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We catch you up on this week’s episodes of your favorite programs!
By Wade Gum |
Posted June 8, 2007 12:00 PM |
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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Traveler—“New Haven”
The Recap
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It’s been 25 hours since the Drexler bombing and Jay and Tyler are still on the run after their “best friend” Will Traveler framed them for the attack. Their faces are plastered all over the news and it’s becoming difficult to do anything in public, even in a flea market. Flea market types are shady characters who deal in bootleg Pokémon cards and airbrushed Dukes of Hazzard T-shirts, so even the thieves are out to get them.
The police discover the body of the man Tyler’s father hired to smuggle them across the border but who ultimately tried to kill them. The two of them are as shocked as anyone to learn that he’s dead. Thanks to Jay being seen at the flea market, the cops know the hotel they’re staying in. Jay and Tyler leave just in the nick of time and even offer a bit of misdirection by fooling the cops into thinking they’ve dyed their hair.
Tyler wants to continue heading for the border but Jay convinces him that they have to go back to New Haven and find evidence that proves Will Traveler exists. Jay and Will left some chemistry notes and other assorted junk at a friend named Nell’s house that may prove interesting to the feds if Jay can get them. Surprise, surprise—none of the boxes that Will labeled and placed in Nell’s house three days ago are there anymore. The only things they do find are floor plans for the Drexler building and explosive schematics. Whoever is involved has made it look like Tyler wrote all of the things that Will did.
Meanwhile, both Carlton Fog and Jay’s girlfriend Kim are being assaulted by the media day and night. That’s not the good kind of fame. It’s hard to swing a free dinner at McDonald’s by saying you’re the girlfriend of a suspected terrorist. Kim does a little detective work of her own and finally locates a photograph of Will Traveler. She goes to deliver the photograph to the police but it has vanished. A man she bumped into on the street must have stolen them with some David Blaine street magic.
Nell arrives as Tyler and Jay are snooping through the boxes. She doesn’t believe that they’re terrorists so she doesn’t call the cops. She maintains that no one tampered with the boxes, but Tyler and Jay had no problem doing it just now, so who knows what really happened. Tyler and Jay destroy the documents in case someone comes looking for them. The cops come to question Nell, so Tyler and Jay have to leave. Tyler remembers that Will had an office at the Yale library, so they go looking for evidence there.
The office is locked, but Jay unleashes a powerful kick to break into it. They discover $10,000, a gun and a train schedule hidden in the ceiling tiles. Unfortunately for them, the FBI agents have discovered their location and are there to arrest them. It wouldn’t be much of a show if they surrendered, so the dynamic duo run away into the library stacks. The FBI is easily outwitted by the pair of graduate students. Jay is smart enough to know the entrance to the secret bat caves underneath the library and escapes into the steam tunnels. The duo decides to hop a train and go wherever Will sped off to according to the schedule they found.
Elsewhere, the David Blaine rip-off delivers the pictures of Will Traveler to the evil shadow organization. Will Traveler himself delivers one of the priceless paintings stolen from the Drexler building to a fence in order to learn the value of it. Next week: more running!
The Review
Most people are wary of getting involved with any serial dramas these days, given how quickly the networks cancel them. People are probably even more worried about getting interested in this one since it’s a summer series. It’s hard to blame them after getting burned by so many other programs, precious few of which get a second chance like “Jericho.” That said, “Traveler” has a pretty interesting premise and a snazzy presentation style that blends rapid-fire flashbacks with a “Fugitive”-style narrative.
This people responsible for the show should also be commended for their pre-show recap, which does a great job of catching people up and filling them in on the show’s concept. The far-reaching power that the shadow organization responsible for the bombing has is a little ridiculous, but we can all hope the show’s writers have a good explanation for it. The show’s initial 13-episode order was scaled back to eight by ABC, which isn’t a very good sign. At the very least, maybe it will convince the writers to wrap the series up instead of leaving on a cliffhanger.
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The Shield—“Spanish Properties”
The Recap
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 As last week’s episode ended, crooked philanthropist Cruz Penzuela betrayed David Aceveda by giving Vic Mackey some very compromising photographs. Vic immediately capitalizes by visiting Aceveda at his home and threatening to release the photos to the press unless Aceveda helps Vic keep his job at the review hearing. Aceveda claims the photos were faked, though, and refuses to help. Aceveda plays a little hardball of his own and sends his lawyer to threaten Vic with tons of blackmailing suits that will bring Vic to financial ruin should he try to use those photographs.
Realizing that he needs more ammunition, Vic pays another visit to Penzuela. Vic requests the original photographs and the story behind them so he can shake Aceveda down even more. Penzuela is glad to help, only because he wants to help keep Vic on the police force so he can use him as a pawn in his schemes.
In the morning, Vic confronts Aceveda once again with his newly acquired blackmail material. This time Aceveda can’t do anything besides admit to what he did. Shockingly, Vic tells Aceveda that he isn’t going to use the materials. He lets Aceveda know that Penzuela gave him the evidence and wants Vic to be his lackey. The blackmail material was just to try to keep Vic from digging into the San Marcos murders and learning the extent of Penzuela’s involvement.
Vic and Aceveda head down to the Barn and persuade Claudette to release the $250,000 she intercepted from Penzuela’s associate, Romero. Once Romero picks up the money, Vic tails him in his car. Vic follows Romero and his associate, Bolez, all the way to an anonymous storefront downtown. Once Bolez and Romero leave, Vic uses a little deception to get himself inside the storefront and snoop around. After stumbling upon a suspicious map and a room full of assault weapons, he interrogates the secretary there and learns that Bolez is meeting with a very important client later that night.
Vic holds yet another rendezvous with Aceveda and fills him in on his newest discoveries. Vic theorizes that Penzuela needs Aceveda for something important. Penzuela gave Vic the blackmail material and counted on Aceveda coming to him for help in suppressing it. Vic suggests that Aceveda go have a meeting with Penzuela so they can find out what he’s after. As a sign of good faith, Vic gives Aceveda the memory stick with the photos and all the remaining copies.
Aceveda has dinner with Penzuela later that night and asks for $150,000 to help suppress Vic’s blackmail material. In return, Penzuela requests that Aceveda create an anonymous research grant for a nearby college to research demographic pattern shifts in Los Angeles with all information coming straight back to him. Back at the Barn, Aceveda and Vic quickly reason that Penzuela is planning to redistrict the entire city in order to get politicians elected who are in his pocket. Along with the map Vic saw at Bolez’s business, it becomes obvious that the Mexican mob is buying up tons of real estate in the city in which they can conduct their illegal activities. This is way too big a conspiracy for Vic to handle in three days, but Aceveda still insists he can’t help Vic save his job. He recommends that Vic try to use his autistic children to gain sympathy with some of the voters on the review board, one of whom has an autistic child of his own.
With Vic so tied up in his investigation, Detective Hiatt is on his own when leading the strike team. He decides to burn bridges with a criminal informant known as Burnout just to stop a tiny gang initiation. Vic and Ronnie are mystified as to why he would do that, but Hiatt says he doesn’t have to explain himself. Things get worse when the kids who couldn’t finish their initiation are forced to resort to other high jinks to get into the gangs. One kid assaults a woman in a store with a lead pipe while another is on the streets with a gun.
Vic is forced to clean up Hiatt’s mess and cuts a deal with the gang leader. In exchange for giving him the location of the kid with the gun, Vic promises that no more gang initiations will be broken up. Hiatt is upset about Vic going behind his back, but Claudette is on Vic’s side. With this latest screw-up and Hiatt’s relationship with Tina all over the office, Claudette finally pulls the plug and fires Hiatt. She says she doesn’t want Vic in charge of the strike team, but she wants someone with at least a little Vic in them.
Last week, Billings got one over on Dutch by making him into a peeping tom as Tina and Hiatt consummated the act. Word gets around the Barn quickly about what went down, so all three parties involved are getting grief. Dutch doesn’t have long to think about that though, because a beloved homeless man known as Miracle Joe is found dead in front of a store after someone dumped his body there. The man who dumped the body is known as Bones and the police quickly get on the lookout for him.
Meanwhile, Dutch and Dani commiserate with each other over their crappy situations. Dani later chastises Tina for leading Dutch on to receive favors, but Tina says she never meant to hurt Dutch and he had a chance, he just never capitalized on it. Tina eventually apologizes to Dutch and he apologizes to her for getting her involved in this stuff in the first place. When Bones is apprehended, Dutch asks if Dani wants to do the interrogation with him since Billings is missing in action.
It later comes out that Miracle Joe died of natural causes after his heart gave out. However, they can still charge Bones with desecrating a corpse if he doesn’t come clean. Dutch and Danny get Bones to admit that he dumped the body to mess with the store owner who wouldn’t give him protection money. Not many people are willing to step over a corpse to buy a Slurpee.
With that case closed, Dutch and Dani track down Miracle Joe’s one remaining family member, his nephew. After a touching story about Miracle Joe taking care of his brother and taking to the streets after his death, Dutch breaks down and cries in the locker room. He’s fine dealing with a serial killer, but sometimes little things like that get to him. Dani comforts him and eventually the two of them share a passionate kiss. What the hell? The Dutch man coming out on top for once? Incredible! As for Billings, Dutch won’t have to deal with him anymore. He’s quitting the department and filing a lawsuit after being “injured” in the brawl between Vic and Cavanaugh earlier in the season.
While all of this madness has been occurring, Shane has been up to his neck in dealings with the Armenian mob. He visits Diro Kesakhian in the hospital where her father has been placed on life support. He tries in vain to persuade her not to retaliate against Vic and Ronnie for their roles in robbing the Armenian money train, but she insists that revenge is needed. In desperation, Shane visits Rezian in prison, the Armenian who attempted to pull off a coup and replace Diro as head of the mob. In exchange for Shane making evidence against him vanish, Rezian gives Shane the identity of the hitman Diro is sending after Vic’s family.
Vic’s two youngest children are off visiting their grandmother, so they will be okay. Shane follows Corrine Mackey home and confronts her in the driveway. He pulls a gun and forces Corrine and her daughter Cassidy to get in his car. He insists he’s only trying to protect them. He drives them to a secluded empty tractor-trailer out in the boondocks and locks them inside of it to protect them.
Shane then drives back to Corrine’s house and waits for the hitman to arrive. He eventually does, dressed up as a repairman. Once Shane lets him inside the house, the hitman quickly figures out what’s up and the two wrestle around. During the scuffle, Shane accidentally shoots the hitman in the gut. Shane offers the hitman a choice: either stay on the ground and die or accept Rezian as the new mob leader and walk to the hospital. The hitman chooses the latter.
Shane visits Rezian in the prison again and lets him know that the situation has been taken care of. Shane tells Rezian where Diro is hiding with her father and Rezian lets his men know where to find them. There’s still the matter of the $2 million that Shane and the strike team stole from the Armenian mob. Shane is going to have to work that money off by being in Rezian’s pocket and protecting Armenian mob interests for a long time. Shane has no choice but to accept the job.
Proving that he’s not that bad a guy, Shane releases Corrine and then pays Diro one last visit and lets her know that men are on the way to kill her. She refuses to let the Armenian hitmen kill her father, so she pulls the plug herself before fleeing the scene.
Vic is alarmed when a police report comes over the radio about shots being fired at Corrine’s address. He arrives at the scene and finds nothing but a pool of blood. Luckily for Vic, Corrine and Cassidy soon arrive back in a cab and tell Vic about Shane. Vic thinks that Shane was making a threat against him to prove that the Armenian mob can take out their families. He promises to deal with Shane after his review hearing that night.
Corrine and the rest of the family show up to give Vic their support at the review board hearing.
Vic is ready to face the music, but ultimately decides he can save his job better with one final gamble rather than trying to sway the review board members. He ditches the meeting and tracks down Bolez. He pulls Bolez over and tries to look in the trunk of the car but Bolez speeds off. Vic isn’t going to let his one lead get away that easy and fights with Bolez, throwing him out of the car and beating him down in the middle of the street.
Vic gives Aceveda a call and allows him to see what Bolez was carrying in his trunk: blackmail material on almost every politician in the area. Penzuela has enough dirt on local politicians to make sure all his plans come to fruition. With this ammunition, Vic figures he has a very good chance of preserving his job in the department. Vic asks Aceveda if he’s in this for the long haul and ready to take Penzuela down. Aceveda assures Vic that he is. It’s the most unlikely of couples against the power of the Mexican mafia. Too bad you’ll have to wait over a year to see how it ends!
The Review
Not a lot of plotlines got resolved for a season finale, but this episode laid the groundwork for what should turn out to be a fantastic final season for “The Shield.” Going into next season we’ll have Vic and Aceveda teaming up to try to stop Penzuela from taking over Los Angeles, and there’s no way those two can work together for very long without turning on each other.
We’ll also have the continuing saga of Vic and Shane, which probably won’t have its final conclusion until the last episode. Shane is up to his neck in trouble yet again and won’t have Vic to save him this time. The dichotomy between the two characters gets more and more interesting with each episode. Shane may be responsible for killing Lem, but does that make him a villain and Vic the hero?
The biggest difference between the two was well stated by Diro in this episode when she told Shane that his sentiment will destroy him. Vic seems unfazed by the horrible things he does in the line of “duty,” but Shane is constantly tortured by all the crimes he has committed. Of the two, he seems the most likely to fess up to his crimes and bring the entire strike team down.
The rest of the characters didn’t get much to do this season. Julian was ignored as always and seems to have been thrown into the strike team just to give him screen time. Without Claudette as his partner, Dutch floated aimlessly around this season squabbling with Billings. The seeds are planted for a Dutch-Dani romance, which would give both characters a lot more to do next season. Let’s hope Dutch’s caseload gets a lot more interesting as the series comes to a close.
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WWE Monday Night Raw
The Recap
In this week’s installment of “Raw,” the WWE superstars must deal with the repercussions of ECW, er, WWE One Night Stand, where basically nothing happened. Everything is in a holding pattern until the WWE draft next week, so don’t expect anything radical to happen. John Cena opened the show to his usual smatterings of high-pitched cheers and boos. With the draft coming up, Cena expressed how much he loves wrestling on “Raw” but reiterated that he’ll continue his usual schtick of overcoming the odds no matter what show he gets drafted to.
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Vince McMahon made his way down to the ring to confront Cena. Vince is a little off his rocker after being pummeled by Bobby Lashley and losing the ECW title at One Night Stand. The paranoid McMahon accuses Cena of trying to embarrass him because he’s no longer a world champion. Therefore, McMahon resolves to make Cena an ex-champion as well, scheduling a triple threat match between Cena, the Great Khali and Umaga for the WWE championship.
The first match of the evening was Cryme Tyme and Candice Michelle versus Johnny Nitro, Kenny Dykstra and Melina. Who knew Candice Michelle was straight out of the hood? Perhaps Cryme Tyme stole her heart or something. The standard tag-team match follows in which Shad and JTG beat the crap out of the fashionistas and the women flail about while pulling each other’s hair. After throwing Candice onto Melina, Shad and JTG hit the G9 on Nitro for the pin. That dead muskrat that Kenny wears around his neck is too ugly for Cryme Tyme to bother stealing it.
The reign of the mad King McMahon continues backstage. Maria and Santino continue their little flirtations when Vinnie Mac comes upon them. He drools all over Santino’s precious intercontinental title (which no one has cared about for ages) and then accuses Santino of trying to humiliate him as well. As punishment, Santino will also have to defend his title tonight. Before Santino can argue, McMahon forces him to go to the ring, yelling “git git git git git” as if Santino were a dog. The only way McMahon could get crazier at this point is if he started yelling about “the loons” coming to take him away.
Since it’s apparently impossible to come up with another opponent for Santino, Chris Masters once again gets a shot at the intercontinental title. He isn’t any more successful this time than he was the first dozen attempts. Santino slips out of the Masterlock before Chris can apply it and defeats “The Masterpiece” with a mighty roll-up. This rivalry never gets old!
No champions are safe from McMahon’s wrath—not even the Hardy Boys, the idols of fat girls everywhere. He forces the Hardys to defend their titles against Cade and Murdoch. The two rednecks are still on their sportsmanship kick and don’t want to face the Hardys if they’re not at 100 percent, but they don’t have a choice. The two teams have a back-and-forth battle with Matt and Jeff struggling to keep up due to the injuries they accumulated at One Night Stand.
The match ends when Cade pins Jeff, but it isn’t without controversy. Jeff had his foot on the bottom rope but Murdoch pushed it off. Good sportsmanship will only get you so far, so it makes sense that the rednecks finally reverted back to their true roots. When Matt confronts Cade and Murdoch about their cheating, they snap and beat up the Hardys with their newly won title belts. No one can stop the redneck rampage!
Even former champions must get tortured by the crazy McMahon. Tired of hearing the “woo” chants in venues across the nation, McMahon decides to end the legend of Ric Flair tonight by making him face the legend killer, Randy Orton. The saggy boy is in no shape to contend with Orton and eventually gets pummeled in the head just like Shawn Michaels and RVD. The ref forces Orton to leave the ring before he can give Flair a concussion all proper like, but a lot of damage has already been done. Good thing Flair has that AARP card. He’s going to need some medical care.
Torrie Wilson makes the mistake of trying to verbally spar with McMahon, getting in a little dig about the time Linda walked in on the two of them with Vince’s pants down. Hey, who says wrestling doesn’t have continuity! It’s like the DC Universe! For her insolence, Torrie must take on Carlito once again. Carlito acts like he’s sorry for hurting Torrie last week and offers to let her leave the ring for a count-out victory. Predictably, once Torrie turns her back she gets attacked. Carlito gives her the backstabber for the easy victory. That hard-fought win should make Carlito the No. 1 contender for the WWE championship.
In the main event of the evening, can John Cena overcome the odds once again? “Yes” would be a good bet. The Great Khali and Umaga beat the crap out of the chain gang soldier, but eventually turn on each other and go crazy. Cena hulks up and regains his composure. After throwing Umaga out of the ring, he lifts Khali up and hits the FU for the easy pinfall victory. So much for that Khali mystique, huh? All it takes to defeat him now is a vicious fireman’s carry.
The Review
This was obviously a filler week until next week’s WWE draft radically alters the lineup for all three brands. It couldn’t come at a better time. Cena has spent most of this year taking on huge monsters who talk in grunts and yells and has triumphed over them all. Any threat Umaga and the Great Khali could have posed to his championship has long been extinguished with his frequent victories over both. “Smackdown” is positively overflowing with worthy challengers to the belt and should give a shot of excitement back into “Raw’s” main event scene.
The Hardys losing the titles was surprising but proved to be a good end to the whole sportsmanship angle with Cade and Murdoch. It’s possible that the Hardys losing the titles was done so the team could be split up for good now. Jeff and Matt are technically on different brands and really shouldn’t be teaming up this often. Matt has delivered solid matches week in and week out on “Smackdown” and deserves a shot at the heavyweight title or at the very least a run with the United States title. A second Matt Hardy-Edge feud could prove to be popular.
Who knows how long we’ll have to watch this new crazy version of Vince McMahon on our screens or how quickly his act will get old. McMahon has been on “Raw” for almost this entire year and no longer has a single target for his rage. Will he continue punishing every champion or take another sabbatical for a few months?
Next week’s “Raw” is a three-hour event that starts at 8 and is a can’t-miss episode. With the tri-branded pay-per-views and the way WWE frequently ignores what wrestlers belong on what shows, the concept of the brand split isn’t working as well as it was meant to, but the draft is still a big deal and should set the stage for storylines in the year to come.
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