Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: Vikings, The Blacklist, Scandal, Orphan Black, Prince TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Holy Time-Jump, Vikings History BECAUSE: Brothers Ragnar and Rollo finally faced off in the Vikingsmidseason finale, and while one of them was destined to die, that's not what happened. Instead, in the ensuing showdown, both brother-warriors survived for Rollo to return to Paris victorious, and Ragnar to slump home to Kattegat in defeat. And then: Tiiiiimejump! Actual years passed, enough time for Ragnar's sons to grow to daddy-killing age -- bet you didn't see that coming. It just goes to show, when it comes to TV, time jumps are as old as... ugh, time. READ OUR RECAP The Blacklist NBC WHAT HAPPENED: The Blacklist has really been having a field day over on NBC. First, they killed off their main character, and now Thursday's episode was revealed by the end to be one long arthouse opium/grief-dream. And it was pretty incredible. EW recapper Jodi Walker described the hour thusly: "This episode was dark -- it felt all wrong; at times, desperately slow, and then at others, like everything was moving too fast to possibly keep up; it felt oppressive and confusing and painful to witness... it felt a lot like mourning." As Red went through an evening of making risotto and killing assassins with a woman attempting to kill herself in the New Jersey ocean, it was hard to know what was real and what was just in Reddington's head, but this is what we do find out: That woman was Lizzie's mother; and though Red realizes by episode's end that he's imagined all his time spent with her -- all his emotional conversations about his "Hobson's choice" between a woman and her child -- he still finds her locket buried in the sand, and she appears to him one last time: "You had no choice -- it was me or Masha ... Raymond, you did save me. Through her. It was the only way; you chose well." WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Critics, fans, and relentless NBC marketing are all calling for a well-deserved Emmy for James Spader on the basis of his performance as Raymond Reddington in The Blacklist's last two episodes alone. As a storytelling experiment and character showcase, this was perhaps one ofThe Blacklist's most important episodes in its three seasons. But still, in their recap, The Wall Street Journal was left wondering why giving us these details and stories about Liz's past with her mother was important: Why did this episode, in which almost all of it was just Red's memories of his final moments with Katerina, matter? "It is because, alive or dead, Liz does still matter. The unanswered questions about Liz's history still matter and we still need answers to Liz's mysteries." All we know for sure is that next week is her funeral, so the clock is ticking on a reemergence situation. READ OUR RECAP Scandal ABC WHAT HAPPENED: Say it with us now: Dad-dy Is-sues. Woof, this little trip into Jake's past, and figuring out just why he's so addicted to Rowan (and by proxy, Olivia) was a twisted one, even for Scandal's extreme standards. Through a series of flashbacks on his wedding day to Vanessa, it's revealed that Jake -- once "Pete Harris" -- was forced to stand by as his father abused his mother and raped his sister, and then witness his sister commit suicide after aborting a child by their father. How could he resist Rowan's promises to protect him when he found himself under his command at B613 boot camp? Of course, that paternal connection didn't stop Jake from sleeping with Olivia and almost canceling his wedding. But you know what did? Rowan hissing to Liv, "If this wedding does not go forward, I will slit his throat... I've already lost a daughter. Like hell if I'm going to let what happened to you happen to my son." WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: So, Olivia tells Jake all about how he'll never compare to the true love of her life, Fitz, and the head of the NSA marries Vanessa because pseudo-daddy told him to in what TVLine called, "the eventliterally no one was waiting for." READ OUR RECAP Orphan Black BBC America WHAT HAPPENED: After the premiere's step back in time, Thursday's second installment of Orphan Black had the task of catching us up on the non-Beth characters in the season 4 present. Siobhan burns her cabin to the ground; smuggled back to Toronto, S and Sarah meet up with Cosima and Scott in a comic book store basement where the gene therapy research isn't going that well; and Sarah heads out on her own Neolution fact-finding mission,where getting mistaken for Beth scores her a phone with video footage of some guy getting killed by the robo-maggot in his cheek. Fun! And that same phone gets her a meet-up text from MK, but when MK spots Sarah, she tells her they have to stop digging into the Neolution or it "will kill you like it killed Beth." That's when those creepy EMTs show back up, seemingly ready to snatch MK, but a quick cheek swab proves to them that she's not Sarah Manning. Ruh-roh. Sarah returns to the safehouse to administer her own cheek-examination and finds there's something in there... moving. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: No, no, no, no, SO MUCH NO!!! How about some good news to forget the gut-churning last scene: Felix is back! And he's painting "phalluses" on the wall half-naked -- yay! Not only that, but he's sticks up for himself when Sarah comes barging back into his life, something Vulture considered a rallying cry for unwaveringly selfless supporting characters everywhere: "These high-stakes stories, particularly on TV, stretch on for months or even years, yet these characters gladly keep their livesperpetually on hold to aid the hero ... I'm glad Felix is finally sticking up for himself, not only because he deserves better than being manipulated to help Sarah break into Club Neolution ... but also because [Thursday's episode] may inspire other showrunners to reconsider their own supporting characters' autonomy." READ OUR RECAP One More Thing... MTV Still Stands for "Music Television" MTV UNDERNEATH THE PURPLE RAIN: Following reports of Prince's death at age 57 on Thursday, MTV honored the music legend by abandoning their scheduled programming to broadcast videos from the span of Prince's iconic career, including music videos and the 1984 rock musical Purple Rain. Very cool, MTV.