I hadn’t realized The Vampire Diaries was back so soon, until my Tivo reminded me otherwise. We left off in The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 22 with the arrival of Katherine, closely followed by the stabbing of Uncle John. That’s cool. Nobody liked him anyway.

Jeremy’s doing fine. He’s not a vampire in spite of drinking Anna’s blood. Darn. Stefan has a word of warning for him: don’t try to kill yourself because it may kill you. He didn’t take enough pills to die, so Anna’s blood healed him of that little problem.

Caroline’s in the hospital following the accident, and they don’t know if she’ll make it. Damon wants to give her some blood to save her.

Seeing as they made out, Damon would like to talk to Elena about what happened. Only that wasn’t her. Whatever happened, she doesn’t have time for his games. Eventually, he figures out the real scoop.

Katherine is back, and now she’s paying a visit to Stefan. Unlike his brother, he is not fooled. Since Katherine has been invited in and can come and go as she pleases, Damon suggests that Elena can solve this problem by simply selling the house and moving.

As planned and despite the lack of a truce agreement with Bonnie, Damon has given Caroline some blood, and she is awake the next day.

With the mayor dead and his son Tyler having been in an accident because the device affected both of them, the town’s mystery now is why they reacted to it, unless they are vampires.

John is not dead after all, but he does not have any useful information or lack of hatred for Stefan. After Elena leaves the room, Stefan feeds John his blood, warning him to get out of town within 24 hours, or he will be turned into a vampire.

Arriving at Tyler’s house, Katherine now has an invite into a new place to play.

Bonnie’s not fooled by the Katherine in Elena’s clothing either. Her powers may be growing enough to cause Damon a headache, but she’s going to have to do better than that if she wishes to harm Katherine.

Elena is not surprised that Damon would kiss her. She is just surprised that he thought she would kiss back. Harsh.

Since she is the same lying manipulative bitch that she’s always been, Stefan would like for Katherine to just get on with whatever she’s there for, and then leave town or die. Anybody else he feels like driving out of town with the threat of death? She came back for him, but the problem with that is he hates her.

Katherine goes to visit Damon to say goodbye. Well, that would be anticlimactic. She offers a choice: he can either kiss her or kill her. Option 2 it is then. Before they proceed, he has a question. The answer is that the truth is she’s never loved him, just his brother. This is just not Damon’s day with people that look like Elena.

Not one to accept defeat gracefully, Damon goes to try again with Elena, who pretty much tells him the same thing Katherine did. His reaction is to grant Jeremy’s wish, kill him, and make him a vampire. The ring Jeremy’s wearing interferes with that plan, though.

Caroline wakes up to be greeted by Katherine, who wants to send a message to the Salvatore brothers. Game on. Now she’s dead, too.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 2 Brave New World, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Locke and Jack went together to the heart of the island in Lost Season 6 Episode 17, and they proceeded to lower Desmond toward the light.

Juliet, David, and Claire are at the benefit concert, where a passed out Charlie is awakened by Charlotte. Daniel also happens to be back stage, as he’s a piano player who coincidentally is accompanying Driveshaft at the show (really?). Yeah, Kate, Miles, Desmond, and Dr. Chang are there, too. It’s Claire who catches Charlie’s eye, and then the baby kicks.

Desmond reaches the light, and all hell breaks loose. You expected something else? Locke thinks Jack was wrong when the light starts to go out. Seeing as Jack is able to make Locke bleed now, perhaps he was wrong, too. The bad news for Jack is that Locke can make him bleed as well, knocking him upside the head with a rock.

For something that wasn’t such a big deal, Claire is not so much being kicked by her baby as she is going into labor. This all seems familiar to her and Kate, who have delivered this baby together before (or sideways or whatever the appropriate time reference is). Charlie, likewise, is led to flashbacks of them being together. Since they all remember, now what?

The rain’s going and trees start falling on people. Like Ben. Frank, Miles, and Richard, meanwhile, tell them they’d better get over there because they’re fixing the plane and leaving in an hour.

Jack’s back up and looking to go for round 2 with Locke, which will take place on a cliff that’s crumbling around them. This time, Jack gets stabbed, but the attempt to stab him in the neck fails when Kate shoots Locke. Good timing. Then Jack kicks him off the cliff. If he’s not dead, he probably should be.

Locke wakes up in the hospital telling Jack it worked. He can feel his legs. Unlikely or not he can regain sensation that quickly, he can even move them. Then he sees the island, and Jack starts to see something, too. He tells Jack he doesn’t have a son, although that’s who he’s going to go see.

Whatever Desmond turned off, Jack wants to turn it back on. He sends Kate off to get Claire on the plane. Though he can’t promise they’ll see each other again, they can still kiss and profess their love. Sawyer is off, too. Hurley and Ben join Jack, though.

In order to get to the boat so they can reach Frank and the plane he’s fixing, Sawyer suggests jumping of the cliff. Sounds good enough for Kate.

Sawyer, at the hospital to see Sun, runs into Jack. Then he meets Juliet, too. Why not? Now these two are having their own set of flash sidewayses as well, and they can get their own lip locking.

Jack goes to the concert when it’s over, and he bumps into Kate. Where does he remember her from? Perhaps if she touches this man who doesn’t know her, he’ll remember. Or think she’s crazy.

Jack plans to go into the darkness to protect the island, or commit suicide, whichever it may be. He leaves the protection of the island going forward in Hurley’s hands. Desmond put out the light thinking he would leave this place. So much for that theory. Jack wants him to go home now. He’ll see him in another life.

Kate talks Claire into going with them, but Frank doesn’t hear Sawyer’s request to wait. Just in time, they run in front of the plane to be let in. Way to wait until the last second. With the ground getting set to implode around them, it’s time for take off. In the nick of time, they’re up in the air.

Meanwhile, in the belly of the island, Jack has put the stone back in place to allow the light to start glowing again. Seeing that, Hurley and Ben start pulling. Wrong guy. They’ve landed themselves a Desmond.

Ben apologizes for what he did to Locke. He was selfish and jealous that he was special. If it helps, Locke forgives him. That does help, and by the way, you can get out of that wheelchair now.

With Jack gone, Hugo’s now stuck doing that job. Ben suggests maybe there’s a better way than how Jacob ran things, such as letting people leave the island.

Kate brings Jack to where he was going to have his father’s funeral. They’ll be waiting inside for him once he’s ready to leave.

When he gets inside and touches his father’s coffin, he finally remembers everything. Then he opens it. It’s empty, but then he turns around and sees his dead father standing behind him. Seems they have something in common. They’re both dead. Everybody in the church? They’re dead, too. But they made a place together so that they could find each other because they all need each other to remember and to let go. Now it’s time to move on.

Jack wakes up on the island. He’s in rough shape, but he’s a few steps above dead. After collapsing, he hears Vincent coming up from behind him. Then he sees a plane fly overhead. His eyes close. And that is apparently how we’re going to end the series. Really?

Desmond set all the pieces moving in the right direction in Lost Season 6 Episode 16. Meanwhile, Jack was given Jacob’s job to protect the light, which the black smoke wants to put out.

Jack’s “cargo” (aka his father’s body) has arrived from the airline.

Sawyer is off to go get Desmond out of the well, while the others head to the heart of the island.

Hurley goes to round up the next person on his list, the drunken rock star Charlie. If he won’t come willingly, a tranquilizer dart should do the trick.

At the well, James does not find Desmond, but he does find Locke and Ben. After saying they’re not candidates any more, Sawyer takes off with Ben’s gun.

Desmond wakes up on the ground, greeted by golden retriever Vincent and Rose and her husband Bernard. Locke is not far behind. In order to spare them, Desmond agrees to do whatever Locke wants. He assumes they’re going to a place with a very bright light.

Miles has located Richard, who was thrown into the jungle when he thought it would be a good idea to talk to the black smoke.

Officer Miles just saw Sayid, which is weird considering that Sawyer just sent him to county.

Sun is in the hospital, where she’s being seen by Juliet. During the ultrasound, Sun remembers everything. Oh, and the baby’s healthy.

Miles welcomes Richard to the club. He got his first grey hair. While they’re rowing, they run over a body in the water, then they hear screams for help a ways away. It’s Frank.

Everybody’s going to the same place, so Jack wants to go with Locke because he wants to kill him. How he’s going to do that is a surprise, even to Jack. After they walk for a while, Locke suggests that it should just be himself, Jack, and Desmond from that point forward. They tie Desmond up to lower him to the light, where he hopes to go to some happy place where the plane never crashed.

Sayid and Hugo see Shannon getting fake mugged by her brother Boone, and Sayid steps in to save her. They immediately know who each other is.

Claire’s back, and she’s got a gun. She thinks Miles and Richard were sent there to kill her by Locke. They say they just want to go home, but she’s not interested.

Now that Desmond’s been lowered to the light, the question is whether Locke or Jack is right.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Lost Season 6 Episode 18 The End, Part 2.

The biggest change to NBC’s lineup is the elimination of the ill-fated Jay Leno Show, freeing up 5 hours for shows that people may actually watch. Not stopping there, Heroes, Trauma, Mercy, and Law & Order have also gotten the axe, so we’re left with what’s essentially a brand new schedule. The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: SVU, Dateline, and football are the only shows still where they were at this time last year.

Monday
8-9 Chuck
9-10 THE EVENT
10-11 CHASE

Tuesday
8-10 The Biggest Loser
10-11 Parenthood

Wednesday
8-9 UNDERCOVERS
9-10 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10-11 LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES

Thursday
8- 8:30 Community
8:30-9 30 Rock
9-9:30 The Office
9:30-10 OUTSOURCED
10-11 LOVE BITES

Friday
8-9 Who Do You Think You Are?/SCHOOL PRIDE
9-10 Dateline NBC
10-11 OUTLAW

Saturday
Encore programming

Sunday
7-8:15 Football Night in America
8:15-11:30 NBC Sunday Night Football

Sunday (beginning March 2011)
7-8 Dateline NBC
8-9 Minute to Win It
9-11 The Celebrity Apprentice

The Friday night lineup has been killed off, and So You Think You Can Dance has been moved back to summer where it belongs. The result is that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday had to all be jumbled around, but there’s not much in the way of change.

Monday
8:00-9:00 House
9:00-10:00 Lonestar (New)

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 Glee
9:00-9:30 Raising Hope (New)
9:30-10:00 Running Wilde (New)

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 Lie To Me
9:00-10:00 Hell’s Kitchen

Thursday
8:00-9:00 Bones
9:00-10:00 Fringe

Friday
8:00-9:00 Human Target
9:00-10:00 The Good Guys

Saturday
8:00-8:30 Cops
8:30-9:00 Cops
9:00-10:00 America’s Most Wanted

Sunday
7:00-8:00 The OT (NFL Post-Game)
8:00-8:30 The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 The Cleveland Show
9:00-9:30 Family Guy
9:30-10:00 American Dad

Fox Midseason 2011 Primetime Schedule

(All Times Et/Pt)

Monday
8:00-9:00 House
9:00-10:00 Lonestar (New) / Ride-Along (New)

Tuesday
8:00-9:30 American Idol Performance Show
9:30-10:00 Running Wilde (New) / Mixed Signals (New; Spring)

Wednesday
8:00-8:30 Raising Hope (New)
8:30-9:00 American Idol Results Show
9:00-10:00 Glee

Thursday
8:00-9:00 Bones
9:00-10:00 Fringe

Friday
8:00-9:00 Human Target
9:00-10:00 Kitchen Nightmares

Saturday
8:00-8:30 Cops
8:30-9:00 Cops
9:00-10:00 America’s Most Wanted

Sunday
7:00-7:30 The Simpsons (Encores)
7:30-8:00 American Dad
8:00-8:30 The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 Bob’s Burgers (New)
9:00-9:30 Family Guy
9:30-10:00 The Cleveland Show

Shark Tank, the Forgotten, Hank, Eastwick, FlashForward, and Ugly Betty have been cancelled. Aside from the cancellations and the new shows replacing them, not really a lot of changes going on over at ABC.

Monday
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
10:00 Castle

Tuesday
8:00 No Ordinary Family
9:00 Dancing with the Stars the Results Show
10:00 Detroit 1-8-7

Wednesday
8:00 The Middle
8:30 Better Together
9:00 Modern Family
9:30 Cougar Town
10:00 The Whole Truth

Thursday
8:00 My Generation
9:00 Grey’s Anatomy
10:00 Private Practice

Friday
8:00 Secret Millionaire
9:00 Body of Proof
10:00 20/20″

Saturday
8:00 Saturday Night College Football

Sunday
7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos
8:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9:00 Desperate Housewives
10:00 Brothers & Sisters

Monday and Tuesday nights are being shuffled around with 3 of the 4 shows swapping. Supernatural is joining its old lead-in Smallville on Friday nights, which for most networks would be a death sentence, but this is The CW.

Apparently undeterred from the Melrose Place debacle and the also lackluster performance of 90210, The CW has opted to bring back another show from the 90s, one far less successful than the other two were. The other new series is cheerleading show Hellcats, starring Aly Michalka (one half of the seemingly now defunct Aly & AJ, or 78violet as they for whatever reason changed their name to) and High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale.

Monday
8:00-9:00 90210 (New Night)
9:00-10:00 Gossip Girl

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 One Tree Hill (New Night)
9:00-10:00 Life Unexpected (New Night)

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 America’s Next Top Model
9:00-10:00 Hellcats (New Series)

Thursday
8:00-9:00 The Vampire Diaries
9:00-10:00 Nikita (New Series)

Friday
8:00-9:00 Smallville
9:00-10:00 Supernatural (New Night)

Summer
Plain Jane

Midseason
Shedding for the Wedding

We watched the story of Jacob and his brother the man in black in Lost Season 6 Episode 15, which ended with the deaths of Jacob’s mother and brother, with Jacob becoming the protector of the light.

At breakfast, Jack gets a call from the airline. They’ve located his “missing cargo.” It turns out that on the other line is really Desmond.

Kate’s getting patched up by the doc after the bullet went straight through her. Her mind is on killing Locke.

Ben tries to make a citizen’s arrest on Desmond. That goes about as well as can be expected.

Miles, Richard, and Ben come across the spot where Alex’s body is buried. They head inside the house and open the safe to obtain enough explosives to blow the plane to hell. It’s there they meet up with Widmore. He already rigged the plane with explosives.

During Ben’s beating, Desmond told him that he was looking to get Locke to let go, whatever that may mean to him. Desmond walks into the jail to confess to officer Sawyer. Inside his cell, he meets Sayid and Kate.

Jack and his crew are hunting for Desmond. During their walk, Sawyer blames himself for the death of the others. Meanwhile, Hurley is busy seeing invisible blonde boys. Little Jacob wants the ashes, and when Hugo catches up to him, he runs into less little Jacob. His ashes are in the fire. If it burns out, he’ll never see him again.

Locke would like Ben to kill some people for him. Does Ben know where he would find Charles Widmore, the man who owns the outrigger at the dock? Easy. He’s hiding in his closet.

Alex sees the beaten up Ben hobbling along. She and her mom Danielle invite him over for dinner. Alex’s father died when she was two, which is probably why she’s so attached to Ben.

Locke slashes Zoe’s throat because Widmore told her not to talk to him. First thing he plans to do when he gets off the island is to kill Penny… unless Charles tells him what he’s doing there. He brought Desmond back due to his resistance to electromagnetism. This was a measure of last resort. He whispers something more to Locke. Then Ben kills him dead because he doesn’t get to save his daughter, but he already said what was needed anyway.

Jack, Kate, and Sawyer can now see Jacob, too. He’s very sorry for the deaths of Sun, Jin, and Sayid. What did they die for?

Locke goes to see Jack because he’s wondering what all these too coincidental coincidences are about. Maybe this is happening for a reason. He thinks he’s ready to get out of this chair.

Jacob tells his story. His last story. He brought all of them to the island because he made a mistake. They call that mistake the monster. One of them will have to replace Jacob. None of them were plucked out of a happy existence. Rather, they were all flawed, alone, and looking for something they couldn’t find out there. Kate’s name was crossed off the wall because she became a mother, although the job is hers if she wants it, seeing as it was just chalk. Whoever gets the responsibility will have to do what Jacob couldn’t, killing the monster if that’s at all possible. They can choose who gets to do this. If nobody agrees, this all ends very badly. Jack stands up.

The prisoners are heading to county. I’d guess one of them knows how to break free. That would be Desmond. In return for freedom, Sayid and Kate promise to do something for him. With that arranged, Hugo drives up with the money to bribe the driver Anna Lucia.

Locke and Ben arrive at the well, where Locke realizes that Desmond is not dead. Desmond was a fail safe, one final way to make sure he never leaves, even if all the candidates die. When he finds Desmond, he’ll help him do the one thing he was never able to do himself. Destroy the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Lost Season 6 Episode 17 The End, Part 1, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on ABC.