TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 12/07/11

The U.S. remake of Being Human returns with a second season on January 16. SyFy has been putting out previews of it for about a month now. We will start reviewing it again when it comes back off its interseason hiatus.

This week, we have spoilers for Once Upon a Time,  Doctor Who and Supernatural:

Once Upon a Time (Sunday nights, 8pm, ABC)
By Heather S. Vina

The preview for next week’s Sheriff-centric episode, “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”, is up on YouTube. It looks pretty exciting, but I think it also seals the deal that the Sheriff is the one who dies. There’s no way Regina will let him stay alive if he’s remembering.

Zap2it has synopses up for episodes 7.08 and 7.09.

“Desperate Souls, S01, E08 (First Aired: January 8, 2012)

“Emma runs for public office leading Regina and Mr. Gold to indulge in dirty politics; Rumpelstiltskin searches for a power source to help his son avoid war.

“Guest Stars: Meghan Ory, Patti Allan, Beverly Elliott, Giancarlo Esposito, Dylan Schmid, Conner Dwelly, Kate Bateman, Mark Gash, Ty Olsson, Brad Dourif, Michael Phenicie, C. Ernst Harth, David Paul Grove, Gabe Khouth

“True North, S01, E09 (First Aired: January 15, 2012)

“Emma tries to save two children from the foster system by finding their birth father; the Evil Queen has Hansel and Gretel steal an artifact from a blind witch.

“Guest Stars: Eion Bailey, Quinn Lord, Karley Scott Collins, Nicholas Lea, Emma Caulfield, Gabe Khouth, David Bloom, Osmond Lloyd Bramble”

So – barring this just being a mistake in the press release – Rumpelstiltskin has a son. Hmmm, very interesting, and it gives some depth to his character, if true. Perhaps his machinations aren’t all just for his own good, but something for his son, as well? Though it is interesting that his son is trying to avoid a war, which makes it sound as if his son is in some position of power or something. Hmm….

Matt at TVLine has a paragraph up about the upcoming story with Hansel and Gretel, and the Blind Witch, who will be played by Buffy alum Emma Caulfield. Seems she and the Evil Queen might not be friendly villains.

Ausiello at TVLine revealed that they are casting around for “an actress in her 30s to early 40s to play a sweet, quirky, charming and clumsy fairy named Nova.” I honestly have no idea who that character could be!

They also revealed the fall finale date, and the return of the show in the new year. “Fall Finale: Dec. 11 | Return Date: Jan. 8 (unofficial)”

E! Online has an interview with Jane Espenson up on their site, with several interesting tidbits. The biggest is confirmation from her (though it was already revealed in the Entertainment Weekly article) that Regina remembers everything: “Regina knows. She has her memory as the Evil Queen.”

They also had a few questions/answers up in their spoiler chat from last week.

“@chervil: Anything on Once Upon a Time, please! When will we found out more about Mr. Gold?”
“We’ll learn more about Mr. Gold (the ah-mah-zing Robert Carlyle), and his fairy-tale counterpart Rumpelstiltskin, in episode eight, penned by Jane Espenson! ‘Some crucial facts about where Rumpel comes from,’ are revealed in the episode, Espenson tells us. As for whether or not he’s truly evil, that remains to be seen. ‘He’s a wild card,’ she says. ‘His ulterior motives are still always very complicated.’”

“@ddwordnerd: Once Upon a Time, please! I am obsessed with this show!”
“We are, too, so clearly, you have flawless taste in television. Congrats! Remember that deal Emma (Jennifer Morrison) made with Mr. Gold? ‘He’s going to hold onto that for a while,’ Espenson teases. ‘He’s going to make sure that’s paid off when he can get the maximum bang.’”

And also, some spoiler answers for this week. Nothing really spoilery in this one. Just more talk about the “death”, which we know is the Sheriff. And I guess, at one time, the Sheriff was supposed to be someone else, instead of the Huntsman (as shown in the preview), but they couldn’t get the rights. And alas, for fans of David and Mary, the pictures of David and Mary kissing turn out to be a one-sided kiss. I’m guessing David for Mary, but after what happened this past episode, I can’t imagine her being very receptive to any of his overtures.

TV Guide has an interview up with executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis about the influence of their former show, Lost, on Once Upon A Time, and the future for the characters of the show.

They also have a tidbit in their latest Mega Buzz, which seems to be about next week’s episode, “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”.

“When will the curse be broken on Once Upon a Time? – James”
“NATALIE: Well, first of all, it’s not going to be like – poof! – and all of the sudden everyone knows they are beloved fairy tale characters. In fact, they’re definitely not going to find out all at the same time. But one person will, and soon. But this knowledge might end up being more of a curse than a blessing. ‘Even if you do know who you are, that doesn’t mean everything immediately comes back to you and you get your happy ending,’ executive producer Adam Horowitz says. Adds executive producer Edward Kitsis: ‘In a lot of ways, it might just make it worse.’”

They also announced that Sage Brocklebank has been cast as “Gaston” for the Beauty and the Beast episode “Skin Deep”, to air on February 12. Gaston is the villain in that particular tale. Sage is currently recurring on Psych as Officer Buzz McNabb.

Unfortunately, the ratings fell again this week, to a 3.1/7 in the demos, and 9.611 million viewers. Considering it’s the month of December, and shows tend to go down this month, and FOX had a huge ratings hit with Sunday night football, it’s not horrible, but it is a 9% decrease from last week. Hopefully, it will stop falling and start rising again soon, but all of ABC was down that night and it was still their #1 show of the night, over both Desperate Housewives and Pan Am.

Doctor Who (Saturday nights, 9pm, BBC America)
By Heather S. Vina

Radio Times put up a synopsis for the Christmas episode!

“Christmas Eve, 1938, and Madge Arwell helps an injured spaceman-angel. He promises to repay her kindness. Three years later, Madge escapes war-torn London with her children for a house in Dorset. The Arwells are greeted by a caretaker whose Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.”

And the DoctorWhoNews site has up the prequel for the episode, as well as a short introduction to it from Matt Smith.

Only a few more weeks away!

Supernatural (Friday nights, 9pm, CW)
By Paula R. Stiles

So, the big news this week, of course, was a double-hander. As fans were left wondering whether Bobby Singer was really dead, following last Friday’s midseason finale, the news on Monday was all about Misha Collins returning to the show in at least three episodes, starting with 7.17. It was reported by both Collins and Jim Michaels on Twitter, also via an interview with Collins and two articles. Anybody think the timing was a coincidence? [crickets chirp] Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Okay, so, obviously, nobody is going to elaborate on Bobby’s current status on the show (including Jim Beaver), any more than they were going to leak anything definite about whether or not Castiel would come back before now. It’s still not entirely clear whom Collins will be playing, though he teased it might be Castiel. I’ve seen suggestions that he might come back as Castiel, Jimmy, a Leviathan, or even one of Sam’s hallucinations. I’m basically expecting him to play a Leviathan at least some of the time and would be disappointed if Castiel did not return. Castiel promised Dean he would find a way to redeem himself for screwing up and that chekhovian gun needs to be fired, show. Jimmy has been gone so long that I think he’d need some buildup for his return to make sense. And there’s no room in the Leviathan storyline, as is, for that buildup.

As for bringing him back as a Sam hallucination, please, for the love of God, no. For a start, these hallucinations are just plot masturbation. The character is not real, not really there, and, therefore, nothing is going on that will change that relationship down the road. And for another, the emotional conflict is between Castiel and Dean. It’s always been between Castiel and Dean. Yes, Castiel knocked down Sam’s wall, but Castiel did that to hobble Dean. It had nothing to do with Castiel and Sam. Saying that was a conflict between Sam and Castiel would be like saying that Jessica, not Sam, had the main conflict with YED because he burned her on the ceiling (or ordered her burned on the ceiling). And we all know that’s not true.

7.13 is currently filming and there are two batches of set photos out. Producer Jim Michaels insisted the Impala would be back, but wouldn’t say when. According to these photos, it won’t be before 7.13.

Moving on to the promo at the end of last week. This appeared to cover two episodes, since 7.12 is supposed to be the time-travel one with Eliot Ness and 7.11 is “Adventures in Babysitting”.  What little we can see that seems to be from 7.11 makes it look like a standard MOTW. In one bit, for example, Sam is knocked unconscious by two women in an alley (and possibly bitten), while in another, Dean is seen inside a warehouse, making a running jump. Dialogue consists of Sam in a car (that doesn’t appear to be the Impala), asking Dean, “What’s the plan here, exactly?” and Dean replying, “Not dying” before they get out (heh). At the end, Dean also says, “Well, right about now, your stomach should be pretty knotted up.” The whole thing is scored to “Courage Riot” by the group Konquistador.

More descriptive are the clips that are pretty obviously from the Ness episode. I have heard people speculate that this episode is set in the 1920s and 30s. Now, I vaguely recall reading somewhere that it’s set in 1943, but I’m not going to bother going back to look it up because I can tell you for a fact from the promo alone that said episode will be set in the 1940s.

How do I know? Because there is a brief bit where Dean is standing in front of a large poster, shooting a machine gun. Dean is dressed in a long coat, tie and hat that could be 30s or 40s. I’m not an expert on firearms (different story with bladed weapons), so I can’t guess a date from his weapon, which seems a bit larger than a Tommygun but otherwise generic to the period. However, the poster behind him is far more specific about both time and place. It shows a picture of Uncle Sam with planes flying overhead and the words “War Bonds” on the bottom. Those aren’t WWI planes by any stretch and the U.S. didn’t sell war bonds between wars.

They did start working up a plan for the ones sold in World War II in 1940, but they did not start calling them “War Bonds” until after today’s date 70 years ago. Why? Because December 7, 1941 is the “date that will live in infamy,” the Japanese dawn attack on Pearl Harbor that unceremoniously yanked a previously reluctant and isolationist United States into World War II. So, Dean has to be back in time to 1942-5. Here endeth the history lesson.

Also of note in the clips that appear to be from that episode, we see Dean firing alongside another man, who appears to be a policeman, and also being tackled by someone. Someone (possibly Dean) is also seen kicking in a door to a house. In addition, there’s a very brief bit of a man who looks like Dean (but I don’t think is) kneeling on the ground and grabbing a man dressed like a hobo who is lying down. Both men’s faces glow red. I’m guessing this might actually be Chronos using his time powers on someone to kill that person. If it’s Dean, well…that’s really odd.

Previously, I’d been none-too-thrilled by the spoilers for this episode. Frankly, they sounded idiotic. Time travel back to WWII and meeting Eliot Ness sounded like a comic book from the 50s. Adding yet another obscure Roman god into the mix (so obscure that the writers could make up just about whatever they wanted for his personality and powers) didn’t help this impression. However, I have to say that I really liked what little we saw of it in this. I don’t know who’s directing that one, but that machine-gun scene, at least, looks beautifully shot. So, now, I’m looking forward to it.

There was a brief, and very late, preview of 7.10 with Sera Gamble last Friday. Jim Beaver also did an audio interview about the episode.

In other news, Supernatural is being parodied by MAD on the Cartoon Network. A preview clip came out last week. On the plus side, you know a show has arrived when it gets parodied and I often love parodies of my favourite shows. On the minus side, this one didn’t make me laugh even once. Comedy about spoiled teenage girls and vomit doesn’t do it for me.

Much funnier was a video appeal that Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles made to fans to keep voting for the show in the People’s Choice Awards (voting ended at midnight last night). Make sure you watch until the end. No, really.

Finally, ratings for “Death’s Door” were again at 0.7 for the demo, though the audience was back up to 1.890 million, which is okay for a December episode after a week’s hiatus. Also, more DVR+7 info is out, this time for the week of November 18. In its usual way, the show rose from a 0.7 to a 1.1 in the demo. This was for “How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters”. We’ll see in a week or two what “Death’s Door” got, but I’m guessing it will get another 1.1, or maybe a 1.2.

Don’t forget that Supernatural comes back with 7.11, “Adventures in Babysitting”, on January 6, 2012.

We’ll be back next week with more spoilers. Stay tuned and check out our reviews of Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Event, Once Upon a Time, and Supernatural.