Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: Empire, Arrow, Survivor, The Path, Supernatural TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Empire's Paternal Power Struggle Fox BECAUSE: Empire is back, and while Hakeem is Tom-Cruisin' (jumping up onto pieces of furniture) and declaring himself the heir apparent, no amount of Cookie cuddles can calm Lucious down about it. In the episode's final scene, Lucious meets up with his youngest son at the same waterfront where he killed Bunky, offers him a gun and tells him, "You want to be king? Kill your father and sit on his throne. It's life or death, so if you don't shoot me right here, I promise that the next time I see you, I will take your life." Yep -- this show gets older, but the Lyons stay the saaaame crazy (and for now -- alive). READ OUR RECAP Arrow The CW WHAT HAPPENED: Look, it's a little baby crossover! Brie Larvan, aka, the Bug-Eyed Bandit has made her way over from The Flash (and prison) to wreak a little havoc in Star City... literally a little. Like, she's fighting with robotic bees. She shows up at Palmer Tech and demands Felicity's miracle biochip to cure a tumor on her spine. Luckily, Felicity had just sent Curtis home for a cold, and he stumbles into the Green Arrow lair, right into Felicity's old chair (pour one out for Olicity) to help save the day. Curtis is able to take over the swarm multiple times until the old team can make it back together to defeat Brie Larvan together. But the thrill of city-savin' isn't enough to make Felicity want to come back to Team Green Arrow -- she wants to be a beacon of hope, and she thinks she can do that at Palmer Tech with the very technology Brie was after. And hope could be greatly needed considering that Malcolm Merlyn just showed up on the scene to announce that H.I.V.E. will be taking over the Genesis project with the help of a Darhk accomplice: Andy Diggle. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Well, that felt a lot like brother-series The Flash, didn't it? What, with the pop culture slingin' and the jokes and the borrowed villain. We don't want to see Arrow turn into something it's not, but as IGN said of Tuesday's episode, "With all the darkness creeping back into Oliver Queen's life, it was good to see this new episode focus more on the humor and fun that have set Season 4 apart from its predecessors." Curtis was obviously a big part of that lighter tone, and while he was playing coy on sticking around the Green Arrow to provide newly need tech services, we're taking our own little beacon of hope from his response to his husband's offer of soup: "Terrific." (Like Mister Terrific -- get it? Get it??) READ OUR RECAP Survivor CBS WHAT HAPPENED: This is one brutal season of Survivor. We'll give you the good news first: Wednesday night finally brought the MEEEERGE, and much celebration, plotting, and manipulating for the Brains, Brawn, and Beauties, as they created one 13-person tribe. It also brought the season's first individual immunity challenge which featured balancing balls on a wooden disc, and comments like these from host Jeff Probst: "Tai's balls banging into each other!" and "Nick with a lot of movement -- his balls dancing all over the place." It was Nick's dancing balls that ultimately took the immunity necklace, but there was nothing that could save Neal from the puss volcano growing on his knee. Jeff and Doctor Rupert showed up at camp to assess the tribe's many wounds and as Neal's was deemed life-threatening, he was forced to take his leave on the medi-boat... unfortunately, without handing over his idol to Aubry. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: That house call on the beach may have seemed shocking to us at home, but according to Jeff Probst, there's a lot about this season's medical care that we haven't seen. He told EW, "Our medical team always checks out the players before and after challenges and Tribal. We added another layer of monitoring after the infamous challenge, during which three players went down. From that point forward the players received daily checks at the beach." Jeff came along for this particularly unfortunate check up, and that's how Neal found himself going home while feeling completely healthy. And for the record, Probst told EW Neal totallycould have forked over his idol. But the loss of Neal just might help Aubry, yet; Probst teased the next episode saying, "Sometimes one event can change everything and Neal's evacuation is definitely a turning point." READ OUR RECAP The Path Hulu WHAT HAPPENED: Meyerism isn't a cult -- it's a movement, you see. The Path's series premiere opens with a New Hampshire town ravaged by a tornado; people in the ruins of a trailer park are bleeding and calling out for help, and who comes to their aid but a swarm of beautiful people in matching shirts with an eye emblem, led by the charismatic Cal Roberts (Hugh Dancy). Cal takes the people back to Meyerism's compound in New York where they're given medical care and spiritual healing. There we meet a family of life-long Meyerists: leader in the movement Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and her husband Eddie (Aaron Paul), whom she suspects of cheating on her after he returns from a retreat in Peru acting suspicious, but it's actually much worse -- he's beginning to doubt Meyerism. While he was in Peru, hopped up on the movement's hallucinatory "medicine," Eddie saw something that's making him question "the Truth": Dr. Stephen Meyer. And the creator of Meyerism wasn't transcribing the final rungs of the "Ladder" as Cal said he has been... he was in a coma, hooked up to IVs, sharing a bed with a gigantic, hissing snake. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The Path's method for hooking viewers could be easily compared to... well, Meyerism's gathering of "receptives." Sly curiosity might pull you in, but it's a mixture of needing to know more, while being scared of the answers you'll receive that will keep you tuning in. Indiewire touches on the series' cult-like appeal in its review, but it also makes a much more surprising comparison to executive producer Jason Katims' other series, Friday Night Lights: "The natural lighting and lived-in environments lend an authenticity to everything from the framing to the characters, even as the warning signs start to go off. Homes look normal (other than that ominous wooden golden eye hanging on the wall). Gatherings feel like a church service (other than the gates 'guarding' the entrance)." And everyone seems pretty nice... until they bash your head into a microwave door. Be wary of the Truth, people. READ OUR RECAP One More Thing... Supernatural Throws a Werewolf Curveball The CW BROTHER, BROTHER: If you like your Winchesters bad-ass, stressed out, and in at least a little bit of pain, then Wednesday's Supernatural is the one for you.