he sought to protect Ellen and killed Messer to do so. Despite the fact that Ellen says that she's let go of all of it, Wes wants to see justice done for Ellen. He confronts Frobisher in his car and, at gunpoint, forces him to confess that he killed David. Wes then turns them both in, sacrificing his freedom in order to obtain justice for Ellen. It's a noble gesture that's wholly surprising, given Wes' propensity for violence. I thought he was going to shoot Frobisher but instead he looks towards the justice of the law, rather than man.

Confession. Confession is also on the minds of Patty and Joe. Patty turns off the intercom while sitting down with Joe at the police station and tells Ellen that they talked about confession. But what does she confess? The truth about Julia's death? Her attempt to kill Ellen? Or something else entirely? It's left deliberately unclear just what they talk about but, whatever it is, it's enough to get Joe to confess to killing Tom. Patty, Tom, and Ellen managed to take down the Tobin family in the end, but at a particularly high price: the life of one of their own.

Patty and Ellen. Ultimately, Patty and Ellen find themselves once more on the dock by Patty's beach house, having buried Tom Shayes. Patty mentions that she wants to be cremated and her ashes scattered there. It's a surprising conversation that's rooted in the intimacy that these two have formed over the last three seasons. After all, it's a conversation that one might typically have with a child. But Patty doesn't have children, not anymore. Julia is dead and her relationship with her son is forever tainted. She has lost Uncle Pete and Tom, her entire family. Ellen is, really, all that she has left now: the promise of the future, an emotional connection but one that's already been tested in unusual ways.

And Ellen wants to know if all of that has been worth it. If Patty's success was worth the blood, sweat, and tears that paved the way to this very moment in time. For Ellen, like Patty before her, is at a crossroads. She wants a family, she wants some semblance of normalcy in her life. She has three options: she can find work at another law firm, she can return and work for Patty, or she can quit the law altogether.

But it's that question of the price of all of this that hangs in the air between them. The long silence that follows is sharp and brutal as Patty can't bring herself to answer the question, denying the audience any sort of rubric for understanding her. There is no right reply but at the same time Patty's answer isn't vital to Ellen, not anymore. She walks away, determined to find her own answer to that question, choosing her own path, not Patty's, as she chooses a direction to leave from that crossroads.

One can only hope that these two find a way back to each other and that Damages continues for us to see just what path each of them chooses.

What did you think of the season finale? Does it work as a series finale, if Damages doesn't return? Would you be heartbroken if this is truly the end for Damages? Hoping that DirecTV coughs up some cash to keep it alive? Confused by anything? Head to the comments section to discuss.

End of the Line: Thoughts on the "Caprica" Mid-Season Finale

I'm curious to know what people thought of Friday evening's spring finale of Syfy's Caprica, the last episode that will air until the series returns this fall.

While the episode ("End of the Line"), written by Michael Taylor, offered some closure to several storylines (at least for now, anyway) and contained the series' most exciting sequence to date (as armed forces attempted to stop a runaway Cylon prototype), it also was structured around a number of cliffhangers, each designed to hold our interest--or at least our curiosity--until the series returns.

But the problem was that I didn't really care which of the characters lived or died. And that's a major problem for a series that itself lives or dies based on the strength of its characters and the audience's innate connection with them.

Caprica has been a mixed bag so far this season: a heady brew of ideas and themes that are, at times, executed with the awkwardness of a robot taking its first steps. It's exciting at times, yes, but you also don't want to be standing near it when it inevitably falls down.

Part of the problem for me is that the numerous storylines and characters are so completely separate, creating the sense of narrative fragmentation. Thematically, they might be linked but each of the characters--Amanda, Clarice, Lacey, Daniel, Joseph, and Zoe--seems to be in their own series most of the time, with very little crossover or connection between them. That disconnect might be intentional and might have been implemented to reflect the disconnect in their own hedonistic and tech-savvy society but it doesn't necessarily make for compelling television.

This was especially true in the spring finale, where our main characters spent precious little time in scenes together, instead embarking on individual storylines that didn't really come together in any meaningful way. Joseph's quest to find his missing daughter Tamara in the V-world lead to a reveal of just who his guide Emmanuelle was in the real world: and--not surprisingly--it was his lovestruck assistant whose name I can't even remember. Joseph's addiction to amp and his obsessive quest to find the Tamara avatar could have been a thrilling story arc for his character but I found that I cared less and less about Adama as the season wore on as he descended into a husk of a man who spent more time in the virtual world than living in the real one.

Likewise, Amanda has retreated into her memories and (possible) madness, seeing the ghost of her dead brother and reflecting on a suicide attempt made before she met her future husband Daniel. While Daniel has all but forgotten about Amanda (just where is he while she wastes days away in their bedroom), except for chopping some vegetables for a dinner that never happens, Amanda slips further and further away from reality, finding herself atop a bridge as she decides whether or not to leap to her death. This should have been a pivotal moment for the series but I found that I didn't care whether she lived or died, whether she jumped or caught herself in time.

Given that she is a major character, I'd be surprised if the writers kill her off. Far more likely is that her instincts as a doctor kick in when she sees the nearby explosion--a car bomb unknowingly planted by Lacey at the behest of Barnabas--that doesn't kill its intended target, Sister Clarice Willow, but will likely instead claim the life of Clarice's husband Nestor, the brutally underused Scott Porter.

The other extinguished life is that of research scientist Philomon, accidentally murdered by Zoe in the body of the Cylon prototype, seconds after revealing her true self to her would-be boyfriend. While the death is not intentional, it's the most shocking element of the finale... and speaks volumes about the audience's investment in the series when a tertiary character has more an impact than the leads.

I didn't quite get Zoe's master plan to use Philomon to escape Greystone Industries and then meet up with Lacey to be shipped to Gemenon or why she needed him to help her do something that she could have done several times over at this point. Considering that the Cylon unit spent the majority of the season downstairs in Daniel's lab at the Greystone house, I don't know why Zoe didn't just walk out at any point during the season. Or call Lacey to come get her since the house seemed deserted most of the time. Color me confused.

Likewise, I don't know that Daniel would be so quick to order the MCP scrubbed either, considering that he knows that it's the only working one (Vergis was never able to make it work, after all) and that it might still contain Zoe's avatar on it, even after his numerous tests failed to force the avatar to show itself.

Ideally, I'd love to see the individual storylines begin to come together more closely, to overlap less in terms of theme and more in terms of plot. The series, to me, feels more like a grouping of semi-related characters than a true ensemble. I'm hoping that the writing staff can find a way of making these characters pop more and keeping the audience invested in these storylines. There's still a certain iciness to Caprica that desperately needs to thaw out and we need to feel the heat of empathy and connection with these characters if we decide to return to this world.

Otherwise it might just be the end of the line for me with this series.

But I am curious to know: what did you think of the season finale and of Caprica's season itself so far? Will you tune in again this fall when Caprica returns? Discuss.

Caprica will return will return with the second half of its freshman season this fall on Syfy.

Danger Zone: FX's "Archer" Wraps Its First Season Tonight

I'm going to really miss FX's gleefully absurd animated comedy Archer.

The Adam Reed-created action/workplace comedy wraps up its first season tonight after last week's hilariously perverse and just plain weird episode that finds ISIS' best two agents--that would be Sterling Archer and Lana Kane, natch--poached by a rival intelligence agency, ODIN.

(The same agency that happens to be headed up by a man voiced by Jeffrey Tambor, which makes this episode all the more delicious because it's another Arrested Development reunion between Tambor and the former Lucille Bluth, Jessica Walter.)

Anything with Walter's Mallory is a plus and tonight's season finale features a mystery-style set-up involving a sleeping Mallory, a blood-covered Sterling, and a sharp cleaver, all before flashing back 18 hours earlier to reveal just how we got to this point.

I'll admit that I wasn't knocked head over heels by the pilot for Archer when I saw it last year, but the series itself has found its voice and settled into a nice rhythm of espionage-related action, workplace humor, gross-out humor, and double- and triple-entendres.

It's helped that the series doesn't take itself too seriously and has a hell of a lot of fun with its premise, a spoof of both James Bond films, office-based sitcoms, 1960s red terror, and anything the writers can get their hands on. (The same can't be said for ABC's FlashForward, which returns tonight just as Archer ends its freshman season.)

But I'm curious to know: have you been enjoying Archer this season? Going to miss Mallory, Archer, Lana, Cyril, Pam, Cheryl (or whatever her name is this week) and the rest of the gang at ISIS? Discuss.

Archer's season finale airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on FX.

The Hot Box: Thoughts on the Season Finale of USA's "White Collar"

With my head spinning after this week's episode of Lost on Tuesday night, I didn't get a chance to watch White Collar's fantastic first season finale until last night.

It was definitely worth the wait.

The season finale of White Collar ("Out of the Box"), written by Jeff Eastin and directed by Kevin Bray, offered further pressure to the already strained central relationships within the series, pushing both Neal (Matthew Bomer) and Peter (Tim DeKay) to make some hard choices, as Neal pursued the music box and his always-just-out-of-reach true love Kate and Peter sought to bring down the shady OPR Agent Garrett Fowler (Noah Emmerich) and stop Neal from making a disastrous decision.

Plus, it featured the long-awaited return of Marsha Thomason's Agent Diana Lancing, who I've missed terribly since she disappeared after the White Collar pilot. (No worries, Diana fans, she's sticking around for Season Two.)

So what did I think of the season finale? Let's discuss.

I have to give Eastin credit for offering a cliffhanger ending that throws some of the series' main conceits into the air, so to speak. Throughout the first season, Neal's main mission--while ostensibly working with Peter and the FBI's White Collar Crimes Division--has been to find a way to find Kate (Alexandra Daddario) and be reunited with his one true love. It's a quest that has at times splintered his friendship with his partner Peter and taken him up against Fowler, multiple criminals, and the Italian consulate.

But for all of Neal's shadowy behavior and criminality, his pursuit hasn't been fame or fortune, but rather something far simpler and yet more complicated: love. Given this fact, we've been able to excuse some behavior (and Peter has as well, to a certain extent) from Neal that would be unacceptable in other situations, given his past as a forger and thief. But the fact that his prize this time around was Kate made his journey far more worthy than if he was attempting to acquire, say, a packet of Caravaggio paintings.

Throughout the episode, Mozzie (Willie Garson) and Peter kept throwing around the two-part ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times" and "May you find what you are looking for." Neal does find what he was looking for: he does manage, thanks to some help from Mozz and Alex (Gloria Votsis) to track down the amber music box that Fowler wants in exchange for Kate's freedom. And he seemingly does engineer an escape route for himself and Kate, one that's legal, thanks to some OPR deal-brokering from Fowler's higher-ups.

But even Neal knows that the deal is bent in some way. He makes a point of saying goodbye to everyone but Peter, knowing that Peter is the one person who can convince him not to flee with Kate but to stay and "make a difference." Which to me (along with the phone call he made to Tiffani Thiessen's Elizabeth) proves that he's having some major second thoughts about the Faustian pact he made with Fowler and with his relationship with Kate.

Will he get on the plane? Will he stay with Peter? What happens now that he's gotten his heart's desire? Can someone like him really settle down, buy a house, have a kid, join the PTA, as Mozzie jokingly suggests? Or is his true nature as an adventurer too hard-wired into his soul?

The choice is made a lot easier by the episode's climactic cliffhanger, one in which the plane, with Kate aboard, explodes just as Neal is about to head over and fly away to freedom. Does Kate survive? Did OPR and Fowler double-cross Neal and decide to kill him and Kate now that he provided them with the music box? Just who is pulling everyone's strings? And why? The answers to those questions will have to wait until White Collar's second season, which returns to USA this summer.

Despite the fact that I haven't been a fan of Alexandra Daddario as Kate (I haven't felt any spark between her and Bomer's Neal whatsoever), I do wish that Neal and Kate had had the chance to have one final scene together before the explosion that seemingly took Kate's life and shattered Neal's quest forever. Given that she's been the main goal throughout the final season, I think the pain could have cut a little deeper if they had one last conversation before she got on the plane and Neal had that scene with Peter where he returned his consultant's "badge." The effect would have been even more dramatic than just having Kate peer out through the plane's window and would have given Neal the false satisfaction of gotten the girl and the happy ending.

That said, I do hope that Kate IS dead. I've not found Daddario's Kate all that compelling of a character and that feeling is enhanced by the arrival of Gloria Votsis' Alex, who has a mischievous sensuality about her that's enticing and she and Bomer have some major chemistry going on between them. Alex, to me, is a far more interesting and intriguing character than Kate ever was and I hope that she sticks around for the second season, especially if Kate did burst into flames.

Though, if I'm being honest, there's no way in hell I would have left Alex alone with the music box as Neal did, even if just to take a second to let Mozzi into the anteroom at the Italian consulate. It's that lack of trust that makes Alex such a compelling character, yet also made Neal look a little too easily misled by her.

I'm also really excited to see how Thomason's Diana shakes things up within the team. I loved having her investigate Fowler and OPR in this week's episode, even if her IT excuse to Fowler's goon was a little too flimsy. Still, nice scene with Fowler and Peter in the parking garage (loved how she signaled Peter to draw one of her guns) that points to Diana's strength and grit. Can't wait to see more of her next season, especially working directly with Neal.

All in all, a great season finale that made me anxious to find out just what will happen next. Eastin and Co. have done a great job balancing the serialized and the procedural aspects of the series this season and I hope that balance continues over into next season as the mystery of the music box, OPR, and Fowler's co-conspirators continues. I'll gladly tip my hat to that.

Season Two of White Collar launches this summer on USA.

Out of the Darkness: Daybreak on the Season Finale of "Big Love"

"I've needed you for twenty years. I don't think I need you anymore." - Barb

Doubt and uncertainty have always clouded the Henrickson clan throughout the four seasons of HBO's Big Love, which has depicted their struggles to embrace the Principle and remain true to themselves, their family, and their religious beliefs, which often put them in conflict with each other and opened up internal debates about the path they're on.

Throughout the series' run, the Henricksons have gone to great pains to conceal their plural marriage from those around them, almost sequestering themselves in the three homes they share, which open out onto a communal backyard, a sanctuary representing their true selves, a place where they truly can be themselves away from prying eyes.

In last night's spectacular fourth season finale of Big Love ("End of Days"), written by Eileen Myers and directed by David Petrarca, the Henricksons took a major first step to reclaim their own destiny, to live their private lives in the public eye, and to unmask themselves for who they really are.

While one can't help but admire their courage and determination, their decision to expose themselves, to control the outcome of this reveal, couldn't have occurred at a worst time for the family or for polygamists in general.

Bill's entire political campaign has been based from the start on the idea that it would be a platform with which he could push the family from the darkness of fear and concealment and into the light. It's a noble mission but one that's clouded his judgment throughout this season as he was so hell-bent on achieving this end that he was willing to sacrifice numerous relationships to do so. The Henrickson clan has been splintered by the end of the season in more ways than one: daughter Sarah has fled for Portland with her husband; Barb has serious doubts about the way Bill is leading this family; Margene is looking for an escape route but may have discovered something else with Ana and Goran; Bill's devoted business partner, poor Don Embry, took the fall for being a polygamist and nearly destroyed his own family.

If there was ever a time not to rock the boat, it would be this one.

Adding to the pressure being placed on Bill: the calculated assault being perpetrated by the venal lobbyist Marilyn Densham; strife with his partners at the Indian tribal casino; and a series of indictments coming down out of Kansas which point to shocking allegations of inbreeding and incest from Juniper Creek's sister compound. A compound that was overseen by Nicki's psychotic ex-husband JJ, who arrived at the end of last season under some mysterious circumstances.

The writers masterfully built up this last storyline throughout the entire season, waiting for the last possible moment to pull the trigger on the incest storyline. While I've suspected as much from the clues that have been subtly deployed throughout the season--from JJ's lack of fingernails, the creepiness of his parents, and Wanda's mental breakdown--the truth was even more shocking and horrific than I could have even imagined. While the series stopped short of having actual forcible incest portrayed, JJ's eugenics scheme was gruesome and perverse: a misguided effort to keep their bloodline pure through a series of in-vitro fertilization that scientifically wed siblings, cousins, parents, and children.

Bill. I was stunned that Bill managed to carry off being elected into the state senate after a very close race with an opponent who was willing to use every trick at her disposal. While the season was building to this inevitable conclusion, I was extremely surprised that Bill had carried off his election without being exposed as either an adulterer or a polygamist by the numerous people who were seeking his destruction.

Throughout the four seasons that have aired so far, we've often seen Bill shouldering more than he can humanly carry, whether that's his relationship with his wives, his business empire, or this new political calling. It's a calling to office that he claims he received from a new testimony, one that was dramatically at odds with that at the end of last season. Turning his back on the church he had established, he believed he could do more good from a political office than the pulpit.

On the one hand, I agree with Bill's determination: he wants to reclaim the Principle from those that would twist its purpose and its message. He wants to give a new face to polygamy, one that isn't rooted in the squalid or the depraved transgressions of Juniper Creek, Roman Grant, or Frank Harlow. One that is essentially about love, family, and acceptance.

I believe that Bill has a higher regard for human nature than is really warranted, especially when it comes to people accepting the Other. He believes that because he's now told the truth, revealed himself and his family as polygamists, that he'll be accepted for who he is and he'll be able to become polygamy's Great Reformer, a role that Alby Grant seems to castigate. But Bill doesn't take into account that he lied to everyone--to his campaign supporters, his backers, the volunteers who worked the phone lines, the Mormon church he returned to, his neighbors, and everyone who checked the box next to his name in the voting booth--and that revealing a lie doesn't take away the sting of betrayal.

He might want to live in the light, to be honest and open about his beliefs and his identity, but public scrutiny casts a harsh glare. Will Bill really be able to do anything in office now that he's revealed the truth about his family? Will anyone trust him again? And while he might refuse to step down, hasn't he misled the public and the party throughout this whole election campaign? How can one reform when one no longer has any power? The keys to the kingdom have been seized from Bill before he's even begun to enact his vision.

Barb. While Bill might believe steadfastly in his campaign--both a mundane and heavenly one--those around him lack certainty in his testimony. Barb this season has transformed from being Bill's Boss Lady, the first wife wielding power and influence over the wives, into a successful and independent businesswoman, a position that she never wanted in the first place. But her handling of the casino in Bill's absence propelled her into a very different role within the family and within the world.

Her tentative first steps at the casino (remember the crab leg fiasco?) seem miles away from her grit and drive now. Yes, she still makes some serious mistakes, typically when she reacts from anger or hurt (such as when she hired Marilyn), but she's also seeing the world with a clarity that wasn't there before. She did uncover the link between Marilyn, Paley, and the religious right boycotting the casino... and she discovers the truth about Leila and the Flutes.

Barb isn't one to cut her losses or turn her back on those in need and she's shocked and disgusted when Bill has Jerry and Tommy Flute removed by the tribal council rather than working with them to stem the tide of meth at the casino. She's come to have a close understanding of Tommy and formed something resembling a supportive friendship. The ease with which Bill cuts those ties frightens and disgusts her. They were partners, after all, so how could Bill so callously sacrifice them? The casino was meant to be a safety net for all of them, yet Bill was willing to cut out the Flutes like they were a cancer.

It's no surprise that Barb wants to put the brakes on Bill's decision to expose them. I was shocked that she leaked the paternity test results to the press but her betrayal was a last-ditch effort to stop Bill from destroying their family, from pushing them into the public eye, and destroying their reputations. If anyone understands the risk, it's Barb after her excommunication last season. She sees just what damage can be done here, to them, their marriage, their children. She's willing to do whatever she has to in order to keep things behind the veil of secrecy.

But even after she admits what she's done, Barb still can't go along with Bill's plan, no matter how much Nicki might be on board. Private polygamy is one thing but a public reveal of their lifestyle could destroy them all and it's clear that Barb is having serious doubts about her marriage and the path that Bill is pursuing. It's telling that Barb doesn't tell Bill that she doesn't love him but that she doesn't need him. And she doesn't in a way. She's been forced to rely on herself, to stand on her own two feet, to follow her husband through hell and highwater and something has snapped inside her. (It's not the first time she's had doubts; she left the family for a bit in Season Two.)

But in the end, she hesitates but she does eventually get up on stage to grasp hands with Bill and her sister-wives. Does she do it for Bill? Or for Margene and Nicki? Or for herself? After all, Barb has been exposed as a polygamist whether or not she gets up on stage. She can't hide and she certainly can't backpedal now. But she has a choice: to support the people she's married to or turn her back on them. And, based on her horror at the way Bill handled the situation with Tommy and Jerry, her choice is a difficult one but also the right one. It isn't her dream but she's made her alliances.

Nicki. I've loved seeing the way that Nicki is attempting to find herself this season, casting off the prairie clothes that symbolized her connection to Juniper Creek and her father's lifestyle as she attempts to try on the identities of those around her: first Margene and then Barb. Nicki's blossoming is the payoff to four seasons of self-doubt and self-punishment; she's finally coming to terms with the fact that she does deserve love and happiness, despite the damage she's suffered through her life. The cutting of her braid, a reversal of Samson's story, enables her to find herself, to cast off the past and start anew, to find her wellspring of strength.

But as much as she might tell herself that she is worthy of Bill's love, she feels that she has to uphold her end to the bargain, to continue to bring souls into their family, to be fruitful, to expand their family here and in eternity. And she's willing to make a deal with the devil himself to do, venturing back to Juniper Creek to receive the miraculous treatments from Dr. Roquet, despite the disappearance of her own pregnant mother.

It's ironic that Nicki should be so disgusted by Margene's plan to donate an egg to her ("Your egg, Bill's sperm in me? It's disgusting!") yet what nearly happens to Nicki in Roquet's care is far more revolting as JJ unveils his master plan: to reunite with Nicki by implanting his sperm and their daughter Cara Lynn's egg inside her. It's a jaw-dropping revelation that points to just how sick and twisted JJ really is. His idea of family is an offspring that unites mother, father, and daughter, a perversion of the Principle and the laws of nature, a sick idea of family planning (as April Blessing tells Larry King) that is horrifying.

Just what lies ahead for Nicki remains to be seen but her sudden reversal about polygamy is an intriguing direction. Her unerring belief in the Principle has been one of the guiding hallmarks of her character, yet to find her suddenly wanting to keep Bill to herself, to not share him, to change the status quo, points to a new direction for this always fascinating character.

Margene. Margene meanwhile struggled to uphold her promise to Ana and Goran even as she found herself increasingly attracted to Goran... and caught up in Bill's decision to expose the family, which would likely result in the loss of the business she had built up in the last few months. Playing Bill against the couple, Margene was caught between maintaining an escape route and falling into old patterns.

But it was the final scene between Ana, Goran, and Margene that points towards some major developments last season. Ana and Goran are acutely aware of Margene's attraction towards Goran and they seem quite fine with it, almost encouraging it in a way. The warm embrace that the trio shares seems more than just friendship and I couldn't help but feel a sense of frisson between them; I wouldn't have been surprised if all three ended up in bed together afterwards.

Just what does marriage mean to Margene? She slept with Bill despite the fact that he was already married to Barb and Nicki. She married Goran ostensibly to help the family but she signed a legal document binding her to another man. And now, despite the fact that Ana and Goran are engaged, she finds herself drawn to another man who is already attached. What future do these three have together? Will they too be drawn into the already growing Henrickson clan?

Alby. As for Alby, he destroys Roman's office, ripping down the blue sky wallpaper that his father put up, cuts up Lura's face in payment for her betrayal, and announces that he is going to name himself as Roman's successor. While the "ghost" of Roman is nowhere to be seen, it's clear that he hovers over the action here. While Bill's purpose is to place the family in the light, to stop the darkness growing inside of them, it's clear from these scenes that Alby has given himself over completely to the darkness, reveling in destruction, punishment, and vengeance. Yes, we're seeing the series' ultimate Big Bad finally emerging from the ashes of loss, grief, and self-loathing.

Adaleen. Loved that Adaleen managed to escape, thanks to a well-timed slam to Malinda's head. (Nicely played, Adaleen.) After everything that she had stood by and watched happen to Nicki, is able to rescue her daughter from suffering a similar fate. (Adaleen is, after all, pregnant with the offspring of brother and sister JJ and Wanda.) Does it reverse the decades of abuse that Nicki went through? No but it does prove beyond a doubt that Adaleen does love Nicki, does care for her, and is willing to sacrifice herself to save her child. She's also willing to serve as an instrument of vengeance, raining death upon JJ and Malinda, whom she ties up inside the clinic and then sets on fire. (An an aside, I thought the image of JJ and Malinda tied together was both beautiful and horrific, setting the two as mirror images of each other, both bald, as the flames consume them.)

Marilyn. I'm still not sure what to make of Sissy Spacek's Marilyn. She was so filled with anger towards Bill, so willing to destroy everything he held dear, but why? Was it that she couldn't charm him? That he saw her for what she was, a venal criminal in lobbyist's clothing? I had a feeling that she wasn't behind the adultery story (too easy) and her flatness in the scene where Bill confronted her in the hotel room confirmed that. I'm hoping that Spacek will be back as I think there's more to Marilyn than meets the eye... and I love that she waltzes into Bill's house and tells him a "sad, stupid man." A fitting proclamation from a woman who abuses the system yet who is utterly, completely alone in the world.

Wanda. Wanda finally regained her voice, just in time to save Nicki and warn Bill about what JJ was going to do with her. I'm hoping that we're finally seeing a Wanda who is more stable and honest than she has been, finally able to speak out about what has been done to her, able to shine a light on the abuses that the Walkers have perpetrated. We finally learned just what it was that JJ had of Wanda's--at least one of her eggs--but I can't help but wonder just what she'll do if Adaleen gives birth to that child. Shudder.

All in all, "End of Days" was an explosive season ender that tied up many of Season Four's dynamic storylines and presented some tantalizing story threads for next season to tackle. While this season has been less warmly embraced by many viewers, I found it to be gripping, controversial, and--to borrow a term from creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer--"operatic." (You can read my exclusive morning-after interview with Olsen and Scheffer here.) It positioned the Henricksons into a new and exciting place and shook the very foundations of the series in a way that opens up entirely new story possibilities in the future, exposing the Henricksons and forcing them to live a life that's no longer closeted. But as the Henricksons will likely find out next season, there's every reason to be careful what you wish for...

I'm curious to hear just what you thought about last night's season finale and the fourth season of Big Love as a whole. Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Five of Big Love will air next year on HBO.

Mystery Boxes, Moms, and Masterful Cooking: The Winner Named on the "Top Chef" Season Finale

Was I the only one on the edge of my seat last night?

Last night's season finale of Top Chef ("Season Finale, Part Two") found the final three chefs going head-to-head with the title of Top Chef and a cool $125,000 cash prize on the line. It was really anyone's game as all three remaining contestants have proven themselves not only worthy competitors but also talented and accomplished chefs in their own right. As always, it would all come down to one last challenge.

The task seemed simple enough: cook a fantastic meal for the judges and a panel of esteemed restaurateurs with the bounty of Napa Valley at their disposal. But this is Top Chef and these three chefs are each killer competitors, so the three-course meal at Cyrus in Healdsburg (which is in Sonoma rather than Napa Valley but I'll let this change in locale slip by) quickly turned into a twist-laden multiple-course meal with multiple hindrances and curveballs.

How did the three remaining chefs perform? And who went home the ultimate victor? Let's discuss.

I made no secret of the fact that I was rooting for Kevin going into this final episode of the season. Throughout the competition, Kevin has remained true to himself and his culinary style, ditching affectations and gimmicks in favor of clean flavor profiles and deceptively simple preparations, allowing the flavors and textures on the plate to speak for themselves.

But if Kevin was going to win he'd have to overcome two major hurdles: the Voltaggio Brothers. Michael and Bryan, in their own very different ways, have proven themselves cutthroat competitors and skilled chefs. Michael's boldness and risk-taking have been counterbalanced by Bryan's poise and subtlety. While Kevin was playing for himself, the sibling rivalry between the two brothers would either push them to the top or make them cancel each other out in the final leg of the competition.

As mentioned earlier, the initial brief--cook a three-course meal--was complicated by several twists thrown at the chefs. First, they would have to prepare one course by using all of the ingredients from a mystery box (were the producers watching Food Network's Chopped for inspiration, perhaps?). Second, they would have to prepare a dessert for the third course; no squeaking by with another protein course. (Sorry!) And third they wouldn't have a choice in the sous chefs assisting them in the final challenge as they would draw knives to see which of the previously ousted chefs would assist them in the kitchen.

It was that last twist (which wasn't the final one, in fact) that made me slightly uncomfortable. Yes, Top Chef has brought back previous contestants into the kitchen before to assist but there's usually a choice element to determine who gets whom and because everyone was in the mix (including some fantastically unskilled chefs), it created a very uneven playing field. Bryan managed a major coup by getting Jennifer and Ashley, Michael got lucky by scoring Eli (and Jesse), and poor Kevin was stuck with the abysmal Preeti (and the extremely helpful Ash). Fortunately, no one drew Robin. Otherwise I would have had to chuck my television out the window.

But the final twist, after the chefs got to spend time with their mothers (including Mama Voltaggio, who must have been mightily conflicted seeing both her sons competing), was that they would prepare a first course that was inspired by a childhood dish... and which would be served to the judges and their mothers. I do like the twists that have the chefs cooking on the fly and would have rather seen this be the final twist than have them deal with sous chefs.

So what did they make? Let's take a look, organized by course.

First Course (Childhood-inspired dish):

• Bryan: Sardine, German butterball potato, heirloom tomato, and panko breadcrumbs
• Kevin: Southern-fried chicken skin with squash casserole and tomato
• Michael: cream of dehydrated broccoli, fried broccoli, and spot prawn

All three dishes looked beautiful but I'd have to give this round to Kevin, who once again managed to take something inherently simple--squash--and transform it into something sensuous and complex. Even Tom was raving about the depth of flavor of that squash casserole and its haunting citrus notes. Less successful were both of the brothers' dishes as Bryan failed to season his sardine dish (though Toby Young seemed to prefer it that way) and Michael's delicate spot prawns weren't (A) cooked properly and (B) well served by the popcorn broccoli which overwhelmed the subtlety of the prawns.

Second Course (Mystery box):

• Bryan: sous vide rockfish, kabocha squash, curry, Meyer lemon
• Kevin: Pacific rockfish, roasted squash, crab broth, and roasted matsutake mushroom
• Michael: dashi-glazed rockfish, sweet and sour crab salad, squash, and Meyer lemon

I was very intrigued to see just what the chefs opted to make from their mystery box of ingredients, which included rockfish, crab, kabocha squash, Meyer lemons, and anise hyssop. Not an easy assortment of ingredients to work with nor to get onto a single plate but all three chefs managed to turn out dishes of complexity and thoughtfulness, though some were less successful than others. Here, the advantage went to Michael, who created a gorgeous and self-assured plate that spoke volumes about his skills and his culinary ethos. He wisely fried the matsutake mushroom until it was crispy and used all of the ingredients to their best possible advantage. Bryan once again fell short by underseasoning his dish and also by playing it too safe; there was no boldness in his dish and everything seemed muddled by a lack of distinct texture. Kevin's fault was that matsutake mushroom, which he roasted and rendered too chewy and dense. Advantage to Michael here.

Third Course (Chef's choice):

• Bryan: venison saddle with puree of sunchokes and orange-juniper sauce
• Kevin: slow-roasted pork belly with Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and caramelized ham jus
• Michael: fennel-scented squab breast, pistachio cassoulet, and textures of mushrooms

All three looked absolutely divine and I would have been happy to pull up a plate of any of them. Bryan shined in this round, in my opinion. He wisely went for seasonality, serving up a dish of venison that not only allowed the protein to shine but also gave the supporting members--the vegetables--equal time in the spotlight, giving them two preparations and proving to the judges that he is a skillful and passionate chef capable of delivering a knock-out meal. Michael was let down slightly by that cassoulet, which some of the judges complained about, and that gimmicky mushroom mold, which was too playful and blunt at the same time. Kevin, the pork king, was staggered later to learn that the judges weren't crazy about his pork belly dish. Yes, it should have been cooked more and I agree that he could have perhaps pared it with another preparation of pork but I understand what he was going for here: the clear, pristine quality of pork belly presented on its own. But he was perhaps let down by the tightness of the time frame and by the, rather ironically, simplicity of his dish. Advantage to Bryan, I'd say.

Fourth Course (Dessert):

• Bryan: Sheep's milk and white chocolate "dulce de leche" cheesecake with fig sorbet, dry caramel, poached pear, and basil
• Kevin: roasted banana, toasted peanut, with chocolate-bacon mousse, and bacon brittle
• Michael: chocolate-caramel coulant, butternut squash brulee, toasted seeds, and butternut ice cream

While Michael's dessert did get overcooked and dried out (thanks to not setting the timer), I think it was easily the most ambitious dessert of the three. His use of fall vegetables here, presented in brulee and ice cream form, and seeds was unexpected and nicely counterbalanced the rich earthiness of chocolate and caramel in his coulant (which, yes, should have had more of a liquid center). While it wasn't perfect, it was the most assured and ambitious of the three plates in this round and showed a real sense of vision; this is a dish one would expect to find in a Michelin-starred restaurant. I'd give a very close second place then to Bryan for his cheesecake and dry caramel; it showed some innovative techniques (the dry caramel, the liquid nitrogen-frozen fig sorbet) and some nice flavor combinations. I love the use of the sheep's milk cheese here instead of say cream cheese or ricotta and I think the dish was gorgeous and well thought out. (Though considering Michael's coulant was dry, Bryan could have taken this course.) Kevin's dish failed to hit its mark, sadly. Like Gail, I don't mind bacon in my dessert (LA restaurant Animal does an amazing and addictive chocolate-bacon bar, for example) but it was the banana that really let him down the most; the roasted banana just looked rather sad and didn't have enough texture or body to anchor the plate in the way Kevin desired.

I knew, even before the judges deliberated, that it would come down to one of the brothers rather than Kevin. And I got a little teary-eyed when Padma told Kevin that he wasn't Top Chef. He's played a good game and cooked some amazing dishes and changed my preconceptions about Southern cuisine. Sadly, this wasn't his night.

I wasn't surprised then when Michael Voltaggio was named the ultimate winner. I wondered if it would come down to a final showdown between the two rather intense siblings and sure enough they were the last two standing this season. Of the two, I think Michael is the more self-possessed, bold, and assured chef; Bryan is more thoughtful, more introspective with his cooking (and his personality).

Sure enough, the judges felt the same way, giving the win to Michael. I'm actually happy with the decision (though I would have loved for Kevin to win): Michael Voltaggio is a culinary star in the making and his use of modern techniques, innovative flavor combinations, and pitch-perfect presentation make him a force to be reckoned with. I can't wait to see just what the chef, currently at the Langham Dining Room in Pasadena, gets up to next...

What did you think of the season finale? Would you have awarded Michael the title of Top Chef? Where did Kevin and Bryan go wrong? Discuss.

Next week on Top Chef ("Watch What Happens Reunion"), host Andy Cohen brings together Season Six chefs and judges, who cook up more culinary drama while dishing on the highs and lows of the season. (Note: the reunion special will air at 9 pm ET/PT rather than in the series' typical timeslot.)

Top Chef Preview: It's the Top Chef Las Vegas Reunion:

Los Angeles Times: "The Amazing Race: Luck Be a Lady"

Looking to discuss last night's season finale of CBS' The Amazing Race?

While I won't reveal which team were crowned the winners of CBS' addictive reality competition series here, head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site where you can read my take on this week's episode, entitled "The Amazing Race: Luck Be a Lady," about the final leg of this season's race, which featured Wayne Newton, counting poker chips, face-first rappelling, Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics, and the race to the finish line.

Be sure to head to the comments section to weigh in about what you thought of the season finale, the winning team, and the tears and tantrums of this week's episode.

Through the Grapevine: Competition Cut Down to Three on the Season Finale of "Top Chef: Las Vegas"

And then there were three.

This week's episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Season Finale: Part One") had me on the edge of my seat, not just for the inherent tension (believe me, I was on pins and needles by the end) but also because I'm a huge admirer of Napa Valley cuisine and produce. The region itself holds special meaning for me: it's where I proposed to my wife and was married (on the same spot in both cases), just a few hundred feet from Rutherford Hill Winery, where the Elimination Challenge took place.

Napa is a magical place where food and wine are celebrated in the most exquisite way and this week's challenges for the final four contestants had the chefs putting local produce on a pedestal as they were tasked with creating a grape-centric dish aboard the Napa Wine Train for their Quickfire Challenge and with creating two dishes (one vegetarian, the other protein-based) with local ingredients for Rutherford Hill's annual crush celebration.

I have to say that I was impressed with the chefs overall, despite some pretty widespread seasoning issues throughout this week's episode. But considering that they had to deal with both a rocking train and devising and executing two dishes for 150 guests, I thought they all did a brilliant job and should be commended.

While I hoped that the judges would allow all four chefs to make it through to the final round, such wasn't the case. (Sadly.) So which three chefs will compete head-to-head for the title and the grand prize? And how did each of them perform? Let's discuss.

As I mentioned before, there's no better place to stage the season finale of Top Chef than in California's famed Napa Valley and this week's installment celebrated the bounty of ingredients that are found in the region, from wine grapes to gorgeous produce and proteins.

In both the Quickfire Challenge (a high-stakes one, no less) and the Elimination Challenge, the chefs would have the ability to use the freshest ingredients from the region and were under strict orders to keep it all (save salt and pepper) local. As a proponent for localized cuisine, I think it was a nice touch and fully warranted: why not make use of what's right there in front of the chefs?

I had fully expected the producers to pull in former Top Chef Masters contestant Michael Chiarello (of Yountville's Botega) to judge this week's challenges and I have to say that he was less abrasive than he was in the latter parts of the spin-off series, offering some astute critiques and generous compliments to the participating chefs. (Perhaps he went back and saw how he came across in that final round of Top Chef Masters.)

For their Quickfire Challenge, the chefs had thirty minutes and use of a full pantry to prepare a grape-focused dish for Padma and Chiarello aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train. But it wasn't quite a subpar dining car en route to somewhere else: it's a culinary destination in itself and was fully stocked with fantastic local produce, a slew of grapes, and a gorgeous kitchen area. And, oh, there was a 2010 Third Generation Prius up for grabs.

Here's what the final four chefs prepared for the final Quickfire Challenge:

• Kevin: honey and fromage blanc mousse with glazed grapes, olive oil, thyme, and sea salt
• Michael: grape leaf stuffed with couscous and ras-al-hanout, vinegar-glazed grape and Bay scallop kabob
• Bryan: roasted hen with bacon, Brussels sprouts, Concord grape reduction with verjus, ruby quinoa, and arugula
• Jennifer: sauteed chicken livers with clams, macerated Cabernet grapes, wild mushroom salad, and wild tendrils

While I thought that they all did beautifully, especially given the limitations of the space they were working in, I had a feeling that the win would go to either Michael or Jennifer, both of whom turned out creative and inspired dishes. Kevin's dish, sadly, lacked the necessary seasoning (which is an odd and unexpected misstep for Kevin) and didn't quite place the grape front and center. As for Bryan--who hasn't won a single Quickfire all season--he made a big error in selecting Concord grapes; the grape isn't local to Napa and has an overly jammy, grapey quality (which is why it's traditionally used in grape jelly and grape juice) but lacks the subtlety and finesse of wine grapes; Chiarello also called him out for allowing the bacon to overpower the dish rather than take a back seat to the grape. Chiarello clearly loved Jennifer's chicken liver and clam dish (he made a joke about stealing it for Botega) but it was Michael's dish that really celebrated the grape itself, using all of the product--from vine to leaf to fruit--in an ingenuous and fitting way. No surprise then that he walked away the winner of the challenge... and the owner of a brand new Prius, to boot.

For their Elimination Challenge, which would determine which three chefs would move onto the final round of competition, the chefs would shop at Long Meadow Farm and create two locally focused dishes for 150 guests at the Rutherford Hill Winery's crush celebration. One dish would be vegetarian (smart, considering the strength of the local produce) while the other would use a locally reared protein as its basis. With such fantastic ingredients at their disposal, I fully expected to see each of these four create dishes that sang. And I have to say that, while there were some mistakes, they did quite well overall and certainly significantly better than many final four contestants have done in the past.

Here are the dishes the final four chefs presented to the judges:

• Kevin (vegetarian): salad of roasted beets and carrots with honey vinaigrette, carrot top puree, and San Andreas cheese
• Kevin (protein): braised grass-fed beef brisket with pumpkin polenta and marinated root vegetable salad
• Michael (vegetarian): vegetable pistou, heirloom tomato coulis, 63-degree egg, and fennel, with raw squash flowers
• Michael (protein): turnip green soup with foie gras terrine, red wine-braised pear, and glazed turnip
• Bryan (vegetarian): goat cheese ravioli with delicata squash puree, maitake mushroom fondue, and bronze fennel
• Bryan (protein): fig-glazed short ribs with celeriac puree, ragout of cranberry beans, haricots verts, and yellow wax beans, and wild arugula
• Jennifer (vegetarian): Sky Hill chevre mousse with creme fraiche and lemon zest, honeycap mushrooms, braised breakfast radishes, and basil
• Jennifer (protein): braised duck legs, confit of duck breast, delicata squash puree, and brown butter-foie gras vinaigrette

Kevin has proven throughout this competition that he is the master of plying intense flavor out of the most simple of preparations. There's nothing wrong with allowing your ingredients to take center stage and not dress them up in elaborate costumes or visual trickery. Here, his salad of roasted beets and carrots is a transcendent celebration of fall flavors: forward, powerful, and beautifully seasoned. He even coaxes intense flavor out of carrot tops in his puree. His brisket, on the other hand, was definitely "ropey," "toothsome," or whatever word you'd like to use to describe the meat's toughness. Granted, he didn't have enough time to tenderize the meat as it should be, but neither did Bryan. And while Gail raved about the pumpkin polenta, Tom described the brisket as having a "tinny" quality. Hmmm...

Michael's dishes definitely showcased local ingredients but he also stayed true to the Michael Voltaggio ethos: gorgeous food displayed with some cutting-edge technology and some innovative ideas. Sometimes those ideas soar and other times they come crashing down to earth. Here, I liked the idea of the 63-degree egg with the pistou but the egg was almost too large for the serving vessel and overwhelmed the pistou itself (possibly doing the vegetables as a strict brunoise instead of leaving them rustic didn't help matters), while Padma's egg white was runny and liquidy. However, the concept of his protein dish was clever, even if the execution didn't quite match up. The pieces of turnip, pear, and foie were so tiny and there was so much bitter turnip green soup and it deflated the dish in the end. If there had been more thought to the plating and the size of the elements, the dish could have succeeded more.

Bryan definitely impressed me here. Despite the lack of a Quickfire win, his Elimination Challenge dishes have always been strong (so much so that he's never been up for elimination) and that was the case here. I would have killed to taste his goat cheese ravioli with delicata squash puree, maitake mushroom fondue, and bronze fennel. He nailed that dish in every way from the concept to the seasoning and his pasta dough was universally lauded. Likewise, while there was some moaning about the lack of figginess in his fig-glazed short ribs, it was clear that the dish was a hit. Perfectly cooked, tender, and luscious, the short rib was nicely counterbalanced with the produce on the plate: a celeriac puree, a gorgeous ragout of cranberry beans, haricots verts, and yellow wax beans, and that little addition of wild arugula as a garnish. Nicely done.

I was very worried about Jennifer once those coals went cold. She was originally going to grill the Sonoma duck rather than confit them but I was happy to see that she didn't let the situation defeat her; she quickly changed plans and went in an alternate direction. While the finished dish--braised duck legs, confit of duck breast, delicata squash puree, and brown butter-foie gras vinaigrette--lacked the smokiness that would have been imparted by the grill, I thought it was a masterful dish that utilized the "whole duck" (as Jen called the dish), perfectly in keeping with the theme of the challenge, and I thought her use of all of those elements (and particularly the "unctuous" brown butter-foie gras vinaigrette) sounded divine. As for her vegetarian offering, she used too heavy a hand with the seasoning, rendering her chevre mousse with mushrooms, radishes, and basil into saltiness. Still, her nerves didn't get the better of her and I was very proud of the way she handled herself in this leg of the competition.

Not surprisingly, Bryan took home the win here. I thought his two dishes were both perfectly executed and did celebrate the Napa ingredients in a pitch perfect way. I'm glad that he got this boost going into the final round as the rivalry between him and Michael reaches a fever pitch. And the look of irritation on Michael's face made the win even more worthwhile, I am sure.

As I said earlier, I was really hoping that there was some way all four of these exceptionally talented chefs could move on the final round but the judges (or the producers) stuck by their guns and opted to eliminate one. Sadly, it fell to Jennifer. She's more then redeemed herself of late after some shakiness in the middle of the season and I am really, really sad to see her go before the end. (You can read the interview I did with Jennifer Carroll back in August at the start of the season here.)

What did you think of this week's episode? Sad to see Jennifer go? Who will win next week when Kevin goes head-to-head with the Voltaggio Brothers? Will their intense sibling rivalry cancel each other out? Or will one emerge the victor? Discuss.

Next week on the season finale of Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Season Finale, Part Two"), the final three contestants vie for the title of Top Chef as they're tasked with cooking the best meal they've ever made... and one walks away the ultimate winner of the culinary competition.

Top Chef Preview: Final Breakfast Table:



Top Chef Preview: Three Chefs Clash in the Final Showdown:

In the Frame: An Advance Review of the Fall Finale of USA's "White Collar"

I've fallen for the charms of USA's crime procedural White Collar, although I have to admit that I'm usually more enamored of the winning chemistry between series leads Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay than the cases of the week, which tend to be predictable and a bit flat.

The fall finale of White Collar ("Free Fall"), which airs Friday night on USA, was perhaps my favorite episode of the procedural series since the sensational pilot, which introduced the very unlikely partnership between master thief Neal Caffrey (Bomer) and Peter Burke (DeKay), the dogged FBI agent who had managed to catch Neal not once but twice.

This week's episode of White Collar will definitely put that partnership to the test when Neal is suspected of orchestrating an elaborate jewel heist from Manhattan's most exclusive boutique. Will the duo be able to trust one another long enough to clear Neal's name? Who is putting him in the frame? And how does all of this connect to Neal's missing girlfriend, the mysterious Kate? Well, that would be telling.

The mystery itself is one of the most interesting and suspenseful ones on the season so far. As I mentioned earlier, the series' strengths lie in the rapport between Bomer and DeKay but also in the snappy banter between the two and the slick stylishness of the art direction, which calls to mind not only the vintage suiting Neal Caffrey prefers (along with a rakishly tilted fedora) but also the coolness of It Takes a Thief and The Persuaders, perhaps. There's a nice visual aspect to the series that was unexpected from its initial premise and the producers have wisely played up the throwback aspect of Caffrey's personality; he's a 1960s peacock stuck in a modern world, a Sy Devore suit in the era of Banana Republic.

But the mysteries themselves haven't been quite as original or as dramatic as they need to be; the solution is often the most obvious one and apparent from within five minutes of Peter's briefing to Neal and the FBI agents. So I was intrigued that this week's mystery would involve not only the framing of Neal Caffrey for a job that seems custom-picked for the old Neal but also dovetail quite nicely with the Kate storyline, following last week's reveal that the ringed man holding Kate works within the FBI.

"Free Fall" plays to the series' strengths then, allowing both Neal and Peter to embark on separate investigations to clear Neal's name (or in Peter's case, perhaps to confirm his worst suspicions about his partner) and demonstrating the canny moves of both men as they chase their quarry, even as both of them are themselves being followed by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility. Neal in particular gets a chance to shine as he engineers a plan so devilishly complicated that it's a joy to watch it unfold.

There's also an extremely bizarre (and almost surreal) twist at the end of the episode that had me scratching my head. I won't reveal it here but I will say that I'm intrigued to see whether the writers will be able to pay this off in any meaningful and logical way. It's perhaps both very interesting and very odd.

All in all, Friday night's season finale brings the fun and froth and combines it with the wittiness and charm of the very best of White Collar. I can't wait to see just what happens next.



White Collar's fall finale airs Friday evening at 10 pm ET/PT on USA.

The End is the Beginning: The New Frontier on the Season Finale of "Mad Men"

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

After a season of betrayal, corporate takeovers, and presidential assassination, last night's brilliantly evocative season finale of Mad Men ("Shut the Door. Have a Seat"), written by Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy and directed by Matthew Weiner, offered not an ending for the staffers of Sterling Cooper but a brave new beginning.

Poised on the cusp between 1963 and 1964, there's a power grab going on at the venerable advertising agency, one that leads not to stability and fortune but to risk... and potentially the chance to grab a piece of the American dream once more.

It's a dream that's been not only tarnished by the death of a beloved president but also by the disintegration of the family unit as Don is stunned to learn that Betty wants a divorce and intends to go through with her plans to tear their family asunder. While Don has been a lone wolf through the three seasons of Mad Men thus far, the thing that anchored him, that acted as his constant, was his family. Yet, one can't help shake the sense that the scene at the very end, in the hotel room offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, that a new family is being born before our very eyes.

It was inevitable that things would change within the world of Sterling Cooper after their merger with the Brits and this season saw the departure of some of the series' most beloved characters (such as Christina Hendrick's Joan and Bryan Batt's Sal) from the corridors of Sterling Cooper. Just as America was about to undergo an upheaval of the highest order, so too would this little microcosm. But rather than be traded about as one might a commodity or a product, Don refuses to be swept up as a pawn in someone else's game. After all, he's the master of reinvention. So why not reinvent the company while he's at it?

I audibly cheered at the television set as Don's plan slowly came to fruition as he managed to convince both Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling to come aboard his new agency... and rather surprisingly was able to talk Lane Pryce into falling in with their lot as well by firing the trio and thus releasing them from their contracts. It's a brilliant gambit that underpins Don's strength as a strategist as well as a charismatic pitchman as even Lane isn't immune to Don's trademark brand of seduction.

But an agency is nothing without worker bees and the quartet know that they've got to not only take clients but staffers as well. Coming so soon on the heels of JFK's death, each of the staffers is forced to make a life-altering decision: they can jump ship or be pushed overboard. They can succumb to fear of the unknown or they can wait around to be pinkslipped once the deal to sell Sterling Cooper (and parent company PPL) closes. Just what will happen to those left out in the cold (Ken Cosgrove, Sal, and Paul Kinsey most notably) remains to be seen but I was glad that Roger had the foresight to bring Joan Holloway back into the fold (and more firmly into the central focus of the series) as they need her special skills and her unerring discretion.

But this past year has seen some bad blood developed between Don and several staffers, most notably Peggy and Pete, both of whom had been approached by Duck Phillips about leaving Sterling Cooper for better and brighter opportunities. That Don believes that both Pete and Peggy will follow him without question shows a decided lack of perception on his part. Pete is far more clever and crafty than Don gives him credit for; he uses their invitation as an opportunity to secure a partnership for himself, despite the fact that he was already interviewing at other companies. Pete forces Don to praise his abilities, to provide him with the paternal acknowledgment and support that he's so desperate for.

That he doesn't so much as phrase the offer as a question to Peggy but a direct order displays how warped his understanding of her truly is. I had to give Peggy credit for standing up to her mentor ("I'm not sticking around so you can kick me when you fail.") and proving herself an independent woman capable of making her own decisions, of finding her own way in the world.

Don's worldview has always been colored by the belief that it's always been Draper against the rest of the world but this episode, which showcased his efforts to build something real for himself and his children even as his marriage shattered around him, forced Don to come to terms with a hard truth: we might come into this world alone and leave it the same way but it's the time in between that truly matters. The scene which Jon Hamm shared with Elisabeth Moss' Peggy, in which Don visits Peggy at home and pleads with her to follow him, showed a very different side of Don than we've seen so far. He knows that he can't go it alone; he needs Peggy and the others in order to succeed.

It's a lesson which Don's father Archie never learned. Facing hard times and plummeting bushel prices, Archie decides to disband the farming co-operative and take his chances on his own. It's a decision which leads directly to his death (a swift kick to the head from one of their horses), witnessed first hand by Don. Does he want to bleed out into the hay as his father did? Or can he finally admit that he's not omnipotent, that he needs partners to enact his vision?

Fortunately, he does come to his senses. He tearfully tells Peggy that he needs her in order to be better and says that if she turns down his offer (and, really, now it is an offer rather than an edict), he'll spend the rest of his life trying to hire her. While much of Mad Men's plots have circled around Don and Betty's marriage, the true central relationship of the series is that between Don and Peggy. Don admits that he thought of Peggy as "an extension" of himself rather than as her own individual.

Their shared secrets have bound them together for so long that it's hard for Don to separate himself from Peggy, to see that she might not be deserving of the punishment he inflicts upon himself. They've seen and done terrible things but they've come out the other side stronger for it. I wondered for a split second if perhaps Peggy would turn him down, even when he appeared hat in hand, tears in his eyes, to plead with her. But I was happy that she saw what Don was admitting in that instant: that he values her and needs her in his life.

It's clear too from the scene with Peggy that Don is reeling from the breakdown of his marriage and from Betty's demand for a divorce. It's not the first time that Betty has sought an escape route from Don's lies and indiscretions but she's never had a "life raft" before; this time around she does in the honorable if aloof Henry Francis, a man who proposes to Betty before she had even mentioned the word divorce to Don and who promises to take care of her and her three children. (It almost seems too good to be true, in fact.)

Don's discovery of Betty's relationship with Henry Francis is accidental, stemming as it does from a slip from Roger Sterling over drinks. But Don's wrath is swift and vengeful; he drags Betty out of bed, pushes her around, and calls her a whore. It's a terrifying glimpse at a Don who has lost everything he's ever worked for, a Don who perhaps is closer to Archie Whitman than he ever thought possible. There's no forgiveness, no sadness, just a seething anger at what's been lost and what's been broken perhaps forever.

Despite the attempts to keep their separation civil, cracks are forming everywhere within the Draper family. As Bobby pleads with Don to stay and Sally angrily storms off (blaming Betty), it's apparent that Betty is breaking inside even as she knows she cannot stay with Don. Yet she is resolute in her decision. Their marriage is over, their relationship irrevocably severed in the instant that he confronts her in the darkness of the bedroom they shared. Kudos to both Jon Hamm and January Jones for gracefully pulling off an extremely difficult sequence here and allowing their characters to go to some very dark places. Their love has been one of the linchpins of the series; in that climactic scene we see the extinguishing of any romance between them.

The dissolution of the Draper family is seen before our eyes with a starkness that was shattering: Betty on a plane with Henry Francis bound for Reno for a quickie divorce (with shades of The Women, of course); Sally and Bobby in front of the television with Carla and the family's dog; Don alone in a Greenwich Village street, suitcases in hand, ready to take the next step in his life, whatever that may be.

But there's also the promise of renewal, of new connections formed, and new families being built, at least in the corporate world. As Don comes out of the hotel bedroom after phoning Betty, he sees not a loose collective of ambitious loners but a true co-operative of spirit, a new family that encircles not just his partners but also Joan, Peggy, Pete, and Harry. It's a moment, amid the chaos and destruction, of pure happiness as Don surveys the cramped hotel room that is the heart of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and sees the family he's built for himself. It's the beginning rather than the end.

Likewise, the aforementioned shot of Don walking in the darkened street by himself isn't one of solemness but one that's rife with possibility. He's a man about to take one step firmly into whatever future might hold for him... and, perhaps for the first time in his life, Don realizes that he's not alone in the world.

Mad Men will return for a fourth season in 2010.

Leaping Lizards: Baby Drama on the Season Finale of "Flipping Out"

And just like that, Season Three of Flipping Out came to a close last night. Not with a bang but with Jeff walking off of Ryan's property during Chloe's third birthday party, with what seemed like a heavy heart.

I already alluded to much of the action in Flipping Out's third season finale ("Baby Boom") via my advance review of the episode, but now that the episode has aired, I can speak a little more freely about what actually went down this week.

I do feel for Jeff. Given the recent problems in his relationship with business partner Ryan Brown, Jeff is beset by a swirl of change in his professional and personal life: Ryan and his family might be moving to Santa Barbara, Jeff could be selling his own home, and there's a sort of biological clock ticking over the action, a sound that's all the more loud thanks to Jett's news that his girlfriend is expecting a baby.

Granted, Jeff isn't one for tact. (That's certainly apparent from the last three seasons of the series.) But I did think it was a little extreme and presumptuous that he would ask Ryan for access to the twenty or so frozen embryos that he and partner Dale have on ice. Yes, Jeff wants a child and he's so enamored of Chloe that it would be nice to have one of her siblings as his own child but really Jeff? Asking your estranged business partner and former boyfriend if you could take (or buy) one of his biologically-derived embryos was crossing a line that didn't need to be crossed, especially as Ryan himself was thoroughly creeped out by the entire conversation.

I find it hard to imagine Jeff raising a child on his own. After all, children are messy and uncontrollable and Jeff's entire life is based around order and tidiness. Which isn't to say that he would be bad parent but I think it's different raising a child than it is taking Chloe for a meal here or there or throwing her an elaborate birthday party.

After all, this is the same man who couldn't control his laughter when he found out that a client and her son walked into her house after it had been spider-bombed and they began throwing up repeatedly. (I get nervous laughter but Jeff brought a whole new meaning to that here.)

Likewise, I thought it was beyond sweet of Jenni to dress up as a lizard, green face and all, and perform a birthday rap (which I can't get out of my head) for Chloe. Jeff made a comment that Jenni will never met anybody if she dresses up like a lizard but really I couldn't help but feel a little heartbroken for Jenni. She's clearly in her element with kids and clearly adores them but given her recent relationship woes, a child of her own seems unlikely right now.

Was Jeff serious when he said he was considering hiring Jenni as a surrogate mother for his child? It's unlikely that he was but perhaps there was a kernel of truth there. Still, I'd tell Jenni to run as far away as she could if he actually seriously asked her. It's hard enough working for Jeff Lewis when you're not carrying his child, after all.

Ultimately, Season Three of Flipping Out was a fantastic look into the lives of Jeff and his eccentric band of employees and friends. I'm going to miss these guys but I'm also very much looking forward to next week's reunion special, where we'll get some answers to some dangling plot threads from this season. I have a feeling it's going to be quite heated.

What did you think of last night's season finale? Was Jeff wrong to ask Ryan about the embryos? Is there any hope of reconciliation for the two of them? Discuss.

Next week on Flipping Out ("Reunion Special"), Jeff and his crew reassemble to discuss the dramas of Season Three. Look for some major sparks to fly as Jeff and Ryan's troubled friendship is likely to be one of the focal points of the reunion.

Turn and Face the Strain: Changes on the Season Finale of BBC America's "Skins"

Some people hate change but change, like all things in life, can't be avoided simply by hating it.

Season Three of British teen drama series Skins embraced change wholeheartedly, ditching the cast of the first two seasons for a batch of fresh faces who were more age-appropriate (or, let's say age-appropriate for the original ethos of the series) than those who had already graduated from Roundview College. Kaya Scodelario's Effy provided one narrative link with the old crew, having appeared in the first two seasons as the mischievous and quixotic younger sister of our nominative series lead.

Some viewers were turned off by the loss of such characters as Sid, Cassie, Tony, and Michelle. But I went into Season Three with the hope that I'd grow to love Effy, Pandora, the twins, Freddie, J.J. Naomi, and Cook as much as I did their Skins forebears.

And ultimately I did.

Last night's season finale of Skins ("Finale") didn't feature the entire cast but it did offer the perfect end to a season fraught with complexity and bruised emotion, focusing the tail end of the season on the central relationships between our three former best friends--Cook, J.J. and Freddie--and their shared love for the destructive Effy.

Season Three as a whole used the breakdown of the friendship between the so-called Three Musketeers as a spine for the entire ten-episode run. When we first meet the troika, their banter is interrupted on the first day of college by their shared fascination with the stony beauty of Effy, a woman who leaves a trail of disaster in her wake. Her arrival into their world quickly tears apart these friends and the next batch of episodes find them grappling with Effy's choice to be with the mercurial Cook, despite the obvious lure between her and good-boy Freddie.

Looked at in its entirety, Season Three offers an examination of the fragility of male friendship. Seemingly impenetrable, the bond between these three friends is ripped apart quite easily when they soon learn that they can't all have Effy... and that she's quite content to pull their strings to amuse her. And yet each of them want Effy for different reasons.

For the sexually voracious Cook, Effy represents an easy access to no-strings sex but he quickly develops feelings for her even as he continues to sleep with Pandora and just about every woman he encounters. For J.J., he's in love with the fantasy of Effy, seeing true magic in her every movement. Freddie, out of all of them, loves Effy despite--or perhaps because of--her flaws. But he wants all of her and she's just not willing to open herself up in the fashion.

So instead we see Effy in freefall this season. Reeling from her parents' divorce and Pandora's betrayal, she throws herself into a series of self-destructive encounters with Cook, reveling in the darkness and perhaps willing herself to feel something, anything, rather than numbness. Even when Freddie finally tells her the truth about her feelings, she's drawn back into Cook's orbit rather than allow herself the opportunity of genuine happiness with Freddie.

And then there was the camping trip. With Freddie suddenly dating Effy's seeming social rival Katie, Effy hijacks her camping trip with some magic mushrooms, which leads to a nasty confrontation between the two girls. Which ultimately leads to Effy smashing Katie's head in with a rock, leaving her alone in the woods, and then sleeping with Freddie while Katie bleeds out before the gang leave her the following day, unable to find her.

Granted, Katie was strangling Effy, but it was an act with glaring repercussions for Effy. She lashed out at Katie, she concealed her actions, and she slept with Katie's boyfriend without giving the girl a second thought. (Yes, she did call emergency services the following morning when the gang couldn't find her but still.) When the truth about what she did comes spinning out, Effy and Cook take off for points unknown.

Which brings us to last night's season finale, which finds Effy and Cook arriving at the shabby village where Cook's deadbeat father (played with pitch-perfect precision by Peep Show's Matt King, a.k.a. Super Hans) and where Effy finally sees Cook slipping off the deep end and reaches out to Freddie for help. After all, sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom before we realize we need to start climbing upwards.

Offering a mirror to the start of the third season, the Skins season finale pulls together the now disbanded group of friends, bringing Effy together with Freddie, Cook, and J.J., with the latter finally making amends, thanks in no small part to former magician J.J., who works some sleight-of-hand here. It's a testament to the skill of co-creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain and their staff of writers that they were able to pull off such an affecting and realistic portrayal of shattered friendship... and offer a salve for the wounded feelings of all involved while stealing another man's boat. (Aside: I also thought the writers did a remarkable job this season dealing with the sexuality of both Naomi and Emily.)

Cook finally realizes that he wants more from life than to turn out just like his awful, no-good father. The two might share the same name, the same battered tendencies, and the same arrogant catchphrase, but we all have choices to make in life. We can blindly accept our fates or we can choose our own destinies. Just because Cook and his father--who threatens to burn his son's face off with a flare when he refuses to give him the boat's keys--might be coming from the same place doesn't mean that they're going to walk the same path in life. When Cook throws his nasty father overboard, it's the ultimate gesture of freedom, an assertion that he is his own man. Hell, it made me like Cook and I can only hope that he turns his life around.

Likewise, it felt entirely earned that the hungry ghost Effy would now, after wandering the English countryside with Cook for weeks, choose to be with Freddie. She's wandered into the darkness and come out the other side. She's made others suffer and suffered herself. Now, standing on the brink of ultimate destruction, she's choosing the light and giving herself permission to be happy. It's time to stop pulling other people's strings and start living her own life for a change.

There's that magic word again: change. The old gang may be back together but it doesn't mean that the winds of change won't blow through their relationship again. Life just keeps on going, even if we try to stay in one place long enough to make it stop or, like Effy, if we run from everything we know. When Freddie asks the group, "What do we do now?" it's an honest question.

I for one can't wait to see the answer.

Season Four of Skins is set to air in January on E4 in the UK.

Blood Bath: Televisionary Talks to "True Blood" Writer/Executive Producer Alan Ball

Still have some burning questions about last night's True Blood season finale? Or anxious to gather some clues about just what creator/executive producer Alan Ball has in store for the residents of Bon Temps when True Blood returns next summer? You've come to the right place.

I caught up with True Blood czar Alan Ball this morning to talk about last night's season finale, deconstruct the second season, and find out about what's coming up on Season Three of HBO's addictive vampire drama.

In this exclusive one-on-one interview, Ball hints at what's on the horizon for Sookie and Bill, new creatures, Sam Merlotte's quest, Jessica, a possible romance for Lafayette, the Vampire King of Mississippi, Sophie-Anne, and much, much more. Ball also told me that the writing staff had broken the fourth script for Season Three of True Blood already and that shooting is tentatively slated to begin December 3rd on the highly anticipated third season.

So what did Ball reveal about what's coming up on True Blood and what did he have to say about this season? Let's dive in, but beware: there are MAJOR SPOILERS below. (Note: Please do not reproduce this interview in full elsewhere. Quotes and excerpts are fine but please do not post the full text of this interview on message boards, websites, or elsewhere.)

Televisionary: What was the decision behind having the Maryann storyline finish out the season instead of the Dallas plot?

Alan Ball: We used the books as a template and that is sort of the way the second book is structured. Maryann is not as refined in the second book; she’s a maenad, she’s just a crazy woman running around in the woods. And we also felt like the first part of the season we had a lot of different storylines taking place in different places and then we wanted to bring them all together, bring all of our regulars together for one—something--where everyone was fighting the same fight for the last episode.

Televisionary: Was it difficult juggling the separate storylines in the first half of the season? We do have the cast split up more or less for most of the season.

Ball: You know, it wasn’t difficult. It was definitely different from the first season. But I sort of feel like, you want to do that, you want to shake the show up and do different things. You don’t want to just do the same things over and over and over again. I follow my instincts. To me, they were three really fun, interesting storylines. And then the fact that Jason sort of veered in with Bill and Sookie and then everyone came home and it all sort of came together, I actually thought it was really fun.

Televisionary: In speaking of Jason’s storyline, Anna Camp and Michael McMillian, who play the Newlins, became hugely popular with the audience. Is there a chance that the Newlins will be back?

Ball: They are so good. Of course, there’s a chance. They’re not dead. And I think they are both probably really pissed off.

Televisionary: Did you realize how much impact Godric’s death would have, despite Allan Hyde only appearing in a handful of episodes?

Ball: You know, I did because in the books, it’s really, really powerful and we tried hard to make it as powerful as it is in the books and that was a really tough role to cast because it was difficult to find an actor who looked so young but who could convey centuries of feeling and to be tired of life and tired of being alive and ready to move on. And I always thought that that was a great story and a great character. So I was not surprised; I was very moved myself. When I first saw the cut of that episode, I got a little teary, a little misted up.

Televisionary: In a season filled with heartrending and memorable moments, it definitely stands out as a powerful and profound sequence.

Ball: That whole episode is really wonderful. The episodes leading up to that one have been so filled with adventure and suspense and craziness and then I love that whole episode because there’s not only the scene with Godric and everything that’s going on with him but the Jessica stuff is really starting to heat up. And I love that scene with Jason and Sookie in the hotel, where they talk about Gran and he sort of drops his guard and you see how vulnerable he really is.

Televisionary: In that same episode, Godric’s death also enables us to see a different side of Eric. Was that a way for you and the writers to give Eric an added layer of vulnerability?

Ball: Yes, absolutely. One of the great, fun aspects of the books—and it’s become for the show as well—is the romantic tension between Bill, Sookie, and Eric. And we started off the season and we wanted to make Eric a bad-ass and I think we were very successful with that, by having him shred that guy in front of Lafayette’s face. (Laughs) And then in order to have him be a real, viable option for Sookie, you have to have some humanity there. She may be attracted to him physically, especially now that she’s had his blood, but she’s never going to go with somebody who she feels is evil or at the very least amoral. That was definitely what we were thinking of with Eric.

Televisionary: While Sookie and Bill are our romantic leads, Hoyt and Jessica offer us a very different take on vampire-human love. Did you anticipate such an incredible reaction to their storyline and specifically toward Jim Parrack and Deborah Ann Woll?

Ball: When I saw the scene [in "Scratches"] in the third episode where she walks into the bar and I saw that scene cut together, I did anticipate it. I went, wow! We really have something special here. They’ve just become a major couple on the show. I don’t think it’s going to be easy for them. Nothing is ever going to be easy for anybody on this show.

Televisionary: Season One saw Bill protecting Sookie on an almost weekly basis but in Season Two we see Sookie take a major step into adulthood and stand up for herself. How will their relationship continue to develop in Season Three, especially given with Eric’s influence over Sookie and Bill’s kidnapping?

Ball: I know exactly what’s going to happen in Season Three, because we’ve already started breaking the episodes and figuring the arc of the season. So I can’t really say without giving too much away what I think. But I’ll say this: the love between them is authentic and real, but that doesn’t mean that they will necessarily stay together. But it doesn’t mean that they won’t either, though.

Televisionary: Looking ahead to Season Three, are there are any themes or plots that you intend to employ next season? One of the more intriguing threads picked up in last night’s episode is both Sam and Sookie looking to find their roots.

Ball: Yeah, I think that whereas if we had any sort of major overarching theme for Season Two it was about the power of belief, both positive and negative. I think probably Season Three is going to be more about identity and characters really sort of coming to grips with who or what they are.

Televisionary: It seems almost like a red herring that Eric was behind Bill’s kidnapping last night. Should we be looking at any other potential suspects behind his disappearance?

Ball: I think you should always be considering all possibilities. (Laughs) That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to make the choice that is the one that’s being positioned to look like a red herring. But with this show, you never know what’s going to happen. I try to work with the writers in creating a show that when you buy the DVDs and you watch the season over again, knowing what’s going to happen, you’ll see moments where you’ll say, oh, of course. We tried to structure Season One with Rene’s identity as the killer that way, to never shine a light on it but Michael Raymond-James, who played Rene, knew from the very beginning that he was the killer. So he played it in a very subtle way so that if you watch those DVDs, now you’re like, oh, I see it. But we never want to give that away on the first go-around. I’d have to say it’s a similar situation with [Bill’s kidnapping].

Televisionary: When I interviewed Deborah Ann Woll a few months ago, she described Jason Stackhouse as “delightfully dim.” Does Jason’s killing of Eggs in the season finale reinforce that description?

Ball: (Laughs) Well, it certainly wasn’t a smart thing to do but he did it from a good place because he thought that Eggs was going to kill Andy. That’s certainly something that’s going to come back and haunt him.

Televisionary: Did you always intend Eggs to die at the end of the season? It obviously has huge repercussions for Tara.

Ball: Absolutely. We always knew that… Of course, I’m sad to loose Mehcad [Brooks], I’m sad to lose Michelle Forbes, I was very sad to lose Lois Smith but it’s a show about vampires and there’s a lot of violence. You can’t just have everybody you like just always get away because then it becomes a very different kind of a show and it loses its authenticity. Or as much authenticity as a show about vampires can have. (Laughs)

Televisionary: The body count will always be high.

Ball: Yes, there will always be a big body count on this show.

Televisionary: It’s intimated in the season finale that there’s a hidden force that’s supposedly watching over Sookie? Will we learn more about this and is this connected to that dangling plot thread about what happened to the Rattrays in the pilot?

Ball: Absolutely. Certainly, part of Sookie’s quest in Season Three, apart from trying to find Bill and find out who took him, is to figure out who and what she is. And by the end of the season, she certainly will be beginning to figure that out.

Televisionary: One of the most shocking revelations this season was the reveal that Jessica will forever be a virgin, which was incredibly upsetting. Where did this idea emanate from?

Ball: That came from a writer on staff, Raelle Tucker. It was one of those moments where it gets pitched and I sort of go, well, of course. What other show could you do that on? Well, I guess now there are several other shows you could do that on, but at that point… I had never worked on a show where that actually made perfect sense to do something like that. For me, that’s the best part of science fiction or fantasy or genre or whatever you want to call it in that you can put people in situations that most of us will not have to face in life and it’s just really, really interesting.

Televisionary: Jessica’s been through a hell of a lot this season but then she hunts and kills in the season finale. Is this normal teenage rebellion or are we seeing her go to a much darker place next season?

Ball: I don’t think you can say anything is normal teenage rebellion. Basically, all of the events of Season Two take place over eight days. So she’s still a fairly freshly-made vampire. Bill hasn’t been much of a maker and she just had a really emotional experience with Hoyt walking out on her. It’s part of her instincts as a vampire and her need to feed and her not liking Tru Blood because it’s a poor substitute and also she’s just got rage. And she’s got good reason to have rage. She got turned into a vampire against her will and then she thought she’d found a way to make that work and then all of the sudden, it’s been taken away from her. She’s only 17 or 18, so… I wouldn’t call it normal teenage acting out. (Laughs)

Televisionary: One of the more unexpected partnerships that developed this season was Jason Stackhouse and Andy Bellefleur, who offered a bit of comic relief but also a genuine, strange friendship that might be shattered by Jason’s actions in the season finale.

Ball: We’re definitely going to put some tension on them but they will continue to actually be a sort of – I don’t want to call them a team but their lives are definitely going to intersect in Season Three.

Televisionary: How many scripts have you broken for Season Three?

Ball: We’ve broken four scripts so far.

Televisionary: Are you ever surprised by anything in terms of breaking the stories that you didn’t anticipate?

Ball: This is different from Six Feet Under in that we’re working from source material and one of the reason is that Charlaine’s books are so successful is that they work. We’re starting Season Three with the third book and the books are basically Sookie’s stories because she narrates them and then we try to figure out how to bring the other characters in and keep everyone involved. In Season Two, we specifically decided to send everybody off on their own little thing and then have them reunite at the end but I don’t want to repeat that so I’m really trying to keep Season Three certainly a little more organic with the connection between the regulars.

But, no, we’re working with the source material. Like I said, a lot of Charlaine’s books just work so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On Six Feet Under, there were always massive shifts in seasons. But again that was more of a blank slate because we weren’t basing them on any existing material.

Televisionary: Is Evan Rachel Wood a series regular next season?

Ball: No, she’s not a series regular but she definitely will appear. I know some fans thought that she wasn’t scary enough but all I can say to that is that I didn’t want to blow our wad at the top. She’s pretty scary and we’ll definitely see that. She’s crazy! I mean, that character is insane so I don’t think we’ve really seen an insane vampire yet.

Televisionary: So, we’ve seen telepaths, vampires, maenads, and shifters all turn up in Bon Temps. Any new creatures we can expect to see in Season Three?

Ball: Werewolves…

Televisionary: Are there any clues for what viewers can expect for next season?

Ball: I can tell you that we will meet the Vampire King of Mississippi and he will have an agenda with the Vampire Queen of Louisiana. We will meet werewolves, some other weres that aren’t wolves but they are not shifters either. (Laughs.) We are going to meet Sam’s blood relatives, we’re going to meet probably the nastiest vampire we’ve met yet and Lafayette might get some action, might have a little love story of his own.

True Blood's third season begins Summer 2010 on HBO.

Nice Day for a White Wedding: Endings and Beginnings on the Season Finale of "True Blood"

I don't know about you but the hellishly long wait for True Blood to return next summer is liable to kill me with anticipation.

Yes, HBO's vampire drama sunk its teeth into me in a major way this season, offering us a complex and layered series that's at once a bodice-ripping romance with bite, a series of social metaphors about religion, persecution, hatred and fear, a supernatural drama about the things that go bump in the night, a Southern Gothic drama about a backwater Louisiana town, and ultimately, a bloody good yarn.

Last night's second season finale ("Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"), written by Alexander Woo and directed by Michael Cuesta, wrapped up some of the season's frenzied storylines while setting up some rather intriguing new plot threads to be discussed in Season Three of True Blood.

So what did I think of the True Blood season finale? Grab yourself a Tru Blood, park your truck, order up some French food, and let's discuss "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'."

In my mind, True Blood thrives when it deals us a series of provocative and disparate storylines for the wide array of talented actors in the series' ensemble cast. And last night's episode adroitly set up a slew of new plot threads for characters such as Sookie, Bill, Eric, Jason, Andy, Tara, Jessica, and Sam while also tying up the overarching Maryann/frenzy plot that had hijacked the second season after the Dallas interlude.

Looking back at the season as a whole, the Dallas storyline was far more compelling and forceful than the Maryann one this season. Between its usage of the Fellowship of the Sun and Godric's sacrifice, the Dallas plot gave Sookie a proactive and integral role in the plot while also fleshing out the hierarchy of vampire culture and offering a very different side to Eric Northman, one that wasn't all terror and body-ripping but a heartbreaking vulnerability as he's forced to come to terms with the death of his maker.

Conceptually, there were some intriguing and even tantalizing elements to the Maryann plot, which offered a sobering look at not only the power of cults to prey on people's fears and insecurities (and in this case wanton lust) but also in how a town can quite literally go over the edge together, descending into abject terror and chaos. However, I did feel as though much of the action here was a bit like treading water, with a constant repeat of various townfolk engaging in licentious behavior over and over again and then promptly forgetting their wrongdoing during the light of day.

So it was with a sense of relief that we were able last night to bid farewell to malevolent maenad Maryann Forrester and get Bon Temps back to normal (or as close to normal as it will ever be, anyway). After the strength of the Dallas storyline with its spiritual heft and weight, the maenad storyline seemed somewhat more trite and less inspired as a result. Was it creepy? You bet. But I also wanted a stronger throughline here and the entire storyline seemed to wrap itself up within about the first fifteen or so minutes of the season finale.

Still, there were some fantastic moments in the climax of this storyline. The sacrifice of Sam was one, with Sam offering himself up in order to save Sookie and put an end to Maryann's reign of terror. Of course, he does so with the knowledge that he and Bill Compton will be able to kill Maryann if they position themselves just so and that Bill has promised to save Sam's life should he be skewered by Maryann's minions. Their partnership, behind the scenes though it was, was a nice touch here, given their history as romantic rivals for the love of Sookie Stackhouse. Still, I wish there had been some way that Sookie could have known about said plan and had played a more integral (rather than tangential) role in Maryann's destruction.

However, the scene between Maryann and Sam (in the guise of the horned god himself) in the woods was shocking and terrific. While I should have known that the grey ox was shifter Sam, it was still surprising to see him gore her in the midst of her ecstatic moment of completion, one that enabled her death. (Looks like Sophie-Anne was right about the power of belief: just as Maryann believed herself to be immortal, this moment enabled her to die for the will of her god.) Nicely played, Sam and Bill.

I'm already deeply invested in what will likely be a major storyline for Sam Merlotte next season as the shifter tracks down his adoptive parents (the ones who moved and left him behind as a child) and looks for some answers about his true nature. If this week's season finale is about consequences, then Sam is looking for some explanation from the people who were meant to raise him and look after him. While his adoptive mother is unwilling to give him information about his birth parents ("they're bad people"), his adoptive father, who is dying a slow and agonizing death, not only apologizes to Sam but shakily scrawls the names of his birth parents on a piece of paper. Are they shifters? That remains to be seen but I think we're seeing the start of a very important arc for Sam Merlotte...

With Maryann destroyed (and the body concealed by Bill), the town reverts back to normal, with few of them able to recall just what happened over the last days or so. Other than Jason and Andy, who believe themselves responsible for saving the day. True heroism happens behind the scenes, against impossible odds, and rarely comes with glory. Despite Andy's belief that heroes deserve recognition, they really don't. True heroism comes from the moments when no one's looking or from true self-sacrifice, not from trigger-happy ego-hounds.

Which brings us to poor Eggs. I had a feeling that if Eggs somehow made it out of the frenzy alive, he wasn't long for Bon Temps. He's the ultimate victim of Maryann's madness, corrupted by her influence and forced to commit heinous acts of murder upon several women without his knowledge. His experience begs the question: are we responsible for our actions when someone else is pulling our strings? Can we ever wash off the blood on our hands if we didn't willingly put it there in the first place? Is ignorance of such horror bliss? Eggs sadly needs to know what he did, even if it wasn't his actions that caused such destruction. He wants to be accountable for his crimes, however unwittingly, and the knowledge that Sookie pulls from the darkness inside his head slowly pushes him over the edge.

Yet Eggs wasn't threatening Andy. Was he standing over him with a knife, ranting and raving? Yes. But he wasn't going to hurt Andy; he wanted to be locked up, to be punished. He wanted to prove that he wasn't beyond redemption and that, no matter what Sookie said about it not being him who did those awful things, he was going to uphold his responsibility and turn himself in. Sadly, he never gets the chance. Mistaking the scene for that of assault and probable intent to kill, Jason Stackhouse shoots Eggs in the back of the head. It's a clean shot--thanks to his paramilitary training at the hands of the Fellowship of the Sun--and Jason is stunned when he realizes that he's taken a human life.

Was Jason trying to be heroic? Did his training and instinct kick in? Or did he want to save Andy and "save the day" once again? After all, he killed a man with someone else's gun, a man who was confessing a murder and looking to be arrested. So who is the hero then? Jason for killing Eggs? Or Andy for covering up and saving Jason's life? If heroism comes in the quiet moments when no one's looking, then Andy Bellefleur might just be a true hero.

I worry what Eggs' death will mean for Tara. She's truly been through the ringer in the last few months, between everything with Lettie Mae, the exorcism, unknowingly summoning Maryann in the first place, and the hell she's been put through by the maenad. Despite everything, she wanted to look forward and not back and start a new life with Eggs, a life that's been shattered by the former love of her life, Jason Stackhouse. Will she find a way to go on or will we see a Tara next season who's twisted by darkness, loss, and anguish? Hmmm...

Speaking of lovers, there's the matter of Jessica and Hoyt. Hoyt finally stands up to Maxine, who admits that she's been lying to him for nearly twenty years about the truth behind his father's death, and storms off to try to win back Jessica. And in a touching and beautifully underplayed scene, Jessica claims that she's going to ask Hoyt for forgiveness, a very human action that pleases her maker Bill. The scene plays out with both of them leaving the house and joking, almost lovingly in a father-daughter way, about their evenings.

That sweetness is diametrically opposed to what happens next as Jessica is seen, not at Hoyt's house but atop a redneck trucker. Rather than have sex with him (he says her being a virgin doesn't bother him), she rips into his jugular and feeds off him.... as Hoyt stands outside Bill's house with flowers, hoping to reconcile with his vampire girlfriend. Has Jessica crossed a line that can't be uncrossed? Has her taste of forbidden fruit--human blood--unleashed a killer hunger that can't be contained? And how long before Bill learns about just what she's actually up to?

I'm extremely intrigued by the revelation that Eric and Sophie-Anne are in cahoots and that it is Sophie-Anne who is supplying Eric with vampire blood to sell to the humans. Just why would Sophie-Anne willingly concoct such a plot and for for what ends? Financial gain... or something different altogether? And just whose blood is it, anyway? Unfortunately for Bill Compton, Sophie-Anne doesn't want her plot known and when he threatened to expose Eric in the last episode, he made a very unwise enemy out of the petulant and quixotic Queen Sophie-Anne.

Which brings us to the final scene of the season then, one between Bill and Sookie where Bill orchestrates an elaborate romantic evening for himself and Sookie at a French restaurant and then pops the question, handing Sookie a diamond engagement ring and tickets to Burlington, Vermont, so they can legally wed. But after everything that's happened, Sookie is conflicted and rightly so: she doesn't know who or what she even is or if she's even human. That's to say nothing of the allusions Maryann makes to some higher power keeping a watchful eye over her and protecting her, a dangling plot thread that's existed since the pilot episode. Just who or what helped her battle the Rattrays in the woods that night? Hmmm...

But no matter how conflicted Sookie may be about her nature, one thing is true and that's the love she shares with Bill. After sobbing in the restaurant's restroom, Sookie puts on the engagement ring and makes up her mind: she will marry Bill. But she's a few seconds too late as a black gloved man strangles Bill with a silver chain, incapacitating him, and then kidnapping him.

But rather than a romantic engagement, Sookie is left with a disturbing scene indicating a struggle and a missing would-be fiancé. So who is behind Bill's disappearance? The likely suspect is Eric, of course. He promised Sophie-Anne that he would deal with Bill Compton now that he knows about Eric's vampire blood business. And the killer was wearing thick gloves, not only indicating stealth and an unwillingness to leave fingerprints but also possibly that the perpetrator was a vampire and didn't want to come into contact with the silver himself. So was it Eric or someone in his employ? We'll have to wait a rather long time to find out.

All in all, last night's season finale of True Blood wrapped up the Maryann Forrester storyline while offering some enticing possibilities for next season and setting up some new dynamics for the third season. Despite Season Three not getting underway until next summer, I'm already hungry for another bite.

What did you think of the season finale? Did it live up to your expectations? What will happen to Sookie, Bill, Eric, and the rest in Season Three? And under what circumstances will we find our cast of characters when we next catch up with them? Discuss.

True Blood will return for a third season next summer.

Sticky Wicket: Frenemies and Adversaries on the Season Finale of "Weeds"

What a weird, strange journey it's been this season on Weeds.

Between pregnancies, marriages, assassinations, overdoses, teenage STDs, and thievery, Season Five of Showtime's dark comedy Weeds has been a sometimes bizarre and uneven mix of shifting timeframes, over the top characters, and increasingly complicated inter-personal relationships. (Hell, you almost need a flowchart to keep track of the vagaries of the Nancy/Esteban/Andy/Audra storyline this season.)

Last night's season finale of Weeds ("All About My Mom"), written by series creator Jenji Kohan, looked not to shift the action elsewhere but to create a new status quo all the same that would switch up the characters, their motivations, and their state of mind.

And it did so with one hell of a croquet mallet swing.

Yes, I'm referring to that final scene in the season finale, a.k.a. the mallet swing heard round the world as the insidious Pilar (Kate del Castillo) threatened to have Nancy's "extraneous" sons Shane and Silas killed after she learned that Nancy had hired Guillermo to have her assassinated. (Note to Nancy: Pilar's probably right when she says that you shouldn't hire your enemies to kill your adversaries. It always leads to trouble.)

I half-wondered whether Nancy, in lioness-mode, would kill Pilar with her bare hands after hearing her callous threats against her beloved (if totally neglected) children but Nancy, it turns out, didn't have to do anything.

I think I actually gasped aloud when I saw that croquet mallet swing down onto Pilar's coiffured head and knock her into the pool... and then cheered when I saw that it was Shane holding the other end of the mallet. In a series overflowing with quirky characters and over the top situations, Shane has slowly become one character to root for, even as he dives into the deep end of crazy. (Holding a knife to the throat of that rich Mexican heroin fiend in last week's episode springs to mind.)

Is it strange that we can actively root for a teenage killer? You betcha but Shane also took a huge leap there not onto to the dark side but also from teenagedom to adulthood, becoming with one swing his mother's protector. Throughout the five seasons of Weeds so far, Shane has more or less been the quieter, weirder brother to Silas' more rebellious manchild. But with this action, he's developed into a compelling, complex, and dark character in his own right and I can't wait to see just where they take his character next season.

Just how will Shane react to the fact that he's seemingly killed Pilar? (After all, there was blood streaming from her head wound into the pool.) How will Esteban? Did Shane help matters for his family or make them far worse? And, most importantly, can they get away with murder?

While Shane seems hellbent on assuming a new role in the family, Celia is also looking to transform her own life... into Nancy's, that is, going so far as to assemble a team in order to form her own drug empire. While the revenge plot against Celia was fun (though it ended way too quickly thanks to Doug's big mouth), I am interested to see where this storyline goes and I like seeing these disparate characters finally united for a real purpose. Could Celia end up on top for a change? I doubt it but I think that her road to success (or failure) could be paved with comedy gold.

I'm thinking that Andy and Audra's engagement will be short-lived given the fact that Andy takes off without even thinking of his fiancee at the moment a crossbow appears. Something tells me that Audra won't take too kindly to being left on her own in an armed hostage situation.

Nancy, meanwhile, is realizing that her actions have major consequences. Esteban's anger at her using his deodorant was a nice and realistic way of showing the hold he has over her, even as she claims to love him. Nancy's learned the hard way that lovers are weak and fickle and that she can only depend on herself at the end of the day.

Let's just hope that she realizes that that there's one man in her life--Shane--who has proven he's not going anywhere and has the strength and courage to look after her.

Weeds will return next summer on Showtime.

Life of Riley: Honesty Is (Not) The Best Policy on "Nurse Jackie"

It was inevitable that the double-life that Jackie Peyton strove so hard to create for herself would come crashing down around her eventually.

And so it would appear to have done so on the gripping and profound season finale of Showtime's exquisite dark comedy Nurse Jackie ("Health Care and Cinema") as Jackie (Edie Falco) was startlingly slammed out of her reverie and into reality.

Written by Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem, the season finale saw Jackie's lover Eddie (Paul Schulze) find out about her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) and cause a scene at the hospital, forcing Jackie to sink lower than we've ever seen her before. Throughout the complex and lyrical first season of this unique and beautiful series, Edie Falco has brought a rich humanity to the role of the deeply flawed Jackie Peyton, a woman who tries so hard to do right by her patients but often does more harm than good to herself and those around her.

It was only a matter of time before one of the men in Jackie's life found out about the other. I had thought that her husband Kevin would be the one to learn the truth about his wife's infidelities (the broken wedding ring should have been a clue) but I'm glad to see that Brixius and Wallem inverted that paradigm by having Jackie's secret lover Eddie learn that Jackie was married with two kids.

And it made the scenes in which Eddie furtively grilled Kevin about his marriage and life with Jackie all the more tense and twisted. I understand Eddie's frustration and hurt at learning the truth about Jackie (wouldn't you be furious?) but the ease with which he slithered into Kevin's bar and learned information about Jackie was staggering. I thought that the season would end with Eddie telling Kevin the truth but I'm pleased that we'll have to wait for this scenario until next season; it will make the anticipation for the return of Nurse Jackie all the more painfully sweet.

As for Jackie herself, it was stunning to see her hit rock bottom. Distraught over the knowledge that Eddie had been to see Kevin at the bar and is aware of her double life, Jackie rigs the Pill-o-Matix to give her multiple doses of morphine sulfate, which she then downs on the floor of the bathroom.

Jackie's used prescription drugs in the past to keep her going, to remove the pain of her busted back, to give her energy for a double-shift. She's never used drugs to escape life or seek oblivion as she did here, a game-changing move that speaks volumes about the fact that, despite her good deeds at the hospital, Jackie has truly crossed over into being a junkie.

In this altered state, we're given a glimpse into Jackie's true inner life, a fantasy world where her concept of perfection is painfully just out of reach. Floating on the waves of morphine, Jackie experiences an idealized 1950s vision of the perfect family, the perfect house, the perfect life. But she's somehow separate, removed, distant. And as she hums along to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" the perfect kicker is that in this pristine, drug-altered state, there's yet another fly in the ointment as a rat scuttles overhead in the florescent light.

Zoey (Merritt Wever) has her own cross to bear this week as she deals with her guilt over giving Nutterman (guest star Victor Garber) the wrong dose of medication and sending him into a coma. Her penance is to cast off her colorful scrubs and mope around the hospital in grey scrubs. Loved the reveal that Nutterman has woken up from his coma no worse for the wear... except for the fact that his vaunted critical judgment of films is severely altered. (Garber's line about Showgirls had me in hysterics.)

I'm hoping that Garber could return in some fashion next season as the chemistry between Nutterman and Anna Deavere Smith's Akalitus was just so great. (Hell, give Garber and Wever their own buddy comedy sitcom and I'll watch.) And I loved that absolutely no one cared that Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith) was trapped in that elevator, so long as it delayed her investigation of Zoey's involvement in Nutterman's case.

Jackie's mindgame handling of Dr. Cooper (Peter Gacinelli) was absolutely fantastic in its savagery, though I was surprised to see Cooper so willing to help Mo-Mo (Haaz Sleiman) get back at his boyfriend by kissing him on camera. Could it be that Cooper has more depth or compassion than we've believed so far?

Speaking of compassion, Jackie completely left Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best) blowing in the wind. Despite knowing that her comatose mother was set to arrive from London and that she had to admit her as a Jane Doe found in Grammercy Park, Jackie flew the coop and was nowhere to be found when Eleanor's mother turned up. I'm very worried that Jackie and Ellie's friendship might not be able to be salvaged after this twist.

But far more pressing is just what Eddie intends to do to Jackie to make her pay for cheating on him with her husband. I'm more than concerned by just how desperate Eddie might be to get back at Jackie and just how much he can destroy the life she's built for herself at the hospital and at home.

In the meantime, I'm really going to miss the darkly humorous Nurse Jackie. It's going to be a long slog until we can catch up with them again next season and I thought that the writers did a brilliant job at creating some cliffhangers to sustain our interest while also pushing the characters into some very dark places that will resonate long after the ending credits roll. While Weeds gets the hype and media coverage, it's truly Nurse Jackie that's a brand-defining and boundary-pushing series for Showtime, one that catapults the cabler into the level of prestige drama purveyor.

Nurse Jackie will return with a second season in 2010 on Showtime.

Autobiography in Four Courses: Past, Present, and Future on the Season Finale of "Top Chef Masters"

Our lives can best be described as the sum of all of our experiences leading up to this specific point in time.

The same was true for the three master chefs--Hubert Keller, Rick Bayless, and Michael Chiarello--facing down the gauntlet on last night's season finale of Top Chef Masters ("Top Chef Master"), in which the trio squared off against one another in a perfectly fitting final challenge.

This series is after all called Top Chef Masters, so I wanted to see what these incomparable master chefs could do when the gloves were off and there were no vending machines, microwaves, or mise-en-place relays to get through. In other words, I wanted to see what they could do with larger budgets, limitless imagination, and unfettered ambition to draw upon.

Their challenge: to prepare a four-course meal that best represented their entire careers thus far (and into the future), with each of the courses representing a specific crucial turning point in their lives. For these masters, this was the ultimate challenge, an opportunity to showcase their culinary styles, their unique history, and serve up a series of dishes that were completely personal and individual to them.

So how did this talented troika do and which one was named the winner? Let's discuss.

As I mentioned before, I thought that this challenge was entirely fitting with the message and motivation of the series. Whereas Top Chef showcases up-and-coming chefs, Top Chef Masters has given us chefs who are at the top of their game, with multiple restaurants and awards under their belts. In many cases, they are household names with clearly defined personal brands behind them.

So it made sense then that the final showdown between Keller, Chiarello, and Bayless would be one in which they would have to call upon their personal histories, the key moments in their lives that defined them as chefs, and create a series of dishes that reflected their identities at their most personal.

Each of the courses therefore would represent a very specific moment: the first course represented their first food memory; the second the moment they realized that they wanted to become a chef; the third course a reminder of when they opened their first restaurant; and the final course a glimpse into their present and future. In other words, where they are today and where they'd like to go next.

Given that this was the season finale, there was not only $100,000 on the line for charity but also some steep pressure. Joining our esteemed panel of critics for the judging were the Top Chef judges themselves--Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Padma Lakshmi--along with the five winners of the previous seasons of Top Chef: Harold Dieterle, Ilan Hall, Hung Huynh, Stephanie Izard, and Hosea Rosenberg.

Personally, I thought it was a great twist to have not only the Top Chef judges there (a nifty bit of network and brand cross-promotion, given the launch of Top Chef: Las Vegas), but also the winners of the previous cycles. Chiarello didn't quite see eye-to-eye with me on this and seemed almost insulted that these chefs would be critiquing his food as though they were beneath him, an attitude that landed him in trouble (and rubbed me the wrong way) in last week's episode.

So what did the master chefs offer up for their four-course autobiography? Here's a look, chef by chef, at the four dishes they served the judges:

Hubert Keller:

• First Course: "Baekeoffe," Alsatian lamb, beef, pork, and potato stew
• Second Course: salmon souffle with Royal osetra caviar and riesling sauce, served with a choucroute flan
• Third Course: lamb chop with vegetable mousseline and thrice-blanched garlic, vanilla-merlot sauce served in a hollow potato
• Fourth Course: Wagyu beef cheeks and celery puree with pinot noir, lemongrass and ginger sauce; pan-seared sweetbreads with Perigord truffles on scrambled eggs with spinach

It's no secret that I was rooting for Hubert Keller to win this competition. To me, he is the living embodiment of a true master chef, a visionary in every sense of the word who is not only technically adept but also inherently creative and whimsical and enjoys teaching his craft. His Baekeoffe made me drool with envy; it looked absolutely heavenly and, despite it being summer here in Los Angeles, I wanted to dive into that Le Creuset Dutch oven and eat every last morsel of that dish. It was such a personal dish to him, represented his roots, his memories, and his family so well and was such a specific regional specialty to boot.

Sadly, his salmon souffle wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as it should have been; I think the judges were more taken with the perfectly cooked salmon and the caviar and riesling sauce than with the souffle element itself. Keller's third dish with its nearly-raw stud of garlic in the lamb should have been heavenly but it was that sharpness of the garlic--surprisingly not dulled by thrice-blanching--that overwhelmed the palate. Which was sad as the lamb was cooked so beautifully, the spinach still green and verdant, and (despite Padma's distaste) the vanilla-merlot sauce sounded gorgeous. I think his Wagyu beef cheek and sweetbread duo was more on the mark and I applaud him for using cheaper cuts of meat and then cooking them efficiently and thoughtfully in order to render them smooth and supple. But would it be enough?

Michael Chiarello:

• First Course: duo of gnocchi: crispy potato gnocchi with fonduta, peas, and summer truffles and ricotta gnocchi with tomato sauce
• Second Course: polenta with rabbit, asparagus, wild mushrooms, grilled duck, and rabbit liver
• Third Course: ginger-stuffed rouget with mango salad, fresh wasabi, and bottarga
• Fourth Course: brined short ribs with five-onion cavalo nero, served with the essence of smoldering vines

I was a fan of Chiarello's until the last few episodes where his ego and arrogance completely turned me off. I believe he's a talented chef but he tends to get sidetracked by having to constantly assert his authority. Last week's "young man" comment to Dale completely undermined what he has attempted to accomplish as a master chef. I also didn't appreciate his Saveur-pointed jest in last night's finale. Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. Or was it? Despite the laughter around the dining table, I felt that it was in poor taste. But perhaps I'm biased against Chiarello at this point.

I do think that his gnocchi looked incredible and he wisely offered up two variations on the classic Italian dish, a combination of textures and flavors that were balanced and complementary. I thought his choice of Mason jars for his serving vessel of his second course was odd until I saw that he composed these almost as one would rillettes, a decision which paid off when the judges tasted the creaminess of the polenta offset by the exquisitely prepared rabbit and duck. Third course, however, was a major misstep for Chiarello with his crispy fried rouget. Yes, the fish was cooked perfectly and scented with ginger but he didn't elevate the dish or take it in a new direction; it was so completely ripped out of the 1980s that it seemed out of place with the rest of his dishes. Finally, there was his melt-in-your-mouth short ribs with cavalo nero (a favorite of mine); I'm not sure you needed the smoldering vines there as well but they clearly added to Chiarello's overall "story" and seemed to lend itself to Chiarello's claim that in the future we will be eating with all of our senses... But don't we already do that now?

Rick Bayless:

• First Course: barbecued quail with hickory house sauce, "sour slaw," and spicy watermelon salad
• Second Course: ahi tuna with Oaxaca black mole, plantain tamal, and grilled nopales
• Third Course: achiote-marinated cochinta pibil with sunchoke puree and crispy pigs' trotters
• Fourth Course: arroz a la Tumbada with tomato-jalapeno broth, and chorizo "air"

I've grown to love Rick Bayless over the course of these ten episodes; he seems to be the polar opposite of his officious appearance as a guest judge on Top Chef a few seasons back: calm, cool under pressure, a true master in very sense of the word. These last few weeks have won me over into Bayless' camp and his passion for Mexican cuisine is evident in every dish he prepares, demonstrating his belief that the culinary tradition deserves to join that great pantheon of Italian and French cuisine.

Like Keller, Bayless pulled off a regional specialty for his first course that also defined his background as the son of a barbecue pit smoker, offering up a luscious quail with his family's hickory house sauce, a sour slaw, and a piquant watermelon salad with sprouts. It was a dish vastly different to his typical Mexican approach and spoke volumes about where he came from. His second dish, the Oaxacan black mole with ahi made me want to jump inside the television and wolf it down; the tenderness of the ahi was balanced by the sweet sharpness of the plantain and the crispy bite of the nopales (prickly pear cactus); a gorgeous and inventive dish that spoke volumes about the twenty years it took him to pull off the complicated Oaxaca black mole. Well done, Rick. The sunchoke puree of his third dish, a duo of suckling pig "cake" and crispy trotters, elevated it to spellbinding heights as it transformed a humble peasant's dish into haute cuisine. Bayless was a little let down by his final dish of arroz a la Tumbada, but that could be because the dish sat out a little too long before getting served, with the mussels drying out somewhat. I loved the use of the chorizo "air," which is a molecular gastronomy technique that Bayless doesn't usually turn to.

All in all, twelve amazing dishes from three extremely talented master chefs. But like Highlander, there can be only one. I would have been chuffed if Keller or Bayless won but I was surprised to see that the critics and judges ranked Keller in third place, bumping him right out of the competition, a mere half-star behind Chiarello. But I had a feeling that in the end the dazzling talents of Chef Rick Bayless would win out and he did manage to pull off an incredibly inventive, stirring, and beautiful selection of dishes that took us on a journey through the inner backstory of this remarkable chef.

No surprise then that Bayless walked away the ultimate winner, with $100,000 for his charity and bragging rights. I'm curious to see just what Bayless and the other chefs do next and I'm more than excited about hopefully getting to taste one of Bayless' signature dishes one day.

Do you agree with the judges? Who do you think should have won and why? Discuss.