SPOILERS! – Recap and Reviews – 10/18/12 - Dexter and Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time – Season 2, Episode 3 – Lady of the Lake

After a disappointing second episode (that I didn’t bother to review as I slept through the middle bit) the third episode in this popular fairy tale adventure show re-captures a bit of that lost magic. Back in season 1 Prince Charming killed the Lady of the Lake because, let’s face it, she was a deranged lake monster. Sadly that caused the Lake and all its magical properties to dry up preventing Charming from saving his mother who didn’t have the good sense to stay inside the house when she was told to. Snow White is tricked by King George into drinking a potion that will stop her having kids but she’s saved by Sir Lancelot. With me so far?

In the real world Charming and Henry search for a way to get Emma and Snow back but seem to put in the most minimal amount of effort possible. Henry convinces the Mad Hatter to reunite with his daughter which turns out to be quite a touching moment. In the current fairy tale land, Snow and Emma partner with Sir Lancelot, Mulan, and the next-to-useless Princess Aurora to find the magical wardrobe that might be able to transport them back to the real world. It turns out that Lancelot was dead all along and it’s really Cora (Regina’s evil mother played by Barbara Hershey) posing as him. In order to save Snow, Emma sets fire to the magic wardrobe and then they have a teary mother/daughter moment which would be sweet if you were constantly distracted by them being the same age.

Other points to note are Regina giving up her role as the Mayor of Storybrooke, the curious absence of Mr. Gold, Charming uncovering Regina’s vault of magical stuff and not doing anything with it, a really cool bit of VFX with an ogre, and the appearance of King George in Storybrooke…DUN DUN DUUUUU

I give Lady of the Lake 9.5 deranged lake monsters out of 10.

Dexter – Season 7, Episode 3 – Buck the System

With the exception of Season 2, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has always had a rival serial killer to go up against but the villain this season seems to be split between Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and the Ukrainian Mob. Debra in that she’s trying to subdue Dexter’s dark passenger and the Ukrainians because they’re very familiar with ‘offing’ people randomly. After Dexter frames Louis Greene (Josh Cooke), has him fired from his job, and then dumped by his girlfriend, the interesting computer geek meets the nasty end of a bullet.

Dexter gets all antsy and day dreams about killing people while Debra spends a lot of time looking worried. The best part of the episode is Debra coming around to Dexter’s way of thinking. She’s not exactly approving of what he does but she understands it. I can’t help but feel that she came around a little too quickly but with her practically witnessing a murder that she could have prevented by letting Dexter do what he does best it almost seems viable.

There was also some lovey dovey stuff going on between Quinn and Nadia the stripper, also tied to the Ukrainian mob, and we may even have seen the introduction of a love interest for Dexter in ex-killer Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski).

I give Buck the System 8 nasty ends of a bullet out of 10.


COMING NEXT ON SPOILERS - The Walking Dead and American Horror Story!