Author: Shane

Kyle XY Season 2 Episode 17

Amanda returned home from school in Kyle XY Season 2 Episode 16. With her mother unwilling to take the hint, she decided to not get back on the plane and instead hid in Kyle’s house.

Amanda asks Kyle if she can stay there just until the morning. He offers her his tub to sleep in and literally gives her the shirt off his back. Not wanting to offend him by refusing the tub (he says he would understand because “It’s a tub”), she agrees to sleep in it. He can’t get comfortable on the floor, though, so she of course lets him get in the tub with her. How many times have I heard this story before? The next morning, Nicole knocks on his door, wondering why it’s locked. She doesn’t suspect anything.

Lori’s hoping to get paroled from grounding, and her excuse is that she’s the designated driver for a bunch of underaged drinkers. Josh pretends he needs to see Andy for emotional support because she’s got chemo, but Nicole knows her chemo is actually on a different day. Unlike the other two and the worst attempts at getting time off for good behavior ever, Kyle’s willing to do his time.

As Kyle’s saying goodbye to Amanda, she gets stuck in the room because Josh has chores that will require him to leave the windows closed. He sneaks her out the other way, where Josh sees her, and then Lori walks in. Just as Amanda’s running around from room to room, someone from the Department of Children’s Services shows up regarding a complaint filed against Kyle, which may be ridiculous, but since he was a former ward of the state, they have to check it out. While they’re discussing keeping the truth about who Kyle really is a secret from the woman checking into the complaint, Amanda is in a convenient position to overhear the whole conversation.

The kids get concerned about the social worker because that’s basically a fancy word for snoop. Josh wants to hide his porn. Lori needs to hide her beer that she claims she was holding for a friend.

Amanda is stuck hiding in Kyle’s room when Nicole warns him to clear out anything incriminating. Still not understanding the part about going to the front door, Jessi climbs in through his window, looking to spend time with Kyle and hoping Amanda would get lost. Just then, Declan shows up to take the beer, blocking them in with the ladder.

Kyle sneaks Jessi out first because getting caught with her wouldn’t be completely terrible. She insists on talking rather than sneaking out, though. She brings him the missing record from the jukebox, which she found in her room. She takes offense to his unwillingness to help her out right away. As she’s leaving, Jessi mentions that she’s like part of the family, so the social worker accuses Nicole of becoming too emotionally involved.

With his newfound ability to control electricity, Kyle is able to send Amanda a signal to escape. It works. But as she’s sneaking out, her mother is getting ready to knock on the door. Busted. Amanda stands up for herself, and the social worker says that they’re pretty much done there since that’s a family dispute. Except she does need to see Kyle’s room, which has had everybody concerned seeing that he sleeps in a tub and all. When they walk in, there is no tub (it’s beer with pillows and blankets covering it, but nobody needs to know that until later). Kyle ends up getting a glowing report, but she says she has “grave concerns” about Nicole and will file the proper notice.

Amanda brings news that her mom listened more than usual, but still won’t let her see Kyle outside of school. At the end of the day, Kyle doesn’t regret his decision because it’s worth the risk to protect those he cares about.

In the end, we find out that it wasn’t Amanda’s mother who called the social services. Instead, the person who said she was from social services was sent by Latnok and refers to him as “the one.”

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Kyle XY Season 2 episode 18 Between the Rack and a Hard Place, which airs Monday at 8/7c on ABC Family.

Prison Break Season 3 Episode 11

Sammy overthrew Lechero in Prison Break Season 3 Episode 10, but it wasn’t long before Lechero was back in charge with Sammy’s untimely death after Scofield set him up. Sucre got a bribe from Susan, which he immediately sent home to Maricruz, so now Susan knows exactly where to find her.

The plan’s to get out of there by tomorrow, a seemingly impossible task, which means it should be no problem for Michael. He breaks the news to Lincoln that T-Bag’s coming, too, and Mahone, and Bellick, and a druglord.

T-Bag warns Whistler that he shouldn’t trust Michael, the guy who’s broken him out of prison twice now.

While they’re digging, it starts raining. Worried that the tunnel won’t hold up at night, the plans are changed: they’re leaving tonight instead of tomorrow.

McGrady confronts Michael, and once again, he tells him he’s not going with them, saying he’s protecting him from a life on the run.

Susan threatens Maricruz again, which gets Sucre to spill the beans that Michael’s having second thoughts about who he’s breaking out with, since last time he broke out some mad dog killer types.

Bellick wants to be a team with Mahone, turning on Scofield and being a hero. Mahone’s not real interested in the plan.

Sucre shows up at the prison. Michael needs help with the backup generator. He feeds the information on it back to him (manufacturer, model, and customer service number). By calling customer service, he finds out they’ve got just enough dark to make it out.

Susan wants to meet with Lincoln in person. When he arrives, they call Whistler so Susan can drive home a message to him by torturing Sofia. Scofield warns him that if he gives away the information, which he hasn’t figured out yet, Susan will turn on them. Later on, Whistler does figure out the coordinates and warns Scofield so he can plan accordingly. Michael suggests giving them the wrong coordinates to buy some time.

T-Bag wants to be Mahone’s partner, too, which leads to a response involving the word inbred.

Susan, Lincoln, and Sofia come to the prison to get the coordinates. Whistler gives her part of what she wants, saying he won’t give her the rest until he knows that everybody’s safe. She gives them 24 hours to get her the rest.

Lincoln’s going to have to cut the power from the outside. Michael tells him he’s got his concerns about pretty much everybody, but he just wants it to be over.

Michael has another chat with McGrady, giving him the option whether to stay or leave. He obviously chooses to leave, since nothing good can come from staying either.

Everybody finds out just how much time it’ll take for the backup generator to come on: 30 seconds. Not leaving them a lot of time. With that in mind, T-Bag and Lechero threaten to kill Whistler if they’re not first. Mahone’s not interested in moving ahead in line, though, as he doesn’t want his back to any of these people.

While at the prison, Sucre’s stopped and told that, when they ran his ID, they found out he’s got a warrant out for his arrest.

Lincoln runs a bus into the wires outside the prison, knocking out the power, and that’s where we leave things for next week.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Prison Break season 3 episode 12 Hell or High Water, which airs Monday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Amazing Race Asia 2 Episode 11

Adrian & Collin outsmarted the other teams by finding a train nobody else did, allowing them to remain in the lead and finally take the first place position away from Rovilson & Marc in The Amazing Race Asia 2 Episode 10. Pamela & Vanessa somehow finished third, despite Vanessa’s nervous breakdown. Paula & Natasha, who ran a good leg for the most part, got lost on the way to the final clue (apparently), putting them in last place. However, they were saved by a non-elimination leg (the fourth one this season, which is a really good indicator of the show’s success).

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Adrian & Collin (5:08am)
Second: Rovilson & Marc (5:35am)
Third: Pamela & Vanessa (6:51am)
Fourth: Ann & Diane (7:01am)
Fifth: Paula & Natasha (8:01am)

Teams will drive to the little princess statue in Budapest (they are not told it’s a statue). Despite a rough leg last time, Rovilson & Marc actually did a pretty good job closing the 90 minute gap from the train, and with Adrian & Collin starting off the day by getting lost, both teams arrive at the first clue at the same time. Both teams decide they want to head to Elizabeth Bridge for the fast forward, which will be bad news for the one that doesn’t get it first. Rovilson’s well aware of this and says he has to assume Adrian & Collin are trying to do it as well. This far ahead of the other teams, doing the fast forward is not a smart idea, but for these teams, they’re not interested in just staying in the race… they want to finish in first place.

The fast forward is to count the vertical bars in the handrails within a flagged area. Adrian & Collin arrive slightly ahead. Both teams are writing on the bridge to mark their way, and Rovilson & Marc have another strategy of using a belt to count multiple bars at a time. Adrian & Collin are first to finish, but their initial guess is incorrect. Likewise, Rovilson & Marc’s first guess is wrong. The belt and markings allow them to move faster this time, but their second guess is wrong as well (off by one). Adrian & Collin get it on their second attempt, and Rovilson & Marc have wasted about an hour.

The road block is to search the Buda Castle labyrinth for a treasure chest containing a clue.

Road block (in order of arrival): Rovilson, Pamela, Diane, Paula

Paula & Natasha are having some success flirting with men to help them out, but they’ve got a sizeable hour and a half they need to make up.

The next stop is Margaret Island (otherwise known as Rabbit Island), where they will use pedicabs to go to the place where St. Margaret of Hungary used to live. Once they finish this task, they’re told to go to Hero Square, and they find out there’s a yield ahead. Rovilson & Marc already have a plan with their alliance partners to yield the moms, which is probably smart since they’re a stronger team than the other two. As expected, Rovilson & Marc yield Ann & Diane. It should drop Paula & Natasha’s time they need to make up to about an hour, but it’s no small task on a leg where they’re just driving around one city.

The detour is a choice between say it or play it. In say it, teams must correctly pronounce the names of all 14 kings at Hero Square (they can ask the lcoals for help). In play it, teams must solve a Rubik’s Cube (one color at a time, alternating colors), which was invented by a Hungarian named Erno Rubik.

Play it: Rovilson & Marc, Ann & Diane (switched from say it)
Say it: Pamela & Vanessa, Paula & Natasha

Rovilson & Marc have a message for their moms: the Rubik’s Cube did help them in life after all.

The Freedom Monument at the citadel on Gellert Hill is the pitstop for this leg of the race.

First: Adrian & Collin
Second: Rovilson & Marc
Third: Pamela & Vanessa
Fourth: Ann & Diane
Fifth: Paula & Natasha (eliminated)

Pretty obvious outcome here. Considering the leg’s design, there was just no way Paula & Natasha were going to catch up. They’re happy to have been able to share this amazing adventure with their best friend.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race Asia 2 episode 12.

The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 5

Following yet another victory by the men, Trump still wasn’t unable to fire Nely in The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 4 and was instead again forced into firing someone who wasn’t particularly willing or able to defend themselves, with Jennie Finch taking the cab ride home.

The women are hoping for Carol to get fired. Omarosa says it’s personal and calls her a twit.

As the winning project manager last week, Vinny Pastore is able to give $50,000 to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer in Mitchell Berke’s (his daughter’s stepfather’s) name.

Donald Trump’s giving the women another chance before shaking up the teams again. Tito Ortiz is at a fight, so he’s excused for the week (seriously?). Trump suggests that Carol Alt be the project manager for the women. The men suggest Piers Morgan.

The challenge is for Crocs shoes. They will create a recycle campaign, where the donated used shoes will be used to make new shoes to give away.

Carol thinks this is a heart campaign. If they lose, she’s willing to take the bullet, which wouldn’t be the first time she’s thrown herself in the line of fire.

Piers wants to focus on Lennox Lewis again. Trace Adkins comes up with the slogan: wear them, share them.

The guys think the women’s brilliant idea to win is spying. In retaliation, Piers sends Vinny outside to spy on them, staging a fake fight. Taking it one step further, Vinny goes to the women and tells them he can’t work for Piers. They take a vote, not sure whether he’s playing them or not, but ultimately decide that they need him and take him on board.

Vinny’s asking the girls a bunch of questions seemingly to stall. He really wants to push Carol’s celebrity status and is coming up with some ideas, though.

Omarosa reluctantly is complimentary of Carol’s ideas and ability as a project manager.

The guys base their design on something easy to move, cheap, and simple to design.

Eventually, Vinny gets to the point where he’s aggressively pushing in an effort to help them, as he’s actually taking offense at having been put in the position he was, one he willingly and happily agreed to.

Despite that, Vinny passes the guys all the notes about what the girls are doing. Stephen Baldwin doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do. As with last week, he and Piers are on opposing sides of the fence and not getting along particularly well.

In the car ride over, Vinny spills the beans to Marilu Henner. He says he’s not a rat any more and is now on their side. She doesn’t know whether to trust this or not and says he thinks he’s still on The Sopranos. Switching sides in this game is a dumb move. While alliances perse aren’t as necessary as they are in, say, Survivor, it doesn’t hurt to have people who trust you. If nothing else, you certainly at least don’t want to make people hate you and be out to get you.

Ivanka says she’s sort of into sabotage but that it can sometimes backfire. She doesn’t mind that the guys did it and on the contrary is disappointed in Empresario for being desperate enough to have accepted Vinny on their side.

Like Baldwin, Trace also doesn’t agree with the plan. He didn’t say anything but thinks he should have protested some.

Piers and Stephen go up to Nely and try to get under their skin even further, telling them they know the slogan and the campaign. The girls are now doubting Vinny. Piers thinks it’s hilarious, which it is.

Carol calls Marilu and tells her to keep an eye on Vinny. She’s not sure whether to trust him but doesn’t particularly care. She just wants to keep working and get the job done. Omarosa now wants to destroy him, and she calls him to confront him about it. He doesn’t answer the question and tells her to just trust him. When she presses him, his response is that he told Marilu, but she says he didn’t tell her that he’d fed the men all their information. Omarosa fires him. He tries to plead his case, but Marilu is disappointed and doesn’t want to hear it. He’s worried that now neither the girls nor the guys want him on their side. Duh. I could have told him that long before it all came out.

Now Vinny’s pissed because he feels the guys sold him out. He wants Piers to go home. Piers tells him he did a great job. Instead of playing nice and pretending things are good, he argues with Piers and gives him a lecture about the mafia.

The next day, he’s still whining about it. He refuses to do anything to help them, and he admits that he told Marilu he was a spy and hopes they win. Eventually, Piers throws him out after much shouting. While he’s standing out in the hallway, Trump shows up and tells him to stick around and discuss it in the boardroom.

The women have a heartfelt campaign with the slogan “Share the Love.” They have a plain green bin, which is a lot more expensive and difficult to make because it’s a giant six foot shoe.

The men have a much more vivid bin that’s just a box, one which clearly displays the people the shoes will be going to, and everybody really likes the slogan. However, they raise concern that the campaign wasn’t quite as extensive or complete (the women had T-shirts and pamphlets).

The teams are sitting in the boardroom, and Vinny enters, with nobody happy to see him. They go over the events that happened. Not much new comes out of this exchange. We do learn that the girls weren’t actually spying as originally thought (so they say, and it’s believeable). We also learn that Piers called Vinny a very fat Italian, not a fat Italian.

Don, Jr. asks Stephen who he would prefer to continue forward. He says Vinny, as does Trace. Lennox says Piers because he realizes that this is about winning, not whether Piers is too aggressive.

Vinny basically says he wants the girls to win out of pity, which again doesn’t win him any favors with either side.

The executives thought Hydra was fantastic, but they loved Empresario. I was more impressed with the guys myself. Apparently the rest of the campaign was quite strong, or perhaps it was the heart they showed. The girls refuse to give Vinny the credit he deserves for coming up with the ideas he did and pretend that they would have come up with them on their own. With that and with everything else that’s happened, Vinny quits. The Trumps give him a hard time about it, which is pretty much as expected, since Donald Trump is well known as someone who hates quitting (regardless of the fact that last year he announced he quit this show). Trump poses the question: if he fired Piers, would Vinny stay? Vinny says yes.

When Trump asks Stephen what to do, he says he’s okay with losing more if it saves his integrity, so Piers should be fired. Piers responds that Stephen’s a hypocrite just trying to get rid of the strongest competition.

Lennox says that it’s a mental game and that Vinny’s not mentally strong enough to survive in this game.

Vinny interrupts all this drama and once again says he’s resigning due to what’s best for him and for the team. It’s interesting, though, as the team seems to be falling apart, rather than embracing the fact that they’ll be able to continue with their strongest members. Tito sure picked a good week to miss… he’s got some catching up to do here.

Pretty good episode, but in the end, I think this was only the logical outcome. Even if Piers were fired, Vinny made his bed by getting nobody to trust him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 6, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on NBC.

The Biggest Loser 5 Episode 5

The twist of all vs. one led to some intense gameplay in The Biggest Loser Couples Episode 4, but after all the planning and a group effort to throw the weigh in, Mark & Jay’s first place finish (and immunity) allowed them to be safe, causing Paul & Kelly to choose to eliminate Bette-Sue & Ali.

Maggie & Jenn are upset that they were told previously that they don’t work hard enough, so they go to Paul & Kelly to take their frustration out on them. Way to make allies. They’re lucky to even still be there. The next day, Jenn’s still whining about it, this time to Bob.

Brittany uses food as a crutch to escape sad events in her life. At an early age, her abusive father died, and she immediately started gaining weight following that. She has a talk with Jillian, which helps to bond them.

This challenge isn’t for the teams. It’s for the trainers (this is supposed to be shocking, but it was obvious from a mile away). Whichever trainer wins the challenge can choose which teams they’ll train with. Harsh. The challenge is running up escalators. The first to do it 10 times wins. Bob takes an early lead and never looks back, finishing three ahead. Hardly seems like a fair challenge, but I wonder what would be a fair challenge between these two without giving one the edge. The logical thing to do here is to pick the teams who picked him, but there are only actually two of them. Jillian gets the most emotional of anyone during the pick ’em.

Bob’s blue team:
Jackie & Dan
Mark & Jay
Roger & Trent

Jillian’s black team:
Bernie & Brittany (one of the two teams who picked Bob)
Paul & Kelly
Maggie & Jenn

Bob’s stacked his deck pretty nicely with top teams, and he’s also got the two most blatant weigh in throwers from last week, giving them a big edge this week. Such a poorly planned twist, and it gets even sillier considering the partners will vote in blocks. Despite his suggestion that Brittany and Jillian are close and should work together, Brittany, like Bernie, considered it a slap in the face. Jillian looks at this as an opportunity to help the underdogs win.

So now that the challenge is over… it’s time for another challenge. The teams must stay on the escalator for as long as they can. The winning team splits $10,000, regardless of which members are actually left standing in the end. Trent and Paul are told to not bother and just get off right away. Kelly’s out at 3 minutes, followed closely by Jenn. Jackie’s out at 5 minutes. Roger’s out at 8 minutes. Maggie’s out at 10 minutes. Bernie’s next out at 12:30, leaving Brittany to fend for herself against three competitive guys. After a tough fight, at the 24 minute mark, though, she’s finally off the escalator. Blue team wins the challenge.

Bob starts with yoga. Jillian wants people to punch stuff.

When they walk into the kitchen, there’s soda everywhere. They’re amazed by just how much empty sugar calories they drank in a year. One of the cups has a star on the bottom. Whoever picks the star, on the bottom of one of the 240 cups, can pick one player on the other team and make their weight not count for the next weigh in. Not worth it, but preventing the other team from getting it may be. Nobody budges. Alison narrows down the odds, telling them the star’s not in the orange cups. When there’s no interest, it’s also not in the grape soda, making the odds even better, down to 110 cups. Still no takers. Alison shows them the cup with the star is one of the ones in front, which probably would have been grabbed quickly. As Jillian says, who cares about soda? They may have gotten them with food, or perhaps a prize that sucked less.

They will weigh in as a team. Of the team that’s below the yellow line, one person will have to say goodbye to their partner. Brittany points out at the weigh in that she’s upset by Bob not choosing her and that he should have stuck with them.

Jay: 253 pounds (-5)
Mark: 230 pounds (-5)
Trent: 366 pounds (-9)
Roger: 309 pounds (-10)
Jackie: 206 pounds (-8)
Dan: 251 pounds (-13)
Total: -50 pounds, 3.00%

Jenn: 223 pounds (-6)
Maggie: 211 pounds (-7)
Bernie: 236 pounds (-5)
Brittany: 199 pounds (-2)
Kelly: 240 pounds (no change)
Paul: 263 pounds (+3)
Total: -17 pounds, 1.22%

It’s a bigger blowout than I had expected. Jillian believes they’re having some food issues and will need to focus on that next week. As the biggest loser for his team, Dan is The Biggest Loser player of the week; as the biggest loser for her team, Maggie has immunity. Despite her numbers this week, Jenn’s the obvious target here.

Votes
Kelly: Jenn
Paul: Jenn
Maggie: Kelly
Jenn: Kelly
Brittany: Jenn
Bernie: Jenn

After some disappointing weeks, Jenn’s finally eliminated on one of her better weeks, and Maggie is the first person in the game to lose a partner. Jenn leaves on a positive note and wants her team to keep fighting. From her starting weight of 254 pounds, Jenn is now down to 201 pounds, for a total loss of 53 pounds.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser: Couples episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol 7 Episode 6

Omaha, Nebraska turned out to be as uneventful as could be expected in American Idol 7 Episode 5. Aside from the last audition of the night, Leo Marlowe, there wasn’t much worth discussing, unless you were looking for freaks and weirdos, which, granted, is half the appeal of American Idol.

Tonight we head to Miami, a city that presumably has more promise than the last two did, for the first time since season two.

Accomplished belcher Shannon McGough has won a lot of made up local Idol competitions. She sings Crybaby by Janis Joplin. Simon tells her it was like the Hungarian Janis Joplin and that most people don’t know what they’re talking about, which is why it’s good she’s come to see him.

Robbie Carrico is a former boy bander turned rocker, or so he says. I’m not seeing any rock in this performance, but he’s got a good voice.

Venezuelan Ghaleb thinks he’s Marc Anthony. For some reason, Paula thinks he’s good, and so does Randy. I don’t get it. Just as I was wondering what’s in Paula’s Coke cup, Simon lifted it up and asked for someone to check, thus perpetuating the stereotype that she’s a drunk (oh, like it’s not true).

Best friends Corliss Smith and Brittany Wescott audition together. Corliss wants Randy, while Brittany loves Ryan and/or Simon. Both sing older songs and sound good, and both go through to Hollywood.

Single mom Suzanne Toon hasn’t sung in three years since she got pregnant. She sings I Can’t Make You Love Me, and she does well.

Ramiele Malubay is a Filipino-American looking to follow in Jasmine Trias’ footsteps, who has had a lot of success, particularly in the Philippines. She sings A Natural Woman. Now Simon’s sipping out of Paula’s cup and says no, but the other two say yes.

Syesha Mercado thinks happy thoughts, despite a difficult childhood with her father, who’s recently recovered from drugs and alcohol. She sings Aretha Franklin’s Think. A bit over the top but wow.

While rejecting one of the contestants, Simon says he’s tempted to tell him to come back in a dress. Uh oh. Somebody’s gonna blow that all out of proportion.

Julie Dubela, 16, was in the top 20 in American Juniors (apparently another failed Idol spinoff). Never heard of it, but it suggests she’s talented. Or so I thought anyway. Not bad but not ready either. Simon asks if she’s been called precocious, which doesn’t matter since she doesn’t know what it means. They don’t offer her any constructive criticism, but that’s arguably because with her attitude she couldn’t accept it anyway. I think she was better at age 12.

The very last contestant, Brandon Black, obviously can’t sing. His “unique” entrance doesn’t impress the judges any. He sings I’ll Make Love to You and tries to act sexy. Better off trying to make them laugh instead. Then he sings an original song, I Am the Next American Idol. He follows this with some tricks with his hat and another attempt at being funny. The judges hate him and walk out of the room.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol 7 episode 7, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.