#5) Olivia Wilde's return to House - I know her character is very polarizing among House fans, but I really like Thirteen. Probably because I adore Olivia Wilde. So I was very pleased to see her return this week after taking a break to film Cowboys and Aliens. House picked Thirteen up from prison, and then later in the episode, after House assaulted an annoying teenager with a spud gun, she returned the favor. The relationship between these two broken people was really interesting, and I liked that they were able to be there for each other without really talking about their feelings (aside from her confession that she euthanized her sick brother) or sleeping together. Olivia Wilde gave a great performance, giving her usually-reserved character a surprising show of vulnerability and sadness.
#4) Big-time truth-quake on The Good Wife - In case you're not familiar with the term "truth-quake," it refers to a startling revelation in a show that changes a character's (or several characters') perspective and causes a shift in the lives and events of all the characters involved. (It's like an earthquake, but caused by shocking truths instead of tectonic plates.) We (the audience) already knew about the nuclear truth bomb that was about to drop on The Good Wife (that Kalinda slept with Peter when he was still in office), but in the final minutes of this week's episode, this news was finally revealed to Alicia, and it was about an 8.7 on the truth-quake Richter scale. Leave it to The Good Wife to drop a bomb like that and then make us wait three weeks to see the fallout.
#3) Veronica Mars reference on Community - When Jeff announced to everyone that Pierce's fiancee was just using him, she responded by clapping patronizingly and telling him, "Very impressive, Veronica Mars. You learned how to use Google." And that's when my heart exploded from joy. Following Community's Firefly shout-out a few weeks ago, this fantastic show has now referenced my top two favorite canceled shows of all time. Keep it up, Community, and please don't become another one of my beloved gone-too-soon shows.
#2) The Vampire Diaries - Klauslaric--the name I will use to refer to Klaus while he is possessing Alaric's body--edged out Bellivia (from Fringe) for the title of Best Performance by a Character Currently Occupying Another Character's Body this week. Matt Davis was having some well-deserved fun playing the legendary Original vampire Klaus in the body of Alaric. I'm sure Klaus' diary entry for that night went something like, "Dear diary, today I got to mess with Elena and the Salvatore brothers, AND I got to go to the sixties-themed dance at the high school! It was super cool." Speaking of the sixties dance, Jeremy was pretty adorable as the concerned boyfriend of über-witch Bonnie, who was all ready to sacrifice herself for Elena. I really thought for a second that the Vampire Diaries writers were going to kill of a third one of Jeremy's girlfriends (give the kid a break!), but then they worked some witch magic and brought Bonnie back. She woke from her witchy death trance and hugged Jeremy tightly. It was very Romeo & Juliet, minus the awkward communication problems. Fans were rewarded with some squee-worthy scenes between Damon and Elena. Elena was really pissed at Damon when she thought he had let Bonnie die for her (which he would have), but Damon was happy to have her hate him, as long as she stayed alive. He told her as much, and in a moment of bold honesty, he told Elena, "I will always. Choose. You." And the rest of the episode was drowned out by the sound of Delena fans everywhere screaming with glee.
#1) Everyone's tripping on Fringe - With an episode title like "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide," some drug-related shenanigans were to be expected. What I didn't expect was the hilarity of seeing the Fringe team on LSD (except for Astrid, who had to babysit them all). Even Broyles accidentally took some and ended up staring in fascination at Walter's Red Vines. Peter was so high, he told Astrid he thought Broyles was an Observer. This was after he announced, "You're bald!" and rubbed Broyles' head like a genie. Did I mention that part of the episode was animated? Yeah. Trippy.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
*Gloria's response to Jay's joke about his brother's shirt looking like it's from a women's clothing store: "That's funny because women are so inferior." (Modern Family)
*New roommates Morgan and Casey acting like an old married couple on Chuck. Also, Chuck playing a UNO to save his life. Also, Chuck reminding Volkoff (Timothy Dalton), "You don't have a jet."
*The season finale of Being Human on SyFy.
*Andrew Lawrence, the youngest of the Lawrence brothers (who starred on Brotherly Love), in this week's Castle, which also included appearances from real-life authors Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane.
*Will Ferrell on The Office! He played new manager Deangelo Vickers, man of legend, who had his barber come and shave him at the office. He and Steve Carell have fantastic comedic chemistry, and it definitely transfers to the small screen.