TBBT 6x24: The Bon Voyage Reaction

Through his connection to Stephen Hawking, Howard manages to get Leonard a job on an expedition to the North Sea. For various reasons, Sheldon doesn't want him to go, and tries to talk him out of it. His comments about drowning and sharks don't work, but when he mentions that things between Leonard and Penny have never been better, he gets the response he was looking for.

Do the Germans have a word for 'anger at the fact that someone is right'?

Penny's a little bummed when Leonard tells her, but she reassures him that he's more likely to screw things up when he's around than when he's away. With his relationship status stable, Leonard books his flight, and the gang decides to throw him a 'Bon Voyage' party before he leaves.

Meanwhile, the gang is interested in meeting Lucy, and Raj tries to convince her to hang out with them. She's still not comfortable with groups, however he manages to convince her to meet them one at a time. It takes a while to figure out who should go first, but eventually they decide it should be Amy because she was an outsider once, and the group accepted her and treated her like family. Things start off relatively well, but the conversation quickly becomes too much for Lucy and she runs and hides in the bathroom.

She's a very confusing woman.

Afterwards, Raj apologizes for pushing her too hard and invites her to Leonard's going-away party. She's hesitant, but he seems to convince her that all the attention will be on Leonard, so it won't be too tough.

At the party, Sheldon makes a speech about how happy he is for Leonard, and Howard lets everyone know that space beats water. It's as fun as a seven-person party can be if everyone's still wearing pants. That is of course until Raj gets a break-up text from Lucy.

The next day, Sheldon and Penny drop Leonard off at the airport. The couple professes their love for one another while Sheldon tries to keep them from getting arrested for parking in a red zone.

The white zone is for loading and unloading. The red zone is for hot makeouts.

Later, Penny goes over to Raj's apartment to see how he's doing. He's still pretty distraught and worries that he might be unlovable. However, his heartbreak has mysteriously given him the ability to speak to women without being drunk.

Hey... wait a minute.

What I Liked
-Howard does Raj's voice when he talks for him. It is funnier with the accent.
-Sheldon tries to get Penny to talk Leonard out of going on the trip by telling her that men on long sea voyages sometimes resort to homosexuality. What happens at sea stays at sea!
-Raj is from India, so he knows how to beg. Is that racist?

What I Hated
-Lucy. The show really didn't need a character that was even more awkward than the others, and the plots with her were never very good.

Final Thoughts
I hope Lucy is gone forever. As a device to give Raj a reason to be able to talk to women, she worked well, but as a character she was terrible. It was bad enough that Raj couldn't talk to the female characters. Lucy couldn't even be in the same room as any of the others. There isn't really a whole lot you can do with someone like that.

As a finale, this was a little repetitive. Leonard went away for a summer-long scientific expedition at the end of season two when the guys went in search of magnetic monopoles. They've also had relationship-drama finales. I expect that Leonard will return with a ridiculous beard and he and Penny will have some sexytimes. Not much will be different about Raj other than that he won't have to have a drink in his hand when they want him to talk to the ladies.

I'll admit that I was wrong. I thought this season would end with someone pregnant. Maybe next year.

The Big Bang Theory finished out the season as the third-highest rated show on TV, the number one comedy, and one of the few shows that has been able to consistently grow its audience year after year. So, it doesn't need me to sing its praises. I'll give it some light background praising, though. It's consistently funny, if not consistently good or innovative, and really, that's all I ask from sitcoms: Be funny. And this season has been the funniest one yet. The show's often disposable and forgettable, so I won't be waiting in anticipation for next season's premiere, but I'll watch it. Because it's funny.

Castle 5x24: Watershed

After a night of partying, a girl hops in a shower, and does a decent impression of Drew Barrymore in the 1993 movie Doppelganger. When the building superintendent goes up to the roof to check the water tank, he finds a dead girl floating in it. The investigation is slightly delayed because Beckett is in Washington interviewing for a job with the Attorney General's office, and Castle is at home, trying to pick a cover for his upcoming novel, Deadly Heat.

Available Sept. 13 in book stores that still exist.

They both arrive a little bit tardy, but it doesn't much matter, since the girl is still dead. The building's a low-rent flop house, and the residents say she was a prostitute, who moved in ten days earlier. Except that when the cops run her prints, it turns out that she was an honours student at Harvard. Her parents thought that she was backpacking through Europe with her friends, and personally dropped her off at the airport the day she moved into the building. Lanie's post-mortem doesn't turn up any evidence that she was hooking, either. The residents all swear she was entertaining clients, though, and a search of her room finds out why.

Unfortunately, this CD is not available in stores.

One of the girl's neighbours was adamant that she wasn't a hooker, and when Beckett questions him, he tells her there's a hole in the wall that let him see into her room. She wasn't getting it on, she was just sitting at her laptop all night. A laptop that was not found when the cops searched the place.

A conversation with one of dead girl's friends from Harvard reveals that she was computer science major, so Castle and Beckett figure she must have been doing a little hacking on the side, and that whoever she hacked had her killed. But surprisingly, she was killed by blunt force trauma and not hacked to death.

Meanwhile, Beckett's having a bit of a crisis. Her interview went really well, and the Cap'n gave her a glowing recommendation, so she goes to see Lanie for some sassy black woman advice.

Mmm-hmm, child, etc.

The apparently recurring tech lady checks out the internet logs of the dead girl's building's wifi network, and after excluding all the porn sites, she narrows things down to a fancy law firm. Some further investigation reveals that dead girl made a couple phone calls to a former attorney at the firm. But when the team goes to see him, he's not talking.

He's hanging from the rafters by an extension cord.

Lanie rules out suicide, and a check of the guy's instant messages shows that someone posed as him and set up a meeting with the dead girl after he died. Seeking a common thread, Ryan discovers that the dead girl's best friend worked as an intern at the law firm the previous summer and was killed in a car crash on the way home from a company party.

Ryan and Esposito finally get around to searching for the missing laptop, and they find it hidden in the building's laundry room. While at Beckett's apartment, Kate and Richard are making dinner when he discovers a boarding pass in her jacket pocket. She tells him that she went to DC for an interview and didn't tell him about it. He's not happy.

Pictured: Richard Castle's not happy face.

They have a fight, he storms out, and doesn't come in to the precinct the next day. Which is unfortunate, because the guys and the tech girl discover that the dead lawyer got a phone call from a young member of a major political family a few minutes after the dead girl's friend died. When Beckett interviews him, his mouth says he didn't know the girl, but his face his 'oh crap', and his attorney says "This meeting is over."

Meanwhile, Martha counsels Castle, and Beckett gets the job and disappears, leaving Ryan and Esposito alone to do the actual police work. They arrest the illegitimate black sheep of the family, and then manage to call Beckett back in to get him to roll on his half brother. Then she calls Castle and gets him to meet her at the playground, where he tells her that he thinks they both deserve more than what their relationship is giving them. It looks like they're going to break up, but the show pulls the most obvious swerve in the history of television, and he proposes instead.

To find out her answer, tune in next time...

On the home front, Alexis wants to take a trip to Costa Rica to study the rainforest, but her dad's a little hesitant to write the cheque. He's been a tad overprotective ever since she was kidnapped and taken to Paris. Also, toucans are extremely aggressive this time of year. Eventually, though, he realizes that she needs to spread her wings and fly, and he gives her the money.

The smile of a young woman who's just received a big, fat cheque.

What I Liked
-Esposito busts Castle's balls over his new book. Only one novel a year? What's up with that?
-Castle makes a too soon joke about their investigation being dead in the water, just like the girl. Hee-hee.

What I Hated
-Bad green screen work at the beginning.

It's like this episode was directed by George Lucas or something.

-Beckett's speech to the killer. It was interminable and self-important. They might has well just have had her give a Stallone-esque 'I AM THE LAW' speech. It would've been more believable.

Final Thoughts
It was nice to see both Alexis and Martha in an episode. They haven't been around that much lately.

The rest of the episode was kinda cruddy, though. They did that thing where the killer showed up for thirty seconds at the beginning, then disappeared... again. I suppose it's somewhat realistic for the murderer to occasionally be J. Random Guy, Esq. but doing things that way over and over and over doesn't make for particularly compelling television.

Beyond that, the Castle-Beckett relationship stuff seemed a little bit forced. They've been suggesting turmoil between the two of them for more than half the season, but usually in short two-minute bursts at the end of an episode that seemed to be ignored when the next one rolled around. Nevertheless, I could've bought it if they broke up. That was never going to happen, though, as this show is far too popular to do anything to create major conflict between the main characters.

What I want to know is how they're going to deal with the two of them being engaged next season, since even though the Cap'n knows they're in a relationship, they're still not allowed to be partners if it's out in the open. Well, I guess I'll find out in the fall. Lacklustre finale or not, this season had enough good episodes to keep me watching.

Community 4x13: Advanced Introduction to Finality

Jeff passed history, and now he's graduating. His old partner offers him a job at his new firm, and the study group makes him a banner. He has everything he could ever want. Nevertheless, he's not as excited as he should be. He tells Britta that he's worried that the group won't be able to handle him leaving, but she says that everyone will be fine, even Abed, whose sanity is evidenced by the fact that he hasn't spoken about the darkest timeline in months. In order to stir up trouble, Jeff rolls a die to see who will bring the soda to his graduation party. It lands on its edge.

That probably means nothing.

Later, a one-armed Jeff phases through a dimensional portal in the Dean's office. The darkest timeline is invading the prime timeline to force Jeff to graduate and leave Greendale forever. Dark Jeff toys with Annie's emotions and makes her cry, then blasts Abed in the chest with a fancy paintball gun and sends him to the other universe. While Abed's away, Dark Jeff and Dark Annie wreak havoc and destroy Jeff's relationships with the rest of the group.

The Dean is particularly upset.

With everyone acting weird and no one coming to his graduation ceremony, Jeff wonders just what the hell is going on. Dark Annie arrives to try to use her boobs to convince him to take the job with his old partner, but when he resists, she has to call in Dark Jeff. They do that thing where they say the same thing at the same time, which was done much better on Fringe, and then Dark Jeff tries to convince regular Jeff to take the job using Dark Logic. Jeff still won't do it, so his doppelganger has no choice but to shoot him. Fortunately, the dark ones haven't mouthed off to Chang, so he dives in front of the paintball and takes the hit for his new friend. In the confusion, Jeff escapes, and Dark Jeff is forced to call in some backup.

Evil Shirley is almost as drunk as regular Shirley.

Abed returns from the other side with a sackful of paintball guns, and a shootout with really bas special effects ensues in the cafeteria. The evil study group really sucks and goes down quickly, leaving Dark Jeff as the last one standing. Jeff doesn't think he can take him alone, but Abed explains that this is all crazy and clearly just a manifestation of Jeff's subconscious battle between the Jeff he is and the Jeff he was. New Jeff decides he doesn't want to go back to being a sleazy lawyer, then pulls some Matrix stuff and shoots Dark Jeff. The show phases back to 'reality' and the next day, everyone shows up for Jeff's graduation. Including the recurring guest stars and some girl who I can't remember.

The credits tell me it's Marcy McCusker, who played Quendra. I guess she was in town.

Jeff tries to give an emotional speech, but has a little trouble getting it out. He loves everyone, even Pierce, who interrupts the ceremony when he decides he wants to graduate, too. Everyone has drinks and cake at the after party, and Jeff resolves to look into some smaller firms around town so he can pop in from time to time to see how the group's doing. Evil Troy and Evil Abed do the tag, and the season ends.

What I Liked
-Pierce recognizes that the timeline on the show doesn't make any damn sense. Who would have thought that he would turn out to be the voice of reason on this show?
-Evil Pierce.

Mainly the hair and the wheely leg.

-After Abed explains that the whole thing is in his head, Jeff realizes that he doesn't actually need to fight Dark Jeff. At least he was still somewhat sane.
-This week's best line: "If you call a sandwich a 'Troyjan Horse' people are gonna think there's horse in it." -Dark Jeff

What I Hated
-They tried to do paintball again. They caught lightning in a bottle back in season one, then they became a sad parody of themselves, trying to do it again.
-It was all a dream. Only two shows have ever managed to get away with that, and neither Patrick Duffy nor Bob Newhart are on this show.
-Dream Abed says they finally figured out a way to make paintball cool again. No you didn't, Megan Ganz. No you didn't.
-Really bad green screen work. Why even try to do it when it's clear that the show just doesn't have the budget for that kind of stuff?
-"Six Seasons And A Movie" on the chalkboard.

Even four was too many.

Final Thoughts
I'm going to start with my thoughts on this episode before I get into the series as a whole.

Since this was a finale, a little self-reference was to be expected. But the problem is that they've already done paintball twice, and the darkest timeline was never all that compelling. So, the things they wound up referencing the most were overdone and boring. Also relatively obscure, since they brought back Quendra for some reason.

They also managed to reference the facts that Annie's majoring in forensics and Troy's still in AC repair school, the latter of which was a fairly major story point last season and then all but ignored in this one.

As for the way they wrapped up Jeff's storyline, I'm not really sure I bought it. He's not quite as sleazy as he once was, but he's still been engaged in some sleazy things over the past four years. Plus, didn't he go back to consult for his old firm at some point in season two? I know they brought back Rob Corddry last season to tell him that Drew Carey died, but that didn't exactly make a whole lot of sense. What has Jeff been doing for money for the past few years if not working as a consultant? How could he be concerned about going back to his old life if he's been basically living his old life for two years?

So where are we after everything that happened this year? Jeff graduated, but he somehow earned a degree in education, so he'll be back at Greendale next year as an instructor. Troy and Britta became a couple, but then the show barely mentioned it and they broke up. Shirley has a new baby who she apparently never sees, and is somehow on track to be valedictorian. Annie and Abed are both still in school, and I'm not sure if either of them has shown any character growth at all this season. And Chang is also on the show. Basically, either nothing happened to the characters this season, or something stupid and nonsensical did. The only one who showed any real growth was Pierce, and that was only because Chevy was tired of playing a horrible racist.

Beyond that, "It's all a dream" episodes rarely make any sense, and this one was no exception. We saw a bunch of stuff that Dream Jeff couldn't possibly have seen, unless he was omniscient, in which case he should've realized it was a dream a lot sooner. Not that I expect a lot of realism from this show, but things like that are why shows just plain shouldn't do dream episodes.

Inexplicably, NBC decided to renew Community for another season. As with HIMYM, I won't be watching it. The show's decreased in quality so much over the past two seasons that I really don't enjoy it anymore. I stuck it out until the end of this season out of some misguided sense of loyalty and a desire to see it through to the end after investing so much of my time in it over the first three years. Since the production staff were well aware that this could have been the final episode, it had enough of a sense of closure that the only reason I would want to watch any more of the show is if I thought I would enjoy it. And I don't think I will.

It's difficult to quantify why I feel that way... or it would be if I hadn't been reviewing the show for the past three seasons. Season two earned and average of 3.3 stars and 24.3 laughs. Season three faltered starting with the Christmas episode, but still managed a very respectable 2.6/16.9. This season earned a 2.0/10.8, making it 60% as good and less than half as funny as it was two years ago.

The whole thing is a shame, really. This season actually started off relatively well; I actually liked the first three episodes. But then it all went to hell when the Germans showed up. Episodes 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 were bad, while episode 6 was both bad and blatantly offensive. When the best a show can aspire to is mediocrity, it's time to stop watching.

Hawaii Five-0 3x24: Aloha, Malama Pono

After last week's revelation, Kono is now on the lam in the back of a silver Camaro with McGarrett at the wheel and Danno riding shotgun, as it should be. The HPD are in hot pursuit, but Steve manages to lose them long enough to give Kono a burner cell and let her out. Then they tear off again until they run into a blockade Duke has set up. The Sarge knows what's up and is in no mood for any of Danny and Steve's shenanigans.

I am in no mood. NO MOOD!

Kono's obviously no longer in the car, but she's wanted in connection with a murder, and Duke knows that the guys know where she is. He's willing to cut them a little slack because they're friends, however the prosecutor's office wants her and he doesn't know how much time he can buy them.

Meanwhile, a small plane full of dead people has just landed in a remote airfield. There's no registry and no record of the tail number and half the dead guys are wearing black suits and have empty holsters, so Steve thinks it was a rendition flight. The CIA gets in touch when Catherine starts asking questions about a flight that doesn't exist, and the chief black suit guy tells the team that the plane was carrying Rafael Salgado, a high-ranking member of a Latin American terrorist group. They think he knows about an attack that's going to go down on US soil, so they need him fast and they need him alive.

So they can take him to Cuba and torture him.

One of the dead agents' cell phone called a house twice just after the plane landed, so the guys go to bust down the door. When they get there, Salgado's nowhere to be found, but the woman inside knew him as Pedro back when she was a college student and he's the father of her son... who is now missing. The guy's have no idea where to start looking, so Steve goes to see someone who might.

He ain't pretty no more.

Wo Fat doesn't want to help, but he relents when Steve threatens to cut off his pain medication and points him towards a man who deals in forged documents. On the way out, the guard makes note of the fact that Steve is the second McGarrett to come through in the last few days as Doris recently paid a visit to Wo Fat as well. The documents guy gives up Salgado pretty quickly, however Mrs. McGarrett doesn't break quite so easily. Steve has to berate her until she's practically in tears before she's ready to spill her guts. Unfortunately, Catherine picks up Salgado's car on satellite surveillance, and Danny pulls him away before he can get the answers he wants.

He's so mean to his poor mother.

The guys catch Salgado without much trouble, but the kid isn't in the car. He says he didn't come to Hawaii to kidnap his son; he came to save him from the wrath of his terrorist organization. But he was too late. The terrorists took his son as collateral so he wouldn't talk. The CIA doesn't care if the boy lives or dies, so the head black suit guy tells the Five-0 team to stand down. Danny has a soft spot for kids, though, and he and Steve convince Salgado to help them out in exchange for saving his son's life. When they get to the meeting site, the terrorists double-cross Salgado and threaten to kill his son in front of him. Before they can, the Five-0 guys jump out of nowhere and ambush them. All the terrorists go down, but Salgado takes a bullet in the back while acting as a human shield for his son. They rush him to the hospital, where he gives up the location of the terrorist attack just before he dies.

Elsewhere, Kono is on the run. Fortunately, she has a rich boyfriend whose family owns a secret mansion through a holding company. She tells Adam that the HPD is after her because of his brother and he reveals that he knows she's been spying on him, and despite all appearances, he still claims that he's trying to legitimize the family business. However, his brother is fighting him for control and if his allies see him as weak, he's a dead man.

Together, they go to a warehouse that Adam's father's associates use as a supply depot and they look for evidence that his brother was involved in the murder. They find some bloody gloves, but before they can get away, Michael comes by. While Kono gets out of sight, Adam pretends that he needs a gun because the cops are after him. The ruse works and they both manage to escape without being seen. They take the gloves to Fong in hopes that he can match the dirt and blood on them to the body. Charlie's a bit hesitant, but he agrees to do it because Kono's his chum. The DNA on the outside of the gloves is a match to the dead guy, while the DNA on the inside is a match to Michael. It looks like they've got him dead to rights, but before Charlie can get the gloves to McGarrett, Michael drops by to pay him a visit.

And he is not happy.

After stabbing Charlie, Michael goes to the Noshimuri safe house to confront Kono and Adam. He tells his brother that everything he did was to protect him, but now that's over. He's going to kill Kono, take over the family business, and then Adam is on his own. Adam's not cool with that, so he jumps his brother and in the ensuing struggle, Michael gets shot in the torso.

Unlike when Kono got shot in the previous episode, the bullet does not miss his vital organs.

With their main source of income now dead, Michael's associates are going to want payback. Doris books passage for Adam on a freighter to Shanghai and Kono decides to go with him. Danny and Steve tell her she's crazy, but her cousin tells her to follow her heart and lets her go. Everyone says their tearful goodbyes, and the couple ships out, with Mama McGarrett tagging along to help them get settled.

Later, at Five-0 headquarters, it's been a year since Malia died, and Chin decides he's tired of being alone, so he finally calls Leilani. Also, Gabby comes back because Last Resort was a terrible idea for a show.

Navy officers hijack their own submarine and gain control of nuclear weapons? Who the hell would believe that?

With Doris gone, there's only one person McGarrett can turn to for answers. Coincidentally, Wo Fat asks to see him at the same time he decides to come in on his own. He's fully willing to cooperate and tell Steve everything he wants to know, but first he needs to save him from the men who are coming to kill him. There's an explosion outside the door and sounds of gunfire, followed by someone slowly cutting through the door.

Ah, crap.

What I Liked
-Duke has no time for Steve's BS. Too many people go along with his nonsense, and it's good to see someone who's willing to put him in his place.

What I Hated
-The whole ticking clock terrorist rendition thing. Plots like this make the public okay with sending people to secret prisons so they can be tortured without oversight. Jack Bauer may have tortured people, but at least he always did it on US soil.
-Wo Fat is in a top secret facility with a giant steel door and a dozen armed guards outside. The man has half a face and one working arm; why the hell do they need that much security?
-They do that thing where two people struggle for a gun and it goes off and they don't immediately show who got shot. Is it ever the good guy? Ever?
-Apparently Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are there to kill Wo Fat because whoever's on the other side of the door manages to cut through a good 35cm of steel in mere seconds. That's 35cm thick.

I guess Wo Fat works for the Trade Federation.

Final Thoughts
Why in the hell did they bother bringing Gabby back? She hasn't been on the show in over a year and it would've been just fine to completely ignore the character and pretend she never existed or have Danny give a throwaway line about how they broke up. Instead, they somewhat randomly decided that everyone needed to find love in the season finale. Steve has Catherine, Kono has Adam, Danny has Gabby, and even Chin has Leilani. Everybody's happy.

This is the second straight finale where something has happened that makes it look like Kono won't be back next season. Of course, she will be and everything will be resolved by the end of the third episode, just like it was this season... or last season for that matter. Remember when Rachel was pregnant with Danny's baby and McGarrett was a suspect in the Governor's murder?

As for this episode, it had one of the three Bs, but Danno hasn't booked anyone in quite a while, and there haven't really been that many bikini babes lately, either. The show's been moving away from what makes it good and trying to become more serious and dramatic. There are plenty of serious cop shows on TV, and Hawaii Five-0 can't really compete with them in that arena. However, there aren't any other banter-based cop shows set in Hawaii out there, and if they stuck to that niche instead of trying to branch out, I think it would be a much better show.

Beyond that, it was an adequate finale. It had a little bit of action, some drama, some romance, and a ridiculous cliffhanger that came out of nowhere and made no sense. So, I'll watch the show next season, but if it starts to decline in quality, I might skip a few episodes.

Hawaii Five-0 3x23: He welo 'oihana

An unarmed security guard chases some guys in hooded sweatshirts through a field. Unexpectedly, he falls into an open grave and breaks his leg. As he screams for help, the guys return and bust some caps in his ass. Later, the team drops by to investigate. Max finds the skeletal remains of a human thumb in the hole with the dead guy, and there are at least eight other holes elsewhere in the field.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

After some investigation, the cops find a total of eleven holes in the field, each of which contained a human body at some point. They can't ID everyone, but the ones they can identify were all informants or witnesses in cases against the local Yakuza. When two of the bodies turn up connections to Michael Noshimuri, Danny suggests that Kono recuse herself from the case.

When Danny and Chin go to question Michael, he refuses to talk, directs them to his lawyer, and then insults Kono in front of her cousin. Danno stops Chin from breaking his face, but says he won't do it if Michael badmouths their friend again.

At the same time, Kono is off talking to Adam, trying to figure out what's happening. He tells her he doesn't know, and she believes him, but when she leaves, the phone she had Fong clone earlier this season makes an outgoing call. She gets Charlie to trace it and it leads her to a warehouse where she finds eleven barrels, holding the remains of the bodies from the field.

Not quite as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.

Two goons arrive shortly thereafter, and a gunfight ensues. Kono kills one guy then sets a distraction with her phone so she can get a drop on the other. He falls for it, but he still manages to put one in her gut before she kills him. She calls for help before she passes out and when Chin gets there the EMTs tell him that the bullet missed her vital organs and she'll be fine. So he does the only logical thing and says that when she wakes up, he's going to kill her.

Adam is distraught when he gets to the hospital. He thinks his brother is involved with the killings and he was trying to protect her by not telling her what was going on. She forgives him, and starts to tell him that she's been spying on him, but before she can get to it, she gets wheeled away for a CT scan. While she's gone, Adam gets a call on his secret Yakuza phone, and Kono's cloned phone starts to ring, alerting him to its existence.

Dude, she's your girlfriend and you had a secret phone. What did you expect?

Meanwhile, Catherine brings in a file for Steve to look at, and he bolts without telling anyone what's going on. Danny chases him out of the building because he's tired of playing that game, and gets McGarrett to tell him that the FBI thinks they caught Doris hacking into the national fingerprint database. When Steve goes to confront his mother, she admits to being behind the hack and tries to get him to go out for coffee to discuss it. But when he hears a noise from another room, he goes to investigate it and finds Mick Logan and Cmdr. Gutches running some kind of operation out of Doris' office.

He should probably visit his mother more often.

She's looking for the guys who stole the microfiche from her safe a while back. Their main suspect is Craig T. Nelson, who used to work for the CIA and is now up for a big-time federal post that requires Senate confirmation. If the contents of the microfiche got out, it could burn a lot of people, including him, so he stole it, and now he's holding on to it for leverage. The three old folks have been running surveillance and checking out the building for weeks and they're almost ready to launch their Op. However, Steve points out that the three of them have a combined age of nearly two hundred, and they should be out playing shuffle board, not running covert ops.

They're aghast at his ageism and he can't convince them to stop, so he has to go with them. Steve and Doris drop down on the roof from a helicopter while Mick goes through the front door and uses the awesome power of his Windows 8 tablet to help shut down the security cameras and take control of the elevators.

You'll place that product and like it, Treat Williams!

The McGarretts manage to grab the microfiche, but they trigger a hidden alarm and have to make a hasty retreat. Steve makes it out via the roof of a freight elevator, but Doris gets busted and has to have a chat with Craig T. Nelson. Craig offers to trade Doris back for the microfiche and they have a little stand-off in his office. Instead of returning the microfiche, Steve burns it in a trash can. He and his mother have lost their safety net, but Craig will get his fancy new job, so he lets them go. On their way up to the roof, Doris admonishes her son for destroying the film, but he pulls a little sleight-of-hand and magically reproduces it from up his sleeve.

For his next trick, he'll need a volunteer from the audience.

Elsewhere, Danny and Grace are waiting at the airport for his girlfriend Gabby to return. He gets a text from her saying that she's been offered a fellowship, and she's staying in Morocco. A day later, he's sitting in his office with Steve, ignoring her calls when Max comes in with some bad news. He's pulled a slug from one of the bodies in the barrels, and it was fired from Kono's gun.

Case... closed?

What I Liked
-Random shots of girls in bikinis.

I like it when this show gets back to the basics.

-They gave some closure to Danny and Gabby's relationship. I figured they'd just forgotten about it entirely since she hasn't been on the show in well over a year.
-During a lull in the operation, Doris does a magic trick. You've gotta do something during the down time, and magic is better than small talk.

What I Hated
-The security guard asks the guys he was chasing for help. Seems like a good plan. I hope it worked out for him.
-The building rent-a-cops are fine with murdering a woman. Maybe the guys in suits would be cool with it, but dudes who wear shirts that say 'Security' on the back don't get paid enough for that stuff.

Final Thoughts
I'm glad that they managed to tie up a few of the loose plot threads that have been plaguing the show this season. It's been so long since Michael swiped Kono's gun that I'd nearly given up hope that they'd ever get back to it. Plus, they mentioned Gabby. Last season they made a whole big deal about her meeting Grace, but then the actress got a better job and she was never heard from again.

The whole microfiche plot was kinda dumb from beginning to end. Doris hid it in an easily accessible safe rather than leaving it hidden under the floorboards where no one had found it or even looked for it for more than 20 years. Then Craig T. Nelson somehow magically found out about it, hired a guy to steal it, then hid it in his own safe on the very same island where it was stolen, rather than sticking it in a box and burying it in the woods in Montana or something. I'd expect more intelligence from former CIA agents.

Beyond that, Kono was kind of a dumbass, too. She broke into a warehouse without backup and without knowing who or what was inside. Not only are the criminals idiots, but the law enforcement officials are, too. Hawaii is a good place to commit crimes, I suppose.

TBBT 6x23: The Love Spell Potential

The girls are headed to Vegas, baby! And while the cats are away, the mice shall play... D&D. Wolowitz is DMing for the first time, and he uses the opportunity as an excuse to bust out some of his celebrity impressions.

Can you guess who he's doing?

At first, Sheldon isn't too keen on having a new DM, but Howard's talking tree that sounds like Nicolas Cage wins him over. Unfortunately, 30 seconds in, Raj gets a text from Lucy and bails on the game to go make time with a lady. Not long afterward, the girls return. Apparently the TSA agent got a little handsy, and Amy broke her nose. I've always said that the way to stop people getting angry at the airport is to hire models as TSA agents and let the passengers choose who does their pat-down. Anyway, since they're down a player, Leonard invites the girls to join them.

Penny agrees as long as she gets to imbibe some 'magic potion' during the game.

Against all odds, the game goes well and the girls enjoy themselves. That is, of course, until a slightly inebriated Penny decides that Amy and Sheldon should have sex in the game because they're never going to have sex in real life, and Bernadette casts a love spell on them. Embarrassed that her friends think their relationship is a joke, Amy runs away and hides in Sheldon's room.

Being a semi-good boyfriend, Sheldon goes to retrieve her. She realizes that he's working hard to become more comfortable with the idea of a physical relationship, but sometimes she wants things to move a bit faster. He tells her that they technically are in bed together, and that's good enough to get her to go back and rejoin the game. However, as he is a stickler for the rules, Sheldon says that they have to see the love spell through to completion.

As far as those sorts of things go, it's pretty hot.

Meanwhile, at a restaurant that apparently has no dress code, Raj and Lucy have dinner. Lucy's still trying to push herself to do things that scare her, so when her crab cakes are a bit funky, Raj tries to get her to send them back. She just can't do it, though, and when he pushes her to hard, she runs to the bathroom and bails out the window again. But it doesn't go as well for her this time.

Free dating tip: Always remember your bolt cutters.

With the gate locked tight and the window too high to climb back in, Lucy's forced to call Raj to tell him what happened. He comes to rescue her and they have a talk about their relationship. She's scared of a lot of things and can't really talk to him, and he finds that very attractive in a woman. So they make out through the fence.

I'm not sure how he gets her out of there.

What I Liked
-Some of Wolowitz's impressions. Simon Helberg does a pretty good Kunal Nayyar and a passable Nic Cage.
-Penny consoles Amy by telling her losing money, being full of shame, and getting groped by a stranger is pretty much the full Las Vegas experience. Viva Las Vegas, baby.

What I Hated
-Some of Wolowitz's impressions. Simon Helberg's Christopher Walken isn't so great.
-They didn't show the girls getting thrown out of the airport. It was a funny story, but I think the visual would have been better.

Final Thoughts
This wasn't a good episode. Howard's impressions quickly became tired and annoying, and the relationship stuff took up a fairly sizable chunk of time and this show has never done that stuff particularly well.

Lucy and Raj's relationship is developing almost as slowly as Amy and Sheldon's. I know they're all nerds, but sometimes I wish some of them would have more normal relationships.