The other popular interpretation that I’ve seen, and the one that I personally like better, is that Castle has been mentally committed to Beckett for quite some time now, and was holding back because of her skittishness. This would still make the proposal somewhat impulsive, but less ill-considered. If Castle already saw himself as committed, he could have worried about pushing Beckett too quickly, and then changed his mind and proposed once it became clear that she was worried about his level of commitment.

Regardless, I’m concerned about where the show can possibly go from here. I don’t feel any need for Castle and Beckett to get married right away, but I don’t necessarily object. I do object, however, if a marriage is used as a device to get her out of the new job. If these were real people, they could obviously stay together (married or not) and Beckett could take the job. Castle has plenty of money and can work from anywhere, so they could maintain households in both cities, travel back and forth, etc. But that would upend the entire premise of the show, so I’m assuming that something has to happen that will make her change her mind about the new job. My fingers are crossed that whatever causes that flip will be entirely unrelated to whether or not she accepts Castle’s proposal.

How about you all? Did you like the proposal? Too soon? Just the wrong circumstance? And how do you think they’ll get out of this new job situation?

(Image courtesy of ABC.)

Premiere dates:
June 16th: Inspector Lewis
July 7th: Endeavour
August 25th: Silk
September 8th: Last Tango in Halifax
January 5th: Downton Abbey

The BBC has confirmed that Steven Moffat will run Doctor Who season eight.

Warehouse 13 will return for a fifth and final season of six episodes.

Good news: unaired episodes of Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23 are now online! But only until June 2nd, so hurry up.

The big post-Super Bowl slot this year is going to New Girl and another comedy to be named later.

Mike & Molly creator Mark Roberts is leaving the show; he’ll be replaced as showrunner by Al Higgins. And David Eick is the new Falling Skies showrunner.

Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas will run Resurrection.

Picked up to series:
FOX: 24: Live Another Day, Wayward Pines starring Matt Dillon
HBO: A Silicon Valley comedy, Criminal Justice, an untitled LGBT-themed comedy starring Jonathan Groff
USA: Comedies Sirens and Playing House

Pilots ordered:
USA: Love Is Dead, Horizon

In development:
ABC: America Ferrera’s Pedro & Maria
FX: A comedy from Ray William Johnson
FOX: A Billy the Kid limited series
TBS/TNT: A whole lot of things
USA has a bunch of things too.

Promoted to series regular:
How I Met Your Mother: Cristin Milioti
Once Upon a Time: Michael Raymond-James
Person of Interest: Sarah Shahi

Michael Rapaport and Mary Elizabeth Ellis are leaving The Millers.

Guest stars!
The Newsroom: Lauren Tom

Casting:
Covert Affairs: Michelle Ryan
The Fosters: Brandon W. Jones
Ravenswood: Britne Oldford

(Image courtesy of PBS.)

The Show: The Goodwin Games, Fox in the U.S. and City TV in Canada, Mondays at 8:30/7:30c

The Pedigree: The show is executive produced by Carter Bays, Chris Harris, and Craig Thomas, all of How I Met Your Mother.

The Cast & How You Know Them: The Goodwin Games stars Becki Newton (Ugly Betty, How I Met Your Mother), Scott Foley (Felicity, Scandal), T.J. Miller (Gravity Falls), Melissa Tang (Beginners, Harry’s Law), and Kat Foster (‘Til Death, Royal Pains).

The Premise: Three estranged siblings are called back together when their father dies – and they discover he’s set up an elaborate game to control who wins his secret fortune.

A Taste:

What Works: The premise is fun, and I’m always a sucker for good sibling stories. I thought the flashbacks to the unconventional childhood that set all this up were a good addition. And those who like games will probably enjoy that aspect – I’ve already gotten one idea for a game that would be fun to try with my family.

What Doesn’t: The characters are all drawn quite broadly so far, and a lot of the dialogue in the pilot is cringe-worthy. I also kept getting distracted by trying to figure out the legalities of this non-traditional estate planning, but if you’re lucky you’ll be less preoccupied with that than I was, because it’s really not the point.

Our Favorite Line: “Not to brag, but I did quite a few push-ups in prison.” “Anything that ends with ‘in prison’ isn’t bragging.”

You Might Like This if you like games, stories about adult siblings, or shows about people returning to their hometowns. This show is from the team behind HIMYM, and while the content is different, the feel of the show and the format of using a sitcom to move toward a big reveal (here the end of the game rather than the mother) are similar.

If You’re Interested: The Goodwin Games premieres on Monday, May 20th at 8:30/7:30c on Fox and City TV. Or get ahead of the game (no pun intended) and watch this weekend on Hulu.

(Photo courtesy of Fox.)

In this latest episode of Orphan Black, we learn a little bit more about who is behind the clones – but not what they were made for. For what purpose were Cosima, Alison, Helena, and the others created? Working under the pretense that Sarah is the original, were they an experiment gone wrong? (Or, as some would argue, right?) Only time and future episodes will tell.

“Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner” delves deeper into the character of Olivier. It seems that he is the right hand man of the person who is actually in charge of the whole operation. Olivier is only marginally more informed than Beth’s boyfriend and monitor, Paul. Olivier knows that the clones are important, and the purpose of their medical results; however, I don’t think that he knows the true purpose of what is going on. Neither does the audience at this point.

The real in-charge baddie at this point seems to be Dr. Leekie, a scientist trying to preach a new scientific movement called “neolution”. From my understanding, this is a scientific movement dealing with self-evolution, or the ability to better oneself in the way one chooses. Want to have a tail? Done. Want to have one platinum-looking eye? Necessary, apparently.

I’m assuming Dr. Leekie is the true baddie because at one point during the episode, we see him pouring over Beth’s medical results while talking to Olivier on the phone. Leekie tells Olivier that the subject the sample is from is not Beth. Olivier asks him what he means by that, and Leekie shuts him down and says it’s none of Olivier’s business. There is definitely more to this particular arc than we know at this point. Olivier also makes for an interesting antagonist for the series; he’s very secretive with the information he has (although I don’t think it’s very much). Paul tries to get some information out of him and pretty much gets nowhere. At this point Paul has fallen for Sarah, and wants to protect her in any way possible.

Let’s talk about the monitors for a moment. So far, we have been introduced to two of them: Paul, who was Beth’s monitor (and is now Sarah’s), and Delphine, Cosima’s monitor at the University of Minnesota. These two could not be more different from each other. Paul is ex-military and a hard-ass in every sense of the term, while Delphine is a French exchange student who uses her charm to get close to Cosima. I have no doubt that these two will play a big role as the series progresses.

It would seem that Leekie, Olivier and Co. have something to hold over each of the monitors. While interrogating Paul, Olivier brings up something that happened while Paul was in Afghanistan. We don’t really learn what happened exactly, just that it was bad and is now being used against Paul. I have a feeling that something similar is going on with Delphine. We don’t know what that is right now, but it appears that she is sleeping with Dr. Leekie. Based on previews for the next episode, I think we’ll find out more on Delphine shortly.

Helena, the “evil” clone, is another enigma altogether. She has been led by the mysterious “Father Tomas” to believe that she is the original, and that it is her duty to do away with the others. I didn’t like Helena at first, but after this episode (she saved Sarah’s life in a big way), I am becoming a bit of a fan. I mean, saving someone’s life when they are bound, blindfolded, and on their way to a gruesome death at the hands of Olivier is something that can’t go unnoticed. When Helena finds out that Olivier has a tail – yes, I said a tail – she calmly cuts it off after she has subdued him. Mark my words, there is more to Helena than we have seen up to this point.

Felix, who hasn’t had a lot of recognition for his work, plays a significant role in this episode. He goes undercover at Olivier’s club – conveniently called “Neolution” as well – to find out what Paul is telling Olivier … more specifically, to find out whether or not Paul is selling Sarah and the other clones down the proverbial river. As it turns out (though it is only the audience that knows this), Paul is doing no such thing; he is actually trying to get Olivier to disclose what is going on with the clones, and what they were created for. It also seems like Paul doesn’t want to be a monitor anymore – he’s fallen for Sarah during her time as Beth, although he would never admit it.

In the middle of all this, Art is investigating the death of a “Jane Doe”. The audience knows that the Jane Doe in question is actually Katja, the German clone, and one of the clones that Helena’s killed. If you remember, Sarah buried her in the middle of a quarry after Katja was shot in the head and killed. It is this event (though they don’t know it yet) that the police are investigating. Under orders from the police chief, Art and his partner start back at the beginning and take fingerprints. Through doing this, they discover Sarah’s criminal record, because (of course) her fingerprints are an exact match for Katja’s. To Art’s shock, Sarah looks exactly like Beth. This is not good.

I have many theories on what might happen next, and one in particular that I want to put out there: for a number of episodes, I ‘ve had this nagging suspicion that Felix might be the “male” clone. I can’t tell you why since it’s just a feeling. There is something about the relationship he has with Sarah and how they stayed with the same foster mother. It just seems a little more than simple brotherly love. I also have to point out how the two of them think, which is very alike most of the time. Let me know what you think of this theory, and any theories that you may have about what’s going on behind the scenes. Looking forward to hearing what you make of this!

Photo Courtesy of BBC America

The long and short of this episode is as follows: an old Victorian woman named Ms. Gillyflower and her unseen partner Mr. Sweet (who is actually a red leech from prehistoric times which is living under Mrs. G’s dress) have decided to create a town called Sweetville, which they populate only with morally and physically superior humans. Turns out, Mrs. G is taking the members of her town and dipping them in this red goo, which will freeze them and allow them to survive the impending apocalypse (which they are going to cause), guaranteeing a future filled with only people she and Mr. Sweet approve of. Mrs. Gillyflower’s daughter, Ada, is blind, and is not invited to his perfect post-apocalypse future.

Clara and the Doctor were caught by Mrs. G and dipped in red goo, but the process didn’t go so well for the Doctor and he didn’t quite freeze all the way. Luckily, Ada is quite fond of the Doctor, and has chained him up, keeping him as a bit of a pet. Here to save the day is JENNY, QUEEN OF ALL AWESOMENESS: she infiltrates, bribes, picks locks, causes distractions, discovers the Doctor, saves the Doctor, kicks ass, takes names – and when the Doctor gratefully kisses her, she slaps him straight across the face. Basically what I’m saying here is Jenny is wonderful and should replace Clara as companion, providing us viewers with the bad-ass Victorian companion we hoped for when this season began.

It’s not meant to last, though, because – lo and behold – it’s time to rescue Clara again! After de-freezifying her in some convenient de-freezifying machine, the Doctor, Clara, Jenny, Madame Vastra, and Strax head off to stop Mrs. G from executing her apocalyptic plan: shooting off a rocket that will poison the air. Clara, graceful as ever, smashes the detonation device with a chair; Madame Vastra removes the poison from the rocket; Strax finally gets his hands on a gun and shoots Mrs. G; and Ada beats the tiny (kinda cute, actually) Mr. Sweet to death with her cane.

In the worst ending EVER, Clara returns home to discover her babysitting charges have inexplicably found photos of her from across time on the internet. I don’t know how exactly the kids discovered these photos of Clara – did they Google “time travel Clara Oswin?” Why would they EVER DO THAT? Regardless, they ask Clara to take them time travelling, and I’m crying at the thought of another episode of Doctor Who ruined by irritating and unnecessary children/plot points. Yay.

My favourite part of the whole episode is when Strax is lost on his horse and carriage, and comes across a boy. Thomas Thomas talks like a GPS and is, of course, the precursor to the future GPS device, the TomTom. Kind of hilarious and adorable.

It says a lot when the sorta-lame TomTom joke is my favourite part of an episode of Doctor Who. What a downer.

Photo Courtesy of BBC America

Tonight’s season finale finds the ragtag remains of Division in quite a pickle: Amanda is still loose and she’s set up Nikita to assassinate the president or she’ll detonate a lethal virus lying dormant in Michael’s bionic arm. I hate it when that happens.

I Tweeted after last week’s episode that I hope Nikita’s meltdown was a fakeout, but since Amanda tagged her with a com device, it’s hard to tell. And I’m not really nuts about a wedding-under-duress but Nikita doesn’t do things easy. We also have to resolve things with Owen/Sam and hopefully flip him back to Owen.

I haven’t loved this season as a whole. I’ve been over Amanda’s shenanigans and as much as I enjoy Melinda Clarke, I don’t think we needed Amanda as a big bad alongside the maybe Seal team wipeout. I also think they completely wasted Sean–putting him with Alex and then having him leave and come back and dive wholly into Division and then take a bullet anyway was hugely disappointing. And I’m not a fan of the show repeatedly putting the screws to Alex.

On the upside, everybody did bang up work this season. I love this cast, and I’ll watch them in whatever they do post-Nikita. The other upside is that knowing this early that they’ll be done in six episodes frees them up for pilot season. Here’s a sneak peek of tonight’s season finale, “Til Death Do Us Part,” which airs at 8/7c on The CW and CTV2.

Photo courtesy of Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW.

We go into the finale with Gabe potentially more dangerous than he’s let on, and Joe telling Tess he loves her, which frankly makes me nervous for her (or his) safety). But first, let’s take a look at “Date Night,” which was kind of sweet and idyllic and opened the door for Vincent to be stupid but thankfully slammed it shut.

In the wake of his assassination attempt, Gabe is on lockdown in a very swanky hotel and Cat and Tess are doing security. Gabe sends Tess for coffee and has a heart to heart with Cat where he shows her his yellow eyes and explains that he controls it with meds, but lately they’re timing out. Cat reacts by holding a gun on him until she’s sure she’s safe. He tells her he wants to meet Vincent and she plays stupid for a while until he proposes a quid pro quo.

Cat mulls that and asks Vincent to come and as they head upstairs, another assassin makes a run at Gabe, who’s monstered out enough to kill him and then bolt from a penthouse window. Vincent goes and gets the tranq gun from JT and that bites JT later when Gabe shows up at their place looking for Vincent.  After a stop by a suspect’s garage where Vincent has to kill a goon and Cat hands another his ass,  they round back to the speakeasy/apartment in time to drop Gabe before he can kill JT. When Gabe comes to, he says he has no memory of his transformations.

He apologizes to JT and then tells them more of the story–that the pills have kept him in check but he’d rather be Vincent, who can control when he changes. He also reveals he’s a Gen 1 whereas Vincent is Gen 2. He asks for a sample of Vincent’s blood in exchange for sharing his pills and Vincent agrees, after a little coaxing from Cat that he should at least try. Cat gets herself checked on that when JT tells her it took a decade for Vincent to be OK with who he is now and to settle on never having a cure and she’s essentially mucked that up by bringing Gabe into the mix.

Vincent is still game to give it a go and Gabe’s pill buys him an idyllic “what if” day with Cat where they can play in the hotel pool and not worry about him being set off. That is until JT calls her to warn her the pills would be fatal within a few years. She tells Vincent and he agrees not to take anymore, but then he does, and that thankfully has immediate repercussions when the goons from the garage break into Cat’s apartment and he can’t transform to fight them off.

He and Cat do finally get the upper hand the old-fashioned way and then he has to cop to what he did. She tells him OK, but they were allowed to have a fantasy day but now they’re back to their normal, and she’s OK to continue as they have been because that means she gets forever vs. a few years.

Gabe meets with his girlfriend, who confirms that Vincent is a match for whatever they want to do but the downside is Vincent won’t survive whatever that is, a fact that Gabe is A-OK with. Back at the precinct, Joe signs out the assassin’s body to the same Feeb/Muirfield guy he  dealt with earlier, so that will surely come back around. He also finally tells Tess he’s in love with her after she calls him out on being a shit to mask their affair.

And that leads us to tonight. I’m sure we’re getting a cliffhanger, but at least we’re back next year.  I was glad we put a fork in an alt-verse for Vincent and Cat and that they’ve agreed to settle into whatever they have and make it work. I liked, too, that JT called out Cat on threatening the balance Vincent worked so hard to achieve, which he’s been there for all along.

P.S. Now that we’re seeing more of their new place, it looks like it’s a former bar. As Vincent mounted a flat screen TV, I started to question where he’s still getting his money. Have we talked about that and I missed it?

Here’s a sneak peek of “Never Turn Back,” which airs tonight at 9/8c.

Photo courtesy of Sven Frenzel/The CW

The Fall Schedule:

Monday:
8:00: Hart of Dixie
9:00: Beauty and the Beast

Tuesday:
8:00: The Originals
9:00: Supernatural

Wednesday:
8:00: Arrow
9:00: The Tomorrow People

Thursday:
8:00: The Vampire Diaries
9:00: Reign

Friday:
8:00: The Carrie Diaries
9:00: America’s Next Top Model

Midseason:

New shows Star-Crossed and The 100 will premiere at midseason. And Nikita will wrap up with a final six episodes.

(Photo courtesy of the CW.)

•  How is it that Sheriff Mills doesn’t know about Crowley? Is it possible that she doesn’t? Could she really be falling for him? BAD. 
• NOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Jodi. DEAN!! SAVE HER!!
• Did Dean say the magic words? Is Jodi okay? Is she really that lonely? Though, we all have to admit that Crowley can be a charming son of a witch.
• Is it really safe for Dean to just give up the MoL key like that? I know that we can trust Kevin but I fell like it’s a slippery slope and that place should be kept close to as few souls as possible.
• The second trial of the Angel tablet is to retrieve cupid’s bow. Might we see our old, naked friend? The hugger?
• DEMONIC HANDCUFFS!! Did they find these in one of their closets? They do have a lot of junk in that cave. “I could do this all day!” And we all know that Dean Winchester actually could. Can you imagine a human King of Hell? What fun!!
• Naomi has her hands on Metatron. And that makes me nervous. What is that crazy bitch gonna do with him? Or he is the scarier of the two?
• OUCH. Dean listing Sam’s sins is heart breaking and painful. These boys have been through a lot. And I really feel like both of them have more than paid what they owed. However, their sins have never really been bullet pointed.
• I love Sam. And I believe in him. But he is weakened. And we all know that they are stronger together. Can’t the boys just do one at a time? Hell AND THEN Heaven? I don’t like Sam being left alone with the King of Hell. It’s dangerous.
• Cas is feeling rushed. He wants Naomi stopped and he wants Heaven closed. Has he thought about what it might mean for him? Can he lay off Kevin just a tad? That kid has been through the damn ringer. Why isn’t Dean stopping him?
• “Biting? Seriously?” Sam sounds like he’s chastising a toddler. But Crowley needs Sam’s blood to make a call. Another great throw back. Apparently you don’t actually need an entire goblet of blood from the neck.
• “Do you think it’s wise to be drinking on the job?” “What show have you been watching?” Cas and Dean are assuming that the gates of Heaven will be closed with Cas inside. Dean is worried that Cas may not survive that prison sentence, after all of the damage he caused.
• Gallery’s “It’s So Nice To Be With You” is a fun jam but not really the classic rock I was looking for. A lovely soundtrack for these two bar hunks, though.
• “Hello boys.” “That’s my line.” I have a feeling that Abaddon doesn’t really respect Crowley or the position he holds.  But I do love that she is still wearing that record store chick’s t-shirt.
• What did Sam throw on her? Holy oil? Can she really smoke out at that point? Will we see her again in a new body? Will she find even BETTER t-shirt?
• Dean & Cas corner the cupid but it’s not our naked friend from the past. It’s a beer delivery chick. MUCH HOTTER. And she agrees to give up her bow for the good of the world. I kind of like this race of Angels. Not dicks at all.
• Metatron seems legit pissed at Naomi and the rest of the angels. He wasn’t happy to be in hiding all of this time. Is that why he is all about helping to close the Pearly Gates?
• Crowley feels a kinship to Sam after facing off against Abaddon together (though I love that he is still calling him Moose, over and over). Like they can be members of the same team after what Crowley did to Sarah?? He’s even trying to relate to him about HBO television. Sam is having NONE OF IT, thank God. And then… and then… Crowley begins to break. He DEMANDS to be loved. Because he feels that he DESERVES to be loved. It’s really quite moving. And such a strange new side, of the demon we’ve known so long.
• Kevin is speed reading but he can’t find the words that Metatron has been using to tell Castiel about the angel trials. Also, Kevin is DONE with Dean’s sports metaphors. He doesn’t get them. “If you wanna motivate me, magic cards, Skyrim, Aziz Ansari.” Kevin is a GEM. Even if Dean, doesn’t “know what those words mean.”
• Perhaps Naomi isn’t the enemy after all. She warns Cas and Dean that if Sam completes the trials, he’ll die, “The Ulitmate Sacrifice.” Just as we all have feared. And Metatron is actually attempting to cast all of the angels OUT of Heaven, to live on earth. He’s not trying to close the gates at all.
• Dean rushes to Sam’s side, WHERE HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE LEFT, and stops him just before curing Crowley. Cas rushes to Heaven to find Naomi dead and Metatron wielding a bit of power. And to think we had been fearing that Power Suit all season long.
• “If you finish this trial, you’re dead, Sam.” “So?” Isn’t this just the Winchester way? AND I HATE IT! (Also while loving it because I love these boys even when they do things that will hurt me. Help.)
• Wow. That Metatron is a real Booger. What will happen by taking Castiel’s Grace? When Anna lost her Grace, she came to Earth as a baby. Is that not a rule? Are there any rules?
• Dean wants Sam to stop. To save his own life. And Sam feels like his life is worth the sacrifice. Of course he does. He thinks that he screws up everything he tries, he thinks Dean feels that, too. And when he went into the  confessional box, his greatest sin was how many times he let Dean down. Lord have mercy. This is more than I can take from these boys. Sam is worried what will happen the next time Dean feels like he can’t trust his own brother. Will he turn to another Cas? Another Benny?
• “HOLD ON! You seriously think that? Because none of it, NONE OF IT, is true. Listen, man. I know we’ve had our disagreements, okay. I know I’ve said some junk that set you back on your heels. But Sammy, come on. I killed Benny to save you. I’m willing to let this bastard and all these sons of bitches that killed Mom, walk, because of you. Don’t you DARE think there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you. It has never been like that. EVER. I need you to see that. I’m begging you.” – this is one of the best speeches Dean or any other character has given on the entire life of SPN and I may never recover. THIS is what this show is about, in case anyone was wondering. The boys have never been more brilliant.
• “How do I stop?” “Just let it go.”  - “We’ll figure it out, like we always do. Let it go.”  But Sam  is not okay.
• Kevin is okay, he has made it to the MoL bunker, but what are all of the sirens?
• IS SAM OKAY?

I have to be honest, this finale didn’t move as fast or as furious as I thought it might and yet, I am still thoroughly mesmerized by it. There were a lot of questions answered, a lot of new questions posed and a LOT of lives on the brink. Is Crowley still weak and repenting? Has Cas actually fallen? If so, how is he not a baby, as Anna was when she fell? And what about the other Angels? Is being cast out, different from falling and losing your Grace? Is Metatron holding on to all of that Grace, in some secret vault? And when we come back next season, where will the boys start? Will they try to find their way to Heaven again? To serve Metatron with his eviction papers? Or will they have thousands of newly fallen, dick angels to deal with? And what of Sam’s health? HOW WILL WE EVER SURVIVE THE HELLATUS? I look forward to all of your ideas and theories in the comments!! Seen you next year, friends!

The Fall Schedule:

Sunday:
8:00: The Amazing Race
9:00: The Good Wife
9:30: The Mentalist

Monday:
8:00: How I Met Your Mother
8:30: We Are Men
9:00: 2 Broke Girls
9:30: Mom
10:00: Hostages

Tuesday:
8:00: NCIS
9:00: NCIS: LA
10:00: Person of Interest

Wednesday:
8:00: Survivor
9:00: Criminal Minds
10:00: CSI

Thursday:
8:00: The Big Bang Theory
8:30: The Millers
9:00: The Crazy Ones
10:00: Elementary

Friday:
8:00: Undercover Boss
9:00: Hawaii Five-0
10:00: Blue Bloods

Saturday: Reruns

Midseason:

New show Intelligence will take the place of Hostages on Monday nights. Returning show Mike & Molly and new shows Reckless and Friends with Better Lives will make their way onto the schedule at some point.

(Photo courtesy of CBS.)