Julie's Review - Hold That Thought

Energy, tension, and terrorism are carefully woven threads that strongly weave this tale together. Picking up shortly after the SEASON finale of season 6, we find the cast thrust into mayhem with homeland security investigating the possibility of a terrorist cell, a sister cell to the one causing the incident on the Venezia.

Though the episode is offered in virtual format, the descriptions of the scene, the characters' posturing, and their facial expressions create a very real episode in the mind of the reader.

Strengths: The storyline was wonderful and dramatic, and it wove in Haley's character nicely. Allusions to past episodes (last year in Washington, the Digger eps, Bug's Homeland Security horror) were very strong: though I predicted it when I realized Haley would be a prominent character, the "I still think they're blue" made me laugh out loud. The dialogue was absolutely true to character. There were almost no cases where I said "he (or she)" wouldn't say that", or "they wouldn't say that like that." Music added to the delivery of the episode. I was surprised (though I'm not sure why) to see the opening theme and a description of it.  Artwork complemented the episode, and provided a nice visual break to the reading. Relationship development: This episode provided us that something 6 seasons of television episodes couldn't—the promise of Jordan confronting her feelings and having an actual relationship with Woody. (For TPTB at NBC, a relationship is defined as a state of connectedness between people, especially on an emotional level.). Favorite quote: False alarm, pumpkin.

Weaknesses: There were few weaknesses in this first VS7 episode. As for dialogue, if Haley would have said "powder blue", I would have been on the floor laughing instead of on my couch. In the Artwork, 2 pictures: the one with Jordan/Haley/Woody and the one with Woody/suspect/house on fire stood out as being less realistic than the others (though it didn't truly detract from the episode).

I'll give Hold that Thought 3.25 scalpels out of four, for a masterful combination that provided the "viewer" with an entertaining, complex, true-to-character start to this 31-episode Virtual Season 7.