DEXTER RECAP: 4.10 "LOST BOYS"

Trinity’s patterns — and his family life — prove even more complicated than they seemed. And this episode reminds us, sadly, that our favorite serial-killer show sometimes has a hard time constructing a suspenseful plot.

The seemingly big revelations in this week’s show just confirm something that was pieced together in last week’s episode (Reporter Girl shot Lundy to protect Daddy Trinity) or given away in the preview (Trinity is really, uh, Quaddity, committing four murders per spree rather than three). What the hell, Showtime?

Trinity starts his sprees by kidnapping and killing little boys, who serve as stand-ins for himself in recreations of his family drama, complete with cowboy pajamas, model trains, and a vintage soundtrack. He snuffs the kids when they’re young and innocent, before they can turn bad and peep on their sisters, like he did.

Aided by the fact that the kid’s parents have helpfully emblazoned their minivan with the names of all the family members (Do people really do this?), Trinity nabs a child from an entertainment complex. Of course, this time around, there’s Dexter, who enlists Trinity’s son in unpacking the plot: Trinity holds his young victims in empty houses that are up for sale, then disposes of their bodies in concrete at build sites. Dexter catches up with Trinity at the last minute and apparently knocks him out — but Trinity runs off while Dexter saves the kid. Dexter’s good intentions have sabotaged the kill.

Meanwhile, Debra is piecing together Lundy’s killing; Batista, feeling insulted by LaGuerta for his lack of leads, doesn’t mind the interference. Deb is an increasingly impressive investigator. She agrees to an interview with Reporter Girl — to get her reaction, and her fingerprints. She even gets Quinn to give her Reporter Girl’s toothbrush for a DNA sample. And so the two cases are connected: The department knows not only that Reporter Girl likely shot Deb, but that she’s related to Trinity.

Panicked, Reporter Girl calls daddy. Problem is, they’re estranged: Trinity tells his daughter he has a family that needs him, and hangs up. But she catches up with him and confronts him with a childhood memory. He’d told her to stay in the car, but (like father, like daughter!) she peeped in a window and saw a woman in a bloody bathtub. When it happened in the same house 30 years later, she went through his old postcards and figured out that duplicate killings followed his travel path — and now she reports that the police might have figured something out, too. She just wants to please her absentee dad! Even if that means murder. But Trinity shoos her away, promising they’ll straighten this out later, and by “straighten this out,” we’re pretty sure he means he’s going to kill her. But the cops reach her first.

We’re left with Dexter cradling his baby boy, contemplating the sins of the fathers: “I promise no one’s ever going to hurt you again ... especially me.”

Anything would be anticlimactic after last week. In the season’s final two episodes, it looks like we'll see Harry’s informant telling Deb about another informant love interest (Dexter’s mom?), Masuka telling Dexter about Rita’s (non-)affair, and Trinity doing whatever it takes to get Dexter. We’re still waiting for Dexter’s misguided murder of that photographer to come back to bite him in the ass; to remind us about that problem, this week Rita’s son got into a fight with a kid who said he’d seen Dexter sneak out of the little sailor’s camp. Quinn is probably going to cause some trouble, and surely no good can come from how much Dexter shared with Trinity’s son ...

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

HIMYM RECAP: 5.9 "SLAPSGIVING 2: REVENGE OF THE SLAP"

While we’re still debating whether Barney and Robin should have broken up, How I Met Your Mother is moving on with the help of group dinners, inappropriate board games, estranged family members, death stares, and slapping. Yes, it’s that time of the year again — Slapsgiving! While last night’s episode was highly uneven (it definitely fell into the “slightly embarrassed to watch around non-HIMYM fans” category), there was just enough slap-centric action to get us through.

Things kick off with Marshall finding, and then subsequently forgetting in a cab, the perfect turkey. (Marshall’s “Why didn’t I just listen to the pre-recorded voice of former mayor Ed Koch reminding me to take my belongings?” was funny, even if we haven’t heard those messages in a while.) So when good Samaritans Ted and Robin track down the turkey at Port Authority, an overjoyed Marshall gifts them with the right to slap Barney once (Marshall won five Barney slaps during a bet from the Robin Sparkles episode in season two.) While Barney quivers in fear (“I’m doing so much flinching, it’s bad for my skin. I’m getting crow’s feet!”), Ted and Robin bicker over who should get to administer the slap.

Meanwhile, drama ensues when Lily’s estranged father Mickey (guest-star Chris Elliott) shows up at the front door. We get the backstory: Mickey was always too busy creating screwed-up board games to pay attention to his daughter, culminating in Lily cutting him off altogether three years ago. (For the record: The repeating crazy game-title gag (Tijuana Slumlord, Car Battery, There’s a Clown Demon Under My Bed) was amusing, if a little cheap; the repeating “Lily’s you’re-dead-to-me-stare” gag, complete with crappy special effects, was just sort of stupid.)

Marshall pushes Lily to let Mickey in, which leads to a fight, and the best joke of the episode: By way of illustrating Marshall’s perfect family, we see the Sunday Eriksen family dinner, with Marshall joining in via video chat; when everyone goes to hold hands for grace, a smiley Marshall is seen clutching two creepy mannequin hands. Also, it leads to Lily storming out. The gang waits for her to return while playing Mickey’s latest game, Diseases, which leads to the second-best joke of the night: When the game’s gallbladder bursts, spraying gunk all over the turkey, Mickey calmly explains: “It’s not real bile! Its lead-based paint from China. And horse bile.”

Marshall storms out and tracks Lily down at the bodega, ready to apologize for trying to get her to forgive her dad. But a convenient contrivance with an auxiliary character has changed Lily’s mind — it is time to forgive! Back at the apartment, everyone’s happy. We cringe through some truly terrible slap puns, and then it’s time to lay the slap itself down. Robin insists that Ted take it, after all he’s been through; Ted insists that Robin does, after all she’s been through; Robin hands the rights to the slap to Mickey, by way of welcoming him into the family; Mickey gives it to Lily, by way of apologizing for his poor fatherhood; Lily is pleased, but can’t go through with the slap. A wise Marshall explains that this is what he intended all along — for the slap to bring everyone together. (Okay, we know that part was supposed to be ironically trite, but it was annoying either way.) And just when Barney thinks he’s off the hook, Marshall tags him up good. Hurray!

Our favorite part, though, was definitely the fake Slap Bet–game commercial: Not only could we watch people getting slapped in the face for hours, but that jingle’s still stuck in our heads. “You just got slapped/Across the face, my friend…”

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

DEXTER RECAP: 4.9 "HUNGRY MAN"

Never has an episode of Dexter inspired this much cringing and jaw-dropping. As our favorite serial killer mulls over his copy of Anna Karenina ("All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"), Thanksgiving robs him of his role model.

Let’s get the unrelated side plot out of the way first: Batista and LaGuerta solve a heart-breaking case a little too late. He’s afraid he’ll get hit by a bus, so he tells her he loves her; she’s afraid if she says it, he’ll get hit by a bus, but she loves him too. Moving on.

Trinity isn’t just a cranky old man, he’s an emotionally and physically abusive father and husband. A spying Dexter sees him dangerously tormenting his son, so, naturally, he invites himself to Trinity’s Thanksgiving dinner while Debra invites Masuka to the Morgan clan’s feast.

Over at Dexter’s place, the lonely neighbor puts peas on Rita’s burn and kisses her. She rebuffs him, but that’s not what it looks like from the window through which Masuka is watching. Suddenly, the office perv is a little boy whose parents are splitting up, and he’s so upset that he throws his special dessert in the trash.

Trinity is having a more traditional, family-oriented Thanksgiving, complete with bitterness and recrimination, a coffin, women cooking, and men playing catch and watching football. Hey, Trinity: It only makes sense to shout "He’s open!" at a point when passing is an option, not as the guy with the ball leaps across the goal line. While we’re at it: Are the shot/countershots in this series supposed to look like they were set up and lit by two separate teams who didn’t know what the other was doing?

A family holiday indeed: Trinity punishes his son by breaking his finger when no one is looking; Dexter realizes that Trinity keeps his daughter locked in her room; the daughter tries to seduce Dexter; mom says Dexter can have the little girl as long as Trinity doesn’t find out, and Trinity calls his wife a cunt. Happy Thanksgiving!

The tradition in which the family takes turns saying what they’re thankful for goes horribly awry, with everyone so busy tiptoeing around Trinity that they neglect to say they’re thankful for him. Trinity calls his daughter by his dead sister’s name, and his son flips out, calling Trinity a murderer and throwing the urn of ashes against the wall. Trinity attacks the kid and protective Dexter, having cringed through this whole episode himself, finally loses it and nearly murders Trinity, growling, “I should have killed you when I had the chance.” Did we mention all the jaw-dropping? But the family’s presence stops him, and Dexter is back in his car, delivering a flustered recap to an increasingly tiresome Harry.

Meanwhile, Reporter Girl wants to spend Thanksgiving with Quinn, and she keeps referring to herself as his girlfriend. See Quinn cringe. But just when we’re wondering why we have to watch this, it all comes together. Trinity’s jaw drops when he sees the front-page story she wrote about him, and Deb’s jaw drops when she realizes that the story has a detail about Lundy’s shooting that only someone who was there would know. Suddenly Trinity is at Reporter Girl’s door, to which she says only: “Hi, dad.”

Reporter Girl is Trinity’s daughter, and she (probably) shot Debra! Holy fucking shit. Or, as Debra said last episode, “Mother shit fuck.” If Trinity and Reporter Girl don’t realize that “Kyle Butler” is Dexter Morgan, they’re about to. The whole thing makes that spoiler Showtime drops in the preview for episode 10 seem like nothing.

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: 1.10 "THE TURNING POINT"

Poor Caroline. What did this girl ever do to deserve so many evil vampires taking advantage of her? On last night's "Vampire Diaries," newscaster-turned-vampire Logan Fell was the latest to manipulate sweet Caroline. Well, not so much manipulate as smash her head into a car window. But he used her as bait to get to her mom, the sheriff.

Logan spent most of the episode torturing and/or threatening Stefan and Damon in some way, trying to figure out how they're able to go out in the sunlight. Of course they wouldn't tell him, so he resorted to violence and threatening the sheriff, who knew that he was dead and thus knew he was a vampire. Hence the Caroline hostage-taking (under the pretense of giving her a ride home). Damon and Stefan stopped Logan's car and rescued the girl, and Damon was about to kill Logan when he finally revealed a clue as to what other vampire could have turned him (because it sure as hell wasn't Damon or Stefan) — someone who wanted the vault under the old church opened too. As you probably remember from last week, Katherine, along with all the old evil vampires from Civil War-era Mystic Falls, are locked in said vault. Since Damon's desperate to rescue Katherine, he let Logan escape so he could find out more information.

Logan didn't get too far, because he had a showdown in the school parking lot with the new teacher, Alaric, who staked him and left him for the sheriff to find. Now, who is this teacher fellow and HOW DOES HE KNOW HOW TO STAKE A VAMPIRE? Is he a vampire himself? Nah, that'd be too easy. I think he's either something even more sinister, or at least someone who will prove to be very dangerous to the vampires in town.

The other notable side plots included Jeremy and Tyler alternating between bonding and fighting, with Tyler's dad (the mayor) getting involved and making the two take their fight outside to the parking lot. That was really weird. Why would he want his son to fight Jeremy in the parking lot? What interest did he have in the outcome? The boys didn't really seem too into the whole fighting thing once they got outside. Luckily Alaric followed the gang and broke up the fight. Intriguingly, as he left, Tyler told Jeremy that he didn't know what was wrong with him or why he felt so aggressive, and the camera focused on the full moon. Again, maybe it's because I'm in a post-"New Moon" haze, but OMG, maybe he's becoming a werewolf!? Or I could be reading into things way too much. That too.

Oh and there's this thing where Elena and Stefan finally professed their love to one another and TOTALLY DID IT. It was beautiful and sweet, up until the point where Stefan left the room to get Elena a glass of water, she found a photo of Katherine, freaked out, and left. This being "The Vampire Diaries," they are contractually obligated to end with something super awesome or terrifying happening, so as Elena drove frantically home, a figure appeared in the middle of the road. She tried to swerve out of the way, but ended up hitting it and flipping her car over. As she lay trapped upside down in her car, she watched the figure pull itself up and walk toward her. Cue bloodcurdling scream, and scene.

Recap courtesy of http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com

THE OFFICE RECAP: 6.10 "SHAREHOLDER MEETING"

As we’ve said before, as a general rule, the less Michael Scott is a Homer Simpson–esque boob, the better The Office becomes. On a fundamental level, we have to at least respect Michael as a boss, as someone competent enough to keep a branch afloat during difficult times. You have to see how he possibly became a boss in the first place.

But if Michael Scott — Michael Scott — is the lone Dunder Mifflin manager whose branch is making a profit (and it’s not like we’re regularly seeing the rest of the Scranton staff putting its proverbial nose to the grindstone), then it’s no wonder that Dunder Mifflin is being protested by its stockholders. Forget the notion that a regional paper company would have inherent problems: This appears to be the worst-run corporation on earth.

And so, at the stockholder meeting, we find Bumbler Mifflin protesters, and screaming stockholders, and a “former Congressman” flitting ominously around the proceedings: This is a company whose plummeting stock price has drawn media attention in the worst possible way. How desperate does a company have to be to bring Michael onstage with them?

Michael, being Michael, ends up taken aback by all the hostility — he is not a man who handles being booed well — and does everything he can to win the crowd back, ultimately telling them he has a 45-day, 45-point plan to “fix this.” Michael still doesn’t understand what’s wrong, doesn’t understand that Dunder Mifflin doesn’t have a plan at all, and is taken aback when the Dunder Mifflin brass (including the crusty, bullshitting CEO) is angry with him. The shareholders were pissed, and now they’re not, Michael claims — what could I possibly have done wrong?

Amid all this, the show continued to confound expectations in inventive ways. A subplot involves Oscar’s frustration with Dunder Mifflin, and his insistence that he understood the source of the company’s problems. But when Michael calls him up to “explain the numbers thing” to the company CEO and executive board, Oscar clams up and slinks away. A lesser show gives Oscar some big redemptive moment there: The Office plays it much like it would actually play, awkwardly and emptily, with a man afraid to offend the people who pay his salary. And sometimes, no one has the answers anyway.

By the end, while the Dunder Mifflin execs take their public beating, Michael and the gang are sprinting out of the meeting to take their limo ride back to Scranton, the happy proletariat dabbling in rich-guy land before heading home, aware that the party’s almost over. With everything we saw of Dunder Mifflin’s corporate structure, we have no reason to amend our prediction of last week: This company is going down. Soon.

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

HIMYM RECAP: 5.8 "THE PLAYBOOK"

Last night’s installment wasn’t so much a complete episode as it was a string of scenes of Barney being Barney. And we were all for it! After his breakup with Robin, an episode about Barney’s return to the ladies was very much in order, and we thought HIMYM handled it with the right balance of reality and ridiculousness. That is to say, it was mostly ridiculous.

First, let’s get the subplot out of the way: A now-single Robin insists that she’s going to be focusing on her career, which leads to Ted and Marshall claiming that this is just the type of mindset people are in when they invariably fall in love. It also leads to a pretty funny frozen-waffle quasi-metaphor and one joke that we perceived as a dig at the New York State Legislature for not legalizing gay marriage. Plus, the last scene hints that Robin will fall in love with her new co-anchor, Don. Not too shabby, subplot!

The real action is sparked by Barney’s playbook, a leather-bound compendium of every trick he has pulled, and hopes to pull, in order to sleep with a girl. And … we’re off! There’s the “Don’t Drink That,” the “Cheap Trick,” the “Ted Mosby” (flannel-and-pity based), the “Mrs. Stinsfire” (yes, what it sounds like), the “Snasa” (a.k.a. Secret NASA, whose astronauts go to the Smoon), the “My Penis Grants Wishes” (the furniture comes to life), and, best of all, the “He’s Not Coming”: Barney goes up to random girls at the Empire State Building, saying “he’s not coming” until one breaks down into tears and needs consoling. (By the way, we thought Marshall’s intentionally bad “Wow, you wrote another book? We got … uhh … a Stephen King over here!” joke might have been the most brilliant moment of the episode.)

Oh, and the “Lorenzo van Matterhorn”: Barney poses as an eccentric, hot-air-balloon-traveling billionaire, complete with fake Google results for Explorers Club profiles. When that last one is utilized on a girl Lily was hoping to set up with Ted, Lily freaks out and steals the playbook, threatening to put the entire thing on the Internet unless Barney stops his whorish ways.

But he doesn’t! Instead, he heads to the bar to pull off the “Scuba Diver,” complete with wet suit and flippers. When Barney points out to Lily who the target is, she fills the girl in on the whole story, bringing together the crew, the random blonde, and the Pringles can tucked into Barney’s wet suit at a corner bar. Barney apologizes to Robin for his behavior, saying sweetly that this breakup’s been harder on him than he realized it would be — which is enough for the random blond to go out with him and leads to the big reveal: Every part of the episode, from Lorenzo to now, has been a setup for the Scuba Diver. Predictable and totally dickish (especially the fake apology to his very fresh ex-girlfriend), but funny!


Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

DEXTER RECAP: 4.8 "ROAD KILL"

Dexter’s misguided murder of the pervy photographer isn’t tearing his life up like we’d expected (yet); instead, Trinity is cracking up, ready for another round of killing. It’s a delicious and plot-furthering episode as Debra finds out something important about her killer and Trinity explains the roots of his crimes.

Dexter’s selfish voice-over encourages the cops to scoff when Debra explains Lundy’s Trinity Killer theory to her colleagues, but LaGuerta finally believes her and even agrees to set up road blocks to get DNA swabs from tall blue-eyed men over 50. Supposedly the recurrent smudge of ashes has convinced LaGuerta, but it’s obviously just the next step in the season. LaGuerta and Batista team up to figure out how the department can pay for this — but their illicit, ahem, “teaming up” is interrupted when Quinn drops by to announce that the guys have each agreed to donate a vacation day to fund this DNA collection and help Deb. LaGuerta is so happy she throws Batista down on the table, which collapses in the next scene.

Since Deb is a victim, she’s off the case, and has to play Cyrano to Quinn, guiding him through the investigation. At least until she finally takes a look at that hip wound she winces at every ten minutes, and she and Masuka (who spends the scene checking out her tits, while we yawn at him) figure out that the wound’s entry/exit angle means her shooter couldn’t have been that tall drink of water, Trinity. Was it her jealous boyfriend or the Vacation Killers after all? Either way, she’s back in charge.

But Dexter is desperate to keep Trinity for himself. Trinity is increasingly cranky — and has apparently scheduled a build in Tampa so he can relieve his homicidal impulses out of town. Dexter sees this as an opportunity to get him — so he asks for a ride. How was he going to get home? Trinity obviously needs some time alone, but he can’t resist Dexter’s cry for help. The real genius of Trinity’s character isn’t so much in how he deals with his killer impulses, but in how he balances his increasingly overwhelming grouchiness with a real desire to help the people around him. Dexter plays along — or opens up — with Trinity’s remorse and redemption theme, telling him about killing the photographer, but disguising it as a hunting story.

They bond, of course — notice there’s no Harry in this episode. And this pushes Trinity a step further: Ostensibly to cheer Dexter up, he barges into the house he grew up in and shows him the site of all his pain. Young Trinity peeped on his sister in the shower, she got startled, badly cut her leg, and bled to death; his grieving mother jumped to her death; and then Trinity bludgeoned his alcoholic, abusive father. Feel better now?

No, actually: Trinity tries to leap off the roof of the construction site. Dexter grabs on to him just so he can drop Trinity himself — and then some other workers show up and help save him. So they’re back to Miami, where Trinity unsurprisingly makes a U-turn to avoid the DNA roadblock after Dexter explains it to him. So we have at least one more week of Dexter contrasting his increased sense of his own humanity with his realization of what a grumpy old complicated bastard Trinity is, while we continue to wonder whether Dexter might give up Trinity rather than continue to screw over his sister. And, oh, right: It looks like Rita is embarking on an affair with a recently dumped neighborhood dad.

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: 1.9 "HISTORY REPEATING"

Aha, "Vampire Diaries" viewers! I knew all along Damon had to have some sort of powerfully emotional ulterior motive behind his evil actions. We learned last night, through the informational reveal of Bonnie's lineage, exactly why he returned to Mystic Falls — for love, of course.

Bonnie had another dream so realistic that she woke up in the cemetery in her pajamas. She was following a woman, Emily, through the woods. As Emily turned around, she implored Bonnie to help her with something. "This is where it started, and this is where it has to end. Help me!" Bonnie was so scared and tired of Emily haunting her that she threw the crystal away.

Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline got together for a girls' night (kind of like the ones they have in real life, I'd imagine), the ladies apologized for their feuding, Bonnie told Caroline that she's a witch (which took a little convincing), and Caroline decided they should hold a séance to tell Emily to stop haunting Bonnie. Can you say "backfire"? Emily didn't talk to Bonnie ... she possessed her.

Meanwhile, Stefan, between giving Elena wistful looks and loving her too much to actually be with her, tried to sweeten up Damon enough to confess his true reason for being home. There was a cute back-and-forth where they pretended to be each other (brotherly banter is my favorite), but Damon wouldn't spill until everyone ended up in the woods where the old Falls Church used to be.

Turns out, Emily had been Katherine's handmaiden. Emily vowed to keep Katherine safe during the Mystic Falls vampire persecution, so she used the crystal to seal Katherine in a tomb below the burning church. Meaning: Katherine wasn't dead. She was trapped, and Damon knew it. But the reason Emily had come back was because in order to save Katherine, she had to save the other vampires too —l as in mean, evil ones. They were all locked in the tomb with Katherine, and Emily didn't want to be responsible for releasing their evil into the world again. She drew a pentagram on the ground with a stick, ignited it with her witchy powers, and threw the crystal in the air, where it exploded. After, Bonnie stood alone in the middle of the pentagram. Damon was so enraged, that he lunged and bit Bonnie in the neck. Stefan fought him off and gave Bonnie some of his blood to recover. Damon, utterly and completely crushed, tearfully said, "I’ll leave now."

In side plot news, the new history teacher (Matthew Davis) got off to a mysterious start. He first taught the students how to say his name. "You'll probably want to pronounce it ALaric, but it's AlARic. You can call me Ric." Ah, so he's the hip, young teacher. Further proof: he uncovered Mr. Tanner's "Jackass File," which turned out to be all about how Jeremy was a ne'er-do-well, and yet he still gave Jer a chance to up his grade by writing an extra credit paper on something local. Coincidentally, Jeremy introduced Ric to Jenna, and they hit it off. They talked about their sad backstories — Rick's wife died, Jenna was wronged by her ex — and the proverbial sparks flew. Rick ended up walking Jenna home. Of course, he's a gentleman, so he didn't want her to invite him in. Combine that little tidbit with a close-up of his ring, and we're probably supposed to think he's a vampire.

Caroline and Matt had a flirtatious encounter of their own. You may recall that Matt carried a drunk Caroline home and stayed in her bed last week. At school, Caroline went off at him for leaving before she woke up. Matt shot her down, saying it was all in her head, but surprised her at the end of the episode by showing up and giving an awkward speech about how he didn't really like her much (guys, that's so not how you woo a lady) but he really liked cuddling. Then they sat on the bed and ate junk food (little known fact: that's totally is how you woo a lady).

The episode ended with two major events: Elena telling Bonnie the truth about the vampires (Stefan, after all, left her in tears when he said he needed to leave Mystic Falls because he didn't want to inclict anymore trouble), and Jenna's ex, Logan, standing on the front porch, asking to be let in. From next week's previews, I think it's safe to say Logan is now a vampire.

Recap courtesy of http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com

THE OFFICE RECAP: 6.9 "MURDER"

It has been a question hanging over the show since last year: How, in this economy, is a small regional paper company continuing to survive? This episode answered that question: It may not.

In a potentially delicious shaking of the Etch-a-Sketch, we learn that Dunder Mifflin is in danger of declaring bankruptcy, and not the restructuring kind of bankruptcy, either: As David Wallace puts it, they’ll be out of money by the end of the year. That’s soon.

How the office handled the news — by playing an extended, ridiculous murder-mystery role-playing board game, spurred by Michael, of course — is almost beside the point. Each season has had one major plotline develop. Season three was the merger of the Stamford and Scranton branches. Season four (truncated and skewed because of the Writers' Strike) was about attempts to modernize the company, mostly through Ryan’s aborted reign as everyone’s boss. Season five was Michael’s (and others’) move to the Michael Scott Paper Company. This season, it's how long can we expect this company to actually stay solvent?

It’s possible this is a false alarm; a successful series completely obliterating its setting and reason for being, midstream, would seem suicidal. But The Office has never been afraid to take audacious risks on the fly — with their quick turn away from the British version’s plotlines, it’s the main reason the show has stayed fresh and relevant — and we wouldn’t put it past them. This would seem like too big of a wrench to throw in only to back off in a couple of episodes.

There are a few other moments of note, the biggest one being Erin and Andy having a Moment of Misunderstanding That Stops Them From Getting Together, so obviously a riff on the old Pam and Jim business that the show actually winks by showing Pam turning toward the camera at the end of the scene. (Also, the pretend Mexican Standoff at the end was pretty brilliant — watch it below!.) But all that really matters, if they follow through with it, is the potential closing of Dunder Mifflin. Pam and Jim have a baby on the way and are facing the possibility of them both being unemployed. Michael could lose his whole reason for living. The rest of the staff could be thrown into the real world, facing unemployment, like 10 percent of the rest of the country. (Scranton’s actual unemployment rate is high, but still below the national average.) An Office without an office. Would they dare go there? Here’s hoping they have the guts. After all, as Dwight points out, there’s always jobs at Schrute Farms — as a human scarecrow. Though it doesn’t pay much, and you can’t unionize.

Recap courtesy of http://nymag.com

HIMYM RECAP: 5.7 "THE ROUGH PATCH"

Porn! Stormtroopers! Barney in a fat suit! Barney not in a fat suit! Alan Thicke! From where we’re standing, last night’s episode was the best of the season.

Things start out promisingly when blissfully coupled Barney gifts Ted with his bountiful porn collection. (Admittedly, you may remember this exact scenario from The 40 Year Old Virgin.) Ted sensibly starts off with ArchiSexTure, which Barney has taped over with a message dated 2005: If you are watching this, I'm either dead, in which case I want you to take me to the Hamptons and re-create Weekend at Bernie's (yes!), or I'm in a committed relationship that YOU — dum dum dum — have to get me out of. (Also awesome: pervy Marshall and Lily boosting DVDs from the collection.)

Ted, assuming Lily's regular role of annoying relationship meddler, notices Barney and Robin have gotten lame: Instead of going out, they stay in and watch movies (Barney: "It was Legends — wait for it — of the Fall. It was Legends of the Fall. It was okay"). Also, in a development impossible not to notice, a complacent Barney is getting fat: We see him mowing chicken wings and ribs in successively larger fat suits. (As you might assume, Barney in a fat suit is bizarrely compelling television all on its own; even better is when he says stuff like "We can either have sex or order a whole pizza and lay here moaning.") Meanwhile, Robin is generally looking haggard. The takeaway: Both are miserable, but are too stubborn to bail out — they are, in another of HIMYM's cutesy, contrived phrases, playing "relationship chicken."

Ted and Marshall take it upon themselves to break up the pair, and attempt to do so by sending a Champagne glass hiding an engagement ring over to the two during dinner. The hope is that Robin will freak out, like in the first second season with Ted. The whole thing backfires terribly when a beaten-down Barney and Robin instead back their way into getting married ("my mom would be happy ... Scherbatzky is so hard to spell"). Ted and Marshall realize they must bring in relationship-breaker-upper pro Lily, and she plans an event that will reference Barney and Robin's four biggest fights: two generic ones about dirty dishes and ex-girlfriends, and two awesome ones about stormtroopers and Neil Young. (Barney: "Now, was that the same old lady that played Archie Bunker's wife in All in the Family, or just a sound-alike?")

Which leads to the following high-watermark moment: While Robin and Barney are at dinner, Ted, Marshall, and Lily are in a stake-out station wagon across the street (a stake-out van cost $25 more, says Ted) with Crazy Meg (Barney's ex), Alan Thicke (brought in to rile up anti-Canada sentiment), the robot from Lost in Space (Lily couldn't get a stormtrooper), and a pizza-delivery guy incidentally quoting one of Barney's pornos. Things get delightfully madcap (an indignant Alan Thicke says "I'm Alan Thicke!", the robot wants to get high, and Lily rips off the Clerks innocent-people-on-the-Deathstar conversation), and the patsies are utilized — but Barney and Robin, it appears, will not break up. They love each other after all!

Or not. Back at the bar, a much healthier-looking Robin announces that she and Barney are over. They realized independently that they were making each other miserable, but instead decided that they shouldn't break up but "get back together as friends." Yes, it's a complete cop-out, but seeing as it's exactly what the show needed, we have no problem with it whatsoever!

Even better: skinny Barney's reentrance. He struts into the bar to the delight of a cornucopia of available girls, and the sound of two significant words: "Daddy's home." It’s an acknowledgment from the show's creative hive that Barney's return is a big deal. Meaning it's also an acknowledgment that neutering him in the first place was a mistake. Did the writers need to actually watch a non-awesome Barney HIMYM to realize how much he was needed? (Can you even switch things up mid-season, or is everything shot too far ahead of time?) Or was this a ploy to make the viewers appreciate awesome-Barney's charms even more? Whatever: Daddy's home.

Recap courtesy of www.nymag.com

MAD MEN RECAP: 3.13 "SHUT THE DOOR. HAVE A SEAT"

For much of this season, we wondered exactly when the show would get around to dealing with the Kennedy assassination - whether Matt Weiner would wait till the finale, or get to it ahead of that. He took the latter approach, and many of us assumed it was because he was following the "Sopranos"/"Wire" model of putting all the big developments in the penultimate episode.

Whoops.

Turns out Weiner put Kennedy into last week's episode because that wasn't the season's biggest development, not by a long shot. (In the grand scheme of the '60s, Kennedy was huge, but far-removed from the world of Sterling Cooper.) Instead, he had to get that out of the way so he could use the finale to deal with more pertinent matters for our characters: Betty divorcing herself from Don, and Don, Roger, and Bert finding a brilliant way to divorce themselves from PPL.

Over and over in "Shut the Door. Have a Seat," characters are told some variation of the episode's title, and they sit and hear some life-changing bit of news: that St. John is selling all of PPL to McCann Erickson; that Betty has hired a divorce lawyer; that Don, Roger and Bert are determined to buy the company back; that Betty won't have an easy time of divorcing Don in New York; that Don wants Peggy to quit Sterling Cooper and come with him; that Don and Roger need Pete to come on board; that Bobby and Sally's parents will be separating; and that Don, after being an aloof bastard to Peggy for most of this season, will do anything to get her to go with him to join the new firm.

We end the season on what could be two enormous shifts to the series' status quo: a core group of SC employees (Don, Roger, Bert, Lane, Peggy, Pete, Harry, Joan) have started up a new shop, and Betty has gone to Reno to divorce Don and plan for a new life with Henry Francis.

But will they take?

After all, "The Sopranos" closed its fourth season with Carmela kicking Tony to the curb for one infidelity too many (as Betty already did midway through season two) before taking him back a few months later when she realized she didn't have better options (ditto Betty). As soon as Henry told Betty to not try to get any of Don's money in the divorce, alarm bells went off for me. Bad enough that he proposed marriage to her after they'd spent perhaps a combined two hours in each other's company (assuming that, outside their stint as pen pals, they didn't get together off-camera at any point in the season), but he's setting up a circumstance where Betty's going to be just as dependent on her new man as her old one. It's entirely possible that midway through season four, Betty will be asking Don to move back in with her and the kids.

As for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce(*), while it's a shock to the system to see Don and Roger walk out of the familiar offices (leaving the doors unlocked, no less), this is a company being run by the same guys who were more or less running it this year - albeit with the balance of power more evenly-distributed - and with many (but not all) of the familiar faces from SC. Will this be a new beginning, or just an opportunity for the production team to have fun designing a different office set?

(*) Should there be any kind of punctuation in there? Sterling Cooper seemed to work fine without commas, but that was just two names. This is four - with the potential to expand to five if Pete proves himself down the road. (Don told him that working towards a goal has always led to his best work.)

But we can talk about how significant these changes might be in a bit. Because whatever happens in season four, this episode was such a concentrated shot of pure storytelling joy that I don't much care at the moment whether Betty goes back to Don, or whether Ken, Paul, Kurt, Smitty and even Lois slowly find their way onto the SCDP payroll.

"Shut the Door. Have a Seat" felt very much like a caper movie: the jazzy piano music, the intrigue, the plan unfolding perfectly as Lane walked in, got fired by St. John, and walked out happily, leaving a dumbfounded Moneypenny in his wake. Specifically, though, the episode felt like my favorite part of any caper (or other kind of ensemble adventure) movie: the gathering of the team. I have been, and always will be, a sucker for those sequences in movies like "Ocean's Eleven," "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Magnificent Seven" where the two leaders (there are always two guys at first, aren't there?) travel around to assemble the perfect team of experts, explaining their value and using various tricks of persuasion along the way to get them on board.

And what made this particular variation on that trope work so well was that it was a regathering of the team. This isn't Lee Marvin starting from scratch as he walks through a military prison. This is Don and some combination of Bert, Roger and Lane going out to gather the people that they - and we - know so well, and telling them why they're so important to each other.

In many cases, these are relationships that haven't been on great terms this year; given the way this episode goes, that was clearly by design, as it gives greater emotional weight to the reconciliations. And in some cases these unions are a matter of convenience. Don still doesn't like Roger but will put up with him because the company needs his contacts and social skills, and Don and Roger act all magnanimous while in Pete's presence but belittle him behind his back for trying to bolt the company. (They're just annoyed that Pete thought of it before they did.) And Harry, a lucky idiot as always (he can't even remember the room number of their suite at the Pierre), doesn't even get an elaborate sales pitch; just the threat of being locked in the store room by Bert Cooper. (Bert's man enough to do it himself.)

But if not every speech is sincere, we still get to see these characters singing each other's praises, and figuring out exactly the right buttons to push: Bert needs to feel vital, Roger likes the action and wants an apology from Don, Pete needs his ego stroked (specifically, by Don), and Peggy needs to know that Don values her work as much as she values (or used to value) his mentorship.

And it all works like gangbusters, for both the men assembling this new company and for the audience watching it come together.


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Recap courtesy of What's Alan Watching at http://sepinwall.blogspot.com

DEXTER RECAP: 4.7 "SLACK TIDE"

Poor Harry. His son has a new father figure, and his daughter’s research is shattering her image of dear old dad. But lucky us: A shocking turn in the case of the sleazy photographer turns this season upside down.

Sulky Dexter sees Trinity as proof that Harry’s code was wrong about sociopaths needing to be lone wolves, but it turns out Trinity’s way isn’t as easy as it sounds. A trip to the woods for lumber reveals that when he isn’t plotting elaborate murders or playing the perfect family man, Trinity is just an ordinary cranky old dude, probably a lot like your dad. But inside, he’s a an oversensitive, frightened baby, unable to man up and put the deer he hit with his truck out of its misery. (Maybe also like your dad.)

Someone should tell Dexter that felling trees to build a house a few days later isn’t very realistic — you have to dry the wood and you, uh, need a lot of it. Of course, if you’re Trinity and secretly building a coffin, that could work.

Debra is still hoping to solve the Trinity murders, but for now the Harry Morgan case has her attention. She’s shocked to find out that Harry had a slew of affairs with informants. Dexter helps nudge her away from that investigation to protect his own secret. But he protects her, too — not just from disappointment, but also from Trinity, Quinn’s reporter friend, and the photographer the cops question about a dead model.

Quinn responds to Dexter’s interference and general oddness by pulling a Doakes and tailing him, but Dexter manages to slip away from Quinn (and family life) long enough to capture his prey. That Dexter finds the model’s fingernail in the photographer’s bulletin board is ridiculous, but the payoff is worth that clumsy bit of proof: Dexter sacrifices the photographer on a lit table, amid strobe lights, as a PowerPoint slideshow reviews the photographer’s love of brutalizing beautiful women. It’s a gorgeous scene, made all the more intense by the photographer’s palpable panic.

And it’s brilliant. Distracted Dexter seems to have jumped to a conclusion based on that fingernail match: The cops say the photographer’s assistant was the real killer. Oops. This creep’s death is hardly a tragedy, but Dexter’s misstep could draw an awful lot of attention to the Bay Harbor Butcher, especially if Quinn can put the clues together. At the very least, Dexter is going to have to rethink his lifestyle. Again.

Recap courtesy of www.nymag.com

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: 1.8 "162 CANDLES"

Stefan gets a visitor from his past for his 162nd birthday, Lexi, a 300 year old vampire who is also Stefan’s oldest friend. Stefan is able to let loose with her, but he still can’t seem to stop talking about Elena. After Elena stops over to see Lexi in nothing but a towel, claiming that Stefan is in the shower she thinks that Stefan has already moved on from her.

Lexi thinks she’s Katherine at first and than realizes that Stefan must be trying to hold on to Katherine through Elena. Stefan insists that their resemblance drew him in at first, but Elena really is a completely different person and he loves her for it. Elena is still hesitant about letting Stefan in and is so overwhelmed with everything that has happened that she’s barely left her room. Elena ends up coming to the party that Damon compelled Caroline to throw, where Lexi encourages Elena to give Stefan a chance, telling her about her own human lover and how they went through the same things. Soon Damon’s reasons for wanting the party to take place and for certain people to be there becomes clear, introducing his ulterior motives and the bigger plan he has in store.


After learning all about her heritage from her grandmother, Bonnie begins practicing spells and grabbing control of the power she possesses rather than letting it control her. She shares her newfound abilities with Elena in a mesmerizing scene when Bonnie raises and gravitates feathers by using her powers. It actually plays as a lighthearted scene rather than evidence of her previously unknown paranormal abilities. Since the world of vampires is opened to Elena, given proof that the jokes about Bonnie being a witch with her freaky abilities were actually the truth isn’t so hard to swallow. Hopefully in the future, their two supernatural worlds will collide and become one as things may be getting so messy that they will need each other’s combined knowledge more than ever. Bonnie and Elena are able to share this mystical moment, but it makes it harder for Elena since she can’t tell her what is really going on with Stefan and Damon.

We see Damon working on deceiving the vampire hunters further, convincing them that he is trying to help them. He gets insider information and it turns out they are on to a vampire who can be out during the day time. The only two vampires who have this capability are Damon and Stefan. Damon tries to use this information and the party to try to keep the hunters off their trail. Lexi asks him what he is really doing in town and Damon answers that he has a diabolical plan. He says it sarcastically as if he is playing up his evil persona, but there might be more truth to it than we originally think. After he targets someone else as a sacrifice, Damon claims it is all part of the plan. He does still have his weaknesses though as Bonnie now has the powerful crystal that belonged to her ancestor centuries ago. Damon is desperate to get it, but is shocked by the crystal any time he tries to take it. Even compelling Caroline to do his dirty work for him doesn’t do much for him either as it is too heavily protected.

Arielle Kebbel is charismatic and feisty as the powerful, yet sensitive vampire, making it easy to understand why she’s close to Stefan and refuses to give Damon any satisfaction. This episode seemed to acknowledge the brooding nature of Stefan and lack of personality he sometime shows. The theory is that he can never truly be himself, because no one really knows him. Lexi is the exception since she has known him for over a hundred years. Paul Wesley shows a bit of a transition in the scenes with Kebbel, giving us a look in to the more youthful and free spirited Stefan. Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy also goes through a bit of a change himself. In the last episode, Damon erased the tragedy from his memory by Elena’s request so he didn’t remember Vicki’s vampiric nature. All of the memories of his parent’s death and his downward spiral with drugs and drinking are erased from his memory. He’s suddenly content and happy with his life, studying on a Friday night rather than going out and partying.

It is slightly disappointing that as soon as we get a new, interesting, and fun character or one who enters a new reality, they are quickly killed off. It makes you wonder how long this is going to go on for and how many engaging characters the show has up its sleeve. At the same time though, I have to respect the writers for their boldness. They really keep the element of surprise and shock, no line is too far for them to cross. I was surprised when they started changing roles of characters, seemingly cutting them off from roles that seem to be of importance later on. At first, I thought this was a shortcut on their part, but then the show started placing them in new and exciting roles, placing further importance in them in inventive and creative ways. All of the character are fun and add something new to each episode, but it makes you wonder when outside forces come in, who will still be around. Damon clearly has quite an intricate plan that he is acting out, not caring who he has to use or harm to get what he wants. We are only at the beginning of figuring out what he is really up to and capable of not what the truth of his complex intentions hold

Recap courtesy of www.horroryearbook.com

THE OFFICE RECAP: 6.8 "THE DOUBLE DATE"

The Michael-dating-Pam’s-mom plot has seemed a little rushed, but it certainly had potential. This episode looked to move the needle: Michael takes Pam’s mom out to lunch for her birthday, along with Jim and an extremely hesitant Pam, and awkwardness ensues. What is nice and unexpected about this, though, is that Pam begins to find herself won over. What Michael has always needed was a woman who appreciated his desperate, yearning attempts to be loved, and Pam’s mom, who is a little less disturbed here than she was earlier, falls squarely in that camp. She loves his little notes and poems and teenage wooing, and Pam, against her better judgment, grows more comfortable with it, too. After all, her mom looks happy, right?

This is all undercut, as it inevitably would be, by Michael losing interest once he learns how old Pam’s mom is (58). It strains credulity that Michael would JUST NOW figure out her age — how old does he think Pam is — 14? But it does set up a somewhat poignant man-boy moment when Michael realizes he’ll never be able to have kids with this woman. (Even if it’s ridiculous that it hadn’t occurred to him in the first place.)

It’s too much for Pam, though, who is furious and finally decides the only way she’s going to feel better is if she punches Michael. And, as Kelly points out, “she’s got that crazy pregnancy strength.” Michael begrudgingly agrees to be punched, and the whole office lines up to watch the “fight” in the parking lot. Michael, afraid for his life, apologizes, but he screws up the apology, of course, so Pam slaps him anyway, hard. (Watch it below!) It doesn’t make her feel better, though. And this plotline now appears over. So who’s Michael going to date next? Or are we just waiting for Pam to have her baby?

Recap courtesy of www.nymag.com

SPOILER SCOOP: TRUE BLOOD, VAMPIRE DIARIES, DEXTER

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
What's coming up on Vampire Diaries? — Monique
MICKEY: Witches and vampires aren't the only supernatural creatures in Mystic Falls. It won't be right away, but a major male character will reveal himself to be a werewolf. And don't think having read the books will help you figure this one out. In fact, the werewolf in question won't even know he's a werewolf, initially at least.

TRUE BLOOD:
Will Terry and Arlene still be together when we return for Season 3 of True Blood? — Anna
MICKEY: Yep. Executive producer Alan Ball told us that the happy couple "will make a surprising discovery that will bring them closer together." Translation: All that free lovin' they did under Maryann's spell will result in an unplanned pregnancy. I hope the baby has hair that looks like a sunset after a bomb went off.

Spoilers courtesy of Mega Buzz at www.tvguide.com

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DEXTER:
Question: Got any Dexter scoop? P.S. Rita seemed to be back to her normal self at the end of the last episode. So could you maybe spare the “annoying Rita” talk? —Maddie
Ausiello: I can’t and here’s why: Rita the big fat nag returns this Sunday when she guilt-trips Dexter into escorting the kids on a camping trip. Girlfriend needs to either accept the fact that her husband has a higher calling that involves killing bad people or simmah down now.

Question: Do you have any Dexter news? —Christina
Ausiello: In this Sunday’s eppy, the Showtime smash will boldly go where it has never gone before. I’d go so far as to call it a game-changing event.

Spoilers courtesy of Ask Ausiello at www.ew.com

HIMYM RECAP: 5.6 "BAGPIPES"

One of this season's strongest episodes, “Bagpipes,” was all about different types of couples and how they deal with conflict.

Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) thinks he and Robin (Cobie Smulders) are the best couple. They've had sex in 83 and a half beds (the half was a 19th century ottoman in an antique shop). They never fight, except about who's more awesome, which is understandable. I'm in a deadlock over that one too. As Ted (Josh Radnor) calls it, they have new-relationship smugness of the honeymoon state condition. Except Robin and Barney are in a fight that won't get started because whenever they feel they're about to have one, they find a way to avoid the conflict. Barney leaves the room. Robin starts undressing. As far as avoidance tactics go, Robin's seems more fun.

Smug over his seemingly perfect relationship, Barney tells Marshall (Jason Segal) what he would do if he were married to Lily (Alyson Hannigan). It involves lots of making out and definitely no dishwashing. The Barney and Lily fantasy sequence was a great callback to the underrated episode “World's Greatest Couple,” in which Lily moves in with Barney. Those two don't get enough scenes of their own. For that matter, neither do Marshall and Robin.

Marshall takes Barney's advice – danger, Will Robinson! – leading to a huge fight with Lily and one of my favorite scenes as multiple Lilys and Marshalls have it out over different arguments. One pair argues over Lily bringing up “The Shining” at night. Lily retaliates by doing a “Shining” impression, freaking out all the Marshalls, who simultaneously beg her not to do that.

Barney and Robin return from their sky trip with simultaneous ski slope moves (cutest scene ever) and nicknames so sweet, they even make Ted sick. Yes, you read that correctly. The most romantic, in love with love man in New York is nauseated by Barney and Robin. But Ted's not a professor for nothing. He figures out the twosome isn't nearly as happy as they appear to be. Turns out, ever since they got trapped on a ski lift with no way of avoiding a fight, they've been fighting so much, Barney's downstairs neighbor could hear everything. Barney and Robin go to Marshall and Lily for advice. After hearing about Barney and Robin's fights, they quickly make up and tell them you have to let go of your ego because it's not about winning. Naturally, the advice goes over the head of the world's most competitive couple. No way the guy who plays laser tag like his life depends on it is going to give in. Barney and Robin will never be Lily and Marshall, who were back to their cute and non-annoying ways for the first time this season.

Meanwhile, another couple was, um, hammering it out above Ted and Robin's apartment. Their elderly neighbors just couldn't stop “bagpiping,” as Ted's voiceover labeled it. I always enjoy when Ted tries to censor his story with ridiculous substitute words, like the time Marshall lit up a “sandwich.” It's not like he's telling his kids all sorts of inappropriate details about his and his friends' sex lives.

What exactly is Ted up to lately, anyway? He always seems to be grading papers at home or at the bar – those are so coming back to the students with beer stains – but we never see him teaching anymore. We haven't even seen him really date anybody this season. The motherquest seems to be on hold, which is fine when there's strong Robin/Barney and Lily/Marshall story lines like tonight. I know Ted is not the most popular character on the show, but I enjoy his search for The One. His speech about being the marrying kind in the pilot always gets me.

Readers, are you concerned about Ted's lack of a story line? Who do you think is the best couple, Barney and Robin or Lily and Marshall? And who is more awesome, Barney or Robin?

Recap courtesy of www.latimesblogs.latimes.com

DEXTER RECAP: 4.6 "IF I HAD A HAMMER"

This week's theme on "Dexter" was honesty. Is honesty really the best policy, especially when you've got not just skeletons in your air conditioner, but buried on the bottom of the ocean, too? But if you're not a little more honest, can you have a real relationship? Shockingly, the major players in this episode made good decisions. As annoying as Rita's harping can be -- especially since we all know there's not a snowball's chance she could ever accept Dexter as he is really is -- she learned a lesson, too. That lesson is, sometimes people just need a padlock. Dexter learned a few things from Trinity, that sometimes hiding in plain sight, and jumping in with two feet, is the way to go; and Deb surprisingly didn't just go with her raw emotions -- to crush and punish Nikki -- but realize that the truth isn't always what you want to hear, but you have to accept it.

Even the marriage counseling wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Nobody watches "Dexter" for counseling sessions, but it worked because the counselor was a sensible human being and because both Dexter and Rita had lessons to learn. He learned he'd have to put a bit of a crack in his mask if he expected to keep his family, and she learned that she can't change Dexter too much. She's done it before -- thought marrying a guy would change him. And we only really know about two of her marriages, she's got one more she's never told Dexter about, a fact I like because it makes her less Pollyanna-ish.
I didn't want Dexter to give up his apartment, but it was inevitable if he was going to move forward. How weird that he's taking lessons from Trinity, or rather Arthur Mitchell. At first, I thought the fact that Trinity had a family (that he was just like Dexter) was a tad convenient, but they had to throw something into the mix to drag out the confrontation and give it more weight. Now when Dexter brings down Trinity, he's also going to be taking down a family, one who apparently has no idea that dad likes to crack people's heads open with hammers or make women jump off buildings.

Trinity's family must be dense. Even naive Rita has suspected weird things about Dexter, and gotten a tiny sneak peek at the dark passenger. But maybe that's because, as Dexter learned, Trinity isn't hiding as much -- he's got his trophies, the plaques from all his Four Walls kill sites, hanging right in his living room. Still, nobody in his family maybe accidentally bumped into Vera's ashes, not even once?

I was surprised that Dexter poked the bee hive that is Trinity by picking up his sister Vera's urn. He didn't have to do that -- he watched security camera footage of Trinity bludgeoning a guy to death -- and there's really no polite explanation for poking around in somebody's family urn. But maybe he just needed to see Arthur Mitchell's monster. Dexter had to see that monster to convince himself that it was necessary to kill this guy, that Trinity's self-control is pretty terrible.

I was actually afraid that Trinity might become likable. After watching him crack open the coffee clerk's head last week, I didn't want in any way to like this guy. Dexter, yes, Trinity -- who so cruelly made Tarla kill herself -- no. Any chance of really liking him went away when he showed how easily he can snap, and when he took that creepy bath with his wife, Sally.

Dexter is going to have to kill Trinity soon since now Deb is on his scent after discovering that some of Lundy's possessions -- his kill book and tape recorders -- are missing. Poor Deb, she's actually doing the right thing for once, and is on the path to the right killer, but everyone is telling her she's wrong. (It was giving me an ulcer when she at first thought about giving false testimony.) I think Deb actually could accept the truth about Dexter this season because she finally has a good reason for wanting someone dead. And she got the mysterious call from one of Harry's CIs, Valerie Hodges, who apparently knows the truth about dear old dad.

The final duo who learned some hard truths this episode were Laguerta and Batista. I like them together, but their back and forth agonizing has been annoying. Maybe they won't be able to keep apart, but they made a choice -- they realized their jobs are a massive part of their lives and their identities and they can't easily give them up. They also realized that whoever got transferred might end up resenting the other person and it just wouldn't work. Although who wants to guess that they'll end up together again and get busted?

The motivation behind Trinity's killing spree was revealed. For weeks, they've been dropping hints that Trinity has been acting out some family issues when he's busy slashing and smashing. And he'd seemed to be re-enacting experiences he had. He's not just named Trinity because he kills in threes, but because of his family -- sister, mother, father. That was a lot of tragedy for just one family to experience: sister murdered, mom committed suicide, dad also murdered. I hope there's something more to it than just bad luck. Trinity seems pretty crazy about his sister, but maybe he accidentally killed her and that drove mom to suicide? Or the father killed the sister, mom committed suicide, and years later, Trinity killed his father?

The episode ended with Dex letting in his family a little more. "Hey, kids, help dad build his kill shack." That's progress. And Rita gave Dexter a padlock, a sign from her that she's OK with him having some personal space and a few secrets. Plus, as she pointed out, there's "dangerous stuff in there." Hopefully, she never thinks to look underneath the shotgun in the chest.

Recap courtesy of Jennifer Thomas at http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com

MAD MEN RECAP: 3.12 "THE GROWN-UPS"

Weiner, like any artist, is allowed to change his mind, and so season three wound up not only including the Kennedy assassination, but confronting it head-on. But after seeing the finished product - the first episode of season three I've found truly disappointing - I can understand why he was initially reluctant to do it.

On the one hand, this is a series about the social change that came in the '60s, and so you can't not deal with Kennedy's death in some way. It would feel like either a cheat, or simply a glaring hole in the narrative. But on the other, Weiner was right that the assassination itself, and how people learned of and reacted to it, has been told so many times that there simply wasn't a lot that he (in a script co-written with Brett Johnson) could add to it.

With season one's episode about the Nixon vs. Kennedy election, or season two's Cuban Missile Crisis finale, the show took the approach of showing that even in the midst of a presidential election, or the potential end of the world, people were still caught up in the drama of their own lives. But even more than the Cuban Missile Crisis (which was an abstraction - the threat of something happening, rather than something actually happening), Kennedy's assassination was such an enormous event that it took over everyone's life for a little while. And many people spent those tumultuous days doing exactly what Pete and Trudy, and Betty, and the gang in the kitchen at the wedding - and characters in so many other JFK-era dramatizations - did, which was to sit in front of the television and try to process all of the bizarre, horrible things that were happening.

In the end, I don't know that Weiner had a choice, either about doing an episode about the assassination, or about showing the characters largely being passive, frustrated observers to it all.

But if it was necessary, it wasn't very satisfying to watch - watching a TV show about characters glued to their TV sets feels particularly slothful - and it felt even more unsatisfying coming on the heels of the astonishing second half of last week's "The Gypsy and the Hobo." "Mad Men" tends to go back and forth between telling larger stories of the '60s and smaller stories of the characters - and, at its best, stories that combine the two - and the shift from the important (to us) but (to the world at large) small moment where Betty learns the truth about Dick Whitman to the more sweeping yet (to our characters) remote story of JFK being killed was jarring. Since I realized when this season was set, and certainly since I saw the date of Margaret's wedding on the invitation(*), I've been waiting to see how "Mad Men" would deal with the assassination. But now that we're here, I find myself wishing they had pushed it off for a bit so we could have seen more of how Betty was dealing with this new information, and what the state of the Draper marriage was before Betty decided to end it.

(*) I'm not usually a good prognosticator, but I was pleased to see that I was right in assuming that Roger would stubbornly go through with the wedding, that it would be sparsely-attended, and that most of the guests would be miserable. Margaret's wailing, "It's all ruined!" reaction to the assassination was a nice reminder that not everyone was so devastated by the death itself.

Now, the fact that Betty's willing to walk away from Don (and into the arms of Henry Francis) should more or less tell you what the state of the marriage was. But we closed "The Gypsy and the Hobo" on a somewhat hopeful note: Betty hadn't asked Don to leave, wanted to go trick-or-treating with him and the kids, offered him the last bite of her sandwich, etc., while Don seemed relieved to have the burden of the secret lifted. Then the Drapers are largely invisible in this one at first (Don and Betty don't appear at all, alone or together for the first 10 minutes), and then they're dealing with reactions to Kennedy's death, and then Betty's eyeing Henry at the wedding. It's clear from their reactions to the kiss on the dance floor - Don looks hungrier for his wife than ever before, where Betty is lost in thought and a bit puzzled - that they're moving in different directions, but I think an opportunity was missed to show Betty going from Point A (interested in saving the marriage) to Point B (recognizing it as a lost cause).

Weiner apparently said in one of those "Inside Mad Men" features on AMC's website that Betty originally planned to move herself and the kids permanently to Philadelphia, and only went back to Don after the lawyer's advice was so depressing. In that light, Betty's emotional journey makes more sense - the Dick Whitman revelation was only a temporary blip in her desire to get the hell away from this man who's always been like a stranger to her - but in terms of what's been shown on the screen, rather than explained in an on-line footnote, I wanted more middle. I wanted to see how, if at all, Don and Betty's interaction changed after this news, to see how Betty viewed her husband now, how Don acted at home, etc., and aside from their brief moment in Gene's room in the middle of the night, there was no time for that with all the JFK drama unfolding.

And I wanted all of that because it feels like the relationship has now passed a point of no return, so we're never going to get a chance to see this in the future. Betty has now declared her desire to end the marriage twice, and while she took him back once, it would be tedious if the show kept breaking them up and putting them together again - especially since Betty only really took him back the last time because she was afraid to have the baby alone.

And that in turn raises a troubling question about what happens to Betty going forward. Betty has only ever figured into the story as she relates to Don, and we've seen this season with Joan and, especially, Sal, how easily characters who don't work at Sterling Cooper and/or don't have relationships with characters who work there can fall off the map. If Betty follows through on her plan to end the marriage, where does that leave her in the larger story? Will we have random, disconnected subplots about what Betty, Henry and the kids are up to? Or will the reality of Henry turn out to be so different from the fantasy of him that Betty will run screaming back to Don, and have Don (yawn) take her back?

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Recap courtesy of What's Alan Watching at http://sepinwall.blogspot.com