TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 02/22/12

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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 released the latest press release for the episode “Red Handed”, which, as suspected, is a Red Riding Hood/Ruby-centric episode.

“EMMA HIRES RUBY TO BE HER ASSISTANT AFTER SHE QUITS GRANNY’S DINER, AND RED RIDING HOOD YEARNS TO RUN AWAY WITH HER TRUE LOVE, BUT IS A VIRTUAL PRISONER WHEN A BLOODTHIRSTY WOLF WREAKS HAVOC ON HER VILLAGE, ON ABC’S ONCE UPON A TIME:

“‘Red-Handed’ – After quitting Granny’s diner and with her self-esteem at an all-time low, Emma hires Ruby to be her assistant in order to help her discover what it is in life that she’s good at; and Emma continues questioning David about the disappearance – and possible murder – of Kathryn. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Red Riding Hood yearns to run away with her true love. But she, along with her fellow townspeople, are virtual prisoners when a bloodthirsty wolf continues on its relentless killing spree, on Once Upon a Time, SUNDAY, MARCH 11 (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 David Anders as Dr. Whale, Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Beverley Elliott as Granny, Eion Bailey as August, Jesse Hutch as Peter, and Bill Dow as Mayor Tomkins.

“Red-Handed” was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Ron Underwood.”

SpoilerTV has up larger sizes of the recently released promotional shots for the episode, “Dreamy”. Looks like Belle interacts with the Dwarves!

Matt at TVLine has a tidbit up about Dr. Whale and the episode “Red Handed”:

“Dipping into the reader mailbag, Macario wonders, ‘Do you know what the plan is (or was) for David Anders’ character on Once Upon a Time?’ Well, what I know is that Dr. Whale will resurface in Episode 15 (approximately mid-March), when the show turns its focus to Little Red Riding Hood and, presumably, shiny li’l Ruby as well. But if you’re also wondering if Mary Margaret might return to “playing doctor” if she and David can’t get their predestined act together, rest assured – that “fling” has flung. As a source tells the Inside Line, ‘The thing about Dr. Whale is he can’t be tied down.’ Hmm, is that a Pinocchio reference?”

The show this week was flat versus last week, at a 3.0/8 in the demos and 9.71 millions viewers (8.65 million last week). These are the overnights, so the finals (which were delayed because of the Monday holiday) could tick up a little bit.

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

So they have started filming, and a few lucky people had their picture taken with Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill. You can find the pictures at the Doctor Who News site. There’s also another actor pictured there by the name of ‘Mark Williams’, who is rumoured to be playing Rory’s dad.

The site also has up the first publicity photo for the new season, and the press release regarding it:

“Filming has just started on Series 7 of Doctor Who in Cardiff. This series will see the last days of the Ponds with Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill returning for their final, rollercoaster voyage with The Doctor. Amy and Rory have been at the Doctor’s side for more than two series but what will he do after their heartbreaking departure?

“On returning for his third series as the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith says: ‘It’s thrilling and exciting to be back and working with two of my closest friends.’

“Karen Gillan adds: ‘It’s just brilliant to be back on the TARDIS with Matt and Arthur for our craziest adventures yet.’

“Series 7 will then see a dramatic turn of events when The Doctor meets a new friend. Prepare yourselves for thrills, adventures and dramatic surprises as the show builds towards its enormous, climactic 50th anniversary year. Fourteen big, blockbuster-movie episodes – each a brand new epic adventure featuring new monsters and some familiar foes as you’ve never seen them before.”

Kind of concerning, the bit about a “heartbreaking departure” for Amy and Rory! I wish we knew who the new Companion is. It almost sounds like s/he won’t be introduced until further into the new season.

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

Not a lot of episode news this week, perhaps in part because ONTD’s Supernatural Party is closing to new business (though you can still check out the old posts). Awww. I liked that spoiler community.

We also got a late producer’s preview last Wednesday for “Repo Man”.

The big news involves scheduling and there is both bad and good. The bad news is that the show’s return with new episodes has been pushed back a week, with 7.16 now coming out on March 16 (nice mnemonic) and 7.17 coming out on March 23. The good news is that the network has decided to air Supernatural repeats instead of The Secret Circle repeats on February 23 and March 1 on Thursdays at 9pm. The CW schedule for this week has confirmed that the usual repeat (a different one) will air in its usual slot on Friday. Yes, that’s right – specimens of Sus domesticus have reportedly gone aerodynamic over Greater Vancouver and the CW is airing two Supernatural episodes in one week. Twice.

Speculation naturally has turned to the possibility that the CW is looking into returning the show to its old Thursday night slot. We don’t actually know if that’s true or not, but it’s not a bad bet, either. The show is starting to look ridiculously overpowered in its current slot, what with being second in the network A18-49 demos for the second week in a row, in the spring where most shows (like, say, everything else on the CW) fall rather than hold steady or even rise (as Supernatural is doing). That’s usually when networks’ thoughts turn toward moving a show into a better time slot to see if it can rise some more, or at least make them look good in a more prominent slot. Let’s just hope, if that does happen, that the show’s move wouldn’t screw it up.

The pushing back of the show’s return was so last-minute that the promo for what looks like both 7.16 and 7.17 came out last Friday with the original date. And then they reaired it with the revised date. C-dub, you are scaring me with all this promotional conscientiousness. It’s as if you want people to watch this show. What a concept!

Producer Jim Michaels philosophically hinted that the latter hiatus we usually have in April has been shortened to offset the longer one in March. He also hinted that Ben Edlund might write another episode before the end of the season and that (whether or not Bobby will be back in some form this season) Jim Beaver is not likely to come back in season seven. Maybe in season eight, if there is one.

7.16 is still entitled “Out with the Old”. It’s co-written by Robert Singer and Jenny Klein. Robert Showalter is directing. No official synopsis, yet (though Dread Central reported a small synopsis-ette: “Think you know what’s going on? What lies ahead will shock all; even those you didn’t know still existed.”). Singer directs 7.17, as well (already reported as being written by Sera Gamble). 7.22 will start filming around the end of March.

Terry David Mulligan is guest starring on Supernatural in D.J. Qualls’ episode (probably 7.18, which was being filmed as of last week). He gets tasered by Garth. Speaking of 7.18, remember those set photos of D.J. Qualls I reported last week? Well, there are more, and wow, Sam’s looking pretty healthy and sane in them. I think he even has a shorter haircut (He looks like Jesus in Godspell in the latest promo).

I don’t normally post non-Supernatural-related news about show alumni, but we have interviewed her in the past and this current project of hers is pretty amazing. Cindy Sampson is off to Antarctica to film a sort of science fiction documentary and she’s got a new interview up about it.

Finally, ratings were nice and steady for “Repo Man”, going into this latest hellatus, with a 0.8/2 in the demo and 1.74 million. I know that Spoiler TV reported (from an alleged “inside source”) last week that Supernatural was still on the bubble, while Gossip Girl was “100% safe”, but I’m highly skeptical about it. Yes, Spoiler TV is usually pretty reliable and sure, Gossip Girl might survive to get another season. The CW would probably have to field five pilots (what with the current lousy ratings of Nikita, Ringer and Hart of Dixie, and the slot freed up by One Tree Hill‘s departure) to absolutely need Gossip Girl‘s slot, but I find it difficult to believe that show could be safe so early on and Supernatural not be so. For a little comparison, Supernatural just clocked in with the second-highest demo on the CW for the second week in a row, and yet another Live+7 rating of 1.2. Gossip Girl just got an overnight rating of 0.5/1 in the A18-49 and 1.01 million viewers (which could well drop in the finals to below one million). Nor is its previously vaunted W18-34 rating so hot, these days, either. Sure, it’s been rumoured in the past to get a (relatively) high demo of high-income households, but with only a million viewers, how many of the 1% could possibly still be watching it?

However you parse them, those are abysmal ratings. Or, as TV by the Numbers so succinctly puts it, they “stink.” I can’t imagine why the CW would be so anxious to keep a show like that (whose ensemble cast has only one year on their contracts and can’t wait to bolt), while waffling over a show with steady (even rising) ratings and only two leads, who have both publicly stated they’re happy to stick around. I don’t care how old Supernatural is. You can’t tell me the above numbers add up to Gossip Girl being safer than Supernatural, or that the network wouldn’t even consider the benefits of replacing Gossip Girl with something new.

So, speculation: First of all, the evidence is beginning to pile up that Sam’s epic and much-ballyhooed total breakdown won’t last for more than an episode or two (I’m taking into consideration that we haven’t seen 7.16, yet, or how much of his breakdown will be in it). Because there is Jared Padalecki filming 7.18 last week (You can just about see Qualls standing next to Jensen Ackles, indicating that no, it isn’t the tail end of 7.17 shooting out of order), with Sam upright and looking pretty healthy. After ending up committed and such the week before, no less. Also, his hair is shorter and less wild than in the promo for 7.16/7.17. Ergo, it seems that after being turned into a newt, he got better.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this kind of soap opera plotting, but since I can’t stand that storyline, I think I’m fine with it, as long as they don’t do any more Holy Drywall, or God knows what-all, and actually resolve it. Those who love this storyline deserve a resolution to it, regardless of whether or not the show gets renewed. Those who hate it deserve to see it resolved and finally put away while Padalecki is still able to devote his full attention to his role this season.

Also in the promo, we got what we were all waiting for – Twinkies! Oh, no, sorry, wrong category of guilty pleasures. I actually mean the brief shot of Misha Collins, in street clothes, turning around toward Dean and (Yes, I do believe) Meg. He looks angsty rather than terrified, so perhaps he really is still Castiel. Jimmy would look freaked out of his gourd at the sight of those two, methinks.

It looks as though Jim Beaver really won’t be back this season, which I kind of figured (though I’m happy for his busy new schedule), but I don’t know what that means for Bobby. Since this show likes to give us an actor to go with the ghostly influence, though, I’m leaning toward whoever (or whatever) is haunting Dean not being Bobby, especially since Dean desperately wants it to be Bobby.

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.