TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 02/01/12

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

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

ABC released the synopsis for episode 1.13, “Whatever Happened to Fredrick”:

“DAVID AGREES TO TELL KATHRYN ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH MARY MARGARET AND END HIS LOVELESS MARRIAGE, AND PRINCE CHARMING AIDS ABIGAIL ON A DANGEROUS MISSION TO RECOVER SOMETHING SPECIAL THAT WAS LOST TO HER, ON ABC’S ONCE UPON A TIME:

“Alan Dale (Lost) Guest Stars as King George.

“‘What Happened to Frederick’ – With their love for each other growing stronger, David finally agrees to tell Kathryn about his relationship with Mary Margaret and put an end to his loveless marriage. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, while runaway groom Prince Charming searches for Snow White, he agrees to aid Abigail on a dangerous mission to recover something precious that was lost to her, on Once Upon a Time, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“Once Upon a Time stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold, Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina, Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, and Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.

“Guest starring are Anastasia Griffith as Kathryn/Abigail, Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Alan Dale as King George, Beverley Elliott as Granny, Eion Bailey as Stranger/August W. Booth, Aria Pullman as Siren, and Greyston Holt as Gym Teacher/Frederick.

“‘What Happened to Frederick’ was written by David H. Goodman and directed by Dean White.”

TVline has an assortment of promo shots up for this episode on their site, here.

The promo for next week’s episode, “Skin Deep”, is up on YouTube. So, Rump is the Beast of “Beauty and the Beast”? Not sure how I feel about this one. I know they’ve been changing things for a while now, but they’ve never completely changed the identity of a fairy tale couple like this. The “Beauty and the Beast” Disney movie was always one of the better ones for me, so them changing it like this isn’t sitting well with me. We’ll see.

Hollywood North On Location has up a few set pictures with Jared Gilmore, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, and Eion Bailey, as well as a few spoilers from watching them film. Apparently, by this episode, Henry has a copy of the book, again, and Henry and Emma are hanging out, again.

Kristin at E! Online has a few spoilers up in her recent column:

“HelenaKirstine: Anything, anything at all on Once Upon a Time. Please!”

“Prepare for Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) flashbacks! We’ll be seeing Snow when she was 12, innocent enough to believe everyone is capable of the same kindness she and her father possess. Any casting suggestions?”

“Nicole: Anything on Once Upon a Time?”
“Giancarlo Esposito wants you to go home right now and make sure your DVR is set to record next week’s Once Upon a Time. And you’d better listen to him. ‘I have a great storyline coming up,’ he tells us. ‘Next week, you’re going to see some fireworks between Sidney and the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla).’ Something tells us these fireworks won’t be the good kind, like the ones Katy Perry sings to us about.”

SpoilerTV has up a casting call for three new characters for the show: the Evil Queen’s mother, who sounds equally evil and is set for a three-episode arc for next season; a Stable Boy, mid-20s, who is potentially the Evil Queen’s romantic love interest from her past; young Snow White, about 12-13 years old. I’m guessing that the Queen’s-mother, “three-episode arc for next season” comment must be a typo. Why start casting for a season you haven’t been officially picked up for, yet, when you haven’t even finished this season?

They’re also reporting that episode 1.16 will be called “Heart of Darkness” and 1.15 will be called “Red Handed“.

Matt over at TV Guide has another couple of Q&As up about the show. Seems people wrote in to him to tell him that Mary Margaret gave the book to Henry. He also mentioned that the prevailing theory about the book is that the Stranger wrote it. And then another non-answer about why time is standing still for these people and yet, they don’t notice it happening.

TV Guide is reporting that Sebastian Stan (Captain America) will be making a guest star appearance in an upcoming episode, but no details on whom he’s playing or in which episode. They also have an interview up with Giancarlo Esposito. It’s from last week, pre-this past Sunday’s episode, so most of the stuff has already happened this past week.

TVLine is “dream casting” the Evil Queen’s mom.

And Ausiello over at TVLine had a few spoilers up in his column from last week, for the show:

“Question: Please, I don’t ask much. Just give us a scoop about Emma and the Stranger on Once Upon a Time. One episode and I ship them, already! – Angel”
“Ausiello: In the next few episodes, the Mysterious Stranger With the Typewriter’s agenda ‘becomes clearer,’ teases co-creator Adam Horowitz, ‘as we realize he has designs on Emma – both romantically and for another reason related to the curse and more specifically to Henry’s story book.’”

“Question: Any scoop on David and Mary Margaret on Once Upon A Time? – Louise”
“Ausiello: They won’t waste any time taking that kiss they shared in Sunday’s episode to the next level. Horowitz confirms that they’ll soon ‘begin an affair that they know is wrong but is also, somehow, right,’ adding that, ‘Regina quickly makes sure that the cost of this true love trying to work itself out is dire.’”

The overnight ratings came out for this week’s episode and, up against lighter competition (though there was another Football show, in the NFL Pro Bowl Pre Game), the show’s ratings went up. They received a 3.4 in the demos, with 10.781 million viewers. Last week, they got a 3.2 in the demos and 9.30 million viewers.

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

Surprisingly, it’s been a rather slow news week, considering the show is coming off a hiatus. We didn’t even get a clip for 7.13 until today – and it’s rather blah (despite including an interview with guest star Sarah Canning that is pleasant, but not terribly informative). That is to say, it’s not the upcoming infamous sex scene, though it does make very clear that Dean and “Lydia” go all the way home, to use the usual baseball terminology. Also, if anyone thought Dean’s drinking issues had disappeared, we find out still carrying around Bobby’s silver whiskey flask (the one he found in Bobby’s stuff in 7.11), because it seems he dropped it, somehow, at Lydia’s house. Ah, that explains the extra photos from last week of him encountering her new baby.

According to a new(ish) short synopsis: “Dean and Sam investigate gruesome attacks in which victims are branded with a strange symbol; Dean meets a woman (Sara Canning) at the town bar.” Additionally, at the beginning of the clip, the brothers are discussing the latest victim, whose wife caught him having an affair. They rule her out as a suspect, though, since she had no reason to kill the other male victims. Also, Dean wants to be with Lydia as more than a one-night stand, but she is cold and standoffish toward him when he calls.

This episode is just going to be the PMS Queen of Hot Messes, isn’t it? Yes, most likely, it will be. Naturally, I would love to be wrong, but the whole scenario of Dean having a one-night stand with an “Amazon” who gives birth to their daughter a day or so later, who then becomes an angry teenager and tries to kill him shortly thereafter, is so very many kinds of stupid and sexist. Join me in hoping for at least a hot sex scene, or (at the very worst) some nice screencaps of shirtless Dean to tide us over the silly premise and (no doubt) maudlin angst, later on. And it could have been even worse – it could have been an MPREG storyline. Maybe we could make a drinking game out of this and get as blotto during the episode as Dean must have been during his one-night stand.

There’s going to be a video interview (probably on Friday) about 7.13 from Jensen Ackles. It seems he will also talk about stuff like the Impala, Castiel and Bobby. The tweet announcing it further confirms that the insta-baby is really Dean’s. In addition, the interviewer, Carina MacKenzie was tweeting snippets about a set visit she made on Monday, while interviewing both Ackles and Jared Padalecki. The tweets appear to be about scenes of 7.17 (but could be 7.16), which include snippets like Sam breaking things and Dean being thrown through tables.

Speaking of spoilers, Rachel Miner is back in Vancouver. Could we be getting some Meg in 7.17 or 7.18? I so wish. Just don’t kill her off, show (or ruin her character). I love to hate Meg and killing her off, permanently, would put a damper on that. Misha Collins was also photographed at Vancouver Airport with his family. In additional casting spoilers, it’s been reported (though not directly by him) that Jared Padalecki will not be gone completely from any episodes this season, just that there will be less of him in each one. So, that question is apparently answered. I think. Though how much less it will be remains, of course, in doubt. We could be talking about a 30-second phone call per week for much of the rest of the season, post-7.17, or we could be talking about something less that most of us wouldn’t notice. Padalecki gave a brief interview talking about his anticipation of the baby’s birth.

There’s a rumour going round LJ that Ben Edlund will write and direct 7.20, as he did 6.20. It’s still just a rumour, though it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

The synopsis for 7.15 is up and it seems we’ll be seeing a demon (or two) again. That could explain the Rachel Miner sighting, except that she just arrived in town on Monday (assuming she’s even there for Supernatural). More likely, then, she’s in 7.17:

“#Supernatural ep. 7.15 synopsis. ‘Repo Man’ (Feb. 17)

“DOUBLE TROUBLE – Four years ago, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) helped a woman named Nora (guest star Nicole Oliver) exorcise a demon that was systematically killing women in a small town. They managed to save the postal worker, Jeffrey (guest star Russell Sams), while vanquishing the demon but now it seems the black-eyed monster has reared his ugly head and returned for a second helping. The brothers visit Jeffrey, who has been locked in a psych ward since the incident, to see if he can remember any of the demon’s plans while he was possessed. Thomas J. Wright directed the episode written by Ben Edlund.”

I’m not sure what to make of this one. The general assumption has been that this episode will exacerbate Sam’s bad mental health, but I can’t see how it will help Dean’s, either. Dean is the one who emphatically did not want to check into a mental hospital in “Sam, Interrupted”, even for a hunt, and who strenuously avoided going anywhere near the local AA chapter in “Defending Your Life”. Sam also was the one who ended up seeing the shrink in “Asylum” and the “crazy hooker” in “Houses of the Holy”. Regardless of Sam’s current internal weather, Dean does not like psych hospitals one little bit, so I don’t see how this will be comfortable for him, either. Plus, it’s Ben Edlund, a writer who likes to torture Dean whenever possible.

A slightly revised version of the 7.14 synopsis teases us with Dean’s worst fear, which is, naturally…All About Sam. Just a warning – this could be someone’s creative addition rather than real information:

“Sam and Dean investigate strange happenings in a town where childhood fears are coming to life. To Sam’s horror his childhood fear of clowns manifests in a very violent and traumatic way which in turn leads to Dean’s childhood fear, losing his brother.”

So, two traumatic episodes in a row for both brothers. No clue, yet, what 7.16′s plot (“Out with the Old”) will be about, but I’m guessing it won’t be all sunshine and roses, either.

Meanwhile, the rumours discussed in the comments section last week have been confirmed. So, 7.18 and 7.19 are now being called “Party On, Garth” and “Of Grave Importance”, respectively. Yeah…Garth. That might explain this tweet from D.J. Qualls.

Meanwhile, Mark Pellegrino teased in an interview about Lucifer possibly being real and broadcasting from the Cage. As I said last week in the comments, this really doesn’t mean much, especially since Pellegrino teased that Fauxifer was real back before the start of the season, too. But let’s go with that for just a bit. If Sam is being “touched by an angel” from the Cage, it’s very likely that Dean is (or will be), too. So, the secret the writers kept teasing about, if it really exists, could be that Dean has been getting his own version of hellvision all along, thanks to Michael. It might explain why Dean is going so barmy when Sam supposedly is the one with the Worst Hellpain Evah.

I’m not entirely wild about this possibility, because I’d prefer Dean not be possessed by Michael and I’m heartily sick and tired of Lucifer. But if Michael is talking to Dean, the temptation to say yes is even higher than before. Dean is desperate to kill the Leviathans and, even worse, he’s in a vengeful mood. I don’t know that Michael would be of much use against Purgatory creatures, but then, he might well find himself outclassed by his own vessel if he did enter Dean. Dean might be able to impose restrictions on him (like forcing him to promise to go against the Leviathans before he could go after Lucifer), or even take control, outright. A lot depends on how committed the writers are to taking Dean dark and making him a credible threat against the Leviathans.

Then again, it’s more likely that Pellegrino is just teasing, and Lucifer and Michael are stuck in the Cage for good.

In overseas news, for those of you in the UK, Sky TV will air season seven this summer.

Producer Jim Michaels has tweeted several times that it is too early for a season eight pickup order. Don’t expect one before mid-February, at the earliest. And with all those pilots being ordered, I’m guessing the CW execs are pretty busy at the moment. It doesn’t sound as though Eric Kripke’s Deadman pilot script was picked up.

Some news about upcoming Supernatural novels is already up. John Passarella, who wrote Night Terrors, will have a new novel out called “Rite of Passage” on August 14. No details yet on the plot, though the background art indicates a possible Chinese mythology angle. That’s the only book listed so far this year, but expect more. At the very least, we can expect an entry for the season seven companion at some point.

Finally, the repeat for “Defending Your Life” came in at a 0.4/1 and 1.1 million, which was a 0.1 higher and 30 thousand viewers less than Nikita.

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.