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We catch you up on this week’s episodes of your favorite programs!
By Wade Gum |
Posted July 6, 2007 9:20 AM |
EDITOR’S NOTE: There’s a lot of good programming out there these days, and here at Wizard Universe, we want to make sure you don’t miss a moment of any of it. In the interest of keeping you up to speed with your favorite series, we’ve recruited our resident pop culture critic, Wade Gum, to run down the past week’s slate of programming and tell us what went down and, in some cases, what blew up in each episode of the hottest shows this week. Check back every Friday for a new installment of our TV roundup.—RM
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John From Cincinnati—“His Visit: Day 3”
The Recap
It’s the third day on Imperial Beach since John made his presence known, and everyone is still trying to come to terms with Shaun’s miraculous recovery after being clinically brain dead. The person having the most trouble coming to terms is Dr. Smith, the physician who saw the miracle happen in his very hospital. In order to shield the hospital from any possible lawsuits from the Yost family, Smith hands in his resignation and begins looking for the Yosts. He’s not quite sure what he’s doing, but he’s inexplicably drawn to this family by the crazy paranormal events that surround them. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t have much luck finding any family members and ends up aimlessly walking between the motel and the Yost house.
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Butchie Yost isn’t in either location because he’s out with Kai searching for John, who has inexplicably gone missing. Both Butchie and Kai are worried about John because he’s an odd duck and probably can’t survive long out in the real world. They go over to Bill’s house and recruit him to help in the rescue effort. Bill is more than happy to pitch in because it saves him from the loneliness and isolation of his home and reflecting on his dead wife. Bill suggests they all split up in the search for John, but none of them are successful.
John wandered off from the Yosts and went back to the shores where he was initially discovered. A group of thugs pick him up in a van and don’t take kindly to John’s parrot routine in which he repeats everything he hears. The conversation becomes heated and they stab John in the stomach and then dump his body on the sloughs. Vietnam Joe finds the injured John, much like the first time he was discovered, and loads him into his van to take him to safety. John tells Joe to pull over and then places his hand over Joe’s heart. Miraculously, John’s injuries are healed. In addition to the healing, this process somehow sends a vision to Cass, who was previously seducing Mitch and trying to help out the evil Linc.
All the characters once again converge on the motel. Butchie and Kai show up after searching for John and have a romantic tryst in Butchie’s hotel room. The doctor shows up and has some words with Mr. Cunningham, Ramon and Dickstein. Inexplicably, Freddy from Hawaii and his lackey Palaka are camped out in front of the place. To complete the fun, Bill drives up in his truck to update Butchie on the status of the search for John. Eventually, Vietnam Joe shows up and dumps John out. Vietnam Joe thinks he’s been the victim of a prank by the veterans down at the hall and threatens John with bodily harm, but backs off when John tells him that “tomorrow is another day.”
Butchie is glad to see that John is okay. Dr. Smith examines John’s wounds but finds that they are completely healed, even though there’s fresh blood all over him. John assures Dr. Smith that he’s in the right place now. Before John can preach any more of his crazy gospel, Cass shows up out of nowhere. John walks over and gets into her car and tells Butchie that Cass needs a new job. The two drive off back to Cass’ hotel room while Butchie and Kai go off to Kai’s trailer to continue their romantic interlude.
Mitch is still crashing in Cass’ hotel room, but she tells him that he has to leave when she returns. John needs a place to stay and this one is as good as any. John proves to be correct in his prediction about Cass needing a job, because Linc fires her as soon as he learns that she broke things off with Mitch. John begins piling up towels in the hotel room and tells Cass that she will use that side of the room for her work. Even Cass doesn’t seem to know what type of work she’ll be doing, but it’s obvious that she’s been recruited to be one of John’s helpers in his mysterious quest.
Back at his house that evening, Bill seems both relieved and deeply saddened that his part in the Yost saga is over. He doesn’t want to be a bother to the Yosts and get involved in their business anymore. However, he has a deep conversation with his pet bird Zippy and comes to the conclusion that he needs to go be a positive influence to counteract the negative influence of Freddy. He buys some coffee and some doughnuts and goes back to the motel, trying to break the ice between himself and Freddy. As the two sit there, a young woman in a fancy car pulls up and asks if Butchie Yost is there. Bill tells her that he’s not there at the moment and she leaves. Although it wasn’t indicated in the actual episode, the description of this episode says that this woman was Shaun’s mother.
The Review
This episode was nearly all setup for future episodes, but it still managed to be interesting and lay some groundwork for the rest of the season. John’s added another mysterious power to his repertoire after healing himself with the help of Vietnam Joe. He also managed to send a vision to Cass and seemingly recruit her to be his aide. He’s also starting to parrot back conversations that he wasn’t even present to hear. It’s refreshing to see a show in which the characters recognize how bizarre John is and are already trying to figure out his origins on the third day they’ve known him.
Bill seems to be the equivalent to Al Swearengen from David Milch’s previous show, “Deadwood.” Instead of talking to the decapitated head of an Indian chief, Bill talks to Zippy the bird. More and more people keep hanging around the motel and associating with the Yosts, so Shaun should have his 12 apostles in no time at all.
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The 4400—“Audrey Parker’s Come and Gone”
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The Recap
Shawn Farrell has the power to heal and harm people with his touch. Once before, he attempted to start a healing center where he could use his powers to benefit humanity, but the government shut him down. He goes and speaks with Heather, whose center for helping children was shut down by the government. Shawn wants her help with starting his healing center, where he’ll be able to help plenty of people young and old.
At a press conference, Shawn announces to the world his intentions to reopen his healing center. He stresses that all of the 4400 aren’t terrorists and that they can give back to the world and make it a better place. He tells the press that he won’t allow the government to force him into silence this time around.
Later, NTAC Seattle boss Meghan has a heart-to-heart with Tom Baldwin about Shawn. Her father is quickly dying, but as an employee of NTAC she is legally prohibited from benefiting from any 4400 ability. Even though she wants to take advantage of Shawn’s healing powers, she has to sit back and let her father die.
When Shawn opens his healing center, plenty of cops appear in riot gear and prevent anyone from entering. A riot nearly breaks out before Tom arrives and orders the cops to stand down and allow people access to the facility. After the crowds disperse later that day, Tom secretly brings Meghan and her father into the facility so that Shawn can heal him.
A mysterious girl keeps visiting Kyle and prodding him into studying the Bible of Collier. She tells him that he will be instrumental in helping Collier to save all of humankind. She gives him an address to meet her at later that night and tells him that if he doesn’t show up, she’ll never bother him again. Kyle’s curiosity gets the better of him and he shows up. A car slams into a police transport van and slides it off the road. Kyle investigates and finds Isabelle inside the van ready to make a getaway.
In this week’s self-contained story, Audrey Parker is an elderly woman with the power to astral project after taking some Promicin. She may be stuck in a bed, but she can travel out of her body and go anywhere. She blogs about the things she sees as she travels around town, which makes the NTAC very nervous. She’s a boring old lady and spends most of her time on the astral plane traveling to yard sales, but she could potentially go see some top-secret things on government property.
The NTAC investigates Audrey and tries to find her identity. Audrey accidentally takes too much morphine one day and returns home on the astral plane to find herself dead. Whoops. She uses her astral projecting abilities to investigate her own death and discovers who actually murdered her. She also has the ability to mess with electromagnetic signals and leaves the NTAC a message letting them know how she was killed. They get the clues and snatch the killer up.
The Review
There really wasn’t much movement in the overarching plotline this week at all. At this point in the show’s lifespan, these self-contained stories about random Promicin users just aren’t interesting. It’s like when “Battlestar Galactica” kept spinning its wheels with stories about the crew this season when everyone really just wanted the larger plotline to keep moving. Too many characters have been introduced and too many gears are in motion to be wasting time with these types of episodes. The stuff about the Bible of Collier is way more fascinating than an old woman who can project herself on the astral plane.
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WWE Monday Night Raw
The Recap
This week’s episode could be titled “Everyone Hates Cena.” Mr. Kennedy made his way to the ring to open up “Raw” and blamed the fans for costing him his Money in the Bank title shot. Kennedy said that he’s the future of sports entertainment and the person on “Raw” most deserving of a title shot, a statement that champion John Cena took issue with. Cena called Kennedy a whiny phony and got confirmation from the fans that Kennedy lost his title shot all by his lonesome.
King Booker, Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley also made their way out to the ring to plead their cases for title shots. Booker holds a singles victory over Cena, Orton has the longest tenure of “Raw” out of all the challengers and Lashley was stripped of his ECW title without ever losing it. William Regal came out in lieu of the Coach and announced that all the challengers will participate in a “Beat the Clock” competition tonight to determine who will face Cena at Great American Bash. The challenger who defeats his opponent the quickest will become the No. 1 contender.
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The first match pitted Randy Orton against Jeff Hardy. The youngest WWE champion ever had a difficult time with the high-flying Hardy and barely edged out a victory after reversing a Twist of Fate into an RKO. Orton pinned Hardy in seven minutes and six seconds, hardly an impressive time and one that probably won’t hold up.
Former women’s champion Melina took on Maria next as current champion Candice watched from ringside. Melina quickly took out Maria and then turned her attention towards Candice. Melina tried to choke Candice but got rammed into the guardrails outside the ring for her troubles. Who knew the GoDaddy.com spokeswoman was so hardcore?
The miracle man from Milan, Santino, defended his intercontinental championship against the Samoan bulldozer, Umaga. The Rocky-esque underdog story of Santino finally came to an end after all his offense was reversed and he received a Samoan Spike right in the throat. Umaga is your new intercontinental champion and celebrates by putting the belt in his mouth and acting like a crazy savage.
The second “Beat the Clock” match saw King Booker take on the mighty and unbeatable Val Venis. Amazingly, King Booker managed to beat Val after delivering a scissor kick. This is an incredible event because it’s very rare to ever see Val Venis lose. Booker defeated Val in 4:30, giving him plenty of time to spare and effectively eliminating Randy Orton from title contention.
The third “Beat the Clock” match was Mr. Kennedy versus Super Crazy. Randy Orton really got a raw deal when it came to opponents. Kennedy tried to pay Super Crazy off backstage by offering him some pesos in order to lie down and let Kennedy win. It appeared as if Super Crazy agreed, but that turned out not to be the case. Super Crazy came out to the ring early and interrupted Mr. Kennedy’s ring introduction, which greatly offended the man from Green Bay. He pushed Super Crazy aside and began his intro, but Super Crazy rolled him up from behind and scored the pinfall, eliminating Kennedy from title contention.
Before Shelton Benjamin took on Bobby Lashley in the last “Beat the Clock” match, Carlito had to survive the Sandman and his nasty cane. The two exchanged pleasantries before the match with Carlito spitting apple into Sandman’s face and Sandman spitting beer into Carlito’s. After some back-and-forth wrestling, Carlito got tired of it and grabbed Sandman’s Singapore cane with the intention of using it. Sandman managed to get the cane away from Carlito and smack him in the head with it, giving Carlito the win by way of disqualification.
Shelton Benjamin held his own with Bobby Lashley and reversed a lot of power moves, but jumped from the turnbuckle right into a spear and got pinned before 4:30 had passed. This means Bobby Lashley is the No. 1 contender and will face John Cena at the Great American Bash pay-per-view. John Cena came out to the ring for the contract signing but Mr. Kennedy and King Booker tried to interrupt the proceedings. Cena and Lashley fought the bitter duo off, but then Lashley turned on Cena and speared him into the canvas. However, the contract had already been signed and the match is on for the pay-per-view.
The Review
The WWE rebounded from a week of turmoil to deliver a solid episode of “Raw” and establish a new contender for the title. The “Beat the Clock” segments are almost always entertaining come Royal Rumble time, and they worked well this week. Mr. Kennedy doesn’t appear to be medically cleared to wrestle yet, so getting one-upped by Super Crazy was a good idea and a nice way to see a heel get his comeuppance. Despite the crowd’s positive feelings towards Kennedy, the WWE seems intent on keeping him as a heel and a bad guy, which is a good decision. Making Kennedy into a babyface would only serve to neuter him as a cool character.
John Cena facing off against Bobby Lashley is an odd pairing, essentially because it’s a good guy versus good guy match-up. Depending on what city the WWE is in on any particular night, Cena either receives tons of cheers or lots of boos. At the Great American Bash, will the crowd be behind Lashley simply because he’s not Cena, or will they completely turn on the soft-spoken ex-ECW champion?
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