Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Buffy, Angel and Veronica Mars alum Charisma Carpenter will guest star in the season premiere of Lost Girl when it returns for its fifth season. (Shaw Media Press Release)

Actress Linda Hamilton (Terminator) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Defiance, playing Pilar McCawley, the estranged wife of Rafe McCawley (series regular Graham Greene). Defiance will be back for its second season starting on June 19 on Syfy. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Eureka) will have a recurring role on the BET drama Being Mary Jane, playing Mary Jane’s longtime friend. (The Deadline Team)

Veteran actress Shirley MacLaine will have a multi-episode arc on Glee, playing a powerful New York socialite who has big plans to turn Blaine (series regular Darren Criss) into a star. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

Actor Michael Gross (Family Ties) will have a recurring role on Suits when it returns for its fourth season this summer on the USA Network. He will play businessman Walter Gillis, the down-to-earth founder of a groundbreaking DVD distribution company, who finds himself fending off takeover bids while he tries to keep his business solvent. (Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

Actress Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) will return to the small screen in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, reprising her role of Agent Maria Hill. She will appear in the April 29 episode and she will play a large role in a May sweeps episode. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor-director Mario Van Peebles has landed a recurring role in the untitled CBS drama pilot from David Marshall Grant that revolves around quadruplets — three brothers and a sister — who grew up on a reality show. Peebles will play Dr. Potter, who runs the hospital where the family works. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Ernie Hudson (The Crow) has landed a recurring role in the CBS drama pilot Scorpion that centers on Walter (actor Elyes Gabel from Body of Proof), an eccentric genius and his international network of super-geniuses who form the last line of defense against the complex threats of the modern age. Hudson will play Brooks, the head Air Traffic Controller at LAX who knows how to read a computer screen and assign planes to runways but knows less than nothing about how his computer system actually works. (The Deadline Team)

WGN America is looking at another possible series in the drama pilot Radiant Doors, which is an adaptation of the short story by Michael Swanwick that explores how our society deals with the sudden arrival of a flood of refugees from a dystopian future. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

Actor Adam Brody (The O.C.) will be back on the small screen (albeit your computer screen) in the Amazon dramedy pilot called the Cosmopolitans that focuses on a group of young American expatriates in Paris searching for love and friendship. (Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online)

Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team at E! Online, Natalie Abrams at TV Guide and Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Question: Can’t wait for Under the Dome to come back! Any scoop on season two? – Dylan

TV Scoop Team: Three major Chester’s Mill players will find themselves in jail by episode four. The charges? Murder and attempted murder.

Question: Desperate for some answers on The Blacklist! – Meghan

TV Scoop Team: Don’t miss episode 20 then, which is titled “Berlin.” And while the episode features a whole lot of Tom (and an awesome moment with his glasses), you can expect to see a small, but significant moment between Liz and Ressler.

Question: Chicago Fire is on fire this season (I intended that cheesy pun)! I need spoilers on what’s ahead ASAP! – Reagan

TV Scoop Team: Before the end of the season, you can expect to see a wedding, a proposal and one of our beloved characters receiving life-changing news from their doctor. So yeah, you better prepare yourselves now because this all happens leading up to the finale.

Question: What’s coming up on The Blacklist? — Hiroki

Natalie: Tom and Liz won’t keep up their charade of a marriage much longer. In fact, when Tom goes on the lam, Liz finally confesses to the FBI that her husband was actually planted in her life. The good news: Liz’s separation from Tom will ultimately provide answers about what he’s been after this whole time. The bad news: Those answers point to an even larger conspiracy.  We’ll just say this: Everything is connected.

Question: Are Will and Layla actually going to make it on Nashville? — Lacey

Natalie: If Will has his way, he’ll make the couple’s quickie marriage stick. But that doesn’t mean he won’t come to regret lying about being gay. “Will is committed to the idea of keeping his secret, and in his mind, Layla is a great way of doing that,” executive producer Callie Khouri says. “It’s a terrible position for him to be in because he’s having to live a secret. He’s starting to feel increasingly bad about that.” But it may not be Will’s guilty conscience that lets the cat out of the bag. “Gunnar’s at his wit’s end with how far he’s willing to take this charade with Will,” Khouri teases.

Question: Chicago Fire scoop, please. — David

Natalie: We have not seen the last of Boden’s former love interest Donna (Melissa Ponzio), who will rekindle her relationship with the Chief in a big way. In possibly related news, I hear someone from Firehouse 51 will pop the question before the season ends. Hit the comments with your guesses!

Question: Is Laurel going to confront Oliver about knowing his secret on Arrow? — Billy

Natalie: It doesn’t sound like she will jump right into action. “Does she actually believe [Slade]?” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says. “Laurel’s reaction to hearing that news is going to surprise people and it will also validate people’s faith in her character. For all the people who love her, they’ll love her even more. Maybe some of the people who didn’t love her will change their minds.”

Question: Any hints on Scandal‘s explosive finale? –Joanna

Mitovich: Funny your choice of words, Joanna…. “The finale explodes into a million different pieces,” Darby Stanchfield told me of the April 17 episode. “This set of characters, especially over at Olivia Pope & Associates, are more splintered off from each other than ever before. I mean, when we were shooting the episode, I actually thought to myself, ‘I wonder if they’re actually going to tear down the set and build a new one?’ It’s that extreme.”

Question: Is Arrow going to reveal the identity of Felicity’s father this season? –DreamToAspire

Mitovich: Though much is being saved for Season 3, by season’s end, “We actually will get a little bit more of Felicity’s backstory…,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg allows. “You get a couple of hints, and when you hear what some of the hints are, you’re going to look back and realize that we actually knew [what we were planning] back in Season 1.”

Question: So, finally Laurel knows Oliver’s secret on Arrow. How will they handle this bombshell that they have dropped on her? –Spoiler Junkie

Mitovich: “I think that people have been primed to expect Laurel’s reaction to be one thing,” Kreisberg told me, “and they’re going to be very surprised by her actual reaction.”

Question: On Once Upon a Time, will we find out who Zelena’s father is this season? –Lisa

Mitovich: You absolutely will learn who sired the sorceress – in, I can only assume, the episode that brings back Rose McGowan as Young Cora and also guest-stars Eva Bourne and Lost alum Eric Lange as Young Eva and Prince Leopold. “We’re flashing back to Leopold’s younger days to fill in more Regina backstory,” Ginnifer Goodwin told me. “[Revisiting] Snow White’s childhood and her parents can take us there very easily, to show how the Evil Queen’s family, how those royals intertwine with my family’s royal lineage.”

Question: Can you offer any scoop on Once Upon a Time‘s Blackbeard (played by Charles Mesure)? –Stefanie

Mitovich: Previewing this Sunday’s episode, Colin O’Donoghue noted, “Blackbeard obviously is very much a dreaded pirate, and you get to see Hook interact a little bit with him — I can’t tell you how or why, because that will give away too much – but and it harks back a little bit to all the old Errol Flynn films and stuff like that. It’s good old-fashioned, swashbuckling fun.”

That’s it. Enjoy!