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| THIS ISSUE: Zoo, Pretty Little Liars, Animal Kingdom, Dead of Summer, America's Got Talent |
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| The Animal Apocalypse Is Officially Here |
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| CBS |
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 BECAUSE: Zoo has returned to CBS for its second season, and it's as deliciously silly as ever as it follows the five scientists trying to stop mutated animals from destroying the human race. Even though the entire gang comes Hummer-to-snout with a diverse mob of angry animals and a phase-two animal -- a.k.a. a mutated human -- takes down an entire unit of Rangers, we'd still have to go with the top moment of Tuesday's premiere being an elephant chasing down a human who drove into an airplane, all without ever losing speed. Let's just hope they don't grow wings in the next episode. |
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| Pretty Little Liars |
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| Freeform |
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| WHAT HAPPENED: If you're a diehard Pretty Little Liars fan, you live for openers like this one from Tuesday's episode: "In that room at the resort, before all the lights went off and someone pushed me down a hole, I was scared." Not only is that an incredible line, but that Hanna follows it up by telling Caleb he makes her feel safe means there might be a glimmer of hope for them. That's especially true considering she just randomly broke it off with her fiancé. As for breaking out of captivity, that was a cinch with a helpful ride to Spencer's from Mary Drake, who asked for nothing in return but that Hanna spill all of her guts to her, which Hanna did more than willingly. And Mary wasn't kidding about not hiding anymore -- she's popping up all over Rosewood, telling stories about how Jessica drowned a baby and blamed it on her, earning her a one-way ticket to Radley. |
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| WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: It's Ali who's in Radley now, and it's Ali we need to be worried about now that Jason has authorized some creepy surgery for her. Ali manages to reach out to Emily, Emily brings Mary Drake to Radley, Ali recalls that time her mother buried her alive, and Elliott and Mary have a hushed conversation in which he tells her that her being there wasn't part of the plan. She hisses back, "Neither was what you're doing to that girl!" So perhaps Mary is looking out for Ali a little bit, but Refinery29 has concern for the other PLLs: "Even when The Liars were mad at each other, they alwaysfound a way to look out for each other. Up until last week's episode, they have never given up on Ali no matter how mean she acted. Now that Ali is actually the nice, honest one (well, ignoring the fact she might have murdered her sister), they turn her in to 'A'? Considering they've proven time and time again that they can only solve problems when they're all together...well, they're screwed." That seems like an educated guess. |
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| Animal Kingdom |
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| TNT |
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| WHAT HAPPENED: Nothing brings out weird family dynamics quite like a birthday, and considering that it's the creepiest Cody bro Pope's big day, things are about as unsettling as you'd imagine. Pope's brothers try to make his first birthday out of jail a fun one, but when he smashes the paintball gun they give him with a sledgehammer, it puts a bit of a damper on the party. As does Mama Smurf texting "CUTBACK," which is apparently code to say she's been arrested and they need to get to the safe house. But apparently it was all just a test to see if her sons have been running side hustles. When no one fesses up, she cuts them off and says there are no new jobs. After a few unexpected bonding sessions -- Smurf with Nicky and J with Catherine, specifically -- the fellas head to a strip club. Here, Pope finally shows just how unhinged he may be. His brothers order him a private lap dance, but once he's alone with the dancer, he orders the woman to face the wall and repeatedly say, "We can't Andrew," while he has sex with her. |
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| WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Smurf ends up kicking her sons out of the house and proving just how much she manipulates her family with money (poor J and poor J's mom). But it's Pope who's the star of Tuesday's episode, says the A.V. Club: "In addition to offering Shawn Hatosy's finest bit of acting on this series thus far, his initial tentativeness and gradual build-up toward growing sexual confidence made viscerally palpable in his tremulous physical gestures and line deliveries, the scene carries the tantalizing implication that Pope gets off on a sense of forbidden danger -- a suggestion that could partially explain his irrational behavior." Well, yeah, that and all the creepy mom stuff. There's definitely more to this guy than just being your average mean older brother, and we hope J figures it all out without having to make any other special trips to the cemetery with him. |
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| Dead of Summer |
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| Freeform |
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| WHAT HAPPENED: Camp is officially in session on Freeform, and you better believe the camp counselors are facing a lot more than just teaching arts and crafts with a hangover in Tuesday's premiere of Dead of Summer. EW recapper Marc Snetiker sums up the Camp Stillwater experience as "that classic magical time when old men play pianos, camp directors dig up secret boxes, and distressed girls are repeatedly forced into the woods -- alone -- to accomplish maintenance-related tasks despite enduring increasingly traumatic events." We learn that Camp Stillwater was once home to a bunch of murders, and then closed for an unspecified reason in 1984. Perhaps it was all the rotting dead bodies in the lake? Regardless, it's now being reopened in June of 1989 by a former camper named Deb. We meet the counselors -- Amy the protagonist, Jess the mean girl, Cricket the free spirit, Drew the smart one with a secret, and the boys -- through current-day introductions and get hints at their shady pasts through flashbacks. Cue the butchered animals turning up, madman threats in the woods, a dead body in the lake, and Deb digging up a mysterious box in the woods. Yes, it's going to be a bumpy summer. |
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| WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Just so we're clear, in her brief first two days at camp, Amy survives a fire, finds a dead body, and is chased through the woods by the ghost of her best friend, whom she was unable to save from falling off a roof. Clearly secrets and trauma are going to be a big part of theDead of Summer experience. As executive producer Eddy Kitsis told TVLine, "There's something about the camp and the lake that's going to reveal those secrets as the season goes on." As for what that something is, it won't just be murder after murder, Kitsis says: "Death and killing are obviously scary, but there are other ways of haunting." He also pointed out that the scariest part of camp is really that "you're sending your children off for the summer, and the people in charge are 18." Now that you mention it, that is pretty frightening. As far as Camp Stillwater is concerned, we'd put murder pretty high up on the list, too. |
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| One More Thing... |
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