in the open space: God & culture

CW/Arrow Oliver Queen/Green Arrow: Diggie, I’m not looking for anybody to save me. John Diggie: Maybe not, but you need someone just the same.

NBC via Hulu In “Introduction to Finality,” Jeff is about to give his closing statement for a case in which he is defending Shirley in a college mock trial that will decide whether she (who came up with an idea and business plan for a sandwich shop) or Pierce (who is funding the shop) will sign as owner on a form. Jeff’s been pressured by a former colleague (who’s representing Pierce) to throw the case in order to get his old job back. He’s not sure what to do, when Shirley tells him that it’s okay for him to lose the case because, she says, “I want you to have what you want.” When Jeff gets up to make his closing statement he tells everyone exactly what’s going on: Your honor, I have no closing statement because I’m throwing the case. No, no, it’s okay. It’s fine, don’t worry. My client, Shirley Bennett, my friend of three years, she told me that it was okay. She said what I want was more important.   She’s right—right?   I mean, guys like me, we’ll tell you ther...

ABC Emma: They're just stories. The Mad Hatter is a character in Alice in Wonderland --a book. A book I've read.   Jefferson: Stories. Stories? What’s a story? When you were in high school, did you learn about the Civil War?   Emma: Yeah, of course.   Jefferson: How did you learn about it? Did you read about it, perchance, in a book?   Emma: History books are based on history.   Jefferson: And storybooks are based on what, imagination? Where does that come from? It has to come from somewhere. You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magical solution for their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic. Emma: Here’s the thing, Jefferson. This is it. This is the real world.   Jefferson: A real world. How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands, each just as real as the last. All have their own rules. S...

CBS In the Blue Blood's episode "The Life We Choose," career policeman and current New York Police Commissioner Frank Reagan asks his grandson Jack (whose father is a police detective) what he thinks during a plain-spoken family discussion about the death of a detective in the line of duty: I think you get two lives: the one you are born into, and the one you choose. 

ABC/via Hulu Emma Swan: That’s asking a lot to believe on faith.   August Wayne Booth: If you need evidence for everything, Emma, you’re going to find yourself stuck in one place for a very long time.   From the “What happened to Frederick?” episode of ABC's Once Upon A Time

Blue Bloods "The Job, CBS In the Blue Bloods episode “The Job,” Henry Reagan (Len Cariou) listens to his son Frank (Tom Selleck) struggle with survivor’s guilt and the heartache at the impending death of a friend who was with him at Ground Zero on 9/11. Then he gently tells him:   Son, I don’t know why Chief McKenna got sick from the air down there and you didn’t. Just like I don’t know why He took Mary and Joe from us too soon. But I see God’s light in this family every day, and though I may not understand it, I trust in his plan for us all. Every once in a while, there is some rather direct God-talk in the open spaces of television--and you don't get much more direct than this. Henry Reagan (Cariou) is far from a perfect man, but one of the things I've appreciated about Blue Bloods is the vein of faith that runs through it and the Reagan family, especially the older Reagan men, Henry and his son Frank (Selleck). God isn't just a thought or idea to them, but a ...

In the “A Cinderella Story” episode of Fox's quirky procedural drama The Finder , former lawyer Leo Knox is talking with Willa Monday, who is on probation and under Leo’s supervision. Willa ambushed and assaulted the man responsible for the death of Leo's wife and daughter in a misguided attempt to repair her relationship with Leo and make up for a mistake she made earlier. Leo: Violence comes from anger. I know what I’m talking about.   Willa: Because Nathan Stein made a decision he knew would kill your wife and daughter?  Leo: When I set out to kill Nathan Stein, Walter stopped me. That’s why we’re all together now.   Willa (trying to understand): I know it made you glad to see that man all bruised and beaten up.   Leo: My heart soared. But what my heart needs is to forgive.   Willa: He doesn’t deserve it!   Leo: I deserve it. You deserve it.   Willa pauses.   Willa: What was your daughter’s name?   Leo turns to look at her. ...

Fox/Alcatraz In "Kit Nelson," Dr. Diego Soto is talking with Dylan, a boy who recently escaped and was then rescued from a serial child killer. The boy confesses he is still scared, and Soto shares his own experience with the boy:   Soto: When I was a kid, about your age, something happened… where someone … took me ... just like that guy who took you, right. And it wasn’t easy, but…     He trails off.     Soto: I got away too. And once that happens—once you know that … you can do that—it sorta gives you a superpower—     He looks at Dylan's comic books.   Soto: --like theirs, but … real.     Dylan looks at the comic books and smiles a little.     Dylan : I didn’t give up, like you said.     Soto : I know you didn’t. I am a long time fan of J.J. Abrams’ stories. I count Felicity , Alias and Lost among my favorite television series. I loved what he did with Star Trek and Super8 was one of the best films of las...

ABC Since when do I care about anyone’s happiness but my own?   ~Evil Queen, Once Upon a Time In “The Thing You Love Most,” Once Upon a Time tantalizingly reveals a little more about how the Evil Queen became, well, evil—and reveals something about the natures of evil and love in the process. (Spoilers ahead!) Maleficent/ABC Among other things, in this episode we discover how the Evil Queen gets her hands on and enacts the curse that destroys the enchanted forest and all its happy endings, condemning all its inhabitants to live in our world with no memory of who they are. It turns out the curse was the Evil Queen’s to begin with, but she traded it Maleficent (the antagonist in Sleeping Beauty ) for the Sleeping Curse (which then, of course, is foiled when Prince Charming kisses Snow White). When the Queen takes the curse back from Maleficent by force, Maleficent warns her that she is crossing a terrible line: “All power comes with a price. Enacting it will take a terrible ...

NBC There was an enchanted forest filled with   all    the classic characters we know.     Or think we know.     One day they found themselves trapped in a place    where all their happy endings were stolen.     Our world.     This is how it happened...   ~Prologue, ABC's Once Upon A Time   It turns out all those fairy tales are true—Geppetto’s wooden boy became Pinochio, Granny and Red Riding Hood live, and Prince Charming really did thwart the plans of the Evil Queen, kiss from death Snow White, and marry her on their way to happily ever after. But that’s not the end. In ABC’s Once Upon A Time , the Evil Queen has her revenge on the day of the birth of Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter, bringing upon them a curse that rips all of the inhabitants from the enchanted forest to “someplace horrible” where all their memories and happy endings will be ripped from them and they will suffer eternally: our...

Michael Tompkins/Syfy In SyFy's  Haven , “the troubles” abound. A wide range of “supernatural afflictions” and abilities that have laid dormant in the small town’s population for decades — including things like  moods influencing weather, bringing stories to life, and the inability to feel pain or physical sensation— are surfacing again. Alongside the town’s acting sheriff (who himself is afflicted by a “trouble”), FBI Agent Audrey Park helps to uncover the troubles and works with the townspeople to confront and overcome them—even as she searches for the truth behind her own mysterious connection to the small Maine town. In last Friday's “ Roots ,” Audrey ‘s date with town resident Chris Brody is interrupted by another appearance of the troubles:  tree roots are attacking people during preparations for a wedding between a bride and groom from feuding families. While somewhat heavy handed, the episode provides a good image that helps us understand the nature o...