By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

When a show relies on mysteries, its success is measured not by how good the mysteries are, but how well it pays them off. The creators of "Once Upon The Time" cut their teeth on the show that reveled in redefining those payoffs, to the joy of many (and frustration of some.) While their current show doesn't aspire to the mind-bending extremes of "Lost", "The Return" makes it clear they're not above toying with audience expectations. They seem to revel in playing puppetmaster, but more on that later.

By John Keegan

It’s becoming apparent that the writers for “The Secret Circle” have had a plan in mind over the course of the season, if only in terms of overall broad strokes and how it should all fit together. It’s also apparent to me that they just couldn’t make a potentially interesting story work with a miscast lead character and inconsistent execution. Things have been better since the arrival of John Blackwell, but it still feels like the show is grasping at straws.

By John Keegan

Rumors of Alaric’s impending demise, based on the actor’s upcoming schedule, have been running rampant for quite some time. So it’s only natural that his character arc this season should lead to a death scene. It provides the season with one of its more poignant farewells in quite some time, and sets the stage for an emotionally draining season finale.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

Now that it's clear where the Astraeus crew is located, the season can move onto the matter of what's going on back in the real Eureka. "The Real Thing" splits its time between two parallel stories: Barlowe and her team must work to prevent their subjects from discovering that their world is a deception, while Carter and the rest of the townsfolk continue their search for the missing crew. I have no qualms with admitting that I was more engaged by the events occurring in the "real world". However, the virtual Eureka does leave us with an unusually tragic ending that characters will likely be feeling the repercussions of for quite some time. Let it not be said that "Eureka" is afraid to go dark when the story calls for it.

By John Keegan

By the time this episode was over, I was completely befuddled. Not by the plot; that was simple enough that Jordan had plenty to opportunity to focus on the more important element of character development. Not by the complete rewrite of history; the show had long since deviated from the historical record, so why not take it even further? No, the real confusion was why this episode was so much better than almost anything “The Borgias” has done to date.