Recap 8/24 - 8/30

Warehouse 13:

This episode contained issues from not one, not 2, but 3 different artifacts.

Artie was following the movements of 2 small time cons who had suddenly been winning sizeable amounts of money at casinos all across the US and were now in Vegas, apparently for the "big time." Artie wasn't sure what known or unknown artifact that they might have to help them out as he said there are plenty of artifacts "in the wild" that could help them win. He also noted that they weren't winning enough to set off any alarms, but its enough to add up to a very good amount of money.

While Artie was working out what to do about the cons, he had the agents, Mika and Pete, doing inventory with Claudia. Pete was playing ping pong with himself using Lewis Carroll's magical "Alice" mirror. Mika showed up and playfully shoved Pete who fell onto the mirror causing it to rock back and knock a giant mirror ball off the shelf behind it, and then it rocked forward, but before it crashed, Mika caught it. Big mistake. The mirror ball turned out to be from Studio 54, and when it hit the ground, it activated playing Gloria Gayner's "I Will Survive" and shot lights out in all directions from the mirrors on the ball. The lights reflected off "Alice's" Magical Mirror which Mika was holding. Unknown at the time, the interaction of the 2 artifacts caused the spirit of "Alice" which had been trapped in the mirror to enter Mika's body, while her spirit was now trapped in the mirror. When it was over, "Mika" set the mirror face down on the ground and walked away.

Artie sent the 2 agents to Vegas to find out how the 2 cons were winning, and retrieve any artifact that they might have. "Mika" was acting slightly odd, but not enough to set off alarms. Staking out the 2, "Mika" stayed at the Roulette wheel while Pete ransacked their room. "Mika" saw that before each bet, they rubbed a coin. When Pete came back and said that he didn't find anything in their room so it must be on them, "Mika" lied and said that she hadn't noticed anything. Later, they followed the 2 cons back to their room, but as the cons walked past, "Mika" grabbed Pete and kissed him to "keep their cover."

Back at the warehouse, Artie and Claudia put the mirror ball back (the mirror ball grants the deepest desires) and set "Alice's" mirror back up. That's when Artie saw the image of Mika trapped within. Claudia wanted to help her out, but Artie said that entities within mirrors like to fool people into releasing them, and he wouldn't even try to communicate. Later, he, Claudia and Leena were discussing what happened and decided to try to communicate just to see if there was any chance she was Mika due to the interaction of the 2 artifacts. Claudia modified some stuff found in the Warehouse to act like the CIA's "sonic vibration" readers that reads vibrations off glass to "hear" what people on the other side are saying. Sure enough, it sounded like Mika and she plead her case. Artie would have none of it, and covered the mirror. He called Pete (but "Mika" could hear due to their connected earpieces,) and asked him if Mika showed any effects from the event at the Warehouse. He said that all was normal (this was before the kiss) and that they were still investigating. Artie seemed satisfied. Claudia and Leena weren't. They got Artie to try again, and the real Mika revealed that she doesn't trust Artie but wants to and has issues in her past that are creating friction with her and Artie but she wants to try to move past them. Artie was convinced, but the only way to put the right Mika back was to get the fake Mika back to the mirror and something can only get out if something else goes in.

Instead of calling Pete on the Farnsworth communicator, which was now with "Mika/Alice," Artie called the hotel and had him paged. Pete had just convinced the woman con to give him the coin, but that she and her husband could keep all of the money, but to leave town, leave crime, and settle down. Using the coin "burns" the hand from rubbing it, and the more it's used, the worse the hand gets. So, she gave up the coin and went to collect their winnings. Meanwhile, "Mika" had gone to the con's room and beat up the guy only to learn that he didn't have the coin. She shot him with the Tesla just as Pete showed up. Pete told her that she had killed the guy (she hadn't, it only stuns) so the guy pretended to be dead. He revealed that he knew she was "Alice" and that Mika would never ever kiss him for any reason. She then got the drop on him and shot him too, and then took the coin from him. She decided that the only way to stay free within Mika was to destroy the mirror.

She arrived back at the Warehouse, to "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (I had forgotten how amazing that song is...one of the best ever.) When she got to the mirror, the Warehouse staff sprung their trap. Caludia hit the Studio 54 Mirror Ball with a laser, the lights shot out, "Mika/Alice" screamed and she and the real Mika traded places again. Within the mirror was now the creepy image of a demonic looking child in 1800s clothing...and everything within the mirror had an old fashioned sepia tone to it. They covered the mirror and Artie said that he'd have to place it in the "Dark Room." The real Mika was back, but the Mirror Ball lights twinkled as they left. Hmm. Feed your head.

Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:

The Quickfire Challenge had the cheftestants roll dice and whatever number the 2 die added up to was the number of ingredients that they could use from the pantry to make a dish. Nobody wanted snake eyes, but nobody wanted 12 either. Several got 10. One person got 3. Eve and Jesse who had both been in the bottom of the previous Elimination challenge also were in the bottom here along with Brother Bryan. Kevin, Jen and Brother Michael were in the top and Michael won the $15,000 casino chip...much to his brother Bryan's dismay because he had used liquid nitrogen to make gazpacho.

The Elimination Challenge had the cheftestants team up, men vs. women, and prepare a due bachelor/bachelorette party. The men met with the bride-to-be and the women with the groom to figure out what they wanted. One thing that they BOTH wanted was to have dishes paired up with one of 3 shots of alcohol that they both love. From the cheftestants, the shots were pretty nasty, so not a good sign. Many women were upset with the whole "men vs. women" theme, but Ashley was more upset about having to cater for a bachelor/bachelorette party yet she would not be allowed to have one since she's a lesbian. She was mad that Preeti who also is a lesbian didn't seem to be bothered by it. Preeti said that it just didn't work her up as much, and that regardless, people get married and she has a job to do. Ash, the only gay man, wasn't really even mentioned. It seemed like Ashley was just using this challenge to get air time and to trumpet gay rights, both are her right to do, but it seemed almost a bit overboard. She even acknowledged that since the show was taking place in Vegas, that she figured there'd be at least one wedding themed challenge.

The men won the day with brothers Michael and Bryan along with Hector and Eli as the tops. This time it was brother Bryan who won, and while winning $15,000 might be great, it's probably ultimately more important to win the bigger Elimination challenges than the Quickfires.

Preeti, and once again Jesse and Eve were in the bottom. Eve got the boot, thank God, because I can't stand to look at her or to listen to her odd voice and annoying "Fargo" accent. I live in Michigan and NOBODY I've ever known talks like that, although it's been spoofed from time to time, but I think it's maybe a Northern and Western Michigan accent as it certainly isn't heard around here.

Check out judge Tom's excellent blog on the episode: http://tinyurl.com/lfs8sn

Eureka:

Ok, when did Tess with the 3 doctorates have one in a memory related field? Wasn't she brought in from CETI to deal with the returning spacecraft, and to head up Level 5? I didn't realize that one of her doctorates had anything to do with the mind. Regardless, she had made a "memory time capsule" that would record people's memories directly from their mind in a visual way. Yep, looks like a "flashback" episode to me. Thankfully, the flashbacks were mostly short and very few.

Fargo gets upset that memories of him may make him look badly, so he deletes them. Only he causes the central device to delete not only the memories of him from the system, but anyone who used the memory device found many of their memories deleted. Odd that once people started losing their memories that it took the Sheriff, once again, to be the one to point out that hey, maybe it's connected to this new memory device that just started being used. Oy.

The Sheriff and Allison go to GD to try to reverse the problem only to get trapped inside during a lockdown for a special "sonic cleansing" of the facility that will vaporize any organic material whether a virus or a person. Then, of course, Allison loses much of her memory. The Sheriff uses the device in reverse to "show" her memories and then has her call up memories hoping to stir emotions as those are often stronger memories in the hopes that she'll be able to "wake up" and get them out of there. Oh, and now she's in labor.

The Sheriff is able to use a special pager that Allison had given him so that if she went into labor, she could contact him even if he was deep in a cave in China. Tess and the Sheriff's daughter are the only people so far unaffected by the memory loss (the daughter had never used the device as she couldn't think of a memory that was important enough.) They went to GD and the daughter freed the Sheriff and Allison, but Tess hadn't shut down the cleansing. The Sheriff finds her in Allison's office, only now she's lost her memory too. Oh, come on. At this point, EVERYONE had lost their memory a long time ago, but they make Allison and Tess lose theirs just at the "wrong" time. Of course, to get hers back quickly, she has to kiss the Sheriff long enough to realize how to stop the cleansing from killing them all. Uh huh. The system stopped, and the Sheriff's daughter delivers Allison's baby while Fargo returns everyone's memory...and then faints from the childbirth. The daughter now thinks that she's found her "calling" in life.

Special note, the actress who plays deputy Jo and the actor who plays her boyfriend on Eureka were the married couple on Warehouse 13 who were using the coin to win in casinos. Despite playing couples on 2 different tv series, they are not a couple in real life.

Big Brother Spoilers for BB week starting Thursday 8/27

These Spoilers are for the winner of HOH, who was nominated, who won Veto, and who will most likely be getting voted out.

Kevin won HOH. He nominated Jeff & Michele. Michele won Veto. Michele will remove herself from the block and Jordan will become the replacement nominee. Jeff will be voted out. So much for all those people who said that CBS "handed" the game to Jeff.

End Spoilers!

Here is the link to Julie Chen's EW.com blog about this week:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/08/28/julie-chen-blogs-big-brother-season-11-elimination-7/

Frakking aminals!

I've lived in this house for about 6.5 years or so. About a year after we moved in, I put up 2 laundry lines outside that ran from the house to a big tree in the middle of the backyard, and they operated on a pulley so I could move the laundry back and forth. It was a nice option for hot days or when doing things like sheets.

About a year later, my step-son and his buddies tied a rope around a lower branch of the same tree and then tied a rubber doggie tug toy to one end and they got the big puppy to pull on the toy and it would cause him to nearly swing on the rope. It was fun!

About a month or so ago, I noticed that one of the laundry lines was broken and halfway up the tree. It was wrapped around it. Apparently, some industrious little squirrel decided that it needed my rope more than I did. So, I unwound it from the tree and tied it back together. About a week or so later, I was in the bathroom when I heard the pulley squeaking. I looked out, and I could see the other rope was being tugged. I went outside and I could see this little black squirrel trying to pull the rope up the tree, but it was snagged on the bark. I grabbed part of the rope that was still on the laundry line and tugged it. The squirrel got yanked, and looked at the rope quizzically, and then saw me and scooted up the tree. So, I tied this line together, and now I had 2 broken laundry lines.

About 2 weeks later, I came home and found both ropes broken, one lying on the ground, and one wrapped around the tree. The dog tug toy was lying on the ground, and the rope was being dragged up the tree by that frakking little black squirrel. I grabbed the rope and pulled it away from the squirrel, who was NOT happy with me. I took all of the ropes and wound them up. I noticed that in addition to the long sections of rope that survived, I now also had about 5 little sections of rope, no smaller than 6 inches but no bigger than a foot. So, I neatly looped those little sections together, and left them in 5 little piles next to the tree. A few days later, I noticed that 3 of the 5 sections of rope were gone, and a few days after that, the other 2 were gone as well.

The dog tug rope and one of the laundry lines were fiber rope and they were in terrible shape so I tossed them. The other laundry line rope was artificial and was in decent shape, so it sits, wound up, in my kitchen closet where I keep my mosquito lanterns, and other knick knacks for outside grilling or the fire pit.

Fast forward to now which is over a month since the little bits of rope were taken. I have a tree in my back yard that I planted 2 years ago. It's an apple tree that is 4 types of apples in one tree. This year, I finally had fruit. I had 1 apple that looked like green Granny Smith, and 3 yellow/red apples that looked like Galas. I was trying to figure out when I should pick them. I wanted them to reach full size, but I didn't want them to fall off on their own.

Well, so much for that. I came home tonight and I noticed that I didn't see the yellow/red apples that had been hanging like testicles from the lower branch of the tree. Sure enough, I walked back there and all three Galas were gone. I found the remnants of 2 of them near the HUGE tree in the back corner of the yard. The green apple is much higher, and perhaps whatever aminal (spelling on purpose) took the other 3 won't be able to get this one. Or maybe I should just go out and pick it.

Frakking squirrels. Frakking aminals. Grumble grumble grumble. Frak frak frak.

Simon Cowell finds another one!

While I think that Simon got caught up in the moment with his hyperbole, this guy does have the complete package: sings well, nice looking, charismatic, and stage presence. I just don't think he's the best "singer" I've seen, but he did "own" that stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhBnXbzGYAc

The guy looks a little like a young Prince...only taller.

Worst.Summer.Ever.

This is BY FAR the WORST Summer that I can remember.
I do recall the first year in Madison Heights when taking my step-son to school and we passed people getting off a bus at the corner. A guy got off the bus wearing a Winter coat. It was June 6th.
This, though, has been worse.
The next day after that, it got warm and it turned out to be a great Summer that year.
This year, it's just been bleh non stop.
While I haven't had any days wearing a Winter coat, just yesterday, August frakking 22, I was wearing long pants and my Fall/Spring windbreaker.
I mean, come the Eff on!
So far, I've only used the A/C twice, and in fact, it was August before I ever took that Winter cover off the compressor outside! Oy! Ok, sure, there were a couple of days in July where I could have turned on the A/C had I had the cover off already, but it wasn't pressing enough to make me run outside and remove it and fire the frakking thing up.
The funniest thing is that we had a couple of days in the 90s way back in April or maybe early May, but then I don't think we hit the 80s again until July.
Even worse, the lawn is dead. It did nothing but rain until the middle of June, and then although it never got "Summer hot," it was steady in the 70s and without rain the lawn flatlined.
I refuse to water the lawn.
At some point, I'll get some of those rain barrels and use those to catch rain and then water the lawn from those, but not anytime this year.
So, here it is, August 23, and the past 2 days I've woken up to temperatures in the 50s! Ok, so it was 58 and 59, but STILL!
Worst.Summer.Ever.

Recap 8/17 - 8/21 2009

Big Brother Spoilers at the end!

Warehouse 13:

Ths episode started out with them playing the song Queen B by Puscifer (the lead singer from Tool's other side band.) I have no idea as to why as it didn't fit what was going on in the scene, but I'll take a gratuitous use of that song any day.

The episode was about an ancient Samurai sword that was going to be presented to the President of the US by Japan after having been uncovered in a dig about a year earlier. To me that made no sense. The sword was supposed to have been from the most powerful dynasty in Japan's history and it had been lost for hundreds of years. So it finally turns up underground, and now they're going to give it to the US President? Huh?

Anyway, it is said to be able to bend light around the user, rendering him invisible. So they are supposed to swap a duplicate that Artie made and store the actual sword in the warehouse.

The 2 agents go to the Japanese consulate and there is a powerful event that takes place. The 2 agents are sucked into a wall. Just as he's falling unconscious, the male agent sees someone leave the room where the "event" was located. After waking up, they tell Artie that it was more like an implosion than an explosion. Artie freaks out.

Artie travels to an electronics store where a guy who he knows has made implosion grenades is located. Only he finds him turned to dust (earlier we saw someone collect a briefcase of grenades and then fry the poor guy.) Artie finds a clue that appears to have been left purposely for him. He now believes that it is a guy from his past. The agents also think that whoever is doing it has Warehouse tech as they catch a masked theif trying to steal the sword's Tsuba (which is the disc like part, usually decorative, that is between the blade and the handle) who has a Tesla gun. They end up being caught by the Secret Service with the Tsuba and are implicated. The Japanese liason also gives a file to their old boss at the Service that alleges that Artie is wanted for treason. It's not looking good for the 2 agents.

The agents are let go but given the file. They don't know what to think. Later, Artie is nabbed while trying to steal the Tsuba away from the Secret Service boss's safe. The agents want to know the truth, but Artie says that Mrs Frederick (who didn't believe that the person who Artie thinks is behind all the commotion is actually the right guy and that Artie is making it personal) had long ago buried all of that information about him and the alleged espionage against the US. It seems that Artie (with a different last name) was once a code breaker, but ultimately got accused of selling secrets to the Russians. So Artie knows that if the file got out, only somoeone who knew about it and had it in for Artie coould have dug it up...meaning that he is correct with his suspicions. Mrs Frederick gets Artie freed and now she admits that she was wrong and Artie as right.

The suspect once worked with Artie and there was a fallout over a woman and their work. The guy, named MacPherson, ran off with a woman Artie cared about, and then went rogue. Artie tracked down the woman who wasn't happy with him and also felt that Artie was wrong, but ultimately didn't care. Now freed, Artie tracks the sword which has been reunited with the Tsuba (making it whole and allowing the power to work) as the Japanese liason turns out to have been working with Artie's nemesis. The guy kills the liason by lopping off his head while invisible, and then stabs Artie. Artie holds onto the sword, inside him, as the 2 agents arrive. MacPherson gets away.

At the end, they show the 2 agents stashing the real sword in the warehouse while a recovering Artie talks with Mrs Frederick about the danger that MacPherson presents to them all.


Top Chef Masters:

This was the season finale. The final 3 were Classic French Chef Hubert Keller, Italian influenced Californian Chef Michael Chiarello, and Traditional Mexican Chef Rick Bayless.

They started by treating the Final 3 by taking them to the Getty House where they got to relax and dine in elegance.

Then they had to made a 4 course dinner that told their "history" as chefs. The first course would be their oldest food memory. The second course would be the dish that made them want to be a chef. The third course would represent their first restaurant. And the fourth course would be where they are and where they are heading.

The diners were the 3 Top Chef Master judges, the TC:M host, the 3 judges from "regular" Top Chef (Tom, Padma and Gail,) and the 5 winners of the 5 seasons of Top Chef. Good mix! Padma seemed very quiet, and didn't seem like she wanted to be there and hardly said anything.

Michael took note that the one judge from Saveur Magazine was always hard on him, never giving him anything over 3.5 stars. So, Michael took pages of his magazine, and burned the edges, and made them a "doiley" for his second course. Everyone laughed...but the judge was still a putz.

Hubert's courses: 1 - Great, 2 - Hit & Miss, 3 - Miss, 4 - Hit

Michael's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - HUGE Hit (Gail wanted to bathe in it,) 3 - Well cooked but boring, 4 - Collassal hit (Padma said that he had won her heart with that dish, and Tom was impressed by how complex it was to make yet seemed so simple.

Rick's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - Probably the biggest HIT of the night out of all of them, 3 - Hit & Miss, 4 - Miss (especially the Chorizo Foam.)

So, looking at that, who won? Michael, right?
Wrongo friendo!
Rick won with 18 stars, Michael had 17, and Hubert had 16.5

As much as the jerk from Saveur magazine bagged on Rick's 4th course and loved Michael's 2nd and 4th course, he STILL only gave him 3.5 stars and gave Rick 4.

I knew it.
Everyone just LOVES Rick Bayless. He's so soft spoken, so friendly, and has such passion for Mexico and Mexican food, and his charity benefits Midwestern farmers. I picked him to win from the start.


Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:

17 Chefs (Is that the most ever?)
They are the most qualified and respected they've ever had as a group. Many are executive chefs. Some are James Beard nominees (and I think even a winner,) 1 woman is the head chef for one of Eric Ripert's restaurants, and TC thinks of Daniel Boulud and Eric Ripert as like "The Gods."
2 are brothers.
1 guy always dresses like he's about to run with the bulls. I think he's from France.
1 Indian (as in the nation) woman looked like a guy, but this gal named Ashley looks just like musician Beck. I mean, I can't see anything "feminine" about her at all. She seems to cook well.
Oh, and the oldest gal has 2 forms of cancer.

For the Quickfire, they had to pull out poker chips to see who would be on the same team, and the cancer woman pulled a gold chip which meant that she didn't have to compete in the race (17 is uneven as they had 4 teams of 4,) and it also meant that she had immunity from elimination. She also got to pick which group she would compete with in the Elimination challenge.

The Quickfire was the dreaded mise-en-lace relay race, and the poor Indian gal was told to open clams (she didn't ask for it, they all picked the other 3 items and she got stuck with it.) It was the first part of the race, and she'd never opened clams before and tried to do it liek they were oysters (which is wrong.) I'm not sure she ever finished by the time that the first team had finished all 4. One gal cut her fingers and was bleeding all over the place, and then suddenly I saw her wearing a purple sanitary glove. I bet they stopped everyone while they put that on her so that she didn't get blood everywhere as the winning team then had to each cook the items that they prepared so that only 1 person would win a $15,000 poker chip!

The Elimination challenge had each group from the Quickfire compete against each other as a group. The best of each group would go to a winner's judging where one would win the week. The worst of each group would go to the bottom where the worst of the worst would be eliminated. Wolfgang Puck was the guest judge.

The dish they had to create had to represent a "vice" of theirs. Some chose drinking, some procrastination, etc. The guy from Haiti chose the memory of his 21 days at sea when coming to America. Tom didn't see how it was a "vice" but he ended up as the best from his group. This one guy with a big red beard (looks like Kris Kringle from the old Santa Claus Is Coming To Town puppet Christmas classic) ended up winning.

I thought for sure the only person from Michigan, Eve, would be booted. They TRASHED her dish as though she was someone who had just began to learn to cook. But, they sent packing this Hispanic woman with tats all over her, including this big one at the base of her neck. She wasn't very good either, but as a viewer, I thought that her dish was better than Eve's.


Eureka:

This episode had a lot going on.

Kim 2.0 was degrading and all of her data would die with her. Billy Campbell guest starred as an expert at extracting data, and showed that just one lock of her hair was FULL of data, but that his laser and radiation combo could extract all of it quickly. When they tried to run the laser/radiation scan on her, it wasn't working and it was harming her. So they tried putting her into a bath of anti-biotics and nutrients, and while it worked briefly, ultimately Kim shut herself down (essentially killed herself.) They brought her back but she knew that her existence was to bring back data so if she must die to do it, then so be it. They ran the laser/radiation scan on her again, but this time in a vat of acid which would cause all of her cells to disperse, allowing the laser scan to read all of the data more efficiently. Henry cried while watching "Kim" "die" for a second time. They got all of the data.

3 women in charge of varying baby items of the future threw a baby shower for Allison. One gave her a superabsorbant diaper, one gave her a special bottle that allows all of the liquid inside to come out (nothing clings to the bottle,) and the third gave her a device that connects the mother to the unborn baby in a unique way.

The day after the party, the monitor woman is found drowned in her car that is full of water. The next day, the bottle woman drowns in the Cafe's bathroom. A third person, a cleaning woman, is found drowned ni the sauna at GD. Since Henry is dealing with Kim 2.0, Fargo does the autopsies and discovers that the water each woman drowned in is a synthetic water made at GD intended for space colonization. The water compresses and so an ocean could fit into a drinking bottle...that's how the women drowned, the water decompressed inside them and spilled out.

Tess and the diaper lady are found to also be full of the water, and are now slowly drowning. They are in the GD infirmary where their lungs are being drained as quickly as possible, but even then it would take a month to drain out all of the syn water...and both women would die of organ failure before that. Carter (!) realizes that perhaps the syn water lady and Billy Campbell's laser/radiation device could be made to work together to remove the compressed water as if it were data. They put it together and tell Tess that it will feel like she's drowning but it should work...unless it causes all of the water to decompress all at once. They try it out and at first nothing seems to be happening and she struggles like she's drowning. Eventually, they get the water out.

Now, Carter is supposed to be about the least intelligent person in Eureka, and yet with every crisis, HE seems to be the person who comes up with the solution...usually by thinking of combining 2 or more GD techs together. I mean, come on. Also, how many times is that going to happen before the writers come up with something new?

Big Brother Spoilers:

I'll update the Veto winner Sunday, and if any replacement nominees are made it won't be until late Monday. To see spoilers, hold down the left mouse button and drag it down to where it says End Spoilers. That will highlight the "inviso text."

It seems to be much quieter in the BB house, but there still has been some tension and little fights. Jeff is HOH, Russell & Michele are Have Nots, Kevin & Natalie are nominated but depending on the outcome of the Veto (all 6 remaining HGs get to play) Russell could be the true target to be backdoored, although Kevin seems to be the primary target for now.

End Spoilers. Check back Sunday for Veto winner and late Monday for the outcome of the Veto Ceremony.

Veto Winner Spoiler!!!

The veto competition was yesterday, and all 6 HGs got to play. Jeff won. It now looks very likely that he will "backdoor" Russell which has both pros and cons.

End Veto Spoiler!!!

Veto results spoilers!!!

Veto meeting was held. As expected, Jeff used the Veto to remove Kevin and put up Russell. Russell is PISSED. Jordan was screaming at him that he's just mad because Jeff was able to "get" him before Russell "got" Jeff. Kevin and Natalie are laughing their butts off. They call it the Last Minute Lie (LML) that they believe will now cost Jeff the game and perhaps win it for one of them. They laughed that they told Jeff & Jordan that they'd be in Final Four with them, but if either of them wins, they're going to nominate both Jeff & Jordan so that if either wins Veto, they'll remove themself and then the other will go.

End Veto results spoilers!!!

Recap 8/10 -8/16 2009

I'll try to do the finale of Top Chef Masters which I think is this week, and I may continue with Warehouse 13 until it ends, but I doubt that I'll pick up any new series (Like Top Chef 6, new season of Top Gear, etc...) unless I have time.

At some point, I will write about Torchwood:Children of Earth, but we STILL haven't yet been able to arrange to have everyone over to watch the last 2 episodes yet. Also, I still don't know what to do about the unseen last 20 minutes of Harry Potter (thanks power outage!)

Kathy Griffin:

This was the season finale, and probably the most humorous. Kathy started the episode by telling her mom and "Team Griffin" that she was going to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Everyone was all excited, and her Mom asked who she should tell, and Kathy said, "Everyone!"

They then took a walk along the Walk of Fame to try to "pick out a spot." When Kathy saw Ryan Seacrest's Star, she threatened to puke on it...or worse. They saw the guy who cleans the stars and ended up washing a few themselves. Kathy actually cleaned Seacrest's...but would occasionally "spit polish" it as well.

Dissolve to "2 weeks later" and Tiffany says that she has bad news and good news. Kathy was NOT going to get a star. She had been told she was being considered, but ultimately she got turned down. Kathy was crestfallen. She and her mom had been telling people, so now she felt embarrassed. The good news was that Kathy WAS going to get a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame. Not the same.

So, Kathy went to visit her best friend in Palm Springs, Suzanne Summers. Suzanne lives high up in a compound. She grows her own food and cooks (she had trained to be a chef but went into acting.) Kathy asked Suzanne to introduce her at the ceremony, but Suzanne said that she'd be out of town. Kathy asked who they could get instead, so Suzanne called Barry Manilow. Barry said that he too would be out of town, as he'd be performing in Vegas.

Kathy decided to ride along on one of those "star tour" buses and if they found a celeb that could maybe introduce her, they'd get out and try to persuade the celeb to come to the ceremony. Most of the star's homes were stars who are now deceased, but they came upon Carol Channing's house so Kathy got out. She knocked on the door and traipsed around the yard, but nobody answered. Kathy thought that maybe she too was dead. Just in case, she wrote a note and Tiffany stuck her gum on the back of it and they stuck it to a Lion statue at her front door.

When Kathy showed up for the ceremony, there was one sign waving protestor saying that the only thing Kathy had earned was her place in Hell. Nice guy. Kathy then was surprised when Carol Channing actually showed up and said some nice words, then Kathy actually fell down when BOTH Suzanne and Barry showed up. Fooled her!

Warehouse 13:

A gas explosion at a St Louis police station turns up 6 dead bodies...all charbroiled. The 2 Warehouse agents learn that an old basement was unearthed, so they went down there in search of clues. They found the long dead body of another secret service agent who had a warehouse Tesla gun on him...so he too had been an agent. He seemed to have been walled in to a large room.

Back at the warehouse, Artie tried to figure out who the agent was and through photos and scans and a hologram projector that the new gal created out of cobbled together parts, they learned that his name was Jack and he'd been an agent in the 1960s. They then went into "his room." An exact duplicate created at the warehouse that contained all of his actual personal effects. I guess when an Agent dies or disappears, they create one of these "museums" in their honor. The room contained notes and a letter to someone named Rebecca. There also was an address for a home in St Louis.

The agents went to the home and found Rebecca. She knew why they were there. The agents got reports of more similar deaths, but as they left Rebecca asked if there had been more electrocutions. The agents said that they couldn't say any more and left. Turns out that she too had been a warehouse agent, as well as Jacks' girlfriend.

They came across a cop who had been doing the killings due to some 11th century "scarab" device on his back. It fed off his bio-electrical energy and used anger and hatred to increase its killing ability by emitting high voltage shocks. The cop would up dead, and the device was no longer on his back. Later, a woman came running out of her house while the agents were looking for the device and it turned out that it was attached to her ex husband. He too wound up dead and the device scurried away. It ended up attaching itself to the male agent, who ran away screaming.

Artie realized that it stays on until death, and then finds a new host. When the gas explosion took place, it freed it from the tomb with the agent Jack. Now it was on one of Agent Peter and the only way they thought it would come off is if it was "overcharged" through too much high voltage. Peter also had come up with the idea, but couldn't connect jumper cables from a high voltage box to the device. Rebecca did it for him, and Peter died. The device tried to get away, but had been weakened. Rebecca smashed it, while Agent Myka brought Pete back to life. At the end, Rebecca brought the device to the Warehouse and turned down an offer to come back. She also told Myka to get out ASAP or like the device, they'll use her until she's no use to them or dead.

Top Chef Masters:

The Quickfire was the dreaded "blind taste test" where the Chefs are blindfolded and given 20 items to taste and to try to identify. They all did a miserable job. Hubert only got 5, Anita and Rick only got 6 and Michael won by getting 7. Anita missed identifying Hoisin Sauce, a staple in Asian cooking, and she's an Asian Chef who cooks Asian Fusion! Pathetic all around.

Because Michael won, he got the advantage for the Elimination Round. They then brought in 12 former Top Chef contestants,and Michael's advantage was that he got to pick who he wanted first. They gave each Chef 2 minutes with each contestant, and Michael pissed a LOT of people off by asking them what his name was, and then having them do a knife skills test with a carrot. Richard Blais on TC4, and the "molecular gastronomy" expert in particular blasted Michael about it later.

I don't recall who all the returning chefs were nor who got whom. I do know that Anita got Jamie from Top Chef 5 who actually once worked for her, and at one point each Chef had to cut one member of their "team" and Jamie got cut. I also recall that Michael's first pick was Fabio from TC5 as he is from Italy, so natch.

In the end, Anita's dish was the worst and she was sent packing. So the final 3 are Michael, Hubert, and Bayless...all predicted here.