If you haven’t seen it yet, here you go:

I know, the video is seriously lacking some Bill, Eric, Sookie, Sam and the rest of the residents of Bon Temps that we love, but it’s the perfect tease to get us craving more!

I’m planning to re-watch Seasons 1 and 2 before the new season starts, in addition to keeping an eye out for videos, photos and more to share with all of you.

How will you be biding your time until True Blood’s triumphant return?

Last week, I got distracted by something shiny and failed to submit my article about the episode so I am just going to plow through last week and this week together.

Episode 6

Seeing Sayid’s family side still tainted by his dark career. As suspected his newfound sense of family and justice return him to his seedy past.

On the Island, we find out why Jack and Hurley were sent to the looking glass lighthouse. To keep them out of harms way when Flocke was visiting the temple. The parallel to Sayid’s moral dilemma in the Sideways Reset is just as sweet on the Island. His fate is uncertain, but I suspect we will see him again.

Episode 7

Ben Linus … wait. Dr Linus gets the focus of this episode, and we see his father weak and sick mention the Dharma Initiative. So it was revealed that they DID go to the Island, and it still existed in the Sideways Reset world.

Ben’s adoptive daughter Alex is revealed to be one of his students and the girl is as staggeringly beautiful as she was on the Island. And Linus still has an instinct to be a father figure as her teacher who has an interest in her well being and future. Linus also illustrates his manipulative instincts to gain position.

The Parallels are just insanely delicious. Its my favourite part of this season so far. Seeing the two completely different timelines deliver all the Losty goodness we expect, and giving one more layer of enjoyment illustrating how their lives are different and still just the same. On or off the Island.

The episode ends with them all on the beach, THE beach. But someone is watching.

Mr Widmore. Dun dunnn dunnnnnn!

Until next week… Get Lost.

Rodney Brazeau Rodney is the Senior Editor at The Movie Blog, Pairs Synchronized Unicyclist and a Secret Decoder Ring Owner Follow The Movie Blog @TMB_Tweets

Photo Courtesy of ABC

Two episodes ago, we were re-introduced to Crazy Claire in the closing moments of the ep just to follow it up next week saying, ‘Remember that big reveal? Yeah, we are not touching on that just yet.”

Last week was all Locke/Flocke.

This week its mostly Jack. A little Hurley, but mostly Jack.

Jack has a kid. Maybe I missed that, maybe it was sprung on us, but yeah. Teenager. Sure that wasn’t mentioned before (or it got missed in the mess of useless facts in my head), and the Sideways Reset shows him attempting to salvage his family relationships – especially his son – and settling his father’s affairs. We also hear mention of “his mother” who could be Jack’s first wife … but we don’t know. Seems they left that out for a reason, but there is no reveal yet.

Which leads them to finding his will, in which he mentions Jack’s sister Claire. That is what I like about the Sideways Reset world, is that we see how their lives intermingle even without the Island. In the early seasons of the show we catch common threads like Locke working for Hurley’s box company, Claire and Jack and a bevvy of other crossover madness, but even the new people are getting their own little brush with the cast after the fact.

Messing with the reset we get the Samurai crossing paths with Jack.

But then we get back on to Claire. Remember her? Yeah, she’s all loony and still pining over her lost baby Aaron. Whoever took him has to die, and while she is soft on Jin she’s less than cordial with the Temple guy she kidnaps. Jin tells Claire that Aaron left the Island with Kate, but then without reason, he backtracks saying it was a lie directing her rage at the Temple before meeting Claire’s friend … Flocke.

Bwuh? This week didn’t blow my mind, but I cant expect them to ALWAYS surprise me – just most of the time.

Until next week… Get Lost.

Rodney Brazeau Rodney is the Senior Editor at The Movie Blog, Olympic Full Contact Bacgammon Medalist and a Cuddly Ninja Follow The Movie Blog @TMB_Tweets

Photo Courtesy of ABC

FLocke (fake Locke) seeks out Sawyer and offers him some answers. The two of them go on a bit of a trip to a secret little alcove in the beach so that he can explain to Sawyer exactly why he was brought to the island. And he tells him! He was brought here for a reason! And what is that reason? Well it’s vague and mostly just a sick joke, but he has other plans. Let’s just go home.

Uh, what? OK, spoileriffic time … stop now if you must …

Yup. FLocke reveals that EVERYTHING that Sawyer has been through has lead up to this moment, and now they are going to ignore all that. FLocke just wants to go home and offers to take Sawyer with him. Where home is, we don’t know yet.

This also does answer at least one question from WAY back in near the beginning. On the encounter with the others Ben Linus sends out agents to the crash to infiltrate and gather names on a list. Later we hear him reference “they were not on the list” and this mysterious list is mostly revealed on the cave in the alcove with names scratched out from what FLocke calls “candidates” to replace Jacob as the Island’s guardian.

We also follow a lot of Locke (not FLocke) on the LAX side after the crash didn’t happen, and we see what was waiting for him when he got back home. In more strange meetings of fate, we see other people that were on the plane crossing his path, and ultimately Locke gets a job as a supply teacher – where he meets Benjamin Linus. Another flawed facet in the world that would have been.

Even when this show is moving along at a comfortable pace without any massive conflict or action, it still manages to catch you off guard. It’s like those old fashioned jack-in-the-box toys. You know the song, it’s building up to the moment you know is coming and even though you know there will be a big surprise you are never quite ready for it. Boing! Ben Linus!

Until next week … Get Lost.

Rodney Brazeau Rodney is the Senior Editor at The Movie Blog, Kama Sutra of Pooh Guru and Jedi Knight Follow The Movie Blog @TMB_Tweets

Photo Courtesy of ABC

Well, this could potentially be a spoiler, so if you’re avoiding any revealing info about LOST, stop reading now!

Carlton Cuse did reveal to TV Guide last September that Katey Sagal, known as John Locke’s deceased love Helen, would be making an appearance in the final season of LOST.

I know for a fact that she’s in tonight’s Locke-centric episode, The Substitute, but I guess this won’t be the last we see of Helen.

According to a tweet from Katey Sagal (@kateysagal), she’s made a return to the island – Hawaii, that is – to do some more work with Lost.

Sagal tweeted the following just before 3 pm EST:

“Back in Hawaii Still Lost”

For those who love their spoilers and speculating on what’s to come this season on Lost, weigh in with your thoughts on Sagal’s return to LOST! Will it be in another flashback? Will Helen and Locke reconnect in this parallel universe where Oceanic 815 made it safely to LA? Or will she appear on the Island like many other dead characters?

This episode was like eating dinner; it had one major story with some sides. But I love the sides because that means Caroline and Matt are back. And Tyler! I bet you forgot what he looked like, he’d been gone so long. Caroline’s set of speeches telling Matt she didn’t want to mess up what they had was completely endearing. Not to mention, how cute was that last scene of them leaning into each other with their noses touching? Very crucial to the Valentine’s Day weekend crowd.

Jeremy is another good side to this dish. He wants to stop being a homebody and start living his life again. He invites Anna to this annual party in the woods by this guy Duke who goes to Duke. Ha! Jeremy invites Anna, who says she’ll go, but we know she’s only going because the party location is near the tomb. At the party we finally see Tyler who asks Jeremy for weed. Jeremy has turned over a new leaf and says no. This party scene is only useful in giving Anna an opportunity to say goodbye to Jeremy and for Matt and Caroline to have another moment.

Back to the main course of the episode. Stefan finds out from Grandma Bennett where Elena and Bonnie are being kept and comes to the rescue. He threatens Ben and tells him to leave town at night fall. Who actually expected Ben to listen? Yeah, not me. Stefan later confronts him in the forest and they go at it for a little bit until Ben is attacked with a blowtorch and burns to death. Bye-Bye Ben. You won’t be missed that much. But Sean Faris, you will be.

Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena realize they need to convince Damon they are trustworthy again in order to get rid of Anna. Elena puts on some persuasive moves and Damon trusts her again. Let’s see how long this lasts. I think Damon and Elena really do have a strong bond, even a friendship. How could they not, considering Elena’s resemblance to the love of Damon’s life?

Once they all get to the tomb, Bonnie and her Grams do a spell to open the door. Damon, Elena, and Anna go in to find the vampires they seek. Anna only wanted her mother, Pearl, who needs Gilbert blood in her system to be brought back. Anna uses an unwilling Elena and it’s welcome back Pearl. Damon, on the other hand, isn’t quite so lucky.

He raids the tomb in search of Katherine, but she isn’t there. He kicks and screams because he knows she should be there. At the same time, Bonnie and her Grams are fighting to keep the spell lifted so Stefan and Damon can come back out. That Grams is a sneaky one. She wasn’t planning on actually lifting the spell and claimed Anna and Damon made their choice. But when Stefan rushed in to rescue a bleeding Elena, things changed and Grams was convinced to alter her plan. Everyone makes it out in time, but some damage has still been done.

Where is Katherine? Damon threatens to kill Pearl again if she and Anna don’t tell him what they know. It turns out Anna last saw Katherine in 1983 and she’s known where he was all along. What?! So Anna and Pearl walk off together, Bonnie’s Grams dies from the strength it took to open the tomb, and Damon is left without Katherine.

Oh, and did I mention there’s another creepy vampire dude in the tomb who has some how been revived and is raring to go? Can’t wait to see where that storyline goes.

I was very sad for Bonnie, especially because I was just starting to really appreciate the presence of Jasmine Guy in this series. But alas, she is no more. And I loved when Elena hugged Damon at the end because it shows she’s not as afraid of him as I think he wants her to be.

Did anyone else question the validity of Elena’s blood being able to bring Pearl back? Pearl needed Gilbert blood, but with Elena’s being adopted, I didn’t think it would work. I wonder if that will be addressed in future episodes or if Pearl and Anna are gone for good. Truthfully, I’m hoping for the latter. What about you?

Choice quotes:
Elena to her captive, Ben: Is there anything to drink in here?
Ben: Are you offering?
Me: Love it!

Sadly, we will be sans new episodes of The Vampire Diaries for the next few weeks. But, they return on the best day all year, March 25th, which also happens to be my birthday! It better be a good one I can sink my teeth into! (Yeah, I went there.) Meet me back here in 5 weeks for a serious vampire discussion.

Lauren Strupp is an NYU grad and New York City based television addict and media professional. She’s worked at several national magazines including Us Weekly and in broadcast news at CBS. Obsessed with television, Lauren is known as a walking IMDB.com by her friends. Not only does she love all things vampire, but she’s been following Paul Wesley’s career since his days at The Guiding Light. She is thrilled to be joining TheTelevixen.com as a reviewer!

Photo courtesy of The CW

What? Have you been to this Island before? Are you new? Why isn’t it possible? I would rather she just said, “… of course!” and moved on. Should anything surprise them at this point?

Lost has this ability to always sneak up on you like Sour Puss shots. Oh sure its all nice and sweet, some easy going down stuff … then before you know it. .. POW, you are drunk.

Last night’s Lost was just that.

The whole time I am watching it and thinking, “OK, this is boring, nothing new, still trying to figure out the double timeline etc … oh Hi Claire …

pause.

Claire?”

Yeah, roll credits. Mind BLOWN!

Spoiler city, next exit. Right lane must exit. Steer left if you don’t want to read this.

-

-

Ok, we knew that Claire was in this season in the LAX timeline. By the way – I theorize that somehow BOTH worlds are existing. The world that should have been without the crash DID and is happening. While the future timeline “the now” is on the island and everything else gets to make sense eventually. They will always be on the island … and off it.

Anyways. Claire is in LAX world, and we see what was going to happen to her without the crash and how she intermingles with Kate. We start to see some of their “other” life leaking in as Kate looks at Jack with some recognition and Claire decides to name her child Aaron – just because.

Until next week … Get Lost.

Rodney Brazeau Rodney is the Senior Editor at The Movie Blog, Kama Sutra of Pooh Guru and Jedi Knight Follow The Movie Blog @TMB_Tweets

Photo Courtesy of ABC

We begin with Katherine and Damon in bed together. I believe the best scenes always start with the characters in bed. Katherine says she will turn Damon into a vampire in due time. Ian Somerhalder rocks the 19th century style. His eyes appear to pierce you even further since they are not obstructed by a 21st century shaggy haircut.

In present day Elena wakes up with Stefan. In bed. Silent yes! Elena promises Stefan that she will look for Jonathan Gilbert’s journal later that day. And inside the journal lies the key to finding Emily’s Grimoire, or witch’s cookbook, of all her spells. These vampires really seem to want Katherine and company released from the tomb. It’s interesting that each new vamp we meet has the same endgame: Katherine’s release.

Back in the 1800s Emily is Katherine’s maid and Anna is Katherine’s friend Pearl’s (another vampire) daughter. Great casting of Kelly Hu as Pearl. It’s a natural step to go from playing an X-Man to a vampire, no? And now we know how each character knows each other. I’m picturing a web chart of all these connections, and let me tell you, it’s quite complex.

In present day Mystic Falls we learn Ben is a newbie vamp and Anna only turned him so she could use him to her advantage. Well I’m sorry to be so blunt, but duh? Anna says she needed someone in a position to be her eyes and ears. “You were sad Ben. You lacked purpose. You needed me.” Wow, talk about harsh. This makes me sadder for Ben and Bonnie because there really could’ve been something there if Ben wasn’t being manipulated. Writers, find Bonnie a real boyfriend stat!

Jeremy tells Damon and Elena that he gave the Gilbert journal to his teacher, Alaric. Uh-oh. Time to get that journal back! Both Stefan and Anna separately sneak into the school to get it, only Alaric is there reading it. Well, in true vampire fashion they make Alaric question if someone is there and he gets up from his seat leaving the journal unattended. Bad move, Alaric. Anna manages to sneak in and get the journal without anyone noticing, leaving Alaric and Stefan to attack each other before they realize communication is probably a better way to go about things than shooting each other with compressed air powered stakes. Stefan tells Alaric to have a seat, which is followed by a mature discussion of the truth about Alaric’s dead wife. Damon killed her. Her body disappeared and they never found her. Stefan tells Alaric not to tell Damon why he’s really in Mystic Falls. Smart move, Mr. Salvatore.

Back in the flashback Giuseppe Salvatore, played by the fabulously dead-on James Remar, tells his sons Damon and Stefan that the town is in trouble because of the vampires among them. Pearl also warns Katherine, telling her to be careful. Foreshadowing should tell you that Katherine doesn’t really listen to this sage advice.

Presently, Damon is over at the Gilberts cooking dinner with Jenna and Elena. Can Damon trust Stefan? Elena says yes, but we all know she’s lying. Props to Elena for successfully pulling one over on Damon, although it may come back to bite her. As much as I hate to admit, Damon is seriously growing on me. He can’t possibly be as evil as the writers want us to think he is. All he wants is the love of his life back. “I’m sure you can understand that,” he says to Elena. I understand it Damon, really, I do.

By the way, in my head I totally saw Jenna being interested in Damon. He is hot, no argument here. But how weird would that be if they actually got together? She should stick with Alaric.

Bonnie and Ben finally have their date. It appears to be going well and Bonnie even gets up in the middle to go call her BFF Elena. At the end they kiss and Bonnie gets a weird feeling. Must be witch’s intuition. Bonnie tries to book it out of there, but the speed of a vampire is no match for her and Ben whisks her away somewhere. To be continued.

At the Gilberts’ Jeremy tells Stefan and Damon he mentioned the journal to his new stalker friend Anna. Cue the mad dash to The Grill to find Anna and the journal where Damon recognizes her as Pearl’s daughter. Dun dun dun.

Luckily, Alaric had made a copy of the journal, which he gives to Stefan. Stefan and Elena read it and learn more about Giuseppe’s plans for the vampires. Back in the 1800s Stefan confronts his father about his concerns for the vampires. Giuseppe replies that “These creatures are from the darkest parts of Hell.” Ouch. Katherine and Stefan are still together at this point, but not for long as Giuseppe has dosed Stefan with vervain. As soon as Katherine bites him, her likeness is revealed and Stefan’s father carts her off with the other vampires.

The journal reveals that the grimoire is buried with Giuseppe Salvatore, so Stefan goes to his grave to get it. Damon arrives there with the actual journal and becomes aware that Elena lied to him about being able to trust Stefan. “You had me fooled.” Damon threatens Elena and forces her to drink his blood before vowing to snap her neck right then and there unless Stefan hands over the grimoire. Drama!

Returning to the 1800s one last time we see Pearl and Jonathan Gilbert talking. There had been a flirtation there, but as soon as his watch points to Pearl as a vampire, it’s gone. Jonathan gives her up as Anna and Emily watch from the sidelines. Emily promises to protect Anna as Pearl is taken into custody.

Stefan and Elena return home. But all is not well for long. Elena goes upstairs to her room, only to be kidnapped by an unseen Anna. Stefan turns to Damon to help him save her. Damon’s retort? “I hope Elena dies.”

Mini cliff hangers you know will be resolved the following week make for some truly great television. Can’t wait!

Choice quotes: “Damon believes that everything he’s done, every move that he’s made, he’s done for love. It’s twisted, but kind of sad.” -Elena. Truer words have never been spoken.

Damon: “Can I trust him?”
Elena: “Honestly, of course you can.”

Bonnie to Ben: “Elena and I are bonded for life. She’s my sister. I mean, I’d die for her.” Be careful what you say there, Ms. Bonnie!

Damon to Stefan in 1800s: “You did this. This is your fault.”

So Damon wasn’t always such a bad guy. And as I said before, I really don’t think he is one now despite his I hope Elena dies comment. It’s just his way of coping with a terrible loss. I was also saddened to see Caroline and Matt sidelined yet again. And I hope Tyler comes back saying “oh by the way friends, I’ve been in Atlantic City and made a bajillion dollars” or something like that. The writers better give him something good to explain his severely prolonged absence.

What did you think of ‘Children of the Damned’? It certainly answered some burning questions and then raised some more. Marks of a great TV show! Do you love or hate Damon? Until next week!

Lauren Strupp is an NYU grad and New York City based television addict and media professional. She’s worked at several national magazines including Us Weekly and in broadcast news at CBS. Obsessed with television, Lauren is known as a walking IMDB.com by her friends. Not only does she love all things vampire, but she’s been following Paul Wesley’s career since his days at The Guiding Light. She is thrilled to be joining TheTelevixen.com as a reviewer!

Photo courtesy of The CW

Joining me are Connie (@conallen on Twitter) from Blast Magazine, Vee (@tvdnews on Twitter) from Vampire-Diaries.net and Lucia (@heroine_tv) from Heroine TV.

And remember – there may be spoilers contained within the podcast relating to the series and the books!

As always, we welcome your feedback or questions. You can do so by commenting below.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays on The CW in the US and CTV in Canada.

Photo Courtesy of The CW

There are three things I expect from Lost and these were all included in last night’s ep.

1 – Someone I like a LOT will die
2 – Something will blow my mind
3 – I will be confused for 180% of the episode

This had me emotionally torn trying to figure out what is going on… failing.. and resolving myself to enjoying certain aspects of the show like character interaction and how delicately they bring people in and out of the story while keeping you abreast of a situation while still keeping you completely in the dark.

In any other show, I would be hating it something awful. But I have a few theories and thoughts that I will try to keep mostly spoiler free.

I think the show is telling what is going on in two paralell lines. We find out where they are after the “reset”, and if anything they have been reset to have everyone on the same timeline. No more time hopping, but there is a split story here. One is “what happens next” and the other is “what happens after they really reset time and the crash never happens” and we are seeing them both at the same time.

But the other half of the reset seems to have accomplished what Faraday hypothesized, and the pulse didn’t happen and therefore Oceanic 815 didn’t crash and everyone continues on from where they should have. The interesting part is seeing how their lives might have changed ON the Island and who they became. Being back on that plane and not crashing has their original stories (that were interupted by the crash) carrying forward as planned.

But there are some things that are different. And we have to peice all that together and still try to find out what each of these paralell stories have to do with one another and why these are different.

So this week has presented far more questions than answers… which I would expect nothing less.

Until next week… Get Lost.

Rodney Brazeau Rodney is the Senior Editor at The Movie Blog, Kama Sutra of Pooh Guru and Jedi Knight Follow The Movie Blog @TMB_Tweets

Photo courtesy of ABC