2013 has been a great year for television and as we head into 2014 we here at BeyondFandom wish to put the spotlight on some of our personal favorite TV episodes of the year.
Hannibal - ‘1.03 Potage’ (April 18th)
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| NBC |
While I thoroughly enjoyed every episode of Hannibal this season, few stood out as much as this one. In this episode the fandom's favorite dysfunctional murder family was born, and many loved it so much they're still in denial over the events of the season finale. It also gave us one of our real first glimpses into how far Hannibal would go to get the pieces where he wants them for his endgame.
The Vampire Diaries - ‘4.20 The Originals’ (April 25th)
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| CW |
This backdoor pilot for the series of the same name really stood out amongst the rest of season four and did a better job selling the new series than its own first episode did. We didn't really need to see Elijah's point of view of events, what we saw did the job of introducing the new concept just fine. This ep introduced us to Marcel, Klaus' childe if you will, and he was everything you could have wanted from a vampire that Klaus himself raised. So I thank the stars every day that Charles Michael Davis didn't get cast any of the other previous times he auditioned for The Vampire Diaries, where he likely would have ended up dead (and all his charm wasted) after a few episodes. Sure, it also had the horribly dramatic Hayley is Klaus' baby mama reveal, but The Originals has gone on to handle that plot far better than expected--with one hundred percent fewer trite love triangles as well.
Teen Wolf - ‘3.08 Visionary’ (July 22nd)
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| MTV |
While as a whole, I'm not overly fond of season 3a this episode is one of my favorites of the series. Featuring two very unreliable narrators, in the form of Peter Hale and Gerard Argent, we're given two intertwining stories from the past that relate back to the problems the crew faced at the time. The stand out moment was at the end of the episode as Scott told Grandpa Argent he didn't really believe everything he was telling him and even threatened to kill him once and for all if he started any more shit. Season 3A's chief accomplishment was bolstering Scott's character development--he finally rose above the fandom's joke that the titular character wasn't really the star of the show.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD - ‘1.07 The Hub’ ( November 12th)
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| ABC |
This episode featured the unlikely pairing of Ward and Fitz as they embarked on a mission that would require both of their skill-sets. Allowing the various members of the team to work together in interesting pairings allows the show to find surprising chemistry in the most unlikely of places. We also got a big red flag that something isn't quite right with Agent Coulson's recuperation when even he doesn't have the clearance to read files about it. It's not as though his Dollhouse-esque responses when questioned about the magical place that is Tahiti weren't enough of a clue before but this development has Coulson questioning his 'death' more than ever.
Arrow - ‘2.07 State v. Queen’ (November 20th)
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| CW |
Before I get into this episode, I want to start by saying, if you haven't been watching Arrow you're dead to me. It's a series that doesn't shy away from being genre which means having big reveals. And boy this episode had the mother, well father, of them all. It's been proven that it's hard to hide that a certain character is coming back for an episode thanks to the credits that run during the beginning of an episode, a problem dating back to watching Lost where 'surprise' returns were frequently spoiled by the actor's inclusion in said credits. Whoever's decision it was to withold John Barrowman's name from the opening guest credits of 'State V. Queen' deserves several muffin baskets, because the shock over seeing him walking around still alive and taking credit for Moira's very kind jury letting her off for the deaths of countless Starling citizens during the Undertaking just wouldn't have been existed with any prior notice. Malcolm also put the pieces together that Thea was his daughter, which was something I'd been crackpot theorizing about for a while because the resemblance was just uncanny. To top that all off the episode featured the return of the ever delightful Count Vertigo (Seth Gabel) as its villain of the week. This time it was unfortunately for his final bow...maybe. After all, he wouldn't be the first villain to suddenly not be dead on Arrow.
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