Castle 2×16 — “The Mistress Always Spanks Twice”: I thought this episode was ok, but maybe a little to cutesy for my taste. I usually look forward to the Castle/Beckett banter, but this time around it felt pretty forced — probably because the subject matter made the jokes far too easy/predictable. I have to admit that I didn’t see the roommate twist coming, though I probably should have. After all, the episode title usually doesn’t give away the answer, so by that “logic” alone it couldn’t have been the dominatrix! Loved Ryan and his girlfriend, especially because we got to see what Ryan really thinks of the crew when they’re not jokingly putting each other down. Aww!

Lost 6×07 — “Dr. Linus”: While I liked the alternate universe stuff well enough, I can’t help but getting impatient here. Where is all this going? Once again, we were treated to a patented Lost episode, where nothing much happened until the final few minutes. Why is Widmore coming in a sub? I forgot why he is interested in the island. What’s he gonna do when he gets there, kill everyone else and resume control of his precious piece of land?

I do have to say that I thought the dynamite scene between Richard and Jack was great. I usually don’t like anything involving Jack, but that was tense. And it showed that he has finally stopped trying to analyze every little thing. He took a leap of faith for once — believing that Jacob’s touch prevents him from being killed — and he was right. I wonder how that will change him going forward?

Criminal Minds 5×17 — “A Solitary Man”: I didn’t like this episode very much. The unsub and his motive were uninteresting to me, and there wasn’t much of an investigation either. I did enjoy seeing Gabrielle Carteris in her guest star appearance. In particular, I loved her shout-out to 90210, when she said to her daughter (on the show), “I was in high school once too, ya know.” The daughter’s response? “Yeah, like 50 years ago!” Ouch.

Thank goodness there was no White House stuff this week, but the CTU “drama” between the employees was just as bad. I seriously cannot stand Arlo and hope he gets killed before the end of the season. I envision Dana snapping when he starts in on one of his idiotic “upgrade” jokes, and putting a bullet in his head. He is so smarmy and disgusting that I fast-forward the TiVo whenever he’s on screen.

I wonder what Dana is going to do about Kevin’s parole officer. How stupid can she possibly be? If the guy had her phone number, she should have realized he got it from Kevin’s call records… doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. She should have just said, yes, Kevin kept calling me to meet with him, but I refused. That would have likely been the end of it. Cole already knows her past with Kevin, so it wouldn’t have mattered to admit it. Now this whole thing is going to turn into a big mess. Wonder if Dana will try to kill the parole officer in order to stop that line of inquiry. Oh, boy….

I know a lot of people were not looking forward to JLo in this ep, but she has never particularly bothered me — not even during that horrid “Bennifer” pairing with Ben Affleck way back when. I thought she did a pretty good job here.

Robin needs a less violent hobby than shooting guns, something like collecting gold coins or knitting. She didn’t even seem particularly good with the gun during the shooting range scene. Did you see how much her hand was moving up and down every time she fired? What kind of target would she hit like that? Ugh, and I just hate the fact that Don is still in the picture. So the minute he puts on pants and acts like an adult he’s totally attractive to her? Whatever!

Well, if nothing else, we finally got a bit of an answer about what happened to Michael. Apparently, Simon was the one who went rogue and did all those bad things. When Management couldn’t control him anymore, they imprisoned him — and then blamed all his misdeeds on Michael, which is why he was burned. But why? That part just doesn’t make sense. Simon was in custody and out of the way. Why the need to find an additional scapegoat for his crimes?

I loved Maddie in this episode, and really felt bad for her. I’m glad she stuck by Michael and refused to believe that he killed all those innocent people. Plus, she went to jail for him!! Is that loyalty, or what! Granted, she’ll probably start looking at Saint Louis homes for sale or something just to get the heck out of Miami, but at least she got the better of that FBI dude this time. Hopefully Fiona and Sam will fill her in on what’s going on with Michael so she doesn’t have to worry too much longer. And then of course Fi and Sam have to launch their rescue operation.

Can’t wait to see where this goes in Season 4!

Criminal Minds 5×16 — “Mosley Lane”: This ep was kind of a mixed bag for me. I thought the plot had substantial holes in it — like the fact that no one ever made the connection of the mother-looking-for-lost-child ruse in any of the previous kidnappings or the older kid being allowed to take photographs of all the kids that were killed — yet it was still inherently compelling because it was about missing children. As a parent, these types of eps will always tug at my heartstrings, and this one did at the end, especially when that one set of parents realized they were just a day late for rescuing their son.

The guest stars were pretty good in this one. The mother who had been holding out hope for 8 years was particularly strong, and the lesbian doctor from Grey’s Anatomy did well too. The kids weren’t too bad, but wtf was up with that one girl’s hair? It looked like she had a dead animal hanging off her head!

I’ve tried to reserve judgment on the Cole/Dana thing because I like Freddie Prinze, Jr. and think his character could be a good addition to the show. But man, their little subplot is just annoying and stupid at this point. How could Cole, the tactical field ops leader, be gone from his post for 2 hours in the middle of a crisis without having Hastings calling him every 5 minutes??? Ridiculous!

It surprised me that Ted had someone on the hook. He seems far too nice to do something like that. And it seemed completely out of character for him to just walk out on her when Tiffany called — especially after seeing all the food she had prepared for him.

The teacup pigs were cute, and Barney wasn’t nearly as over the top and clownish as he has been in the past few eps. My only complaint about this one was that, once again, there was absolutely zero mention of the mother. Let’s get that show on the road!

Anyway, one of my favorite episodes is 3×17, called “Pusher”. In this one, a guy who calls himself “Pusher” is able to force his will on others and hypnotize/control their minds so that they do what he wants. The premise was great, and the last 15 minutes of the ep were particularly gripping — both from a suspense and shipper standpoint. The showdown between Pusher and Mulder was extremely tense and I held my breath when Mulder put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger during the Russian roulette game. Even though I knew he would survive, I was every bit as on edge as Scully was. And when he turned the gun on her… Wow! That single tear that fell from her eye as she tried to break through the hold that Pusher had on Mulder really got to me. And Mulder’s voice breaking as he told Scully to run because he could feel his finger start to squeeze the trigger. Man, that was amazing!

But what really made my shipper heart skip a beat was the very end where Mulder and Scully held hands for a brief moment as they looked at the brain-dead Pusher. They were so much more than partners already — and yet so far away from their romantic relationship that wouldn’t happen until several years later. LOVED it!

As for Michael’s stuff… wow, I wasn’t expecting Gilroy to die so soon! I wonder who this Simon guy is, as he seems pretty damn dangerous and resourceful. I was surprised at how the prisoner intercept was handled. I thought Gilroy was going to infiltrate the airport as they stopped for refueling. I didn’t know he had people on the plane to divert it and quickly hand Simon over. That seemed… odd. Anyway, I’m glad Gilroy opted to save Michael in the end by warning him to run away. But — was I the only one waiting for him to tell Mike the account number for the $10 million as well? Ha! I guess that couldn’t happen though because then Mike, Sam, and Fi wouldn’t have to take all the odd jobs, which of course makes up the bulk of each ep.

Can’t wait till next week!

Hurley has never been one of my favorite characters either, so between him and Jack being on the screen so much, I was this close to turning the damn thing off. Yeah, he’s funny at times, but his “Dude” shtick got old a long time ago. Also, whenever I look at him I can’t help but wonder why he hasn’t lost any weight. I know the island has food stores and whatnot, but still… you’d think that being stranded on a deserted island that’s not even on any world maps would serve as a pretty effective fat burner, right? Not in Hurley’s case.

At any rate, the lighthouse was kinda cool, as it showed us how Jacob was able to watch all the candidates for all those years. But of course dumbass Jack had to smash it to bits before anyone else had a chance to look at it and understand what it does. What was the point of his temper tantrum? The damage (i.e. Jacob watching his childhood house) had been done long ago. Idiot.

Oh, and is it just me or does anyone else agree that this season has been decidedly short on answers thus far? It doesn’t seem like any of the mysteries are being revealed at all — and time continues to run out on the series. Dare I hope that there’s a legitimate reason for all the island happenings? Please don’t tell me the whole point is just to find the next guardian of a deserted frickin’ island!!!!