TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 02/15/12

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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

ABC has issued the press release for the episode “Dreamy”:

“MARY MARGARET TEAMS WITH LEROY TO HELP THE STORYBROOKE NUNS SELL CANDLES DURING THE TOWN FESTIVAL, BUT FEELS THAT HE HAS OFFERED MORE THEN HE CAN DELIVER, AND GRUMPY FALLS IN LOVE WITH A BEAUTIFUL FAIRY, ON ABC’S ONCE UPON A TIME:

“Amy Acker (Angel) Guest Stars as Astrid/Nova. Emilie de Ravin (Lost) Guest Stars as Belle.

“‘Dreamy’ – Unlikely allies Mary Margaret and Leroy team together for a good cause to help the Storybrooke nuns sell their candles during the town’s Miner’s Day festival. But Leroy makes a promise to a nun, Astrid, that he may not be able to keep; and Emma looks into the mysterious disappearance of David’s wife, Kathryn. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Grumpy finds forbidden love with beautiful but clumsy fairy Nova, on Once Upon a Time, SUNDAY, MARCH 4 (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 Lee Arenberg as Leroy/Grumpy/Dreamy, Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Giancarlo Esposito as Sidney/Magic Mirror, Keegan Connor Tracy as Mother Superior/Blue Fairy, Amy Acker as Astrid/Nova, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Beverley Elliott as Granny, Geoff Gustafson as Stealthy, David-Paul Grove as Doc, Gabe Khouth as Mr. Clark/Sneezy, Faustino Di Bauda as Sleepy, Jeffrey Kaiser as Dopey, Michael Coleman as Happy, Mig Macario as Bashful, Ken Kramer as Bossy, Richard Ian Cox as Watchy, Michael Rinaldi as Helper Dwarf, Paul Chevreau as Skinny Man and Elizabeth McCarthy as Rotund Wife.

“‘Dreamy’ was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz and directed by David Solomon.”

Interesting. I guess we will be meeting all of the Dwarves by name in this one! And I like that Mary Margaret is teaming up with Leroy, considering what they showed us of Snow White and Grumpy. Kind of strange that the fairies seem to be nuns in this world, though.

There are some set photos of Eion Bailey (the Stranger), here. I wonder if they plan to make him a regular?

A young actress by the name of ‘Bailee Madison’ has been cast on the show, as she announced on her twitter. I get the feeling that she will be playing a young Snow White. You can see a list of her appearances on her IMDB record.

The promo for next week’s Prince Charming-centred “Whatever Happened to Frederick” is up on YouTube. Colour me more interested in the Prince Charming story with the Siren than in the melodramatic Mary Margaret/David/Kathryn triangle. And look, more smirking Lana Parillo as Regina! I swear, I don’t think she has any look other than that!

Up against the powerhouse that was the Grammys the other night, the show lost some ratings points from its previous new episode. The ratings show a 3.0 in the demos (down from 3.5) and 8.65 million viewers (The previous new episode was 10.78).

Don’t forget – the show will be preempted on February 26 for the Oscars!

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

Matt Smith did an interview with The Guardian on his theater aspirations and Doctor Who. He’s back to filming on February 20th. So soon! But, alas, he was very determined not to give out spoilers. The only thing he really did mention is that he’s seen at least the first four scripts and that he just found out that the show has gotten a very “exciting” guest star. He said that “we” will know him or her, but alas, I don’t know if that’s the English viewing public “we” or the general public “we”. Considering he was talking to the British press, he’s probably talking about a British celebrity. And that’s a very wide (and not completely familiar to me) pool!

Alex Kingston suggested to Digital Spy that we could possibly see River Song again, despite the fact that her parents are leaving the show. “You may see her again. Who knows? … Let’s just say, Upstairs Downstairs and Doctor Who don’t film at the same time.”

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

So far, we’ve got a CW promo, official photos and a sneak peek for 7.15 this past week. No doubt, a CHCH promo and producer’s cut will follow. And the CHCH promo for 7.14 did come out late last week.

The episode 7.19, “Of Grave Importance”, allegedly features a woman in her late 30s named “Annie” who is an “old flame” of both brothers. Just a note – the title implies a ghost MOTW and “Annie” happens to be the name of the ghost character in Being Human. As for the old flame/love triangle thing, it’s far too early to tell if that’s what’s going on.

The CW put out Valentine’s Day posters for its various male characters, including one each for Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins. And you guys thought the network had forgotten all about Collins. Oh, ye of little faith.

Episode titles for 7.20 and 7.21 are now “The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo” and “In Case of Emergency”. And yes, the first one is utterly stupid. The second is…uninformative. When does an episode not involve an emergency?

It also appears that Ben Blacker won’t be writing any more episodes for the show after “The Mentalists”.

Director Guy Norman Bee has said he will be in town on March 15 to direct 7.22. Keep in mind that the director usually arrives in town a week or two ahead of time to scout locations.

There are photos out of D.J. Qualls on set from February 10. This means two things – yes, Garth really is coming back in the episode with his name on it and they were filming 7.18 last week.

The second part of the video interview with Padalecki and Ackles came out last Friday. Padalecki teases that Sam will go really nuts and possibly be in a straitjacket.

Finally, ratings were level with last week’s, with a 0.8/2 and 1.88 million viewers. This had the show tied for second in the demo with The Secret Circle and 60 thousand viewers ahead of it.

So, speculation: We’re starting to get in some fragments of what is going on with Dean. We’ve had a lot about Sam, at least as far as 7.17. While it’s been pretty spoilery, it’s also been rather monotone, along the lines of: “Hey, Sam’s gonna go crazy. By the way, Sam’s gonna go crazy. Oh, and did we mention, Sam’s gonna go crazy? Is that your kink, ’cause if it is, have we got some Crazy Sam for you.”

And yet, if you believe that one spoiler about 7.19, it seems Sam’s crazy could last no more than an episode or two. Well. Alrighty-then.

Just a note: Padalecki has been teasing a lot this season about Sam in ways that make it seem as though some episodes would be more Samcentric than they turned out to be. So, don’t automatically expect there to be tons of Sam going crazy in the end, especially since there is only so much they can do with that.

More intriguing (and less noted) are Jensen Ackles’ comments toward the end of the interview video segment (which are, incidentally, cut off, perhaps to be aired this Friday), in which he says that Castiel is not really Castiel because he does not remember being Castiel. It tickles me that Ackles uses the distinctly British term, “gobsmacked”, for Dean’s reaction to seeing Castiel alive. He says that losing Castiel and then Bobby has taken away a lot of Dean’s motivation to fight and even live. Ackles talks about how Dean has only “part” of Sam left as a support. Were Dean to lose even that part of Sam, “it would be the end of Dean” and Dean might end up “very self-destructive”, even going “kamikaze for Dick Roman.” When asked about this uncertainly conditional/subjunctive statement, show producer Jim Michaels hedged, “Wouldn’t that require Jensen to be on a suicide mission? I certainly don’t want that!”

Now this is not necessarily a spoiler. Ackles never said it would happen. He just said that if one thing happened (Dean lost Sam) another thing certainly would (Dean would go after Dick). This statement also comes right after talking about Castiel, which implies that Castiel’s return wouldn’t change this cause-and-effect.

However, what people are using to say it’s definitely not a spoiler (an interview from last September, in which executive producer Robert Singer said, “In the first 13 episodes, he will carry a rockier journey of how he feels emotionally and the things he has to deal with than any other season. He is on a real roller coaster”) has been misquoted. Singer doesn’t say that Dean only has a 13-episode arc. He just says that Dean will have a journey during the first 13 episodes that will be very hard. We now know that this journey has been resolving into a grief-stricken determination to roast Dick Roman’s head on a spit, due to losses incurred during those episodes. In that context, Ackles’ statements do sound pretty spoilery, as our first real hint of part two in the Let’s Beat on Dean plotline this season. After all, we do know that Sam will lose his mind enough to end up institutionalised, which would mean that Dean had “lost” Sam in what little way he has him left. Hence, the spoilers we’re getting about Sam lean heavily toward the conditions in Ackles’ statement being fulfilled at some point. So, make of that what you will.

For once, it’s the CW promo for 7.15 that has excited the most controversy, with images of Sam being “invaded” by Fauxifer (“You let me back in!”); a demon’s host who actually likes being possessed, Dean being brought past a curtain at gunpoint; the demon being tortured by Dean with holy water on Ruby’s knife while Sam tries to reassure the host (That may indicate the flashbacks are to season four, since the brothers didn’t have Ruby’s knife in season three and Dean didn’t turn torturer until after his stint in Hell); Dean being stabbed in the back of the neck by the host with what looks like a blood-filled syringe, while Dean leans over someone who also looks like the host tied to a chair; and Sam sitting on a bed listening to Lucifer, while an unconscious (drugged?) Dean lies face down on a bed in the foreground. It brings up all sorts of possibilities: What kind of host would want to be possessed? A psychopathic serial killer, maybe? Does the host actually drug Dean (and why) or does Sam wig out and do it during a psychotic episode? What’s in the syringe? Why did the demon need the body parts from the women he killed? Who let the demon come back up to earth after the brothers forced him to squeal and sent him to Hell?

While it’s early to bring it up for this upcoming episode, I’m finding myself getting a bit impatient with Sam constantly bugging Dean about doing MOTW hunts in the 7.15 clip. For one thing, yes, the Leviathans are the most important game in town, so dismissing them, even for a time-sensitive botched hunt from years ago, seems very short-sighted. For another, 7.15 appears to be set partly in either season three or season four (depending on whether or not they choose to remember the magically disappearing year between seasons five and six) and we have Sam complaining to Dean that they need to clean up their old mess from years ago. Which is all very fine and good, except that Sam in both seasons was all about the Big Bad and did not give a toss about the MOTWs, for the most part.

I don’t mind the show flipping the script, with Dean obsessing over the Big Bads and Sam now caring more about MOTWs than the Leviathans (though Sam’s total lack of interest in the Leviathans is getting a might creepy). I’m fine with that. But it seems clumsy to have Sam constantly banging away at how Dean is obsessed with Dick Roman, without either Sam or Dean mentioning that, just a year ago, Sam was a soulless creature that had no compunction about killing people to get what he wanted. “Repo Man” seems like a good time to bring that up, seeing as how Sam was equally obsessed with Lilith in seasons three and four.

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.