TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 05/09/12

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

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

SpoilerTV has the ABC press release up for the episode “A Land Without Magic”:

“EMMA AND REGINA MUST TEAM TOGETHER IN ORDER TO SAVE HENRY’S LIFE, AND PRINCE CHARMING TRIES TO ESCAPE FROM THE EVIL QUEEN’S CLUTCHES TO REUNITE WITH A FALLEN SNOW WHITE, ON ABC’S ONCE UPON A TIME“:

“Jamie Dornan Guest Stars as Huntsman; Emilie de Ravin (Lost) Guest Stars as Belle; Kristin Bauer (True Blood) Guest Stars as Maleficent; Sebastian Stan (“Gossip Girl,” Captain America: The First Avenger) Guest Stars as Jefferson.

“‘A Land Without Magic’ – Emma and Regina team together in order to find a way to save Henry’s life. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Prince Charming attempts to escape from the Evil Queen’s clutches in order to reunite with Snow White who, unbeknownst to him, has already taken a bite of the Queen’s poison apple, on Once Upon a Time, SUNDAY, MAY 13 (8:00-9:01 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, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Eion Bailey as August, Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills and Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.

“Guest starring are Lee Arenberg as Leroy/Grumpy, David Anders as Dr. Whale, Jamie Dornan as Sheriff Graham/Huntsman, Keegan Connor Tracy as Mother Superior/Blue Fairy, Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Kristin Bauer as Maleficent, Beverley Elliott as Granny, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Gabe Khouth as Mr. Clark/Sneezy, Michael Coleman as Happy, Jarod Joseph as Billy, Sebastian Stan as Jefferson, Ingrid Torrance as Severe Nurse, and Charles Zuckerman as Black Knight No. 1.

“‘A Land Without Magic’ was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz and directed by Dean White.”

They also have the promotional photos up for “A Land Without Magic”. I’m guessing the scene of Regina and Dr. Whale in the hospital, looking like they are being blown back, has something to do with Emma waking Henry up.

And here’s the promo for the episode, on YouTube.

Jennifer Morrison had an interview with TV Guide, where she teased whether or not Emma would believe by the end of the season. I thought this quote was very interesting:

“Morrison says that the cliff-hanger will leave fans wondering what the show will even be like next season. ‘It’s so massive and so game-changing,’ she says. ‘I mean that in the best way. I read the season finale and went, Oh my God! What is going to happen?!‘ While Morrison notes that the core characters and brand of storytelling will remain intact, ‘thematically, there is going to be such a drastic shift that it will be a whole new adventure’ in Season 2.”

I’m now kind of wondering if they are all going to be somehow transported to fairytale land, and the next season will be set there. If you go by Jennifer’s hints, and what looks like something happening in the street in Storybrooke, with Mary Margaret and David, it could be. Hmmm….

Kristin at E! Online had an interesting little tidbit:

“StorybrookeMirror: Have any more Once Upon a Time spoilers up your sleeve?
“Mirror, mirror on Twitter, prepare for the return of another guest star! OK, that didn’t really rhyme, but we tried. A guest star we previously only met in the fairy-tale world will be returning before season’s end and this time, we’ll be meeting their Storybrooke counterpart as well. Warning: Prepare yourselves for a pretty big twist.”

I’m not quite sure who this could be.

Ausiello at TVLine had this to say about the Sheriff/Huntsman’s return in the finale:

“Question: What are the details about Sheriff Graham/the Huntsman’s return to Once Upon a Time? Please say it somehow, magically involves him getting to see Emma again. I haven’t missed a character so much since Logan Echolls left my television screen. – Robin
“Ausiello: The odds would seem to favor Jamie Dornan returning as the Huntsman and not Graham since the former is alive and the latter is not. But considering what OUAT co-creator Eddy Kitsis just told TVLine’s Matt Mitovich, I’m not so sure that’s the case. Asked about the circumstances surrounding Dornan’s comeback, Kitsis teased, “I can say that it is one my favorite reveals of the entire year, and to spoil it would be so heartbreaking.” And how important was it to have Dornan back as…whomever? Says Kitsis, “We moved heaven and earth to get that man from London. Or, we put him on a plane.”

Creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz will be having a Facebook chat with fans Wednesday, May 9 from 3:00-4:00 p.m., ET/12 noon-1:00 p.m., PT. You can find the details on ABC’s media site.

Finally, the ratings are in, and the show remained the same in the demos at 3.0, but slipped a bit in overall viewers to 8.98 million, down from last week’s 9.20 million. There is still no official word from ABC that the show has been renewed, but I can’t imagine it being canceled. We should find out for sure on May 15, 2012, when ABC has their upfronts.

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

The obvious big news is that the show has won an early renewal, along with The Vampire Diaries and 90210, for an eighth season. Due to their ratings, both Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries were considered shoo-ins for a renewal, barring other factors like cast contracts or a complete change in direction by the network. New network head, Mark Pedowitz, has repeatedly said that he is a fan of both shows. While network heads say a lot of things that don’t affect renewals, it appears to be the case, here, since both shows are doing so well for the network that the casts of both seemed confident of getting another season.

As for 90210, while its demos have rested on the border between those shows that were doing well and those that were doing poorly for most of the season, and its audience numbers have been uninspiring, it has remained steady while early front runners have sunk to the bottom this spring. Therefore, while its renewal is not really a surprise, the fact that it’s the only early drama renewal aside from the two obvious successes means that all five of the network’s other dramas are in jeopardy – yes, even Gossip Girl. I keep seeing that show declared as a lock for a final, 13-episode season, but no one can come up with any public reason for the network to do that aside from nostalgia. Pedowitz is going to have to weigh that nostalgia, and possible revenue from extra episodes on Netflix and in syndication, against the show’s abysmal ratings all season. And with the show finally dropping to a 0.4, as well as a few weeks’ worth of sub-million audience, the network may well decide to save fresher shows with slightly higher ratings, like Hart of Dixie and The Secret Circle (which could just be moved to Fridays in front of Supernatural, as a fellow dark fantasy show), instead.

A corrective note: Last week, I reported the 7.23 synopsis as being for 7.22. What can I say? This extra episode business is confusing me.

Speaking of extra episodes, a rumour spread at the Rio Con that the show is getting 24 episodes for next season. Jim Michaels, who may or may not have been the source of the rumour, said he was expecting to hear the show would get a 23-episode order, instead. He also refuted a rumour that he had said at the con that Misha Collins would definitely be in season eight and also insisted that a tweet allegedly from him about Jeffrey Dean Morgan being in 7.23 had been forged. The first episode of season eight will be the show’s 150th. If it the show makes it to ten seasons, it could reach 200 episodes, as well.

Promos for 7.22 came out early this week, so we have almost a full gamut of official photos, CW promo, Canadian promo, and sneak peek. We’re only missing the Producer’s Preview, though we do now have the one for last week (It was done by Misha Collins, this time), as well as a late sneak peek and Canadian promo.

While it is, of course, impossible to say at this juncture how things will go in either 7.22 or 7.23, the official spoilers seem to be leaning toward making us think Bobby will do something horrible to Dean – like rip out one of his ribs. We have seen Bobby do things with his flask without Dean looking, implying he can teleport objects. The synopsis talked about Bobby trying out a new and dangerous “trick”. The sneak peek has him skipping right over the bone of the “righteous mortal” to the blood of the fallen in his infodump to Dean, as if he already knows where to get the bone. And even though we can now see him, he still haunts Dean almost exclusively. We even get Stalker Ghost!Bobby poses in the official photos, lurking behind Dean. Bobby is becoming increasingly obsessed about killing Dick. In the clip, he breaks a mirror with Dean’s reflection, scaring Dean. Just how far might he go in hurting Dean if he decides Dean is that righteous mortal?

There is a new interview up with Misha Collins. Not a lot of spoilers, but he teases about being in season eight, as well as a possible reconciliation with Dean by the end of this season.

Supernatural has been nominated for a Leo in the category of Best Visual Effects (the Canadian version of the Emmy).

Finally, ratings for “Reading is Fundamental” remained steady in the demo at 0.7/2 and went up a bit more to 1.660 million in audience (Looks like the renewal notice, as expected, created some extra buzz). For the third week in a row, the show was second to The Vampire Diaries on the network in both the demo and audience by a clear margin. Also, the Live+7 ratings came back for “Of Grave Importance”, with the same-night 0.7 once again going up to 1.1.

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, Grimm, and Supernatural.