- So my plan to catch both Prison Break and Heroes despite their airing at the same time last night worked, kinda. Because it was the season premiere for Heroes, I watched it live and taped PB. When I did get to watch it, it didn’t disappoint. Drama was high after Sarah Tancredi was followed back to the warehouse where she, Michael and crew live near the water. With Company hitman Wyatt on her tail, Sarah takes him on a dash through traffic and onto a crowded pier, where she loses him long enough to get back to the warehouse safely. Once she explains what happened, Mahone pulls out a photo he’s obtained through old friends in law enforcement of the man who killed his son - Wyatt. Now knowing where Wyatt is, Mahone embarks on a quest to find and kill him. That quest includes a meeting with his wife where she gives him a gun to use and tells him that his son’s death isn't his fault. Mahone then uses clues from the bar where Wyatt found Sarah to ascertain the motel he’s staying at and goes there to find him. Unfortunately, Wyatt is gone and has set a trap, giving the motel clerk $300 to call and tell him if anyone shows up looking for Wyatt. Mahone anticipates the move and just as the clerk is about to rat him out, Mahone points a gun at his head and forces the clerk to lie. Lying is also the order of the day for T-Bag, who is still pretending to be Cole Pfeiffer, sales wizard at GATE Industries. His scam is getting tougher because of one co-worker who keeps goading him about showing why he’s so great and why he’s the best salesman in the company, but a bigger problem is Brad Bellick and Fernando Sucre, the two members of Scofield’s team who have been tasked to canvass the GATE complex in search of T-Bag. When they stop outside his office and talk to the smokin’ hot receptionist, she denies knowing T-Bag/Pfeiffer, then turns around and confronts T-Bag about it. She doesn’t want him in trouble; she just wants to get paid, so she bargains a deal for 3 percent of his future commissions. Meanwhile, T-Bag is still trying to decode the clues in James Whistler’s bird watching book to find out where they lead. Also following clues are Michael and Homeland Security agent Don Self, who have managed to identify all six Scylla card holders and are now preparing to go after them. Fatefully, one of the card holders is a high-ranking government official named Oren who works in Self’s building. However, getting in to see this official is next to impossible and even when Self does so and this official opens his safe where he keeps his card, the safe is only open long enough for the wireless hard drive used to copy the cards that Self has on him courtesy of mission tech dork Roland to copy half of it, meaning that the data is worthless. Self tells Michael that getting the whole card is impossible because getting back into the office is undoable and there is no way to break in. Michael responds by demanding blueprints of the building and formulating a scheme to break in. When Self informs him that government architects have the specific job of making the building impregnable, Michael smartly responds, “Yeah, they had those guys at Fox River, too.” The plan, as it turns out, is to break into the office of the guy next door to Oren’s office, drill through the wall and into the back of the safe. To do that, Michael draws the second man out of his office to lunch with Self, who also squirts some sort of gel onto the carpet as they leave to stain it, necessitating a visit from maintenance, i.e. Sucre and Bellick, who have snuck into the building and through the elevator shaft with Michael and Linc. Sucre and Bellick cause all kinds of noise vacuuming and cleaning, while Michael and Linc drop through the ceiling of the second office, move a bookcase and begin drilling. When they reach the safe, Michael squirts a chemical compound on the metal to weaken it, then has Linc drill the safe. While Sucre and Bellick fend off an angry secretary who wants to enter the office, the General, the head honcho for the Company, arrives to meet with Oren. Michael and Linc pause and decide that they need to keep drilling, only at a lower speed. They break through, begin copying the card but are panicked when Oren is told by the General to get his card out of the safe to prove he has it. Michael and Linc manage to finish copying the card in the nick of time, put it back and replace the back of the safe. The last part of the puzzle for this episode is Sarah, working back at the warehouse to figure out why Oren is leaving the country and why card holder Lisa Tabak also left the country for a flight to Laos last episode. She comes to the conclusion that the Company is working to destroy the economy in Laos, then profit from its rebuilding because all card holders are leaders in fields that would allow them to make money in the rebuilding process. So it was a jam-packed episode and it definitely showcased the creativity and ingenuity that are a hallmark of Michael Scofield’s character. Until next time, kids……
- Now here is a piece of news that seriously disappoints me. I like my college cheerleaders as skanky and in as skimpy of outfits as possible. The less clothng, the better, I always say. Because who isn't at a college game to see the cheerleaders leave nearly nothing to the imagination and look as risqué as possible? The female cheerleaders for the University of Idaho (Ida-ho, how appropriate in this situation) have made changes to their uniforms less than a month into the football season after spectators complained that cheerleaders' uniforms were flashing a little more than school spirit. The uniform change comes after the school’s football team removed the school logo from the buttocks of their new pants. Predictably, the change for the cheerleaders comes after a few prudes called in complaints because they couldn’t handle a little skin being shown. “A number of fans were concerned that the uniforms were inappropriate,” said Bruce Pitman, dean of students. “To be fair, there were a number of fans who liked them.” Yeah Bruce, I bet there were and I’m guessing that 99.95 percent of those who liked them were male students…..but I digress. The outfits that drew controversy, halter tops and short black skirts with white trim, very similar to the stripper-esque costumes worn by cheerleaders for professional teams. The unis cost the UI cheerleading coach $4,200 from a spirit squad fund, part of which is drawn from student fees. The squad has ordered new uniforms with $2,200 in private money to alleviate the controversy, uniforms that will feature a a less revealing halter-style top and a skirt about six inches longer than the ones that cheerleaders wore earlier this season. All in all, this is just s shame. You just can’t enjoy any nice, un-wholesome, family un-friendly entertainment at a college football game anymore, can you?......
- The season premiere of Heroes was wide-ranging, all-encompassing and at first, a bit confusing. It began in the future, where Peter Petrelli is confronted by Claire Bennet, holding a gun and cryptically remarking that she’s going to kill him because she knows who he is. Peter tells her not to, that he’s going back in time to fix things “before this all started.” Claire fires the gun anyhow, but with all of his powers to use, Peter merely stops time, grabs the gun from Claire and goes back in time four years. There, he answers one of last season’s mysteries by dressing up in a Sylar-like outfit and being the one to shoot his brother Nathan at the press conference where Nathan is about to tell the world about those who have amazing powers, as he does. Future Peter shoots Nathan and flees, chased by Present-Day Peter, Future Peter escapes, but shortly thereafter, he removes Present-Day Peter from the equation by transporting him into the bodies of one of the inmates being held in lockdown on Level 5 of the Company (not to be confused with the Company in Prison Break) headquarters. Meanwhile, Future Peter goes about changing the past to avoid all of the chaos and acrimony that came after Nathan’s announcement, in which people with powers were persecuted and ostracized. However, in so doing, he creates a butterfly effect that results in other changes and problems. First, he calls Claire and tells her not to go to Odessa, Texas, but because of that she is at home when a rejuvenated Sylar comes calling. After stealing a medicine made from Claire’s blood in last season’s finale from Mohinder Suresh, Sylar is back to his powerful, homicidal, power-stealing self. He traps Claire and when she ambushes him with a stab to the chest with a knife, he’s still well enough to use his telepathic powers to stop her and hold her down as he does his “slice the head open” trick using his finger from across the room, then examines the brain of Claire’s opened head to find where her power to heal from any injury is. He finds it and takes it for himself, which is his own original power of course. Now, he has a vast catalog of powers he’s stolen and with Claire’s power, he’s also invincible. Peter learns of this news through his mother, who sees through his disguise and realizes that while he may look like Present-Day Peter, he’s Future Peter. She demands that he go back to where he came from, that he’s screwing up the past even more by being there. Peter refuses and sticks around, which means bad news for Matt Parkman, on hand when Nathan is shot and in the midst of investigating the shooting. Even though Future Peter uses one of his powers to heal Nathan, Parkman is still investigating and when he finds Peter in a storage closet where the gun used to shoot Nathan is, he puts two and two together and figures out that Peter pulled the trigger. That leads Peter to pull out another power and teleport Parkman to the middle of the African wilderness. There, Parkman meets up with an African man who remarkably knows his name and insists that Parkman should not be where he now is. This man says this means the future is not as he predicted it, and his predictions have been seen in paintings of the Earth in some state of explosion that have appeared on buildings and rocks throughout the episode. Parkman and the mystery man begin what the man calls a “spirit walk” across the wildrness, to points unknown. Back in New York, Dr. Mohinder Suresh is working with Maya, the girl from Mexico who has the power to kill people through some telepathic power when she gets upset and her eyes turn black. She came to New York last season to find Mohinder for a cure, but Mohinder has used her blood to create a substance that will work with the DNA of average people to unleash their own superpowers instead of curing those with powers. Maya is upset that Mohinder isn't going to cure her and demands that he destroy his new concoction so it can’t cause a disaster. Mohinder ends up at a pier in the middle of the night, torn between throwing the substance into the water and using it on himself. He elects to use it on himself and the results are amazing. His physical abilities are heightened and he can climb walls like Spiderman, move with lightning speed and have super strength and reflexes. For some reason, Maya isn't horrified when she finds out; instead, Mohinder and his super powers (which now include a super libido) have sex with Maya. That high is crashed quickly when Mohinder awakes and finds that chunks of flesh are falling out of his body, side effects of his injection. Nathan Petrelli is also experiencing side effects as he recovers from being shot. Initially, he rushes into a church across from the hospital and declares that the hand of God has healed him and promises to devote his life to spreading that message. Later, he finds out that Linderman, who died last season at the hands of Nikki and D.L. Sanders, is appearing to him alone and telling him to accept an offer from the governor of New York to be appointed the state’s junior senator in Congress. The offer comes from Tracy Strauss, a.k.a. Nikki, who seemingly was killed in an explosion in last season’s finale but is now alive, well and pretending to be someone else. Nathan accepts the offer, but does so with a warning from Peter of what the future may hold. Another favorite hero, Hiro Nakamura, is now head of Nakamura Industries after his father’s death last season. A video message on disc tells Hiro his destiny is protecting a formula in the office safe that could destroy the world. Actually, it’s one half of the formula, with the other half at an undisclosed location. When Hiro and pal Ando open the safe, a red blur zooms through the room and snatches the paper the formula is written on. Hiro stops time and catches up to the blur, a woman named Daphne Millbrook. She gets away but using private detectives, Hiro tracks her down at her apartment in Paris. Unfortunately, his plan to trap her and get back the formula backfire and he’s left to wonder who she refers to when she says “my boss.’ Hiro also has to ponder his vision from the future after he teleports there and sees Ando killing him, which leads to much tension in the present between the two friends. Claire Bennet is facing her own tension, because after her own run-in with Sylar, she’s now not only able to heal from any injury, she also doesn’t feel pain. She goes back to her old habit of trying to hurt herself and recording it on video to test her abilities. Peter swoops in and saves her from being hit by a train, but when she pleads with him to help her harness her abilities, he says he can’t. Someone else who could use healing powers is Bob, the head of the Company who is killed by Sylar when Sylar storms Company HQ. Bob’s daughter Elle finds him and decides to enlist the help of Noah Bennet, one of the Company captives, to stop Sylar. When they meet Sylar, Noah shoots him but of course, Sylar can heal now so he gets back up. However, when he tries to steal Elle’s power to shoot electricity from her hands, a power surge happens that knocks Sylar out and also releases a group of dangerous, angry, evil captives from their cells. They storm off to wreak havoc on the world, and among them is Jesse, the captive whose body Future Peter put the insides and mind of Present Day Peter in. In the mess, Sylar is captured and held prisoner (again), and Angela Petrelli storms in, declares herself Bob’s successor and fires Elle before approaching a restrained Sylar and telling him that she’s his new mother and that she can make him into something great. Where will that lead? Tune in next week to find out, and use the time in between to try and sort out all that happened this week, I know that’s what I’ll be doing…..
- Texting Californians, your Gover-nator has laid down the law about sending of OMG messages to your BFF, at least while you’re behind the wheel. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Wednesday that will outlaw text messaging while driving. The law would come into effect Jan. 1, 2009, meaning Californians have a few more months to text away behind the wheel. “Building on legislation already helping save lives in California, I am happy to sign this bill because it further encourages safe and responsible driving,” Schwarzenegger said in a news release. I agree, but I’m sure millions of people in your state don’t, Ah-nold. If you are among those angry dissenters, direct your attention mostly at state Sen. Joe Simitian, who proposed the bill that bans the use of a wireless phone device to write, send or read text messages while operating a motor vehicle. Of course, if you’re rich enough, you can ride this one out and keep on texting because violators caught text messaging while driving will be fined only $20 for a first offense and $50 for any violations after that. Personally, I encounter enough morons on the road where I live who struggle with driving when operating their vehicle is their only task, so I think this bill is a great idea. But don’t take my word for it, listen to the Gover-nator. “Banning electronic text messaging while driving will keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, making our roadways a safer place for all Californians,” Schwarzenegger said. Who knows, maybe more states will follow this example and make the world a better place……
- Is the professional baseball team in Houston the Houston Astros or the Houston Whiny B*tches? I thought they were the Astros, but now I’m starting to think I might be mistaken because Astros’ players are still whining about having to play the Chicago Cubs in Milwaukee following Hurricane Ike, several weeks after the fact. “Major League Baseball has always valued the dollar more than they do the individual, the players and their families,” Lance Berkman said, according to the Houston Chronicle on Sunday. “That's illustrated in things like playing through a lightning storm in Chicago [on Aug. 4]. The most important thing is getting the game in so you don't lose the gate and you don't lose the revenue. That's A-No. 1. And then if in the course of that you can work it around where players aren't affected, that's a distant second. That's one reason why players try to exploit the system to the max because they know they're being treated the same way. That's a sad part of the game.” At the time of the games being moved, the Astros/Whiny B*tches were one of baseball’s hottest teams and moving back into playoff contention. But after the Cubs won both of the games played at Milwaukee's Miller Park, including a no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano, the Astros’ chances took a sever hit. Joining Berkman (normally one of my favorite guys in baseball) was the Astros' Doug Brocail, who said it was obvious the name on the jerseys played a role in the decision. “The thing is we had days at the end of the season that we could have played a single game plus a doubleheader if need be,” Brocail said. “And to make us go up and play at North Wrigley like we had to on no sleep, it was absolutely ridiculous. If it was New York or Boston, it would have been played at the end of the season. I truly believe that, and I think 99.9 percent of our teammates believe that. But no, we're the Houston Astros.” Dude, the only thing worse than complaining that you’re getting screwed is that you’re getting screwed because your not one of the popular teams. You sound like a whiny teenager complaining that Ashley didn’t invite her to the best birthday party of the year. If you were the better team, you would have won those games. You don’t deserve to be in the playoffs because you’re not one of the best teams and you proved that on the field. Quit whining, find a way to play better and not be so easily derailed by schedule changes and maybe next year, you won't be in this predicament…..
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