Television

What is it about canceling a series that suffers from the more-than-occasional mediocre episode that suddenly brings out the best in writers? The season (and series?) finale of LUCIFER is everything we've wanted the series to be, as all the loose ends are tied up, and a cliffhanger finale that will have shippers doing fanfic for years to come if the show doesn't get picked up for a fourth season.

Charlotte Richards (TRICIA HELFER) is dead, shot by Lt. Marcus Pierce (TOM WELLING) when he was actually trying to shoot Amenadiel (D.B. WOODSIDE). He did this because Pierce is also Cain, immortal murderer who lost his curse mark and believed killing God's favorite son would earn it back. But he missed. Charlotte died. Amenadiel got his wings back. And the angel flew the redeemed to Heaven.

GOTHAM does its own unique spin on DC Comics' THE KILLING JOKE in this latest episode, as things lead up to next season, which looks to be a take on the mega-arc, NO MAN'S LAND.

Jeremiah Valeska (CAMERON MONAGHAN) is holding Gotham City hostage, having planted highly explosive bombs all over the city. Jim Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE) is feared dead, and as ranking detective Harvey Bullock (DONAL LOGUE) takes the lead. But the police don't want to follow him, because the last time he was in charge they all got shot at by Professor Pyg.

Meanwhile, Oswald Cobblepot (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR) senses an opportunity to cash in on Jeremiah's extortion plot, and convinces Barbara Kean (ERIN RICHARDS) and Tabitha Galavan (JESSICA LUCAS) to ally with him, with the underlying promise of getting a cure for Butch (DREW POWELL) and his "Solomon Grundy" condition. 

When we last left RIVERDALE (and if we're honest, when we say 'left' we mean 'ran away screaming'), Cheryl Blossom (MADELAINE PETSCH) had just opened the door of Thistle House to none other than the Black Hood.

It could have been the end for Cheryl, but she kept her wits about her. And when the Black Hood follows her outside, he comes face to face with another CW character -- Speedy from ARROW! Oh wait, that's not Thea Queen. It's still Cheryl Blossom, but with a bad-ass bow and her blood-red hunting cape! She fires a warning shot at him to get his attention, then puts one in his right shoulder, sending him fleeing into the woods -- with her in hot pursuit!

Instead of racing toward the season finale, THE FLASH seems to have entered into a slow jog. Seeking some method of attacking Devoe while circumventing all his powers, the team lands on the idea of seeking assistance from Amunet Black (KATEE SACKHOFF) because Devoe won't be able to use Kigore's powers to "hack" her metal fragments. One supposes he couldn't increase their gravity to make them fall, or sonically knock them out of the sky, or alter luck to make them miss, or shrink them to a molecular level, because he has all those powers as well, but they don't seem to have been accounted for.

In other words, the season's over and the writers have checked out.

There's a lot of standard build-up, but the last ten minutes of this episode makes it the LUCIFER that Lucifans have been waiting three years to see.

Having realized that Chloe (LAUREN GERMAN) has broken things off with Lt. Pierce (TOM WELLING), Lucifer (TOM ELLIS) is eager to help Chloe get things back to normal. And what better way to get back to normal than to replay all their best moments, from first meets to game night to romantic dances. But Chloe isn't having any of it, and is determined to focus laser-like on the case presented to them: the murdered wife of a famous baseball player, Forest Clay (DOUG SAVANT).

The case makes it's usual twists and turns, beginning with Clay's mistress (EMMA BELL) and ending with...well, that would be telling.

Jerome was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

Well, sorry, Mr. Dickens, but there does indeed seem to be a doubt, at least in the mind of Jerome's twin brother, Jeremiah Valeska (CAMERON MONAGHAN). True, Jerome fell from a building, was pronounced dead when brought into the coroner's office and was even more dead after he was autopsied. But that doesn't stop Jeremiah from severe anxiety as he shows off his new free-energy invention to Bruce Wayne (DAVID MAZOUZ). Bruce does hs best to convince Jeremiah that Jerome is truly gone, and suggests they go see his grave to confirm it to Jeremiah, to beat the insanity gas Jeremiah was subjected to at the end of last episode.

In the mid-70s, the great BILL BIXBY starred in a one-season crime drama called THE MAGICIAN. Bixby played Tony Blake, a stage magician who was asked to investigate a plane crash. He became a moonlighting crime fighter, using his skills at illusion and misdirection to catch the bad guys.

It was a pretty cool idea, although it came with built-in limitations.

Fast forward to 2018, and ABC brings us DECEPTION, starring JACK CUTMORE-SCOTT as Cameron Black, a stage magician whose career comes tumbling down when the secret to one of his greatest stunts comes to light -- that he has a twin brother, Jonathan. The world learns about Jonathan when he is arrested for leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in a woman's death. Only the woman dead on the scene wasn't the woman who was with Jonathan in the car. He's been set up, and he's sent to prison.

Chaos comes to RIVERDALE as all the sordid little threads start to come together in a tapestry of terror.

Moose Mason (CODY KEARSLEY) comes clean with the Bulldogs that he and Midge had a fight the night of her murder, because she had confessed to him that she'd been seeing someone else: one of the Southside Serpents. It doesn't take long before word gets around that this Serpent was Fangs Fogerty (DREW RAY TANNER), who was caught on camera when Jughead (COLE SPROUSE) filmed all the behind-the-scenes footage of the school musical. That footage was handed over to the sheriff's department, which is now run by Sheriff Michael Minetta (HENDERSON WADE), a man firmly in the pocket of Hiram Lodge (MARK CONSUELOS). And when that footage is used to arrest Fangs at school, a scuffle ensues, revealing that Fangs carries a switchblade knife. He's looking guiltier by the second.

Paralleling and mirroring the structure of episode 407, "Therefore I Am," this episode, "Therefore She Is," tells the story of The Thinker's wife, Marlize (KIM ENGELBRECHT) -- aka The Mechanic, although we've never really heard her referenced as such in the series. Through flashbacks we see how she met Clifford DeVoe (NEIL SANDILANDS), fell in love with him, found him to be a sociopath with an agenda, and came around to his way of thinking -- a Luddite view of technology that sees it as killing mankind.

Does anyone else think Chloe Decker (LAUREN GERMAN) accepted a marriage proposal from Marcus Pierce (TOM WELLING) just a little too quickly? Well, you'r not the only ones. Lucifer Morningstar (TOM ELLIS) also realizes the window was shut on his opportunity to tell the detective how he feels about her, and he can't understand what made her jump at the offer.

To better understand Chloe, who is taking time off from work to plan her wedding, he decides to get into her head and roleplay her part, with Detective Daniel Espinoza (KEVIN ALEJANDRO) tagging along and pushed into playing the role of Lucifer. Their murder case centers around a dog breeding competition and a pregnant mastiff and, as is usual for an LUCIFER episode, shenanigans lead to insight as Lucifer gets angry with Dan and learns exactly how Chloe feels.

Poor Archie Andrews (KJ APA). Every time he learns a new mob term, he thinks he needs to apply it to his life, and his relationship with Mr. Lodge (MARK CONSUELOS), for whom he works as a capo. Yes, Archie has full knowledge that Hiram Lodge and family are mobsters, and he's all in. This is RIVERDALE, where school plays are scenes for murder, and best friends don't help you study for algebra exams, they help you hide bodies.

From Lucasfilm:
 

This fall, welcome to the Resistance!

StarWars.com is thrilled to announce that production has begun on Star Wars Resistance, an exciting new animated adventure series about Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot recruited by the Resistance and tasked with a top-secret mission to spy on the growing threat of the First Order. It will premiere this fall on Disney Channel in the U.S. and thereafter, on Disney XD and around the world.

Admittedly, after the emotional blows dealt in last episode ("Lose Yourself"), I thought "Fury Rogue" was going to be more of a coast. I mean, they just killed Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER) and effectively eliminated Killer Frost (DANIELLE PANABAKER) from Caitlin Snow's persona. Since this episode dealt with the final bus meta being safely transferred to a secure facility, how much excitement could it really generate?

While the episode didn't have quite the level of action as others, the drama was tense throughout. Caitlin still finds notes from her alter ego, Harrison Wells (TOM CAVANAGH) has to admit to Cisco (CARLOS VALDES) that the Thinking Cap has begun the process of eroding his intelligence, and Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) refuses to deal with the emotions of Ralph's death.

As the third season draws rapidly to a close, LUCIFER delivers an emotionally impacting episode with some true character changes for our stars as well as the reveal of a dark plot befitting a show about the Prince of Darkness.

At the close of last episode Lt. Pierce (TOM WELLING), whom the viewers also know to be the immortally cursed Cain, got Chloe (LAUREN GERMAN) to fall in love with him -- but stopped short of letting her say it. His deduction was that it was Chloe's love for Lucifer (TOM ELLIS), not her presence, that made Lucifer vulnerable and that if he could get it, it would do the same for him and allow him to die.

The Riddler (CORY MICHAEL SMITH) teaches a lesson in betrayal with this episode of GOTHAM. Having agreed to perform a series of bank robberies for Lee Thompkins (MORENA BACCARIN), the proceeds of which are distributed among the impoverished of The Narrows, GCPD Captain James Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE) and Harvey Bullock (DONAL LOGUE) suspect Nygma's cleverness behind the thefts.

They're not the only one. Oswald Cobblepot (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR) and Butch Gilzean (DREW POWELL) are also on the trail of The Riddler. They want in -- by force -- and they want half of the take. When Oswald sees that Nygma is lending his brilliant mind in the service of Thompkins, he plants doubts in The Riddler's mind about Lee using him, doubts which fester when the mirrors are turned on Riddler, who is now taunted by his alter ego, Nygma (where it used to be the other way around).

Riverdale fans who follow the fictional Instagram account of Kevin Keller (played by CASEY COTT) were given the news that Midge Klump (EMILIJA BARANAC), who was last seen impaled on the set wall of CARRIE: THE MUSICAL, is indeed dead.

Kevin writes, "Sometimes it takes tragedies to put things in perspective. RIP Midge you’ll be missed." This all but confirms that a major character has been written off of the series.

"I TOLD YOU SO". That tweet was sent out by star Cameron Cuffe as the big reveal was delivered to audiences.

This whole time, showrunner Cam Welsh and many other actors and participants who live tweet KRYPTON have been warning us that this show isn't what we think it is. To paraphrase Cuffe, KRYPTON has been setting up the game, moving the pieces on the board, and last night they flipped the table.

If you don't want SPOILERS I suggest you TURN BACK NOW! Bookmark this page and come back after you've watched the episode. Because you never saw this coming. What's worse is they give you a red herring while cleverly working it into Jayna Zod's backstory.

It's time for CARRIE: THE MUSICAL, and this episode of RIVERDALE delivers on its titular promise. Believe us, readers, this isn't just "A Night to Remember" -- it's a night you won't be able to forget!

Director JASON STONE  and writers ARABELLA ANDERSON and TESSA WILLIAMS have done a great job of paralleling the classic CARRIE storie elements against the backdrop of the twisted gothic horror that RIVERDALE has become, with Betty (LILI REINHART) as good-girl Sue Snell, Archie (KJ APA) as her boyfriend Tommy Ross, Veronica (CAMILA MENDES) as bad-girl Chris Hargensen and trying-to-reform Chuck Clayton (JORDAN CALLOWAY) as her boyfriend, Billy Nolan.

The first season of BLACK LIGHTNING wraps things up after a 13-episode run -- and, honestly, it's none too soon.

There were so many different things going badly for this series after its debut, but the acting wasn't one of them. CRESS WILLIAMS turned in a fine portrayal of high school principal Jefferson Pierce, but he's simply not action hero material when it came to being Black Lightning. Or perhaps it was just that the hero suit was so bulky and inflexible that made the fight scenes look stilted and awkward. The suit itself was never really fully explained, as far as having a reason other than disguise and identification. The best I can guess is that Pierce could funnel his natural electrical charge into it to make it do other things, but he still could perform electrical stunts without the uniform.

I've known that this episode of THE FLASH was likely coming, given the track record of the bus metas that The Thinker (NEIL SANDILANDS) had been tracking. But that doesn't mean I had given up hope, and it certainly didn't mean I was prepared for the event when it got here.

Last night, it got here.

Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN) and Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER) are examining the actual bus that was hit by the wave of dark matter, scanning it for dark matter signatures in order to help the find anything on Edwin Gauss (ARTURO DEL PUERTO), a man who is completely off the grid, and lived that way even before the bus incident. As Harry (TOM CAVANAGH) gets further addicted to using the "thinking cap," the rest of Team Flash investigates a commune to find the extremely laid back Gauss to bring him in for protection. They're intercepted by one of The Thinker's Samuroids, but ultimately get Gauss into the Pipeline.