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It was a little odd that Lionel was so shocked that someone soulful could sing "Beauty and the Beast." Isn't Peabo Bryson soulful? Maybe he was just thinking of the version from within the movie itself.

Name That Tune will return Mondays at 8 PM in the fall

The two couples definitely moved at an accelerated pace because of it being a finale. Vi and Curtis together hadn't been seen (or mentioned?) since their date in the squad car. If the show had continued, they had to have run into obstacles over the fact that he hates the equalizing. (If having to lie to Trish about Robyn created so many issues, it should have been even worse with Curtis at some point given his feelings about The Equalizer on top of having to hide things.) Robyn and Dante had moved at such an incredibly slow pace that when Mel told Harry she thought Dante was proposing, I thought she had lost her mind. I guess they needed more drama on top of him being shot, but wanted to show that he didn't only propose because of the near-death experience. The engagement might have been a little less surprising if they could have had a time jump--which they may have had if they had been specifically told it was the final season. But because they obviously couldn't change things with like a day and a half notice, they had to try to wrap up whatever they could when they finished the episode. I'm just glad it didn't depress me like I expected!

The Pandora ad depresses me because they choose to celebrate Mother's Day by playing "My Love Is Your Love" by Whitney Houston, and that just makes me think of the fact that Whitney and Bobbi Kristina (who can be heard talking in parts of the full song, she was probably like 6) both died very young.

Yes, that was Star. Sometimes I really liked it, but sometimes it was terrible (and her character ran a salon from her house and had a whole huge room full of those wigs).

Of course when KJ's pass went up at the end and they showed the individual reactions of pretty much everyone in the stadium, it meant they were just going to fade to black. Nkechi Okoro Carroll said the outcome being unknown was supposed to symbolize the uncertain fate of other storylines, like Jordan hating Cassius and the teens' relationship status. Okay then. If it is the end, at least it wasn't a life or death situation (like when Coop got shot and they squeezed every bit of drama they could from it, both in promos during the summer and in the actual premiere the next year). It would be nice to know who won the game, but really, it's not that big a deal. It's interesting that they finally matched the two teams up in something other than a state championship. I wonder if someone had clued them in to the whole "sectional" thing in California, which I think varies for different sports and I don't fully understand. With the whole bet over the coffee, I guess the outcome depends on how quickly they want Jordan to come around. So far they have always had Beverly win though, even with the controversy surrounding Chris's TD not being allowed. It was funny how the players were just free to go off and do whatever they want during the power outage, mingle with the other team, organize grand gestures for girls, etc. But between Jordan giving KJ the halftime pep talk and Marqui wandering onto the sidelines to talk to Khalil without anyone (even Jordan) noticing, maybe it's not surprising that things were a bit lax. I'm surprised they didn't make some joke trying to blame Beyoncé for the outage, even it might be too far back for some of the younger characters (or viewers) to get it. I don't know if the Player & Coach of the Year were media awards or voted on by coaches, but they must really hate KJ to call him personally and tell him he didn't win. That's not usually how that works, unless they were supposed to have had nominees for the awards or something. It isn't surprising that Cassius would win with lifting an essentially dead program, and the media seemed to love his, er, "candor" and he didn't insult programs other than South Crenshaw, so the other coaches wouldn't be offended if they voted. Anyway, KJ's snit fit was pretty annoying, but Ava texting Cassius during the game and being outraged that he wasn't responding was rather funny (I guess that didn't happen in Oakland because they were always winning). Tori had almost certainly been right to declare herself done with KJ, only to take him back again. That does seem realistic for many high school relationships though! I'm sure that they had to pay all the extras for the singing, which surprised me, as did the fact that they had Yasi appear in this episode even though he still wasn't going to play. I guess they were planning on saving the truth about the stabbing for sometime in the future. It probably had to have been gang members who attacked Jordan, as he likely saw them, but it obviously wasn't Marqui who ordered it. He likely would have either taunted Jordan or played coy, but he insisted he didn't do it. Between that and the fact that they're trying to redeem Marqui a bit with his encouragement of Khalil after Jordan's speech (which was self-righteous, but the points were still true), they would probably do something like have Jordan and Cassius start to become closer, only to then have it revealed that Frank ordered the attack. I thought there would be some hint about this in the finale. Also, Jordan is trying to walk on a treadmill like 5 minutes after he almost died? I thought he was supposed to have gotten smarter (giving up playing after his second concussion, but maybe the teams just turned him down!). I didn't buy Amina's sudden romantic interest in KJ just because Layla brought it up. He seemed into her earlier in the season, but that seemed to fade a bit. I'm so naive that I thought maybe between the potential for her future, her insistence she isn't into Khalil anymore and seeing KJ with Tori, they might actually be writing her off as part of more potential budget slashes. But it doesn't sound like it. I still think Preach had some good points for Coop, that maybe going for her professor right now isn't the best move (even though she waited until like 30 minutes after the final is graded!). It seems like it could have repercussions for both of them even without the conflict of interest/power dynamic. But Layla has to be right and Preach wrong, just because Preach is rather careful after the whole Mo experience, I guess. I thought that Breonna was going to find out news that required her to leave town, leaving Coop heartbroken. When she said that she became her sister's caregiver because of one of Coop's speeches (which would surely complicate things even more), I bet Coop was thinking, "Oh...yay for me" even though she's too caring to say so. Layla is leaving for six months? I wonder if this is intended as a potential budget cut as well, maybe dropping Greta to recurring (which is too bad, as she was so good this season). Of course, if there is another season, they could have another time jump, so who knows?

Entertainment Tonight actually mentioned the show, which hadn't happened for a very long time. They mentioned a nice post Latifah made praising the show and showed a few old interview clips with her. Then the hosts said really nice things about her and that she is supposed to have another project soon, sounds like it will also involve action.

I was in a bad frame of mind for a while during the episode because I was afraid that Dante would get killed, especially when Harry had to note how lucky they had been. (I had read in one article when the show's fate was up in the air that the finale could serve as a series finale, but you never know, it could have been just their interpretation.) I still thought Dante would flatline after Robyn accepted his proposal. It was only when they had the engagement party that I was like, "Oh, okay, they did know they'd probably get cancelled." I'm glad Harry and Mel didn't decide to give up equalizing (though it seemed like he kind of wanted to?). I guess they just didn't want to pay the actors who played the sons to be in the episode, though seeing them interact with Robyn would have been nice. I know they have met her before, but that was a long time ago under different circumstances. The annoying couple bothering Robyn and Dante were getting on my nerves. I wanted them to go away and just get on with the ambush already. I figured they couldn't be working for Salazar because he and his people are too humorless to pull it off. Even though I was annoyed by THAT attempt at humor, I was laughing over Vi hiding all the good kitchenware so that Curtis couldn't use it. This episode with the couples suddenly moving much faster than they had made me think of the fake series finale The Simpsons did where Bart became self-aware and was freaking out over everything suddenly changing. I was very happy though that they did not get overconfident and put in cliffhangers like some shows do, and I found it satisfying. I liked the final shot of Queen Latifah smiling. (Her last show being one of those that had cliffhangers, so she was probably much happier with this.) Finally, I guess this means that Fisk was really dead. Also, Michelle is not going to pop up again. I was afraid to even ever mention her name again out of fear that this would summon her and bring back that crap about how that task force was after Robyn (and Fisk). It was very wise to drop that storyline.

He said that it was done by Leah Marlene, who finished 3rd a few years ago. It looks like she performed it on Top 20 night.

I'm not extremely surprised, given the timeslot downgrades, lower ratings and recent lack of promotion. It probably wasn't too likely to get a syndication deal (though it is in weekend syndication, often airing in random order!). I hope that there isn't some horrible cliffhanger in the now series finale, that would be a real downer.

Season Finale

Showrunner optimistic about renewal chances; CW sources say it's 50-50. Also she believes in "unicorns, rainbows and gummy bears." LOL! TV Insider writer gives reasons the show should be renewed.

I was very pleased with this week's episode of the podcast because they went back to describing and talking about each scene instead of the more freeform style they had been doing. The next episode is the one where Alison finally kisses Billy, which was quite the event for my high school classmates and me back in the day, so I look forward to the recap. They did say they have some more guests coming up, but I hope they will get to this recap very soon, preferably before I have to have surgery in a few weeks. I don't want to have to listen with low energy or while on a lot of medication or something.

I wish Xfinity would shut up with their "The Wi-Fi is Booming!" ad. It would be an annoying ad anyway, but it seems that every time I see it, my Internet (from them) cuts off and has to reconnect shortly thereafter. (Only for a few seconds, but still not great.)

I think Harry and Kaos were just texting each other regularly? I like Samantha but I'm not sure the show would have the budget for someone else if they're able to negotiate another season. Maybe they could use her (or Kaos) as recurring characters.